“No, no.” Anita huffed quickly and shooed Juniper aside. She pointed to the cabinet with a glass pane on the door. “Get the good stuff out. The Blue Willow.”
After Juniper sat the bowls down by the stove, she and Rowan sat at the kitchen table while Anita pulled a pitcher of strawberry drink from the refrigerator. She poured out a glass and handed it to Rowan, and then went back to the stove to scoop out a bowl of chili for each of them.
“Thank you,” Rowan said, happily letting the zing of the drink hit the back of her cheeks after her first sip. It took real effort not to gulp the entire glass down.
“Oh, I don’t get any?” Juniper quipped.
“Junie, my first born child, you live here. And you have two legs to walk you to get a cup and two hands to pour it out.”
Rowan laughed into her already half-empty glass and looked over to Juniper.
Juniper scrunched up her face at her. “Don’t look at me,” she whispered through her smiling glare.
Anita placed a warm bowl of chili in front of each of their spots at the table, and then a cup of strawberry drink in front of Juniper anyway. Anita sat down with them, her own cup in front of her.
Rowan finally set her glass down to turn her attention to the chili. “I missed that zing in the back of the cheeks.”
“That’s the best part of strawberry drink,” Anita agreed.
Strawberry drink was a favorite in their community, and it was really just as simple as the name suggested. Muddled strawberries, some kind of sweetener, and water. The simplicity let the strawberries shine, and that was part of why it was so good.
Anita looked between the two of them and back again, eyes gleaming and a smile creeping across her face. “What a day.”
Rowan scraped the last bit of chili from her bowl into her spoon and ate it. She slathered softened butter on her slice of cornbread and took a bite. She closed her eyes in satisfaction, sat back to finish savoring it, and caught Anita’s gaze when she opened her eyes again.
“That was so good. I missed that too. Thank you.”
Anita was still smiling. “Hmm,” she hummed into her cup,a combination of joy and mirth in the vibrations. “You know what next month’s moon is?”
Rowan shook her head and felt the tenseness reverberate from Juniper sitting diagonally from her.
“Strawberry moon,” Anita confirmed.
“What’s that?” Rowan looked between the two of them, a cautious smile on her face.
“You ever noticed how a strawberry is shaped like a heart?”
Rowan nodded.
“She brings us messages of love. She tells us it’s time to let go of old conflict and welcome everybody back home.” Anita chuckled into the palm of her hand then winked at Rowan. “She also tells us it’s time to name the babies. I’m sure you know how babies are made.”
“Mother.” Juniper’s warning glare looked almost comical with the way her eyes had doubled in size.
Rowan felt her cheeks get hot, but she laughed through it. She folded her arms over her chest as she noticed Juniper bring her fingers to her still kiss-swollen lips. “She fed me some strawberries earlier.”
“I’m sure she did.”
Juniper’s chair screeched as she scraped it against the linoleum floor to stand. “I should have dragged my feet on organizing your request for this little dinner even longer.”
“You can pretend to fight it, Junie, but we all know how the story goes.”
Rowan certainly had an idea of how she wanted the story to go, and she was cautious to remind herself not to skip too quickly through the timeline. Earlier that night Rowan had almost given into all of her physical desires. But Juniper deserved to be treated with intention, and that did not include some heat-of-the-moment fumble in her dad’s truck the first time. That could come later. Definitely more of that needed to come later, but on the kitchen counter, in the shower, on the floor, against the bookcases and then again on her desk.
Juniper leaned against the counter and crossed her arms.Getting the hint that it was time to leave, Rowan stood up and walked around the table to kiss Anita’s cheek and hug her shoulders.
“How does that old song go?” Rowan asked.
Anita took the bait. “Which one?”
