When she had finished showering, she put on the house robe she kept hanging on the back of the bathroom door and then opened the door to be startled by Bette.

“I’ll go down stairs and use my aunt’s bathroom.  Sorry,” Bette said solemnly.

“No, it’s fine.  I’m done.  Go ahead.  I need to go get breakfast started and Miriam up before I need back in here,” Tina said moving aside, not making eye contact. She hurried downstairs cursing herself for not telling Bette right then she was sorry for last night.

After rousing Miriam up, helping her into the shower and setting out her church clothes, Tina returned to the kitchen.  Miriam had said nothing to her yet about the screaming fight she had witnessed last night, but Tina knew that the woman would invariably say something, perhaps after church.

In the kitchen, Tina made the muffins and set out the bacon and eggs for frying.  Then she began shredding potatoes for hash browns. After a few minutes she was greeted by a yawning and sleepy Coleman.

“Good morning, Tina.  Wow, I’m exhausted.  May I?” he asked indicating the coffee.

“Help yourself.”  She continued to work on the potatoes and ignored him.

But Coleman was curious and so after pouring himself a cup of coffee, he leaned on the counter and watched the young blonde preparing breakfast in her bare feet, robe, and damp hair.

“So you and Bette go back a long time, I hear,” he said sipping his coffee.

“I suppose.”

“How nice the two of you will have a couple of weeks to catch up,” he said.

Tina ignored the comment.

“She likes to dance,” he said, and he waited to see Tina’s reaction, but there was none.  So he continued, “I don’t know if there’s any place around here you could take her, but I know a club up in Nashville you could try.  You look old enough to get in and I’m sure with Bette’s fake ID, that you’d both get entry.  It’s worth a try.”

Tina stopped what she was doing and studied the young man.  Last night at dinner Bette had told her that he was not her boyfriend, and now she wondered if that were true.