Chapter Two #3
Faith clamped a hand over her mouth in surprise. “This is the best birthday ever.”
That they were there to show off for Tina stung a little bit, but she would rather walk on hot coals than let them know how she felt.
But, hey, she was just glad to be home, to have a job even if she was basically on probation with Walker—at the job as well as emotionally.
She could tell by his eyes that it would take a while for him to trust her again.
“I’m so glad that we all ran into each other today,” Reesa said. “Here’s my credit card, Tina. Don’t add up the total. I might want something else.” Reesa crooked an overly plucked brow.
Grown women flaunting their money to make me feel small. Tina fumed all the way to the back of the store once she discovered the lack of scissors near the register. Walker was hiding behind the counter, slunk down in a folding chair. He grinned when he straightened up.
“Are they gone?” he asked.
“No, they are not, but they will leave soon, I hope to God. They are all going to have a girls’ day out together for Faith’s birthday,” she snapped. “Where can I find a pair of scissors?”
“Want me to bring a shovel?” Walker asked.
“What?”
“If you are going to stab all three of them, we’ll need a shovel to dig three holes out behind the store. All I ask is that you don’t get blood on the merchandise,” he teased.
“I’m not going to harm anything but their credit cards,” she said.
“But I am using up all my willpower to be nice. Who did Reesa marry so that she can buy five-hundred-dollar purses without batting an eye? She has already run up a thousand-dollar bill. And who is Brandon Massey? I recognize the name but can’t place him.
Did he graduate with us, or was he older? ”
“Do you remember Ned Turner?”
“Nerdy Ned?” Tina asked and caught herself. “I’m sorry. That just slipped out, and it was rude of us to call him that back then, and for me to say it today.”
“Reesa is married to him. They have two little boys and live in a fancy house a mile outside of town.”
“Wow! Knock me over with a chicken feather,” she said. “She was . . .”
“I know, but Ned went off to college, created something to do with software, sold his business for tens of millions, and came back to Benson about the same time that Reesa figured she wasn’t cut out to be a big Hollywood star.
She saw dollar signs. He saw a trophy wife.
He’s on the school board but has his sights set on politics—he’ll run for mayor at the next election.
So basically, she’s a big-fish socialite in a little pond. ”
“Good grief!” Tina gasped. “I guess I do have a lot of catching up to do.”
Walker handed the scissors to her. “Oh, yeah, you do. And Brandon was from over in Vega. He came to the after-party with Reesa and flirted with Gracie . . .”
“Wait, I remember that son of a bitch now,” Tina growled. “I always figured that he flirted with Gracie because Reesa was trying to get you cornered.”
“Me too, but it looks like Sabrina was the one that caught his eye,” Walker said and nodded toward the three women parading down the aisle.
“You took too long,” Reesa scolded. “Cut the tags off what I’m wearing and sack up what I wore in here along with all my purchases.
” Reesa’s gaze dropped to Tina’s shoes and traveled all the way up to her hair.
“And don’t be slow. I’m starving for a strawberry-and-whipped-cream crepe.
Ned says it’s a miracle that I can eat so much and still stay beautiful. ”
Tina carefully cut the tags from Reesa’s new purse and a pile of other clothing she had laid on the counter.
She ran the credit card through the machine, and Reesa signed the more than thousand-dollar receipt without even looking at the total.
Sabrina paid for her purchases with crisp hundred-dollar bills, and Faith handed over a credit card for her half of the purse.
“You can put the things you wore in this.” Tina produced a brown paper bag with the feedstore logo on the outside and handed it to Reesa.
“Be a darlin’ and do it for me,” Reesa said as she transferred everything in her old purse to the new one.
Without a word, but seething inside, Tina crammed Reesa’s old purse and the cast-off outfit into the bag and handed it to Reesa.
“Bye, Walker,” Reesa said as she picked up the bag.
All three of them marched out of the store, whispering behind their hands and giggling like little girls at a sleepover.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen them in my store in years, but I’ve got to admit that I’m glad to see that much of the overpriced merchandise going out the door,” Walker said.
“Hey, we just made over three thousand dollars and got rid of three of those purses that you said have been in here forever. It’s been a good morning, hasn’t it?” Tina said as she took a couple of steps away from the counter.
I will be positive even if I have visions of strangling that woman and burying her body out in the desert, she thought.
“Money-wise, yes.” He matched her long stride all the way to the door. “Don’t let them make you feel small, Tina. Some people never grow up.”
“Too bad we can’t put a note inside that says Once a bitch, always a bitch. But that would mean that we are lowering ourselves to their nasty level.”
“The universe is going to bite them on the ass someday. I hope we both live to see it,” Walker said.
“Me too,” she said.
Gracie could feel the tension when she walked through the back door of the Cantina that morning an hour before opening.
She could tell by her mother’s expression that she was angry, and she didn’t have to guess what the problem was.
Elana Ruiz had never liked Tina or Walker, and any trouble Elana found out about was immediately blamed on them because, according to her, they had influenced Gracie into being a bad girl.
She had been forced to go to confession so many times that she truly believed the imprint of her round butt was on the wooden chair in the tiny closet.
“I heard Tina O’Grady is back in town and staying at Mae and Cleo’s place. Is that right?” Elana said through clenched teeth. “It’s bad enough that you are living in the same house with an unmarried man.”
“Walker, Tina, and I are just friends, Mama. There is nothing between us,” Gracie protested. She took a deep breath and spoke her mind. “And I’m glad she came home. I’ve missed her so much.”
“Living in the same house as a single man still is not right in the eyes of our Lord and Savior. I’ll expect you to ask Father Paul to make time for a confession after early-morning Mass tomorrow.”
“I don’t have to confess except when I sin, and I didn’t,” Gracie argued.
“And I’m not getting up at five o’clock every day to go to Mass.
Summer is my vacation, and I agreed to help here through the lunch rush when I can.
The rest of the time, I’m going to work on writing and illustrating a couple more children’s books. ”
Her mother paused for a long sigh. “Do you know what kind of nasty gossip will spread around town with you living in the same house with her and the Cosay boy?”
“Rumors are the lifeblood of a small town. Where would all the people come for lunch and supper if they didn’t have something to gossip about?”
“Then I insist that you move back into the house with me and your father,” Elana said, and turned to a tall, thin man with a black mustache. “Tell her, Papi, that we won’t put up with that.”
Gracie’s father, John, looked over his shoulder and then went back to setting chairs down from the tables. “Do what your mama says. Your brothers all listened to her, and they are good men.”
“I am not moving out of Mae’s house.” Gracie’s voice held a razor-sharp edge that left no room for argument. “I’m a grown woman, and I like living there. And, Mama, people change.”
“Well, that girl won’t change, and you are not living in the same house as her. She was a handful as a child and in high school. I should have insisted that we raise you in the back of this café instead of hiring Mae to babysit you all those years.”
“Now, carino,” John said in a calm tone. “We were working on the farms in those days, and the boys were all grown and gone. By the time she was in school, we had the café and needed someone to watch over her until we closed in the evening. Mae was a good sitter.”
“Yes, she was, but her living arrangements weren’t all that good. They taught our Gracie to think that—”
“That what?” Gracie asked. “That all people are equal in spite of race or religious beliefs?”
Elana kissed the golden cross hanging around her neck. “Forgive her, Lord, for saying such horrible things.” She glared at her daughter. “I am not prejudiced, but a good Catholic girl should marry within her faith to keep Jesus from crying.”
“You want to show me that in the Bible?” Gracie countered.
“That is Tina talking, not my precious girl,” Elana fussed.
“Mama . . .” Gracie put her arm around her mother.
“Tina did not make me do anything I didn’t want to do.
Most of the time, she was the one who got me out of problems that I created.
Coming home drunk from that graduation party, and all the other things that happened, was thirteen years ago. God says to forgive and forget.”
“I will forgive because God says I have to, but I will never forget. He also says I must love everyone, but He does not say I have to like them, and I do not like that O’Grady girl.”
“Okay, we will agree to disagree and forget this conversation,” Gracie said. “Let’s get some salsa made up for the lunch rush.”
“I still will not like her,” Elana started again. “If you hadn’t been at that party with her and that Walker Cosay after graduation night . . .”
“Neither of them was responsible for my choices,” Gracie said.
“You should have come home with me and your papi that night.”