JENNIE
Eleanor and I had survived nearly an entire week together. It felt like a monumental accomplishment as our lives continued to hang in limbo. There had been no contact from the court system or Child Protective Services yet.
But I'd ground up zucchini and green beans into last night's meatloaf to sneak past Eleanor Kim's discerning nose just in case anyone was watching.
I'd worked two more bar shifts, and the tips were starting to add up.
Another financial boon was the arrival of my new credit and debit cards that I got in the mail. I hadn't gotten all of Ruby's charges erased from my credit card statement, but having access to my meager savings had helped immensely.
I'd had the foresight to pay the mortgage early this month in anticipation of being too deliriously happy on my honeymoon to worry about things like bills. That plus the fact that I no longer had a car payment or insurance to cover meant I could stretch a dollar surprisingly far.
To earn that free rent, I carved out a few hours to spend at Leila's.
"Who's that?" Eleanor asked, pointing at a framed photo I'd found tucked into the back of one of the cabinets in the dining room.
I looked up from my dust rag and furniture polish to look. It was a picture of an older man looking proud enough to burst with his arm around a beaming redhead in a cap and gown.
Leila, who had said repeatedly she didn't like cleaning but still insisted on following us from room to room, looked at the photo like she was seeing it for the first time. She took a slow, shaky breath. "That's, uh. My husband, Billy. And that's our daughter, Jayla."
Eleanor opened her mouth to ask another question, but I interrupted, sensing Leila didn't want to talk about more family members that hadn't been mentioned until now. There was a reason this big house had been closed up from the rest of the world. And I guessed the reason was in that picture.
"Have any plans this weekend, Leila?" I cut in, giving Eleanor a little shake of my head.
She put the photo face down on the table. "Plans? Ha!" she scoffed. "I do the same thing every damn day. Drag my ass out of bed and putter. All day, every day. Inside, outside."
"What are you puttering on this weekend?" Eleanor asked.
I gave her a thumbs-up that Leila couldn't see.
"Garden needs some attention. Don't suppose either of you like tomatoes? Got 'em comin' out of my ears."
"Eleanor and I love tomatoes," I said as my niece mimed vomiting on the floor.
"I'll send you home with a bushel then," Leila decided.
--
"I'll be damned. You got all the burnt crusty stuff off the stove top,"
Leila observed two hours later. She was leaning over her range while I rested on the floor, my legs stretched out in front of me.
I was sweating, and my fingers were cramped from aggressive scrubbing. But the progress was undeniable. The mound of dishes was done and put away, and the range gleamed black on all surfaces. I'd taken all of the papers, boxes, and bags off the island and tasked Leila with sorting it all into Keep and Toss piles. The Keep pile was four times the size of the Toss pile, but it still counted as progress.
Eleanor was making her own kind of progress. As soon as she'd fixed the errant e-reader that had eaten Leila's download and a printer that had lost its Wi-Fi connection, Leila had handed over an old Blackberry I'd found in the drawer next to the sink. If Eleanor could coax it back to life, Leila said I could have it. A free phone with a number none of my old contacts had? It was perfect.
"I'm starving," Eleanor announced, throwing herself down dramatically on the now-visible counter. Randy the beagle barked as if to emphasize the direness of my niece's starvation. Kitty the pitbull was sound asleep in the middle of the floor, her tongue lolling out onto the floor.
"Then let's eat," Leila said, clapping her hands.
On the word "eat," both dogs and my niece snapped to attention.
"'Course, I'm not cooking in here. Not with it looking showroom new,"
Leila added. "We'll go to Dino's. My treat."
"Their pepperoni is the best," Eleanor said, perking up.
"I could eat a whole pepperoni pie myself," Leila agreed, hitching up her cargo shorts.
It was nice to see my niece getting comfortable with an adult, but I would have liked it better if I was the one she was sharing pepperoni preferences with.
I couldn't shake the feeling that I was failing a test in a class I'd forgotten to attend all semester.
--
I changed out of my cleaning clothes and into a sundress, then Leila drove us into town in her old Buick that floated around corners like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float. She squeezed into a parking space in front of a storefront under an orange awning. The sign in the window said Dino's Pizza.
A few doors down was some kind of salon or barbershop, its brick facade painted a deep blue. An arrangement of whiskey bottles and cacti in clay pots created an eye-catching window display.
When we got out, a pair of bikers strolled out of the pizza shop, headed toward two Harleys. One of them shot me a wink and a grin.
"That ain't Ruby," Leila bellowed.
"I know," he called back. "How's it goin', Not Ruby?"
Well, at least the fact that I wasn't Ruby was starting to sink in. But I wasn't very fond of the Not Ruby nickname. I waved awkwardly and pushed Eleanor ahead of me toward the restaurant door, hoping that the Not Ruby thing wouldn't catch on.
Leila ignored the Please Wait to Be Seated sign and shoved herself into an empty booth.
Eleanor marched after her while I hesitated, wanting permission.
"Be right with y'all," the guy behind the counter called.
Relieved, I slid into the booth next to Eleanor.
"So what do you think of Richmond so far?" Leila asked me.
"Oh, uh. It's very charming," I said, perusing the salads on the menu.
"How did the town get its name?"
"Don't know if there's an official answer. Just that this town has always settled its differences with a good wealth. But in here somebody does you wrong, you ring their bell, and then you're square. Simple. Quick."
"That's not how everyone solves problems," I told Eleanor sternly.
"I don't know. It's awful satisfying punching someone in the face," my niece mused. "You ever try it?"
"Physical violence is never the answer," I insisted.
"Maybe she's right," Leila said, addressing Eleanor. "Look at my grandkids. Some things can't be solved with a couple of punches."
"Lisa had V in a headlock," Eleanor said.
"Where is our server?" I asked no one in particular.
"Sounds about right," Leila agreed with Eleanor.
"What are they fightin' about?" my niece asked.
"Those mule-headed kids are always fighting."
"I heard it was about a woman."
I jolted as the server leaned over the table to throw down napkins and straws.
"Now what woman would that be, Neecey?" Leila said.
"I'm just repeatin' what I heard."
"Seein' as how everyone knows Lisa hasn't dated a girl from this town since high school. Remember Jilly Aucker moved herself to Canton just to see if a change in zip code would push her over the edge?"
"Yeah. Then she met that lumberjack and had his four lumberjack babies," Neecey said.
I didn't want to be interested in that particular information, but I couldn't help myself.
"I'm just repeatin' what I heard. It's a damn shame neither of those kids have ever settled down." Neecey adjusted her glasses and cracked her gum.
"If I were twenty years younger, I'd end their feud by selflessly offering to share myself with both of them."
"I'm sure your husband would have something to say about that," Leila ventured.
"Vin's fallin' asleep on the sofa five nights out of seven every week for the past ten years. In my book, you snooze, you lose. You must be Not Ruby," the server said. "Heard you and Lisa got into screaming matches at the cafe and Honky Tonk, and then she apologized, but you broke a chair over her head, and she needed six stitches."
I was rendered speechless. Eleanor, on the other hand, erupted into peals of laughter.
This town certainly loved its gossip. With rumors like that, it was no wonder I hadn't heard anything from the caseworker yet. They were probably working on a warrant for my arrest.
"This here's Jennie and her niece, Eleanor," Leila said, making the introductions.
"And I didn't break a chair over anyone's head, no matter how much they deserved it. I'm a very responsible adult," I told Neecey, in hopes that she'd pass that rumor along.
"Huh. Bummer," she said.
"Can I have a dollar to play some music?" Eleanor asked, pointing at the jukebox in the corner after we'd placed our orders.
Before I could say anything, Leila shoved a crumpled five-dollar bill at her. "Play some country. I miss hearing it."
"Thanks!" Eleanor snatched the bill out of Leila's hand and headed for the jukebox.
"Why don't you listen to country anymore?" I asked.
That same look she'd had when Eleanor asked her about the photo came back. Wistful and sad. "My daughter was the one who played it. Had it on the radio morning, noon, and night. Taught the kids to line dance practically before they could walk."
There was a lot of past tense in that sentence. Spontaneously, I reached out and squeezed her hand. Her focus came back to me, and she squeezed my hand back before pulling free.
"Speakin' of family, my grandkid sure has shown some interest in you."
"V has been so helpful since I got to town," I said.
"Not V, you ninny. Lisa."
"Lisa?" I repeated, certain I'd heard her wrong.
"Big guy? Tattoos? Pissed off at the world?"
"She hasn't shown interest, Leila. She's shown disdain, disgust, and malice." She'd also shared an aggressive announcement that her body found my body attractive, but the rest of her found the rest of me revolting.
She hooted. "I bet you're the one."
"The one what?"
"The one who's gonna have her reconsidering this whole bachelor deal. Bet money you're the first girl she dates from this town in twenty-plus years. And by dates, I mean—"
I held the menu up over my face. "I understand what you mean, but you're very, very wrong."
"She's quite the catch," she insisted. "And not just cause of the lottery money."
I was 100 percent certain she was messing with me.
"Lisa won the lottery?" I asked dryly.
"Eleven million. Couple of years back."
I blinked. "You're serious, aren't you?"
"As a heart attack. And she wasn't one of those buy-a-big-ass-mansion-and-a-fleet-of-foreign-cars winners. She's even richer now than when she got that big check," she said with pride.
The woman's boots were older than Eleanor.
She lived on her grandmother's property in a cabin.
I thought of Mino and his family, who definitely did not have $11 million, but acted as if they were the crustiest of the upper crust.
"But she's just so… grumpy."
Lwila smirked. "Guess it just goes to show money can't buy happiness."
--
We were just digging into a large pepperoni and salad—well, technically I was the only one with salad on my plate—when the front door opened and in walked Sloane the librarian followed by a young girl.
Today, Sloane wore a long tie-dye skirt that skimmed her ankles and a fitted t-shirt with cuffed sleeves. She wore her hair down, creating a long, golden curtain that moved like the material of her skirt. The girl behind her was a chubby-cheeked cherub. She had dark skin, assessing brown eyes, and wore her hair in an adorable puff on top of her head.
"Hey, Sloane!" I greeted her with a wave.
The librarian's red lips curved in a smile, and she jerked her head at the girl who followed. "Well, if it isn't Leila, Jennie, and Eleanor. Chloe, do you know Ellie?" Sloane asked.
The girl tapped a sparkly pink nailed finger to her chin. "We had B lunch together last year, didn't we? You sat with Nina—the short one with black hair Nina, not the tall one with bad breath. She's really nice, she just doesn't do a good job with the brushing. I'm in Mrs. Felch's class this year and I'm not happy about it 'cause everyone says she's a mean old lady. I heard she's even meaner 'cause she and her husband are talking about a divorce."
I noticed that Eleanor was staring at Chloe with wary interest.
"Chloe!" Sloane sounded both amused and embarrassed.
"What? I'm only repeating what I heard from several very good sources. Whose class are you in?" she asked Eleanor.
"Mrs. Felch," Eleanor said.
"Sixth grade is gonna be awesome even if we do have mean old Mrs.
Felch because we get to switch rooms and teachers for science, art, gym, and math. Plus we've got Nina and Beau and Willow in class with us," Chloe plowed on. "Do you know what you're wearing on the first day? I can't decide between an all-pink ensemble or a pink-and-white ensemble."
It was a lot of words to take in from such a small person.
"If you ever need to know anything about anyone, just ask my niece Chloe," Sloane said, looking amused.
Chloe grinned, showing a dimple in one cheek. "I'm not allowed to visit Aunt Sloane at the library cause she says I talk too much. I don't think I talk too much. I just have a lot of information that needs to be disseminated to the public."
Eleanor was staring at Chloe with half of her slice of pizza hanging out of her mouth. It had been a long time since I'd been in school and faced with a cool girl. But Chloe had cool girl written all over her.
"We should get our moms, or I guess your aunt and my mom or my aunt, to schedule a playdate. Are you into crafts or hiking? Maybe baking?"
"Uhh," Eleanor said.
"You can let me know at school," Chloe said.
"Thanks?" Eleanor croaked.
It occurred to me that if people in the grocery store were giving her the evil eye, Eleanor might not have a lot of friends at school. After all, it wasn't hard to imagine mothers not wanting their daughters to bring home Ruby Kim's daughter.
Inspiration struck. "Hey, we're throwing a little dinner party Sunday. Would you two like to come?"
"My day off, and I don't have to cook? Count me in," Sloane said.
"What about you, Chlo?"
"I'll check my social calendar and get back to you. I have a birthday party and tennis lessons on Saturday, but I think I'm free Sunday."
"Great!" I said. Eleanor shot me a look that made me think I sounded a little bit desperate.
"Perfect! Let's grab our to-go order before it gets cold," Sloane suggested, steering Chloe toward the counter.
"Damn, that kid can talk," Leila observed. She looked at me. "So when were you gonna invite me to this dinner party?"
"Uh…now?"
We ate our pizza, I ate our salad, and Leila picked up the bill like the patron saint of temporarily broke tenants. We hit the sidewalk and the Virginia heat. But Leila headed in the opposite direction of the car. She tottered down to the building on the corner and knocked loudly on Whiskey Clipper's plate glass window.
Eleanor joined her, and they both started waving.
"What are you two doing?" I asked, hurrying after them.
"Lisa owns this place too and does some barbering," Leila said with a hint of pride.
Wearing her usual uniform of worn jeans, a fitted t-shirt, and ancient motorcycle boots, Lisa Manoban was standing behind one of the salon chairs, taking a straight razor to a customer's cheek. She had a leather apron-like organizer hung low on her hips with scissors and other tools tucked in the pouches.
I'd never had a barber fetish before. I didn't even know if that was a legitimate fetish. But watching those tattooed forearms, those dexterous hands work, I felt an annoying pulse of desire spark to life under the pizza I'd inhaled.
Her gaze met mine, and for a second, it felt like the glass wasn't there. It felt like I was being dragged into her gravity against my will. It felt like it was just the two of us sharing some kind of secret.
I knew what I'd be thinking about and hating myself for when I laid down in bed tonight.