“I’m going to be spending a ton of time out there working on the Munyon wedding.”
Char clenched her jaws together. So hard that I could tell I was about to get a browbeating from my older sister.
“I’m going to get to make snowflakes and they have dogs out there, too,” Dolly volunteered.
“Why are there dogs at the Phillips House?” Char asked.
“Cuz Uncle Alex broke their ceiling,” Dolly said.
Char’s brows lifted. “What ceiling?”
I let out a breath. “The other day I climbed up on the roof of the dog shelter to check on a leak and fell through.”
“Are you okay?” Char put a hand on my shoulder, her attitude switching from pissed to concerned.
“He’s fine. But I heard that poor woman’s roof sure isn’t.” Gramps eased himself down from the truck.
I winced as I recalled the gaping hole in Zina’s roof. But it was all going to be okay. I’d get the wedding done, help pay for her deductible on the roof, and still have plenty left to get Gramps settled in before I took off on a new adventure.
“I don’t even know what to do with y’all.” Char shook her head from side to side.
“Well you won’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll start moving my stuff over to the Phillips House tomorrow.” I’d enjoyed spending some time with my nieces but would be happy to have some space of my own.
“Gramps, too,” Char said. Her voice was firm, leaving no room for arguing.
“I figured Gramps would want to stay with you until we got this whole thing sorted. I asked him to help with the habitat, but don’t you think he’d be more comfortable sleeping here?” My blood chilled, my face tingled. She couldn’t be serious about me taking Gramps with me. The Phillips House wouldn’t be a good place for him. The bedrooms were on the second floor. Surely Char wouldn’t expect Gramps to be able to navigate the steps.
“I think I’d like it out there,” Gramps said, the faintest hint of a smile materializing on his face. “The air’s fresher and there aren’t as many people around. Plus, that way I’ll be able to help you on that project like we talked about.”
“It’s settled then.” Char grinned as she met my gaze. “I’ll help you get packed.”
I hesitated as everyone else disappeared into the house. Things had taken a turn sideways. I hadn’t seen that particular change of plans coming. For a moment, frustration boiled up inside. I’d be better off walking away now. The reason I’d stayed away for so long was that I didn’t do well working with others. Having to take Char’s and Gramps’s opinions into account when making my own plans wasn’t something I was used to.
But maybe it was something I needed to do more often. My interactions with Zina had taught me that sometimes people had to put their own needs aside to focus on others. I’d never been one to live my life that way in the past. But maybe I could try for the next couple of months. Fine. I’d take Gramps with meto the Phillips House and hopefully get him to help with the construction. But I’d also make sure I got my grandfather out to visit that home I’d heard about.
I stepped into the house. Gramps sat in the easy chair, his eyes glued to the cartoon on the television again. Dolly had set up a tea party for all of her stuffed animals in the middle of the living room floor.
“Where did your mom go?” I asked.
Dolly’s nose crinkled and she wheezed a few breaths before letting out a giantachoo. “Do you want some tea?” She wrinkled her nose and held up a tiny plastic teapot.
“No thanks. I need to talk to your mom about something.”
“She’s in the back, making sure she packs up my stuff so she can get rid of me tomorrow.” Gramps’s expression didn’t change. “It’d be better for all of us if you’d let me just move back to the ranch.”
For a split second I wondered how my grandfather felt about being shuffled around. The man had spent his whole life working hard to provide for his family, raise his kids. What would it feel like to have outlived them all and have nothing left to live for?
What the hell was happening to me? I could practically feel my insides turning to marshmallow fluff. The more time I spent at Char’s, surrounded by her and the girls, all of them looking to me to fix things, make things better, the harder it was going to be to extricate myself from their lives later.
So instead of seizing the moment to settle Gramps’s concerns, I headed down the hall. “Char? Where the hell are you?”
“Where the hell . . . where the hell . . .” Shiner Bock strutted along the top of the dresser in the bedroom where Jordan and Izzy usually slept. At least, until they’d been displaced by Gramps.
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’re here.” Char folded Gramps’s shirts into neat squares and set them into the suitcase on the bed. “I think it will be so much better for him to stay with you. Not to mention, the girls will get their bedroom back, and?—”
“Am I doing the right thing?” I asked.
“What?” She paused, a pair of Gramps’s baggy old briefs in her hands. “What do you mean?”
