Page 5 of Sweet T

“Maybe. She would have never used the f-bomb, though.”

Tucker swam over to the steps and sat partially submerged. Shelly joined him. “You still wanting to talk business?” she asked.

“No. I’ll speak with Chuck and Brody this evening, then Sysco on Wednesday. We’ll shift things gradually. That way, there are no surprises.”

“Cool.”

“So, whose heart are you breaking now?”

Shelly shrugged. “Nary a soul. I’m too busy with schooling. I need a degree so I can escape this shit-hole of a town.”

“Do you really feel that way about Spoon?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes.”

“I like it here. At least, I think I do. I really don’t know anywhere else.”

“Me neither.”

“Then why are you in such a big hurry to get away?”

“Curiosity. I want to see the world, starting with Parson’s in New York.”

“You’ve been watching too much Project Runway.”

“That show has gone downhill since Tim and Heidi left.”

“Winnie Harlow’s got nothing on you.”

“She’s a model, T. I want to create.”

“You know Daddy would do anything for you. He’d write you a check if you asked.”

“I want to see what I can do first. Once I get my BA online, I’ll look into financial aid... via both Parson’s and Big Britches.”

Tucker chuckled at Shelly’s use of his father’s old nickname. “That sounds like your mother, too.”

“I may escape the town, but I can’t escape being her daughter.”

“I miss her.”

“Yeah. I miss her too.”

“How’s your father?”

“He’s fine. Staying busy.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah,” Shelly said, her answers getting progressively shorter.

Tucker looked across the water to the pool’s guest house where his Nana P had lived until the previous year. Nana P, and Shelly’s mom, Roz, were the closest he’d ever come to having a maternal presence in his life. His biological mother had died when he was a baby. Nana P was a grandmother really, but she, Roz, and Shelly were the female constants of his world.

Nana P was Pedro’s mother. She had immigrated from Mexico shortly after Pedro and Titus, his father, had fallen in love. She had occupied the pool house as her own for nineteen of the last twenty years until her passing. Tucker moved in shortly after, seeking autonomy but not fully ready to leave the protective umbrella of his family.

Shelly had lost Roz even more recently. She and Tucker were both still grieving in their own way, though neither would ever admit it, coping as many do with loss... via work, school, life.

Time marches on.