Page 4 of Sweet Trouble
“Welcome home,” Gram called out. “Who wants to help frost cookies?”
Mari and Posey practically exploded across the yard at that.
Jillian held her breath as they stampeded up the old wooden steps before she could stop them. Without a fresh coat of paint, boards like that could rot out in just a few years in this climate.
But thankfully they held, and she followedher girls up to the porch where Gram and Grampy hugged them all and welcomed them inside.
After the bright sunlight, it took Jillian’s eyes a moment to adjust. But when they did, her heart sank.
The inside of the house didn’t look much better than the outside. The tiny sitting room was dark and cold, making her wonder if the radiator was working. And in the living room, the ivy wallpaper bubbled with water damage under the big window, and she spotted some water stains on the ceiling farther into the room.
“We don’t much use the upstairs hall bath anymore,” Gram confided.
“Oh,” Jillian said, dragging her attention back to her grandparents and feeling ashamed for getting distracted by the condition of their home. “It’s an old house.”
But it was hard not to let her mind spin out.
Her whole plan had been to stay here and add on. She had enough from the sale of the city condo to put a modest two-bedroom, one bath addition on the little house.
But looking around, it seemed like where her money really needed to go was fixing the place up to make it safe for her grandparents. And if the rest of the house was this bad, she might not have enough to do even that.
“We put a new roof on a few years back,” Grampy said with a proud smile. “It set us back some, so we’ve had to defer some other things. But that roof will last thirty years, and we’ll get caught up on the rest soon enough, you’ll see.”
And this was the trouble with Jillian being in the city, Amberlee out in Seattle, and Mom and Dad in Florida.Even cousin Ellis had moved down south. No one had been here to realize what was happening and lend a hand before things got bad.
“It’ll be great,” Jillian agreed. “I’ve always loved your house.”
Grampy smiled and Gram led the girls back into the big kitchen, which thankfully looked much better than the living room. It even seemed to have a fresh coat of paint. The Christmas hand towels, white with bright red poinsettias, were hanging from the oven handle and the ring by the sink. And the scent of vanilla hinted that maybe Gram had made her famous sugar cookies.
“Oh goodness,” Jillian said. “I forgot the groceries in the car.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” Gram scolded her.
“The Lawrence boy was here earlier and brought milk and a few other things,” Grampy said with a fond smile. “Such a good kid.”
He didn’t say which Lawrence boy, but Jillian was pretty sure that would be Tag. He was the oldest and most responsible, though he’d always been a bit of a grump. It was kind of sweet that he brought over milk from the family dairy farm for her grandparents. She made a mental note to thank him when she saw him.
“I’ll help you carry it in,” Grampy said, grabbing his jacket.
“Oh, no,” she told him. “I don’t have the city gym anymore. I need my workout.”
She was a lot more worried about his back than her exercise, but he didn’t needto know that.
“Fine,” Grampy said, chuckling. “Pull around back. It’ll be easier.”
That seemed like an odd request, but she was kind of wanting to see the state of the back steps anyway, so she nodded and headed out.
For all that it was overgrown, the yard was as wonderful as she remembered. The leaves had all fallen, but the tall trees were alive with birdsong. A pair of cardinals hopped along the outside of the concrete birdbath, but the water in it was frozen.
The thicket of rhododendrons by the house still had its gloriously glossy green leaves. In May, those bushes would be studded with beautiful purplish-pink blossoms as big as birthday cakes.
She pulled the car around back and was happy to see that there was a fresh bed of gravel where Grampy’s ancient Chevy pickup was parked. The back steps looked to have a fresh coat of paint on them too, and the beds for Gram’s herbs and vegetables all had new boards.
See?She told herself.They know what needs doing. They just don’t have the energy to do it all, or the money for help. But together, we’ll get it all sorted.
She got out, grabbed the first few bags of groceries, and headed into the house.
Gram, Grampy, and the girls were already spread out at the big kitchen table, where beautiful sugar cookies on trays practically covered the whole surface. Bowls of frosting were lined up waiting, just like they had been when Jillian and Amberlee were little.
