“Is there a particular place you want me to sit?” I asked, glancing around the table. It had been built by my great-great-grandfather and was designed to hold fourteen people comfortably. The four place settings were on the end closest to the kitchen—two spots facing another two. The end of the table was left empty.
My grandfather’s spot.
Meemaw set the pitcher on the table and gestured to the side of the table opposite her.
“You can’t start dinner yet,” Lauren said, walking through the front door. “We’re still waiting on our other cameraman. You said you were serving dinner at seven, and it’s only six fifty-five.”
Meemaw’s eyes narrowed. “This is my house, and we eat when I say we do. If you don’t like it, then tough.” She glared at Dixie before shifting her gaze to me. “Sit.”
I quickly took my seat while Dixie sat across from me. Meemaw sat next to her.
“Let’s say grace,” Meemaw said, lifting her hands.
“Don’t start without me!” I heard a man call out from the kitchen.
The guy who rushed in from the swinging door looked like a much younger version of my grandfather. My mouth gaped open when I saw him, but a huge grin spread across his face.
Teddy was all grown up and extremely good-looking, but he didn’t have the arrogant air a lot of good-looking guys had.
“Summer!” I stood, and he pulled me into a bear hug. “I can’t believe you’re home. I hope you’re considering stayin’—the Baumgartner cousins all together again.”
He wanted me to stay? A lump filled my throat, and I cast a glance toward Meemaw, but she waved her hand. “We’re not talkin’ about that. Not tonight.” She shot a glare at Lauren.
But Lauren was too busy grinning at Teddy to notice. Probably because his good looks would be great for ratings. I suspected she would figure out ways to insert him into the show any chance she got.
“Teddy,” she said in the nicest voice she’d used all day, “would you mind coming back into the room just like you did a moment ago?”
“Why?” he asked in confusion.
“So we can film it.”
Bill hurried through the front door. Lauren looked furious with him, but her expression completely transformed after he walked over to her and whispered something in her ear. After a couple of seconds, she shot me a pleased glance.
What was that about?
“Get set up, Bill,” Lauren said. “We’re rolling.”
Teddy made his entrance two more times before Meemaw started cursing about her dinner getting ruined. Lauren gave the all clear for dinner to carry on.
Meemaw said grace—with everyone holding hands—and we had finally started dishing food onto our plates when a knock landed on the front door.
Dixie gave Teddy and Meemaw a questioning glance. “Did you invite someone else?”
“Don’t look at me,” Meemaw barked.
Teddy shook his head. “Wasn’t me this time.”
“Hello,” a voice called out from the living room. “Did you start without us?”
I froze. No. It can’t be.
But it was. Standing in the dining room doorway was my mother.
CHAPTER TEN
“Summer,” my mother said in a snippy tone, “you’re back in town and didn’t bother to tell me.”
I pushed out a breath. I was going to kill Lauren. And all this was being captured on camera. If Lauren expected us to reshoot Momma’s grand entrance, I would walk right out of this house.
“Momma,” I said, trying to keep my tone civil, “I just arrived this morning.”
“I hear you got a new business,” she said, walking into the room. “You’re a detective now. A real one.”
My stepfather followed, staying multiple steps behind her. His black hair had gone mostly gray, but he still had the same browbeaten look he’d worn since shortly after he’d married my mother. “Hello, Summer,” he said softly, unable to look me in the eye.
“Hi, Burt.”
“What in the Sam Hill are you doin’ here, Beatrice?” Meemaw asked while slapping a spoonful of potatoes onto her plate.
Momma lifted her chin. “We’ve dropped by for dinner.”
“No one invited you.”
My mother laughed. “Invited? But we’re family.” She pointed to the table. “Burt, you sit there. I’ll go get us plates and silverware.”
Burt walked around the table and sat next to me. “How’ve ya been, Summer?”
My mouth dropped open, and some choice words came to mind before I remembered everything was being captured on video. “Just fine, Burt. How about you? Enjoying that huge house?”
He had the good grace to look embarrassed. “Yeah. You should drop by for a visit.”
“I’m sure I’ll be too busy,” I said.
“Too good for the likes of us?” my mother asked as she came out of the kitchen with two plates in one hand and silverware in the other. “You always had an attitude, Summer. Thinkin’ you knew better than everyone else.”
I almost protested, but her question was a trap I refused to fall into. She wanted me to argue. She wanted me to fuss. And I wouldn’t do it. I was done making a spectacle of myself for my mother. I’d decided that the day she’d walked off with my money. Based on the giant diamond rings on her hands, she was living large while I was struggling to save the farm. Had I made the wrong decision back then? Should I have slapped her with a lawsuit?
A quick glance to Dixie reminded me of my reasons. But I couldn’t forget that Dixie still wasn’t safe. Not while I was here, and certainly not while we were shooting this show.
“We haven’t seen you in a while, Aunt Beatrice,” Teddy said with a smirk. “What a funny coincidence that you showed up tonight.”
Everyone at the table knew Teddy meant the coincidence was that her sudden reappearance coincided with that of the cameras, but my mother, of course, chose to pretend otherwise. “I haven’t seen my daughter in ages, Teddy. Of course I came around.”
“And why haven’t you been around to see us, Aunt Beatrice? What’s it been? Two years?”
“It’s just so far, Teddy,” she said, pressing her fingertips to her chest with a dramatic flair. “We’re practically in Georgia. And then there’s my busy schedule . . . coaching all those pageant girls.”
“I’m sure all those living Barbie dolls keep you busy,” he said. “As for the drive here . . . well, I do understand. The last nine minutes of that ten-minute drive are the hardest.”
Dixie released a giggle, and even Meemaw cracked a smile. My mother’s mouth dropped open before she quickly shut it.
While I was loving every moment of my mother’s discomfort, I was smart enough to know that if our family dinner was drama-free, it would be less likely to make the final cut—and we wouldn’t be subjected to too many more of them. “So, Teddy,” I said to change the subject, “Dixie says you work on the farm.”
He reached for one of Meemaw’s yeast rolls. “That’s right.”
“Are you planting cotton?”
“Of course, he’s plantin’ cotton,” Meemaw snapped. “It’s a damn cotton farm. What else would we be plantin’?”
“Well . . . ,” Teddy said, turning to me, “I’ve been thinkin’ about expanding. The Johnsons are gonna start raisin’ organic chickens.”
My grandmother shot him a glare. “Not that nonsense again.”
“Meemaw,” he groaned in frustration, “Cotton’s not enough. Even Pawpaw saw that.”
She pointed her fork at him. “This has been a cotton farm for nearly two hundred years, and that’s not about to change. Organic chickens . . .” She shook her head. “Over my dead body.”
He scooped a huge bite of mashed potatoes onto his fork. “I’m not tryin’ to change that, Meemaw. We’ll just take some of the land for the chickens.”
“No.” She shot me a glare. “We’re not discussing this in front of company.”
There was that word again. Company. And she made d
amn sure I knew she was referring to my mother and me, not the production crew.
But Teddy decided to use the audience to his advantage. “The farm’s hurting, Meemaw. We need the money.”
“Not in front of company,” she said more firmly.
I was reeling from the news that the farm was still in financial straits. I’d bailed it out before—hell, I was still bailing it out. I couldn’t afford to do anything more. How bad off were they?
My mother picked up on the tension right away—and, as was her way, stuck her finger in it. “Are you going to lose the farm?”
“Of course we’re not going to lose the farm,” Meemaw mumbled.
“But Teddy said—”
“Teddy’s a fool who needs to learn to keep his trap shut.”
My mother turned to me. “Are you still—”
I needed to change the topic quickly. Pawpaw didn’t want my grandmother to know about the loan and had made me swear to keep it secret. Sure, he was dead now, but he’d taught me that swearing an oath meant something, even if the world no longer thought so.
“Meemaw,” I said loud enough to interrupt my mother, “what do you know about Mayor Sterling?”
Her head jutted back. “Garner Sterling? What about him?”
Part of me hated to bring this up while filming, but I had an idea for how to ensure this didn’t make it on the air. These kinds of shows liked to pretend that their cameras didn’t exist. I couldn’t see them using anything that specifically called out the filming process. “I saw Luke Montgomery earlier, and he thinks the mayor was bribed with a stoplight to let the production crew film in town. Do you think the mayor’s on the up-and-up?”
Teddy sat up straighter, irritation radiating off him. “You saw Luke Montgomery?”
“Yeah,” I said, wondering why he was riled up. “This morning outside the office dealing with a crowd, then he pulled me over this evening.”
“Pulled you over?” Teddy said, turning to face me. “What for?”
“Nothing, really. I think he just wanted to tell me off.”
Teddy shook his head, looking like he was madder than a hornet. “With all the issues goin’ on in this town, he’s wasting his time pullin’ you over?”
“What issues?”
Dixie leaned over the table and lowered her voice. “Now’s not the time, Teddy.”
“Now’s the perfect time,” Teddy said, dropping his fork on his plate with a clang. “How about there’ve been two overdose deaths in just as many months, and he’s not doin’ jack shit about it.”
“That may not be true,” Dixie said, imploring him with her eyes to be quiet.
“There’s something brewing in this town, something ugly, and Luke’s turned his back on the whole thing.”
My mother decided she needed to jump in. “That man’s part of the reason we live outside of the city limits. I could only take so much of his harassment.”
“Harassment?” I said. “Over what?”
She shook her head in disgust. “I know that boy still harbors a grudge against me for talking you into some common sense about your contract for Gotcha! He plans to use his position to punish me for it.” She angrily stabbed her green beans. “I can only imagine what would have happened if you’d stayed. That boy was after your money and your fame. He was never interested in you.”
Of all the things she could say. Luke had never wanted any of it—the money, the fame. He’d only wanted me. My mother was the one who’d used me. But that wasn’t the kind of drama I was willing to give Lauren.
Meemaw’s eyes narrowed. I remembered this look from when I was a girl. This was a warning of an impending explosion. “Beatrice, are you actually suggesting that Luke Montgomery abuses his position?”
My mother shrugged. “It’s a small town. People talk.”
Meemaw slammed her fist on the table, making the dishes rattle and several of us jump. “Luke Montgomery is just what this town needs, someone who doesn’t fall for all the nonsense that other people do.” She turned her attention to me. “Like that damn Garner Sterling. Throwing ridiculous parades, thinking he’s going to rebuild this town with tourism. He’s lost his fool mind.” She pointed her fork at Teddy. “You’ve got a vendetta against that man, and you need to let it go. It’s poisoning you, boy.”
Teddy’s hands balled into fists on the table. “Why is Luke Montgomery a man in your eyes, but I’m a boy?”
“Maybe because he acts like one.”
Deathly silence hung over the table until my mother broke it.
“You never had good sense when it came to men,” Momma said to me with a wicked look in her eyes. She was determined to switch the conversation from her failings to mine. “Especially where that Luke Montgomery is concerned. Please don’t tell me you’re doing something desperate like trying to relive your youth with your high school crush.”
“He was more than a crush, and you know it, Momma,” I said before I could stop myself.
“You claimed it was love,” she scoffed. “What could you possibly know about love at seventeen?”
“I obviously didn’t learn from you,” I snapped back. “You still haven’t learned what real love is at forty-six.”
“Did you just say my age on TV?” my mother asked in horror.
It hadn’t escaped my notice that she’d objected to my use of her age, but not what I’d said. “I’m shocked you haven’t told the cameramen what angle you want to be filmed at to hide your double chins.”
Momma gasped and lifted her hand to her neck. “I do not have double chins! My plastic surgeon gave me a five-year guarantee!”
“Cut!” Lauren shouted, her face red. She marched over to me. “What are you doing? You can’t mention the cameras. Now we have to start over again and have your mother and stepfather come back in.”
“Like hell you will,” Meemaw said with a curled upper lip. “We’re gonna eat. I’m too old for all this pretend crap.”
“Fine,” Lauren huffed. “Just carry on your conversation.”
Somebody clapped the clapperboard and there was dead silence. We all ate, looking down at our plates. After nearly thirty seconds, Lauren yelled. “What the hell is this? Talk!”
Obviously Lauren didn’t know this family very well if she thought we were going to talk. Baumgartners didn’t talk. Ever.
My mother and Burt left an hour later. Momma had tried to plug her pageant business multiple times and Burt’s accounting business twice. She’d also tried to coerce Meemaw into selling the farm—and had nearly gotten herself kicked out of the house. But as soon as dinner was over, she stood and looked down at her husband. “Burt, I think we should go. It’s such a long drive, and I need to prepare for the Little Miss Peach Pageant in Athens this weekend.”
“Of course, dear,” he said, pushing his half-finished strawberry pie to the middle of the table.
I realized he hadn’t said much more than “yes” or “of course” since he’d walked in and invited me to their house.
“Viola,” he said to my grandmother, “thank you for a lovely dinner.”
She harrumphed but didn’t meet his eyes.
“Summer . . .” His voice trailed off when my mother gave him a deadly look.
Momma turned around and walked toward the door, Burt trailing on her heels. I kept thinking she would have some parting words for me, if nothing else than for the cameras, but when she finally stopped at the front door, one of the cameras on her and the other aimed at the table, my mother said, “Oh, Momma. I forgot. I have a group of girls coming to get headshots by the magnolia tree in the graveyard next week. So don’t go doin’ something foolish like callin’ the police.” Then she was gone.
Only she wasn’t really gone. Chuck had set up several lights, and my mother was now in her coveted spotlight, telling Lauren and Bill about her evening, and probably that she was sure Suzie Jenkins was going to be crowned Junior Miss Supreme this weekend.
Dixie glanced up at me with a frown, and
I knew what she was thinking: Poor Summer.
I was tired of people’s pity and their scorn. Tomorrow, I was taking charge of my life. I was going to make sure this show worked.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next morning after we got into the truck to head into town, I saw that Dixie was glued to her phone.
“Everything okay?”
“There’s been a murder,” she said with her eyes still fixed on the screen.
“In Sweet Briar?” I asked in shock.
“Yeah. It’s on Maybelline’s Facebook page.”
“Who?”
“She doesn’t know. Only that a body was found behind Ruby Garwood’s garage. Cale found it while he was driving home last night. Luke’s keepin’ it all hush-hush.”
“When was the last time there was a murder in this town?”
“The county has ’em from time to time, but I can’t remember the last time someone was killed in city limits.” She paused for a moment. “So what’s that mean for our show?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Nothing, I suppose. Otto’s disappearance seems to be the only real thing we’re investigating if you don’t count the workman’s-comp case, and honestly, I’m not convinced that’s real.” I gasped. “Do you think it could be Otto?”
“Oh, golly,” she said. “I hope not.”
She continued to look at her phone, then squealed. “Oh! There’s something about you!”
“On Maybelline’s Facebook page?” Great. Had someone seen Luke pull me over last night?
“No! Reality Jane.”
The website devoted to reality TV shows? “What?” I jerked my gaze over to her, trying to see her screen. “Is it about me punching that guy?”
“No.” She glanced up at me with wide eyes. “It’s about you and your mother.”
“What?”
“‘Trouble in Summer Land?’” Dixie read. “‘Rumor has it that Summer Butler’s split with her mother wasn’t so sweet after all. Summer’s in her hometown of Sweet Briar, Alabama, filming her new reality TV show, Darling Investigations, and a source tells us that Summer had a family reunion with her mother, and sparks flew. Their parting may not have been as amicable as we were led to believe.’”
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