He wept like a baby on her shoulder, and Taryn had to swallow several times to get the lump out of her own throat. He finally took a step back, pulled out a hankie, and wiped his eyes; then he nodded toward the rest of the group. “Amos took me in and taught me this business when everyone else thought I was worthless.”
“We sure hope you’ll agree to stay on,” Anna Rose said, “and help us learn. We don’t know anything about farming.”
“I’d love to do that,” Forrest said. “Y’all come on in the house and have some cobbler while we talk a spell, and then I need to get out to the watermelon shed and help load the boxes. It’s been a while, but I remember all of you except ...” He glanced over at Clinton.
“But me, right?” Clinton stuck out his hand. “I’m Clinton McEntire.”
Forrest shook hands with him. “Pleased to meet you. Amos said kind things about how you help veterans and don’t charge them. I triedto join the service, but I don’t do too good when it comes to written tests.”
“But evidently, you know how to grow watermelons,” Jorja told him as she headed into the house.
“That, I can do,” Forrest said, holding the door open to allow the rest of them to go inside.
Taryn helped Ruby up the steps and then stepped into the living room, an open area with the dining room and kitchen all visible.
“That would make Amos happy,” Forrest told her.
Taryn had promised herself when she graduated and left for basic training that she would never live in Shamrock again, and now she didn’t have to. “The population of Twitty might increase since Anna Rose says she’s ready to learn the watermelon business, and I expect Jorja and I better be ready to do what we can, too.”
“And I’ve got a cat, Goldie, that I’ll be bringing with me,” Anna Rose announced. “When can you start teaching me?”
“We’re in full harvest now, and it will last through the first week of July,” Forrest told her as he led the way to the kitchen area, where Ora Mae was getting bowls down out of the cabinet. “Then we’ll start to plow the fields to get them ready for spring planting. We also grow a few acres of cotton, so we have a fall crop to tend to. Listen to me, talking like Amos is still here.” His voice quivered slightly when he said Amos’s name.
“He will always be here in our hearts,” Jorja told him. “What he’s done for all of us, and especially for me, can’t be measured in dollars and cents.”
Forrest opened the freezer and brought out a gallon of vanilla ice cream.
“Were you ...” Forrest’s face turned scarlet. “I mean ... don’t answer that. It’s too personal.”
Jorja set the ice cream on the counter and laid a hand on Forrest’s shoulder. “I was, but let’s enjoy this moment. This cobbler looksamazing and smells wonderful, Ora Mae. Can I help by dipping it up into those bowls?”
“Yes, you can,” Ora Mae answered. “Blackberry cobbler was Amos’s favorite dessert, so it seemed fittin’ to make one for today,” she said.
“I’m so sorry.” Forrest tucked his chin down to his chest.
“That Amos liked blackberry cobbler?” Jorja asked.
“No, for not being there on that night. I went to that party that night, but I stayed back at the side a few minutes, then went home. If I’d stuck around, I might have kept what happened from ...” He raised his head and locked eyes with Jorja.
“We can’t undo the past, but I sure appreciate your feelings,” Jorja told him with a smile. “Who all wants ice cream? Help me out, Forrest.”
Everyone’s hand went up, and Forrest began topping every bowl with a big scoop of ice cream. Taryn admired Jorja’s calmness; the funeral and this party would be mentioned a lot over the next few weeks—at least until some new gossip took its place.
Forrest brought a tray with coffee mugs and a full pot of coffee, and Jorja helped Ora Mae carry the bowls to the table.
“This just seems right: you girls and Clinton and Forrest all being here. Amos would love it. When something was perfect, he used to say that it was the icing on the cake,” Ora Mae said, but she dropped her spoon on the floor in the middle of her sweeping gesture. She got up to put the dirty utensil in the sink and get another one but paused for a long moment, staring at the whole bunch of them gathered around the table.
“I’ve been thinking since the funeral this morning, and now ...” She stopped and smiled. “My older sister down in Amarillo has been begging me to move over there and live in an assisted-living place with her. She called right after I got home from the funeral to check in and says there’s an apartment right next to hers that’s come open. The folks there told her they would hold it for me a couple of days. Seems like an omen to me. I’m going to call her back and tell her that I want to move in soon. Y’all can form your own new friendships with Forrest and thefolks who live in this little community. It’s time for me to go—I know that every time I look at this house without my friend in it, it will make me sad. Y’all are all going to be a new breath of air here.”
“But, Ora Mae, what if you don’t like it?” Jorja argued.
“I get up every morning and make the decision to be happy. This is the right move because I feel it in my bones,” Ora Mae said. “Don’t argue with me. If you have two houses, it will give you room to spread out a little.” She came back to the table and sat down. “Now, let’s eat this cobbler.”
“Reckon you could give me the recipe?” Jorja asked. “I’ll make it every year on this day to remember Amos, and you can come over here from Amarillo to spend a couple of days with us.”
“Of course I will share the recipe with you.” Ora Mae smiled. “Maybe when y’all come to Amarillo to shop, you can drop by and see me.”
“You can count on it,” Taryn said.
