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“Hello.” My mother waved a hand in the air. “We have people here I’mtryingto impress.” She jerked her head not-so-discreetly toward Muriella, Daniel, and Vivian.
“I assure you we feel right at home, Mrs. Jacobs,” Daniel said. Vivian and Muriella exchanged looks.
“This is fairly tame compared to our dinners,” Muriella added, and my heart swelled at the genuine smile on her face. “We don’t know how to eat without giving each other a hard time.”
Mama beamed at her. “Well, I’m glad you feel at home.”
“Thank you for having me. I should have already said that,” Muriella said, and Mama reached for her hand. It was a stretch, but they connected.
“You don’t know how happy we are to have all of you.”
“Where’s the pie?” Gabby piped up. Her plate that had been full a few minutes earlier, but was now completely empty. She was a string bean, could eat anything and not gain a pound, just like her Aunt Mulaney.
“Muriella’s going to come help me with that while y’all start clearing these dishes,” Grandmama said with the kind of authority only she possessed.
Muriella hesitantly followed my grandmother out of the room. The telltale banging of the screen door indicated they were out of the kitchen and making the short jaunt to my grandparents’ house.
“Think that’ll be a come-to-Jesus meeting?” Mulaney smirked when they were out of earshot.
“Would you cool it?” I scolded.
“Lord knows you haven’t been able to seal the deal. Ruby is your only hope.”
“Mulaney, don’t disrespect your grandmother, calling her by her first name,” Dad said, his first chance at having the floor since we’d arrived. Mulaney had dominated the conversation, as usual.
“I’m not—” My sister was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what was about to happen. “Guess he decided to show after all.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Muriella
Stone’s grandparentshad a cottage not far from the main house, but my feet protested at making the walk in the heels I was wearing. As soon as we stepped inside, though, all that was forgotten as the scent of freshly baked pecan pie greeted me. I was beyond full after lunch, but Miss Ruby’s pie made me hungry again.
I followed her into the kitchen, where she indicated for me to sit at the round distressed wood table near a large bay window overlooking her garden. I’d expected flowered wallpaper and pastel-colored appliances as old as I was, but they were nowhere to be found. The space had been updated to include modern décor and professional appliances. My favorite feature was the hammered copper sink.
“This ain’t your grandma’s kitchen,” Ruby said, taking a seat in the chair next to me at the table. She didn’t even bother putting up the pretense of looking at her pies. We weren’t here to check on them. We were here to talk.
“Definitelynotwhat I expected,” I admitted, and she appeared to take that as a compliment.
She sat back and folded her hands in front of her, looking down at them and collecting her thoughts. “I’ve never been one to tell my children what to do. Doesn’t do a lick of good. We’re all wired so when somebody tells us what we oughta do, we go right on ahead and do the opposite.” She grinned at me almost wickedly. “I’m going to tell you a story, and the only other soul on this earth who knows it is Stone’s granddaddy, Price.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. It seemed Stone had learned keeping secrets from his grandparents.
“Price chased me around like a lovesick fool from the time we were in diapers. Had me the whole damn time and didn’t realize it until we were in high school.” She shook her head, but her green eyes were affectionate.
“My family couldn’t buy a gnat a suitcase. We grew cotton and had a few head of cattle when times were decent. The Jacobs might as well have been the Rockefellers around here. So naturally my mama and daddy saw a way for me to have a better life. Instead of growing cotton in our backyard, I’d have thousands of acres of it, not to mention the horses, cattle, and oil.
“I loved Price, though I was too stubborn to admit it. When I was a girl, the expectations on women were a lot different than they are now, and I wasn’t having any part of that. I didn’t want a life of being a wife, raising children—the same old stuff that’s been happening here for a hundred years. No, I was getting out of Burdett. You weren’t going to catch me beholden to some man, four kids squalling all the time while I slaved keeping up a household. Nuh-uh.” She shook her head and waved her index finger back and forth.
“Price went off to Austin right after we graduated high school to get an early jump on college. He didn’t want to go all that much, but his folks insisted. He’d asked me to come with him, but what the hell was I gonna do in Austin? I couldn’t afford college and wasn’t keen on becoming dependent on him for everything.” Miss Ruby’s expression made it clear just how appalled she was at the idea.
“Besides, I had bigger plans nobody knew about. The night after he left, I hitched a ride to Dallas with Mac Hollis, and from there I caught a bus to New York City. Didn’t tell a soul where I was going; only left a note for my parents telling them not to worry and that I’d call someday.” A mischievous smile touched her lips as she gazed out the window. That young girl was still alive and well inside her.
“Honey, let me tell you. I had a lot of spunk, but I’d hardly been across the county line. You see what this place is like, and it ain’t that different than it was sixty years ago. I had three dollars to my name and nobody could understand my Texas accent. When I got to the city, a nice lady at the bus station helped me find my way to Nicolette Joy’s Manhattan offices.”
“TheNicolette Joy?” I interrupted. She was an icon in the fashion industry. Her designs set the standard for generations of female designers after her.
