Nettie started talking as she stood up and marched to the front of the room. “We’re already on the map. We have the Strawberry Festival every year and folks come from miles away to get a strawberry tart or any number of other things made with strawberries at the vendors. We have a carnival and the whole nine yards.” She stopped and stood in front of the lectern. “We’ll come to your barbecue and we’ll eat your food. But we don’t take charity here in Pick, so let’s call it a community potluck. What do you say, folks? We haven’t had a good old Sunday get-together in a long time.”
Applause came close to raising the roof. Nettie was a genius. Vicky had never wanted to hug her as much as she did right then. Vicky clapped with everyone else and even threw in one of her shrill catcalls. When the noise died down, she winked at Woody. “We might bust out some of our strawberry wine, right, Woody?”
“You got it. I’ll bring six bottles, the last of what Irma made before she died. Myrtle, you can bring a couple of them blackberry cobblers,” he said.
“I’ll bring four if Darlene and Leonard will freeze up some homemade ice cream to go with it,” Myrtle piped up from the middle of the room.
“Wait a minute.” Carlton looked like steam might start flowing out of his ears at any minute. “This is my party to show you all that I’m serious about this venture.”
That man had some really hard lessons to learn—tonight was number one. He couldn’t waltz into their town and take over.
“Naw, it’s our party now. You bring the barbecue, and we’ll bring the rest and we’ll all have a good time,” Woody said. “It’s the way we do things in Pick, Texas. Hey, Ryder, if you’re in town, you can bring along your guitar.”
“Sounds good to me. Shane can tune up his fiddle and if Dusty will get out his banjo, we’ll use the pavilion for a little dancin’.” Ryder nodded.
“One o’clock right after church on Sunday, it is. We can have us a good old time and anyone that wants to talk to Mr. Wolfe can do so,” Nettie said. “Oh, and I’m sure you won’t mind if we call on our own local lawyer to read through that contract for us, will you, Mr. Wolfe? I think you are wastin’ your time because we’re kind of proud of our town and the way we do things, but we’ll be glad to party with you.”
Jancy leaned over and whispered. “What just happened?”
“We put him in his place the Pick, Texas, way,” Vicky told her. “I doubt he even shows up with the barbecue since Nettie mentioned a lawyer.”
“Who’ll bring the meat for the party then?”
“Nobody ever goes home hungry from our get-togethers,” Vicky said. “We’ll shut the diner at one o’clock and bring along a couple of big pans of meat loaf in case he doesn’t show.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Jancy said.
“Stick around Pick, honey. We do right by what is ours,” Vicky told her.
“I will look forward to Sunday then. I want all of you”—Carlton raised his arms dramatically as if gathering in his lost brothers—“to think about how much my deal can improve your lives. I will turn this over to Woody again. I appreciate you letting me talk to you.”
Woody picked up the gavel and hit the oak lectern with it. “Meeting is adjourned. Let’s all go home and polish up our dancin’ boots. We might even talk the kids into doing some clog dancin’ for us.”
“And that’s the way to steal a man’s thunder,” Andy chuckled as he stood to his feet, towering over Vicky’s short stature. “Why don’t you invite me to the party on Sunday? Since it’s only for citizens of Pick, I would need an invitation.”
“What are you goin’ to advise your father to do about the investment?” Jancy stood up and was tall enough that it was no trouble to look him right in the eye.
“To superglue all his bank accounts shut,” Andy told her.
“Then I’ll invite you to the hoopla. Bring your daddy with you if you want to and he can see for himself that Carlton is just a bag of wind,” Jancy said.
“I’ll bring two sheet cakes and a dozen or two frosted doughnuts,” he said. “Good night, ladies. See y’all on Sunday.” That he wasn’t wearing jeans did not hinder that swagger one bit as he left the fire hall.
“You are welcome,” Jancy said with a big grin.
“For what?” Nettie asked as she joined them.
“She was too shy to invite that man to the party on Sunday, so I did it for her.” Jancy giggled. “And he’s bringing cakes and doughnuts.”
“Long as he don’t come empty-handed, he’s welcome,” Nettie said.
Vicky frowned. “She’s been here two days. She doesn’t get to make this kind of decision.”
“Long as she holds a job in Pick and lives in Pick, she gets a vote in what we do. You goin’ to side with Carlton, Jancy?” Nettie asked.
“Hell, no! I’ve seen smooth talkers like him before. He’s a snake, a poisonous one, and I hope that none of these good folks get taken in by his promises,” Jancy said.
“Well said for a kid your age,” Nettie said. “Now let’s go home and have a shot of Jack Daniel’s. I need to get the taste of this evening out of my mouth. Fancy houses, indeed. We don’t need all that crap in Pick. We just need good neighbors and good friends, and we done got both. Don’t that man have a lick of sense?”
“Some men are just born jackasses and age doesn’t do anything but make them bray louder.” Jancy followed Vicky and Nettie out of the building.
“Amen!” they said in unison.
CHAPTER FOUR
The diner sat completely empty in the middle of the afternoon on Friday. Rain poured down in sheets, big drops sounding like bullets as they hit the tin roof. The door flew open, and a big red-and-white umbrella preceded a lady into the place. Jancy jumped up from the booth where she’d stretched out her long legs and headed for the counter to get a menu.
“Emily! You’re early!” Vicky squealed from the kitchen.
With Nettie right behind her, they were soon all tangled up in a hug. Water droplets flew from the umbrella when Emily dropped it and threw back the hood of her yellow slicker, showing off thick blonde hair that floated to her shoulders in big, bouncy waves.
The rain hadn’t smeared a bit of her makeup. But then, the angels in heaven had always smiled on Emily Rawlins. It was a wonder they hadn’t stopped the rain and parted the clouds so she could walk to the diner from her cute little red car in sunshine.
“My last final was over at ten, but I was already packed and ready to leave. I drove the whole way in this hellacious rain.” She backed up a step and removed the raincoat.
She had big blue eyes and a face that would make a photographer drool, no change from the last time Jancy had seen her. It had been on a Saturday. She’d driven the same little car that was out there in the parking lot up to the diner, gotten out, and rushed inside to tell her mother that she and her friends were going to a mall in Tyler. She hadn’t even looked at Jancy or acknowledged that she was in the diner.
Jancy’s mama had reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Time will ease the pain, honey. Life changes, and it’s okay to hurt.”
Jancy didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t that they were moving that brought the pain to her expression that afternoon. It was the ache to belong to a place like Emily Rawlins did.
“Your dad is a difficult man, but someday he might change,” Elaine had said.
“How do you do this? How do you live with him, Mama?” Jancy asked.