The Quaker Café (16 page)

             
Shrieks of “Frogbelly” and “Nat” escaped as Nicholas and Evan bolted out the front door at the sound of a car engine. As Nat stepped out of the driver’s seat and Frogbelly opened the rear car door, they hurled themselves like miniature football tackles into waiting arms. Nat stood tall and lanky, the spitting image of his father at that age, same eyes and dark hair a little too long over his ears and forehead. He scooped up Evan and gave him a hug.

Frogbelly crouched in a defensive position while Nicholas and he bumped shoulders and did a little shadow boxing. This ritual was a “must do” any time Nat or his friends came home. Frogbelly was much shorter than Nat, with wide muscular shoulders and thighs that kept him solidly pinned to the ground. A slight paunch suggested the beginnings of a beer belly. His sandy hair was cut short with a little twist of bangs to one side of his face.

While Nicholas and Evan tugged
at them both, Nat shook his father’s hand and slapped shoulders before giving Liz a hug and a kiss. Frogbelly followed suit and after several more minutes of male bonding antics, everyone finally noticed Lexa.

Lexa
stood quietly at the passenger side of the car taking in the homecoming. A lovely young lady, raised South of Broad in Charleston, South Carolina, she came from a family of old money. Willowy, with long blond hair that fell across her shoulders, she spoke more frequently with her azure eyes than with words. Her thoughts transferred directly through body language and Nat read her slightest gesture with precision. They moved with a rhythm that set them apart. They belonged together.

             
Once inside the house, Liz got everyone something to drink. It was late, but the level of excitement was too high to go to bed right away. Instead they talked through the usual check list: jobs, Lexa’s parents, and Frogbelly’s folks back in Georgia. Nat got an update on his brother, Adam, and the baby-watch and then turned to the latest Cedar Branch happenings. Liz reluctantly recounted the great tragedy of the Quaker float, which everyone else thought hilarious. She was able to find some humor for the first time. Evan somberly described Jitters’ rapture as they listened wide-eyed while Liz gave hand signals behind Evan’s back not to ask any questions.

“Saw that Maggie may get an appointment to the Board of Transportation,” Nat volunteered after the description of the Judge’s funeral at the Methodist Church.

              “Really?” Both Chase and Liz looked at him in surprise. “Where did you see that?”

             
“
Charlotte News and Observer
.”

Chase raised his eyebrows
. “That’s big. That’s really big.”

“Guess the Ke
ndall name still has some clout,” Liz said.

“A lot of political hopefuls wanted that position,” Nat said.

“Would she have to move?” Liz asked.

“Sure,” Chase said
. “It would be a full time job in Raleigh.”

*****

              Over breakfast the next morning Frogbelly was the first to bring up the wedding plans. “Miz Hoole,” he said with great emphasis on the
Miz
. “We are about to save you a ton of money.”

             
Liz put another stack of whole wheat pancakes in the middle of the table. “Un huh?”  She waited for the next line.

             
“We all know that Nat has a lot of friends because he’s such a great guy, raised by such a great mom and dad.” Frogbelly paused and favored Chase and Liz with a display of all of his pearly whites. “We, his KA brothers, would like to do something really spectacular to celebrate the fact that Alexandra Louise Lloyd has finally agreed to marry him.” A big deferential grin was focused on Lexa this time.

              You couldn’t help but love this young man, Liz thought, but he was indeed
full-of-it
.

             
“And because your son, our friend, Nat here, is from the eastern part of North Carolina where folks are not quite so sophisticated as in other parts of the world, like Georgia, no offense intended, Miz Hoole, we feel like he needs our advice and guidance on his rehearsal dinner so that he might duly impress his future in-laws—the Lloyds of Charleston.”  Frogbelly said this with great exaggeration and let the
L
sound roll off his tongue with an inflection of an enhanced Southern drawl over and above the one he already had.

             
“Therefore,” he continued, his eyes darting back and forth from Chase to Liz to Lexa, and then to Nat, “we, the men of KA, the financial investment giants of the Southeast, and I must add, experienced connoisseurs of true Southern cuisine, propose that the rehearsal dinner take place at a beach house, one that has already been secured, mind you, where his closest friends will barbeque a pig in his honor.”

             
There was silence. Liz wasn’t sure she liked the vision that formed in her head reminiscent of some of the fraternity parties she’d heard about: beer kegs, nudity, drunken brawls. This sounded like a dangerous undertaking.

             
“Whoa,” she said, raising both of her hands to stop the bull hockey. “Back up.”

“Is there a problem?” 
Frogbelly looked at her, apparently surprised that there might be any reason to question him.

“Well, there certainly could be
. I need to ask you a few things.”

             
“Shoot, Miz Hoole. There’s nothin’ I can’t handle.” Frogbelly was gushing with sincerity. Nat sat by quietly and watched attentively, a replica of his father, always in the background reserving his comments until all the information had been vetted. It was Liz who sensed the worst-case scenarios.

             
“Well, first and foremost, what do you and your parents think of this idea?” she deferred to Lexa. The idea that the Lloyds of Charleston would buy into this with equal enthusiasm was highly questionable. “I mean, after I last spoke with your mom, she suggested we take advantage of their membership to reserve a room at the Carolina Yacht Club for the rehearsal dinner. I agreed and she’s done that.”

             
“They’re fine with it, Mom, really.”  Nat quickly interjected. This was his  standard response. Over the years Liz had come to respect his attempt to reassure her he would handle things and she should not get involved; but a rehearsal dinner was not something she felt at liberty to turn over to his past fraternity brothers, investment bankers or not.

“
Lexa?” Liz turned her attention on the bride-to-be.

“They’re comfortable with whatever you want to do,” she said.

“But what do
you
want? That’s what I’m most concerned about. Don’t let these boys talk you into a party that isn’t to your liking. After all, it is
your
wedding.

“It’s Nat’s, too,” she said quietly and followed with an unspoken exchange with Nat as their eyes met.

              “Have you talked to your parents?” Liz asked.

             
“We ran it by them. They said it sounded like fun.” Lexa said.

             
“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yeah, they said they were fine with it,” Nat said
.
There was that word                       ‘fine’ again.
  

“They can just cancel the other reservations,”
Lexa added.

             
Liz wasn’t convinced. “Nat, I feel like I need to touch base with Lexa’s mom to be sure they’re on board, but if you honestly think it’s okay with Lexa and her folks, we’ll consider it.” 

Liz turned back to
Frogbelly. “Where is this house at the beach?” she asked.

             
“Folly Beach. The KAs rented it one year. We’ve already checked and it’s available.” Frogbelly’s cheeks were a rosy pink. Liz had to admit that his enthusiasm was contagious. Her scowl broke into a skeptical smile.

             
“You mean they’ll rent to you again?  Did you tell them you were KA?”

             
Frogbelly lowered his eyes in a mock look of disappointment. “We left it spotless. They love us.”

             
“I’ll bet. I’ve been in a house or two after the KAs had it for a weekend,” Liz said with skepticism. “Who’s going to cook this pig?”

             
“Me.”

             
“Arthur, have you ever in your life cooked a pig; a whole pig?”

             
“Miz Hoole, you are looking at the master—the pit master, par excellence, no less. And my assistants…did I mention I will have two assistants, the Big-Pig Team?  They have even more experience than me.”

             
“The Big-Pig Team?  Arthur how many pigs, I mean real whole pigs, have you and
the big-pig team
cooked from beginning to end?”

             
“Two. Buck did one and Spanky did one…. and we always cook both ends.”  He laughed at his own joke and then stopped. “They were good, real good, Miz Hoole.”

             
“Buck and Spanky?  You mean to tell me my caterers for my son’s rehearsal dinner to Miss Alexandra Lloyd of Charleston would be Buck, Spanky and Frogbelly?”

“Yes, ma’am
, the famed Big-Pig Team of BS Frogbelly. You couldn’t be in better hands.” His eyes danced and his grin was so loose and broad Liz figured at any moment he could pull his lower lip over his eyes and play a game of peek-a-boo. She suddenly had new insight into where the “frog” came from in his nickname.

Liz smiled at him, but in truth she was nervous as hell
. This did not add up to what she considered an airtight plan. Already, she saw sleepless nights loom into her near future: frantic calls to buy barbecue when the pig wasn’t cooked, warm beer, side dishes in the sun, not enough chairs, and canopies. Would they need canopies?  Plumbing? When was there ever adequate plumbing for a crowd on the beach, particularly a beer-drinking crowd?

             
Chase, who had said nothing to this point, finally leaned forward and asked Nat the most basic question of all. “Son, is this what you want?”

             
Nat, who thus far had been letting Frogbelly spin his pitch, nodded. “Yeah, Dad,  I’d really rather have a barbeque than a dinner at the Yacht Club.”

             
“Okay,” Chase said firmly. “A barbeque it will be.”  

             
Frogbelly rubbed his hands together. “Yahoo!  Nat, your mom’s not as unreasonable as you told me.” He gave Liz a quick wink.

“Enough with the sweet talk,” Liz looked at Chase a
nd nodded. “Okay.”

Frogbelly
stood and turned to Nat with a high five. “Now, I’m going to take these little rug rat brothers of yours outside and teach them how to play real football while you and your mom make a list.” He tilted his head towards Liz coyly and raised one eyebrow. “I know how fond you are of lists, Miz Hoole. Every KA knows about your lists. Don’t forget, the pig’s on me.”

             
Chase, Nat and Liz sat and looked at one another for a long minute. Lexa slipped her hand into Nat’s and waited quietly.

“There are at least a hundred things that can go wrong here,” Liz said
. “It’s a far cry from the Yacht Club. Are you absolutely sure?”

             
“I’m sure,” Nat said.

“T
hen, let’s get to work.”

Chapter Fifteen

Nat, Lexa, and Frogbelly spent most of Saturday afternoon touching base with a few of Nat’s childhood friends who were still in the area, and then drove out to Bates Peanut Plant to get a case of roasted nuts to take back to the guys at Wendover and Providence. Liz had planned to have Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner that evening, but Nat insisted on The Quaker Café.

             
“I didn’t drive all this way to miss out on Miss Ellie’s fried chicken and biscuits,” said Nat. “My treat.”

             
“You need to call Grandpa and Grandma about the change of plans,” Liz said. “I’m not calling. They’ll be more apt not to argue with you, but Grandma’s got some pretty strong opinions about the wedding, so brace yourselves.”

             
That evening as the Hoole family all gathered at The Quaker Café, Nathan and Lexa were the center of attention. Everyone stopped by the table to say
hello
.

             
“Banker now, so I hear,” said Henry as he slapped Nat on the back.

             
Nat stood and shook hands. “Yes sir, investment banking.”

             
“Got any stock tips?”

             
“No sir, I avoid giving friends stock tips. I wanna keep them as friends.”

             
Henry chuckled, nodded to everyone else and moved on to the VIP table.