She chuckled. “The old bushwhacker. We’re a fine pair, aren’t we? Too achey to work like we used to, but too restless to be left unsupervised. Don’t tell anyone, but he suggested getting his private pilot’s license the other day! I tried talking him out if it, but I’m not sure I was successful.”
“Heaven help us all. There won’t be a safe strip of blacktop in the county.”
Meryl pointed her brush emphatically at me. “That’s what I said! Then I threatened to send Sheriff Wyatt after him for traffic violations, but I think that only egged him on instead of discouraging him.”
I smiled a little more. “Guess we know where Luke gets it.”
“You got that right. But, you know…” She stood back to examine her work on Biz. “I see more of Marci in those boys than Blake. Most of them got his eyes, and Luke got that troublesome streak, but they all, even Luke, have that deep ‘thinker’ side of them that’s all their mother.” She sighed. “I sure miss her.”
“I never really knew her. My mom did.”
“Your mom was another one of my favorite people. We used to have a lot of fun together, the three of us.” She shook her head, and I wasn’t sure, but it looked like her eyes glistened more than usual. “I don’t think a single fundraiser or community event went by without at least two of us raising Cain.”
“More like holding it together. I remember no one could do anything without one of you guys managing things.”
“They just didn’t want to,” she said tartly. “But we did have some wonderful years, even back to junior high school. I miss those days.” She finished with a tight, teary smile. “I miss my friends.”
Biz was finished, so I set my brush aside. “Most of my friends aren’t even in town anymore. Morgan and Kelli, I guess, but we weren’t that close back then. It’s like I picked all the wrong ones to be friends with because I don’t even miss them. We had nothing in common after high school.”
Meryl gave me a sympathetic frown. “Sometimes it’s like that. We pick people to be with based on proximity, but there’s no real connection. And all the while, the real friends are just waiting for you to find them.”
I pulled out a chair that was close to the wall and slumped into it. “It’s not just friendships I’ve done that with. Meryl, I screwed up. Bad.”
She tilted her head. “Want to tell me about it?”
How was I supposed to explain that? I didn’t even know where to start. My mouth tried to work, but all that came out was, “Dusty.”
Meryl’s shoulders lifted in a deep breath of understanding. “Ah.”
“I have no idea how long I’ve been overlooking him, but I do know that I’m the biggest idiot alive. How could I miss it?”
“I suppose because you were so busy letting all admirers come your way, you didn’t take the time to pick the oneyouliked.”
I stiffened. “You make me sound pretty shallow.”
“Not shallow. Just oblivious. Even when you were just thirteen or fourteen, you’d have a herd of boys following you around the fairgrounds, and you never noticed them.”
I lifted a shoulder. “I noticed. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it, so I ignored it, until I couldn’t.”
“And you never turned the tables. Tell me when you’ve ever found someoneyoucared about that didn’t chase you down first?”
I swallowed. “Never, I guess. Not until now. I’ve taught myself to miss what might be the best thing in my life. And now, when I most want to see him and talk to him and ask if he could love me, I can’t reach him. What if I missed it for too long?”
Meryl drew up a chair to ease herself down beside me. “Now, what would make you worry about that?”
I pinched my lips and blinked back the sting as my voice broke. “No one will put up with being ignored forever.”
“I s’pose it won’t make much difference if I remind you that Dusty’s a Walker. They’re a hard-nosed, pigheaded lot.”
I choked on a sudden giggle and sniffed. “I can only hope he’s that stubborn. But I have so many questions, things I’m confused about. I’m just not sure of anything anymore.”
Meryl patted my knee and sighed. “Oh, Jess, I wouldn’t fret. If Dusty was in love with you a week ago or a month ago, or ten years ago, he won’t be put off by waitin’ around. Gets it from both sides, that one does.”
I looked over and managed a hopeful smile. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh! The Walkers and the Chandlers, they go way back in this town. Ornery cusses. Did you know that Wyatt, Marci’s dad, sat around and waited for ten years for his wife’s father to give his blessing before he could marry her? And Blake’s parents, now—”
“Wait, Meryl.” I put up a hand, staring at the concrete under my boots as the connection burst through my brain. “Did you say Marci’s father was named Wyatt Chandler?”