got bedrooms and the bathroom to paint.” She nodded. “I’m glad we changed our mind and didn’t use the yellow that we thought about.”
“What color would you choose if we repainted Miss Janie’s place?” Noah asked Teresa.
“This isn’t my favorite work in the whole world,” Teresa answered, “so it’ll be a while before I want to do it again after we help Will get his house redone and ready to move into. What about you?”
“The only thing I really like about what we’re doing is the fellowship,” Noah said. “I’m already feeling like I’ll need a good massage tomorrow morning. You up for that?” He raised an eyebrow at Teresa.
“Only if it’s a mutual thing and I get one first,” she told him.
Kayla sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and admired the new walls. In one of the dozen or so places she and Denver had lived, she’d painted the walls a pale blue. He had come home about half-lit that night and told her that he’d quit his job. There was no way, he had said, that someone was going to boss him around like his supervisor had been doing, so he had told the guy to take the job and shove it. That meant they had to move from the apartment back into the travel trailer where they had been living between times when they could afford a real apartment. After that happened too many times to count, she’d finally given up on making a home. She had kept whatever place they lived in clean—whether it was a month or a year—and had paid the bills, but none of the apartments and certainly not the old stand-by travel trailer in a ratty park was ever what anyone could call cozy or homey.
She closed her eyes and felt at peace with the universe and with herself, so this must have been the right decision. When she opened them, Teresa was sitting beside her.
“Holy crap! You scared the hell out of me.” She shivered.
“Then I guess you’re an angel now, since there’s no more hell in you,” Teresa teased.
“I don’t want to be an angel if that’s what our mamas were,” Kayla said.
“Me, neither.” Teresa nudged her with a shoulder and then waved a hand to take in the whole kitchen. “White was the right color. Sam did good by suggesting it. I can’t wait to start cooking and for the old folks to come in every day. Noah was asking me about what services we plan to offer, and that got me to thinkin’ about something. Why don’t we put a bulletin board on the living room wall and let folks that clean houses or do home health care know that they can advertise there?”
“I love that idea. We’re going to be happy here,” Kayla said. “Think we could have our grand opening by October first?”
“I don’t see why not. Basically, we need to buy some big pots and some dishes,” Teresa said.
“Not real dishes,” Noah said as he joined them. “If you do that, you’ll have to install a dishwasher to keep things up to code. As it is, you’ll have inspections a couple of times a year, but if you use disposable stuff, it’ll make things a lot simpler.”
“What about our pots and pans and silverware?” Kayla asked.
“You have to be sure everything is sparkling clean and show them you are using throwaway stuff,” Noah said. “I thought we could get away without any paperwork, but there is an upside to what we do have to take care of—since Sam is donating the space, it becomes a tax write-off for him, and all the food y’all buy will be a tax write-off for your company. I’ll have all the permits and papers taken care of in a couple of weeks.”
“Thank you.” Teresa smiled up at him.
“No problem.” Noah sat down on the floor beside Teresa. “It feels good to be giving back to the community. Have y’all decided what you’re going to call this place?”
“I’ve been trying to come up with something. Birthright Senior Citizens sounds so generic. Either of you got any ideas?” Kayla asked.
Sam came around the corner. “I heard that last sentence, and I do have an idea. How about Miss Janie’s Senior Citizens Place?”
Kayla clapped her hands. “Yes! Yes! Yes! That way she’ll be remembered. Folks will say, ‘We’re going down to Miss Janie’s for lunch, or for a game of Monopoly or dominoes.’”