Page 83 of The Party Line

I handed him his pills and he swallowed them with a sip of tea. “How do you know all that?”

“I don’t for sure, but I’m speaking from experience. I loved one woman in my life, but there were others that I was drawn to,” he admitted.

“Was it Gracie?” I asked.

“Yep, but she was in love with Davis from the time we were babies. There was something indescribable between them. I couldn’t have her, so I was quiet about my feelings. But I’ve had what you kids call ‘flings’ through the years with others. They were loves of the mind and body, not of the heart. Which one is Connor?”

The question caught me so much by surprise that for a minute I couldn’t form a single thought to answer his question. Finally, I said, “The heart.”

“Good, then it will last. Connor should be here soon. You go on and get freshened up to see him. Don’t drag your feet and let a good thing slip through your fingers,” Jasper said.

I kissed him on the forehead. “Connor and Everett have something they have to take care of in San Antonio. Dinner with some oil executives. He won’t be by tonight, but he promised that we’d go out tomorrow evening for burgers. See you at nine.”

“I’ll be right here or else in the house. Sassy likes to watch shows with me in the evenings, so we go on inside pretty early. Thanks again for bringing her to me. She sure is a lot of company,” Jasper said.

“I’m glad,” I told him as I headed out across the yard, with intentions of going over the books for the estate.

On Wednesday morning, I was awakened by my mother’s voice. “Lila, are you awake?”

In my half-asleep state, I figured I had butt-dialed her again, and I checked under the sheets for a few seconds before I heard actual footsteps on the stairs. She eased open the door and peeked inside. Wide eyed, I glanced over at the pillow with Connor’s head indention still on it and shoved it off onto the floor. I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.

She picked up the pillow, laid it back where it belonged, and gave me a quick hug. Then she sat down in the wooden rocking chair at the end of the bed. “Annie and I got a little homesick and came home late last night. Something has changed in this place, Lila. That eerie feeling is gone. What happened? Did you burn white sage or something while I was away?”

“Ghosts want someone to release them to go rest in peace,” I told her. “Gina Lou and I’ve been cleaning out the place, and we tossed everything that might have had a lingering spirit in the trash. Plus, I’ve been filling the place up with love.”

“Connor?” she asked and sniffed the air. “He’s spent time in this room. I can smell his cologne.”

“Yes, Connor, and yes, he has been in this room.”

“Does it look like there might be a future?” she asked.

I smiled. “Yes, ma’am. But he hasn’t spent the night. We’re taking it slow.”

“You look happy,” she said.

“I am, Mama. Do you and Annie want to help me make wine? It would be a great part-time job for y’all.”

“Maybe so,” she said with a smile. “I’ll talk to Annie about it. We’ve got plans for some more traveling, but we’ll have until next spring to make up our minds, right?”

I threw back the covers, got out of bed, and gave her another hug. “Absolutely. Now, I’m going to take a quick shower, and then we’ll go have some breakfast. Gina Lou will have it ready by then. She’s been wonderful. I’ll miss her in the fall, and we’ll talk about that while we eat.”

“Good mornin’,” Gina Lou called out as she walked past the open door. “Hello, Sarah! Good to see that you are back home.”

“Glad to be here,” Mama said.

The smell of coffee and the buzz of conversation reached me when I left the bathroom. Mama’s voice was higher pitched, and the Texas accent was stronger than Gina Lou’s. I stood in the shadows outside the kitchen and listened to Mama talk about her trip. Excitement oozed with every word, and I was so glad she had made so many good memories.

“Hey, why didn’t you wait for me?” I asked as I entered the room and went straight for the coffeepot.

“I don’t mind telling my stories over and over again,” Mama declared, and went straight into describing the Hank Williams Museum again. “Aunt Gracie loved him so much. She said when he died she was twenty-three years old, and she cried for a week. I wished that she could have been there to see his car and watch the old reels of him when he played on the Grand Ole Opry stage.”

I sat down beside her and covered her hand with mine. “Remember what you told me about going to the beach so she could see it through your eyes? Well, I reckon she saw the museum through you as well. She would be so happy that you are going places she wanted to see and that the mother and daughter bond y’all had lets her visit them, too.”

Mama swiped her wet cheeks with a paper napkin. “Maybe that’s why the weird aura in this house is gone. She is getting to do some things that she never did through me.”

“Probably so,” I said.

Gina Lou grabbed a napkin and dabbed at her eyes. “That is a beautiful thing.”

---