The Barefoot Summer(22)

“A loaded sub sandwich with cold cuts and lots of Italian dressing,” she said.

“You got it,” Aunt Ellie said.

She laid the phone to the side, picked up the remote, and turned on the television, but before she could flip through the channels, the sliding doors out to the deck squeaked open. Gracie didn’t pay a bit of attention to Amanda but headed straight to the bathroom with Jamie right behind her.

Jamie stopped in her tracks and raised an eyebrow.

Amanda narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m not sleeping in that bed another night. Aunt Ellie is bringing me another bed tomorrow after she closes the shop. Good night.”

Jamie giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Amanda asked.

Jamie stopped and looked back. “It took you long enough to figure it out.”

Kate smiled as she came in the front door. “She’s young and slow.”

Amanda shook a finger at Kate. “Just because you are old doesn’t mean you are so smart. You married him, too.”

“Yes, I did. But I did not spend one night in that bed.”

“Me, either,” Jamie yelled from the hallway.

“And I won’t spend another one,” Amanda declared.





CHAPTER SEVEN

It was one of those days when if something could go wrong, it did. Even if there was no way something could go wrong, it did anyway. Kate started out the morning by burning her breakfast toast, spilling coffee all over her favorite pajamas, and killing a spider on the kitchen counter. She’d just put the ingredients for a smoothie into the blender when someone knocked on the door. On the way to open it, she stumbled over Amanda’s flip-flops and almost fell face-first across the living room floor.

“What in the hell is Waylon doing here this early?” she mumbled as she slung open the door.

“Good mornin’,” Hattie said cheerfully.

Kate frowned.

“I’m here for Gracie. Jamie said I can have her the next three mornings for Bible school down at our church. Is she ready?”

Kate shrugged.

“You haven’t had your morning coffee, have you? I’m an old bear until I get my two cups, too. I’ll just see if they’re out on the deck and you go get a cup poured,” Hattie said.

Kate stepped aside and let her enter the cabin. Hattie stopped in her tracks when she saw Amanda on the sofa. “Why isn’t she in one of the bedrooms? That can’t be good for her back.”

“She wanted the master bedroom but changed her mind last night,” Kate explained.

Jamie slid back the doors out onto the deck and smiled at Hattie. “She’s ready. We were having breakfast burritos while we waited.”

Gracie’s dark ponytail was held up with a bright-red bow that matched her red-checked sundress. Her white sandals showed wear, but Jamie had taken time to polish them. Gracie tiptoed across the floor and put her hand in Hattie’s.

“I’m ready. You will be my teacher, right?” Gracie slipped her hand in Hattie’s.

Oh, to be as trusting as a child, Kate thought.

“Yes, darlin’ girl, I will keep you right beside me all day,” Hattie said. “I’ll have her back by one. We feed them lunch before we turn them loose.”

Jamie bent down and kissed Gracie on the forehead. “Have fun. When you get home, I want to hear all about your new friends.”

“I’ll try to remember all their names.”

Jamie handed Hattie a piece of paper. “Hattie, here’s my phone number in case she wants me to come and get her before the Bible school is done.”

“I’ll get that programmed into my phone,” Hattie said. “And Gracie, I can’t wait for you to meet Lisa.” Hattie led her out of the cabin, talking the whole way.

Jamie followed Kate to the kitchen and started to dump what was left in a skillet into the trash, then paused with a frown as she stared at Kate’s burned toast and the mixture in the blender. “The toaster runs hot. You got to stand over it and watch it like a hawk or it will burn the bread every time. It’s so old it doesn’t have a setting on it. Whatever you’ve got in that blender looks like ground-up grass. There’s enough egg mixture left for a couple of burritos. You want it?” Jamie asked.

“If she doesn’t, I do,” Amanda said from the sofa.

Kate set the blender in the refrigerator and nodded. “They do smell good. I could eat one.”

“Well, rats! I could eat them both.” Amanda padded barefoot from the living room to the kitchen. She went straight to the microwave and put a cup of water into it to heat. When it dinged, she stirred instant decaf into it, added sugar and milk, and took a sip before she carried it to the table.

“Too bad. I’m having one,” Kate said. “How did you sleep last night?”

“Horrible, but better than if I’d been in that bed,” she said honestly.

Jamie whipped up two burritos in a few seconds, put them on a plate, and set them in front of Kate and Amanda. Then she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table with them. “Y’all ever hear of the seven steps of grief?”

Amanda bit the end off the burrito. “I thought it was twelve steps. I went past denial into anger last night.”