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I pull up in front of her mother’s house, and she opens the door to get out. I put the truck in park and hop out to follow and make sure she gets in safely.
She fumbles around with the potted plant under the bay window until she emerges with a key in hand.
Then, she tries to get it into the lock. It takes a couple of goes before she is successful, but I don’t intervene. I just watch as she concentrates, curses, closes one eye, and repeats.
Before she can pull the door all the way, it flings open, and Leona is standing there in her housecoat and slippers.
“What in the world happened to you?” she asks Taeli as she takes her daughter in from top to toe.
“I fell in the creek,” Taeli says as she pushes past her.
Leona turns and watches her as she goes, and then she looks back at me.
“Fell in the creek?” she asks.
I shrug. “That’s where I found her and the girls,” I say.
She bursts out into a fit of laughter.
Once she has her wits about her, she says, “I guess they had a good time.”
“Yeah, I believe they did,” I agree.
“Good. She needed to blow off some steam before she combusted,” Leona muses.
Taeli’s head pops back out of the door.
“You want any coffee or tea?” she asks, and then she looks at her mother. “Do we have tea?”
“Of course we have tea. This is the South.”
Taeli’s expectant gaze returns to me. “We have tea,” she states.
“I think I’d better head on back home. I’ve got to be on a work site early in the morning.”
Her brow furrows. “Oh, right. It’s late. I’d better go to bed. Caleb will be up soon, and I have a job now,” she says and then just walks back inside.
Leona laughs again. “Thank you for bringing her home, Graham.”
“You’re welcome. I didn’t mind at all.”
“I bet you didn’t,” she mutters under her breath.
“What was that?” I ask.
She waves me off. “Oh, nothing. You be safe and get on home, but you will be by tomorrow, won’t you?” she asks.
“For what?”
“I think I want to expand the front porch to the side of the house. I’ll need you to come and give me an estimate,” she says.
“You just decided that this minute?”
The woman can think of a million things she wants to do to this old house just to get me out here when all she truly has to do is ask.
“I did.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be by tomorrow.”
“Perfect. Good night, Graham.”
“Good night, Leona.”
She walks inside and shuts and locks the door behind her, and I get in my truck and head home.
What a strange night.
