“I got a Matilda call a few minutes ago,” I answered.
“A young woman needs help, right?” Ada Lou asked.
“We could sublet the fifth trailer,” Nancy suggested. “Ada Lou owns it and leases it to a couple, but she could sweet-talk them into letting her move someone else in if it is short term.”
“If Scarlett moves out like I think she will, we have a room for her. My problem is that I’m new at this. I’m not Matilda.” I felt like someone had thrown me into cold, deep water and expected me to swim to shore. I needed a life jacket, and I sure hoped Rosie had one.
“You are a woman who got help when you needed it, and now it’s time to pay it forward. Us women, no matter age or experience, should always stick together and uplift one another,” Rosie called from the other room.
“Yes, we should,” I agreed with a nod and carried a full bin back to the kitchen.
Rosie heaped scrambled eggs onto a couple of platters and set them on the service window. “Order up,” she called out, and then turned to face me. “Have you changed your mind?”
“I haven’t, but all this responsibility coming on so quickly ...”
“God don’t pile no more on a person than He will help them to endure.” Rosie patted me on the back. “I’m proud of you, Carla.”
“Thank you, but I wouldn’t even consider it if ...” I slapped a hand over my mouth at the same time Scarlett came into the kitchen with another bin of dirty dishes.
“Are you all right, Carla?” Scarlett asked.
“Please tell me again that you aren’t going to quit working here,” I whispered.
“I will work here as long as the Tumbleweed stands,” she said. “Unless you tell me that when I have babies, I can’t bring them to work.”
“We’ll turn the storage room into a nursery and buy one of those portable buildings to keep our supplies in. We could even hire a lady from Dell City to be our nanny.”
“If we get a new girl, I would like to take Sundays off after we get her trained,” Scarlett said.
“Done,” I said without hesitation.
Chapter Eighteen
Ihad to push Scarlett’s boxes away from the door when I heard Jackson drive up that evening. She had mulled over the idea of moving in with Grady all day, but by closing time she had made up her mind, and in a couple of hours she had completely cleaned out her bedroom.
“When you make up your mind, you don’t mess around,” I said.
“That’s right. I forge full speed ahead.”
I had lived out of two suitcases for more than half my life, and I could be packed up and gone in fifteen minutes or less, but Scarlett had lived in the trailer for five years.
“Where did all this stuff come from?” I asked. “Your room is smaller than mine.”
“You accumulate stuff when you live in one place for more than a few days,” she answered.
“But how did you get it all in one small bedroom?”
“Tetris,” she said with a shrug.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s called organization, and utilizing every single space,” she answered.
I opened the door expecting to find Jackson, but instead he and Grady stood side by side on the porch. The idea of the boxes being like a game ofTetrisflitted away at the sight of the powerful testosterone before me.
“I’d invite you both inside, but I’m not sure there’s room,” I teased.
“I’ll start loading the stuff in my truck,” Grady said. “Don’t bother with introducing us. Jackson and I met each other in the café last week.”
