“Does your grandfather not like me or something?” Caroline asked, narrowing her eyes at Noah. “It seems like the only reason you asked me was to annoy him.”
“What?” Noah feigned surprise. “He doesn’t even know you.”
“Which is why it would be weird for him not to like me.”
“Meet me here about 6:45?” Noah asked, changing the subject. “It’ll take about fifteen minutes to get out there from here.”
“I’ll have to check with my dad,” Caroline said with a sigh. She wanted to go. In fact, she was dying to go. She’d been aching to see Cranwell Corner since she’d been a kid. “He’s at the clinic today, and he usually comes home pretty tired.”
“Do you think he’ll mind?”
“I think it’ll be fine.”
“Great. See you tonight.”
Caroline walked back down the stairs, wondering what in the hell she’d just gotten herself into. She wasn’t sure which part made her more nervous—the thought of going to Cranwell Corner or the thought of what might’ve happened if Jep Cranwell hadn’t walked in on them. Would she be under the covers in Noah’s big, brass bed? Her face reddened at the thought. For now, Caroline decided, she would concentrate on going to dinner, and dinner would require shoes, and at the very least, a bra.
CHAPTER 15
CAROLINE STOOD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE living room, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. “So I went and got KFC for you tonight,” she said to her father as soon as he walked through the door. “Mom seems to be having a pretty good day.”
It wasn’t the first time Caroline had stood in the living room, nervously waiting for her father to arrive; in fact, it seemed to be a constant in her life. This house, the one she’d grown up in, knew all of her secrets—it had borne the brunt of some of them, too. They’d moved when she was ten from the house her parents had bought before her brother, Jeremy, was born. Although neither one of her parents ever said it, she’d always supposed that the memories of the old house had been too much. Jeremy’s bedroom was strictly off limits, and Caroline had been happy to move to a new house where none of the doors were locked.
Their first order of business after they’d purchased the house on Polk Avenue was to add on to it a bit—an extra bedroom for Ava Dawn since she was there so often, an extra bathroom, and larger closets for her parents. The foreman on the job let Caroline help knock through one of the walls on the first day with a sledgehammer. After he and the rest of the workers left for the day, Caroline sought out her father’s hammer in the tool shed and knocked through her own wall in her bedroom, just to help. When her mother found out, she’d made Caroline wait for her father in the living room, long past her bedtime, to explain to Dr. O’Conner why her room was now a demolition site, as well.
Caroline wondered how many more times she’d stand here like this.
“What’s the occasion?” her father asked, eyeing the spread. “I could have cooked if you weren’t feeling up to it.”
“I know you’re tired after being at the clinic all day.”
“Honestly, Caroline, I can take care of myself.”
“I know, Dad.” Caroline reached up and pecked him on the cheek. “But if you don’t care, I’m going to go out tonight.”
“You know I don’t care,” her father replied. He picked up a chicken leg.
“I’m going to supper.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“At Cranwell Corner.”
Max O’Conner pulled the chicken leg out of his mouth and stared at Caroline. After a few seconds of noisy chewing, he said, “Noah invited you down there for supper? Does Jep know?”
“Yes.” Caroline fidgeted with the bracelet she was wearing. “Jep Cranwell was there when Noah invited me.”
“Jep was at the station?”
“Yes,” Caroline said again. “He came to invite Noah to supper, and then Noah invited me.” She wasn’t about to tell her father that Jep Cranwell didn’t seem the least bit happy about it, either.
“Caroline.” Max O’Conner set the chicken leg down on the edge of the table. “There are some things you don’t know about Jep Cranwell.”
“You always told me the rumors weren’t true.”
“They aren’t,” her father said. “They’re mostly embellishments of bored townsfolk.”
Caroline put her hands on her hips. “So why are you acting like I’m gonna go out there and get sacrificed or something?” She’d known her father would be surprised, but she hadn’t anticipated this reaction. He looked worried.
“I just wish I’d known earlier,” was all her father said.
“Well, I only found out a couple of hours ago. I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to.”
Her father looked down at the chicken leg on the table. “Don’t be silly. You go on and have a good time.”
“Dad, if there’s some reason you don’t want me to go, you can tell me,” Caroline said. “I won’t go. I’ll stay here if you want me to.”
“Of course not,” Max O’Conner replied. “But be careful on your way back. You know how the deer are out that way after dark.”
Caroline watched as her father walked over to her mother, kissed her on the top of her head, and sat down next to her. She wondered if her father ever got tired of coming home to her mother every night—of talking to someone who didn’t know his name most of the time. When she’d been younger, Caroline would sneak into the hallway long after she was supposed to be asleep and listen to her parents talking. They had the most fascinating conversations. They talked about everything from the pyramids in Egypt to the crawfish crawling the Cold River. Sometimes they caught her listening, and once in a while they wouldn’t make her go back to bed. They’d just continue on as if she wasn’t there, even though she knew they’d seen her.
Maybe her father, just like Caroline, held on to these moments as the good days became fewer and farther between. She didn’t know how either one of them could go on, otherwise. She took one last look at them before she headed out to meet Noah.
NOAH WAS WAITING for her outside the station. He’d shaved since she’d seen him last. There was no more of the day-old stubble. He flashed her a nervous smile. “You look nice.”
“Thanks.” Caroline looked down at herself. She’d borrowed a denim skirt from Ava Dawn and layered a couple of tank tops. “I wasn’t sure what to wear.”
“We’ll probably both be overdressed.” Noah motioned for her to get into his car. “I don’t know that my grandfather owns anything other than overalls.”
“Where are your overalls?” Caroline teased.
“I haven’t worn overalls since I was a kid.”
“I went through a phase when I was twelve,” Caroline admitted. “It was a regrettable experience.”
Noah’s eyes were all over her. Before Caroline had time to react, Noah leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, soft at first, and then with more force. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I just felt like we had some unfinished business.”
“Is it finished now?” Caroline asked, a wry smile on her stinging lips.
“I hope not,” Noah replied. “But after an evening with my family, who knows when you’ll want to see me again.”
“I’ll see you every day.” Caroline shifted in her seat in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the heat she felt at her core from spreading. “We’re neighbors, remember?”
Noah looked over at her as they bumped along the gravel road. “You look genuinely excited to be going to a deer dinner in the middle of nowhere.”
Caroline shrugged. “I am.”
“Why?”
“You’ll think it’s stupid.”
“Try me.”
“You didn’t grow up here, so you don’t understand it, but there’s a bit of mystery surrounding your family,” Caroline said. “I’ve spent my whole life looking across the street at Cranwell Station. It hasn’t been much since we’ve been alive, but before that, it was one of the busiest places in
the county.”
Noah nodded. “I remember my dad talking about the good old days.”
“Well, I don’t know what he or your grandfather told you,” Caroline continued, “but Cranwell Station was a huge deal during Prohibition. People used to say that the store was really a front for a speakeasy somewhere on the property . . . they say that your family had stills hidden away where the law could never find them.”
“My dad used to tell me stories about his grandfather,” Noah said. “But anytime my grandfather heard that kind of talk, he shut it down.”
“Because they weren’t true?”
“Because it’s Cranwell business.” Noah pulled up to a locked cattle gate. He threw the car into park and got out. “Sit here.” He let out a long, piercing whistle before he unlocked the gate.
“What was that all about?” Caroline asked when he got back into the car.
“Just letting them know we’re here.”
Caroline looked out the window and into the fading daylight. They were surrounded by forest on both sides, and she could see nothing through the thicket except for the winding gravel road that stretched out in front of them. Eventually, the forest gave way to a few small houses, an abandoned car or two, and farther down, where the road abruptly ended, there was one house.
The house began where the road ended, as if the purpose of this road, maybe even all roads, was to lead to this house. It was an old farmhouse, nothing special as far as Caroline could tell. The white clapboard needed a coat of paint, and a couple of the windows appeared to be cracked. There were two middle-aged men sitting on the porch in rocking chairs. One of them was smoking a pipe.
“Here we are,” Noah said.
Caroline got out of the car just as Jep Cranwell stepped outside. He stood just as he had in Noah’s apartment—with his thumbs looped through the straps of his overalls. Standing in front of his house, he looked to Caroline like a painting she’d once seen at a heritage festival, the quintessential Ozarks hillbilly.
The two men on the porch stood up when they saw Jep.
“You’re late,” Jep said. He pointed to the men next to him. “These here are my nephews Silas ’n’ Thomas.”
“Hi.” Caroline waved to the men.
The man smoking the pipe nodded at her. The other man spit a wad of tobacco onto the porch.
“Come on in.” Jep beckoned to Noah and Caroline. “No sense in standin’ outside with these two imbeciles.”
Caroline followed Noah and his grandfather inside. It was a cozy little house, a bit warm with no air-conditioning, but with the windows open it was tolerable. There was a well-worn couch in the living room and two recliners. An older television set sat on the floor. There was a large dining room with a wooden table and mismatched chairs. About the house there were hints of a woman’s touch—some tattered floral curtains and a few knick-knacks—but it seemed to Caroline that it had been a long time since a woman lived there. “Does he live here alone?” Caroline whispered to Noah.
Noah nodded. “My grandmother died when my dad was just a kid.”
“If you’re wonderin’ who takes care a me, ya don’t have to look far,” Jep said, sensing Caroline’s concern. “My sister lives down the road. You passed her place comin’ in.”
“I’m sure you can take care of yourself just fine,” Caroline replied.
“Not very well,” said a female voice from the kitchen.
“This is my sister, Hazel.”
“Holler at them boys outside. Supper’s ’bout ready,” Hazel said. “You checked on that meat out there in the smoker?”
“It’s ready when we’re ready.”
Hazel nodded. She was a stout woman, as round as she was tall. Her gray hair was pulled into a bun so tight that it pulled at the edges of her eyes. She wiped her hands on a faded apron. “You look familiar to me, child.”
“She’s Maureen’s girl,” Jep said before Caroline could reply.
Hazel’s eyes widened ever so slightly, and only for an instant. “It’s all them freckles.”
Caroline grinned. “That’s what Mr. Cranwell said, too.”
“It’s Jep, girl.”
Silas and Thomas wandered inside, shuffling past them and to the dining room table. “Smells good, Ma,” one of them said.
“Let’s go sit down,” Noah said. “If those two get ahold of the food first, nobody will get anything.”
Caroline sat herself down beside Noah, directly across from the two men. Jep sat down at one end, and once the table was full of food, Hazel sat herself down, too.
“Jep, go on and say the blessin’.”
Jep launched into a prayer. Caroline was pleasantly surprised that Jep was being so nice to her. Of course, it wasn’t like he’d ever been rude. It was just a feeling she got when she was around him. The memory of the way he acted at the clinic was also there, lingering in the back of her mind.
“Your mama still run that bait shop?” Hazel wanted to know once the prayer was done. She passed one of her boys the mashed potatoes. “Lord, I ain’t seen her in ages.”
“Not since she got sick a few years ago,” Caroline replied. “I’ve been taking care of things for a while now.”
“I didn’t know,” Hazel said. She gave Jep a look. “Did you know?”
Jep cleared his throat. “I did know. Didn’t think it was nobody’s business.”
“It ain’t,” Hazel agreed.
“Mama, where are the brown sugar peaches?” Silas asked. He was scowling at the table.
“Hang on.” Hazel pushed her chair back. “I forgot ’em.”
Thomas stared Noah down from across the table. “How is that roof comin’ along, cuz? Gramps says that fool drunk you hired smokes more’n he works.”
Noah clenched his jaw. “It’s fine. Everything is coming along just fine.”
“We coulda been done by now.”
“Really?” Noah leaned forward across the table. “You could have been done in a week? Last time I checked, it took a week for the two of you to get off the damn porch.”
Hazel hurried back into the dining room, in her hands a Pyrex dish full of peaches. “Here you go.” She squinted down at Silas. “You got chew in yer mouth?”
“No ma’am.”
“Spit it out.”
“I said I don’t have none.”
In one swift movement, Hazel slapped the side of her son’s head so hard that a wad of tobacco came flying out of his mouth and landed in the middle of the bowl of peaches with a sickening plop. “Don’t lie to yer mama, child.”
“Sorry, Mama.”
“Now yer gonna eat them peaches.”
Caroline had to bite down on her lip to keep from laughing. Noah was sitting next to her looking horrified. She couldn’t imagine something like this ever happening at her house. It had been a long time since anything much happened at their dinner table—well, anything she wanted to laugh about. “This meat is really good,” she said, smiling over at Hazel.
“That was all Jep,” Hazel replied. “He’s been savin’ it for a special occasion.”
From across the table, Thomas rolled his eyes. “I don’t see what’s so special about tonight.”
“The whole family is together tonight,” Hazel said. “Don’t happen too regular these days.”
“What’s left of the family,” Thomas mumbled.
“Well, and whose fault is that?” Hazel shot back. “Neither one a you two did nothin’ about it.”
Caroline glanced around the table at the faces in front of her. “Are you all that’s left of the family?”
“There are a few cousins down in the boot heel,” Jep replied. “But they’re distant cousins. Ain’t nobody we claim.”
“That means this’n here better get to makin’ some babies.” Thomas pointed his fork at Noah.
“How old are you, Caroline?” Silas wanted to know.
Caroline shifted in her seat. “I’m twenty-five.”
“And you ain’t married?”
<
br /> “No.”
“And you ain’t got no kids?”
“No.”
Silas sniffed. “Used ta be that the women stayed home. Took care of the kids and their man. Left the work up to them. Now it’s different. Women runnin’ around like they think they’s men.”
“Tell me now, Silas,” Caroline said. She stabbed at a piece of meat with her fork. “What is it that you do? For a job?”
Silas knitted his eyebrows together, taken aback by her question. “I used ta work the farm when we had it.”
“You don’t have it anymore?”
“Got some cattle, but we ain’t got what we used ta.”
“So now you don’t have any job?”
Silas scratched at his head. “I take care a my mama.”
“Boy, you don’t take care of me,” Hazel cut in. “You live in my house.”
“We help,” Silas protested, the color in his cheeks starting to rise. “We do our share.”
“I know ya do, baby.” Hazel reached out to pat her son’s hand as she stood up to collect the plates. “Yuns go on into the living room. I’ll bring out the pie.”
Caroline waited until Jep, Thomas, and the glaring Silas had retreated to the living room before she stood up. Noah was waiting for her. “Silas may never forgive you,” Noah whispered. “My grandfather says he’s never worked a day in his life.”
“But he wanted you to hire them to roof the station?”
Noah shrugged. “I guess fifty isn’t too old to suddenly acquire a work ethic.”
Caroline giggled. “I reckon not.” She felt Noah’s hand on the small of her back, guiding her into the living room. The moments in his apartment earlier that afternoon came rushing back. Neither of them had mentioned what happened, and she wondered if he was thinking about it, too. It had been a long time since she’d navigated feelings like this, too long, and she wasn’t sure she remembered how she was supposed to act. She sat down on the floral sofa in between Noah and Thomas.
“Honey, do you want some coffee with your pie?” Hazel smiled down at her.
“Yes, please.”
“How do you take it?”
“Black is just fine.”
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