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 lucky 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.