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“Oh, you,” her mama griped at her.“I’m fine.”
Bea didn’t argue.The last thing she needed was shattered glass and no sweet tea at a Callahan family party.Or a mother with a broken hip.Or her mama coming after her for sassing her.
The graduation ceremony had been about like all graduation ceremonies: long, hot, boring, and filled with tradition.Bea had only sat up and paid attention for sixty seconds, when Meredith had walked across the stage, her pink stole and tassel perfectly positioned on her hat and robe.
She hadn’t seen Nort and Anne, thankfully, and they hadn’t shown up here at Stewart’s house either.Once he and Meredith got married, they’d live in this house together, and Bea couldn’t help looking around and imagining them raising babies here.She kept her thoughts to herself once more and kept moving forward to put the sweet tea on the table.
“If you want to do something, Mama,” she said over her shoulder.“Call everyone out here.It’s time to eat.”
Her mama opened the back door and yelled, “Time to eat!”like a true Texan.Hey, it worked, though it wouldn’t have been how Bea would’ve gotten everyone outside.Stewart and Meredith arrived close to last, and Bea nodded at Stewart to take over.
He and Bea had worked together to plan this meal, and his parents and siblings had come to Austin from all over the state too.Bea appreciated the love and support her daughter had, no matter who it came from, and she looked toward the back door, half-expecting to see Nort there.
He wasn’t.
Her nerves buzzed at her, and her phone did the same in her pocket.She waited while Stewart’s dad said grace, and then she ducked into the cooler house to check her device.Grant had texted, and Bea’s smile came instantly.
Those pictures are so amazing, he’d said, as she’d sent him a few shots of Meredith alone, Meredith with her brothers, Meredith with Stewart, and finally, Bea and Meredith together.
I especially like that last one.He added a smiley face, and Bea giggled as if she’d lost thirty years and was now fifteen again.How are you holding up?Has dinner started?
It just did, she said.I’m good.Food is done.Everyone seems happy.She glanced up, looking all the way through Stewart’s house to the front door.She returned her attention to her phone.Meredith’s father isn’t here.
She turned as the door slid open and someone came in.Ted.She tried to shove her phone in her pocket, only to remember she wore a pair of slacks that didn’t have a big back pocket.Therefore, her phone promptly fell to the floor and skidded toward Ted.
He bent to pick it up, and when he straightened, he wore questions in his eyes.“Mom?”he asked.“What are you doin’ in here, texting?”He looked down at her phone, and Bea had no idea what he’d see.He looked up quickly, as if what he’d read had burned his eyes.“Who’s Grant?”
Bea extended her hand, a clear sign she wanted her phone back.Ted handed it to her, his dark eyes darker and more hooded now.“Mom.”
“He’s just someone I met,” she said.She didn’t have to defend herself.She hadn’t cheated on her husband.She hadn’t dated even while they’d been separated.She hadn’t doneanythingwrong.
Buoyed by that, she looked Ted right in the eye.“I met him last week in South Carolina.We started seeing each other.I’m going back there after I help Meredith with her wedding plans.”
Ted’s eyebrows clawed themselves toward the sky.“You are?”
“Teddy.”Bea sighed and sank into a nearby dining room chair.She ran her fingers over the top of the table, wondering what it had seen in its day.Hers had seen chubby fingers trying to grab cheese chunks and get them into the right spot.It had seen paintings and crayons.It had seen papier-mâché and game figurines, straw, hay, dirt, mud, and blood.
Her house closer to the coast, but still here in Texas, had seen so much.It held memories for her—good memories of her children, her life, and yes, her husband.
She looked up at her son as he came closer and took a seat too.“What do I have in Sweet Water Falls I can’t let go of?”she whispered.
“Nana and Pops,” he said, equally as quiet.“Your Supper Club.”
She nodded, because he was right.She drew in a deep breath.“We’re just getting to know one another.”She gave Ted a fast, fake smile.“What about you?Weren’t you going to ask out Amaryllis?”
He shook his head.“Didn’t work out.”
She normally would’ve tried to find out why or insist that Ted just needed to try again.Now, though, she just said, “Yeah, sometimes it doesn’t.”She covered Ted’s hands with only one of hers, and it wasn’t anywhere big enough to do that.“You’re going to be done at A&M next year.Then what?”
“I don’t know, Mama.”He looked and sounded absolutely miserable about it too.
The door opened again, letting in a blast of chatter and laughter.“There you are,” Meredith said, quickly taking in the scene at the table.“What’s going on?”
Ted got to his feet swiftly.“Nothing.”He gave Bea a pleading look that fled after only a breath.He went past Meredith saying, “Just talkin’ to Mama.”
Meredith met her eyes, and Bea groaned as she stood.“He’s right,” she said.“Nothing.”She tucked her phone in her front pocket this time, so it wouldn’t clatter to the floor and reveal her secrets.
Outside, she looked around at the organized chaos.She thought she saw a spot for Grant among all the craziness, and that brought another smile to her soul.At the same time, she couldn’t imagine him here, in Texas, at all.He owned a lot of properties on Hilton Head, and he couldn’t give all that up to live with her on a farm they didn’t farm.
