“Bullsh—crap!” Harper said when she realized Brook was listening. “I’ll be your guardian angel when it comes to men, and you can be Tawny’s.”

“Then who is yours—Aunt Tawny?” Brook asked.

“Heaven help me. That does mean she’s mine,” Harper groaned.

“Backed right into that son of a bitch, didn’t you?” Brook laughed.

“Brook!” Dana squealed.

“Well, Aunt Harper did.” Brook giggled even harder.

“And since I’m your boyfriend keeper, what happened last night with Wyatt? Was it good?” Tawny asked. “You goin’ to pick up where you left off ten years ago?”

“Probably not, and nothing happened except that he slept beside me and held me all night to get me through the hardest day of every year. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that,” she answered.

“That’s a Forrest Gump answer. We’ll have to watch that one next week,” Brook declared. “Hit the button, Mama, and let’s get this party started.”

What Harper had said about it being the most difficult day of the year kept running through Dana’s mind as she watched the movie for probably the tenth time. She glanced over at Harper, who wiped away a tear when she saw a little blonde-haired girl in the movie.

“Men!” Tawny said. “Can’t trust them.”

“Then why’d you put up such a fuss today over Marcus?” Dana asked.

“I did have a little attraction. But it was more about you trying to run my life like my mother does than fighting for a guy I’d only met a few minutes before. I’d go out with him if he asked me whether you like it or not,” Tawny answered.

“Yuck! You can do better,” Brook piped up from the floor. “He’s not for you, Aunt Tawny. He’s got a cat and he lives with his mama.”

“For real?” Tawny’s face screwed up in disbelief.

“Yep, he’s always talkin’ about his mama’s cookin’ and how if he’s gone for a day or two, the cat is fine, but if his mama is gone for a day, it pouts. He talks about his mama like she’s got a halo,” Brook said.

“So?” Dana turned to look at Tawny.

Tawny shrugged. “Not a thing to worry about. I’m just a sucker for blue eyes.”

Me too, Dana thought as a picture of Payton’s eyes flashed through her mind.

“Well, Annie, we made a little progress today,” Zed said as he put stuffed bunny rabbits in four Easter baskets. “They actually looked out for Tawny when Marcus Green came to stay a couple of days in a cabin. You remember his mama bringing him to the café when he was a baby? I’d never seen such a mama’s boy and he didn’t outgrow it, neither. I was glad when Dana and Harper took a stand together. What’s it called these days? Oh, yeah, an intervention. I hope they opened up her eyes a little and she don’t get involved with him, or I’ll have to do something about it. Can’t have one of our girls livin’ with that miserable mother of his, and I sure don’t see him ever moving out away from here.”

He stuck a chocolate bunny in each basket. “What do you think, Annie? I wish you were here to help me get the baskets all ready. We had such fun doing this when they were little girls.”

He stopped, removed a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped his eyes. “We had good years together, didn’t we? Raisin’ the girls up to be teenagers, and we even kind of had the empty nest thing when they didn’t come around so often anymore. Yep, we had us a good life, and if you was here, then they wouldn’t be. It don’t make it no easier to take.”

He finished up the job and sat down in his recliner. “Just look at ’em, Annie. You think they’ll be surprised?” He cocked his ear toward her empty chair. “I’m glad that you think they’re pretty. I just hope the girls like them.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Zed could hardly contain his excitement on Sunday morning. He awoke before five o’clock and lined the Easter baskets up in front of the chairs. “Just look at them, Annie. It’s been years since we got to make baskets for the girls. Pink is for Brook. She was wearing a pretty pink dress the first time Dana brought her to see us. I wonder what her daddy was like. I smell a rat in Dana’s story, but she’ll come around with what really happened one of these days.”

It took two trips to get the baskets from his quarters at the back of the store to the café. Harper always arrived first, so he put the one with a pretty little red stuffed bunny toward the front. He made coffee and fidgeted, eager for them to get there so he could see their faces. Annie would want to know every detail. At the end of her life when she couldn’t remember very well, she’d beg him to tell her stories about the girls. Some days he’d kneel in front of her and repeat the same things he’d told her the day before. When she laughed, the clouds parted and he could swear that the angels in heaven were sweepin’ the floors and gettin’ ready for her.

He couldn’t be still another minute, so he pulled on a jacket and went outside to sit on the bench. Harper’s light was on, so she would be there in a few minutes. He lit up a cigarette and shook his head slowly. “I know, darlin’, but it’s too late to quit now, and besides, if I had ten more years, I’d spend them miserable without you, so don’t fuss at me. Aha! I believe that’s Wyatt’s truck.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And he’s leavin’ something on the porch. Well, now, that’s a step in the right direction, ain’t it?”