Hidden Secrets(15)
Hannah’s head jerked around to stare at Kim. “Well, there you have it. I’ve got one who’ll stay with me. You are what?”
All the color drained from Sue’s face. “Did you say you are pregnant?”
“She didn’t stutter,” Karen said. “When’s the wedding?”
High color filled Kim’s cheeks. “The wedding already happened and is over. We had it annulled.”
Hannah patted her on the shoulder. “Lots of single mothers do just fine.”
“Who is the father?” Sue gasped.
“Marshall Neville. He dated a girl all through high school and the first two years we were in college and they broke up. We met and dated, got married in Vegas over spring break, and then realized we’d made a big mistake, so his dad helped us annul it quietly. He has no idea about this baby. I don’t intend to tell him, because he’s marrying his old girlfriend in December.”
“When?” Sue whispered.
“I just said he’s getting married in December. Oh, you meant me, didn’t you? Due February twenty-fifth,” Kim said. “I just found out the morning we left Morgantown. Did one of those home tests. Haven’t been to the doctor.”
Hannah threw her arm around Kim’s shoulders. “You can run a farm with a baby underfoot and there’s plenty of room in the fruit stand for a baby. And I don’t think I’ve even heard one of you sneeze since the first day, so you aren’t allergic to Oklahoma.”
“Nanna, I’ll be twenty in August. How am I going to run an operation like this?”
“I ran a hotel when I was twenty and Karen was a baby. You’re smarter than I was. I have faith in you,” Hannah said.
Tears streamed down Kim’s face. “I don’t deserve your faith. I’ve ruined the family name.”
Hannah laughed. Not a giggle, but a true laugh from the bottom of her chest. She wiped tears on the back of her hand and kept roaring as she wrapped her arm around Kim and hugged her tightly, nearly dragging her off the chair.
“Honey, you are pregnant. So what? If you think the Brewer name is spotless, then you are wrong. Now dry up those tears. This isn’t going to stop the sun from coming up in the east every single day. I doubt if it even makes the evening news.”
“I can’t believe you just told her that.” Karen gasped.
Hannah shook her finger at Karen. “Look on the bright side. Just think of the look on Tiffany’s face when you tell her she’s going to be a great-grandmother.”
“Well, now, that does present a funny picture.” Karen smiled.
Sue threw up her hands. “You are all crazy! This is not funny.”
“Lighten up, Momma. If Nanna isn’t going to crucify me, then you don’t get to either,” Kim said.
Sue’s eyes flashed. “You are not old enough to have a child.”
Kim pointed at Hannah. “Nanna was twenty when Grandma was born. She was that age when you were born and you were about the same age when I was born. I can raise this baby on my own and run this farm while I do it. Nanna said so and her word is the law. I come from good stock, right, Nanna?”
Hannah nodded. “Way I see it, Sue, is that you aren’t about to move away from your grandchild. So now I’ve got two of you in my pocket. The only one I have to win over is my own offspring, and she’s going to be so busy making fancy stuff that by fall that she’ll forget to go back east.”
Kim reached across the table and laid her hand on Sue’s. “I know this is hard for you, Momma. You’ve always been so perfect. I’m sorry I disappointed you.”
Hannah cleared her throat. “Honey, I hate to break your bubble, but we are not perfect women. At least I’m not. Someday I’ll tell you a story to back up that statement. It’s time to open the fruit stand, so Kim needs to get out of here and get busy. You other two have pickles to make and canning to do. And I’ve got to get all this stuff you picked this morning organized and into baskets to take down to the fruit stand so we won’t run out of produce by midmorning.”
Sue looked out the window. “What’s John doing here?”
Kim threw a hand over her mouth. “Oops!”
“What?” she asked.
“He called last evening on the house phone. Said that there’s beehives on the back of the property and it’s time to rob them. I was supposed to tell you and I forgot when we got busy with that squash relish last night. You are going with him, Momma, to learn how to get the honey away from the bees.”
Sue shook her finger at Kim. “I don’t know anything about bees.”
“Well, Nanna has friends coming this morning. I have a fruit stand to run and Grandma already has the jars ready to make more squash relish. Who are we going to send? Go learn what it takes to make honey, get some in jars, and bring it to the stand. Several people asked me about it yesterday, so they’ll be back today expecting to buy.”
John rapped on the door and stuck his head inside. “Ready to rob the bees?”
“Yes, she is,” Kim said.
Hannah bit the inside of her lip to keep from grinning.
“What was that all about? Were y’all having a disagreement?” John opened the truck door for her.
Sue shivered when his arm brushed against hers. It wasn’t fair to be attracted to a man she’d known less than two weeks. How in the devil did her life get so complicated in such a short time?
“Nanna is declaring that she’s selling her hotel and living here permanently. She’s going to leave this place to us, but one or all of us have to be in residence. I know what she’s doing. She wants one of her own around all the time until she dies.”
“Is that a bad thing? Norma dropped dead without anyone. I will always feel bad about that.”
She cocked her head to one side and looked at him. “We’ve left lifelong friends and roots in West Virginia.”
John drove down a lane with grass growing up between the tire tracks. “Life is not perfect, huh?”
“Far from it. Sometimes it’s a big old mess,” Sue said.
“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.”
“Do you always see the silver lining?” she asked.
He tapped the brakes and came to a stop. “The hives are a ways back there where it’s nice and quiet. We’ll carry our netting until we get there, unless you think you’re a bee charmer. And yes, I try to see the silver lining.”
“I’m not a bee charmer. I’m terrified of getting stung.”
John chuckled and looked across the pickup seat. “You’re pretty honest, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
He reached across the seat and laid a hand on hers. “Don’t be afraid. Of the bees or of change. Hannah knows what she’s doing. She’s like Norma. Trust her. It will work out for the best.”
She bit her lip to keep from gasping. “That’s a lot of trust.”
He removed his hand and rushed around the truck to open the door for her. “Yes, it is. Now let’s get you all geared up to steal honey, honey!”
“That’s a corny line, John Rayford.”
He chuckled. “It is, isn’t it, but I couldn’t resist.”
Kim didn’t even get to sit down before a car stopped and an elderly man bought okra, tomatoes, and green beans. She’d barely finished giving him change when a white pickup stopped and she looked up to see Luke standing right in front of the stand.
“I’ll have a jar of that strawberry jam. Ate the last of mine for breakfast this morning,” he said.
She picked up a jar and handed it to him. Their fingertips brushed and sparks danced around the fruit stand. He jerked his hand back and laid a bill on the counter.
“You aren’t raisin’ prices, are you?” he asked hoarsely.
“Not this year. Nanna says that things stay the same.”
“Good!”
He drove away without looking back.
“What was that all about?” she asked but didn’t have time to think about an answer. Two cars stopped and business went on.
“Hey, Hannah!” Edith yelled from the back door.
Hannah motioned the three women inside.
“You sortin’?” Myrtle asked.
“That’s my job.”
“We’ll help for a cup of coffee and something sweet. Even store-bought cookies will work fine.” Virgie went to the sink, ran it full of water, and started washing the dirt from the zucchini.
“Sue made a lemon cake,” Hannah said.
“That’s even better.”
Myrtle sat down at the table and started helping Hannah.
Edith went to the stove and looked inside the pot Karen was stirring. “Squash relish?”
Karen nodded.
Edith picked up a four-sided hand grater. “You been usin’ this?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Edith opened the garage door and came back carrying a food processor. “This will make the job go faster. I’ll grate and get things ready for the next batch. Folks around here love that stuff. It’ll sell fast as you can get it in the fruit stand and, honey, yellow squash is like rabbits. It produces faster than you can blink.”
“Your granddaughter say she’ll play the piano at church startin’ this week?” Myrtle asked Hannah.