Chapter 7 #2
Lottie wasn’t sure if she should butt in or not, but she did.
“Y’all know that your Uncle Knox and I frame houses.
That means that we put up the outside walls and roof, and then another crew comes in to do more on the house.
After that, a third one arrives to get the house in the dry.
That means that even if it rains, the fourth bunch can put in insulation and drywall.
We could kind of do that with these eggs.
Ivy and I can dye them. Then y’all can put stickers on them, and Rae can apply the glitter. How does that sound?”
“I like it,” Daisy said with a nod. “I don’t like getting my fingers all messy.”
“Yes!” Heather pumped her fist in the air. “Brenda’s mama is taking her to the beauty place to get her nails done today. I don’t want to have purple or red fingers tomorrow at church.”
Daisy sighed dramatically. “I wish we could get our nails done at the fancy place. I’d have pink ones to match my Easter dress.”
“Me too,” Heather added.
Lottie dipped boiled eggs into water of various colors and laid them on a paper towel to dry. “If one of your aunts has some polish, I’ll do your nails. We’ll pretend that the sunroom is a beauty parlor.”
“For real?” Daisy squealed. “We’ve got polish at home. Mama, will you make Daddy go get it for us?”
“On one condition,” Rae said seriously, “and that is that neither of you ever do the permission thing again.”
“We promise,” they said in unison.
A tsunami-sized wave of guilt washed over Lottie. She vowed she would get past the weekend, but she was never coming back to Spanish Fort again. Her conscience would not let her keep lying to all the good people who had taken her in without question.
* * *
“Fake or real?” Tripp whispered to Knox as they carried a six-foot wooden Easter bunny out of the barn.
“If it hops away, then I guess it’s real,” Knox answered.
“You know what I mean,” Tripp said. “You told me that you were going to get a fake girlfriend to keep Aunt Bernie from setting you up with women. Is Lottie that, or is she a real one?”
“What do you think it is?”
“If it’s not real, I’m going to start booking you for acting gigs,” Tripp answered.
“Then I guess you have your answer, and it should make Aunt Bernie glad since she introduced us,” Knox said.
“Now let’s get these cutouts taken out to the yard.
Remember when Mother used to make Dad hide eggs more than once for us?
Think you’ll have to do that when Nicky gets old enough to get out there and fill up his basket? ”
“Yep, I do.” Tripp replied.
Knox breathed a small sigh of relief. He had not lied, but rather skipped around the truth bush several times.
“There were only three of us. There will be dozens of kids here tomorrow afternoon,” Tripp answered. “But when Nicky is walking, if he wants to hunt eggs more than one time, then Willa Rose or I will hide and re-hide them until he gets tired of the game.”
“If someone had told me two years ago that you and Brodie would both be married by this time, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Knox said, hoping to continue to keep the conversation away from his relationship with Lottie.
“Me too, and now it’s your turn,” Tripp said with a grin as they carried the wooden bunny to the middle of the big yard.
“Turn for what?” Brodie asked. “Dad told me to stand right here because Mary Jane wants that thing in the middle of the yard. Something about taking pictures with it.”
“To get married,” Tripp answered.
“Aunt Bernie is already looking at bridal magazines.” Brodie chuckled.
Knox set the bunny down and pulled the stakes out of his hip pocket. “If it doesn’t work out?”
Tripp took a hammer from the loop in his cargo pants and started helping his brother get the stakes pounded into the ground.
“I don’t think a Class 5 tornado would blow him away now.
” But in the same breath, he had no doubt that Aunt Bernie could melt him into a puddle with one glare if she found out what he and Lottie were up to.
“Don’t put that hammer away,” Remy called out from the barn door.
He and Luna’s husband, Shane, eased a huge cutout of an Easter basket out the door and carried it across the yard.
“Mary Jane said this goes on the right side of the bunny,” Shane said.
“And there’s some eggs that are supposed to be scattered around the yard,” Remy added.
“Lookin’ great!” Mary Jane yelled from the back screened-in porch. “Just like I imagined.”
Joe Clay brought two four-foot-tall wooden eggs out of the house and laid them in the yard. “Will you guys stand these up and then anchor them down while I bring out the other four? When we get that done, it will be time for dinner. I can almost smell that chili simmering in the kitchen.”
“What about the tables and chairs that need to be put up for the leftover potluck tomorrow afternoon?” Knox asked.
“We’ll get that done after we eat and take a rest,” Joe Clay answered. “Remy, if you and Shane will go with me, we can make short order of this job.”
“So, it’s real?” Tripp asked when he and Knox were alone.
Damn it! Knox thought. Tripp was his twin, and even though they weren’t identical and were even different in their thinking processes, they were still close. And Knox had never lied to him. He couldn’t beat around the bush any longer.
“What makes you think it’s not?” Knox asked.
Tripp pounded the last anchor into the ground and then straightened up. “My gut tells me something isn’t quite right. Y’all act like you are a couple, but there’s something in her eyes and yours that says different.”
“So, now you are reading my eyes?” Knox chuckled.
Tripp clamped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Do you remember when you told me that you could see that I was in love with Willa Rose? That was before I even realized it and was damn sure not willing to admit it.”
Knox nodded. “I do, but what’s that got to do with me and Lottie?”
“Neither of you have the twinkle in your eyes,” Tripp answered. “She’s got a little bit, but that could be because y’all are pulling the wool over Aunt Bernie.”
“It’s early in the relationship. Maybe love hasn’t hit us yet. Maybe we’re just barely getting to know each other,” Knox argued.
“It’s fake,” Tripp said seriously. “If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be avoiding my questions.”
“Busted!” Knox finally said with a sigh.
“But please don’t tell anyone. Lottie only told her mother, and now I’m letting you in on the secret.
” He went on to tell Tripp the whole story from the time that Lottie asked him to be her boyfriend and why.
“I know you and Willa Rose don’t keep secrets, but I’m asking you not to tell her.
We need to keep this on the down-low for five more weeks. ”
Tripp gently squeezed Knox’s shoulder. “Your secret is safe with me, and the idea is genius. She gets to be free from advances, and you from Aunt Bernie. It’s a win-win situation, until you tell the family that you’ve broken up with her.”
“Oh, no!” Knox said. “My story is that we are having a long-distance relationship when she goes to El Paso, and I come back home. She’s going to do the same.”
“Even smarter, but what if you meet someone that you would really like to date?” Tripp asked.
Knox nodded toward the three guys coming toward them with the rest of the wooden eggs. “I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Maybe that will be when she breaks my heart, and I will need someone to help mend it.”