The drive to Hartville seemed longer this Sunday. I figured it was because I had made up my mind that this would be the last time I’d be making this trip. I was concerned about how Betty Jean was going to react when I told her I was ending our relationship, because I knew she loved me. And, I loved her, so it was going to be just as hard on me as it was her. By quitting while I was still ahead, it would be easier for me to forget how I’d ignored my wedding vows.
When I pulled into her front yard, she was standing on her front porch. Since this last visit was not going to end on a happy note, I was going to get frisky as soon as she’d let me. Before I lowered the boom, I wanted to make love to her one last time, or at least get a nice farewell blow job. I was convinced that that would hold me over until Joyce got back on track.
I knew Betty Jean would be hurt when I told her I couldn’t see her anymore, but I’d be hurt too. She was a feisty little woman, so I expected her to at least cuss me out and maybe even bounce a skillet off my head. Before I even parked, I could tell that something was bothering her. There was a tight look on her face, and she was wringing her hands and shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
I piled out of the car so fast I didn’t even shut the door. I was gasping for air as I ran up to her. “Baby, what’s the matter?” Instead of answering me right away, she folded her arms and took a long deep breath. “Did you get some bad news?” I asked. My heart felt like somebody with big hands was beating on it like a bongo drum.
“That depends,” she said real quick, and then she pressed her lips together, narrowed her eyes, and poked my chest with her finger.
“Well, tell me what it is. Is it something I can help you with?”
“You sure will help me with it. I’m pregnant,” she told me in one breath.
The sun was as bright as it could be, but everything suddenly went dark. I froze like a icicle. When I tried to speak, my lips and tongue moved, but nothing came out of my mouth but gibberish.
“What do we do now?” Betty Jean wanted to know. “I can’t take care of no baby and work, too.”
“I swear to God, you won’t have to,” I assured her. My head felt like it was about to explode. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself get into such a mess! I had cooked my own goose. Coming out of this in one piece was going to be the biggest challenge I’d ever faced. I didn’t want Betty Jean to know how stupefied her news had made me. So I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. “Sugar, don’t you fret none. Everything is going to be all right,” I assured her. And I was determined to make sure it was.
Chapter 23
Odell
I WAS MADLY IN LOVE WITH TWO WOMEN AND IT WAS THE BEST FEELING in the world. I’d been in love a few times before, but it had never felt this good. I kept a smile on my face and I felt so cocky you would have thought I was the only rooster in a barnyard with nothing but hens.
Having a pregnant wife and a pregnant woman on the side was probably enough to drive any other man over the edge. But in my case, it was a double blessing.
I had started walking around with my chest puffed out back in July when Joyce told me she was having my baby. I couldn’t wait to be a daddy. I had been with a lot of women, so it was possible that I had children already out there somewhere. None of my exes that still lived in Branson had come up to me and told me that I was a daddy, so as far as I was concerned, my baby with Joyce would be my first.
Now I had two babies on the way. I was happy and scared at the same time. If Joyce ever found out about Betty Jean, my life would be over. I’d lose her, my job, and my good reputation in the community. And there was just no telling what her daddy would do to me. He still had that shotgun. My mother-in-law would probably do something crazy to me too. Millie was a mild-mannered woman. But one time I seen her beat a would-be shop lifter over the head with a whisk broom, so I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing or something worse to me. I was leading a double life now, and a dangerous one. One wrong move and somebody could even end up dead....
Sneaking to see Betty Jean a couple of times during the week wasn’t enough. It only made me want to see her even more. The store was closed on weekends, so I started visiting her on Saturdays and Sundays, too. Each time I told Joyce I was going fishing or to check up on Daddy. And each time she told me, “Drive carefully, baby, and stay as long as you need to.” She was so determined to keep pleasing me, she never got nosy or suspicious. The more I “fished” and “visited Daddy,” the easier it got for me to pull the wool over her eyes. I pitied the men who had passed up marrying this wonderful woman. The women in the Bible couldn’t have been more devoted to their husbands.
A week after Betty Jean had dropped her bombshell on me, Joyce dropped one the first Saturday in October. Just as I was about to go “fishing,” she came stumbling out of the bathroom crying up
