“That was fun,” he admitted. “But…now I’m bored. Can’t you come and get me?”
“Sorry, buddy. I’ve got to work today. You know that.”
“Then take me with you,” he breathed into the phone. “I like playing in your office at the bank.”
Kennedy maneuvered his Explorer to the side of the road. The street was still empty, but he needed to reach the napkins in his glove compartment and do what he could to keep the coffee from spilling elsewhere in the car. “I can’t. Not today. I’m meeting my campaign director and several key supporters for breakfast. Then I’ve got to speak at the Rotary Club. After that, I have a shareholders’ meeting.”
“Why do you have to run for mayor?”
Kennedy wondered if now might be a good time to tell Teddy about Grandpa Archer. It would be easier to discuss the subject when Kennedy didn’t have to see his son’s face, when he himself could be more objective about the doctor’s findings. But he couldn’t expect Teddy to deal with that kind of news on his own. Not after losing his mother.
“Your grandpa’s retiring, which will leave the seat vacant for the first time in thirty years. It’s something I’ve been planning to do since I was little.”
“When’s the campaign over?” Teddy asked.
“November. Then, win or lose, life should get easier.”
Teddy groaned. “November? I’ll be back in school by then.”
“I know. This has been a tough year.” But certainly no more difficult than the one before.
Yanking his mind away from those first few months without Raelynn, Kennedy went through his schedule and decided he could skip meeting Buzz and the guys at the pizza parlor later this afternoon. He liked getting together with his friends occasionally. They’d known each other since grade school. But Teddy’s needs came first. “Why don’t I pick you up at four o’clock and take you and Heath out for ice cream?” He supposed they could even stop by the pizza parlor afterward to say hello to the gang.
“Can we go at six instead?”
Kennedy stopped swiping at the coffee in his lap. “Six? That’s when I usually pick you up.”
“I know, but Grandma said she’d take us swimming at four.”
“So you have something fun planned.”
“Not until four!”
“Come on, Teddy.”
There was a lengthy pause. “Can we go camping this weekend?”
“Maybe.”
“Say yes, please?”
“I’ll say yes if you can manage not to argue with Grandma today.”
A dramatic sigh met this response. “O-kay.”
“What’s Heath doing?”
“Watching TV. Until we go swimming, that’s all there is to do. Grandma’s afraid we might get a speck of dirt on her carpet.”
“I thought you were having fun with that mowing service you started.”
“Uh-oh, Grandma’s comin’,” he said and hung up.
Kennedy knew Camille would consider Teddy’s plea to escape her place a personal betrayal. She tried to please him and his brother. But it was difficult for her to be around kids five days a week after not having any for so long. And yet she needed Teddy and Heath with her. Looking after the boys helped keep her mind off his father’s diagnosis. She often tried to convince Kennedy that they loved every minute they spent with her.
Uh-oh, Grandma’s comin’….
Evidently, Teddy was learning how to avoid a confrontation with her.
Chuckling, Kennedy slipped his phone into the extra cup-holder on the console. His youngest son was a handful, all right—but in a boisterous, exuberant way. If Camille had been younger and if she wasn’t so stressed, she’d be able to see that.
“He’ll survive another day,” Kennedy told himself. Camille’s domineering personality might not blend well with Teddy’s, but she loved both boys as much as she loved him. No one, not even Teddy, questioned that.
He glanced at the clock on the dash. He had to get going. He had a lot to do today. And thanks to his sudden glimpse of that woman in the window, he wouldn’t be able to start any of it until he went home to change.
“You weren’t going to let me know you’re in town?”
Still on her knees, Grace shifted around to see her mother standing in Evonne’s backyard. Irene came to visit Grace in Jackson about once a year, but this was the first time since Grace had graduated from high school that they were both in Stillwater.
Clearing her throat, she rose stiffly to her feet. She’d meant to garden for only a couple of hours, but the morning had gotten away from her. It was after noon. Somehow, restoring Evonne’s garden had turned into her mission for the day. Even with her clothes sticking to her, and the knowledge that she’d be sore tomorrow, it felt good to dig and pull weeds and work the earth, to save one plant after another from the neglect of the past few weeks.
Because of the muddy gloves on her hands, Grace wiped the sweat from her forehead with one arm. “I’m sorry,” she said, attempting a smile. “I meant to, Mom. I just…got busy.”
Irene motioned toward the garden. “I guess these weeds couldn’t wait?”
Obviously her mother was hurt. Drawing a deep breath, Grace crossed the lawn to give her a hug. Grace was excited to see Irene, even though she’d dreaded this moment. She admired her mother, missed her, but Irene stirred too many other emotions, as well. “They bother me,” she admitted. “I’m sure Evonne wouldn’t like it. And—” she stepped back and removed her floppy hat to check the gray sky overhead “—I thought I’d get as far as I could before the rain starts.”
Irene didn’t appear convinced that Grace’s concern over the weather had stopped her from calling. But Grace doubted her mother would push the issue. Over the years, they’d established a pattern for dealing with the strain between them, which was better ignored than confronted.
“You’re looking good,” Grace said, and meant it.
“I’m too fat,” Irene responded, but if she had any weight to lose it wasn’t more than ten or fifteen pounds. And the fact that she dressed up for even the smallest errand provided sufficient proof of her vanity.
“No, you’re just right.”
Grace’s smile grew more genuine when she saw her mother brighten at the compliment. Although Irene was only five-two, they had the same oval-shaped face and blue eyes. Grace generally pulled her dark hair into a messy knot at the back of her head and wore little makeup. Her mother went heavy on the mascara and deep-red lipstick, and backcombed her hair into a style vaguely reminiscent of Loretta Lynn.