Winning Dixie Page 15

  There was a separate, smaller monument listing those who’d died in what the monument called the War Between the States. It was divided down the middle, one side for those who’d fought for the North, the other for Southerners.

  Wade stood near the Civil War monument and glanced across the street toward the newspaper office. So Gray was going to sell out and retire? How interesting.

  Glancing at his watch, he realized he’d killed a little more time than he’d meant to. He picked up his pace and bought a small bouquet of mixed flowers at the grocery store down the block. He decided against the wine. He would save that for a time when it would be only Dixie and himself. And that time would definitely come, he vowed. She was much too important to him; he couldn’t keep away from her for any length of time. Even if she wouldn’t go out with him, he would simply keep asking. She couldn’t say no forever, right?

  But first he had to get through tonight, with the boys. He prayed to find the right words with which to tell them what their father meant to him.

  It was disconcerting, Wade admitted silently, to find himself more nervous as he approached the McCormick house than he was that day a couple of weeks ago when he stood before Dixie’s Diner for the first time and wondered what he might find inside.

  He’d found a whole new world. A minimum-wage job as dishwasher, he remembered with a smile. But before that he’d found a woman who captured his mind and, it seemed, his heart. He’d found a friend in Pops. He’d found two young boys who very soon had come to mean the world to him. He’d found a community that fascinated him, called to something inside him, made him feel welcome and at home.

  Now if he didn’t find the right words for what he had to say, he could hurt Ben and Tate, and that was absolutely the last thing on earth he wanted to do. So, please God, let the right words be there for him.

  He started up Dixie’s street, and there they were, those two bright, happy, fun boys of hers, running toward him as if he was their best friend in the world and they hadn’t seen him in years.

  It had been two hours.

  “Wade! Wade!”

  “Mom says you’re coming for supper.”

  “Flowers? What’re those for?” Ben asked.

  Tate jabbed his older brother in the ribs with his elbow. “That’s what guys do, they bring flowers to the lady when they have supper.”

  “What do you know.” Ben shoved Tate away.

  “Do you know what etiquette is?” Wade asked.

  Dancing around and beside him as he walked up the street, the boys snorted and giggled.

  “That’s like, Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Ben said.

  “Yeah, and saying please and thank you,” Tate added.

  “That’s right,” Wade said. “It also means that when a lady invites you to dinner in her home, you should take her a hostess gift. I decided on flowers. You think she’ll like them?” He held them out for inspection.

  Both boys shrugged. “Sure,” Tate said.

  “Prob’ly,” Ben decided. “Girls like junk like flowers.”

  Junk. Wade smiled.

  Ben and Tate marched him up the steps and through the front door.

  “Mom!” Ben yelled.

  “Wade’s here!” Tate hollered.

  Wade pursed his lips as Dixie stuck her head around the corner from the kitchen. “You don’t have to yell. I’m right here. Hi, Wade. Glad you could make it.”

  “He brought flowers.” Ben didn’t sound any too impressed with the idea.

  “Thank you,” Dixie told Wade. “They’re beautiful. Let me put them in water. Boys, go tell Pops it’s time to eat. Help him get over here if he needs it. Then wash up. Supper’s ready.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison.

  As they raced past her for the back door, she shook her head. “I won’t throw your food out if you walk,” she called.

  They didn’t slow down until they hit the door of Pops’s apartment.

  Wade studied Dixie as she stared out the window into her backyard. He didn’t know how to ask what he wanted to know, so he asked something else. “Are you going to be okay with Miguel?”

  She glanced at him a moment, then took a vase from a cabinet and filled it with water. “You’re really not coming back?” She took her time arranging the flowers in the vase.

  “I can’t justify taking a job somebody else needs, when I don’t need the money.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Right. Stupid question. I forgot you’re rich. Here come Pops and the boys.” She moved to the stove and took the lid off a pan of spaghetti sauce.

  The spicy aroma made Wade’s mouth water. “Smells great.”

  “It’s Pops’s recipe. When the chamber of commerce meets for lunch once a month in the banquet room, this is what they order.”

  “Heck of a recommendation—the entire chamber of commerce. By the way,” he added, hearing the boys and Pops near the back door. “If Pops needs to stay home for another day or two, I can wait tables again. I’m getting pretty good at it.”

  “Maybe if we put a sign out front—‘come in and be served by one of the country’s richest, most eligible bachelors’—we’d fill the place up.” Her tone was snappish and biting.

  “I’m not going to apologize for being rich, Dixie. Some of it I inherited, some of it I earned. Either way, I find it a source of pride, not shame. I’m sorry it upsets you.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “No, I’m sorry. It’s silly of me. I just had this nice little fantasy going on in my head—”

  He grinned. “You’ve been fantasizing about me?”

  “—and now I find out you’re a different person.”

  “I’m not. I’m the same man I was last week, Dixie. My money and my new heart don’t change who I am inside. What’s changed is your perception of me.”

  Dixie knew she was procrastinating when she made the boys wipe down the counters and the table a second time. The dishes were in the dishwasher, ready to be washed. She didn’t run the machine until bedtime, because it was hard to hear the television over the noise. Everything else was neater than usual.

  “C’mon, Mom, are we through?”

  “All right,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s go to the living room.”

  “Awright!” The boys slapped hands, then bumped butts. Then raced the entire five feet to the living room.

  With another sigh, Dixie followed at a much more sedate pace. She pulled the boys with her to the sofa and sat down between them so the three of them faced Wade in the easy chair and Pops in the recliner. “Wade has something he wants to talk to you guys about. Pops, are you sticking around for this?”

  “Thought I would, if Wade doesn’t mind.”

  “Mind? I’d be relieved.”

  Pops nodded in acknowledgment.

  “What do you wanna talk to us about, Wade? Little League?”

  “No, silly.” Ben reached around Dixie and gave Tate a disdainful shove. “He’s going to tell us he’s leaving.”

  “What makes you say a thing like that?” Dixie demanded, stunned.

  Ben shrugged and studied the toe of his sneaker. “What else you gonna do when Pops goes back, fire Miguel? I’m not dumb, you know.”

  “No.” Dixie wrapped her arm around him and kissed the top of his head. “No, you’re not dumb.” She pulled Tate to her with the other arm and kissed him, too. “Neither are you. You’re both pretty darn smart. Now let’s be quiet and listen to what Wade has to say.”

  They looked over at Wade expectantly.

  Wade wiped his damp palms along the thighs of his jeans. “First, I’m not leaving town. At least, not right away. But you’re right about Miguel. If he works out, he needs the job a lot worse than I do. You see, I don’t need the money at all. I’ve got enough money without having to work.”

  “Are you rich?” Tate asked.

  “Yes. I’m what most people consider rich.”

  “Is that what you wanted to tell us?” Ben asked.

  “No, not real
ly. But I did want you to know that. Not because I like to brag about being rich, but because you might hear it from somebody else in town, and I’d rather you hear it from me first. Are you okay with it?”

  “Sure.”

  “Thank you,” Wade told them. “There’s something important I need to explain to you, but I’m not sure exactly how to make you understand, because it’s pretty complicated.”

  Wade thought for a moment, then looked at the boys. “Have you two ever had a dog?”

  “Yeah. His name was Tippy,” Ben said.

  “He got hit by a car and died,” Tate added.

  “I’m sorry. That’s tough. You must have been pretty sad.”

  “We had a funeral and everything.”

  “I’ll bet Tippy appreciated that.”

  The boys shrugged and looked down at their feet.

  It was all Wade could do to keep his hands and voice steady. He didn’t want to screw this up. He had to make them understand, and he wanted, desperately, for them to accept him as readily after he explained as they had before.

  “How would you have felt,” he said, “if, when Tippy got hit by that car, there was another dog, on the other side of town, who was very sick. His heart was failing him, even though he wasn’t very old. He was so sick that the vet said that if he didn’t get a new heart, the poor pup wouldn’t last the night. And what if they could do dogs like they do people—they could do organ transplants. What would you think if they wanted to take Tippy’s heart, because Tippy’s not using it anymore, and put it in this sick dog across town? Would that be okay with you?”

  Tate shrugged and grimaced. “I dunno. I guess.”

  Ben looked thoughtful. “Would we get to watch?”

  Leave it to boys, Wade thought wryly. “I don’t know. I don’t think they let spectators in the operating rooms. You know, because of germs.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Ben said.

  Tate still seemed to be having trouble with the idea.

  “What if I told you that Tippy had signed a donor card before he died, saying he wanted his organs to go to other dogs when he died.”

  “Dogs?” Ben asked. “More than one?”

  “Well, a dog’s got lots of organs, just like a person. There’s a heart, lungs, two kidneys, a liver.”

  Tate perked up. “Eyeballs?”

  “Why not?” Wade said.

  “What about the tongue? Would they want Tippy’s tongue?”

  Wade smiled at Tate’s sudden enthusiasm. “I don’t know. It would depend on whether or not another dog needed a new one, I guess. Would all that be all right with you guys?”

  “Sure,” Tate said.

  “It’s the same as organ donation in people, right?”

  “You know about that?” Wade asked. “About people donating their organs when they die?”

  “Sure,” Ben said.

  Dixie ran her fingers through Ben’s hair. “Where did you learn about organ transplants, honey?”

  “I dunno.” Ben shrugged and flopped his hands out. “School. We talked about it a lot last year when the teacher’s daddy had a kidney transplant up in Dallas.”

  “How about you?” Dixie asked Tate. “Did you talk about this at school, too?”

  “Sure,” he said with a shrug. “But that was about people. We didn’t talk about dogs.”

  “Okay, wise guy,” Dixie said to Wade with a smile. “Now you have to turn it around.”

  “I’ve got it,” he told her. “Would it surprise you boys to know that your dad was an organ donor?”

  “Our dad?” Ben asked.

  “Really?” Tate asked.

  “Really,” Wade answered.

  Ben turned his head slightly and peered at Wade out of one eye for a long moment. He crossed his arms and leaned back, still eyeing Wade thoughtfully. “How come you know about our dad?”

  “Because when your dad died, I was like that sick dog across town. My heart was quitting. I’d been in the hospital in New York City for weeks. They told me I had to have a new heart or I was going to die. It got really bad. A couple of hearts became available, but they didn’t match with me, so they went to someone else who needed a heart. Lots and lots of people need new organs, and not very many people donate their organs.”

  “You got our dad’s heart?” Ben asked.

  “I did, Ben. I was dying. They told me if I lived through the night it would be a miracle. My mom and dad and sisters were all there in my hospital room, praying for a miracle. And then a terrible thing happened. Your dad got hit by that cab in New York, and he died. I know that made all of you very sad, because you loved him very much, and he loved you.”

  “I cried,” Ben said, hanging his head.

  “We all did, honey.” Dixie hugged him to her side. “We all cried, for days and days, because we missed him and didn’t want him to die.”

  Tate sniffed. “So they, like, put his heart in you and made it start beating again?”

  “That’s exactly what they did, Tate. It saved my life. And I want you to know, I want all of you to know, how grateful I am that he was brave enough to sign that donor card and have it marked on his driver’s license. He was a brave, brave man, your dad was. A generous man, and I know he loved the two of you more than anything in the world.”

  “Did it hurt?” Ben asked.

  “Did what hurt?” Dixie asked.

  “The what-do-you-call-it, the transplant. Did it hurt?”

  “I was pretty sore for several days after the surgery, but they knocked me out for the operation, so I never knew.”

  “Jerry Beaver had his appendix out and he’s got a cool scar. Do you have a scar?” Tate asked.

  Wade smiled slightly. “I do, and it’s a doozie. Runs from my neck to my navel.”

  Both boys’ eyes widened with awe.

  “Wow,” Tate said with what sounded a great deal like reverence. “Can we see?”

  “Tate, what a question,” Dixie protested.

  Wade winked at Tate. “Girls get squeamish about that sort of thing. Maybe I’ll show you sometime when there are no girls around.”

  “So,” Pops said easily, “you’ve got Jimmy Don’s heart beating right there in your chest.”

  “That’s right,” Wade said. “How do you feel about that, Pops?”

  “I think it’s a miracle that part of my grandson is alive and beating long after he’s gone. I’m proud that he was able to save your life that way.”

  Wade felt a lump the size of a golf ball rise in his throat. “Thanks, Pops. That means a lot to me.” He looked over at the boys, one on each side of their mother. He looked at their mother. “It would mean even more if the rest of you felt that way, because I’ve got to tell you, as far as I’m concerned, boys, your dad is the biggest hero I’ve ever known.”

  Their eyes got big and round.

  Tate swallowed and looked up at his mom. “A hero? Our dad’s a hero?”

  “Well,” she said, putting her arm around him, “he saved Wade’s life, and probably several other lives, too. I guess that makes him the best kind of hero, don’t you think?”

  “Golly.” Ben couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Wade. Then he blinked and looked up at Dixie. “Does that mean his name will go on the monument at city hall?”

  Wade’s heart gave a little thump inside his chest.

  “Naw, son,” Pops said. “That’s for people who got killed in wars.”

  Ben frowned. “That doesn’t seem right. A hero’s a hero, isn’t he? How come some of ’em get a monument and some don’t?”

  “I don’t know,” Pops said. “That’s just the way it is.”

  “Don’t you worry,” Wade told Ben. “We’ll figure out some way to make sure everyone knows what a hero your dad was. That’s why I came to town in the first place. To make sure my heart donor’s sons were all right, and to make sure his hometown knew what a good man he was.”

  “Golly,” Ben said again.

  “Well,” Dixie s
aid to the room in general. “Wade’s given us all a lot to think about, hasn’t he. But right now it’s bath time for you two. Say good night to Wade.”

  The boys wanted to argue, but Dixie was having none of it. She stood firm and in a few moments had them headed for the bathroom.

  “Good night, Wade,” they said together.

  Ben paused behind his brother. “Wade? I’m glad you didn’t die. I’m glad our dad’s heart saved you.”

  Wade’s vision blurred. “Me, too, Ben. Thanks.”

  “Come on, boys,” Dixie ordered from the doorway to the hall. “Let’s go.”

  Wade slumped back in his chair and watched them disappear down the hall. A minute later he heard bathwater running.

  He was so relieved to have that discussion behind him, he felt weak with it.

  “You handled that real good,” Pops said.

  “Thanks. I’ve faced angry shareholders, irate employees and mutinous boards of directors, and none of them were as scary as this was.”

  Pops chuckled. “Yep, kids can be tough. But these two do all right.”

  “They’re the most well-adjusted kids I’ve ever seen. You and Dixie, and I guess their dad before he died, have definitely been doing something right.”

  “It’s Dixie more than me, and damn sure more than Jimmy Don. He was my grandson and I loved him to pieces, but about the only things he taught those boys was how to ride a horse and how to lie around on the couch and watch TV. And he went and sold their horse to pay his entry fee in a rodeo up in Kansas. Broke their little hearts, he did. But he loved them. And he loved that girl in there, too. He just didn’t know how to be a husband or a daddy. Hell, I don’t think he ever figured out how to be a grown-up. But I guess you don’t need to hear about all his flaws.”

  “Not really.” Wade smiled. “He did all right by me. That’s all I care about.”

  “You gonna leave town, now that you’ve come clean about who you are?”

  Wade leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “I don’t know.”