Page 78 of Just What She Needed

"Oh, hey." Mel gave his hand a quick shake. "Mama said you'd be coming by."

Rhett held up the drinks in her hands. "Sorry I can't shake your hand but thank you for coming to see her. You must have had a rough time being a Baptist preacher with a name like Brandywine."

"My mama always said I became a pastor just to make up for my name." His smile faded from laughter to a gentle compassion. "Ladies, I sure am sorry about Miz Vandergriff. I had no idea she was sick until today."

"Neither did we," Mel replied. "She wouldn't let Patsy call us before now."

Greg sighed and glanced down for a moment. "I knew she hadn't been at church for a while, but I thought she and Miz Murphy were off vacationing and having fun. I sure hate this. Your mama's a fine woman."

"Thank you. Oh, before I forget, I have something for you." Mel dug around in her purse with her free hand. "She's got her funeral all planned out and paid for, and she wants to have it at the church. One thing she said is that she wants it short and sweet, and she wrote it all out for you."

"No wake, either," Rhett added. "Just an hour or so before the service for people to come pay their respects. And this'll tick off all the ladies at your church, but Mama doesn't want anyone fixing a dinner or anything afterward."

Mel finally located the correct paper and handed it over. To his credit, Greg didn't open the folded page to read in front of them but slipped it into his back pocket.

"That is going to drive the ladies nuts," he said. "That's what Baptist women do when there's a loss. They cook."

"Lord, I know it," Rhett sighed, remembering the miles of casseroles and pies that were trotted into her house when Todd died.

"Well, they'll just have to find something else to do. If Miz Vandergriff doesn't want it, we won't do it." Greg glanced toward the door leading to the ICU rooms. "If y'all don't mind, I'll go and spend a little time with her now. When the nurse told me y'all had gone downstairs I waited to meet you first."

"My daughter's in there," Rhett told him. "And I don't know that she'll want to leave."

He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't dream of asking her to."

As he went through the door, Rhett and Mel sat down on one of the couches in the waiting room. Rhett put Lilith's soda on the table and flexed her fingers.

"I wonder if he thinks we're heathens or something for not going back there to pray with them," she mused.

"Don't know and don't care," Mel replied. She laid her head on Rhett's shoulder. "I pray in my own way, and I know you do, too."

Rhett sipped her coffee in silence for a moment. "You know," she said at last. "If we'd had a pastor like him growing up, we might have ended up as faithful churchgoers."

Mel's body shook with suppressed laughter. "Maybe. He sure beats that sour old pinch-faced asshole who used to be there. What was his name?"

"Brother Henderson." Rhett made a face. "I don't even know if he had a first name since he insisted on being called Brother or Pastor. I didn't know Mama's church had a new one. That Henderson twit was still there the last time Todd and I went to church, and I'm pretty sure he was the reason it was the last time."

"I wish I had some clothes to change into," Mel said, ending the discussion of church.

Rhett glanced down at her sister's wrinkled taupe pencil skirt and the white blouse that lost its crispness hours ago. "I bet Lilith would let you borrow some clothes."

"Good luck getting her to leave to get them. Don't ask her. It'd just make her feel bad." Mel sat up and drank some coffee. "I didn't even think about clothes when you picked me up from work, but I'll survive."

"Mel?"

"Mm?"

"I hope you don't think I'm horrible for saying this, but I hope she goes soon. The pain she's been in this afternoon..." A shudder passed through her when she thought about the unrelenting torture now gripping her mother.

"If you're horrible then so am I." Mel slipped an arm around Rhett's shoulders. "But neither of us is. No one should have to endure that, and I hope it's over for her soon."

"Ladies?"

They looked up as Greg stepped around the end of the couch.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Brandywine," Mel said. "We didn't even tell you our names. I'm Mel and this is Rhett."

"And I'm Greg," he said with a smile. "Your mother is sleeping now, so I'm going to slip out for a bit. I've got to pick my daughter up from Girl Scouts, but I'll be back later."