Taryn picked up Zoe and kissed her on the forehead. “Just wait until you are old enough, baby girl, and then you can have ice cream and Popsicles.”
“Imight need a Popsicle if there’s a red one,” Ruby said. “This heat takes it out of a person, and your granny ate the last of our ice cream last night.”
Irene got up and headed for the kitchen. “Well, you scarfed down the last two pieces of pecan pie, and the doctor said you should be watching your sugar intake.”
“Nana Irene, we’ve got everything under control, so you go on back in there and sit down,” Anna Rose said. “Soon as I get this watermelon cut up, we’ll be ready to eat, and you both can have ice cream if you want. You told me that anything you eat on a holiday doesn’t have fat, sugar, or calories. Remember?”
“Speak for yourself,” Ruby said. “You guys should know that this woman is a tyrant. Not only does she boss me around but she is also a demon about my at-home therapy. I keep telling her that payback is a b-i-t-c-h, and I will deliver it with a smile on my face when she gets her knees done.”
“Why are you spelling that word?” Clinton asked.
“Zoe doesn’t need to hear bad words,” Ruby told him.
Taryn giggled. “I don’t think she’ll remember much of what we’re saying here tonight.”
“And one more thing: the girls are all home now, so when I get my knees done, they can take care of me and you won’t have to even see me for six weeks.” Irene groaned when she sat back down.
“There’ll be a blizzard in hell before that happens,” Ruby smarted off. “We ain’t gone without seeing each other for one day in our whole lives, and it ain’t damn likely to start now.”
Taryn didn’t ask, but she wondered just when her grandmother was planning on having knee surgery and if she really thought all three of them would be staying past the summer. She could do her work in Shamrock for a while if Nana Irene needed her—but if she was doing that, who would run the shop?
“Okay, everyone,” Clinton said. “Looks like we’re ready to eat. Ruby, what do you want on your hot dog? I’ll make it for you and bring it right to the recliner.”
“Everything and extra cheese,” she said. “And thank you for being such a gentleman.”
Jorja set her beer on the table and said, “But first we say grace. I still love Jesus, even if I do like this beer.” She bowed her head, and everyone else did the same.
Taryn didn’t listen to her cousin’s prayer, but she sent up one of her own asking God not only to help Jorja find her way but also to show all three of them the path they should be taking.
“Amen,” Jorja said. “I might need to say an extra prayer tonight for what I’m about to say, but my beer is sacri-licious.”
“I’d say you’ve turned the first page of the new chapter in your life,” Anna Rose told her. “I’m proud of you!”
Taryn giggled and looked over at Clinton, who had a big smile on his face. She had never wanted to kiss a man more than she did right then—but not with the whole family surrounding her.
The shop is called the Lucky Shamrock, but it can only do so much. It’s up to you to do the rest,the pesky voice in her head said.
“Turn out the lights; the party’s over,” Irene singsonged at nine o’clock. “It’s time for these old birds to go home to roost.”
“See how bossy she is?” Ruby fussed. “I could stay until midnight. But if I did, I might feel the need to put on some music and dance, and maybe even teach y’all the dances of the sixties and seventies. We had some real moves back then.”
Taryn unfolded Ruby’s walker and set it before the recliner. “When your hip gets better, we’ll let you have beer—and even a double shot of Jameson if you want it—and you and Nana Irene can teach us the dances.”
“You’ll have to find the right music,” Irene said. “That music you kids listen to today doesn’t have the kind of beat for the dances that we did.”
“All except for country music.” Ruby groaned when she got up out of the recliner. “Guess I sat a little too long. My old bones are jealous ofthe new hip, and sometimes they get testy just to show me that they’re still around.”
Clinton gathered up Zoe’s toys and put them in the diaper bag. “It’s past time for me and Zoe to go home, too. She’s used to having her bath and being asleep by this time. She’ll start to get cranky pretty soon if we don’t get going, but it’s sure been a great evening.”
Taryn wondered if that idea about Ruby’s old bones being jealous of a new hip worked for moods as well as joints. She and her cousins had been getting along the past few days, but would a time come when the old attitudes resurfaced just to test their new relationships? She was still thinking about that when she settled Zoe into her carrier and kissed her good night.
Anna Rose pouted. “It’s not fair that you get to spend time with Nana Irene without us.”
“How do you figure she’s doing that?” Clinton asked as he picked up the diaper bag with one hand and the carrier with the other.
“She gets time with them in her SUV, both coming over here and going back,” Jorja answered and then shot Taryn a dirty look. “If you are gone more than half an hour, then we get to go over to Nana Irene’s separately later in the week.”
Irene shook her finger in Jorja’s direction. “Young lady, you don’t call the shots on this issue. Taryn is my cab driver. If you are jealous because she gets to drive me back and forth, then trade that little car of yours in on something that Ruby and I can get in and out of.”
