lesson, for a little while at least. Now that she and Dotty had both been in the intervention spotlight, Jolene couldn’t help but wonder when it would be Flossie’s turn—or if Sugar had ever had it shined on her.
Jolene stumbled into the kitchen the next morning looking, Tucker noticed, like the last rose of summer a big old hound dog had hiked his leg on. Tucker smiled at his grandpa’s old adage.
“Mornin’,” she grumbled.
He pointed at the coffeepot. “Just made a fresh pot. I drank what I made earlier while I was figuring out what we need to get ready for work on Monday.”
She poured a cup and sat down at the table with a groan. “And what do we need?”
“We should go to the paint store in Marshall. You could pick out the paint for this first bedroom so that we’ll have it on hand when we’re ready for it. I’m thinking that instead of peeling off all that old wallpaper, plaster, and lathing, we just put up drywall over it. If you want to feminize it, you could put a border around the ceiling, but wallpaper is a real bitch to hang and to maintain.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said.
“We could get a burger or maybe hit a pizza buffet for lunch. My treat,” he said.
“That sounds wonderful. Give me a few minutes to shower and get dressed,” she told him.
He went out to sit on the porch swing, and Sassy followed him. The cat settled onto his lap and meowed.
“So I’ve been hearing Melanie’s voice more lately, but the only thing she says is for me to move on. I didn’t tell her good night last night like I always do. Does that mean I’m finally taking a step forward?”
The cat shut both eyes.
“Lot of help you are,” Tucker said. “There are days now when I can’t remember what she looked like without looking at her picture. It scares me, Sassy.”
The cat opened one eye and then closed it again.
“If I don’t remember her, then all those wonderful years we had together will be gone,” he whispered.
Jolene pushed her way out onto the porch, and Sassy hopped down off his lap and made a beeline to the door. “Guess she doesn’t want to get left outside,” Jolene said as she started for her truck. “I can’t wait to decide what color to do this first room. I think they should all be different, but we should keep the colors muted and light, and that the border should have magnolias on it. But I have been thinking of painting the front door purple and hanging a pretty magnolia wreath on it. Aunt Sugar talked about doing that for years, but they never got around to it.”
“Sounds good to me. We can take my vehicle,” he said.
She nodded. “Then we can keep the rooms separate by calling them by their color. Like, ‘we’ve got guests in the blue room.’ But today we only have to decide on one color, right? And we’ll think about the front door before we make a definite decision.”
“We could pick out two colors today.” He rushed around the truck to open the door for her. “That way we’ll have the paint here and ready.”
“Let’s find a pretty magnolia border and then match six colors to that. And no heavy drapes on the windows. We need to bring the pine trees inside, and . . .”
He started the engine. “You’ve given this a lot of thought, haven’t you?”
“Yep, I have, and I’m really glad that you are able to finance it, Tucker.”
It was a good thing that they ate their burgers before they went to the paint store, because there was no such thing as simply picking out a border. She pored over three massive wallpaper books, marking at least a dozen borders that had magnolias on them, but she couldn’t decide. The flowers were too big on one, too small on another, and too stylized on another.
Tucker found an old metal folding chair in the corner, sat down, and leaned it against the wall on the back two legs. He pulled his hat down over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. He would have picked out a border in five minutes, but he was a man. Melanie and Jolene both took forever to make up their minds about anything.
He smiled when a memory of Melanie popped into his head. He had taken her out shopping, and she’d been in and out