The Lucky One

Best of all, things around the ke

"What do you mean you're going to visit your sister?"

Nana added a pat of butter to the bowl of shrimp and grits before her. "I haven't had a chance to visit my sister since the incident, and I want to see how she's doing. She's older than I am, you know. And now that you're teaching and Ben is at school, I can't think of a better time to go."

"Who's going to take care of the ke

"Thibault. He's got it down to a science by now, even the training part of this. He said he'd be more than happy to work some additional hours. And he also said he'd drive me to Greensboro, so you don't have to worry about that, either. We've got it all worked out. He even volunteered to start straightening up the files for me." She speared a shrimp and chewed vigorously.

"Can he drive?" Beth inquired.

"He says he can."

"But he doesn't have a license."

"He said he'd get one at the DMV. That's why he left early. I called Frank, and he said he'd be glad to work him in for the driving test today."

"He doesn't have a car-"

"He's using my truck."

"How did he get there?"

"He drove."

"But he doesn't have a license!"

"I thought I already explained that." Nana looked at her as if she'd suddenly become slow-witted.

"What about the choir? You're just getting back into it."

"It's fine. I already told the music director I'd be visiting my sister, and she says there's no problem. In fact, she thinks it's a good idea. Of course, I've been with the choir a lot longer than she has, so she couldn't exactly say no."

Beth shook her head, trying to stay on subject. "When did you start pla

Nana took another bite and pretended to consider. "When she called and asked me, of course."

"When did she call you?" Beth pressed.

"This morning."

"This morning?" From the corner of her eye, Beth noticed Ben following the interchange like a spectator at a te

"It's like candy on a battleship," Nana said with an air of finality.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Nana said, "that I'm going to see my sister. She said she's bored and that she misses me. She asked me to come, and so I agreed to go. It's as simple as that."

"How long do you intend to be gone?" Beth suppressed a rising sense of panic.

"I'm guessing about a week."

"A week?"

Nana glanced at Ben. "I think your mom has caterpillars in her ears, She keeps repeating everything I say like she can't hear me."

Ben giggled and popped a shrimp into his mouth. Beth stared at them both. Sometimes, she thought, di

"What about your medicine?" she asked.

Nana added some more shrimp and grits to her bowl. "I'll bring it. I can take my pills there just as easy as I can take them here."

"What if something happens to you?"

"I'd probably be better off there, don't you think?"

"How can you say that?"

"Now that school has started, you and Ben are gone most of the day and I'm alone in the house. There's no way Thibault would even know if I was in trouble. But when I'm in Greensboro, I'll be with my sister. And believe it or not, she has a phone and everything. She stopped using smoke signals last year."

Ben giggled again but knew enough not to say anything. Instead, he gri

"But you haven't left the ke

"Exactly," Nana cut her off.

"But…"

Nana reached across the table to pat Beth's hand. "Now, I know you're worried that you won't have my sparkling wit to keep you company for a while, but it'll give you a chance to get to know Thibault. He'll be here this weekend, too, to help you out with the ke

"This weekend? When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow," she said.

"Tomorrow?" Beth's voice came out as a squeak. Nana winked at Ben. "See what I mean? Caterpillars."

After cleaning up the di

But the exchange troubled her. It wasn't the trip itself that bothered her, but what their little struggle at the di

She knew that in the end, she'd handle these situations when the time came. But she dreaded it. It had been hard enough to keep Nana in check this summer, and that was when her physical problems were obvious even to Nana. What was going to happen when Nana didn't want to admit to them?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Nana's truck slowly rolling up the drive and coming to a stop near the back entrance to the ke

It took him a few more minutes to unload the rest of the dog food, and when he was done, he started toward the house. By then, dusk had begun to fall. The faint echo of thunder sounded in the distance, and Beth could hear the crickets begi

Distracted by her memories, Beth hadn't noticed that Logan had reached the porch. In the fading light, his features seemed softer than she remembered.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She straightened up and smoothed her blouse. "I was just thinking."

"I have the keys to the truck," he said, his voice quiet. "I wanted to drop them off before I went home."