Scrapping Plans

by Rebeca Seitz

  “Wow, so Scott was the problem.”

  “Yes, but it appears the problem is easily overcome once they learn a little more about it. But let’s stop with all this talk of my husband’s reproductive system. Are you and Kendra back yet?”

  “No, we’re still living it up in the Sunshine State. Kendra’s decided to have a red wedding.”

  “Not surprising, given her love of color now that Darin is in the picture.”

  “That’s what I thought. We’re coming home tomorrow.”

  “With Zelda?”

  “Without Zelda. We think she’s waiting on Daddy to romance her.”

  “Come again?”

  “Hey, if I have to endure mental images of you and Scott, you can consider the fact that Daddy is a man and has a girlfriend who needs sweeping off her feet.”

  “I suppose. Did Zelda tell you this?”

  “No, we deduced it.”

  “Oh, dear.” Tandy and Kendra deducing things rarely ends well for anyone involved.

  “Stop it. We’re right about this.”

  “So call Daddy and tell him to get himself down there and bring Zelda back to Stars Hill.”

  “Have you met our daddy?”

  “You’re right. He won’t do it.”

  “Not until we show him how much it makes sense. How he’s going to be alone forever if he doesn’t swallow his pride and get down here.”

  “I assume you and Kendra have also planned how you will ‘show’ this truth to Daddy?”

  “We were hoping you could help with that.”

  “Why do I hear the theme from Jaws in my head?”

  “Because your sisters have spent the day sunning themselves by the ocean.”

  “Sure, sure. That must be it.”

  “Seriously, do you have any ideas for convincing Daddy to come down here after Zelda?”

  “I don’t, but I can think about it while you and Kendra are in the air.”

  “We’ll call you when we land.”

  “I’ll sit by the phone with bated breath.”

  “I think I liked you better when you were withdrawn and quiet.”

  “Then it’s a sad day for you. Quiet me is out the door. We’ve got a diagnosis. A new day is dawning.”

  “It’s nighttime.”

  “Can I have an umbrella for the rain?”

  “It’s raining there?”

  “I was referring to the rain you just dumped on my parade. You two do need to get back here. You’re losing your ability to converse.”

  “Easy to do when our only activity is to lie around in the sun.”

  “And get sunburned.”

  “That too. See you tomorrow, Joy.”

  I put the phone back in its cradle and survey the kitchen. For the first time I notice the sharp edges of each corner of the countertop. That would hurt a little toddler head. We’ll need to get rubber bumpers or have the kitchen redone.

  Oh, and the refrigerator will definitely need replaced. I cannot have my child pulling out our bottom-load freezer and crawling inside.

  Except that it’s customarily full enough to prevent the child actually closing herself into the compartment.

  Maybe we’ll keep the refrigerator and just replace the countertops.

  Sixteen

  Joy says to sit Daddy down and have a talk with him.” Tandy rolled her suitcase up to the table where Kendra sat eating a barbeque sandwich.

  “Did she say in what universe she’s operating?” Kendra wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Because I know I’m not having a conversation with Daddy about his dating life.”

  Tandy plopped into the chair opposite Kendra. “Tell me again why we’re eating in the airport when we can get food for half the price as soon as we leave here?”

  “Because Whitt’s is in the opposite direction of the highway, and I’m not passing up a chance to have Whitt’s barbeque before we get out of Nashville.”

  Tandy drummed her fingers on the table. “Fine. Whatever.”

  “Thank you. Did Joy have any other bright ideas?”

  “Nope. She thinks if we have an adult conversation with him, he’ll respond like a logical adult and book the next flight to Naples.”

  “She realizes that we’re talking about our daddy here, right?”

  “I think so.”

  Kendra shook her head. “She’s left her problem-solving skills somewhere in infertility land. I think we’re on our own here.”

  “We could at least give it a shot.”

  “You want to have that kind of conversation with Daddy?”

  “No. I don’t want to have any conversation with Daddy ever again about Zelda, but we said we’d keep him informed and this is keeping him informed. What he chooses to do with the information is up to him.”

  “I think you’re taking inform a little far there. We don’t know for sure that Zelda wants him to come down there and get her. We’re assuming.”

  “We’ve been over this, Kendra. Two days of lying on a beach talking it to death in between bouts of wedding planning didn’t give us anything other than this theory.”

  “Maybe we’re not smart enough to figure it out.”

  “Bite your tongue, woman.”

  Kendra smiled and chewed, then washed it down with her sweet tea. “I’d feel better if we asked Zelda about this first.”

  “Not gonna happen.”

  “I know, just wanted to be on record as having made the suggestion.”

  “Duly noted. Can we get on the road now?”

  “Two minutes.” Kendra popped the last bite into her mouth and wadded up her sandwich paper.

  “You know, we could try to get him to Naples without Zelda knowing and then arrange for them to be in the same room—”

  “Tandy Sinclair Kelner, I will drop you where you stand.”

  “Right. Straightforward, that’s the way to go. Let’s get home and find Daddy.”

  Two hours later Tandy crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in the dining room chair that had served as her seat for nearly thirty years. “I don’t get it, Daddy.”

  “What’s there to get, honey girl?” Daddy spread his calloused hands wide. “Zelda didn’t afford me the luxury of a conversation before getting out of town. I wouldn’t have even known about it if I hadn’t run into her.”

  “That’s not a reason to just let her go, though.” Kendra twirled one spiral curl around her finger. “Is it?”

  “I’m just respecting her wishes, girls. She made it clear she wanted to be rid of me, and rid of me she shall be.”

  “Daddy, you sound like a teenager. You know she wasn’t running from you. She was trying to respect your relationship with us.”

  “Be that as it may, she still left town without so much as a by-your-leave.”

  “What does that mean, anyway?”

  “What?”

  “By-your-leave. I’ve never understood it.”

  “It’s a saying, Tandy, that’s all.”

  “That makes as much sense as you not calling Zelda.”

  Daddy cleared his throat and got up. “I’m getting some more coffee since this is sounding like a circular conversation. Either of you want a cup?”

  “No, thank you.” Tandy slumped in her seat.

  “I’ll take a cup.”

  Daddy left the room, and Kendra turned to Tandy. “We’re not making progress here, T.”

  “Don’t I know it. Who knew Daddy was so stubborn?”

  “Um, all of Stars Hill?”

  “Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think he’d be so stubborn about Zelda though.”

  “He’s a lion with a thorn in his paw.”

  “You’re breaking out Aesop’s fables? Who’s the mouse?”

  “Wrong story. This is the one about ‘hurt people, hurt people.’ Daddy’s hurt, so he’s not exactly in a position to reach out to someone else.”

  “Not even when the someone else is the woman he loves?”

  “Especially not then. She hurt h
im once already, leaving town overnight like that and not giving him the respect of a conversation except when she was caught at Darnell’s.”

  “But she left because of us, not him.”

  “He knows that, but it doesn’t change the fact that she left.”

  Tandy pushed her chair back and rose. “How long does it take to make a cup of coffee?” She walked into the kitchen and found Daddy staring out the window over the sink. “Penny for your thoughts?”

  Daddy turned. “Make it a nickel and you have a deal.”

  Tandy pulled her jeans pockets out. “Empty. Guess you’ll have to put it on my tab.”

  Daddy’s smile was like watching a sunrise over a field of corn—timeless and hopeful.

  “Daddy, I don’t understand why you won’t go down to Florida and tell Zelda how much she means to you.”

  “There’s no sense in telling a woman what she already knows, honey girl.”

  “Maybe she’s forgotten it.”

  Daddy shook his head. “Zelda’s a smart woman. She knows just how I feel about her. By the state of her geography, I’d say it’s not enough.”

  “Oh, Daddy, you can’t think that.”

  “I can and I do.”

  “You are a stubborn old mule.”

  “Hey, watch who you’re calling old, little lady.”

  “I missed the memo about moving to the kitchen.” Kendra entered the room and walked across the worn linoleum to get her coffee. “Did I also miss where Daddy finally came to his senses and booked a flight to Naples?”

  Daddy sipped his coffee, then turned his back to them and again gazed out the window. Tandy saw the sunlight shining strong on a field full of green winter wheat.

  “No, I don’t think I’ll be booking any flights anytime soon, girls. Now y’all have men you best be getting on home to.”

  “But, Daddy—”

  “That’s enough, Tandy. Let me worry about my own affairs for a little bit.”

  Tandy closed her mouth and looked at Kendra.

  Kendra finished her coffee, then set the mug on the counter. She moved to Daddy and hugged his back. “If you change your mind, Tandy knows a good Web site to get a cheap flight.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Tandy followed Kendra from the room, certain that an answer lay just beyond their reach. Smart women could solve any problem so long as they put their minds to it. Daddy and Momma had taught that very lesson to all the Sinclair sisters, and it wasn’t about to be proven wrong just because Daddy was being bull-headed.

  They slid into the gray leather seats of Tandy’s BMW, and Tandy turned the ignition key.

  Kendra snapped her seat belt. “Got a plan yet?”

  “Working on it.”

  “You realize there may not be a solution we can execute, right?”

  Tandy shifted and increased her speed down the straightaway of their country road. “There’s always a solution, Ken.”

  “I didn’t say there wasn’t. I said there might not be one within our power.”

  “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to throw in the towel. What we need is a male perspective.”

  “Good thing we’ve got men in our lives then, hmm?”

  “Yep. You go grill Darin, and I’ll talk to Clay. I’ll call you tonight or tomorrow, and we’ll figure out where to go from here.”

  “What do we do if Darin and Clay tell us to stay out of it?”

  “Simple.” Tandy shrugged. “We ignore them.”

  “If we’re going to ignore them, why are we consulting them in the first place?”

  “Because there’s a small chance they’ll have good ideas.”

  “Ah.”

  Tandy rolled down Lindell and parked beside the diner. “Want to come up and call Darin?”

  “I think I’ll head in the diner and call him from there. I’m in desperate need of a Diet DP.”

  “If you see Clay, send him upstairs, will ya?”

  “You bet.” Kendra opened her door, then turned back to Tandy. “You won’t do anything until we talk again, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the wedding help.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Tandy got out of the car and headed up the steps to their

  apartment over the diner. Clay had said he wanted her to talk things over with him more often. Poor guy. He had no idea what she was about to dump into his lap.

  Seventeen

  Tandy turned the key in the apartment door and walked in. “Honey! I’m home!” A deep woof! greeted her. “Cooper, I’m home!” she amended and headed to the bedroom. “Hey, Coop! Did Daddy take good care of you while I was gone?” She unhooked the latch on Cooper’s crate and knelt down to scratch her beloved basset hound’s ears. “Tell Mommy how many treats he gave you. Did he give you your vitamins?”

  “Is that my long lost wife I hear giving her love to our dog instead of her man?”

  “Clay!” Tandy jumped up and ran back to the living room. “I can’t believe how much I missed you!”

  His arms came around her and Tandy fell into his hug. Three days without Clay might as well have been three months.

  “Next time you decide to take a Florida vacation, how about packing me a bag?” Clay smoothed her hair back and kissed her.

  “Definitely.”

  “Kendra said I needed to come up here. I left Oscar on the grill. What’s up?”

  “We had a talk with Daddy.”

  “Oh, no.” Clay pulled her onto his lap as he sank into the couch. “And let me guess. He didn’t appreciate you meddling in his affairs and told you to leave well-enough alone.”

  “Sort of. He said he didn’t see a reason to go get Zelda in Florida and that if she wanted to come back, she’d be back by now.” Tandy finished giving him the rest of the conversation.

  Clay rested his head on the back of the couch and stared into space. Tandy leaned into him and enjoyed the feeling of warmth from his chest while he thought out the problem. Having someone to share her thoughts and worries with made marriage rock.

  “You told him he needed to do this to have a relationship with Zelda?”

  Tandy nodded. “We did.”

  “And you told him that the only reason she left was because of you and Kendra?”

  “Yep.”

  “Shoot, Taz, I’m not sure what to tell you.”

  Tandy smiled at her pet name, derived from her initials before they married—TAS. “What if I left you? Wouldn’t you have come running after me?”

  “Depends on the reason you left.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Forget it. Never mind. I didn’t answer that question. We are not making this about us.”

  “Too late. You really wouldn’t come after me?”

  “I’d follow you to the ends of the earth if I had to.”

  “That’s better.” She snuggled back into him again. “Which is why I don’t understand why Daddy won’t at least follow Zelda down to Florida.”

  “Your daddy never struck me as a beggar.”

  “He wouldn’t be begging!”

  “Yeah, he would.”

  “Oh, he would not, Clay. He’d be courting her.”

  “I’m pretty sure he did plenty of that right here in Stars Hill. And he’s got a point. Whatever he gave her here wasn’t enough to keep her or bring her back once you and Kendra apologized.”

  “But—”

  “Stop and think about it for a second, Taz. Your daddy spent over a decade mourning your mom. He finally allows himself to care about a woman again, and she up and leaves him because of something his daughters said to her. Can’t you see how he’d want to wash his hands of that? Shoot, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Zelda doesn’t deserve to be left down in Florida.”

  “Clay, you don’t mean that.”

  “I might.”

  “But all she wants is some romance.”

  “She had plenty of that here in Stars Hill. And
if she came back, I’m sure she’d have plenty more.”

  “But then she’d be the widow woman chasing after a man.”

  “No she wouldn’t. She’d be the woman who came back to her man after his daughters apologized.”

  “You are not helping the situation.”

  “Sorry. Them’s the breaks of the game when you force your man to talk about romance. Besides, I haven’t seen my wife in three days, and now that I have her all to myself, there are much more important things to discuss than her daddy’s love life.” He tilted her back onto the couch and Tandy melted at the touch of his lips to hers. He slid a hand beneath her head and drew back. “You know I love you?”

  “Yep.”

  “And that if you ever decide to hightail it to Florida, I’ll be right behind you?”

  “You’d better.”

  He kissed her again and happiness flooded through her. The day she’d left Stars Hill, no one could have made her believe she would end up back in Clay Kelner’s arms.

  But that’s right where I am. And I can’t think of anywhere else more perfect for me.

  Zelda must not feel this way about Daddy. If she did, Clay was right. She’d be back in Stars Hill the second Kendra and Tandy apologized to her. Which made Tandy wonder just what kind of trick Zelda was trying to pull.

  “Hello?” Laughter bubbled across Clay’s voice. “Welcome back to the room. I’m Clay, the man kissing you?”

  “Sorry, sorry. I can’t get this Zelda thing out of my mind.”

  “You realize this borders on obsession.”

  “I’m not obsessed. I’m concerned about Daddy.” Clay rolled off of her, and the cold that swept in made her think Zelda and Daddy should figure out their own worries. “I’m over it now. Come back here.”

  Clay pulled back, his grin in place. “Not a chance. Go find the phone and call a scrapping night with the sisters.”

  “But I just got home. You want me to spend the rest of the night over at Daddy’s scrapbooking?”

  “I want you to do whatever it takes to work this out in your head so when you’re here with me, you’re here with me.” He reached behind and plucked the cordless from its cradle, then tossed it to her. “Here. Start with Ken. I’ll bet she’s not paying any more attention to Darin than you are to me.”

  She caught the phone and looked at him over its top. “I love how you know me.”