The Lilac Bouquet

by Carolyn Brown

  “No, but I can call it up.” She whipped her phone out and poked a few buttons and cocked her head to one side as she listened to it. When the song ended, she put the phone back in her pocket. “But that says that her love withered, and you are telling me that yours did.”

  “True.” Seth nodded. “I was in love with the idea of being in love. She was in love with the idea of having a place in society. It all withered when we finally had a big fight about children. I wanted enough to fill the big house. I could hear little boys arguing and little girls giggling. I could visualize them sliding down the banister and me putting a swing set up in the backyard. I was thirty years old and I wanted to get started right away on the family.”

  “And she didn’t?” Emmy Jo asked.

  “One week before the wedding, she told me that she was never having children. She didn’t like kids and they would ruin her body. That ended it right there.” Seth paused. “So she threw the engagement ring at me and stormed out. She went back to Amarillo, and the next year she married a man who was in some kind of high-powered corporation that sent him all over the world on business trips. They’re both dead now, but I hope she was happy.”

  “Why didn’t you sell the house? That’s a lot of room for one person.”

  He sighed and went on. “When a person dies, their memory lives on. It’s not Rachel that I’m thinking about in the fall when I kick the dead leaves out of the way. It’s Mama. That’s when I tell her she was right. That having the biggest house in Hickory, and setting it on a hill, does not bring a man peace or happiness. I live there to remind myself of that.”

  “What are you going to do with it when you die?” she asked.

  A wide grin split his face. “You are one blunt piece of work.”

  “That’s old news. What’s on the front page today?” she joked.

  “I’m considering a few options. One is that while I’m gone on the cruise, I have this place remodeled. It could be like one of those tiny houses I read about in the newspaper. The room where all three of us kids slept could be my bedroom and office. The other one could be a combination living room and kitchen like it is now. But I’d have Mama’s bed taken out and some comfortable chairs and a television put in,” he said.

  Emmy Jo whipped around so quickly that it made her dizzy. “You’d move from the big house to this?”

  “Depends on how I feel when I go through that door today,” he said. “It’s an option, and at my age, I don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”

  “What about the big house?” What about it? He’d been thinking some, but as usual, seeing Emmy Jo seemed to put his thoughts into shape.

  “More options. I’m thinking about donating it to charity. Maybe to a place that would turn it into an unwed mothers’ home. There would be counselors and nurses to help run the place,” he said.

  Tears welled up in Emmy Jo’s blue eyes. “That is so sweet and so beautiful, Seth.”

  “It’s all ideas right now. You ready to go look inside?” he asked.

  She nodded and popped up from a sitting position so fast that he was instantly jealous. To be young and agile again instead of old and fragile. He punched in the right buttons to get into the house and disabled the alarm system. With Emmy Jo right beside him, he waited for the horrible vision of his mother dying right there beside the kitchen table to appear, but it didn’t.

  Seeing this place through her eyes put a whole new spin on the place. She turned around a dozen times, taking in every single thing. “It’s so cozy. I can see a little galley kitchen right here and a nice big comfortable sofa with recliners on the end where the bed is located. And you will need to have a bathroom installed. Make sure it’s got a walk-in shower. We don’t want you slipping and falling and breaking your other hip.” She stopped to suck in air. “And you could have a dog walk out this back door to a garage where your cars could go.”

  She chattered on as they went to the bedroom next; instead of sorrow, he felt pure joy at really being home.

  “Oh. My. Goodness. This room is huge. Take out these twin beds and you’d have a lovely office and bedroom combo.” She went to the window facing the back. “Seth, there is a deer. Look, it’s right there by the trees.”

  “The place butts up to a wildlife refuge. There is a barbed-wire fence beyond those trees about twenty yards. The deer probably hopped over the fence to get a drink from the little creek between my place and the refuge.”

  She waved her arms. “Knock out this little bitty window and put in sliding doors with a patio out here. Maybe not as big as the one at home, but a place where you could read your papers and watch the animals.”

  “Good ideas, every one of them.” He turned around in the doorway, expecting to see his mother dying again. But the picture that flashed through his head was of the family sitting around the table as she read a story from the Bible to them on Sunday morning.

  Emmy Jo looped her arm in his. “I feel peace in this place.”

  “So do I,” Seth said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Good mornin’, Granny!” Emmy Jo waved from the front of Libby’s Café. “Did you order the special for us?”

  Tandy smiled and waved back with a nod. It could easily be the last time that Emmy Jo would see that sweet smile for a long time, so she stopped, shut her eyes, and memorized it. She sat down across the booth from her grandmother, and in seconds, Libby brought out two huge plates of food and an extra one piled high with pancakes.

  “So what did you think of the cupcakes?” Tandy asked. “Are we making them for the wedding?”

  “Yes, the caterer is going to use your recipes for all of them.”

  “Caterer?” Tandy rolled her eyes and fluttered a hand. “La-di-da!”

  “I want you to be there with me and enjoy the day, not cook for days before and be frazzled at the reception. The wedding is going to be held at Seth’s house with the ceremony outside on the huge driveway. The reception will be in the garage, but the rest of the house will be open with tables set up.” Emmy Jo reached for the saltshaker.

  Tandy slapped her hand. “Stop right there.”

  “I can’t have salt?”

  “No, if you want me at the wedding, then it’s not going to be out at that house,” Tandy answered. “What has gotten into you, girl?”

  “Seth is my friend, and I’ve asked him to walk me down the aisle,” Emmy Jo said. “And it’s time for you to tell me the truth, Granny. Is Seth my biological great-grandfather? If not, who is? I know it’s not Jesse because of the blood types.”

  From the look in Tandy’s eyes, Emmy Jo half expected to see smoke coming from her ears. The steps for resuscitation went through her mind as she salted her scrambled eggs. “I’ve tried everything short of coming right out and asking, but it’s time you told me, Granny. I’m not judging you. I just want to know.”

  Tandy put her hands together and clapped. “Well, ain’t you the smarty-pants, figuring that out all by yourself? Now you see why I’m not going up to that house.”

  Emmy Jo leaned across the table. “You have to go. If you don’t, then everyone is going to figure out the secret that you have kept for all these years. His old eyes still light up when he talks about you, you know. What he said to you about you not being as good as his mama, that’s why you’ve hated him all these years. And you’ve hated Jesse because he ran away and wouldn’t marry you. People won’t get all of that, but they’ll start to put things together,” she whispered.

  “Maybe at my age I don’t give a shit if everyone knows,” she said.

  “Good, then when Seth gives me away, I’ll have him say, ‘Her grandmother and grandfather, who is me.’”

  “You wouldn’t dare!” Tandy said.

  “Who cares at this late date, Granny?”

  “You aren’t upset that you are kin to a man whose mother whored for a living?” Tandy seethed.

  “No, ma’am. I kind of like Mary.” Emmy Jo went back to eating.

  “You
never even met her.” Tandy stabbed her fork in Emmy Jo’s direction.

  “Seth told me about her and now I understand why . . .” She paused. “Now I realize why her spirit called to me. I’m her great-great-granddaughter, and I needed to hear her story. I know it’s crazy, but sometimes I think of all she had to endure because of the way the town treated her. It’s like I’m feeling what she did.”

  “I’ll think about coming to the wedding,” Tandy said.

  Emmy Jo could have jumped up on the table and done a tap dance to celebrate things going even that smoothly. Next week, she’d spring the idea of working for Seth permanently on her granny. Baby steps. One tiny little bit forward at a time.

  Emmy Jo went right to Seth’s house after she’d had breakfast with Tandy, marched out to the patio, and picked up a newspaper. How on earth did she begin the conversation, and how was Seth going to react?

  She stole glances at him as she read and tried to see some of his features in the pictures she’d seen of Rose or Crystal, but nothing came through. Then she remembered the picture of his grandmother on the mantel. Yes, that’s who Rose looked like.

  “You talked to Tandy, didn’t you?” Seth said from behind the newspaper.

  “Why didn’t you tell me when you found out?” she asked.

  Seth folded the paper and laid it in his lap. “Wasn’t my place. Tandy needed to be the one. Is she mad?”

  “Not so much. She still don’t like you,” Emmy Jo answered.

  “Feelin’s mutual, because we could have had sixty good years together by now, but I’m workin’ on it,” he said.

  Emmy Jo laid her paper to the side, amazed that knowing the big secret hadn’t changed things so very much after all.

  “So are you mad at me?”

  “Why should I be? You thought Rose belonged to Jesse. He’s the one I’m mad at for not doing right by Granny, and yet, if he had, he would have been raising your daughter. It’s true that we weave tangled webs when we tell lies, isn’t it? Only you didn’t lie and you didn’t know about Rose, so it’s not your fault.”

  He folded his newspaper and put it aside. “That means we still get to have the wedding here? I’m going to need my assistant to oversee a lot of remodeling on my little house while I’m on the cruise. It’ll be a full-time job doing that and getting this place in order to host unwed mothers. Lots of paperwork, lots of decisions.”

  Emmy Jo inhaled deeply and let it out very slowly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like you are my grandfather, Seth, but I will always know you are my friend. Maybe it is because of your mother and what we both feel when we think of her, or maybe we are just both full of the same spit and vinegar,” Emmy Jo said. “It’s a relief to understand why things are the way they are. I doubt much will change where my granny and Jesse are concerned, but miracles do happen.”

  “Amen,” he said. “I kind of like knowing that I’m not going to leave this world with no one behind to miss me. Knowing that you are my granddaughter, well, it . . . I can’t explain how I feel.”

  Emmy Jo laid a hand on his arm, and the warmth went all the way to the depths of his soul. “I know you would have, because you loved her.”

  “Yes, I did,” Seth said. “Now what do we do?”

  “We have snacks and this evening we have supper with Logan. And even before we go see the farmhouse, I’m saying yes to your offer for the job. I’ll call the health care agency tomorrow and give them notice.”

  “Hot damn!” Seth grinned. “I guess blood is thicker than water.”

  Emmy Jo felt kinship to the farmhouse the second that she and Logan followed Seth inside that evening. She tried to take it all in with a first glance. This was where Seth’s father, Samuel, had grown up. How would his life have been different if he hadn’t thrown that rock at those horses in a fit of anger? As they went from room to room on the ground floor, she thought of things she should add to the story that she was writing.

  “I love this house,” she said as she and Logan climbed the stairs. “It’s huge by trailer standards, but it’s still cozy.”

  “Three bedrooms and a bathroom. Got to limit it to two kids,” Logan teased.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. “Oh, no! Girls in this room. Boys in that one. And no yelling about the bathroom in the mornings. With two sets of bunk beds in each room, I’m figuring eight would be the limit.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “So we’re really doing this? I still can’t believe that the big mystery of why our grandparents all hate one another has been solved.”

  “I love Seth. Please tell me that I’m not taking advantage,” she whispered.

  “He offered and you thought about it for a long time. I’m sure he doesn’t feel like you are using him, darlin’,” Logan drawled. “Do you realize we are standing in our bedroom, right in the middle of where our bed will be?” Logan wrapped his arms around Emmy Jo’s waist and drew her to him. “And when we get home from the honeymoon, we will sleep in this bed for the next fifty years.” His arms tightened around her. “In this room, but most likely not in the same bed. I’m planning on wearing out at least half a dozen beds in that length of time.”

  A soft giggle escaped her lips. “Now that’s the most romantic thing you’ve said in a long time.” She took a step back. “We’d better go back downstairs before we start trying out this pretend bed.”

  “I don’t mind a few splinters on my butt if you don’t.” He grinned.

  “Oh, darlin’,” she whispered, “it’s been so long that this floor would seem like a feather bed right now.”

  With Logan’s arm around her shoulders, they walked slowly down the staircase to the living room where her grandfather waited.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Logan stopped on the porch of his grandfather’s house and said a silent prayer. He rang the doorbell and immediately felt heavy footsteps as Jesse crossed the hardwood floor. The door opened, and Jesse frowned. “Why did you make me get up out of my chair? The door’s never locked in the daytime. You know that. What do you want, anyway?”

  “Let’s sit on the porch,” Logan said.

  “No, thank you. Last night I was out there and got bit twice by mosquitoes. You got something to say, then come on in here where it’s nice and cool.”

  “Okay, then.” Logan opened the screen door and followed Jesse.

  He’d spent lots of nights in the spare bedroom when his grandmother was living, and there were good memories there. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and a tiny little study where Jesse could prepare his sermons when he was asked to be a guest speaker. Jesse went back to his recliner and pulled the lever on the side to prop up his feet. As always, he was dressed in dark slacks and a white shirt open at the neck, but it would take only a few seconds to put on a conservative tie if he was needed at a hospital or had to go over to the church to perform a quick marriage. No one could ever say that Jesse Grady wasn’t ready for anything that popped up.

  At least not until that day, Logan thought as he sat down on the end of the sofa and wished he knew exactly how best to start the conversation. “Gramps, I’ve got something to tell you. It’s not easy for me to say, and it sure won’t be easy for you to hear, since you’ve carried around this weight on your shoulders for most of your life.”

  “Spit it out, Logan,” Jesse said.

  “Rose was not your daughter. Emmy Jo and I have figured out this whole thing between you and Seth and Tandy. You’ve punished yourself all these years. You weren’t the person who got Tandy pregnant,” Logan said.

  Jesse sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slowly. His old eyes narrowed, and Logan could almost feel the heat of his anger filling the room. “She said I was the father and that we’d go to college together. Why would she lie?”

  “I don’t think she did. She wanted you to be the father, so she convinced herself that you were. Was the fact that Emmy Jo and I might be distantly related the reason that you’ve b
een so against this marriage?”

  Jesse shook his head. “No. I don’t like that girl. She comes from bad blood.”

  “Get over it, Gramps,” Logan said. “Or you’ll stand before God with a nasty spirit that won’t get through the pearly gates.”

  If looks could kill, Logan would have stopped breathing on the spot.

  “Do you believe that she really thought I was the father?”

  “Yes, she did, but after you deserted her, she must’ve decided that she didn’t want anything to do with you,” Logan said.

  “But who?” Jesse whispered.

  “Seth Thomas,” Logan answered.

  Jesse’s hands knotted into fists, and he pounded the arms of his recliner. “That man has ruined my life since we weren’t anything but kids.”

  “You want to tell me about what else went wrong between you? More than the fact that you were both having a teenage fling with Tandy?” Logan asked.

  Jesse clammed up, his mouth a firm line and his jaws working like he was chewing gum.

  “You were the popular kid and Seth was the outcast. What happened between y’all?”

  “I’m not talking about it,” Jesse said through clenched teeth. “I hate that man and I’ll never forgive him for the misery he has caused me.”

  “Do you think he’ll forgive you?”

  “For what?” Jesse turned a cold glare on Logan.

  “Whatever you did to start this problem between y’all. I was like Seth in high school, remember? Kids picked on me all through elementary and junior high because I was a preacher’s kid. Then Jack and I became friends the summer before high school and he took up for me. So what did you do?”

  “I stated the obvious. His mother was a whore, and I said as much in class one day.”

  Logan sighed. “Seth was the one who beat you up and knocked you out of playing football, wasn’t he? It wasn’t a gang at all, but one boy who was taking up for his mother.”