Beth Albright - Sleigh Belles

Eventually, Dallas quit trying to make contact.

As she stood in the shower, the memories of what happened all those years ago haunted her warm oasis.

When Dallas had been only three and her brother, Houston, had been eleven, their father had walked out on their family. He’d left them to marry his secretary, the woman he’d been with just before he’d married Blake’s mother, Kitty. As they’d grown up, Houston had stepped up to become the man of the house and their mother, LouAnn, had leaned on him in that role. The three of them had been an incredibly close, tight-knit family—and, yes, her mother had a thing for Texas and had named her children after her two favorite cities there.

As they grew up, Dallas had loved her brother like no one else in her life. He had been her hero. They had always had an incredibly close relationship. Houston always told her that whoever married her would be the luckiest young man in history, since he would get to have Dallas forever. To say she put him on a pedestal was a major understatement. She used to tell him he was her favorite person in the world. And he’d let her know she was the most special person in his life, too. Even when he’d moved out to campus, they’d still talked all the time and he’d taken her to the movies and out for ice cream once a month. She’d loved him more than anyone. He had been her security.

When Dallas was in the ninth grade, she was basically living life like most teenaged girls her age. Makeup, boys, fashion and cheerleading practice filled her days. Houston, meanwhile, was twenty-two, gorgeous and fixin’ to graduate from Alabama.

One day he’d brought a woman, Eleanor Walsh, home with him to meet his family. As smart and charming as Houston was, they weren’t at all surprised that he’d found someone special. But when Eleanor walked in the door, she was definitely a surprise, all right. She was about thirty years old, though Houston was just barely twenty-two. He was defensive right away, explaining to LouAnn and Dallas that they were in love and that it was serious. He told them he was planning on marrying her. Dallas, being so young, was actually really excited and wanted to get to know her new “older sister” right away. She trusted her brother’s instincts on everything, so if he said this woman was the right one, Dallas was happy to accept it.

As they continued dating, Houston made sure that she and Eleanor became close. They’d take shopping trips together, go to movies and the couple made a real effort to spend time at the house with Dallas and her mother. So one day, Dallas and Eleanor went to Eleanor’s house to get ready to go out to a movie together with Houston. It was the first time she’d been invited to Eleanor’s place, so she was both nervous and excited. When Dallas entered the house, she immediately was shocked at the mess. The home was filthy—dirty pots and pans on the stove, so much old grease on the floor she couldn’t even see the color of the tile. As she moved through the house, following closely behind Eleanor, she heard noises coming from the laundry room. As they passed by, heading up the hall to Eleanor’s bedroom, Dallas caught a figure out of the corner of her eye.

A man was sitting on the floor, surrounded by parts from the washing machine, along with screwdrivers and other tools spread out around him. The man glanced up as Dallas walked by. He locked eyes with young Dallas, and instantly she felt a pang in her stomach: that uh-oh feeling you got when things weren’t quite right. She had a feeling that Houston might not know this woman as well as he thought.

“Who’s that?” she asked Eleanor.

“No one. Just the repairman,” she answered casually.

Dallas still felt that feeling. From another bedroom up the hall, Dallas could hear the sounds of children. One was crying. One was arguing with an older woman. As they walked toward the open door, she could see that the older woman was sitting in a small chair designed for a child. She was smoking a cigarette and staring out the window as she “babysat” the kids. As they walked past the door, the older of the two little boys ran out of the room and latched himself on to Eleanor’s leg, wrapping himself around her. “Mommy! Hi! Will you stay home tonight?”

Dallas was stunned. The child was about four years old and the other looked to be only two. They were Eleanor’s kids. Eleanor had kids! In all the time she’d known her, there had never, not once, been mention of her sons.

“Momma, can’t you do something with them?” Eleanor said to the older woman.

“Y’all get off of your momma now,” the woman said, ashing her cigarette on the windowsill. “She’s goin’ out. Go in there and see what yer daddy’s doin’.”

Dallas couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was the man with the washing machine the father? She froze in place, trying to take this news in for a second. Several seconds.

Dallas got an instant stomachache. She was afraid she had stumbled onto a secret. Surely her beloved brother had no idea he was dating a married woman, with children. Not dating, but fixin’ to marry!

Dallas didn’t want to go to the movies anymore. She wanted to rush home to save her brother from this horrible woman. She wanted to protect him now. She absolutely knew her brother would never be involved with her if he knew the truth. But as she stood there trying to imagine how she’d break the news, Eleanor shuffled her off to her bedroom and began chatting away as she got ready, as though none of this were out of the ordinary. In shock, Dallas wasn’t able to do much but follow along and wait for the right opportunity to speak up.

Houston, Eleanor and Dallas made it to the movies anyway, but late that night, after they’d dropped Eleanor off, Dallas decided she had to tell Houston what she’d found out. When they pulled into the driveway of her mother’s house, she just blurted it all out in one breath, thinking it might be better to rip it off like a Band-Aid.

“Yeah, I know,” he answered, once Dallas had finished.

“What? You know she’s married and has kids? How could you still want to marry her?”

“I just do, Dallas. You have no idea what the situation really is. Her husband doesn’t love her, and they are getting a divorce.”

“When? I mean he was there fixing the washing machine and her kids were screaming and crying for her to stay home.”

But rather than listen to her concern, rather than talking things out with her as he always did, Houston seemed to have grown cold. “You need to stay out of this. It’s none of your business. She thought no one would be home when she took you there today. I’m sorry you had to see all that.”

“Does Mom know?” she asked.

“Yeah, and she understands,” he said pointedly. “She knows Eleanor loves me and I love her.”

“But what about her kids? They were dirty, and her mother was smoking while she was taking care of them. I mean—” she paused and swallowed hard “—is this the kind of woman you really want to marry? Someone who cares so little about her family? Think about how Dad—”

He cut her off midsentence by hitting his fist on the wheel. Houston had had about all he could take from what he suddenly saw as a meddling little sister.

“Don’t imply she’s not good enough, Dallas. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Now just get out, okay?”

She was brokenhearted as she slowly climbed out of his car and went into the house. Her hero had fallen off his pedestal.

The next morning, she asked her mom all about it, and LouAnn confirmed her worst fears. It was all true. But Dallas wasn’t going to give up that easily. She’d always thought her mom was far too easy with Houston, trying to make up for the fact that she had depended on him to take their father’s place for so much of his life.