CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tawny awoke on Sunday morning and turned on the radio to the same country music station that Zed listened to in the café. “The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert was midway through the song. Using the curling iron for a microphone, she sang right along. The lyrics of the song said that a person couldn’t go home again. But if she could go into the house, she could find herself and start healing. Only the house that Tawny sang about wasn’t the house that she’d lived in her whole life but the little two-bedroom one where Dana lived. That’s the real house that built her.
When the song ended, she continued to hum it as she slipped a pair of skinny jeans up over her hips and pulled a lightweight blue cotton sweater down over her head. “Stay” by Sugarland began to play, and she sat down on the bed. Even though her rich jackass of a boyfriend hadn’t been married, she’d begged him more than once to stay the night with her. Lookin’ back and knowing what happened after the court hearing, she understood why he’d never stayed with her. His real girlfriend, the one he’d never ask to go with him on a drug deal, was the woman that he sat beside in church on Sunday morning—she was the one who sat behind him and supported him that day in court when the judge let him off with a slap on the wrist.
“Bless her heart. She may have him now, but she ain’t got much,” Tawny said as she headed for the café for breakfast, humming the Miranda song as she crossed the gravel lane and the grassy lawn.
As usual, she was the last one to the café. Harper, Dana, Brook, and Zed clustered around a table with Flora. Tawny’s heart dropped to her knees, because their faces all said something was terribly wrong.
“Flora is retiring as of right now,” Zed said. “We’ve been waiting for you to get here, because she has something to say to all of us.”
Tawny sat down with a thud in a chair, her mind spinning as to how they’d take care of business without Flora. “Is this a joke? Please tell me it’s a joke.”
“No, it’s the truth. I was trying to hold out on retiring until Cassidy finished up this school year. Her mama has been settled out in Arizona for a few weeks and wanting us to join her, but Cassidy didn’t want to leave her friends. But things have gotten out of control. She’s been babysitting for a doctor and his wife down in Frankston on weekends. Last night they came home early, thank God. They found her and that Ryson kid tangled up on their bed. Another ten minutes and things could have been worse. They’d been drinkin’ the doctor’s liquor and smokin’ pot. With those little kids right in the next room,” Flora said.
“Oh, no!” Brook gasped.
“I’m afraid so. My daughter let me keep her while she was gettin’ settled in her new job after a messy divorce. I’ll be checkin’ her out of school tomorrow while the moving men get started packing. We’ll leave on Tuesday morning. Soon as the moving van pulls away, we will, too. I’m not lettin’ this kid out of my sight until I can hand her over to her mama.”
“I’m so sorry, Flora,” Tawny said.
“I hate to leave y’all this quick. I wanted to stick around until summertime and give you more time to settle in.”
Zed moved from his chair to hug her. “It’s okay. We’ll make it. Cassidy needs a change, and you’re ten years past when you could have retired. I’m just grateful for every single day that you’ve worked with us. Annie would understand.”
“I’ll sure miss all y’all, but I got to do what’s best for Cassidy.” Flora stood up and wiped tears from her eyes. “Zed, I’ll be callin’ to check on y’all from time to time. You take care of yourself.” She left them still reeling from the news.
“Well, now, what are we goin’ to do about this turn of events?” Zed asked.
Tawny caught Dana’s bewildered gaze and then shifted her eyes to Harper, who looked like she could chew up railroad ties and spit out Tinkertoys. Her oldest sister was already trying to fix the problem, just like older children did. The middle one was wishing that she could shake some sense into Cassidy.
“Okay, here’s my two cents,” Tawny said. “Dana, you take on the reservations and checking in and out at the store. I’ll fall into Flora’s place cleanin’ rooms. Brook has done it often enough now that if I don’t get it done right, she can show me what I’m doin’ wrong. When the store closes, we’ll put a sign on the door for the folks checkin’ in late to come to cabin seven, and I’ll take care of them. Harper can help me out in the laundry when she has downtime in the café if I’m behind. Three people used to run this place and now we’ve got five, so we can do this.”
“Tawny, your plan sounds solid to me,” Harper said. “But Brook, how do you feel about this? I don’t mean the new plans. I mean your friend Cassidy leaving.”
Brook sat down on her mother’s lap. “To tell the truth, I been kind of steerin’ clear of Cassidy, because she was gettin’ more and more tangled up with Ryson.”
“So this isn’t goin’ to hurt you too much,” Zed asked.
“Nope, but Aunt Tawny, we better get some breakfast, because you’re goin’ to be real busy all mornin’. Do I get a raise? After all, I’m the supervisor now.” Brook grinned.
Zed threw back his head and guffawed until he had a coughing fit. “Y’all just proved that you are Annie’s kin for sure. Dana, you didn’t weigh in on takin’ on that much more work.”
“It’s fine with me. Sounds like Tawny came up with a good plan there,” Dana said.
“Yes, sir! Annie would be proud of you all. Now I’m goin’ to start makin’ breakfast.”
“If we can have some chocolate chip pancakes, I’ll help,” Tawny said, and the lyrics from Miranda’s song played through her head again, saying she’d heard that folks couldn’t go home again.
They’re wrong, Tawny thought as she followed Zed to the kitchen. I’ve come home and this is where I’m staying.