Page 66 of Beg, Borrow, or Steal

Mom finishes off her coffee and sets it aside just as the bell above the door chimes. I look up, hoping to find Emily. When I realize it’s not her, my face falls before I can catch it. And of course, my mom notices and a puzzled look pulls her brows together. I don’t get much time to consider what she might think, because the two women I’ve come to understand as the matrons of the town barrel through the doorway.

“Move your ass, Harriet!” barks Mabel, coming in second. “I want to get a juice before next year.”

“I am not, and no part of me belongs to, a donkey, Mabel, so don’t refer to me as that.”

Mabel comes up beside her. “Well, I have another name in mind for you, but I don’t think you’d like that one much better.”

Harriet looks unimpressed. “I think you’d be a lot happier person if you’d use that Bible I gave you last Christmas.”

“I use it,” says Mabel indignantly. “It stabilizes my wobbly chair in the dining room.”

Harriet’s eyes widen in horror. “Don’t you tell me that you have the Lord’s holy words wedged under your rickety old chair!”

“Nothing rickety about it. My papaw made those back in the day and it’s an honor for that book to be used in such a way!” She frowns when Harriet takes one big step away. “What are you doing now, you old kook?”

“Getting far enough away from you so the lightning won’t touch me when it strikes you down!”

“Now listen—”

“Nice to see you two in good spirits today,” I say, interjecting before things escalate further. My mom looks like she’s thoroughly enjoying the show, but I’d rather nip it in the bud before an old-lady brawl takes place in front of us.

“Jack,” says Harriet. “Always nice to see—wait, who’s this sitting with you?” She and Mabel approach the table.

“Mabel, Harriet, this is my mom, Diana.”

My mom usually has anxiety meeting new people, but Mabel doesn’t give her a chance to retreat into herself. “Diana,” says Mabel, reverently. “Now that is a beautiful name you don’t hear much anymore. And look at your eyes, Lord, you and Jack are matching. They’re exactly the same color as my favorite bottle of Jack Daniel’s.”

My mom laughs and then shocks the hell out of me when she says, “Do you know I love to add a splash of it now and then to my hot tea at night. I sleep like a baby.”

Mom keeps alcohol at home? She must keep it hidden if she does. Probably keeps a lot of herself hidden just like I do.

Mabel pats my mom on the shoulder. “A woman after my own heart. Welcome to Rome, Kentucky, Diana. We love your son. Now, come visit me anytime you’ve got a hankering for some JackDaniel’s and a splash of hot tea.” Mabel winks and a minute later, they’re over at the counter ordering their Hot Bean juice to go.

“They seem nice,” my mom says, then casts a yearning look out the window at the town. “Before I had you, I wanted to live in a small town.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Oh…well. You know. Your dad really liked Evansville, so I thought it would be a nice place to live too.” She turns a fake smile back to me. “I’m glad you get to live here. I never thought you seemed happy in Evansville with Zoe.”

“Iwasn’thappy there. Or with her.”

The bell above the door chimes again, and this time when I look up I find Emily walking in wearing a crisp white T-shirt tucked into faded high-waisted jeans with a brown braided belt. Her hair is in that damn clip and the memory of removing it from her hair slams into my stomach. Emily immediately approaches our table and I stand so quickly my thighs bump into it, making it wobble.

“Hi,” I say with this massive humiliating smile.

Luckily, she mirrors it back to me as she eyes my checkered white-and-green crochet knit polo. I have it open over a white tank top with gray twill trousers. There’s a necklace with sunflower beads around my neck. “Hi.”

After a beat, my mom leans forward. “Hi.”

“Oh, sorry, Emily, this is my mom, Diana. Mom, this is my…Emily.”

My mom stands so they can shake hands, and then my mom grins at me. “I didn’t know you had an Emily. It’s nice to meet you.”

Super, Mom.

Emily laughs. Actually laughs. “It’s nice to meet you too. What he was going to say but quickly changed his mind was, ‘This is mynemesis,Emily.’ ” Amusement marks her face. “Your son and I have a bit of history.”

There wasn’t even a small part of me that was going to saynemesis.

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