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  “Alora, let me in.” A soft whisper on the other side of the door startled her. She hopped up and opened the door a crack to find Irene in her red flannel pajamas.

  Her grandmother held up a package of chocolate chip cookies in one hand and a soda pop in the other. “I snuck in the kitchen and up the stairs and they didn’t hear me.”

  “Who’s down there?” Allie pulled her grandmother inside and flipped the light switch.

  Irene crawled up in the middle of the bed and ripped open the cookie package. “Katy and Lizzy and those two men. Lizzy is dumber than a box of rocks.”

  Allie didn’t care if her granny left her bed in a mess of crumbs or even if she spilled the can of soda pop. To have Irene there in her right mind might take her mind off Blake Dawson and that despicable Grady at the same time.

  “I loved your grandpa. I really did,” Irene said. “But there was a time…”

  Allie waited for her granny to fall back into another time.

  She finished a cookie and reached for another one. “I forget things, Allie, but I want you to know something while my mind isn’t all jumbled. Your grandpa started it when he had that affair with that woman from Throckmorton. But we got past it and fell in love all over again. We had four wonderful years before he died.”

  Allie crawled up on the bed with her grandmother. “It’s okay, Granny. It’s in the past and Grandpa loved you.”

  “I know that and I loved him. I never did love Walter like I did him. I was getting even with him.” She handed Allie a cookie. “But we need to talk about Lizzy. She is about to get into a mess. I never have thought that boy loves her like he should. She’s marryin’ just to be married. Leastways that’s what I think, which ain’t worth much these days the way my head is working. I’m afraid she will regret it and I can’t tell her anything so you’re going to have to stop that wedding. You owe me this much because you wouldn’t listen to me when it came to Riley. He was a sorry bastard.”

  “I know, Granny.” Allie nibbled on the cookie as she talked. “You were right. Riley thought he could change me and turn me into a little wife who stayed home and had dozens of babies for him. When I didn’t get pregnant in those almost three years we were married he blamed it on the work I do.”

  “Stupid bastard. And then he left you. It wasn’t your fault you didn’t have them babies. It was probably his the way he poked his thing into anyone who’d lift their skirt tail for him. Most likely rotted any sperm he had up in there. Here have a drink of this soda pop and get the taste of his name out of your mouth.” Irene passed the soda over to her.

  Allie took a sip and handed it back. “Thank you, Granny.”

  “I wanted to kill him but I couldn’t figure out a way to do it and not get caught and you needed me then. But now I’m a burden so I want you to kill that sumbitch that Lizzy is about to marry.” Irene dropped cookie crumbs on the bedspread. “I’ll say I did it and they might put me away but it’s okay. I don’t want another of my precious babies to hurt like you did.”

  Allie picked up the crumbs and tossed them in the trash can beside her bed. “You are not a burden, Granny. We all love you.”

  Irene clamped her bony hand over Allie’s knee. “If you love me and your sister, then put a stop to her marryin’ that man. Promise me you won’t stop short of killin’ him.”

  “I’ll do my best, Granny,” Allie said.

  Irene’s mouth set in a firm line. “Okay, you’ve given me your word. I’ll be packed and ready to go to the nut house when you get it done. Just tell me how you do it so I don’t flub up the story. I’m going back to my room now and we’ll talk later.”

  She slid off the bed and tiptoed to the door, peeked out and gave Allie the thumbs-up sign before she left. Allie threw herself back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling. Granny was worried about Lizzy but the true message from her ten minutes of being lucid seemed to be that Allie needed to put the past behind her…after she killed Mitch, of course.

  Chapter Ten

  Several people turned around in the church pews that Sunday morning and stared blatantly; some whipped back to whisper behind their hands to the person next to them. Without even turning around, Allie knew exactly who had just walked in. The extra beat in her heart and the way her pulse raced told her it was Blake.

  Grady scooted close to her and put his arm around her, his hand resting on her shoulder. Allie gritted her teeth and tried to shrug his arm away, but he was a persistent son of a bitch. When the music director said that the congregation would sing, “Abide with Me,” he held the hymnbook and pulled her even closer.

  She didn’t even try to sing. She didn’t want God to abide with her that morning. She wanted him to strike Grady graveyard dead in the pew where he sat or maybe send a bolt of lightning through the roof to turn him into nothing but ashes. She didn’t even mind getting a little bit of scorch on her new pretty sweater dress if God would grant her the desires of her heart.

  Her granny sang a different song, loud and clear in her soprano voice. The folks in the church had long accepted that Irene Miller lived in many worlds each day and didn’t pay a bit of attention to her that morning as she sang, “I’ll Fly Away,” while the rest of the congregation sang, “Abide with Me.”

  “You look really gorgeous this morning,” Grady whispered when the song ended.

  His breath was warm and it was supposed to be seductive, but Allie wanted to brush it away like a fly that had lit on her earlobe after visiting a fresh cow pile. If she inhaled deeply, she could even smell the cow shit.

  “I’m looking forward to dinner,” Grady said.

  “Shhhh,” Granny said. “No talkin’ in church.”

  The preacher opened his Bible, cleared his throat, and said, “Good morning. We have a newcomer back there on the back row. Welcome to Dry Creek, Blake Dawson. We all know that you’ve bought the Lucky Penny and we welcome you to our church. Now, this morning my sermon is from the verses that say that God will not lay more upon a person than they can endure and he will always provide a way of escape.”

  Irene tapped Allie on the knee and said in a very loud whisper, “I’ve got to go to the bathroom and I don’t know where it is.” She frantically looked around everywhere, from the ceiling to the windows.

  Allie laced her fingers in her grandmother’s and they stood up together. The preacher read verses straight from the Bible to support his opening statement as the two ladies, one in fear of wetting herself and the other giving thanks that God had provided an escape, made their way to the back of the church.

  The ladies’ room was located off the nursery and two elderly ladies looked up from worn old rockers where they each held a baby in their arms.

  “Good morning, Dorothy and Janet. Looks like you’ve got your hands full today,” Allie said quickly so that her grandmother would know who the ladies were.

  “We love babies. Hello, Irene. It’s good to see you again,” Dorothy said.

  “I don’t know you so how can you say that you ever saw me in the first place?” She leaned toward Allie and whispered in her ear, “You’ll wait for me, right?”

  “I’ll be right here, Granny. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Irene closed the door behind her and Allie slumped down in a third rocking chair.

  “She’s not going to get any better, is she?” Dorothy said.

  Allie shook her head. “The doctors say that this puzzle stage will get worse until she finally settles into one phase of her life. Probably when she was the happiest and that she might not know us most of the time, especially if she stops when she was a young girl and we weren’t even in her life then. We keep hoping one of the medications they are trying will work.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Janet said. “We used to love having her help us here in the nursery and we were all good friends. The three of us and Hilda, but Hilda’s been gone now for years. Died with cancer back when she wasn’t much more than forty.”

  Evidently Irene overheard the na
me Hilda, because when she came out of the bathroom with her skirt tail tucked up in the back of her white granny panties, the first words out of her mouth were, “Hilda, something ain’t right with my clothes. Help me, please.”

  Allie didn’t mind being Hilda if she didn’t have to sit beside Grady anymore that day. “You want to stay in here or go back out into the church?” She stood up and put her grandmother to rights. “The preacher has another twenty minutes at the least before he winds down.”

  “Are we having fried chicken? Is that mean man coming to dinner?” Irene asked.

  “What mean man?” Allie asked.

  She popped one hand on her hip. “You know who I’m talking about. I’m not sitting on the same pew with him. I hate him.”

  “Then you do want to stay in here? And Mama put a pot roast in the oven for dinner so we aren’t having fried chicken.” Allie sat back down in the rocking chair. The church was small with two sets of pews, a center aisle, and just enough room on the sides for folks to get out of church single file. She didn’t want to follow Granny but then she didn’t want to lead the way, either, because there was no telling what she’d do if Allie didn’t keep a hand on her arm.

  She shook her head. “I’m not a baby. We’re both ten years old and we don’t belong in the nursery anymore. I’m going to listen to the preacher but I’m not sitting on that pew.” She marched out of the nursery like a little girl in a royal snit.

  Allie jumped up and followed her right down the center aisle, which meant she’d have to skinny past Grady to get to the end of their pew. Irene made it to the back pew and stopped. She frowned as if trying to remember where in the hell she was and what she was supposed to do next and then cocked her head to one side.

  “I’m sitting right here and if you don’t talk in church, you can sit beside me, Hilda. And I think I will go home with you today for dinner. Your mama makes good fried chicken,” Irene said loudly.

  The preacher never missed a single beat, but Allie did hear a few snickers in the crowd. That brought out her protective nature and she would have marched forward and sat on the altar with her grandmother if Irene had wanted to do that. But instead Irene pushed past Blake and sat on his left. “You can sit on the other side of Everett. If he pulls your hair, kick him in the shins.”

  Allie slid in beside Blake. He was freshly shaved and the smell of something woodsy, mixed with his soap, sent her senses reeling. She waited until Irene was settled and whispered softly, “Sorry, it’s not a good day. It started off good but it’s gone to hell in a handbasket.”

  Blake smiled. “I’m not a bit sorry. I may buy her an ice cream cone after church.”

  “And where would you get that?” Allie whispered.

  “Shhh. Everett Dunlap, you know better than to talk in church.” Irene popped him on the shoulder. “And don’t you dare pull my hair.”

  It was downright crazy: one man’s hand on her shoulder made her want to run; the other sitting a foot away almost made her hyperventilate right there in front of her grandmother, the preacher, and even God. Life and fate were both four letter words and both should be put on the naughty list with the other cuss words.

  Allie breathed a sigh of relief when they made it through the benediction without her granny announcing to the whole place that it was about time the long-winded preacher shut his mouth so they could go eat dinner. Everyone was standing up and the noise level was rising by the second as folks talked about everything from the sermon to the weather and lined up in the pews to shake the preacher’s hand at the door.

  Blake extended a hand to Irene. “Thank you, ladies, for sitting with me.”

  She took it and nodded. “It was our pleasure, I’m sure. I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you Hilda’s uncle?”

  “Isn’t this Everett, Granny?”

  Her grandmother’s eyes went dark as she searched for a puzzle piece that would tell her who Everett was, then suddenly she clapped her hands. “Everett pulled my hair and I kicked him. He tattled on me but I didn’t care. I think he likes me.” Irene giggled. “But he didn’t come to church today. I’m glad your uncle is here, though.”

  “I’m glad, too,” Blake answered with a smile.

  “Are you going to Hilda’s for dinner, too? Her mama always makes fried chicken on Sunday and my mama made roast beef today so I don’t want to go to my house,” Irene asked.

  “Your mama might want you to go home today since Lizzy has invited her boyfriend over for dinner,” Allie said.

  Irene looked up, waved at Katy, and shouted above the noise of dozens of conversations. “Mama, I am going home with Hilda and her uncle today. I don’t like Lizzy’s boyfriend or that mean man that runs around with him.”

  “Shhh, Granny,” Allie said.

  “We are all going home. You can ride with Allie,” Katy said sternly.

  Irene stopped in the middle of the aisle and glared at Katy. “When those two mean men go away I will come home. Besides I want fried chicken.”

  “I’d planned on driving over to Olney to a little restaurant that specializes in fried chicken on Sunday,” Blake said quickly. “I’m sure my niece would enjoy her company and I could have her back at your place by mid-afternoon.”

  “Yes, yes!” Irene clapped her hands. “Please let me go. I don’t get to go to a café hardly ever.”

  “You put her up to this. You put the idea in her head,” Lizzy hissed at Allie. “I will never forgive you for ruining my entire weekend.”

  “I did not. Next Sunday you can sit beside her and take her to the bathroom,” Allie said.

  Katy slipped her hand around Allie’s arm. “This does not mean any more than taking care of your grandmother, does it?”

  “No, ma’am,” Allie said. “She’ll make a scene if you don’t let her go with me and Blake. She thinks I’m her childhood friend, Hilda. They mentioned her name in the nursery and that’s probably what set her off.”

  Herman Hudson stepped out from his pew and fell in behind Katy, separating her from Lizzy and the two guys. “Blake Dawson, I hear you’ve got wood to give away.”

  “Yes, sir, I do,” Blake said.

  Herman stuck out his hand. “I’ll be glad to take all you can pile up for my wood yard. You got a problem with me selling it?”

  “No, sir, not one bit. I’d just be glad to get it cleared away and not have to burn it all up,” Blake said.

  “Then me and my kin folks will be there soon as this snow stops. We don’t mind workin’ once it’s on the ground but when it’s fallin’, it makes it tough. Thank you, son,” Herman said.

  Irene wiggled in the backseat like a little girl eager to get to her destination. “We’ll be there in a little bit, won’t we? Can I have ice cream if I eat all my chicken?”

  “Yes, you can or whatever dessert you want,” Blake answered.

  “I like your uncle,” Irene said.

  The café had two empty tables when they arrived. The waitress waved them to one and said, “If you’ll sit there, we’ll save the bigger one for more folks. Be right with you.”

  The waitress finally got around to them, handing out menus, which consisted of one laminated page with the listings for breakfast on one side and lunch on the other. “What are y’all having to drink?”

  “Sweet tea,” Irene answered.

  “Same here,” Allie and Blake said in unison.

  His leg touched hers under the table. That’s all it took to flood her mind with pictures that she should not be entertaining after church or in a restaurant. Most of them did not involve clothing, menus, or even church music.

  “We’ve got two specials today. Fried chicken tenders with hot biscuits, your choice of two sides, and pecan pie with or without ice cream for dessert. Second one is roast beef with all the same,” she said.

  “Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and I want ice cream on my pie for dessert,” Irene said.

  Blake handed her the menu. “Same only with okra instead of mac a
nd cheese.”

  “Me, too, except I want corn casserole for my vegetable.” Allie’s arm brushed against Blake’s when she gave the waitress her menu, and the pictures in her head became even more vivid.

  “I’ll have it right out.” The waitress hurried off to seat a family of six at the larger table and clean off a small four-person table for another group just arriving.

  “So what are you ladies going to do all next week?” Blake asked.

  “School.” Irene rolled her eyes. “I hope we don’t have homework every night.”

  “Why is that?”

  Allie had no doubts that Blake was a very good uncle to his nieces and nephew. He was a natural in the role.

  Irene sighed dramatically. “If we have homework, then Hilda can’t come and play with me after school. Her mama won’t let her and my mama makes me sit at the kitchen table until it’s all done, and it takes hours.”

  “Do you like Dry Creek?” Blake asked.

  Irene shrugged. “It’s where I live so I have to like it. Someday I’m going to move away to a big place, though. I’m going to live in a house in town so I can go to the movies and to a café and have coffee in the mornings.”

  Blake nodded seriously. “And do you like coffee, Miz Irene?”

  “No, but I’ll learn if I can move away from Dry Creek. Why are you asking me so many questions?” Irene asked.

  “I want to get to know my niece’s friend.” He smiled.

  Lord, have mercy! One more of those killer smiles and knee touches and Allie would need one of her mother’s hot flash pills. Come to think of it, Blake should carry those little white pills in his shirt pocket and dole them out to the women he came in contact with. One if he smiled. Two if he strutted past them in tight jeans. Go ahead and fill up a coffee cup with them if he kissed a woman.