“Up where?” Irene asked.
“I’m sorry, Nana,” Taryn apologized. “I thought you were Clinton. He braved the rain to see if his apartment was dry, and I’m in the shop with Zoe until the rain slacks up a bit.”
“Everything is fine in the apartment,” Irene said. “I just talked to him, and Jorja says the trailer is still standing but there’s some tree limbs on the ground. I guess we’re lucky, aren’t we? Though I’ll miss that scrub oak. Anyway, I wanted to know if you checked the front room. The last hard rain we got from the south blew water under the door, and we had to mop it up.”
Taryn spun around and crossed the work room, went through the doorway into the front, and checked everything. “All looks good here. No water on the floor. Glass is still intact, but the petunia baskets out front are gone, and it looks like some of the shops across the street got some of their shingles blown away. There’s a lot of debris everywhere.”
“Damn tornadoes!” Irene swore. “They’re as unpredictable as a horse race.”
Taryn wasn’t sure if her giggles came from nerves or relief. “Nana Irene, just how is a horse race unpredictable?”
“Didn’t you watch the Kentucky Derby last year?” she asked. “Ruby and I always wear a big hat and watch it on television. Last year, the winner had an eighty-to-one chance to win that race. That’s like a tornado. It will suck up a cow and put it in a tree thirty miles down the road but leave a three-ounce box of Jell-O sitting on the shelf in a grocery store that has had all the windows blown out and the roof taken off.”
“Yep, I’ve seen that happen, too, but we dodged a bullet this time. Nana Irene ...” She paused.
“Your voice changed. Are you about to tattle?” Irene asked.
“No, ma’am,” Taryn answered. “But can I come over and talk to you later this evening?”
“Nope,” Irene replied. “If I let you come over here, then I’ll have to let the other two, and y’all need to work out your problems amongst the three of you. I won’t be around forever.”
“This hasn’t got anything to do with Anna Rose and Jorja,” Taryn said. “We’ve kind of formed a therapy group to talk about our problems—and believe it or not, we are getting along a little better. This has to do with me and Clinton. I’m afraid I’m projecting my feelings for Zoe over to him. He kissed me today, but the baby was between us. Literally between us—as in, I was holding her and he had to lean around her to kiss me.”
“And?” Irene asked.
“And it felt right, but ...” Taryn sighed. “But all three of us cousins have trust issues. I’m not going to tell Anna Rose’s and Jorja’s stories, and this isn’t the time to get into my own story.” She paused. “I madeso many stupid mistakes as a teenager here in Shamrock that it hurts my heart to think of how much pain it had to have caused you.”
“You were an ornery kid, for sure.” Irene’s tone was serious. “But keeping things bottled up for years isn’t good for a person. I’ve prayed every day for you girls, and now I find out that you’ve all kept secrets from me. You are all going to come clean before you leave if I have to lock you back down in the cellar until you tell me what has happened.”
“We’ll tell you when the time is right for them,” Taryn said. “But it’s so hard to trust again—”
“You can trust Clinton,” Irene butted in. “He’s a good, honest man. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be working for me or with you girls. You have to figure out for yourself if you are really loving him as a man or if you are just wanting a family. That’s your job, Taryn. I wouldn’t begin to steer you in any direction on that issue.”
“Hey,” Jorja yelled from the back door. “It’s just drizzling now, so I brought an umbrella to help you get the baby to the trailer. Where is her diaper bag?”
“You go on and take care of things,” Irene said. “We’ll talk more later.”
“Thanks, Nana Irene, for listening,” Taryn said.
“Anytime—but mark my words, the truth will come out,” Irene said and ended the call.
“The diaper bag is probably still in the basement,” Taryn called back, raising her voice. “I didn’t see Clinton pick it up.”
“I’ll get it, and you get Zoe.” Jorja’s voice faded as she headed down the steps.
By the time Taryn had picked up the baby, Jorja was back, with the bag thrown over her shoulder. “We can all huddle up under the umbrella. Anna Rose and I were both soaking wet when we got back to the trailer. We got into dry clothes, though, and she’s making breakfast for us. I already called Clinton, and he was on his way down when I came to get you and Zoe. Who were you talking to?” She opened the door and popped the umbrella up.
Taryn avoided the question. “Thank you so much for helping us out.”
“No problem,” Jorja said as she took them across the wet parking lot and into the trailer.
Taryn inhaled the mixture of freshly brewed coffee and frying bacon when she was in the house. “I didn’t realize I was hungry until now,” she said as she made a pallet on the floor for the baby. “Everything smells wonderful.”
“Bacon and scrambled eggs, and waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, or else butter and syrup,” Anna Rose said.
Clinton stopped right inside the door and inhaled deeply. “I don’t know if it’s relief from our places still standing or if I’m really this hungry, but I feel like I could eat an elephant.”
Taryn looked up from the floor and caught Clinton’s sly wink and imagined that he was thinking the same thing she was.
