Page 10 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

Emma made good time on her trip out today.

She was home for dinner on time, and she loved that her mom seemed to be excited to see her.

After telling each other how their days went, they settled into dinner and then cleaned up together.

Mom did most of the work around the house as she was living there full-time, but she would help with the dishes when she ate with her.

“I’ve been to the library today. It’s a really nice one that has a children’s section that rivals most toy stores.

I’m going to be volunteering there once or twice a week to read stories to the kids.

Isn’t that wonderful?” She told her mom that it was fantastic and hugged her when she seemed to need one. “Are you missing me even a little bit?”

“I miss you terribly. Especially at meal times. There isn’t anyone to talk to.” She said she could always call her. “I thought about that, too, and I might once in a while. But you need to get out more because this is what you wanted. I want you to be happy.”

Emma remembered being told about Taylor’s mom and how she wanted to be happy with her daughter all the time.

She wanted her to make her the center of attention, no matter what was going on in her life.

She couldn’t live like that. It would drive her crazy to have to cater to someone all the time.

That’s why she and her mom got along so well; the two of them did their own thing.

Since she’d gotten up so early, Emma was ready for bed at nine-thirty.

Dragging herself to the bedroom that was all hers, she realized that her mother had left it for her to decorate.

She was fine with that. Having been able to put some final touches on the rig had been great since it was only her anymore, and it had given her ideas on what to do to her room at the house.

She pulled up the shopping link and put several things in her cart before she was ready to call it a night.

Tomorrow was her day off, and she had things that she wanted to get finished in addition to her room. First thing she was going to do was to wash her rig. It had been needing a bath since her last long trip before working for Taylor Tucker.

Getting up early, something that she was used to doing anyway, she was out in the yard cleaning up the rig when the mailman came to the house.

Mom had told her that he’d been coming around a lot and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

Leave it to her mom to be out of driving for a week and find a man who was sweet on her.

She took the mail and had him moving along his way by telling him that her mom was busy.

He looked so downtrodden that she wanted to get her mom and make her talk to him. Poor guy.

“You have a letter from the realtor about the house, I’m betting.” She said that someone had finally made an offer on the house. “Great. Now, only if they can get financing, then that will be one more thing to get off our list of payments.”

“I just paid the taxes last month, so we should be good for at least six months. Did I tell you that the electric bill came due, too, and I went ahead and paid it while I was writing checks out? I can’t believe how much it costs to have an empty house with electricity.

I don’t remember it being that high when the three of us lived there.

” It had been her and her parents who lived there for five years.

Then her dad had died one night, and that had left only the two of them.

Since neither one of them wanted to live in the house anymore, it had been put on the market and hadn’t sold yet.

They were just waiting for the right buyer to come along and take it from them. She hoped that this was the one.

“It says here that they’ve put in an offer and that I accepted it.

I did, by the way, before you get all defensive about it for me.

” It made them both laugh about how she would come to her mom’s rescue even when it wasn’t necessary.

“I guess they’re covering their asses with this one, or perhaps that’s the way it’s done now.

I don’t know, but I’d like for the house to be sold so we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

” That was what she wanted as well. Not to have to worry about the house that they’d not lived in for over five years now.

“And since it’s paid off, everything we get out of it will be profit.

I’ll just use it to pay off this house, and we won’t have to worry about this one either. ”

Not that they had to worry about that much.

Since her father had died and left them well off with insurance money, it had been an easy life for the two of them.

Even when she’d purchased her own rig, using the house as collateral, it hadn’t been that much of a hardship to pay that off either.

Now all they wanted to do was to get things squared away with her job, and things would look so much brighter for them.

The two of them had plans for dinner tonight.

Mom wanted to try a new place in town, and she wanted something to eat that didn’t involve using a microwave.

She didn’t want any bread either, as she’d been eating sandwiches a great deal over the last several days, and she was sick of them as well.

As soon as they were seated, she nearly fell off her chair when Colby joined them.

“Your mom invited me to have dinner with you. I didn’t think I was going to make it as the ship only just docked about two hours ago.” He smiled at her mother before speaking again. “Thank you, Charlotte, for inviting me to have a meal with the two of you. I can’t wait to try this place.”

“Doesn’t your brother own this place?” Emma wasn’t happy that her mom didn’t tell her about their unwanted guest, and she was going to take it out on him for being here. “Jack is the name of your brother who owns this place, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he does, but he’s been so busy that none of us have been able to get in to eat again.” He picked up the menu and asked what they were having. “I know that the fried chicken is really good. I’ve had the mashed potatoes too.”

As he went on about the menu and the things on it, she looked around the room.

It was really busy, and she wondered how her mom had gotten a table.

She was just about to ask her about it when Jack came out and hugged his brother and told her and her mom how glad he was to see them. She asked about the table.

“I keep one open in the event one of the family wants to come by and be seated. Since you work for us in a way, I wanted to make sure that you three were as welcome as I could make you. And dinner is on me.” They all protested, but he was pretty insistent about it.

“Just let me serve you guys my favorite and you’ll have a good time. ”

The first thing that was brought out to them was the corn chowder.

It was so good that she could have eaten enough for her dinner and been satisfied.

There were also warm rolls that went with the table as well as an endless supply of iced tea that she and her mom dearly loved.

Colby drank water all night, and she wondered why when there were other things to drink on the menu.

After the soup, which was really good, they had a nice creamy dressing on a bed of lettuce.

There were other things in the bowl along with the lettuce, cucumbers, and thinly sliced boiled eggs.

She loved the small tomato pieces as they seemed to absorb the dressing and make them taste better.

Along with the homemade croutons, the salad was perfect as it could have been made.

The platter of chicken was next. And what a platter it was.

There were at least nine pieces of crispy fried chicken that looked like the entire chicken had been brought to them.

In addition to that, there were bowls of green beans with bits of bacon and onion in them, corn and mashed potatoes—her new favorite veggie—as well as gravy and corn bread slices.

She was on her second piece of chicken when the platter of meat was refilled, and they brought out more cornbread as well as fresh glasses of tea.

She was stuffed by the time they asked if they wanted desserts.

“I don’t think I could eat another bite.

” Colby asked if there was any cherry pie left, and that’s what he had.

Mom ordered a dish of ice cream to clean her palate with, and she had a cup of hot tea.

The perfect end to a wonderful dinner. Jack came out to see them again when their dirty plates were taken away.

“That was the best meal I’ve had in weeks.

Thank you so much for it. The chicken was to die for, I swear. ”

“It’s the favorite of everyone that comes in and tries it.

It’s just our grannie’s recipe that I’m using, and so is the gravy.

I love real chicken gravy with chunks of chicken bits in it.

” They all agreed, and Jack hugged his brother again before hugging her and her mom.

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful night, she thought.

“Anytime you want to come in and have a comfort meal, just let me know. I really do have one table that rarely gets used unless it’s family. ”

She was going to take him up on that, too.

As they were leaving the restaurant, she realized that she was dead on her feet.

Emma had gotten a great deal done today, being that it was her day off, and wasn’t looking forward to driving tomorrow because she was so full tonight.

However, she knew that she’d be on the road again in the morning with no ill effects from tonight.

It was just good food that had filled her up. And she loved it.