Page 28 of His Wounded Heart

“Then I’ll tell you what, Lettie, hook me up. I’ll go for the biscuits and gravy, the pancakes, bacon, and the casserole.”

“Coffee and orange juice, right?”

I nod.

“Okay Sug, I’ll have that right out to you. In the meantime, make some friends.” She taps on the table next to me where two women her age are talking. “Alice, Florence, start talking to the new boy. I’m expecting to know everything about him by the time he’s done with breakfast, got it?”

“Leave it to us,” the one with the purple hair says, then she shoves their table next to mine.

“Hi, I’m Florence, I’m not the shy one.” She fluffs her purple hair. “Alice is the shy one. I’ve been working on her for forty years to come out of her shell, maybe today will be the day.”

I watch as Alice calmly takes a sip of her coffee and gives a little shrug as she looks at me. She’s clearly saying, what are you going to do? I have to choke back a laugh. Seems to me that Alice can communicate just fine.

“Are you the hermit that’s renting Bernie’s cabin?” Florence asks. It’s fascinating to watch just how much sugar and cream she stirs into her coffee.

“Yeah, I’m that hermit, but I thought I would come down off my mountain today.”

“Why?” Florence asks. “Are you just here for the good food, or are you a bigwig from one of them big box chain stores, looking to put all of our neighbors out of business?”

“Florence, drink your coffee and let me handle this a different way, okay?” Alice says softly.

“But get some information from him. Lettie’s going to want to know something when she gets back.”

Alice rolls her eyes. Then she extends her hand. “Hello, I’m Alice Draper, my son runs the hardware store here in town and when I have free time from watching my grandkids, I do some volunteer work around town.”

I take her hand and shake it. I like her.

“My name is Simon Clark. I recently retired from the Navy and a friend of a friend of mine suggested Jasper Creek as a place to unwind for a while before I decide on my next move.”

“Stagnate is more like it,” Florence says as she sets down her cup of creamy sugar. The whole mug looks like a pool of white.

“I don’t know about that. Jasper Creek has been growing now that they built the John Deere manufacturing plant in Knoxville,” Alice gently disagrees. “We’ve got that new housing development out where the Lally’s old farm was, and you know that they’re putting up some apartments right at the end of Chestnut.”

“Apartments. That just brings in a bunch of transients if you ask me.” Florence sniffs and turns her attention back to me. “You’re not part of the John Deere folks. My nephew works there as a supervisor, he hasn’t mentioned any Navy men. He would too, since we’ve been inundated with the likes of that Avery boy and his accomplices.”

Interesting.

Alice frowns. “Florence, you need to dial it back. You know perfectly well that every one of those Avery children have turned out wonderfully. Someone upstairs must have been watching over all seven of them, because with Wanda and Norville as their parents they were dealt a raw deal.”

“All I’m saying is that after Drake and those other Navy types showed up, poor Delmar ended up in jail.”

Alice rolls her eyes again. “Florence, I realize you dated him in high school, but he was a bully back then and he turned into a bully with a badge thirty years later. You read the papers, he belonged behind bars.”

“I still say it was a set-up. You heard what the others had to say.”

“Those are the same people who get drunk at Chucky’s Friday and Saturday night but sit in the front pew on Sunday morning. You need to be listening to a new group of people.”

“But Delmar was a really good kisser,” Florence whines.

Thank God Lettie finally arrives with my mountain of food. I didn’t hear all of the details of what had gone down here in Jasper Creek five years ago when Mason brought his team here to back up Drake. The less I knew, the better. I did know that Drake’s parents ended up in the state pen.

“I brought catsup, hot sauce, maple and boysenberry syrup and fresh butter made at Shivley’s farm. Is there anything else you need?”

I’m going to have a stroke just looking at the food, but there isn’t a chance in hell that I’m not going to try to eat it all.

“No, Ma’am, you’ve set me up good.”

She pats my shoulder, then turns to Alice and Florence. “Did you get his details?”