By time I park across from the shop, the AC in the car has me sweat-free. As I cross the street, I watch FM and Missus hanging red, white, and blue bunting on their porch railing. Everything downtown looks festive and ready for the holiday. Even Ruby has changed out her plastic poinsettias for bunches of blue roses. Plastic blue roses, of course. However unrealistic, they beat faded poinsettias for July Fourth by a mile.
“Hey Ruby,” I say as the door opens, because Ruby is out from behind her counter and near the front door. Shocking, I know.
“I’m busy here, can’t you see? Get you a table, and if you want coffee, pour yourself a cup. Get refills for that table back there, too.”
The café is almost full, so I snag a table for me and Susan by placing my purse on the tabletop. “Where’s Libby?” I say over my shoulder as I head towards the back.
“Doctor appointment. She’s got hemorrhoids,” Ruby shouts.
“Ruby! I don’t think she’d want you talking about that out in public.”
Ruby stops beside her next table and wags her head at me. “Then why did you ask?”
“Never mind.” I pour two cups of coffee and take them to our table, but before I can sit down, Ruby yells at me.
“Take the muffins in the oven out. Sit ‘em on the counter back there. And did you forget to get those refills?”
Susan figures out the situation as she comes in the door and says, “I’ll get the coffee refills.”
The hot muffins smell amazing and are oozing with blueberries. Risking my fingers, I pull two muffins out and put them on saucers for me and Susan.
Ruby stomps around the counter. “Out of my way.”
I press against the side of the warm oven and let her by. Imagining myself invisible, I slide out the counter opening and into our booth, just as Susan sits down across from me and says, “Poor Libby. She’s having surgery later this summer when her grandson gets back in school. Wonder if she’s told Ruby she’ll be out of work for at least two weeks, probably more.”
“So, does everybody know about Libby’s, uh, problems?”
Susan nods a bit and pulls one of the saucers towards her. “Oh, look at these. The berries are huge.”
“Carolina! Come get this,” Ruby shouts from behind me.
“Ruby, I’m eating. I have a job I have go to. Didn’t come here to work, too,” I yell back.
“Fine by me if you don’t want the lemon curd I made for those blueberry muffins.”
Susan and I stop, mid-bite, and as I put my muffin back on the saucer, I say, “Be right back.”
Of course, I have to hand out the small bowls of lemon curd to the other tables, but it looks well worth it. Smooth and warm and such a beautiful shade of yellow. And its looks have nothing on its taste, I find out.
“I’m becoming redundant saying each of Ruby’s muffins is my favorite,” I say as I settle back into our booth, “but this really is my favorite.”
Susan nods and mmm’s her agreement and spreads another bit of lemon curd on the piece of muffin she’s eating. It must be good, she’s eating whole bites again, instead of the bird pecking she usually does.
Before I take another bite, I hurriedly say, “I went out to see Laney last night. Can’t believe your sister is on bed rest.”
“Me either. How are you managing up at Crossings? Don’t you have your wine and cheese thing this afternoon?”
I laugh and pick up my cup—which is empty. “Want a refill? Figure I’ll just go get coffee instead of waiting for Sunshine to come back out here and wait tables.”
Susan drains her cup, as I scoot from the booth while explaining, “Laney is directing her empire from her canopy bed. She’s got Angie and Jenna making deliveries and Zoe setting everything up. Be right back.”
One glance at Ruby tells me to pour my own coffee. She’s cradling her cordless phone on her shoulder and talking, while scooping batter into muffin pans. Then I hear her say my name.
“Carolina! Hang up this phone.”
She releases it by lifting her chin as my hand touches it. I make sure it’s hung up and try to sneak back out without being stopped again. But alas, “Did you know it takes two, sometimes three, weeks to get back on your feet after hemorrhoid surgery? Talk about a pain in the butt,” she growls. Then looks up, “Okay, that’s funny. Pain in the butt. Oh, there’s Libby. Thank God.”
Libby races up the middle of the café. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Ruby. Just had to get some bloodwork done. Who knew it would take so long? Oh, bless your heart, Carolina, getting your own coffee.” She rushes by me to get the coffee pot, and I just step back to let her pass. Once she does, I start back around the counter.
Almost made it.
Ruby calls, “Carolina. Might need some help from you. I was just on the phone with my daughter Jewel, who’s coming later in the summer. She’s going to leave her two teenagers here to help out for a couple weeks when Libby’s out. I don’t like teenagers, never have. Maybe I’ll just send them up to your house to hang out since you seem to always have a passel of ‘em up there. Isn’t your coffee getting cold?”
“Oh, yeah. Okay.” This time I do get all the way to my seat. I lower my voice. “Do you know anything about Ruby’s grandkids? Couple of them are going to be here helping out while Libby’s off.”
“No, except Jewel was right wild when she was in school.”
I nod. “Ruby told me that herself one time. So, what are you up to today?”
“From here I’m going over to Laney’s to visit with her a bit. Then I have to go to Costco to restock the snack shack at the park. Figure I can get anything Laney needs from there, too. Oh, plus, well, I haven’t told her yet, but I’m going to have a baby shower for her at my house. That way I can have all my family and our friends up there to see it at one time.”
“Perfect, let me know how I can help. When do you think you’ll do it?”
Susan wipes up the crumbs around her and brushes them onto her saucer as she answers. “Going to check with Laney this morning. This has been good to get to catch up, miss our mornings here. When did we get so busy? I want to stop in and see the shop with you before I go.”
“Oh, and you can meet Bonnie. Gertie hired her, and she’s perfect. From up in Laurel Cove.”
Susan tilts her head as she says, “Bonnie? Oh, from the lunch group. So is Patty going to work at Andy’s Place?”
I pause before standing up. “Oh, wait, I didn’t tell you. Gertie made herself a place to live there. At Andy’s Place.” I can’t help but grin. “She and Missus are going to be next-door neighbors.”
“Perfect!” Susan exclaims as she stands. Turning toward the door she adds, “Looks like Missus found out.” Standing outside on the sidewalk, Missus is motioning for us to hurry. She might actually be stomping her foot. Yeah, looks like she heard.
“Hey, Missus,” Susan and I say in unison as we walk out of Ruby’s.
“This is not to be borne,” she says. “Simply not to be borne.”
As I walk past her, I say, “Come on to the bookstore and we’ll talk about it there.”
Missus stands her ground. “If I wanted to talk about this with an audience I would’ve come into Ruby’s. Privacy is still in order at times. Although many on Facebook have completely forgotten how privacy even works.”
Susan grins. “Missus, everyone is going to know that Gertie lives next door to you. How private can something like that be?”
“Next door to me?” Missus turns to look at her house, and we watch her eyes travel to the side where the purple, orange, and green building nestles close to her tastefully decorated home. “Oh, good Lord. She’s going to live there?”
“Yes,” I say. “Listen, I’ve got to get to the store. Walk with me.”
Susan starts walking and Missus sidles up to me, tucking my arm in hers. “The private matter is between us. Keep walking, Susan.” As Susan moves ahead, Missus slows us down. Finally she takes a deep breath and says, “Anna wants a divorce. A divorce! Wi
ll has obviously given up on the marriage, I mean he did move home, and now going back down to Marietta to see his old girlfriends.”
That stops me. “What? Will doesn’t have old girlfriends in Marietta. He never dated in high school, much. They’re just taking a break. Things have happened so fast for them. Everyone needs to just chill out.”
She centers on me by moving to grasp both my forearms. She looks into my eyes. “Anna has a lawyer. One with that godforsaken place she’s working. She’s being advised by that man she works for. That Kyle person. FM tried to talk to him, but it didn’t go well.” She lowers her voice even more. “I hear your talk with him didn’t go well either.”
I sigh. “Wasn’t much of a talk, he yelled at me.”
Missus tightens her grasp on my arms and presses her lips together.
I tighten my arm muscles to try and loosen her hands. “Listen, Jackson and Will went to breakfast this morning.” I get one arm away from her by lifting my arm up to look at my watch. “When I hear from Jackson, I’ll let you know what Will says. Maybe she’s just trying to get Will’s attention. You know, he can be kind of clueless when it comes to Anna.”
She shakes her head and steps away. “Carolina, she’s not playing games. That Kyle man has her mesmerized. It’s like he’s drugged her.” She grabs my arms again, tighter. “Oh my God, do you think he’s drugged her?”
Tugging away from her, I say, “No. She’s enjoying being appreciated and working. Listen, I have to go. But I’ll let you know what Jackson says.”
Leaving her standing on the sidewalk behind me makes me sad. Missus is not someone who ever gets left behind. She’s world-class at making mountains out of molehills, and I’ve laughed at my share of her antics, however…
However.
Susan sticks her head out the door of the store. “You better get in here.” She pushes the door open wider, and I enter into chaos.
Shannon is screaming about glass, and Bonnie has her hands above her head and she’s clapping while repeatedly saying, “Children! Children!” Kimmy pops up from behind a chair near one of the bookshelves and says, “Hi, Carolina. We love your shop.” Then she turns to Shannon and yells, “Stop screaming, they have shoes on.” And she flops into the chair with a paperback.
Zoe tiptoes past me with little Katherine in her arms. She rolls her eyes at me and says for their mother’s benefit, “No, Kimmy, they don’t have shoes on. Remember you said it was summer and nobody cares if kids are barefoot? Stay still, K.J. I’ll come get you when I put Katherine down. Here, will you watch her?” she asks as she sits the toddler on Shannon’s counter.
I place my hand on the little leg. “Sure. What happened?”
Shannon starts hyperventilating about glass and kids. Bonnie marches towards me preaching about manners and kids. Zoe struggles to lift K.J., who’s almost as big as she is, while she explains something about Kimmy and kids.
Kimmy is quiet because she’s reading her book. Yep, just sitting and reading.
Katherine, at my elbow, lets out a scream of “Down!” and that’s all I really hear. And probably ever will, since I’m now deaf in that ear.
Zoe manages to get K.J. over to where I am standing. “Kids knocked over that table. Broke some stuff.”
Bonnie announces, “I told them the children shouldn’t be in here while we were moving things.”
Kimmy does respond to that. “You know what the Bible says about welcoming the little children.”
Bonnie turns with hands on her hips. “You are not quoting scriptures to me, are you? Thirty years in education, I saw too many parents like you. Then I couldn’t say what I wanted to, but now…”
I interrupt. “But now you are in a place of business and you can’t say what you want either.” I make eye contact with Bonnie and try to calm her down. Then I walk towards Kimmy. “Kimmy, it would be best if you take the children outside while we clean this up.”
She doesn’t raise her head from the book. “Zoe. Take them to the park.”
Zoe cheerfully says, “C’mon kids. Let’s go to the park. K.J., hold Katherine’s hand while I get the stroller.
Susan darts around me. “Let me get the stroller. You’re Zoe? I believe you’re helping out my sister, Laney.”
Transferring Katherine from the counter to her hip, Zoe smiles and nods. “Oh, you’re Susan. I’ve heard about your amazing house. Laney’s right jealous. Says she hasn’t even seen it. That right?”
Susan pushes the stroller around the scene of destruction and chatters to the baby who appears to just be waking up. Guess the baby’s used to sleeping through pure mayhem. Susan’s concentrating on the baby and not looking up, obviously hoping Zoe will drop her inquiry. But she’s not met Zoe.
“It is kind of embarrassing that you’ve not had your family up there, but I get how sometimes we just want to keep things to ourselves,” Zoe commiserates.
“It’s not that,” Susan protests. “It’s just we’ve been real busy and, and other stuff. Want me to push the stroller across the street for you?” As she says this, she looks over at Kimmy, who is still engrossed in her book. Then she looks back at Zoe. “Guess their mom is staying here?”
Zoe shrugs and heads out the door with Katherine on her hip and holding K.J.’s hand. “Sure. So just how big is your house?”
Susan sighs, but follows behind her with the stroller.
The door chimes a couple times as the door closes, and as that sound disappears, I take a deep breath and ask, “So what broke?”
Shannon is disgusted. “That huge clear vase I use for displays all the time. And a stack of candleholders that were going to look great on the book display Bonnie put together over there. I had put them on the table until we got the scarf down on the shelf. All of them broke.” She keeps slicing looks over at Kimmy. But Kimmy’s not paying any of this any attention.
Bonnie has gone to the back to collect a broom and dust pan. As she comes to the front she also steals looks at Kimmy. “Thought I was done with out-of-control children when I left public school teaching.”
Missus comes in, and you can tell she’s been given the lowdown by Susan outside. She also looks at Kimmy, but not in slices or stolen glances, oh, no. She’s staring at her like a cat stares at a laser light. She stops only inches from Kimmy’s crossed legs. “Ma’am, something must be done about your children.”
Kimmy doesn’t look up, just starts flipping her foot which is hanging in midair. The flip-flop, now in motion, grazes Missus’ pant leg. (Missus has on the same color scheme as yesterday, except her pants are red, her top white and blue stripes, and her shoes navy.) Missus reacts by stepping backward.
She opens her mouth, but before anything comes out, Kimmy asks, “What kids?”
Okay, that throws us all off. After a glance around to see that no one knows what to say, I pick up the dust pan and walk over to where Bonnie is sweeping.
Kimmy not only doesn’t look up, she pulls a hank of hair down towards her mouth and swings her foot harder. She speaks as if she’s reading the words off the page in front of her. “My kids are across the street, playing in the park. They bumped the table, which was obviously overloaded. They were just excited to get over by the window where there’s that children’s area sign. However, I see there are no children’s books there. Isn’t that a little misleading?”
Bonnie pulls herself up tall. “It’s just an idea. I, well, I haven’t even run it by Carolina yet.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” I say, then add, “unless we don’t want to have children in here. Guess we need to talk about it.”
Shannon dumps some big pieces of glass she’d picked up into the trash can. “We’ve never really had kids in here before.” Under her breath she adds, “Kids that act like these.”
Kimmy stands up and weaves her way past Missus. She never looks back, or up, as she walks to the door. “Carolina, that’s a good book. I think I’ll come back for it later.”
We are all quiet, again leavi
ng plenty of space for the door chimes to resolve. Bonnie, Shannon, and I start talking about the shop and what we want it to be and whether having children’s books is a good idea.
Missus interrupts us. “Did you see her face?”
“Not really,” I say, and Bonnie and Shannon agree. So I ask, “Why?”
Missus just shakes her head and turns to leave, once again causing the bells to ring.
Bonnie smiles as we watch Missus on the sidewalk. “Well, she seems like a nice lady.”
“You don’t know her,” Shannon and I say together.
Shannon sweeps another pile of glass pieces into the pan I’m holding as she sighs and says, “And I have more bad news. There’s a store over in Canton called Pages & Petals. It’s one of those fancy paper stores. No books or flowers, at least not real flowers. I guess she makes flowers out of the paper, or paper out of flowers, something. I was telling my mother about that maybe being our name, but she knows that store because it’s next to the Sally Beauty Supply store. She says we probably shouldn’t name it something that’s already in the area. Especially when it’s not even close to what we sell.”
Bonnie sighs. “Oh, that’s too bad. I do have to agree with your mother, though. Guess we’re back to square one.”
“Not really,” Shannon says. “Mom came up with another idea.”
“What is it?” I ask as I sit on the couch.
Shannon leans on the arm of the chair where Kimmy was sitting. “Blooming Books. What do you think?”
I smile. “I like it. Maybe even more than Pages and Petals, or Petals and Pages. Blooming Books. What do you think, Bonnie?”
“Not that it’s truly my place to say, but I do like it. Blooming Books. I think it lends itself to making a beautiful sign. If you decide on it.”
“Look at what all you’ve done!” I exclaim as I sit up straighter. “With all the commotion, I hadn’t noticed. You actually moved the shelves.”
“What do you think? Anything can be moved back where you had it. We might have gotten a little ahead of ourselves,” Bonnie says in a worried voice as her hands clasp each other in front of her.
Kids are Chancey Page 18