Jill drove her back home and Tate spent the last bit of nagging time to convince her sister and brother to get back to Atlanta and to school.
“After dinner, though.” Jill grinned.
Tate was good at three things—cutting hair, dancing and cooking. She was so good at it her siblings, even as adults, could be found at her dinner table any given day of the week. She took great pride in these things. It was a good thing to have skills that made you happy and people could always use a meal, a bit of dancing and a trim. It wasn’t rocket science but it made Tate special.
The driveway already had two cars in it and Tate smiled, the tiredness ebbing as she found comfort in those people she loved most. Except for Tim, her siblings were almost like her children and rather than feeling burdened by it, it buoyed her, anchored and strengthened her.
Her house, a neat little bungalow in that area of town that hovered between decent neighborhood and neighborhood in decline, was her proudest possession, even more than the shop. It wasn’t much. Just two bedrooms, a small living and dining room, but the kitchen was big and the bathroom was too.
She’d decided on a pretty butter yellow with light blue trim on the shutters. She was no green thumb though so William, a baker and gardener extraordinaire, took pity and did all the planting and managing of her yard.
It was her oasis from the world and was quite frequently teeming with Murphys. Luckily, while the house was small, the lot it sat on was gargantuan. She had a big, fenced-in backyard so her nieces and nephew could come over and play any time they wanted. Which was often enough she had a toy box in her living room and a play set out back.
“Looks like you’re not the only one who wants to eat at my table tonight.”
Jill laughed as she pulled Tate’s car into her spot closest to the house. “Duh. You feeling okay? We can get take-out too. It’s really just that I’d like to spend some more time with you before we go back tonight.”
“I’m good. I just had a headache but it’s going away now. I expect some food will help.”
The scent of freshly baked bread greeted her when she walked inside. Nathan smiled from the kitchen. “Hey, sweetie. William brought several loaves of bread by. He said he’d see you tomorrow and to call if you need anything. I told him Jill and Jake are going back tonight and I’m sleeping over here so he didn’t have to worry.”
Nathan looked like he’d be the most laid back of the whole Murphy crew but in reality, aside from Tate, he was the most tenacious. She knew he’d sleep on her porch if she didn’t give him the guest room so she didn’t bother arguing.
“Thank you, Nate. I don’t need it. I’m fine, of course, but as no one is listening to me, I’ll save my breath. And yes, Jill and Jake are going back after dinner.”
Beth wandered in and absently pressed a hand to Tate’s forehead. “You’re warm and you look tired. Why don’t we get take out?”
“Yes. I’m calling right now. China Gate I think.” Jill pulled out a menu and began to consult with Nathan. Tate just shook her head.
“Fine. Get extra egg rolls. I am going to bake some cookies though. Chocolate chip with walnut and oatmeal peanut butter chip I think.”
“Dang, I think so too.” Jacob walked into the living room, hair still wet from the shower. “Don’t worry, the car is packed. I know you’re kicking us out after we eat. But I wouldn’t look amiss at some cookies to take home.” He sent her puppy dog eyes.
She changed clothes and got started on the cookies. It didn’t take long, she tended to have a basic mix in her fridge or freezer to add extras to because she baked so often.
Her siblings cleared the dining room table and laid out plates as she changed out baking sheets and cooled the cookies.
“Wow, you’re sending that many home with us? You rock.”
Tate rolled her eyes at Jacob. “No. You can have a third. Nate can take another third to his class, you said they had some kind of math-olympics thing, right? And the last third is a thank-you for the firefighter who helped me yesterday after the accident.”
They ate a big dinner and saw Jill and Jacob off clutching enough food for the next few days. Beth left for her apartment a few blocks away and Nathan bunked down in her guestroom.
Tate sat in bed and stared at the television for a while, letting the cherished silence settle in around her. She had a very full and satisfying professional and personal life with her family. And yet, something was missing. She saw Anne with her boyfriend, Tim with Susan and William with Cindy and she wanted that too. She wanted a man to come home to. She wanted children of her own.
Would she ever have that? Would a fluffy girl like her be able to find a man who’d want the whole package? So okay, Tate knew she was a big girl and most days she was okay with that. She didn’t really have problems being fat. She didn’t even have issues with the word fat unless her father was the one using it. Using it to slap her, to punish her for not breaking, for helping the others survive.
But it wasn’t just the abundant curves, it was the seven siblings, two sisters-in-law and their children.
It wasn’t like her family was meddlesome so much as they were all very involved in each others’ lives. Tate didn’t have many friends she wasn’t related to. Some men she’d dated had a problem with that. They’d felt like they didn’t fit in or that she didn’t drop everything for them. When she thought about the man she wanted to share her life with, she knew she wanted to share her family with him too. Wanted him to think those things were as important as she did.
She yawned so wide her jaw popped but at least it shook her out of her thoughts. Gawd, clearly the accident was making her maudlin. Time to go to sleep.
Chapter Three
Matt opened up the box and the heady scent of cookies greeted his senses. Mouth watering, he read the note, ascertained the cookies were from Tate, the woman he’d helped out earlier in the week after the car accident. He vaguely remembered her from school. Perhaps a year or so behind him, definitely not from his circle though.
Knowing she wasn’t a terrorist, he gave in and shoved a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. And moaned. Holy shit, that was the best thing he’d ever eaten, even better than Maggie or his momma’s cookies though he’d never admit it to them. An oatmeal cookie followed. Nope, that was the best cookie he’d ever eaten. Peanut butter chips in oatmeal cookies? Fabulous. Thank goodness she’d been okay after she’d gotten whacked by that car. The world couldn’t live without this cookie-baking goddess.
Looking at the outside of the box, he realized the address was the beauty salon just across the way. He’d have to go and thank her in person.
He’d saved some folks, helped at quite a few accidents and emergencies and fought fires in and around Petal for the last decade. Still, he could count the number of times he’d received a thank you note on one hand. It felt good to be appreciated.
Finishing up in the late afternoon, Matt grabbed what was left of the cookies, knowing he’d have to work out extra after the dozen or so he’d scarfed down since the mail came. He’d had to hide them from the rest of the weenies at the station who’d have swiped them if they’d known. And with cookies as good as the last five in the box, he wasn’t gonna share.
He’d never been inside the beauty salon though he’d seen it just about every day for years. He had a vague idea that the women in his life got their hair done there, but that was the extent of it.
When he opened the door, the jingle of pretty wind chimes greeted him first, followed by the pleasing sound of feminine laughter. Oh how he loved the sound of a woman’s laugh.
Smiling, he headed toward it. He saw her before she saw him. Her hair was the prettiest blonde he’d seen on a woman and unless he was mistaken, she came by it naturally. It hung in a high ponytail and still cascaded down her back in a long spiral curl. Those wide blue eyes of hers were set off by some floaty-looking blouse that was a sort of pinkish-orange. He was sure they had a name for it, women always had names for colors
like that. He’d say that Nicholas had light green walls in his room but Maggie had told him they were sea foam green. He’d just looked at his brother over her head and Kyle rolled his eyes back at him.
She was short. Like really short. And all curves. Her musical laughter cut off when she caught sight of him and then began to choke.
Dropping his things on a nearby counter he rushed to her, concerned as she waved him off, her eyes widening as she backed away.
“She’s all right,” one of the other women said.
Tate recovered and turned a shade of red he was sure they had a name for too, but it was clear she’d either injured herself or was mortified.
“Fuckety fuck,” she muttered as she tried to catch her breath.
“Are you all right?” He touched her arm.
Her blush deepened as she nodded, sending her ponytail swaying. “Fine. Um, can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. Apparently I forgot that.”
He grinned. “I’m Matt Chase. I just wanted to come by to thank you for the cookies.”
“Oh…oh, I’m glad you got them. I should have just brought them over but I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to get away and my family was sort of trying to steal them and if I hadn’t wrapped them up they’d have ended up at the University of Georgia with my kid brother and sister.”
He couldn’t stop grinning. The woman was like one of those little dogs with all the energy. “It’s fine. They’re really good. Like criminally good. In fact, and if you repeat this, I’ll deny it, they’re the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. You missed your calling you know. You should have opened a bakery.”
“Her cookies are a drop in the bucket. She makes a peach cobbler that’ll bring tears to your eyes and the most perfect scratch biscuit you ever tasted. That’s until you try her chicken paprika,” one of the women, clearly a relative, told him proudly.
“Stop it now. I already said you could have Saturday off.” Tate winked and the other woman laughed. “Oh, my manners! I’m Tate Murphy. Aside from bleeding all over you the other day, I figure we haven’t been formally introduced.”
He shook her hand, still wearing a stupid grin.
“This is my sister, Anne and the sister just younger than her, Beth.”
He nodded to all of them and noted they all had the same nose but they were redheads with green eyes while Tate had blue eyes and blonde hair. She was also a lot shorter than the other sisters, who were at least five-seven or so.
“Nice to meet you all. I think I know your brother Tim. He and I were just a year apart in school. We had a few classes together. Redhead right? Green eyes? Freckles?”
“That’s our brother.” Tate grinned.
“He’s a nice guy. Tell him I said hello. Well, I don’t want to keep you all. I just wanted to thank you for the cookies.”
“Well, thank you for helping me. A few cookies are nothing in comparison.”
He liked her smile. Wide, open.
“I’ll see you around then.” And he realized that he’d never bumped into her at all around town. Which was sort of silly considering they worked right across the street from each other.
“Night, Matt. Nice to meet you. Your mother talks about you all the time.”
He stopped as he’d reached the door and heard her laugh. “You knew that’d get me, didn’t you?” he said, looking back over his shoulder at her.
Her eyes widened in mock surprise. “Me? I have seen you naked though. With a cowboy hat on even.”
He groaned, knowing the picture. His momma did love to show that picture of him at about eighteen months old, naked as a jaybird wearing a cowboy hat.
“Are you imagining me naked now?” he teased back and she blushed bright red again. He toyed with asking her what women would call that shade of red but decided against it. He winked and waved. “See you around, Tate Murphy.”
He whistled all the way to his truck.
“Fuckadoodledoo. I cannot believe I nearly choked to death on my own spit when I caught sight of the man in my own shop.” Tate fell into a chair and put her face in her hands.
Beth chuckled. “He’s so handsome I’m surprised you could talk. Nice too. And clearly, he liked you, Tate.”
“Oh yeah, ‘cause I’m totally his type.” Tate rolled her eyes.
“Stop it,” Anne said harshly.
“What? Come on, Anne. You’ve seen the women on his arm. What do they have in common with me other than like, having skin and hair and basics like that? You know what the Chase wives look like.”
“I won’t hear you speak about yourself in his voice, Tate. I won’t, damn it. You are the best woman I know. Period.” Anne was so vehement it took Tate back a bit.
Tate stood and hugged her sister. “Hey, I’m not putting myself down. I swear to you. But I’m being realistic. Anne, there’s a place between Dad and being totally delusional. Matt Chase dates tall, strikingly beautiful, thin women. I am none of those things. Oh, now let me finish! I’m attractive in my own way but I’m five foot one and not thin and while I wouldn’t crack mirrors, I am not strikingly beautiful like Jill or Beth.”
Beth snorted. “You’re the best of us, Tate. I don’t know a woman more beautiful than you are and that’s the honest truth. I do have very nice knockers though not as big as yours.”
They laughed, the tension broken by Beth’s silly comment.
“We on for Martini Friday?” Anne kissed Tate’s cheek and squeezed Beth’s arm.
“Hell yeah. My place in two hours. No boys allowed. I picked up vodka yesterday and I’ve been marinating the chicken and shrimp all day.” Tate grinned.
Tate went home and tried not to think about what an utter lameass she’d been in front of Matt Chase. Choking, blushing, making that stupid crack about him being naked and then his question. If she’d known him better she’d have told him the truth. Hell yes she’d been imagining him naked. Had done for years now. It was her daily pastime. She got bored? Picture Matt Chase nekkid and at her beck and call. Waiting for the dentist? Imagine Matt Chase having her be naked and at his beck and call. Oh so many variations on such a fine theme. Matt Chase naked. Yep.
Every Friday her sisters and sisters-in-law all congregated at one of their homes without husbands and children and had Martini Friday. Sometimes, usually during the summer it would be Margarita Friday instead but the idea was to gather, blow off the week, eat tasty food and have some drinks.
Tate changed and started the broiler before grabbing the ingredients she’d need from the fridge and cabinets. She loved the time just before people came over. That effort in preparing things for others, in sharing her food with them, in making her house comfortable and inviting.
Once she’d made the salad and pulled out the mini appetizers she’d prepared the night before, she dropped the chicken onto the broiler and moved into the living room to light candles.
PJ Harvey on the stereo singing about New York City made Tate sway a bit as she took the glasses from the cabinet and put them on a tray. It’d been a while since she’d had a date over for dinner. Cooking for dates was an odd thing. Some men liked it and enjoyed it but others, well their feelings about her weight transferred onto any event with food and made her feel self-conscious. She hated that. Her father made her feel that way and she didn’t want anyone else to ever do that to her again.
She’d known why Anne got so angry earlier. They all knew Tate had continually re-directed his attention onto herself so her siblings could be spared their father’s emotional abuse and Tim had done the same with the physical abuse. Her siblings were fiercely protective of each other and most especially her over her weight. It was a thing, a wound they all shared because of how cruel her father had been about it. While Tate truly wasn’t bothered by it most of the time, they all took great umbrage when anyone ever made a flip or unkind remark, even Tate herself.
Talking on the porch lifted her out of her thoughts, she greeted her sisters with a smile.
Like he did every Fr
iday, Matt got together with his brothers at The Pumphouse for a few games of pool. He was the last single brother, a fact that every woman in town seemed to take up as a challenge. Free beers came his way multiple times a night, women traipsed past and bent over with come hither looks.
“I hate to admit it, but all this is tiring.” He took a shot and missed.
Shane chuckled. “I figured it’d be hard on the last single Chase brother.”
“Well, and now that Liv is pregnant, it’s like blood in the water. Women not only throwing themselves at me but wanting to talk about babies too.”
“Let yourself be caught then,” Kyle said, grabbing one of the beers that’d been sent over.
“Hey, I will when it’s the right woman.”
“The right woman isn’t gonna send over a beer and lean over so you can see her hoo ha,” Shane grumbled.
Marc laughed. “What was that Daddy said back last year? Something about cookies? You hang out much at the Honey Bear lately?”
“Hardy har har. Speaking of cookies, do any of you know Tate Murphy?”
“Tim was in my year. Nice enough, I think. He was out a lot. He’s a plumber here in town now. Damned good one. You know those roots on that oak in our backyard? Totally screwed up our laundry room plumbing. He came in and fixed it all. Nathan, he’s one of the younger ones, he teaches at the high school with Maggie. You should ask Momma, she knows all that stuff.” Kyle studied the table before taking a shot.
“Why?” Shane looked at his brother across the table.
“You know I helped out the other day when Charlie hit her? She sent me some cookies and I went in to thank her today. She’s sweet. I was just wondering about her. Seems silly that in a small town I don’t know someone so close to my age.”
“I doubt she moves in the same circles.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Marc?”
Marc drew back, surprised at the edge in Matt’s voice. “Nothing. She’s just not at the Tonk that I’ve ever seen, or here. Never seen her at the places we seem to hang out. So it’s not a stretch to think she moves in different circles. What’s your problem? She do or say something to upset you?”