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somethin’.”
    He returned my smile. “My pleasure.”
    We walked in silence for a good quarter mile, and that was just fine with me because it wasn’t the awkward silence we’d discovered last night. It was the same comfortable quiet we’d shared over the years, the one I treasured because only weshared it. Luke and I could enjoy each other as much quiet as we could talking.
    As we neared the Hadleys’, Luke let out a long, low whistle. “Take a look at all them automobiles. Must be some party.”
    “Usually is at the Hadleys’.”
    “Will you take a gander at that blue one?” Luke said in awe. “That’s like somethin’ out of a magazine.”
    “Don’t get so close to it,” I scolded as he leaned down to peer inside. “You’ll get smudges on it or somethin’. The thing’s clean as a whistle.”
    Luke spent the whole walk up to the house gazing at one automobile after another. It was true we didn’t see too many automobiles in Calloway, Virginia, much less shiny nice ones. But the Hadleys had brought high society to our part of the world. The only reason they were here at all, we figured, was because Mr. Hadley owned a bank and a paper mill that he wanted to be nearby to oversee.
    Despite the fact that I thought their house was amazing, I wasn’t too impressed by the family. They all seemed haughty and proud, and that paper mill had stunk up all of the east side of the county.
    Luke took a sweeping look at the house. “Swanky stuff.”
    “That’s rich folks for you.”
    We went to the back of the house, because the country folk certainly weren’t welcome at the front door during parties, and rapped at the door.
    “What you want?” someone yelled from inside. “You askin’ for scraps, you come to the wrong place. Get on with you!”
    “No, Miss Taffy. It’s Jessilyn Lassiter,” I called through the screen door. “You know, Gemma’s friend.”
    The heavyset colored woman walked to the door and looked sideways at me, her hand set on her hip. “Jessilyn Lassiter,” she repeated. “You taller these days?”
    I shook my head slowly. “Ain’t grown much in the two weeks since I seen you last . . . that I know of.”
    “Uh-huh . . .” She studied Luke with one eyebrow cocked. “Who’s that? Your daddy?”
    Luke’s head shot around when he heard that.
    I stifled a giggle. “No, ma’am, Miss Taffy. That’s not my daddy. That’s Luke Talley. He’s a friend of ours, come to make sure me and Gemma get home safe.”
    “Well, you needin’ Gemma now?”
    “We just figured she’d be through, so we’d walk her home.”
    She stared at Luke for a few seconds more, making him squirm a bit, and then turned away from us. “I’ll give a holler out for her. But I ain’t promisin’ I’ll find her right off, and I’m too busy to go lookin’ for her.”
    “Yes’m.”
    I glanced at Luke and grinned widely at his flushed cheeks.
    “What’s she starin’ at me for?” he asked.
    “Maybe she thinks you look suspicious.”
    “Ain’t nothin’ suspicious about this face,” he argued. “I’m as innocent as the day is long.”
    “I know it. Don’t need to argue the point with me none . . . Daddy.”
    “Very funny!” he snapped. “Who does she think she is? Callin’ me your daddy? I don’t look old enough to be nobody’s daddy.”
    “Ain’t me who said it,” I said with a laugh. “What’re you arguin’ with me about?”
    “I’m just sayin’, is all,” he grumbled. “Callin’ me your daddy. That’s crazy talk!”
    “She certainly got your dander up.”
    “Well, she’s got nerve, is all I’m sayin’. And then she goes eyein’ me like I was here to steal china and silver or somethin’. . . .”
    Luke shut up quickly because the woman came back and shook her head at us. “She ain’t around here, seems. She might be out gettin’ things from the summerhouse, but I ain’t got time to go checkin’ around for her.”
    “Can we go see if she’s there