The ladies howled. Bernadine, too.
“So I thought about what helps me relax, so we got you this.”
Lily undid the beautiful hand-painted purple paper and found a large art set inside. There were watercolors and oils, brushes and inks. She was touched by their thoughtfulness. “I’ve never had anything like this before, girls. Who knows if I can paint, but I will give it a try. Thank you.”
Zoey asked, “You don’t think it’s dumb, do you?”
“No, Zo. It’s real cool.”
Paula stepped up. “I’m new here, and because I didn’t know anything about this party until yesterday”—she looked over at Sheila, who smiled and dropped her head as if guilty as charged—“so I guess my gift will have to be something I know how to do well, which is pray. Grab hands, everybody.”
The women circled up, and Paula said reverently, “Dear Lord. Creator or all things male and female. Bless this assemblage of women. Help them continue to support and lift each other up in this great sisterhood they have created. Offer them Your guidance and keep them in Your heart as we keep You in ours. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
“Thank you, Reverend Paula.”
“Anytime.”
Marie stepped out of the circle. “I know we already did the Something Old, but I have something to add.” She took a sealed envelope out of her purse and handed it to Lily.
The envelope appeared to be very old. “What is this?”
“A letter from your mother. She wrote it before she passed and asked that I give it to you on your wedding day.”
Lily found it difficult to breathe. “My mom?”
“Yes. Funny, though, I couldn’t find it the first time you got married, so I never mentioned having it, but about a week after you and Trent announced your engagement, there it was in a box I knew I searched through a dozen times before. It was as if the letter wanted to be found when it did.”
Lily’s heart was pounding so hard, she thought it might burst through her blouse. Her name, Lily Renee, was written across the front in the familiar scrolled handwriting she knew all too well. Her hand shook. Tears filled her eyes. She gave Marie an emotional hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.” She’d never expected to receive something so precious. The urge to tear it open and read it there and then was strong, but she held off because she wanted to read it alone. After taking one last teary glance at it, she gently placed the envelope in her purse and took in a few deep breaths to pull herself back together. It was difficult. All she could think about was what it might say and how much she still missed her mother.
“Cass was a very special lady,” Marie voiced.
“Yes, she was.”
Every person in the room viewed Lily with fond eyes. They all knew how much the letter meant.
Later, they were helping themselves to the buffet again when Tamar asked Rocky, “Are the Oklahoma clan running you ragged?”
“Lord, I can’t wait until they’re gone. They are some meat-eating men, my goodness. We ran out of bacon yesterday, and they took poor Siz outside and tied him to a tree as punishment. Had him roped up like one of those old movie heroines tied down on the railroad tracks. It was all in fun, of course, but I had to use a butcher knife to cut him loose because they refused to untie him.”
Tamar asked, “Where was Griffin? He’s supposed to be the ringmaster of this circus.”
Rocky shrugged. “Not sure, but Mr. July was there. He just laughed.”
“He would,” Tamar pronounced sourly.
“Tamar, why are you two so mad at each other?” Genevieve asked.
“Secrets, right, Tamar?” Marie tossed out.
Tamar studied Marie. The air between the two had been strained since Agnes’s deathbed confession, and Lily wondered where this conversation might be heading.
Roni took one look at the two women and said, “Crys, do me a favor. Take Zoey outside so she can get some air.”
Zoey looked confused. “I don’t need any air.”
Crystal took her by the hand. “Come on. I think some grown folks stuff is about to jump off, and they don’t want us to hear.”
“What?”
Once they were gone, Tamar and Marie continued to eye each other coolly. “You’re still mad at me.”
“Yes, because you of all people should know how wrong it is to keep secrets.”
“Agnes told you?” Tamar sounded surprised.
“Yes, but I don’t know why you’re surprised. You were more a friend to her than she was to you.”
It was difficult to glean Tamar’s true reaction, but she looked caught between anger and disappointment.
Marie asked pointedly, “How can you be mad at Thad for not telling you Mal’s father was already married when he married you, but think it was okay to keep the truth about my mother from me?”
That bombshell made the other women in the room share stunned looks.
“Tamar, you’re my godmother, for heaven’s sake!” she declared heatedly.
Tamar looked away from Marie and off into the distance. She sat silently for what seemed a long time. When she finally turned back, there was a bleakness in her eyes none of them had ever seen before. “Forgive me.”
Marie had tears in her eyes. “I do, because you thought you were doing the right thing, but it still hurts.”
Tamar’s eyes were wet as well. “Been a long time since anyone’s called me out.”
“I know.” Marie took the tissue Genevieve offered and showed a watery smile as she blew her nose. “But every now and then somebody has to risk decapitation to set you straight.”
That broke the tension. Lily was glad. The rest of the women appeared to be relieved as well.
“When I married Joel Newton, he and Thad were best friends. Thad had to know he was already married, so why didn’t he tell me?”
“Have you asked him?”
“Yes. He said he didn’t know how to tell me.”
“Just like you probably didn’t know how to tell me.”
Tamar’s lips thinned.
Marie hunkered down before Tamar’s chair and said with sincerity, “You are the wisest, most caring person I know, and you’ve been more of a mother to me than Agnes ever was. I don’t want you to go to your grave with this anger on your soul. Talk to your brother.”
Tamar didn’t respond at first, then said grudgingly, “I’ll think about it.”
After tucking Devon in for the night, Lily slid the letter from the envelope and read: My dearest Lily. When you read this, I’ll be gone, but I wanted to send my love to you on this momentous day. My baby girl is getting married, and I’m in tears just thinking about how beautiful you will be. May the Good Lord bless you with a child that fills your life with the same amount of joy that you gave to mine. Stay strong, my Lily. I may not be able to love you in the flesh, but I’ll never stop loving you in spirit. Your mother. Cassandra Fontaine.
For the next hour Lily was a mess as she cried over the loss of such a remarkable woman and over the joy of receiving such a precious gift. She reminisced over the good times they’d had and how fearlessly Cass had approached chemo and the final walk to her demise. Lily missed her so much, and rereading the letter brought home again just how much. “Thank you, Mama,” she whispered.
Finally, after pulling herself together, she called Trent to ask if he’d come over.
“What’s up?” he asked as he entered. “You sounded like you’d been crying.”
She handed him the letter. “Read this.”
“You have been crying. Your eyes are all red.”
“Just read, please.”
He searched her face as if checking for more signs of distress, then lowered his eyes to the letter. When he finished reading, he asked in a voice filled with wonder, “Where’d you get this?”
“Come on in the kitchen.”
Once they were both seated at the table, she told him the story. He read the short but moving note again. “This is very s
pecial.”
“I know. I’ve been bawling like a baby since I got home.”
He handed it back. “Always wanted something like that from my mother. Gave up on that eventually, though. No idea if she’s living or dead.”
Guilt washed over her. “I didn’t mean for this to open old wounds. I’m sorry.”
He waved her off. “It was just a comment, that’s all.”
She wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. His mother had been a teen when she got pregnant by Malachi, then she and her parents moved away. A few months after the birth, her mother had showed up at Tamar’s with the infant Trent in her arms, handed him to Tamar, and driven away. As far as Lily knew, there’d been no further contact between the two families. “Maybe she’s waiting for you to contact her.”
“Maybe.”
Because he said nothing else, she sensed the subject was closed, so she didn’t push him for more.
“So how was the tea?” he asked.
“Interesting. You probably already know, but I had no idea why Tamar is so mad at her brother.”
He cocked his head. “She told you?”
“No, Marie did.” And she related what happened.
“Mal’s father was a bigamist?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No. I kinda figured there was more to their feuding than what Thad did to Olivia, but I never imagined it would be something like that. She must have been furious when she found out.”
“Heartbroken, too.”
“More than likely. The one time I asked Dad about it, he shrugged, said his father found somebody else, and left it at that. I just assumed Tamar had gotten a divorce. I wonder if he knows the truth.”
The only way to get the question answered would be to ask Mal, but because Lily knew it wasn’t her place, she left it for Trent to handle as he saw fit. “So how was your day?”
“Would’ve been a lot calmer if Griff and I hadn’t spent most of it running back and forth paying fines and bailing knuckleheads out of jail.”
“What?”
“Well, let’s see. We had to bail two cousins out of jail over in Franklin for drag racing through the middle of town last night. Then this morning a different knucklehead bet his knucklehead brother that he wouldn’t hop out of the car and run over and kiss a woman they saw walking down the street.”
“Oh, my goodness.”
“Gets better. He did it, of course. Grabbed her just as she was going into the mayor’s office, dipped her back, and kissed her good. He said later that she grinned, but at the time, her husband—the mayor—didn’t.”
“They kissed the mayor’s wife while he was with her?” Lily couldn’t help it; she laughed. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. The mayor’s so mad, he takes a swing at the knucklehead, misses, falls down, and breaks his arm.”
Wide-eyed, Lily put her hand over her mouth.
“Ambulance is called. Sheriff Dalton was called.”
“Did they go to jail?”
“Nope. The wife refused to press charges. The mayor is on the stretcher, yelling and screaming at her. He was still yelling when the medical people closed the doors and drove him away.”
“Oh, my goodness.”
“She told me it was the best kiss she’d gotten in all the years she’d been married.”
Lily hung her head.
“All Oklahoma Julys are now barred from even looking at the city of Franklin, let alone entering. Dalton says any of them set foot in town again, he’s going to throw them in jail for being a public nuisance.”
“Lord.”
“No kidding.” But he was smiling.
“Your people are a mess, Trenton July.”
“And it doesn’t take them more than a day or so to prove it. There’s a week between now and the wedding, and all I see ahead is mayhem.”
“At least no cars have been stolen.”
“That we know of. There’s a jack and a bunch of my tools missing from the garage. I know they’ll be returned eventually, but only the Ancestors know what they’ll be used for in the interim.”
“Olivia okay?”
“Far as I know. Tamar’s probably sleeping in the front seat with her shotgun.” He paused for a minute. “I keep thinking about the story you told me about her marriage.”
“That’s something, isn’t it? I always wondered why her last name was still July.”
“I figured she went back to it after the divorce. You don’t have any secrets you’re keeping from me, do you?”
“Not that I can think of. How about you?”
“Nope.”
“Good. The last thing we need around here is more intrigue.”
“You got that right.”
She spent the next few minutes showing him the wonderful gifts she’d been given at the tea.
“These are nice. Bracelet’s gorgeous. Tamar said this belonged to the original Olivia?” He studied the cameo.
“Yes, and that she had it restored back in the eighties because she wanted me to wear it at what she hoped would be our wedding back then.”
“This time is better.”
“I think so, too.”
He handed everything back. “I need to get home. Griffin and Amari spent the evening together with his Lakota family. They should be back soon.”
“The two of them doing okay?”
“Yes, they are. Griff’s a good man.”
“I’m glad it was him.”
“So am I. His mom, Judith, is coming to the wedding, also.”
She walked him to the door. He gave her a kiss. “See you tomorrow.”
“Love you.”
“Love you more.”
And after his departure, she was left alone with her love for him, her gifts, and the memories of her mother, Cassandra.
Later, when Davis came home from hanging with the younger Julys, Lily showed him the letter, and her waterworks started all over again.
“Wow, Mom.”
“I know.”
“You think she would’ve liked Trent?”
“I do. How about you, do you like him?”
“He’s pretty awesome. I saw the car he and Amari are working on. You’d told me that you and he went together during high school, but you never said why you two broke up.”
“Did you ask Trent?”
“I did, but he said to ask you.”
Lily sighed. “Let’s just say I treated him like crap. It wasn’t my best moment.”
“You broke his heart?”
“More like I trashed it big-time.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but that’s all I have to say. No sense in letting you know I have feet of clay.”
“Already do.”
She laughed.
“Trent’s a good man. Glad you found someone who makes you happy.”
“Me, too. And one day you’ll be calling and saying you’re getting married.”
“Maybe, but it won’t be Jessica.”
“Hallelujah.”
“I’m going to bed,” he said, smiling. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, baby.”
As he climbed the steps, Lily decided that she had to be the happiest woman on planet Earth.
Chapter 23
The Henry Adams Julys had always gathered at Tamar’s for Thanksgiving dinner, but this year, because of all the extra folks in town, the meal was shared at the Dog. Julys of both clans filled the diner from front to back, and everyone appeared to be having a good time, even Tamar. She was sitting next to her brother, and they were both laughing. Whether they’d reconciled was still a mystery, because no one wanted to risk Tamar’s wrath or her shotgun by asking. Diego was sitting next to Crystal in a not so discreet effort to hit on her. Lily could see Bernadine giving him the eye, but he appeared to be on his best behavior. Eli and Jack were seated nearby, and the scowl on Eli’s face was one he’d been wearing since Diego and his clan came to town.
Speaking of scowls, the colo
nel seemed to have put his away for the dinner, but it was common knowledge that he was still having issues with Sheila’s job. She, on the other hand, was practically glowing. She’d helped Mal with the arrangements for the dinner and seemed to have finally found her niche, even as the quest for something to keep Barrett occupied continued.
Reverend Paula had found her niche, too, and was seated with the Henry Adams kids. Earlier in the week, she read in the Franklin newspaper that the sanctimonious Pastor Donovan had been picked up in a sweep at one of the rest stops out on Highway 183. The police had been having a problem with men engaging in lewd behavior in the stalls. Donovan swore he’d been there to pray the men back onto the straight and narrow, but Paula was skeptical, and so was the sheriff, since Donovan had had no pants on when the police swooped down.
The day after Thanksgiving was the day of the big football game. The sky was sunny and bright, and the temperatures had warmed, as they sometimes did during the last days of autumn. The team representing Henry Adams got whipped so thoroughly and totally that nobody but the other team wanted to talk about it when it was over. The only rays of light for the home team were the two touchdowns Leah scored. The final score in the hour-long game: Oklahoma 56, Henry Adams 14.
The beautiful weather held for the wedding the next day. It was almost as if the Ancestors felt the need to throw Henry Adams a boon after they’d taken such a licking on the ball field. Lily was in her room getting dressed when Marie, acting as mother of the bride, went downstairs to answer the doorbell. She returned with Tamar and a beautiful brown-skinned woman wearing biker leathers whom Lily didn’t know. Tamar introduced the woman as Judith Windsong, the mother of Griffin July.
“I’m honored to meet you,” Lily said with sincerity. She’d known that Griffin’s mother would be coming to the wedding, but hadn’t expected her to show up on a motorcycle. She also knew about Judith’s desire to be a grandmother to Amari. Lily was of the belief that there was no such thing as a child having too much love, so she was totally supportive of Judith’s wish to forge a bond with her only grandson.
The wedding ceremony was a mix of Christian and Native. There were drums and crosses, prayers and Lakota chants. Sweetgrass burned alongside Episcopalian incense.