Mind Games - Page 212

“Well then, if you’re not joining any of that, there’ll be places at my table for you and your boy.”

“That’s…” He looked up the lane. “I’m not sure Thea would be comfortable.”

“She’d say the same as I just did. We’ll be a houseful, and kids among that. If you’re not traveling, you come to my table. Braydon Brennan, come kiss me goodbye.”

“Can I go with you? Can I go see the chickens and the goat and the cow and the dogs?”

“I’m not going home right now.” She added a fierce hug. “But I’ll be home all day Saturday, so maybe your daddy can bring you to see me and the rest.”

“Okay.”

She turned, kissed Ty’s cheek. “You come see me,” she said, and walked back to her car.

She drove up the lane, hefted the box out of the passenger seat. Knowing Thea, she carried it straight into the house.

“Special delivery!”

“Grammie.” Thea hurried out of the kitchen. “Let me take that.”

“I got muscle to spare. Got your milk and some samples. I’m trying a couple new scents. Thinking spring, as I’m tired to death of holiday scent right now.”

She set the box on the kitchen island.

“Did I time it right?”

“Perfect. I just shut down. I needed a head break. I’ve already got the kettle on.”

Thea put the milk in the fridge, started pulling out soaps, candles, lotions.

“You’ve been busy.”

“Just the way I like it. You needed a head break, I needed a scent break.”

Thea picked up one of the soaps. “Lemon, but not only.”

“Pickled lemon. I was preserving some the other day, and thought: Why haven’t I done this? That needs to cure yet. But you’ve got the liquid, the lotion, the candle. And a pickled lemon salt scrub. It passes muster, I figure it’ll go on sale the middle of March.”

“Oh, it passes.” Thea squeezed some lotion on her hands, rubbed, sniffed. “I say sensational. Sit down, Grammie, I’ll make us some tea.”

“I could sure sit. I stopped down the lane.”

“Oh.” Thea turned to choose a teapot, and thinking of Ty, took down Miss Leona’s.

“Ty asked about you, if you were doing all right. And I have to say, Thea, it’s a relief to me to see you’re looking more yourself.”

“I’m feeling more myself. A lot more. I lost my grip, but I’ve got a good, strong hold now. It wasn’t just what happened with Ty, though that broke me. But there were cracks already.”

“How about the headaches?”

“Clear for the last few days. I’ve got that grip, and I’m in control again.” Pushing up the sleeves of her red sweater, she measured out tea. “He pushes—I don’t think he can stop now. But I’ve shored up those cracks. He’s sick, in his mind, in his body, and I honestly think he was pushing that into me. So I’m taking better care of myself.”

“I can see you are. Now I can tell Rem just that so he’ll stop muttering about giving Ty the what for.”

“I should’ve told him once we got involved the way we did, so I’ll take that share of the blame. And telling him, all of it, cleared me out more than I knew I needed to be. So I’m taking better care of myself, and I’ll be better prepared for whatever happens. With Ty, with Riggs, with my life.”

The last weight on Lucy’s heart lifted. “You don’t just look like my Thea again, you sound like her.”

“Because I am your Thea.”