The Strawberry Hearts Diner(86)
Vicky frowned. “What?”
A faint giggle escaped Emily’s mouth. “Thank you, Jancy.”
“Paper bags?” Vicky asked.
“Got to have something to cover up a face like that,” Jancy told her.
Nettie got tickled all over again. “I can’t believe that you are takin’ up for Ryder, Vicky. This is your chance to talk her out of the wedding.”
“Not for this reason. She should have been the one to beat the crap out of that bimbo,” Vicky said. “But I do appreciate you takin’ care of it, Jancy.”
“That foolish woman knew better than to push Emily. She’d have gotten her butt handed to the devil on a silver platter. She thought that she had a chance with me. She learned different.” Jancy’s pulse was still racing. “And you are welcome. Friends take care of friends. Emily would do the same for me if I got crossways with a six-foot woman.”
“Yes, I would, but Mama, how can I live with all the women in his past comin’ around? Oh. My. Gosh!” She covered her eyes. “Everyone will be talkin’ about it.”
“How you goin’ to handle it?” Vicky asked.
“Well, she’s not goin’ to tuck tail and run,” Jancy answered.
“I’m goin’ to go home and sit on the swing for an hour until I calm down, and then I’ll call Ryder and we’ll have a talk.”
Jancy poked her and whispered, “Makeup sex tonight?”
“Shhh!” Emily shot a dirty look her way. “How are you goin’ to handle it, Jancy? You weren’t real happy with Shane, either.”
“I wasn’t finished. He had no business jerking me away from her like that.” Jancy would do the same thing that Emily planned on doing, but she probably wouldn’t wait a whole hour.
“I thought you were shy.” Emily took her hands away from her eyes. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”
“Bullies at one of the schools. I came home every day upset, and Mama finally told me to either stop whining or to take care of it. I told her they’d expel me if I started a fight and she said that if they tried, call my daddy.”
“And?” Vicky asked.
“One of those mean girls pushed me into the edge of my locker door and bloodied my nose. When I got finished with her, the principal did have to call my daddy. I didn’t get expelled, though she spent a couple of days at home. She still had two black eyes and a cute little crook in her nose when she came back to school. Everyone left me alone from then on. Nobody was my friend, but they didn’t bully me no more,” Jancy said.
“The many layers of Jancy.” Nettie got out of the van and headed toward the porch.
“I don’t like fightin’, but no one is going to push me around or my friends, either,” Jancy said.
“Or pull you away once you get started?” Emily hit the button to open the wide back doors.
Jancy hopped out of the vehicle and went straight to the bathroom, where she washed her face and picked the leaves from her hair.
Vicky watched her from the doorway. “Hope that black eye is healed by the wedding.”
“At least the bride won’t have a black eye.” She grinned.
As Vicky went on down the hall toward the living room, Jancy’s phone pinged in the pocket of her flowing skirt. When she reached for it, she realized there was a long tear in the gauze, and upon closer inspection, a big hole yawned in the shoulder of the matching bright-orange shirt. If that sorry broad showed up in Pick again, Jancy was going to finish the job she’d started—her favorite outfit was ruined.
“Hello,” she said coldly.
“Guess it’s too early to call?” Shane sounded miserable.
“My skirt and shirt are ruined,” she said.
“And your eye is black.”
“I can see in the mirror.”
“I never knew you had a temper.”
Jancy stripped out of the skirt and shirt and carried them to her bedroom. They weren’t even fixable. She put the phone on speaker and dug out a pair of cutoff jeans and a tank top from the closet. “Shane, I learned a long time ago that people only push you around if you let them. I’ll be over my mad spell in an hour if you want to drop by.”
“Wh-why don’t you come over here?” he said.
“Not tonight, darlin’. I’m not leavin’ Emily.”
“It wasn’t Ryder’s fault,” Shane said.
“Yes, it was. He could have thrown that girl out in the yard.”
She got dressed and fell back on the bed, the adrenaline leaving her body as fast as it had filled her veins. Now she was exhausted. “One hour, Shane. If you want to see me, be here at nine o’clock. I’ll be the one with the black eye on the porch.”