Elsbeth had owned a big house on my third delivery route in the big subdivision directly behind the old mill. She’d moved to the nursing home in the assisted living area once she realized she didn’t need to be living in that big house, especially now that she lived alone. It seemed like a good move now that it appeared Stella Jane wasn’t about to move back to our small town.
“Let me introduce you to the shop’s manager, Piddy Linn Satterly.” Leah clapped.
I felt like the world had just turned to slow motion. It was like I was outside of my body and could see my jaw slowly dropping down to my chest, my eyes practically bulging from my face, and my head turning to look at Iris.
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” she said before she followed the question up with some colorful words that would make the devil blush. “I guess I didn’t run her out of town forever.” Iris stomped and stared at Piddy, the other woman in her marriage to Bobby Peters. “What does she know about books? Much less running a business?”
“I think she’s just the manager.” I was sure Iris wasn’t thinking clearly. After all, this was the first time Iris had seen Piddy since the pie-in-the-face bedroom incident.
She huffed, stomped, and then turned to me. She threw her hand over her mouth.
“Do you think?” She hesitated.
“Think what?” I asked, not about to try to read her mind.
“The feeling?” The fear was deep in her eyes.
“Nah.” I waved her off but couldn’t wave off the fact that when she asked that, the chill bumps running along my arm weren’t from any sort of fall breeze.
Chapter 5
In spite of Iris and her feelings—real feelings, not the feelings she gets when something bad, or as we could call it, inconvenient, was about to take place—we still waited in line like everyone else to get our copy of Beyond Boundaries.
“This is crazy.” Grady stood in the middle of the bookstore, shuffling his students in and out so the others in the line could come in.
“You know.” Councilwoman Ashley Williams had walked up to Grady. “You’re just as popular as Stella Jane. I’m going to be thrilled when my kids get to high school and have you as their teacher. I think I have a budding writer myself.”
Grady seemed like the big draw for people, as they stood in line to talk to him.
“Forget about all this book stuff.” Zeke Grey had come up to him as well. “How’s the team looking this year?”
Most men in Sugar Creek Gap, and it didn’t matter their age or if they had children or grandchildren in school, always wanted to see what the Sugar Creek Gap High School football team was going to do. Grady was the coach, and I was his biggest fan.
“I guess you’ll see tomorrow night.” Grady shook Zeke’s hand. “But if you’re looking for a little insider information, I’m telling you to keep an eye on my new quarterback. Freshman. Man, does he have an arm. He throws it right into the numbers every single time. I’m going to start him. There’re going to be a few parents who are going to be upset.”
“Upset versus a state title?” Zeke chuckled. “No-brainer, kiddo.” He smacked Grady on the back. “Keep it up.”
“What do you mean there are no more books?” Ada Leigh’s voice carried throughout the bookstore. “Don’t you know my daughter, Dora Lee,” she jerked around, and when she got her eye on Dora, she reached out and dragged the poor girl to the counter, “is Stella Jane Clark’s best friend?”
“I’m sorry. I’m just the manager. And I can only sell as many books as the owner has ordered or the publisher has sent.” Piddy looked nervous. She shuffled some papers around on top of the counter. “But we do have a delivery later tonight for tomorrow’s signing. Wait! I think I have a box in the back.”
“Can I help someone here?” Angela walked up, which was probably best, because poor Dora was crying. Piddy rushed to the back of the store while Angela talked to Ada as they consoled Dora.
“Don’t you think if she was best friends with Stella, she’d have gotten a copy before now?” Harriette Pearl moseyed up to me, Grady, and Iris.
I kept an eye on Dora when Piddy returned with another box of books. Dora’s tears dried up quickly, and she took one right off the top of one of the stacks of books Piddy was putting out.
“You’d think she’d have let me know it was dedicated to me, so I’m not sure.” Grady shrugged. “I’ve got to get the kids back to school. I’ll see you tomorrow night at the game?”
“Did you honestly just say that to me?” I nudged Iris for her to make some smart-aleck comment, like that’s your number-one fan or something, but she was in a dead-set stare, looking at Piddy.
“Yes, honey, you will.” We gave each other a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Is Clara coming?”
He nodded. “You’re going to die when you see the outfit Julia bought her.” He wasn’t about to tell me the details. I’m sure Julia had sworn him to secrecy.
“Who on earth do you think the triangle is about?” Someone had the book open and was talking to their friend as they passed by.
“I don’t know, but if you read the first few pages, the entire town is perfectly described, down to the rocks in the old mill,” the other person mentioned.
I looked around and noticed the problem with the crowd was everyone who’d bought a book was still standing around and reading passages.
“My mom used to get so mad when people ate from the pie dish too. I bet the author’s own mother did that too,” I overheard someone I didn’t know say.
“That’s something she knows,” their friend commented. “And she did mention in the interview this morning that you should write what you know.”
It wasn’t exactly what Grady had told Stella Jane. I rolled my eyes.
“Iris.” Lucy Drake ran up with her copy in her hand. “Do you think Stella Jane wrote the pie in the face in the bedroom scene because of what you did to Piddy?”
“What?” Iris ripped the book out of Lucy’s hands. “Give me that.”
“Right off the bat on page twenty-eight.” Lucy appeared to be taking a little too much pleasure from this. “The couple isn’t described as you, but still.”
Frantically, Iris flipped pages, her eyes scrolling along the tops to see the numbers, before she finally got to page twenty-eight.
“Right. . .” Lucy popped her head over the top of Iris’s copy of Beyond Boundaries and pointed her finger at the exact passage she was referring to. “There.”
“‘There was giggling coming from the bedroom. So many things were going through my head. Why was Brandon Paul home when he should’ve been at work?’” Iris read the words so fast. “‘I stopped shy of the door and put my ear up to it to see if I could hear anything. It didn’t take long before a woman giggled. The door swung open, and there in my very bed was Brandon and the town’s bimbo, Liddy Turling, eating one of my homemade pies. And naked.’”
Iris dropped the book, and her face said it all. She flipped to the front cover of the book just as the red crept up her face. She flipped it back to the page.