Deconstructed(45)

My mother sighed heavily and opened her mouth to say something more, but Gran held up a finger. “It’s my birthday, Leta. Let’s be nice to each other.”

My mother snapped her mouth closed and rolled her eyes.

Gran distracted everyone by lifting my gift, and it seemed to work, because all eyes went to the small package in her hands. My grandmother took her time, sliding the tape loose with her long nails. She carefully folded the flowered paper as if she might use it again and shimmied the box open. “Oh, lookee here. These are just like the ones your pap got me in Cancún!”

“I felt like I owed you these,” I said, grateful for my grandmother for so much, though most recently for getting my mother’s attention off me. “I found them in the store where I work.”

“You didn’t owe me a thing, but I love them. I’m wearing them to church tomorrow.” Gran carefully put the lid on the box and leaned over to plop a kiss on my cheek. She smelled like coffee and Estée Lauder, and I was sucked back to my childhood in an instant. I closed my eyes briefly and pretended that the water under the bridges I had burned wasn’t so raging.

At that moment Ed Earl wandered over. “Hey there, Roo.”

I glanced up and gave him a frosty look before looking back at Gran and Aunt Jean. I wasn’t talking to him.

“Go on now, Ed Earl,” Gran said, shooting him a warning glance. “You got burgers to grill.”

“I want to talk to Ruby Lynn. We have some things to say,” my uncle insisted, jabbing the spatula in his hand in my direction.

Ed Earl was the meanest of my gran’s five kids. She sometimes joked that she’d dropped him on his head more than a few times as a child, and it hadn’t made him stupid—it had made him mad, and it had stuck. There had been many a time that Gran had said she was done with him, but the woman couldn’t help herself from letting him back into the fold. She loved him in spite of his shortcomings and illegal doings, especially since he’d given her three grandbabies to love. My three male cousins were apples that had not dropped far from the tree, but a grandmother’s love was shade enough for rotten fruit.

“Ed, it’s my birthday, and I don’t want no fuss. Got it?” Gran jabbed a finger at Ed Earl.

“I’m not fussin’, Ma. Just need to talk to Roo.”

I didn’t want to talk to my uncle. There wasn’t anything to say. I would never forgive him for taking two years of my life. “I have nothing to say.”

Standing, I threw Ed Earl my best “Go straight to hell” look and moved toward the table holding platters of chicken wings, bowls of slaw, potato salad, and fluffy fruit salads made with JELL-O and Cool Whip. I took a plate, even though I wasn’t hungry, because it was something to do and would maybe keep my relatives from trying to talk to me.

But no one in my family ever took a hint.

“Hey, Roo,” said my uncle Jimbo as he slopped a huge serving of baked beans on his plate. “Madison made these.”

“Who’s Madison?”

“Mikey’s girlfriend. She’s real nice. They’re having a baby in the fall.” Jimbo pointed over toward a girl who stood beside Ed Earl’s youngest son. Madison wore shorty shorts, a tank top with something glittery, and too much makeup. She kept glancing over at the side yard, looking nothing like a happy mother-to-be. I tried to angle my head to see who she was looking at but couldn’t get a good look.

“Oh. Good for them, then.” I didn’t want to make small talk. At this point, I wished I hadn’t come. I could probably go ahead and slip out. Gran had her gift, I had made an appearance, and I truly needed a little time with my hair in order to look good for the gala later that night. I would wait for Gran to blow out the candles, and then I would skedaddle.

Jimbo took a bite of beans right over the table, dropping one on his oversize Salt Life T-shirt. He smudged it with a napkin, picking off the bean and popping it into his mouth. Jimbo was the only one of Gran’s kids who had remained single. He’d had some girlfriends here and there, but they never managed to stick. Eating beans off his shirt might have explained that. He smacked a few times in satisfaction and then leveled me with a stare. “You know, you really should talk to Ed Earl. He needs to say his piece.”

“And you need to mind your own business, Jimbo. If he wanted to say his piece, he could have said it to the judge over two years ago when I was being unfairly accused.”

“You could have told them where you got the stuff. You didn’t.”

Yeah, I could have. I had kept my mouth shut during my arrest and trial when I should have squealed like a piggy. Ed Earl and his stupid ring of drug dealers would have gone to prison, and I would have gotten slapped with probation for being a rat. And it’s not like I hadn’t wanted to send my deserving uncle up the river. I had. But Gran might have gone down, too. Ed Earl and some other lowlifes had been making meth in her old trailer on land she owned. He’d even stored the meth in Gran’s outside freezer and given her tainted money, making her an accessory. As much as I wanted to nail my uncle, I couldn’t put Gran at risk. So I became the sacrificial lamb, just as my uncle had intended. He knew I wouldn’t talk and that I wouldn’t get much time for the crime. His selfishness knew no bounds, but according to Juke, he’d gotten enough of a warning from some guys in a cartel that he’d ceased his operations. So at least he’d gotten out of the game.