“Did you stay in that area?” Emily asked.
“I had to because . . .” Her hands went clammy, and her chest tightened. The timing was perfect to spit it out, but the words caught in her chest.
“Because what?” Emily asked.
“I wasn’t stealing cars, but I knew what he was doing and the people he was working for and . . .” She ran out of air and took a deep breath. “So I gave the cops what they wanted to stop the theft ring and got off on probation. I had to stay in the area for a year. I had my final visit with my probation officer last week.”
“Oh, my.” Vicky gasped.
“You did what was right,” Emily said. “You shut down the bad guys’ operation.”
“That’s not all.” Jancy inhaled and started again. “I figured I knew all about men after that experience. But I was dead wrong. A couple of months after he went to jail, I got a job in a small, family-owned restaurant and started dating a friend of the owner. He put me up in a little apartment in a complex that he owned. The first time he sent a friend to my door to . . .” She swallowed hard and tears flooded her eyes, but she refused to let them spill down her cheeks.
Nettie laid a hand on her arm. “You don’t have to tell us this.”
“But I want to. Y’all need to understand why Shane is too good for me,” she said. “If he asks me out again, I should say no. I did not let my new boyfriend turn me into a prostitute, but that’s when I found myself right back out on the street. I had enough money to rent a trailer in a fairly decent part of town, got a job at the steak house where I told you I worked last, and I ate at work to save buying groceries. Shane needs a woman who is all sweet and innocent. I’m not that person.”
“Everyone has a past.” Nettie yawned.
“And it sounds like you learned from the mistakes you made,” Emily said.
“Maybe so, but Shane is the sweetest man I’ve ever been around. Who’s next?” she asked.
“Next?” Emily fidgeted with the saltshaker.
“Any of y’all got anything to share in this group therapy?” Jancy looked right at her.
“Nothing from me except that if I was going to confessional, I’d have to ask forgiveness for wanting to kill Carlton Wolfe,” Vicky answered.
“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon on Tuesday, so I’ll need all y’all to cover. Does that count?” Nettie asked.
Emily pushed the saltshaker back to the middle of the table. “Are you okay, Nettie? Why are you goin’ to the doctor?”
“Checkup time. He won’t refill my blood pressure meds if I don’t come in and get checked every six months,” Nettie said. “Now your turn. You been home a couple of very hectic days. You ready for a plain old calm week?”
“I’ll take hectic or boring, either one, as long as it’s in Pick. Jancy, so what if you have a past that’s not too shiny? That’s no reason to walk away from Shane. I think he really likes you.”
Jancy held up a finger. “What if I hurt him?”
Another finger. “What if things don’t work out and I’m unhappy?”
Third finger. “What if I’m more like my dad than I want to be and I feel miserable sitting still in one place?”
Fourth. “What if he changes his mind and my heart is broken?”
Her thumb went up. “What if I disappoint all y’all?”
When she held up the other hand, Nettie reached over and closed both into fists.
“We can’t let the past run our lives. We have choices. You can decide not to be like your dad. You can decide to sit still right here in Pick and see if you like it. You can decide to leave after you give me a six-month notice. All of those are your choices, but remember with each one comes a different set of consequences.”
Jancy pulled her hands free and hugged Nettie. “Thank you, but my decisions haven’t netted me much other than heartache. I learned to be tough and take care of myself, but I wasn’t always the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to reading people.” She stepped back and gave Nettie a sharp look. “Six months?”
Nettie patted her on the back. “That’s the least notice I’ll take. Anything less and I won’t give you a decent recommendation for another job. So suck it up, kiddo! That’s rule number two. And honey, I’m the least smart of anyone in this room. I was smart enough to stay single until I was forty and then spent some miserable years before Vicky’s mama, Thelma, helped me get rid of the sorry sucker. So I can’t give advice on relationships. I can tell you that I don’t think Shane gives a damn about your past.”
“Is that why there are two shovels out there in the shed? Did you and Thelma get rid of him permanently?” Jancy teased.
“No, just used a real good divorce lawyer. Of course Thelma was ready to use the shovels when she saw the bruises he left on me. He liked whiskey more than me,” Nettie answered. “But this is probably enough of a group therapy session for one night. That afternoon in the heat wore me out worse than working in the kitchen all day. I’m going to take a fast shower and go to bed.” She pushed back her chair and straightened up. “Jancy, I’m glad you are here and that you trust us enough to talk to us. Don’t shut the door of opportunity until you see what’s on the other side.”
“Crazy, ain’t it,” Jancy said. “I feel like y’all are family and I ain’t even been here a week. Is it all right if Shane calls me on the house phone? He asked for my cell number, but I couldn’t pay the last bill, so they cut it off. I’ll have enough money saved next week to take care of that.”
“We could give you an advance . . . ,” Vicky started.
Jancy quickly shook her head. “No, ma’am. You’ve done enough.”
Vicky flipped on the light switch in her bedroom and took a look at the pictures scattered around the room of Emily—when she was a baby, her first day of school, her first date, her high school proms, high school graduation, and the last one, a picture of her the previous summer taken in front of the diner.
She settled down in the rocking chair at the end of her bed and propped her feet on the bedpost. A gentle knock on the door was followed by her blonde-haired daughter, who crossed the room and crawled into the middle of the bed.
Emily inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Something was on her mind, but Vicky had learned long ago not to apply pressure. The past had proven that if Emily was ever going to open up about whatever was bothering her, it had to be her idea.
“She’s had it rough. I’m glad that I never had to live like she has. Isn’t it good that Shane knows her from back when?” Emily asked.
“It is, but what will happen if she tells him what she told us?”
Emily shook her head slowly from side to side. “I don’t think it will matter one bit. If I was Shane and got a second chance with someone I’d always had a big crush on, it wouldn’t matter to me.”
“But you are not Shane or Jancy,” Vicky said.