The Perfect Match (Blue Heron #2)(99)

Tom bounded over to her again. “I’ve got to run Charlie home. Will you be around?”

“I have to go to my grandparents’ house,” she said. “Still trying to purge.” A drop of sweat ran from his jaw down his neck, and she had to resist the urge to lick it. Huh. Imagine that. She was a nasty, dirty girl. About time, the eggs said.

“Tell me about it,” she murmured.

“What’s that, darling?”

“Oh, nothing. Hey, I forgot to mention it, but we have this thing tonight at Blue Heron. A family thing.” She paused. “So I hope you can come. Charlie, too.”

“Sounds fun. Though I did have plans to cook dinner for you tonight.”

Oh, sigh. Not only could he shag like a friggin’ Olympian, he cooked for her. “You can still cook for me.” If you take me to bed first, that is.

He grinned as if reading her mind and went back to the kids, and Honor headed out of the gym and up the Hill.

Dad was at the Old House, listening as his parents gave closing arguments as to why they didn’t need a downstairs shower.

“We didn’t even have running water when I was a boy,” Pops said. “We don’t need a second bathroom!”

“I don’t know why everyone’s having a problem with me going up the stairs twenty times a day,” Goggy added. “If this old fool would up and die, I could move into his room.”

“You’d mourn me, woman,” Pops said. “Your life would be an empty shell.”

“Try me. Oh, Honor! Honey! How are you, sweetheart? You look exhausted.”

Oh, I am, Goggy. Uh-huh. That’s right. She cleared her throat. “How are you guys?”

“Your father thinks we need a downstairs shower.”

“So do I,” Honor said, kissing her grandmother’s cheek.

“I have a perfectly good bathroom upstairs,” the old lady said.

“She has a perfectly good bathroom upstairs,” Pops echoed.

“You can’t make us have a better bathroom,” Goggy said.

“We hate better bathrooms,” Pops added.

“Okay, you two,” Honor said. “You’re making Dad’s life a living hell. He’s getting married again, he doesn’t want to have to come over here five times a day to see if either of you is lying in a pool of your own blood.”

“So? Don’t come over, then,” Goggy said. “I’m just your mother. I didn’t mean to be such a burden. I thought that three days in childbirth would’ve—”

“And I’m getting married, too,” Honor interrupted. “And Jack is useless, as everyone knows. So let’s talk about what we can do to keep you here safely, or maybe think about spending winters in Florida.”

“Death’s waiting room? Are you crazy?” Goggy sputtered.

“Do I look like I want to go to Disney World?” Pops said.

Honor looked at her grands. “Look,” she said. “We love you. We don’t want you to go anywhere. The best way to stay in this house is to make a few changes here and there.”

“You think we’re old,” Goggy said.

“Mom,” her father said, “you are old. Not decrepit, but old. I’m old. I’m sixty-eight.”

“I know, John. Since I spent three days in childbirth with you.”

Dad sighed and closed his eyes.

“Okay,” Honor said. “I have a list—”

“Of course you do,” Pops muttered.

“—of things that should be done. There are seventeen things on this list. How about if we pick five to get started?”

“Two,” Pops said.

“None,” Goggy said

An hour and twenty-three minutes later, after presenting an argument that would hold up in front of the Supreme Court, Honor had coerced her grandparents into agreeing to two of the seventeen changes. A stair-chair and a new furnace so they wouldn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning. “Fine,” muttered Goggy. “But I won’t use that silly chair. That’s for old people.”

“You are old, Elizabeth,” Pops snapped.

“And you’re older!”

Dad roused himself from where he’d been sitting with his head in his hands. “Okay, let’s get going. We have the sowing ceremony tonight. Honor, sweetheart, walk with me to the New House. Mrs. J. and I haven’t seen you much this week.”

“You bet,” she said. “See you up there, Goggy. Behave yourself, Pops.”

She walked the short distance between houses with her father, the shrill, sweet sound of peepers rising from the pond. In another hour, it would be full dark.

“How are things with Tom?” he asked.

“Great, Daddy.”

Her father looked at her thoughtfully. “I wasn’t sure about him,” he said. “Not at first, anyway. But he seems like a good guy.”

“He is,” she said.

“And you love him? Are you sure?”

Finally, she could look her father in the eye. “I’m sure.”

Dad put his arm around her shoulders. “You look just like your mother when you smile,” he said gruffly. “Now this doesn’t mean I’m dying to give you away, you know. You can stay with Mrs. Johnson and me forever, so far as I’m concerned. You and Tom both, if you want.”