want letters, but I’m absolutely not allowed to receive anything to eat, and that’s a hard rule. I’ve got to hear more about you on a trip then. Bye, now. I love you.”
“Love you, baby girl.” Joanie barely got the words in before the call ended, and she hugged the phone to her chest. “I got to hear her voice. I’m going up to my room to write her a long letter.”
“Going to tell her about the move?” Tootsie asked.
“I think I just might. That way when she calls again, we can talk about it,” Joanie answered. “Are you missing the army wives’ support group back at home, Carmen?”
“Hell, no,” Carmen answered with a shiver. “I couldn’t stand all that sympathy right now. I’m glad we’re gone for a while. Besides, we have each other, and we hardly ever go to those support meetings anyway.”
Carmen’s phone rang, and like Joanie, she put it on speaker. Natalie’s voice broke just slightly when she heard everyone yell her name, but she gave her mother her address, told her that she loved her, and told her no candy, cookies, or anything to eat. Letters were all she could have.
“It’s a shame that we don’t even need to be told that, isn’t it?” Carmen said. “All of us are military, so we’ve heard the stories of what happens when a mama or granny sends food. I remember when Eli called me the first time in basic training. I wanted to send him a box of his favorite cookies. When he got home, he told me exactly what happened to a kid whose mama sent candy. I’m glad we know those things.”
Diana nodded, and her phone rang. It was the same message and the same short phone call, but she was beaming when the call ended. Just hearing the girls’ voices was better than expensive presents on Christmas morning.
Tootsie held out a notepad and pen. “Give me those addresses so I can write them down. I’m going to get a letter ready for all three of them. Did y’all file a temporary address change before we left Sugar Run?”
They all nodded.
“Then if they send a letter home before they get this address, it’ll get forwarded.” Tootsie eased up out of her recliner and headed to her bedroom. One by one the other three headed upstairs, with Joanie bringing up the rear.
“What about you, Luke?” Joanie stopped halfway up the stairs and looked toward him.
“The sofa is all mine now. I’m having a Sunday-afternoon nap.” He yawned as he stretched out on the empty sofa.
“Secrets,” Joanie whispered as she followed them to the second floor.
“What’s that?” Diana whispered.
“We’ve all got secrets that we need to tell our daughters, but we’d rather tell them to their faces, not in letters.” Joanie stopped at the door of her bedroom.
“I don’t have a secret,” Diana said.
“Oh, yes, you do. It’s a secret if you don’t want to tell Rebecca about Luke,” Carmen told her. “Hey, I got away without stationery or even a notebook. Either one of y’all got extra?”
“I got you covered. I brought two spiral notebooks,” Joanie said. “I figure that the girls won’t care if the letters are on fancy paper or not. I’ll bring one over to your room. And about that secret of yours, Diana. It goes beyond not telling Rebecca about Luke.”
“Oh, yeah?” Diana raised an eyebrow.
“Yep,” Carmen said. “I’d be willing to bet that you and Luke discussed something other than cats on your trip yesterday. We were going to have a talk about it in Tootsie’s room last night, but we played dominoes so late that she put it off until tonight. Tootsie says that we should have started a weekly meeting among us four as soon as we got here. I guess it’s never too late.” She shrugged. “Anyway, tonight she says that we’re all to be in her room as soon as Luke goes to the motor home.”
“Y’all are crazy.” Diana smiled. “We talk all the time.”
“Maybe so, but we’ve all still got a secret to tell our girls, and I’m telling Zoe all about mine in a letter, but we’re going to discuss everything tonight, and I do mean everything.” Joanie went to the armoire in her room, took a notebook from the shelf, and took it back out to Carmen. “You need a pen?”
Carmen grimaced. “I sure wasn’t very well prepared, was I?”
Diana whipped one out from the messy bun on top of her hair. “Here you