by Josie Kerr
“You contested the will, Candy, and the courts determined that you, in fact, do not deserve any of the money. Now, you can try again, but—”
Candy leapt out of her chair and got in Tobias’s face. “Try again with what, Toby?” she spat. “I’m broke! I’ve had to move back in with Mama!”
Tobias shrugged. “Not my problem, Candy. Maybe you should have been nicer to him when he was dying, instead of abandoning him as soon as things got rough. You know if you had continued to kiss his ass for eighteen months, you would have been sitting pretty. Hell, he would have probably even really married you.” Tobias opened his eyes wide and sat up straight. “Oh my God, I know how you can solve all your money issues: get a fucking job!”
“I hate you, Tobias Harper.”
“I don’t really give a shit. I’m gonna let the dogs out since they’re going crazy in there and I don’t want to have to buy yet another sill because they chewed it up. You know they don’t like you, so I’ll give you a couple of minutes to get your ass into your car and get the hell off my property.”
Candy’s face paled beneath her thick layer of makeup, and Tobias felt bad for approximately half a second. Once again, Candy had reaped what she’d sown. She’d treated the dogs horribly from the moment Tobias had brought them home, and in return, they’d snapped and growled and chewed up every expensive handbag and pair of shoes they could get at.
“Ninety seconds, Candy.”
Tobias was always amazed at how quickly Candy could run in high heels. She bolted to her car, which if he’d not been so distracted by thoughts of Liddie Hopewell, he’d have noticed parked in his circular drive. As she struggled to open the door, she turned and screamed a final set of insults at him before getting into the car and roaring off, spraying gravel behind her. Tobias shook his head in disgust and unlocked the front door. When he opened it, the two dogs burst out and ran to the edge of the porch, barking hysterically.
“She’s gone, you two, so go do your business, and I’ll get you a snack.” The dogs stopped barking and hopped down the steps to find some grass and then returned to the house as quickly as they’d exited. Tobias rolled his guitar inside and shut the door behind him before going into the kitchen to get all of them a nice piece of cheese.
Tobias hadn’t really slept the night before, though it had been very late once he and the dogs had wound down from Candy’s unexpected visit; he’d merely lain in the dark and thought about events that transpired more than thirty years ago. After four hours of tossing and turning, he’d rolled out of bed, let the dogs out, and put a pot of coffee on. Now on his back porch with coffee in hand, he watched the sky turn from the darkest inky blue to a gold-streaked pink as the sun rose over the hemlock-studded banks of Fightingtown Creek.
Winnie yipped from her spot on the settee, impatient for her sister to join her. Tobias heard Frankie bark back a response, so he wasn’t worried; though, from Winnie’s worried expression, she was. Tobias decided he would give the dog another five minutes to come to the porch before investigating. After four and a half, the little dog came bounding up the steps and scrambled up onto the couch.
“Do I even wanna know?” Tobias leaned over and took a whiff of the dog, who was now nestled next to her sister. “Hmph. You smell okay, too. Now I’m really suspicious.” Frankie barked once and then laid her head on top of Winnie’s. Tobias huffed a laugh and returned to his coffee and his memories.
Suddenly the dogs both raised their heads, ears up. Tobias frowned, but then he heard loud knocking on the front door. The dogs leapt off the couch and ran through the screen’s dachshund-sized flap to go and bark at the front door.
“Toby! Put your britches on! We’re taking you to breakfast!” Cal’s voice yelled from the other side of the door.
Tobias groaned and opened the door a crack both to keep the dogs from running out and to avoid flashing his brother. “Why the hell are you at my house before eight o’clock on a Saturday morning?”
“Put on some pants and we’ll tell you. Come on, man. I’m hungry.”
“ ‘We?’ ” Tobias peered around Cal to the circular drive, where he saw Kat in Cal’s Nova. She flashed a big grin and waved at him. He grimaced and waved back. “She is way too chipper.”
“Once she’s woken up proper, she is,” Cal said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Tobias groaned. “You guys aren’t going to take no for an answer, are you?”
“Nope. Now come on. Nolan and Bridget are already at Scuppernong’s.”
“Well, shit. Lemme get pants on and I’ll meet you there.” Cal cocked an eyebrow at Tobias. “I promise!”
With a cackle, Cal turned and jogged down the porch stairs, and Tobias sighed and headed upstairs to put on pants.
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They’d timed their arrival at Scuppernong Cafe’s just right: after the early-bird senior citizen rush, but before the crush of post-peewee sports moms and kids. Tobias had to admit it was nice having a morning meal with actual people, even if he felt like a fifth wheel. Hell, he was a fifth wheel.
“Warm up your coffee, sugar?” Penny topped off his coffee before he answered, and gave him a wink. He was pretty sure she sat them at a table so Tobias wouldn’t feel self-conscious sitting perched at the end of a booth, with happy couples on either side of him. Penny was a good egg.
Nolan, the youngest Harper brother, shook his head after she walked away. “Why do they do that? Just when you get your coffee with the perfect balance of milk and sugar, they come by and ‘warm it up.’ ”
“If you drank it black, you wouldn’t have to worry about that.” Cal waved his own mug of black coffee at his brother. “Besides, you don’t even drink coffee anymore, so I don’t know why you’re bitching.”
“Boy, you’re grouchy for someone who had what sounds like a stellar opening last night,” Nolan said with a snort.
“I’d forgotten what it was like, that rush.” Cal cracked his neck. “I didn’t sleep well last night. Too hyped up.”
“Man, tell me about it. And then, some jackass comes to my door when it’s barely even light outside and makes me put on pants to go to a restaurant to eat with another jackass and two lovely but insane women.” Kat got ready to coo at him, but Bridget, Nolan’s girlfriend, caught Tobias’s jab and leaned across the table.
“What do you mean, ‘but insane,’ huh?” Bridget said, exaggerating her already-heavy South Boston accent.
Tobias just winked and raised his mug to his lips.
“Ah, that’s what I thought.” Bridget shook her head at him. “Always a smart-ass, that one. But better than a dumbass, I suppose.”
“So what’s on the agenda today, ladies and gents?” Tobias extended his arms above his head, stretching his back. He stifled a yawn, but he knew exactly what he planned to do after breakfast: go home and take a nice, long nap.
“Oh, I thought I’d do a little shopping, maybe pick up a few things for the house and the Tavern,” Kat began, with a sly look at Tobias.
“Kat, don’t,” Cal warned in a low voice. The redhead sat back with a huff and began to tap her finger on the table. Nolan and Bridget looked at each other with wide eyes and then turned alternately to Cal and then to Tobias.
“Something you want to share with the class?” Nolan leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, settling in. Tobias sighed with the realization that Nolan sensed a story he wouldn’t allow to be left untold.
“Someone I haven’t seen in years was at the show last night. Let’s just say I was very surprised to see her, and just leave it at that.” Tobias plucked a sugar packet out of the carrel and proceeded to shred the thin paper.
Kat flapped her hands at him and goggled in disbelief. “Oh, come on, Tobias. You have got to give us more than that.”
“Babe, what did you tell me last night, hmm? You need to take your own advice.” Tobias saw Cal squeeze Kat’s thigh where his hand rested, and she harrumphed at him but didn’t s
ay anything more.
“Okay, Kat, I’ll give you a little more. The Liddie Hopewell thing happened three decades ago and is a lot more complicated than y’all need to even worry about. Happy now?”
Kat’s auburn eyebrows furrowed into a frown. “Well, that just leaves me with more questions.” Tobias just shrugged in answer.
“Liddie? She used to come visit Mama after you and Chet moved to Nashville that first time.” Nolan squinted at a memory. “She used to bring cheese straws over. I still use that recipe.”
Cal gawked at the youngest Harper. “How the hell do you remember that? You were, what, five, six?”
“She came over every week for three years, Cal. I remember baking with her while Mama sat at the kitchen table. She was the one who first taught me how to roll out pie crust.”
“Where the hell was I?” Cal looked and sounded genuinely distressed.
“Probably doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing with someone you had no businesses being with.” Nolan’s candid answer cut some of the tension, and Cal ended up nodding his head and laughing.
“So what are you going to do?” Kat asked Tobias before shooting a look at Cal. “Oh, hush, Cal, I know, but I just can’t leave it alone with the way those two looked at each other last night.” She turned to her best friend. “Oh my God, Birdie, it was just like a movie.”
“Oh my God, Kat, you’re always saying something’s just like a movie,” Cal said with a groan, which got him an elbow in the ribs. “Ow!”
“Stop it, you big spoilsport. It was.” Then she turned to Tobias and said, “I wish I had a recording of when the two of you locked eyes. There was crazy, wicked chemistry.” Kat nodded knowingly at Tobias. “And you know it, Tobias Harper, even if you won’t admit it.”
Tobias didn’t want to talk about Liddie Hopewell anymore, so he changed the subject. “Candy was on my front porch, waiting for me last night when I got home.” That statement shut everyone up for a full ten seconds, and then they all started babbling at once.
Finally, Cal spoke above the clamor. “What the hell did she want?”
“What else? Money. She had some sob story about having to move in with her mother, blah, blah, blah.”
“Hell, I’d be distressed if I had to move in with Ann Bristol. That woman is toxic.” Cal shuddered.
Tobias snorted in agreement. The apple didn’t fall far from that poisonous tree. In a way, Candy’s mother was worse than her daughter, if only because she was shrewder, something the elder Bristol woman wouldn’t let her daughter forget. Tobias felt the tiniest bit sorry for Candy in that regard.
“The sports squads are starting to show up, y’all. Let’s let Penny turn this table over,” Nolan suggested, and Tobias gave him a thankful grin.
The group paid their tab, overtipping as usual, and tumbled out into the parking lot.
“Tally said her mother was going to be working at The Backward Glance on the weekends, you know.” Kat blinked at him, trying to look innocent and failing miserably.
“Is that so?” Tobias grinned. “That’s good information. See y’all later.”
He got into his truck, cackling at Kat’s disgruntled expression, and decided he wasn’t that tired after all. In fact, Tobias thought he was in the mood to do a little shopping.
Liddie, normally up before sunrise, actually slept until midmorning. She might have slept even longer, but the combination of bright Georgia sunlight and a nasty, too-realistic dream jolted her awake. After dressing, she went downstairs and discovered that everyone was already out and about. Never one to sit idle, Liddie decided a trip to the market for box lunches was in order, so she headed into downtown Hemlock Creek.
The farmers’ market in Hemlock Creek was a mishmash of fresh produce, meats, and dairy, along with baked goods, handmade crafts, and flowers. Today there was even a beverage truck serving a variety of fancy hot and cold drinks. Although Liddie was strictly a carbonated-beverage drinker, the rest of her family loved their lattes, so even though it was almost lunchtime, she loaded up on breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and fancy coffee drinks.
Liddie was trying to figure out how to retrieve her keys from her front pocket so she wouldn’t have to set anything down, when she felt a hand grip her shoulder and heard a voice that she’d prayed she’d avoid for a while longer.
“Liddie? Liddie Hopewell?”
Liddie turned her head and came face-to-Botoxed-face with Candace Bristol Harper, her supposed BFF from high school and Tobias Harper’s ex-wife.
“Oh my Lord, it is you. Mama said she could have sworn that she saw Liddie Hopewell coming out of the Piggly Wiggly the day before yesterday, and I said, ‘Mama, it’s a little bit early for you to be in the chardonnay. You are seeing things.’ But here you are!”
“That’s right—here I am,” Liddie chirped back. She cringed at the fakeness in her voice, but if Candy was anything like she used to be, and Liddie would bet cash money that the woman in front of her hadn’t changed a bit from the girl she was in high school, the only way to get out of this conversation quickly was to steamroll right over her with the biggest smile possible on her face.
“Look at you. You haven’t changed a bit. My Lord, you are the exact same size you were in high school, girl.”
Liddie’s awkward smile froze on her face. Well, at least she’d gotten the first dig out of the way fairly quickly. “I guess I am; I don’t really keep up. But you—wow. Just . . . wow.” Candy looked exactly as Liddie had imagined she’d look: frozen face, new extra-super-perky boobs, and lips that would make Daisy Duck jealous. At least her outside matched her inside now: fake, fake, fake.
“How long has it been, sugar? I mean, I can’t remember the last time I saw you.”
“It was at Micah’s funeral. I haven’t been back since.” Liddie pushed down the nausea that was threatening to escape. “Eighteen years.”
“My gosh, how time flies. So your daughter, she must be all grown up. She was so darling. Forgive me, what was her name?”
“Tally. Um, Tallulah. Yes, she’s all grown up with a little girl of her own.”
“You are a grandmother? At your age?” Candy slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. “Oh my Lord. I am so sorry. That was incredibly rude.”
“Yes, yes, it was, but that’s about par for the course. And before you ask, Richmond was my husband’s name, and no, he didn’t come out here with me. He passed away about five years ago.” Liddie took a deep breath, no longer bothering with the fake smile. “I need to get to the shop now. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other around. I don’t think we can avoid each other, this place being so small. Goodbye, Candy.” Liddie set the now-cold coffee down with a thump, not caring at this point if it spilled a bit. She unlocked the car door, hoping Candy wouldn’t see her shaky hand. She retrieved the food and beverages from the hood of the car, got inside, and, without another look at Candy Bristol Harper, roared toward The Backward Glance.
She sure hoped there was some of that muscadine moonshine that Tally was raving about still stowed under the counter, because she needed a damn drink.
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Liddie pulled into the small alley between The Backward Glance antique and vintage shop and Hopewell Architectural Salvage, turned off the car, and sat still for a moment. The parking lot of the vintage shop was full, as was usual for a Saturday morning, especially a Saturday morning after the local auction. This was good. With lots of customer and lookie-loos, Liddie would be busy and wouldn’t obsess about her interaction with Candy. She could just pack it away and wait for her subconscious to unravel it with more wackadoodle dreams.
Tally met her on the steps of the 1920s farmhouse that housed The Backward Glance. “Oh, thank God you’re here, Mom. I do not know what is going on, but right now there are three huge men getting ready to have a throwdown in the carnival glass room. Uncle Ace and Uncle Bunny are doing that side-by-side thing they do, and Tobias Harper is—”
&
nbsp; “Toby’s here?”
Tally nodded. “He pulled up about twenty minutes ago, right after we opened. Stood out by his truck for the longest time. I didn’t think he was going to come in.”
“His truck?”
Tally waved her hand in the direction of the parking lot. Liddie turned around, and her breath caught in her throat. He was still driving that truck. She huffed a laugh. The truck was old when Toby bought it when he was all of fourteen years old. Of course, out here in the boonies, the cops generally didn’t pay attention to teenagers driving, and since Tobias Harper topped six feet when he was in the fifth grade, he didn’t even look like he was another two years from getting his license.
Liddie pushed her bangs back from her forehead, her face and neck suddenly warm. Concentrate, Liddie.
“So what happened?” she asked while she plucked her damp shirt away from her chest.
“Well, he finally came inside. I greeted him, and he asked if you were working. But then the uncles appeared out of nowhere, and Uncle Ace said, ‘No, and even if she was, she wouldn’t want to see you.’ And then Uncle Bunny said, ‘And we don’t wanna see you either, to tell the truth.’ Can you believe that?” Tally scoffed at her uncles’ responses, but Liddie was actually surprised that Tobias made it through the door of the shop.
“He keeps saying, ‘I don’t want trouble. I just want to visit with Liddie for a few moments,’ and also, ‘I’m not my father,’ whatever that means.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when we’re not at the shop. It’s . . .” Liddie faltered, looking for the right word. Horrifying? Mortifying? Gross? Disgusting? “The situation is a little complex.” That’s the understatement of the year.
“Well, I think you ought to go in there. I mean, he said he wanted to see you.” Tally squirmed. “Dad’s been gone almost five years. And . . .”
