Sisters, Ink

by Rebeca Seitz

  “We’ll ask Clay. Let’s make a backup plan just in case. Is Darin’s place on the way to Nashville or in the other direction?”

  “I think it’s on the way.”

  “Then let’s go to Nashville.” Tandy shifted and glanced over at Kendra.

  “We told the guys we didn’t want to go to Nashville.”

  “That was lunchtime. We’re women. They expect us to change our minds as often as our shoes.”

  “Okay, Nashville it is. We can be there by nine-ish.”

  “Good time to hit B.B. King’s.” Tandy adjusted the air-conditioning.

  “They’d love that.”

  “Yeah, they would. Let’s do that. Hey, I like making the dating decisions.”

  “It has its advantages.” Kendra reached over and switched on the radio in time to hear Carrie Underwood’s “Wasted.”

  Their voices blended as they sang along, putting their hearts into the sentiment about not spending life waiting, not waking one day to find they’d wasted years. The song came to an end as Tandy pulled in front of the diner.

  “It just occurred to me that if I go in there, everyone’s going to know why I’m there.”

  “Tandy, seriously, go get your man and quit worrying what this town is going to say about it.”

  “Right. Of course, you’re right.” Tandy took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. If he wasn’t in the diner, she’d have to go through the kitchen to the back stairway and up to his place. She prayed he was in the diner so the whole town wouldn’t hear she’d gone up to his apartment. Daddy might hear about that on Sunday.

  She stepped into the diner and scanned the room for his face. Her heart hit her toes when all she saw were the faces of Stars Hill looking back. Smiling, hoping they’d go back to their conversations, she scooted to the counter, circled it, and went for the kitchen.

  “Tandy!” Clay was stacking glassware on a shelf above the sink. He came to her, wiping his hands on his apron and taking her hand. “Is something wrong? What happened?” His skin was soft from the dishwater, she thought, so thankful he was here.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. I just … it’s just … Kendra and I, um …”

  “A verb, Tandy. I need a verb.” A smile played at the corner of her lips.

  This was going well. Her first time asking a guy out, and she couldn’t get an entire sentence to pass her lips. “Well, we’re women, so we can change our minds.”

  He chuckled, rubbing her hands between his. “Try that again? Less words, more complete thoughts.”

  Her cheeks flamed. How did men do this all the time? “I’m kidnapping you.”

  “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but may I ask why?”

  “So you can tell me how to get to Darin’s.”

  “Come again?”

  She pulled her lip between her teeth and looked him in the eye. Facing down a jury and telling them what to think, what to feel, was nothing compared to baring herself like this, letting him know she wanted to be with him. Get it together. You’ve done harder things than this. Not that she could think of one right now.

  “Kendra’s in the car. We’re done scrapbooking, and we’re going to Nashville to B.B. King’s. We thought you guys might want to come with us, so I’m kidnapping you.”

  “Ah, the lightbulb is on.”

  That wasn’t a yes. “But I can see you’re busy and you’ve got customers, so never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow sometime, or Thursday. You know, whenever.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her. She forgot about her nerves and kissed him back, grateful for his arms around her waist telling her she hadn’t made a fool of herself just now. Her fingers threaded through his thick black hair and his hands tightened, bringing her closer, removing any breath of distance between them.

  His lips turned from demanding to endearingly soft, until she could feel the absence of heat and opened her eyes. He was staring at her, a look on his face that spoke volumes. He was so close she felt his warm exhalation and breathed it in. “That’s a yes?”

  “If I wasn’t clear, I can try again.”

  “I’d hate to misunderstand.”

  He closed the gap between their lips, covering hers with a kiss that made her heart race. She stood on tiptoes to meet him, to give back as good as she was getting, to make sure he knew she felt just like he did.

  “Ahem.”

  They jumped apart and turned to find Kendra in the doorway. “I hate to interrupt but … “She tapped on her watch.

  Tandy smoothed her hair. “Sorry. Sorry. I was making sure he wanted to come with us.”

  Kendra’s lips curled. “I think you got your answer.”

  “Yes, she did,” Clay said. “Let me tell the help I’m leaving and go throw on a different shirt. I’ll be right with you ladies.”

  “Don’t you call and warn Darin,” Kendra pointed at his retreating back. “This is a covert operation.”

  Clay waved over his head and ducked into the back stairway.

  “I guess we can wait for him in the car.” Tandy made her way out of the kitchen.

  “Good idea. You can give me all the juicy details there.” Kendra pushed her in the back, prodding her out the door.

  Once they were safe in the car, with Kendra now behind the wheel, Kendra turned and drilled Tandy with her eyes. “That didn’t look like a love-’em-and-leave-’em kiss to me.”

  “Didn’t feel like it, either.” Tandy reached her fingers to her lips and felt them, certain they’d have changed shape or something in response to Clay’s touch.

  “Maybe you’re rethinking the idea of getting him to move to Florida. If you get kisses like that every day, he can make do without Stars Hill.”

  “But then I’d have to make do without you.” Tandy’s wide eyes turned to Kendra.

  “Aw, thanks, sweetie.” Kendra fiddled with the gear shift. “I miss you, too.”

  “I really do miss you, Ken. I didn’t realize how much until this trip.”

  Kendra nodded. “It’s easy to push my missing you to the back of my mind when you’re not here, but I’ll confess I’m dreading Sunday when you go back. It’ll be lonely around here.”

  “A fine pair we are,” Tandy said. “Can’t find friends outside of our family.”

  “I beg your pardon, sister dear. I have plenty of friends.”

  Tandy looked at her, not even trying to hide her disbelief.

  Kendra slumped a little in the seat. “Okay, not friends like we’re friends. But I’m okay with that.”

  “Me, too.” Surprisingly enough, Tandy meant it. “It’s hard enough keeping you in line. Imagine if I didn’t have the family connection to lord over you!”

  Kendra laughed and pointed to the diner. “Here comes your man.”

  Tandy looked up and, sure enough, Clay was loping toward them. Tight jeans and a dark-brown turtleneck sweater made him look like he’d stepped off the pages of a Ralph Lauren ad in Town & Country magazine. “Is he as fine as I think he is?”

  Kendra squinted her eyes and peered out the windshield. “You’re probably blinded by love, but he’s definitely hot.”

  Tandy grinned and winked at her. “Darin’s not bad on the ol’ peepers, either.”

  “Honey, Darin is so hot, he scorches the air around him.” Kendra licked her finger and held it up in the air, making a sizzling sound.

  “You’re hopeless.”

  Clay tapped on Tandy’s window, and she opened the door.

  “Can we help you?”

  “In case you do this again sometime, I think the kidnap victim is supposed to be hauled away, not come looking for you.”

  They laughed as Tandy got out and pulled the seat up, allowing room for him to get in the backseat. “Little did you know I implanted a chip in your brain back there. I can control your movements with the smallest word from now on.” She climbed in behind him and Kendra started the car.

  “Make him tell me where Darin lives,” Kendra said to Tandy, pullin
g out of the space and onto Lindell.

  Tandy placed one hand by her mouth as if sharing a secret and said in a low voice, “Clay, you will now lead us to the lair of your friend, Darin.”

  Clay opened his eyes wide and sat up as straight as the bucket seat would allow, appearing for all intents and purposes to be under hypnotic suggestion. “Go to interstate 65N and take the first exit.”

  Kendra sped up and headed toward the highway. Tandy spoke in the same low tone. “You did very well, thank you. You may now resume normal activities.”

  Clay burst out laughing and swung his arm around her. “Have I told you how crazy you are?”

  “Not today, no,” she shook her head.

  “You’re a lunatic.” He kissed her, a fast, quick peck, and she felt a spark of heat within. “Good thing I like craziness in my life.”

  “Yeah, good thing.”

  Twenty minutes and three “hypnotically given” directions later, they pulled into Darin’s apartment complex.

  “I had no idea these were out here.” Kendra indicated the redbrick townhomes. Their doors varied from navy blue to brick red to a sunny gold. Darin’s was a dusky plum. “Are they new?”

  “Got me.” Clay shrugged and adjusted his sweater after getting out of the car.

  Kendra fluffed her hair and walked toward the door. “Time to snag our next victim.”

  Tandy giggled from her place in the crook of Clay’s arm. Kendra pushed the doorbell button, which set Tandy to laughing again. “Um, sis, I don’t think kidnappers ring the doorbell.”

  “Sure they do.” Kendra looked over her shoulder at the two of them waiting on the step below her. “Gives us the element of surprise when he answers.”

  The door opened, and Clay joined Tandy in her laughter as they took in Darin’s appearance. His UK sweatpants had more holes than a Clinton alibi, and his shirt—complete with torn out sleeves—read “I ♥ Bass.” It was covered in pictures of green, scaly fish, and some of the gold flakes were still on in places. His hair was plastered to his scalp with sweat. Stained socks and shoes that looked like they came from Tanner’s closet completed the ensemble.

  “Kendra!”

  “Um, hi.” She gave a little wave. “We’re here to kidnap you.”

  “We?”

  Clay looked around Kendra and burst out laughing again, and Kendra turned and shot him a glare.

  She focused again on Darin. “We’re going to B.B. King’s and so are you.” She finally gave up the pretense. “What are you wearing?”

  That set Tandy off again.

  Darin looked down at his clothes and smiled sheepishly. “Workout clothes.”

  “I see,” Kendra sniffed her disapproval.

  Clay calmed down and tried not to look at Darin again. “I think you’re supposed to invite the lady in, my friend.”

  “Right! Right!” Darin leapt into action. “Come in.”

  They entered his apartment, and Tandy took in the room, surprised to find it mirrored Kendra’s tastes to a certain degree. Rather than Kendra’s white carpet, Darin had Pergo floors, but his furniture was the same sleek leather as Kendra’s. A black wood entertainment center dominated the far wall and appeared to hold more technology than Tandy would figure out in a lifetime. A basket of remote controls was on the glass coffee table.

  “I’ll just go grab a quick shower and be with you in a minute.” Darin raced up the carpeted stairs, and they heard a door slam shut.

  “I don’t think he was expecting a kidnapping tonight.” Kendra walked around to the couch.

  “Um, no, I’m pretty sure we interrupted something.” Tandy tried not to laugh again, for Kendra’s sake.

  Fifteen minutes later Darin was back downstairs in soft gray pants and a navy silk shirt. He held out his hands. “Kidnap victim, at your service.”

  Kendra walked over and circled around him.

  “What?” He followed her as she walked. “Something wrong?”

  “Nope.” Kendra sighed, completing her circle and stopping in front of him. “Just trying to figure out how you can go from loving fish to this in fifteen minutes.”

  His forehead creased. “I don’t love fish.”

  “Oh, come on. That shirt had fish all over it.”

  Understanding dawned on his face. “That shirt was an ill-conceived Christmas present too many years ago to count. My niece thought I loved bass fish, not bass guitar.”

  “How old is your niece?”

  “She was five at the time.”

  “Are we going to stand here talking about T-shirts or go hear some blues?” Clay said.

  “Hey, you’re a kidnap victim,” Tandy said sternly. “Hush up or no one will ever see you alive again.”

  “That was weak, sister.”

  “Sorry. This is my first felony.”

  They hustled out the door and to the car.

  “Did you girls check to see who’s playing tonight?” Darin adjusted the air vent and looked over at Kendra. She made eye contact with Tandy in the rearview mirror.

  “We thought it’d be more of an adventure if we just showed up and enjoyed whoever was playing,” Tandy said.

  “I see. So this is a well-planned crime, I take it.”

  “Premeditation would get years tacked onto our sentence.” Kendra turned up the radio. “No more talking from the prisoners.”

  They sped down the highway, and Tandy snuggled in to Clay’s side, memorizing his feel and dreading the day she’d need a memory to keep her warm.

  Twenty -Two

  The rumble of a tractor engine awakened Tandy on Thursday morning. She opened her eyes to a room just beginning to glow with dawn’s light. The clock on the nightstand read 6:02. Groaning, she rolled over and stuffed a pillow on top of her head. The drone of the engine permeated through the layers of feathers. Sleep wouldn’t return now.

  Sighing, she swung her legs out of bed and went to the window. Daddy was on his tractor, a mower attached to the back. He’d made one pass around the yard already and was halfway through the next. The first streaks of sun lanced across the sky, separating night from day. Tandy went to her bag and snagged the camera, recognizing a scrapbooking moment when she saw one.

  She pointed the lens at Daddy and realized the glare of the window glass would ruin the picture. Cool wind, at least ten degrees warmer than Tuesday’s rainy self, floated through the room as she raised the window and popped out the screen. Years of sneaking out had made her a master at removing and replacing window trappings without a scratch.

  Leaning out the window, she waited for Daddy to round the bend again, then pointed her camera and clicked, capturing an image that defined her home as well as anything else she could think of.

  After replacing the screen, she left the window open and went to the bathroom. A morning shower would clean the dreamy cobwebs from her mind and help her focus on the day.

  Today was the street fair, Tandy remembered as she turned on the faucet and waited for steam to heat up the shower stall. Lindell would be closed to traffic and clogged with vendors hawking everything from funnel cakes to shoes. She stepped into the warm water spray and lathered up her hair.

  The breeze she’d felt had that hint of summer to it. The bite of cold was gone, replaced by a promise of growth and new birth. By mid-day, she’d bet they would easily hit seventy degrees. Maybe a pair of shorts instead of jeans today.

  Rinsing the suds from her curls, she wondered about Daddy and Zelda. An image of them at the pet show yesterday, clapping and cheering James on to second place, flashed through her mind. Kendra said Zelda made Daddy happy, and Tandy could admit that after seeing it with her own eyes. But that didn’t mean Zelda belonged or was good for Daddy. Her fire-engine-red spiky hair and big hoop earrings confused Tandy and annoyed the snot out of Joy. What did Daddy see in this woman? Was it that she was so different from Momma that there was no chance he’d get them mixed up in his head? Or was it that Momma wasn’t the kind of woman Daddy liked anymore? Had he chang
ed?

  Tandy lathered and rinsed, then stepped out of the shower. The whole idea of Daddy with someone besides Momma felt foreign. Granted, it’d been ten years since Momma went on to heaven, but those ten years had lulled Tandy into a false sense of security of knowing that Daddy was just waiting out his days until he joined Momma.

  If Daddy had begun dating again, and the sisters said he’d been seeing Zelda for quite some time, then that meant he had decided to have a life outside of Momma. And Tandy did not approve of that.

  Wrapping a towel around her wet hair and tucking it into place, Tandy wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror and peered into it. Soft lines around her eyes reminded her that a lot of time had passed since Momma died. She’d spent ten years since then chasing after her mission of becoming a successful attorney in Orlando. Was Momma pleased with her? Did she look down from heaven and nod in approval at Tandy’s choices?

  Cooper plodded into the bathroom and woofed at her.

  “Heaven knows, she’d think you were the laziest canine this side of the Mississippi.”

  Cooper woofed again.

  “You need to go outside?”

  Cooper turned and trotted to the door.

  “Hang on a second. I can’t go out like this.”

  She went to the closet and pulled a pair of khaki shorts from her suitcase and a long-sleeve T-shirt. Cooper woofed again.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. I’ve got to find my shoes.” She dug around in the closet and, spying her flip-flops at the bottom of the pile, jerked them free.

  She hopped on one foot, sliding on her shoes and reaching for the leash.

  “Okay, here we go.”

  Cooper pulled her down the stairs and to the front door. Once outside, he dashed down the porch steps and stopped short at the sight of Daddy on the tractor.

  “It’s just Daddy cutting the grass, Coop. You’re fine.”

  Cooper waddled off and did his morning business, never letting his eyes stray from the tractor. When he finished, he tugged her across the yard, intent on investigating this foreign sound. Daddy saw them coming and waved. Tandy grinned and waved back.

  He cut the engine as they drew closer. “Did I wake you up?”