Page 26 of Jack

“Better.” Coty gives him a salute.

Shepherd is ex-military. A couple of the guys in our chapter are, too.

Applause from the party in the back has everyone looking to see what’s going on. Pastor Rhodes makes some kind of announcement, earning another round of applause from his group. His oldest son stands next to him. The pastor and his wife have four children—two boys and two girls. Only two of them are with them today. A man I’ve never seen stands behind their youngest daughter.

The sound of a knife flicking open draws my attention to Jay’s hand at his side. He, Bankz, and Hendrix watch the church group closely. I’m missing something here.

“What’s that about?” I ask.

“The Pastor’s son is following in his footsteps,” Jay replies. No clue why it has him upset enough to open his knife in public.

I look back to the group. “Who’s the dude with Finley?”

“Must be the new guy they’re trying to marry her off to,” Hendrix replies.

The church group continues to celebrate. Matthew Rhodes humbly accepts their congratulations. He pulls a dainty little blonde up to stand at his side. Guess the pastor will have a daughter-in-law soon, if I’m reading the situation right. Maybe they can have a double wedding. They can marry their oldest and youngest children off at the same time. It’s not likely. Who knows? It could happen.

“She’s a cutie.” Shep narrows his eyes. “What’s wrong with her? Why are they having trouble finding her a husband?”

“No clue.” Hendrix shrugs.

“All we know is that Finley starts dating a new guy for a few weeks. About the time everyone thinks it’s serious, the guy breaks it off, and we never see him again,” Bankz adds.

“This one probably goes to college with her. He looks the type,” Hendrix says.

“They let her go to college?” That really surprises me. Finley was sick a lot as a kid. Her parents are seriously overprotective of her.

“Yeah. Nursing school.” Hendrix finishes his meal and pushes his plate away.

“She at the big one in Nashville? Vanderbilt?” Coty asks.

“Nah. She’s over at Staten Medical College.” Bankz finishes his food, too. “No clue why they’re letting her go. We all know her family won’t let her work at a hospital.”

Staten Medical College is about forty-five minutes from here on the other side of Dades Creek. If the pastor didn’t pay for Finley to go to Nashville, Bankz is right. She’ll never work in a hospital. It’s doubtful she’ll ever put her degree to use.

“Sweetie.” Angie places a hand on Jay’s shoulder and leans between us. “I get it, but you might want to put that away in here.”

My eyes drop to the knife he’s still flicking open and closed. So far, Angie’s the only one to notice. I take that back. Rich pink pantsuit lady notices. She jerks her daughter out of the booth and storms at the door.

“Sorry, Angie. I didn’t mean to cost you a customer.” Jay closes the knife and slips it into his pocket.

“Oh, I’m not worried about her. She gets mad about something all the time. Won’t see her for a few weeks. One day, she’ll wander back in like nothing happened. Besides, it’ll take a lot more than losing one prissy customer to shut us down.”

We all nod. It’s true. People come from all over middle Tennessee to eat at Angie’s. Jay feels bad about it, though.

“I’m fine,” he assures her.

Angie starts clearing our dirty dishes from the table. Jay’s no longer playing with the knife, but he has me worried now, too. Something happened to my cousin while I was away.

“You sure you’re okay?” I know he’s not.

Jay nods. He wouldn’t tell me in here, anyway. I’ll ask him about it later tonight.

“I don’t like him.” Jay glares across the room.

Matthew Rhodes used to sneak into the clubhouse and party with us. It was fine for a while. But one day, Jay didn’t like him for some reason. If he’s going into the ministry, I guess his parents straightened him out.

“Maybe he changed.” The way Matt’s eyes dart at us every so often, he doesn’t want anyone to know he knows us.

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