Miss Janie’s Girls

by Brown, Carolyn

“I’m excited about it,” she answered. “I thought you had faith in me, and you thought this was a good idea for me and Kayla to work together.”

  “Don’t get your dander up,” he chuckled. “I do have faith in you, but let’s play hypothetical like we did with the jury that evening. Let’s say that Will and Kayla fall in love and get married. After a year or so, she gets pregnant and has a baby and wants to stay home and raise it. What do you do?”

  “I talk her into bringing the baby to work, where we have dozens of grannies and grandpas who’ll be happy to rock a baby and watch it grow up,” Teresa said without a moment’s hesitation. “When the baby or babies get ready to go to school, our old folks will help them with their homework and tell them fantastic stories, and they’ll love their extended family of grandparents, because they won’t have day-to-day love and care like that.”

  “Will’s folks are still alive,” Noah reminded her.

  “Yes, but the babies raised in this house will have everyday love, not only on Sunday afternoon,” Teresa argued.

  “I see you’ve given this a lot more thought than I have.” He stood to his feet and held out his hand. “Guess we’d best get back to work.”

  She put her hand in his, and he pulled her to his chest. She didn’t even have time to moisten her lips before he kissed her.

  “I might be too tired to even pucker up when we get home, so that could be your good-night kiss,” he told her when it ended.

  “I don’t believe that for a minute.” She picked up a roll of blue painter’s tape from the cabinet and grabbed his hand. “If we ever expect to go home, we’d better get busy.”

  “Bossy, ain’t you?” He let her lead him into the bedroom.

  “Yes, I am.” She grinned.

  There was no way Kayla couldn’t notice Will’s muscular thighs, not in the cramped bathroom space—not when all she had to do was turn her head slightly and they were right there. He was wearing a pair of jean shorts that already had paint stains on them and a T-shirt that was printed with a sign saying that Will was a 1989 model that was aged to perfection and still had all the original parts. A slow heat started up the back of her neck when she let her mind wander to all of his parts—especially those covered by his shirt and shorts.

  She shook her head to get rid of the vision of his body without that T-shirt or shorts. Lord have mercy! She’d vowed not to trust a man again, and now Will Barton had stirred up emotions in her that she’d thought had died.

  “So you’ve been teaching Sunday school since we graduated?” She did her best to keep her eyes on the taping job instead of sneaking peeks at his body.

  “Yep,” he answered. “My mama and daddy both taught a class, and when I graduated, I wanted to help out like they did. I took online college courses so I could stay home and help them while I got a business degree, and I taught my class of second and third graders on Sundays.”

  Kayla could tell by the tone of his voice that he dearly loved his family and his class of little kids. “Ever think of having kids of your own someday?”

  “Have you?” He looked down at her.

  “I’ve always been afraid I’d be a terrible mother,” she blurted out.

  “Why would you feel like that? Miss Janie mothered all of us at school and you at home, too. She was tough, but there wasn’t a one of us, rich or poor, that doubted her love for us.”

  “I never knew my biological father. He got my mother pregnant, then got killed. Mama married my stepdad before I was born, and they had a couple of kids, but . . .” She stopped. “This isn’t important at all.”

  Will sat down beside her. “If it has to do with you, then it’s important, because you are.”

  “Okay, then.” She smiled. “My stepdad and my mother constantly reminded me that I should be grateful that someone was willing to adopt an ugly mixed-race kid like me.”

  “Was the man blind?” Will raised his voice a notch. “You are beautiful, Kayla Green.”

  “No. His vision was fine until he got drunk,” Kayla answered. “His brother or uncle or someone in his family got him a job in California, and at the end of summer they moved. They said there wasn’t room for me in the car and they’d send money for me to come on the bus in a couple of weeks. The food ran out, and the landlord kicked me out when I couldn’t pay the rent. Social Services stepped in, and Miss Janie said she’d foster me. I was almost fifteen at the time.”

  “Holy hell!” Will gasped. “If my mama had known that, she would have brought you home with us.”

  “I’m glad she didn’t.” Kayla grinned.

  “Why’s that?” Will stood up and began to roll paint again.

  “Because we’d be kind of like brother and sister right now if she had,” Kayla answered.

  “You got a point there.”

  He finished painting the bathroom and then added, “Think that maybe I could talk you into dinner on Sunday after church? I’d like you to meet my folks. You’ll love them.”

  “Will Barton, are you totally insane?” she asked.

  “Nope, and I know because Mama had me tested when I was a little boy,” he joked. “But why would you ask?”

  “Think about what I told you about my folks. I would imagine that your mama lived in Sulphur Springs her whole life. She would remember my mother and all the scandal. I’m not like my mother, and I’m comfortable in my skin these days, but are you sure about this?” She sighed.

  “That’s funny as hell,” Will said. “Did you ever meet my mama or my daddy?”

  Kayla’s brow wrinkled as she tried to remember if she’d seen them at church, but then she remembered that they’d probably attended services in Sulphur Springs.

  “I don’t think I ever did meet them,” she answered.

  “They are both black. I’m the little white boy that Mama’s neighbor’s daughter died giving birth to, and the neighbor let them adopt me,” he said. “Mama was a registered nurse. Daddy was a lab technician. Both of them worked at the hospital in Sulphur Springs. I don’t think they’ll mind you being half-black.”

  “You’re kiddin’ me,” she whispered.

  “Nope, not one bit,” he declared.

  He set his roller down, stepped over to where she was still sitting on the floor, and sat down beside her again. He removed his wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open. “Here’s me when Mama and Daddy brought me home, and here’s me with them on high school graduation night. Surely you noticed them then?”

  She shook her head. “I’m so sorry. Denver and I were planning to run away, and we didn’t stick around after graduation very long. You were still wearing thick glasses then.” She touched his face in the picture.

  “Yep, my biological mother smoked and drank, and God only knows what else, so I was born with poor eyesight. The doctors weren’t sure that I wouldn’t have mental issues or impaired motor skills. That’s why my biological grandmother didn’t want to try to raise me,” he said.

  Kayla was struck speechless. The love in his mother’s eyes was undeniable in the picture. Will had wrapped his tiny fingers around his adopted father’s hand, and Mr. Barton was looking down at the baby as if he had been sent straight from heaven.

  “So now,” Will said, “one more time, will you spend the day with me on Sunday? Meeting the parents is usually after many, many dates, and I’m sure Mama wouldn’t mind if I skipped going to see her for a few weeks, but—”

  “I’d love to go with you and see these two folks.” She looked up at him.

  “Great!” His head bobbed once. “I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock. That’ll give us plenty of time to drive to Paris, pick them up, and get to church on time.”

  “Hey, y’all done in there?” Teresa called out from the other side of the hallway.

  “Yes, we are,” Kayla answered. “We’ll meet you on the porch for a glass of iced tea.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Teresa said. “Noah and I will pour the tea.”

  “Thanks for sharing you
r story with me.” Kayla handed back his wallet. “I guess we have a little bit in common, don’t we?”

  “Looks like it, and thank you for sharing with me.” Will stood up again and opened the door for her. “I guess I got in on the tail end of this painting job. I feel a little guilty about y’all doin’ so much for me when I’ve done so little.”

  “That’s what friends do,” Kayla told him. “They help when and however much they can.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Will left pretty quickly after he’d drunk his tea, leaving the three of them sitting on the porch together. The sun had sunk below the far horizon in a bright array of colors that reminded Teresa of Miss Janie’s casket flowers and of the idea that the woman’s spirit really did represent all the shades of yellow, pink, purple, and light blue in the beautiful Texas sunset. Yellow represented her sunny disposition; pink and purple, her fantastic ability to love; and light blue was her understanding heart.

  “I’ve got a few things I need to do at home.” Noah got up from the porch step where he and Teresa were sitting. He still had her hand in his when he looked down at her and asked, “Are you ready?”

  “Not just yet,” she said. “Kayla can bring me home after a while.”

  “See you there, then.” Noah let go of her hand. “I’m really not looking forward to painting a two-story house after doing this one.”

  “But we get smoked brisket afterward,” Teresa reminded him.

  “We’ve had so much fun with this one, I’m kind of looking forward to starting on Will’s place,” Kayla said. “I asked Sam about it when we were working in the living room, and he said that it’s got three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. There’s a living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor and a completely finished basement that’s paneled, so it won’t need any paint.”

  “That’s good news.” Noah waved and disappeared.

  Both women waited until the dust had settled behind Noah’s truck, and then they started to talk at once, realized what they were doing, and stopped.

  “Guess we better slow down and go one at a time,” Teresa said. “Maybe you better go first.”

  “His folks are up in Paris at an assisted living center, and we’re going up there to take them to church and then dinner and a movie afterward. If you’d told me six weeks ago that I’d be double-dating with his parents, I’d have told you to go have your head examined,” Kayla spit out. She took a deep breath and went on. “Did you know that he was adopted, or that his parents are black?”

  “Are you serious? We were out of the gossip loop, I guess,” Teresa said.

  “Serious as a heart attack. He carries pictures of them in his wallet. I thought I was agreeing to dinner after church and maybe a movie, but then he said he’d pick me up for church. Going to a black church, meeting the parents, eating with them? Lord, I’m getting hives thinking about all that.” Kayla sighed. “What if I don’t use the right fork, or they remember my mama, and . . . ?”

  Teresa threw an arm around Kayla and gave her a side hug right there on the porch steps. “You’ll do fine. Miss Janie taught us all we need to know.”

  “If Noah’s parents were still alive, would you feel like you were ready to meet them?” Kayla asked.

  “Hell, no!” Teresa’s voice went all high and squeaky in her own ears.

  Kayla giggled. “Just as I thought. Maybe I won’t think of this as a date, but as two new friends getting together for church and dinner.”

  “If it sounds like a date, waddles like a date—even if it’s going to church—and looks like a date, then it’s probably a date,” Teresa teased.

  “I’m not strong like you. I’m ninety percent bluff and only ten percent mean,” Kayla admitted. “The thought of bringing a man into my life terrifies me.”

  “Honey, I’m not nearly as tough as you think I am, but we are both survivors, and that comes from the way we were raised. We had to be or we’d both be dead by now,” Teresa told her.

  “He has always been a churchgoing man. If we got into a serious relationship, I’d feel like I should tell him more than I have about life back then. I was more than just abandoned and homeless, Teresa. I had a horrible example for a mother, and I don’t know if I can even talk about it,” Kayla admitted.

  “You might want to be up front and honest before the third date, though.” Teresa moved over a few feet. “It’s too hot to sit close together.”

  “Why the third?” Kayla asked.

  “The first one is Sunday, when you meet the parents and his mama gets to know you. Believe me, the second one will be with only the two of you, and you’ll kind of know at the end of that one if you want a third date. If so, you should tell him what’s on your mind so you don’t get your heart broken down the line,” Teresa answered. “That’s my honest opinion.”

  Kayla threw up her palms. “Have you had a lot of dates since you and Luis separated? I was so glad to be free of Denver that I didn’t want to even look at another man until I ran into Will in the grocery store a few weeks ago.”

  “What changed your mind, even then?” Teresa asked.

  “I don’t know, but some of the chains that I imagined were wrapped around my heart to protect it fell away when he looked at me,” Kayla said.

  “That’s strange.” Teresa smiled.

  “Why is that strange?” Kayla asked.

  “Because that’s the way I felt when I saw Noah again. Did I ever tell you that he was the first boy I ever kissed?” Teresa asked.

  “No!” Kayla clamped a hand on her mouth. “When did that happen?”

  “Before you came to live with me and Miss Janie. We were barely in our teens, and we had a little moment on the back porch,” Teresa told her. “I kissed other boys after that and even had a short-lived relationship in college before I met Luis, but nothing ever compared to that first kiss I had with Noah.”

  “I’ve never kissed or been with another man other than Denver, and he’s the only man I’ve had sex with. With my wild reputation, I bet that’s hard for you to believe.”

  “Not one bit,” Teresa said. “Like you said, ninety percent of you is bluff.”

  “Do you ever worry that if we were to have kids, we’d be like our mothers?”

  Teresa shook her head. “I refuse to be like that, and I give you permission to yell at me if I ever am.”

  “You’ve got the same permission,” Kayla said. “When Denver told me that I was pretty and he loved me, I was willing to do anything he asked because somebody finally loved me. Will has wonderful parents and comes from a really good background. I can see this developing into something really good, but after he thinks about what I told him about being afraid to be a mother, he may not ever want to see me again.”

  “If he likes you, then he’ll help you get past your demons,” Teresa told her, but she wondered if she was talking to her foster sister or to herself. “Now it’s your turn. Noah is so far above me, smart-wise, background-wise, and every other way in the books, that I wonder if we got into something very serious”—she paused—“if he would ever be ashamed to introduce me to his lawyer friends.”

  A few long sighs pierced the silence, but nothing else, not even the sound of a cricket or a bird, could be heard. Then Kayla said, “The same right back at you. I can’t imagine him ever being ashamed of you, but if it happens, kick him to the curb. We’ve come too far to let anyone make us feel ugly and unappreciated just as we are.”

  “Take me as I am or shut the door,” Teresa said.

  “Something like that,” Kayla told her.

  “We are tough,” Teresa declared. “If these guys don’t like what we have to say, the world won’t end. The sun will come up in the east the next morning and go down in the west that night.”

  “Amen,” Kayla said.

  “And on that note, let’s lock this beautiful place up and go home.” Teresa got up and headed inside. “I’ll turn out the lights and bring out our purses. You can go on and get the car st
arted.” Who would have thought that she and Kayla would ever be close enough to share their deepest fears? She only wished that they could have trusted each other enough when they were teenagers and had talked to each other back then. Maybe if they’d been friends, neither of them would have made so many mistakes in their lives.

  Cooking was what Kayla did when she was nervous, and she sure enough had a case of jitters that Saturday morning. Will had sent her a text message and asked her to go to supper and take in a movie with him when he got off work. By Saturday evening she’d made six dozen peanut butter cookies, as many chocolate chip cookies, and four loaves of banana-nut bread. She had also made a pan of hot yeast rolls to go with the potato soup for dinner, since they were all tired of leftover casseroles.

  Still the day seemed to drag by—probably because she wanted to talk to Will some more about this thing lying heavy on her heart.

  “You’re sure a bag of nerves today,” Teresa told her as they cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. “Are you that nervous about going to supper with Will tonight? You don’t have to talk to him about motherhood, you know. Matter of fact, that might scare him off.”

  “I’ve worried about this all night and all day. I have to get it off my chest.” Kayla washed the last bowl. “He’s so kind and sweet. He doesn’t deserve to be led on, so I’m telling him tonight. I got to admit, though, I’m afraid of what I’ll see in his eyes when I tell him.”

  Teresa threw an arm around Kayla’s shoulders and hugged her. “You’ll feel better once you get it off your chest.”

  Kayla laid her head on Teresa’s shoulder. “My mother didn’t want me, but she kept me anyway, and I might be just like her. Is that what I say?”

  “Miss Janie was our real mother, and she not only wanted us but loved us,” Teresa said. “Want me to wait up for you? I can always put in the time looking at pots and pans on Noah’s computer. I’ve got two sets picked out for us to consider already.”

  Kayla took a step back. “Knowing you’ll be here to talk to when I get home would make me feel better.” She finally smiled for the first time that day.