“
I tell you what,” she said, nodding to his tool case, “if it wasn’t for you, I’d never know what time it is.”
“
That’s because all your clocks are a hundred years old.”
“
This one, the broken one, was made by my great-great-great grandfather and is probably
two
hundred years old.”
She still had her Texas accent even after living in Tennessee for most of her life. She pronounced the word hundred ‘hunnerd.’ Of course, she teased them all about their accents in return. It made him a little bit homesick. When he was in Texas, he missed Tennessee. When he was in Tennessee, he missed Texas. His mother had always said he had the soul of a ramblin’ man, just like his paternal grandfather.
“
I wish you’d come visit more,” she said. “Once or twice a year just doesn’t cut it, darling.”
“
It’s a long drive,” he said.
“
Hop on a plane. They have those, nowadays.”
“
I have a ranch to run.”
“
Daddy’s itty bitty ranch? Phooey. Little Bucky runs the ranch. Don’t you try and fool me with all that nonsense. You’re not a cowboy. You don’t know what a real cowboy is. You shoulda seen the cowboys in my day, buddy. Would have scared the pants off you, even as big as you are now.”
They’d already had this discussion, many times over the past three years, and he knew he couldn’t win, so he let it go. Inside the house, she put the flowers in a vase then went to wash her hands at the kitchen sink. Sam sat at the table.
“
Well, you don’t have the baby with you,” she said, turning around to lean against the sink while she dried her hands, “so I take it things didn’t go so well.”
“
No, it’s fine. We’re working it out.”
“
I’m dying to see him. We all are.”
“
Jenna’s bringing him out to the party.”
“
In two weeks?” she said, raising her voice. “Oh, no, no, no. I can’t wait
two weeks
. Did you bring pictures at least? I need to see his face.”
And have proof this mystery child actually existed? “I forgot. I’ll get some.” Even if he had to take pictures of Ethan with his phone. He should have thought of that before. A picture of his son on his new tricycle would have been perfect.
Marna, the housekeeper, was puttering around the kitchen, eavesdropping. She was getting well into her fifties now and had put on a little weight, but still had a baby face. She was the only person he’d ever seen with violet eyes. “Have you eaten yet, hon?” she asked him. “I’ve got a whole world of leftovers from breakfast. I can fix up some fresh biscuits in a heartbeat.”
He could still smell the scents of one of her big breakfasts in the air and his stomach growled. All he’d had so far was the other half of Ethan’s banana. “I could eat.”
Marna hopped to work, obviously glad for the chance to stay and gather some gossip.
His mother motioned him to follow her. He gave Marna a pat on the back and left the kitchen.
“
Where is everybody?” Sam asked as they stepped down into the greenhouse attached to the side of the house. His mother loved puttering with her flowers when she wasn’t puttering with the horses. “Daddy and the men are out working with the horses. Everybody else is where they should be, I guess.”
Sam sat at the square table in the center of the big room. It was supposed to be a place where his mother could entertain and let people enjoy her flowers, but it was always covered in potting soil instead and she was the only one who used this room.
“
I thought you were heading back to Texas,” she said.
He could tell she’d already talked herself into being angry about that by the stiff way she carried herself. “I changed my mind,” he said. “I’m coping.”
“
I’d hoped maybe you’d grown up in the past three years, working on the ranch,” she said, taking her clippers to a pink flower plant that matched her shirt.
Sam had hoped the same thing. “I’m still here. I just panicked for a minute. I’m over it. I’m staying.”
“
You know,” she said, “I knew her mother, way back when. Sort of.”
He pushed dirt around on the table into a pile. “Jenna’s mom?”
She nodded. “I’d see her at school functions, when you were little. I remember we were all shocked when she died all of a sudden. She was so young.”
For the first time Sam realized he must have gone to the same elementary school as Jenna. They might have passed each other in the halls or sat in the same lunchroom. Their paths must have crossed hundreds of times over the years and he’d never known it. Not until they were in high school and she’d been this cute kid staring at him, too young for him to take seriously.
“
I hate to speak ill of the dead,” his mother continued, “but I can’t say I ever really liked her.”
That caught his attention. “How come?”
“
Oh, she had this way about her. She and her group. I don’t want to say she was a snob, but, well, she was. I remember once I tried to talk to her and she just walked away, as if I didn’t deserve a moment of her time. I hope this girl of hers isn’t the same way. Is that why she won’t let you bring her son out here?”
“
No,” Sam said. Though, he wasn’t so sure. His dad had grown up poor and wild, spending much of his youth up in the mountains of east Tennessee before his family had settled in Middle Tennessee. Some on the Stricklands still had a reputation for being uncivilized troublemakers. Jenna had never seemed stuck-up to him, but now that he thought about it, he realized he didn’t know her all that well. “I don’t have a car seat for him. That’s why I couldn’t bring him out today.”
“
Well, we can fix that,” Sunny said. “Then we’ll see what she has to say.”
His mother had a temper when pushed and he could see that building in her. She’d turned rough with the flower plant. Boone and Mike were that way, quick to flare. Sam and Jack were more like their father, so easygoing the other three got mad at them about it sometimes. Frankie fell somewhere in the middle, not really taking after either of their parents. She took after their Granny Mae, he’d always heard. Sensible. Tough when she needed to be, soft when she needed to be.
“
Don’t get all riled,” he told her, holding back a chuckle. “You haven’t even met her yet.”
Sunny lifted the flowerpot and slammed it down on the table. But when she turned around, he saw she was close to tears. “Well, I’m sorry,” she said, “but I’m furious. My grandson is how old? Two years old? And this is the first we’re hearing about it? I don’t even know what he looks like.”
“
I’ll get pictures,” he promised. He couldn’t think what else to say.
“
I don’t want pictures. I want to see my grandson.” She turned her back to him. “I always thought her father was a shifty one, with that fake smile of his. It made my skin crawl seeing his pictures all over town when he was running for mayor. I tell you what, I never did vote for him, that’s for sure. I always wanted to walk up to that woman and tell her I could buy and sell her ten times over. But I didn’t because I was raised better than that. But if this girl is gonna take on the same attitude, well, I just don’t know what. We’re gonna have problems, I can tell you that. She doesn’t wanna get on my bad side.”
His heartbeat racing, Sam went to her and hugged her from behind. “You’re getting mad about made up stuff again. Do I need to go out and buy you a punching bag?”
“
Yeah,” she said, chuckling crossly. “And I’ll put
her
picture on it.
Pictures
…. I have every right to see my grandson in the flesh.”
He rocked her back and forth hoping to calm her down. “You will,” he assured her, a little worried what she might do. He could imagine her showing up on Jenna’s doorstep slinging accusations and threatening to bring in the lawyers. The Strickland side of the family fought with their fists, but his mother’s side, the Mundays, fought with money and lawyers. And they were a force to be reckoned with. With one phone call, his mother could completely ruin Jenna.
His mother shook him off and raised both hands. “I’m reserving judgment,” she said. “Until I meet her. But I intend to tell her I really don’t appreciate the way she’s treated us.”
Sam glanced at the doorway, wondering if he needed to go get his dad. Or, if he needed to go back to Jenna’s and see if Brianna would bring Ethan out. He couldn’t risk getting Jenna anywhere near his mother until she’d calmed down.
“
Come and sit down,” he told her, taking her arm. “Don’t do anything reckless. You’re really mad at Jenna’s mom for blowing you off.”
Sunny came over to the table and sat down, slowly and carefully. She looked old suddenly, all her years catching up to her at once. “I’m really not,” she said, glaring at him. “I’m mad that this girl hid my grandson from me.”
Sam sat down, spread the potting soil out into a long line, and wrote
be happy
in it upside down for her to see. An old game they used to play when he was little. He’d learned the alphabet writing in potting soil.
“
You’re just like your dad,” she said as if that were a fault. “Always happy, always trying to make everybody else happy.” She erased the words and wrote
Ethan
. “What kind of silly name is that, anyway?”
He raised an eyebrow at her and wrote
Samson
. “Really, Mom?”
That finally did the trick and she smiled. “Your dad wanted to name you Luster Pride, after his dad. And if you were a girl, Fancy Dove, after his grandmother. He wanted to call you Dovey.”
They both had a laugh at that. “I guess I was lucky, then.”
“
You better believe it, buster.”
“
Promise you won’t sue anybody,” he said, having to get serious again. “I’m trying to work things out with her.”
She waved a hand. “Oh, I’m not gonna do anything. I’ll be nice. I suppose you’re right. I’m still mad at her mother. But she still should have told us.”
“
Well, unless you’ve got a time machine hidden in a closet somewhere, there’s nothing we can do about that.”
She crossed her arms and looked off, taking on that superior attitude she got sometimes. Probably the same attitude she accused Jenna’s mother of having. “So, what’s she like? This girl of yours?”
“
Jenna? You can say her name. Your tongue won’t burst into flames. She’s… I don’t know, beautiful, smart, sensible. She’s a lot like Frankie, I guess.” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “She thinks I’m funny, even when I’m not trying to be. We used to have the best times.” Again, he thought of the Jenna he’d once known, the one glowing with life and smiles, and all the amazing times they’d had together. Before everything fell apart.
“
Oh, good lord,” his mother said, bringing him back to the present. She was frowning at him. “I don’t believe it.”
“
What?”
“
You’re in love with her,” she said. “I never thought I’d see that. I thought you’d be a bachelor forever, just like Jack.
Dadburnit
.”
“
What?” he asked again.
“
Well,” she said, frowning more wildly, “if you love her, then I’ll have to love her, too.”
He didn’t actually want to talk about his love life with his mother, but at the same time, he did want to linger on the subject. He dug in his pocket and took out the engagement and wedding rings he’d bought for Jenna, by way of explaining his plans.
But instead of being glad he was trying to make an honest woman of Jenna and get his family together, his mother made a face at the ring set, which fitted together like a puzzle to become one ring, and took it from him to examine it.
“
What?” he asked. “It’s no good?”
“
Oh,
honey
,” she said, handing back the rings as if she felt dirty touching them.
“
Frankie was tired and Becky and Crystal were busy,” he explained. “I had to do it all by myself.”
He’d just gone to the mall and bought the ring the saleslady had chosen. He’d been in a hurry and hadn’t given a thought to Jenna’s style or personality, or whether the ring was what a woman would consider pretty. It was big and had a lot of diamonds in it. It was packed with diamonds of all sizes. It had cost a near fortune.
Sunny stood and waved for him to follow. “Return that gaudy thing,” she said and led him upstairs. “I have something much better. I’ll have to take it to my jeweler and have it reset. It’s a necklace now but it’ll make such a nice engagement ring. It belonged to my mother.”
Sam sat on the bed and waited while she took her jewelry boxes out of the wall safe in her bedroom. Mirabelle, Marna’s daughter, who helped out around the house part-time, left the room to give them some privacy, pulling a vacuum cleaner behind her.
Sam looked around at the Southwestern décor in the large room – possibly his mother’s tribute to her roots. Or a cure for homesickness. He’d never asked. A huge Star of Texas hung over the fireplace and there was a tall cactus by the door you had to watch out for. And there was the print on the wall that had always bothered him, of a starving cow surrounded by wolves in a desolate winter scene. He’d always wanted to burn that horrible print. Since he’d been a kid, he’d only wanted everyone and everything to be safe and happy. He’d never understood how his parents could stand to look at that print every day.