by Rebeca Seitz
“Ditto.” He stood and patted her knee. “I’m going to go see if Oscar’s burned the place out from under us yet. Give me a call when you’ve figured things out.”
“Thanks, sweetie.”
He gave her a quick peck, then headed for the door. “Just remember this when I can’t figure out a chord and Darin wants an extra hour of band practice!”
She chuckled and dialed.
“Hello?”
“Ken, it’s me.”
“Hey, me. Either Clay’s at the diner or you guys have picked up speed.”
“He went back down to the diner. I’m calling a scrapping night.”
“Something happen with you two?”
“No! No, not with us. I can’t get this thing with Daddy and Zelda out of my head.”
Kendra’s sigh buzzed over the phone line. “Me either. Darin told me if I didn’t find another topic of conversation he’d turn on the game.”
“Which explains the squeak of gym shoes in the background right now. Basketball?”
“Of course.”
“So you’re free to scrap?”
“Free as a bird. Who am I calling?”
“You take care of Meg. I’ll call Joy.”
“Roger. See you in thirty?”
“Yep.”
She then dialed Joy’s house.
“Lasky residence.”
“I’m calling a scrapping night.”
“You’re too much of a newlywed to need a scrapping night.”
“Not for me. For Daddy and Zelda.”
“Oh, all right. I’ll wrap up this dish then. Half an hour?”
“See you at Daddy’s.”
Tandy cut the connection and nibbled on the blunted antenna of the phone. Cooper came to rest at her feet, plopping his big basset head down on her shoe.
“Want to go see Daddy, Coop?”
Cooper woofed, his tail thumping the floor.
“I wonder if Daddy misses you as much as you miss him?”
Cooper turned mournful eyes her way.
“You’re not fooling me, little guy. I know you’re only in it for the treats.”
His thumping tail picked up rhythm at the magic word.
“Come on then. We better get in the car before you beat a hole in my floor.”
Cooper woofed again and waddled his way after her out of the apartment and down the stairs. Tandy tried to decide if this was a good idea. On the one hand, Daddy might not take too kindly to the sisters having a scrapping night about his relationship. Scrapping nights were normally reserved for issues the sisters couldn’t face alone.
On the other, what he didn’t know could help him.
* * *
“IT HAS BEEN entirely too long since our last scrapping night. I can’t even remember—”
“Kendra’s issues with Darin.” Meg cut into Joy’s musings.
“We had a scrapping night over that?” Kendra pulled her scrapping materials off the shelf and brought them to the big square table. “I don’t remember.”
“Well, we did.” Meg dumped a bag of embellishments on the table. “Matter of fact, I don’t know if any of us would end up with our happily-ever-afters without scrapping nights.”
Tandy scraped her hair off her face and began twisting it into a knot. “Which is why we needed to have one tonight. Daddy should get his happily-ever-after, and unless we do something, he and Zelda are going to mule-head their way into a lifetime of loneliness.”
“Mule-head?” Joy raised a perfectly plucked brow.
“You’ve got a better verb?” Little curls of copper escaped her hold and gathered around Tandy’s nape.
“Not off the top of my head.”
“Then don’t knock mine.”
“Touchy, touchy.”
“Sorry. You’re right. I’m tired and grouchy and want a fix to this whole thing since I’m the reason it’s messed up in the first place.”
“Hey,” Kendra’s tone scolded, “we said we were sorry.”
“Yeah, but she never would have gone to Florida in the first place if she hadn’t heard me outlining my Rude Plan.”
Meg stretched her neck. “Water under the bridge, T. Focus on the here and now.”
“Okay, here and now we have a stubborn old woman and an equally stubborn old man, both of whom are somehow in love with each other but determined not to be together until the other one caves in.”
“And you think Zelda isn’t coming back because she wants Daddy to come after her?” Joy leaned her chin onto a propped elbow. “That seems awfully manipulative for her. I ascertained Zelda to be a rather straightforward woman.”
“I can’t help what you ascertained. There’s no other reason for her to sit down there alone unless she was lying about forgiving Kendra and me.”
“She wasn’t lying about that.” Kendra’s giant gold hoops swayed from her ears as she shook her head. “Sure as I’m standing here, she forgave us, free and clear.”
“She didn’t say though that she wanted Daddy to come to Florida.”
“No, she said that it wasn’t what Daddy had done, but what he hadn’t done.”
“Maybe she means he hasn’t proposed.”
“That can’t be it. She knows he was about to. She heard us talking about the ring.”
“You’re certain? She heard your entire conversation?” Joy placed a picture in her cutter. “Think back, girls.”
Tandy and Kendra looked at each other. Kendra spoke first. “I can’t be sure.”
Tandy shook her head, allowing a couple more tendrils to escape her hair knot. “Me either.”
“All right, so perhaps what Zelda wants isn’t an in-person appearance by Daddy, but a little box with a shiny rock inside.”
“Here’s an idea—let’s call her and ask.” Meg mumbled the comment, but all the sisters caught her words.
Tandy stuffed her hair back into its knot. “We did that already, Meg. She wouldn’t tell us.”
“Because she doesn’t want us meddling?”
“That, or she’s embarrassed, or she doesn’t know herself what she wants, or she wanted to break up with Daddy anyway and this just gave her an opportunity. I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader.”
“Yet that’s what we’re sitting here trying to do.”
“Hey, it’s worked in the past.”
“Yeah, because we’ve tried to figure out people we know. Darin and Clay and one another. But this time we’re talking about a woman none of us has taken the time to really know. Which one of us has gone out of our way to be nice to her?”
Kendra arched a brow. “You think if we’d been nice she would tell us what she wants?”
“I think we’d be in a much better position than we are right now.”
Tandy huffed. “Okay, Meg, if we can’t define the problem, then how do we fix it?”
“Maybe we don’t this time. Maybe we let Daddy deal with his own life.”
“We do not have scrapping nights just to leave things alone.” Kendra shook her head.
Meg shrugged, then talked around the slip of ribbon between her lips. “First time for everything.”
“Okay, wait.” Kendra spread her hands wide on the table. “We may not know Zelda, but we do know Daddy. Can’t we come up with a plan of action based on him?”
Tandy distressed the edge of a piece of cardstock. “A plan of action to overcome what? We don’t even know for sure what it is that Zelda wants.”
“I still say she wants him to come down there and sweep her off her feet. He’d have done it for Momma.”
“Momma would never have left like this, Ken.” Tandy rolled glue onto the page.
“Yeah, well, I think we’ve established that Zelda is about as far from Momma as my bank account is from Donald Trump’s.”
Tandy held up her layout and eyed it critically. “You’re right though about most women wanting to be swept off their feet. That’s what we get for growing up watching Cinderella and reading romance novels.”
Meg’s head raised. “Hey, don’t knock romance novels. Jamison and I happen to have just made a blissful memory with one not too long ago.”
“Eww.” Kendra held up her hand. “Save the details, please.”
Meg gave a devilish grin and refocused on her work. “Fine, fine, but don’t forget which sister to call after you and Darin are married.”
“Duly noted. Can we get back to the matter at hand?”
Tandy slid a completed layout into its protective sleeve. “I think we’d decided there isn’t much we can do.”
Kendra tossed her handful of photos on the table. “There’s always something to be done. The problem here is that we’re working without fuel. I’m going to raid the pantry for chocolate. Anybody coming with me?”
“Sure.” Tandy slid off her stool. “I’m at a good stopping point anyway. Joy?”
“Hmm? Oh no, you two go on ahead. I want to get this journaling done while it’s fresh in my mind.” She held up a picture of Dr. Murray’s office door. “I plan to capture every detail of this process until I affix a picture of our little girl in here one day soon.”
Tandy smiled. “Good idea. Meg?”
Meg’s brow furrowed as she looked in Joy’s direction, peering at the layout Joy just laid down. “Nope. Bring back some for me, though.”
“Will do.”
Tandy and Kendra turned and made their way down the creaking old stairs. Tandy’s mind was so focused on thinking through the Daddy/Zelda problem that she didn’t see Kendra stop in front of her.
“Oof!”
“Shh!” Kendra held a finger to her lips and patted the air in a ‘quiet down’ motion. Then she pointed to Daddy’s closed bedroom door.
“Zelda, you’re not being reasonable.” Daddy’s muffled voice came through the heavy oak, and Tandy leaned forward over Kendra’s back. “Tell me what it is you want and I’ll give it to you.”
Tandy pecked Kendra’s back until her sister turned around. “What?” Kendra hissed.
“We shouldn’t be listening to this.”
“Says the sister who called a scrapping night to figure out how to get them back together. Now hush up.” Kendra waved her hand and pressed her ear back to the door.
Tandy gave up and followed suit.
“I haven’t ever been a mind reader, woman. I’ve told you that from the beginning. I’ve said I love you, I’ve asked you to come back. I’m hard pressed to know what it is I’m not doing.”
Silence blanketed the hallway while the sisters held their breath.
“All right then, if that’s what you choose, then all right. Not much I can do about it, I suppose.”
Silence again. Shoots of pain rose up Tandy’s lower back from her awkward position bent over Kendra. She nudged Kendra with her knee, but Ken wasn’t budging.
“Good night to you too.”
Tandy and Kendra straightened and shot down the hallway and final staircase as quickly and silently as possible. They didn’t speak until they reached the kitchen and were staring into the refrigerator.
“You think he’s giving up?” Kendra pulled pudding cups and Cool Whip from the refrigerator.
Tandy took down an Oreo cookie pie crust. “Sure sounded that way to me. We’re doing Oreo pie here, I suppose?”
Kendra nodded and tossed more ingredients onto the counter. “I’m hoping it’s enough to see us through the night. You pour the milk. I’ll put all this in the pie dish. I think we should wait until we’re back upstairs and see what Meg and Joy have to say about all this.”
“It’s not like him to give up.”
“No, it’s not.”
They finished assembling the dessert and milk glasses as fast as they could, then placed it all on a white wooden tray and climbed the steep stairs to the scrapping room.
“Okay, we’ve got chocolate, milk, and more info to throw into the mix,” Kendra announced and set the tray down. “Come and get it!”
“Ooh! Oreo pie!” Meg scooted around the table. “I haven’t had Oreo pie in forever.”
“You haven’t taught your kids to make it for you by now?” Tandy cut a piece and licked the excess from her finger. “What kind of mother are you?”
“The kind who thinks my kids don’t exist to be my slaves.” Meg scooped up the pie and snatched a fork. “I’ll take that, thank you.”
Tandy cut another piece. “They may not be slaves, but they could at least be little servants for a day.” She slid the plate down the table to Joy. “Here, sis.”
“Thank you.” Joy stopped the plate with her hand, then went back to her rub-on letters. “I need to finish this title before I give myself a break. Did you say something about information?”
“Yep.” Kendra took the next plate and, holding it aloft, sailed around the table to her stool. “We overheard Daddy on the phone with Zelda.”
“No!” Meg’s mouth was full of pie. “And you listened?”
Tandy put a piece for herself on a plate, then settled onto her seat. “Of course we listened. How else could we figure out how to help Daddy?”
“First you go through his drawers; now you’re listening to his phone calls.” Joy shook her head, her ebony hair swaying like rich velvet curtains on either side of her pale cheeks.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re awful. Can we focus on the important part here—Daddy talking to Zelda?” Kendra twirled her spoon in a “go on” motion.
“Right. Here’s what we heard.” Tandy filled them in.
Joy finally turned her eyes from her layout. “Daddy’s giving up?”
“Sounded like it to us.” Kendra nodded.
“That can’t be right.”
“That’s what we thought.” Tandy licked her fork. “But that is what he said.”
Meg gulped her milk. “Then he has something else up his sleeve. Daddy doesn’t give up on something he wants.”
“Or someone he loves,” Joy affirmed. “We’re all proof of that.”
“I only know what we heard, and we heard him tell her if that’s what she wanted, then he’d say good-bye.”
The sound of forks clinking on plates filled the sisters’ shocked silence. Tandy finished her dessert and moved to cut another piece. Thank goodness Kendra’s wedding isn’t for a long time. I’ll have plenty of months to lose weight for a bridesmaid dress.
“Ladies, I think we’re faced with only one option.” Joy’s plate was perfectly clean in every area save the three bites of pie left. The woman even ate neatly.
Tandy set her plate back on the wooden tray. “What option would that be?”
“We have to send Daddy to Naples, of course.” Joy’s tone left no room for argument.
Tandy never had been good about honoring such things. “Joy, we’ve talked about that. First of all, we’re not even sure that’s what Zelda wants. And even if we were, there’s the second of all, which is that Daddy won’t go.”
Joy shrugged. “Whether Zelda wants him there or not is no longer the issue. If you and Kendra heard this conversation accurately, then the situation has escalated and drastic measures must be taken to keep them together. The most drastic measure is Daddy’s going to Florida to see Zelda. So that is what he will do.”
“And your plan for getting our daddy to do something he doesn’t want to do?”
“Logic.”
“You’re putting a whole lot of power in something that’s failed us many times in the past.”
“Kendra, go get Daddy and ask him to come up here for a moment.” Joy held up a finger when Kendra opened her mouth to argue. “Get him, Ken.”
Kendra closed her mouth and hopped off her stool.
Glad she chose Kendra and not me. Crossing Joy is about as smart as taking a knife to a gunfight.
In what felt like hours but could only have been a couple of minutes, Kendra popped back up the staircase with Daddy right behind.
“You girls got all of life figured out yet?”
“We’re working on it, Daddy,” Meg assured.
“Good, good. Nice to know the world will keep turning. Kendra says there’s something I can add to the conversation?”
Joy set her tape runner down and turned, squaring her shoulders. “Daddy, you need to go to Florida.”
Daddy’s face set harder than a glacier in the Arctic Sea. “I’ll thank you to stay out of this.”
“Keep your gratitude, Daddy. We’ve discussed this thoroughly and have decided you are being bull-headed, which, in some circumstances, is perfectly fine but not in this one.”
“Now listen, little one—”
Joy was having none of it. “No, Daddy, you listen. You raised us to be decent, God-fearing girls with good heads on our shoulders and the ability to see reason, apply logic, and make a plan for attaining our goals. We’ve done exactly what you and Mother raised us to do, and I do not think it is fair for you to tell us we cannot apply the very lessons you taught simply because the application makes you uncomfortable.”
“I didn’t raise my daughter to speak to me in this way.”
Joy leveled a look that Tandy knew would have sliced through a cement barrier. “You raised your daughter to love you enough to call you on it when you’re being a dummy.”
Forget pin, a dove’s feather could have been heard falling on that floor. The crags in Daddy’s face deepened so far the Titanic could have hidden in there and had room for lifeboats.
She may have gone a little far with that one. Though if one of them could get away with that line, it’d be Joy. Still, Daddy wasn’t one to take direction from his children, right or not.
Tandy tensed, waiting for Daddy’s anger … but instead his shoulders slumped and he reached a weathered hand to his face. Wiping away the misery there, he smiled and shook his head.
“Your momma would be real proud of you girls right now.”
Joy came up off her stool and walked around to Daddy. Her tiny arms barely fit around his waist, but all the sisters could hear her say, “Well, that’s what we thought.”
Tandy, Kendra, and Meg joined them in the family hug, and they stood that way for a while. It’d been too long since a group hug—maybe since Momma’s stool sat at the table?
Tandy leaned back. “I’ll help you find a ticket, Daddy. We can get it tonight if you want.”