“That’s all I know, honey.”
“Okay. Well, sorry to wake you. Go back to bed,” I told him.
“I love you. Stop in to see me.” It was his way of telling me not to skip delivering his mail.
“I will.” We hung up, and in no time, I was out the door and heading for work, but not without taking a few more glances at the rental.
It wasn’t too long into my day that I quickly forgot all about Revonda Gail slipping into town in the middle of the night because everyone was still talking about Beyond Boundaries and Stella Jane’s anticipated arrival back to town.
At least they were at the nursing home.
“Seems like we have a little storyteller on our hands.” Vince Caldwell was waiting patiently for me on the front porch swing of the nursing home with the paper up over his face. “The paper just can’t get enough of what took place down there.”
“Good morning to you too.” I was happy to see Vince. “Don’t you think you should have a jacket on? It’s quite a bit chilly this morning.”
“Are you kidding me? Of all the women in this town, you outta know I’m in training.” A smile curled up on the edges of his mouth. “Don’t tell me all this silly book business has got your mind all a-flutter. The game. It’s football in Kentucky time, and tonight’s game is going to be a good one, from what I hear.”
He patted the open seat next to him on the swing. I set my mail-carrier bag down, and on the upswing, I sat down, making it bounce a few times until it resumed its normal ebb and flow.
“Of course I didn’t forget, but I keep a big blanket up in the stands with me, and this year I’ve got to keep two close by.” I tilted my head and thought about sweet Clara. “I don’t know, Vince, she’s getting awfully big already. Next thing you know, she’ll be on the sidelines cheering.”
“Cheering? Grady’s girl?” He shook his head. “Nah, she’ll be playing if Coach has anything to do with it.” He laughed.
“You’re probably right.” I nudged him.
“I was going to ask Grady about it last night,” Vince said, and I interrupted him.
“Last night?” I wondered where Vince had seen him.
“He showed up last night during the last round of bingo. I think he threw a lot of people off, him stomping around in there, and they missed a few numbers. He took off before these old legs could catch him.” Vince rubbed his thighs.
That was odd for Grady to be here. Even if he did come to see his grandparents, he knew they rarely played bingo, and he never stopped by without calling me to see if I wanted to walk over and visit with them. This struck me as really odd.
“How are you doing?” I decided to move right off the subject of Grady being here. I would figure that out later.
“I’m right as rain. You know, trying to keep my ears away from all them women clucking. Old Zeke, he’s all ears because he likes them to think he’s really listening.” He folded his arms across his body. “I told Zeke that he was going to regret pretending to listen, and when they ask him something he can’t answer, they’ll dump him like a hot potato.”
“You’re a really good listener.” I smiled at my dear friend.
“Comes with training, and now that I’m retired, I try not to listen too much.” He was referring to his retirement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He had been stationed in Kentucky until he decided to live a simple life.
He, just like my parents, lived in the condos on the nursing home property with all the access to the amenities.
“And I’m listening this morning if you want to talk about this book business.” He didn’t have to encourage me too much.
“I just don’t understand why a sweet young woman like Stella Jane would write so many personal things about our neighbors and friends.” It had been on my mind all night, and now that he brought it up, it was just so easy to talk to him. “And she wasn’t even alive for most of what I understand is in between the covers.”
He looked up at me from under his brows. “Do you mean to tell me you’ve not read it?” He wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easy.
“I was practically up all night reading. Of course when I got to the part about the best friend and widow, I knew she was talking about me. Trust me, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what she’d written about Iris and Bobby Peters.” I sighed.
“I did hear Iris almost laid into Piddy down at the bookstore.” He had a hint of a smile. “You know, I’ve been waiting for years to see Iris get her revenge on the girl, but I chalked it up to just having plain old good morals about her.”
“I thought Iris was going to kill the poor woman, but Iris isn’t doing so bad.” I snorted. “Last night I was at my knitting class, and Iris had a line of customers out her door. Now, granted, I’m sure they were there to see who the woman was behind the pie plate in the book, but Beyond Boundaries is going to end up paying a few months of Pie in the Face’s rent.”
“Like they say, when you’re handed lemons. . .”
“Make lemonade.”
“Yep.” He patted my leg.
“Not that Stella Jane didn’t do a good job in trying to tie all the characters together, but I just feel like she’s going to be doing a lot of explaining to people. I don’t need or want an explanation. But I think Grady needs one. I’m sure he’s very embarrassed about the whole thing. Especially after she had dedicated it to him and he had no idea she even wrote a book.” I pulled my phone from my cardigan pocket so see if he’d texted me back this morning.
“No text, huh?” Vince was always the first person I saw on my first loop. In fact, he was the first person I saw every day on my route, unless he was on vacation to see family, but that was rare.
“No.” I slipped it back into my pocket. “We talked yesterday, and he honestly hasn’t talked to her, but I know he’d like to see her when she comes in town for the book signing this afternoon.”
“You going?” Vince asked.
“I might try to pop my head in. I’m just not sure I can support her if she’s hurt Grady.” I shrugged and stood up. I picked up my bag and shuffled through it to find Vince’s mail.
“Keep in mind that she’s a kid, and this might be her only book if she told everyone’s little secrets in one book.” He made an excellent point and thumbed through his mail.
After filling the communal boxes in the nursing home, I was headed back to the post office to get my second loop of mail when my phone rang.
“Is everything okay?” I asked Julia. My first thought was something was wrong with Clara, because Julia never called this early. Then my second thought went right to Grady.
“Everyone is fine. Grady is out feeding the chickens. He took the morning off because he’s meeting Stella Jane at the Wallflower Diner for an early lunch.” Julia paused, and I stopped walking to see if I needed to say something or wait for her to talk.
There was a reason for her call.
“Julia, what is wrong?” I decided to just come out and ask because it didn’t take Grady long to feed the chickens.
“I don’t know if I should’ve called, but I’m sure Mac told you how we were reading the book.” She put an emphasis on “the book” then continued, “Which Grady had no idea the book was even dedicated to him. But I didn’t bother telling him about the part with the best friend boyfriend with the widow, because we all know that’s you.”