it to look primitive and cozy. She did say a fireplace had to be in most of the rooms and one outside on the patio. The house was built, decorated, and ready for them to move in after the wedding.
Carmen met someone, and she brought him over to meet Jeannie around Christmas time. His name was Daxton, and they met in college. He was a delightful young man, but Kane didn’t care for him too much, as expected.
“I don’t like how he looks at the ground when you are talking to him. That’s, disrespectful. What does he have to hide? And what’s with that name. Daxton?” He asked Carmen one day when they were out to eat.
“He doesn’t look at the floor, Dad. He was nervous meeting you. You know you can be a little intimidating. His name is an old family name. His great grandfather was named Daxton,” said Carmen.
“I don’t give him reason to be scared. I haven’t threatened him, yet.”
“It’s how you look at him, Dad, like you want to kill him,” she said, pushing her plate away with half the food eaten.
“Well, I will see. If he shapes up a little he might sway my opinion,” said Kane. Jeannie knew Kane wouldn’t like any guy Carmen brought home, no matter what.
Marsha and John decided to divorce. Their decision didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Marsha was sad for about a day and drank herself back to reality the next day.
“Well, I liked John and I can’t have bad feelings for him. He was there for me when I had no one. The other stuff, I don’t know. I wasn’t married to him.”
“He’s still a good man. I just couldn’t give him the one thing he wanted, and he held fact I couldn’t have children against me. I’m glad in a way, he’s happy now. We had good times,” said Marsha.
He moved in with his mistress and they relocated to another state. Marsha was awarded the house, the Cadillac, boat, and lifetime alimony, which she didn’t need. She joked he owed it to her for the years she did without sex. Leave it to Marsha. She was happy and thought she might sell the house and get something a little smaller.
One evening while they were eating dinner on the back porch, Jeannie pleaded with her to not sell the house. “Please don’t sell the house until after the wedding. This is where I want to marry Kane. This is where I lost Lydia and found Kane. If it hadn’t been for me staying in the basement, I wouldn’t have found the cell phone with Carmen’s number.”
“I wasn’t planning on selling the shack until after the wedding. Hell, depending on where you and Michael move, I may keep the damn place. I could rent out the rooms to lowly college boys down on their luck and in need of a place to stay. I may start a home for wayward college boys?” She raised and lowered her eyebrows at Jeannie.
“Once a slut always a slut,” said Jeannie, laughing at her best friend in the world. She couldn’t imagine where she would be without this wonderful person in her life. It’s funny how you become closest to people not even your family. Marsha was the closest thing to family she had.
The wedding, planned for April, was Marsha’s new obsession. She loved preparing for this big day, she felt responsible for making happen. They wanted a few people there, and Marsha and Carmen were going to be the maid of honors. Michael was going to be Kane’s best man, and he was thrilled.
“I’m not telling you who I invited. It’s a secret,” she said, one afternoon planning the food she was going to have.
“What if I don’t like anyone you are inviting?”
“Trust me, you like them. All but one,” she laughed at Jeannie.
Carmen, Marsha, and Jeannie picked out a classy off-white dress that showed her ample breasts and great legs. They shopped at a little boutique in town, overly priced because they bought everything in Europe. The dresses they picked out for Jeannie were exquisite and more expensive than what she wanted to spend. That day she tried on more dresses than she had in a lifetime. When Jeannie walked out of the dressing room, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She wasn’t the same woman so depressed she didn’t know if she would ever be happy again. Marsha started crying when she saw how far her