Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(7)

Elijah chuckled. “Guess that’s my cue to go with them and get my own dessert. I’ll keep Hart and Theron at the dessert table as long as I can so you ladies can rake us all over the coals.” Elijah left his plate and followed the other two men.

“How are you going to stand it?” Kate asked.

“Not me. How is he going to stand it? It’s not going to be pleasant, believe me,” Sophie said.

“And here I’d entertained hopes that Elijah would be your soul mate. I found Theron when I came back to Texas, and Kate rediscovered Hart,” Fancy said wistfully.

“You know how I feel about that preacher over in Albany that Theron likes so well?” Sophie asked.

Fancy nodded. “You haven’t made it a secret that you are definitely not interested in him.”

Kate giggled. “What was it you said? If I remember the words, it was ‘I’d rather sit across the table from a skunk than a preacher.’”

“I’d take him over Elijah,” Sophie said flatly. “That man just grates me the wrong way. The way he looks at me…”

“What?” Fancy asked.

“It…I don’t know what it does…but it scares me.”

Kate burst out laughing. “That’s called attraction, girl. Didn’t your lousy, old, dead ex-husband ever look at you like that?”

“No, he did not,” Sophie huffed. “It’s going to be a long winter. That’s how long I figure it’ll take me to wear him down. I’m so glad you two are here to support me,” Sophie said.

“He’s pretty, ain’t he, Momma?” Tina asked.

Sophie blushed. “Dammit! I forgot she was sitting there. We shouldn’t have been talking about him in front of her.”

“Who, baby? That new colt out there in the pasture?” Fancy asked.

“No, Momma. That’s silly. That baby horse is cute, but I was talkin’ about Eli. I like him. I like his name and his ponytail. Can he come see us?” Tina asked.

“You know what they say about kids and dogs? I bet the dogs love him, too,” Sophie groaned.

“What dogs?” Tina looked around. “You got dogs? Are there puppies? Can I play with them? I’ll trade you one of my kittens for a puppy. Are they big puppies? Can Eli show me where they are?”

Fancy giggled.

Kate roared.

Sophie wanted to hit something.





CHAPTER TWO


Sophie sat down on the grass in front of the tombstone bearing Jesse and Maud Jones’s names. The engravers would carve in Maud’s death date the next week, and then it would be finished. It seemed strange to think that simply putting the date on a chunk of gray granite could finalize a lifetime. It might be over physically, but as long as Sophie was alive, she would remember her great-aunt with love. Maud had said that she wanted her life to be all used up and lived up, and then she’d slide into heaven in worn jeans and her boots ready to see Jesse again. Sophie knew beyond the proverbial shadow of a doubt that Aunt Maud had done just that. She could just see her sliding to a screeching halt in front of the pearly gates, yelling at them to open the doors and get out the salsa and chips for the party.

The sun had passed straight up and was on the downhill slide toward the west. When it came up that morning, she’d had the whole day planned and not a thing had gone according to the list. Oh yes, the song had been sung, the prayer said, lunch had been served and eaten, and the church ladies had cleaned up the kitchen. There were enough leftovers to last a week, unless Elijah ate every day like he had at lunch. At that rate it might last two days. Kate and Fancy had gone home to their own worlds with instructions that Sophie was to call every single day with an update, and they’d see her on Sunday for their regular once a week gab fest at Fancy’s place.

Her parents and sisters lingered for another hour, but then they, too, had to leave if they were going to drop Layla off in Tulsa and make it to Alma, Arkansas, before dark. Sophie was happier to see them drive away than she had been with anyone else. She’d seen her family often before Matt’s death, but afterward time had drifted past. Weeks became months, and it had been a year since she’d spent time with them. Maud had told her repeatedly that she needed to come clean with her family about her dead husband, but she hadn’t wanted their pity, so it was between them, like a big old Angus bull sitting right there in the living room on the sofa, every time they got together. Everyone could feel his presence, but no one talked about him. They just walked around the big critter and hoped he’d miraculously disappear.

She should have already told them about Matt, but after a year, her sisters would think she was making up stories, and her mother would never believe the pretty-boy preacher could have had a fault. It hadn’t seemed right at Matt’s funeral to tell her mother and sisters what a lyin’, cheatin’, son of a bitch he’d been. Everyone was there to bury a preacher who’d had an untainted halo and wings, so she’d let them do just that. It hadn’t been difficult to let her pure, old Irish pride have its way and keep the sordid secrets hidden in her heart.

The first time she’d told anyone other than Maud the whole story had been a year before, when she and Kate had met Fancy at her grandmother’s house for a reunion. Kate mentioned an old country song entitled “80’s Ladies.” The singer mentioned three little girls from the fifties and said that one was pretty, one was smart, and one was a borderline fool.