The Loves of Ruby Dee (35 page)

Lonnie’s having a youngun made Hardy think about how poor a daddy he had been to Lonnie. He had always managed to shrug off the regret of this, but this night he had trouble doing so.

Hardy thought about what it had been like when he married Lila. Her crazy daddy had come after him with a shotgun, because he hadn’t wanted Hardy to marry her. One thing no one ever knew was that Hardy had gotten Lila pregnant, which was why he’d married her in the first place. Back in those days, when a man got a woman pregnant, he did one of two things: married her or ran off to the city. Hardy hadn’t wanted to run off.

Lila had miscarried, though, just two weeks after they were married. That was what she’d told him, anyway. Hardy had always wondered if she hadn’t lied the whole time, just to get him to marry her.

* * * *

Ruby Dee awoke when she heard Will’s truck on the gravel drive just after one in the morning. She had been waiting for word from him. Slipping from bed, she padded quickly to the open window.

She glimpsed the sparkling stars, then the tail end of Will’s truck. The rest of it was hidden by the elm tree. In the glow of the pole lamp she could see Will coming along the walk. Her heart thudded. There was a sense of knowing inside her. Will had come instead of calling, because he wanted to see her, talk with her. She was about to race down to meet him, when she caught a glimpse of the kitchen light coming on and shining out across the grass.

So Hardy was awake!

Ruby Dee stilled. She heard the back door open and Hardy’s step on the porch. Will stopped, stood looking in but not entering. And Hardy didn’t invite him.

Hardy said, “I guess you got Georgia taken care of.”

“Yeah...I waited for Frank to get there. I didn’t see any need of advertisin’ Georgia’s trouble by callin’ in anyone else.”

Georgia’s trouble? Ruby Dee figured it had been trouble for all of them. But she guessed she was proud of Will for wanting to shield Georgia. Ruby Dee would have wanted the same for herself.

Hardy said, “Well, you were thinkin’ right there...People’d chew on this for a month of Sundays, and wouldn’t none of us be left out. What’s Frank gonna do with her?”

Will sighed. “I don’t know. He’s with her, for a start. He said he’ll get ahold of a doctor tomorrow. She’s sorry, Dad. She...well, sometimes when she drinks she gets crazy like that.”

“That wasn’t just no drunk prank on her part,” Hardy said. “She was out to shoot the balls off you boys. That woman’s mad, and I sure don’t want her comin’ back here, possibly after Ruby Dee.”

“She won’t do anything to Ruby Dee. Ruby Dee has nothin’ to do with what set her off.” Then, after a second, “Dad...
I’m grateful to you for steppin’ in."

Hardy gave his little snort, and Ruby Dee imagined his shrug. He asked, “What about her Suburban?”

“Frank’s gonna send a couple of boys for it tomorrow."

Another snort from Hardy.

Then there was a long silence. The two of them just looked at each other, from what Ruby Dee could see of Will, which was mostly from his hat down to his boots, but not his face at all.

“Ruby Dee’s gone to bed,” Hardy said, his voice dropping, so that she just barely caught the next words. “There’s no use gettin’ her up now. I’ll tell her what you’ve told me.”

“Dad...I’m goin’ to ask Ruby Dee to marry me.” Will’s voice was low, but it carried up to her. Ruby Dee put a fist to her wildly beating heart and held her breath, straining to hear Hardy’s reply.

But his voice was too low. She heard him speak, but couldn’t catch his words.

Whatever they were, Will had nothing to say in response. He turned and walked away. Her hand on the windowsill, Ruby Dee watched his pickup disappear around the corner of the house.

Chapter 26

Will walked into
a dark, empty house. He flipped on the light and stood there staring at his kitchen, which was almost finished; cabinet doors stacked against the wall, awaiting varnish; new refrigerator and stove; Spanish-tile floor. The counter was strewn with empty soft-drink cans and beer bottles, washed paint brushes, a can of wallpaper paste, and a four-day-old box of fried chicken.

He threw his hat on the refrigerator and went through the dining room and down the narrow hallway. He stopped in the doorway of the bedroom. There, taking up a good deal of the small, newly wallpapered bedroom, was the queen-sized cherry-wood-and-iron bed he had bought that day. It had cost a small fortune. He had driven all the way to Oklahoma City for it. He wanted it for when he brought Ruby Dee here.

He stood staring at the bed for a long time, thinking nothing, yet feeling his mind racing. Pictures passed through his mind: Ruby Dee’s eyes, Lonnie
and Crystal driving away, Georgia sobbing about wanting a baby.

And then he was seeing the old man step in front of him, in front of the barrel of that shotgun. That picture went through his mind again and again, as if someone kept rewinding the tape. And last, he heard again what the old man had said, when Will told him he intended to ask Ruby Dee to marry him.

“Don’t take her away from me, just because you can.”

That plea, along with everything else, kept going around and around inside of Will.

Worn, Will sat on the cherry-wood bed, removed his boots, lay back and fell deeply asleep. He slept far past sunup the following morning. He showered and dressed but didn’t take time to make coffee. He hurried to the ranch, anticipating Ruby Dee’s coffee. Anticipating Ruby Dee.

But Ruby Dee and the old man were in the Galaxie, about to leave, with Ruby Dee behind the wheel. Despite the coolness of the morning, the convertible top was down. Instead of a hat, Ruby Dee had her hair pulled back in a ribbon. She wore a soft brown sweater. The old man was dressed sharply, in a starched white shirt and his tweed sport coat and his winter felt hat. He looked far younger than his eighty-five years.

“We’re goin’ down to Elk City to see about a caterer for Lonnie’s party,” Ruby Dee said. She removed her sunglasses, looked at him intently with her dark eyes. There were smudges beneath them, making them look more exotic than usual. “I left you some ham and biscuits in the oven.”

He thanked her, and she said she was glad he had been able to get Frank home to Georgia. “I hope she’ll be all right,” she said.

The old man asked Will about getting the cows and calves separated, and Will said he would see to it.

“Well, we can’t wait until your brother comes home,” the old man said. “You call Jeb Koss and his boys to come over and start today.” Will didn’t argue.

For a long minute he watched the Galaxie go down the drive, stirring up a wake of dust.

Will knew that the old man had thought up a reason to take Ruby Dee to town. The old man was determined to keep Ruby Dee away from him for as long as possible. Permanently, if he could.

Will tried to be angry with the old man, but the memory of so many things, not the least of which was the old man stepping in front of that shotgun in order to protect him and Lonnie, kept getting in the way.

“Don’t take her away from me, just because you can.”

The only time Will had ever heard that particular tone in his father’s voice was when he had asked their mother not to leave.

* * * *

The air blew cool around the windshield as they headed south on the blacktop highway. Hardy really enjoyed the convertible, but the air did chill him. Damned old body, he thought. He was glad Ruby Dee turned on the heat, but he wouldn’t have told her so. He remembered when he would ride a horse all through the winter and not bother with much more than a light coat. He remembered a lot of things, he told himself, but they were all gone.

When they reached Elk City, he directed Ruby Dee to the downtown area.

“Just pull over here,” he said, pointing to the bank. “I need to go in there and do some bankin’, and Dave Secrest in there’ll tell us where to find a caterer for your party.”

“I wish you wouldn’t keep callin’ it my party,” she grumbled when she came around to his side of the car and held the door.

He said, “I wish you wouldn’t keep actin’ like you have to help me out of the car.

On the sidewalk, he extended his arm to her, and she took it. It felt good to walk with her. Inside, he withdrew some cash and then went over to Secrest’s big office. The man seemed truly glad to see Hardy, but Hardy only shook his hand and asked for the name of a good caterer. “One that makes good barbecue. I figure a man in your position probably has a lot of parties and ought to know somebody good.”

Secrest mentioned a couple of people, then had his secretary write down their names and addresses. “I didn’t know a banker had to be a social secretary,” he joked.

And Hardy said, “I guess my banker holdin’ all my money can be whatever I need him to be.”

Secrest got red at that, but Hardy didn’t care.

Outside the bank, Hardy told Ruby Dee to go look up the caterer and make the arrangements. He pulled out his money clip, peeled off five one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them to her. “This ought to be enough for a down payment. Order enough food for about seventy people—I don’t want no more people than that at my place, and if it turns out that not that many come, we’ll have lots of leftovers.”

Ruby Dee looked startled. “You want me to just leave you here?”

“I don’t need you to hold my hand every minute, do I?”

“Well, no, you don’t.”

“Then you go on. Well, I might as well tell you. I’m goin’ to see my lawyer, right down the street, here—Harold Thelen, Attorney at Law. And don’t be tellin’ nobody. I don’t like people to know my bizness. I’ll be a little while, so you go fix things with one of them caterers and then come pick me up down there.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide. He turned and headed down the sidewalk. He felt the best he had in many a year. There was nothing like perplexing people to make an old man feel young.

Harold Thelen was some annoyed with Hardy for coming in without an appointment, but he got over it. Especially when his curiosity rose about the changes Hardy wanted made in the set up of the ranch and in his will. Hardy told him, “I don’t pay you to understand my reasonin’, Thelen, just to make what I want legal.”

Ruby Dee was waiting outside in the Galaxie when Hardy came out of Thelen’s office. When Thelen saw Ruby Dee, he almost dropped his teeth, which Hardy knew were false. Hardy had always been proud to have all of his own teeth.

Thelen got this look in his eye, one-fourth like he thought Hardy a fool and three-fourths like pure-D envy.

As Ruby Dee drove away, Hardy said, “You know, gal, I couldn’t feel grander if you was the queen of Sheba. Let’s go find a steak for lunch. I promise I’ll eat vegetables, too, and no sugar in my coffee,” he added.

After lunch, they went shopping, and Hardy went so far as to buy a new coat and a pair of boots for the party, and picked out four more shirts, too. Ruby Dee bought a new dress, which looked beautiful on her. As she modeled it for Hardy, he remembered Jooney. He wanted to pay for the dress, but she wouldn’t let him. So while she changed, Hardy went over to the jewelry counter. He had a pair of Indian silver earrings boxed and in his pocket by the time Ruby Dee joined him.

It was late afternoon before they started home. Only a few minutes after they hit the open road, Hardy put his head back and fell asleep. Ruby Dee worried he would get a crick in his neck, but he always had been good at sleeping sitting up.

Ruby Dee drove along in the sunshine, the wind tugging at her hair. It had been a wonderful day. She’d had such a good time with Hardy. She glanced at him and thought how different he was now from that first day she had come. It really was amazing what a balanced diet and simple care could do for a person, she thought.

Ruby Dee knew deep inside that she had brought Hardy life again. That he cared for her...that he thought of her as the Jooney he had lost, and it made no difference whether or not she really was. And she cared for him, too, in a way she could never explain to anyone. In a way she didn’t exactly understand herself. The feelings were powerful, and real, and not what she’d have felt for a father.

Then her thoughts turned to Will. Excitement fluttered in her chest as she recalled, for the hundredth time, that he had said he was going to ask her to marry him. Every time she thought of it, her mind went into a tailspin, like a horse that rears up to throw off its rider’s weight and then runs wildly away.

Miss Edna’s insistent voice came:
“What will your answer be, Ruby Dee?”

“Oh, Miss Edna, if I say yes, what will happen to Hardy?”

She heard only silence. “You shouldn’t pick now to quit tellin’ me what to do, Miss Edna.”

Ruby Dee had already turned off the highway when Hardy roused himself. “Where are we? Dang, we’re here already. Slow up, gal.”

“What is it, Hardy?”

“I want to show you somethin’...
.
up here, on the next hill.”

They were still a mile from the ranch house when he directed her to pull into a narrow graveled road that led across a cattle guard, past the sign that read: Starr Number One. The sun was far to the west now, slanting golden across the land. The road led to a gently pumping rocker arm. Ruby Dee stopped the car in front of it, looked at it and then glanced curiously at Hardy.

It was the first well to be sunk on his ranch, Hardy told her. There were eight oil and gas wells bearing the Starr name now, and he still got royalties from them, even in today’s depressed market. He told her, too, that until those wells, he’d always had to carry a mortgage on the ranch, but the oil and gas money paid that mortgage, and he’d never again taken another.

“I own this land, free and clear,” he said, gazing out beyond the well to the hills and pastures rolling east, south and west. “Look that way...and that way. That’s all Starr land. Bought it up, piece by piece, over the years. ‘Course, I didn’t make it—the Almighty did that. But I like to think I’ve taken good care of it for him.” The pride vibrated in his voice and struck Ruby Dee clear through.

“It’s beautiful, Hardy.”