“Only until lunch is served,” Bernie agreed. “Then it’s my turn.”
Lottie felt like a cow being auctioned off at a sale barn, but she just smiled and sat down in the last empty chair at a square card table. “Hello, y’all know my name. What’s yours?”
“I’m Daisy, and this is Heather. It’s okay if you can’t tell us apart. Most people can’t,” the little brown-haired girl said.
She was right. They were definitely identical, and had they been dressed alike, Lottie wouldn’t have a clue which one was Daisy or Heather.
Heather narrowed her eyes and studied Lottie for several seconds. “Did you already kiss Uncle Knox?”
“Heather!” Rae scolded. “That’s personal and a very rude question.”
“But, Mama, I just want to know so I can ask her how it feels to kiss a boy, and if she’s going to write his name on an egg,” Heather countered.
Lottie leaned down and whispered. “Yes, I did kiss him, but I don’t think I’ll write his name on anything.”
“Did it make your toenails curl up?” Daisy asked.
“When that happened, did your polish crack and get all ugly?” Heather whispered.
“Good Lord!” Rae gasped. “Where did you hear that?”
“At school,” Daisy said with a shrug. “Our friend Brenda said that her mama told her bestie that her new boyfriend made her toenails curl up when he kissed her. We was all wonderin’ if it ruined her polish.”
Lottie chuckled and took off one of her socks. “Look. My polish is still good enough for church tomorrow morning, so kissing Knox didn’t do anything to mess it up.”
“Well, I ain’t kissin’ no boy, no how,” Heather declared with an expression of pure disgust.
“I might if he brings me chocolate,” Daisy said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Rae, you are paying for your raising,” Mary Jane said from the dining room table.
“I think I’m being charged for Bo’s raising, too,” Rae said.
“Mama, are the guys going to hide them chocolate eggs like they did last year? The ones that have peanut butter in the middle?” Daisy asked.
Just like that, the conversation went from kissing to candy.
“I don’t know for sure, but if they don’t…” Rae’s blue eyes twinkled. “I saw some on the tables in the barn.”
“I’m going to buy them all,” Heather said.
“No, you ain’t,” Daisy argued. “Because I can run faster than you, and I’ll buy them before you get there.”
Rae held up a palm. “New rule. Each one of you can buy two. That’s the limit. You have to share with the other kids.”
Daisy gave Heather a dose of stink eye. “I told you.”
“What’d I do?” Heather asked in an innocent voice.
Daisy folded her arms over her chest. “That permission thing.”
Lottie wished for the millionth time that she had had a sister—or even a sibling close to her age. “What is the permission thing?”
“It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” Rae answered. “Where did you girls hear that?”
“At school,” Heather said with a shrug and expression identical to Daisy’s earlier one. “Brenda said her older sister told her, and it means to do what you want and then cry some tears, and your mama will forgive you.”
“Not this mama,” Rae assured them, “and don’t listen to what Brenda tells you.”
