by Sharon Sala
* * *
Bowie was moving as quietly as he could when he headed to the bathroom. He needed to shave and shower before the girls woke up and started trying to feed him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want their food, but he didn’t have the time. He got his clean clothes out of the dryer and took them with him into the bathroom.
Because this was so routine, he had shaved, showered, and dressed in just over fifteen minutes. He came out of the bathroom with droplets of water still clinging to his hair.
He still needed that haircut. Maybe he’d take time to stop by that salon down on Main when he went to get Aunt Ella a new phone.
He was barefoot and carrying his socks when he saw Rowan sitting at the table with a box of cereal and a carton of milk. And he smelled fresh coffee.
“Morning,” she said, and pointed at the extra bowl and spoon. “Have a seat if you’re interested.”
He grinned. It was pretty much what he’d said to her last night about the ice cream. He glanced at the time.
“I’m interested,” he said. He poured himself a cup of coffee, then sat down and started pouring presweetened cereal into the bowl. “Did you sleep okay?”
She rolled her eyes. “Like a baby. That mattress is so comfortable.”
“I’m glad you were able to rest,” Bowie said as he reached for the milk and poured some in his bowl. “I won’t be in at lunch, but sometime today I’m going to get Gran and Ella a new phone. We can replace yours, too, if you’d like.”
“I don’t have the money to pay you yet. I can wait.”
“Android or iPhone?”
“Daddy had an iPhone. I didn’t have one of my own and don’t know anyone to call, so it doesn’t matter whether I have one or not.”
“You know me,” Bowie said, then grinned. “I’ll take your calls.”
She laughed.
He took a quick sip of the coffee. “Hey, this is really good coffee.”
“Thanks. I made it for Daddy all the time.”
“You don’t drink it?”
She shook her head. “I love the smell of it, but I never could enjoy the taste, so I finally quit trying.”
Bowie nodded, then started eating, while keeping an eye on the time. He didn’t want to be late. He was the one with the key to the house.
“What are you going to do today?” he asked.
“I thought I might make that peach cobbler. We can have it for dessert tonight.”
“Now that’s something to look forward to,” Bowie said, and finished off the cereal. “I hate to eat and run, but the job is waiting.”
“Have a good day,” she said as he grabbed his coffee to take with him.
“Come lock me out,” he said, and Rowan got up and followed him to the door.
He walked out, then paused at the bottom of the steps and turned around. She looked beautiful in the morning sunlight.
“You have a good day, too,” he said, and then he was heading toward the Cherokee, unlocking the door and turning off the alarm system as he went.
He started the car and turned around. He looked back. She was still standing in the doorway.
She waved.
He waved back.
She was smiling as she backed up and shut the door. He was still smiling.
He stopped on the way to get fresh ice to cool down a twenty-four-pack carton of bottled water.
By the time he got to the house, it was ten minutes to eight. He carried the ice chest back to the shade tree, then unlocked the front door. The house smelled of mold and all of the dust they’d stirred yesterday.
He went through the rooms opening windows, and by the time he was through, the crew was pulling up and unloading wheelbarrows and shovels. They were talking among themselves as they neared the house, and when Bowie came out onto the porch, they all started talking at once.
“That bed-and-breakfast lady sure can cook,” Ray said.
“She had a little breakfast buffet set up in the dining room and kept refilling our cups with the best dang coffee I’ve had in years.”
“Awesome,” Bowie said.
“What did you have for breakfast?” Samuel asked.
“A bowl of Frosted Flakes and a cup of coffee…and the prettiest breakfast partner I’ve ever had.”
“Well, hell,” Samuel said. “I sat between Matt and Joe, and I can’t say as how I’d call either of them pretty.”
They all whooped and laughed, and so the day began.
* * *
Cora Boone hadn’t slept much last night. She’d feared Jud would wait until he thought she was asleep and come back anyway. He still had a key, and he’d broken the chain, so she knew it was a possibility. And even when she did manage to fall asleep, she dreamed Jud was kicking in the door. No one had ever been more relieved to see daybreak.
She got up and dressed with purpose. She had things to do today, and she didn’t want to look as terrible as she felt. She was sitting at the table having buttered toast with her coffee when she heard a truck pull up in the yard. She listened to the footsteps coming up the steps, then crossing the porch to where they stopped at the door.
She didn’t have to get up and look to know who it was. Emmitt always dragged his feet when he walked. He’d done it all his life, and no amount of fussing at him when he was growing up had changed him.
He knocked.
She didn’t move.
He knocked again and then yelled, “Hey, Mama!”
She gritted her teeth. There was no way she was going to the door. What she felt about her sons was nothing short of disgust. It wasn’t until she heard him driving away that she breathed easy again.
As she carried her plate and cup to the sink, she thought about the years she’d cooked for Jud and washed his clothes, slept with him, tended him, even when she was sick with all three pregnancies. What did he think of her? She had given him plenty of leeway to assume she was malleable and oblivious to all that they’d done. She believed now that she had ignored what she didn’t want to face and blindly believed what she’d been told. And look what had happened. She had to take as much blame for her refusal to see what was happening as the men had for what they’d done.
It was a few minutes after 9:00 a.m. when she left the house. Her first appointment was with Peanut Butterman, and then the unplanned trip to the locksmith.
* * *
Emmitt called his brother. His sister-in-law, Nell, answered.
“Morning, Emmitt.”
“Morning, Nell. I need to talk to Mel.”
“He’s in the john. I’ll have him call you.”
“Just tell him to meet me at Granny’s. It’s important.”
“Y’all aren’t about to get into trouble again, are you?”
Emmitt frowned. “No, but there’s trouble in the family. You tell him to meet me.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Nell said.
“I’ll be waiting,” Emmitt said, and disconnected, then got in his car and headed to Granny’s.
He parked and went in as he’d done a thousand times before.
“Table for two. My brother’s joining me,” Emmitt said.
Mercy eyed him without comment as she picked up two menus and seated him at an empty table.
“Wendy will be your waitress. Enjoy your meal,” she said, and went back to the front.
As promised, Wendy came by and filled up the coffee cup at Jud’s place setting.
“Are you ready to order?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m waiting for my brother.”
She moved on to the next table.
As Emmitt reached for a couple of sugar packets, he glanced up. At least half of the diners were watching him. He shrugged it off and stirred the sugar in his coffee while waiting for it to cool.
Mel showed up a few minu
tes later and strode straight to where Emmitt was sitting. He pulled out a chair and plopped down.
“Well, I’m here. What’s the big deal?”
Emmitt lowered his voice and leaned forward. “Mama kicked Daddy out of the house and, according to Daddy, has disowned us all.”
Mel blinked. “You’re not serious.”
“Yes, I am. I went over to the house this morning. Daddy’s car was gone, and Mama wouldn’t open the door, so I called him. I think he’s in Savannah, but not sure where, and he’s not coming back to Blessings,” Emmitt said, and watched his brother turn pale.
Wendy came back, poured coffee in Mel’s cup, and asked the same question again.
“Y’all decide what you want to eat?”
“I already ate,” Mel said.
Emmitt shrugged. “Then I’ll have pancakes and sausage.”
“Comin’ up,” Wendy said, and went to turn in the order.
Mel leaned forward. “Why would she do that?”
“According to Daddy, she saw Bowie James yesterday and lost her mind. She knows Randall lied. She knows we all lied.”
“But why won’t Daddy stay and fight for her?” Mel asked.
Emmitt shrugged. “Said he wasn’t going to stay here and be judged for how he was raised, or something to that effect. He also told me we are on our own.”
Mel wiped a shaky hand across his face. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Emmitt muttered. “We’ve lived here our whole lives. I don’t see why we need to do anything.”
Wendy came back with his breakfast and refilled his coffee. “Enjoy,” she said, and left again.
Emmitt began buttering the pancakes while they were hot, then doused them with syrup and took his first bite.
“I wish Tiny could cook like this,” he said, talking around the mouthful he was chewing, then forking a piece of sausage and popping it in his mouth.
Mel was in shock. He reached for his coffee and took a quick sip, then glanced up. Everyone was staring at them. He frowned. Some of them looked away, but some did not.
“What’s going on?” Mel muttered.
Emmitt paused. “What do you mean?”
“Everybody is staring at us, and some of them don’t look very friendly.”
Emmitt laid down his fork and looked up. It appeared he and Mel were the center of attention, but he didn’t know—
And then it hit him. This was exactly what Daddy had said would happen. Their dirty little secrets were coming to light.
“I guess this is what life in Blessings is going to be like now.”
“And all of this is happening because Bowie James came back to town,” Mel muttered.
Emmitt sighed. “No. It’s happening because Daddy stirred up the old feud again, and this time, we all got caught.”
“I’m going to talk to Mama,” Mel said.
“And explain what? That we didn’t mean to beat the hell out of a kid just because he was starting to look like us?”
Mel shivered suddenly. “I gotta go talk to Nell.”
“About what?” Emmitt asked.
“Moving near her parents.” He laid down some money for his coffee and walked out without looking up.
It was bravado that got Emmitt through the rest of his meal, and then he picked up the ticket Wendy laid on the table and paid on his way out. The food in his belly felt like lead by the time he got home.
He and Tiny didn’t have the option of leaving Blessings. Junior was out on bail, with a pending court date for sentencing. Emmitt couldn’t believe that had happened and took full blame for the way he’d come home carrying on about Bowie James breaking his nose.
Every action has a reaction, and this one had ricocheted from Emmitt to his son. He and Mel had taken the easy way out in life and let their father pay their way from the income off the fish and tackle shop their dad had inherited from his parents. Over the years, it had grown into a large sporting goods business in Savannah. About the time he and Mel were old enough to start working there, Jud decided to sell it to a big chain store, so they had become his flunkies. After Billie James and her kid left town, Jud had calmed down.
And then Bowie James came back to Blessings. Enraged that his order never to come back had been ignored, Jud had refused to let the old feud die—and look what had happened.
Emmitt was sick at heart. His son might be sent to some juvenile detention center. His parents’ marriage was on the rocks. His mother had disowned them.
And where the hell was the man who’d caused all this?
Gone.
He took off, leaving his family and his troubles behind.
It was a hard thing to accept, but it was painfully obvious to Emmitt now.
Judson Boone wasn’t only a bully—he was also a coward.
Chapter 7
Cora looked at herself in the mirror as she adjusted the tie at the collar of her blue dress, then frowned.
When she was young, everyone had told her she looked like Shirley Temple, the old-time child star from the glamour days of Hollywood. Back then, it was fun being cute. But as she aged, her little turned-up nose and baby-blue eyes were disappearing within the wrinkles.
The once-blond, curly hair that had been her crowning glory was gray and thinning, and the last time she’d worn this dress had been to a funeral. Going to file for a divorce was the death of a marriage. It was oddly fitting.
Satisfied that she’d done the best she could with what she had left, she got her things and left the house, taking care to lock up behind her.
First stop was Peanut Butterman’s office. She parked in the shade of a large elm and then couldn’t bring herself to move. She was sick with nerves and felt like crying, but she wasn’t about to let on how awful this was to her, or that she felt like a disgrace. But feeling sorry for herself would get her nowhere, so she got out of the car and entered the building, then found Peanut’s office down one of the hallways.
Betty Purejoy was Peanut’s secretary. Cora had gone to school with Betty and was embarrassed to show her face, but when she walked into the office, Betty looked up and smiled.
“Good morning, Cora.”
“Hi, Betty. You’re looking good. I guess you’ve recovered completely from that horrible wreck you had some time back.”
“Yes, I have, and I’m grateful that it wasn’t worse. Just a moment and I’ll let Mr. Butterman know you’re here.”
Betty got up and knocked on the door to Peanut’s office, then opened it.
“Cora Boone is here,” she said.
Peanut stood. “Oh, good. Have her come in,” he said, and when Cora entered his office, he went to meet her. “Good morning, Cora. Would you care for a cup of coffee?”
Cora shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“Then have a seat,” he said, indicating the two chairs on the other side of his desk.
Cora put her purse in one chair and sat down in the other.
Peanut knew why she was there and gave her an encouraging smile.
“I understand you want to have a will drawn up,” he said.
“Yes, and I’ll be needing you to draw up some divorce papers, too.”
Although Peanut was surprised, he didn’t blink an eye.
“Of course. Let me get Betty in here so she can make notes as we discuss the details, and then she’ll have all of these papers typed up and ready to sign later today.”
Cora nodded.
Betty was all business as she sat down at a table behind them and gave Peanut a nod.
And so began the unraveling of Cora Boone’s world.
By the time she left the office an hour and a half later, she felt like there was a hole in her heart where family had been.
It had been difficult to come to terms with the facts last night, but once th
e layers of lies had been revealed, she had accepted that there had been two versions of her world.
One where she lived happily unaware of the ugliness behind the facades of the people she’d loved—and the other the reality of her ignorance.
The sun was bright, and the sky was cloudless as she got back to the car. She started it up to cool off and then took a deep breath. One task down. Two to go.
Her next stop was at the bank. She could count the number of times on one hand that she had been in it this year. Jud had always done the banking. It was how he liked it.
Their social security checks went into the joint checking account and the money Cora got from a trust fund left to her by her father was all hers. And since the sporting goods store they’d owned began with the fish and tackle shop Jud inherited from his father, she’d make no claim on that money. It would be a simple division of a small savings account and the money in their joint checking. As for the house, the property was already hers.
She got out of the car with her head up. This wasn’t exactly a firing squad, but it was another step in ending a marriage, so in the door she went and straight up to the secretary sitting outside the offices of the bank officials.
The secretary smiled. “Hello, Mrs. Boone. How may I help you?”
“I need to speak to someone about opening a new account and transferring some money.”
“Certainly. Have a seat,” the secretary said, and then glanced into the offices to her left to see who was free and buzzed their phone.
A couple of minutes later, Cora was sitting with one of the loan officers, explaining what she needed to do. Her requests were greeted with calm courtesy, and after a few other questions and signing a couple of papers, she had two new accounts. One for her checking, and one for her savings.
The officer told her what she needed to do to get her direct-deposit income sent to her new account, and she left with a pad of counter checks with her new account number on them and the promise of a new debit card and personalized checks, both of which should arrive within the next ten days.
Cora felt a little different as she was leaving the bank. The hole in her heart wasn’t any bigger, but the distance between her and Jud continued to lengthen.
