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GRANDMA’S EYES LIFTED toward Joseph, and I could see her measuring him up. “Jamie’s told me a lot about you, Joseph.”
He took her outstretched hand, sandwiching hers between both of his in a gentle grasp. “All good things, I hope.”
He gave her that charming boy-next-door smile, and I knew Grandma was as taken with him as I’d been the first day I met him. Lucky for Grandma, though, he was fully dressed. I imagined she’d have suffered cardiac arrest, if she’d seen him wearing nothing but a towel and a smile.
I looked down and saw she had yet to let go of Joseph’s hand. He didn’t seem to mind and kept the conversation going.
“You have a lovely home here, ma’am. So much character and warmth. I feel right at home.”
I couldn’t agree more. Inside was an eclectic combination of mahogany hardwood floors, high ceilings, and decorative crown molding. Each inner door was solid wood and arched, complete with crystal knobs and skeleton keys, a veritable old-world fantasy realm for the young at heart.
Grandmother blushed at his compliment. “Well, I do try to keep things tidy. A clean house is a happy house, I always say.” She patted his hand with as much fervor as her arthritic hands could handle. “Come, sit down. How about some coffee?”
“I would love to, ma’am, but I have some work to do on my sister’s farm in Lexington.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” Grandma’s puckered her lips in disappointment.
I touched her arm. “I’m going to stay though.”
“Yes, Jamie’s going to stay here with you while I finish up, and then later this evening, I’d love to take you both out to dinner.”
Joseph’s voice was deep and soothing. Grandma stood there staring at him as if he was the second coming. He gave her hand—still tucked in his—a little squeeze. “It would be an honor.”
A small nervous laugh came out of my blushing grandmother as her hand came to rest on her bosom. “Oh, how sweet of you, dear.” She looked at me and spoke out of the side of her mouth. “Hang on to this one, child. He’s a keeper.”
Joseph leaned toward my grandmother and looked right at me. “I keep trying to tell her that, but you know Jamie. She’s hard to convince.”
She winked at him in the most flirtatious way. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“That’s most generous of you, ma’am.”
“Please,” Grandma insisted. “Call me Rose.”
I stood astounded at the way my grandmother gushed over Joseph. She’d always been a good judge of character, so I derived from her blatant swooning that I had nothing to worry about where Joseph was concerned. This was good. Very good.
“All right, dear, you shuffle off to your sister’s and get your work finished and Jamie and I will catch up over coffee.” She finally let go of his hand, but I could tell she would have rather not. “Do you have a hat? You need a hat, Joseph. It’s cold out there.”
I smiled as she fretted over him. As a child, it was the one thing she fussed about whenever we went outside—to make sure we wore a hat over our ears and never sat on the ground with an “R” in the month. Her blood thinner medication made her cold all the time now, so her nagging about dressing warmly had escalated, even in mild temperatures.
Joseph reassured her he had one in the truck and would put it on just for her. I was grateful he went the extra mile to ease her mind. I supposed he learned how to with a house full of women.
He reached for my hand and pulled me toward the door. “I’ll be back to pick you gals up around five-thirty.” He hugged me and whispered in my ear. “How’d I do?”
I gave him a huge smile and replied to him in code. “Five-thirty is perfect. I couldn’t ask for a better time.”
“Actually, five would be better,” Grandma interjected, “if we want to beat the Saturday night dinner crowd.”
Joseph gave me smile, knowing my grandmother didn’t comprehend my cryptic message. “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”
“Rose,” she corrected, shooing him out the door. “And don’t forget that hat.”
I watched Joseph jog down the steps with a skip to his swagger. Grandmother also watched him like a hawk, and I had to smile at her overzealous behavior. When he reached his truck, he opened the back door, pulled out an old knit cap and held it up for Grandma’s sake before pulling it over his head. I confess I didn’t believe he had a cap in his truck, but I enjoyed the fact that his promise wasn’t just a bunch of mollifying gibberish.
Joseph was definitely a keeper.
As he climbed in the cab and pulled away, my grandmother closed the door with a satisfied look on her face. “He’s a nice boy.”
It cracked me up that she referred to Joseph, a grown man in his thirties, as a boy. “Yes, he is.”
“That’s a big truck he’s got. Will we be going to dinner in that?”
I realized she was probably worried over the high climb. “I’ll help you get up in there.”
She scoffed. “All one hundred pounds of you? I’d like to see that. But I’m betting your Joseph can hoist me up. A working man always has a strong back.” She shook her head as she shuffled down the hall to the kitchen. “He’s going to need it.”
I followed her, eager to have coffee with my Grandma. “We’ll get you in safe and sound.”
“I’m not so worried about getting in as I am falling out. I don’t need a broken hip.”
I patted her gently on the shoulder. “Joseph won’t let you fall.”
“Speaking of falling,” she added, “I can see why you’re so taken with him. He’s quite the looker.”
There was that outdated vernacular again. “Yeah, he’s a good looking man. Hard to believe he’s into me.”
“Oh, you shush.” She flapped one hand at me as I retrieved two coffee cups from her kitchen cupboard. “You’re a beautiful young lady and any man would be lucky to court you.”
“You’re family, Grandma. You’re supposed to say that.”
“Pour that coffee and button your lip.”
I obeyed my Grandma, taking particular notice of how slowly she eased into the kitchen chair. “Your arthritis acting up again?”
“This damn weather. I’d be better off living in Florida. You know, your mom and dad are thinking about moving there.”
I recalled their conversation at Thanksgiving. “I heard they already found a condo in Destin. Some gated community thing.”
“That’s what they say....”
I detected a tinge of insinuation in Grandma’s voice. “You thinking about moving there, too?” I kept my eyes on her as I sat down across the table from her. Her lips pursed and her eyes blinked rapidly. She suddenly seemed anxious.
“I’m giving it thought. Like your mom said, it would be good for me. And better for them.”
“Better for them? How?”
“Well, I’m no spring chicken, Jamie. There’s a lot of things I can’t do anymore and it’s only getting worse as time goes on.” She rubbed her hands together, easing the ache in her fingers.
“What do you need done at this house? I can help you. Just tell me. Housework? Vacuuming? I can come down once a week and do all that for you.”
Again she waved me off. “You’re not coming all the way down here and cleaning for me. You’ve got your business, and you don’t need to waste gas money making the drive from Cinci just to scrub my floors. That’s silly.”
“Grandma,” I said, laying my hand over hers. “I wouldn’t mind at all.”
“I know you wouldn’t, dear, but I would. Besides, it’s only a matter of time before this heart stops ticking.”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“Jamie, it’s true. I’m eighty-six years old and it’s bound to happen sooner rather than later. If I moved to Florida with your mom and dad, I wouldn’t be a nuisance for everyone.”
“You’re not a nuisance.”
“I am when the closest family member is two hours away. What would happen if I fell and I couldn’t get to a phone?”
“Okay, so we’ll sign you up for that Life Alert thingy.” My mind was spinning. I could hardly fathom my grandmother living in Florida, and I sure as heck didn’t like the idea of having to fork out airfare every time I wanted to see her. Now that would be silly. Sure, it wasn’t all that convenient from Cinci to Paris, but at least it would be more cost efficient than flying to and from the Gulf Coast. Money aside, there’d be no more ‘just stopping in on a whim,’ if she moved south. I could kiss my close relationship with my grandmother goodbye. I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford a plane ticket every week.
“I’m not plopping money into Life Alert’s pockets. That money belongs to you grandkids and whoever is left taking care of me.”
“Grandma....” All this talk about broken hips, heart attacks, and nursing homes knocked the wind right out of my sails, as Grandma would say.
“And if by some chance I do end up in a nursing home, I need to get out from under this deed. Your grandfather built this house and the last thing I want is to hand it over to the government. They took enough from him in the war.”
“What? You’d sell the house too?”
Grandma lifted her cup to her lips and took a sip. “I can’t move it with me, Jamie. I have to sell it.”
“To who?”
“To whoever the hell wants it.”
I lifted my palms in surprise. “You can’t just sell to anybody.” Recollections of Miranda talking to Joseph about his part of the farm came to mind. “You have to keep it in the family.”
“I’m the last of my siblings, Jamie. And your mother and father at their age don’t want it, and your sister sure as heck doesn’t need another mortgage when she’s got a husband and a good life in D.C.”
“What about me? I’ll buy it.” I said the words before I really thought about what it would take to purchase it.
“Jamie, be realistic. You can’t afford to buy this house when you’ve already put everything into your coffee shop business. That means too much to you to let it go under. I’ll not hear of it.”
I ignored her crooked finger pointing at me. “Actually, Grandma, I have a nice little nest egg saved up because of that business. I could very well buy this house with cash and be just fine.”
“You do that and it’ll piss me off,” Grandma snapped.
I stuffed my laughter down my throat. Hearing my little old grandmother curse sounded comical to my ears—until I really looked at her and realized she was serious. I calmed my voice to a low, soothing tone. “I’m sorry, Grandma. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
The harsh lines of Grandma’s face softened. “I know, honey. But you have to understand how hard it’s been for me to get to this point. In a perfect world, I’d live here until the day the good Lord calls me home, but we both know that’s unrealistic.” Her trembling hands cupped her coffee mug and her eyes stared at the steam rising from the brim. “It’s for the best that I move in with your parents where they can keep an eye on me. Besides, my memory is isn’t what it used to be and some days I can’t remember if I took my medicine or not. Your mother could monitor that for me.”
I couldn’t argue with her there. I’d noticed her memory slipping from time to time, but hated to bring it up. I took a long sip of coffee and let the idea of Grandma moving settle in. Convincing her to stay in Kentucky would only be for my benefit, so I had to try to look at the situation from her perspective.
“Seems your mind is made up, huh?”
Grandma regarded me with a grave look. “It is.”
I took a long look around me. The antique china hutch that displayed all the mismatched dishes and cups Grandma had bought at yard sales, the assorted crocks and metal cooking utensils that sat above her cabinets, the lacey curtains she’d had since her wedding day hanging at every window, hand-made quilts and afghans draped over nearly every chair—they were all things as dear to her as they were to me.
“How are you going to ship all your belongings?”
“I’m not taking anything with me. Just clothes.”
My mouth dropped open a little. I couldn’t speak.
“Jamie, there’s no room for all my stuff. Your mom says the condo’s fully furnished so I won’t have to worry about it.”
“But you love your—”
“They’re just material things. Nothing I can’t live without.”
I heard the catch in her voice and stopped myself from pushing the issue. The last thing I wanted to do was make my dear, sweet grandmother cry—or make me cry in front of her. Inside, I knew how important her things were to her even though she brushed them off as insignificant possessions. I made a mental note to call Mom when I got home and find out if there was a way for her to take some of them. At least, her bed. She loved her sleigh bed, and it was the very reason I’d bought one too.
Grandma cleared her throat and topped off our coffee cups. “So, let’s talk about something else. How’s that apartment of yours? Did you get all settled in?”
I forced a smile and shoved the matter of moving to Florida to the back of my mind. “Yeah, I’m unpacked now and it feels nice to have all that turmoil behind me. I put that quilt you made me on my bed. And the pillow cases you cross-stitched. I love them so much.”
Grandma’s shaky hand came across the table and squeezed mine. The coolness of her touch warmed my heart. Ever since I could remember, she had poor circulation and cold limbs. It was what made her different from my mother, whose hands were warm and strong.
Grandma, despite her limitations, seemed to know me better than anyone. She saw right through my idle chit chat and said, “I love you so much too, Jamie.”
