She picked up a piece of crisp bacon with her fingers and took a bite while she thought about the offer. It was a job that she could do. It was a place for her to live. She didn’t have to live in a shelter or sleep on a park bench. However, her mother would never speak to her again, and the rumors would be so hot that they might burn down the whole town of Bloom.
Elaine arrived with Lettie’s pancakes and set them in front of her. “Sorry it took so long. Got a phone call, so the first ones I made were too brown. I wouldn’t even take those things home to feed to the kids’ hound dogs.”
“Thanks,” Lettie said and then turned her attention back to Jennie Sue. “I hated to see her husband die, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to her mama. The woman was fairly well wastin’ away after Elaine’s daddy died. Now she keeps Elaine’s kids, and she’s got a brand-new lease on life.”
A surge of jealousy shot through Jennie Sue.
Lettie lowered her voice. “Elaine’s doin’ a good job of runnin’ the café and raisin’ them boys.” Lettie glanced out the window and frowned. “Sweet Jesus! There’s Amos. Sometimes I think that man is stalkin’ me.”
Amos pushed his way into the café and dragged up a chair to Lettie and Jennie Sue’s table without being invited.
“Hey, Millie, bring me a plate just like Lettie’s,” he yelled across the empty café.
“Will do. Coffee?” she asked.
“Yep, black as sin and strong as Hercules.” He grinned. “Now, what are you ladies discussing?”
“Jennie Sue needs a job, and me and my sister need a housekeeper. She’s thinkin’ about working for me on Friday and Nadine on Thursday. Says she knows how to clean houses since her husband was a neat freak.”
“That so? Well, if you work for them two days a week, I could offer you three days at the bookstore. I’m gettin’ too old to work two jobs. Our little library is volunteer and stocked by donation, so I keep it open in the afternoons and work in my bookstore in the mornin’s. If I had someone to help me out three days a week, I could keep the store open and have a little time off for myself. It’ll only be part-time and minimum wage, but you can read all the books you want for free,” Amos said.
“Can I move into the garage apartment today?” Jennie Sue asked.
“It’s empty and waiting for you,” Lettie said. “But you got to know, Nadine and me are picky. We hate dust and we like our sheets dried on the line when it’s not rainin’.”
“No problem. I’ll take both jobs,” Jennie Sue said.
Lettie tapped her finger on the table. “Let’s see—tomorrow is Wednesday, but that’s the Fourth of July. Why don’t you just move in today and get all settled tomorrow, and then you can start work the next day at Nadine’s place?”
“Y’all know this is only temporary. I’ll start putting out résumés for a job using my business degree and be gone by September or October at the latest. Both y’all all right with that?” Jennie Sue asked.
Lettie cut into the tall stack of pancakes and shoved a forkful in her mouth. “That’ll give us more time to find someone permanent.”
“I’m fine with it.” Amos stuck out his hand. “We got a deal?”
Jennie Sue hesitated, thinking about Charlotte again. She had no desire to cause her mother pain and misery, but she also didn’t want to live in a shelter or a dirt-cheap motel while she hunted for a job. She slowly reached across her plate and shook hands with Amos.
“I’ll be there bright and early on Monday morning,” she said.
“Great!” Amos wiggled in his chair like a little boy. “I’ll even throw in lunch on the days that you work for me as a benefit.”
“Thank you for that.” Jennie Sue looked around the small café. Ten tables for four down the middle and ten booths on one side—not a huge place, but if the burgers were as good as the breakfast, then she might put on another ten pounds by September.
“And my sister and I always provide lunch for our cleaning lady. You’ll arrive at nine sharp and work until five, with an hour off from twelve until one. And sometimes in the evening, if you are willin’, we pay extra if you’ll drive us down to Sweetwater to Walmart or to the movies.”
Evidently, Lettie wasn’t going to let Amos get ahead of her.
“And you’ll have to drive them to our book-club meeting the first Friday of every month. That’s this week, so put it on your calendar. Seven o’clock at the bookstore. We’re reading Scarlett, but we wouldn’t expect you to read it in such a short length of time.”
Jennie Sue raised a palm. “I’ve read that book already. Gone with the Wind is one of my all-time favorites.”
“Great!” Amos said. “You’re goin’ to fit right in with the rest of our club.”
“Yes, she is.” Lettie beamed. “When I get finished with my breakfast, you can ride home with me, and I’ll show you the apartment. I could use some things from Walmart in Sweetwater, so you can drive me down there this afternoon. You’ll need to get a few groceries and things for yourself, I’m sure. Place comes with everything you need in the kitchen except a full refrigerator. You need an advance on your salary for that?”
“No, ma’am, I’ve got that much covered.” Jennie Sue slathered butter on her biscuit and tore the top off a plastic container of strawberry jam.
Lettie was getting a huge kick out of this, but Jennie Sue figured that beggars couldn’t be choosers, and neither Amos nor Lettie had mentioned her extra ten pounds or the fact that she was having bacon for breakfast.
Lettie’s place was a pretty little yellow house with white shutters and an immaculately kept lawn with colorful lantana, impatiens, and marigolds growing in the flower beds. She pulled into a driveway leading into the garage at the back of the house.
“The apartment steps are inside the garage, so you’ll need keys for both garage and apartment.” Lettie handed them off to Jennie Sue. “You go on up there and get settled in. I’ve got to talk to Nadine and tell her that I’ve solved our problem about a cleaning lady. You have a cell phone?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do,” Jennie Sue said, glad that she’d have a paycheck by the time the next phone bill arrived. She wondered why Lettie had chosen such a small house when everyone knew that she and Nadine were among the richest people in town. Maybe it was because she was frugal, or maybe it was because she didn’t need anything more since she’d always lived alone.
Lettie fished around in her purse until she found her phone and handed it to Jennie Sue. “Put your number in that. I barely know how to accept calls, and I’ll need to know how to get ahold of you if me and Nadine want to go somewhere.”
Jennie Sue hit a few keys and handed it back to Lettie. “There you go.”
“I’m figuring in about an hour we’ll be ready to go to Walmart. We been wantin’ to go for a couple of days, but I don’t like to drive down there in Sweetwater.”
Jennie Sue’s eyes shifted to the pickup.
“Nadine has one of them SUV vehicles that seats seven. We always take it when we go places. Trouble is, she’s over eighty and done lost her driver’s license for too many wrecks. Me, I just hate to drive, so I get out of it any way I can,” Lettie admitted. “Right up them steps is your new place. I hope you like it.”
“I’m sure I will. Thank you, Lettie,” Jennie Sue said.
“Solves a problem for all of us. I’ll call you when I’m ready to go.”
Jennie Sue carried her suitcase up the stairs, dropped it right inside the door, and immediately called her mother. Charlotte should hear the news from her daughter’s lips and not the gossip vine of Bloom, Texas.
“Where the hell are you?” Charlotte answered. “We have appointments to get our nails done at ten thirty and then lunch with a couple of my Sweetwater Belles. I’m hoping to talk them into letting you serve on a committee or two.”
Jennie Sue inhaled deeply and spit out the whole story. She got nothing but total silence so long that she thought her mother had hung up on her.
“That’s not funny,” Charlotte hissed.
“It’s not a joke. I’m sitting right here in my new apartment,” Jennie Sue said.