shook her head. “Did you go to the University of Texas?”
“Sure did.” She smiled knowingly, then mentioned the name of a sorority.
Memories flashed through Carrie’s mind, and she smiled as well. “Kelly Martin. Now I remember. You were a year or two ahead of me. But your hair was long and straight then, and you wore glasses.”
“I’ve had Lasik on my eyes, and I don’t have time anymore to blow-dry this mop into submission every morning. It’s great to see you again. You look gorgeous as always. It’s those eyes I remembered.” Kelly turned to Mary Beth. “Would you believe that Carrie and I were sorority sisters at UT years ago?”
“You’re kidding! That’s wonderful.”
“Are you going to be in town over the weekend?” Kelly asked Carrie.
“Sure am.”
“Fantastic. Let’s get together Sunday afternoon and catch up.”
They made plans for a late lunch, and there was barely time for a brief exchange of names with four other women before the class began. One of them was named Millie. The librarian? Carrie wondered.
She didn’t wonder long because Mary Beth went into her drill sergeant mode, and for almost an hour Carrie was too busy keeping the pace to think about much of anything. By the time they stopped to cool down, she was pooped and wet with sweat. She stretched out on the floor, flung her arms wide and sucked in deep breaths. “I may die,” she said to Kelly, who was next to her.
Kelly laughed. “I doubt it. But Mary Beth’s no wuss. She’s tough. I’ve got to run home and shower and make rounds at the hospital. See you Sunday.”
Carrie wiggled her fingers. After several of the women had left, she rose. “I thought I was in better shape,” she said to Mary Beth, who was standing with Ellen and Dixie.
“You’re in better shape than me,” Ellen said. “I still can’t make it through the whole session without resting several times.”
“Me, either,” Dixie chimed in.
“Yeah,” Ellen said, “but you had a baby not too long ago.”
“You’re all doing great,” Mary Beth said. “Remember that I said you should go at your own pace. You should have taken a break, Carrie.”
She chuckled. “What can I tell you? I’m a high achiever. I’m going to drag myself to my room and take a shower.”
“Have you had dinner?” Mary Beth asked.
“No, but I picked up something to nuke later.”
“Why don’t you join Ellen, Dixie and me at the tearoom for a light supper? It’s only leftovers, but we’d love to have you.”
Carrie laughed. “I’m a bit odoriferous for a social occasion.”
“Oh, piddle,” Dixie said with a dismissing wave. “We’ve all been sweating like pigs. Forget about it and come on. Mary Beth has saved us some chocolate cake.”
“Chocolate? How can I resist? That stuff is sinful.”
The four of them trudged over to the tearoom. Or rather, three of them trudged. Mary Beth still had a spring in her step.
They spent a leisurely hour over their simple meal, and Carrie thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the women, making girl-talk. Her job kept her on the road so much that she didn’t have much time to spend with friends, especially female friends. In fact, now that she thought about it, she didn’t have very many women friends left. Their lives had taken them in different directions, and she hadn’t taken the time to cultivate new friendships to fill the void.
Dixie was the first to rise. “I’ve got to get a move on or Jack will be sending out a posse,” she said. “Great to meet you, Carrie. I hope you’ll join us for as long as you’re in town.”
“Me, too,” Ellen said. “Nobody will be sending out a posse for me, but I know my sitter would like to get home early, and I’m riding with Dixie.”
After the two left, Carrie helped carry the dishes into the kitchen. “This was really fun,” she said. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“We enjoyed having you,” Mary Beth said. “Listen, if you’re going to be around tomorrow night and don’t have plans, why don’t you go to the football game with us? Then, watching high school football may not be your idea of a scintillating evening.”
“Lord, I haven’t been to a football game in ages.”
“We have a winning team this year, and everybody in town will be there. It’s the only Friday night entertainment around here. Go with us. We’ll have hot dogs and peanuts, and root for the Mustangs.”
“With you and Dixie and Ellen?”
“No, with J.J., Katy and me. I insist. Be ready about six-thirty. Wear jeans and bring a jacket.”
Carrie tried to weasel out of the invitation, but Mary Beth wouldn’t take no for an answer.
What the heck. She didn’t have anything better to do, and sitting around a hotel room alone with only a TV for company got very old very quickly.
“You’re on,” Carrie said. “Shall I bring my pompoms?”
Chapter Five
J.J. walked ahead and carried Katy while Mary Beth and Carrie brought along the stadium seats. As they moved with the crowd to the bleachers, smells of popcorn, peanuts and fall in the air brought a wave of sweet nostalgia. The band was playing, and the team ran around the field warming up. Excitement was in the air, and it was catching. Carrie felt a zing run through her, and a grin spread over her face.
“This brings back a lot of memories,” Carrie said.
“Doesn’t it? Where did you go to high school?”
“Cypress-Fairbanks. It’s a suburb of Houston. Those were some of the happiest days of my life.”
But those days hadn’t started out happy, she recalled. Carrie had felt alone and abandoned when her mother had dumped her with Uncle Tuck when Carrie was barely fourteen. Amanda’s soon-to-be husband was a mining engineer.
“Darling,” Amanda had told her, “Richard and I will be traveling to all sorts of remote places, and I want you to have proper schooling. They have wonderful schools in Cy-Fair, and you’ll get a good background for college. It breaks my heart to leave you, but I’ll visit often.”
She hadn’t. Despite the teary-eyed hugs and kisses and promises, Amanda hadn’t shown up for two years. With Amanda, out of sight was out of mind. Carrie always suspected that one of the reasons her mother had ditched her was that Richard didn’t want a teenager around.
Tucker Campbell, her father’s older brother, was an independent oilman and a widower with a sixteen-year-old son, Sam. Uncle Tuck didn’t know what to do with a teenage girl, either,
