“Moving on. New life. Maybe one small glass of wine when I’m ready to forgive—but by then I’ll be so old, I won’t remember what I’m forgiving.” Jorja squeezed Taryn’s hand. “I’m closing my eyes and packing all those ugly moments into the box right now.”
The moment Taryn closed her own eyes, she got a visual of Mitchell in his uniform. He had claimed a barstool beside her and laid on a heavy dose of flirting. For the next two months, the relationship had been hot and heavy, and Taryn was ready to say yes if he proposed before they finished their enlistment. Without even folding the memory like a favorite shirt, she crammed it into the box and mentally stomped it with her boots. Then she added several more memories from her youth.
When she opened her eyes, both of her cousins were staring at her. “What?” she asked.
“I reckon the box is full. Think we can get it taped shut?” Anna Rose asked.
Jorja let go of Taryn’s hand, slammed the lid onto the box as if it were overflowing with heavy stuff, and quickly taped it shut. Then she put it in the trash can and carried it off the porch. “We are burning the past and moving forward. All of us. Not just me. So we’re all three going to strike a match and set it on fire.”
Taryn had never been superstitious—except for black cats crossing her path. But when Jorja handed her the first match and she struck it, she felt a bit of the heaviness in her heart disappear and began to think maybe there was something to the ritual. Anna Rose and Jorja each lit up another corner, and soon, a blaze lit up the area and smoke floated upward. The wind carried tiny pieces of paper out onto the gravel, but they soon burned out and died right there.
Jorja covered a yawn with her hand. “Now maybe we can all sleep. The past is gone; the future is ahead of us.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to undress and do a victory dance around the trash can?” Anna Rose teased.
“I guess some things, likeyoursmart-ass attitude, can’t be burned up,” Jorja said.
Anna Rose gave her two thumbs up. “Jorja just said a bad word. I think the ritual has already begun to work. Good night to you both.” She headed toward the porch but turned at the bottom step and said, “I’m taking another shower to get the smell of smoke and sweat off me. Don’t worry, I won’t use all the hot water.”
“I’m having cookies and milk while I wait on Anna Rose.” Jorja left the trash can, and in a few long strides, she was inside the trailer.
Taryn stared at the red embers in the bottom of the can. Leaving them outside could cause a disaster. One big puff of wind could pick them up, send them to the wooden porch, and then the fire trucks would be waking up the whole city. She could see the headline in the local newspaper:Trash Can Fire Causes Major Catastrophe. Just that much could reinstate her as the biggest troublemaker Shamrock, Texas,had ever produced. She scooped up gravel in her hands and put it into the trash can until all the fire was smothered completely.
By the time she got into the house, Anna Rose was out of the shower and Jorja was having her turn. Taryn poured herself a glass of milk and put a fistful of lemon cookies on a paper towel, then carried her snack over to the recliner. She’d only been teasing when she told Jorja to bury or burn all the past, but doing it had sure brought Taryn peace.
Could it really be that she, herself, had just left all the hurt and pain behind and was ready to move forward?
Chapter Nine
What are y’all doin’ in here? This is a holiday,” Clinton asked as he came into the shop through the back door. “I thought you’d be enjoying a day away from flowers and ribbons. Why didn’t y’all call me when the trash can caught on fire? Did you get burned taking it out of the house?”
“We are all fine,” Jorja answered. “We had a cleansing ceremony. We took the trash can out into the yard and set the fire ourselves. Not to worry—we knew where the water hose was if the blaze had gotten out of hand.”
Clinton raised a dark eyebrow and set the baby carrier on the worktable. He took Zoe out of the carrier and started toward the playpen with her. “What is a cleansing ceremony—or do I even want to know?”
“It’s where we all burn what is holding us back from moving forward with our lives. We put all the bad memories in a shoebox and burned it in the trash can,” Anna Rose explained. “And the reason we’re in the shop today is that we’re bored with nothing to do, so we are making pew bows for the first wedding on the list. These things look like they belong at a baby shower instead of a wedding, don’t they?”
“Maybe so,” Clinton answered with a grin.
Taryn laid down the bow she had been working on and held out her arms to take Zoe from Clinton. When his arms brushed hers, sparks flew again—but then, that was no big surprise. However, she did wonder if he felt the same thing. Did he cover it up as well as she did? Ormaybe he didn’t feel a thing? She avoided eye contact with him and talked to the baby: “Good mornin’, sweet girl. Did you want to come to the shop, where there’s pretty colors and excitement? Do you like these pink ribbons, or are you a red or purple girl?”
“Maybe she likes orange best,” Anna Rose said. “She always reaches for the orange tiger on her mobile.”
Taryn figured that she would miss Zoe when Rebecca came back for her, but the way Anna Rose’s and Jorja’s eyes lit up when the baby was close by left her with no doubt that they would be sad to see her leave, too.
“I missed the baby, but I missed that food from your apartment even more,” Anna Rose continued. “We had to cook for ourselves, and you and Zoe weren’t there to buffer our arguments.”
Clinton sat down on his usual stool and picked up a roll of ribbon. “There’s still lots of casseroles up there, but I’m tired of those things. If the stores weren’t all closed for Memorial Day, I’d buy a grill so we could have real meat—like maybe steak—tonight. Yesterday, we stopped at the Dairy Queen in Pampa, and I had a big juicy burger. It tasted so good. Zoe had a bottle, but I promised her when she got a little older she could have an ice cream cone.”
“When is she even old enough to have big-people food?” Taryn held Zoe out from her body and studied her face. “Did you sleep all right, baby girl, after a big trip like that?”
“And, Mommy Taryn, she slept just fine,” Clinton answered.
Taryn laid Zoe in the playpen and started the mobile. “I would love to be her mommy, so thank you for that.”Did I really say that out loud?She wondered. And if she did, would her cousins take it the wrong way—or, worse yet, would Clinton?
“For real?” Jorja’s eyes widened.
“Of course.” Taryn flinched just a little as she hopped back up on her barstool. “I want a family, and I’d gladly start with Zoe.”Good Lord!She had to bite her tongue to keep from saying anything else.
