knows that Dan is waiting with teeth clenched so tight that the enamel cracks. She says with finality, ‘Terrible, what got old Lorna, but she brought it on herself.’
Oh, lady, don’t stop now. ‘How? Oh, please, Mrs Henderson, just one more answer. What set her on fire?’
But Blanche has talked a lot for a woman her age – what is her age? Half past ninety and hurtling to the finish line – and she’s spent. She says crossly, ‘That’s enough.’
‘What did it?’ Oh, please. ‘What?’
With the wave of a southern lady banishing anything unpleasant, she changes the subject. ‘Nenna, has my dinner come?’
‘Not yet, Grammy,’ Steffy says.
‘You were telling us about Lucy.’
Blinking, she asks politely, ‘Who?’
‘Lucy Carteret, remember?’ Dan presses even though he knows Grammy is shutting down. He gives her everything he has. ‘I’m her son.’
‘Don’t.’ Feebly, she swats him away.
‘Please!’
‘Oh, don’t!’ Exhausted, the old woman cries, ‘I want my dinner now!’
Silence overtakes them.
‘I have to go,’ Dan says when it’s clear that this time, Grammy won’t be back.
‘Dude . . .’
He turns. ‘And I’m not kidding.’
‘Dude!’ Then Steffy sees his face, and lets him go.
42
Jessie
Alone in her office, Jessie is both glad and sorry she ran into Walker out there at Golden Acres. She loved talking to him after all this time. He’s so dark and remote that these old girls – her friends – are scared of him, but she and Walker go way back. With her, he is so easy! They’ll always pick up where they left off even if it’s another hundred years. It was the best thing about a routine, perfectly pleasant Sunday in Fort Jude. Then on the way out of Mrs Earlham’s room she got in a fight with Wade, but that isn’t the downside.
It wasn’t really a fight, just one of those emergency exits women build out of words when they’re feeling crowded by a lover who is not quite enough and expects too much. Everybody needs a little down time, but Wade got pissed – hurt feelings, she supposes. ‘All right then!’ he said, and dropped her here. After a long day with big old Wade, who wouldn’t know a boundary if he fell over it, she’s relieved to be by herself again, in a place where she won’t be distracted by the pressure of his expectations or weighed down by that sweetly persistent, clueless will.
Jessie did not flee Golden Acres because she was freaking – unlike Dan Carteret, who will admit as much when he comes back to the Flordana at dusk. Old people are ancient history to her. She’ll be living among them when her time comes and she knows it. She just hopes that if he survives her, Wade sees to it that she gets a single room. Hell, even if they check in together she needs a single room.
Yep, she tells herself, and this is not such a bad thing. It’s gonna be Wade.
Seeing Walker today disrupted her; there is shared history. The crackle of what might have been. As long as she was inside Mrs Earlham’s sunny corner room in the assisted living wing, she could put it aside. Their spunky old kindergarten teacher is still bright, and she laughs a lot. She gets around her quarters better than can be expected; she knows more gossip than Jessie. She’s cool; they let her keep her dog. She asked after Walker who, she would not stop reminding Wade, was handsome as Lucifer and smarter than a bundle of whips. ‘I always knew that boy would go on to do great things,’ she said, and when Wade didn’t respond she said, ‘what’s he up to, honey? How is he, anyway?’
‘Oh,’ Wade said carelessly, and Jessie cracked her mouth open wide as a baby bird, hoping to be fed. ‘He’s fine,’ Wade said, and that’s all he said.
When they came outside Jessie couldn’t help checking – was the car still there? – and she can’t help what her heart did when she spotted Walker slouched behind the wheel, but that isn’t it, not really. That isn’t the downside.
Everything came back in on her. Everything.
Hurting, she started in on Wade, but she shut down the fight before it could get too bad. She said what with the party and the fire, the pile on her desk back at the Flordana was so high that scorpions were nesting in it.
Wade came back with: no problem, he’d come in and smash the little suckers flat, so she had to tell him