Chapter 9

"I asked about the best suite you had available, but your clerk told us he didn't have any rooms available," I said, as pleasantly as I could.

"That's a shame," the manager said, as he produced an ornate golden fob with a rather large key on it and called out Front to the bellman.

"Perhaps he will work out better at his next place of employment. I've heard they may be hiring at Burger King."

"I'd prefer to deal in cash. Can you keep an eye on this for me until we check out?" I asked, nodding toward the bundle of hundreds.

"Certainly," he said.

Jackie, Jerrilyn, the bellman, and I went out to the truck. The bellman retrieved our luggage, such as it was, with nearly a dozen hanging bags which held jeans and shirts and only three small grips and two makeup cases.

A parking attendant also appeared. Since he looked like he had at least been shaving for a few years, I relinquished my keys and gave him a fifty for his tip.

Another fifty also seemed to satisfy the bellman when he'd finished with our bags and after he'd gone Jackie and Jerrilyn tried to include me in the debate over which of the four bedrooms we'd use. I suggested we try a different one each night and if we needed to stay longer we could request a better room. With that decided we moved on.

"How can I entertain my girls tonight?" I asked.

"I want to see a rodeo," Jackie said.

"Me too," Jerrilyn said.

I called the desk and though the one who answered was very attentive, he didn't know of a rodeo within driving distance. I was afraid of that and I gave the girls the bad news.

"No matter," Jerrilyn said, "we can just get back to the wedding night festivities."

"Don't even think about suggesting we go dancing," Jackie said.

Even I knew a showgirl or even an ex-showgirl would not consider a night of dancing to be fun, not for a year or two anyway.

It didn't end up taking us four days to find suitable diamonds for the girls. We found an excellent jeweler on the second day, and I learned a good lesson, as in, do not try to buy engagement rings without the engagees present.

The girls didn't even ask about diamonds at any time until they'd decided on the jeweler by looking around in his place. Afterward, they made sure they were talking to the owner and hit him with the plan.

"We need two engagement rings and the stones have to match. We want to select the diamonds and then you can make the rings to fit them," Jackie said.

"You want two matching engagement rings?" he asked, obviously surprised.

"Yes, he is going to marry one of us, but he hasn't made up his mind yet. After he decides, the other one will be his concubine and I'm sure either of us would be upset being a concubine with a ring which wasn't as good as the wife's," Jerrilyn said.

I must say I thought he took it very well. He did blush, but he maintained a professional demeanor otherwise. They told him they preferred a Marquis cut and when he asked them about the size they looked at me.

"I don't know too much about sizes and carat's, but something in the range of fifty to a hundred thousand each was what I had in mind. If they like them of course. If something bigger is required I'll probably need to swing by home and pick up more cash," I said.

I guess it wasn't too far out of line for the jeweler to have to sit down for a few minutes to catch his breath. At least he didn't faint, and I'm sure it isn't every day people come in wearing blue jeans and talk about spending the kind of money I'd mentioned. He even recovered enough to ask the girls about wedding rings.

"Later maybe. You never can tell, he might decide to dump us both," Jackie said.

"Just don't count on getting the rings back buster," Jerrilyn said, giving me a solemn look.

Then they spoiled it by breaking out in laughter.

I was surprised by what a large diamond you could get for a hundred thousand and I think the girls were too. They decided on a couple of six-carat stones which were perfectly matched, with a set of very expensive earrings in mind, or so the jeweler said.

They were only thirty-five thousand each. And it's why I was glad the girls picked them out. If I'd bought them myself I'd have felt I needed to get stones which were large enough to consume the amount of money I'd decided to spend. The girls had quickly vetoed matching ten-carat stones which were sixty thousand each, saying they would be too gaudy in a ring.

Even though our diamond shopping was done, and the jeweler said the rings could be ready tomorrow, the girls would not leave the Adolphus. They demanded we try all four beds and that was that.

"We'll need the extra time to get started on thanking you for our rings," Jerrilyn said.

When we were done testing beds and ready to check out the manager took care of me personally. He tried to show me the bill, but I ignored it and asked him to just take the amount out of the cash I'd prepaid with. He did and handed me the change.

The truck and trailer were already out front and I tipped the same attendant the same amount - after taking care of the bellman too we were on our way.

I'd at least thought far enough ahead to have the manager book us into The Driskill in Austin and I let him know the best thing they had with only one king size bed would be fine.

We were almost out of Dallas when Jackie reminded me we hadn't looked around for another truck, so we could pull the other trailer. I almost blew it off, but decided it would be stupid. Five hours later we'd learned it wouldn't have been stupid after all. We didn't find a thing like the one we had.

Austin was more fun than Dallas had been. I knew right where Marty's Hats was and we each got a normal hat and a straw for summer wear. Of course summer was over for this year, but no matter, it would be back again.

We also went to my favorite bootmaker's place. Of course Charlie Dunn was long dead, but I'd found another guy I could at least tolerate. I'd already learned Capital Saddlery was a bust without Charlie.

We'd taken care of our business in Austin on the first day, but this time it was me who wouldn't leave, not until we'd made it to the Broken Spoke for at least one night. The girls loved it, and I even got both of them to dance with me.

The dancing in the Spoke is a kind they hadn't run into in Vegas. Showgirls didn't really need to know how to do the Texas Two Step or the Cotton Eyed Joe.

The next morning we went back to Marty's Hats. Our hats were ready and after paying the bill we shook the dust of Austin off our feet and hauled our asses home.

At least Jimmy looked glad to see me when we got there. Maybe he was just happy to get paid and not have to worry about my stock for a while. I had sad news for him though. I paid him all right, but we'd be running around a little bit more in a day or two.

After I introduced Jackie and Jerrilyn to Jimmy, they talked to him for a minute or two and then he took off.

"Damn, I thought Jackie and I were moving to East Texas to live in a double-wide and here you've got a real house," Jerrilyn said.