Small Town Rumors(88)

All three of them went back to the front part of the store and took their seats again. Lettie took her place on the sofa and removed the cover from the food. Nadine pushed the mugs around to the right places. Jennie Sue set the plates on the small table.

“Do you love that boy?” Lettie asked.

Nadine dug into the food first. “She slept with him, didn’t she?”

Lettie tucked her chin against her chest and looked over the top of her glasses at her sister. “Did you ever spend the night with a guy you didn’t love?”

“More than once,” Nadine said. “Sometimes it involved liquor, and sometimes it was just plain old lust. You want to talk about Everett Johnson?”

Lettie adjusted her glasses. “Maybe not Everett, but we could discuss his johnson.”

“Lettie Clifford!” Nadine gasped.

“Well, you brought it up,” Lettie argued, and then started laughing. Jennie Sue joined her.

Nadine slapped her on the arm. “Did you really have sex with Everett? Why? You never did like him.”

“Liking him didn’t have anything to do with it. I had a one-night stand with Everett to make Flora mad. She’d been trying to get him to ask her out for years, and he wouldn’t. I didn’t feel like I was as pretty as her, but then one thing led to another.” Lettie shrugged.

“Why would you want to make your sister mad?” Jennie Sue asked, glad that the subject had shifted away from where she’d slept the night before.

“She borrowed my earrings without asking, and that night, she said that I was too ugly to ever get a guy,” Lettie answered. “Here comes Amos. I swear, that man can smell food a mile away.”

“Especially homemade. You could flirt with him. He likes to eat and you like to cook. Y’all would make a good couple,” Nadine whispered.

“Sorry, but his last name isn’t Johnson,” Lettie told her as the bell above the door sounded. “Hello, Amos. Had breakfast yet? We’ve got plenty. Go get a plate from the office.”

“Nope, I haven’t, and yes, I would love to join y’all.” He removed his hat and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “I was down at the café this mornin’, and I heard that you had a baby last year. I came to say that I’m sorry. If I’d known, we would have come to the funeral,” Amos said.

Jennie Sue stood up and hugged him. “Thank you, Amos.”

“Bless your heart. Losin’ your sweet little baby and then your parents all within a year. It’s got to be tough, but we’re here for you.” He motioned to include Lettie and Nadine. “You just call us if you need anything.”

“You got that right.” Lettie nodded.

“I love every one of you,” Jennie Sue said.

“And we love you, girl.” Amos hurried off to the office and returned with a plate and coffee. “I heard that you’re buyin’ the property behind the Lawson farm. I’m glad you are stayin’ close to home.”

Home.

Mabel often said that home was where the heart was. If that was the case, Jennie Sue really was staying close to home, because her heart was right there in Bloom.

“And guess what else?” Amos went on as he piled his plate full. “I heard that Texas Red is buying Baker Oil and your house, too, for the new CEO they’re bringin’ in. Is that rumor or truth?”

“Truth.” Jennie Sue winked at Lettie.

“Man, that is some fast business,” Amos said.

Jennie Sue finished her food and put the trash in the can. She imagined her mother shaking her finger at her all the way from heaven, scolding her for all the calories and fat grams.

“It’s not really so fast,” Nadine said. “I’m sure it will take a few months to get all the paperwork in order. This isn’t like selling a few bushels of beans at the farmers’ market.”

“Or a failing bookstore?” Amos glanced up at Jennie Sue.

“It’ll be a thriving one before long. Please tell me that you didn’t come in here to say you’d changed your mind.” Jennie Sue sure didn’t want to tell Cricket that she had to take back the offer of partnership.

“No way.” He picked up another biscuit. “I drove past and saw that you’d put some nice stuff in the windows. Iris used to do that. And then I saw Nadine and Lettie out there on the sidewalk with what looked like food. I never miss an opportunity to partake of their cookin’. Reminds me of Iris’s.”

Jennie Sue wondered if Rick would ever say that about her. Would the time come when they were both old and gray and he’d still get a look of love in his eyes? Or was this just a passing fancy for both of them?

A sudden pang of jealousy shot through her at the idea of him having a wife and children that she’d have to see every day when she drove home from work. Maybe this big notion of buying land joining his property wasn’t such a good idea after all.



Rick was glad that Cricket had finally gotten a walking boot, but he was even happier to hear that she could go back to work part-time if her job did not require her to stand. Unlike him, she’d never liked staying at home all day. She needed to be around people and was cranky when she was cooped up even over a weekend.

“I like this new Rick,” Cricket said while they waited for their food order. “He reminds me a lot of the Rick I knew before the military got ahold of him.”