Page 21 of Changing Tides

“Yes. Can you help your grandfather hang the tire swing in the front yard while I get the rug and beanbag chair I bought for this?”

“Rug and chair?” I ask.

“Yes, it will be the perfect place for a little girl to hide away and read or color.”

She’s really going out of her way to accommodate this tenant and her daughter.

“You always did want a granddaughter of your own, didn’t you?” I ask.

She reaches up and pats my cheek.

“I was quite content with you boys, but I must admit, I’m looking forward to some pretty, frilly, girlie things around here for a while.”

Nana’s hand comes up, and she waves. I glance over my shoulder to see a blonde head step back behind the curtains.

It wasn’t my imagination.

I turn back to Nana. “I think I make your new houseguest nervous,” I say, and she laughs.

“My goodness, if that head of yours gets any bigger, it won’t fit through my front door.”

“It’s not my fault you and Gramps gave me such outstanding genes,” I quip as I wink at her.

She slaps me away, but there is genuine pride in her expression as a blush kisses her cheeks.

“Oh, you devil,” she mutters.

Gramps stomps up, hauling a huge tire in a wheelbarrow. A length of rope is wrapped around his shoulder.

My hero.

The man is a machine. In his mid-seventies and still tossing tractor tires around like a twenty-year-old.

“Enough yapping, you two. We’re burning daylight,” he snaps as he passes us.

Nana halts him and gives him a peck on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she says, and his eyes flicker to her and soften.

“You can thank me with shrimp and grits for dinner, woman.”

“And a blueberry cobbler for dessert,” I add.

She smiles. “You two are so easy to bribe.”

She doesn’t have to bribe us, and she knows it. We’re both pushovers when it comes to her. There’s nothing either of us won’t do to make her happy.

Gramps mumbles something under his breath and continues to the magnificent oak tree, draped with moss, that stands to the right of the walkway that leads from the street up to the house.

“I’ll grab the ladder,” I call to him.

Avie

“Mommy! Mommy!”

At the sound of Leia’s voice, I sprint from the kitchen to the front door and throw it open.

“Hi, baby,” I call as she comes flying up the walkway to where I’m standing on the step.

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