“So it just goes to show that this book might be loosely based on things that had happened around here, but blown up for more dramatic fiction.” I sat down and got the knitting needles out of my bag. “Leotta, I got a little stuck on the hem stitch. Can you help me?”
My actions were all it took for the ladies to get their knitting out and sit there quietly for at least a few minutes.
But I couldn’t stand it any longer. I could see in their eyes and the fast motion of their needles that their minds were going a mile a minute, just like my brain.
“So, Mac brought up a good question.” I kept my eyes on my project. “He mentioned how Stella Jane is still a young woman, and she wasn’t even alive when Iris found Bobby Peters and Piddy in their compromising position. She certainly wasn’t old enough to remember when Richard died, so how did she hear about all of these tales?”
“Like I said, I blame it on Elsbeth Clark. Now, I know you like her and all, Bernie, but Elsbeth was the biggest gossip for a long time. And I can’t help but wonder if Elsbeth and those women she hung out with didn’t gossip around that poor little girl.” Ruby hadn’t been paying attention to her stitches because she tugged them all apart and restarted.
“I’m fine with whatever she put in there.” Though I secretly wondered if Grady was going to be fine with it. “I just hope Iris doesn’t lose customers over it.”
“Lose customers?” Leotta asked. “Honey, she had a line out the door at suppertime. I’m sure people ran there after supper for dessert to get the scoop.”
“Really?” I’d never thought the opposite effect would happen and Iris would see an uptake in business.
“Yepper. I even went over there to see Iris after I saw the crowd die down, and she was happier than a woodpecker in a lumberyard with the sales.”
The rest of the couple of hours of knitting class went on with a little bit of knitting and a little bit of gossip until we were all parched. Then we knew it was time to pack up and go home.
The Front Porch Ladies dropped me off at my front gate and moseyed on down to their houses. All the lights were on in the house, and when I looked down toward Mac’s house, his house was dark.
“Hello?” I called out when I walked into the house. Rowena jumped up on the entry table, eager for a good scratch under her chin. “Mac?”
“Out back,” his voice floated through the screen back door.
I set my knitting bag on the floor and noticed my copy of Beyond Boundaries wasn’t on the table where I’d left it.
“Grab yourself a beer and come on out.” It was so cute how he offered me my own beer just like it was his home.
“Watch out,” I told Rowena after she stuck her head into the refrigerator as I took out a beer. She scurried off, and I headed outside. “I can’t believe you’re still here.”
“I figured you’d get mad if I took your copy home, so I just picked up where Julia and I left off. It’s fascinating how similar the characters in this book are to people we know in Sugar Creek Gap.”
Those were words that I couldn’t get out of my head.
Chapter 7
My eyes flew open as soon as my alarm went off. This morning I didn’t even hit the snooze button. It was book signing day, and I wanted to get in front of Stella Jane to see what on earth she’d been thinking to put things in a book like that.
The day started off with my usual routine of letting Buster out, filling Rowena’s bowl with some kibble, and drinking a cup of coffee before I got a shower. Then I looked next door at Mac’s rental house, which stood between me and Millie Barnes’s house.
I put my cup on the kitchen table and peeled back the curtain of the kitchen window that faced his rental and noticed that I wasn’t imagining the lights being on.
“Why on earth are his lights on?” I asked Rowena, who had decided to join me from the kitchen table. “I better call Mac.”
Buster was at the door on my way to grab my phone from the charger on the counter, so I let him in before I swiped open my phone and hit Mac’s number.
“I think someone is breaking into your rental.” I didn’t bother telling him good morning. “The lights are on, and I see a shadow walking around the bedroom.”
“Oh gosh.” He sounded half asleep, which most of the world was since they didn’t have to get up as early as mail carriers did. “I meant to leave you a text. When I walked home last night, Gertrude was outside on her porch with Revonda Gail. Did you know she was coming into town?”
“I did, and it slipped my mind to tell you after all this Beyond Boundaries mess.” I went back to the window and peeled back the curtain to look again. “Revonda had sent Gertrude a letter, and I delivered it yesterday. I’m guessing she’s earlier than expected.”
“Yeah. Apparently she got in while y’all were at your knitting class, and she’s staying.” His morning voice was so deep, it made me smile picturing how messed up his hair probably was. So cute. My heart fluttered like a little teenager’s.
Embarrassing.
“I told Gertrude Revonda could leave her big RV at the farm.” I leaned into the window and peered out toward the street to see if the RV was parked out there.
“No. She took a plane, and she’s staying, staying.” He had me all confused.
“For how long?” I asked. “Did she say?”
“Long enough to rent the house for a year.”
“A year? What about what’s-his-name?” I’d yet to have enough coffee to remember the new guy Revonda had in her life. She didn’t exactly keep them for very long.
“I have no idea. All I know is that she’s by herself and said she was staying a year. That’s when Gertrude saw me coming down the street and called me up to the porch, where she asked me if she could lease the house for Revonda for the year.” This was all turning out to be a very strange twenty-four hours in Sugar Creek Gap.
It made me think that Iris must’ve had a doozy of a feeling because everything seemed to be turned upside down around here.
“How did Gertrude seem?” I wanted to know because I knew she and Revonda had a very volatile relationship, which led to Gertrude letting Revonda go and just being happy to get a note here or there.
By here or there, I meant one a year at the most, so I knew yesterday when I saw the letter from Revonda in my stack of mail that Gertrude was going to be ecstatic.
“She was all smiles and even paid me a check up front.” He snorted. “I think she wanted to pay it so Revonda couldn’t go back on the deal.”
“And what a deal,” I murmured, knowing the entire house was furnished and Mac didn’t charge nearly enough for rent. “But I don’t want no trouble next door.”
Revonda had gotten into a little trouble, from what I’d heard. Of course it was just hearsay, but like my mom said, there was always a little truth to every tale. Which led me to look up Revonda’s name on the jail tracker site, on which I found a few things that probably put Gertrude in a tizzy.
But like all us mothers, we only saw the best in our children and wanted the best for them. I could only imagine how happy Gertrude was, and I would definitely be keeping an eye out for any funny business going on.