by Sharon Sala
Bowie blinked. The kid was actually talking like he had a little sense.
“I’m still listening,” he said.
“I have come to ask if you would let me work off some of what I owe you on your car. I know it won’t clear the debt, but I caused a whole lot of trouble in my family…” Junior stopped, trying to regain his composure so he didn’t cry.
Bowie saw him struggling with tears and wondered where the hell he was going with this, but then the kid picked up where he left off.
“…and I’d give anything to take it back. My grandma ran Grandpa off and filed for divorce. My mom and dad fought all night, and I found out this morning that my aunt Nellie is moving back to Kentucky, with or without my uncle Mel.” His eyes welled with tears again, and now his voice was trembling. “I thought maybe if I didn’t cost everyone so much money, it would fix some of this. I’m fifteen. I’m strong and I play football at school, so I’m in good shape for hard work. I don’t care how dirty or hard it is. I’ll do it…if you let me.”
Bowie was impressed with the plea. He knew it was genuine, but what he felt worse about was that the kid thought he’d caused all the uproar.
“Junior? That’s what they call you, right?” he asked.
Junior nodded.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, sir. Your name is Bowie James, you’re kin to my family, and you all don’t get along.”
Bowie sighed. “That’s probably the biggest understatement ever made, and I see you weren’t paying attention the day we met when I told the chief who I was. See those folding chairs over there by that ice chest? Follow me and take a seat.”
Junior sat down in the shade while Bowie opened the ice chest and got out a couple of bottles of water, then handed one to the kid.
He sat down in the other chair and took a drink, and then looked the boy in the eyes. “If you want to work off some of your debt, then you need to know who you’ll be working for.”
Junior was so excited he could only nod. It sounded like Bowie James was going to let him work.
“Yes, my last name is James, but I’m Randall Boone’s son. You don’t need the details, but what you do need to know is that you are responsible for none of the chaos within your family. That’s all because of me. Your grandma is likely upset because her husband and all three of her sons lied to her about me, and my coming back to Blessings to fix my grandma’s house has opened up a whole lot of old wounds.”
Junior couldn’t quit staring. “I never knew Uncle Randall. He died before I was born.”
Bowie shrugged. “I can’t say I’m sorry, because my mother is dead, too. She killed herself right after my eighteenth birthday, and it’s all because of the trauma she suffered at the hands of your family. I’ve been on my own ever since, and if it hadn’t been for that hurricane, I’d still be on the move. But you know how it is with family… When they send out a call for help, you come.”
“Yes, sir,” Junior whispered, but he kept looking at Bowie. He couldn’t wrap his head around how that would feel. He’d be the same age in three years, and the thought of being on his own in the world then was horrifying. And then it hit him.
“Oh! Wait! Oh wow! We’re cousins.”
Bowie nodded. “First cousins.”
“And my grandma is your grandma, too.”
Bowie nodded again. “The only difference between us is that you were wanted and I wasn’t. Now, if you can deal with all that and still want to work, I say yes, and I only have one question. Do your parents know where you are?”
Junior sighed. “No, sir.”
“You have to clear it with them, or it will only cause more trouble. Go home, and if they agree, we start work at eight every morning. Wear old clothes, boots, not tennis shoes, and bring a pair of gloves. I’ll furnish the rest.”
Junior jumped up, so elated he could hardly speak.
“Thank you, Mr. James. Thank you for giving me this chance.”
Bowie shrugged. “If we’re going to work together, then you need to call me Bowie, or Boss, like the other guys. No mister.”
“Yes, sir. I mean, yes, Boss. I won’t let you down.”
Then he took off running, still carrying the unopened bottle of water. He was still running when he disappeared from sight.
“Lord,” Bowie muttered, and shoved a hand through his hair. “What the hell did I just sign up for?”
He went back inside to look for Ray and found him tearing out subfloor beneath where the old tub used to stand.
“Floor is rotted here, Boss. There must have been a slow leak for a long time before it was fixed.”
“Not a bit surprised,” Bowie said. “And what wasn’t already ruined, the flood finished off. Hey, I need to be gone for a while. You guys decide what you want to do about lunch. I have some business to take care of.”
“Will do,” Ray said. “And we proceed with tearing out the old plumbing?”
“Yes. If you need me, just call.” With that, he was gone.
* * *
Junior Boone ran most of the way home, well aware he still had to face both parents. He’d left without telling them where he was going and they were probably already mad. So he was not surprised by the glare his daddy gave him when he came inside, all hot and sweaty.
Both of his daddy’s eyes were black from the broken nose, and he still had packing up his nostrils, so when he frowned it made Junior think of an old boar raccoon.
“Where have you been?” Emmitt asked. “The school already called to tell us you were absent, and you didn’t tell anyone where you were going.”
“Nobody was awake when I left,” Junior said.
Tiny came in from the kitchen, drying her hands as she paused behind Emmitt’s chair.
“Did you forget how to write? A note would have been appreciated,” she said.
“I got a job. I start at eight tomorrow morning.”
“A job? Doing what? What about school?” Emmitt asked, and Tiny chimed in with a second question: “Who hired you?”
Junior braced himself. “I heard you guys fighting last night. I heard you say Grandma and Grandpa have split up, and that Aunt Nellie is moving back to Kentucky, and I know it’s all because of me and all the money it’s going to cost us to get Mr. James’s car fixed. I’ll turn in the work I miss at school. But this is something I need to do.”
Tiny put a hand over her heart, sad at what he’d assumed yet touched by his gesture.
“Honey. None of that had anything to do with you.”
Junior shook his head. “I know better. Grandma came to the jail to bail us out. She came back to our cells. I saw the look on her face when she saw me, and she called me a little hoodlum. And I heard the fight between her and Grandpa.”
“I didn’t know that,” Emmitt said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What for?” Junior said. “It didn’t change anything.”
Tiny sighed. “Well, I admire you for the effort you’re making. Where are you going to work?”
“I’ll tell you, and it doesn’t matter what you think about it, either. I made the mistake. I went straight to the man to fix it. I asked Bowie James if he would let me work off some of what I owe him while he and his crew are remodeling his grandma’s house.”
Emmitt all but leaped out of the chair. “You did no such thing!”
Junior braced himself. “I did, but it wasn’t an easy task getting him to trust me, and don’t expect me to go back on my word. I won’t be doing any skilled labor, but I can carry, and load and unload supplies, and clean up, and maybe they’ll even let me paint when they get to that point.”
Emmitt was so stunned he couldn’t respond, but Tiny did, and in a way Emmitt did not expect.
“Good for you,” Tiny said. “It is an honorable thing to admit a mistake, and even more so to go s
traight to the source to fix it.”
“I have to wear old clothes and boots, not tennis shoes. And I’ll need to bring work gloves. The rest he’ll furnish,” Junior said, and then paused and looked straight at his dad. “Have you always known he was Uncle Randall’s son?”
Emmitt hesitated.
“No more lies, Emmitt,” Tiny said.
“Yes, I guess we have,” Emmitt admitted.
“You knew he was family, and it didn’t matter?”
Emmitt sighed. “You don’t understand.”
Junior swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Did he do anything to you and Uncle Mel before he broke your nose?”
Emmitt’s face flushed a dark, angry red. “We were just doing what Daddy told us to do.”
Junior stared at his parents as if he’d never seen them before.
“Just so you know, I like him. He was fair with me when he didn’t have to be. And that’s that. I didn’t eat breakfast before I left and I’m hungry. Mama, is there any milk for the cereal?”
“Yes,” Tiny said. “Come with me. I’ll fix it for you.”
“No need,” Junior said. “I can pour milk on my own cereal,” he said, and then walked past them into the kitchen.
Tiny sat down on the sofa beside Emmitt’s recliner. The silence between them was telling. One parent had already sided with Junior’s decision, and the other one had nothing to say.
The division between them grew a little bit wider.
* * *
It was too early to take the girls to lunch, and Bowie had business to tend to. His first stop was the police station.
Avery, the day dispatcher, was on duty when Bowie walked in.
“Morning,” Bowie said. “Is Chief Pittman in? I need to talk to him.”
“Yes, sir. Just a second and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
A couple of minutes later, Lon entered the lobby. “Mr. James. You wanted to talk to me?”
“Yes,” Bowie said.
“Then let’s go to my office.”
Bowie followed him down the hall, then took a seat in the chair that was offered.
“Now, what can I do for you?” Lon asked.
Bowie took a slow breath. “I want to withdraw the charges I made against Junior Boone.”
Lon was surprised and it showed. “Really? Can I ask why?”
“The kid came to me this morning asking if I would let him work off some of his debt by helping with the renovation we’re doing on my grandma’s house. From what all he said, it appears the Boone presence in Blessings might soon be dwindling. He said Cora kicked Jud out of the house and filed for divorce. His parents are fighting, and his aunt Nellie is moving back to Kentucky. And the kid thinks it’s all his fault for costing the family so much money. He thinks if he works off some of the debt, it might heal the rifts.”
“Oh wow,” Lon said.
Bowie shrugged. “Yeah…pretty much what I thought. And there is a chance, albeit a slim one, that Junior Boone might actually have the makings of a good man. I don’t want to be the one who denies him the opportunity to make that happen.”
Lon nodded. “I see where you’re going, and I must say, considering all you and your family have been through, it is a very generous offer.”
Bowie shrugged. “He doesn’t know much about any of that. Maybe this stupidity will end with his generation. Just don’t tell the Boones I dropped charges…at least for a while. They seem to behave better under threat of prison. Anyway, that’s all I came to say, and thank you.”
Lon shook Bowie’s hand and walked him back up to the lobby. Bowie left, while Lon turned to the dispatcher.
“I’ll be at the courthouse for a bit. Call if you need me.”
“Yes sir,” Avery said.
Lon went out the back to his cruiser and headed for the courthouse to let the judge know, while Bowie was on his way to the women’s boutique he’d seen on the way in.
He had never bought a single piece of clothing for any woman, and the whole notion was kind of scary. However, he wanted Rowan to go with them, and if she needed different clothes to do it, he would make that happen.
He parked in front of the Unique Boutique, then took a deep breath and got out. No need getting nervous about anything. It was only clothes.
And then he walked inside, and the first display was lacy underwear.
“If I can build mansions on the sides of mountains, I can do this,” he muttered.
A woman was smiling at him from the counter and then came up front to meet him.
“Good morning. I’m Kitty. Can I help you find something?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Bowie said. “I have a friend who needs a couple of outfits to replace what she lost in the flood. Just casual stuff. Nothing fancy.”
“Of course. What size?”
He frowned. He’d only seen her in oversize clothing, but he remembered how tiny her waist felt when he helped her down from the picnic table last night, and he knew how wide her shoulders were, and remembered those long legs.
“I’m not sure, but I can size up anything if I see it. She has shoulders about this wide, and the top of her head is about here on me,” he said, measuring just beneath his chin. “And her waist is this big,” he said, gesturing with his hands.
Kitty hid a smile. He might not know the clothing size, but she’d bet money the woman was just the right size for him.
“Let’s look at a pair of jeans first. They go with everything.”
And so they began to shop. It didn’t take Bowie long to decide Rowan was probably about a size eight in the waist, the length would be long, and he’d debated with skinny jeans or straight legs. There was something about the skinny jeans that didn’t strike him as Rowan’s style, so he chose the straight-legged jeans and the same size in a pair of slacks. With Kitty’s urging, he chose two tops to go with them. The white blouse had peekaboo cutouts at the shoulders and flared out around her hips like the slightly ruffled bloom of a morning glory. The other top was pale blue with a stretchy cross-stitched bodice that hung just below the waist.
“These are great,” Bowie said, and then saw backless sandals on a display behind the counter. “Let me see that shoe.”
She handed it to him, then watched the way he seemed to be measuring it in his mind. She didn’t know he’d seen Rowan barefoot far more than he’d seen her in shoes.
“Do you have this shoe in any other colors besides tan, and maybe a halfsize larger?”
Kitty grinned. “You have a good eye,” she said, and looked through the sizes for an eight and a half. “I have it in the size you wanted, but the brown is the only color.”
“No matter,” Bowie said. “I’ll take them.” Then he watched as she scanned the tags and rang up the purchases. When she gave him the total, he handed her a credit card.
A few minutes later, he was back in the car and on his way home. The excitement of giving Rowan something was tempered with a slight worry that none of it would fit, or that she wouldn’t like it. Worry ended as he was pulling up to his home. Too late to back out now.
Chapter 10
Bowie got out with the purchases he made at Unique Boutique and headed for the door. There wasn’t a woman in sight when he let himself in, but he heard a lot of chatter coming from his bedroom.
“Lucy! I’m home!” he yelled.
There was a moment of silence. Then the door opened, and Ella came out, laughing.
“You sure got our attention with that greeting,” she said.
Pearl and Rowan were right behind her. “Bowie, do you remember all those old I Love Lucy reruns we used to watch when you were little?” Pearl asked.
Bowie grinned. “I sure do.”
“We’re mostly ready,” Ella said, then frowned. “Rowan doesn’t want to go.”
“I think she
might change her mind,” he said, and handed her the sack. “Go try them on.”
Rowan’s eyes widened when she saw the Unique Boutique sack and peeked inside, then clutched the clothes to her chest and ran back into the bedroom.
“I’m going to wash up and put on a clean shirt,” Bowie said.
Pearl hugged his neck. “You are an old softie…getting your not-really-kin friend something new.”
He shrugged. “I haven’t spent a dime of my own money on anyone but myself in ages. It makes me happy to be able to do this, Gran…for all of you.”
He headed for the bathroom to make a quick change and emerged only seconds ahead of Rowan, who came out wearing the jeans and the white blouse with the peek-a-boo shoulders. They fit perfectly, and she was teary but smiling.
The girls exclaimed over how pretty she looked, but she needed to see the truth in Bowie’s eyes, and she would know if he was lying.
“What do you think?” she asked, and did a little pirouette so they could get the full front and back view.
“Is it improper for me to tell the not-really-kin girl how stunning she looks?”
Ella smirked. Gran waited. And then Rowan smiled.
“Not improper at all,” Rowan said. “And the shoes fit, too. How did you figure out my sizes?”
He shrugged. “I build things. I guess I have a good eye. So, is everybody ready to go?”
“Yes!” they echoed.
“We’re going to Granny’s first, and then to the phone store. Aunt Ella, did you all get your phones here in town?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then they’ll already have your plan in the computer. All we’ll need to do is get you replacements. So off we go.”
He went down the steps first so he could hold onto them as they came down, then loaded them up into the car again. The last thing he did was set the security system, and then he drove away.
Once again, Rowan was riding shotgun and Pearl and Ella were in the back seat, chattering away about paint colors and new flooring for the renovation.
Bowie glanced at Rowan. She seemed to be very taken with her new clothes and kept feeling the fabric and fussing with her hair.