Jolene to the kitchen with a stack of plates in his hands. “Now explain to me what just happened in there. That didn’t look like an intervention to me, and why are they even having one?”
“It’s complicated. From what I understand, Lucy feels guilty because she sleeps with men, and then they either die or break up with her. I think it might be her upbringing. Back in her day, sex before marriage was this big no-no.” Jolene rinsed dishes and put them into the dishwasher.
Tucker frowned. “So this is to get her out of religion? Most of the time folks try to push a person into it, not pull them out of it.”
“Evidently they know what they’re doin’,” Jolene said. “Their method worked with Dotty.”
“Guess you can’t argue with something that’s already been proven.” Tucker nodded in agreement. “Think Lucy can make it upstairs to see what we’ve accomplished?”
“If that ‘sweet boy’”—Jolene put air quotes around the words—“will offer her his arm and go slow, I bet she’ll make it just fine.”
“Been a helluva long time since I was called a boy.” Tucker chuckled.
“Oh, yeah! How long?”
“Well, honey, I was born in 1981. You do the math,” he answered.
“Thirty-eight?”
“On my birthday in April. And you?”
“Never was called a boy,” she told him. “I’ll be thirty-two in April. What day is your birthday?”
He scraped the leftover rice into the trash can. “The thirtieth.”
“Mine is the twenty-ninth,” she said.
How did a mother turn her back on a responsible kid like Jolene? Tucker wondered. How could a mother ever become addicted when she had a daughter? If he and Melanie had had children, he’d have still hurt when she was killed, but he would have had something to live for.
You’ve got something to live for now, so why are you still hitting the bottle? That niggling voice in his head sounded like Melanie.
He blinked away the question he didn’t want to answer and said, “Guess us partners ain’t never gonna forget the other one’s special day, are we?”
“Guess not.” She smiled. “And now we’d better get in there before our children get into more trouble than a simple hangover remedy can get them out of.”
“So we’ve adopted them?” Tucker asked.
“Aunt Sugar told me to watch after them, so I guess we have. But you don’t have to be the father figure unless you want. Might be good, because you aren’t the best role model, now are you?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Come on now. I only drink on weekends,” he said.
“When the kids are home.” Jolene walked past him out of the kitchen.
She’s right again. Listen to her. Let me go, darlin’. You’ve got a life to live.
Tucker set his jaw and followed Jolene. They could hear the singing before they reached the living room. Lucy’s voice, slurring the words, was the loudest.
“Eighty-eight sips of wine in the jug, eighty-eight sips of wine. You take one now and pass it around. Eighty-seven sips of wine in the jug.” Dotty waved from the floor, where they were sitting in a circle. Lucy took a sip of wine and went on with the song, while the other two women only put the bottle to their lips and pretended to drink.
“They’re here!” Lucy squealed. “We can go see what they’ve done upstairs.”
Tucker extended his hand to Lucy. “Shall we lead the way, Miz Lucy?”
When she was standing, he tucked her arm into his and headed for the stairs. She was weaving a little, but he’d seen worse—he’d been worse the night before. If he’d been a praying man, he would have asked God not to let Lucy tumble backward, because the other three women were right behind them. One false move and all five of them would go down, ass over big hair. Dotty and Flossie would probably end up with broken hips.
He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until they were all in the hallway and well away from the stairs. “Watch yourselves. Furniture is piled up everywhere.”
Lucy giggled when they entered the first bedroom. “I thought you was the best carpenter in East Texas, boy. Look at that bathtub in the bedroom. Are you crazy? Everyone knows you don’t put a bathtub in the bedroom.”
Dotty slipped an arm around Lucy’s waist. “Lucy, you put in the bathtub and then build the wall around it. It would be a devil of a job to try to get it through the door after the walls were built.”
Tucker eased away from Lucy, leaving her in Dotty’s