The more she bounced Clara on her skinny hip bone, the more Clara giggled and smiled right back at her.
“Mom, you okay?” Grady took me by the arm.
“I’m fine.” I handed him the box. “This is from your grandmother.”
“Grandmother?” Grady laughed at my formality because we didn’t call her that at all. He leaned in like he was giving me a kiss but whispered in my ear, “Are you okay with this?”
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it with a big smile on my face.
“Let Maw-maw see her little Clara.” I marched over in my oversized sweatpants and sweatshirt, plucking Clara right out of Lucy’s arms.
“Thank you for the food.” Julia got up from the chair and came over to hug me. “I’m starving.”
I followed her into the kitchen where they’d recently torn down a lot of the old farmhouse walls to make their living space and kitchen open concept.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea Mac was bringing her.” Julia’s brows furrowed, and she gave me and Clara another big hug.
“No problem,” I said in a happy voice with a big smile on my face and looked at those sweet little cupid bow lips Clara had. Her skin was perfect, and she had the bluest of eyes. “I’ve got to get used to it.”
“Maybe you need to explore why it bothers you.” Julia opened the cabinets and took out a couple of plates. “Is it possible you do want to spend your life with him?”
“Ahhh, we don’t need to talk about boys, do we?” I asked Clara, and she smiled so big.
“What are y’all talking about in here?” Lucy Drake made an appearance. “The boys are talking remodel, and I don’t get into those things.”
“I was just getting me and Grady a plate of food.” Julia reached in to get a third dish. “Would you like some? Plenty for everyone.”
The food did look good, and I was about to say I’d take a couple of scoops, but then…
“No.” Lucy waved her off. “I just got out of yoga, and I can never eat after a soul workout.” She turned her attention to me. “Right, Bernie?”
“Yeah. None for me.” It was hard to say through a mouthful of water. “I’m definitely not hungry.” I tried to cover up the loud growl coming from my gut and not notice Julia looking at my stomach.
“Ohh.” Lucy wiggled her shoulders. “You’re getting a great gut workout if your stomach is gurgling and you’re not hungry.”
“Yeah.” I shrugged and sat down with Clara in my arms. “Julia, she’s perfect.” I decided to focus on what was right with the world, and it was right in my arms.
“She’s pretty great. And her Uncle Mac is just so excited about her.” I could feel Lucy standing over me. “I hope you don’t mind I came with him. I was at yoga, with Bernie”—she said it like it made it better—“and I just popped over to Mac’s house. Unannounced, of course, when I found him getting into his truck.” She snorted and sat down in the chair next to me. “When he told me he was coming here, I sorta invited myself.”
“You know how it is around Sugar Creek Gap.” Julia put both plates on the family farmhouse table where we’d gathered every single Sunday since I was born and to this day to have our weekly family supper.
That included Mac too. He still came every Sunday, but if he started to bring Lucy, I’d have to put a halt to him coming. That was that.
Julia continued, “You can just stop by without calling or anything. Our door is always open.”
I scowled. That was one invitation Lucy Drake would burn in her perfect-sized brain. In fact, I stared at her brain and wondered if she had any gray matter like I did. Or that’s what Dr. Hunter told me I had.
“See those little white specs?” Dr. Hunter had asked me at my annual checkup, where she did a full-body midlife checkup along with a full blood panel just to make sure I was aging alright. “You don’t need to worry about those. That’s just aging brain.”
That certainly didn’t make me feel good. That was also the same visit where she’d told me I needed to do better exercise for my bones and how yoga and Lucy Drake entered my weekly routine.
Yeah. I saw Lucy Drake when I delivered the radio station mail, but I did everything in my power to deliver it when she was on air and not somewhere she’d see me.
So, whenever I was at the Wallflower Diner, just a few doors down from WSCG, and Lucy came on after a song, I’d hightail it down there to deliver the mail. No different than thinking I could avoid Mac and his architecture firm and house by delivering in the afternoon.
Julia was right about one thing. Maybe I did need to explore why this little situation with Lucy and Mac bothered me so much.
But not tonight. Tonight, I was going to visit with my little Clara.
“Who is Maw-maw’s girl?” I asked Clara in a baby voice as I snuggled her closer.
If I was going to be a maw-maw, I was going to be the best damn maw-maw in the south. You could bet your grits on that.
Chapter 3
Iris was laughing so hard through the phone after I told her about Lucy Drake telling me how my gut health was awesome due to the yoga I’d done before going to see Clara, that I had to take the phone from my ear in fear I’d lose my hearing.
Right now, that was about the only body part working.
“That is the funniest thing.” Iris couldn’t stop herself. “I bet you were about to kill that woman.”
“That’s really not the worst part.” I buttoned up my blue mail carrier shirt and headed down to the kitchen where my morning brewed coffee was a welcoming smell. “Grady insists Clara calls' me Maw-maw.”
Just saying the words nearly made me gag.
“For heaven’s sake!” Iris squealed in delight. “Stop making me laugh. My stomach is killing me from yoga.”
While she continued to hoot and carry on, I did my morning ritual with the fur babies before filling up a to-go mug and heading out the door into the dark morning.
“You might have to have a talk with Grady about making sure he texts you when Mac is over.” Iris made a good point. “But Julia is right. You do need to explore why it bothers you so much since you’re the one who called it off between you two.”
I changed the subject. “Are you at the bakery?” I’d spent all night thinking about this, and I didn’t want my first thoughts of the day to be about it, especially when I’d not gotten any sort of divine intervention on why I did feel the way I felt.
Trust me when I said that I’d prayed, screamed, and cried all night long to find some sort of peace in the matter.
“I am. A full day ahead of deliveries. So many birthdays in the summer, which goes to show just what couples do when they are cooped up in the winter.” Iris always had a funny way of looking at things. “If I’m not there when you deliver my mail, make sure you get the outgoing bills from Geraldine.”
Geraldine Workman was an employee of Iris’s and mainly worked the counter.
“I will.” I hung up, quickly crossed over Main Street, and walked behind the post office where the employee entrance and the slew of LLV (short for lifelong vehicles) were. “Hey there, Nick Kirby. What a bright way to start my day.”