Sisters, Ink

by Rebeca Seitz

  He looked at her, flashing a smile. “Amazing what a year in a sand pit will do for your perspective.”

  She accepted that. “In the grand scheme of things, then, it’s dumb not to open yourself up for rejection? That seems counterintuitive to self-preservation.”

  “Okay, lawyer woman, save the legal speech for the courtroom. I’m saying that if protecting yourself doesn’t really protect you, then wasting energy on the effort may not be the wisest move. It’s like this time my unit was stuck in the middle of a road in Iraq. Our engine quit and we were sitting ducks, just waiting for some insane terrorist bent on blowing himself up and meeting seventy virgins to appear.”

  She shivered at the image.

  “What’d you do?”

  “We decided that we could just sit there and try to protect ourselves, but the odds were pretty high one or all of us would end up hurt or dead in the trying. So we abandoned the vehicle, radioed for help, and took cover until our backup got there.”

  “Seems smart.”

  “It was.” He looked down at her. “It’s pretty simple, really. You don’t stick with a course of action that will likely get you killed if there’s a way to live and maybe even win the battle.”

  They arrived at the diner, and Clay held the door open for her. She looked into his eyes, seeing the wisdom there mix with his feelings for her. “Would you really move to Florida? For me?”

  He ran a finger down the side of her face. “If there’s no other way to win the battle, yes.”

  She stared at him, trying to decipher his meaning and wondering if he had another option that would work. “Is there another way?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “That’s up to you, I think.”

  She saw Kendra and Darin getting out of his car and was grateful for the distraction. “Better get to work on those burgers.”

  He looked at her a second longer. “You bet.”

  Twenty

  When they were all seated in a booth, burgers half eaten and pie on the way, Kendra leaned back into Darin’s arm and patted her belly. “That burger was huge. I’m not sure where to put the pie.”

  “Should have brought your hollow leg,” Tandy said.

  “Very funny. Is Joy coming to scrapbook?”

  “She wasn’t sure. She’d told Scott to expect a nice dinner tonight. Scrapping would pretty much nix that.”

  Kendra nodded. “Meg wants to work with James some more before the pet show tomorrow. Guess our scrapping plan didn’t work out too well.” She shrugged. “Hey, we can always drown our sorrows at Sara’s. I’m sure acquiring product will alleviate my disappointment to a certain degree.”

  “Good idea. But you’ll need to be able to move if we’re going there.”

  Kendra groaned. “Ugh. Cancel my pie. If I eat it, you’ll have to roll me out of here.”

  “I know a couple guys who don’t have plans tonight,” Clay said.

  “Man, I already told you. I don’t do scrapbooking.”

  “Me either!” Clay looked offended. “I was thinking a night of bowling might be in order.”

  “Hmm. I don’t know,” Tandy picked up her glass of tea. “Daddy may have something planned.”

  “Ask him to come with. I’m sure Zelda wouldn’t mind a night of bowling.”

  “Go on a date with my dad?” Kendra wagged a finger at Clay. “No. As fine as I am with him having Zelda, I don’t need it on display during my own date.”

  “I second that,” Tandy said.

  “Then call and see if he has plans.”

  “If I ask him, then he’ll know it’s because I want to make plans. Which means he won’t tell me if he did have something planned.”

  “Wow, you guys really play three balls ahead,” Darin tossed the last bit of burger in his mouth.

  “I tried to tell you this already,” Kendra said.

  “I know, I know. Just didn’t get it until now. Remind me not to play pool with her.” He pointed to Tandy.

  Tandy grinned. “That’d be a smart move, right, Clay?”

  “I refuse to comment on the grounds it might incriminate me.”

  Darin chewed and looked from one to the other, “Okay, what am I missing here?”

  “You mean you didn’t tell your closest buddy about having your rear end handed to you by a girl?” Tandy smiled slyly. “Can’t imagine why not.”

  “You barely beat me.”

  “And yet, still, the words ‘beat me’ cross his lips.” Tandy looked at Kendra and took a sip of her tea.

  “You won because you cheated.”

  “Moi?” Tandy splayed her hand across her chest, fluttering her lashes. “Never.”

  “Come on, man, might as well tell me.” Darin took a long drink of Coke, stopping when the slurp signaled the end of his drink. “If not, I’ll get the embellished version from her later.” He pointed his straw at Kendra.

  Clay sighed and laid both hands flat on the table. “She told me she’d never played before.”

  “I did not. You assumed that.”

  “And you didn’t correct the assumption.”

  “All’s fair in love and war, soldier.”

  “Turns out she’d been playing since she was five. Five! The game was over before it started.”

  Darin studied Tandy. “I thought you didn’t move here until you were seven.”

  “I didn’t. Hustling kept my mother and me in a halfway house for six months. Nobody suspected a kid who was shorter than the pool stick could win. They were easy marks.”

  “How’d you even see the table?”

  “I stood on a chair.”

  “Wait, you moved a chair around the whole game? How’d you know where to put it?”

  “I watched where Mother looked. Put the chair where her eyes told me and took the shot. Nailed it nearly every time.” These were among the few nice memories she had of Orlando, partnering with her mother, working as a team.

  “That’s unbelievable.”

  “Judging by the way she beat me in high school,” Clay grimaced, “believe it. I haven’t played her since.”

  “Poor male ego.” Tandy rubbed Clay’s head. “Took years for the bruising to heal.”

  “No pool. No bowling.” Darin leaned his arms on the table. “Any other ideas?”

  Clay slid out of the booth and snagged plates of pie from the counter where the waitress had set them. “We could drive to Nashville.”

  “No!” Tandy and Kendra spoke in unison.

  “Okaaaay.” Darin looked from one woman to the other. “No Nashville. Our options are dwindling rapidly, ladies.”

  Kendra sniffed. “It takes work to date the likes of us.”

  Clay set the plates on the table. “Don’t I know it.”

  “Watch it, mister.”

  Kendra crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, “I wanted to scrapbook.”

  “I wasn’t kidding, woman.” Darin assumed a mock-serious tone. He splayed his hands and wiggled his fingers. “These hands do not go near a scrapbook.”

  “Not even for me?” She tilted her chin down and looked at him through her lashes.

  “Especially not for you. All I need is your head filled with an image of me and some froufrou ribbon or something. You’d never look at me as a man again.”

  Kendra threw back her head and laughed. “You are too much.”

  “Spoken by a lot of women.” He took a bite of his banana-cream pie.

  “Maybe Kendra and I should just scrapbook by ourselves tonight. If Meg gets done with James, and Joy finishes dinner early, they could still come over.”

  Clay took her hand. “You don’t want to go out tonight?”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that I like scrapping in Momma’s studio, and I wanted to get some more time in there before …” The words stuck in her throat.

  Kendra noticed and jumped in. “Right. So we’ll have some girl time tonight.” She turned to Darin. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?”

  Clay snor
ted. “Amen to that.”

  * * *

  LATER THAT NIGHT Kendra and Tandy sat in the scrapping studio, heads bowed over their layouts. “You and Darin sure seemed happy with each other today.”

  “He’s a cool cat.” Kendra clicked an eyelet into place. “But don’t sign us up for china just yet. You know it takes them a few weeks to get tired of me.”

  “Kendra, that is not true.”

  “Of course it is. I’m a hard woman to handle.” Her tone told Tandy she was comfortable with this. “It’ll take a strong man to stick around.”

  Tandy went back to her own pictures of an Orlando Magic game. “You make it sound like you’re hard to love.”

  “I am.” Her voice was matter-of-fact. “But the right man will know how to love me, and I’ll know how to love him. It’ll happen at some point.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t. But allowing otherwise would drive me insane, so I choose to believe.”

  “Hmm.” Tandy picked up a small stamp pad and distressed the tan-colored paper in front of her.

  “I asked Clay if he’d move to Florida.”

  Kendra looked up from her work. “And?”

  “He said he would if there was no other way.”

  “Doesn’t sound like he wants to move.”

  “I don’t think he does. I think he would, but only if I asked.”

  “And you’re not going to ask.”

  “No.” She was sure of that the moment she said it.

  Kendra pulled ribbon off a roll and snipped it. “Did he ask you to move here?”

  “No. I think he thinks that would be selfish on his part.”

  “Would it?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “Yes.” She sighed and put down her eyelet setter. “I do, Kendra. How dumb is that? I love a man who left me ten years ago and lives eight hundred miles from me.”

  “Yoo-hoo!” Meg’s voice floated up the stairs as her footsteps sounded. “I heard there was scrapping going on in here.”

  “Hey there! I thought you were working with James tonight.”

  She waved her hand. “Jamison’s handling it. I couldn’t miss a chance to scrap.” She pulled her photo box off the shelf. “Did I miss anything good?”

  “Tandy’s in love with Clay.”

  “This I know. Is she going to do something about it?” Meg pulled pictures from the box, then went and took the Becky Higgins sketchbook from its holder.

  “I’m taking suggestions.”

  Meg looked at her quizzically. “I see. Oh, Kendra, before I forget, here.” She took a card from her purse and slid it across the table to Kendra. “James and Savannah made it for you when I told them you won the art show.”

  “Oh, look, it says ‘Congratulations’ and it’s spelled wrong. How sweet.” She turned the card around for Tandy to see. “You’ve got the best kids.”

  “Every now and then they do remind me why I had them.” Pages rustled as she thumbed through the sketchbook.

  “Are James and Tootsie ready for the pet show?”

  “I think so.” Meg’s cell phone rang, and she unclipped it from her jeans. “So long as Tootsie behaves.” She flipped open the phone. “Hello?”

  Kendra and Tandy could hear the wail of a child all the way across the table.

  “Did you give him VeggieTales snacks?” Meg said. “How about a video?” She waited. “Jamison, I just got here.”

  Kendra gave Tandy a knowing look.

  “Fine, fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Meg ended the call and stood up. “I swear that man couldn’t multitask to save his hide. James is crying because Tootsie won’t cooperate, which made Savannah cry, which upset Hannah, and now he has a mess. The man is hopeless.” She walked over to the stairs and waved over her shoulder. “’Bye, girls, duty calls!”

  “Suddenly, singlehood is looking a little better,” Kendra said.

  “I can’t believe Jamison can’t handle the kids for an hour.”

  “He’s hilarious with them. ‘Helicopter parent’ doesn’t begin to cover it. Meg’s the only thing that keeps him from cracking up.”

  “She is devoted to her family.”

  “Yeah, more power to her. I don’t know how she stays home with them all day.”

  “Me either. Some of my clients act like children, but knowing they’re paying by the hour prevents a lot of wasted time whining.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Kendra cocked her head. “Maybe I’ll start charging the editors I work with an hourly fee instead of an assignment fee.”

  “Does wonders for the bull factor.” Tandy picked up a pen and began journaling.

  Silence fell on the room, broken by the scratching of Tandy’s journaler or Kendra’s cutting board. Tandy resolved again to find some scrapping friends when she got back to Orlando. “Hey, how do you think scrappers find each other?”

  “What?”

  “In other towns.” Tandy glanced up at her sister. “Do you think they get together like this and scrap?”

  “I hope so. It’s a whole lot more fun when you have people to talk to or bounce ideas off of.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. But then I realized I scrap with you, Meg, and Joy. If I didn’t already know you, how would I find you?”

  “You’d go down to Emmy’s and ask where the other scrappers were.”

  “But let’s say there was no Emmy’s.”

  “Then you’d be up a creek.”

  “Without an oar.”

  “Paddle.”

  “Whatever. I’d have a hard time finding people to scrap with.”

  “Yep.”

  “Hmmm, that’s sad.” Tandy finished her layout and slid it into sheet protectors. “Should I start another one or call it a night?”

  Kendra leaned back on her stool, stretching her arms overhead. “My back is starting to hurt, so I’m going to stop when I finish this layout.”

  “We should have told the guys we’d go out tonight.”

  “Nah, this was fun.”

  “And we’ll see them tomorrow, right?”

  “I’m sure you’ll see Clay at the pet show. I don’t know if Darin’s coming or not.”

  “Clay’s not coming to the pet show. He’s got to be at the diner.”

  Kendra sighed dramatically and, tossing back her head, placed the back of her hand on her forehead. “Whatever shall we do without our men?”

  Tandy erupted into giggles. “I suppose we’ll have to make do without them.”

  Kendra straightened. “Or we could go surprise them. It’s only seven o’clock. We can pick Clay up and make him give us directions to Darin’s.”

  “Have you forgotten Momma’s rules? We don’t chase boys.”

  “I’m thirty-three years old, and the man chased me first. My turn.”

  “Well, when you put it like that …”

  “You better believe it.” Kendra put her finished layout in sheet protectors. “You ready?”

  “Let me run check my hair. The rain’s wreaked havoc on it today.”

  Kendra followed her down the stairs. “I think it’s cute when it’s all curly like that. Makes me wonder if we don’t share a blood ancestor somewhere down the line.” She fingered her own spirals.

  “Wouldn’t that be a kick? I doubt it, though. You’ve got those gorgeous spirals, and I’ve got—” she pulled one of her burnished corkscrews—“these.”

  “Oh, stop. You look like Nicole Kidman before Tom Cruise sunk his fangs into her.”

  “Don’t I wish.”

  They walked through Tandy’s bedroom to her bathroom.

  “Where’s Cooper?”

  “Probably downstairs with Daddy. He curls up at Daddy’s feet and, after a while, Daddy rubs his belly with his toes.”

  Kendra pulled a face. “That’s disgusting.”

  “You’d think, but it’s really quite cute.” Tandy snagged a big hair clip from the vanity and twisted her
hair up. She secured it and turned her head side to side to gauge the effect. “Up or down?”

  “Up. That looks great.”

  They freshened their eye shadow and lipstick and were heading down the stairs to the living room in ten minutes.

  Daddy smiled as they entered the room. “Where are you girls off to?” Cooper was lying at his feet.

  “We’re off to kidnap some unsuspecting victims,” Kendra said. “We’d tell you who, but then you’d be an accessory, and we love you too much to make you an accomplice.”

  Daddy looked over the top of his reading glasses. “Is this something I’m going to hear about at church on Sunday?”

  “No, Daddy,” Tandy reassured him. “I’m pretty sure our victims will come willingly and without much fuss.” She stepped on Kendra’s toe as they stood behind the couch facing Daddy. Kendra winced but tried to hide it.

  Daddy went back to his book. “It’s times like this I’m happy you’re over eighteen. Have fun.”

  “We will.” Kendra pushed Tandy out of the room before Daddy could ask more questions.

  Her hand on the doorknob of the front door, Kendra looked at her sister and grinned. “You ready?”

  Tandy grinned back. “Absolutely.”

  More ready than she’d been in a long, long time.

  Twenty-One

  Your car or mine?”

  “Mine,” Tandy said.

  “But your backseat is the size of a lima bean.”

  “You can drive after we pick up Clay. I’d hate to make you cram yourself back there with Darin.”

  “Oh, no you don’t, sister. You may be the lawyer, but I’m older and wiser. We’ll take the backseat and you can have fun switching gears.”

  They got into the car and fastened their seat belts. Tandy shot a look at Kendra as she started the engine. “Do we know what we’re doing with our kidnap victims once we have them?”

  “Not a clue. But we have about five minutes to figure it out before we get to Clay’s.”

  They bumped down the gravel driveway. “What about a movie? We could rent a DVD and take it to Darin’s.”

  “That could work, but movies don’t let you talk to each other, and I haven’t known Darin long enough to be tired of talking to him.”

  “Good point. Cards?”

  “I like that idea. I wonder if Darin plays cards?”