Buried In Buttercream

luxury. Even if that roommate was Dirk.
    Savannah emerged from her closet just as Granny was scooping up one adorable seven-year-old in each arm and kissing them soundly on their cheeks. “We already talked about this,” she was telling them. “I told you, when Auntie came to bed, you two were going onto the pallets, like we agreed.”
    “We don’t wanna sleep on the floor,” Jillian whined. “We wanna sleep with Auntie. She’s warm and soft, like a big cushy pillow.”
    Granny set the oldest twins onto the floor first, then reached for the younger ones.
    “No. Bogeyman bite me!” Wendy wailed as she lifted her pudgy baby feet high, avoiding the bedroom floor as if it were studded with red-hot spikes.
    “No bogeyman is gonna bite anybody while I’m around,” Gran said, setting the youngster on the pile of soft quilts and comforters. “If you see hide or hair of him, you just let me know. I’ll bite him .”
    “On the heinie?” Jack wanted to know.
    “I’ll bite him on whatever’s handy,” Granny assured him. “Now you younguns cuddle down there and get quiet. I don’t wanna hear nothin’ more outta any of y’all, except some serious snoring.”
    Savannah marveled at how quickly they obeyed and how deliciously, deceptively angelic they looked as they snuggled close together, like a litter of puppies, under the tulip quilt that Gran had made so many years before.
    Savannah could recall sleeping under that quilt herself when she had been about that age.
    Some of the colors might have faded a bit, and a few of the ribbons had come untied, but it was all the more precious for the passing years. And it warmed her heart to see the next generation cuddling under it as she and her sisters and brothers had before.
    “Can the kitties sleep with us?” Jillian asked.
    Savannah lifted Diamante and Cleopatra off the bed and deposited them in the middle of the squirming brood. She could tell by the baleful looks the cats gave her that they wouldn’t be lingering long. Hopefully, at least until the kiddos were snoozing.
    Savannah tweaked one of Jack’s curls. “If you mistreat those cats, boy, I’ll jerk a knot in your tail. Maybe two knots. You hear?”
    He nodded with a devilish grin.
    It wasn’t a “promise” that she put a lot of stock in.
    As Granny turned out the nightstand lamp, Savannah carefully set the tiny wedding cake figurines, side by side, on her dresser, then climbed into bed next to her grandmother. And even though it was lovely to be able to sleep alone after so many years of sharing everything, including her bed, Savannah had to admit it was comforting to be enveloped in a loved one’s warmth and their endearing scent.
    Gran’s had always been the fresh-scrubbed fragrance of bath soap, hand lotion, and rose-scented talcum powder. It was a smell that always made Savannah feel safe and loved.
    “Tough day for you, huh, snookums?” Gran said as she reached over and grasped Savannah’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
    “Not one of my best,” Savannah admitted. “But I guess all’s well that ends well. We caught the guy and, last I heard, the fire department’s got the blaze eighty percent under control. Most importantly, nobody got hurt.”
    “Maybe nobody got burned, but you were hurt. And your Dirk, too.”
    Savannah fought back some tears that stung at the backs of her eyes. “I’m trying to be brave here, Gran. You aren’t helping.”
    “There’s bravery in honesty, too. A great harm was done to you today, Savannah girl. No point in denying or sugar-coating it.”
    Savannah allowed the tears to flow. “It’s true. I was really looking forward to today. It took Dirk and me a long time to get to this day. I believed that by tonight, it’d all be done with, and we’d be starting our new lives together.”
    “Not exactly how you’d imagined your wedding day to be, back when you were a little tike, parading around the house with my white pillowcase on your head, holding a handful of dandelions, huh?”
    Savannah laughed through her tears at the memory. “That’s for sure.” She sniffed and wiped the drops off her cheeks before they rolled into her ears. “And that may be what I’ll wind up wearing ... and carrying.”
    “It was pretty bad timing, that fire roaring over the hill just as we’d got everything delivered to the community center there.”
    “Thank heavens the caterer hadn’t dropped off the food yet.”
    They both giggled. In the Reid clan, it