“We haven’t told him yet. I wanted to let you know first.” A pause. “I don’t think he’ll want to move with us. It took forever to get him to Little Rock.”
“I agree.”
“If he won’t, he’ll have to come live with you again.”
Rusty nodded. “That’s fine. Don’t worry, he always has a home with me.”
“Inthathouse.”
He bristled at the derision he heard in her voice. “What do you mean, ‘that house’?”
“You know exactly what I mean. It’s a miracle that place hasn’t fallen down already.”
“It just needs a few repairs,” he said.
“Now you’re sounding like Senior,” she scoffed. “I’m surprised you’re still living there.”
“Of course I am. I—we—grew up here.”
“That’s what I mean,” she said. “Don’t the memories bother you?”
He turned into the driveway and shut off the truck. He had great memories of growing up in Senior and G’ma’s house. But there were some bad ones, too, mostly reminders of his parents’ abandonment. Like the times he’d spent looking out the picture window and waiting for his motherto come back . . . then finding out she wasn’t going to. Or seeing the sadness both Senior and G’ma had tried to hide after those rare phone calls they’d received from his dad, who never seemed to have enough time left over to talk to him and Amber.
He’d buried those memories, and others, so far down he’d forgotten about them.Almost.Talking to Harper about his parents had dug up a few, and now Amber was yanking the rest of them out.
“Just think about it,” Amber said.
He blinked. “Think about what?”
“Finding a nice house for you and Senior. It would be a fresh start for both of you. I’ll keep in touch and let you know what we decide about Colorado. Love you, little bro.”
“Love you too.”
He hung up, but he didn’t get out of the truck. A new house? Living anywhere else hadn’t crossed his mind... Wait. That wasn’t exactly true. There was a time or two when he had thought about buying his own place. But that had been before going out on a date, when he’d been frivolous enough to think about the future he wanted, like the one Amber had. He wasn’t jealous of her. Just the opposite. She was bucking their parents’ trend of divorce and ditch. And like his sister, he wanted to do things differently than his parents had done. That meant getting andstayingmarried and having a family.
Of course those thoughts had disappeared like smoke out of a chimney after the dates imploded, and now that future seemed like a far-fetched idea. He and Senior would be fine living here, just the two of them. They’d managed whenAmber and Austin left, and they would manage when—or if—Senior returned.
He got out of the truck and went inside, not bothering with the lights. He was headed for the kitchen when his right foot went clear through the floor.
“What the—” He balanced on one foot as he pulled the other one out, then hopped over to the lamp on the end table near the couch. He flipped it on and checked his ankle. No harm done, fortunately. The floor, however, wasn’t in as good shape. A gaping hole the size of his foot now sat in the center, the old green carpet torn where he’d stepped. G’ma had hated that cheap carpet when Senior had put it in more than forty years ago. But it had saved Rusty from a scraped leg, or worse.
He stared at the hole, then the peeling wallpaper, before moving to look at the ripped carpet. The floorboard hung on by a nail and a prayer. Maybe Amber was right, and not just because of the cracked memory lane they both shared. Senior deserved better than this. Eventually he wouldn’t be able to manage the staircase. And although he still had friends in Maple Falls, several of the neighbors who had lived on the street when he and G’ma were here had moved, either to live with their own kids or to a place for elderly adults. Three of them had passed away. Hadn’t that been part of the argument to get his grandfather to move in with Amber? So he would have a better life in his golden years?
Rusty didn’t cotton much to change, but sometimes it was necessary. He grabbed the ripped area of the carpet and pulled it back so he didn’t forget about the hole and made his way to the kitchen. He was 110 percent sure Seniorwouldn’t go to Colorado if that’s what Amber and Austin ended up doing. So it was up to him to convince his grandfather to move to a new home in Maple Falls. One problem, though—he didn’t know the first thing about looking for a house.
Good thing he knew someone who did.
***
“I really don’t have time for this, Erma.”
Erma peered over her reading glasses at Madge Wilson, tamping down her irritation. When she’d seen Madge make a rare appearance in church last Sunday, she’d cornered the woman after the service to get her to come over to Knots and Tangles under the ruse of giving her the pattern for the Bosom Buddies’ charity project this year—baby caps and booties for the Changepoint Pregnancy Center in Hot Springs. Madge hadn’t attended their weekly BB gatherings for weeks, and before that she’d only come once or twice a month. Erma sensed something was going on with her friend, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. She’d finally convinced Madge to come over today. And even though Saturdays tended to be their busiest day, right now the shop was empty.
“This won’t take but a minute,” Erma said, pretending to thumb through a stack of patterns, even though she’d already set aside the one she needed before Madge arrived. “While I’m looking, catch me up on what’s been going on in your life.”
“Oh, you know. Things. Have you found the pattern yet?”
“Guess it’s not in this stack.” Erma pulled a box of papers out from underneath the counter. Riley kept everything organized in the shop they ran together, but when it came to old copies of patterns, her granddaughter knew better than to attempt to make rhyme or reason of them. “What kind of things?”
