Page 14 of Just One of the Groomsmen
Not to mention she was kind of busy prepping for the soccer match she’d be coaching momentarily, one of the highlights of her week.
Lottie and her group of other baby boomers and middle-aged mothers left the fold-out chairs they’d set up on the grassy sidelines of the soccer field, and as they approached, Addie wondered if playing possum would work. Just flop to the ground, stick out her tongue, and hope the group of women would give up.
Experience told her Lottie didn’t care about an inconsequential thing like whether or not someone was dead or alive when it came to gleaning gossip.
So Addie plastered on a smile as she turned to face the question-firing squad, otherwise known as the Craft Cats, since they liked to scrapbook, quilt, and do a variety of other crafts as they plucked items from the grapevine. They also had a fondness for felines. Or maybe just for wearing cat-themed clothes.
Lottie peered down her sunglasses at Addie. “What did Tucker do to get fired from his big fancy lawyer job?”
“Fired? I doubt he got fired.”
“You don’tknow?” she asked, all incredulous-like, and the need to defend herself rose, which was absurd. Regardless of what the Craft Cats thought, it was okay not to know everyone’s business.
Addie tucked a soccer ball under her arm. “He just got into town.”Like day before yesterday, dudes.
Lottie pursed her lips, disappointment bleeding into her features. “Hmm. I thought you two were close.”
The thing about this particular group of ladies was the way they could lob implications and casually insult you, their sugary-sweet smiles never leaving their lips.
Of course they probably had no clue how badly those words would sting, and they shouldn’t. She and Tucker might not be as close as they used to be—and no, he hadn’t told her he was moving back—but he’d let her borrow his car, no questions asked, come over to give her the news about the move, and promised to represent her and her grandma if they got busted.
That was what counted. They were still friends, the kind that remained unshaken by time apart.
“Close enough that when you two put a baseball through the window of my craft store, you then tried to tape it up, like I wouldn’t notice. Thick as thieves, and equally as mischievous.”
And this was why Addie occasionally entertained the idea of moving away.
Sure, she’d miss her family and the community, nosy or not. But they could recite every bad thing she’d done since birth.
Yes, she and Tucker had tried to tape together thecrackedwindow that the baseball didn’t go through but simply slammed into. In their defense, they’d been in fourth grade and Lottie was one of the scariest ladies in town. Addie still had a scar on her palm from when the pane had given way and sliced her skin.
That was when the crack had turned into total glass annihilation.
When the blood pooled in her palm and dripped onto the ground, Tucker took off his shirt and wrapped her hand in it. Then she’d been embarrassed on two fronts—he’d been shirtless, and he’d had to take care of her, and she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself!
Lottie had shown up about then. She’dtsked and made a comment about manners unbecoming of a lady, but failed to remark on Tucker’s behavior, because “boys will be boys.”
Their parents were called, and they’d had to do Lottie’s yard work all summer to pay for the window. The labor was nothing.
The constant remarks about how she couldn’t believe Priscilla Murphy let her daughter run around with such a ragtag group of boys had been the real torture.
“Do you at least know what he plans to do?” Virginia, one of the town councilmembers, asked. “Is he setting up a law firm here? If so, he needs to meet with the board. Certain permits are required, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there aren’t any open office spots right now.”
Virginia was married to one of the two lawyers in town, so obviously she didn’t want Tucker to open an office and put a dent in her husband’s business.
The lawyer who’d moved into town about three or four months ago had already done significant damage, in spite of his rep as an asshole who treated you like crap while he took your money. He won a lot of cases, so some people thought it was almost worth dealing with his shitty temperament. He had clients throughout the county, too, which meant out-of-towners coming in and spending money in Uncertainty’s shops.
“Or is it just temporary, until he finds another job and heads off to the city again?” Nellie Mae asked.
With the sharks circling, you would’ve thought Addie had cut her hand again. Apparently they smelled blood anyway.
This week they wanted information about Tucker; last week they’d wanted to know what had happened with the nice new dentist. (One date three weekends ago that everyone somehow managed to crash, what with it being at Mulberry & Maine, the one linen-tablecloth restaurant in town, followed by radio silence. Not that she’d given them that information. Regardless of how many times she’d made it clear she was never going to change, they’d never let up with the “unladylike” comments, and she hadn’t wanted to hear “I told you so.”)
The sounds of van doors sliding open and girls shrieking as they ran toward the field filtered through—saved by a group of rambunctious, easily distracted eight-year-old girls. “I’m afraid I don’t have time for gossip.” Addie bounced the ball on her knee and caught it. “I have a game to coach.”
“Doesn’t the dentist’s niece play on your team?” Lottie asked, as if she didn’t already know.
Addie backpedaled, trying not to think about the dentist’s possible attendance, because she didn’t know how she felt about him besides slightly rejected. “Yes, I would love if you all cheered extra loud for us! Thanks for offering!”
