Small Town Rumors(41)

Cricket slowly shook her head. “That recipe is in the church cookbook now. They were homemade. I loved the ones that your mama sent to the class. Those ones from the bakery looked so pretty. My mama’s were so plain.”

“But they tasted so much better than the bought ones. Think we’ll ever be able to be friends?”

Another shake of the head. “Probably not, but I don’t dislike you as much as I did last week.”

“I guess that’s a step in the right direction,” Jennie Sue said.

“Rick says that I’m too blunt.”

“He’s right,” Jennie Sue agreed. “But then there is an upside to that. A person knows where they stand with you.”

“Do you always have to say something positive? It makes it real hard to hate you,” Cricket sighed.

Before Jennie Sue could answer, Amos backed through the front door with a brown bag. “After we eat, I’m going to drive over to Abilene and visit my brother the rest of today and tonight. I’ll leave the keys on the counter, Jennie Sue, so you can lock up and open up in the morning,” Amos said. “I’m likin’ having someone three days a week. Gives me time to enjoy retirement.”

Retirement was something in the far future for Jennie Sue, and only if she could find a job that paid well with good benefits. But change happened and couldn’t be helped.



With wet dirt clinging to her feet that evening after supper, Jennie Sue picked green beans from vines that Rick had trained up a trellis. A hot breeze ruffled the leaves on the cornstalks, and carried Rick’s humming to her ears. Then suddenly the stalks parted and his face appeared about three feet away.

The setting sun lit up the scar on his jaw, and his hand went to it when he caught her staring.

“It’s ugly, I know,” he said.

“I don’t think so.” She took a step forward and touched it.

“Well, you are probably the only one who thinks that way.” He stepped out and sat down on a narrow strip of dirt separating the beans and corn. “Let’s take a little break. My basket is full and yours is almost overflowing.”

She sat down beside him. “Did you hate coming back here to farm?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Surely there was something else,” she said.

“Maybe being a security guard, but even that was iffy with this limp. What about you, Jennie Sue? What are you doing back here?”

“Trying to talk my dad into giving me a job at the company, but I’m not having much luck. Whatever happened ended your career, right?” she asked.

His eyes remained fixed somewhere out there near the sunset. “Yes, it did. I was treated, discharged, and released. I’ve questioned God for letting that happen to me. Twenty more steps and I’d have been in the helicopter and safe with the rest of the team. But half a step back and I would have been sent home in pieces.” He still focused on something far away.

“I’ve done the same thing, but we both know that it’s not God’s fault. We just needed someone to blame.” She wondered if he was seeing the whole thing again, reliving it, probably not for the first time.

Rick jerked his head around to look at her. “What are you blaming him for?”

“Letting me be sold off like a bag of chicken feed, for one thing.”

“What?” Rick frowned.

She told him what her father had told her about Percy and the dowry. “No one knows that, so I’d rather you kept it a secret. It makes me feel cheap and dirty.”

Rick reached across the distance and laid a hand on her shoulder. There was that chemistry—electricity, vibes, or whatever folks called it—again.

“You should never feel like that, Jennie Sue.” His drawl softened. “You are an amazing woman any guy would be lucky to have beside him. Percy should be shot.”

“I really don’t care anymore. I’m pretty much indifferent to him. If they catch him, then he can pay the consequences. If they don’t, then he’ll be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life,” she said.

“So have you forgiven your mother?”

“Not yet, but I’m workin’ on it. If I can’t forgive her, then it’ll sit on my heart the rest of my life. I don’t want anyone, not even my mother, to have that kind of power over me.” She covered his hand with hers. “I’m glad you survived.”

“Well, I’m glad that I survived, too.” He nodded. “Because I get to sit in this garden with you, and we can be friends.” He cocked his head to one side. “What do you really want in life, Jennie Sue?”

“Right now? Tomorrow or five years down the road?” she answered with more questions.

“All of the above,” Rick answered.

“Right now, to see if Cricket will snap beans tomorrow at the bookstore. We could sell them in quart bags to whoever comes into the store, and it would make her feel productive. Tomorrow—to phone my mother. Five years down the road? That’s too far to think about. What about you?”

“I want a family someday. No hurry, but that’s my long-term goal,” he said.

“Me, too.” She glanced his way to find him staring out across the fields again. She tried to imagine where the rest of his scars were but could only see him as a perfect man in her mind.