Play It Safe

She looked at me, turned her head to take in Sonny then she looked back at me and started my way. She didn’t come to the steps but instead approached the side of the porch where she stopped three feet away, her eyes, the entire way, never leaving me.

“You don’t know me,” she started, telling me something I knew before I could get out a greeting. “I’m Eleanor Cody.”

My breath clean left me as I stared at Gray’s mother.

I’d never seen her, never even seen a picture of her, she was wiped clean from Chez Cody. And I’d never seen this woman in town, I would have remembered her. This wasn’t surprising because, regardless of all that happened, I’d spent approximately four whole months in Mustang. I’d seen and met a lot of people but I hadn’t seen and met everybody.

I forced myself to breathe at the same time my mind ticked over ways to play this.

I started by introducing myself. “I’m Ivey Larue.”

A small smile played at her mouth and her brown eyes twinkled briefly as she replied, “I know.”

Of course, everyone did. Being who she was, she would too.

I looked at her then looked at Sonny who hadn’t moved, didn’t look like he intended to approach but also didn’t look like he intended to retreat.

Keeping an eye on things.

My eyes went back to Eleanor Cody.

“Would you like to come in?” I offered and that got me another small smile, this one with no twinkle but a hint of sadness and a shake of the head.

“Don’t see Gray’s truck, reckon he’s not here,” she answered. “Reckon, he comes home, he won’t want me in his house.”

There was a reason for the sadness in her smile because this was definitely true.

“Yeah, but he’s made it clear this is my home and I don’t mind,” I said quietly.

Her head tipped a bit and she studied me a moment.

Then she righted her head, took a step forward and suggested, “How about you swing for awhile and I’ll take a rest on the porch?”

A nice compromise.

I nodded, moved to the swing and sat down. She moved to the porch and sat on its edge, body turned toward the barn, her eyes again never leaving me.

“Like they’re all sayin’, you sure are a pretty little thing.”

My heart clenched because her son felt the same way and told me, repeatedly.

“Thank you,” I whispered then smiled. “You aren’t so bad yourself.”

She smiled back and rested her weight in a hand on the porch.

“Do you want a pop, some lemonade? A glass of water?” I asked.

“No, Ivey, but thanks.”

“Okay.”

Her eyes moved toward the barn and I leaned forward in the swing to see beyond the house. Sonny was moving back to do his work.

“Gray okay with all this?”

This was Eleanor and she was speaking softly and tentatively and I looked back at her to see her eyes still on the barn.

“No,” I answered honestly and her gaze came back to me. “He’s angry, feels threatened, feels I’m under threat and his options are so limited they’re non-existent so he’s frustrated. So, no, he’s not okay.”

She nodded then murmured, “Abel.”

“Sorry?” I asked and she focused harder on me.

“Just like his father. Abel. Don’t let those uncles of Gray’s make you think differently. Knew Gray’s granddad, knew Miriam, so don’t know where Olly, Frank and Charlie got their brand of ornery. Miriam could be ornery but not like that. All the Codys could be wild but when they settled, they settled and that was it. Olly, Frank and Charlie are a mystery for the ages. Didn’t know, down under the surface of what they show everyone, it wasn’t all good and that no way would Miriam step out on her husband, I wouldn’t believe they were Codys.”

She was right about that.

“Abel, he was pure Cody,” she went on. “Fair. Patient. Controlled. But you threaten something or someone he loved, it’d rile him, rile him enough to take action. But he would not mete out unjustifiable justice no matter how angry he could be. See my son grew up like his father.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

She drew in breath then her eyes slid from mine to my ear and she announced, “Talked to Prisc.”

Oh God.

“What?” I asked.

Her eyes came back to mine and she repeated, “Talked to Prisc. Priscilla. She’s a friend of Cecily Sharp.”

“I know. I’ve kind of met her.”

“Good girl,” Eleanor said quietly but my back went straighter and I replied, “I disagree.”

Eleanor held my eyes for a long time and it was like she was psyching herself up and I would know why when she again spoke.

“I understand that, Ivey, but sometimes folks do stupid things for equally stupid reasons. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good people.”

Well I knew that was a fact. I’d had ten years of living it.

I fought against holding my breath but I did hold my tongue.

Eleanor didn’t.

“Don’t know you, what I do know of you, I know you’re a good gal. Know my son loves you. But I don’t know what he’s told you about me so I don’t know if you want to hear this and, even if you’re polite enough to let me to have my say if, once you hear it, you’ll care. Abel didn’t. Miriam didn’t. And Gray didn’t. Then again, they didn’t let me get close enough to share. Don’t know you but I’ll tell you what they never let me tell them.”

And with this preamble, she launched right in.

“Abel wanted children, not just a son, a passel of them. Before we got engaged, all through when we were engaged and after we got married, he talked about it all the time, filling the house with Codys. His brothers might be hard to take but he loved them. They grew up close, had good times, family times, brothers being wild and getting into trouble times. Six people in this house, I used to love coming here. My parents both died when I was young, raised by my aunt who never married so I never experienced anything like that. Those men and Miriam, way she was. It was loud, always something going on. Someone in trouble. Someone telling a joke. Someone laughing or fighting or up to something. Abel, he wanted that, he wanted to fill this house again with that. And me, well…” she hesitated and looked to the barn, “I couldn’t give it to him.”

Shit.

There you go.

Shit.

“Eleanor –” I started and her head turned back to me.