“Oh, yeah, we will,” Tabby said through a wide smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “It doesn’t look like any of that smoked turkey we thawed out yesterday will go to waste. We can use it to make sandwiches, and I’ll put on a pot of soup to go with them. I can handle the food, but I sure hope Aunt Charlotte wasn’t just pulling a joke on us when she said that Alex could cook. I was used to cooking for two or three, but for the last few years, I’ve only been making food for one—not a houseful—and I can use all the help I can get.”
“I can set the table and do the cleanup, but, honey, you do not want me trying to help with cooking. Those old folks would starve to death.” Ellie Mae chuckled.
“They might have a choice of starving or freezing if the generator plays out when we lose power.” Tabby paused and then went on. “Hopefully, Aunt Charlotte has enough fuel stored in the barn to keep it going. If she doesn’t, remember that one of those freezers is half-full of nothing but different flavors of ice cream, so we’ll be eating that for breakfast, dinner, and supper. On a positive note”—the grin changed into a real smile—“our guests are arriving in the middle of the afternoon, so today we only have to do snacks and supper.”
“Miss Positive Britches rises again in the midst of what I think of as a nightmare.” Ellie Mae patted Tabby on the shoulder. “Do you know how much we can depend on the generator when the electricity goes out?”
“Aunt Charlotte says it’ll keep the refrigerator, freezers, and hot-water tank going just fine for several days, but we’ll have to use oil lamps, flashlights, and those LED lights that we found in a box in the attic,” Tabby answered. “We use gas for cooking, but if the hurricane knocks that out, she says to use the woodstove out in the barn, and she keeps a couple of cords of wood stacked up and covered behind the building.”
“Well, thank goodness this hurricane isn’t hitting us in the hot part of summer. Our guests would suffocate in the heat with no air-conditioning,” Ellie Mae said.
Tabby took seven mugs out of the cabinet and set them on the counter. “I was hoping that the storm would swerve off to the east and we’d escape with only some rain in our area this year. We’ve passed the peak, and in only three weeks, we’ll be pretty well over the whole hurricane season.”
“Guess Delilah is going to break us in as the new owners. Next time Aunt Charlotte calls, I’m going to ask her the name of the first hurricane she endured when she took over the business,” Ellie Mae said.
“She didn’t just take over the business, girl. She was born in this place and grew up here. She took over running the boat business and taking care of her mother when her dad died. She told me all about it a couple of years ago. When a hurricane blew away the place where the boats were built, she just never started it up again and decided to turn the house into a B and B.”
Even though she was expecting it, the knock on the back door startled Tabby so badly that she almost dropped the box of tea bags she was holding.
“Come on in,” Ellie Mae yelled out and then gasped when the first person came into the kitchen.
Tabby whipped around to see what had shocked her cousin, and really did drop the box of tea bags. The first woman through the door looked like she should be telling fortunes in a carnival in her flowing multicolored skirt and that fancy, long braid bedazzled with beads.
“I’m Cleo, and I want to thank you for letting us stay here. We would have evacuated with the rest of the old folks, but we don’t have family to rescue us, and all the hotels from here to Mexico are full,” she said.
“And I’m Maude, who can thank you myself for your generosity,” said a woman behind her. “I don’t need Cleo to do it for me.” She gave Cleo the old stink eye and stuck her nose in the air.
“I’m Homer.” A short man with a face as round as his body followed right behind them. His blue eyes and bibbed overalls reminded Tabby of Grandpa Isaac, Charlotte’s older brother and Tabby and Ellie Mae’s grandfather. Her grandfather had passed away when Tabby was a teenager, but looking at Homer now sure brought his twinkling blue eyes and humor back to her mind.
“Frank.” With only one word, Homer’s opposite introduced himself. He had thick, curly gray hair and a nose sprinkled with a few freckles. His eyes seemed to take in everything at once.
“We’re making tea and coffee for everyone, but first, let me show you to your rooms”—Ellie Mae motioned toward the door leading out into the foyer—“and make you familiar with the place.”
“I hear y’all have a lift chair,” Maude said.
“I can get up the stairs all on my own,” Homer said. “I don’t need to be riding in no lift chair. Until last year, when me and Frank decided to sell our gas station and retire, we took care of ourselves.”
“And I’ve wished a million times that we hadn’t sold out,” Frank added.
“Hello, Tabby and Ellie Mae.” Alex smiled at them when he came inside. “It’s been a long time.”
“It has been a minute, hasn’t it?” Tabby wondered if he even remembered that dry, awkward kiss in the barn more than twenty-five years ago as well as she did.
“More than twenty years’ worth of minutes, and a lot of water under the bridge, but it’s good to see both of you again. Miz Charlotte sure talked a lot about y’all,” he said with another smile. “I’m going to start bringing in the folks’ belongings. Is it okay if I just put everything in the upstairs hallway, and let them sort it all out?”
“Of course,” Tabby answered. “I’ll help you bring in their things while Ellie Mae shows everyone to their rooms. Then we’ll gather around the dining room table for a snack and a little visit to get acquainted.”
Alex headed out into the garage. Tabby remembered the box of tea bags on the floor, picked them up, and then started across the kitchen. The four older folks followed Ellie Mae out into the foyer.
“Have you ever used a lift chair?” Ellie Mae asked.
“No, but it looks like fun,” Cleo said. “I’m glad we’ll be on the second floor. If the floodwater makes it into the house, at least Maude won’t drown.”
“What makes you think I’d drown?” Maude snapped.
“You’re so uptight that you’ll forget to take a breath and your body will sink.” Cleo’s voice faded as Tabby followed Alex out into the garage.
“Do Cleo and Maude argue like this all the time?” Tabby asked.
“I don’t know about all the time, but they sure did all the way over here from the center. The old guys seem to get along just fine, and from what they said about owning a gas station together, I guess they’re friends,” Alex answered. “Looks like the old gals are a different story. They’re going to be a handful, but it’s only for a couple of days—three at the most, if the hurricane knocks out the power.”
“I wonder what kind of history they’ve got that makes them act like that?” Tabby gripped the handles of two suitcases and rolled them across the concrete floor. She thought of her father and Ellie Mae’s dad and their constant disagreements. Could these two women be related? “Did they both like the same boy in the fourth grade? Or maybe one of them slept with the other’s boyfriend in high school and they’ve never forgiven each other.”