Page 28 of Rough
Laughing without humor, I shake my head. “Nope. Not one of ‘em has shown up since Saturday. Maybe they got somethin’ goin’ at school. I’m sure they’ll come draggin’ their feet in soon enough.”
“I can send the boys over to give you a hand. They’re just sittin’ in the house, mopin’ around while that…womanskirts around them runnin’ her mouth.”
I pause at the memory of her filming me. Trying not to be obvious that I care, I ask, “She, umm, is she datin’ one of them or somethin’?”
“Lord, I sure hope not. I don’t think so, though. She’s their personal rep,” Renee says, doing quotations with her fingers when she says rep. “I’m sure she’s a nice lady, but she rubs me the wrong way. Can’t really toss her out, though, can I?”
The way Renee looks for permission from me so shecantoss her out has me laughing. “Hmm,” I hum, still chuckling. “Probably not right now. But don’t forget that it’syourhome they’re stayin’ in.”
With exaggeration, she sighs loudly. Scanning her eyes over my smiling face, her laughter dies somewhat. Clearing her throat, she glances at the plate she’s holding before holding it out to me. “I brought you lunch. It’s not much, but I made some pork butt last night and did up a few sandwiches, plus some potato salad.”
Appreciation for her fills me and I drop my bag, then tug off my gloves to take it from her. Peeling up the side, my mouth waters when the smokey scent of the pork hits my nose. With my stomach grumbling, I tear the foil the rest of the way off and pick up one of the sandwiches and inhale, groaning at the scent.
“Thanks so much, I’m starved,” I garble out through a full mouth. Bracing my back against the wall, I dive into my meal, feeling Renee’s eyes on me as she watches. Finally, I swallow a particularly large bite and take a sip from my bottle of water. “What? It’s good!”
Her smile lights up her face. “It was a good batch. Listen, I wanted to ask about Saturday. We got the funeral all set, but I’m gonna host a luncheon at the house afterwards. You got that chocolate sheet cake recipe from your Grams I could borrow? I was thinkin’ that would be easy enough to make in bulk.”
Nodding quickly as I shovel in a spoonful of potato salad, I swallow and offer, “You want me to make ‘em for you? Not that I don’t mind you havin’ the recipe, you can. But if it’ll take lessoff your shoulders, I’d be happy to. They only take like twenty minutes to finish.”
“Would you? I hate to put more on your plate, but I’m more concerned about where I’ll store everything.”
“I got it. I’ll bring it over mornin’ of. You need anything else? How you been handlin’ everythin’?” My question comes out quickly, still stuffing my face. Shit, her food is always so fucking good. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating.
Renee finds a stool in the corner and sits down, brushing off her pants for something to do. “I don’t think I need anythin’ else. Lots of folks in town are bringin’ stuff. Meals started comin’ in the other day, so I won’t have to cook for a bit. The church ladies are fixin’ up a bunch of sides for Saturday as well.”
My food muffling my words, I call out, “Awesome.” It makes me so happy to hear her laugh. It’s been a tough year for everyone.
“So, about the boys comin’ over to see you the other day...” She’s acting like it’s no big deal, but the flavor of the food turns to ash on my tongue, and I look around for my water. I feel sick.
Chugging half of it, I nod once. “Yeah, they stopped by. You and Donny didn’t tell Remy about the farm.” I’m not accusing her but simply stating fact.
“We didn’t have a chance. I started to explain the situation after he found out, but they had some crisis that took his attention. Don’t think he heard much. Not sure that boy is handlin’ his daddy passin’ all that well. I’m worried about him, but I don’t know what to do. I can’t get him alone long enough to just talk with him.”
“Yeah,” I say, staring at the ground. “Don’t worry about the farm stuff with me. I can handle him bein’ pissed. Once he knows, I’ll get to make him grovel a bit since he was such an ass.” I kick at a piece of trash by my foot and sigh. “I’m sure losin’ hisdaddy is hittin’ him real hard. I just don’t want him mad at me, ya know? Not durin’ all this. I just wanna help where I can.”
She rushes over to me and wraps her arms around my body. Lying my head on her shoulder, I let her hug do its job. “You’ve been an angel to me and Donny. Don’t let this bring you down. I’ll get him seein’ right, that’s not your job. Let me know if you need a hand over here this week, otherwise I’ll see you Saturday, okay?”
I hurt so much for her, so I just nod weakly and squeeze her back. “I’ll let you know, but I got a handle on everythin’ here. Thanks for the lunch.”
Cupping my cheeks, she looks me over. Renee stands much taller than me, pleasantly round and comforting. She’s the perfect mom in my eyes, and I’ve always been envious of Remy having her his whole life.
“He’ll come ‘round, darlin’.” Patting my cheek, she pulls away and leaves. Sighing, I finish the few bites of my lunch and shove everything into the trash bag. Once I have the spill cleaned up, I lug it outside to the dumpster at the back end of the barn.
Making my way back around, I pause when I see a stranger standing on the porch of my house, staring at the door, and another body shadowed under the awning. Looks like they’ve been knocking.
My finger jabs into the brim of my hat to push it up before calling out to them. “Can I help ya?”
The man spins around, then makes his way toward me with an outstretched hand and a friendly smile. “Hey! I’m David Jensen.”
Nodding, I shake his hand. “Betsy Landry.”
The other person sidles next to David and my lips drop into a frown. “Andy. The hell are you doin’ here?”
Anderson Boyd, known to me as Andy, gives me a friendly smile and all I want to do is punch him in the throat. We datedfor a very short period of time a couple of years ago, but things didn’t go so well. I refer to him as ‘Handsy Andy’ in my head. The boy doesn’t know what ‘no’ means.
Slapping his palm on David’s shoulder, he gives it a shake. “David here showed up in town and was askin’ around for you. Told him I’d bring him out for introductions.” Once he releases his shoulder, he shifts around to stand next to me. “Been awhile since I seen ya, anyway. How you been, Betsy?”
“Supergreat until this moment. Told ya I didn’t want you comin’ around here. I’ll be kind and ask ya to leave without issue since there’s company.” I jerk my head toward the road, my face letting him know under no circumstances do I want him around me.
