Tumbleweed Weddings (26 page)

“Five-six,” Callie supplied.

“Right. But Jonathan has a plan.” Molly grinned. “His uncle has a pair of elevator shoes from the ‘70s that he wore in college, and Jon asked if Murray could wear them.”

Tonya frowned. “Elevator shoes?”

“I remember those.” Mom spread her thumb and index finger about two inches apart. “The entire sole is two to three inches deep, so it makes the man taller. Some people call them platform shoes.”

Molly giggled. “Murray will be at least two inches taller than you, baby sis.”

“Great!” Tonya rolled her eyes. “Just what I need—Murray looking down his big nose at me during the entire wedding.” A sudden thought hit her. “Hey, why don’t you make Lane Callie’s partner, and then I can walk down the aisle with Ryan?”

Callie shook her head. “Lane is not the groomsman type. He told me that our wedding was the last one he wanted to be in for a while.”

“Well, he’ll have to be in mine.” Tonya threw her hands up in the air. “If I’m going to have ten or twelve bridesmaids, I’ll need all the guys I can get.”

Molly smirked. “Yeah, who knows? You might even have to enlist Murray.”

Tonya rolled her eyes. “No way! I can guarantee that Murray Twichell will
never
be in my wedding.”

O
n Sunday morning, Tonya’s fingers shook as she opened her secret pal envelope.
Please let it be Reed Dickens!
Derek had given each member of the Single Servings an envelope with the 3 × 5 card inside. She furtively glanced around the circle of chairs. Everyone pulled out the card, read it, and tucked it back in the envelope. Cheyenne, who sat next to Tonya, pulled her card up to her face and squinted her eyes, as if the writing was hard to read.

She must have gotten Horace
.

“Okay.” Derek rubbed his hands together. “Now you know the name of your receiver and what he or she likes. And remember, don’t trade cards with anyone.” He paused a moment to look at Tonya. “This is the person the Lord wants
you
to encourage.” He went on to reiterate his ideas for encouragement, and above all, he admonished everyone to keep it secret.

While he talked, Tonya took a deep breath and pulled her card halfway out. Her shoulders slumped as she read the neat, blocky printing.
Murray Twichell. Brown is my favorite color. I enjoy singing, fixing computers as a hobby, and watching football games
. She sighed as she put the card back.
And giving speeding tickets, throwing toads down little girls’ shirts …

Cheyenne elbowed her, leaning closer to whisper. “Who’d you get?”

Tonya handed over her envelope. Pulling out the card, Cheyenne peeked at it and raised her eyebrows before giving it back. A moment later Tonya pulled out Cheyenne’s card. The writing was so terrible she could barely make out the name.

Reed Dickens
.

Tonya’s lips parted. Reed went on to describe his favorite things in an entire paragraph of scribbled writing. He
must
be a doctor if his writing was this bad. She held the card close to her face, as Cheyenne had done, and tried to decipher the message.

Reed Dickens. I live in Lusk and work at the hospital as a registered nurse
.

Tonya whipped her head toward Cheyenne. “A nurse?” she mouthed.

Cheyenne shrugged. Her attention went back to Derek as he began to teach the Sunday school lesson.

It took another five minutes for Tonya to finish reading the card. Reed not only mentioned his job, but where he had moved from, his favorite foods, his favorite pastimes, his favorite movies, and the name of his ex-girlfriend.

Tonya handed the card back and leaned toward Cheyenne. “That guy is really stuck on himself.”

“I’ll say,” Cheyenne whispered. “No wonder Nicole is his ex-girlfriend.”

Well, that was one good thing. Tonya still wasn’t ready to dismiss Reed as a potential husband. He was too good-looking—
really hot
, that’s what he was. And after reading his card about his favorite pastimes, she had an idea… .

Murray tried to keep his mind on Derek’s lesson, but his eyes kept wandering over to Tonya. He couldn’t believe her name was on his card.
From the Lord
, according to Derek. Why did he keep getting stuck with her? His cousin, Jonathan, asked him to be in his wedding, and when Murray agreed, Jon said he would be walking down the aisle with Tonya. Murray could just imagine how she took that news.

However, this secret pal thing might prove to be an interesting situation. At least she would be easy to buy gifts for—old movies, classical music, and the colors blue and purple. He also remembered that she loved poetry, cooking, and sewing.

He watched as Tonya and Cheyenne put their heads together and whispered, showing each other their cards. Murray smirked. So much for keeping their secret pals a secret.

Where is he?
Tonya looked out the front window for the fifth time on Monday evening, but no car drove up the long driveway.

Yesterday at church Tonya had invited Reed Dickens to watch the Monday night football game with her family. According to his card, watching the Denver Broncos play football was one of his favorite things. So Tonya invited him to come, made a batch of brownies—her special recipe that the men in her family raved about—and prepared to question him about his life. She had accepted the fact that he was a registered nurse. After all, those female nurses probably needed a strong, buff guy like him to lift the patients.

Now Tonya sat sideways on the sofa so she could look out the window.
Lord, I pray that Reed won’t forget about our date
. It would be terrible if he stood her up! She would be so embarrassed. Of course, Dad and Derek would watch the game anyway.
And Lord, I need to pray about my relationship with Reed
. Actually, they had no relationship to speak of, but she hoped this would be “the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” to quote Rick in
Casablanca
.

Headlight beams appeared over the hill of the driveway. Tonya jumped up and smoothed her blue and orange Broncos sweatshirt. She was thankful the snow had melted. Opening the door, she ran down the porch steps and out into the cold air but stopped at the same time as the vehicle.

It was a silver SUV, which she recognized as Murray Twichell’s new car. The driver’s door opened, and Murray stepped out.

Tonya’s heart sank down to her tennis shoes. “Murray, what are you doing here?”

He raised his eyebrows as he shrugged. “Is there a law that I can’t drive onto your property? I decided to stop by and help your dad fix his computer. He asked me to come over sometime, and I thought we could watch the Broncos-Raiders game while we worked on it.”

“This is not a good night, Murray.” She took a step back. He wore that powerful aftershave again, and she didn’t want to sneeze. “I’m waiting for my date to show up, and he’s going to watch the football game with our family.”

“Oh, with the family.” Murray’s mouth quirked. “Sounds like a hot and heavy social engagement, eh, Tonya?”

She reined in her rising temper. “Would you just leave, Murray? He’s going to be here any minute.”

He held a palm out toward her. “Okay, I’m leaving.” He opened the car door. “By the way, who is this nameless
he
?”

“It’s none of your business. Good-bye, Murray.” She stomped toward the house. Of all the nerve! Dad had been complaining about his computer for two weeks, and Murray decides to show up tonight.

It didn’t help Tonya’s mood that Reed was twenty minutes late. The game had started by the time he arrived, but Tonya graciously led him to the den. After exchanging greetings with Dad and Derek, Reed settled on the end of the sofa. Derek was on the other end, and Tonya plopped down between them.

“Wow, what a pass!” Reed perched on the edge of the sofa. “This is going to be a great game.”

Derek slipped his arm on the sofa behind Tonya. “Yeah, the Broncos are doing good this year. Ten and four isn’t a bad record.”

Dad sat back in his recliner. “I doubt if they’ll make it to the Super Bowl, though.”

Tonya glanced at Reed’s handsome profile. Still perched on the sofa’s edge, he wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to her. She picked up the tray of brownies from the coffee table and held it in front of him, hoping he would notice the artful display. The brownies swirled around in a circle, each one perched on the corner of the next. “Would you like a brownie, Reed?”

She gazed at his brown hair, perfectly styled as usual. His emerald-green eyes—such a perfect color to complement his strong facial features—stared at the big-screen TV for a moment before turning to stare at her.

“Uh, what did you say?”

She lifted the tray an inch. “Brownie?”

“No thanks. I’m on a diet. Do you have any popcorn? And something to drink would be nice, too.”

Dad motioned to a small table next to his recliner. “We have soda over here, Reed, and a couple empty glasses. Help yourself.”

With a small and hopefully undetected sigh, Tonya set the tray down and stood. “I’ll microwave some popcorn.”

“Light on the butter.” Reed rose to get some soda. “And light on the salt, too.”

Tonya nodded. “Be right back.” She exited to the kitchen.

Mom rinsed a pan in the sink. “How’s the game, Tonya?”

She heaved a huge sigh, which had been trying to get out since Reed arrived. “The
game
is fine, but Reed is on a diet, so he wants popcorn.”

“We have some.” Mom motioned toward the cupboard.

“Do we have any with no taste?” Tonya rolled her eyes. “I wanted Reed to try my special brownies, but now I made them for nothing.”

“No you didn’t.” Mom chuckled as she wiped the counter with her dish-rag. “Dad and Derek will polish them off. You’d better get one while you can.”

“I don’t want a brownie.” Tonya pulled a microwavable bag from the popcorn box. “I wanted Reed to try one. He’s hardly looked at me since he arrived.” She placed the bag in the microwave and pushed a couple of buttons. “All he’s talked about so far is the game.”

Mom shrugged. “Football’s a guy thing. Maybe you can have a nice conversation with him at halftime.”

“Maybe.” A tiny spark of hope ignited inside. Watching a Broncos game was one of Reed’s favorite things to do, so perhaps he would associate good memories with her sitting next to him. It was a start anyway.

She took the big white bowl from the cupboard with the word P
OPCORN
painted in blue cursive. “Do you think I should get individual bowls for the guys?”

Mom shook her head. “They can just grab a handful from the big bowl. Men are not particular when it comes to food.”

The popping stopped, and Tonya poured the popcorn into the bowl. When she entered the den, the three men shouted out a cheer of victory.

But the cheer was not for her or the popcorn. All three had their eyes glued to the television, although Dad looked up and smiled at her.

Reed fisted the air. “We have ’em now! The Broncos have it in the bag.”

“Here’s your popcorn.” Tonya made what she hoped was a graceful entrance. She handed the bowl to Reed, making sure the word P
OPCORN
faced him before she took her seat between him and Derek.

Reed took the bowl, his eyes still on the game. “Aww! I can’t believe he missed the extra point!”

Derek took a brownie from the tray. “This is only half the game. Even with a twenty-seven-point lead, the Broncos could still lose.”

“No way.” Reed munched on the popcorn, keeping the bowl between his knees. “The Raiders are playing lousy.”

During halftime Reed and Derek talked about stats like they were on a post-game show. Tonya tried to break into the conversation several times, but to no avail.

Finally she leaned a little closer to Reed. “I was a cheerleader for our football team in high school. We had a winning team when I was a senior—state champs.”

Reed didn’t even look at her as he pointed to the TV. “Hey, this is a great commercial—real creative. Nicole loved it. She’d always start laughing when it came on.”

“Is Nicole your sister?” Dad asked.

Reed pulled his attention away from the screen to look at Dad. “My ex-girlfriend. We once attended a Broncos game in Denver. The game went into overtime, and we won by a field goal. It was cool.”