“Of course it does.” Coco opened the door. “Now let’s go feed these females before they get too cranky.”
The sound of Mama and Vonnette’s verbal sparring cut through their conversation. “Too late for that,” she whispered. “Here comes the pie,” she called, and immediately the sparring ceased and the clapping began.
When the slices of pie had been handed out and the coffee cups filled, Sessa set the tray on the sideboard and joined Coco on the window seat. “I always do love book club night. It gets me out of the house and reminds me that not everyone lives in a house of men.”
Sessa sipped at her decaf.
A few minutes later, as Mama and Vonnette once again debated a response to one of the book’s discussion questions, Sessa leaned toward her best friend and said three words, “Black halter top?”
Coco giggled. “I’ll bet that got his attention.”
“Actually it was the leather pants that he commented on, but it was more of a joke than any belief that a woman of my age would wear something like that.”
“Don’t joke about leather pants,” Coco said. “With the right top and accessories, they can look cute.”
Of course her fashionable friend would think so.
“So,” Sessa continued just as the time to answer the discussion question was about to reach Coco. “As to question number two?”
Coco cut her eyes toward Sessa as the person next to her finished answering the question. “What about it?” she whispered.
“He didn’t take off his shirt on the mower, but he did take it off at the pump. When he rinsed off. Under the water.”
Sessa offered an innocent look that would have made her high school drama teacher applaud. A moment later, Coco jabbed her arm. She refused to look lest her carefully constructed expression slip.
“Get. Out. Of. Town,” she hissed just loud enough for those around her to hear.
“Coco?” Mama said. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. The question was why Velma was still cooking in Leeway. If she was wanting to get out of town, she surely wouldn’t be cooking, now would she? If you don’t have a good answer, please just keep quiet next time.”
“Yes ma’am,” was all she could manage as she gave Sessa another sideways look. “I’m sure Sessa’s got a good answer. She’s been full of good answers tonight.”
“Actually, Sessa needs to go check on her granddaughter.” She rose before anyone could complain. “Just pass me by this round, and I promise I’ll be back in time to answer the next question.”
Moving quietly down the hall, she paused at Pansie’s door. All was quiet, so she opened the door and slipped inside. Ella Barnes’ granddaughter Kate sat in the rocker reading her e-reader while Pansie slept like an angel in her toddler bed.
“Did she give you any trouble?” Sessa whispered.
“Nope,” Kate said. “I read her three stories and then tucked her in with her doll. She went right to sleep.”
“Why don’t you get a piece of pie?”
“Thanks,” Kate whispered as she set the e-reader aside and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Sessa checked the lock on the window and then knelt down by the little bed and adjusted the patchwork blanket that had covered three generations of Chambers children. Finally, she wrapped her finger around one of Pansie’s curls. Somewhere between those first months of her life and now, the little girl’s hair had gone from the blackest black to a lovely shade of spun gold that seemed to grow lighter every year.
Her mama wouldn’t even recognize her.
Sessa froze.
What a sad thought. And who was to blame? Flames of anger rose and then quickly died out. No. Skye had made a wise decision in leaving her child here. To blame her now for having no relationship with that child was unfair.
Then again, it also felt unfair that Skye had intruded on their world tonight in what could be the first attempt at restoring that relationship.
Pansie stirred, and Sessa released that precious curl to press her hand on the little girl’s back. The remedy for colic in the early months had become the remedy for undisturbed sleep two years later.
Eyelids fluttered but did not open as Pansie gathered her doll close and let out a long sigh. The slow rise and fall of her little back indicated deep sleep had returned. Still Sessa kept her hand there.
What a precious child. What a precious moment.
Don’t let that girl take my baby away, Lord. Please.
Chapter Eleven
Four days later, Sessa was sanding the hind leg of a pink flying pig while Pansie played nearby when she heard a racket coming from somewhere behind the workshop. Tossing the sandpaper aside, she snatched up her cell phone and patted her pocket for the pepper spray she carried for times like this.
Dialing 911 this far out in the country was pointless, but it was a well-known fact—and a well-used technique—that calling down to the hardware store would dispatch any number of able-bodied volunteers willing to handle whatever trouble awaited them.
It also might bring one of the two members of the Sugar Pine police force, although that depended on whether their radios worked. Funding being as it was, they generally kept a close watch on the goings on at the hardware store and awaited dispatch from there.
Considering it was halfway between breakfast and lunch, any number of fellows might be available to head her direction. Thus, Sessa punched up the contact screen for the hardware store, separated Pansie and her doll from the blocks she was playing with to situate her on her hip, and then went to investigate.
Pansie tugged on the end of her ponytail. “Where we going, Gwammy? I’m not finished building my castle.”
“We’re going to play a new game. Be real quiet, honey.”
She offered a lower lip that warned that a more fully formed protest was imminent. “I need my dolly.”
Seizing the opportunity to make a deal, Sessa paused and turned around. “I’ll get your dolly but only if you make sure she’s really quiet. Promise?”
For once, the fiercely independent child didn’t protest. Rather, she rested her head on Sessa’s shoulder and clutched her doll against her chest. “Dolly’s going to be quiet. She promises.”
There. She heard the sound again. This time it was more of a loud clanging followed by a dull roar.
Securing the shop door, she kept to the side of the workshop and eased her way around the corner. There she spied the source of the noise balancing himself on the topmost rail of the paddock. Someone driving a forklift was easing a load of what appeared to be shingles over the barbed wire fence and into a space next to the barn. Apparently Trey’s guidance was needed to help the driver avoid plowing down the fence as he delivered the goods, and it was needed from atop the paddock.
“Trey?” she called as she set Pansie on her feet and grasped her hand. “What in the world are you doing?”
“Hey, Sessa.”
She swung her attention to the forklift and found Jared Chance at the controls. When he saw her, he quickly silenced the engine.
“Jared?” she said. “Why aren’t you working?”
“I took the week off. But since Carly hasn’t had the baby yet, and she was getting a little antsy with me underfoot, I decided I’d help my dad over at the building supply. He needed a forklift driver, and I’ve got the training, so here I am.”
“Yes, there you are.” She returned her focus to the doctor who had jumped off the paddock fence and was ambling her direction. “Again, I have to ask,” she said when he was a few feet away. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I’d be back in a few days. Well, best I can count, it’s been a few days.” Trey yanked off his work gloves and stuck them in his back pocket then dropped to one knee in front of Pansie. “Who is this pretty lady?”
“That’s my Gwammy,” Pansie said.
He chuckled as he glanced up at Sessa. “Well, I reckon your Grammy is awful pretty, but I was actually talking about her.” He pointed
to the doll. “What’s her name?”
“That’s Dolly. She’s not a lady. She’s a dolly.”
“No?” He shrugged. “Well how about that? I guess I thought she was, but now that you’ve pointed it out, I can see she is a doll after all.”
“Trey,” Sessa said again. “Focus. What’s all this?”
He winked at Pansie and then stood. “By all this, I guess you mean the delivery?” At her nod, he continued. “I saw a couple of spots in the roof of the barn that needed repairing.”
“A couple of spots?” She surveyed the growing stack of building materials and shook her head. “That’s more than enough shingles to cover the roof of the barn.”
“And the shed. The garage looks fine, and so does the house, but I had some concerns about your workshop.” His expression made her think of a little boy’s pleading puppy-dog eyes. Behind the teasing glint, she read earnest hope. “You might not have noticed, but there are a few shingles missing in the back that are going to cause a leak if they’re not replaced.”
She’d noticed. Several months ago. When the leak first showed up to ruin a perfectly good piece of ash she’d been saving to repair the mane on a hard-to-match standing mare.
Moving Doc Easely’s table out of the way of the drip allowed her to carry on as if there were nothing wrong with the roof. Thus, that repair was on her to-do list.
Her very long to-do list.
Sessa tucked her cell phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “Why are you here? Don’t you have a job to get to?”
He swiped at his forehead with his sleeve. “Eventually, but not today.”
“I guess it’s all right, but I can’t pay for all of this.”
“Wouldn’t let you anyway.”
Jared called his name, and Trey turned around to wave in his direction. “Got to go handle this. Nice to meet you Dolly,” he said to Pansie.
“I’m Pansie,” she protested as she thrust her doll in his direction. “This is Dolly.”
“Well, so you are. Very nice meeting both of you.” Trey reached down to shake one of the doll’s cloth hands and then Pansie’s.
“No really,” Sessa said. “You cannot keep doing these things if I can’t pay for them.”
He fixed her with an even look, but behind it, she read the hint of vulnerability. “I can,” he said. “And I’d appreciate if it you’d let me.”
How could she tell him no? Not when the barn really did need fixing.
And not when she recognized the vulnerability in him.
He loped away without a backward glance.
“Who’s the man, Gwammy?”
She patted Pansie’s head. “Never you mind. Now I think it’s time for you and I to go back to work building things. What do you think?”
The toddler shook her head. “I want to watch the tractor.”
Of course she did. Sessa sighed. “Just for a minute, then we have to go back to the workshop. You’ve got a castle to build, remember?”
And I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do about Trey Brown.
Trey’s attention was divided between the arriving pallets of shingles and the departing woodcarver. While he needed to be helping Jared Chance situate the building materials in the correct spots, he wanted to see what he’d be missing once he ran out of reasons to return to Sugar Pine. He should’ve been back at the hospital by now. Yesterday he’d even gotten so far as sitting in his truck in the garage, white lab coat folded neatly on the passenger seat.
He hadn’t been able to turn the key.
He hadn’t been back to see Tom again, but maybe he could find the closure he needed here in Sugar Pine.
His eyes strayed toward where Sessa had disappeared.
Or maybe it was something else entirely that had drawn him back.
“C’mon, man,” the forklift driver called. “Focus.”
Trey turned his back on the cause of his distraction and finished guiding the pallets into place. When the last one had been set where it needed to go, Trey helped the driver load up the forklift and then pulled out his wallet.
“Put that away,” Jared said. “You’ve already paid for the materials.”
“Yes, but you’ve done a great job. I wanted to reward you for it.”
He shook his head and once again waved away the bills. “Put your money up. If you want to reward me, then do it by taking good care of that lady there.” He nodded toward the workshop where Sessa was likely back working hard at carving her horses. Or painting them. “She’s a good woman and too proud to ask for help.”
“I can see that.” He nodded toward the barn. “I’ll do what I can to set things right around here.”
Jared studied him with the wary eye of a man who’d seen more than his share of trouble and then returned to the process of securing the fork lift. Trey had pegged him for a military guy. The bearing, the stance, the demeanor. He knew it well, and he respected it.
“So you’re going to be a father soon?”
Jared’s hands paused over the tailgate and then he slammed it shut. “Yeah.” He turned to face Trey.
“Your first?”
“Yeah.”
“Boy or girl?”
His expression softened. “Don’t know yet. The wife and I decided to go old school and wait until the baby comes to find out.”
Trey grinned. “Nothing wrong with that.”
Jared swiped at his forehead with the back of his hand and then wiped it on his jeans. “Tell that to my mother. She’s about to drive us crazy wanting to find out. I keep telling her she’ll know when we know. She’s not much liking the fact that Carly wants to have the baby at home, either. For that matter, neither am I, but my wife’s a stubborn woman. At least she’s hired a midwife.” His smile faded. “Anyway, tell me man, how do you know Sessa?” He paused. “And why are you doing this for her?”
What to say? Trey decided nothing would do but the truth.
“I was a friend of Ross’s back in Houston.” He watched Jared’s expression change. “I volunteered at Star of Hope Mission and he—”
“He stayed there. Yeah, he told me that was where he crashed when he was in Houston. Did you crash there too?”
“Not exactly. I got to know him through the GED program. I thought I was going to tutor him through the process of getting his diploma.” Trey fought not to get lost in the memories. “That kid was so much smarter than I was, it wasn’t funny. He could have taken that exam any day of the week and passed it with flying colors. He just didn’t want to.”
“Sounds like Ross.” Jared shrugged. “So why wait all this time to come help Sessa? What’s it been since Ross died? Two years?”
“Two years, six weeks and eleven days.” Trey straightened his spine and met the soldier’s gaze head-on. “And about seven hours.” He paused. “I know, because I was there.”
Trey braced himself for the younger man’s reaction. Tried to think of how he might have responded to hearing this kind of admission.
Truly he didn’t have clue what he’d say or do.
“I see.” Jared reached up to straighten his John Deere cap, his expression unreadable. “So how’d it all go down, Trey? Did you kill him like the first judge said, or were you just protecting yourself like the second one said?”
Straight to the point. He could only respond in the same way.
“He pulled a gun on me. I reacted with the first thing I could reach, a scalpel my dad gave me when I finished med school. I wish I hadn’t.”
Jared leaned against the fender and looked away. “I knew that kid from the time he was little. If he pulled a gun on you, he would have used it. Trust me on that.”
Trey shook his head. “You don’t mean that.”
He returned his attention to Trey. “When I say trust me, I mean it. In fact, when I say anything, I mean it.”
The edge in his voice told Trey he’d gone too far. He quickly made to remedy the issue. “Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers, Jared. I’m just saying that
Ross might have had a good life ahead of him. He could have changed. Made something of himself. I used to do a little rodeoing, and I mean, that kid could ride. I’d hoped he might end up in college, maybe riding on a college rodeo team.”
“Where he’d have to show up for class and listen to people tell him what to do? Not a chance.” Jared shrugged. “Look, it’s me who needs to apologize now. I tried fixing him, too. Thought he’d do well by a stint in the military. Even sent a recruiter buddy of mine after him. Big mistake.”
“Oh?”
“Suffice it to say that as much as his mama tried to raise him right—and she did—that guy was just plain bad news. Maybe if his dad hadn’t died, things would’ve been different, but I seriously doubt it. I wouldn’t be lying to say that he’s not missed much around here.”
Trey nodded toward the workshop. “I’ll bet she misses him.”
“I’ll bet she doesn’t. No,” he amended. “I’ll agree she misses the idea of Ross Chambers, but the person? No. Trust me. Especially now that she’s raising his little girl, the last thing either of them needed was to have that kind of disruption in their lives. You know he hit her? His mama, that is. Left her banged up more than once, though she never would press charges.”
The words filtered in slowly … and as understanding set in, Trey’s blood pressure spiked. “I didn’t know.”
Jared seemed to be studying him. “It’d be a harsh thing to say, but it’d be true to state that you just might have done the world a favor.”
“Can’t see as I’ll ever come around to that way of thinking. It runs counter to everything I learned in med school.”
Jared tugged open the door on the old truck and then leaned against the frame. “You’re a doctor. Why are you here in Sugar Pine roofing that old barn?”
“Because even though I got my license to practice back when the judge set me loose, I owe her a debt I’m still trying to pay.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” Jared climbed into the truck and closed the door, then rolled down the window to lean out. “I appreciate an honest man, Dr. Brown.”
Firefly Summer Page 11
