Tumbleweed Weddings (33 page)

Leaning over, she looked at the envelope as she waved her hands back and forth. “There’s no return address, but it’s not from Poe. The handwriting is too wavery.” She glanced up at Derek. “Could you open it for me?”

“Women and their fingernails,” he muttered. Tearing open the envelope, he pulled out a card and began reading silently.

“Derek! You were supposed to open it, not read it.” Tonya grabbed the card, hoping her nails were dry.

Her brother grinned as he left the room. “It’s from your secret pal.”

As Tonya opened the card, a bookmark fell to the table. She picked it up. “I love bookmarks. It says, ‘Tonya: praiseworthy. A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30.’ ” Silently she read the spidery penmanship.
I’m praying for you. Have a wonderful day. Your secret pal
. She passed the card to her mom. “Who do you think wrote this? It looks like my secret pal is eighty years old.”

Mom studied it. “Hmmm … maybe Horace Frankenberg. He has shaky handwriting.”

“Horace? I hope not.”

Her mother smiled at her. “You’ll have to wait until next week when you find out at the party.” She folded the letter she’d been writing.

Tonya took the card and bookmark. “Well, it doesn’t matter if that old bachelor is my secret pal. I have Poe now.”

Mom frowned. “Have you sent anything to your secret pal? Isn’t it Murray?”

She nodded. “Murray’s my
receiver
—which is a stupid label, but Reed Dickens made it up. I’ve sent Murray several cards, plus I sent him that devotional book through the mail for his birthday. Remember? And I already bought his gift for the Valentine’s party.” Standing, she grabbed the nail polish bottle. “I’d better hurry. Don’t want to be late for work.”

Two hours later Tonya closed the cash register at the Beauty Spot. “Thanks, Charlotte. See you in six weeks.”

Charlotte Eschbach touched her newly permed coiffure. “Good job, as usual, Tonya.”

As Charlotte left the building, Tonya took a seat on the stool behind the cash register, thankful for a moment’s rest. It had been another busy morning. Aggie stood at her workstation, positioning curlers into Gloria Schutzenhofer’s weekly set, and the two of them chatted away, oblivious to anything else.

The bell above the door jingled, and Murray strode in. He glanced once at Aggie, then motioned for Tonya to come to the door.

She walked to the waiting area.

Turning his back to the room, he dropped his voice. “I talked to Bruce this morning about dating Aggie.”

Tonya’s eyebrows lifted. “And?”

“He’s open to it.” Murray leaned closer, and his breath fanned her face. It smelled sweet, like mint. “But he doesn’t like her outdated hairstyle and loud makeup. He said if she would change a few things, he might ask her out.”

Tonya glanced back at the two women. Still deep in conversation, they didn’t notice the tête-à-tête going on by the door. “I’ll talk to her.”

“People don’t change easily, but I suppose it’s worth a try. I’ll work on Bruce.”

“Okay.” She smiled. “This might be fun.”

Murray grinned. “It’ll be interesting, to say the least. See you later.” He strode out the door.

A feeling of peace settled over Tonya as she watched him get in his patrol car and drive away. Murray was no longer the boy who tormented her; he was actually a very nice guy. And he must be a romantic at heart, wanting to get Bruce and Aggie together. That thought surprised her. He always tried to act so macho, but maybe she didn’t know the real Murray.

As she walked back to the cash register, Poe entered her thoughts. Now there was a true romantic soul. Did he know Aggie and Bruce? She would tell Poe about them and ask his advice on the best way to convince Aggie to change.

Excitement buzzed through Tonya as she read Poe’s e-mail. Instant messaging with him would almost be like talking on the phone. But then she frowned. How did someone do instant messaging? She was on Facebook, and she exchanged text messages with a few friends from her cell phone, but she’d never tried to instant message.

Dashing downstairs, she found her mother in the laundry room. “Mom, where’s Derek?”

“In the barn with Dad.” Mom scattered laundry soap in the washer. “What do you need?”

“Instant messaging.”

Mom’s eyebrows dipped in a frown. “Never heard of it.”

Tonya grinned. “I figured you wouldn’t know.”

“What is it?”

“Tell you later.” Tonya left the room. “I’ll get Derek to help me.”

Making her way through the kitchen, she paused to open the oven door. The smell of roasted chicken greeted her, and her stomach growled in return. Hopefully Derek could show her how to instant message before supper.

She entered the mudroom. Mom’s old winter coat hung on a hook beside the door, and Tonya slipped it on before making her way outside.

Low clouds hung heavy with snow in the coming twilight. The wind whistled past her ears, and she hunched her shoulders as she walked the hard dirt path that led to the barn.

The large sliding doors were shut, so Tonya opened the side door to enter. The warmth of the barn enveloped her, along with the smells of leather and horses.

Derek exited one of the horse stalls. “Hey, sis. What are you doing here?”

“Do you know how to instant message?”

“On a computer?”

“Yeah.” Tonya moved toward him. “Poe wants to instant message every evening at nine o’clock, but I don’t know how to do it.”

Derek shrugged. “You need an account. Ask Dad to help you.”

“Ask me what?” Dad’s heavy boots clomped around the corner on the concrete floor.

Tonya turned to him. “Do you have an instant message account, Dad?”

“A what?” Dad looked as perplexed as Mom had.

Tonya sighed. “This family is so computer illiterate.”

“Call Twitch.” Derek walked back to the stall. “He’ll explain it to you.”

“Yep.” Dad nodded. “If it’s about computers, Murray will know.”

Murray placed his supper dishes in the kitchen sink just as the phone rang. He raised his eyebrows. Two phone calls in two days. How amazing was that?

He picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Murray, this is Tonya.”

Tonya is calling me?
The force of the surprise pushed him back against the counter. “Oh, um, hi, Tonya. How are you?”

“Murray, I need to instant message someone, but no one in my family has a clue how it’s done, and I really need to find out before this evening.”

He grinned. “Instant messaging, huh? Do you have an account?”

“I don’t think so.” She sounded perplexed. “How long does it take to get one?”

“Oh, three minutes at the most. I could walk you through it. Do you want me to come over?”

“That would be great.” Relief poured through her words. “The sooner, the better.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He hung up the phone—and laughed.

Tonya hit the R
ETURN
button, then sat back to wait for Poe’s reply. Glancing at the clock beside her bed, she was surprised that it was almost eleven. They’d been instant messaging, which Poe called “IMing,” for almost two hours.

And she had to get up early for work tomorrow. She threw on her
I Love Lucy
pajamas. By that time Poe had replied.

Positioning her fingers on the keyboard, Tonya started typing.

With a sigh, she shut down her computer. Who in the world was this guy? And how many days or weeks would pass before she found out?

“Change my hairstyle?” Aggie’s ultra-blue eyelids widened as she stared at Tonya. “Do you know how ugly I am with flat hair? Why, the birds would stop singing, the stars would stop shining if I were to let my hair down. No, no, no.” She ambled to the broom closet. “If Bruce don’t like me the way I am, he can go fish for someone else.”

Tonya rolled her eyes.
Stubborn woman!
“Listen, let me fix your hair and do your makeup for one date—just for one evening. Then the next morning, you can style your hair any way you want.”