Something I’d noticed in the last few months and tried to cover up with makeup. Getting older sure did stink.
“Yeah. I stopped by this morning to take him some desserts. I sure do feel bad for him.” I didn’t want it to seem like I was being nosy or prying, but I was.
“I couldn’t believe he got a copy.” She smiled. “I’m sure it’s no secret to you that a lot of our friends had ordered it online so they weren’t seen buying something they might be in.”
“Yes. I’m sure you noticed that my situation with Richard made it in there.” I sighed and figured it was better to say I knew than pretend it wasn’t me.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but can you believe how Stella Jane wove all those story lines into one particular couple?” she asked.
“There were a few couples in the book that had bits of my story and bits of Iris’s story, plus poor Lucy Drake.” I shrugged.
“Oh, the television host plot?” she asked. “That’s not Lucy, I don’t think.”
“What? Who is it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but if you read the parts that resemble you, there are a lot of true-to-life things in there. Yes. I do know Bobby Peters and Lucy went out, but I think Stella Jane was talking about someone completely different.” Now Sara had me wondering if I’d read the book in a totally different mindset.
“Who do you think it’s about?” I asked again in case she was holding back some information and good gossip on me.
“Honestly, I don’t know. But go back and reread chapters ten through fifteen and then tell me if you think it’s about Lucy.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Either way, you can’t help but wonder how Stella Jane got all of that information, unless it was from Grady.”
“Grady?” I was a bit offended and sure didn’t like how she said that.
“Why yes. That’s the talk about town. He does live here, and he did get the book dedicated to him. Why wouldn’t she dedicate a book to Elsbeth for raising her?” Though I hated what Sara was implying, she did have a good point.
One that I couldn’t deny, and it was the first thing I said to Grady when we pulled up. He was nailing a board on the barn that looked like it’d fallen off.
“What on earth, Mom?” Grady threw the hammer on the ground. “Why on earth would I do such a thing?”
“I don’t know. Sara Rammond said it’s going around town.” It did sadden me to even have to bring it up.
Rowena was slowly and practically crawling around the barn like she used to do when we lived here. She loved the farm and the farm house, which made her being an inside cat now a hard thing for her.
It was good for me to bring her here so she could get some exercise and just enjoy some outside time.
“Listen, I didn’t like what Dad did, and I wish he was still living so I could ask him. God knows I’ve prayed a million times for answers, but I’ve lived with the fact that I’m never going to get those answers from him. I certainly don’t want to relive how we found out, and I most certainly never talked about it to anyone other than you, Mac, and Julia. Not even Granny and Granddaddy.”
“Is everything alright out here?” Julia walked up with Clara in her arms.
“Of course it is, now that Clara is here.” I opened my arms just as Clara leaned her little body toward me. “I’m sorry.” I wanted Grady to know I really didn’t think he did it, but I had to ask.
“Mom thinks I got in touch with Stella Jane and funneled her all the gossip about everyone in her book.” Grady was so mad still.
“Do you really think that, Bernie?” Julia looked as hurt as Grady.
“To be fair, someone told your mom that.” Mac stepped up in my defense. “Of course she didn’t believe it, but don’t you want her to be equipped with the real truth so when she hears it on her route, she can one-hundred percent say it wasn’t you?”
“I never looked at it that way. I’m just shocked Mom would even consider that I said it.” Grady bent back down and picked the hammer up again.
“I told Sara you’d never do it, but who do you think did?” I asked.
“What about Elsbeth?” Julia shrugged. “She gets all the hot gossip in the nursing home, and she does go to the salon where they all tell stories. True or not.”
“You just might be right.” I made it a point to remember to stop into the salon the next morning just to snoop around a little.
Thank goodness for Iris’s car rolling up the driveway, because it stopped any notion that Grady had that I thought he’d killed Piddy, because what Iris had with her was way more interesting.
Bobby Peters.
“Is that Bobby Peters?” My jaw dropped because I had to hear from someone else what my eyes had seen.
“I’ll be.” Grady was just as shocked as I was.
“I think it is.” Julia squinted. “Here.” She handed me Clara and marched over. “Hey, you two!” I could hear the excitement in Julia’s southern drawl. “Welcome!”
I watched as Iris handed Julia a dish of whatever it was she’d brought as her contribution to the supper and Bobby handed her a box from the bakery. They exchanged a few words that I wasn’t able to hear.
“I’m going to go put these in the kitchen.” Julia looked over to Grady. “Show Bobby around.”
“I can come too.” Mac walked toward Iris and Bobby, giving Bobby a handshake halfway over.
“Why is Aunt Iris’s ex-husband at Sunday supper?” Grady asked me like I’d invited the man.
“Ask her.” I nodded to Iris, who was walking our way.
“You. Apparently I’ve got to show the man around.” He hugged Iris when she made it over to the barn. “Am I supposed to be nice to him?”
“Yes, you are.” She winked. “Only today. We want some information out of him. I know Bobby Peters, and he loves pie and food. The saying about getting to a man’s heart through food, well. . . do I need to remind you that I caught him and Piddy eating my pie in bed? If that ain’t proof the sayin’ is true, then I don’t know what is.”
Iris and I waited until Grady, Mac, and Bobby were in the other field before she took Clara from me.
“Look at Aunty Iris’s little baby girl.” Iris used that baby-talk voice. “And I’m going to talk to your maw-maw in this voice so you don’t know what a low-down dirty dog Bobby Peters is, sweet girl.”
“You don’t have to talk in baby talk. But I want to know why on earth you brought him here.” I still didn’t see what the purpose was.
“Because he claimed he walked with your mom and dad to the game. He also said he stood at the fence all night during the game and he never even saw Piddy.” She made some sort of scrunchy faces at Clara.
It scared me, but Clara seemed to like that Aunty Iris was a bit crazy because Clara kept smiling.
“And if that’s true, then I wanted to make him face Barry when I asked him about it. You can only imagine his surprise when I told him I was bringing him here.” She rolled her eyes. “Still as dumb as a box of rocks.”
“I’m sorry.” I rubbed her arm.