Small Town Rumors

by Carolyn Brown

  “I really want to know, Mama,” she pressured.

  “After,” Charlotte admitted. “He confronted me, and we came to an understanding. I wouldn’t divorce him and take the company from him if he’d let me have James.”

  “And how did James feel about all this?” Jennie Sue couldn’t imagine that he was happy when the love of his life wouldn’t leave her husband.

  “He loved me enough to take me any way that he could have me,” Charlotte said. “Now can we change the subject and go on to shoes or the weather?”

  “Daddy still loves you,” Jennie Sue said.

  “And I’ve always loved Dill. He’s a good man and he’s done wonders with the company. The trouble was that I wasn’t in love with him. That’s what the therapist told me after James died. It makes sense.” She sighed. “Come on. Let’s put this behind us now that you know the details and do some serious shopping this afternoon. I’m going with the Belles whether you come along or not.”

  Jennie Sue shook her head. “I can’t afford to shop for new clothing or shoes. Maybe I’ll borrow one of the extra swimsuits in the bathhouse and spend some time in the pool, if that’s okay.”

  Neither of them had worn the other one down, so it was a standoff. “Make yourself at home. A couple of the Belles should be arriving”—Charlotte was interrupted by the doorbell—“right now.”

  Both women were dressed in cute little capri-length pants and sandals. Underdressed for a day of shopping, and yet there was no doubt that what they were wearing would cost more than Jennie Sue made in a month at her two jobs.

  “Jennie Sue, darlin’!” Aunt Sugar rushed to her side and kissed her on the forehead. “We told Charlotte that you’d get enough of that crazy notion that you want to be independent and come home.”

  Aunt Mary Lou pushed her out of the way and bent to hug Jennie Sue. “But, honey, you have to be more discreet with the boyfriend. He may be delicious in bed, but after today, you’ve got to keep it on the down low. We’re all disappointed in Percy, but don’t worry, we’ve already got feelers out for the next Mr. Wilshire.” She headed toward the bar. “It’s still mornin’, so a mimosa is in order. How many shall I make? Did y’all hear that Belinda has gotten religion? If she’s atoning for her sins, it’s more than twenty years too late. And I don’t mean she’s just goin’ to church—hell, we all do that—but she’s all up in the food bank and the free clothing for the poor. We might have to have an intervention if she doesn’t straighten up. It’ll give the Belles a bad name.”

  Oh, no! Jennie Sue wanted to slap her hands over her cheeks and make a perfect little O with her mouth. The first thing Nadine’s aliens would have to learn if they ever came to earth was that they couldn’t do anything that would give the Sweetwater Belles a bad name.

  “No mimosa for me,” Aunt Sugar said. “I’m driving today.”

  “None for me. Too many carbs,” Charlotte answered.

  “Jennie Sue?” Mary Lou asked.

  “No, thank you. And just to be clear, I’m only here to see Mama. I’m not moving back into the house,” Jennie Sue said.

  The bottle of champagne hit the ground and splattered everywhere. “Sweet God in heaven. Girl, are you insane?” Aunt Mary Lou gasped. “Do the Belles need to have an intervention for you? You are, after all, a future member.”

  “Charlotte, do we need to commit her to a rehab?” Aunt Sugar gasped.

  Mabel must’ve heard the glass breaking, because she was there in an instant. She caught Jennie Sue’s eye as she entered the room and raised an eyebrow.

  “Aunt Mary Lou dropped a bottle of champagne,” Jennie Sue said. “She’ll probably need to go home and change her shoes before y’all go shopping.”

  “I’ll clean it up,” Mabel said.

  Jennie Sue pushed up off the lounge, popped the last piece of bacon in her mouth, and said, “I’ll help you.”

  Aunt Sugar gasped. “Oh, Charlotte, we were so wrong. We’ll definitely take care of this child after your birthday is over.”

  “She’s like her grandmother Baker. That woman was a force. She’ll have to learn her lessons the hard way.” Charlotte stood up and patted Jennie Sue on the cheek. “Call me when you come to your senses, and we’ll do lunch. Even if you are bein’ a brat, we need to discuss your daddy’s birthday.”

  “I rather enjoy bein’ like Grandma Vera. I’ll call you about Daddy’s birthday in the next few days, Mama.” She stood up and blew a kiss toward her mother as she left.

  Jennie Sue did a dive from the side of the pool, swam a dozen laps, and then stretched out on the lounge. The whole conversation with her mother was surreal in too many ways to count. Were all the Wilshire women so devious? Did they all have lovers outside their marriages?

  “And why weren’t there ever any sons born to carry on the name? Mama wasn’t a Wilshire. She was an Alexander by last name before she married Daddy. How did it make Grandpa or any of the men in the family feel for their wives and daughters to still be referred to as Wilshires?” she said aloud.

  “Don’t know.” Frank startled her when he spoke. “It’s always seemed a little bit odd to me and Mabel, too.”

  Jennie Sue pointed to the chair beside her. “Sit down and talk to me. Can I get you something to drink?”

  He shook his head. “Thanks, but I just had a glass of tea a little bit ago, and I don’t have time to talk. Mabel sent me out here to ask if you’ll have lunch with us in the kitchen in about fifteen minutes.” Frank patted her on the head like he had when she was a child. “Honey, don’t fret over the past. Just look to the future and forget all those old stories. Only person we’re responsible to make happy is ourselves, and you’re doin’ a fine job of it.”

  “Thank you. Did you know my grandparents well?” She hoped to get him talking so he’d stay with her for a while.

  “Worked for them until your mama married, and then they transferred us over here to work for her after she’d fired at least half a dozen housekeepers. We been here ever since. It’s time that this thing with the Wilshire women stopped.” He turned around. “See you in the house in a few minutes. Mabel made broccoli-cheese soup and chicken-salad sandwiches because that’s your favorites.”

  “I love y’all,” Jennie Sue said.

  Frank’s crooked grin lit up his eyes. “We love you.”

  When he’d left, she dived into the water from the side of the pool and did two laps, then hopped out, hurried to the bathhouse, and changed into her clothing. That done, she braided her wet hair into one long rope that hung over her shoulder and padded barefoot into the house.

  When she reached the kitchen, Mabel motioned toward the table. A steaming tureen of soup sat in the middle with a plate of sandwiches to one side—crust left on because that’s the way Jennie Sue liked it. A plate of fresh fruit and a big loaf of fresh bread were right beside it.

  “Where’s Frank?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “Right here.” He rushed in from the hall. “Mabel has a rule about me washin’ my greasy hands in her kitchen sink. Man, don’t this look good today?”

  “It don’t get no better than this—food and company,” Jennie Sue agreed.

  Mabel sat down across from Jennie Sue, leaving the place at the head of the table for Frank. She laid a hand on his and said, “You say grace, but don’t make it too long. The bread needs to be hot enough to melt butter.”

  When he finished, Jennie Sue and Mabel said amen at the same time. Mabel dipped out bowls of soup while Jennie Sue passed the sandwiches and thick slices of bread to Frank.

  “I’ll miss y’all when you ever retire,” she said.

  “Honey, retirement is when we die,” Frank said with a bit of wistfulness in his tone. “We’ve saved through the years, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep us if things ever got bad and we had to go to a nursing home, so we’ll be working until we drop.”

  “But don’t you go worryin’ about that,” Mabel said quickly. “We’re happy doin’ what we do, and we’ve been luc
ky that we get to work together all these years. Plus, what would we do if we did retire?”

  They’d done so much and been such an integral part of her raising that Jennie Sue wished that she could do something to help them. They should have a few years to travel or just sit on the porch or even garden again if they wanted to. Truth was, after putting up with what went on in the Baker house, they should be given a million-dollar retirement package with benefits. She pretended to wipe butter from her lip with her napkin and brushed a tear from her eye.

  She popped a piece of bread into her mouth. “Mmm, this is so good. Maybe if you retired, you could enjoy not having to get up in the morning if you didn’t want to, and never have to worry about anyone but yourselves.”

  Frank slowly shook his head in disagreement. “If we retired, we’d never get to see you again. We don’t get to spend nearly enough time with you as it is. Thank goodness for unlimited long-distance phone calls in between your visits home.”

  “I’d still come to see you, maybe for supper on Sunday evenings, and you could come see me. I’m sorry I didn’t call more often. School and studies took up so much time, and Mama didn’t want anyone to know about the divorce, or later that Percy was on the run. It was hard not to blurt it all out,” she said.

  “No worries.” Mabel reached across the table and patted her arm. “You’re home where you belong now. I hear you are doing fingernails and toenails tonight at Lettie’s place. I thought after we get off work, I might join y’all.”

  “That would be great.” Jennie Sue beamed.

  “I can’t remember the last time I had an evenin’ out just for fun, and”—she lowered her voice—“Lettie says there will be wine.”

  “I might have to drive you and Nadine both home,” Jennie Sue whispered.

  Mabel nodded. “You just might at that.”

  Mabel and Lettie sat on either end of the sofa that evening, and Nadine chose the recliner. One at a time Jennie Sue brought three basins of warm water with bath salts dissolved in it for them to soak their feet. Then she sat down on the floor and started to work on Mabel’s feet first.

  They’d finished their first glass of wine when she moved down the line to do Lettie’s toenails. And they were working on their third when she started Nadine’s. No one could ever accuse these old gals of not being able to hold their liquor. It wasn’t until she’d finished and had started back around to do Lettie’s fingernails that they got happy and started slurring their words.

  Mabel tapped Lettie on the shoulder. “Did you hear that the almighty Belinda Anderson has gotten religion?”

  Nadine guffawed. “After all them wild oats she’s sowed, it’ll take more than workin’ in the clothes closet for the poor to redeem her. She’d do better to join a convent.”

  “Man, that must’ve been a shock to Belinda,” Jennie Sue said.

  “They say karma will sneak up on a person and bite them on the butt. Well, this is Belinda’s time to get bit. Neither of her daughters belong to her husband, and all her diamonds are fake,” Lettie whispered.

  “No! She could be forgiven for sleeping around, but to wear fake diamonds? She might not ever get into heaven for a stunt like that. What happened to her real jewelry? Did your aliens steal them, Nadine?” Jennie Sue joked.

  Nadine shot a mean look her way. “Don’t you tease about that, girl. Them things might be real, and you might make them mad if they hear you accusin’ them of stealin’ diamonds. I heard that she hocked most of her fancy jewels to pay off a blackmailer who threatened to tell her husband about the girls,” Nadine said.

  “Does he know now?” Jennie Sue didn’t think anything could shock her, but they’d proven her wrong.

  “Hell, no,” Lettie answered. “That man’s head is buried in the sand when it comes to Belinda. He has no idea that she had her good stones taken out of her jewelry and fake ones set in their place. She’ll be the talk of the town the whole time she’s carryin’ that baby. And chances are, this time it’s poor old Lonnie’s kid.”

  “Why poor old Lonnie?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “He’s declarin’ that they are too old to have another baby and wantin’ her to get an abortion. They are both forty-five years old, and she thought at first she was goin’ through menopause and had a case of the flu,” Nadine said.

  “I used to babysit her girls. They were five or six years younger than me. I feel sorry for them,” Jennie Sue said. “Poor Lonnie. Is someone going to tell him?”

  “Who knows,” Mabel said. “Belinda would be wise if she just came clean and quit trying to get absolution by doing extra duty at church.”

  “Sometimes that’s a lot easier said than done,” Jennie Sue said.

  Chapter Fourteen

  After all the talk about Belinda and a new baby at the end of the previous week, Jennie Sue borrowed the truck on Monday and drove straight to the cemetery before work. The sun was an orange ball on the horizon, and a nice breeze fluttered the old oak trees clustered around the Baker plot. Twice she opened the door and slammed it again, but the third time she made it all the way to the grave site and sat down in front of where Emily Grace was buried.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she pulled a few weeds growing up in the plot. “I wanted you, sweet little girl.” Tears flooded her cheeks as she laid her hands on the grass covering the spot where her baby was. She wanted closure, but she couldn’t find it—not that day.

  “I need something to help me decide what to do,” she said. “Do I stay in Bloom? Do I go? Do I tell everyone that I had a beautiful baby girl? Oh, my sweet child, I wish we could have had years and years together. Even with family and all my new friends, I feel so alone sometimes.”

  She felt better when she stood up and went back to the truck, but she was still weeping when she started driving. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she blew right through a four-way stop sign and almost collided with a car. She slammed on the brakes and covered her eyes. When she opened them, Rick was tapping on her window. She rolled it down and hoped that he wouldn’t notice that she’d been crying.

  “I’m so sorry. What’re the odds?” He attempted a grin, but his voice was shaky. “That was totally my fault. I was thinking about something else, and I ran right through that sign. What are you doin’ out this early? Are Lettie and Nadine okay?”

  This was totally surreal. Was it all a dream? Had she really gone to the cemetery? She reached through the window and touched his face to be sure. He grabbed her hand and held it there.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  The touch of his hand on hers steadied her nerves. “I’m fine, Rick. And Lettie and Nadine are fine.” Her voice notched a little higher than usual, and her heart pumped a little faster.

  “I had an early-morning delivery, and now I’m on the way home. We’d better both keep our minds on driving, right?” He removed her hand and kissed the palm. “Have a great day, Jennie Sue.”

  Is that a sign I should stay here? she asked herself as she checked her hand to see if his lips had left a warm imprint. Surprisingly, it didn’t look any different than it had before.

  Rick ran a hand over his lips several times as he drove home. His pulse was still racing when he got back to the house. Thank goodness Cricket was still in her room, because he didn’t want to talk to anyone who would spoil the mood.

  He made himself breakfast and left thirty minutes earlier than necessary. It was Monday, so he would be driving the bookmobile to Roby. He drove slowly past the bookstore, but it was still closed.

  This is pretty close to stalking, the voice in his head said.

  “No, it’s not,” he argued, but the idea stayed with him all day. That evening when he got back to town, he dropped off the keys and went straight home.

  When he arrived, he made a pass through the house and started for the garden when he saw a note on the kitchen table from Cricket saying that she wouldn’t be home until bedtime. So he pulled out a chair and called Jennie Sue. He had to ge
t this heavy feeling about stalking her off his mind, and if she thought he was, then he’d apologize.

  She was out of breath when she answered on the fourth ring. “Hello, Rick. I’m sorry it took so long. I’m working late at the bookstore, and I was carrying a box of books from one place to the other. I couldn’t get to my phone. What’s up? Is Cricket all right?”

  “She’s fine. I haven’t talked to her today. I’m not stalkin’ you, I promise,” he blurted out.

  “What brought that on?” she asked.

  “I’ve been feelin’ something between us for a while, and I’ve found myself . . . You’re going to think I am stalkin’ you,” he said.

  “I do not think that. I watch for the bookmobile to drive through town when I’m in the bookstore. I like you, Rick,” she said.

  “I just wanted to be up-front and honest with you.” Had she really said that she liked him? “You never know what the talk might be.”

  “Ain’t that the truth. So how was your day at the market Saturday?” Jennie Sue asked.

  “Very busy, but I sold everything I took. And I didn’t take Cricket with me.” He’d figured that she might hang up on him or tell him that they couldn’t be friends because of Cricket.

  “Oh, Rick, I really don’t want to cause trouble,” she whispered.

  “You didn’t. I just thought it would be best if my sister and I had a day apart. It’s turned into three days apart. She left a note on the table this evening sayin’ that Lettie had picked her up for supper, and it would be late when she got home tonight. So how was your Saturday?”

  “Productive. I had a visit with my mother, and then that evening I gave Lettie, Nadine, and Mabel mani-pedis,” she said. “Those old darlin’s kept me laughing at their stories all evening.”

  He shut his eyes and imagined the glimmer in her blue ones that went along with the laughter. Listening to her voice when she was happy was like seeing a gorgeous sunrise bringing the promise of a new day.

  She went on, “Those three can flat-out hold their wine. They drank two bottles between them, and other than a little girlish giggling and slight slurring of words, they were steady as a rock.”