He reached across the cooler and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. The tingling sensation started at her earlobe and went all the way to her toes. “I make this meal and a real mean bologna-and-cheese sandwich. That’s the extent of my culinary skills. Oh, and I can whip up an omelet that’ll take the edge off a hungry lady, but that’s it. You cook?”

“Very little,” she answered truthfully. “But I can make a frozen pizza in the microwave without burning it, and I bet my bologna sandwich can beat yours.”

“We’ll have to have a contest sometime,” he said.

“And the winner gets?”

He wiggled his dark eyebrows. “Anything they want.”

Millions of stars dotted the sky around a quarter moon that Sunday night as Zed took up his regular place on the bench to smoke a final cigarette of the day. His chest felt heavy that evening, as if there was even a bigger brick sitting on it than usual. He attributed it to the weather getting warmer. Summer had not been his friend since the doctor put a name to his ailment—congestive heart failure. Of course he had congestion. He’d smoked for more than fifty years and his lungs were probably the color of Dana’s fire pit after a marshmallow roast. Heart failure—he didn’t doubt that one bit. Since Annie had passed on, he often wondered how it had the strength to keep beating.

He heard Tawny’s tinkling laughter long before he saw two silhouettes walking so close together that they looked like one. “She’s happy, Annie. Our baby girl has found her place. She had to do that before she could get into any kind of relationship.”

Nick walked her to the door, lingering long enough to give her a few kisses before he brought her hand to his lips and kissed the palm. She went inside, but in only a few minutes she came back out and sank down in the chair.

Zed put his hand in his pocket to be sure the ring was still there and rose to his feet with a groan. He was almost to her porch when she noticed him. She jumped up and motioned for him to sit in her chair. “Uncle Zed, I’m so glad you’re out for a smoke. I feel like I’m floating on the clouds right now. Nick cooked steaks, and we talked and talked. I’ll go out with him again.”

“He’s a good boy,” Zed said. “Comes from good, sturdy stock.”

“I don’t deserve all this,” she sighed.

“Don’t you waste a single minute feelin’ like that. If we got what we deserve in life, we’d all be paupers,” he told her. “I’ve given the other girls a little something.”

“I know. Harper cried when she told me about the recipe book. She’s come a long way, hasn’t she, Uncle Zed?”

He nodded and fished the ring from his pocket. “You all have, and here’s what I want you to have.”

“You don’t have to give me anything. You being here with us is a gift from the angels,” she said.

He reached out his hand and opened it up to reveal a small band in his palm. “This is made from a nickel. My daddy didn’t have the money to buy my mama a real wedding ring when they first got married, so he melted down a nickel and fashioned this ring to put on her finger when they went to the courthouse that day.”

“I can’t take that, Uncle Zed. It’s too priceless.”

He picked up her hand and slid it on the third finger of her right hand. “It’s still got a lot of wear in it, and when you look at it, you think of an old couple that was in love their whole married life.” It fit perfectly and before he withdrew his hand two big teardrops had already christened it. “Don’t cry. Be happy.”

“They’re tears of joy, Uncle Zed. I am happy, and I think it may be for the first time in my life,” she said.

“Some folks never find joy or happiness. You are a blessed child.”

She knelt in front of him and put her head on his knee. “Yes, I am, Uncle Zed. I’m so blessed lately that I think I’m dreaming.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Harper awoke with the tinkling piano of the first part of Bette Midler’s “The Rose” running through her head that Monday morning. Dark clouds drifted over the moon and a coyote howled in the distance, but nothing was going to spoil her day. For the first time ever, she beat Zed to the café. She turned on the lights, reset the thermostat, and started the coffee brewing before she turned on his radio in the kitchen. She smiled when Conway Twitty started singing his rendition of “The Rose.”

She pulled up the old wooden stool and listened to the whole song, nodding about love being a flower. “Yes, Wyatt, our love is all of what he’s saying,” she whispered.

Tawny poked her head into the service window about the time the song ended. “Where’s Uncle Zed? Look at what he gave me last night.” She held out her hand. “It was his mother’s wedding ring. I can’t believe he’s trusting me with it. I’m going to cherish it forever. He’s given us all . . .” She stopped and clamped her hand over her mouth.

“Oh, no!” Harper felt the world drop out from under her, and she had to grab the worktable to keep from falling.

“He has to be sick. I told y’all he was losing weight and coughing more. Come on. Let’s go see about him.”

Dana came in through the kitchen door. Her face was absolutely gray, and tears were dripping off her cheekbones. Brook was weeping behind her, and Harper knew without even asking. She dropped to her knees and put her head in her hands.