He’d glared at her for a full minute before he stormed into the hall and brought out a blanket and pillow. “I’ll sleep in the spare room. I’m finished with you until the abortion is done.”
“Then you might as well move on out, because that is not going to happen.” She’d gone to the kitchen for cleaning supplies to take care of the mess he’d made.
The squeal of tires right outside the store jerked her out of the past and into the present. She glanced up to see a van coming right at the glass storefront. She took off to the back of the store in a dead run. She’d passed the romance section and the mysteries before she came to a halt. Total silence filled the store. No broken windows or books flying through the air. She turned around when the cowbell above the door jingled. Adrenaline rushed through her body, and her heart was pumping so hard she could scarcely breathe.
“Sorry sumbitch brakes,” Nadine fumed as she made her way into the store. “Not a bit more dependable than a Missouri mule. Does Amos have any sweet tea made up? Or has he got some of that elderberry wine that he brews up in the fall hidin’ back there under the counter?”
“Nadine Clifford! You don’t even have a driver’s license. What are you doin’ behind the wheel?” Jennie Sue had to steady herself on the bookcase in front of her to keep her trembling legs from collapsing.
Nadine slung her bony body down on the recliner. “Don’t fuss at me. Just because I ain’t got a license don’t mean I can’t drive. Them damned brakes is just tough to mash down when you get to be ninety. And if I get caught, then you’ll come bail me out of jail. Get us some tea or some wine and let’s talk about what happened to Cricket. I swear, that girl is carryin’ too much weight on them little bitty feet and that’s the reason she’s got a bum leg right now. She needs to jerk about forty pounds off her body, and then she could catch a husband.”
“Are you drunk, Nadine?” Lettie rushed into the store and popped her hands on her round hips right in front of her sister. “What in the hell do you mean drivin’ when you ain’t even had a license in ten years? I told you that I’d drive over and get you. When I got there and you was gone, I thought the aliens had finally gotten through on my phone.”
Nadine’s chin jacked up three inches. “Hell, if they had, they would have let me go in an hour. I’m ninety years old. There ain’t nothin’ in this old body they’d want to study. And”—she shook her finger under Lettie’s nose—“you’re too damn slow. I was ready an hour ago, and it’s too hot to walk down here. I can drive if I want to. Now stop your bitchin’ at me and sit down here.” She patted the sofa. “Jennie Sue is going to bring us some tea and tell us about how Cricket hurt her foot. Bless Cricket’s heart, she’ll shrivel up and die if she can’t get out and visit with people.”
“Don’t change the subject.” Lettie plopped down. “Look at my shoes. They don’t even match, and it’s your fault. When Amos called and said that someone told him you were weaving all over the road, I picked up the first two I could find. If I’d had to go to the hospital like this because you had a wreck, everyone in the county would say I was losin’ my mind.”
“Well, you are,” Nadine said in an icy tone. “Go rushin’ around like a madwoman just because I decided to do something on my own and come see my friend Jennie Sue. Maybe I wanted to talk about you and didn’t want you here.”
Jennie Sue went to Amos’s office, found a stack of disposable red plastic cups, and filled three with ice cubes and sweet tea. They were still arguing when she made it back to the front of the store and handed off one to each of them.
“Sit down and talk to us. My heart is pumping so hard it’s goin’ to break a rib. I swear, Nadine, I ought to shake the shit out of you for scaring us like this,” Lettie fussed.
Jennie Sue glanced longingly at the shelves, but these two old girls needed her. She eased down in a chair across from them. “Let’s catch our breath and let the adrenaline settle before we go shaking anyone.”
Lettie leaned her head back and put a hand over her eyes. “My blood pressure is at stroke level.”
“It’s all that fat around your heart that’s making it go high today,” Nadine said sarcastically.
Lettie sat up straight and glared at Nadine. “Bullshit! It’s havin’ a crazy sister.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” Jennie Sue said quickly. “I’m rearranging the store so the customers can find what they want easier. Amos told me to do whatever I want, and it could create more sales.”
“That’s nice. We heard you told the doctor Cricket was your sister. Did she try to scratch your eyes right out of your head? You know she hates you, don’t you?” Nadine downed half her tea and said, “It’s tough to hate your sister, right, Lettie?”
“Don’t ask me that right now. I wouldn’t have a bit of trouble scratching her eyes out,” Lettie yelled, winding back up.
“Then I’d be blind and I might really hit the storefront.” Nadine slapped Lettie on the arm.
Lettie slapped her back. “You don’t get to talk right now.” Then she turned her attention back to Jennie Sue. “We also heard you were out there at the farm until late.”
“I’m going out there every evening to help get in the crops and make supper for them. I get to eat for free, and they get a cook and a field hand. Sounded like a good deal to me.” She stood up and went back to working on the books. “And Cricket and I’ve decided to be civil friends. Emphasis on being civil. I told the lady at the hospital I was her sister just so I could get past the doors into the place where she was.”
“You’re hoping to change Cricket’s mind, aren’t you?” Lettie asked.
“We’re your friends, but she probably won’t never be anything more than this civil-friend thing you said. Sounds kind of crazy to me,” Nadine said.
“Not really. We’re kind of civil friends with Charlotte. We speak when we have to, don’t we?” Lettie said.
“Well, I’m not so sure that Cricket can even do that much with Jennie Sue. She’s stubborn like Rick. You know that man ain’t set foot in church since he got home?”
“Well, I haven’t been in church since I married Percy. God hasn’t struck me dead yet.”
Lettie laughed out loud. “You are so much like your grandma Baker. She had a wonderful sense of humor. I liked her almost as much as I didn’t like your other great-grandma for takin’ Gene away from Flora.”
“Lettie! You don’t need to be draggin’ them old bones out of the closet again.” Nadine shot a dirty look her way.
“It’s okay. Daddy told me the story at lunch yesterday. Did y’all realize that my mama will be fifty this year? No wonder she’s havin’ such a meltdown. She’s too beautiful to get old.” She carried a box through the store, searching for more romance books.
“Charlotte always was gorgeous. You know what she should do? She should start a beauty-treatment business for girls like Cricket,” Nadine said.
“There’s nothing wrong with Cricket. Some of us are just fluffier than you skinny broads,” Lettie huffed. “What Charlotte needs to do is accept age gracefully.”
“Like you do with that jet-black hair,” Nadine snorted.
“Don’t you start on my hair, and I won’t say a word about your flat chest,” Lettie shot back.
Life was so much fun in Bloom, Texas. Jennie Sue wondered why she’d ever left in the first place. Oh, yes, it had something to do with her mother paying a down-on-his-luck diamond dealer to woo her—did they even use that word anymore? If not, they should, because it was as outdated as a dowry.
She could hear the sisters arguing in the background, but she let her mind wander. Did Percy ever love her? Would it have even made him sad to know that their child had been stillborn? Or would he have been relieved not to have to pay child support?
“Poor Cricket.” Nadine clucked like an old hen gathering in her chicks. “She’s always been one of them girls who like to be out in the middle of things, not stuck in the house with her foot propped up.”
“We’ll have to go out and visit with her tomorrow afternoon,” Lettie said.
Nadine sipped at her tea. “Take notes.”