by Rebeca Seitz
Kendra’s look said everything her mouth wasn’t, her exotic brown eyes bearing down on Tandy like a lab technician observing a rat and not liking the results. She shook her head slowly, her eyes still on Tandy, checking for the slightest change or weakness. When Tandy made no move, Kendra’s lips thinned. “Fine. I won’t say another word.”
They went back out to the club, and Tandy saw Clay over by the stage, talking to Joe. Joe nodded and gave a thumbs-up, then headed back to the piano. Clay turned and, seeing Tandy, crossed the dance floor to her side.
“There you are. I was beginning to think Kendra had carted you off to another country.”
“Nope. Still here.” The irony of the phrase was not lost on her as Joe played the opening notes of “At Last.”
Clay held out his hand. “Care to dance?”
“Won’t our food be here soon?”
He took her hand and slid his arm around her waist. “I think it’ll wait.” Their feet moved in tandem, and all thoughts of dinner flew away as she let herself fall back into the cloud of happiness that surrounded them.
At the closing notes, she sighed and lifted her head from his chest. “Thanks for this.”
“You’re welcome. I like it when you’re loose and relaxed. Your smile looks real.”
“And it doesn’t when I’m tense?”
“No. It looks like you’re playing a role you didn’t realize you tried out for.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “That doesn’t sound attractive.”
“Everything on you is attractive. It just doesn’t look real.”
They walked back to the table, and she sat down. A waiter arrived and placed dishes in front of them. She saw Clay had ordered something with chicken and pasta in it. The white sauce would go straight to her hips, but the dancing tonight, combined with all the calories they’d burned at Heartland, should make up for it.
“How is everything?” Sophia stood at the end of their table.
“Perfect,” Kendra declared.
“Oh, good. I hate to intrude on your evening, but, guys, we’re in a tough spot. I haven’t been able to find anybody to fill in tonight. Jenna can come back, but she’s got to pick up her little boy at nine from her mother’s and take him home. She says she can be back by nine-thirty. Could one of you please fill in for just thirty minutes?”
“Kendra, you sing. Why don’t you fill in?”
Kendra’s eyes opened wide at Tandy’s suggestion. “Because I’m certain Sophia doesn’t want to lose her entire clientele.”
“I remember your voice from high school,” Clay said. “You were good.”
“She still is. Come on, Ken.”
Darin leaned toward her. “I’ll play piano if you sing.”
“I thought you played bass.”
“I keep telling you, I’m a man of many talents.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed.
“I can’t promise stellar results—” Kendra looked at Sophia—“but if you want to take a chance, I’m happy to help out.”
“If Clay says you can sing, then you can sing,” Sophia said. “I’ll go let Jenna know. Thank you so much!”
Sophia made a note on her clipboard and walked around the dance area to the stage steps.
“I can’t believe I just agreed to sing in a jazz club. I think there’s something in this glass besides iced tea.”
“You’ll be fine,” Tandy assured her. “I’ve heard you sing. Your voice is perfect for jazz.”
“What songs can you sing?” Darin asked. “We should probably have about seven to make it until Jenna gets back.”
Clay caught Tandy’s eye as Kendra and Darin worked out a song list. The heat in his eyes told her everything she needed to know about his thoughts. Amazing how they had come back together as if ten years hadn’t separated them.
She remembered the long days they had spent just talking. Sitting out by the lake or walking up and down Old Crockett Road, hand in hand. He was a good listener. When she told him about being different from everyone else but her sisters, he understood the feeling. He had been the only boy without a mother in junior high. Her stories of dark days and darker nights in Orlando didn’t make him flinch. Instead, he shared the dark feelings hiding at his house, the despair of his dad ever since his mom died.
He was a gem of a kid back then, an even better man now.
“Okay, I think we’re set.” Darin said, and Tandy came back to the present. Clay’s gentle green eyes sparkled at her across the table.
The couples danced and ate, waiting for the clock to swing around to 9:00 p.m. When the hour came, Tandy saw Kendra tense up. “You’re going to be great.” She rubbed Kendra’s arm and felt the gooseflesh there. “I know it.”
“You promise?”
“Of course. You’re a Sinclair.”
Kendra grinned and walked to the stage with Darin. The spotlight glowed on her skin, making her appear bronzed. Her head turned toward Darin, and she rested an arm along the piano. The purple and red scarf draped over her shoulder wavered. Darin played the opening notes to “Stormy Weather,” and Tandy closed her eyes to hear her sister’s smoky voice.
“Wow, she can sing.” Clay breathed in her ear as they swayed on the dance floor. “She’ll have no problem getting into Joe’s office after this.”
“Mmm.” It was all Tandy could manage. She was working too hard to let the husky timbre of Kendra’s tone, combined with the flickering candlelight in the room, wash away her fear of what would happen in nine days.
Seventeen
The air in Grace Christian church was as stuffy as an undersized casket on a four-hundred-pound man this Sunday morning. Tandy waved the church bulletin in front of her face in a spirited attempt to rid the air in front of her of its old-woman perfume. Someone had decided rose water was the perfect compliment to a church service. If only they’d thought to stop at one dab. Or even two. Tandy’s nose wrinkled as she staved off another sneeze.
“It’s Mrs. Simmons,” Kendra stage-whispered.
“What?”
“The rose water. It’s Mrs. Simmons.” Kendra nodded her head toward a white-haired woman three pews up. The lady wore a red hat with a bright purple feather and was briskly moving a matching fan back and forth. “I wonder sometimes if she doesn’t bathe in the stuff.”
Tandy stifled a giggle. “Hush, she’ll hear you.”
“She hasn’t heard anything more than six inches from her ear in a decade.”
“Maybe someone should say something to her.”
“Like what? ‘Mrs. Simmons, you’re making everyone around you nauseous with your rose water. Mind not doing that?’ Yeah, that’s the way to share the love of Jesus.”
“When did she start coming here? I don’t remember her.” Tandy thought she’d know everyone at Grace Christian and had run into a lot of familiar faces. But there were more new ones than she’d anticipated.
“She switched her membership from the Baptist church on Elm.”
“Why?”
Kendra shrugged, then leaned over to talk to James on her other side who was pulling on her sleeve.
The windows of the little sanctuary were open and, before the room filled with people, a nice breeze had been blowing through. Tandy had skipped Sunday school to sit in the pew and feel that breeze across her face. She’d needed the quiet like the Titanic needed more lifeboats. Clay was her iceberg.
Sitting on the edge of the pew closest to the middle aisle, Tandy wondered why she hadn’t made certain to sit on the other end, by the window. She gazed down the row of heads to her left. Kendra still talked with James, who had gone back to coloring a dinosaur in yellow and red. Savannah sat by his side, kicking her little patent-leather shoes against the pew in front of them.
Meg and Jamison sat tall on the other side of their children, Joy and Scott on their other side. They barely all fit into the pew, but there would be more room when Savannah and James went off to children’s church after the first couple of hymns.
>
A deep sense of gratitude came over Tandy as she saw her family lined up beside her. They were each so unique yet so much a part of her. Scrapping with the sisters had provided a place to talk, to air out her thoughts and get feedback, to just relax and have some fun—all things Tandy hadn’t fully acknowledged until now were missing from her life in Orlando. As soon as she got back, she’d need to go to the scrapping store and see if there was a group to meet with on a regular basis.
It wouldn’t be the same as scrapping with the sisters in Momma’s studio, but it might be a nice substitute. She wondered how other scrappers found like-minded people in their communities. If there wasn’t a scrapbooking store, then how did women know who the other scrappers in their area were? Or did they just scrap alone all the time? The thought saddened her, that other women were missing out on the camaraderie of scrapping time with girlfriends.
Ms. Scarlet sat down at the piano and began to play. Conversations teetered off and, within a minute, the sanctuary got quiet except for the melody Ms. Scarlet’s hands coaxed from the old upright. Tandy closed her eyes and drank it in like a marathon runner in her last mile. Even the rose water couldn’t detract from the truth in the clear notes.
The song came to an end, and the new music minister approached the podium and told them all to turn to page 253 of the hymnal. Tandy’s smile quirked a bit. He was opening with an oldie but goodie, “I’ll Fly Away.” Fast enough to wake everyone up, yet old enough to keep the traditional contingent happy.
As they stood to sing, Tandy resolved to enjoy the family of Grace Christian for the next hour, adding it to her memory banks as well.
A little over an hour later, the last amen sounded and the congregation began moving to the doors. Daddy stood in his customary place at the back of the sanctuary, shaking the hands of his flock and issuing a warm welcome to the few visitors. Tandy caught snatches of conversation here and there, mostly about the upcoming Iris Festival. She’d been so caught up in seeing Clay this weekend, she’d almost forgotten about the festival.
If this year was like every other, the celebrations would begin on Monday with community events scheduled every day. Tandy noticed a stack of brochures on the back table and wound her way through the people and pews to get one. A purple iris decorated the front of the program. Tandy perused the listing of events. Just as she’d suspected, the week kicked off with a prayer breakfast tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. An event was scheduled for nearly every hour between now and the parade.
“Planning out your week?”
Tandy turned to Kendra. “Yeah. Which of these are you going to?” She grabbed a short, stubby pencil from the Styrofoam cup on the table and began making stars by some of the events.
Kendra picked up a program and traced one red-lacquered nail down the page. “Hmmm. I’ll take the sculpture to the contest booths in the morning.”
“You finished it? When?”
Kendra smiled. “Last night. When I got back from our date. Let’s just say I was inspired.”
“Ah, Darin has a good effect on you?”
Kendra tilted her head in thought. “I’m not sure if it was Darin or singing soul music or seeing you and Clay together.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever it was, I’m grateful for it. I was up until five this morning, but the thing is done!”
“Good!” She focused again on the program. “What else are you going to? I was thinking about hitting the art show on Tuesday.”
“Mm-hmm. Sounds good. And I’m sure Meg will take the kids to the street fair to ride the rides on Thursday since that’s wristband day.”
“Sounds like a scrapbooking moment to me.”
Kendra nodded.
“What about the car show tomorrow?”
“Darin told me he and Clay were going to it.”
“Then I guess we’ll go, too!”
“Okay—” Tandy’s eyes scanned the program—“looks like Pig-Out in the Park is on Friday night before the band plays.” She made a star by it. “We’ll definitely go to that.”
“Oh yeah, all the barbecue you can eat and men walking around toting trophies the size of station wagons declaring them the best pig roaster in the county? Good times, good times.” Kendra nudged Tandy in the ribs, making her laugh. “I’ll bet Charles Dennis is going to be there.”
“Oh, man! I haven’t had barbecue like his in ages. You just can’t find that in Orlando. They slice their barbecue.”
“Slice it? Like ham? You’re lying.”
“I wish. Threw me for a loop the first time I saw it.” Tandy looked back at the program.
“I think I’d have sent it back. That’s like the time Joy made the hot-dog-and-biscuit casserole instead of just rolling them up and calling them pigs in a blanket. Some things should not be messed with.”
“I’m with you. Okay, we’ve still got the quilt show, the library sale, and the pet show. Are we going to any of those?”
“James will be showing Tootsie in the pet show.”
“Then we have to go and see that.” Tandy penciled in a star. “Are either of those dogs better trained?”
Kendra shrugged. “Tootsie is as headstrong as ever. You know Welsh Terriers. They can be as willful as Britney Spears, and Tootsie doesn’t disappoint. Belle, though, is still just as sweet as apple pie.”
“She always was a cuddlebug.”
“That’s her.”
“It looks like, then,” Tandy ran her pencil down the stars she had drawn, “we’ll have the car show on Monday, art show on Tuesday, pet show on Wednesday, street fair on Thursday, and Pig Out in the Park and then music on Friday.”
“All culminating in a fabulous parade on Saturday morning!”
Tandy folded the program and stuffed it in the side of her Bible cover. “Now for the important question. What’s for lunch?”
“We could go to a certain diner I know. Serves great burgers and the scenery is nice to look at.” She grinned devilishly.
“I know you’re not checking out my scenery.”
“Nope, wouldn’t dream of it.” They walked out the church doors, and the bright sunshine made them squint.
Tandy reached up to shade her eyes. “What time does he open on Sundays? And when did you start eating anything but a veggie burger?”
“Noon. He goes to early service and then opens up the diner for the lunch crowd.” Kendra was digging in her oversized purse for sunglasses. “And I’ve been eating burgers for about three months now.”
“Seriously? What happened to all veggies, all the time?”
“I got bored. Needed some variety.”
Typical Kendra. “What church around here has early service?”
“The Baptist one over on Elm.”
“Since when?”
“Since their congregation aged so much that eight a.m. became a regular time for service.”
“You’re kidding me. Eight in the morning?”
“Aha!” Kendra found the glasses and put them on. Tandy rolled her eyes at the pink and lime-green rhinestones in the corners. “Yeah, eight in the morning. They don’t even have a late service anymore.”
“And they didn’t lose members over that?”
“Sure they did.” Kendra waved her arm back toward the church. “Didn’t you notice we’re full here?”
“That explains it.”
“That’s why we’re putting up with rose water overload every Sunday morning.”
“You are shameless.”
“That’s me.” Kendra tossed her head as they continued on to the parking lot. “Did you ride with Daddy?”
Tandy nodded. “I’ll run let him know I’m with you. Should we see if he wants to come to lunch with us?”
“He’s got plans.”
“With who?”
“Zelda. They have lunch every Sunday afternoon.”
Tandy tried to ignore the frisson of alarm that ran through her. “Exactly how often do they see each other?”
“About as often as I change fi
ngernail polish.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
Kendra gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry, sis. Things happen while you’re off in the big city.”
“I know things happen, Kendra. I’m not an idiot.”
“Whoa, sister.” Kendra held up her hands and backed away a few steps. “Can I have my head back?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bite it off. It’s just that I’m sick of hearing how I’m so bad because I’m in the big city.”
“Nobody said you were bad because you moved.”
“No, of course they don’t say it outright like that. But people mean it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Like when Daddy tells me to spend some time with Clay because it might make me move home and he misses me.”
“I didn’t hear a commentary in there on your lifestyle.”
“Or when you tell me not to fall hard for Clay because I have to go back to the city.”
“I so did not say you had to go back. I said if you were going back that it would be harder the more you fell for Clay again.”
“Same thing.”
“Not the same thing.” Kendra shook her head, and her dangling silver coin earrings jangled. “Not even close to the same thing, sister.”
Tandy sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, hands forming fists at her sides. After a minute she opened her eyes and smiled at Kendra. “Okay, fit time over.”
Kendra looked at her with wide eyes. “Good, because I was getting ready to go therapeutic on you.”
The girls laughed. “I’ll run let Daddy know I’m riding with you.” Tandy turned back toward the church.
“You do that. I’ll go get the car and meet you up by the door.” Kendra stopped at her red Rav4. “And try not to go crazy on me in the next two minutes!”
Tandy nodded, already walking back to the front door of the church. She found Daddy in the sanctuary and let him know she would be going to the diner with Kendra.
“Guess I’ll see you there.”
Tandy tried not to hurt at the twinkle in his eye. “So I hear.”