“If I have to share a room with her in this B and B place,” Cleo said, “that just might come sooner than later.”
Homer chuckled and reached up to pat Alex on the shoulder. “Thanks for rescuing us. This is our first hurricane since we moved into the center, and we weren’t sure where they’d find a place for us to stay until it comes and goes.”
A short man who was almost as wide as he was tall, Homer sported a rim of gray hair around a bald head that he covered with a Dallas Cowboys cap. His brown eyes and round face, plus the striped overalls and plaid flannel shirt, reminded Alex of his own grandfather.
Another strip of lightning zigzagged through the sky, leaving a crackling sound in its wake, followed by more loud thunder that sounded like it was sitting right on top of the pickup truck.
“That one would have parted my hair if I had any.” Homer chuckled.
“Gonna be a big storm.” Frank practically hugged the window. He wore a long-sleeve shirt buttoned all the way up around his thin neck, and he sat straight and tall. His dark eyes took in everything at once, and Alex figured that if he asked the elderly gentleman what had been said on the fifteen-minute trip, he would have no trouble reciting every word back to him—verbatim.
“Y’all ever stayed at the Sandcastle B and B before?” Alex asked as he made a left-hand turn toward the structure that sat just a few hundred feet back from the beach.
“Nope, but I’m looking forward to it,” Homer said. “I ain’t been real happy with this retirement-center thing, but what’s an old fart to do when he ain’t got family? Me and Frank should’ve gotten us wives when we was young enough to chase them down, but we was too busy in them days, runnin’ away from all the women.”
“That’s right—and then, when we can’t chase a woman no more or working at our store tires us out before the end of the workday,” Frank said in a deep Louisiana accent, “Homer talks me into going to a glorified nursing home with him.”
“I grew up in Winnie, Texas,” Maude butted in. “I moved down here after my mother passed away. I’ve seen the B and B when we come into town on the center’s shuttle but never been inside.”
“I’ve never been in the place, either,” Cleo chimed in from the back seat. “I retired a couple of years ago and moved into the center just before Miss Prissy Pants in the front seat did.”
Before anyone else could comment, big drops of rain dotted the windshield. Alex slowed down and drove right up to the garage doors of the B and B. He parked, got out of the truck, and ran over to push a button on the outside wall. The doors raised, and he jogged back to slide behind the wheel and drive into one bay of the three-car garage that was attached to the inn. An older dark green truck and a burgundy SUV took up the other two spaces.
“We’re here,” he said, “and from the size of those big drops of cold rain, it looks like we made it just in time. I’ll show y’all on into the house, and then I’ll come back and get your things for you.”
“I hope my room is on the ground floor,” Maude said. “My knees won’t climb up and down steps all day.”
“Besides, she doesn’t want to be anywhere near me.” Cleo giggled. “If she’s seen with me, her halo might lose its shine.”
I feel sorry for Tabby and Ellie Mae, Alex thought as he opened the truck doors one by one and helped the old folks out. They’re going to have their work cut out for them the next few days, or maybe weeks, if the center gets so much damage that no one can move back into it for a while.
They’re not the only ones. His grandfather’s voice popped into his head. You are staying here with them, too.
“You will all be staying on the second floor,” Alex said. “I’ve been here through several storms and hurricanes. The guest rooms are upstairs, but there is a lift chair you can use, Miz Maude. Miz Charlotte used it all the time. Have any of you met the two new owners, Tabby and Ellie Mae, maybe at church or in town?”
All four of them shook their heads.
Alex opened the door into the kitchen, stood back, and let them parade inside. “Then let’s make everyone acquainted before we get you settled into your rooms. You will probably have time to unpack and catch a little nap before we serve supper.”
Chapter Two
I’m sure not wearing my positive britches right now,” Tabby muttered as she studied the old, yellowed paper with a pattern of ivy vines on the kitchen walls. She sighed.
Her younger cousin had always been the go-get-’em one of the two—a leader. Tabby had been a follower, up until seven years ago, when her daughter was killed in an automobile accident. She’d wallowed in negativity for a while but then decided that if she was going to survive losing Natalie, she had to pull herself together and turn her life around. She managed most days, but still, when push came to shove, as far as her daughter was concerned, she had to fight the negative feelings.
From the first day they arrived, she and Ellie Mae had planned to start redecorating the ground floor of the old B and B after they’d settled in. Ellie Mae liked the old wallpaper and thought it gave the place character, but Tabby had been eager to tear the faded ivy right off the walls. She had envisioned painting the walls a light yellow and the burled-oak wainscoting white. Ellie Mae thought they should leave things as they were, and said that the wallpaper might be yellowed, but it was a testament to the era when the house was built. She had even gotten a little teary-eyed at the idea of painting oak.
Now any redecorating would have to wait until Delilah—dang her hurricane soul—blew through town.
Her mother’s stern voice popped into her head. Did you ever consider that maybe the reason y’all can’t agree on the redecorating is because you shouldn’t be there? Gloria had tried to talk Tabby out of divorcing James. When Tabby set her heels and said no—at least a dozen times—Gloria tried to convince her to leave her job at the bank and come work for the Landry and Landry Law Firm.
“I would tell all this hideous wallpaper bedtime stories before I would come back to Oklahoma and back to work for you and Daddy,” Tabby muttered.
“Are you talking to me?” Ellie Mae turned away from the kitchen window.
Tabby sucked in a lungful of air and let it out in a loud whoosh. “I was fighting with my mother. It’s hard to remain positive when rocks are being hurled at you, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah,” Ellie Mae said with a nod. “But it’s my dad that gives me more grief than my mother, as you well know.”
“You’re the lucky one,” Tabby said.
“How do you figure that?” Ellie Mae asked. “A parent is a parent.”
“You basically only have your dad to gripe at you and try to run your life. I have both parents,” Tabby answered.
“Yep, you got that right,” Ellie Mae agreed. “We’ll have to stand united against them all to ever get through the holiday season with our sanity.”
“And you got that right.” Tabby smiled and pointed toward the window, where hard rain pelted against the glass. “Delilah is letting us know she’s on the way.”
“I just heard several vehicle doors slam, so here comes the first wave of guests. So paste on your best smile and get ready to work,” Ellie Mae said. “I suppose we’ll have to make supper tonight for seven?”