“Won’t be the first. And probably not the last.” He captured her hand before she could pull it away. “Not a bad price for holding a pretty girl’s hand.”
“You’re a charmer, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t mind charming you. You’re an interesting girl, Kate Merritt.”
He wasn’t smiling now as he stared straight into her eyes. Charming her without a doubt. She felt a little breathless again, the way she had earlier when he’d asked to kiss the sister of the bride. “Interesting? That’s not what I expected a charmer to say.”
“You’d rather I say you’re beautiful?”
“That’s a nice word to hear.” She told herself to pull her hand away and step back, but she liked it where she was standing.
“All right, you are beautiful, Kate Merritt, but interesting is better. Pretty girls are a dime a dozen, but an interesting girl, she just plants herself right in the middle of your mind and stays there.”
He was altogether too close to her. She moistened her lips before she said, “And what makes me so interesting?”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind finding out.”
“If you think I’m interesting, you must have a reason to think that.”
“You’re getting me mixed up with Mike. He’s the one always looking for answers. Finds them too. But me, I don’t need everything explained. Sometimes I just know.” He pulled her hand up to lightly brush the tops of her fingers with his lips while keeping his eyes on hers. “Like now.”
“What do you know?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“That you want to let me kiss you, but you think you shouldn’t.”
Behind them the screen door slammed and broke the spell. Kate jerked her hand away from his. “You’re the interesting one, Mr. Tanner. The way your imagination works overtime like that.” She laughed a little. “But if you knew me better, you’d know that if I wanted to do something I’d do it.”
“Interesting.” A smile lit up his brown eyes. “First you won’t elope with me and now you won’t let me kiss you. For no better reason than you don’t want to. You know how to hurt a man. Maybe I should go hunt up Carl so we can compare broken hearts.”
“I seriously doubt you’ve ever had a broken heart, Mr. Tanner.”
“You call me Mr. Tanner again, I might.” He laughed. “My name’s Jay. Look, I took a punch for you. That surely earns me the right to be on a first-name basis with you.” His voice softened a little as he added, “Kate.”
The sound of her name reached out and touched her. Made her heart start beating a little too fast again. She’d never heard her name spoken exactly like that. She laughed a little to cover up how unsettled she was feeling. “All right.” She hesitated a bare second, then said, “Jay.”
Kate had almost forgotten the slammed door until Aunt Hattie called to her. “Katherine Reece.”
The little black woman, hands planted on her hips, was standing on the back porch, staring out at them. Kate could see her frown all the way across the yard. “What you let happenin’ out here? Your daddy tells me somebody might be needing some doctoring.”
“Tell her I’m fine,” Jay said.
Aunt Hattie moved a few steps closer and motioned toward them. “You must not be too fine if you have to tell somebody to do your talking for you. Now get yo’self on over here and let me see to that face. Least we can do for Pastor Mike’s friend.”
“No sense arguing,” Kate said. “When Aunt Hattie sets her mind to doctoring, you’re going to get doctored. Like it or not.” She put her hand through Jay’s arm and turned him toward the porch. “She’s gentler than she looks.”
“Ain’t a thing gentle about me.” Aunt Hattie went back up on the porch to wait for them. “’Cepting my hands. The good Lord give me healing hands. I’s the first hands to hold this one here.” She pointed at Kate.
“And my daddy too.” Kate grinned as she stepped up on the porch beside Aunt Hattie. “A lot of people in Rosey Corner owe their first breath to a smack from Aunt Hattie.”
“I never smacked none of my babies. Better ways to get things done than smacking somebody.” Aunt Hattie turned her frown from Kate to Jay’s shiner. “But looks as how somebody’s been doing some smacking.”
“I think it was more like punching.” Jay sat down obediently on the porch bench Aunt Hattie pointed him toward. “I’m fine. Really, Mrs.—” He hesitated. “If anybody told me your name, I’ve let it get away from me.”
“Johnson. Hattie Johnson, but nobody calls me Missus nothing. I’m Aunt Hattie to one and all in Rosey Corner.” Aunt Hattie leaned closer to peer at Jay’s cheek. “My eyes ain’t as good as they used to be, but it ain’t hard to see you got some lump there.”
“Yeah, I didn’t dodge quick enough.” Jay laughed, then winced. “But it only hurts when I smile.”
She touched his cheek and looked around at Kate. “Run fetch me a pan of cold water and a rag. And bring a chunk of ice out of the icebox if we didn’t use it all for that funny-tasting concoction your sister had us make. Strangest stuff I ever put in my mouth. I tol’ her she oughta let me make my lemonade, but ain’t no tellin’ that one nothing. Not one thing.”
By the time Kate got back with the water, Jay had worked his charms on Aunt Hattie. Her every wrinkle was smiling. She wrung the rag out in the cold water and dabbed Jay’s cheek. “You done remind me of my boy, Bo. He was always making people laugh too. And your eyes, they set me to remembering his.”
“Not a black eye like this, I’m hoping. He wasn’t a fighter, was he?”
“No, indeed. My Bo was a baseball player. The best shortstop the Negro League ever saw, and he could swing that bat. Could hit the ball out of the park easy as pie.” Aunt Hattie straightened up to her full four feet and ten inches and looked out toward the back fence as though watching one of those balls fly into the sky.
Jay followed Aunt Hattie’s gaze, so he didn’t see the look Kate shot at him or the little shake of her head. He asked, “He still hitting the long balls now?”
“Could be up in paradise. The Good Book says things will be finer than we can imagine when we get up to them other shores. I figure that means we’s gonna get to do things we enjoys, don’t you?” Aunt Hattie turned back to her doctoring. “And you don’t have to be worrying, Kate, I ain’t mindin’ talking about my Bo. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing to be able to say my boy’s name and to brag on him some. He’s done been gone these many years. Lost him in France in the war.”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Hattie.” Jay looked genuinely sorry as he put his hand overtop the wrinkled hand probing his cheek.
The man was good at grabbing hands, but Aunt Hattie didn’t look as if she minded. Kate couldn’t honestly say she had minded either. But she should have minded. She shouldn’t have let him think he could charm her as easily as a little girl or an old woman. Then again, she wouldn’t have thought Aunt Hattie would be easy to charm. She generally saw through anybody’s pretenses. She never let Kate get away with the first thing around her.
But now it was past time to get everybody back on track. The sun would be sinking below the horizon soon, and Jay Tanner needed to be on his way to wherever his wanderlust took him next. That thought gave her an unhappy twinge, but she ignored it. “You want me to wrap this ice in a towel? I’m sure Mr. Tanner is anxious to get on the road.”
Jay winced a little at her words. “I thought we were on a first-name basis, Kate.”
Kate acted like she didn’t hear him as she slid her eyes over to Aunt Hattie. “I can make an ice pack for him to hold on his cheek while he’s driving.”
Aunt Hattie looked at Kate with her eyebrows lifted, then back at Jay. “You as anxious to be on the road, Mr. Tanner, as it appears Kate here thinks you is?”
“Come on, you two. Mr. Tanner was my daddy. I answer to Jay or simply Tanner if Jay won’t fit your tongue right.” His smile was back, sparkling the charm out on Aunt Hattie. “As to moving on, I’ve had the o
ffer of work here, so being between jobs, I thought I might just settle in for a week or two. I figure President Roosevelt is going to catch up with me with a draft notice anytime now. Might as well enjoy a little sunshine here in Rosey Corner first.”
He shot a grin up toward Kate. A kid’s grin. The kind of grin Tori used to give Kate after she’d talked her into going fishing. A pleased and somehow hopeful look, like she was sure this time Kate would at last start thinking fishing was as much fun as she did. Kate thought it better not to think about what Jay was hoping she’d decide was fun, but that didn’t keep her heart from doing a funny bounce and her lips from tingling.
Aunt Hattie wrapped the ice in the towel and held it to Jay’s jaw. “Pastor Mike hire you on to help him in his preaching job?”
Jay laughed out loud and then groaned a little as he touched his cheek. “I gotta remember not to laugh, but me doing any kind of preaching is pretty funny.”
“You thinkin’ the Lord can’t use you?” Aunt Hattie stood back and put her hands on her hips again to give him a fierce stare.
“I’m thinking he wouldn’t want to. I’m not good enough for that.”
“Ain’t none of us good enough. We’s all broken vessels that the Lord can make whole to do whatever he intends us to do.” Aunt Hattie narrowed her eyes on him. “You just keep in mind, Jay Tanner, that the Lord can hit a mighty straight lick with a mighty crooked stick.”
Jay shifted a little uneasily on the bench, as though finally at a loss for words. Kate almost felt sorry for him. She’d been in his spot often enough, pinned down by Aunt Hattie’s sharp eyes demanding she be a better person than she knew how to be. Kate took pity on him and tried to change the subject before Aunt Hattie got really wound up preaching.
“My mother didn’t offer you a job at the store, did she? She might do that if she thought you’d keep talking poetry with her.” Kate smiled at him.
“Maybe there will be some time for that too. A man will need to wet his whistle with a soft drink now and again.” His smile eased back out on his face. “But no, it was Graham Lindell who offered me a bed and a job. Seems he’s taken on a bigger painting job than he wanted.”
Aunt Hattie chuckled and leaned back over to hold the ice higher on Jay’s cheek. “That Graham Lindell.” She looked over her shoulder at Kate. “Looks like he’s up to something. And from the look on your face, I’m thinkin’ you might not mind.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Aunt Hattie.” Kate willed herself not to blush. But she did know exactly what Aunt Hattie meant and exactly what Graham was up to as well. It appeared Jay Tanner had charmed Graham too.
8
Carl was on the front porch when Kate, her mother, and Lorena finally walked home after helping Aunt Hattie clean up. Her father had come home earlier, but he wasn’t keeping Carl company. He was probably out back milking the cow. Tori wasn’t anywhere to be seen either. No doubt she was off walking in the twilight with Sammy and dreaming about the day they could follow Mike and Evie down the church aisle. Carl was all alone, sitting stiff and straight on the swing, his feet planted on the plank floor to keep the swing from swaying the slightest bit.
It was plain he was stewing about her talking to Jay Tanner. Actually Carl had been right. She had been close to doing more than talking, but Kate wasn’t about to admit that to Carl. Or to Jay Tanner either. If she ever saw him again. Jay had held Aunt Hattie’s ice to his cheek for a while before saying his goodbyes and heading down to the church for his car. He hadn’t asked the way to Graham’s room above her father’s blacksmith shop.
In spite of what he said, she couldn’t see him staying there. Not really. What she could imagine was him laughing all the way down the road as he drove toward whatever town was next on his list. Rosey Corner was no more than an amusement for him. She was no more than a challenge. One she’d almost shamelessly let him win. Just the thought of it made her cheeks burn.
She wasn’t happy to see Carl. She was tired. She was unsettled. She had no idea what she was thinking or how she was feeling. Not the best time to let an old friend down easy.
When he saw them coming across the yard, he jumped to his feet, making the swing jerk up and down on its chains. On the porch, her mother squeezed Kate’s arm in a silent gesture of understanding before she nodded at Carl and hustled Lorena past him into the house. Kate wanted to follow them, but unpleasant things couldn’t be avoided forever. Toilets had to be cleaned out, floors scrubbed, and fishing worms squished on hooks. And she’d rather be doing any of those than facing Carl Noland on her front porch at that moment.
He was frowning. Obviously mad at her but at the same time looking uneasy. He didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands as he stood like his shoes were tacked to the porch and peered over at Kate. She knew he was expecting her to say something to smooth down his ruffled feathers, but the only words that came to mind were “Go home.” She couldn’t say that. Not without at least an attempt at being nice.
A full minute ticked past after the screen door bounced closed behind her mother and Lorena. She had to say something.
“Carl . . . ,” she started, as though she needed to let him know she remembered his name. Normally words didn’t desert her so completely. She rubbed her thumb and fingertips together and wished for a pen and paper. It would be easier to write him a letter explaining everything than to tell him face-to-face.
The frown lines between his eyes deepened. “Kate, what’s going on with you?”
He stepped toward her and she had to force herself not to back up. She motioned toward the swing. “You want to sit down?” She was delaying.
“No, I don’t want to sit down.” His voice rose until it wasn’t much below a yell.
Kate looked toward the house. Sound would slide right through the open windows and door, and while she didn’t care what her mother and Lorena heard, Carl might. “Then, let’s walk out in the yard where we can talk.” She nodded a little toward the screen door, and his face colored up.
Neither of them said anything as they moved across the dusty yard toward the maple tree. A rope swing hung down from one of the branches, and Kate wished Lorena was on it, begging Kate to push her even though she was plenty big enough to keep the swing going by herself. Kate didn’t mind pushing her. It seemed to release something inside them both, a tandem of movement that was like poetry in motion.
A few of the maple’s leaves had already turned a bright yellow that reflected the last rays of the setting sun and shed a golden light under the tree. To break the odd silence between them, Kate said, “The leaves are beginning to turn.”
“I don’t care about the stupid leaves.” Carl whipped his hand through the air as though knocking away her words. His voice was tight. “Don’t think you can just start talking about stuff like nothing’s wrong.”
Kate’s insides clenched up. The day was beginning to feel two weeks long. Too much had happened. Evie and Mike. Jay Tanner. And now Carl with a storm darkening his face and demanding what she couldn’t give him. She looked away from him out at the lilac bush her mother loved, losing its leaves now. Her eyes slid to the rosebush she’d jumped over a thousand times just to prove she could. Peony bushes and irises lined the yard fence and were forbidden territory when they were playing hide-and-seek. The clothesline on the other side of the yard had given them plenty of practice ducking and swerving during tag.
“We’ve had a lot of good times in this yard,” Kate said. “You remember the time you hid up in this very tree and we couldn’t find you? You said you stayed up there hiding for the longest time even after we gave up and went inside.”
Carl looked up at the tree branches over his head. “I wanted you to find me.”
“But we didn’t.” Kate let her eyes come back to Carl for just a second before she looked away again. “We thought you’d gone home.”
“I don’t give up easy. Not when it’s something I want.”
“I know.” Kate studied t
he hard-packed ground under the swing where the grass had long since been worn away. The words she needed to say were backing up in her throat. She did like him. That made it hard to say what she had to say. He was going to be hurt. Even now he was hurt. She could feel him staring at her, and while she didn’t allow her eyes to travel back to his face, she had no trouble imagining the look that would be there. A little-boy look of betrayal, of the others not playing the game right, of being stuck up a tree and nobody caring enough to find him.
“What’s wrong with you, Kate?” His voice was softer now.
Kate pulled in a long breath and let it out. She looked straight at him. She couldn’t put it off forever. She was the sister who took care of whatever needed taking care of, whether that was Evie making it through getting married or Lorena learning her multiplication tables. She handled things. She’d have to handle this.
“I’m sorry, Carl. I do like you.”
“Like me?” His voice came out in a funny squeak. He stared at her a minute, then ran his hand through his hair as if that might help him take in her words. The pomade he’d used to slick it down now left it sticking up in a mess.
Yesterday she could have smoothed it down with a laugh. Today that wasn’t possible. Why were thoughts of love always getting in the way of friendship? It didn’t have to be that way. Didn’t she love Mike? Foolishly. Stupidly. But that didn’t keep her from welcoming his friendship, even if romantic love was out of the question.
“We’ve been friends forever, Carl. I don’t want to spoil that now.”
“I love you, Kate. I’ve known we were going to get married ever since we were kids.” He was peering at her as though he didn’t quite know who she was. “Just the way you told me your father loved your mother. You remember telling me that, don’t you? How your father was in love with your mother and then she realized she was in love with him too.”
Kate held in the sigh that wanted to escape her as she looked down at the satiny bridesmaid dress she was still wearing. She tried to smooth off a spot of white cake icing, but it wouldn’t rub off. She should have taken clothes with her to Aunt Hattie’s to change. She should have stayed out of Aunt Hattie’s backyard. She should have done a lot of things differently.
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