Small Town Rumors

by Carolyn Brown

  “I brought the party to you since you couldn’t come to it,” Cricket said.

  Lettie came in right behind her. “I’ll take that to the living room. We was sittin’ in there, tryin’ to decide whether we wanted to make us a fresh tomato sandwich or go to the café for some lunch. It was so crowded after church that I just brought us on home. Now we can put all this out on the coffee table and have us a picnic.”

  “So start tellin’ us about the party while we get things done.” Nadine got out the pitcher of tea from the refrigerator and carried it, plus an empty glass, with her. “Come on, girl. I’ll give you the recliner, and me and Lettie can take the sofa and spread out all these goodies.”

  “Well, I think Jennie Sue and I have gotten past the hate stage. She fixed my hair last night and even helped with my makeup. I had no idea that green eye shadow would look so much better on me.” Cricket set her crutches to the side and hopped over to the recliner. “And we went swimming after everyone left, and Rick even wore a swimsuit.”

  “What did Jennie Sue do?” Lettie popped open the bag of leftover chicken salad and the one of pimento-cheese sandwiches and helped herself to a couple of each.

  “She didn’t freak out. And this morning at breakfast, she admitted that she liked him. I hope he’s not in for a broken heart. When you think about the difference in what she’s inherited—well, it could change things.” Cricket took a sip of her tea while they opened all the lids on the leftover containers.

  “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.

  When the lawyer, Justin, had laid out the basics of the will, he’d eyed Jennie Sue like she was a piece of ripe fruit. Several times Rick had caught his eyes roaming from her toes and going all the way up to her eyebrows. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that he liked what he saw. And it sure didn’t take one to know that every man in West Texas was going to be on her doorstep when they found out just how rich she was.

  That was what was on his mind as he parked the truck beside the Cadillac at Lettie’s place. Just seeing the car sitting there reminded him she was out of his league, no matter what she’d said about them being in the first stages of a relationship. That could simply be grief talking—the need to have someone to hang on to until she could get past it.

  An ironclad guarantee for happily ever after did not come with life. Life simply happened. A person accepted his fate and moved on. Those were his mother’s words, and that day as Rick got out of his truck, he understood the meaning more perfectly than ever before.

  “Isn’t that Frank’s truck?” Cricket asked. “I didn’t know they were going to be here.”

  “Yep, guess the party grew a little bit,” Rick said.

  “Are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet all mornin’.” Cricket tucked the crutches under her arms, and he shut the door for her.

  “I’m fine, just a little worrie
d about Jennie Sue,” he said.

  “Hey, Rick, come sit on the porch and join me and Frank while the ladies put the finishing touches on the food,” Amos called out.

  He hung back and let Cricket crutch inside the house before he sat down on the top porch step. “Looks like it might rain.”

  “Be a good thing for the crops, wouldn’t it?” Frank asked.

  “Oh, yeah! We never complain about rain this time of year.” Rick glanced up at the kitchen window to see Jennie Sue.

  He waved, and she returned the gesture. They’d been up until almost dawn, talking on the phone because she couldn’t sleep. He’d offered to come to her apartment and had asked her out to the farm, but she’d said just hearing his voice was enough.

  “Are you lookin’ at Jennie Sue?” Amos asked.

  “Yes, sir, I was, but she’s disappeared now,” he answered.

  “Did you hear that she might sell the company and the house and run off to some third-world country to set up clinics for the needy folks?” Amos asked. “Someone told Lettie that she would be leaving by the end of the month. I’d sure hate to see that happen. She’s such good help at the bookstore and, well . . . ,” Amos sighed. “I’d kind of thought maybe I’d sell it to her, and carry the note myself. I think Iris would be proud for her to have it.”

  “You goin’ with her on that crazy trip?” Frank asked. “Me and Mabel wouldn’t worry about her so much if you was around to protect her. You never know what might happen off in them places. You hear about kidnappin’ and such on the news all the time.”

  “Jennie Sue hasn’t mentioned anything like that to me,” Rick said. There was no way he could go with her, even if the rumors were really true. Before he died, Rick’s father had made him promise that he would take care of Cricket. But then, he couldn’t see his sister leaving Bloom to go halfway around the world, live in a hut, and work with underprivileged people.

  “Lettie is going to try to talk her out of it. I figure she’d be more likely to go back to New York City if she goes anywhere,” Amos said.

  “I doubt that happens—not for a little while, anyway. She’s got a lot of stuff to settle before she goes anywhere,” Rick answered.

  “Nadine says that she’s goin’ into that meeting tomorrow, and turnin’ it all over to her lawyer and then she’ll be gone by the end of the week,” Frank said. “Me and Mabel are goin’ to miss her so much.”

  “I wouldn’t put too much stock in rumors. They’re about as trustworthy as that weatherman who said today was going to be sunny and hot,” Rick said.

  “Well, he got half of it right. It is hot and humid. Hope them clouds comin’ in from the southwest ain’t just teasin’ us,” Amos laughed.

  Rick felt like a stone was tied to the bottom of his heart. But if Jennie Sue had confided in someone that she had a desire to do something meaningful with her life, like help out overseas, it might make things easier for him. Seeing her about town and knowing that they were worlds apart would be tougher than remembering the amazing time he’d had with her.

  Something wasn’t right. Jennie Sue could feel it in her heart, but she couldn’t put a finger on what it was. She paced the floor in her tiny apartment and finally went out onto the balcony and searched for constellations in the sky.

  She went back over the day and finally pinpointed the exact time that things began to go downhill. It had been when Rick came inside the house after sitting on the porch with Frank and Amos. From then on, he’d been standoffish and quiet.

  Finally, she picked up her phone and sent a text: Are we all right?

  A reply came back immediately. Are we?

  She hit the icon to call him.

  He picked up on the first ring. “What’s goin’ on?”

  “Are you mad at me for something? You hardly spoke at the lunch, and then you and Cricket left, and you didn’t even say goodbye, much less give me a hug or a kiss. And when I told you that I wanted to go to the garden with you, you said that you had it covered,” she said.

  “I couldn’t kiss you in front of all those people,” he stated, almost as if he were reading from a speech, it was so flat.

  “Are you ashamed of me?” she asked.

  “No, I am not, but think about it, Jennie Sue. We can’t live in a pipe-dream bubble our whole lives. I am who I am and you are who you are. We can’t change that.”

  “Why would either of us want to change?”

  “Think about it for a few days, and then we’ll talk again. Good night, Jennie Sue,” he said, and the phone went dark.

  She went inside, stripped out of her clothing, and took a long, cool shower before she crawled into the middle of the bed and sat cross-legged. “Think about what?” she said aloud.

  Her decision to sell the company. Suddenly, she had misgivings about that. Should she try to keep it and learn the ropes? Percy had put a fear into her that she couldn’t do anything right. What would happen if she made mistakes that cost the company millions, or worse yet, cost people their jobs? Could she live with that?

  The rumors about her leaving Bloom—the only difference between one place and another was the population and terrain. Desert? Mountains? Prairie? Rolling hills? What made one area better than the other was family and friends. She liked her new friends, and she had no intention of leaving Bloom.

  She was rich now and Rick was still a farmer: That was what she was supposed to think about, wasn’t it? She should have seen this coming.

  She fell back on her pillow and pulled the edge of the chenille bedspread around her body. When she opened her eyes the next morning, she picked up the pillow she’d been hugging and threw it across the room, knocking a can of hair spray and her makeup bag off the dresser.

  “Dammit, Rick! I don’t like waking up without you,” she muttered as she got out of bed and retrieved the pillow. “If you’re being stubborn because of money, I’ll give away every damn dime to charity.”

  She talked to herself as she got dressed, went down the stairs, and all the way to Lettie’s, where she rapped on the kitchen door.

  “Come on in,” Lettie called out. “I was hoping you might come by this mornin’.”

  Jennie Sue got a whiff of fresh cinnamon and coffee blended together when she entered the house. Lettie motioned toward the table. “Pour a cup and have a seat. I just took three nice slices of french toast from the skillet, and the warm maple syrup is on the table.”

  “You’re goin’ to put a hundred pounds on me.” Jennie Sue refilled Lettie’s cup and then poured hers.

  “You need a good breakfast before you go to the bookstore.” She pulled out a chair and sat down across from Jennie Sue. “I’ve got news. Amos told Frank out on the back porch yesterday that he’d love to sell the bookstore to you. He thinks Iris would be happy if you owned it but that he wouldn’t sell it to anyone else. But me and Nadine told Mabel that was silly, because your days of cleaning houses and working at a bookstore were probably at an end. If you work at the oil business, you’ll set your own salary, and if you cash in, why would you ever sell used books?”

  “Happiness isn’t measured in dollar bills,” Jennie Sue said between bites.

  “Nope, it sure ain’t. If it was, there’d be a helluva lot of unhappy people in the world.” Lettie took a sip of her coffee. “So the rumors are all untrue, then? You’ve made up your mind to stay here, and you aren’t moving away to set up clinics for folks?”

  “What are you talking about?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “You mentioned doing something for underprivileged folks, and well . . .” Lettie shrugged. “You know how gossip is around here.”

  “I have made up my mind to stay right here,” Jennie Sue answered. Rick Lawson had better get used to the idea, because she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “And you don’t have a meeting with the directors this morning?”

  Jennie Sue took a sip of coffee. The taste of good strong coffee mixed with cinnamon and warm syrup was too good for words. “That part is t
rue.”

  “You decided what you’re going to say to all of them?”

  “Pretty much,” Jennie Sue answered. “I’m going to think it all over one more time before I walk into that meeting.”

  “Honey, you do know you will have to clean out that house if you decide to sell it, right?”

  “I know, and it won’t be easy going through Mama and Daddy’s personal stuff, but I can work on it a little at a time. It’s past time for Mabel and Frank to retire, and they’ll both think they have to keep workin’ if I live out there. The first order of business when I go into that meeting is that I’m going to make sure they have a severance package that will take care of them the rest of their lives. They’ve given their lives to my family for years. It’s time for them to enjoy life without having to work every day.”

  Lettie laid a hand on her shoulder. “You are a good person.”

  “Thank you. Please keep that between us until I get the details lined out with the lawyer. Now on to a different subject. Did you notice how quiet Rick was yesterday?”

  “’Course I did. I figured you two were arguing about something. But Frank told Mabel that he didn’t say much out on the porch. Maybe he’s worried that you’ll really take off halfway around the world, and he won’t ever see you again.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He’s got a thing for you, you know.”

  “We’re the only two people here. Why are you whispering?” Jennie Sue glanced around the room.

  “You never know who’s listenin’ in on that phone you carry around with you. Could be that’s where all these rumors got started. There might be one of them roaches inside it,” Lettie said.

  “Roaches?” Jennie Sue frowned.

  “Bugs,” Lettie said.

  “I see.” Jennie Sue bit back a grin. “I should be going. The meeting starts in half an hour. Thanks for breakfast and for listening. I’ll call as soon as I’m back in the bookstore, and you and Nadine can come down for a visit.”

  “I’ll already know what happened. I heard they’ve hired Elaine’s cousin to serve finger foods, and she’ll keep her mama informed. Her mama will call Elaine, and I’ve made a deal with her to call me. So don’t say nothing you don’t want repeated.”