“A man of my age never gives up a chance to get out and go to the bathroom,” his grandfather answered. “Or to pick up a bottle of sweet tea and one of those packages of chocolate doughnuts, either.”
“You’ve always had a thimble-sized bladder,” Nita teased.
Billy Joe shook his finger at her. “Don’t you get allsassy with me, Nita Woods. I know you and Sharlene need to buy chips and pork rinds and a couple of root beers so y’all are just as eager to get out as I am.”
“Yep, we are,” Sharlene agreed.
“Think we’ll ever get them raised?” Joelle whispered to Ford.
He pulled up to a gas pump and set the brake. “Looks like they have got stuck in their late teens on this trip.”
Joelle’s eyes twinkled. “This hippie wagon has caused most of it. It’s like a time machine.”
“I believe it,” Ford said with a grin as he got out of the VW.
Joelle opened the door, slid out of the passenger seat, and followed the three older folks into the store. Ford watched her walk across the lot. Her eyes reminded him of the sparkle in his grandmother’s eyes when she and his grandfather were bantering back and forth.
Chapter 7
“How could we have already been on the road more than two weeks?” Joelle muttered as Ford parked the vehicle across the street from the hotel in Florida.
“What was that?” Ford asked.
“I was thinking that the past two weeks have gone by so fast,” she answered.
“Happiness does that,” Sharlene said as she slid the door open and got out of the bus. “Nita, you and Billy Joe stop dilly-daddlin’ around. Get on out here and smell this ocean air. Soon as we get checked in and have our stuff in our rooms, I’m going to the beach.” She headed toward the hotel office.
Billy Joe climbed out and stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, and took a step toward the path that led straight to the beach. Nita grabbed his arm and pulled him the other way.
“You can’t get there before us. We’ll all go together,” she said and dragged him toward the office. “You kids get the luggage out of the back. Oh, my goodness! I see a laundry right across the street. Sharlene did good whenshe chose this one.”
Sharlene waved keys in the air as she hurried across the parking lot. “Y’all are going to love this place. We’re in the first three rooms over there.” She pointed to her right. “Bottom floor. Let’s get going. I can’t wait to put my toes in the sand.” She handed off keys to Billy Joe and to Sharlene.
Ford winked at Joelle, then got out of the bus. “I think that’s our cue to get out and take the baggage out for them.”
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could unload our own mental baggage like that?” She followed him to the back of the trailer.
“I haven’t got as much now as I had when we left,” he said with a grin.
“Me either,” she agreed, “so maybe we’ve been chasing dreams just like they have.”
“Think we’ll get rid of the rest of it while we’re here?” he asked as he set everything they needed out on the ground.
Billy Joe rolled the ladies’ luggage over to them and then popped the handle up on his suitcase. “Get rid of what?”
“Learning not to sweat the small stuff,” Ford answered.
“It’s all small stuff when you get to be my age,” his grandfather said with a chuckle. “Learn that at your age, and you’ll be happy every day. Make up your minds whatyou want out of life and never look back with regrets.”
“That’s really good advice,” Joelle said as she followed the three older folks down the sidewalk to the rooms, “but not so easy to follow.”
“Amen!” Ford agreed. “However, I think I’m making progress, thanks to you.”
“You. Are. Welcome,” Joelle said with a semi-bow. “Glad to be of help, but that goes both ways, Mr. Holt, so thank you for sharing this trip with us.”
Ford shook his finger at her. “We have slept together, Miz Cheadle, so I think we can be on a first-name basis.”
Joelle laughed out loud. “Lower your voice or your grandpa and my aunt will have us standing before a justice of the peace. Are you taking your suitcase to Billy Joe’s room? Or are you going to save trips back and forth and move it into mine?”
