Page 50 of Leave It to Us
She closed her eyes. “Ohhhh, that’s so low,” she said, finding herself enjoying this conversation a little more than she probably should’ve.
“I know,” he said. “Did it work?”
There really was no reason for her to say no. It was just dinner, and she’d had meals with him before. If it was with his family, that was cool too. That didn’t have to mean anything in particular. Just like she’d gone to dinner at Ms.Janie’s, she could go to dinner at Deacon’s mother’s house. It would be fine. She hoped.
“Yeah, you knew it was going to work. I’m not here to be pissing off people who have fond memories of my family. I’ve gotta be respectful,” she said.
“Such a good southern girl,” he said.
“Except I’m really from the north,” she shot back.
This was how their daily banter went—easy, light, sometimes funny, most times professional. Spending these past weeks in his company on a daily basis had been more pleasant than she would’ve thought having to deal with construction workers in and out of her personal space could’ve been. Then again, she’d already known that Deacon wasn’t like other guys she’d met in the past. For one, she actually talked to him and didn’t feel awkward or like she was forcing herself to get through the conversations.
“What time should I be ready?” she asked when she felt like she was sinking too deep into her thoughts about this again.
“Six, but I’m on my way to you now, so I can be there with the crew and the plumbers just in case something comes up.”
“Is something supposed to come up?” she asked. “I thought they were just going to dig up that side of the house near the old oak so that the plumbers can look at the pipes.”
“That’s right, but you never know when you start digging things up. So I just want to be there in case decisions have to be made on the spot. You can come down and watch too.”
“Uh, no, I don’t think so. I think I’ll go and catch the ferry into town for a bit. I need to get some things.”
“Good. That’ll be nice, since you haven’t gone over since you’ve been here.”
He was right—she hadn’t. When she’d come here during those summers as a child, she’d never liked boarding the ferry to go into town either. This was her time away from the city and the hustle and bustle of people. Coming to Daufuskie had really been a vacation, from so many things that had weighed heavily on her. Even though this time was fraught with the grief of losing her grandmother and the stress over getting these renovations done and what to do with the house when they were done, there was still calm here for her. There was still a peace that she’d never gotten anyplace else. But she would go into town today because now she needed to get something to wear for tonight.
Chapter 19
YVONNE
It wasn’t a date—she’d told herself that a kazillion times throughout the day. It was just a dinner that she wanted to look nice for, and she’d only packed jeans, capris, and shorts for this trip. That was why she’d gone over to Bluffton for a quick shopping trip, and that’s also why she hadn’t told either of her sisters what she was doing. Answering questions about this non-date wasn’t something she wanted to do either.
By the time she’d returned late in the afternoon, Tami was sitting on the front steps, her spiral notebook on her lap, a pen in her right hand. Yvonne saw white buds in her ears and figured she was probably listening to music. Tami loved listening to music, dancing, and singing in her slightly off-key voice. It was one of the things Yvonne had always thought brought Tami closer to Grandma Betty than the rest of them.
Dropping her bags onto one of the steps below, Yvonne sat a couple of feet away from Tami. When Tami didn’t look up or otherwise acknowledge her in any way, Yvonne reached out to tap her shoulder.
Now Tami’s head came up. She’d pulled her natural hair into two Afro puffs that made her look like she was seven years old again. The sight had a smile ghosting Yvonne’s lips. Her denim shorts were very short, her toenails painted a bright lime green in the white flip-flopson her feet. She had on a tank top that was almost the same shade of green as her toenails, and her eyes, when they landed on Yvonne, were guarded.
“Can we talk?” Yvonne asked, knowing that if Tami couldn’t hear her, she could at least read her lips.
On a sigh, Tami reached over to her other side and picked up her phone. She swiped something across the screen—probably turning off whatever she was listening to—and then she pulled one of the buds out of her left ear since that was the side of her where Yvonne sat.
“I want to apologize for the other day,” Yvonne began without preamble. During the forty-five-minute ride to the mainland, she’d thought about the fact that she’d been able to walk out of the house and not say a word to either of her sisters about where she was going.
Sure, she hadn’t wanted to discuss the non-date with them, but she hadn’t even left a note just in case one of them had a need to find her for something. They wouldn’t need her—they never did. That was her logic, but a small part of her had acknowledged that she might be the cause of why they acted like they didn’t need her.
“You shared something that I know wasn’t easy for you, and I don’t think I gave you the consideration that I should’ve,” she continued before looking away from her sister.
Her gaze went forward to the fountain—or at least, the bowl of the fountain. The actual marble statue of the little girl pouring the water from a flower jug had been removed and taken to an antique shop in Bluffton for restoration. The landscape looked odd without the little girl standing there like a guard at the door of the summerhouse, and Yvonne felt an emptiness that she hadn’t experienced before.
“I knew school was hard for you,” she said after what seemed like endless moments. “I knew Mama was being extremely hard on you.”
“Then why didn’t you stand up for me more?” Tami asked.
Yvonne leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and bringing her hands together to clasp in front of her. She took a deep breathand released it slowly. “There were days that I tried to explain to Mama that it took you a little longer to get exactly what the teacher was asking you to do. And other times, when I’d try to explain why you’d forgotten to dust the tables in the living room or clean the baseboards in the kitchen.”
“I never heard you say those things to her.”
