“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.”
“Oh, yeah?” He picked up the sack of food and carried it out to the truck. “Well, this new Rick feels more like he did then.”
“Think we could shoot the other one if he shows his sorry face again?”
“Probably not. You could wind up killin’ the wrong one. You’ve never been very good with guns. Seriously, sis, I’m happy right now. It proves that I don’t have to fear happiness and that even with my scars, I’m not repulsive. For that I will always appreciate Jennie Sue.”
Cricket reached over and patted him on the arm. “You are not repulsive, but I had no idea that you’d had that on your mind. Can you live with her having more money than God?”
“God doesn’t have money. Why would He need dollars and dimes when He has streets of gold?” Rick asked. “I might always struggle with that. I can’t think of a better world than a wife who owns a bookstore, and the rest I just won’t think about.”
“Wife? So things have gotten that serious?” Cricket asked with wide eyes.
“It could be going in that direction,” he answered.
“Promise me one thing,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“You won’t name your first child after me.”
“If that ever did happen, it’s a long way down the road. I wouldn’t worry about it.” He drove into Bloom and parked in front of the bookstore.
“Come and see what I got,” Cricket called out when the little bell at the top of the door announced their arrival.
Jennie Sue appeared from the end of the children’s books. “Well, would you look at that? A walkin’ boot that you can kick your brother with if he gets in another pissy mood.”
“Come on now. Don’t give the man grief that brought the food.”
She looked over Cricket’s shoulder into Rick’s eyes. The world shifted in that moment back into the rightness it had contained before he got hurt.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jennie Sue and her parents had seldom gone to church when she was growing up. Dill called them CEO Christians—Christmas and Easter Only. That was when her mother dressed her up in fancy clothes and took her to Sweetwater, where the Belles all met at the same big church for the holidays. Afterward, someone would host a fancy dinner—which meant sitting up straight and not spilling anything on her dress.
She had a whole different spirit that Sunday morning, sitting on the pew with Lettie, Nadine, Amos, and Rick lined up on her right and Cricket on her left. She wore a sundress that she’d found at the house when she and Cricket had cleaned out her closet.
“Good morning,” the preacher said. “Welcome to everyone. Let’s all open our hymnals to page 204 and sing, ‘I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.’” The lyrics spoke to Jennie Sue’s heart so much that tears formed in her eyes. She fished in her purse for a tissue and dabbed her eyes. It had been a tough two weeks since the plane crash. The tombstones would be delivered the next day.
Rick’s arm circled around her shoulders and pulled her close as he sang in a rich baritone voice that every step was getting brighter and every cloud was silver lined. It had been a bittersweet time for Jennie Sue—losing her parents had been devastating, but gaining all the new relationships had been sweet. She truly knew what it was to see the silver lining in a dark cloud. She slipped her hand in his and whispered, “I’m glad that you are holding my hand.”