They both turned to see Merritt standing in the kitchen doorway. She wore another shapeless skirt that was too long for her, and a beige blouse that did nothing for her coloring. Her beautiful dark hair was scraped off her face into a low ponytail, and her face was bare of any makeup. Her skin was pale but perfect, and Loralee itched to sit her down and put some color on her lips and cheeks. She didn’t even have earrings in her earlobes, leaving Loralee to wonder whether she didn’t have her ears pierced, or maybe there wasn’t a mirror in her bedroom and she hadn’t noticed that she’d forgotten to accessorize.
Loralee pulled out a chair across from Owen. “I’m making breakfast—eggs, bacon, toast, and I’ve got blueberries just in case you have a hankering for blueberry pancakes.”
Her stepdaughter looked as if she would refuse the chair until she saw Owen’s hopeful expression. She sat down on the edge of the chair as if she didn’t plan to be there for very long, and said, “Just coffee, please. I usually don’t eat breakfast.”
Loralee walked over to the old percolator and poured steaming coffee into a chipped china cup before bringing it over to the table. “But breakfast is the most important meal of the day. My mama . . .” She stopped when she saw the look on Merritt’s face. “Cream or sugar?” she asked instead.
“Just black,” Merritt said, then added, “Thank you,” as if remembering her manners. She blew across the top of her cup and took a sip, looking up at Loralee as she did so. “So, what’s this about looking for schools? You’ve been here less than a day. I’m sure there are other places you should consider before making a decision.”
Loralee turned her back to the table and cracked two eggs in the skillet. “Yes, well, schools will be a big part of our decision. We figured that while we’re here we should go ahead and check out the public and private schools. Owen’s been homeschooled for the last year but wants to get back into what he calls ‘real’ school again.”
“Mama, I’m going by Rocky now, remember?”
She adjusted the heat under the pan. “If that’s what you want everybody to call you once you’re in school, that’s fine. But to me you’ll always be Owen, all right? It would be like me suddenly asking you to call me Daisy instead of Mama.”
Owen laughed, making Loralee smile.
Merritt said, “I set my alarm so I could get up and come down here and mop up the rest of the milk I spilled last night, but for some reason it didn’t go off.”
Loralee flipped the eggs, the melted butter crackling in protest. “I turned it off because you wouldn’t wake up, so I let you sleep, seeing as how you probably needed it after your long drive. And that nice-looking doctor called and said he’d be here at ten with Mr. Williams.”
“You what?”
Loralee turned around at the sound of a kitchen chair being scraped on the floor as Merritt shot to her feet. “What time is it now?”
“It’s nine forty-five. And I already mopped the floor, and I made some cookies for the doctor when he gets here—”
Merritt cut her off. “There will be no entertaining him, all right? The man doesn’t like me very much, and I don’t think my opinion of him is much better. He’s coming over to decide what he wants to take from his childhood home, and then he’s leaving. And hopefully that will be the last time we need to see each other.”
Loralee slid the eggs, bacon, and toast onto a plate and turned to set it on the table. “Well, you’ll need your energy if you’re going to tussle with him, so you might as well sit down and eat. I’ll be happy to answer the door when they get here.”
Merritt stared at her for a long moment before slowly sitting down again. She looked at her plate suspiciously. “It’s smiling at me,” she said, her voice not amused.
“Just go with it,” Owen said, putting a forkful of eggs in his mouth.
Loralee dropped the pan in the sink and began to run the hot water.
“Aren’t you going to eat, Mama?” Owen asked.
“I already did,” she said, adding one more lie to the list. “And don’t talk with your mouth full.” She turned the faucet as far as it would go, but only a lukewarm drip of water rewarded her efforts. “I think you’re going to need a plumber, Merritt. Unless you like cold showers and greasy plates. I could ask one of the neighbors for a recommendation when we go over to introduce ourselves. . . .”
Merritt coughed and Loralee looked over her shoulder in time to see coffee sloshing over Merritt’s cup as she roughly set it down on the table. “Excuse me? Even if I thought that knocking on a stranger’s door unannounced were something expected here, I can’t imagine why you’d be accompanying me.”
“So they could meet Owen,” Loralee said, squeezing dishwashing soap onto the new sponge they’d bought the night before. “Since he’s family and all.”