“So go see her. Or better yet, let’s invite them over here for dinner.”

Annie pulled back a little and met her gaze. “Why would you want to do that?”

Jordan smiled. “They can’t be that bad. They need to see you, Annie. To see how beautiful you look. To know that you’re okay. To know that it’s…real.”

Annie stared into Jordan’s dark eyes. “You think I’m beautiful?”

Jordan pulled her close again. “Yes, I think you’re absolutely beautiful.”

Annie closed her eyes, feeling safe and protected. “You don’t think I’m fat?”

Jordan laughed. “Are you going to ask me that every day?”

Annie finally realized how intimate their embrace was, and she untangled herself from Jordan. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Annie let out her breath. “I’m tired. I think I’m going to shower and go to bed early.”

“Okay. I’m going to watch a little TV, I guess. Will that disturb you?”

“No, that’s fine.”

She turned to go, then stopped. She leaned closer to Jordan, kissing her lightly on her cheek. “Thank you for everything, Jordan. I mean that sincerely.”

Jordan simply nodded but didn’t say anything. The look on her face said that she was surprised by Annie’s impromptu kiss.

Annie was surprised as well.



Chapter Twenty-One

Jordan stood at the back door, looking out over the mostly empty store. Annie and Molly were in the center checkout area, chatting. There were only two customers. Even though Annie had told her it would be slow, she still assumed that with this many people in town for the festival, they would be busy.

Yesterday evening, she and Annie had helped Brandon and Steven set up the booth. Brandon had been in charge of the inventory, and he’d come by the store first thing this morning to pick up the T-shirts he’d chosen. Ever since she’d given him the responsibility of closing, Brandon had become much more enthused about his job. Even though he’d always been cordial and friendly, he had much more of an “I care” attitude about him now. If she and Annie were both gone from the store, she had no qualms about putting him in charge.

The bell chimed on the front door, and she absently watched the two customers leave. It was only eleven and the morning had already been endless.

“You bored?”

She smiled and nodded, then joined Annie and Molly. “Seriously, why are we even open today?”

Annie shrugged. “Most all the shops stay open.”

“Do they also have booths at the festival?”

“Some do.”

Jordan looked out the windows to the empty street. Well, empty of foot traffic. Plenty of cars were driving past. Unfortunately they weren’t stopping. They were heading down to the city park where the festival was going on.

“I say at noon we put a sign on the door telling people if they want a T-shirt to find our booth at the festival.”

“I don’t mind staying here,” Molly said. “I wasn’t planning on going to the festival anyway.”

Jordan glanced briefly at Annie, remembering their discussion about Molly from the other night.

“Why don’t you go?” she asked. “I thought it was a big deal.”

Molly fidgeted with the keychain display, rearranging the rings by color. “Just hordes of people there,” she said. “Same thing every year. Same booths, same food, same music.”

“When I was in high school, we’d have a group of friends that would go,” Annie said. “It was fun.”

Molly shrugged.

“You know, if you don’t have anyone to go with, you can hang with me and Annie,” Jordan offered. Then she glanced at Annie. “Unless you’re going with someone else.”

Annie smiled. “I would love to go with you.” She turned to Molly. “How about it?”

Molly looked at them skeptically. “What will we do?”

“Well I, for one, want a corn dog and some funnel cake,” Annie said. “Or maybe a turkey leg.”

Jordan laughed. “I’m not surprised your wish list involves food.”

Annie pretended to be shocked by her statement. “And what exactly is it that you’re trying to say?”

“Nothing. I love a woman who likes to eat,” she said easily. “I’m going to go work on that sign for the door. Why don’t you call Brandon and see if they need anything for the booth?” she suggested.

“Okay. Surely they’re doing a better business than we are.”

* * *

Annie walked between Jordan and Molly. She wasn’t certain which of them looked more uncomfortable. She knew Jordan didn’t like “hordes of people,” as Molly had described the festival, but she looked nearly terrified as they fought through the crowd.

She bumped Jordan’s shoulder lightly. “You okay?”

“Let’s just say, I’d rather be sitting on our deck drinking a cold beer.”

“Does that mean you want to head to the beer tent?”

“Let’s hit the food booths first.”

Annie again bumped her shoulder. “Thank you.”

Jordan laughed but said nothing.

Annie turned to Molly. “Are any of your friends here?”

“Pretty much everybody at school goes,” she said.

Annie took that to mean that she didn’t really have any close friends. She felt sorry for her. She really liked Molly. She was smart and efficient, but she was also a pleasure to talk to. She had none of the adolescent quirks that Jessica still harbored. But she didn’t want to embarrass Molly, so she said nothing else about would-be friends.

They stopped at the first food booth they came to and Annie looked over the menu. It was mostly barbeque and burgers, two things she was not in the mood for. She shook her head at Jordan’s unasked question and they moved on.

“I see corn dogs,” Molly said, pointing to a booth.

“Jackpot,” Annie said. Without thinking, she linked arms with Jordan and pulled her toward the booth. “Do you like them?”

“I couldn’t tell you the last time I had one.”

“But you’re game?”

“Sure. I’ll try it.”

When Jordan fished out money from her pocket, Annie pushed it away. “My treat. Molly? You want one too?”

“Okay.”

They soon had three fat corn dogs covered in mustard, hers more than Molly’s or Jordan’s. She moaned when she took the first bite. Of all things to crave…corn dogs?

“Pretty good,” Jordan said.

Annie nodded. “Okay, this will hold me for a little while. We can hit the beer tent now.”

“Do you know the bands that are playing?” Jordan asked.

Annie shook her head. “Molly? Do you?”

“One is country music, but I don’t know the other one,” she said.

“Do you have an interest in listening?” Annie asked her.

“If you want to,” Molly said. “I’m only tagging along.”

“Jordan?”

Jordan shrugged. “Sure.” She looked around. “Shouldn’t we at least pop over to our booth, though?”

“Let’s get something to drink first,” she said. “And if we pass a booth with turkey legs, let me know.”

They had no luck with turkey legs, but she did manage to snag a funnel cake along the way. Brandon and Staci were at the booth, and she was happy to see they at least had customers. The new design they had on the Fat Larry T-shirts was apparently a good seller, even though at the store Brandon gave them away in record numbers.

“Busy?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah, it’s been good,” Brandon said. “I take it the store was not.”

“We made maybe five sales all morning,” Jordan said.

“Do you need me to work?” Molly offered.

“Jessica is supposed to come at two,” he said. “Staci just got here. I was about to take a break.”

“We can hang around if you want,” Jordan said.

“I think Molly and Staci can handle it,” Annie countered, seeing the relieved look on Molly’s face.

Jordan apparently saw it too. “Okay. Well, let’s go walk around then. Maybe we’ll run into a turkey leg.”

For the next hour, they mingled with the crowd, going from booth to booth. There were a lot of homemade crafts, some local artists selling their paintings, local photographers with prints and several booths offering handcrafted pottery. But it was a display of wood carvings that drew her.

“Come look at this,” she said. “We could carry some of these in the store.”

Jordan picked up a small carving of a pelican and raised her eyebrows. “Not at this price,” she said, showing it to Annie.

“Wow,” Annie whispered.

They moved on, walking in communal silence, commenting from time to time on the different displays. They soon found themselves at the edge of the festival and near the marina.

“Feel like going?” Jordan asked, motioning to the water. “I haven’t been down here in forever.”

“Sure.”

“When my parents first opened the restaurant, we used to come down here all the time to buy shrimp off the boats,” Jordan said.

“And fish?”

“They’d get their fish from Al’s, down in Fulton. I think they still do,” she said.

“If they had the restaurant, why Fat Larry’s?”

Jordan shook her head. “No, the store came first. But my father had always dreamed of owning his own restaurant. He didn’t have the money so his parents helped them out.”

“The ones who built the beach house?”

Jordan nodded. “My mother’s parents were older when they had her. I think in their forties. So when they retired, they moved to Arizona. Growing up, we rarely saw them,” she said.

“Why Arizona?”

“Both of my mother’s siblings lived there. They were older and already had kids when my parents got married. So they went where the grandkids were.”

“So you were never close to them?”

“No. When I think of family, it’s my dad’s parents. But he’s an only child, so cousins and whatnot are all in Arizona still.”

“They came for the funeral, surely,” Annie said.

“No. And we really didn’t expect them to,” Jordan said. “They’d seen Matt maybe three or four times in their lifetime. And my grandparents, they’re both deceased.”

“So you have all this family in Arizona, yet you really only have your mom and dad,” she said.

“Yeah. But that’s how it’s always been.” Jordan glanced at her. “What about you? I know you’re an only child, but what about aunts and uncles?”

“I have an aunt who lives in Corpus. She divorced, never remarried and never had kids,” she said. “She’s my father’s sister, but she doesn’t come around much. Thanksgiving and Christmas, that’s about it. My mother’s brother lives in Houston. He’s married with four kids, but they’re all younger than me. He’s ten years younger than my mother.”

“So no close relatives for you either?”

“No. Just my parents really.” She was feeling sad again. “And you know how that’s going.”

Jordan put one arm around her shoulder, pulled her closer for a second, then released her. “So let’s have them over for dinner,” she suggested again.

“It could get awkward,” she warned.

“Don’t you think if they knew who the father was, they might feel a little better?”

Annie stopped walking. “I’m not sure. Matt’s gone. It might make it worse.”

“Well, at least they won’t be holding out hope that you’ll marry the father of your baby.”

Annie slapped her arm. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“I’m not making light of Matt’s death,” Jordan said. “But it might make them feel better if they know who the father is rather than thinking it’s some thug you hooked up with in a drunken stupor on a Friday night.”

Annie laughed. “Yeah, now that’s so me.”

“Come on,” Jordan coaxed. “Have them out to the house. They need to get over it. You need to get over it.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. It is what it is, Annie. And as we’ve just discussed, they’re the only family you have.” Jordan smiled as she met her gaze. “Well, other than me.”

Annie’s chest tightened at her words, and without thinking, she moved closer, wrapping her arms around Jordan’s shoulders and hugging her tightly.

“Thank you,” she whispered into her ear.



Chapter Twenty-Two

Annie closed the door, then leaned against it. She blew out a breath as she looked across the room to where Jordan was watching her.

“I guess it could have been worse,” she said.

Jordan gave her a half-smile. “It wasn’t so bad.”

Annie pushed off the door. “My mother barely spoke to you.”

Jordan shrugged. “Oh, well. She’s probably never been in the same room with a lesbian before. Not knowingly, at least.”

Annie laughed. “I’m certain of that.” Her smile faded. “But still, she was rude to you in your own home.”

Jordan walked closer. “Annie, it’s not me they were here to see. I couldn’t care less what your mother thinks of me.”

Annie sighed. Yes, her mother had been blatantly rude. Surprisingly, her father had been rather cordial to Jordan. Annie met Jordan’s gaze, smiling slightly. “I thought my mother was going to faint when I told her about Matt.”