“I need yours,” Retta said.
Faith answered the phone. “Hello, Retta, this is crazy.”
“Maybe so but I want to hear all about your week. What did you like best? Tell me about the other girls and all the boys.” Retta went back to her room and closed the door. “You only used a minute of your time, which means you’ve got fourteen more and I like talking to you.”
“Really?” Faith’s voice quivered.
“Yes, ma’am, now start talking,” Retta said.
“Well, I don’t like Kirk much because he’s so bossy, but Benjy is okay. I feel sorry for him because he’s real smart but he’s kind of weird like he don’t know what to do with all them smarts. And I really like Alice because she’s the youngest and she needs lookin’ after.” She rattled on for her full time with very little prodding from Retta.
“Time is up. Thank you for talking to me and I look forward to hearing from you again next Thursday night but you have to call you foster mother first and then me. Okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Faith said and then whispered. “Thank you. The other girls were so busy they didn’t even know I was talkin’ to you.”
“It can be our secret,” Retta said. “Good night, Faith, and thanks for lookin’ after Alice.”
“I wish someone woulda looked after me when I was only ten,” she said. “Good night. I’m hanging up and giving the phone to Gabby now.”
When Retta crossed the living room floor on her way to the kitchen for a bottle of cold water, she could hear Gabby talking like a magpie to her mother. Part of the time she rattled on in Spanish and then she’d switch to English.
Retta sat down in a recliner and picked up her book. When Gabby’s time was up, she pointed toward the clock on the wall and Gabby handed the phone off to Sasha, who was pacing the floor, waiting to make her call.
The minute her sister answered the phone, Sasha asked if the baby was there yet. When she found out it wasn’t, she flopped down on the sofa. Evidently, her sister had put the phone on speaker mode because she talked to her mother and sister both every single minute that she had plus her five extra for being last in line.
“Now it’s my turn,” Retta said.
All four girls lined up in front of her.
“Who are you going to call?” Faith asked. “Your mama?”
“My mama and my daddy have both passed away,” Retta said.
Gabby made the sign of the cross over her chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Your sister or brother?” Alice asked.
“Cade!” Sasha giggled.
Retta felt the blush rising from her neck. “I’m callin’ my best friend, Tina, if you nosy little girls have to know. And I’m taking the phone into my bedroom.”
“You got to listen to us when we talked,” Faith argued.
“That was just this first time so that I knew you were talking to your parents and not a friend. The contract that was signed with your parents said that you would report in to them once a week. No one signed anything like that with me, so I’m going to my room and you girls can watch a movie, read a book, or play a board game. There’s a bunch of them on the shelves,” Retta informed them.
She went to her room amid moans about how that wasn’t fair and shut the door behind her. Tina picked up on the first ring.
“I’ve been meanin’ to call you all week but it’s been so hectic around here that I barely know what day it is. Are you back in Dallas, yet? Tell me everything about the new job. I just know you got it with your credentials,” Tina said without giving her a second to even speak.
“No job in Dallas but…” Retta went on to tell her the whole story of what she’d been doing the whole week.
“You are kidding me, right?” Tina said. “Four little girls? God bless your heart. I bet they’re either arguing or wanting their mama all the time.”
“Not really. They’re pretty tough kids.”
“Okay now tell me about the cowboys. Four of them if I got the whole thing right in my head.”
Retta started with Skip and ended with Cade, describing each of them down to hair and eye color.
“Okay, now I want to know more about Cade,” Tina said.
“Why him?”
“Because when you talk about him, your voice changes. You’re attracted to him, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but oil and water do not mix. We’d have regrets if we started anything.” Retta sighed.
“But you’d like to, wouldn’t you?” Tina giggled.
“I’m not answering that question. Let’s talk about you. How do you like being in Philadelphia?”
“Love it but then I’ve always been a city girl. Born and raised in Houston so it’s what I know. You are torn between two worlds. Want to know what my granny told me once? She said that you can’t ride two horses with one ass. You got to decide which horse you are going to ride. So does your heart want to be in the city or is it because of that silly life plan you made when you were just a kid? Don’t answer me, Retta. Just figure it out and then plow forward without looking back or having regrets of any kind.”
“But—” Retta started.
“There are no buts in the answer. You have to decide without any buts at all.”
“You aren’t a bit of help. You are supposed to be my friend,” Retta said.
“I am and that’s why I’m talking to you this straight. If I was you, I’d sample a little of that Cade…oh, my gosh, have you slept with him?”
“Good grief, Tina. It’s only been a week,” Retta gasped.
“Kissed him?”
Retta tried to figure out a way to beat around the bush.
“You have, haven’t you?”
“Okay, I have, but that’s as far as it went.”
Tina laughed again. “I’ve got to go now. Got a meeting in five minutes with some clients but same time, same place next week?”
“Of course and you can call me, you know.”
“And interrupt something with the cowboy. No thank you. You’d never forgive me. Bye now.” Tina hung up with another burst of giggles.
When Retta laid the phone down she could hear more stifled laughter on the other side of the door. She tiptoed across the room and quickly slung it open to find four little girls all with their ears plastered to it. They tumbled over each other to keep from falling.
“You have what and how far did it go?” Faith asked.
“That darlin’ girl is my business and none of yours.”
“Was it Cade?” Gabby asked.
“Again, my business,” Retta answered.
“She ain’t goin’ to tell us nothin’,” Faith said. “Let’s turn out the lights and tell ghost stories.”
“Yes!” Gabby agreed.
“Lock the door first.” Alice shivered.
Retta’s phone pinged in her hands. She looked down and saw that the text was from Cade so she slipped back in her room.
Phone calls go all right?
Her thumbs flew over the tiny keyboard. Went great.
Can you talk if I call?
Yes.
The phone rang immediately and she answered on the first ring.
“You want to take the girls out with flashlights and hunt bugs? That’s what Skip is doing tonight.”
She stepped to the door. “You girls want to tell ghost stories or go outside with jars and flashlights to collect bugs with the boys?”
“That’d be like a real ghost night.” Faith’s eyes lit up.
“Need to take a vote on it?” Retta asked.
All four hands shot into the air.
“I guess they want to hunt bugs,” Retta told him.
“See you on the porch in five minutes. I’ll bring the jars and flashlights,” Cade said.
The girls were waiting when Cade, Skip, and the boys arrived. Cade handed out fruit jars and flashlights. “Okay, here’s the plan. One boy and one girl to each team. Don’t touch the bugs but scoop them into the jar like this.” He bent down to the grou
nd and used a business card to flip a cricket inside the jar.
“I choose Benjy,” Alice said. “And I need me one of them cards.”
To Retta’s surprise there wasn’t a lot of arguing as the kids chose partners, and then Skip gave them the area they could search in and carried a lawn chair with him to the backyard to keep an eye on them.
“So I choose you for my partner,” Cade said when everyone had disappeared.
“What kind of bugs are we hunting?”
He drew her into his arms and bent slightly to whisper, “Kissin’ crickets. Ever heard of them?”
She shook her head. “No, I haven’t but I can take you on a snipe hunt.”
“Kissin’ crickets only come out when two people are kissin’, like this.” He tipped her head up with his thumb and lowered his lips to hers.
When the steamy kiss ended, she glanced all around. “I don’t see any.”
“It takes more than one kiss.”
Retta tiptoed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids, so we better give it another try.”
His hands moved down her back to cup her butt and pull her even closer. The kisses got hotter and hotter until suddenly they heard a loud squeal and quickly stepped back from each other.
“Me and Benjy got two bugs,” Alice screamed. “Right here in one spot. Benjy says they are crickets.”
“See.” Cade grinned. “I told you.”
Retta slapped at his arm. “We’d better get around there with Skip to help watch the kids.”
“Want to see if we can scare up a few kissin’ prayin’ mantises or maybe kissin’ lightning bugs before we go?”
“Come on, cowboy.” She pulled at his arm.
Much more of that and there will be mating bugs not kissin’ bugs out there, she thought.
Chapter Fourteen
The time was going too fast. It was already the second Sunday that Retta had sat on the church pew with all four of her girls beside her. She glanced down the pew and there was Mavis and Skip at the end. They sang a congregational song and the preacher must have been reading her mind because he spoke about time that morning. She tried to listen, but her thoughts flitted around from how the past week had sped by to counting the days until she’d have to leave the ranch. Finally her mind settled on her father, and she gave thanks for the privilege of getting to spend so much time with him the past three years. Then anger set in and she wanted to shake her fist at God for taking him from her.
“Are you okay?” Faith whispered.
“I’m fine,” she said but her tone was ice cold.
“You look like you’re about to jump over that pew and slap Cade. What did he do?”
“Shhhh…” Alice put a finger over her mouth.
Faith shot a look past Retta toward the little girl, but Alice didn’t back down. “If you talk, he’ll never stop preachin’. You have to be quiet so he knows you heard the message.”
Retta leaned over slightly and whispered, “I’m not mad at Cade. I’m upset with God for not healing my dad.”
Faith’s nod and expression said that she understood.
Retta still couldn’t make herself follow the preacher’s sermon. Instead she let one of Miranda Lambert’s older songs play through her head. “The House That Built Me” video had an old house in it that even looked like the one where she’d grown up. A tear hung on Retta’s lashes as she thought about the tiny handprint on the sidewalk in the concrete leading up to the front porch back on her old farm.
You can’t be dead, Daddy. I can’t let you go. Tears threatened to roll down her cheeks. I’ve been pretending that I’m at school and when I go home you’ll be waiting for me on the front porch. It’s the only way I can cope.
Let me go, Retta. You can’t get on with your life unless you do, her father’s voice answered.
She shook her head. Not yet. I don’t want to, Daddy.
Cade caught a faint whiff of Retta’s perfume when the breeze from the air-conditioning blew it over his shoulder. He couldn’t turn around to look at her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t close his eyes and see her dark hair flowing down to her shoulders. Or that he couldn’t drown in those gorgeous brown eyes.
Benjy poked him in the ribs. “You don’t sleep in church. That makes God cry.”
“Wasn’t sleeping. Was resting my eyes,” Cade said softly.
Benjy kept his eyes straight ahead. “Kirk isn’t an idiot no more. He helped me catch a camelback cricket for my jar last night because he already had one.”
“That’s good.” Cade put his arm on the back of the pew and patted him on the shoulder. This time he didn’t shy away, but then he didn’t look Cade in the eye, either.
“Shhh…” Alice tapped Benjy and Cade both on the shoulder.
Benjy straightened up like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Cade turned his head and caught a glimpse of Retta. She was a vision in a light blue sundress and the breeze from the air conditioner blowing across her hair.
No talkin’ in church, she mouthed as she pointed toward Alice.
He nodded, turned back around, and whispered in Benjy’s ear. “Alice says no talking.”
Benjy nodded seriously. “I’d rather read the Bible as listen.”
“Me, too.” Cade nodded.
Since Benjy would be too old to come to the ranch next year, maybe Cade would ask if his grandmother would let him come for a week at spring break or maybe just before school started.
The preacher ended by asking Skip to deliver the benediction. Benjy’s head was still bowed after the last amen and everyone else was standing up. Cade touched him on the shoulder and he looked up with a quizzical expression on his face.
“I was askin’ God to tell my granny that I miss her,” he said as he got to his feet. “What’s for dinner?”
Cade laid a hand on his shoulder. “Kirk and Faith were putting a ham in the oven before we left. The kids are helpin’ Mavis a lot.”
“I’ll be a good cook when it’s my turn. I can peel potatoes and carrots and I can make green beans the same size when I break them,” Benjy said.
“I peeled potatoes this mornin’,” Kirk said. “It’s not hard.”
“That’s because you aren’t an idiot anymore.” Benjy led the way through the pews until they could slip out a side door without going past the preacher.
Alice tugged on Retta’s hand. “Can we do that, too?”
“If you promise you won’t fight with the boys and you’ll go straight to the truck,” she answered.
“We promise,” Sasha said.
Retta really was going to make a great mother—compassion and discipline in just the right amounts. Too bad her children would grow up in a big city without the freedom that ranch life would give them.
“You ever think about kids of your own?” he asked as they slowly made their way toward the doors.
“Sure, I do. I want two. But not for a long time yet.”
“Only two?” he asked.
“I really like kids and would love to have a whole house full, but two is enough when you get a late start,” she answered.
“Why not start earlier then?” he asked.
“First I have to find a husband.” She looked around the church. “Where’s Skip, Levi, and Justin?”
“Who do you think taught those boys about the side door?” So first she needed a husband and then she’d be ready for a whole house full of kids. A cold shiver shot down his back at the thought of a permanent relationship. That would involve a lot of trust on both sides, and he still wasn’t ready to go that far. Playing around with flirting and a few kisses and admitting that Retta would be a good wife and mother was one thing—acting on it was quite another.
The girls brought their letters to Retta that afternoon. After she’d put stamps on them, she put them in the basket on the kitchen counter. That evening she’d give them to Mavis, who would see to it they were put in the mail the next day.
&
nbsp; “Okay, ladies, what do you want to do between now and supper?” she asked.
“Can we go outside and practice throwin’ the football?” Faith asked. “I really, really want to beat them boys when we play a game with them and I need some practice.”
“Gabby, will you catch for her?” Retta asked. “Pretend she’s the quarterback and if it goes through the tire, you catch it and run with it. When we play the real game, you’ll be the one who probably scores the touchdowns.”
“I can do that.” Gabby’s dimples deepened when she smiled. “And I can run faster than any of them boys. You just get that ball in my hands and we’ll have a touchdown for sure.”
“But I won’t be the quarterback,” Faith said.
“If you get good enough at getting the ball through the tire, you can be,” Retta told her.
Faith pushed a purple strand of hair back from her face. “For real?”
“For real. It wouldn’t hardly be fair for me to play, since I’ve got more experience than any of those boys except maybe Cade.” Retta pulled an elastic ponytail holder from the pocket of her sundress and whipped Faith’s hair up into a ponytail. “There, now it won’t get in the way of your spiral. Remember what Cade told you. Air in the palm. Two fingers on the laces and thumb down at the snap.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Faith beamed.
“And me and Sasha want to go see about Little Bit,” Alice said. “I bet he’s lonesome and needin’ some pettin’.”
Retta thought about going out to the barn but Alice and Sasha needed bonding time as much as Faith and Gabby did, so she picked up her book and carried it to the front porch. She propped her bare feet on the railing and Gussie jumped up in her lap. She took time to pet the cat before she opened the book. She hadn’t even found her place when Beau flopped down on the top porch step. Cade was right behind him and he eased down into the other rocking chair with a loud sigh.
“We’ve got a problem, a big, big one,” he said.
“Girls arguing with boys?”
“Bigger.” He shook his head. “It’s Benjy’s grandmother, actually his great-grandmother. She died this morning. Dropped with a heart attack. Her sister called the social worker and she called me. They’re willing to leave him here until the end of our time but then he’ll have to go to a foster home.”
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