The tread of his boots sounded loud on the porch, but he thought that was a good thing.It gave his mother some warning that he was approaching.This might have been his childhood home, but he hadn’t lived here since high school.He always made sure that he acted more like a guest than a resident.He knocked, waited, and then let himself in.The established protocol.
And he wasn’t surprised to find Jenny in the kitchen, sitting at the table with the local paper and a steaming mug of the herbal tea she liked to drink in the evenings.
“Cat wanted me to bring you this box,” he told her.“I don’t know what’s in it.”
“How lucky that I do,” his mother replied, and smiled.“She picked up a package for me from the post office down in Marietta.Can I get you some tea?”
Tennessee did not want any tea.In point of fact, he did not see the purpose of tea.It either tasted like strangely aromatic water, though heated, or like dead leaves.Besides, there was that driving anxiety inside of him that was shaped like Matilda, and it was harder to ignore in the quiet of the house he’d grown up in.
And he didn’t understand why he kept getting caught up in these family things when all he wanted to do was go to her.
But he also didn’t say no to his mother.
So he went over to the kettle on the stove and prepared himself some steaming bilge water so he could sit down at the table and dutifully, resentfully, choke it down.Hopefully with something like a smile on his face, because she didn’t like it when she only saw his stern face.As she might have mentioned a few million times.
His mother was looking at him with a kind of amused expression when he finally settled in across from her, the tea mug between his hands.And something on his face, anyway.He could make no promises about what.
“Alternatively,” Jenny said after a moment, “you could just say no.That you don’t like tea and that you’d rather not sit here and drink it.”
Tennessee held her gaze.“For all you know I love tea.Maybe I’ve become a tea guy.Maybe I have a kitchen filled with nothing but tea these days.”
Jenny sipped at hers.“Do you?”
He shook his head.“No.”
“So while we’re on the topic of things you like,” Jenny said,hersmile very real and not at all like the grimace he was afraid he was wearing, “I hope you’re not going to tell me the story that I’ve been hearing around town.You know the one.That you’ve suddenly become passionately interested in animal rescue.Because I know that you haven’t.I was there when you buried Angus.”
Another direct hit.
“Is it so hard to believe that I care about animals?”Tennessee asked mildly.Or at least he tried to sound mild, anyway.“Why does everybody act like I’m some serial killer that would rather butcher them in my backyard?”
“I don’t think anyone has suggested that,” his mother replied in that calm voice of hers that he remembered from childhood.
Usually in moments of grave injustice, when he had been outraged and she had been entirely unflappable.It only occurred to him now that maybe he’d gotten it from her—which was probably why he couldn’t seem to use it when he was with her.
Jenny kept talking.“I don’t think it’s unreasonable that people might notice how odd it seems that when a person they’ve known forever, who has only ever been interested in exactly one thing—that being the family business—that he would suddenly turn around and have a brand-new interest out of nowhere.”She took a very deliberate sip of her tea.“Of course, the new interest does happen to be connected to a very pretty woman.”
Tennessee played with the mug in front of him.He thought about deflecting, but since he wasn’t likely to give his mother the finger he’d tossed Cat’s way, he rethought.“You know we’ve been having those dinners every week.The three of us and the Patricks.”
“The LPL club,” Jenny said with a smile.“I’m completely in favor of it.Assuming you’re all getting along, that is, and not using it to air grievances and mire yourself in the past.We’ve all done far too much of that.”
“We’re actually getting along great,” Tennessee told her.“To be honest, it’s like we’ve known each other forever.It makes perfect sense that we’re family.And it doesn’t hurt that the more we hang out in public like that, the less people gossip about it.Or anyway, not where I can hear.”
“Oh, people always gossip.”Jenny laughed.“But I think you’re right.I don’t think anyone’s required confirmation from me.That means they already know.And in this case, I have to say that I think the Cowboy Point grapevine has done us well.”
Tennessee agreed with that.Let them gossip.“It looks like they might be sticking around, so I’m sure the gossip will kick into higher gear, sooner or later.If it’s particularly juicy, I’ll hear about it one of these mornings.”
“You always do.”Jenny sipped her tea again, her gaze on his.Expectant, he thought.Because since when did he sit around making small talk?
“Tonight we had our usual dinner and it was great,” Tennessee said.“And at some point I looked around the table and I realized that they were all okay.Even Dallas.”
“Dallas might or might not be okay,” his mother said quietly.“But he’s also the only one who can fix that.”
“I think I got that, at last,” Tennessee told her, the truth of that washing over him and settling deep inside him.“It’s not up to me, anyway.Cat is happy.Far more happy with a Carey than I would have thought was genetically possible, but she is.”
Jenny’s smile widened.“She is indeed.”
“So what I have to ask myself is why am I holding on so hard?”And somewhere in there, his voice got a little rough.
