Chapter Eight
It’s been a day,” Tina said as she and Walker left the feedstore on Monday evening. “But I’ve got to admit that I got a lot of computer work done, since there weren’t many people coming in and out.”
What she had done in the office was rote work, giving her too much time to think about the day before.
Not even the minor dustup with Sabrina and Faith could take away the joy she’d had out there at Trade Days.
With that in mind, she had imagined all the pretty little things in her velvet bag.
Did any of them mean that Walker had felt something other than friendship during their growing-up years, or was he just giving a friend something special?
Had he ever felt a spark like she had, especially on graduation night?
Walker locked the door and followed her across the parking lot. “Slow ones always make me more tired than if I’m busy from open to close, but after yesterday, maybe we didn’t need to be rushing around. You are frowning. What’s on your mind?”
Tina got into the truck and fastened her seat belt. “How lucky I am to be home. How can you always find the positive side in everything?”
Walker started the engine and fiddled with the air-conditioning. “Not everything, Tina. I have nothing nice to say about this heat.”
She leaned forward to catch the cold air coming from the vent. “Seems like it came out of nowhere. Yesterday was warm but not suffocating hot.”
“I can’t imagine what Trade Days will be like in July.”
“Hot, with a chance of a dust storm,” Tina said in her best weatherman’s impersonation.
The cab had cooled down a little by the time he put the truck in gear and drove out of the parking lot. “You missed your calling.” He grinned.
She sat back in the seat and shook her head.
“Not really. They hire those cute little blondes who are short enough to show their whole perfect bodies on the screen. If they tried to back up the cameras to get all nearly six feet of me in the picture, folks would need a magnifying glass to see the map.”
“Technology could fix that,” he argued.
She shook her head and tried to imagine standing in front of a row of cameras. “Still a hard no.”
He turned in to the driveway at Mae’s house, switched off the engine, and sat there without opening the door.
Tina reached for the handle and then took her hand away. “Something you want to talk about before we go inside?”
“Nope. I’m just enjoying every bit of this cool air before I step out into the heat,” he answered. “What did you think I was mulling over?”
Tina unfastened her seat belt and turned around to face him. If he was dissatisfied with her work, or mad at her, now was the time to clear the air. “I can’t read minds, but I know when something is bothering you.”
“How?” Walker finally opened the door.
“Walker Cosay, don’t you walk away from me without telling me what is eating at you,” she demanded.
He leaned over and locked eyes with her. “Kind of bossy today, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m a lot bossy. There’s an aura about you when things are right in your world. It’s what I figure ‘at peace with everything’ looks like. And it’s not there now.”
“Hey!” Cleo called from the front door. “Hurry up and get on in here. It’s too hot for you to even think about going over to the Tomorrow Tree.”
“She’s right.” Tina got out of the truck and slammed the door. “This conversation is not over, Walker.”
“Later,” he whispered as they walked across the yard.
“Shut the door,” Cleo said when they were in the house. “We don’t want to give Iris one single drop of our cool air.”
“They really are mad at her, aren’t they?” Tina whispered.
Walker closed the door behind him and smiled. “Yep.”
Cleo raised her voice. “Come on to the table. Supper is ready, and we’ve got good, juicy gossip to tell you.”
Mae’s fussing at Cleo drifted from the kitchen to the foyer. “Don’t you dare say a word until we say grace. I want to be the one to tell them about—”
“Shhhh,” Cleo hissed. “You almost gave it away.”
“Apparently, they’ve heard something juicy. Iris again?” Tina asked out the side of her mouth.
“Probably, since Mae said that about none of the cool air filtering over to her place,” Walker answered and entered the kitchen. “What’s cookin’ in here?”
“Cold gazpacho soup, cucumber sandwiches on my sourdough bread, and a layered salad,” Mae answered. “Dessert is ice cream sundaes with your choice of toppings.”
“It’s too hot for a heavy meal like roast beef or fried chicken,” Cleo added.
Tina pulled bowls and small plates down from the cabinet and set the table. A thought stabbed her in the chest. Setting the table for supper was not like giving Mae and Cleo money for living there. Did Walker’s aura have something to do with not paying for room and board?
No, that can’t be the problem. Cleo and Mae have always been honest with all of us, she thought, but still the idea stuck and wouldn’t go away. “I’m making money working for Walker, so I can pay for my room and board,” she blurted out.
“Where did that come from?” Walker asked.
“I’m in shock that you’d even suggest such a thing,” Cleo gasped.
“Well, Walker is acting funny about something, and I thought maybe it was because he and Gracie were paying for staying here, and he didn’t want to tell me that I should be doing the same now that I have a job and regular paychecks.” She stopped when she ran out of air.
“No, we’re not,” he declared. “And anyway, I’m just having an off day.”
His mouth said the words, but his eyes and the set of his jaw said something different. In the past, he’d told her everything, but apparently, he didn’t trust her enough to tell her what was bothering him now.
“Tell her, Mae,” Cleo demanded.
“Tell me what?” Tina headed over to the drawer to get spoons and forks.
“Okay, okay,” Mae answered with a sigh. “Back about when y’all were being born, we were about to give up this house and go to a retirement home.
Life just didn’t seem worth living, and we were bored out of our minds.
Then you three came to stay with us, and we had a purpose again.
We had laughter, and first steps, and teething . . .”
“And we loved every minute of it,” Cleo added with a nod.
“But we were both well off financially and didn’t need the babysitting money.
Before I sold my folks’ acreage, I found out there was oil under the ground, so I’ve been getting a nice big check from that for years.
And Mae’s folks left her well fixed, so . . .”
“Get Gracie on the phone,” Mae said, “and put her on FaceTime. We promised each other that we would wait until Tina came home to tell y’all. We ain’t sayin’ another word until we’re all together in some form.”
Tina pulled her phone from her hip pocket and called Gracie and hoped that Dakota wasn’t on the screen with her.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Gracie kept the phone right on her face.
“Mae and Cleo have an announcement to make, so I’m going to prop the phone up on the sugar bowl in front of your place at the table,” Tina told her.
“Okay, I can see Tina and Walker now, but you’ll have to rotate the phone a little when someone else is talking. What’s this all about? Please don’t tell me y’all are selling the house,” Gracie said with a worried look on her face.
Tina reached across the table and turned the phone toward Mae.
“Never!” Mae raised her voice. “We’ll go out of here when we are dead, and not a day before.
Like I was telling these other two, we didn’t need the money y’all’s folks paid us for keeping you.
We talked about giving it to charity or the church, but then we came up with a better idea.
We put all of it in a bank account—when each of you settle down, we are going to give you one-third of what’s in that account as a wedding present.
We are just happy that we can be a family again. ”
“And that we have a purpose in life,” Cleo finished for Mae and brought the food to the table. “Now, sit down, and I’ll pray over our food.”
“Whoa, wait a minute!” Gracie raised her voice. “What you are proposing is not necessary. You’ve given us free room and board, taken us in and pampered us. We don’t expect or want you to—”
“What Gracie said.” Walker and Tina spoke at the same time.
“We’ll discuss this again when I get home. For now, y’all go eat your supper,” Gracie said, and ended the call.
“No need in arguing,” Mae said. “It’s a done deal, and we ain’t going to go back on our plans.”
“But we . . .” Tina started. Her parents had been quick to cut her off except for tuition, and eager to get rid of her when she graduated, and hadn’t offered any financial help when she called to tell them what a mess the guy she’d been living with had left her in.
What they had done through her growing-up years hadn’t been out of love.
She noticed Walker’s eyes were swimming in unshed tears and knew exactly how he felt.
I am at home, she thought as she pulled out the chair that had been designated as hers all those years ago. These people are my family—not by blood, but by heart.
And that’s the thing I wanted most, she thought as she dropped her chin to her chest, but she didn’t close her eyes.
“Father,” Cleo said.
While Cleo thanked God for the food, for the kids that had come home to her and Mae, and even for the weather to remind them how hot hell is, Tina studied each person around the table.
Walker was fighting a mental demon, but he was keeping it all inside.
Her eyes drifted over to Mae, who shot a sly wink her way, then over to Cleo, with her long, thin neck bent as far forward as it would go and her eyes closed so tight that the wrinkles around them deepened.
Cleo asked for protection for Gracie and her friend as they traveled, and ended by petitioning God to strike Iris mute “so she wouldn’t gossip.”
“Amen. Now, let’s eat,” she said. She raised her head and passed her bowl down for Mae to fill it with the chilled soup.