Page 48 of The Party Line

“Hey.” Connor startled me when he called out from my back porch. “Anyone want to go into Poteet for a burger?”

Jasper shook his head. “Not me. I just ate a double dip of chocolate-almond ice cream, one for each time they stuck me with a needle the size of a tenpenny nail. I’m going to make myself a cup of good strong coffee and call it a night.”

“Not until you get your first dose of medicine,” I told him.

“Let’s start that in the morning,” he said as he carefully made it up the steps to his porch.

“We will start it as soon as I get in the house and read all the instructions,” I fired back at him.

“If you’d had some ice cream, you might not be so bossy,” he complained. “Don’t take all night. I’m ready to settle back in my recliner and sleep through a Western movie or two.”

“Is he sick?” Connor whispered when I was on the porch.

“Very.” I opened the back door. “Come on in. I’ll sort his medicine and take his first dose out to him. He’s got that upper respiratory stuffthat seems to be going around right now. At his age, it can be pretty bad. He’s got to go to his primary in two weeks when he finishes all this stuff.” I held up a paper bag. “And he says the only time he was ever at a doctor was when he went into the army and then when he had to get his head stitched. That would have been in”—I stopped and did the math in my head—“around 1947, and he hasn’t seen a doctor since then.”

Connor followed me inside. “I can ask Grandpa what local doctor he uses. He fussed going when Granny was alive, and he still does. But Granny made him go every six months for blood work and a visit, and he hates needles, too.”

I pulled out a chair, sat down at the table, and poured out several bottles of pills and an inhaler with a sigh. “The next two weeks are not going to be fun.”

“Nope, but I can help any way you need me to,” Connor offered. “Did Gracie have any of those pill things that has the day of the week printed on them?”

“Yes, she did, and I almost threw them away.” I got up and rustled through the junk drawer to the left of the sink, found a couple of pill organizers, and took them back to the table. “This one holds a week’s worth of pills, four times a day.”

“Looks like that’s what you need, from what I’m reading on these labels,” Connor said. “Are you going to let him be responsible for taking—”

I butted in before he could finish. “Nope. He’ll throw this thing in a drawer and put the inhaler in the trash. I’ll go out there four times a day to make sure he’s doing what he’s supposed to do.” I popped open all the lids and started loading the sections with pills. Maybe I’d keep the pill stash at my house, just in case.

Connor pulled his phone from his pocket, then shook his head and put it back. “Is there a restaurant that delivers around here? I’m starving. Grandpa is having a steak dinner with some of his old cronies.”

“I have no idea, and I’m not a gourmet,” I said as I finished my job. “But I can make a mean omelet and the fluffiest pancakes you’llever eat. Give me five minutes to take these out to Jasper, and I’ll make both of us some supper.”

“I thought you ate ice cream,” Connor said.

“Jasper did, but it’s way too messy for me to try to eat when I’m driving, so I’m pretty hungry, too.”

The corners of Connor’s mouth turned up, and his eyes sparkled. “I usually get breakfast the morning after, not the night before.”

I put on my most innocent expression. “After what?”

“More than kisses,” he said without hesitation.

“And how many after-breakfasts have you had?”

“More than four, less than a dozen,” he answered. “How many guys have made you breakfast the morning after?”

“More than one, less than three.” I poured that evening’s pills into a small glass so all Jasper would have to do was throw them back. “I’m going out to Jasper’s. Be back in a few minutes. Are you interested in just breakfast, not before or after more-than-kisses but merely food?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a wide grin.

As I crossed the lawn out to Jasper’s house, I could almost hear Aunt Gracie saying she was glad I had come back to Ditto. “You are welcome,” I said under my breath. “I love him like a grandpa, but you sure put up with a lot out of that old codger.”

I rapped on the door and went inside without waiting for Jasper to invite me in. He was sitting in his recliner with a cup of black coffee in his hands. “Run, Sassy, run. The bossy woman is here. Women like her are the reason this smart man never married. They take over your life whether you like it or not.”

Sassy looked up at me with her crystal-clear blue eyes, and I swear the pup smiled.

“And we keep you alive,” I smarted off. “Gracie left the job to me, so blame her for all this, not me.”

He shot a dirty sideways look at me and then peeked into the glass, shook it around, and declared, “What are you giving me? I ain’t takin’ no green pills.”

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