“Then your mama ran it when Seth and my granny and Jesse were in high school?”
Libby pushed her plate back and propped her feet on an empty chair. “Not really. My grandmother was still the owner then, and my mama was in school with those three.”
“Did she ever talk about them?”
Libby blushed.
Emmy Jo laid a hand on Libby’s shoulder. “Hey, I know the history. It’s okay.”
“Your granny was a wild one. Seth was a nobody and Jesse was a cocky son of a bitch. That’s what she told me when I asked questions.”
“Pretty much what I get from everyone,” Emmy Jo said.
“Now, you two get on out of here and spend the day together. Diana has a vacation day and you’ve got the whole day off. Y’all go talk weddings or drive up to Wichita Falls and window-shop for just the right cake. Just get out of Hickory for the day.”
Emmy Jo would rather have spent the day in the café or in the library. She might get some more answers to all these questions.
“But Mama, you need help. I took the day off to spend it with you,” Diana argued.
“I’ll call one of my standby waitresses to help out. It’s been a while since you girls have had a day to play,” she said. “Now shoo! Get out of here. I’ll expect to hear about wedding stuff next time I see you, not all this old gossip that’s been around for sixty years or more. That’s depressing.”
Diana left her apron hanging on the back of the chair and followed Emmy Jo out to their cars, parked side by side. “Let’s go to my place and eat junk food, watch old movies, drink a beer or two, and giggle instead of spending all day riding to Wichita Falls and back in a car.”
“That sounds amazing. It’s been a long time since we had a day like this. Let’s do My Big Fat Greek Wedding and . . .” Emmy Jo paused.
“And The Longest Ride,” Diana said as she got into her car. “See you there.”
The traffic light stopped Emmy Jo, so Diana was already in the house when she arrived. She’d found a movie, had it in the DVD player, and pointed toward the kitchen when Emmy Jo walked through the door. “Get whatever you want to nibble on and kick off your shoes. You can have the recliner and I’ll take the sofa.”
“I’ve got lunch with . . . ,” she said as she removed her sandals.
Her phone rang, the tone letting her know that it was Logan. She answered as she headed toward the kitchen.
“Bad news, sweetheart. I’ve got a meeting of the employees over my lunch hour concerning safety issues. Can’t make it today, but I’m lookin’ forward to Thursday,” Logan said.
“Me, too, but nothing can keep us apart on Thursday, not family, friends, or foes,” she said. “I’m at Diana’s. We’re going to watch movies and visit.”
“Have fun,” Logan said. “Love you.”
“Me, too,” she said and hit the “End” button. “Hey, Diana, can I get you anything? I’m only going to have a glass of apple juice.”
“Bring me one, too. After that big breakfast, I don’t need a thing,” Diana yelled. “Movie is ready to start when you get here.”
She set the two glasses of juice on the end table between the sofa and recliner. Once she was settled and had a fluffy throw tossed over her body, Diana hit the “Play” button and My Big Fat Greek Wedding started.
“I wish I’d been born into a big family like this,” Diana said.
“Me, too, but with my luck, all those old women would act just like Tandy.” Emmy Jo giggled. “I’m already thinkin’ about her wedding dress. I don’t want anything that big, but I do want the big affair.”
“I’m not so sure anymore. I’m about ready to burn my wedding book and make a run to the courthouse one afternoon,” Diana said.
“Bite your tongue!” Emmy Jo shook her finger at Diana. “We’ve got years and years of work on our wedding books. We can’t ditch them this late in the game. Besides, you are the only chance I’ll ever have at being a maid of honor.”
“Okay, okay!” Diana said. “I’ll have the wedding, but I want it to be a small one without much fanfare. You can have the huge thing.”
“That’s better,” Emmy Jo said.
At four thirty the last of four movies ended, and Emmy Jo popped the recliner’s footrest down. “I’ve got to go, but this has been such a good day.”
“Yes.” Diana yawned. “I slept through part of the last one.”
“Shame on you. The ending was the best part.” Emmy Jo gave her a hug. “I’m so glad that we aren’t—”
“Me, too,” Diana interrupted. “Now get out of here before you are late and get fired. I want to be the bridesmaid at the biggest wedding Hickory has ever seen.”
“Thanks for the day. Tell everyone hello at the office for me.” Emmy Jo put her sandals on and waved at the door.
When she got home, Emmy Jo left her research bag in the car and took the steps two at a time. As usual Seth was sitting at the head of the table and Oma Lynn was bringing out the food.
“So how are you feelin’?” Seth asked.
“I’m fine. Diana and I spent the whole day together at her house watching movies and I didn’t sneeze one time,” she answered.
“Well, my doctor is going to look at you tomorrow anyway,” Seth said.
“Over a sneeze or two? That’s crazy,” Emmy Jo protested. “I work in home health. I know about sickness, and if I was feelin’ bad I would be smart enough not to work around elderly folks.”
“Elderly, am I?” One of Seth’s snowy-white eyebrows shot up.
“Well, darlin’, you ain’t a spring chicken.”
“Oma Lynn, she has insulted me. Call Nora and tell her that I’m firing her. Get your bags packed, young lady,” Seth said.
“Don’t tease me. I’ve had a wonderful day, and I’m not wasting money on a doctor over nothing more than a bit of pollen up my nose.”
“Either you’ll let the doctor check you or I really will call Nora,” Seth said seriously.
Emmy Jo threw up her palms. “Okay, okay, but since it’s your idea, you will pay for it. I’m not throwing my hard-earned money down the drain.”
“Deal,” Seth said.
“Once he gets set on something, wild horses couldn’t change his mind,” Oma Lynn said. “You can come help me bring in the biscuits and gravy.”
Emmy Jo headed toward the kitchen. “What doctor in this area makes home visits?”
“Not one in this area. He’ll fly over from Fort Worth,” Seth answered.
“Fly?” Emmy Jo asked.
“The roof has a helicopter pad,” Oma Lynn answered. “They took Seth to the hospital for his hip replacement and brought him back that way. Dr. Everson agreed to come to the house to check on him.”
“Dr. Everson, as in the best bone doctor in Texas?” Emmy Jo was totally amazed.
“You think he’d let just anyone cut into him?”
“You’re going to have Dr. Everson check me for nothing. Lord, he’ll charge a fortune,” Emmy Jo declared.
“Stop worrying. He’s one of them high-powered surgeons, but surely he’s got enough sense to know if you are starting to get sick,” Seth yelled from the dining room.
“And if you are a little bit sick,” Oma Lyn whispered, “you ain’t goin’ to be fired. He hates to listen to Nora bitch and moan, and she would be an old bear if he fired you.”
Emmy Jo picked at her food. She’d nibbled all day, so she wasn’t hungry and the fact that she’d wasted a whole day started to weigh on her. She would spend the evening working on her story and notes to make up for the time when she should have been in the library. When Oma Lynn brought in the lemon pie for dessert, she was thinking about why Samuel Thomas had run out on his family. She tried to put herself in his shoes as she finished supper. Had he really loved the barmaid he ran away with, or was he going through a midlife crisis? Try as she might, she could find no sympathy for him. Leaving his family, especially his three children at the ages they were, was inexcusable.
/> “What are you thinkin’ about?” Seth said. “I’ve asked you twice what movies you watched. The old theater here in Hickory has been closed for years, so where did you go?”
“We didn’t,” she said. “She owns several movies and we watched them on television at her house.”
“Humph.” Seth snorted. “Television is the ruination of the world today. Folks don’t read the newspaper or talk to one another anymore.”
“Oh, come on,” Emmy Jo said. “Nothing can be the total blame for the world’s problems.”
Seth gave her a sideways look meant to chill her to the bone, but she giggled. “Don’t you look at me like that. I’ve lived with Tandy Massey my whole life, and you aren’t nearly as mean as she is.”
A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth and finally turned into a wide grin. “You are right about that. Now finish your supper so we can play a game of Scrabble before bedtime.”
Rats! I wanted to go over my notes and get some writing done, she thought.
Too bad. You wanted to be his assistant, so this is your job. You are not part of his family but the hired help. The argumentative voice in her head sounded a heck of a lot like Tandy’s.
CHAPTER TEN
Oma Lynn brought a hot toddy to the room before she left that evening.
“What is this for and why are you here so late?” Emmy Jo asked.
“Seth asked me to stay until bedtime so I could make you drink this,” she said.
“I don’t need it, Oma Lynn. I’m really not sick.”
“I know that and you know it, but Seth is paranoid about catching anything right now and having to go back to the hospital, so drink it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Emmy Jo nodded. “See you in the morning, then?”
“Bright and early,” Oma Lynn said as she closed the door behind her.
The thought of a hot toddy reminded Emmy Jo of Samuel again. Maybe he had resorted to alcohol as escapism when he realized that his life was never going to be any better. A wife he’d married out of guilt and three kids who had to be fed and needed shoes at least once a year. With all that responsibility, she might fall into a bottle, too, especially if it tasted this good.
The phone rang.
“I’m bored and you are my assistant. You need to come down here to the patio and sit with me,” Seth said.
“What if I get you sick?” she asked.
“I’ll sit on one side of the patio and you can sit on the other.”
“I was teasin’ you. We had supper together and our heads weren’t three feet apart while we played Scrabble. I’ll be down in five minutes. Shall I bring the hot toddy with me or down it up here before I come down?” she asked.
“It does more good if you sip it,” he said. “So bring it with you.”
When she arrived, Seth held up his drink. “I’m having a toddy, too. No self-respecting germ would ever live in this stuff. It’s prevention medicine.”
“To a good doctor’s report tomorrow.” She touched her glass with his.
“You didn’t see Logan today?” Seth asked.
“Not today. He had a meeting at the bank. I’m hoping to spend Thursday afternoon with him.” She sat down and held the glass up and looked at the moon and stars through the crystal. “Have you ever drunk enough of these to get tipsy?”
“No, but I discovered when I was in the army that I had a taste for good whiskey and I did get drunk. After the first few times, I decided that I had to leave it alone or I’d end up like my father.”
She tipped it up and finished off what was in the glass. “I’ve never been drunk. Granny let me have hot toddies when I was sick and I’ve had a beer with pizza many times, but losing my senses and throwing up the next morning isn’t my thing.”
He turned on the radio and they listened to several classic country music tunes before she finally got the courage to ask the question on her mind. “What really happened between you and Jesse to make y’all carry a grudge for more than sixty years?”
Seth finished listening to the song that was playing, then turned off the radio. He leaned back on the lounge and took another sip of his drink. “By the end of summer after Mama put out the red light, I thought everyone had moved on to other gossip and we Thomas kids would be ignored like we’d always been. My brother, Matthew, was in elementary school, and some kid made a rude remark about our mother on the first day. He’d probably overheard it at home and was repeating the word, but callin’ Mama a whore didn’t set well with Matthew.”
“How mean!” Emmy Jo frowned.
“He was a firecracker, and he came right back by saying that the kid’s daddy gave Mama the money for his new shoes.” Seth grinned. “The fight was on and the other kid wound up with blood all over his shirt and a black eye. Matthew had a bruise on his arm and his new pants had tears on both knees.”
“Did he get in trouble?” Emmy Jo asked.
“Oh, yeah, both at school and at home. Mama did not abide fighting or cussin’, and Matthew had done his fair share of both that day. The principal gave Matthew and the other kid each three licks at school and Matthew had to wash the supper dishes for a whole month.”
Emmy Jo cocked her head to one side and frowned.
“Washing dishes was girls’ work,” Seth explained. “She told him that it would knock some of that cockiness out of him.”
“Did it work?”
Seth’s head slowly went from side to side. “Not one bit. The next morning another kid caught him going home after school and kicked Matthew in the seat of the britches, sending him flying across gravel and making a mess of his hands. Plus, it tore the knees again out of the britches Mama had just gotten for him.”
Emmy Jo’s fists knotted. “Did he fight back?”
Seth chuckled. “The kid was Jesse Grady’s cousin. He and Matthew locked up horns. It took the principal and two more teachers to break up the fight. The principal got out the board and Matthew got three licks again, and the other kid got suspended for starting the whole thing.”
Emmy Jo waited and was almost ready to go inside to her room. But then Seth went on. “Matthew told Mama the whole story. She said he’d be doing supper dishes until Christmas.”
“And?” Emmy Jo urged him on.
“He said that it was worth it and that the water would heal his busted knuckles.” Seth grinned. “We thought it was over, but a few weeks into our junior year, it fired up again.”
The smile faded, and his eyes went so sad that she wanted to hug him in the worst kind of way. With her hands clasped tightly in her lap, she held her breath.
“We were in history class, and the teacher was talking about why so many black folks had surnames like Thomason or Jackson. She asked if anyone in the class knew why?” Seth’s eyes misted over and he swallowed hard. “Nora raised her hand and said that it was because when they weren’t slaves anymore they took their master’s first name and attached son to it, becoming the son of Thomas or the son of Jack.”
He threw back the rest of his toddy and set the glass down with a thud, reminding her of the old Western movies that Tandy liked to watch on late-night television. “The teacher said that was right. But then Jesse raised his hand. I knew he was about to make a smart-ass remark. I could feel the tension in the air.”
From the anger in Seth’s eyes, Emmy Jo could feel part of what he had that day in the schoolroom. “Please tell me that you were wrong.”
“Oh, no, I was dead-on right,” Seth said. “And I can still see the smirk on his face and feel the burn on mine when he said, ‘Then, teacher, if a feller’s mama is a tramp, he could be called Trampson, right?’ And his gaze never left my eyes the whole time he talked.”
Emmy Jo felt Seth’s pain. Even in telling it, he was reliving that horrible nightmare when those words echoed over the whole schoolroom.
“The whole class roared with laughter, and the teacher sent Jesse to the office. He was back in no time with nothing more than a warning to watch his mouth. They were
n’t going to do anything to him, because Hickory High School was in the football playoffs the next night. Jesse was the quarterback,” Seth said.
“Was that the night that a gang beat him up? I read about it in the papers when I was looking up stuff about my granny and my mama,” she said.
“That was the afternoon that I followed him home. There was no gang, Emmy Jo,” Seth said. “He could have gotten away with putting me down, but he’d called my mama a tramp, and it was his mother and her cronies who’d forced her to do what she did by not giving her work.”
“You beat him up, didn’t you?” Emmy Jo whispered.
“I tried to kill him and would have, but Nora found me and dragged me off him. She took me straight to the creek and cleaned me up as best she could, then we went home. I told Mama that I couldn’t talk about what had happened, but that Matthew would have some help with the dishes every night for the rest of the school year,” Seth said in a monotone. “I thought Jesse was dead when we left him. I wish he had been. If he had, it would have changed the course of my life.”
Emmy Jo started to argue. If Jesse had died, there would be no Logan. But she managed to hold her tongue. “So didn’t he tell on you?”
“While he was still conscious, I reminded him that if he told anyone that ‘Trampson’ had whipped his sorry ass, he’d be the laughingstock of the whole school. And then I raised his bloody face up and told him if he ever said another mean word about my mother again, I would kill him. After that I pounded him until Nora grabbed my hair and pulled me away from his unconscious body. We left him lyin’ out behind his daddy’s barn,” Seth said.
“He made up that story about a gang, didn’t he?”
Seth nodded very slowly. “Everyone in school felt sorry for him. We lost the first round of playoffs that Friday night. Basketball season started without Jesse being the hot dog on the team and we didn’t have a good year there, either. When he came back to school after Christmas, he treated me like an invisible person, and that was fine with me.”
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