Taryn gave her cousin a cocky smile, and Irene whipped around to point at her. “You don’t get to lord it over the other two, young lady. Do y’all think I like being right across town and not seeing each of you every day? If you do, you’ve got rocks for brains. I’m making you lean on each other because the day will come when I won’t be here, and family is important.”
Her last words landed with a jolt. Taryn didn’t want to think about a time when Nana Irene would be gone. Her grandmother was and hadalways been the stability for the whole family, and they needed her to boss them around, give advice, and keep them in line.
Irene dropped her finger. “Ruby and I will see y’all on Saturday, unless we decide we need to get out and go for a ride and then drop in here for a little visit. If that happens, you can draw straws to see who will bring Taryn’s SUV and chauffeur us around.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jorja said and came around the end of the bar separating the kitchen from the dining area to give her grandmother a hug. “But please don’t talk about dying. It makes me sad.”
Irene wrapped her arms around Jorja and then stepped back. “Darlin’, we all have an expiration date, and the closer we get to it, the less it bothers us. Don’t be sad when I’m gone. Be happy for all the good times we’ve had together—like tonight.”
“That goes for me, too,” Ruby said, “but I’m not planning a trip into eternity anytime soon, so you don’t have to rush out and buy extra tissues.”
Jorja swiped a tear from her cheek. “That’s easier said than done, so I’m just not going to think about it. Good night, Nana. ’Night, Ruby.”
Taryn knew that her cousins were close to Nana Irene and Ruby, but she wasn’t so sure that anyone—not even her mother and her siblings—could love Nana Irene any more than Jorja did.
“’Night,” Irene and Ruby said at the same time.
“Now, Taryn, you can help me get Ruby down those steps and into your vehicle,” Irene said.
“I hate not being able to do for myself,” Ruby said with a long sigh.
Irene helped Ruby get the walker out onto the porch. “I’m going to hate it, too, when I get new knees at the end of summer, and I intend to whine about it even worse than you do. But with the girls’ and Clinton’s help, we’ll get through it.”
“I don’t whine,” Ruby argued.
Taryn followed them and then held on to Ruby while she slowly made her way down the porch steps to the ground. Ruby was a little woman, not even as tall as Taryn, and frail looking. If she had gottenoff-balance, Taryn was sure she was strong enough to scoop Ruby up and carry her to the bottom of the steps with no trouble.
Irene had opened the doors and was settled into the back seat by the time Taryn and Ruby reached the SUV. “What’s this thing between you and Clinton?” she asked.
Taryn started to speak but didn’t know how to tell the truth or even divine whatever it was between them. She also didn’t know—after all these years—how to tell her grandmother about her fear of trusting anyone after the last fiasco with a married man.
“We’re friends, and I help with Zoe,” Taryn finally answered.
“Oh, honey!” Ruby got situated and fastened her seat belt. “The way you two were looking at each other, you are more than friends. If you aren’t willing to admit it now, you better get ready because I could feel the heat between y’all, and I’m an old woman.”
“Don’t confuse what you feel for Zoe now with what you might feel with Clinton in time,” Irene said. “You have absolutely fallen in love with that baby.”
“You’re going to be devastated when Zoe’s mama takes her away,” Ruby said.
“I’ve thought of that,” Taryn said as she slid in behind the steering wheel and started the engine. “Did you ever hear that song by Garth Brooks called ‘The Dance’?”
“Of course,” Ruby answered.
“Well, that’s kind of the way I feel about Zoe.” She took a few minutes to tell them about the way she had bonded with Alicia. “I could refuse to let myself get close to Zoe and miss the pain when she leaves, but I would have to miss the joy of knowing her. I’m choosing joy,” Taryn said as she drove out of the parking area.
Irene sighed loudly. “I was in pain when my three kids all moved away, but I wouldn’t have them stick around here and be miserable. I had the joy of being close to them for more than forty years. And now, I have you girls to bring me happiness—even if it is in short spurts. But I agree with Ruby: there’s what you kids callvibesbetween you andClinton. He’s putting down roots, and you’ve had wings to flit around wherever your heart leads you for the past few years. I worry that you might start something that can’t ever be finished. He’s a good man, and you’re a great woman, but be sure of your feelings for him before you start doing more than casual dating. I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”
Ruby laid a hand on Taryn’s shoulder. “Whatever you do, just do it without regrets.”
Taryn parked in the driveway at her grandmother’s house. She wouldn’t argue with her grandmother or with Ruby, but she wasn’t so sure they—either one—had a thing to worry about. Still, to appease them, she said, “I promise I will think long and hard about taking another step with Clinton, but y’all don’t have a thing to worry about. We’re just friends who share a love for a little baby.”
Chapter Ten
This whole church looks like it’s been sprayed down with Pepto-Bismol,” Taryn muttered as she followed along behind Clinton. He affixed silver hangers to the end of each pew, and she hung the pink bows with sprigs of baby’s breath on each one.
Jorja had always liked pink and even thought that if she ever got married, she might want her bridesmaids to wear that color. But she changed her mind right then and there.
Anna Rose stood back to look at the floral arrangement on top of the piano, then moved it a couple of inches to the left. “There, that’s better. Taryn, you stole that line from an old movie. We watched it with Nana Irene and Ruby when we were teenagers. It’s still one of their favorites, and they both tear up every time they see it.”
