Diary of a Single Wedding Planner (Tales Behind the Veils Book 1) (20 page)

Friday, December 6th

Dwayne called a little before noon.

“Hey,” I said, smiling.

“I want to see you,” he said.

“What?”

“Come see me. I’ll start driving and meet you halfway.”

I inhaled and held it. My stomach rolled, but I can’t say if it was excitement or nausea. Or both. It was one thing to talk to Dwayne on the phone, hours away and safely not in my life. Seeing him in person seemed totally different. I wondered what he looked like after all this time. I wondered if I would still find him attractive. I was all at once certain I didn’t want to see him and yet intrigued by what it would be like.

“I can’t do that, Silly. I have stuff to do,” I said while mentally going through my calendar to figure out if I could.

“Sure you can. We can meet in the middle, eat dinner, visit a while, and you can head back home and do your stuff.”

“Dwayne, halfway is like three and a half hours. It’s seven hours round trip.”

“I know, but you only live once, right? Come on, girl. Come see me.”

“I can’t. I gotta work,” I said, even as my brain plotted. Laura needed my help with a wedding Saturday, but I had no wedding of my own this weekend and no rehearsal tonight. Cabe and I had talked about seeing a movie, but we hadn’t made any firm plans yet. This was actually a rare Friday night when I could take a road trip if I wanted to. I sort of wanted to.

“So let’s meet later tonight. After you’re done with work,” he said.

I wavered. Seven hours of driving. Blech. Especially on a Friday night off coming out of busy October and November. Chilling with Cabe at a movie sounded much more relaxing. Curiosity was killing me, though. I hadn’t seen Dwayne Davis in five years. I’d been going back and forth in my head for days between being excited to talk to him and never wanting to talk to him again. What would I feel if I actually saw him? The thought occurred to me that maybe then I would know. Maybe if I saw Dwayne, I would know once and for all if I wanted to pursue this, whatever it was, or if I wanted to tell him goodbye forever.

My heart clinched a little bit at the thought. Could I do that? Could I tell Dwayne goodbye again?

“Hello? You still there?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m here. Okay, I’ll meet you. Where and what time?”

I went to Melanie’s office as soon as we hung up.

“Mel, I need to leave early, and I don’t really want to get into a lot of explanation about what I’m doing or where I’m going. Could you tell Laura I had something come up and I’ll be at her wedding tomorrow with no problem?”

“Sure, but what’s up? What are you doing? Where are you going?” Mel asked.

“Didn’t I just say I didn’t want to get into it?” I stuck my tongue out at her playfully.

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think that meant me. If you want me to cover for you, don’t I at least get to know what you’re doing?” Then she got all excited and clapped her hands together, “Is it something with Cabe? Are you doing something to surprise him? Are you guys going away together?”

I felt a pang of guilt that it definitely didn’t involve Cabe. I knew I’d have to call and tell him about my road trip, and he wouldn’t be happy.

“No, it’s not with Cabe, and I really can’t get into it right now. I’ll explain later, okay?” I didn’t want anyone to know what my plan was because I didn’t want anyone to talk me out of it.

“Alright. Everything okay, though? Should I be worried?” Mel asked.

“No, no. Everything’s fine. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

I made it out of the building without seeing Laura, and I waited until I was an hour down the interstate before I called Cabe.

“What’s up, Buttercup? What movie are we seeing?” he asked.

“Yeah, about that. I’m not going to be able to make the movie tonight. Something came up.” I briefly toyed with the idea of lying and not telling him, but I knew I couldn’t lie to Cabe.

“You okay?” he asked. Guilt and anxiety threatened to empty my stomach all over my car.

“Um . . . yeah. I’m fine. I’m driving to meet Dwayne.” I paused and waited in the silence. In fact, I welcomed the silence because I didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“Really. Okay. How’d that come about?”

“He asked me to drive halfway and meet him.”

“I thought you have a wedding tomorrow,” Cabe said.

“I do. I’m coming back tonight. I’m driving to meet him, having dinner, and coming back.”

“Why?” Cabe asked.

“I don’t know, Cabe. Because he asked me to? Because I want to?”

“Why?” he asked.

“I dunno. Because at one time he was the love of my life. My first love. He was my everything. Talking to him again has reminded me of who I used to be. I see now how much I changed when he left me. I lost who I was. I guess I can’t explain it. I just want to see him, Cabe. And he wants to see me.”

“You do realize if his wife hadn’t left him, you wouldn’t be hearing from him at all? So it’s not like he just missed you so terribly that he simply had to get in touch with you and see you. Don’t be dumb about this, Ty.”

His words stung, even though I expected them.

“I’m not being dumb, Cabe. But I have to know what it will be like to see him. I think in some ways, I never really let go of him. I need to know why. I know what you’re saying is true, and I appreciate it. I thank you for worrying about me. This is something I need to do, though. To know what I feel when I see him. I think it will tell me a lot one way or another.”

He paused for a minute and then said, “Okay, then let me go with you.”

“What?”

“Let me go with you. There’s no sense in you riding all that way by yourself, nervous and keyed up. If it doesn’t go well, you’re gonna be riding three hours back in a car alone. Let me go with you. I’ll sit at another table so I’m not right up under you, but I wanna meet this dude. I want him to know someone is looking out for you.”

My heart tugged in a strong gravitational pull back toward Cabe and home. What was I doing? Why on earth was I even giving Dwayne Davis the time of day? Much less seven plus hours out of my day? Why wasn’t I heading out to a movie with Cabe? Safe. Not in danger of being hurt. This was a bad idea. Unfortunately, I was already in it and committed to it.

“Cabe, I’m an hour and a half out of town, about halfway to where we’re meeting. Thank you, though. It means a lot that you would do that for me.”

“Wow, so you just decided this and went for it. You weren’t even going to tell me? You didn’t want to discuss it first?” he asked.

I bit my tongue to keep from pointing out that he came back home for months before he bothered to contact me to discuss anything.

“It happened so quick, Cabe. He called today at work, and I made a decision. There wasn’t anything to discuss.”

“Wasn’t there? What are you doing, Tyler? Do you want to get back together with him? To move back home and live with your mother? You going to play the part of wife number two and raise number one’s kids with him? Where do you see this going?”

I had no answers. I hadn’t thought ahead that far.

“I don’t know, okay? I’m going to see him. I’m not marrying him or moving home with him. I’m just meeting him for dinner.”

“Are you going to sleep with him?” he asked.

“Oh my God. I cannot even believe you asked me that,” I said.

“Why not? Do you think it hasn’t crossed his mind? Hasn’t seen you in how many years? He’s been separated from his wife so he probably hasn’t been getting any action. I can speak personally for how frustrating that can be. You’re rushing off to meet him at a moment’s notice. Driving over three hours, I might add. You don’t think he’s got something on his mind?”

“Cabe, I don’t want to argue with you. I’m going to have dinner with Dwayne, and that’s all. I’ll call you on my way back if you want.”

“Whatever, Ty. You don’t have to answer to me. I think you’re making a mistake, but it’s your mistake to make. Call me if you need me, not because you feel like you have to.”

He hung up, and I almost turned the car around. I really wanted to see Dwayne Davis, though. I had to do it. I had to.

I spotted Dwayne’s large red truck as soon as I pulled into the parking lot. He stood at the back of the truck, one knee bent with his foot behind him propped on the bumper. He had on cowboy boots, of course, and Wrangler jeans. His plaid shirt had pearl button snaps, and he wore a tall cowboy hat slung low on his head, shading his eyes in the setting sun. It was so far removed from what I see every day that I stifled a giggle.

He looked much skinnier than I remembered, by quite a bit. When we were in high school and college, his solid frame stayed muscular and lean, but he was a strapping guy. He seemed frail now, and I wondered if he had been ill.

His face seemed pretty much the same, but older. More haggard than I remembered.

I got out of the car and smoothed my skirt. I had gone home and changed into a cute little dress with a purple and orange paisley print. It was one of my favorites, cut generously in the hips with straps that crossed underneath my collarbone and went over my shoulders. Cabe always called it my hippie-chick dress. It was his favorite, too. Probably too bright for Dwayne’s tastes, but I wanted to be bright, cheerful, and confident. I finished it off with my favorite boots and my trusty denim jacket.

I walked toward Dwayne, enjoying the slow, appreciative grin spreading across his face. Dwayne Davis. The love of my life. Right there in front of me, smiling and obviously happy to see me. I had a million flashes of that smile replaying in my head. Standing by his high school locker. Coming off the football field. Holding the hose as we washed his car. Looking up at me sitting in his lap. Lit up by the dashboard as he lay back in the driver’s seat. Sneaking in the window of my dorm room.

He wrapped me in a big bear hug, which increased my amazement at how bony he felt. Definitely much thinner than before, no doubt about it. I had to strain to reach my arms all the way around him back then, but not now. Somehow I remembered him being taller, but he only stood an inch or two above me. Maybe being with Cabe’s towering height all the time had messed with my memory.

“Well, hello darlin’. If you ain’t a sight for sore eyes, I don’t know what is. You smell downright edible. Let me look at you.” He held me at arm’s length, looking me up and down like a prized mule. He whistled low and motioned for me to turn around. I did a little twirl in my dress like a schoolgirl playing dress-up, completely reveling in having his attention once more.

“Damn, girl. I think you are even more beautiful than I remembered. I didn’t think that was possible. How come you ain’t just beating the boys off you with a stick?” he asked.

I thought about Cabe and how much he’d like to beat Dwayne with a stick.

“I don’t know.” There wasn’t much else to say.

Dwayne took my hand, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like we’d been holding hands only yesterday. There I was, strolling into a restaurant on Dwayne Davis’s arm and feeling like a million bucks.

I noticed he favored his left leg with a slight limp.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh, that. I got into a bar fight over in Louisiana a few years ago. I went over there with my cousin to look at some horses. Don’t remember much about the fight. Just playing pool and having a good time, and next thing I know I’m in a hospital with this here leg in traction. Had a ruptured kidney, four broke ribs, black eye, broke nose.” He pointed to a spot on his nose. “See that little bump that right there? Kind of ridge-like? Yep. That’s where it broke.”

“Damn, boy. Did you even get a swing in?”

I hadn’t thought about bar fights in years. Not since we broke up, most likely. The people I’m around on a daily basis don’t really do the bar fight thing. I got a mental flash of Lillian in a bar fight and nearly burst out laughing.

“Probably. Hell, you know me. Always the first one swinging. But I don’t remember a damned thing. Don’t even know who hit me. Rayford—you remember him? Uncle Ray’s oldest boy? He was in the bathroom when it happened, so he didn’t see nothing. I laid in the hospital in Louisiana for damned near a month. Out of work a long time. Lost a bunch of weight. Still got the limp.”

“Yeah, I noticed you look a little thin.”

“Well, I put some weight back on after all that, but this whole divorce thing tore me up. I couldn’t eat nothing until I started talking to you, darlin’. I’m starving right now.”

We made small talk throughout the meal, catching up on relatives and news from home. No awkward pauses or long silences. It felt oddly natural, like we’d never been apart. We slipped back into phrases and sayings we once used, bits and pieces of the intimate language each couple creates together.

I couldn’t help comparing him with Cabe, though. I don’t know why. I guess because that’s who I eat with most of the time. I noticed little things right off. Dwayne ordered first. Cabe always makes a point of asking me what I want and telling the waitress before he orders. Dwayne talked with his mouth full, which I forgot about. He also doused his steak in ketchup, which I used to do until Cabe berated me about it being an insult to the chef.