Organically Yours: Sanctuary, Book Five by Abbie Zanders (love letters to the dead txt) 📕

now stretched to the max across Bonnie’s expanding frame. Her hair looked as if it hadn’t seen a brush in days.

There was a time when Bonnie, former head cheerleader and queen of both her junior and senior proms, had refused to be seen in public without perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect nails, but that had started changing not long after their first child was born.

“Anyone I know?” Tina asked half-jokingly, because everyone knew everyone in Sumneyville.

Her sister-in-law shrugged, but didn’t answer.

Bonnie and Rick’s second child came racing into the room, screaming like a banshee. Their oldest followed closely on her heels, brandishing his junior hockey stick. The younger one stopped behind Tina, grabbed both of her legs, and peered through at her older brother.

“Aunt Tina! Aunt Tina! Save me! Ricky’s going to hit me with his stick!”

The little boy’s face screwed up with rage. He definitely had his father’s temper. “She stole my pucks and hid them, so now, I’m going to use her as a puck!”

Tina looked to Bonnie, who exhaled and said wearily, “Both of you, stop right now, or I’ll take your games away for the rest of the day.”

The kids ignored her completely. They, like Tina, knew their mother wouldn’t follow through. If Bonnie took their games away, she would have to find some other way to occupy them, and everyone knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Ricky continued jabbing his hockey stick at his sister. One or two solid whacks against Tina’s legs was enough to justify an intervention, in Tina’s opinion. Bonnie might not believe in discipline, but Tina did.

She reached down and plucked the stick from him with one hand while grabbing the shell of his ear with the other and twisting.

“Give it back,” he howled. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it!”

“Hush. Adelle,” Tina said firmly to the little girl, “did you take your brother’s pucks?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Her chin quivered. “Because he’s going down to the pond to play and he won’t let me go, too.”

“She can’t go!” Ricky protested. “She’s a girl.”

“So?” Tina asked. “I played hockey with your dad and uncles. Kicked their butts quite a few times, too.”

“Yeah, but you’re not a real girl,” her nephew protested. “You drive tractors and stuff. Delle doesn’t know how to do anything, except play with her stupid dolls.”

“Then, maybe you should teach her. That’s what big brothers do. What they don’t do is chase their little sisters around the house with hockey sticks. If it happens again, I’m going to introduce my hockey stick to your backside, and mine’s a lot bigger than yours.”

His eyes got wide.

Tina looked at Adelle, who was now standing beside Tina instead of behind her. “And you—you can’t take things from someone just because they make you mad.”

“But—”

“No buts. Apologize to Ricky and give him back his pucks. Then ask him nicely if he’ll show you some of his power moves.”

She thought about that for a moment and then said, “I’m sorry, Ricky. Will you?”

Ricky looked at Tina, who nodded. “All right. But I’m not happy about it.”

The two kids left the kitchen, and Bonnie poured herself another coffee. “Threatening physical violence? Was that really necessary?”

In Tina’s mind, it had been. Those kids were out of control, and if someone didn’t do something, they were going to grow up to be bullying, horrible adults. Kind of like their parents.

Thankfully, Lottie appeared and answered for her, “Children need a firm hand, and yours could do with some discipline.”

There was a reason Tina and her grandmother got along so well.

Bonnie’s lips thinned, but wisely, she held her tongue. Not only was Lottie the matriarch of the family and deserving of respect, but this was also technically Lottie’s house, and Lottie was allowing Rick and Bonnie and their kids to live there rent-free, no matter how much Bonnie liked to believe otherwise.

Leaving Bonnie to do whatever it was Bonnie did on Sundays, Tina and Lottie went out through the back door and climbed into Tina’s pickup.

“Thanks for having my back,” Tina said as she pulled away from the farmhouse.

“That woman,” Lottie said on an exhale, shaking her head. “She’s a lazy, selfish, disrespectful cow.”

Tina’s lips quirked. “Tell me how you really feel, Gram.”

“It’s shameful. She takes no pride in herself, her kids, or her house. No wonder her husband’s on the prowl and her kids are running amok.”

“Rick’s having an affair?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Lottie said carefully, “but the signs are there. He’s around less and less, and when he is around, things are tense. Seems like they can’t be in the same room for more than a few minutes without arguing about one thing or another. It’s no wonder he spends most evenings at the bar these days. Or at least, that’s where he says he is. Mona Delvecchio told me last month that she saw him driving out of the parking lot of Franco’s with Marietta Buschetti, and it wasn’t the first time.”

“Marietta Buschetti! I don’t believe it. She’s at least ten years younger than he is.”

“She’s old enough. Twenty-two now, according to Mona, and just as wild as ever.” Lottie exhaled. “But enough about them. Are you ready to put our plan into action?”

The tingles of anticipation Tina had been feeling earlier made a dramatic reappearance. “It feels like we’re doing something illicit.”

“Not illicit. Thrilling. I haven’t been this excited about something since Elvis ground his pelvis onstage right in front of me at The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Tina turned to gape at her grandmother. “You were there?”

“Not only was I there, I met him,” Lottie said smugly.

“You did not!”

“I did! He even signed a record for me. Of course, I have no idea where it is now. I had to hide it from my parents. I didn’t want them to know that Gertie Handelmann and I’d hopped a bus to New York City. My father would’ve tanned my backside.”

“Gertie Handelmann ... Kate’s grandmother?”

“We were inseparable,” Lottie said with a wistful smile. “She was my best friend right up until the end.