“Well, you are,” Nadine said in an icy tone. “Go rushin’ around like a madwoman just because I decided to do something on my own and come see my friend Jennie Sue. Maybe I wanted to talk about you and didn’t want you here.”
Jennie Sue went to Amos’s office, found a stack of disposable red plastic cups, and filled three with ice cubes and sweet tea. They were still arguing when she made it back to the front of the store and handed off one to each of them.
“Sit down and talk to us. My heart is pumping so hard it’s goin’ to break a rib. I swear, Nadine, I ought to shake the shit out of you for scaring us like this,” Lettie fussed.
Jennie Sue glanced longingly at the shelves, but these two old girls needed her. She eased down in a chair across from them. “Let’s catch our breath and let the adrenaline settle before we go shaking anyone.”
Lettie leaned her head back and put a hand over her eyes. “My blood pressure is at stroke level.”
“It’s all that fat around your heart that’s making it go high today,” Nadine said sarcastically.
Lettie sat up straight and glared at Nadine. “Bullshit! It’s havin’ a crazy sister.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” Jennie Sue said quickly. “I’m rearranging the store so the customers can find what they want easier. Amos told me to do whatever I want, and it could create more sales.”
“That’s nice. We heard you told the doctor Cricket was your sister. Did she try to scratch your eyes right out of your head? You know she hates you, don’t you?” Nadine downed half her tea and said, “It’s tough to hate your sister, right, Lettie?”
“Don’t ask me that right now. I wouldn’t have a bit of trouble scratching her eyes out,” Lettie yelled, winding back up.
“Then I’d be blind and I might really hit the storefront.” Nadine slapped Lettie on the arm.
Lettie slapped her back. “You don’t get to talk right now.” Then she turned her attention back to Jennie Sue. “We also heard you were out there at the farm until late.”
“I’m going out there every evening to help get in the crops and make supper for them. I get to eat for free, and they get a cook and a field hand. Sounded like a good deal to me.” She stood up and went back to working on the books. “And Cricket and I’ve decided to be civil friends. Emphasis on being civil. I told the lady at the hospital I was her sister just so I could get past the doors into the place where she was.”
“You’re hoping to change Cricket’s mind, aren’t you?” Lettie asked.
“We’re your friends, but she probably won’t never be anything more than this civil-friend thing you said. Sounds kind of crazy to me,” Nadine said.
“Not really. We’re kind of civil friends with Charlotte. We speak when we have to, don’t we?” Lettie said.
“Well, I’m not so sure that Cricket can even do that much with Jennie Sue. She’s stubborn like Rick. You know that man ain’t set foot in church since he got home?”
“Well, I haven’t been in church since I married Percy. God hasn’t struck me dead yet.”
Lettie laughed out loud. “You are so much like your grandma Baker. She had a wonderful sense of humor. I liked her almost as much as I didn’t like your other great-grandma for takin’ Gene away from Flora.”
“Lettie! You don’t need to be draggin’ them old bones out of the closet again.” Nadine shot a dirty look her way.
“It’s okay. Daddy told me the story at lunch yesterday. Did y’all realize that my mama will be fifty this year? No wonder she’s havin’ such a meltdown. She’s too beautiful to get old.” She carried a box through the store, searching for more romance books.
“Charlotte always was gorgeous. You know what she should do? She should start a beauty-treatment business for girls like Cricket,” Nadine said.
“There’s nothing wrong with Cricket. Some of us are just fluffier than you skinny broads,” Lettie huffed. “What Charlotte needs to do is accept age gracefully.”
“Like you do with that jet-black hair,” Nadine snorted.
“Don’t you start on my hair, and I won’t say a word about your flat chest,” Lettie shot back.
Life was so much fun in Bloom, Texas. Jennie Sue wondered why she’d ever left in the first place. Oh, yes, it had something to do with her mother paying a down-on-his-luck diamond dealer to woo her—did they even use that word anymore? If not, they should, because it was as outdated as a dowry.
She could hear the sisters arguing in the background, but she let her mind wander. Did Percy ever love her? Would it have even made him sad to know that their child had been stillborn? Or would he have been relieved not to have to pay child support?
“Poor Cricket.” Nadine clucked like an old hen gathering in her chicks. “She’s always been one of them girls who like to be out in the middle of things, not stuck in the house with her foot propped up.”
“We’ll have to go out and visit with her tomorrow afternoon,” Lettie said.
Nadine sipped at her tea. “Take notes.”
“Notes?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Honey, at our age, we might forget an important little bit of news, so we’ll take notes between now and tomorrow about everything we hear,” Lettie explained.
“You mean gossip?”
“It’s one and the same,” Lettie and Nadine said in unison.
“So now, what’s going on with you and Rick?” Nadine leaned forward like she was sharing a secret.
“As in?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Do you like him? Does he like you? Are you going out on a date?” Lettie asked.
“Slow down. Yes, I like Rick as a friend. I don’t know if he likes me, and we are definitely not dating. I’ve only been home a week. That would be moving too fast,” Jennie Sue answered.
Nadine clapped her hands. “You lost. You owe me two dollars.”
Lettie pulled two rumpled dollar bills from her purse. “I’ll win it back by the end of the day.”
“Maybe so, but it’s mine now.”
“Is that real money?” Jennie Sue asked.
“We got about ten of them dollars, and that’s our rumor money. We been using the same bills for up near fifty years now,” Lettie answered.
Jennie Sue dropped the two books in her hands. “You’re kiddin’ me, right?”
“Truth.” Lettie held up two fingers. “Swear it on my mama’s Bible. We wouldn’t lie to our friend.”
“So I’m your friend even though you’ve been feuding with the Wilshires for all these years?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Honey, you are a Baker and we loved your grandma Vera, so yes, you are our friend.”
“And since you are our friend”—Nadine lowered her voice to a whisper—“when the aliens do figure out a way to get into our business because of that fancy phone you have, we’ll protect you. I got a concrete cellar full of canned vegetables and fruit. Got two old bunk beds down there, too, and a thousand rounds of ammo to go with my guns. I reckon we can hold ’em off for a little while.”
“Thank you. That eases my fears.” Jennie Sue stopped what she was doing and gave them both a hug.
Even though Rick usually avoided mirrors like the plague, especially when he wasn’t wearing a shirt, that morning after his shower he stood in front of one and let the memories of that day rush over him. He and the rest of the Rangers had gotten the mission plan and packed their gear. They were all as superstitious as baseball players and had their own special routines. Rick’s was that he had to put all his gear into his go bag and take it out three times to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Then he had to zip it, unzip it, and then zip it one more time. After that, he’d check his guns and count the ammo twice. Finally, he’d kiss his dog tags, and then he was ready to go.
He’d done it all that morning, but his mind had been on his dad. He and Cricket had talked on FaceTime the night before, and she’d told him that their father was running out of steam early in the afternoon. The man had worked his whole life in the fields—he was as strong as a bull—so it was a big thing when he couldn’t go all day anymore. They found out that he had cancer the same week that Rick lay unconscious in a hospital.