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Mabel has continued to do the shopping since I’ve been back in Oak Grove. Prepared meals appeared in my fridge or were delivered to my hotel before that.
This was probably the last grocery store I was in. And it looks the same, red-and-white signs marking each aisle.
Piper doesn’t share my hesitation. She quickly grabs an empty cart and starts down the produce aisle, occasionally pausing to grab an item. I trail behind her, like a little kid roped into assisting a parent.
By the time we near the checkout, the cart is full. Most of it raw ingredients I would have no clue what to do with, so I really hope Piper does. I grab a bag of chips from the display at the end of one aisle as my contribution.
Lucille Evans is working as the cashier today. We make polite small talk as Piper unloads the full cart for Lucille to ring everything up.
Once everything has been scanned and bagged, Lucille announces the total. Piper steps forward, but I block her.
“I’ve got it.”
“I’ll pay. It’s stuff for me anyway.”
“What, you’re not going to share?”
Piper rolls her eyes. “Look, the label is giving me a stipend for every day I’m here. And I haven’t spent any of it so far. I can afford a few groceries.”
I’d consider the five bags of food in the cart more thana few, but I don’t mention that. “So can I. As you keep pointing out, I’m rich.”
Lucille is glancing back and forth between the two of us, watching like we’re a tennis match.
“You’re also un—” Piper cuts off mid-word, but we both know what she was about to say. “Fine,” she mutters, putting her card away and stepping aside so I can tap mine against the machine.
And a few seconds later, a reluctant, “Thanks.”
Somehow, a reluctantthank youfrom her means more than effusive appreciation from anyone else.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
PIPER
PIPER: Update: Things are going VERY badly with Kyle.
HARPER: Well, I’m not shocked.
HARPER: Did he sign with another label?
PIPER: No.
PIPER: I’m not talking about music.
HARPER: ???
PIPER: Don’t say you told me so.
PIPER: He’s not *quite* as bad as I thought he was.
HARPER: Well, you lasted longer than I’d thought was possible. He’s been voted Sexiest Man Alive multiple times.
PIPER: Chances are, he’ll piss me off again soon.
My second experience with haying goes more smoothly than the first time did.
Granted, the bar wasextremelylow.
Kyle didn’t say much once we got back from the trip to town. He headed out to “fix some fences” after we unloaded the groceries. Then, I spied on him scattering grass seed on the bare spots in the front yard between texting with Harper and Serena, who was wondering when I’d be back to alternate bathroom shifts. I had no good answer.
