“That’s fair enough,” Rodney said. “I’ll be looking to hear from you then. Bye, Stevie.”
“Goodbye,” she said and laid her head back. Could she really leave Honey Grove? Could she walk away from Cody? Would she be giving up the opportunity of a lifetime? The chance to travel? Or to run her own clinic in Oklahoma? Only to have things fall apart in Honey Grove?
So many questions, and not one single answer.
Chapter Twenty
Stevie’s mother had often told her that work would take her mind off whatever was stressing her. So, when she got home, she parked her van beside the barn and went to the tack room. All kinds of stuff had been left on the worktable—jars of screws, nails, tools, and even a can of paint. The small refrigerator had an apple in it that had probably come over on the Mayflower, and carrots that were growing beards.
“If cleaning this doesn’t de-stress me, nothing will.” Stevie removed her jacket and filled a bucket with water from the bathroom sink. She found a bottle of cleanser that was so old that the label had faded, but it still smelled lemony, so she poured some into the bucket, grabbed a sponge, and went to work on the refrigerator first.
When that job was done, she began to organize the shelves. First by taking all the stuff from the cabinets and wiping them down, and by arranging all the items in a logical order as she put it back. “Mama, it’s not working,” she mumbled. “I’m still tied up in knots worrying about the house, the job offers, and this thing, whatever it is, with Cody.”
Her phone pinged, and she dragged it out of her pocket to find a message from Cody: We are at the hotel. Will call this evening. Dad is exhausted.
Her thumbs quickly typed, Okay.
She had just hit send when her phone rang. She hadn’t realized that it was suppertime until she saw that the call was from Mia and checked the time.
“Hello, Mia,” she said.
“Daddy has a volunteer fire meeting in town this evening, and they always have it catered in by the diner. It’s just us girls, and the twins of course. You are coming to eat with us, right?” Mia asked.
“Be there in just a few minutes.” Stevie rushed through putting the last of the things on the shelf, decided she’d better use the crutches to go to the house, and made sure her van was locked before she started that way. Mia was waiting with the back door slung open when she arrived.
“You should have called. I would have come and got you in the work truck,” Mia scolded her. “And why is your van at the barn? Are the alpacas all right?”
“Don’t be nosy,” Pearl called out.
Stevie leaned the crutches against the washing machine and limped on into the kitchen. “Alpacas are fine. I had a few hours after I checked on Gracie Langston’s poodle and her two new puppies, so I cleaned the tack room. Mama told me that I could relieve the stress of my problems with hard work, so I gave it a try.”
“Did it work?” Mia asked.
“Nope,” Stevie answered. “Maybe I didn’t work hard enough.”
“If you cleaned that nasty tack room, you worked plenty hard,” Addy said as she set a pot of potato soup on the bar. “We’re doing buffet style tonight.”
“Smells and looks wonderful,” Stevie said. “Is it okay if I wash up in the sink?”
“Fine by us,” Pearl told her. “Anyone who will tackle that part of the barn can wash their hands anywhere they please. Want to talk about your problems? Got to do with the house?”
“That’s part of it, and thank you for getting a crew together to pack everything for me. I went by there today and said goodbye to the house. Does that sound crazy?” Stevie asked as she washed and dried her hands. “It’s like I’m grieving for something that has no life and never did.”
“Oh, honey.” Pearl filled a bowl with soup and carried it to the table. “That house has been very much alive. If the walls could talk, they would tell about the day Ruth brought you home from the hospital and how she was so proud of you for following your dreams. That’s just two incidents that come to my mind.”
“What about this house?” Mia asked. “What would it tell us?”
“Too many things to count,” Pearl said, and smiled. “I’ll say grace for us right here at the bar.” She bowed her head and said a quick prayer, asking God to bring Sonny and Cody home safely and giving thanks for all the natural things that they could enjoy. “Amen. And now back to memories in a house. Sonny was raised right here in this place, and all three of our boys were as well. Then we had the privilege of you and Addy coming to live with us during some tough and lonely times.”
Mia took her food to the table. “I never thought about it like that. I guess you really did need to say goodbye to your house, Stevie. But you mentioned puppies? Gracie didn’t say anything about puppies at church last Sunday, and she’s always telling us something about Fifi.”
“Well,” Stevie said with a giggle, “she’s embarrassed that her precious poodle has been out slumming with the neighbor’s corgi. They will be some strange-looking dogs if they get poodle hair and short legs.”
Pearl laughed. “Gracie is probably mortified.”
“Hey, I heard from Cody,” Stevie said. “He says that they’re in the hotel and Sonny is exhausted.”
“Sonny called me just before you arrived,” Pearl said. “He sounded so tired and said that Cody had ordered pizza delivered to the room, and that as soon as he ate, he was taking a shower and going to bed. This trip always wipes him out.”
“Do they have any tests results yet?” Stevie asked.
“No, that’s what they’ll talk about tomorrow morning,” Pearl answered. “His last appointment is for a consultation at eleven o’clock, and then they’ll start home. Sonny and I will probably stay home until after the weekend. The snow is melted now, and it’s time we got back to our own schedules, anyway.”
“And that is?” Stevie asked.
“We have Sunday dinner together, and pop in and out when we want to,” Addy said.
“But we don’t have supper here every evening,” Mia added, “and I’m going to miss that.”
“We all need time apart as well as time together,” Pearl said.
Did Fate have a hand in that call from Rodney? Stevie wondered. Did it come when Cody and I are apart for a couple of days so I can think about it without distractions?
* * *
Cody made sure that Sonny’s cane was right beside the bed, and that his dad was snoring before he called Stevie that evening. When she didn’t answer on the fourth ring, he started to hang up and send a text, but then he heard her voice.
“Hello,” she said. “Sorry about that. I was just getting out of the shower.”
“Then you’re wearing nothing but a towel?” Cody teased. “I’m closing my eyes and getting that picture in my mind.”
“I’m wearing your terry cloth robe, and it smells like your shaving lotion,” she answered.
“Even that looks sexy. Is the belt tied or untied?” he asked.
“It’s your imagination, so just picture me however you want,” she joked.