“Ready?” he asked.
“Yes!” Pippa shouted.
Wendell was not entirely sure he was, but he put the car in drive.
Back at the house, there was more surprise. Roberta stood on the porch, waiting with a platter.
“Hello, Bertie. What’s going on?”
She held up the platter. “Chocolate cake, that’s what.” She gave a look of mock horror as the girls began dragging their things out of the back of the truck. “Heavens. Are they staying for good?” But when Julia gave her a quick hug on the way up the porch steps, Wendell noticed her soften.
“That’s so nice of you,” Wendell said, climbing up behind them with a bag on each shoulder.
“Well, seeing as you’re a Sherpa, I figured you could use a little cake. There’s more.” She nodded across the porch. There, in a corner rocking chair, was Ginny.
“Ginny.”
She waved shyly. But there was nothing shy about the girls’ greeting.
“I remember you!” Pippa exclaimed. Wendell had never seen Pippa so forward. She opened her purple bag and pulled out what appeared to be a striped tiger cat. “This is Fangs.”
Ginny laughed and petted his head. “Fangs is lovely. Do you think he’d like to see his new room?”
Wendell set the bags down, immediately feeling uneasy. “Oh,I figured I’d put the girls together in my childhood bedroom. I already vacuumed and made up the beds.”
Ginny and Roberta exchanged looks. “I’m sure you did,” Ginny said. “But we thought maybe the girls would like to personalize them a little?” Wendell noticed a bag of things at her feet. Three bags, to be exact. It was starting to seem like bags of things were going to be a regular occurrence, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Julia beat him to it. “Ooh, this is so pretty,” she said, opening one of them. She pulled out a strand of twinkle lights. Pippa abandoned Fangs and began rummaging through the others.
“It’s just some bedding and decorations,” Ginny explained, coming to stand beside him. “Nothing that will ruin the walls or anything. I hope you don’t mind.”
Wendell looked at the earnestness in her gaze. For the first time that morning, he felt his insides calm. “I don’t mind at all,” he said, softly. It was a relief to have Ginny and Roberta there. Clearly, there was a lot for him to learn.
Upstairs, Wendell showed the girls down the hallway. “This is my room,” he said, opening the door to the master suite, where his parents used to reside. “And this,” he said, continuing down the hall, “is your room. It was mine when I was a kid.”
He stepped aside so both girls could peek inside, but neither went in. Wendell glanced around at the blue walls. The checkered curtains his mother had hung years ago. The baseball trophy sitting on the dresser. He’d worked so hard to vacuum and dust and had even moved Wesley’s twin bed into the room so they could share, thinking Pippa might be afraid to be in a strange room all alone at night. Now, looking over their shoulders, he saw what they were seeing and was suddenly even more grateful to Roberta and Ginny. “Guess you’ll want to unpack and decorate,” he said.
He was right. No sooner had he and Ginny finished carryingthe bags upstairs than the girls had already half-decorated their room. The beds were moved side by side along the window. Both were stripped of their navy and red bedding and replaced instantly with floral comforters in teal and lavender. A basket Wendell had never seen before appeared and was just as quickly filled with dolls from Pippa’s giant purple bag.
To Wendell’s astonishment, the transformation was swift, if not seamless. Their questions came even faster.
“Do you mind if I run the new sheets through the washer?” Ginny asked.
“Where can my stuffies sleep?” Pippa asked, jumping on the bed.
He tried not to flinch when Julia asked, “Do you have a hammer?” And moments later, “I think we need spackle.”
By the end of the afternoon, the room was no longer Wendell’s childhood chamber, and two happy girls lay side by side on Julia’s bed, gazing up at the twinkle lights that draped from the ceiling. Ginny leaned against the doorframe, looking pleased.
“I never could have done this without you,” Wendell said to her.
When Ginny turned, her face was so close that Wendell could count the flecks of green in her eyes. “It’s amazing what some sparkly lights can do,” she said after a breath.
If Wendell stayed there a moment longer, he was afraid he would kiss her. He cleared his throat. “Who’s ready for cake?”
After Ginny and Roberta left, there was a lull. They were all tired, and Wendell figured he’d better throw something together for dinner. He found the girls in the living room, flicking through channels on the TV.
“You don’t have Apple TV?” Julia asked, frowning at the screen.
