Small Town Rumors(75)

“Go on.” Nadine crossed forks with Lettie’s when she tried to get a bite of the shrimp cocktail. “You can have that chicken stuff. I like this better.”

“Too bad. I’m having at least one bite of the shrimp,” Lettie said. “Now tell us, who all was there, and what did they talk about?”

“I didn’t know a lot of them, but . . .” Cricket went on to talk about the party atmosphere, and what all she’d heard while everyone there ignored her.

“Where’s Rick and Jennie Sue now?” Nadine asked.

“At the farm. They took a picnic to the creek. Jennie Sue said bein’ there calms her down.”

“Her granny Baker was a farm girl,” Lettie said with a bob of her head. “So what’s going to happen to the oil company? Is she going to run it?”

“Not a word can be said outside this room.” Cricket went on to tell them what Jennie Sue planned to do.

“Bless her darlin’ heart.” Nadine wiped a tear from her cheek. “That she’s thinkin’ of doin’ something like that for Mabel shows that her heart is in the right place.”

“And what’s she going to do with all that money if she does sell it all?” Lettie asked.

“She says that she has a plan. I don’t think she’d go back to New York, but she might go to one of those third-world countries and help the women and children by building clinics and schools,” Cricket answered.

Lettie set her mouth in a firm line. “What are you going to do if she asks you and Rick to go with her?”

Both of Cricket’s palms shot up. “No, no, no! I’m not cut out for a clinic in a third-world country. I can’t even look when the doctor has to give me a shot, and I’m sure not smart enough to teach if she decided to build a school or something like that.”

“What if Rick goes with her?” Lettie asked. “He seems to be pretty struck with her.”

“Then I guess I’ll hire a good-lookin’ feller to help me run the farm.” Cricket winked. “And maybe he’ll like women who are curvy instead of skinny as a rail, and we’ll get married and have lots of babies.”

“Sounds like a book I just finished. Someone left it in my lending library out in front of the house. You should read it, Cricket. You might get some bedroom pointers. It gets pretty damn hot in places. I got hot flashes so bad I almost called Lettie to bring me one of her pills.”

“I ain’t had a hot flash in years”—Lettie popped her on the knee—“but I would like to read that book to see what one feels like.”

“You’ll have to get in line,” Cricket said.





Chapter Twenty

It’s not a memorial. It’s just a gathering of friends. These are the people who didn’t get to come to the one with the Belles and the other folks. We want to be there for you,” Lettie said.

“Promise you won’t go to a lot of trouble,” Jennie Sue said.

“We promise,” Nadine told her. “You get a good night’s rest up and sleep in as long as you like. It’s just Amos, the Lawsons, us, and maybe the preacher if he hasn’t made other plans. That’s all.”

“Okay.” Jennie Sue nodded even though she really would rather have spent the afternoon at the farm with Rick.

“So how did the picnic at the creek go?” Lettie asked.

“It was amazing. So peaceful.”

“We’d like a few more details than that,” Nadine pressed her.

“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.” Jennie Sue grinned.

“So there was kissin’?” Lettie popped the footrest down on her recliner and leaned forward.

“A couple of times, but that’s all. He took a quilt from the house, and we had lunch, a long nap, a few kisses, and then we gathered in the garden stuff,” she said.

Lettie put the footrest back up. “If I’d gotten a feller that handsome out by a creek on a summer mornin’ at your age, I believe I could’ve done better than that.”

“You always have to dredge up the memories,” Nadine told her. “So you like him for more than a friend?”

“I do, but this whole relationship thing is pretty new, so I’m afraid if I talk about it, I’ll jinx it for sure. Right now, I’m going to take what I brought from the house up to the apartment and unpack it. I may need y’all to help me when it’s time to go back out there and go through personal things,” she said.

“Anytime,” Nadine said. “We’re here for you, and I’m sure Mabel is, too.”

Jennie Sue stood up from the sofa and glanced around the small living room. She liked a small house so much better than that huge thing out there in the country. When she built her own place, it was going to be just a house, maybe with a creek running close by. “Good night, ladies. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, and thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“It’s been our pleasure, darlin’,” Nadine said.

Lettie nodded in agreement. “If you need anything or can’t sleep tonight, you just call me, and we’ll get out the cards or dominoes.”

“If you do that, y’all better come and get me,” Nadine fussed.

“Sure thing.” Jennie Sue waved goodbye, knowing that if she couldn’t sleep, she’d call Rick before she called anyone.