Small Town Rumors

by Carolyn Brown

  “And I bet they all had headaches on Sunday morning when they went to church,” he said. “Want to go for a drive with me? I haven’t had supper. It’s half-price burger night at Sonic.”

  “I’d rather go out to the farm and help you gather tomorrow’s deliveries, since Cricket isn’t there to fuss at us,” she said. “We could pick up burgers and eat them on the way.”

  “So you missed me?”

  “I missed green beans and squash and corn.”

  He imagined her closing one eye in a sly wink. “And you don’t want to go home to your apartment because you know that Lettie will holler at you to come in her house, and Cricket will be there, right? Oh, I do feel used,” he said, but his tone said that he was getting a big kick out of this.

  “Not you,” she said sweetly. “I would never use you to escape going home. But I would use your garden to stay away from Cricket a few more days.”

  “I’ll pick up the burgers on the way and be there in ten minutes.”

  “Mustard and no onions,” she said.

  She was sitting on the outside bench when he arrived. She waved and didn’t wait for him to get out to open the door for her, but dived right in and grabbed the brown bag. “These smell so good. Man, I missed good old greasy burgers when I was in New York. They just don’t taste the same out there.” She bit into hers before she got his out of the bag and handed it to him.

  “Do you ever have a negative thought in your head?” Rick asked.

  “Used to, then I figured out that positive can’t survive in a negative atmosphere, so I have a mental ‘Delete’ button that I press real often. Do you have bad thoughts?” she asked.

  Rick chewed fast and swallowed. “I did for a long time, but a therapist in the hospital finally got through my thick skull—negative and positive don’t survive together.”

  She was halfway through her burger when they reached the farm, so he turned off the engine and rolled down the windows. “Let’s finish before we hit the garden.”

  “Thank you. I want to enjoy every bite of this.” She kicked off her shoes and slowly ate the rest of her food before she opened the door and said, “I’ll grab a basket and meet you in the peas.”

  He nodded and followed her to the back porch with both of their drinks in his hands. “You forgot this.”

  She took a long draw from the straw and set it on the porch. “I missed this the past few days, Rick. It’s so peaceful out here—especially with the smell of fresh dirt and creek water. Two more things I missed in New York.”

  “There’s a shallow creek at the back of the place with a big old scrub oak shade tree at the edge. We could go there for a little while when we finish up here,” he said.

  “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “But first, let’s get the stuff gathered up for your deliveries tomorrow morning.”

  They were finished in less than an hour, and once they’d washed off their bare feet and gotten their shoes back on, he led the way down a path with weeds growing up in the middle of two ruts.

  “I can hear it already,” she said before they made the final bend in the path.

  “When Cricket and I were little kids, several times a year we’d have a tailgate picnic at the creek, and then Mama and Daddy would let us splash around in the water,” he said.

  “Oh, it’s beautiful. Look at that big old shady tree. I love it, Rick,” she said. “Can we wade in it?”

  “It’s spring fed, so it’s pretty cold, but you can if you want,” he answered as he sat down under the huge scrub oak tree.

  “I’d rather go skinny-dippin’,” she whispered.

  “Would you repeat that?” He could feel a blush heating up his cheeks.

  She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Did I say that out loud?”

  “I believe you did.” He grinned.

  “I was thinkin’ it, but I didn’t mean to say it.” She was downright cute with two bright-red spots dotting her cheeks. “And it would be fun, because I’ve never done that before.”

  “I don’t think it would be a good idea. I swear in this area even the blackbirds in the trees carry gossip. You can’t even imagine what one little skinny-dippin’ night would have created by this time tomorrow,” he said.

  “It could be one of those ‘used rumors.’” She put air quotes around the words. “Those that we file away to sell to a town that’s just gettin’ into the rumor business.”

  “We could sell that one pretty high.”

  She sat down and nudged him with her shoulder. “We could give classes to towns that don’t have the experience Bloom does. Cricket could work up a syllabus and help teach it. Did your mama like gossip, too?”

  “No, ma’am,” he said quickly.

  “Then you must be more like her.”

  “Pretty much, but sometimes Dad comes out in my attitude if I’m brooding about something. What about you?” He couldn’t see much of either of her parents in her. Not the uppity Charlotte or the philandering Dill. He drew his eyebrows down into a frown, wondering exactly how those two ever made a child so different from them both.

  “They say I’m like Granny Baker. She was gone before I was born, but I get told that I’m like her pretty often, mostly when Mama is scolding me about something.” She stood up and walked across the green grass to the edge of the water and stuck a bare toe in it. “Man, it is cold, but it feels so good. I’m going to come out here someday and go skinny-dippin’. I’ll tell you beforehand so you can guard it for me.”

  “What makes you think I’ll stand guard? I might sit right here and enjoy the sight.” Immediately he wondered if he’d been guilty of saying words out loud that he shouldn’t have even thought.

  “Are you flirting with me, Rick Lawson?” she asked.

  “Maybe. Probably. Is that okay?”

  “Well, when you make up your mind, I’d like to know.” She stuck her whole foot into the water and then the other one, only sucking air a little bit. Then she waded out ankle-deep and inhaled. “It smells wonderful. So fresh and clean, and there’s little minnows in here, Rick. If I owned this place, I’d build a house right there where you are sitting, and I’d never leave. If I needed anything other than what is grown here, I’d pay someone to deliver it.”

  He walked out to the edge of the water and extended a hand. “It gets slippery right at the edge.”

  She put hers in his, but when she took that final step, she faltered and started down into the icy water. To prevent that, he grabbed both her arms and jerked her toward him. He ended up flat on his back with her on top of him. From the waist up, they were on dry ground, while below, the cold water rushed around and over them. Thank God for the cold water or else she would have known exactly how much she affected him right then.

  “Are you all right?” he panted.

  “I think so. Did I break your back?”

  He should sit up and help her, but he liked the way her body felt. “I don’t think so.” His hands went up to cup her cheeks. “I’m flirting now.”

  “Okay,” she whispered when she realized he was about to kiss her.

  Then their lips met, and the whole earth stood still. Maybe he had died, and this was his first taste of heaven. As suddenly as it started, it was over. She rolled off him and lay on the grass, staring up at the limbs of the old oak tree.

  “Rick, I’ve had boyfriends. I’ve had a husband. I like you better than any of them, and I’d never ruin what we’ve got for a fling,” she told him.

  “Who says it’s a fling?” he said.

  She sat up. “You make me feel special, but you don’t know everything about me.”

  He pulled himself up to stand above her and offer his hand. “You are very special, Jennie Sue.”

  She put her hand in his, and warmth filled his whole body.

  “Thank you. Oh, no!” She squeezed his hand.

  “What? Did you break something after all? Are you hurt?”

  She pointed toward the house. “I hear a vehicle. Cricket
must be home. I’m serious, Rick. I don’t want to cause problems.”

  He kept her hand in his as they started walking toward the house. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it—I don’t need Cricket’s blessing to flirt with you.”

  Her eyes searched his for several seconds. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” He bent slightly and kissed her on the tip of the nose.

  When they rounded the bend, they could see the silhouettes of two people on the back porch. There was no doubt that the one with crutches was Cricket, and the other one had to be Lettie.

  Rick waved when they drew closer as if it was completely normal for him to be holding Jennie Sue Baker’s hand. When they were close enough that he could actually see his sister’s expression, he had no doubt that Cricket was about to explode.

  “I’ve been wading in the most amazing little creek,” Jennie Sue said, but she didn’t let go of his hand even when they were at the porch. “It’s cold as ice and clear as glass. I helped Rick bring in tomorrow’s deliveries, so Cricket doesn’t have to feel guilty about not being able to help. Could you take me home, Lettie? That way Rick won’t have to drive back into town.”

  “You said you wouldn’t come back out here.” Cricket ignored her statement.

  “Changed my mind. Women do that sometimes. Besides, you weren’t here, so?” Jennie Sue said just as frankly.

  “I don’t want you here,” Cricket said.

  “That is enough,” Rick said. “This is my home, too, and if I want to spend time with Jennie Sue, then I can invite her here. You bring your church ladies out here and they drive me crazy, but I don’t tell you that you can’t host meetings here.”

  “This is different,” Cricket said.

  “This is clearly something that Jennie Sue and I don’t need to be in the middle of. Y’all can straighten it out without us.” Lettie turned toward Jennie Sue. “You can drive. Rick, I could use a bushel of cucumbers this week. I’d like to make some bread-and-butter pickles before the end of the season. They make wonderful Christmas presents.”

  “Sure thing. How about tomorrow mornin’?” Rick tried to keep his voice completely normal as he let go of Jennie Sue’s hand, but it wasn’t easy. “I’ll call you, Jennie Sue.”

  “I’ll be at the bookstore. Stop by if you have time.” She rolled up on her toes and brushed a kiss across his cheek. “And thanks again for saving my life.”

  “You can’t drown in a foot of water,” he told her.

  “If I hit my head on a rock and landed facedown, I might,” she argued. “See y’all later.” Jennie Sue followed Lettie around the house to the front yard, where her truck was parked.

  “Okay, young lady, you are glowing,” Lettie said as she got in and fastened the seat belt. “What happened here today?”

  “I slipped as I got out of the creek, and wound up on top of Rick, and he kissed me,” she said. “I liked it, Lettie—a lot. But I like him too much to ruin a friendship with a fling, and I told him so.”

  Lettie clucked like an old hen calling in her chickens. “Rick Lawson is the salt of the earth. He’ll do right by you in any relationship.”

  Jennie Sue had no doubt that Lettie was speaking the absolute truth.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jennie Sue shook out her umbrella and took a deep breath, sucking in the aroma of fresh rain one more time before she went inside the bookstore. With the rain and it being Wednesday, she didn’t figure there’d be many people out and about today, which was fine with her—then she could get the store in shape. Already her efforts were paying off, because they’d sold a lot of romance novels last week.

  She used her key to open the door and went straight to the thermostat to adjust it to a cooler temperature before she flipped on the lights and headed to the office to start the coffee and hot water for tea. Once that was done, she started to work on the mystery section, arranging the authors alphabetically by name. She’d only gotten the first shelf cleared off and dusted when she heard the bell above the door.

  “Good mornin’.” Nadine’s voice carried through the store. “Where are you? Is there coffee? I brought doughnuts from the café to share with you.”

  “Good mornin’ to you. Come on in out of the rain. Coffee should be ready. Thanks for bringin’ doughnuts. I only took time for a glass of milk and a cookie this morning,” Jennie Sue said.

  “I’ll drag a chair back here so we can visit while you work. You get the coffee,” Nadine said.

  Nadine had found an old metal folding chair and set the box of pastries on the empty shelf when Jennie Sue returned from the office/kitchen. She had a huge apple fritter in one hand and reached out for her cup of coffee with the other from her rickety seat.

  “Look at us. We’re dressed alike except that you don’t have Minnie Mouse on your T-shirt.” Nadine pointed at Jennie Sue’s plain dark-blue T-shirt and jeans. “Does that make you old or me young?”

  “Might make us the same age,” Jennie Sue answered without mentioning that her skinny jeans fit a lot better than Nadine’s loose ones. “Please tell me that you didn’t drive.” The window was too fogged up for her to see if Nadine’s van was parked by the curb.

  “Nope, caught a ride with Rick when he brought me a gallon of strawberries. I’m makin’ jam this afternoon. He was takin’ produce to the café, so I got a box of goodies, and he dropped me here. Lettie is comin’ down in a little while, and she can take me home,” Nadine answered. “Where’s Amos?”

  “He called last night and said he was going to Sweetwater this mornin’. Something about flowers for Iris’s grave.” Jennie Sue reached inside the box and chose a doughnut with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

  “He needs to sell this place. It was Iris’s dream store, not his.”

  Jennie Sue devoured the first doughnut and reached for one with maple icing. “It’s probably hard to let it go—it reminds him of good times with her.”

  “She’s been gone now for years, and the place looks like crap. When she was alive, she kept it all dusted and in some kind of order. If I wanted a Sue Grafton book or a Mary Burton, all I had to do was ask Iris, and she’d take me right to them. Amos just puts books any old place.” She reached for her second pastry. “You’re doin’ a good thing here. I can feel Iris smilin’ over my shoulder.”

  Jennie Sue licked the sticky sweetness from her fingers, finished off her coffee, and went back to work. “Thank you, Nadine, I appreciate that.”

  “Well.” Nadine pursed her lips in a gesture that Jennie Sue recognized as her bearer-of-bad-news expression. “I heard that Cricket was pretty mad last night. She called Elaine and said that Rick wouldn’t even listen to her, that he went to his room with an armload of books and slammed the door.”

  “I hate that,” Jennie Sue groaned. “I just wanted to help him pick vegetables, not create another problem. I should’ve had him bring me home earlier.”

  “Cricket has a burr in her underbritches and needs to get over it. Jealousy is an ugly thing. Lettie and I had a long talk with her yesterday, but I guess it didn’t take as good as we wanted. Some folks have to learn things the hard way,” Nadine said. “Now let’s talk about what you and Rick were doin’ down at the creek. Lettie said he kissed you.”

  A vision of his deep-green eyes as they fluttered shut, leaving his dark lashes to rest on high cheekbones, flashed through her mind. She blinked away the image and nodded. “Yes, he did, but it was the moment.” She went on to tell Nadine about wading and her foot slipping.

  “Sounds to me like fate. I’ve learned that you should never argue with fate.” Nadine took out another doughnut and shut the box. “If it’s open, I’ll eat them until it’s empty.”

  “Hey, where all you at?” Lettie called out at the same time the bell above the door rang. “I brought brownies.”

  Nadine grabbed the box of doughnuts and hurried toward the office with them. “We’re over here in the new mystery section. I’ll get you a mug of coffee. Bring a chair with
you.”

  Lettie must’ve gotten a chair with no rubber caps on the legs. Jennie Sue covered both ears, and Nadine yelled, “For God’s sake, Lettie, pick that chair up. That sounds like fingernails scraping against a blackboard.”

  “Oh, hush,” Lettie hollered. “Nothing is that bad.”

  The mention of blackboards made Jennie Sue think of school. “Maybe I should’ve studied education. Texas is always needing teachers. I wonder, if I got my education credential, if I could get a job right here in Bloom teaching high school.”

  “Why would you do that? Kids today are all about entertainment, not learnin’.” Lettie popped the chair out, sat down, and put a plate of warm brownies in the exact spot where the doughnuts had been. “Have one while they’re hot. Nadine, you goin’ to take all day with that coffee?”

  “I’m right here. You don’t have to yell at me. And I’d be for anything that would keep you in Bloom. I’d even be willin’ to pay for your education and put in a word for you at the school.” She put a cup in her sister’s hands and reached for a brownie. “Now what did you hear about Belinda this mornin’?”

  Just like that, another avenue opened up to Jennie Sue that would keep her in Bloom. Classes would start in the fall if she wanted to go that route. She could probably get what she needed in a year, and then she’d be ready to start teaching. She’d wanted something to help her make the decision about what to do . . . Was this the answer?

  “Where are you woolgatherin’ at?” Nadine touched her on the arm.

  “My future. I’m havin’ a lot of trouble making the decision about whether to stay in Bloom or not,” Jennie Sue answered, knowing the sisters deserved her honesty.

  “We want you to stay, and we’ll do whatever we can to help you, but, honey, the final decision has to be yours or you’ll always wonder if you made the right one,” Lettie said.

  “Thank you both. I think we were talkin’ about Aunt Belinda.”

  Lettie and Nadine both cocked their heads to the right at the same time.