“And we’ll take you and your sister out to dinner when we do,” Anna Rose told her.
The cobbler was delicious, but Taryn was having trouble swallowing. Like she had said before, things were happening so fast that thinking about it made her dizzy. A big farm and two houses had been dropped in their laps, not to mention whatever money Amos had in the bank. But if Zoe could come back, she would gladly give it all up.
She finished her last bite and picked up her coffee. “Would it be rude for me and Clinton to take our coffee to the porch?”
“Not one bit,” Irene said, “but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to tell us your story later this afternoon. If it’s worse than what Jorja’s is, me and Ruby might be loading up our automatic shotguns.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Taryn agreed and then spun back around to face her grandmother. “What are you doing with automatic guns?”
“Rattlesnakes,” Ruby answered. “Our eyes ain’t good enough to pop a snake’s head off at ten yards, but if one comes around—slithering on the ground or standing upright on two legs—we can shoot until we runout of shells. I bet Forrest has inherited Amos’s arsenal, so y’all don’t have to worry about such things out here.”
“Lord have mercy,” Taryn said under her breath as she headed outside.
She and Clinton settled into the rocking chairs on the porch. “Can you believe that my grandmother has a shotgun?”
“Nothing surprises me about those two gals,” Clinton said with a chuckle.
“What do you think will happen to the shop if Jorja and Anna Rose move out here?” Taryn asked.
“Irene and Ruby won’t be satisfied sitting at home and doing nothing,” Clinton answered. “They need something to keep them busy. Irene told me she’s been bored out of her mind these past few weeks and that she’s not having her knees replaced. They want to be back in the shop as soon as the doctor releases Ruby. Are you going to live out here with Anna Rose or with Jorja?”
“Everything has happened so fast that I haven’t had time to even think about that, but my first thought had been to continue living in the trailer,” Taryn replied. “I might build a house somewhere on the property later on, if all of us will learn how to be watermelon and cotton farmers.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Clinton said and took a sip of his coffee.
Taryn drank in the sight of watermelon fields as far as the eye could see. “I wonder just how big this place is.”
Forrest came outside and nodded at Clinton and Taryn. “It was nice to see all y’all again and to meet you, Clinton. I need to get back out to the fields. A thousand acres of watermelons don’t harvest themselves.”
“There’s your answer,” Clinton said with a smile.
“I was just wondering out loud about the size of this place,” Taryn explained.
“A thousand acres of melons and not quite three hundred in cotton,” Forrest told her. “Are all three of you planning to move out here?”
“Well ...,” Taryn answered and then made up her mind in that moment. “Anna Rose will be, but I’m not sure about Jorja. Since Ora Mae is moving, though, I expect she’ll want to come on out here, too. This is all so sudden that I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around it.”
“Amos was like a father to me, and he did right by me,” Forrest answered. “Wrapping my head around what he’s left me is mind-boggling, too. I could live off the interest from the trust fund that Amos left for me. I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life, but I love working outside and then sitting on the porch with a glass of sweet tea in the evenings and realizing that I’ve helped bring in a good crop. It’ll be good to keep doing just that.” He picked up a wide-brimmed hat from the porch swing. “Y’all going to move in here soon?”
“We don’t want to rush Ora Mae, so we may all live in this house until she’s got her moving plans in place,” Taryn said.
“Good,” Forrest said as he crammed the hat down on his head and started out across the yard. “It’d be lonely out here without Ora Mae or Amos.”
“I thought you were staying in the trailer,” Clinton said.
“Me too, but I know I need family around me. Sounds crazy since I didn’t want to live with Anna Rose and Jorja—but now I can’t imagine not having them close by,” Taryn told him.
Clinton reached over and laid his hand on hers. “I’m glad you’ll be close. But I will miss just walking across the back lot to the trailer to see you.”
“I vowed to never live in Shamrock again,” Taryn told him.
Clinton gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “This isn’t Shamrock, darlin’. It’s Twitty.”
“Yes, it is, and it’s only seven miles out here. You are more than welcome anytime. This would have been a great place to raise Zoe.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Clinton said.
Anna Rose came out the door. “Y’all want to come inside and tour the rest of this place with me and Jorja? I’m a little spooked. Seems sadthat a man had to die for Jorja to ... Well, you know,” she stammered. “And for us to ...”
