Chapter Twenty-Three
Y ou could stay the night,” I suggested at nine o’clock when I made my weak knees get up out of the bed and get dressed.
“We’re taking things slow, remember?” Connor teased as he jerked on his jeans. “We’ll take the sleep-over step on down the road, but tonight was amazing, Lila.” He circled around the bed and kissed me.
“Yes, it was,” I agreed.
If only Jasper didn’t still need medicine, I thought.
Then a little voice inside my head reminded me that Connor and I had just spent some fantastic time together—with no phone calls. One miracle a day was all anyone could ever ask for.
We started down the stairs, and halfway down he brought me close to his body and kissed me again. Two steps more and he did the same. My whole body was humming by the time we reached the foyer. He walked me backward to the door, and one steamy hot kiss led to another one. I was pinned against the wall—with no complaints—when the door opened and Gina Lou interrupted us.
“Good night, Lila,” Connor whispered softly, his warm breath on my neck every bit as hot as his kisses. “Evenin’, Gina Lou.”
“I guess this means you aren’t making breakfast?” she teased.
“Not this time.” He grinned and disappeared out into the darkness.
The wall was still supporting me because if I took one step, my wobbly knees were sure to fail me. “Did you ...” I panted. “... have a—”
“I had a wonderful day, but it looks like you had a better one. Let’s go get out the leftover peach crisp and the milk and talk. I’ll go first to give you time to catch your breath. Derrick goes to our church, and he cornered me tonight out in the parking lot.” She headed toward the kitchen.
My heart slowed down enough that I could take a few steps, then a few more until I sank down into a chair. A roller coaster of emotions and questions flooded my mind. Connor had proven more than once that evening that he was a man, so why didn’t he want to spend the night? Why wait when we had taken down the stop sign when it came to going slow?
Then it dawned on me what Gina Lou had said, and I gasped. “Wait, Derrick?” I screeched.
“Yep, the sorry sucker asked me out on a real date. I almost caved, Lila.” She set two bowls of peach crisp on the table and a glass of milk before me. “I probably deserve a gold star or a shot of Jim Beam, but this will have to do for tonight,” she said and took a drink of her milk.
“Did you say yes?” I asked.
“I did not!” Her voice went up a couple of octaves. “Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.”
“Isn’t that fool me once?”
“Same difference. Besides, why would he want to date me now? He made it clear I was beneath him when I was a waitress. Now I clean houses and mow lawns—which reminds me, I’m doing yard work tomorrow to work off some of this anger,” she said through gritted teeth.
“You did the right thing,” I assured her and pushed back my chair.
She held up both palms. “Hey, you can’t leave. We haven’t talked about that scalding-hot scene I disturbed. Sorry if it was the prelude to y’all leaving your clothing strung from the foyer to your bedroom.”
“I’m not leaving, and there wasn’t any bras or shirts on the staircase,” I said as I dipped up another helping of peach crisp and poured myself a second glass of milk.
“You must’ve worked up quite an appetite,” she said.
I sat back down at the table. “Yes, I did, but I don’t kiss and tell the details.”
Gina Lou finished off the last of her milk. “You really don’t have to. You are flushed and your lips are bee-stung, and sucking on a green persimmon couldn’t wipe that smile off your face. Have you ever felt this way about anyone else?”
I shook my head.
“Then you’ve found your gold mine. I thought Derrick was mine, but I found out he was just fool’s gold. Pretty and shiny, and worth nothing.”
So, Connor was a gold mine, was he? I couldn’t think of a single comeback for that one because I agreed with Gina Lou wholeheartedly.
Gina Lou found time to put a chicken in the slow cooker before she went outside to work on the lawn on Monday. I spent the morning in San Antonio with the lawyer who had always handled Aunt Gracie’s affairs. Sending both Gina Lou and her sister to college in the fall would be no financial burden with all the money that had been left to me, and if I wanted to build a place to make my strawberry wine, that was totally feasible. That afternoon, I wandered through a shopping mall and wound up buying new red underwear from Victoria’s Secret.
Tuesday evening, Gina asked for the car to go take her mother for groceries. Jasper’s pill bottles were almost empty. Only three more days to go, and he would be free of taking medicine. I took his supper—meat loaf and mashed potatoes—out to him and sat on the porch with him while he scarfed down every bite.
“Man could get real spoiled to having food brought out to him three times a day, but after I get done with all them pills, you don’t have to do this, Lila,” he said.
“Even after Gina Lou leaves us, I have to eat, and it’s much easier to make food for two than it is for one,” I told him. “Or I might just hire someone to cook for us.”
“So, she’s leaving us in the fall?” he asked.
“I talked to the lawyer yesterday. I have control of the estate, but I wanted his advice,” I said with a sigh. “And he thought it was putting the money to good use.”
“That’s good,” Jasper said. “Now, what about Connor? I hear his truck leaving about nine o’clock every night. Does that mean you aren’t having breakfast together?”
“Not yet.”
Jasper patted his lap, and Sassy jumped up onto it. “You kids today have it better in some ways than me and Gracie did when we were your age. Folks might get frisky out behind the barn, but they did not ever move in together.”
“You just want to see me settled and having grandbabies for you to rock,” I teased.
“That’s right, and Sassy wants a baby to protect,” Jasper said. “But I want to talk about something else. Now that a couple of days have gone by since I told you what I did, how are you feeling?”
“Strangely enough, more at peace than ever before. The house seems to have a new energy to it, like it’s alive after being in a coma for years and years.”
“Granny told me that Clarence and Betty were the golden couple of this area from the time they were in high school until whatever happened that fall when Rita moved to Poteet. She never knew what caused them to change, but she figured it was because Betty and Rita had words. They were both pretty high strung in those days. I let her think that even though I knew better.”
“How long after that did Betty leave?”
Jasper frowned as if he couldn’t quite remember. “It was kind of a gradual thing. She had friends that she’d known in school. One in particular that she went up to Oklahoma City to spend time with.”
“Didn’t she hate to be away from Gracie?”
“Granny was still alive in those days. Gracie was a teenager, so she didn’t need much looking after,” Jasper said. “Clarence tried to get back on her good side, but Gracie wasn’t having none of that. I reckon he was still seeing Rita on the sly even then. He loved Betty, but Rita was like a magnet for him.”
I handed him his pills and he swallowed them with a sip of tea. “How do you know all that?”
“I don’t for sure, but I’m speaking from experience. I loved one woman in my life, but there were others that I was drawn to,” he admitted.
“Was it Gracie?” I asked.
“Yep, but she was in love with Davis from the time we were babies. There was something indescribable between them. I couldn’t have her, so I was quiet about my feelings. But I’ve had what you kids call ‘flings’ through the years with others. They were loves of the mind and body, not of the heart. Which one is Connor?”
The question caught me so much by surprise that for a minute I couldn’t form a single thought to answer his question. Finally, I said, “The heart.”
“Good, then it will last. Connor should be here soon. You go on and get freshened up to see him. Don’t drag your feet and let a good thing slip through your fingers,” Jasper said.
I kissed him on the forehead. “Connor and Everett have something they have to take care of in San Antonio. Dinner with some oil executives. He won’t be by tonight, but he promised that we’d go out tomorrow evening for burgers. See you at nine.”
“I’ll be right here or else in the house. Sassy likes to watch shows with me in the evenings, so we go on inside pretty early. Thanks again for bringing her to me. She sure is a lot of company,” Jasper said.
“I’m glad,” I told him as I headed out across the yard, with intentions of going over the books for the estate.
On Wednesday morning, I was awakened by my mother’s voice. “Lila, are you awake?”
In my half-asleep state, I figured I had butt-dialed her again, and I checked under the sheets for a few seconds before I heard actual footsteps on the stairs. She eased open the door and peeked inside. Wide eyed, I glanced over at the pillow with Connor’s head indention still on it and shoved it off onto the floor. I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.
She picked up the pillow, laid it back where it belonged, and gave me a quick hug. Then she sat down in the wooden rocking chair at the end of the bed. “Annie and I got a little homesick and came home late last night. Something has changed in this place, Lila. That eerie feeling is gone. What happened? Did you burn white sage or something while I was away?”
“Ghosts want someone to release them to go rest in peace,” I told her. “Gina Lou and I’ve been cleaning out the place, and we tossed everything that might have had a lingering spirit in the trash. Plus, I’ve been filling the place up with love.”
“Connor?” she asked and sniffed the air. “He’s spent time in this room. I can smell his cologne.”
“Yes, Connor, and yes, he has been in this room.”
“Does it look like there might be a future?” she asked.
I smiled. “Yes, ma’am. But he hasn’t spent the night. We’re taking it slow.”
“You look happy,” she said.
“I am, Mama. Do you and Annie want to help me make wine? It would be a great part-time job for y’all.”
“Maybe so,” she said with a smile. “I’ll talk to Annie about it. We’ve got plans for some more traveling, but we’ll have until next spring to make up our minds, right?”
I threw back the covers, got out of bed, and gave her another hug. “Absolutely. Now, I’m going to take a quick shower, and then we’ll go have some breakfast. Gina Lou will have it ready by then. She’s been wonderful. I’ll miss her in the fall, and we’ll talk about that while we eat.”
“Good mornin’,” Gina Lou called out as she walked past the open door. “Hello, Sarah! Good to see that you are back home.”
“Glad to be here,” Mama said.
The smell of coffee and the buzz of conversation reached me when I left the bathroom. Mama’s voice was higher pitched, and the Texas accent was stronger than Gina Lou’s. I stood in the shadows outside the kitchen and listened to Mama talk about her trip. Excitement oozed with every word, and I was so glad she had made so many good memories.
“Hey, why didn’t you wait for me?” I asked as I entered the room and went straight for the coffeepot.
“I don’t mind telling my stories over and over again,” Mama declared, and went straight into describing the Hank Williams Museum again. “Aunt Gracie loved him so much. She said when he died she was twenty-three years old, and she cried for a week. I wished that she could have been there to see his car and watch the old reels of him when he played on the Grand Ole Opry stage.”
I sat down beside her and covered her hand with mine. “Remember what you told me about going to the beach so she could see it through your eyes? Well, I reckon she saw the museum through you as well. She would be so happy that you are going places she wanted to see and that the mother and daughter bond y’all had lets her visit them, too.”
Mama swiped her wet cheeks with a paper napkin. “Maybe that’s why the weird aura in this house is gone. She is getting to do some things that she never did through me.”
“Probably so,” I said.
Gina Lou grabbed a napkin and dabbed at her eyes. “That is a beautiful thing.”
“Yes, it is, and I’ve got something else to tell you that I hope you think is as wonderful. This fall Aunt Gracie wants to give you and your sister both a scholarship to go to college,” I told her.
Her eyebrows drew down. “How can Gracie give me anything? She’s gone.”
“She left a certain amount for scholarships ...” It wasn’t a lie. She did have a fund set up while she was alive to help women in need. “And since I’m the one who takes care of the estate, I’m giving you and Stephanie funds for books, tuition, dorm fees, and a cafeteria card. You can save what you make this summer for spending money.”
“Are you serious?” Gina Lou plopped down in a chair.
“Yes, I am,” I told her. “All you have to do to keep the scholarship from one semester to the next is pass all your courses. Same for your sister.”
“I’m dreaming, right?” she whispered.
“No, darlin’, you are wide awake,” I replied.
“Can I tell Stephanie?”
“Why don’t we make a party of it and invite your family to dinner tomorrow night? Lila can announce it then,” Mama suggested. “Annie and I will help cook and organize. It’s been a long time since a party has been held in this house.”
“And we can ask Jasper and Connor, too?” Gina Lou asked.
“Of course.” Mama shot a look at me. “I need to get to know Connor. He could very well be the father of my grandchildren someday.”
“Mama!”
“Well, I’m right and that’s the truth,” she said. “I’m a new person since I’ve traveled outside of Texas. I’m not going to judge all men by your biological father anymore. There are a few good guys out there. Take George Strait, for an example. He’s been married for more than fifty years, and I’ve never seen any rumors on him in those trashy magazines.”
“The hero of Poteet, Texas, wouldn’t dare,” I said in mock horror. “Aunt Gracie would have given him a talkin’ to if she’d seen his face on one of those things. And nobody would want her to be angry with them.”
Mama’s eyes darted around the room. “She’s not here anymore.”
Gina Lou got up from the table and brought a pan of hot cinnamon rolls out of the oven. “Breakfast is served—and, Miz Sarah, I do believe that Gracie decided to stay behind in Nashville for a few more days. You don’t have to worry about her coming back to this house. She’s done with it.”
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
Gina Lou glazed the rolls and set the pan in the middle of the table. “I love the idea of a party tomorrow evening. I’ll tell Mama that the family is coming to tour the house. What are we serving? Is it going to be a sit-down meal?”
“Let’s do it up right with Aunt Gracie’s good dishes,” Mama suggested. “We can make a ham and have all the trimmings. I’ll do the hot rolls.”
My phone rang. I fished it out of my back pocket and okayed the FaceTime call.
“Good morning, Connor,” I said. “Mama came home a day early. I’m having cinnamon rolls and coffee with her and Gina Lou. Want to come over and share?”
“Can’t. Grandpa and I have another meeting today, and we’ll be late getting out of it, but I might be able to come by about seven,” he said.
“That sounds great, and tomorrow night we’re having a little dinner party for Gina Lou’s folks. Can you come to that?” I asked, and then added, “And bring Everett with you.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said. “Y’all enjoy your breakfast.”