“Nope, I had no idea Elaine did anything like this on the side. She should put these on the menu,” Cricket said.

“How do you know all this?” Rick asked.

“There’s a secret to this kind of thing,” Jennie Sue said. “You pay someone else to do the work. Then you put it on a fancy platter and make it look all pretty, and the last thing is to slap a fancy little sticker on the bottom with your name on it so the person can return the plate. Mama’s famous for her fried chicken, but she’s never stood over a skillet of grease in her life. It comes from Kentucky Fried Chicken in Sweetwater.”

“Well, thank you, Elaine, for being such a good cook.” Rick loaded up his plate a second time. “Maybe we’d better put off swimming since we’re supposed to wait half an hour after eating.”

“Drink a beer,” Jennie Sue said.

“What?” Cricket raised an eyebrow.

“Proven fact. Eat. Drink at least part of a beer and you won’t drown. The bubbles in your stomach will keep you afloat,” Jennie Sue answered. “It also works when you’re hiding from people, right? And I’ve been wonderin’, is Cricket your real name?”

“It’s your name, so you can tell her the story,” Rick said.

Cricket rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “The name on my birth certificate is Edwina Lucinda Velma Lawson. Don’t even crack a smile, because it could’ve been worse. I was named for two grandmothers and Daddy’s favorite aunt. But I could’ve been Beulah Oma Lucille Lawson.”

“How did you get Cricket out of that?” Jennie Sue asked.

“When Mama brought me home from the hospital, she told Rick to be gentle with me because I wasn’t any bigger than a cricket, and it stuck. Rick gave me the nickname, and thank goodness, no one even remembers all those other names,” she answered.

“And I thought Jennifer Susanne was a mouthful.” Jennie Sue finished off the last cookie on her plate. “Let’s pop the tops of three beers and go swimming. I need something to settle my mind. It’s buzzin’ around in circles. I never knew that people could ask so many questions. Thank goodness Justin is takin’ the business burden off me or I’d be completely overwhelmed.”

Rick pushed his chair back. “Think we should clean up this table first?”

“We can do that afterward. All we have to do is put away what’s left of the perishable stuff for tomorrow’s lunch, then throw a tablecloth over the rest,” Jennie Sue said. “Come on. I’ll show y’all the way to the bathhouse where we can all change.”

“Are we doing something wrong? This feels kind of hypocritical. We were talkin’ about the people that came tonight acting like this was a party,” Cricket pointed out.

“No, we are not,” Jennie Sue declared. “I’m sure the enormity of what lies before me is going to overwhelm me in a couple of days, but I have to focus on one thing at a time to get through this. I want a swim and a beer to unwind. To work the tangles out of my brain and my body. But I have been thinking about doing something for underprivileged folks with part of the inheritance I’ll have.”

“That doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Cricket said.

Rick couldn’t have denied Jennie Sue anything, up to and including starting a walk across the Sahara with only half a canteen of water. “Then let’s go swimming. We’ll get through these next two days, and then maybe things will get back to normal.”

“I hope so.” Jennie Sue slid the doors open out onto the big porch/patio and laced her fingers in Rick’s. “Please don’t think I’m callous or uncaring for doing something frivolous like going swimming. I just have to deal with this my way.”

“Everyone deals with grief in their own way.” He squeezed her hand.

He let go of Jennie Sue’s hand and darted into the men’s side of the bathhouse. He found the closet with a variety of bathing suits and chose a dark-green one. Stripping out of his clothing, he folded each piece neatly and laid it all on a shelf. At least the dark-green suit covered up part of the scar on his leg.

He couldn’t make out the words, but he could hear the conversation on the other side of the wall. Cricket would be uncomfortable in a bikini, so he hoped there was something a little more modest over there for his sister. But at the same time, he sure wouldn’t mind if Jennie Sue came out wearing a two-piece—the skimpier the better.

He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, avoided the long mirror on the back of the door, and went outside. Jennie Sue and Cricket appeared in the moonlight almost as quickly, wearing identical black one-piece bathing suits. His pulse raced—his heart threw in an extra beat. No bikini in the world could make Jennie Sue look a bit sexier than that simple suit did.

“Oh, my goodness!” Jennie Sue stopped in her tracks when she saw him.

There it was. The repulsion that he’d been expecting, but he didn’t think she’d be so blatant about it. He cringed inside, but he squared his shoulders like a good Army Ranger and got ready for what was coming.

She rushed to his side and touched the biggest scar on his side and then ran her hand down his rib cage to each and every one of them. “Oh, Rick, ‘thank you for your service’ doesn’t begin to cover this. Or this one on your leg, either.” His whole body vibrated when she bent forward and touched his leg. “You should wear these proudly, not cover them up. They say that you are a hero.”

“That’s what I’ve told him ever since he came home.” Cricket dived off the side of the pool into the water. “Let’s swim now and not think about scars or sad things.”

Rick scooped Jennie Sue up in his arms and whispered, “Thank you,” just before he fell backward into the deep end of the pool with her in his arms.

When they surfaced, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and splashed water in his face. “That was mean. I didn’t even have time to get my hair up in a ponytail.”

“I’d apologize, but I’m not sorry. You’re beautiful with your hair in your eyes.”

He swam to the other end, where he propped his elbows on the side and waited for her. Cricket did laps in beautiful form while Jennie Sue made her way to him, swimming underwater the whole way and stopping to kiss the scar on his leg before she surfaced.

“I wasn’t shootin’ you a line of shit about your scars,” she said.

“I wasn’t shootin’ you a line when I said you were beautiful with messy hair and smeary eye makeup, either,” he told her.

“That’s hard to believe,” she whispered.

“Welcome to the real world, darlin’, where we speak the truth and don’t put much stock in what other people think.” He brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. “At least, some of us are of that mind. There are those that still thrive on small-town rumors.”

“You got that right.” Even though her heart was still numb from the shock and the pain, everything made sense.

Chapter Nineteen

Rick took a long, hot shower and crawled into bed that night, but he couldn’t sleep. He laced his hands behind his head and, like other folks in town, wondered exactly what Jennie Sue would do about the oil company and all the property. She’d shown that she was strong by taking her own way and making her own decisions, but this had to be overwhelming.

Tomorrow she’d be back in her apartment and he’d be in his house. In his world, things would be back to normal—hers would never be the same. He shut his eyes and replayed every moment he’d had with her.

When a soft knock landed on his door, he sat straight up and was slinging his legs over the side of the bed when Jennie Sue eased it open and peeked inside. “Rick, are you awake?”

“I’m right here,” he whispered. “What can I do?”

“Hold me?” she said.

He stood up and met her halfway across the room with open arms. She walked into them and laid her head on his bare chest. He cupped the back of her head with one hand and slipped the other around her waist. “The nights are always tougher than the days.”

“I did it pretty much alone when I lost the baby, but this is different,” she whispered. “That time I buried myself in schoolwork. Now, there’s so many decisions . . .” Her voice trailed off.