He still wanted that.
Oh hell. I’m in so much trouble.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
For once iris woke feeling energized and excited.
Business was picking up at the store—twelve orders today—and she was making friends. Even if Hazel was older, she still counted, not to mention Sally, Henry Dale, and Eli. Eh, best not to focus on Eli. He was altogether too sweet and hot for her own peace of mind.
The bathroom was free when she went down, so she took a quick shower and continued to the kitchen in her robe. She could hear Eli and Henry Dale working outside on the front porch, and Sally seemed to be gone already. Iris made toast for breakfast and took it upstairs along with her coffee. Today was overcast, just as yesterday had been, so it was cozy tucked beneath the eaves of the roof as she got to work sketching new designs.
She didn’t break focus until she got a message from Olive, much later in the day.
Olive: Just checking in. You doing okay?
Iris: Probably tough to believe, but I am. What about you?
Olive: I’m not the one who’s recovering from a bombshell.
Iris: That reads like deflection.
Olive: If you must know, I might have…fallen for someone here. But there are barriers.
Iris: Oh. I feel like I should say something pithy like, “All you need is love,” or “Love finds a way,” but those might just be old song titles. Whatever you decide, I’m rooting for you.
Olive: That helps, more than you know.
Iris: I’m glad I didn’t lose you in the family lotto.
Olive: You’ll never lose me.
After the text convo ended, Iris felt warm and fuzzy, but she also realized how stiff she was. I have to get a better chair. That was the first thing she’d spend money on once her store was earning more. Tomorrow, she’d make a few new necklaces since the old ones were almost sold out. Now there’s a problem I couldn’t have imagined, even a month ago.
Iris went downstairs in time to see Eli and Henry Dale hauling in boxes. Wow. I should have expected this. These cartons had been stored at Delphine and Roger’s place since college. There was no correspondence, just a delivery from the freight company. She glared at the boxes and nudged one with her foot, fighting the urge to kick it.
This is my stuff anyway.
“Are you okay?” Eli asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s take these to the basement, I guess. I’ll go through them later. I’ll pay you handsomely in grilled cheese sandwiches?”
“I do enjoy a fine grilled cheese,” Henry Dale said, picking up a box.
Eli followed suit. “As do I.”
With Iris pitching in, it only took four trips to get all her stuff to the cellar. If she hadn’t needed any of this stuff in five years, she should streamline, right? I’ll worry about that later. As promised, she made grilled cheese for everyone and raised the guys a can of creamy tomato soup.
“Thank you, Miz Collins. That was tasty,” Henry Dale said.
She laughed as the men made their way out. “Come back anytime.”
Later that afternoon, Hazel dropped in. The older woman was clad in a blue tracksuit, and she was wearing a ginger cat, like, on her chest, as one would do with a baby. “This is Goliath,” Hazel said, handing over a decorative gift box.
She glanced around with interest, and she smiled over the changes Iris had made. “Love what you’ve done with the place. Oh, and there’s Gertie’s angel collection, completely untouched. You’re a saint! It would mean so much to her, knowing that you didn’t just sell them off piece by piece to various collectors.”
Iris didn’t know what to say. Of course it had occurred to her, but so far, she hadn’t bothered to look into it, so she was being praised for being apathetic and unmotivated. She couldn’t bring herself to set the record straight, not when Hazel was beaming at her.
“You know the way to the kitchen? I’ll make some coffee.”
Iris measured out the ground beans and put them in the filter. This coffeemaker had to be twenty years old, but it still worked fine. Hazel took a seat at the table, admiring the work Henry Dale had done in the kitchen.
“My word, it looks just like it did twenty-five years ago. Gertie always wanted to get quartz counters in here, but then she learned how costly they were, and she decided the butcher block would do.”
“I like the wood,” Iris confessed. “It balances the black and white.”
“That’s what I said!” Hazel opened the box she’d brought and set out a container of corn muffins. Then she produced a jar of dark-red jam tied with a yellow-gingham ribbon. Goliath wriggled in the cat sling and tried to touch everything with curious ginger paws while Hazel gently nudged his pink beans away from the food with the air of one who was practically a professional cat wrangler.
“This looks amazing. Let me make a plate for Eli and Henry Dale, then I’ll be right back to chat.”
It had become common practice for Iris to bring them coffee and a snack. While she wasn’t sure about Eli, Henry Dale absolutely would skip meals, and now that his beloved Walkman was fixed, he’d get lost in the work and the music. Frankly, it was cute as hell to pop out the front door and hear him humming “9 to 5” or some other Dolly hit.
To her surprise, when she returned, Hazel had four cups of coffee ready to go. “I thought they’d probably want a drink to go with those muffins.”
“Thank you! I should feel guilty since you’re a guest, but—”
“Oh, I was here a lot before Gertie passed.” A cloud flickered across Hazel’s determinedly cheerful face. “We were close, you could say. And you still keep the cups and things exactly where she did.”
“Be right back! I promise this’ll be the last interruption.”
This time, Eli met her inside, taking the mugs with a smile so warm that it did things to her insides. Whew. Okay. Take a break. Be cool.
“Thanks. We’ve almost got the stain done. Hopefully the rain holds off for a few more hours.”
“We can dream,” she said airily.
Iris wheeled and practically ran back inside. She was far too aware of him. Maybe the dance lessons hadn’t been so great after all. When she returned to the kitchen, she found Hazel gazing wistfully out the window. From here, she could see into the backyards of the people who lived on the next street. At this time of year, there were covered aboveground pools and grimy playsets, bicycles turned on their sides and basketballs gone wrinkly with exposure.
“Now then, did you honestly want to hear some stories about Gertie, or were you being polite?” Hazel asked.
“I do want to learn more. I remember that I loved visiting her, but I was pretty young, and I’ve forgotten a lot of details. I’d like to feel that I know her better since…”
“Since you’re here, bringing Violet Gables to life again.”
Iris smiled, relieved that Hazel got it. “That’s exactly it.”
“Well, I first met Gertie in summer of 1976. I was twenty and trying to convince my parents that I didn’t want to get married. I wanted to go to college, not secretarial school either. But they said I could either get married or pay my own way, and they didn’t see how I could manage.”