“That’s a good boy. Such a good, brave boy.”
His lowered tail raised a fraction and gave the barest of wags. A grin spread across her face.
After he finished his food, he walked closer to Ivy and curled in the sunshine. He wasn’t close enough to touch, but his tail thumped the ground. His tongue flicked out and he whined.
She patted the ground. “Come on. You can do it.” He wiggled closer.
“I think you need a name. You aren’t a ghost.” She eyed the black specks on his ears. “How about Pepper? You could be a Pepper.”
He lifted his head and his floppy ears perked.
Ivy laughed. “Is that your name? Pepper?” The dog tilted his head.
“All right then, Pepper it is.” Ivy stretched out on her back and stared up through the tree limbs. “This is my safe place too, you know. Where I’d come when I thought my parents weren’t being fair or I’d had a bad day. My grandma and my uncle would always cheer me up, help shift my perspective. And when I was in those weird high school years, this was where I came to remind myself who I was. Now Grandma’s gone. The house isn’t hers anymore. I hoped being back here might get my head back on straight, but I don’t know.”
She rolled her head toward the dog. His chin rested on the ground. His doggy eyebrows shifted as she spoke like he was processing everything she said.
“It does a number on you when the person you trusted to love you hurts you instead, doesn’t it, Pep?”
Ivy stood slowly and walked to the porch. “I’d better get to work. That house won’t sort itself.” She peeked over her shoulder. Pepper followed at a distance. A smile stretched over Ivy’s face.
She sat on the porch swing, and Pepper approached her. Tail low and wiggling. Slowly Ivy reached out and stroked his back. “Look at you, you brave boy.” She crooned in a silly baby voice. He looked at her with soulful eyes. “You just want to be loved, don’t you? No matter how scary it is.”
Her uncle’s landscaping truck pulled into view. Pepper tensed. “It’s okay. He won’t hurt you.”
Pepper edged away.
“All right. I’ll see you later, buddy.” The dog disappeared around the corner of the house.
After the sound of the mower faded, Ivy filled two glasses with water and went in search of her uncle. She found him securing his mower to his trailer. She passed him a glass of water. “Your landscaping crew was doing the lawn just the other day. I was surprised when they left Grandma’s house untouched.”
He shrugged. “I like doing it myself.” He surveyed the land around them. “Although it’s probably time I give that up. It won’t be her place much longer.”
“How long did you live here?”
Uncle Vee gave her a half-smile. “It is the only home I’ve ever known.” He laughed, soft and breathy. “In the last few months of her life she pestered me to death to buy my own place. I’d have felt put out if I didn’t know what she was really up to.”
Ivy arched her brows.
“I bought a house, but I stayed with her until she passed. There was no way I was going to let her be alone in her final days. I tried so hard to take care of her, but her focus was always on taking care of me. She wanted to prepare me in the only way she knew how.” He swallowed hard.
Ivy averted her eyes and blinked. She lifted her water glass toward the woods. “Wanna take a walk?”
He nodded. She placed their empty glasses on the porch rail, and they headed toward the woods.
While the house had always been Grandma’s domain, those woods were hers and Uncle Vee’s. Whenever she became impatient while her parents worked at the church, he took her exploring at the old creek out on the farthest bounds of the church property. In that trickle of a stream, she waded, and he helped her find crawdads and salamanders.
“It’s been a long time, huh?” She nudged him with her elbow.
They crunched over decaying leaves and pine needles. The shade offered a slight reprieve from the summer heat.
He nodded. “Too long. I know it won’t be the same with your grandma gone, but don’t be a stranger, okay? I have an extra bedroom anytime you want to stay.” The lines around his eyes creased, and he stared at the ground as they walked.
“I’ll take you up on that.” She’d do better about visiting. Be there for him.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “And you can call off your watchdog. I know it was you asking Reese to check up on me after you went back home. I miss her, Ivy. More than words can say. But I’m okay. Promise.”
Heat filled her cheeks.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “What about you? Are you holding up all right? Do you need help with anything at the house?”
“You’re crazy busy with your landscaping company. I have Reese. We’ve got it covered.”
“But if you need anything, you know I’m there for you, right?”
Anything? Words pressed against her lips, questions begging to be asked. She glanced at him. A carefree expression on his face. This quiet walk with him so perfect. Overdue. Could she take the chance of spoiling it?
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
She swallowed hard. Maybe her mom and dad evaded giving her clear answers, but surely her uncle, the man she could always depend on, would shoot straight with her. “Did you know a woman named Rose?”
Uncle Vee’s face paled as he froze. “You’re still looking—don’t, Ivy. Leave it alone. I don’t know what your grandma was thinking bringing up that ancient history, but nothing good can come of this. Nothing. I mean it. Leave the past where it belongs.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
FEBRUARY 16, 1999
Rose scrubbed the long laminate tables in the ranch’s mess hall. Not a bad gig, but she preferred the stable duty that had been her assignment last week.
Pearl stood across the room talking to the lady who ran the place. As she cleaned, Rose moved down the table. Closer and closer to Pearl. Pulled against her will. Wanting her to look up. To see her. Like she recognized Rose in some way. It was stupid, craving Pearl’s attention like that. But Pearl was one of the few people that had ever kept their word to her.
Questions bombarded Rose’s mind. Haunting her waking hours, louder now that every moment wasn’t spent just trying to survive. She needed these answers no matter how they hurt. And Pearl would tell the truth.
When the last woman trickled out, she swiped at the tables, worrying her lip between her teeth. What would happen if she let these memories loose? Would it be her salvation or her undoing?
Pearl approached. “You’re looking well, Rose.”
Rose dipped her head. “Well” was a relative word, she guessed. Detoxing from the stuff Vance kept pumped into her system had been no picnic. She’d never have survived without Pearl helping her reach Abiding Love.
“You wanted to ask me something?” Pearl looked at her.
How did she know?
Words she thought would be so hard to form slipped out of her like an exhale. “You remember when you asked me about a month back if I had any children, and I said no?”
Pearl stilled.