“Did the husbands get to go to the meetings?”
“Nope.” Jennie Sue shook her head, and not a single curl fell out of place. “They were allowed to attend the July Fourth barbecue here at our place, but that was the extent of their participation in the Belles. You got to remember, though, they started the club when women didn’t work and needed women friends so they could bitch and moan about their husbands and relatives.”
“And now?”
“Some of them have jobs, but the bitchin’ and moanin’ stayed the same.”
“Then, no, thank you. I’ll just be a member of the book club at Amos’s store and call that enough. My nerves couldn’t handle all the stuff that goes on to be a Belle,” Cricket said.
“Tell me something. What changed your mind about me?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Lettie and Nadine did. It just took a little while for what they said to soak in. Again, I’m sorry for being rude.”
“So you don’t hate me anymore?”
Cricket shook her head and answered honestly, “Not as much as before.”
Jennie Sue stood up and straightened a simple gold chain around her neck. “Fair enough.”
Cricket rose up off the vanity stool. “Don’t mess with your necklace. It shows that you don’t have self-esteem.”
“Noted.” Jennie Sue nodded and smiled at Cricket echoing her words.
Sugar and Mary Lou arrived first again, each carrying a fancy platter with food. Sugar had cute little chicken-salad sandwiches cut in perfect triangles with the crust removed. Mary Lou brought in iced sugar cookies with a fancy C monogram on each one. They went straight to the dining room, put their offerings on the table, and then turned to have a group hug with Jennie Sue.
“Oh, darlin’, this just breaks our hearts. We’ve done nothing but weep for two whole days. Charlotte was the very center of the Belles, and we don’t know how we’ll be able to go on without her.” Sugar sniffled.
Mary Lou took a step back and kissed her on the cheek. “You will simply have to fill her shoes. I’m sure you know exactly where her scrapbook is, and you’ll keep it up to date. We’ll have an induction ceremony at next month’s meeting. And who is this?” She turned her attention to Cricket.
“My friend Cricket Lawson. She and her brother are staying with me until tomorrow.” Jennie Sue made introductions.
“Are you from New York?” Sugar eyed Cricket from her toes to her hair.
“No, she’s from right here in Bloom. I graduated from high school with her. Y’all might remember her father, Richard Lawson. I believe he went to school with my dad and some of you, and he played basketball,” Jennie Sue answered.
“Nope, the name doesn’t ring a bell,” Mary Lou said. “What’s the matter with your foot?”
“I fell,” Cricket answered. “I’m not sure who’s takin’ care of who, but we’re managing, aren’t we, Jennie Sue?”
“You bet we are. Oh, there’s the doorbell. Excuse me.” Jennie Sue turned to Cricket and said under her breath, “If it gets to be too much, slip out to the porch. There’s a bar out there, too.”
Escaped that, she thought as she took a deep breath and opened the door to find Belinda with her plate of vegetables and dip.
“Oh, Jennie Sue, how are we going to get through this? Charlotte’s such a good friend and a wonderful person and I can’t imagine life without her.” She leaned in to kiss Jennie Sue on the cheek. “Charlotte does—I mean, did—help with so much.” She handed the plate to Jennie Sue and dabbed her eyes with a linen handkerchief. “I just can’t think of her in the past tense.”
“I may never be able to think that way,” Jennie Sue admitted.
Mabel laid a hand on Jennie Sue’s shoulder and whispered, “I’ll take over the job of manning the door now. I’m finished in the kitchen.”
“I’d rather man the door or hide in the corner,” Jennie Sue said.
“But that’s not what you should do. You go on and visit with everyone. This is a good thing you are doing. It will bring a little closure to a lot of people.” Mabel put her hands on Jennie Sue’s shoulders and turned her toward the living room. “It’s only for an hour or so.”
She did what she was told. She mingled among the people, hugging some and shaking hands with others. She caught bits of conversation as she moved around the room shaking hands, giving hugs, and being nice. Folks wondering if she’d be able to hold the oil business together, if Percy would come back and try to win her heart again, what she’d do with the big house, and if she’d still continue with her silly house cleaning jobs.
Finally, after a while, she escaped to the porch. She’d bypassed the bar and headed straight to an empty lounge chair when Cricket reached up and touched her hand. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be playin’ nice with all the people?”
“I can’t stand any more. Move over and share the lounge with me.”
Cricket scooted to one side, and Jennie Sue stretched out beside her, finding comfort in being close to a new friend—one free of the history foaming in the other room.
“Want a beer?” Cricket asked. “I helped myself to a bottle.”
“I don’t want to get it. Someone might see me, and the party will flow out here,” Jennie Sue whispered. “I’d just rather sit here beside you for a while.”
Cricket handed her bottle over to Jennie Sue. “We can share.”
She took it from her and downed several long gulps. “You’re not afraid of my uppity germs?”
“Not if you aren’t afraid you’ll get cooties from me,” Cricket said. “I’m not sure what I expected tonight, but it wasn’t this.”
She handed the bottle back to Cricket. “Me neither. Most of them aren’t even talkin’ about Mama or Daddy.”
“Someone asked me if you were going to run the company yourself or if you would only be a figurehead,” Cricket whispered.
“I haven’t let myself think about that. I’m just trying to get through the funeral. What would you do?” Jennie Sue asked.
Cricket took a drink and passed the bottle back to her. “Don’t ask me about a decision that big. I might give you the wrong advice. Just this house intimidates the devil out of me. I can’t imagine owning it and the cars and a multimillion-dollar oil company.”
“Me neither,” Jennie Sue sighed.
“I heard one of those Belle ladies fussin’ about there not bein’ a memorial. She thought it was disgraceful and totally inappropriate,” Cricket said. “I thought about tripping her with my crutch.”
“Tough. I bet they won’t like it when I pass on joining the Belles, either.” Jennie Sue finished off the beer and set the bottle on the floor. “Money is not the most important thing in the world. I’ve proven that these past few weeks.”
“But it’s nice to have enough that you don’t have to worry whether to buy fries with your burger at the café,” Cricket told her.
Jennie Sue let that soak in for a few minutes before she slung her legs to the side of the lounge and said, “Let’s don’t think about pennies and dimes tonight. Let’s get through this next half hour. They’ll all leave by then, and Rick will be back from the farm pretty soon. I vote that we have a late-night swim in the pool.”
She knew he had to harvest. After all, he’d let it go the night before, but she missed him. He steadied her nerves just by standing beside her. This was the last night she planned to stay in the house.
“Can’t go swimming. No bathing suit,” Cricket said.
“There’s plenty in the bathhouse. All sizes and shapes.” The thought of skinny-dipping and a picture of the swimming hole flashed through her mind. Then she felt guilty all over again for thinking of that at such a time.
“Then you’ve got a deal as long as I can stay out here and not have to go back in there with the mob.” Cricket grinned.
Jennie Sue sighed. “Mob is right, in more ways than one.”