Chapter Nineteen
Libby unlocked the door, turned on lights and ceiling fans, and went straight to the office to begin another day of sorting through files. Her goal that week was to have the place in spick-and-span order by the time Benny came home with another load of merchandise. Then it would take only a day at the most to catch up on each week’s work.
As usual, Fancy sniffed every nook and cranny of the office, then flopped down on her fluffy blanket under the desk for her morning nap. Libby’s thoughts went to the book that the club members would be discussing that evening. She had made her pecan pie that morning, and it was cooling on the kitchen table. Since her recipe had called for two tablespoons of bourbon, she hoped that none of the ladies were ultra-religious and refused to eat anything that had a single drop of booze in it.
What they don’t know won’t hurt them—and besides, the liquor evaporates during the cooking process. Dolly’s voice inside her head put a smile on her face.
Fancy woke up, glared at the door, and wagged her tail.
“Opal and Minilee must be here,” Libby said. “They would get along so well with Dolly. I should send her an invitation to come see me—a funny one that will make her giggle.” Her thoughts went to the business of making a card.
Minilee poked her head in the door without knocking. “Hey. Just letting you know that we’re here to do some cleaning until noon. After that, it’s just too blasted hot in this place for us old gals. We’ll have a little break around ten. See you then.”
Fancy ran over to the door, and Minilee picked her up. “All right if I take her with me?”
“Want her leash?” Libby asked. “Last time we let her have the run of the store, she found a hidey-hole under a desk out there.”
“She does like to snoop,” Minilee said. “But I brought treats to lure her out of wherever she hides.”
“See you in a couple of hours,” Libby said with a nod and opened another file drawer.
She had barely gotten all the file folders lined up on the floor when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her hip pocket, saw that it was Benny, and answered on the second ring.
“Good morning,” she said in a cheerful voice. “What’s going on? Is everything all right?”
“Same to you. Everything is just fine, but I wanted you to know I’ve changed the itinerary. I just got a dealers-only invitation to the closeout of an antique store in McAlester, Oklahoma. Tomorrow is the only day that I can get an early look at what’s there, and the sale will be open to the public on Friday. Elvis and I are going to skip the trip to Joplin, Missouri; check out an auction in Tulsa this afternoon; and come back to the dealer sale tomorrow. If we have a trailer load, we’ll be home by suppertime tomorrow.”
She hit the speaker button and continued to work. “And then you’ll go to Joplin on Wednesday?”
“No, on Wednesday, the two of us are going to take stock of the warehouse, and then I want to do some measuring to put in shelving like you mentioned the first day you were in Sawmill. So I’ll be staying home more in the next few weeks,” he answered.
“And taking Thursdays off to rest?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he replied with a chuckle. “I got to admit, I did enjoy being away from everything for a whole day. See you tomorrow evening.”
“Be safe,” she said and ended the call.
“Well, this is going to be a different experience,” she muttered.
She tried to shift her thoughts over to the book she would be discussing that evening, but they kept coming back to the changes that were about to happen. On the days the store was open, she and Benny were both so busy with customers that they barely had time to nod in passing. Sometimes they watched the sunset together from the station’s front porch, and they’d spent that one day together at the river. Other than that, she was on her own to get the office in order. She wasn’t quite sure how she would adapt to working with him one-on-one, all the time.
When Opal rapped on the door by midmorning, Libby was down to just two more drawers, and then she could tackle the huge stack of file folders still on the desk. She could easily do that job the next morning—and maybe by the time Benny got back, she would be finished and could show him a nice, clean office.
“We’re having tea,” Opal called out from the other side of the closed door.
“Why don’t y’all bring it in here where it’s cool?” Libby asked.
“No, ma’am, not until you can swear on the Bible and sign your name in blood on an affidavit that there’s not a single spider or mouse in there. It’s not unbearably hot yet, so we’ll just have our tea out here.”
“Be out in a minute,” Libby said.
“We’ll have everything ready.”
Libby stood up and did a couple of stretches before she opened the door. A blast of hot air hit her in the face, but at least it didn’t smell like lemon oil. Three tall glasses of tea were on the table, along with a platter of brownies. Fancy was sound asleep in a little doggy bed beside the sofa.
“Where did that come from?” Libby asked.
“I found it tucked inside a dresser drawer over in the bedroom section. When I brought it up here, Fancy claimed it,” Minilee answered.
Opal picked up a brownie and took a bite. “It can be her very own bed when she’s in the store.”
Minilee tilted her head up and looked down her nose at Opal. “I thought you weren’t going to have a thing to do with Fancy.”
“A woman can change her mind—and besides, I’m mad at Tatum.”
Libby sat down at the table and took a sip of her tea. “What did she do to hurt your feelings?”
“I didn’t say that she hurt my feelings,” Opal argued. “I said that I’m mad at her. That’s a whole different thing.”
“She smarted off to her grandmother right out in public and made her cry,” Minilee said.
“And then she packed her things and stormed out of the house. Sally said she’s gone to Dallas to live with a friend and hopefully find a rich husband there.” Opal sighed. “I feel so sorry for my sister. She’s always doted on Tatum—but then, we both did. Lots of times, Sally did without things she wanted or needed so that that girl could have what she didn’t even need.”
“And you are surprised?” Minilee asked. “Tatum has always been a handful. Even when she came to visit in the summer, she demanded whatever she wanted rather than asking for it. I really thought that being in the service would help her, and I was so hoping that she would fall in love with Benny.”
“Me too.” Opal sighed again. “I’m just glad that we’ve got club tonight. Sally and I both need it.”
Libby reached over and patted Opal on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry. It’s tough when anyone makes you sad, but it’s doubled when it comes from a loved one.”
“Thanks, darlin’,” Opal said, then abruptly changed the subject. “Did you get that pecan pie made for tonight? If not, you better go home early enough to make it because Sally is sure looking forward to a slice.”
Libby picked up a brownie and bit into it. “Yes, ma’am, I did. This sure didn’t come from a boxed mix, did it?”
“Nope,” Minilee answered. “It’s from my grandma’s recipe that’s been passed down in my family for several generations.”
Libby didn’t have a single recipe for anything that had been passed down for generations in her family. June had shared her sand-tart recipe, and Libby still made them at Christmas, but June wasn’t a relative. But then, she didn’t have any living blood relatives, so why would she have recipes?
“I opened the box,” Libby blurted out, and then felt a blush crawling up her neck to her face.
“What box? Was there something in the office you weren’t supposed to look at?” Opal asked.
“No, it was personal.” The words were out, and she couldn’t cram them back into her mouth. “My grandmother left a box to be given to me when she passed away. I almost tossed it in the trash, but I figured there might be important papers in it, so I kept it. But I didn’t open the thing until ...” She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and went on to tell them about the letter.
“Oh. My. Goodness,” Minilee gasped.
“How are you holding up after such a shock?” Opal asked.
“I’m still a little numb, I suppose,” Libby answered.
“You have to talk to someone,” Minilee said.
“I’m talking to you and Opal, and I let Benny read the letter. I never believed much in all that therapy stuff.” She felt as if there were two people in her body: one who stood off to the side and watched things happen and another who drank tea with her two new friends.
Opal squared her shoulders and lifted her chin a few inches. “Who needs a therapist when you have us two wise old heads to use as a sounding board? We can listen anytime you want to talk. Bless your heart, darlin’—and I mean that in a good way, not a sarcastic one.”
“Thank you,” Libby whispered. She inhaled deeply. “From all the movies I’ve seen, a therapist would ask me how reading that news made me feel. I can truthfully say that I was in shock, and then Benny called right afterwards, so I just laid it aside, both mentally and physically. I understand now why Victoria didn’t want me to call her Grandma and why she treated me the way she did, but I’m angry. I should have known there were reasons why I never felt like I belonged anywhere—but how do I get past it and move on? I’m so mad that I’m having trouble even thinking about forgiving her.”
“That is understandable,” Opal said, “but we don’t forgive to relieve the person who hurt us. We forgive so that we don’t have hate and anger in our hearts. Those two things are worse than cancer. They can rob us of love and happiness.”
“You learn to trust your heart,” Minilee advised. “It was telling you all those years that you were different from Victoria, and it’s what led you here to Sawmill to make new friends.”
“Kind of like the heroine in the book we’re going to talk about tonight?” Libby asked.
“Absolutely,” Opal said with a nod.
Libby’s stomach growled loudly, and when she looked at the clock sitting precariously on the desk, she was amazed that it was after two o’clock. She closed the last drawer to the file cabinet and shot a dirty look over at the stacks of paper on the desk. “You are next,” she said. “And then, as long as I’m working here, this place is going to be cleaned up every day before I leave.”
Fancy must have heard her talking, because she left her new bed.
“Are you ready to go home, too? I think we might have time for a walk to the river before book club starts, but wait ... Is that thunder?” She and Fancy both cocked their heads to the side. Another clap verified that a storm was on the way, so she picked up the dog and jogged through the aisles to the front door. She switched off the lights and the fans. A hard, hot wind blasted her in the face when she opened the door, and big drops of rain splattered in huge circles on the porch floor.
“Okay, Fancy, if we don’t hustle, we are going to get wet,” she said as she stepped outside, slammed the door, and locked it. Then she took off in a fast run toward the station. The downpour started when she was halfway there. She was wet to the skin and out of breath when she finally made it.
The front door swung open and Minilee reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her inside. Opal slammed the door shut, handed her a towel, and took Fancy from her arms. She wrapped a second towel around the dog and rubbed her fur dry. “We came over to get things ready for supper. That storm came out of nowhere about the time we got here. It’s supposed to move on through the area in the next couple of hours, so Ilene and Sally should be able to get here.”
“You should go on into your apartment and get some dry clothes on,” Minilee said. “This poor little baby looks like a half-drowned rat, but we’ll get her all fixed up while you get out of your wet things.”
Libby went into her apartment and peeled out of her soaked jeans, underpants, shirt, and bra. She hung them all on the backs of the kitchen chairs to dry and then went to work on her hair with a blow-dryer. The fury and noise of the storm made Libby think of her own anger. Were the lightning and thunder a sign, telling her that it would blow through the area in a couple of hours? When it was gone, there would be a fresh, clean smell outside and the sky would be blue again.
“I just keep thinking back to how Victoria must have felt every day after she found out that I wasn’t her blood kin. Did she cuss and feel like the bottom had fallen out of her world? Did she wonder if Quinton knew I wasn’t his child and claimed me anyway? If so, was she angry at him even though he was dead?” she muttered.
The voice in her head sounded like Dolly. Stop worrying about the past, trust your heart, and be grateful for these two elderly ladies that fate has brought into your life to help you.
The weatherman had been right. The storm hovered overhead for the better part of two hours, and then it moved on to the southeast of Sawmill. The sun came out, and the skies were blue again, with only a few marshmallow clouds floating above the small community. Then Opal and Minilee dashed across the street to get the rest of what they wanted to bring over for supper and to get dressed for the book club meeting.
Sally and Ilene showed up at six o’clock. Sally carried in the chicken, and Ilene brought in a paper bag full of sides to go with it. Opal met her sister at the door, took the food from her, and then gave her a fierce hug. Then Minilee stepped in to wrap her up in another embrace.
“We’re here for you,” Opal said. “We can talk about Tatum while we eat.”
“I’m finished talking about her,” Sally said. “She can go on and do whatever she wants, but she needn’t expect to come running back to my house to live when things don’t go her way. She’s always been bullheaded, but the service made her worse instead of better. Now, let’s have our supper and talk about something else. I see Fancy peeking out around the leg of the table. I bet she smells chicken.”
“How did you know about Fancy?” Libby asked.
“Minilee’s been bragging about how the little thing loves her more than Opal,” Ilene answered.
“Maybe so in the past, but not anymore,” Opal declared. “She sat on my lap today at the store and even licked my hand.”
Karma has surfaced, Libby thought as she went to her apartment and brought out the pecan pie. “Here it is, as promised.”
“It’s a good thing you left that hidden away. Opal would have eaten half of it before our supper even got started,” Minilee teased.
“And you would have downed the other half,” Opal snapped.
“Well, thank goodness neither of you opened up the box before I got here,” Sally said. “Can I hold Fancy while the rest of you get the supper on the table?”
Minilee picked up the little dog and handed her to Sally. “She was raised by a woman who was probably about our age, and she’s got a really sweet disposition. I’ve never heard her growl at anyone.”
Except Tatum, Libby thought, but she didn’t say anything out loud.
“Libby, do you mind if we share what you told us today with Sally and Ilene?” Opal asked when Ilene had said grace and they had begun to pass the food around the table.
“No,” Libby said. “Maybe they’ve got some words of wisdom to help me get through these feelings that keep coming back even though I thought I had faced and gotten over them.”
For someone who couldn’t even tell her best friend about her past, she was in awe that she was able to open up so much to relative strangers. All that road dust she had sucked in must have turned her from an introvert into someone who could discuss her feelings.
Opal told the first part of the story, and then Minilee picked up the final part. Both Sally and Ilene listened intently while they ate supper. When the two ladies had finished, Sally’s eyes were as big as saucers.
“You should write your story—turn it into a novel,” she said. “This story would make a stellar movie. I would go see it at least three times.”
“I’m good with numbers, not words.” Libby still felt like she was on the outside looking in instead of being in the center of the conversation.
“This goes so well with our book for tonight.” Ilene polished off the last bite of her chicken thigh and reached for a leg. “The woman in the story was able to learn to trust her heart after a failed marriage and a low-down sucker of a boyfriend who treated her like dirt. Her two girlfriends helped her get through the tough times. We’re here to help you, Libby. If you need to talk during the day, call Opal or Minilee, but if you wake up at three in the morning, call me. I’m the night owl of the bunch, and I’m up until the wee hours.”
“And if you get antsy and need to work off some energy, come up to my house, and we’ll bake cupcakes and cookies until you feel better,” Sally offered. “And then we’ll take them to the nursing home.”
“Y’all are amazing,” Libby said. “Thank you, thank you ... And I may take you up on your offers if I get down in the dumps. It’s still hard to believe that I’m an O’Dell on all my legal papers—even my birth certificate—and I’m a Griffin by blood. How do I live with that?”
“Simple,” Minilee said. “You get married and take your husband’s last name. That will fix all of it. You will have learned to trust your heart, and your maiden name won’t even matter.”
“Two problems solved at one time,” Ilene agreed.
“That might take some time,” Libby said.
“Of course it will. This whole situation didn’t happen in one day or even one week. You can’t expect to get over all the hurt, the pain, and the emotions overnight,” Opal told her. “But I do know one thing that will help. Bring out that pie, and I’ll get the ice cream. Desserts help heal all kinds of problems.”
Libby remembered crying with Amanda when she had broken up with more than one boyfriend during their first two years of college, and Opal was right: ice cream helped. But Amanda’s situation had caused Libby to consider building walls around her own heart. Then, when she did have a couple of relationships that she thought could be serious, she got disappointed.
“Thank you all, again,” she said with a smile she hoped they thought was genuine. Trusting her heart was going to take a little more than a pecan pie and half a gallon of ice cream.