in the water. “We’ll get our toes in the Gulf and then in the Atlantic and all the way back to the Pacific before this trip is done.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Sugar removed her shoes and left them sitting on a towel. And then she and Jasper went, hand in hand, to dip their feet in the salty water.
“I feel close to Elaine, standing here where we left her ashes. She was troubled, but then she had good reason. Her mom was so full of herself—that’s the role model my sister had.”
“She was so different than you, darlin’, that I’m surprised y’all shared any genes at all,” Jasper said.
“Half genes, I suppose. From our dad—not her mother—but you know all this.” She stepped back out of the water.
Jasper draped an arm around her as they made their way back to the towel. “Yep, I do, but sometimes it’s good to drag out the memories and talk about things again. I’m just glad that she shared Jolene with us all those years. That child stole my heart from the first time we got to keep her,” Jasper said. “Her visits were the highlight of our summers.”
Back then, Jasper had boasted a full head of dark hair, but now it was mostly gray. His angular face wasn’t as smooth as it used to be, and he’d decided to grow a beard. At first Sugar figured if she ignored it, he’d soon get tired of it and shave it off, but now she’d grown to like it.
“The day that Victoria took Elaine from us, I went down to the bayou and cried until my eyes were swollen. I was afraid she’d never take care of Elaine properly. But she hired a nanny, got remarried, and . . .” Sugar inhaled a lungful of ocean air.
“And that’s why you two are so different, even as relations.” Jasper squeezed her hand. “Your stepmother and your sister both had the maternal instincts of a Doberman.”
Sugar wiped the sand from her feet and put her shoes back on. “You never said that before.”
Jasper raised his shoulders in a half shrug. “Just now dawned on me. A Doberman is a fine dog, but the females sometimes make poor mothers. One of my bowlin’ buddies had one several years ago. The mama dog got tired of her babies and wouldn’t let them eat. They had to bottle-feed those little pups until they were big enough to sell.”
“You think Jolene will inherit that?” Sugar shivered.
“No, darlin’, I don’t. She looks like you and acts like you. Every time Victoria came to get that child, I went to the bayou and cried, too.” Jasper dropped her hand and draped an arm around her shoulders. “Main difference in y’all is that you had amazing taste in men and she doesn’t.”
Without words, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.
Jolene was all for throwing the heavy furniture out the bedroom window and setting fire to it after she’d helped Tucker move it out into the hallway. The four-poster bed weighed as much as a baby elephant. The dresser was most likely created from concrete and only covered with a thin layer of oak. It was no wonder Aunt Sugar didn’t move the furniture around in the rooms—she didn’t own a forklift. Once Jolene and Tucker had gotten those two pieces out, she slid down the wall and panted like a puppy dog.
Tucker just grinned and went back to bring out a nightstand. He acted like it was nothing, but he didn’t fool her one bit. His biceps strained the fabric of his shirt, and the sweat on his brow told a different story.
“Little wimpy, are you?” he asked.
“That would be the pot calling the kettle black,” she said between short breaths.
He sat down on the floor beside her. “At least I’m not huffing and puffing.”
“Maybe not right now, but when you get that other nightstand and the washstand out, we’ll see if you’ve got enough air left in your lungs to call me wimpy,” she said.
He brought out the other stand. “Now you can get the last piece.”
“Yeah, right! I’ll get you a can of spinach and you can play like Popeye and bring the furniture out with one hand,” she told him.
“You aren’t old enough to know anything about Popeye,” he said.
“I’m thirty-one, and Aunt Sugar had lots of old VHS cartoons for me to watch when I came to visit. You ready for that muscle-building spinach?” she asked.