Thirty-Two and a Half Complications
Page 59

Some of the fire left her eyes.
I grabbed her arm. “We need to find Samantha Jo. I need to get my money back so I can at least save my portion of the nursery. I love my landscaping business, Neely Kate. And Bruce Wayne likes it too. I don’t want to lose it. I need to put all this other nonsense to the side and focus on getting my money back.”
“Okay.”
“But once all the debts are paid, the Gardner Sisters Nursery will no longer exist in its present form.”
She gasped. “You’re going to split it up?”
I expected to feel more anger, but instead a heavy weight pressed on my chest. “I can’t work with her anymore. Not after this.”
“Well—” she looped her arm through mine “—let’s focus on getting your money back or there won’t be anything left to split up. Let’s go find Samantha Jo.”
We headed out the aisle, and I was surprised to see that Violet, Joe and Ashley had already left their pew. Since Violet was making such a show of her presence, I figured she’d spend more time making sure that everyone knew she was here with Joe Simmons, Fenton County Chief Deputy Sheriff, former candidate for the Arkansas State Senate and son of J.R. Simmons, the most powerful man in southern Arkansas.
And her younger sister’s ex-boyfriend.
Part of me felt relieved to have dodged that bullet, but the rest of me was a mess, including my guts. I reminded myself of the fact that I’d only just gotten finished convincing Neely Kate we needed to talk to Samantha Jo—not Violet—only she was gone too.
“Where is she, Neely Kate?”
“There,” Neely Kate pointed to the exit. “She’s headed for the foyer.” She started pushing her way through the crowd. “Out of the way! Pregnant woman! I’m gonna be sick! Let me through!”
The crowd parted like the Red Sea, giving her plenty of room to pass.
I followed on her heels, trying to ignore the glares some of the bystanders were throwing my way. “I’m with her,” I said in my defense, giving them a weak smile. “I hold her hair.”
But then the visual of Neely Kate hanging over a toilet bowl and retching filled my head and I started to gag.
Neely Kate heard me and turned around. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I pushed past her and ran to the bathroom, bursting through the swinging door. I found the first empty stall and ran in, barely getting the door shut before my meager breakfast of toast and coffee came up. When I finally stopped heaving, I waited another minute to make sure I was done.
Neely Kate was standing outside the stall when I opened the door, her eyes filled with worry. I rinsed out my mouth and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
“You still haven’t taken the test yet, have you?”
I shook my head, tears blurring her image.
“Rose, just find out one way or the other. Put an end to your misery.”
Tears started to stream down my cheeks and Neely Kate made a pouty face and pulled me into a hug, stroking the back of my head as I cried.
“It’s not just my worry about being pregnant. It’s Mason. I’ve screwed up something wonderful, Neely Kate. How could I let that happen?”
“Oh, sweetie. You kissed Joe for a few seconds before coming to your senses and pushing him away. Did you want to jump his bones when you were sitting in the car with him?”
“Of course not!”
A loud thud came from the end stall followed by the clatter of something hitting the tile floor. I swung my attention to the corner in time to see a plate of dentures skitter across the floor and land at my feet.
I screeched and jumped backward, dragging Neely Kate with me until we bumped into the counter. We gasped at the same time when we saw who was inside the stall.
Chapter Sixteen
The stall door had flown open and Miss Mildred stood in the opening, her dress hiked up and tucked into her panty hose on one side in the back. Her face was so red I worried she’d have a stroke. She pointed her finger at me. “Jezebel!” she said, her voice heavy with judgment. Only without the top portion of her teeth, it came out muffled.
“Miss Mildred,” I muttered, backing up more even though there was nowhere else to go. “I didn’t know you were in here.” I shot Neely Kate a glare and her eyes widened as she mouthed, I’m sorry. I didn’t see her.
“Fat’s obious,” she mumbled out, looking around until she spotted her dentures on the floor at my feet.
Scrunching her nose in disgust, Neely Kate bent over and picked up the fake teeth. She rinsed them off in the sink—looking like she was about to lose her own breakfast—and then handed them to the elderly woman. Miss Mildred snatched them and popped them into her mouth, wiggling her mouth around to settle them into place.
Neely Kate, already pale, covered her mouth with her hands and bolted into a stall. The sound of retching soon followed.
But that didn’t distract Miss Mildred, whose face had settled back into a sour grimace now that her teeth had been restored. “After you helped find Dorothy’s killer, I thought maybe you had seen the light. And I was willing to overlook how you’re tainting the district attorney’s reputation, living with him out there on that farm doin’ God knows what. And now this.” She pointed to my stomach. “While fornicating with another man? It’s inexcusable.”
“She wasn’t fornicating,” Neely Kate piped up, her voice muffled inside the stall. “She was only kissing him.”