The Wedding Gift (28 page)

.”

Chapter
39

Gosh darn it, now that I
could talk, I couldn’t think of what to say. It was a sad story,
poor girl. Roger was an asshole. Jess was right, she should have
killed him earlier … killed him but not her children.

I started to say that, yes,
I could see some points in her story to sympathize with, but just
then the matron came in and said that I was being released, and for
me and Jess to follow her.

Outside the room, Jess told
me she’d meet me outside, and she followed the guard while the
matron took me to a room and gave my clothes back so I could take
off my orange jail dress. Once I was dressed, she took me through
four locked doors and said that “
I’ll see
you again after your trial
.”

I thought
“
Hell no, you won't,
bitch
,” and all of a sudden I was outside
in the sun again. Jessie was waiting for me, but I could barely see
her because there was Donny Readle big as life and a billion times
more beautiful … just standing there, looking at me. He had a
little grin on his face and a cowboy hat on that he tipped a bit
when he saw me.

He said
“
Hey, Miz Leeann, I see they let you out
for good behavior, huh?
”

I didn’t say anything smart
... I didn’t say one thing at all. I ran at him like a high speed
train and I jumped into his arms and wrapped my legs around his
waist. He caught me up to him and he held me and spun me around and
around in his arms right under God’s sweet sun. The only sound was
Jessie calling us a pair of assholes mixed in with our
laughter.

After a couple minutes of
hanging onto Donny and just being happy, I noticed that Jessie
wasn’t teasing. Donny stopped spinning me and we both looked over
at her like what the hell? She had to go and ruin the most romantic
moment of my life by reminding me that maybe now wasn’t the best
moment “
to be seen crawling up and down
another man, what with your old chopped up husband not even buried
yet and all
.”

That just made me mad as
hell. After all, I don’t think in the history of the world anyone
had ever had a worse twenty-four hours than me.

But Donny was setting me
down, and nodding in full agreement with Jess. He said that she was
right and that we had probably “
already
screwed the pooch with this here little display. Shit Jessie, you
are as smart as you are pretty. Swear to God I’m the biggest
asshole in the state. I’m guessing right about now one of the
guards is either on the phone to Miz Willets or the Dalton
Tri-weekly or both
.”

Shoot, hearing him say that
reminded me of that ugly old matron, who had just told me that she
would see me after my trial. I was betting that him and Jessie were
right. Thanks to me showing the whole world how much I loved Donny
Readle, I had just dug my own grave a couple feet deeper … not to
mention a girl should maybe try to play a little hard to get as
well.

So I pulled back and
collected myself. I told him that I was sorry I had jumped on him
like a duck on a June bug, I was just real happy to have been
sprung from that hellhole. He grinned down at me and said that I
could jump on him anytime I felt like it, but maybe next time I
should wait till we had a more private situation.

Jess snorted out her nose
like an old bull and said she didn’t imagine that would take us
long, but that right about now “
how about
getting the hell out of here? Besides, Leeann, you got a date
waitin’ on you in downtown Dalton with your new probation officer.
He’s gonna fix you up so you can get fitted for an ankle
monitor
.” I was guessing that was one of
the terms of my release, and it didn’t seem so bad compared to the
alternative.

I nodded at her and we all
three got into the cab of Jess’s truck. She was driving, so Donny
and I took advantage of this by seeing which of us could stick our
tongues the furthest down each other’s throats for the sixty mile
ride back to Dalton.

Jess said
“
Leeann, I am real pleased to see that my
warnings about you not acting like a pathetic whore have gone over
so well
.”

Donny laughed at her and
said “
Shut up, Jess. The way I figure it
is seeing how bad your driving is, why most people seeing us coming
will just be too busy trying to get away from you. Sure, they’ll be
trying too hard not to die to be looking inside the cab. Besides
Jessie, I am merely doing my duty as an old family friend by trying
to comfort the bereaved at this difficult time in her
life
.”

Jess nodded like she
thought that made real good sense, and said “
Well shit, Donny, I ain’t gonna argue with you. I sure do
understand that everybody grieves in their own
way
.”

Well that broke all three
of us up so bad that I think people in oncoming cars must have
heard us laughing.

Now I don’t want you to
think that I am just the worst person alive and that I was laughing
at George being dead and all because I did not find that funny in
any way at all. No, it was more like what my daddy calls
“
whistling in the dark
”. That’s when you’re real afraid but don’t want to show it,
so you sing or whistle, something to act brave, even if you’re not
feeling so brave.

See, I was sorry George was
dead, and I hated people thinking I had anything to do with it but,
to be fair to me, I had been arrested, charged, jailed and now,
just for a minute, here in the truck with Donny beside me, and Jess
at the wheel … well I knew ahead of me was a probation officer, Miz
Willets and a murder charge still hanging over my head. No doubt
ole Robina was still lying in wait for me too. And maybe there was
even a little baby in my stomach that would need a lot from
me.

Behind me was the horrible
jail cell where I had just spent the night wondering if I wanted to
live or not, but right here and now I could just be an eighteen
year old girl, leaning into the only boy that God ever made for me
… and the best friend any girl ever had at the wheel, and Skynards
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ blasting from the stereo. Shoot, I was so
pleased to be alive in that moment that I didn’t even flinch when
Jessie reached down and pulled out my Britney CD from the stack and
tossed it out the window with a rebel yell.

Chapter
40

I’ll make my life with
you.

I might not be the
brightest bulb in the box, it’s true, but I am smart enough to know
this much; in that moment right then and right there, well it might
easy have been the last good moment I would ever have. Funny thing,
though; thinking it might be the last didn’t make it one drop less
sweet for all that.

Sure, I wanted real bad to
ask Jessie to drive forever straight past Dalton and on and on to
maybe Texas, or Mexico, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew that nothing
had really changed either with Donny and Carlene. I knew too that,
much as I might wish it otherwise, Robina and me had unfinished
business.

I knew all that just as
certain as I knew my name was Leeann Worthier Willets. So maybe
that’s why I was laughing, and kissing Donny too, while I could.
Maybe that’s part of what whistling in the dark is … just going
forward like there is something to go forward to, even if maybe all
that’s in front of you is the end of everything you ever loved or
wanted.

That ride ended all too
soon; in no time at all we were back in Dalton. Jessie pulled up in
front of the courthouse and, of course, parked in the only
handicapped space. Donny was shaking his head, but I could see that
really, same as me, he thought Jessie hung the moon.

Waiting for us outside were
Mama and Daddy, Randy, Sara Beth, and even Mark. Seeing Mark
standing there touched me deeply. He had to have taken the day off
from one of his jobs to be there for me. I felt tears start in my
eyes. I loved these people - my people.

Donny and Jess seeing me
start to cry each reacted in their own way. Jess told me
“
This ain’t no time to fall apart like a
damn pussy, Leeann
.” And Donny, he asked
Jess to go on ahead, and get everybody inside to the probation
officer’s office. He said that we’d be in right after
them.

Jessie looked hard at him
and then nodded. I watched her approach Daddy through my tears. It
was pretty obvious that, whatever Jess was saying, my daddy didn’t
agree with one bit. He started heading to the truck but then Jess
grabbed his arm, and I don’t know what she said, but I could see he
didn’t like it none, though he let her lead him up the stairs. Once
he started, the rest of them followed, and then Donny and I were
alone in the cab of Jess’s truck. He turned down the radio, which
was now playing Jessie’s favorite lesbian music by K.D Lang
‘Constant Craving’ … well if that ain’t the truth I
thought.

It’s for sure that, for me,
Donny was always going to be an itch I could never scratch enough.
He was sitting in the driver’s seat now where he had scooted over
to when Jess got out. I understood the why of him not being close
to me; I just didn’t have to like it. I started to speak, but he
shook his head at me. He said there were a few things he needed me
to hear before we got out and went inside. That
“
circumstances being what they
were
”, he didn’t know when we would have
another chance to speak private. I just nodded, and told him to go
on then.

“
Leeann, Sugar, right off,
I am real sorry I said those things to you out back at Willets
House
.”

Oh shoot, I had to
interrupt him and start telling him how damn sorry I was that I had
called his wife a whore and junkie and stuff. I said I couldn’t
believe that he had put his precious eighteen wheeler up for me.
That no matter what, I would see at the least that he got his money
back, and that he was the best.

At that point he thanked me
in this real dry voice for not interrupting him and all. I had to
laugh then and I made zipping motions at my lips to show that I
would be real quiet now.

He nodded and started
talking again. “
Well, Leeann Girl, about
Carlene, there ain’t nothing to apologize for as she is in truth a
junkie whore, and the second biggest damn mistake I ever
made
.” Oh I loved hearing him say it. I was
just bursting to ask him what the first biggest mistake was, and he
must have seen that because he grinned and said
“
The worst mistake I ever made was not
realizing a long time ago that you were no damn little sister to
me. Hell, I love you fiercely, Leeann - you’re the one for me. I
swear to God, Girl, when I saw you in that church standing there in
that dress looking like an angel, well I felt gut shot. I wanted to
kill that poor asshole George right then and … oh shit … well, I
wish I hadn’t said that exactly, considering everything, but …
well, when you fainted at that reception and it was me that picked
you up, I never wanted to let you go. Then after what happened
between us up to Willets House, well shoot, Baby, why are you
crying like this? I thought you might feel the
same
.”

I couldn’t keep my mouth
shut one more second. I had to tell him that I was crying ‘cause
this was the happiest damn day of my life and, to tell the strict
truth, it was. Maybe I had an old probation officer waiting up in
the courthouse for me, and maybe all the dogs of hell were on my
heels - Robina in the lead, but none of that mattered. He loved me!
So I threw my last little piece of pride right away and told him
right then and there how I had loved him every minute of the day
since I had been a little girl. I told him about my dreams of our
little house out at Lake Injun and even how I had planned to up and
seduce him into loving me one day too.

I said “
Donny, when you married Carlene, I found out what being gut
shot was
.” And then since he was grinning
at me like an egg suck dog, I went on ahead and told him something
else. “
Last night Robina came to me in
jail and told me that you and me had made us a little baby
together. You know what, Donny? I know she spoke the truth and it’s
going to be a boy! And I want him to be called after his
daddy
.”

Well then I finally ran out
of breath, so I just sat there panting and grinning back at him. I
must have looked like an egg suck dog too, but maybe he liked egg
suck dogs, because he said “
Well shoot,
maybe old dead Robina has her good sides after all. But I think
we’ll name this first one Charlie after your brother and your
daddy. The next one we’ll call Donny, unless she’s a girl. But if
we are going to have us nine of ‘em, well we’ll get our junior
eventually, huh?
”

I was yelling I was so damn
happy. “
Well hell, Donny Readle, I don’t
know about that; you going to turn Mormon on me and keep two wives
or something? Nine kids is too damn much for one
woman
.” I was just teasing him, though; I’d
have twenty if he wanted ‘em. I knew he could fix anything in our
way and I wasn’t worried about much right then, to be strictly
honest.