The Magnolia Inn(73)

“Let’s have oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar to go with the muffins.” The other woman headed for the pantry. “I’ll make it while you finish stirrin’ those up, chère. Something ain’t right. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I had to come see if you kids were okay.”

“Must be something in the air. Jolene can’t figure out why today looks strange on the calendar,” Tucker said.

Dotty filled a small saucepan with water and set it on the stove. “Me, either. That’s where I went first. Sugar always got four calendars at the grocery store and she filled them out for each of us with our birthdays, committee meetin’s at the church, and so on. Then we put in our own doctor visits and personal things. There’s not a thing on today for any of us. I checked with Lucy and Flossie before I left—they got this feelin’, too—so I volunteered to come out here to check on y’all.”

Jolene felt better knowing it wasn’t just her feeling strange about the day. Maybe it had to do with Aunt Sugar. That was the only explanation.

“Why didn’t you just call?” Tucker asked. “You could catch pneumonia in this weather.”

“Oh, chère.” She giggled. “Us Cajuns are a lot stronger than we look. It’d take a little more than rain to get me sick. Must just be this awful weather gettin’ us all antsy.”

“Or maybe it’s spring fever hittin’ us early,” Jolene said.

“Could be. I’m tired of this damn weather for sure. I saw a single little daffodil at the old Ennis place as I was driving out here and got more excited about spring than I ever have before.”

That would certainly explain the vibes when Tucker was close, Jolene thought. It was the same hormones that the birds and the bees get when spring is on the way. Her focus shifted toward him, standing there with bedroom hair, and she almost dropped the pan of muffins that she was carrying to the oven.

Bedroom hair? Spring fever was taking over for sure.



Conway, Arkansas

Sugar did up the breakfast dishes and checked her calendar like she did every morning. She picked up a pen and wrote HOME in the January 29 slot. With good weather and no hiccups, they could be hooked up at the house next to Flossie’s by nightfall.

“Still happy?” Jasper wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Too much to describe. How about you?”

“Like you said, there are no words. Do you realize that our grandbabies won’t be off out there in West Texas? I wish Dotty would have hired her when she was twenty-one.”

“I was selfish back then and didn’t want people to know that she worked in a bar,” Sugar admitted.

“And she refused to come work for us in the inn,” Jasper remembered.

“She said she could make her own way.” Sugar nodded. “But, darlin’, I’m not sorry we did this trip. It showed us where we belong, and we’d never have bought the RV just for vacations.”

Jasper brushed her hair back and kissed her on the neck. “And someday Jolene and her husband might want to borrow it to take the kids to Disney World.”

She laid her head on his chest. “If only we could have had half a dozen kids of our own.”

“That would’ve been wonderful, but that wasn’t in the cards for us. Reuben or Jolene’s children can be our grandbabies. I just hope neither of them wait too long to get married. Are you ready to get started on the last leg toward home?”

She pointed to the wall where the calendar hung. “Yes, I am. See, I wrote it down already because it’s such a special day.”

She strapped herself into the passenger seat. “What time will we be there?”

“Six, maybe, but probably more like seven. We can run on generator power tonight if it’s too dark for me to find things.” He kept talking, but Sugar had her phone out and was picking out furniture for her new place.

At noon, Jasper pulled the RV off into a rest stop in Louisiana and parked it in the truck-only area. Sugar heated up a pan of tomato soup and made grilled cheese sandwiches. Jasper got out potato chips and opened cans of root beer for them.

She had taken the first bite of soup when her phone rang. She bit back a groan when she saw it was Jolene. She handed the phone to Jasper. “You talk first. I’m afraid I’ll tell her and spoil our surprise.”

“Is this the Magnolia Inn callin’ me?” Jasper teased as he put it on speaker mode.

“No, this is your favorite niece.” Jolene giggled. “Are y’all havin’ a good time? Where have you decided to go next?”

“Where our hearts take us,” Jasper answered.

“Aunt Sugar, is there anything special about today? You don’t have it on the calendar, but I’m kind of antsy, and something tells me it’s got to do with the day,” Jolene said.

Sugar glanced over at the calendar and sidestepped the issue. “Maybe it’s got to do with Tucker. Have you thought of that? Or maybe you’re going to win that thing where that company shows up on your porch with a big check.”

“No . . . wait a minute while I step outside,” Jolene said.

In a few seconds, Sugar could hear the screech of the old chains on the porch swing. She pushed the “Mute” button and whispered to Jasper, “She suspects.”