“I was about to leave, but I couldn’t decide if I was hungry or not.”
Moving his hand in acome-onmotion, he moves towards the back of the pickup. “I’m buyin’.”
I reach in and grab the ring box, shoving it into my jacket without him seeing. The last thing I need is someone breaking in and stealing it. Besides, if I have it close, it almost feels like I’ll have the opportunity to give it to Brynlee.
We walk into the food court, and I let him decide where to eat. I have no strong preference any which way, and I don’t mind when he picks tacos.
“How you been, boy?”
What a loaded question. “I’ve been better.”
“Broke up with a girl, right? Heard about that. Don’t know much about her, but I hear she’s pretty.”
Pretty? Try flawless. “Brynlee Carmichael.”
“I went to school with a Carmichael. Yeah, Joe Carmichael. He was Jensen and Kathleen’s boy.”
“You knew her dad?” I ask, suddenly very thankful he nearly broke my window.
“She’s Joe’s daughter? Does that mean her mother’s Katherine Lee?”
Shrugging, I shake my head. “I don’t know much about her parents, really. I do know her Mom was from Fox Trot Valley, and they left after graduation.”
“That’d be her. She was always too pretty for her own good. Knew it, too. Never liked the small-town life, and when Joe fell for her, he changed for her. Growin’ up, we always talked about farmin’ and havin’ lives like our dads did. Then he went and fell for Kathy, and everythin’ changed. He died a few years ago, I think.”
“Five,” I say. “Do you know much about him?”
He shakes his head and shoves the rest of the taco into his mouth. “Didn’t talk to him much after he started goin’ with Kathy. He changed and wasn’t around much. He stayed friends with Mackle, though. They were both gonna get out, but Mackle came back to start his practice in Copperwood.”
This gives me an idea. Again, one that may be as fruitless as spending almost twenty grand on a ring, but I have to try. Just in case.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rhett
“Mom?” I call out as I walk into the house I used to call home. “Are you here?”
“I’m always here,” Mom calls from the kitchen.
Walking into the room, I stare at the stool where Brynlee sat on Thanksgiving. The memory of her covered head to toe in flour makes me both happy and sad. It was the last time I heard her laugh.
I force myself to look at Mom, who stopped washing dishes to stare at me. TheWorld’s Greatest Grandmaapron she got for her birthday captures my attention as I avoid her gaze.
“Need any help?” I ask.
A knowing look is her response.
“What?”
“Rhett, we both know this is not the reason you finally dragged your sorry behind back into this house. I’ve been washin’ dishes since before you were born, and I don’t need any help cleanin’ up lunch for just Pop and me. I’m just surprised it took you this long to show your face here.”
My heart sinks. “So… you heard, huh?”
Setting the rag in the sink, she leans against the counter and wipes her hands on her apron. “Heard? Are you kiddin’? I haven’t had so many people talk about one of my children since Rosemary got knocked up in high school.”
Clint was the biggest scandal of the family for years. Probably decades, actually. He and Rosemary fell madly in love the summer before junior year, and that love and passion got carried away. They were married and had a baby before they graduated from high school.
“How bad have the rumors gotten?”
