Love Me ~ Like That (5 page)

Once I finish the dishes and get a load of laundry going, Granny takes all of her medicine and hands me Papa’s. Here goes World War III. “Papa, it’s time for your medicine.” I tell him, trying to sound assertive.

He shakes his head and pretends to sleep.

“Come on, don’t you want to sit outside on the porch while it’s pretty? You can watch the squirrels and birds.”

He holds out his hand. I give him a couple of pills and his glass of water. He acts like he puts the medicine in his mouth then smiles up at me like the cat who ate the canary.

“Open your hand, please.” I stand here tapping my toe on the floor waiting for this game to be over.

He shakes his head and looks away. “I don’t need any medicine, I feel fine.”

“I would be glad to take you to go see the doctor. We can talk to him about getting you off some of these pills.”

Papa crosses his arms, “All you want to do is keep me drugged up.”

“I know you don’t like them. I don’t like medicine either. Let’s make a deal. You go ahead and take these, and we’ll talk about getting your dosages cut down on your next visit to his office.”

He pops the pills into his mouth then opens so I can see he actually swallowed them. We started this when I caught him spitting them out in the garbage. I give him the last few pills and watch him take them. I wait for him to open his mouth. When he does, he sticks out his tongue.

“Are you wanting to be funny today, Papa?” I say teasingly. I can see by these shenanigans, he is going to give me a hard time today, “Do you want to sit on the porch a while?” If I sit him on the porch, will I be able to keep an eye on him and do the flowers?

He nods to me. Since he isn’t speaking, I wonder if he is upset with me. I did lose my patience with him last night. “Papa, I’m sorry I got upset with you last night. I was so tired and hadn’t been asleep very long.” He looks confused.

“What do you mean?” he asks. “What did we do last night?”

He has already forgotten about last night. “Oh, you beat me at checkers.” I turn to Granny, “Do you want to sit outside while it’s pleasant?” I hope she will so I’ll have an easier time keeping an eye on him.

“I think I will.”

She gets her walker while I hand Papa his cane then I help them to the porch. The smell of fresh cut grass tickles my nose and makes me sneeze.

“Bless you, baby,” Granny says a little breathlessly.

She has been getting out of breath easily over the last few days.

When they are seated in their rockers, I go back inside to get them glasses of ice water, the baby monitor, and the cordless phone for Granny. She can’t miss a call. I keep my phone in my back pocket so Papa doesn’t hide it.

The sun is already high in the sky, and beating down on me, making sweat drip from my nose. With the early start I’ve gotten though, I’ll have the whole afternoon to cool down before I head out tonight.

The Jacksons come out on their front porch and sit in these big white rocking chairs, which swallow them whole. The chairs are placed side by side with little white tables on either side of them. The chairs look as weathered as their owners who slowly rock in unison. Mr. Jackson reaches over and takes his wife’s hand. The owners of Hallmark could make a bundle from this view.

Hugh Hefner would probably make the most of the other view, though. The girl coming down the porch steps must be their granddaughter. She would be smokin’ if she wasn’t jailbait. She can’t be over sixteen. Her jeans shorts leave little to the imagination. The denim hugs her ass just right, making those some sweet cheeks to lick. Shit, Cash, she’s just a little girl. But that little girl needs to go inside and put some clothes on and quit prancing around out here. It’s not right for her tits to be that large, and the rest of her to be so miniature. If she were my little sister, I wouldn’t let her out of the house dressed like that.

Sweet Baby Jesus. She bent over. I need to do another lap…for the tractor, so it can cool down before I turn it off. That’s logical. No. I need to get my ass across the road before I do something stupid like flirt with a minor. I don’t have any time in my life for stupid crap. Just go across the road, Cash.

I pull up beside the little country house to tell the Jacksons I’m done and I’ll be over to do it again. So I can catch a peek of their granddaughter again.
Damn it, Cash! What is wrong with you?
I hop off the tractor and onto the porch, and Mrs. Jackson’s eyes light up. “Cash, we can’t thank you enough for helping us out.”

“It wasn’t any problem, Mrs. Jackson. Let me know if you guys need anything else done over here. I’m pretty handy.”

“I want you to meet my granddaughter, Bailey, if I can ever get her to look this way.” She gives me a smile.

“There’s always next time, I’ll be across the road from here on out.” I’m about to leave, but I notice the girl is at the edge of the flowerbed now, and I can’t seem to make myself leave. I need to get laid worse than I thought if I’m lusting over an underage chick with big boobs. Maybe she’s seventeen? Would that make ogling her any better? Hell, she’d still be jailbait. I need to get my ass out of here.

As I come out of the shed, I mentally checklist all my tools. I’ve got my gloves and all the pruning tools I’ll need for the rose bushes. The flowerbed mostly requires a good weeding.

Walking over to the flowerbed, I see why Granny loves her roses. They are beautiful and poetic from the tiniest bud to the fullest bloom. I remember being a little girl and following right behind Granny while she worked in her roses. The thorns never bothered her. I asked her once if they hurt her. She said, “Roses teach us to love with our whole heart, Bailey.”

She snipped off the smallest white bud and handed it to me to smell. I loved smelling her roses. I would come out and give each one their own sniff while she laughed at me. I didn’t understand why roses taught us to love at all. That was just silly to me, and must have been written on my young face. “Roses teach you that nothing is perfect in this world. To love someone, you love the whole person. The beautiful part of that person and the parts that have the thorns.”

I looked at her all serious as I hung on her every word. “Granny, do I have thorns?”

She smiled at me, and scooped me into this big hug. She kissed my nose and shook her head. “Bailey, I believe you are the closest thing to perfect I’ve ever seen.”

I beamed at her. I loved my granny. She always made me feel special, like all grandmothers do, I guess. We made matching bonnets to wear while we worked on the roses, but she helped me with mine. She gave me my own little plastic tools that I made a mess with while she worked.

I look toward the porch to make sure Papa is still in his rocking chair and see someone talking to Papa and Granny. He must be the neighbor’s son. I’m a hot mess this morning so I’m going to introduce myself some other time when I’m cleaned up and presentable.

I weed the edge of the flowerbed and hope I’m not noticed. I can’t see his face well enough to discern his features, but hot damn, that body! He lifts his shirt to wipe his forehead and I catch a glimpse of a chiseled torso. Bodies like his only exist in the books I read. Good Lord! Who moved across the street, Channing Tatum?

A thought dawns on me. I have the baby monitor so I turn it on.

“The yard looks so nice. You even edged everything and did the weed-eating. I would like to give you something for mowing the yard. Are you sure you won’t take any money? Bailey does a good job, but she does so much for us already.”

By the way Granny is talking, I think she’s in love.

“Would you like some tea or water? Why don’t you sit down here a minute and cool off?”

I bet she was a big flirt back in her day.

“Mrs. Jackson, I would love to stay and chat with the two of you but I have my own yard to get to. How about I come over for that glass of tea and sit out here another day?”

That deep voice with its thick drawl probably has panties dropping everywhere. A sexy southern accent laced with charm on a man, um that is hot. Makes me want to butter my butt and give it to him as a biscuit. When he gets on his small John Deere tractor and heads back across the street, I do hate to see him go. He is great eye candy. I guess I’ll be spending more time outside from now on so I can let my eyes feast on him. Good thing that kind of candy is fat free.

I work another hour in the flowerbed pruning the dead buds off the bushes. Tonight, I’ll turn on the sprinklers to give them a good watering. After I put away all my stuff, I help get Papa into the house then shower before I make them some lunch. I don’t have the time for my long luxurious baths much anymore. Between housework, taking care of Papa and Granny and my social life, I barely have time to get my real job done. At least I can work from home, and the pay is enough to make my car payment, pay insurance, and give me a little spending money. Granny is always giving me five or ten dollars here and there for gas when I run errands for them. I tell her I don’t need the cash, but she says she knows how much money I make.

After I make their lunch, we all sit at the table to eat and chat. “I still have a lot of work to do in that flowerbed to get it back in shape for you, Granny.”

Granny smiles. She has different smiles. If you know her well enough and you pay attention, they will tell you what she is thinking. This smile says she’s about to pull something over on me.

“I invited our new neighbors, the Wilsons, to our picnic. That boy is so sweet, Bailey. Why didn’t you come over and say hello?”

She is a sly one, but I’m on to her. “Granny, you know I’m dating Hendrix. Besides, I looked like something the cat drug in. You know I can’t meet anybody looking like that.”

“Bailey, it shouldn’t have mattered how you looked if you weren’t interested in him.” She quirks an eyebrow and tries not to smile.

To know Granny is to love her.

Her cordless phone rings.
I’m saved
.

“Hello? Why haven’t you called me?” She chuckles.

She asks that any time somebody in the family is on the other end. They could have called her just a couple of hours ago, but that would be too long for her. Nothing would please her more than to have all of her kids with her twenty-four seven. Now me, it would drive me crazy.