“That girl didn’t know what she was doing. She was a friend of Lydia’s. Made me look like a drag queen.”
Lydia was Neville’s wife, and not one of Beryl’s favorite people. “You looked beautiful at his wedding.” Joyce opened the tin of beans and poured them into a pan on the stove. She’d set the burner on medium and was contemplating adding a little brown sugar and mustard to the beans just to fix them up a bit.
“That’s because I wiped it all off and redid it myself.” Beryl came into the kitchen. Despite Joyce telling Beryl she didn’t need help, Beryl took two slices of bread from the bag and put them in the toaster. She pressed the lever down. “Be honest. What do you think the chances are that he’ll say yes to hiring me on?”
“I think pretty good. Won’t know until I ask him, of course.”
Beryl nodded. “Right. Tell him I’ll work cheap.”
“I’ll do nothing of the kind.” Joyce frowned at her sister’s nonsense. “I’m going to change while the beans heat up.”
“Me, too,” Beryl said. “I might just put my nightgown on.”
Joyce smiled but said nothing as she went into her bedroom. The sun hadn’t even set yet, but if Beryl wanted to get comfortable, so be it. Joyce took it as a sign that her sister felt at home here. That was good. Especially if she might be living here.
What would Mitch say? Joyce had a strong feeling he’d say yes. She didn’t think he’d have a problem bringing Beryl on a few days a week. He had to understand that the addition of Kyle and Ruthie meant more work.
Joyce changed into a housedress and comfortable slippers, both long-ago gifts from Jeanie. She ought to wash her face, too, but her makeup looked so nice she wanted to leave it a bit longer.
She went back to the kitchen just as the toast popped up. She got out the butter.
Granted, Joyce had taken care of three people by herself when Jeanie had been alive, and Kyle had been younger. But that was just it. She wasn’t as young as she’d been then. And babies were a lot of work.
Ruthie would only continue to need looking after as she grew up. Toddlers got into everything.
And if Mitch really did adopt a dog, well, that would be like having another toddler in the house, basically.
Joyce peered out the windows at the main house. Had Mitch returned yet? She couldn’t tell. Just like she couldn’t tell if there was a dog in the house or not. How had the visit to the rescue gone? She supposed she’d find out tomorrow, but that didn’t stop her from being curious. She went back to fixing their meal.
Toast buttered, she laid it on two plates, then gave the beans a stir. Steam was just starting to rise off them.
Beryl came out in a flowered nightgown with a matching flowered robe. “Can I help?”
“We’re just about ready.”
“What do you normally watch on telly in the evenings?”
“Oh, the usual.EastEnders,Emmerdale,CoronationStreet.”
“You get all of those here?”
“I have a VPN. I can get anything.”
“You don’t say.” Beryl’s brows lifted. Joyce noticed she hadn’t taken her makeup off, either. “Maybe I could live here after all.”
Joyce laughed as she spooned beans over the toast. She would talk to Mitch tomorrow and pray he would see fit to give Beryl a few days a week. After so many years apart, she wanted her sister here with her. She’d seen how well Harper and Frankie got on and it had made her miss Beryl more than ever.
He’d understand that, wouldn’t he? Or was she asking too much? He’d already been so generous with buying Beryl’s plane ticket.
Well, if she was asking too much, he’d tell her.
Chapter Nine
“Willa?” Frankie thought the house was empty when she returned from Lucas’s. She knew Harper had gone with Mitch to the rescue. As she looked around, there was no sign of Archie. Maybe Harper had come back to get him? She could be out walking him, but Frankie had a feeling Harper had taken Archie back to Mitch’s house. Maybe to see how the new dog would interact with him.
But Willa ought to be home. Frankie called out for her. “Willa?”
Still no answer. Frankie set her things on the kitchen counter, then went out to the back deck. There was no sign of Willa by the pool. No sign of Harper and Archie in the backyard, either.
