The Sometimes Sisters(74)

She’d thrown away a pretty good hand the night before. The one she was holding that morning was a dud, and she couldn’t even bluff her way through it.

“You ready to tell us what’s eatin’ on you?” Harper asked from across the room.

“You ready to tell me if you’re sleepin’ with Wyatt?”

“Hey, that’s personal.” Harper’s eyes went from warm to cold in an instant.

“What is goin’ on? Y’all are actin’ like you did when we first got here. Am I going to have to bring Uncle Zed out here?” Brook asked.

“Breakfast is ready. Come on in here and help yourselves,” Zed yelled. “Don’t mind her. She’s in one of your granny Annie’s Jesus moods and it’ll take her a while to work things through her mind and get it over. Just give her lots of space so she can figure things out.”

Tawny held out her hands. The right one was empty and the left one had the story of why she had to do community service. The weight of the left one was the rock tied around her heart, but she wasn’t ready to let it go. She pushed her chair back, left her breakfast on the table, and marched out of the café and to the laundry room.

Brook didn’t say a word when she arrived in the laundry room but simply headed out to clean the rooms of the fishermen who’d left before daybreak. A twinge of guilt tried to hit Tawny in the heart, but it couldn’t get past the hardness. She should be letting Brook talk about how happy she was that her time spent in isolation at school was over. Right then, all Tawny could think about was that empty right hand and how that it would take part of the burden from the left one if she was willing to tell her sisters and niece.



Folks in Texas said that after Easter summer would arrive with heat and very little rain. Harper considered them prophets as she went outside after the noon rush that Saturday to catch a breath of air that didn’t smell like grilled onions. She was sitting on the bench when Zed motioned her to come back inside.

“Phone’s for you,” he said. “We might ought to look at gettin’ some of that cell phone service in this area for you girls.”

“We’re makin’ it fine without it.” Harper followed him back inside the café and picked up the receiver from the wall-hung phone. “Hello.”

“Hey, darlin’.” Wyatt’s deep voice sent tingles through her body.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Stuck at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I was supposed to be in Dallas right now, but there’s some kind of bomb threat up here and they’ve grounded the planes, so I won’t be there for Brook’s family thing. It’ll be after midnight when my plane lands and tomorrow I’ve got a one-day trip with some fishermen out on a lake up near Wylie, so I’ll be workin’ on very little sleep. See you tomorrow night.”

“I’ll be right here,” she said.

“I wish you could have come with me. The boat show was amazing. I picked out my next one. Got to go, darlin’. My battery needs charging and I have to find a station.”

If she didn’t have to be in the kitchen seven days a week, she could have been there with him. He’d asked her if there was any way she could take off two days, but she wouldn’t even ask her sisters, not since they’d lost Flora.

“Call me when you have time,” she said.

“Will do,” Wyatt said and the line went dead.

She stomped her foot and growled. “Dammit!”

“Problems?” Zed asked.

“He can’t make it tonight. Brook is going to be disappointed.”

Zed pursed his mouth and poured two glasses of sweet tea. “I’m goin’ outside for a cigarette. Might as well join me.”

She followed him outside, plopped down on the bench, and folded her arms over her chest.

“Guess Tawny ain’t the only one who’s in a foul mood today. Amazin’ how little it takes to turn pretty blue skies to dark. Your granny Annie used to say that it wasn’t the mountain that put her in a bad way, but the grain of sand in her shoe. Brook will be fine.” He crushed the cigarette butt on the heel of his shoe.

She didn’t need a lecture or words of advice, especially when they made her feel guilty for feeling the way she did. What she needed was Wyatt. She made it through the days just fine, but the nights were a different matter.

“Tawny hasn’t got a monopoly on Granny’s moods,” Harper said. “But I do remember Granny saying that hard work would cure anything. I’m going to go mop the floors. That little blonde-haired girl spilled a whole glass of Coke and it’s still sticky.”

“I saw you lookin’ at her with yearnin’ in your eyes,” Zed said.

“I won’t ever be completely over it, but it’s getting better.”



Zed leaned back against the building and shut his eyes, enjoying the warmth of the sun and thinking of Annie. If she was going to have a Jesus mood day, it would usually arrive on June 1, because that’s when the girls used to come for a month. He understood and prepared for it, giving her lots of space and doing all he could just to get through the big disappointment.

“You asleep?” Dana whispered.

“Naw, just restin’ my eyes. Sit down and enjoy this beautiful day with me,” he said without opening his eyes.