We walked up the porch steps and stopped outside the door. Brock was about to say something but I quickly shushed him and leaned towards the screen door to listen carefully.
"I just don't like her, plain and simple."
"Baby, just do it for me, okay? She's my sister and I really want her back in my life. I know you've never really seen us get along, but we used to be best friends and she means a lot to me."
"I. Don't. Like her! She's been nothing but rude to me."
"Ever think that its because you're rude to her, with the dirty looks and uncalled for remarks?"
"I don't like her attitude."
"That's just who she is! It's in her blood. She's always been that way."
"A bitch?" She spat. I raised my eyebrow and turned to smile up at Brock, with an 'I told you so' look.
"She's not a bitch… yes, she has her moments, but she's only mean when people give her a reason to be mean." I smirked.
"So you're saying I make her that way?"
"No… Just please, try to work things out with her, for me? I love both of you guys."
"Well, I'm sorry, but in this case you're gonna have to choose."
"You're making me choose between my sister and my wife?"
"Yes. Because we don't like each other."
"She's willing to work things out of you are."
"Well I'm not." I heard my brother sigh and I frowned. He deserved so much better. What was he thinkin?! I heard her walk off in her fake, plastic, pink 'cowboy boots', if you'd even consider them cowboy boots… I rolled my eyes and walked in, Brock right on my heels. I gave my brother a sad smile, he looked exhausted…
"You get all that?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yep. All of it."
"Well, you cant say I didn't try."
"Thank you…" I said, just a little over a whisper. He nodded, then I saw his face light up when his eyes met mine. "I know that look… what're you thinkin?"
"Why don't we have some people over? We could play poker, put on some music, get beer…"
"What people?"
"Old friends that you never get to see anymore. Everybody misses you like crazy, Reba. You wouldn't believe how many people ask about you, still, 6 years later!" I smiled. "It would be fun! We could go out to the barn and get it cleaned up, just like we used to. Remember, when mom and dad would go outta town, we'd throw parties…" I laughed.
"Oh yeah… I remember." I looked up at Brock, who was smiling. "What?" He shrugged it off.
"Nothin, but that does sound like it'd be fun. I think you'd love it." I nodded.
"I would, but would momma and daddy let us?"
"We sound like teenagers again." Roy chuckled. "And if not we can always go down to the creek…" I nodded.
"Yeah, I guess we could…"
"So? Y'wanna?" I bit my lip, grinning, before I nodded. "Alright. I'll call people and get the barn ready, you guys go on a beer run."
"Wow… this'll be the first time we drink… legally." Roy laughed.
"Whatever, Reba. You only drank like twice before…"
"I was a good kid!"
"Well, I wouldn't say that little Miss. Sneakin-out-your-window and brother takin the blame… not so much sneakin if you get caught almost every time…" I laughed.
"Whatever…" I paused. "Whata bout your.. Uh… wife…?" He waved her off.
"She'll probably take the car and go home…" I nodded.
"You don't care?"
"I see her everyday. I see you once every 2 years, and that's only of a family event is happenin. And even then we weren't gettin along" I sighed.
"Okay… Well, we'll go get beer. Anything else you want me to pick up?" He pulled out his wallet and handed me some cash after giving me a list of things to get. Sounded like it was gonna be quite a get-together… And still the money he gave us would only probably cover about half, which didn't matter, we don't mind paying.
Brock and I got in the truck and I took off down the street and back into town… our small town of not even 1,500 people. I pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store and went straight to what I was looking for. We had to get a cart to carry it all and when we went to check out I saw a familiar face in the only check out open. I smiled and shook my head as he squinted at me.
"Reba? Reba freakin McKinney?!" I smiled and nodded, then held up my left hand.
"Well, not so much McKinney anymore, but yeah, it's me." his jaw dropped and he came around the register to hug me.
"How the heck are you?! I ain't seen you in years, what the hell?!" I bit my lip.
"Yeah… sorry about that."
"Least you still got chyer accent." I laughed.
"Y'all act like I moved to New York er somethin! I moved to Texas for cryin out loud, cut me some slack…" Now he laughed.
"So, is this the lucky guy?" I nodded.
"Yep. This is my husband Brock, Brock this is Clark." They shook hands.
"So, you move away, you get through college and get married, what else?" I shrugged.
"Nothin, really. We're just rentin our house for now. Waiting to have a family to buy. Uh… Brocks a soon-to-be dentist. Only about a year and a half left."
"Wow hot-shot! Look'it you! Marryin a doctor…" I laughed.
"Well, he wasn't exactly a doctor or anything close to a doctor when we first started datin, but I guess I did good." He smiled and nodded.
"Guess so… and as you see, here I am." He said, motioning around the grocery store. I laughed.
"No college for you?"
"Nope. I cant afford it. My parents lost the farm, Gloria left me, takin everything I had with her." I felt my jaw drop.
"You guys have been together since like 4th grade!" he laughed.
"6th… And yeah. Almost 8 years of marriage and she up and leaves me for another man." I put my hands on my chest and shook my head.
"I'm so sorry, darlin… I thought for sure you guys were gonna be that one couple that stays together forever."
"Me too, honey… Me too…" I sighed and found my way to Brocks hand. I squeezed it tightly and he squeezed it back.
"Well, on a lighter note, we're havin a get-together at the house of you wanna come by… obviously." I said, eyeing the cart. He smiled and nodded.
"I might just do that." He started ringing up everything and I helped him put it all in bags as Brock set them in the cart.
"What time are you off?"
"I close, so 9..."
"Okay, well I hope to see you there!"
"I'll stop by."
"Okay, see ya later!"
"Bye guys." We walked out, me pushing the cart. I started running, then jumped up on the bar on the bottom of the cart. I heard Brock laugh until I bumped into the back of the truck.
"Hey, hey… careful… she's fragile."
"Brock. I'm pretty sure she's older than us." I laughed and he rolled his eyes and started putting bags in the back.
"Man, in this town everybody really does know everybody, huh?" He asked as we got back in the car.
"Yeah, I wasn't lyin. When you're graduating class is 63 people you're bound to know every person, and probably be friends with about all of them too." I saw him smile.
"I wish I grew up like this…" I smiled sadly.
"It ain't all that awesome either. Zero privacy. Everybodys always in your business." I tried making him feel better. That was hard to do considering he moved somewhere new every year. He never actually got a best friend or got to get together with any old friends because he didn't have any. By the time he finally made friends, his mom would move them somewhere else. "Well, everybody will love you. Then next time we come up you'll know everybody." I smiled. "It's gonna be fun, I'm excited to show you off." He laughed.
"You make me sound like a new toy or truck or somethin." I smiled, keeping my eyes on the road.
"You kinda are… to this town, at least. Nothin exciting every happens so when people hear that Reba McKinney is in town with her husband…" I trailed off, smiling.
"I'm actually kinda excited to meet everybody…"
"Yeah?" He nodded. "Oh, what were you smilin about earlier?"
"When?"
"When we were talkin to Roy."
"Oh… You were just so happy. I loved seein you guys get along for the first time." I smiled.
"I've really missed him. As messed up as his mind is right now, I still love him. And by the sounds of it, we might be gettin the old Roy back! For tonight anyway…"
"I hope so… id love to meet the real one."
"I want you to, too. I know you y'all would get along." The rest of the car ride consisted of me warning Brock about some people. And how everybody will be loud, and will probably get warmed up to him very quickly, soon he'd be considered family to the whole town. He smiled about it though, he seemed like he was gonna like it. Brock and I carried all the bags out to the barn where Roy was.
"You talk to momma and daddy?"
"Yeah, they said they didn't mind, but don't let anybody drive drunk. If anybody gets too drunk they're sleepin in the bed of the trucks." I nodded.
"Sounds familiar…"
"I called a bunch of people. Nobody's comin till about 7, so we got a few hours to clean up."
"Oh! I bumped into Clark at the store." I said as I was putting all the booze in the fridge off in the corner of the barn. "Told him he could come if he wanted to… When the heck did his life turn to crap?!"
"Oh I don't know… boutta year ago I suppose." Brock started helping stack all the hay in one corner of the huge barn, then put the horses in their stables.
"I about peed myself when he said him and Gloria split up."
"Yep. Ran off with some other dude, takin all their money."
"That's crazy… How come nobody tells me this stuff?!" he laughed.
"Well, I guess I feel like we weren't all the close anymore after you said my 'whore of a girlfriend turned me crazy.' then you said somethin about how we both needed medication or whatnot…"
"Thought we agreed not to talk about it."
"Sorry, I'm not mad anymore… I was just sayin."
"Well quit it." It grew silent for a few minutes. "Brock! Quit talkin so much, geez…" I heard him and Roy laugh and I smiled at the sound.
"You guys have the talkin taken care of… I sure can tell you're related."
"Why?" me and Roy both asked at the same time.
"Sarcasm, smart-ass remarks, lots of stuff."
"Lucky you!" I said to Brock, sarcastically.
"There has to be some reason you married her, and I'm sure it's the qualities we share, right?" Roy asked, also being sarcastic. I chuckled and shook my head and Brock sighed.
"Yeah… I suppose." I grinned and narrowed my eyes at him from across the barn. We got the whole barn done just in time. We even hung up white Christmas lights everywhere giving it a low lighting kinda glow, which I liked. Roy got the radio going in his brand new Chevy truck and turned it up loud, we brought out some snacks and set them up on the tables, and there were fold up chairs everywhere. He also started a bon fire just outside the barn, further away from the house and closer to the trees, hoping Momma wouldn't see. She didn't like when we had fires just because one time, one time, somebody got drunk and fell in the fire pit, but there was no fire… just hot coals. He made it out alive, not even hurt, but it about gave momma a heart attack. We set chairs up around the fire too, then stood back, admiring our hard work. I smiled, grabbed Brocks hand and kissed his cheek when I saw headlights in the drive way. I squinted, trying to see who it was. I knew it exactly who it was when I saw them get out of the car. The guy was the first to talk. He got out and opened his arms.
"Reba Nell McKinney…"
"Hank William Johnson…" I said back, then we walked towards each other to greet one another. I hugged him quickly, then looked at the woman.
"Theres no way that's Miss. Joyce McWilliams…" I said, staring at the super skinny person standing in front of me. Everybody used to make fun of her in high school for being overweight and brace faced with glasses and a perm. Now she's skinny, long hair, no glasses and straight teeth.
"Nope, Mrs. Joyce Johnson now, missy." I felt my jaw drop, then I hugged her. The football star marrying the used-to-be overweight nerd. How ironic. I stood back and admired her.
"You're beautiful!" She laughed.
"Well thank ya, darlin… It only took me 20 years to realize what an ugly kid I was." I smirked and gave her a disapproving look.
"You were not ugly…" She raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I definitely never compared to you! You haven't changed!"
"Thanks…" I looked down at my chest, I never had the biggest bust in high school and I thought they got a little bigger since then. I looked back up at her and frowned. "Well, I certainly hope I changed a little." I said, with little hope in my voice. She laughed.
"Don't worry, honey. You did. " She winked and I smirked.
"Well, that's not the only thing that changed about me… I am no longer Reba McKinney…" I said.
"Oh! I completely forgot you got married! Your momma came home so excited to tell everybody all about the wedding." I smirked and tugged on Brocks hand to pull him forward.
"This is my husband, Brock." They both shook his hand. "Well, go get yourself somethin to drink, or somethin." They both started towards the barn.
"They seem nice."
"You need to speak up, buddy. They aren't gonna like you if you act all weird and awkward…"
"I'm not!"
"Yes you are. You've barely said anything since we got here, unless its just me around. They're gonna think you're stuck-up or somethin." He shrugged.
"I don't know what to say…"
"Be yourself…"
"I don't know any of these people like you do, Reba. Besides, you've always been the talker and out-goin one. I just stand back and watch you work your friendliness." I sighed and wrapped my arm around his. The next people showed up in a truck that looked familiar… who the heck was it?
"Don't be weird this time." These guys didn't say anything to me, they just walked up to me and smiled. "Dan and…" Shoot. What was his name?! The guy laughed.
"Rob… Y'know, the one who asked you to every homecoming and prom… every year… and every year got turned down." My smiled faded.
"Yeah… Rob…" I laughed awkwardly. Does everyone get hot after high school?! I hugged Dan, because he was always a good friend of Roy's then I awkwardly hugged Rob, but it was more like a few pats on his back as he rubbed up and down my back and wouldn't let go. I'll admit, he smelled nice and had a very muscular back, but it was getting a little weird.
"Okaayy…" I said, laughing and pushing on his shoulders.
"You're even more beautiful than I remember." I felt my eyes widen and I smiled, a creeped out smile.
"This is my husband." I blurted out. He closed his mouth and nodded towards Brock.
"Wheres the beer… or whiskey?" My lips went into a straight line, trying to hold back the laugh as I pointed behind me to the barn. He nodded again and quickly walked off.
"He loves you…" Dan said, jokingly. I laughed.
"Clearly…"
"I cant believe you didn't remember the guy who stared at you every minute he could all 4 years of high school."
"Least he's got good taste!" I said, chuckling. "He changed…"
"Yeah, you kinda shot his self-esteem, so he got all buff and stuff." I sighed, trying to think of something to say. He just shook his head at his crazy friend. "He's a lot happier now… you did him some good." I nodded.
"That's… good?" He chuckled and held his hand out to Brock. Brock shook it.
"Dan."
"Brock."
"Nice to meet you." Dan said to him.
"You too. Think you could keep him away from her?" He asked. Dan chuckled and nodded.
"I'll do my best, but nobody could 6 years ago, so I ain't makin any promises." We all chuckled and Dan started walking to the barn as well.
"So far, so good. Except the Rob guy…" Brock said. I laughed quietly.
"He obsessed over me… bad…" I saw Brock eyes widen.
"Weirdo…" I pulled my eyebrows together.
"Can ya really blame him, though?" I asked and he chuckled.
"Nope, he picked a good woman to obsess over…" He leaned down and kissed the top of my head, then I smiled up at him and he planted a soft kiss on my lips. This was the happiest I had been in a while…