Page 36 of Leave It to Us
“This sounds too much like high school,” he said.
She chuckled and then groaned. “You’re right. Let’s stop it right now.”
They both laughed then.
“You’ve got a nice laugh,” he said. “That’s not something I usually notice about a woman.”
“Oh really? Let me guess, you’re more of a butt-and-breast type of guy?” she jokingly asked. Jeremiah really did feel like a friend or brother to her. Of course, she’d already received warnings about flirting with him from Yvonne, and knowing looks from Lana. Her sisters truly did believe they still had to monitor her actions and tell her right from wrong. In this case, though, the warning hadn’t been necessary; she hadn’t been feeling any type of way about Jeremiah from day one, except for friendly.
With a start, she realized the “friendly” way she’d felt about Jeremiah was a stark contrast to the “friend zone,” where Gabriel resided. But now was neither the time nor the place to contemplate that revelation.
He rubbed a finger over his chin. “Well, I can’t lie—I peeped those out too.”
“Oh, shut up. I don’t even want to hear what you think of my butt or my breasts. We’ll just leave it at the laugh.” And with that, she chuckled again. “I like to laugh,” she admitted. “But I don’t think I do it as much when I’m in the city as I used to do when I was here.”
“You think that’s because of your grandmother or the island?”
“My grandmother meant the world to me. She was one of the only people who ever understood me. Her and my dad, actually.” She rubbed her flattened palms up and down her thighs.
“What about your sisters and your mother?”
Tami shook her head quickly. “I donotwant to talk about them,” she said. “Tell me more about my grandmother and how you ended up working for her.”
When he didn’t respond right away, she shifted, pulling one leg up to tuck under the other and propping an elbow up on the arm of her rocking chair.
“Nothing much to tell.” He shook his head and then glanced over at her. “My family knew who she was and knew she lived on the island. My grandmother wasn’t as close to her as Ms.Odessa or Ms.Janie. But there’s not that many permanent residents left on ’Fuskie now, so you know that saying about everybody knowing everybody.”
“Yeah, I can see that, especially here. What is there, like an estimated four hundred permanent residents on the whole island?”
He nodded. “Yeah, give or take. The development of the resorts has added to that number over the years. The staff they’ve brought in to work there year-round. But still, there aren’t that many lawyers, doctors—you know, the professional types—on the island. And mostly, the people here are used to hopping on a boat and heading over to the city for those types of services.”
“But you opened an office here. Why do that if people are used to coming to the city?”
He shrugged. “This is my home. I’m always gonna do what I can for my family here. When I’m on the island, I don’t just help with law stuff. I help my grandfather and my father down at the dock, pulling in the shrimp baskets they’ve set for years before I was even born.”
“See, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout right there—the way you’re set in your career and intent on giving back to your community. That’s what I want to do. I want to have a grip on how I’m going forward and still be able to reach back and help my people,” she said. Now she propped her chin up on her hand, feeling a little drowsy as she stared over at him.
There was a light on in the foyer, and it glowed through the first two windows, but the other lights on the first floor were out. Lana and Yvonne had no doubt already gone upstairs to bed. But one of them—most likely, Yvonne—had left the porch light on for Tami, like she was a teenager coming home late from a date. She was actually grateful for that light at the moment since it had allowed her to see Jeremiah’s warm brown eyes when he’d spoken so earnestly of helping his family.
“You aren’t doing that now? I mean, you’re here, doing this for your grandmother, and it’ll undoubtedly help the community. It’s a job for Deacon and his staff. Which, he’s actually going to bring on a few more local guys to help down at the docks when the supplies that have to be shipped over arrive.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize that.” She shook her head. “I mean, I did know that supplies would have to be shipped here since there are no warehouses or furniture stores or stuff like that here on the island. But he’s going to hire extra people.”
Jeremiah nodded. “Couple of my cousins, and he’s got some family too. Plus, Mr.Jake’s twin boys said they’d come down to help when they finished at the general store and on weekends.”
“Well, I guess this is a pretty big job, just like Deacon said.”
“It is,” he added. “But what do you do in the city that’s got you sounding unhappy with yourself?”
“Oh, I’m not unhappy.” At least, she told herself that every morning when she looked in the mirror. That, plus the affirmations that were printed on the spiral notebooks she’d ordered online gave her the daily boost she needed to keep the smile in place and a measure of optimism moving through her mind. But that wasn’t something she was going to share with him. “I’m good with who and what I am. I just know that I could be doing more.”
He narrowed his eyes at her and then gave her a half grin. “Ooookay, well, what are you doing back in the city that makes you ‘good’?”
“At the moment, I’m in between jobs,” she said, and then waved a hand before he could speak again. “I quit my last job as a manager at a day care center because I was unaware that the termmanagerincluded me taking over in the infant room when a teacher throws up and has to leave. I did not sit through a billion lectures, write millions of papers, and study for an infinite amount of tests and exams in college to change poopy baby diapers.” She wrinkled her nose at the memory.
He chuckled. “You’re cute when you do that.”
“That baby with poop up her back wasn’t cute, and five minutes after I managed to get her and the table where I’d been changing her cleaned up, I felt like I was going to throw up, just like the teacher who’d left early.”
