The Magnolia Inn(40)

“That sounds wonderful. Give me a few minutes to shower and get dressed,” she told him.

He went out to sit on the porch swing, and Sassy followed him. The cat settled onto his lap and meowed.

“So I’ve been hearing Melanie’s voice more lately, but the only thing she says is for me to move on. I didn’t tell her good night last night like I always do. Does that mean I’m finally taking a step forward?”

The cat shut both eyes.

“Lot of help you are,” Tucker said. “There are days now when I can’t remember what she looked like without looking at her picture. It scares me, Sassy.”

The cat opened one eye and then closed it again.

“If I don’t remember her, then all those wonderful years we had together will be gone,” he whispered.

Jolene pushed her way out onto the porch, and Sassy hopped down off his lap and made a beeline to the door. “Guess she doesn’t want to get left outside,” Jolene said as she started for her truck. “I can’t wait to decide what color to do this first room. I think they should all be different, but we should keep the colors muted and light, and that the border should have magnolias on it. But I have been thinking of painting the front door purple and hanging a pretty magnolia wreath on it. Aunt Sugar talked about doing that for years, but they never got around to it.”

“Sounds good to me. We can take my vehicle,” he said.

She nodded. “Then we can keep the rooms separate by calling them by their color. Like, ‘we’ve got guests in the blue room.’ But today we only have to decide on one color, right? And we’ll think about the front door before we make a definite decision.”

“We could pick out two colors today.” He rushed around the truck to open the door for her. “That way we’ll have the paint here and ready.”

“Let’s find a pretty magnolia border and then match six colors to that. And no heavy drapes on the windows. We need to bring the pine trees inside, and . . .”

He started the engine. “You’ve given this a lot of thought, haven’t you?”

“Yep, I have, and I’m really glad that you are able to finance it, Tucker.”

It was a good thing that they ate their burgers before they went to the paint store, because there was no such thing as simply picking out a border. She pored over three massive wallpaper books, marking at least a dozen borders that had magnolias on them, but she couldn’t decide. The flowers were too big on one, too small on another, and too stylized on another.

Tucker found an old metal folding chair in the corner, sat down, and leaned it against the wall on the back two legs. He pulled his hat down over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. He would have picked out a border in five minutes, but he was a man. Melanie and Jolene both took forever to make up their minds about anything.

He smiled when a memory of Melanie popped into his head. He had taken her out shopping, and she’d been in and out of a dressing room, trying on outfit after outfit to wear to the Dallas Police Department’s Christmas Ball. He’d sat in a chair pretty much the same as he was right then, only it wasn’t leaning against the wall.

He shouldn’t compare Jolene to Melanie, he thought. One had been choosing a dress; the other was choosing wallpaper. They looked nothing alike and their temperaments were different. But the flutter in his heart when he’d been around Melanie was the same one that he got when Jolene was close by. He’d continue to fight it, but it was getting harder and harder not to acknowledge.

Finally, Jolene narrowed it down to six and asked his opinion. He took the book and carried it fourteen feet away from where she was sitting and held it up in the air. “This is the way the people will see it when they walk through the bedroom doors. Now what do you think?”

“Why in the hell didn’t you do that an hour ago? I’ve been agonizing over this because it’s the most important decision we’ll make. We’ll see it in every room of the house, and you didn’t think to do that?” She narrowed her eyes at him and then shifted her gaze to the border. “Not that one. Hold up another one.”

He remembered that Melanie had held up two dresses in the end. One was red and the other one was black. He’d told her to buy both and decide which one to wear the day of the ball. She’d done just that and worn the red one—the same dress he’d chosen to bury her in.

He held up the last border, and before Jolene said a single word, her smile told him she’d found the perfect one.

“That’s it. That’s the one. We’ll need to order a bunch. Is that all right?” She bit at a thumbnail.

He thought about telling her exactly how much money he’d received when Melanie died, but he just couldn’t. It didn’t seem right.

“Of course. We’ll order as much as we need.” He didn’t tell her that he would have sunk his last dollar into wallpaper to have the decision made. “Now let’s go get a sample of it to take home.”

Home!

Saying it didn’t make it so, or did it? He thought about it on the way to the checkout counter. Had the Magnolia become home? And if it had, did that mean he’d taken another step out of the past? And was Jolene part of the future? If so, in what capacity?

“I’d like a sample of this border.” Jolene pointed to the one in the book.