Chapter Nineteen
I fell into bed on Monday night even more exhausted than I’d been on Saturday, and Tuesday wasn’t any better. The only two things that kept me going were the memory of that make-out session with Connor on Sunday and that on Wednesday we would be finished until fall.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up early and almost hit the snooze button, but there was no way I was going to let the weeds get the best of me. I would survive one more day. Still, I groaned when my feet hit the floor. “There’s a reason not to do anything stupid on March 15, like make a decision to learn the strawberry business.”
The mirror in the bathroom gave a loud testimony that I had grown at least a hundred new freckles. My eyes had bags under them, and my lips stayed dry no matter how much ChapStick I used. “If Connor tells me I’m beautiful today, I will know that he’s feeding me a line of pure crap.”
The wonderful smell of coffee wafted up the stairs and put a little extra spring in my step. Then I got a whiff of cinnamon, and my mouth started watering. “You cooked breakfast again. Bless your heart—and I mean that in the best possible way,” I said when I entered the kitchen.
Gina Lou piled french toast onto a platter. “Well, your boyfriend could have made it, but he hasn’t been around since Sunday. I’m a grown woman, Lila. Connor doesn’t have to leave before daylight because I live here. It won’t embarrass me if he stays over and has breakfast with us.”
“Thank you for that, but we haven’t taken that step yet. We’ve only kissed a few times,” I admitted as I loaded my plate with toast and scrambled eggs. And people called me blunt! How could someone younger than me be so direct about relationships?
Refreshing, isn’t it? Aunt Gracie was back again.
My phone rang, and when I saw it was Mama I put her on speaker. Gina Lou turned to face me and popped both hands on her hips. “Hot dang, girl! What are you waiting for? Christmas?”
Before I could reply or even say hello, Mama asked, “Who’s waiting for Christmas?”
“Where are y’all?”
“On the road, but I miss you already—but what’s this about Christmas?” she asked.
“I was wondering if we’ll put up a tree at Christmas,” Gina Lou answered.
Thank you, Gina Lou, I thought. Mama doesn’t need to worry on her trip about whether Connor and I are getting serious.
“Of course you will. Aunt Gracie loved her trees. She usually had about four scattered about the house. A big one in the living room. A little one on the dining room table and one in her bedroom. Then there was a tall skinny one at the end of the credenza in the foyer. She still uses— used —the ornaments that Lila made in elementary school.” Mama took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, I should probably hang up.”
“Call me every night when y’all get checked into the hotel, and send lots of pictures.” I remembered the last thing Mama always said before I went back to school after a holiday: Call or text me as soon as you are home safe.
“I will,” she promised.
I hung up the phone and sat down at the table. “Thanks for covering for me. Connor and I have just figured out that we like each other. We don’t want to rush into anything.”
Gina Lou brought her plate to the table. “I wish I’d been that smart when it came to Derrick. He charmed me right into bed and then dumped me when the going got tough. Next time, I’m going to follow your lead.”
“Oh, honey, don’t be doing that,” I argued. “I’m not exactly the poster child for long-term relationships.”
If Connor hadn’t been there to encourage me, and if I hadn’t had a stubborn streak that wouldn’t let me give up, I would have never reached the end of Wednesday. Looking back that evening, over what looked to me like a massive field now stripped of all the strawberry plants, I felt a sense of pride that I had endured the tough times.
The crew members loaded up their equipment into trailers and drove away. Connor and I slowly walked back toward the shade tree. I grabbed two bottles of cold water, handed one to him, and sat down with my back against the trunk.
“Are you still going to go into the business?” he asked.
I gulped down a third of the water. “Yes, I am. It’s hard to believe that I’ve made so many hasty decisions in the past few weeks.”
He removed his hat and fanned my face with it first and then his own. “I’m rowing in the same canoe. I was angry at the army and floundering when I first came to Ditto. Grandpa told me that hard work would help with both.”
“What did you do?”
“He put me to chopping firewood the first two weeks,” he said. “That took the anger out, and then he started teaching me how to run all the pies he has a finger in, and before long, I felt like I had a home and was putting down some roots in one place. Which is strange, considering my upbringing.” He reached across the distance and took my hand in his. “Have you found a home yet?”
“Yes, I have. Every day I find something new that assures me that this is where I belong.”
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Me too, and even though it’s been backbreaking, sweaty work, I’ve enjoyed our time this week. Would you go to dinner with me tomorrow evening?”
“Are you asking me on a real date?”
“I am.”
“Yes, I would love to, but it’ll have to be after five because I’m still giving Jasper his medicine,” I told him. “And we’ll have to be home before nine thirty because that’s his bedtime. He believes in that thing about early to bed and early to rise .”
Connor’s grin was tired, but it lit up his eyes. “Maybe we would all live to be almost a hundred if we obeyed his rules and lived as simply as he does. I’ll pick you up right after five and have you home before Jasper’s bedtime.”
I moaned when I stood up. “I’ll be ready, but for now, I should get to the house and take his supper and meds out to him. I’m glad I’ll be the boss next year.”
He leaned on the tree for a few seconds when he got to his feet. “Leg still gives me fits after a hard day’s work.”
“But it sure doesn’t slow you down, does it?”
“No, ma’am, but it lets me know I’m damaged goods.”
“Aren’t we all,” I whispered.
Gina Lou was removing a cast-iron skillet from the oven when I made it to the kitchen. “Hey, you’re home half an hour early—but soup is ready, and corn bread has just finished baking.”
“I told you that you don’t have to cook,” I said. “I hired you to clean and maybe do some yard work.”
“I put the soup on to simmer right after lunch and mowed the lawn while it cooked,” she said. “I’m like Oprah. I can multitask. The yard could have waited, but I want to help you clean the basement completely out the next couple of days. I’ll get Jasper’s supper ready while you get his meds together.”
I gave her a quick side hug and then washed up in the kitchen sink. “Thank you so much. Connor asked me to go to dinner with him tomorrow night,” I blurted out.
“Well, it’s about time,” Gina Lou declared as she filled a bowl with soup and put it on a tray. “But I’m not sure you should go. I can figure out a really good excuse for you.” She handed me a dish towel for my hands.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s slow-witted. You’ve been in Ditto for three weeks, and he’s just now getting around to asking you out,” she giggled. “I’ll take care of Jasper for you so you don’t have to rush home. Maybe”—she winked at me—“he’ll even cook breakfast in the morning. You said he makes a really good omelet.”
I added the medicine to the tray. “Life is not dull or boring with you around.”
“I try,” she said dramatically and placed a hand over her heart.
She opened the door for me, and I carried the tray outside. Jasper was waiting on the porch and waved when I started over that way. He eased up out of his chair, whistled for Sassy, and headed into the house. The dog ran from the far corner of the fenced-in yard and beat him inside when he opened the door.
“What do you have there?” he asked when I set the tray on the table.
“Soup, corn bread, and medicine. I’ll pour you a glass of iced tea.”
“Smells and looks great, but I’ll sure be glad when I can have a beer in the evenings instead of pills,” he bellyached.
“They’ll all be gone a week from tomorrow,” I assured him. “On Friday of next week, you can celebrate being well with a beer or a hot toddy.”
He sat down and changed the subject. “Are you done with that fool notion of being a strawberry farmer? Accountants don’t exactly grow on plants around here.”
I set the glass of tea on the table and sat down beside him. “No, I’m even more determined to do it. It’s exactly what I need, and I’m going to talk Mama and Annie into helping me with the wine part of the business. I’m going to name the wine Strawberry Grace.”
Jasper swallowed his pills with a sip of tea. “She’d like that, and she’d love that you are doing this, but make sure it’s more than a whim. I miss her so much, Lila. The last few years, we were together from breakfast to bedtime. Sometimes she drove us into Poteet to the Senior Citizen Center for lunch. We would play dominoes or cards all afternoon and visit with the youngsters.”
“Youngsters?” I frowned.
“Honey, we are done past ninety. Them other folks were at least twenty years behind us, so yes, they were babies to us. We were already either runnin’ a business or else in the army when they was in diapers.”
“Either me or Gina Lou will be glad to drive you into town every day if you want to go spend some time there. You just have to take your meds before you leave and be home in time for supper,” I told him.
“Hmmph,” he snorted. “I don’t need a curfew. Besides, by four o’clock all of them folks is ready to go home and get a nap anyway. But thank you for the offer. I might take you up on it come Monday, if you don’t think that’s too soon to start socializin’ since Gracie’s passing.”
“I don’t think so. Folks in this day and time don’t pay much attention to those old rules,” I said as I started to leave. “Besides, you and Gracie did things your way and didn’t let other people’s opinions matter.”
“I s’pose. Tell Gina Lou thanks for the supper,” he said.
“Will do,” I nodded.
I was almost across the yard when the ringtone on my phone let me know Mama was calling. I sat down on the top step and hit the accept button. “Are we there yet?”
She giggled and said, “We are in Nashville, right here in a hotel on the strip. We stayed in Montgomery, Alabama, on our way, and we saw the grave site where Hank Williams was put to rest and went through his museum, and it was absolutely awesome, Lila, and”—she stopped for a breath—“tonight we’re going to walk down the strip and listen to the music in a couple of bars. Everything is within walking distance. We went to some of the places Connor mentioned, and we can’t wait to be in the Ryman. It’s all too much to even describe in words, and we aren’t even unpacked yet. Tell me what’s going on at home. I’m having the time of my life, but I got to admit, I’m a little homesick.”
“Catch your breath, Mama,” I said with half a chuckle. “We finished up the strawberry fields today, and Connor asked me for a date tomorrow night. Jasper is getting well and seems to be resigned about taking his medicine. We’ve been taking his meals out to him, and Gina Lou is a fantastic cook.”
“What did you say?” she asked.
“About which one?”
“A date with Connor, and where is he taking you?” Mama’s tone wasn’t as excited as it had been a few minutes before.
“I have no idea. We’re going out for dinner. Are you upset about that?”
“He might recommend good honky-tonks, but he better take my daughter out to a nice public restaurant with cloth napkins. If he gets a six-pack of beer and a couple of bologna sandwiches and drives out to the river, then I might have a problem with it,” she said.
“Are you speaking from experience?” I asked.
“I am, and you need to learn from my mistakes. Your father never took me anywhere but the river,” she said with a long sigh. “I want more for you than what I got.”
“Mama, you were seventeen,” I reminded her. “I’m almost thirty.”
“Age makes no difference when it comes to lust.”
I could hear the worry in her voice. “Mama, stop fretting and enjoy your time away. Tell me where y’all are going first.”
“Tonight, we’re going to Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and tomorrow night, the Ryman, for whatever show is playing there. I hope it’s a bluegrass event.” Excitement had returned to her voice.
I heard a door open and then Annie’s voice. “Are you talking to Lila? Did you tell her that we’re going home through Memphis so we can go to Graceland?”
“Not yet,” Mama answered, “and we’re also going to go tour Loretta Lynn’s place and eat in her kitchen in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on the way back. It would take a month to see everything here.”
“Please don’t stay away that long,” I begged.
“We won’t,” Annie said, “but we are already planning a trip to Las Vegas. And maybe one to the beach in Florida in November.”
“And maybe a cruise in July,” Mama piped up.
Gina Lou opened the door and raised an eyebrow. I held up a finger and mouthed, “My mama.”
She nodded and disappeared back into the house.
“Sounds like y’all have the travel bug. You will be home for Christmas, won’t you?”
“Why?” Annie and Mama asked in unison.
“You know that I’ve wanted a Christmas wedding since I was a little girl, and it just wouldn’t be the same without you walking me down the aisle. Since Aunt Gracie’s favorite color was red, it seems fitting, doesn’t it? I may cut a little piece of her red underwear, make a rose out of it, and stick it in my bouquet,” I teased.
“Sweet Lord!” Mama gasped. “Please tell me you are kidding.”
“Gotcha!” I giggled out loud. “Y’all go on and check out Tootsie’s. Take more pictures, and maybe don’t lean out of the car and do it while you’re driving. I wasn’t quite sure where you were. See you in a couple of weeks. Love you—and, Mama, you don’t have a thing to worry about.” I ended the call before either of them could say anything else.