Page 21 of Leave It to Us
“I don’t think they think you are, Tam. Chill.”
She didn’t want to chill. She was right about the way her sisters talked to her. Gabriel wouldn’t know, because he’d never met them. But it was early, and she didn’t feel like getting a headache over the Best Butlers—something she’d taken to calling her older sisters behind their backs when she was a little girl.
“This place has hardly changed,” she said as she walked into what Grandma Betty had always calledthe parlor.
It looked more like a family room to her, and actually, that was what she, Lana, and Yvonne had called it. The rug was a little worn in some places, but Grandma’s piano still sat in the corner, facing thepaned windows. Tami walked over to the piano and eased onto the bench.
“Yeah? That’s good, right? So this reno might be easy, after all.” His tone sounded as hopeful as Lana’s had sounded urgent last night.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think there’s lots of room for refreshing. Possibly adding some modern touches to the Lowcountry style,” she said, adjusting the phone between her ear and her shoulder so her hands would be free.
She moved her fingers gingerly over the keys.
“Your fingers are too short to play piano,” Freda had said in her testy tone when Tami was ten and had asked if she could take lessons. “And I don’t have any extra money to pay for lessons.” But there’d been plenty of money to send Lana to that modeling school she hated. And even more money to hire tutors for Yvonne to prep for the SATs, even though her oldest sister was the absolute smartest person Tami had ever known.
“Tam? You still there?”
His voice jerked her away from those irritating memories, and she shook her head. “Yeah. I’m here.”
“I was saying you should write down your thoughts on what can be done to refresh the place. That way, you can give them to the contractor.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea. I was just going to walk him through each room when he gets here and share my thoughts.”
“Which you can still do, but getting those thoughts down on paper is a decent plan too. So he’ll have a good understanding of the direction you’re trying to go in.”
She nodded even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “True, true. I’ll go back upstairs and get one of my spiral books for that. I’m the only one up right now, so I was just going to walk around and reacclimate myself to the place.” She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “It still smells like biscuits and sunshine.”
“What does sunshine smell like?” he asked with laughter in his tone.
“Like happiness,” she said without a second thought. “It smells like all the happy things, just floating around in the air.”
“Yeah, okay. Well, I’mma let you go so you can gather your thoughts before your sisters get up and start working your nerves,” he said. “I’ll check in with you later, though.”
“Okay, and Gabriel?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” she said softly, her gaze now focused on the windows and the grassy land surrounding the side of the house.
“For what?”
She shrugged. “For always knowing what to say to keep me grounded. For having such great ideas to, you know ... keep my mind right.”
“There’s nothing wrong with your mind, Tami. It’s what makes youyou. And you’re perfect, in my book.”
The flutter that started in the pit of her stomach and went soaring through her chest was immediate and different and just a little bit frightening.
“That’s because you’re smarter than that rent-a-cop uniform makes you look, Gabriel Taylor.” She hoped she sounded light and aloof like she normally did when she was talking to him—because damn, that was not how she was feeling at that moment.
His laughter was quick and familiar, and it instantly calmed her now-racing heart. “I make this uniform look good! And you know it!” he countered.
Yeah, she did know it. That’s why she’d never denied the sexual attraction that buzzed between them. She had never denied it, nor had she ever thought about taking it any further than their periodic sexcapades. And neither had he, so those flutters could take a flying hike. Gabriel was her best friend, her confidant, and lately, her rock. Sure, shecould addsometimes-loverin there, but she wasn’t going to right now. She was already on sensory overload.
“Bye, boy,” she said, grinning.
“Bye, girl,” he replied.
She disconnected the call and placed the phone on top of the piano. Then she let her fingers glide along the cool ivory keys again. Her eyes closed, and she began to sway to a song she could still hear in Grandma Betty’s voice. It was the song she’d won a Grammy for in 1979: “Love of a Lifetime.”
