“Because I hoped it was a one time thing. I didn’t want to stir things up by talking about your booty call.”
Her cheap words dig at me. “It wasn’t a booty call.”
Resigned, she shakes her head. “I wish it had been.”
I wait quietly for her to continue.
“You should’ve seen him.” She smiles. “No shoes, no socks, his shirt buttoned-up all wrong. I’ve never seen him so un-composed. Imagine my shock when he demands to know where you live. After I’d warned you to steer clear of him not ten hours before.”
I watch every precious word form on her lips. He never called, never tracked me down, which wouldn’t have been difficult in Harlow. There’re several trailer parks to be sure, but only one with a twenty-foot tall Indian princess guarding the chain link gate. I always wondered, why not?
“He told Ken it had been the best night of his life and that he couldn’t let you just slip away.”
“But…he never came for me.”
For the first time since assaulting me, Paige looks slightly guilty.
“What did you do?” My heart is already sinking.
“I did what was best for you.”
“Meaning?”
“I told him to go home and forget he ever met you.”
White-hot anger boils inside me. “You did what?”
“Don’t look at me like that, Charlie. I was doing what was best for both of you. And Alex came to see I was right.”
I nearly knock the chair over in my hurry to stand. How could she have done that to me? She forced me to go to that ridiculous party, trussed up like a prize pig, and practically wed me to that slime-ball Spencer Ross. “I don’t understand. You’re the one that keeps telling me to aim higher with men. You send me pictures of apartments in Dallas and tell me to go back to school and--”
“I know.”
“Then why?” I shout. I’m close to tears. “Why did you get in the way? Why did you tell him not to come after me? Do you know how many nights I wondered if I’d meant anything to him? How many dates I turned down because the guys I’ve met couldn’t compare to him? Why would you do this to me?”
“Because I love you and I didn’t want to see you hurt. You don’t know Alex--”
“Then tell me.” I hiccup the last word.
Paige scans my face. Her brow creases in pain. “Alex’s family is old money,” she finally begins in a soft voice. “Not like Ken’s.” She fiddles with her hands. “Older. They came over from Spain before Texas was even a part of the United States. They settled on a huge amount of land and sold it off, piecemeal, for generations, building up a fortune, when they struck oil. A
lot
of oil.
“Ken’s mom showed me an early picture of the Ramirez clan. It was like Downton Abbey came to the Alamo. Their house is twice the size of Ken’s parent’s place and you saw how big that is.” She waits for my nod, indicating it’s okay to continue.
I do so automatically.
“When Alex decided to get his law degree rather than go to work in the family business, his father hit the roof.” Paige raises her hand above her head.
I shift uncomfortably, unhappy with the direction her story has taken.
“Ken says he made a lot of speeches about bringing dishonor on the family, which I never really understood. I mean, where we grew up becoming a lawyer’s about as out of reach as becoming an astronaut, but his father was absolutely pissed, threatened to disown him, if you can believe that.”
I can believe it. The night of Paige’s birthday party Alex revealed some of he and his father’s stormy past. I remember thinking I’d been lucky. My mother died but she’d loved me. My suspicion was that Alex had never known that kind of love.
Paige continues. “Anyway, around the time he enrolled in law school, Alex’s mom calls and tells Alex he’s got to come home. His Dad was close to losing practically everything they owned: land, the business, even their house. He’d been mismanaging company funds, slowly sinking the family into massive debt. They were all stunned. As far as Alex and anyone else knew, things were just fine. One of the reasons Juan wasn’t in favor of Alex going to law school was the expensive tuition.”
I reclaim my chair, captivated by Paige’s story. Alex has revealed very little of his history with his father and I’ve been afraid to pry, knowing their relationship was somehow shaky.
But I still don’t understand why any of this should affect my being with Alex. So he’s poor? I wore Aunt Jolene’s old bras because we couldn’t afford luxuries like new undergarments. If anything, being broke puts us on more even footing. “Let me get this straight. You wanted to keep up apart because his family’s trading in the country club for the trailer park?”
Paige shakes her head. “They’re not broke.”
“Paige, you’re losing me here. I don’t understand.”
“Alex discovered his father had essentially gambled away every scrap of land they owned, literally and figuratively. They were on the brink of bankruptcy and foreclosure. His mother was threatening to leave, his grandfather, who was dying at the time, couldn’t even bear to look at Juan. I guess it was pretty awful.
“Then, right before Alex was ready to drop out of law school and move back home to try and dig them out of poverty, his dad shows up and says everything’s fine. Their debts are going to be paid or canceled and they’ll be back in the black.”
Her impressive storytelling skills aside, I still don’t understand how this affects Alex and me. I open my mouth to tell her to get to the point when she finally does.
“He’d found a partner for the business. Someone willing to pay off all the corporation’s debts and loan the family enough to get them back on their feet…in exchange for ninety-nine percent of the company.”
“Ninety-nine percent?” I’m shocked by the number.
“Yep. He wanted full control of the company. Leaving Juan with a paltry one-percent was just salt in the wound. But Juan agreed to everything because it meant saving face.”
A light dawns over my head. That terrible, gnashing feeling fills me. “Oh my God, do you mean… The Spellings?”
Paige nods. “Cadence’s father. You’ve never met him, but he makes Juan Ramirez look like Ghandi. He’s what they all refer to as ‘new money,’ meaning his family was dirt poor until he made his millions. At Enron of all places,” she adds with a grimace.
“So Cadence’s family bailed Alex’s out, and she’s staked her claim.”
My sister reaches across the table and takes my hand. The move unsettles me deeply. “When Alex’s father made the deal to bail himself out of financial ruin, Alex had to agree to an…odd stipulation.”
My brain is fighting to fill in the blanks faster than I can blot them out.
“To Gordon, image is everything, but as rich as he is, he’ll never move into certain circles unless he’s connected to old ‘Southern Royalty’.” Paige uses air quotes. “As a condition of the deal, Alex agreed to marry Cadence.”
The clock above the pantry door ticks loudly. It’s not often that the Davies sisters have got nothing to say but I’m well and truly speechless.
Paige squeezes my hand. “Say something.”
I open and close my mouth several times before finding any words. “That…is…the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
I can tell by the look on her face, that wasn’t the
something
she wanted me to say, but now I’m on a roll. “I mean, you’re joking. Right?”
She shakes her head.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me with this shit!”
“Charlotte Dolly Davies, you watch your mouth,” Paige scolds, shocked by my language. “Mama would never have stood for such profanity.”
But Mama ain’t here. “Don’t even, Paige. That’s the most cock-and-bull story I’ve ever heard. There’s no such thing as an arranged marriage in Dallas, Texas. In 2013. In the U.S.-fucking-A.!”
Paige bites her tongue and visibly tries to calm herself. “I tried to tell you to leave him be. To not get involved. I knew nothing good could come of it.”
“Nothing good? Nothing good! I only had the best sex of my life with that man. Multiple times now.”
“Sex is just sex, Charlie. It’s best you just put an end to it before--”
“Before what?” I screech. “Before I fall in love with him? Before I dream of a life with him? Well you’re too late, baby girl.” I raise my eyes to the ceiling and blink back tears but a few escape. “I fell in love with him two years ago and not a day has gone by that I don’t regret walking away when I did.”
There’s no stopping the tears now and I let them fall freely. A quiet sob forces my shoulders forward. Paige comes to stand behind me and cautiously wraps her arms around my waist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to get involved in all this.”
I gulp air through my mouth, my nose too thick from crying. “But you’re always trying to get me out of Harlow.”
“Yes, out of Harlow. Away from Daddy and the aunts and all our crazy cousins because they’re keeping you from living a life of your own. I wanted you to find someone to take care of
you
for a change.”
Paige’s words remind me of Cadence’s accusations at the dress shop. Does everyone around me feel sorry for me? Do they all think I’ve made a mess of things or that I’m too afraid to have a life of my own? I place my hands over Paige’s and squeeze. “I told him it wouldn’t work and he kept saying he wanted it to. He said that he wanted to be with me. If he’s promised to someone else, why would he make me believe we had a future together?” I cry.
Paige sets her chin on my shoulder and hugs me hard. “I don’t know. I think meeting you threw a wrench in everything for him. I know it doesn’t help, but I do believe he cares for you.”
I laugh. It isn’t pretty. “I think that only makes it worse.” So that’s it, then. I can never match what the Spellings have done for his family. I’d only ever be able to offer him love, and now I know that won’t be enough. “Is he really going to do it?” I ask incredulously. “Does he love her?”
She rests her cheek against my back and rocks me slightly. “He’s kind to her. She certainly thinks she loves him, but I reckon it’s more about duty. Without her family’s help, his would’ve been destroyed. That’s a heavy burden to carry around on your shoulders.”
She hugs me tight one more time then pushes on my shoulder. I turn to face her.
“I’m really sorry about all this,” she says. “If I’d known you and he had taken back up together, I would’ve told you sooner.”
“How’d you find out anyway?”
“The look on Cadence’s face when I asked where you’d gone. I think she put two-and-two together after your little rendezvous at my birthday party and she’s been sleeping with one eye open ever since.”
“You say that like she’s afraid of me.”
Paige smiles and shakes her head. “Of course she’s afraid of you, Charlie. The man she plans to spend the rest of her life with may be in love with someone else. She’s scared shitless.”
I would have thought having power over Cadence would make me feel stronger, but it fills me with dread. Cadence starved and physically altered herself to keep her shit-for-brains boyfriend from leaving her in college. What would she do to keep Alex and I apart? “I guess I’ll watch my back.”
“Tell you what? I’ll watch your back, and you concentrate on what’s in front of you. There isn’t much we can do about you running into him between now and the wedding, but after that, you’ll never have to see him again.”
Between getting out the tears I’ve been trying so hard to hold back, and learning the truth about Alex’s situation, some of the tension that’s been building inside me fades. At least now I know where things stand.
Paige grabs the purse she threw at me from the table and motions for me to follow her toward the back. “C’mon. Let’s get you cleaned up and I’ll buy us a couple of steaks and a bottle of whiskey.”
I follow her to the door. “I think he might love me, too.” I watch her turn the handle.
She sighs. “Yeah, I think he might, but it doesn’t matter. These people. They’re different from us. They get their honor from tradition and sacrifice.”
“Where does mine come from?”
She narrows her eyes and grasps me firmly, fixing me with a fierce stare. “From family. We’d be lost without you, Charlie.”
Cousin Barry’s ass-magnet hands, Wade’s disgusting table manners, the aunts’ uncanny ability to spot a walking last will and testament. If I can stick by this family, I guess I can get through anything.
Chapter Eight
Thirty-Seven Days Until Wendell Wears the Garter Like A Headband
“This wasn’t a ruse, was it?” I look at Luke behind the wheel of his monster-sized pickup. “I mean, you’re not taking me out to the middle of nowhere so you can dump my body in a creek or something?”
He chuckles good-naturedly. “I’ve always loved your sass, Charlie. One of the many things that’s kept me coming back after getting shot down ‘bout a hundred times.”
Now, I’m the one worried about getting shot down. We’ve been in Luke’s truck for the better part of an hour and as far as I can tell, we’re getting close to nowhere. I adjust myself in the seat, conscious of the amount of leg showing beneath my green summer dress.
Daddy was ecstatic when I told him Luke was taking me dancing. He even put down the clicker when my big, burly date showed up in snug blue jeans, a black button down shirt with a handsome blue and gray tie and a white cowboy hat. I hate to admit it, but the boy cleans up well.
This is all Paige’s fault. She told me we were going out for steak and whiskey. What she meant was we were going out for whiskey and whiskey.
When Luke showed up at The Cavern four glasses in, my defenses were down. Sad over Alex and looking to enact a little inebriated payback, I agreed to go on a date with the big oaf. I curse my baby sister for encouraging me to accept his offer and the Dixie Chicks for making it sound like a good idea.
Cowboy Take Me Away?
It’s
where
he’s taking me I’m worried about.
“You’ll like it, I promise.” Luke reads my mind.
“I’ll reserve judgment until after I’ve seen you dance. Just try not to step on my toes. I’d like return home with both feet intact.”