Jolene watched him shake out the special treats from a plastic container and let Sassy eat them from his hand. One more good thing—Aunt Sugar said you could judge a man’s character by how animals and kids treated him. Dotty, Flossie, and Lucy weren’t children, but they sure liked him, and the way Sassy was trying to eat and purr at the same time didn’t leave any doubt about how much she loved him.

Jolene went straight to the utility room and put all the white things in the washing machine—his T-shirts, her white bikinis, and his tighty-whities. She adjusted the dials and poured in a capful of detergent. She had time for a thirty-minute power nap while that load ran, but she wasn’t sleepy like she usually was on Sunday afternoons.

When she turned, Tucker was gone but had left a few more treats on the china plate that Sassy ate from. The cat followed her into the living room and jumped up on the sofa.

Jolene found Tucker stretched out in the recliner, his arms crossed over his chest. She eased down on the end of the sofa and stared her fill. His head rested at the top of the chair, but his feet hung off the bottom. He’d removed his boots, and he had probably fallen asleep as soon as he pulled the lever to put up the footrest. His hands were calloused from hard work, and he really did need a haircut, but then, he would look pretty sexy with a little ponytail.

“Don’t go,” he muttered.

“Go where?” she stammered.

He opened one eye. “I was dreaming.”

“About?” she asked.

“Melanie.” His eye slid shut.

She picked up a throw pillow and tucked it under her head as she curled up on the sofa with Sassy right beside her. The way he said her name was so sad that Jolene’s heart ached for him. Would he ever get past the grieving process?

Chapter Thirteen

On Monday morning Jolene grabbed the broom and dustpan and started for the stairs, intending to clean up behind Tucker. Yet she hadn’t even gotten out of the kitchen when her phone rang. When she saw that it was Sugar, she propped the broom at the end of the breakfast bar in the kitchen and sat down in a chair.

“Aunt Sugar! Where are you this morning? Is Uncle Jasper feeling better? I’ve been worried about him.”

“He’s accepting it but not liking it, though we didn’t put any conditions on what we gave y’all. The place was Reuben’s to do with what he wanted. We’re just glad you didn’t sell out, too. And we’re still in Georgia, only now we’re on the east side of the state. We found this little resort that we really like,” she said.

“Speaking of selling, why didn’t y’all sell this place? It would have sure helped increase your nest egg, and you had to at least wonder what would happen with Reuben,” Jolene asked.

“Because,” Sugar answered, “we didn’t need more money, and Jasper was set on giving Reuben half the place. We had lots of late-night talks about it, but as you already know, I didn’t win. Jasper hoped it would help straighten Reuben out. He thought your influence would be good. Reuben is on his third professor job. He had a wonderful position at Baylor and didn’t make tenure. Then he got hired at a junior college in Oklahoma and didn’t make tenure. Now he’s at another junior college and it’s not looking good there, either.”

“Me help him?” Jolene gasped. “I’m just a bartender. He’s a professor. How was I going to help him?”

“Common sense and life lessons go a lot farther than book learnin’,” Sugar said.

“Thank you for that much trust.” A wave of guilt washed over Jolene for ever even having second thoughts about selling her half to Tucker. She wiped away a tear making its way down her cheek and changed the subject. “So tell me how you’re managing cooking in that small space when you’re used to this huge kitchen. And when did y’all start going to different places every week?”

“It’s been an adjustment learnin’ to cope with such a small space,” Sugar said. “And we’ve been takin’ turns with dinner for several years. Hey, speakin’ of dinner, Dotty says that Tucker is a great guy. Tell me what you think.”

Jolene giggled. “I’m pretty sure they’re playing matchmaker, but”—she lowered her voice—“he’s still not over Melanie.”

“Some things take a little more time to get over than others,” Sugar said. “Don’t shut a door until you’re absolutely sure about it. At least you’re friends. It would be hard to work together if you didn’t at least like one another.”

Jolene could hear Tucker working, but she took the phone outside. Wrapping a quilt she’d taken from the sofa on the way out around her, she settled down on the swing. She had questions for Sugar that she didn’t want Tucker to hear.

“We work together really well, but I can’t go through what I did with Mama and with my last boyfriend, so I’m not going to start something that has no finish line,” Jolene answered.

“Smart thinkin’,” Sugar said.

She wasn’t even sure how to begin her next thought.

“You still there?” Sugar asked after several long seconds.

“Yes, I’m here. I was trying to think about how to ask about Melanie. Maybe if I knew more about her, then I could understand Tucker better,” Jolene said.