Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch
Page 29
“Have you got brothers and sisters?” she asked.
“Nope, there’s just me, and I come from a long line of only children. My dad and mama both are only kids, and so were my granny and grandpa,” he answered as he took his first bite. “These are amazing dumplings. They taste just like what my granny makes.”
“That’s some high praise.” Cricket passed the salad and then the bowl of buttered corn to him.
“Just statin’ facts, Miz Cricket,” he drawled. “You reckon Anna Grace can make dumplings like these?”
“The cook at their place might be able to,” she answered. “You should tell her that you really like dumplings and see if she invites you to Sunday dinner after church.”
“Does she go to the same church as you do?” Bryce took a sip of tea.
“Oh, yes, she does.” Cricket nodded. “She and her friends, the Belles’ daughters, sit together on the back pew so they can hurry out as soon as the benediction is over. I guess she wouldn’t invite you to Sunday dinner. They all gather up and go to some place in Sweetwater for dinner every Sunday. I hear they have a standing reservation.”
“Does that mean she goes with her friends, and I’m safe for that day?” he asked.
Cricket shook her head. “Not really. The Belles that don’t have anything else on their calendars and their spouses and kids all go, so she might rope you into going with them. Mary Lou, that’s her mother, would be happy to have her daughter settled. I’ve heard that Anna Grace has had a long-time affair with a teacher in Sweetwater when she’s not trying to find a husband that would make Mary Lou happy.”
“That’s crazy!” Bryce had heard of small-town rumors and gossip, but he had no idea what he was getting into when he bought the drugstore. “Why doesn’t she just take that teacher to Sunday dinner.”
“You might be super smart when it comes to books,” Cricket said, “but you need to be educated in the ways of small towns. Anna Grace can sleep with the teacher. She can fall in love with him, and even have an affair with him the rest of her life. But she will marry someone Mary Lou approves of. Anna Grace wouldn’t dare disgrace herself in front of the club members by marrying a plain old teacher. Mary Lou would be mortified, and her father would fire her from the high-paying, window-dressing job she has at the oil company.”
“Why would he do that?” Bryce asked.
“Because if Mary Lou ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, and her husband doesn’t cross her when it comes to Anna Grace,” Cricket answered.
“Holy sh…smoke,” Bryce muttered. “What else do I need to know about?”
“That’s enough of a social lesson for tonight, but if you’ve got doubts about anything, just call me or else ask Lettie and Nadine. They know everything about everything in Bloom, going all the way back to when they were young, and Nadine will be ninety-five tomorrow,” Cricket told him. “Lettie is a couple of years younger than she is, but neither of them act that old. You do know that Lettie believes in aliens, don’t you?”
If Bryce hadn’t swallowed fast, he would have spewed tea all over the table. “You’re kiddin’, right?”
“Nope, not one bit, and if you don’t want to have to find another place to live, don’t ever try to convince her otherwise,” Cricket said.
Bryce was so glad that he’d come out to the farm to get some produce the day before. Cricket was a fountain of information. Her cooking was fabulous. He got to play in the dirt and could look forward to going fishing. And she was so damned cute that it took his breath away.
Chapter Four
Cricket had just flipped the lights on at the shop and set down her tote bag on Thursday morning when her phone rang. She fished it out of her purse and smiled when she saw Jennie Sue’s name pop up.
“Good mornin’,” she answered. “How’s the vacation going?”
“Absolutely wonderful,” Jennie Sue replied. “We had planned to go to a waterpark and the zoo today, but Aubrey and Dina both cried. They wanted to build another sandcastle on the beach and play in the sand. Rick is getting them into their bathing suits. I’ve gathered up the sunblock and snacks. Now, tell me all about this new pharmacist and how you are being the damsel in shining armor who is rescuing him from a life of misery with Anna Grace.”
Cricket giggled. “I don’t know about all that, but he has to be saved, and I’m doing my part to help with that. He helped me pick peas and gather the tomatoes last night. Then he ate supper with me.”
“Lettie thinks there might be a little attraction there,” Jennie Sue said. “She said that when she and Nadine came to the bookstore yesterday, your eyes were sparkling.”
“Anna Grace bullied me in school and has continued to be hateful to me every chance she gets. Getting back at her would make anyone’s eyes twinkle.” Cricket unloaded her tote bag and made a pot of coffee while she talked.
“Well, don’t lose the sparkle. I want to see it when I get home,” Jennie Sue said. “We went to a T-shirt shop yesterday, and the girls picked out two for you.”
“That will make my eyes twinkle for sure.” Cricket poured herself a mug of coffee before it even quit dripping and carried it to the sofa. “I miss those two little angels so much.”
“We’re ready,” Rick’s deep voice came through the line.
“Beach, Mama, beach,” Dina said.
“Did you get the snacks and the juice boxes and the towels and the buckets and shovels and…” Aubrey ran out of breath.
“They aren’t acting much like angels right now,” Jennie Sue laughed.
“I love hearing their voices, and they’ll always have little wings and a shiny halo in their favorite aunt’s eyes,” Cricket said. “Give them a hug from me and go enjoy the day. The damsel in shining armor has things under control here.”
“Love you, sister,” Jennie Sue chuckled. “See you at the end of next week.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” Cricket said and ended the call.
When Jennie Sue first came back to town a few years ago, Cricket had felt the same way about her that she still did about Anna Grace. She’d thought Jennie Sue was uppity and had been glad that she’d fallen on hard times. But with time, and especially after Rick and Jennie Sue started seeing each other, Cricket had seen that she’d been wrong and that she should have never grouped Jennie Sue in with the other Belle girls.
Maybe you’re wrong about Anna Grace, too. Cricket’s mother’s voice was clear in her head.
“Mama?” Cricket whispered.
But there was no more from her mother, and before she could figure out why she’d heard the voice so clearly, the bell above the door rang, and Anna Grace came into the store for the first time ever. Cricket blinked a dozen times, but the tall blond woman did not disappear.
“May I help you?” she finally asked.
Anna Grace was wearing a cute navy dress that day with matching high heels and had a matching bag draped over her arm. She crossed the floor with the grace of a runway model and sat down in the wingback chair across from Cricket’s desk. She crossed one long, slender leg over the other and took a deep breath. “I need to talk to you.”
Here it comes, Cricket thought. She’s going to tell me to leave Bryce alone or else she’ll ruin my business.
“About what?” Cricket sat down in her desk chair and got ready for the bullying.
“I want to apologize for all the times when I’ve been hateful and mean to you, and to ask for your help.” Anna Grace kept her eyes on a spot on the wall behind Cricket’s head.
“Thank you for that, but I don’t believe you.” Cricket reached under the desk and pinched her thigh, proving she wasn’t asleep but fully awake. “I think you are here to tell me to step aside where Bryce Walton is concerned, that you intend to start up a relationship with him, and eventually marry him because he’s a pharmacist.”
“If my mother was sitting in this chair, you would be right. She gave me orders to do just that this morning, but…” Anna Grace actually blushed.
“If I was sitting where you are, I would feel the same way,” Anna Grace said. “I don’t want to date Bryce. I don’t want a relationship with him. I’m in love and have been for a long time with Tommy Bluestone, a biology teacher who lives in Sweetwater. Mama won’t hear of it, and Daddy says if I marry him, I’ll have to move out of the house and find a job elsewhere because he’s not living with Mama when she’s that mad. So I just let them think I’m dating other guys, but I haven’t dated anyone but Tommy in more than three years.”
“Are you serious?” Cricket eyed her carefully. “I heard you just recently broke up with a dentist.”
“I have to invent a reason to break up with my imaginary boyfriends when Mama begins to insist that I bring them home for a weekend, or that I invite him to go out to eat with us so she can meet him.” Anna Grace looked absolutely miserable when she admitted that.
Cricket shouldn’t feel sorry for her after the way Anna Grace had looked down on her all those years, but she did. “That must be tough.”
“You can’t even imagine.” Anna Grace looked like she might break into tears any minute. “I wish Jennie Sue was here so I could talk to her, but then she probably wouldn’t even answer my calls after the way we all shunned her when she married your brother.” She lowered her voice and looked around the store. “I was proud of her for what she did. I’d never admit it to anyone else, but I was. She stood up to her mother and all the Belles when she came back to town. I want to know how she did it, because I can’t live with all this stress any longer.”
Cricket still wasn’t sure this wasn’t just playacting. “She had the guts to go after what she wanted, even before she met Rick. She rented an affordable apartment and cleaned houses for enough money to live on. You know all this, and yes, all her old friends did shun her for doing it. What makes you think she’ll even talk to you?”
“I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t,” Anna Grace said. “I want to make Mama happy, but I can’t make her happy and be happy myself. Tommy has asked me to marry him.” She pulled a black velvet box from her purse and popped it open to show Cricket what looked like an engagement ring. “Mama would throw a Southern hissy if she even knew I had this. The diamond is barely half a carat, and I think it’s gorgeous. I love it. Tommy saved up for a long time to buy it for me.”
“That reminds me of your sweet sixteen ring,” Cricket said.
Anna Grace held out her hand to show a ruby ring on her right hand. “This is my sweet sixteen ring, and I guess other than my engagement ring having a diamond instead of a ruby, they kind of do resemble each other. My birthday is in January. Mama didn’t think a garnet was fancy enough, so she bought a ruby, which is about the same color. But how did you…” She frowned.
“I remember every one of y’all’s rings. You came to school showing them off and bragging about them,” Cricket said. “I was sixteen that same year, and we were still mourning my mother’s death. Rick was in the service and couldn’t even come home. I was lucky that Lettie and Nadine brought me a cake that day. So yes, I remember that and every mean thing y’all did to me. I hated school because of you.”
“I’m so sorry.” A tear made its way down Anna Grace’s cheek and dripped off her jaw.
“Apology accepted,” Cricket said. “What did you tell Tommy when he proposed, and how did he ask you to marry him?”
Cricket figured Anna Grace would stutter and stammer, but she smiled.
“We took a blanket out into a field of Texas bluebonnets to watch the sunrise. He’s very inventive with our dates, and we have so much fun together. He’s taught me that money isn’t everything and helped me find my inner self,” Anna Grace answered. “Right when the sun came up that morning, he brought out the ring and asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Now what do I do?”
“Well, since you said yes, I suppose that you should marry him,” Cricket answered, but she still didn’t believe all of this was real.
“I’ve always dreamed of having a big wedding with the fancy dress, at least eight bridesmaids, a blowout reception, and all the trimmings, but I know if I tell Mama that I’m engaged to Tommy Bluestone, I’ll have to give all that up.” Anna Grace sighed.
“A wedding is a day. A marriage is a lifetime,” Cricket told her. “Jennie Sue and Rick didn’t have a big wedding. They went to Las Vegas and got married in one of those funny little chapels out there. You have to decide whether you want a big wedding or a marriage. At least, that’s the way it looks to me.” Cricket didn’t give a flip about a huge event, if and when she ever got married, but she did want a man to look at her the same way her brother looked at Jennie Sue. That was pure love, and it beat the hell out of a fancy dress, a string of bridesmaids, and a four-foot wedding cake.
“Tell me more about Tommy. Why are your folks so set against him? Teaching school is an honorable profession.”
“That’s what I told them back when we had been dating a few months,” Anna Grace sighed. “But they informed me that I’d been raised in a better lifestyle than he could ever offer and reminded me that I made five times what he did in a year working at Daddy’s oil company, but my job would come to an end the day I married Tommy. That’s how much they’re against me and him having a happy ever after.”
“What’s money compared to love?” Cricket asked. “You go to work. You come home, have supper together, talk about your day, and then spend the night in each other’s arms. Tell me where you would live if you decided to go against your folks.”
“Tommy has a small, one-bedroom apartment in Sweetwater. The whole thing is about the size of my walk-in closet. The Belles will shun me worse than they did Jennie Sue if I do this. Mama and Daddy swore three years ago that they would disown me if I marry him.”
“Do his parents accept you?” Cricket asked.
“Oh, yes! He’s the baby of eight kids, and they all are so sweet to me. They invite me to everything—birthdays, anniversaries, holidays—and they are just awesome. I love spending time with them,” she said.
“What do his folks do, as in jobs?” Cricket asked.
“His mother was a high school math teacher. His father was a history professor at the Tech College. They’re both retired now,” Anna Grace answered.
They sounded like pretty influential folks to Cricket, but then in the eyes of the Belles, she could understand where the Bluestones might not make the social cut.
“How much money do you need to be happy?” Cricket asked. “You could get a job at a rival oil company. That would really piss your folks off.”
“Truth is, I’m not qualified for another job,” Anna Grace said. “I’m just window dressing at the company. I answer Daddy’s phone calls, take coffee to him, and take care of his appointment book. I don’t know anything about managing money or living on my own.”
Cricket remembered sitting in the café and seeing Jennie Sue get off the bus when it stopped across the street. Cricket could hardly believe that the famous and very rich Jennie Sue, the daughter of a Belle, was coming home with just a suitcase and riding on a bus instead of driving a fancy sports car. “I guess it just depends on what you want most. Tommy or money.”
“That’s harsh,” Anna Grace said.
“Maybe so, but it’s the gospel truth, isn’t it?” Cricket was almost believing her, but not quite.
“Tommy wants us to get married at the end of summer on the beach at Padre Island. He has a friend who has a cabin down there that he’s willing to let us have for a whole week for our honeymoon.” Anna Grace sighed again. “Daddy said that if I make Mama happy, then I can have a honeymoon on the Riviera in France.”
“Again, Tommy or money? What will make you smile lik
e you did when Tommy opened that box you’ve still got in your hand? What are you going to remember the most about your wedding and honeymoon on your fiftieth wedding anniversary?” Cricket asked. “Answer those questions, and you’ll know what means the most to you.”
Test her, the voice in Cricket’s head whispered.
“Want a cup of coffee?” Cricket asked. “There’s also some leftover blueberry muffins under the cake dome if you want one.”
“I’d love both, but I’ll get them. You don’t need to wait on me,” Anna Grace said.
“I didn’t plan on it.” Cricket took a sip of her lukewarm coffee and pushed her office chair back. “I’m going to heat my coffee up in the microwave. Those muffins might be better if you give them about ten seconds.”
“I can’t cook. I don’t know jack about cleaning, and I’m afraid I’ll be a big disappointment to Tommy.” Anna Grace dabbed at another tear with a paper napkin.
Cricket put her coffee in the microwave. “Looks to me like you’ve got three months to learn. Do you even know how to run one of these to heat up that muffin?”
“Not really.” Anna Grace grimaced. “When I want something like that done, I tell our cook and she takes care of it.”
What would Jennie Sue do? Cricked asked herself.
She would help Anna Grace. The pesky voice in Cricket’s head didn’t help one single bit.
“All right, I hear you loud and clear,” Cricket muttered as she carried her second cup of coffee and a muffin back to her desk.
“What was that?” Anna Grace’s heels made a tapping sound on the tile floor as she followed Cricket back to the desk.
“I can cook. I’m an expert at cleaning and gardening. I have an extra bedroom you can use. And I’ll give you a job here in the bookstore dusting shelves, waiting on customers, sweeping up dead crickets every morning, and dumping the occasional dead mouse out of a trap and into the Dumpster out back. Your current friends don’t come in here very often, but if and when they do, are you willing to let them see you doing that kind of work?” Cricket said.