“Taking the trailer to the Paradise seems so final, and I already miss you,” Clara answered.
“Girl, I’m only an hour away from you, and since the cops seldom ever patrol this back road, you can get here faster if you keep a sharp eye out for a stray highway patrol.” Bernie wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. “Since you and Nash will be sharing the apartment, maybe he will make breakfast for you.”
“I’ll most likely be doing that myself,” she said.
“Do you think that he’ll be so good in bed that you are the one making a thank-you breakfast?” Bernie teased.
“I don’t expect that I will ever know,” Clara said. “Like I’ve told you before, I’m not getting involved with a coworker—and especially not with my boss. That could create all kinds of problems.”
“Yep, it could,” Bernie agreed, “but what if he wasn’t your boss, what then?”
“Maybe, but not likely. He’s got enough money to pay cash for the Chicken Coop. I have a check in my purse for what I made last week, which I shouldn’t even cash.”
“Why not?” Bernie asked. “You earned every dime of that money.”
“You gave me a home. You feed me. You love me unconditionally. I should be working for free. I came to the bar in a hot mess, and you took me in.” She stopped and took a long breath.
“Been fun, hasn’t it?” Bernie said.
“More than words can describe,” Clara answered.
“Then stop looking back. The past is gone and only the memories remain. Choose the good ones and throw out the bad. The future isn’t guaranteed, so make the most of this day. Now, back to Nash. Money is only dirty paper with dead presidents printed on it. Nash’s heart has no idea if he has a million dollars in the bank or hedoesn’t have two pennies to rub together. And neither does yours.”
Holy hell, this matchmaking job is harder than I thought it would be, but I’m not giving up on Clara and Nash. I can see the attraction growing faster than I even thought was possible. I’ve still got a few weeks before I turn the bar over to them,Bernie thought as she made the final turn toward the Paradise.
***
Clara sipped a glass of icy-cold sweet tea and set the rocking chair in motion with her foot. The afternoon sun was hot, but a nice little breeze fanned across the wide porch. Luna sat in a matching chair on her left, and Endora in one on her right. She imagined the women who worked in the Paradise when it was a brothel sitting on the porch and having mint juleps. Her aunt had described the way that Madam Raven ran the place so well that Clara wondered what it would have been like.
“What’s on your mind?” Endora asked.
“Actually, I was thinking about…” She stopped and asked, “Have y’all read your mother’s books about the ladies who worked here when it was first built?”
“Of course,” Luna answered. “It’s a great story.”
“I’ve been thinking about what it must have been like,” Clara said. “Those women did have more independence than the married women in the area. Many of them had regular lovers, too, and managed to teachthe men how to please them. My ex was one of those slam-bam, snoring-in-two-minutes type of guys.” She was glad she could talk about such personal things with two women who were close to her age.
“Oh no, that’s terrible,” Endora declared. “But since I’m off men forever, I’m changing the subject. Are you still happy working for Aunt Bernie? I don’t think I could ever work in a bar.”
“Very, very happy,” Clara answered. “And I also love that we are reconnecting and I can’t wait to see my other five cousins.”
“Me too,” Endora said. “Mama never told us what happened to make her side of the family so mad at us.”
“She lives in a former brothel,” Clara whispered and shifted her eyes around in a dramatic gesture, “and she writes romance books.”
Endora giggled. “Those are crazy reasons.”
“There seems to be a division among sisters that goes way back on the family tree,” Clara said and explained the differences from Aunt Bernie and her sister, all the way down to Clara and Myra.
“I’m glad we didn’t have that kind of thing among us seven,” Luna declared. “We argued and even had some hellacious fights out in the yard, but when it came to unity…”
Endora butted in and finished the sentence. “If someone crossed any one of us, or hurt our feelings, they were in for a battle with all seven of us.”
“That’s because you lived in a brothel and your mama wrote romance books,” Clara said with a giggle. “You are the lucky ones. You broke the mold.”
“Were there any cheating men in all that history of the sisters?” Endora asked.
“I’m sure there were,” Clara answered. “When Aunt Bernie moves down here and you are lucky enough to get her full time, you should ask her about her love life.”
