Dotty swung open the front door. “We’re here. Something smells delicious.”
Lucy hung up her coat. “What’s the news?”
Flossie didn’t take off her jacket but pushed past both the others and met Jolene in the dining room. “Tell me right now that this is good news. My blood pressure is risin’ by the minute.”
“Surprise!” Sugar made an entrance into the dining room.
“Oh. My. Gosh. Am I seeing things?” Lucy squealed.
“I knew something was going on.” Dotty raced across the floor to hug Sugar.
Then suddenly they were all four hugging, hopping up and down as much as ladies their age could do on bum knees and hips.
“Are you here for a visit?” Flossie asked.
Each of them still had a hand on Sugar’s shoulders, as if they were afraid she’d disappear if they weren’t touching.
“So how long are you stayin’? Will you be here for the weekend so you can go to church with us? Where is your RV?” Dotty fired questions one after another.
“Let’s get some food and sit down,” Sugar said.
“Hey, ladies.” Jasper came in from the kitchen with a coffeepot. “Y’all go on and get your plates ready, and I’ll pour the coffee.”
“Are you headed for the West Coast now? I heard it was snowing out east of here.” Flossie led Sugar to the front of the line. “You go first. I don’t know if I can even swallow food right now.”
Lucy followed Sugar. “I want to know why you didn’t tell us you were coming through here.”
“Because we aren’t coming through here. I got homesick, so we changed our plan. We stayed in Marshall last night,” Sugar said. “We’re thinking of buying the little house next to Flossie. Our RV is out back right now, but we’re hoping to park it at the new house tonight and start to move in as soon as possible.”
Jolene stood to the side and watched them. Everything was right in their world now. Sugar had come home. Tucker slipped an arm around her waist, and her joy doubled.
“How does this make you feel?” he whispered, so close that his warm breath caressed her neck.
“Like everything is falling into place,” she said with a slight shiver. “How about you?”
“They kind of remind me of my grandparents. Mine would be older, but they still make me think of them,” he said. “Are you cold?”
“No, your touch just affects me that way.” If they were going to have a relationship, then Jolene figured she should be totally honest with him.
“And yours does the same to me,” he said. “Damn, it feels good for things to be right again.”
“Yep, it sure does.” She tiptoed and kissed him on the cheek, not caring if anyone saw but relieved that they didn’t. This was Sugar’s thunder, and she didn’t want to steal a single bit of it.
“When did you figure this out?” Lucy asked Sugar.
“Sunday, but I wanted to surprise y’all,” she answered. “You can’t know how hard it was not to tell you every time we talked.”
“We would have had a big party if you’d told us,” Flossie said and then turned her attention toward Jolene. “Did you know?”
“Not until this morning,” Jolene said.
They all took places at the table with Jolene sitting right next to Sugar. She could barely believe a whole hour had passed when Jasper said, “Okay, ladies, we’ve got to be at the house at ten. I’m sure y’all have to open up your stores, too.”
“We can open late,” Flossie said.
“Why do you have to be there at that time?” Jolene asked.
“Belinda is coming to show us the place, but we already know we’re going to buy it. And Sugar spent two days on her phone with a furniture store in Marshall. They’ll be delivering a bedroom outfit at ten thirty so we can sleep in it tonight,” Jasper said.
“But I have a store full of furniture that you can choose from,” Lucy said.
“And so do I,” Flossie said. “Come get whatever you want, and I won’t even charge you for it.”
“I don’t want antiques. I’ve never got to pick out what I want instead of taking what was left to me. Not that I’m complaining. The inn was very good to us.” Sugar talked as much with her hands as her words. “I appreciate y’all’s offer, but Jasper and I want soft, comfortable furniture.”
“She says she wants stuff that’s comfortable and doesn’t require much dusting,” Jasper chuckled. “So, Jolene, will you forgive us for leaving you with a mess? We really should be going. It takes a while to get that big RV backed up among all these tall pine trees.”
“You’re forgiven,” Jolene said and then asked, “How did you ever get it pulled down the driveway and out back without me hearing?” Then she remembered how she and Tucker had been making out at the time they’d driven by the house.
Sugar giggled. “Remember when you were a little girl and said that the inn was your magic castle? Well, honey, it hasn’t changed just because you grew up.”
Tucker and Jolene stood on the porch and waved at Dotty’s SUV until it was out of sight. Then they did the same when the RV came around from the back and disappeared. Jolene shivered as a gust of north wind blew across the porch, and Tucker slipped his arms around her waist from the back to hold her close to his chest.
Touching her like that felt, oh, so right.
She covered his hands with hers, and that wasn’t awkward or strange, either. He felt as if he was truly ready to take a big step forward, and he wanted to do it with Jolene. But he still had some ground to cover to get her to trust him.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed Aunt Sugar. How about you? How is this going to affect you?” she asked.
Sugar moving back made Jolene happy, and he liked that. She didn’t want to move back into the inn, and he liked that.
“Honest or sugarcoated?” he finally asked.
“Honest. Always, always honest,” she told him.
“I’m glad that they’re buying a house of their own. They would have been welcome here, but I kind of like us having the place to ourselves,” he said.
She shivered again. “Me, too.”
He wanted to stand right there and hold her forever, but it was too cold. “We better get inside before you freeze. Let’s share the cleanup and the work. I’ll take care of loading the dishwasher if you’ll put away the leftovers.”
When he carried the butter and milk to the refrigerator, he stopped and stared at his finger, naked where his wedding band had been. The deep indentation would take years to completely go away, but it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would.
“You’re looking at your ring finger, aren’t you?” she asked.
He nodded. “I buried the ring at Melanie’s grave. It was time.”
“It’s part of your past, Tucker. You have to get over it, but you also need to know that it was this experience that makes you the man you are today,” she said.
“Thank you,” he said around the lump in his throat. “The same goes for you.”
She laid a hand over his heart. “We all just get a day at a time. It’s up to us whether we fight the demons that plague us or if we give in to them.”
He pushed her hair back away from her face and stared down into her big blue eyes. “How did you get so smart?”
“Living a tough life,” she answered as she tiptoed and brought his lips to hers for a kiss. “But when you kiss me, it don’t seem so rough right now.”
Jolene was a fresh start with someone who understood him. What she said about fighting demons made a lot of sense, but it was a whole lot easier to fight something if a person had a partner to watch his back. What they did with their lives beyond a few hot kisses was up to them now.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tucker had just finished work and taken a shower that Friday evening when his phone rang. Jolene had gone to the grocery store that morning but had forgotten to get milk, so she’d run back out for it. But it was his mother-in-law, Carla.
&
nbsp; “He’s gone, Tucker,” she said between sobs. “I found him an hour ago in his recliner with the newspaper in front of him.”
“What can I do?” Tucker asked with a heavy heart. He should’ve gone to that birthday party. At least it would have been bittersweet. Today would be nothing but sadness.
“Can you just come and sit with me and the boys awhile?” Carla asked.
“I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Thank you.” Carla ended the call before he could say anything else.
He dressed in creased jeans, shined boots, and an ironed shirt. He threw the hood on his coat up and ran to his truck. Several cars took up the driveway at the Tillison house when he got there, so he parked on the other side of the road and sat for several minutes. Another car pulled in behind him. A man and woman got out and slowly walked across the street and up the sidewalk and knocked on the door. A few minutes later, Tucker got out of his pickup and followed them.
Carla met him at the door with swollen eyes. “Oh, Tucker, I’m so glad you’re here. Luke told me about your meetings at the cemetery. I thought we had another couple of months, but his heart played out.”
Tucker backed her up enough to close the door. “I’m so sorry.”
“The funeral will be Sunday. Luke planned it all, and last week he had me add you as a pallbearer. I hope that’s not too much to ask.” She hugged him tightly and wet the shoulder of his coat with her tears.
“That soon?” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.
“His wishes. Just graveside at the cemetery. He’ll be buried beside Melanie. No weeping, he said, but I can’t help it.” She dabbed at her eyes and gave the hankie back to him.
He shook his head. “Keep it. You might need it again. What can I do?”
“Just sit with me and the boys. It’ll be like having Melanie with us.”
“Of course,” he said.
“Four o’clock Sunday afternoon. Strange—we were supposed to meet for ice cream then. He was adamant about the time, too. It had to be at the same time we had the service for Melanie,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t be mentioning her so much since . . .”
Tucker draped an arm around the tall woman who had Melanie’s eyes and build. “It’s okay. I’m finally making my peace with it.”
She took him by the hand and led him into the living room. “Luke told me that talking to you helped him do the same. Now come on in here.”
A lady appeared at his elbow. “Let me take your coat. Can I get you something to drink?”
“A cup of black coffee,” Tucker said.
“It’s good to see you again, Tucker.” Melanie’s brother Will stuck out a hand.
Tucker shook with him and then turned to Patrick, her other brother. “I’m so sorry, guys. I thought we had a little more time.”
Patrick pointed to the chair beside him. “How’s the renovations at the inn going?”
“They’re going great. We should be open for business by spring.” He remembered the anger he’d pent up inside himself when people meandered around talking about jobs, family, and the weather the day after Melanie was killed. That evening, he understood it better. In situations like this, folks tended to talk about everything under the sun just to get their minds off the sorrow and the pain.
“And how’s the new partner working out? I remember her from church when we were all kids,” Patrick said.
“Better than I could have ever hoped.” Tucker took a sip of the coffee that the lady put in his hands.
Patrick took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m happy for you.”
“And Melanie would want you to move on,” Will said.
“Life is tough,” Tucker said.
Patrick clamped a hand on his shoulder. “We don’t mean to get all up in your business, but we’ve learned that we don’t get guarantees in life. Be happy. And don’t be a stranger around here. We’ve missed you.”
Tucker swallowed twice to get the lump in his throat to go down. “Moving on hasn’t been easy.”
“Not for any of us,” Will said. “Melanie would’ve been real happy that all her favorite people were here.”
Tucker managed a weak chuckle.
Carla sat down on a nearby sofa. “I’m glad that Luke met you at the cemetery and you two got things straightened out. You’ll understand when you have a daughter.”
He got a fleeting vision of a little blonde-haired girl with blue eyes. She wore bibbed overalls and handed him a hammer when he asked for it. Carla was right—no man would ever be good enough for her. Suddenly, he understood Luke better than he ever had before.
The lights were on in the inn when Jolene arrived home at three in the morning. Sassy met her at the door, and the smell of cinnamon floated through the foyer. She hung up her coat and started to the kitchen but noticed that Tucker was sitting in the living room in the dark.
She flipped the switch. His hands went to cover his face, and when he removed them, she could see that his eyes were bloodshot and he looked like hell.
“Something is wrong. I can tell. Please tell me it’s not about Aunt Sugar.” She plopped down on the sofa beside him.
“Luke died this afternoon. Melanie’s dad. Funeral is Sunday, and they’ve asked me to be a pallbearer. Would you go with me?” He looked absolutely miserable.
She moved closer to him and slipped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, Tucker, but I’m glad that you made peace with him before he died. That will mean a lot as time goes on. Of course I’ll go with you. I’m just sorry that I didn’t make things right with my mother before she died. The last words between us were said in anger. I told her for the gazillionth time that I wasn’t ever coming back to see her if she didn’t get her life in order. She told me to get out and go to hell.”
“We’re a sorry pair, aren’t we?” he sighed.
“Maybe, but we make a damn fine whole person when you put us together.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Think so?” His big, strong arms went around her, and he rested his face in her hair.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “We make a great team.”
“I had my doubts at first about us working together, but . . .”
“But what?”
“I was wrong.” He stood up and held out his hand. Her eyes locked with his when she clasped his hand. He pulled her against his chest and looked down into her face. Slowly his eyes fluttered shut, and his mouth closed over hers. Then she was floating as he scooped her up like a bride and carried her toward his room. He started to the bed with her, but she put her hand on the wall and shook her head.
“Sassy is sleepin’ on your bed. Let’s take this to my room,” she whispered.
He stopped just inside her bedroom door. “Are you sure about this, Jolene? Is our relationship ready for this step?”
She put a finger over his lips. “Can I trust you with my heart?”
“Yes, darlin’, you can.” He kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Church services on Sunday morning. A funeral planned for the afternoon. That was a lot in one day, but Jolene would do both. The first because Aunt Sugar wanted them to go to church in Jefferson with her. The second because she wanted to support Tucker.
But churches and funerals reminded her of when her dad died. The service had been in a huge church. She’d sat flanked by Aunt Sugar and Uncle Jasper. Her mother had been on the same pew, but it was Aunt Sugar who comforted her through the whole ordeal.
When Elaine passed away, there hadn’t been a service of any kind. Aunt Sugar had offered to pay for a memorial or a full-fledged funeral if Jolene wanted, but it had seemed more than a little hypocritical on Jolene’s part to do something like that. Especially since she and her mother had been at cross-purposes for years. So when the funeral home called her to claim the ashes, she’d done so and mixed them with those of her father.
She loved the congregational singing that morn
ing. Tucker had a fine voice, and the ladies would most likely be after him to join the choir if he came to services regularly. But when the preacher read some verses from Psalm 37 about not fretting, she quickly tuned him out. Living with her mother, she’d learned early on to focus on something other than what was being said, so that morning she turned her thoughts to everything that had happened in one short month.
Dotty poked her in the ribs and whispered, “Ever had sex on a church pew?”
Jolene blushed. “Shhh . . . God will aim lightning bolts at us for even thinkin’ that word in church.”
“What word?” Tucker asked from the other side.
Jolene mouthed, “Later.”
She was thinking about sex with Tucker on a church pew, her pulse and heart both racing when she glanced over to find him staring right at her. He laced his fingers with hers and leaned over to whisper, “You look gorgeous this morning.”
“Thank you,” she mouthed.
She was thinking about the night before and what Dotty said about sex on a church pew when the preacher jerked her back to the present by asking Jasper to give the benediction. Not one to ever use fifty words when two would do, his prayer was short and to the point. Everyone said amen with him at the end and didn’t waste any time making their way to the doors to shake the preacher’s hand. Then they’d hurry on home or to a favorite restaurant for Sunday dinner.
Jolene remembered a side door and quickly ushered Tucker out that way so they could get to the Magnolia before everyone else. She settled into his truck and fastened her seat belt.
“That was slick,” Tucker chuckled.
“Uncle Jasper showed me how to get out quicker when I was a little girl,” she said.
He drove out of the parking lot and turned south. “So we have to do this every week now?”
“I’m afraid so. Aunt Sugar says it’s good for the business and that it won’t hurt us to be still once a week. Confession time—I didn’t listen much to the preacher, but being there was kind of nice,” she said. “I haven’t been in church in twelve years, but we have this service this morning and then we have a funeral. Seems strange, don’t it?”
The Magnolia Inn Page 24
