The knight is always strong enough to save her, and the horse is big enough for both of them to ride. Haven’t you seen the animated princess movies?” He seated Tootsie and then took his own place.
“Have you?” Joanie asked.
“I’ve watched every one of them to see if I could use any of their ideas in the games I created. Let’s give thanks for this food before it gets cold.” He bowed his head and said a short prayer.
Joanie passed the meat loaf around the table, and when she took a bite, a pang of guilt shot right through her heart. She was eating Zoe’s very favorite meal that evening, and when she got home, she’d have to pack up everything in her daughter’s room. It would be like telling her goodbye all over again, and Joanie dreaded that part of the job awaiting her even more than telling her friends goodbye.
“Is something wrong with the food?” Carmen asked.
“It’s delicious,” Joanie sighed. “I was dreading the idea of taking down Zoe’s bulletin board and packing all her things.”
“We’ll be there to help,” Carmen said. “You aren’t going to have to make this move all by yourself. We’ll get a bottle of wine and sit on the floor and cry with you when the job is done. I’m glad that Eli has agreed to let me have the house so I don’t have to do that for a while, but the time will come when Natalie will want to move all her things to a new place.”
“Good Lord!” Diana gasped. “I hadn’t even thought of that. It’ll take a backhoe to scoop out Rebecca’s messy room.”
“Amen to that.” Carmen nodded. “And thank goodness Natalie got my tendencies toward OCD, and everything has to be in its place. When she moves her things out, each box will be marked and packed like a professional. With a spreadsheet.”
Tootsie giggled. “They both got part of me in them.”
“OCD is not a good bed partner with messy,” Luke said. “And I’ve never seen your house messy. Not the one in Sugar Run or this one. You’re an immaculate housekeeper. Uncle Smokey said he tried for years to get you to hire a cleaning lady, but you’d have no part of it.”
“What’s on the outside is OCD.” Tootsie smiled. “But what’s on the inside is Rebecca all over again. Do not ever open either the living room closet or the hall closet doors, and only go into my little storage shed in the back if you have your life insurance paid up.”
“You’re kidding me.” Joanie’s eyes widened so far that they ached before she remembered to blink. “I figured your closets would look like Natalie’s.”
“Nope.” Tootsie shook her head. “I never was a neat person until I married a career army man. I didn’t want to embarrass him at inspection time. But they never opened the closet doors when they did a walk-through, so that was my secret.”
Joanie thought of the space under the sink in her bathroom. It was always a jungle, but those were her private things, and nobody ever saw it but her. That would have to be cleaned out, too.
“I just remembered that we’d only lived in the base house a couple of years when we left it for the one in Sugar Run. Moving was downright traumatic—what to take with us, what to sell, what to give away—and every single thing, even as small as a hairpin in the bathroom drawer, had to be handled,” Joanie said.
“Yep.” Diana nodded. “And you’ve been in this house six times that long, so just imagine how much junk you’ve accumulated and will have to go through.”
“I’ll have to make even more lists,” Joanie groaned.
“I’ve never been in your homes,” Luke said. “Are they all pretty much like Aunt Tootsie’s place?”
“You know someone in the market for a house in Sugar Run?” Joanie asked.
“I might,” he said. “A friend has been looking to relocate close to San Antonio but not in the town itself.”
“They’re about the same, except that she’s got a screened porch and a deck beyond that. She’s got two lots, and we’ve only got one,” Joanie answered. “Is this friend someone that would fit in with folks on our block?”
“I think he just might,” Luke said. “Tell me more.”
“The houses are all what they call spec homes. They’ve got different-colored brick on the outside, and they sit a little different on the lot, but they’re three bedrooms, full bath in the hallway,