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Just the way I like it.
Soon after, the massive Dutch oven is shoved onto the table, where Toad and Brenda are ladling food out for everyone.
I peek through the patio doors to check on my wife again. She and Kala are the last of the group remaining outside.
They look like they are chatting excitedly over something, and I wonder what they’re talking about.
I’ll have to get it out of her later.
And I know just how to do it.
* * *
Hailey
Torben’s chicken and dumplings is pretty good.
Still not as good as Mama’s, but Mama would never say that.
“Tor, this is so good,” Mama says, dishing more into Sigurd’s bowl. “Did you use white pepper?”
She’s overly complimentary, but I love how she boosts his ego.
“I did.”
“You are becoming a better cook than me,” she says, squeezing his bicep.
“I’ve got a ways to go yet,” my husband says.
Flora catches me grinning at my mama and husband getting along like old friends. “They are freaking adorable,” she says.
I nod and tread carefully. “And…how are things with you?” I ask.
Flora sighs. “The Queen Dowager is coming around. Slowly. I told her that she would be more than welcome. Her granddaughter is getting older, and another one is on the way. Life is too short for grudges and all that. She’s as stubborn as our father was. The coronation was a lot of mixed emotions for her.”
I remember the emotional side of that whole affair.
I recall how the Queen Dowager did not want Torben and me to attend the coronation. The new monarch insisted that our names be included on the honored guest list. To compromise, Torben and I kept a low profile. We’d sat in the back of the chapel and did not accept the offering of any regalia or official announcement as we came and went. Avoided cameras as much as possible— though it was next to impossible.
I squeeze Flora’s hand. “I didn’t expect you all to come.”
Flora fixes me with a mischievous smile. “When you texted me that this dear woman had requested that her final goodbye be a party and not a funeral, I demanded that we all attend. If there’s one thing the Haart siblings know how to do, it’s party.”
Everything Flora and everyone else has done for us is beyond the call of duty. I’m honored and dizzied by it all.
I look around the extra-large table that Torben built for me, and I know that Memaw would be amused beyond words that so many “fancy people” came here to pay their respects. “Fancy people who don’t even know me” were the words she used to describe it when Torben’s family sent her and Papaw gifts for their birthdays and anniversaries.
Flora had been behind all of that, I’m sure.
* * *
A chill runs through me as Toad, Brenda, Mama, and Papaw play Memaw’s favorite song. Papaw and Toad on banjos, Brenda on mandolin, and Mama on the fiddle.
I want to duck inside to grab a sweater, but I don’t want to miss a second of this night on the porch. This house is more of a home than before, now christened with music.
There hasn’t been any music up here since Daddy up and left, pawning his guitar, breaking Mama’s heart three different ways.
The stars are bright overhead, the bonfire is high, Tilly’s fast asleep in her bed, and the baby is kicking like he knows this chorus by heart.
