Chapter Eleven
The power came back as Walker and Tina started up the stairs, and he chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“I just noticed your hair is brown instead of red,” he answered.
“Well, darlin’, you’ve got mud in your ears, and tomorrow you’re going to have bruises on your legs where that bitch kicked you,” she shot back over her shoulder. “Are you going to be a gentleman and let me have the first shower?”
“Nope,” he replied. “I look worse than you, so I get the first one.”
“Some friend you are,” she teased.
“Yes, I am,” he told her with a broad grin. “Anyone knows that a mudpack has to stay on until it dries, or it won’t do the job.”
She giggled and disappeared into her bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Walker could hear the shower running again as he looked out the window in his bedroom at the misshapen tree in the park.
He had told Tina that the dangling limb was like her life, but his inner voice told him that it was also the story of his own life.
He had a past he didn’t like too well. Too many nights of drinking and one-night stands.
A couple of failed relationships—one that had ended the previous Christmas with Yolanda, the woman he’d mistakenly thought would replace the yearning for Tina O’Grady.
“Time to move on and follow my own advice,” he muttered. He turned around and was in the hallway when he smelled Tina’s perfume.
“Hey.” Tina tilted up her chin and turned around slowly. “Did the mud bath work?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. “You are more beautiful than ever.”
She looped her arm in his. “Well, thank you, kind sir. Do you think they’re still bickering?”
“Only if they are breathing,” he said and covered her hand with his. “Good-lookin’ outfit you have on.”
“All my jeans are dirty, which means I have to do laundry tonight or wear these pajama pants to work tomorrow.”
“Can I throw my jeans in with yours?” he asked.
“Not a problem, with those commercial-sized washers and dryers the ladies have installed.”
Walker escorted her down the wide staircase. “They told me they bought those when they wanted to run a bed-and-breakfast.”
“I’m glad they changed their minds,” Tina said when they reached the foyer.
“Me too. I’m not sure where I would have gone if they hadn’t been here when my house burned.”
Tina put a finger over her lips and whispered, “Listen to Cleo. I think she’s still mad enough to hop over the fence and start another fight.”
Cleo’s voice had gone high and squeaky. “I wish one of us would have drowned her.”
“We might as well go in and see if we can talk her down,” Walker said and led the way to the kitchen.
Mae had just set the pot of potato chowder in the middle of the table when they entered, but she was still focused on Cleo.
“If we had, God might have put us in the same room with her for all eternity to punish the whole lot of us. I kneeled beside my bed after I got cleaned up and asked Him to forgive me.”
“Why would you do that?” Cleo barked. “With your bad knees, it’s a wonder that you didn’t have to yell at one of us to come help you get up.”
“When you repent, then the heavenly Father gives you strength to stand after prayers,” Mae told her.
Cleo arranged the sandwiches she had already made on a platter and set them on the table. “I’m not ready to test that theory.” Her voice softened when she noticed Walker and Tina. “Walker, you can get the glasses down, and, Tina, you can fill them with ice and sweet tea.”
Tina’s giggles erupted. “I thought you and Iris were at least good neighbors.”
“We ain’t never been good anything,” Cleo snorted. “She and Sabrina are cut from the same piece of the devil’s cape—but then, that whole family has always been prejudiced and just downright mean.”
“You think you’ve got it bad with Sabrina.
She’s an angel compared to living next door to Iris all these years,” Mae added.
“Walker, you can get those lemon squares out of the fridge for dessert. I’m glad the house didn’t blow away.
I would have hated to lose those. It takes a while to make the filling from scratch. ”
“Sweet Lord!” Cleo gasped. “You were worried about those things when we wouldn’t have had a place to live?”
“Insurance would cover all that, and we could always stay in a hotel over in Vega, but I couldn’t very well ask the adjuster to add on ten bucks to cover all the ingredients for the lemon squares,” Mae said. “Soon as the tea is on the table, we can eat.”
Cleo sat down and bowed her head when everyone was seated.
“Dear Lord, if Iris repents for throwing mud at us, don’t forgive her.
She doesn’t deserve it, because she asked You to use the tornado to destroy our home.
You and I will talk later about my own attitude when I cool down, so save me some time in the next few days.
Getting all that mud out of my hair was not an easy job, so it will take a while for me to be in a forgiving mood.
Bless this food, and especially the dessert because Mae worked extra hard to make it perfect. Amen.”
“Cleo!” Mae scolded.
“The Bible says to ask and you shall receive. God don’t like Iris, because she asked and she didn’t get what she wanted, but I think He still likes me,” Cleo said. “I’ll dish up the soup tonight, so pass your bowls this way.”
Walker bit back a chuckle as he handed his empty bowl over to Cleo, but he sure liked Cleo’s God a whole lot that evening.
Cleo filled up his bowl and sent it back down to him, and she had just reached for Tina’s bowl when her phone rang.
She pulled it out of her pocket and answered Gracie’s expression on the screen, leaving no doubt in Walker’s mind that she was worried.
“We are all fine. The tornado passed by us, but it jerked a limb from our tree,” Tina said before Gracie could even say hello or ask the question.
Gracie heaved a sigh. “Thank God. We’ll be coming home even earlier than we planned because my folks’ café is ruined. I see that you are having supper. Put me on the table so I can talk to everyone.”
Tina handed the phone to Mae instead, who assured Gracie that everyone was fine and then went into a long story about Iris. She was up to the part where the neighbor was trying to drown Cleo in a mudhole when Cleo marched around the table and stole the phone.
“Mae’s soup is getting cold, and mine is too hot to eat just yet.” She carried the phone back to her chair. “If that skinny bitch hadn’t been sitting on my back—”
“Tell her that I saved your life,” Mae yelled from the other end of the table.
Cleo held up a finger and mouthed, “In a minute.”
By the time the story was embellished and finished, Gracie’s laughter had turned infectious and everyone was joining her. Walker reached for the phone and simply said, “The end.”
“I can’t breathe,” Gracie huffed. “I wish someone would have filmed it.”
“Damn it,” Cleo swore and shook a finger at Tina. “You should have thought of that.”
Tina leaned over close to Walker so that both their faces could be seen. “I was too busy playing referee, but Iris didn’t stand a chance when Mae dived into the battle. Walker was there to be sure no one died.”
“Well, I’m glad none of you were hurt and that the house survived the storm.
I’m sad about the tree, but that limb will grow back.
It’ll take more than a storm to knock it down,” Gracie said.
“We’re just outside New Braunfels for the next couple of days.
My folks told me not to hurry, that they aren’t going to build back.
They’ve been thinking about retirement for a long time.
Now they just have to decide if it will be in Benson. ”
A pang of sadness went through Walker at the thought of losing the café that had been in town for longer than he’d been living.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. From the experience of his mother moving away, he knew that Gracie would miss them, even if they had been very strict.
“Thank you, but maybe this had to happen so they can do something other than run a café. I’ll see y’all in a few days. Bye now,” Gracie said, and ended the call.
Everyone around the table was quiet for several seconds before Walker finally spoke up. “That café is only a block from my store. I really need to go see about it.”
Tina pushed back her chair. “I’ll go with you.”
“And you will both call us as soon as you—” Mae started.
Cleo held up a hand to stop her. “Nope. We’re going with you. We can clean up this kitchen and have dessert when we get home. I hate that the café will be closed, but I want to see what has happened to our town. We may need to organize a fundraiser at the church to help folks in need.”
“Mae, would you look at that?” Cleo pointed to a refrigerator sitting upright on top of the auto-supply store.
“That ain’t as crazy as the store right next to it,” Mae said and pointed to the next place on the block. The store’s windows had been blown completely out, but bottles of whiskey and wine were still on the shelves.
Walker instinctively stopped where the traffic light used to be. “I wonder where that wound up.”
“The tornado grabbed it and left the refrigerator behind for payment. Think there is ice cream in the freezer?” Cleo asked.
“There could be, but by the time anyone gets up there, it’ll be melted,” Mae answered.
As they neared the feedstore, Tina could feel Walker’s anxiety and wished that she could take part of the burden from him.
A big metal rooster, part of somebody’s store display, was lying in the parking lot beside a pile of debris—ragged-edged chunks of lumber, a huge tree branch, and lawn chairs all twisted up like they were nothing but drinking straws.
Mae gasped at the sight. “Oh. My. Goodness!”
“From what I can see, you’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do, but at least your windows are okay,” Cleo said. “You kids get on inside and check things out. Us old ladies will be right behind you.”
Tina stepped out of the truck as soon as Walker parked and then poked her head back inside. “Old? Remember, I saw you mud-wrestling a little more than an hour ago.”
“That wasn’t nothin’ more than a catfight that’s been comin’ for more than seventy years,” Cleo giggled.
Tina held her breath when Walker unlocked the door and switched on the lights. When she opened them, she hurriedly scanned the room. Everything, including the ugly purses, was exactly as it had been earlier that evening when they left the store.
“So far, so good.” Walker walked down every aisle and checked the ceiling the whole way to the back room, where all the feed was stored.
“We’ve got a small leak,” he yelled.
Tina pointed toward an old orange wheelbarrow with an inch of water in the bottom. “Lucky that the drip is right above that thing.”
“Yep, it is,” Walker said. “Considering everything we’ve seen, this isn’t too bad. Looks like we might have lost a few shingles, so I’ll crawl up on the roof and fix it in the morning.”
“Yoo-hoo.” Cleo’s voice echoed through the place. “Where are y’all?”
“In the back room, but we’re on our way out,” Walked yelled.
“Come see what we found.” Mae sounded excited. “Do you have a box somewhere?”
“It’s a kitten,” Cleo said.
“You ruined the surprise,” Mae scolded.
“They would have seen it in a minute anyway.”
Walker picked up a box on the way back to the front of the store. “Looks like they have a new pet.”
They met the two ladies coming down the paint aisle. Cleo was holding a wet orange kitten with a black tail. The poor little thing’s eyes looked too big for its tiny body, and it was meowing loudly.
“That’s a big noise coming from such a tiny little thing,” Tina said.
“He’s going to be a real good mouser,” Cleo said, “and he’s all mine.”
Mae reached out and touched the critter on the head. “What makes you think it’s a boy? It could be a girl. I bet the tornado blew its mama away and dropped the poor little darlin’ beside your door, Walker. It needs a home, so we’re taking it back to the house.”
“I can see that,” Walker said. “Are y’all going to share it?”
“Shhh . . .” Tina whispered and took a few steps toward the front of the store.
“What is it?” Mae asked.
Tina opened the door, and three more rain-soaked kittens crawled inside. “I’d say y’all are going to be fostering or adopting a whole litter.”
Walker picked them up by the scruff of the neck, one by one, and put them in the box. “Now you each get two and don’t have to share.”
“I claim the solid black one,” Cleo quickly said. “You can have the other two.”
“I didn’t want the black one anyway,” Mae said. “I like the calicos. We need cat food, a litter pan, and water bowls. Do you have that here, Walker?”
“I sure do, and even some cat toys.”
“Great!” Mae insisted on carrying the box to the truck. “Don’t you worry, my sweet little babies. We’ll have you dry and fed in no time.”
Walker gave the store one more scan on their way outside. “Now, when and if we all move out, they won’t be lonely,” he whispered to Tina.
“And have something other than each other to bicker with and argue about.” Tina grinned.
Cleo was holding her two kittens up close to her chest and Mae was sweet-talking to her calicos when Walker and Tina got in the front seat of his truck.
“Are you going to keep all four of them or share with Iris?” Tina asked.
Cleo’s dark eyes narrowed. “If she breathed on them, they would die. We have to keep them all. Siblings, like you and Walker and Gracie, belong together.”
Tina thought again about the sparks she’d felt when Walker took her hand in his. She didn’t have a brother, but what she’d felt in that moment damn sure did not feel like a brother’s touch.