“Not here in the house. Here in the county,” I said. “She’s with the carnival over at Dobbs.”

“Yeah?”

“You heard about the young man that was killed over there last night?”

Andrew nodded.

“That was your grandson, Andrew.”

“The hell you say, Deb’rah!”

“Watch your tongue,” Daddy said mildly. He never likes it when the boys use language around me.

“Well, tell her to watch hers.” His jaws were tight with anger. “Olivia ain’t mine! How many times I got to tell y’all that Carol gave it out to every guy in three counties?”

“You can tell it till you’re blue in the face,” I said, “but it won’t change the fact that you’re the one got tagged fair and square. She’s yours, kid.”

“And how would you know? You won’t even born then.”

“Because Mother said so, remember? She was so sure that she took you over to the Hatcher farm right after you and Lois were married, but Carol had gone off with Olivia again.”

“You were just a baby,” he said. “How could you know that?”

“I told you. Mother said so. Just before she died, she told me all about it. Besides, I’ve seen her, Andrew. I’ve talked to her. She looks more like you than A.K. or Ruth.”

“What’s she doing back here?”

“Right now, she’s part owner of the carnival, but she did wind up getting the old Hatcher place and she and her husband have been fixing up the house.”

“So what does she want?”

He was radiating so much resentment and suspicion that I wanted to slap him for his self-centeredness.

“From you? Not a d—” I caught myself just in time. Much as Daddy doesn’t like anybody cussing in front of me, he likes it even less when I cuss. “Not a blessed thing, Andrew. Just put her out of your head and don’t give another thought to what kind of a life you let your daughter have and what she’s going through right now.”

I turned back to Daddy. “Her boy’s dead and she wants to bury him at the homeplace.”

He looked at Andrew and his voice was courteous. “That all right with you, son?”

Andrew stood up, jammed his John Deere ball cap back on his head, and pushed open the screen door. “Do what you think you need to, Daddy. You and Deb’rah both, since it looks like y’all’ve adopted her. Just keep me and my family out of it, okay? Them carnival tramps is nothing to do with me or mine and that’s how I aim to keep it.”

“She’s no tramp,” I called to his retreating back. “And you tell April or I’ll do it for you.”

He never looked around, just got into his truck and drove off with a great spray of dirt.

I guess I must have given an involuntary sigh because Daddy reached out and patted my hand.

“Don’t let him get under your skin, shug. He’s got to huff and blow about it awhile, but he’ll come ‘round. Don’t forget, he did try’n do the right thing back then.” He cut his eyes at me. “Just the way you did with Allen Stancil.”