“Why couldn’t the café be in this place?” I groaned. “I haven’t even seen one of those wicked tumbleweeds up here in the mountains.”
I parked in front of the Old Apple Barn, beneath a sign that said their fudge factory was open daily. I got out of the SUV and started up the steps to a porch with all kinds of pottery hanging between the posts.
If you made a home in these parts, you could buy things like these to decorate your house with.Mama was back again, and there was no doubt that she was ready for me to put down roots.
“Why are you talking to me now?” I muttered.
Because I don’t want you to play poker. I never did, and I hate Frank for taking you out of school, and I hate his new wife for being so hard on you that you couldn’t live a normal life with them. I want grandchildren. I want to see you break this chain of only children by having a yardful of kids. I won’t rest in peace until you do, and if you go back to your old lifestyle, I won’t pop into your head again.
“Well, imagine finding you here!” Nancy stepped outside as I started in.
“Right back at you.” I was glad to see a familiar face so I wouldn’t have to argue with my mother.
It had never occurred to me that my mother would have been disappointed in my choice to go out on my own. Had she really expected me to live with Frank and Paula and all their asinine rules?
“Look who I found,” Nancy yelled over her shoulder.
“I might not be thirty anymore, but I hear just fine, so don’t holler at me. I’m right behind you. What are you doing up here, Carla?” Ada Lou asked.
“I started driving and wound up in this place,” I answered.
Ada Lou stopped in her tracks. “Are you going to keep driving, or maybe find a poker game?”
“Hadn’t planned on it,” I said. “What are y’all doing here?”
“We make the drive once a month to get out of the desert.” Ada Lou looped her arm through mine. “We’ve got two more stops to make, and then we’re starting home. You can follow us. That way, if Nancy runs off the road, we’ll have someone to drag our cold dead bodies out of her car.”
“Hush!” Nancy snapped. “I don’t like to drive after dark, but when it’s light I am better than you are behind the wheel.”
“In your dreams,” Ada Lou shot back at her, and then said, “We need to be back on flat land before it gets dark. The roads are so windy and steep that I don’t know why I ever let her take a turn when we come up here.”
She started walking, and I let her take the lead. “Where are we going?”
We passed a couple of places and then she pointed at a sign:Happy Ever After. “This is where we get our honey while we are here. It’s the best in the whole area and goes right fine on biscuits,” Nancy said. “If Ada Lou isn’t in a pissy mood, I take a pan full of ’em to her house for supper on Tuesday nights.”
“What if she is?”
“Then she doesn’t get biscuits, or she can bake them herself. She is still using the crutch about losing her daughter to avoid turning on the oven and making anything,” Nancy said.
Ada Lou’s eyes had become mere slits when she whipped around to glare at Nancy. “We don’t tease about that, and you know it. If you say another word about Robin, I will ride home with Carla.”
Nancy hip-bumped her. “You know you love me more than your motorcycle.”
“Bullshit!” Ada Lou said and steered me inside.
I was mesmerized by all the merchandise. I was used to convenience stores, where I could buy gas, use the restroom, and maybe purchase some food to nibble on while I drove to the next hotel.
“I’ll have a big jar of honey,” Ada Lou told the lady behind the counter.
“So will I,” Nancy added.
“Me too.” The idea of drizzling honey on some of Rosie’s biscuits for breakfast sounded so good that I told the lady to make it two jars.
“Now, do we go home?” I was already planning to come back when I could spend more time shopping in all the stores.
“Just a quick run into the Burro Street Exchange,” Ada Lou answered. “I want a cup of good strong coffee and a lemon pie. I have to be awake when Nancy is driving.”
“I won’t mention Robin the rest of the day if you’ll give my driving a rest,” Nancy snapped.
