Taking her bow, Tess made sure she caught her mother’s eye. Mary was applauding proudly from her wheelchair by the dinner table, and Tess felt particularly warmed by the pride she sensed radiating from Mary. Scanning the faces below, she caught impressions of townspeople she’d forgotten—ex-teachers, store owners, Renee’s and Judy’s friends, long-time neighbors, people from church, everyone still applauding, calling for more. The bride and groom made their way to the foot of the stage, their faces lifted. “Please do one more, Aunt Tess … please!” Rachel begged.
She sang one more, a slow one for the newly married couple.
“I’ve never recorded this song,” she announced, “but I’ve always loved it, especially at weddings. Rachel and Brent, this one’s for you.”
She sang a moving rendition of “Could I Have This Dance for the Rest of My Life” and watched the swirl of partners gliding past. Renee waltzed by with Jim. The groom had his bride. Packer had one of the bridesmaids. Mindy Alverson Petroski was with her husband, the appliance store owner. And Kenny danced by with Faith.
They’d have kept Tess on the stage even longer, but after the second song she thanked the band, gave a farewell flourish and replaced the mike on the stand.
A dozen people complimented her on her way back to the table, and more came after she got there. Mary was flushed with pride, and said, “Honey, you sure knocked ‘em dead. I don’t know where you got a voice like that, but it sure wasn’t from me.” People were very kind, coming by one after the other to thank her for singing and to offer the usual platitudes.
Enid Copley and a bunch of Mary’s friends came and Mary found herself the center of attention, the mother of the girl who did good.
But a phenomenon happened that sometimes occurred after Tess had sung. Once she’d done so she became such a superstar that the people, fearful of offending her, kept their distance. They came by, said something quickly so they could claim they’d spoken to her, then hustled away, leaving her lonely in the crowd. Casey was in another part of the hall, hanging out with the kids her age. Renee and Jim were having the time of their lives. If Ed were here, she might have danced with him, but he was gone. Nobody was going to ask the famous Tess McPhail to dance, so she was left with Mary, who never lacked for company.
Two teenage girls approached and shyly asked if Tess would sign a paper napkin, which she did. Mrs. Perry, who’d lived across the street when Tess was little, turned from Mary to remind Tess how she had loved the English toffee she used to make at Christmastime, and how Tess had once abashed Mary by knocking on Mrs. Perry’s door and asking if she could have some. It was an old story that had been repeated every time she’d run into Mrs. Perry since she was in elementary school. They talked about the Perry kids, where they were now, what they did for a living, then the woman rejoined the older group.
“Mom, you let me know when you’re ready to go home,” Tess said.
“Pretty soon,” Mary replied, but she and Enid Copley and Mrs. Perry and the others were still deep in conversation.
One song ended, another began, and Kenny came off the dance floor alone, snagged the chair next to Tess and dropped onto it, facing her. He looked warm from dancing. His suit coat hung open and he had loosened his tie and freed his collar button. He reached for his glass, took a drink, propped an elbow on the table and said, “Great wedding.”
“You look like you’re having fun.”
“I am.”
“Where did you leave Faith?”
“Dancing with her brother-in-law. How come you’re not dancing?”
“Nobody asked me.”
He glanced around, let his eyes return to her, and said, “Well, we can’t have that, can we? Would you like to dance?”
“I’d love it.”
He took her hand and walked her onto the dance floor. The band was playing “The Chair” as she swung lightly into his arms in the traditional waltz pose.
“Thanks for rescuing me,” she said at his ear.
“What’s wrong with the guys around here anyway?”
“They get a little spooked by me. Happens all the time. You’re a good dancer.”
“Thanks. So are you. And a helluva terrific singer. They all loved you.”
“Thanks. I was watching you with Casey from the stage. It’s nice to see a father and daughter having fun like that.”
“I’m going to miss her when she goes to Nashville.”
“I know you will.”
“But, Lord, Tess, you’ve made her so happy. You know that, don’t you?” He leaned back so he could see her face.
“Makes me happy, too.”
“Thanks for all you’re doing for her.”
“That’s got to be hard for you to say.”
“It’s one of those stepping-stones a parent faces. Maybe I’ve grown up a little bit since you came home.”
They spent some pleasurable moments gazing at close range, flirting silently in plain sight of two hundred people. When it became too obvious, he tightened his arm till their bodies brushed, and her temple rested against his jaw. She recognized the smell of his cologne coming off his warm skin and thought about Renee’s admonition to stay away from him. But it felt right, shuffling around the rim of the dimly lit floor in his arms. She had few opportunities to dance anymore. Ironically, creating the music to which others danced robbed her of the chance to enjoy it this way.
“I have something to thank you for, too,” she told him. “What you said to my mother when you came to the door to get her this afternoon. I’d told her the same thing, but coming from a man, it meant more.”
He glanced Mary’s way through the crowd. “She does look great, doesn’t she?”
“See? That’s what I mean—your response was so genuine that it lit her up like a Christmas tree. She’s seventy-four years old, and her hips have been replaced and her face is getting jowly and her hair is getting thin, but when you came to the door and caught your breath you made her feel beautiful.”
“Actually, I think you did that, with the makeup and the hair and the jewelry. Those earrings are pretty special, Tess.”
“So’s my momma.”
He cinched her tighter around the waist as if to say, I’m glad you know that at last, and executed a neat turn. She stayed right with him, cushioned by his legs and midsection, and they began to feel the particular exhilaration of two dancers who are equal to one another and enjoying the physical contact.
“Hey, Kenny?” she said just below his ear.
“Hm?”
“I thought you used to be the clumsiest klutz in the whole school. What happened?”
He laughed and smiled against her hair. “Keep up that smooth talk and I just might let you have your way with me.”
He had wrapped her up so tightly that she’d have known if he had a nickel in his pocket.
“Did we ever dance in high school?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. You’d never have let me get this close to you.”
“Mm … too bad,” she murmured.
He leaned back to see her face. They got reckless and let their eyes and smiles say a lot, and the conjunction of their bodies say the rest. A woman knows when her dance partner is thinking about more than dancing, and a man knows when her thoughts are taking the same track. Kenny and Tess both knew.
“Would those be moons on your ears?” he asked, grinning, as the diamonds scattered light onto his shoulders.
“Yes, but they’re not full.”
“I think I’ve discovered something,” he told her.
“What’s that?”
“It takes much less than a full moon to make people do crazy things.” He moved close again and started humming with the music. She smiled, enjoying the novelty.
“Feature that, would you … a man singing to me.”
“I’m probably the one man you know who isn’t intim idated by your success. If I feel like singing I’m going to sing.”
“Me, too.”
They finished the dance singing in each other’s ears, keeping up the surface playfulness to make light of the all-too-remarkable enjoyment of the contact down below.
When the song ended they separated immediately, knowing people around them were probably gawking. They always gawked at Mac McPhail. She turned as if to lead the way off the floor, but he caught her hand and said, “Stay, Tess … one more.”
She didn’t bother saying yes, only moved up close to his side, hiding their joined hands until the next song started.
The tempo changed. The band played George Strait’s “Adalida” and Tess and Kenny smiled and laughed a lot in celebration of how well they did together.
Once she yelled, above the music, “I’m having so much fun!”
He yelled back, “So am I!”
When the song ended they were flushed and hot, returning to Mary’s table.
“Well, you two look like you’ve done that before.”
“Not together,” Tess said.
Enid Copley and the rest of the bunch were gone. Mary’s wineglass was empty and her small purse was resting on her lap. “I know it’s early, but I’m afraid I’ve got to go home, Tess. I sure hate to take you away from the dance, but you can come back, can’t you?”
“Of course I can. I’ll take you right away.”
Kenny said, “I’ll come along and help.”
Tess carefully refrained from looking at him, but she knew he had more than one reason for offering. Lovers will find a way. They had found theirs.
“Oh, thank you, Kenny,” Mary was saying. “That would be nice. She’s got that beautiful dress on and this darn contraption is so heavy.” She meant the wheelchair.
“Just let me tell Faith I’m going, okay? Be right back.”
Tess wheeled Mary near the exit and they waited while Kenny found Faith. Faith looked over and waved good night to Mary and Tess. A moment later he joined them and took charge of pushing Mary outside. When she and the wheelchair were tucked into her Ford, Kenny asked, “Would you like me to drive?”
“Actually, yes,” Tess said, and gave him the keys. “I’ve had a little more to drink than I probably should have. If I got stopped and the tabloids picked it up … well, you know.”
It took fifteen minutes to drive back to town, and another fifteen for Tess to help Mary get settled into bed. While she did, Kenny waited in the kitchen, familiar with the house and comfortable in the dusky room lit by only one small pin-up lamp near the kitchen stove. He listened to the women’s voices, drank a glass of water at the sink, sat down in the shadows at the kitchen table and waited patiently for Tess and the encounter they’d been anticipating all day. Ever since he’d seen her in that blue dress in the alley he’d known it would happen, that they’d somehow find the private moment that would allow it.
She entered the kitchen and he rose from his chair and spoke quietly. “Get her all settled down?”
“Yes.”
Mary called from the bedroom, “Good night, Kenny! Thanks for helping out!”
“Good night, Mary,” he called back.
He looked down at Tess and they thought about returning to the dance. Thought about what they really wanted to do. His tie was rolled up in his pocket, his top two shirt buttons were open as they stood close, wondering who’d make the first move, certain by now it would be made.
“Want that light out?” he asked.
“No, leave it on for me later.”
He stepped back and let her lead the way outside. The backyard was dark. Even Kenny’s backyard was dark. They had left in broad daylight and nobody had thought to turn on the outside lights. Tess preceded him down the back steps, one hand riding the cool metal handrail, her high heels tapping out ‘em unhurried beat. His footsteps, more blunt, followed along the narrow sidewalk until they were halfway to the alley.
“Tess, wait,” he said, and snagged her arm.
The single, willful touch was all the invitation she needed. She swung about, swift and sure of what she wanted, and wrapped around him like a flag around a standard. He, too, knew what he wanted, and his arms were waiting to haul her flush against him, his lips were waiting to claim hers. They stood in the middle of the sidewalk and let the dark yard hide them while they gave their open mouths to each other. Since midafternoon they’d known this would happen; suppressing their attraction at every encounter through the long, long evening had only fueled the tinder. They stood foursquare against each other, one of his shiny black shoes planted between her glittering blue ones. She was shorter and when he bent to her, her hand went to his head, holding him while they kissed and kissed, with neither of them denying the other anything, least of all the admission that lust had come a-calling sometime since he’d pulled her around to face him.
What they had imagined, they brought to life. Her head nestled against his shoulder and his arms crossed her back while the kiss continued as if the wedding dance and all those left behind did not exist. Their lips got wet and their breath got short and the back of her dress got twisted beneath his hands.
She doubled her arms around his neck and he lifted her free of the earth, held her fast against him with the kiss still unbroken. Like a key in a lock he swung his head the other way and carried her across the grass to the blackest shadow next to the back steps. There, beside the crickets and the hydrangea bushes, they kissed some more, first with her shoulder blades against the wall, then with his.
It was better, though, with her against the wall. He was stronger, could exert more pressure, so they rolled to reverse positions, his hips pinning her in place. Once he put his hands against the house, bent low and ran his mouth over her collarbones, then up to her ear before the kiss resumed, mouth to mouth. And once she put her hands inside his suit coat and felt his warm back, and let her nails mark it through the white cotton. He shivered and undulated against her, full length, one time only, and made a sound against her lips.
Then he dragged her backward with him onto the grass, and fell, carrying her along onto the cool soft turf and made a cradle of his legs where she lay upon him in the starlight. Her hair tumbled and covered his face, and he held it back as he rolled her over and lay half on top of her with his hand just below her left breast. He might have covered it, and she might have let him, but by some unspoken compact they had come to understand that kissing was all they’d allow tonight. But kissing—maximized by moonlight and movement—would be thrill enough. They would use it and wring from it every pleasure they had imagined, and revel in temptation for temptation’s sake. With open mouths and straining bodies they trod that delicate balance where indulgence and suppression vie for the upper hand. And when indulgence threatened to win and carry them beyond a state of grace, he fell to his back on the grass beside her. There they lay with cricket song pulsating in their ears.
It took a long time before either of them spoke. Finally he breathed, “Whoa.”
“I’ll say,” she managed. Her left arm was outflung, caught beneath his sleeve. She moved her thumb, just to keep the connection with him, scraping it across the fabric of his suit. She smiled to herself, then rolled her head to look at him.
“What do we think we’re doing?”
He continued looking at the stars. “I think they call it necking. It used to be popular back in the fifties.”
“I like it.”
“Me, too.”
She sat up, languid and liquid-limbed, and pushed her hair back and put her face to the sky.
He sat up, too, and they remained side by side, thinking about what they’d done, still enjoying the aftereffects that had changed the inner rhythms of their bodies.
“There’ll probably be grass stains on your dress.”
“I’ll have it dry cleaned.”
“But what about going back to the reception?”
“Funny thing … I really don’t think I’m in the mood anymore.”
“Me, either.” He drew up his knees and draped his arms over them, bobbed his head forward and smoot
hed the back of his hair. She ran her hand down his near sleeve and over the back of his hand, and pushed her fingers between his, working them in his palm like a cat’s paw in carpet.
“Hey, if we’re going to do stuff like this I’ve got a right to know—do you and Faith sleep together?”
“Yes.”
Her fingers stopped working and she sat very still. Then she stretched out on her back again, linked her hands at her waist and crossed her ankles. Gazing at the stars, she said, “Well, she’s very lucky, I must say. I haven’t been kissed that thoroughly since …”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know. I don’t make a practice of this.”
He stretched out on his side propping his head with one fist, and laid his spread hand in the center of her ribs with his thumb on the underside of her breast. “Neither do I.”
She covered his hand with one of her own, enjoying the warmth of it through her clothing. “Then why do you suppose we did it?”
“Look,” he said, “I’m not married to Faith. I’ve had this thing for you since high school, and I wasn’t going to pass up the chance. We both knew this was coming.”
“But she won’t find out about it, will she?”
“No.”
“And neither will Casey.”
“No.”
“No reason for either of them to know because it’s just a crazy fling. Lots of people probably have crazy flings at weddings.”
“Probably.” He moved his thumb, merely scratching the cloth of her dress.
She emptied her mind and reached up to riffle her fingertips through the hair at his temple. It was fine and short and slightly curled. She realized how much she missed having a man whose hair she could touch whenever she wanted to, who would kiss her and make her feel womanly and wanted for more than her talent as a singer. She pulled his head down and whispered, “Then kiss me some more.”
He dipped his head and did as she asked, crooking a knee across her legs and staining one elbow of his suit jacket on the grass. Six minutes later, when they had tested their resistance again, he dragged his mouth away, deposited a parting kiss on her lower lip, then on her neck, then on her right breast, just one brief touch through her dress before drawing back to survey her face again.