Curtis (8 page)

That he had. And Curtis respected him more for it now.

His mother smiled. “And though people didn’t much care for him, what they didn’t know was that he always believed in giving back. The land that their houses and businesses sit on, the land that their children walk on to get to school, the land that their cattle graze on… It all belongs to the Walkers. And as with his father and his grandfather and all before them, no one flaunted it. Instead, they chose to do right by the town they’ve all called home.”

Curtis only wished they’d seen that side of him. But it appeared he’d only allowed one person to see it. The love of his life.

“I want you to be there,” he told his mother. “At the courthouse when we get married today.”

His mother smiled softly. “I wouldn’t miss it, Curtis. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

chapter NINE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1963

Me and Curtis are getting married!!!! Married! Today!

“I’m so nervous,” Lorrie whispered, her belly fluttering as she stared at herself in the mirror.

She was getting married.
Today
.

“You look so pretty,” Kathy told her as they sat in their bedroom, putting the finishing touches on Lorrie’s hair. Celeste had been there with them, but she’d run outside to see if she could find flowers for Lorrie’s bouquet. Although Lorrie had told her she didn’t need one, Celeste had argued, insisting that she did.

When Lorrie had woken up that morning, she’d waited for Kathy to open her eyes so she could tell her the good news. Not long after Kathy had woken up, Celeste had, too. Then, the three of them had talked for almost an hour, whispering from beneath the blankets on Lorrie’s bed, until Kathy had finally convinced her that she needed to tell Momma and Daddy. So, with her nerves rioting, she’d gone into the kitchen to find her parents sitting at the table, both of them smiling. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen them smiling that brightly before, but she didn’t ask questions. The good news was that they were in a good mood, so she’d hoped her announcement wouldn’t set her father off.

Unable to keep the words in, Lorrie had blurted that she was marrying Curtis. Her mother had nodded but quickly turned her attention to Linda, who was sitting in her lap, sucking her thumb. Her father had stared at her momentarily, then said, “Yes, you are.”

It hadn’t even registered that he’d seemed to already know; her excitement had blinded her to that initially. Lorrie still didn’t know how their conversation had gone when Daddy had told Curtis that he had to marry her, but she was too happy to even care. The only thing that mattered was that she was marrying Curtis.

“Today,” Daddy had said.

Today?

“That’s right,” Daddy had explained. “And it’s time for you to go get ready. I already talked to Curtis. He’ll be by to pick you up in a bit. Pack your stuff. A married girl can’t live at home.”

Talked to Curtis? How was that possible?

For a moment, Lorrie had been shocked. She wasn’t sure how she’d gone from sneaking out, committing to marry Curtis, to actually getting married all in such a short period of time, but from the look in her father’s eyes when he’d told her that, he’d been serious.

“Did you get all your stuff packed?” Kathy asked now, not meeting Lorrie’s eyes in the mirror.

“I did.” It was sad that everything she owned fit into a small suitcase, but she couldn’t think about that due to the other pressing issues on her mind.

Like how she would get money for things she needed. Girl things. Things she was too embarrassed to talk to Curtis about.

Or how she would get more clothes when the ones she had got old and tattered. Her mother had made all her clothes up to this point, but luckily Lorrie had learned how to sew. Maybe she could make her own.

But most importantly, she wasn’t sure where they would be living.

That was the scary part.

The thought of moving in with his mom and his brothers and sisters made her uneasy. What would they think of her sleeping in Curtis’s bed?
Would
she be sleeping in Curtis’s bed? That was what a wife was supposed to do, right?

Or would they live alone? And would that be worse? She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act around him. Was she supposed to cook his dinner? Wives did that, right? Did she have to clean his clothes? Momma handled all of that for Daddy.

A nervous flutter ripped through her again, making her hands shake.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Kathy said.

She took a deep breath, swallowing her panic and forcing a smile. “I’m gonna see you at school, silly,” Lorrie told her sister. She still wanted to go to school. Curtis had said she could.

“Lorrie!”

Her father’s roar made her jump. Kathy ran to the window and pulled back the curtain.

“He’s here,” she muttered. “Curtis is here in his daddy’s truck. Well, I guess it’s not really his daddy’s truck anymore.”

No, it wasn’t.

There was a knot of emotion lodged in her throat as she moved to the window and peeked out. Curtis had already climbed out of the truck and was walking up to the front door. He looked nice in his church clothes.

“He’s so handsome,” Kathy said wistfully. “You’re so lucky, Lorrie.”

That she was, but she knew there was so much more to Curtis than his good looks.

“Go!” Kathy giggled, throwing her arms around Lorrie. “Go get married.”

“Yes. Okay.” Lorrie laughed, but it sounded strangled. When Kathy released her, Lorrie grabbed the handle on her suitcase and lugged it toward the door, smiling back at her sister.

When she got to the living room, Celeste was the first to greet her, handing over a small bouquet of flowers she’d apparently picked herself.

“Thank you,” she whispered to her sister as Celeste hugged her tightly.

When Celeste let go, Lorrie pivoted around to find Curtis standing in the doorway, his hat in his hand as he watched her. He smiled the moment their eyes met, and all of her nerves dissipated instantly. The next thing she knew, he had taken her suitcase from her.

“You look pretty,” he said approvingly. “Ready?”

Lorrie nodded. When she looked back at her mother, she noticed Dorothy was crying. For a brief moment, she thought about running into her arms and hugging her, but her mother would frown on that.

“I’ve already signed the papers giving my consent,” her father said, nodding toward Curtis.

That was it? Her father had signed papers and was just sending her on her way? Was that how it really worked?

“My mother is goin’ to the courthouse with us,” Curtis said, as though he could sense her tension. “The judge’ll be there to expedite the marriage license, and he’s agreed to marry us today.”

“Okay.” She didn’t know what else to say. It hurt that her own parents weren’t going to be there, but had she really expected them to?

“Take care of him, Lorrie. It’s your job now.”

Lorrie frowned as her father’s words sank in.

She didn’t like the fact that her father saw loving someone as a job. But that made sense now that she thought about it. Her parents loved each other; she knew they did. Even though they never acted like it. But her father did have the outlook that a woman was supposed to be at his beck and call.

As she glanced back at Kathy, Celeste, Linda, Rose, Adele, Mitch, and Bruce, Lorrie took a deep breath. Then she vowed right then and there that her husband and her children would always come first. They would always know exactly how she felt about them. Not for a single second would they ever wonder whether or not she loved them.

And with that parting thought, Lorrie took Curtis’s hand and allowed him to lead her out of her parents’ house and to her new life.

PART TWO

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

~
Aristotle

chapter TEN

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1963

Today is the day. The day we move out of Mrs. Walker’s house. For the past two months, we’ve been living there, sleeping in separate bedrooms so that it wouldn’t confuse Curtis’s brothers and sisters. I haven’t felt like I’m married yet. Things are still the same as before, except I no longer live with Momma and Daddy.

Now that we’re moving into the guesthouse—just the two of us—I think it’s going to feel a bit more real.

And that secretly scares me to death.

The past two months had been hell on Curtis. Not only because he’d spent a lot of time explaining to everyone they knew that he and Lorrie had gotten married, but also because it seemed every minute he wasn’t at school, he was working. Whether it was doing the chores on the ranch that required his attention or the endless hours he’d spent fixing up the guesthouse so that he and Lorrie could move in there, every extra minute had been spent preparing for today.

But now all that hard work had paid off, and they were finally getting to move into the house.

Just the two of them.

“Are you sure it’s ready to live in?” Lorrie asked as they packed the last of their things into the bed of his truck.

“I’m sure.”

“What about a washer?” she asked.

He knew she was trying to come up with excuses because she was hesitant, but Curtis respected that. For the first two months of their marriage, they’d slept in separate rooms, in a house full of people. This would be an interesting transition. For both of them.

“It’s bein’ delivered on Monday.”

“Should we wait till then?”

Curtis reached for his wife—he fucking loved the sound of that—pulling her against him on the far side of the truck, shielded from anyone’s view.

He twisted their positions so that she was up against the truck, his body pressed to hers. Tilting her chin up, he stared down into her eyes, doing his best not to let his gaze drop to her mouth. “It’s okay to be nervous, darlin’, but we’re movin’ today.”

“I’m not nervous,” she retorted haughtily, reminding him of the first time she’d showed up on his front porch.

“Then what’re you worried about?” She looked away, but he kept his finger beneath her chin. “Look at me, Lorrie.”

Her eyes snapped back to his. “I’m not worried.”

“Good.” Not that he believed her. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before releasing her. “You ready?”

Lorrie glanced back at the house. “I should go say good-bye to everyone.”

When she started toward the house, he grabbed her around the waist, lifting her off her feet and carrying her to the driver’s side of the truck. “They’re less than a minute away. They don’t need you to say good-bye. Now scoot your cute little butt over so I can get in.”

She did as he instructed, giggling softly, but he saw the way her hands were shaking.

After starting the truck, he put it in first gear and headed toward the small, two-bedroom, one-bath guesthouse that had once been used by some of the ranch hands before the small bunk house was built.

As he’d mentioned, less than a minute later, he was parked in front of the house. He glanced over at Lorrie. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted after that long drive.”

She smacked his arm, this time laughing. The worry lines in her forehead finally smoothed out, but he doubted that would last for long.

“I’m gonna go in, get comfortable on the couch.” He climbed out and peered into the truck. “You just lemme know if you need help with any of this stuff.”

“Curtis Walker!” she huffed.

He laughed, then reached for her, pulling her out of the truck before tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her right into the house. She hadn’t yet seen all the work he’d done, so he wanted to see her reaction before he started bringing their stuff in.

Setting her on her feet, he then backed away from her.

“What’d’ya think?”

Her eyes widened as she took it all in, then a small smile played on her lips. “It’s … not bad.”

“Not bad?” Curtis lunged for her, but Lorrie quickly evaded him, running into the kitchen and circling the table to get away from him. He nodded his head toward the stove. “You know how to use that thing, right?”

She glared at him, her cute little nose scrunching up.

“Kidding,” he said quickly, pretending to go one way, then turning and grabbing her when she started to run away.

Trapping her between the wall and his body, he took her hands and linked their fingers, raising them above her head as he crushed his mouth to hers. And though he’d expected her to be a little hesitant, he was not expecting her to panic the way that she did. The way her eyes widened, her whole body shaking and her breathing raspy, he knew he’d pushed too far.

And that was his first clue that this … a house of their own … might not have been a good idea.

Freaking out certainly wasn’t her intention, but for some reason, that was exactly what Lorrie did when Curtis pinned her to the wall. Although his mouth was warm and familiar, his hands gentle, her nerves had interrupted every signal from her brain, and she pulled back from him.

“Hey,” Curtis whispered, releasing her hands and putting his arms around her. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Lorrie wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. “You didn’t,” she mumbled against his shirt. “I’m just a little nervous.”

A lot nervous was more like it, but she knew she didn’t need to explain that to him. He’d witnessed it firsthand.

“You know I’m not gonna push you, right?”

Clearly Curtis knew her too well if he was asking her that. “I know.” And she did.

Didn’t mean her brain was processing that information at the moment.

By the time they were ready for bed, Lorrie had pretty much made herself sick with worry. She knew that Curtis expected her to sleep in his bed, and she wanted to. She really did. But she wasn’t ready for … sex. As much as she wanted to be ready, it didn’t feel like the right time for her. And that meant that sleeping in his bed would mean she was being a tease, and she definitely did not want to be that.

“Come on,” Curtis said, his tone soft as he got up from the couch.

They’d been sitting there for the last couple of hours, ever since they’d finished unloading their things and putting them in their proper place. It had seemed almost natural for both of them to be reading on separate ends of the couch since they didn’t have a television, but what little reprieve she’d had from her nerves was now gone.

Knowing this was what was expected of her, Lorrie forced herself up from the couch, then took Curtis’s hand when he held it out to her. She allowed him to lead her into their bedroom and right over to the new bed he’d bought for them. According to Curtis, sleeping in his old twin bed was not an option, no matter how close he wanted to be to her.

Swallowing hard, Lorrie wiped her sweaty palm on her pants when he released it.

“Get dressed for bed,” he instructed.

Nodding, she did as she was told, retrieving one of her long nightgowns from her dresser, then heading to the bathroom to change. When she emerged, she found Curtis lying in the bed, propped up on a pillow with his hands tucked behind his head. Shirtless.

Her throat worked overtime as she tried to swallow the anxiety down.

“I’m dressed, darlin’. Only my shirt is gone.”

She wasn’t sure if knowing that helped or not.

Curtis patted the bed. “Come on.”

It took a few seconds for her to convince her feet to move, but finally she managed to climb into bed, keeping a safe distance between them as she pulled the blankets up to her neck.

Curtis turned to face her, but he didn’t attempt to get closer. “I’m not gonna force you to do anything you don’t wanna do, Lorrie.”

It sounde
d as though he was disappointed by her reaction, and she could see why. She was acting as though he was going to jump on her at the first opportunity. But she knew Curtis. He respected her; that she was certain of.

Still, this was significantly different than her sleeping in Gerald’s old bedroom and Curtis sneaking into her room for a few minutes each night.

Which meant this was more like being married than a simple piece of paper that said they were.

Truth was, she’d thought she was fine with it until now. Thought she would be able to handle being Curtis Walker’s wife in every sense of the word.

That definitely wasn’t the case.

Now that it was a reality, she was just scared silly.