Sit! Stay! Speak! (17 page)

“W
HERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE LAST FEW DAYS?
” W
ANDA ASKED
Addie as they sat in Addie's kitchen. “I called you a million times before you answered.”

“I'm sorry,” Addie replied, placing a hot dog in a bun. “I just needed a few days to myself, that's all.”

“Well, you could have told me that,” Wanda mumbled. “Bobby'll be leaving pretty soon. Headed to Mississippi with that new company. Thanks again for being a reference. I'm throwing him a big party later today. The man ain't never lived anywhere else 'cept with Doreen for what amounted to about two weeks.”

“I thought he was a long-haul trucker for years.”

“He was. But he always comes back here to sleep.”

“Oh, well, I think a party is a great idea.”

“I want you to come,” Wanda replied. “I don't like most of his friends. They take advantage. I love Bobby. He's my only brother.
But he's so dumb he couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.”

“Let me guess,” Addie said. “Something your granny used to say?”

“You got it. And she used to say it about Bobby.”

“Well, I'd love to come. But I don't want to impose.”

Wanda stuck a fork into her macaroni and cheese. “It's only imposin' if I don't invite ya.”

“Well, I don't know any of Bobby's friends,” Addie said. She hadn't seen Bobby since that night at Redd's, and she wasn't itching to see him again anytime soon.

“Please?”

“I just don't want to be in the way.”

“You didn't have any other plans, did you?”

“Nope.”

“I thought maybe the reason you hadn't been callin' is because you were shacked up with Jasper Floyd.”

“You know better than that.”

“Do I?”

Addie wanted to tell her the truth. She wanted to tell her about Delilah, and Bobby, and everything she saw at the house on the cobblestone street. She wanted to tell her about Jasper, about
everything
with Jasper. But she couldn't. Even if Jasper hadn't made her promise—she couldn't. “Yes, you do,” Addie said finally.

“Speaking of men,” Wanda said, a mischievous smile appearing on her face, “Loren Bartwell told me he thinks you're pretty cute.”

“Who?”

“He said he met you at Jasper's farm. He's a farmhand there.”

“Oh!” Addie replied. “Yeah, I met him once. He's young, Wanda. He can't be any more than twenty.”

“He's twenty-five. And he's good-looking.”

“Not interested.”

“Why not?”

“I'm just not,” Addie replied. “Besides, he looks like trouble to me.”

“He looks like fun.”

“Then why don't you date him?”

“I'm too old for him.”

“You're not that old.”

“Old enough to know better.”

“And you were trying to pawn him off on me!” Addie exclaimed. “Some friend you are.”

“I wasn't trying to get you to marry him. I just thought he could help you take your mind off . . . things.”

“I'm fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Wanda rolled her eyes down at Bryar who shrugged his shoulders as if he knew what the two women were talking about.

“This bun is soggy,” he said. “Miss Addie, you are
not
all right.”

Addie gave Bryar the best smile she could muster. She was fine, she guessed. She was fine for a woman who was keeping secrets from her only friend for at least two thousand miles. She was fine for a woman who couldn't stop thinking about a man she couldn't have, and she was fine for a woman who had landed herself smack-dab in the middle of an illegal dogfighting ring that she couldn't do a damn thing about.

Yep. Adelaide Andrews was just fine.

“Here,” she said to Bryar, handing him a plate. “Try my Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. You'll have to tell me what you think.”

Wanda eyed Addie suspiciously. “You're still baking?”

Addie shrugged. “I'm just trying a few things.”

Bryar was still focused on his hot dog in the soggy bun and didn't even notice when Wanda took the plate from his hands. She took a bite. “Addie, this is good.” She took another bite. “No, this is amazing. It tastes just like your aunt's!”

“Just like it?”

“Hmmm . . .” Wanda chewed thoughtfully. “Not exactly like it. There's another flavor there, but I can't put my finger on it.”

Addie grinned, this time with no effort at all. “It's my special ingredient. I added something that wasn't in the recipe.”

“Well, slap my ass and call me Sally!” Wanda exclaimed. She motioned for Addie to bring the entire pan of cake over to the table. “You may just belong right here in Dixie.”

By the time Addie said good-bye to Wanda and Bryar, changed her clothes, and managed to get out to Jasper's house, all the lights were off. She knocked on the front door. When he didn't answer, she knocked again and said, “Jasper? Are you there? It's Addie . . . I . . . I just came to check on Delilah.”

Addie heard Delilah bark, and after a few seconds there was a thumping around inside the house. She stepped back when the porch light flickered on and the door opened.

Jasper stood in front of her rubbing his eyes. “I'm sorry. I must've fallen asleep.”

Addie felt a wave of relief wash over her. It was irrational, she knew, but for a few terrible seconds, she'd thought maybe Jasper
wasn't alone. Felix rushed out from behind her and into the house, needing no invitation. Delilah waddled happily after him. “She looks even bigger than she did last week,” Addie managed to say.

“I think she's going to be having the puppies soon.” Jasper stepped aside for Addie to enter. “Every time I came to check on her today she was nesting.”

“Nesting?”

“Yeah, it's what dogs . . . what all pregnant animals do, really . . . to prepare for birth. She's been tearing newspaper, ripping up the old blankets I gave her, and gathering toys over in that corner to create a nest.”

Delilah and Felix were curled up together, and Delilah was licking the insides of Felix's ears. “Are you ready to be a mommy?” Addie asked her. “You look like you're ready to pop!”

“I'm glad she's focusing her attention on Felix,” Jasper said. “She's been grooming herself like crazy and pacing around the house.”

“It amazes me that she even likes dogs. She can't have had too many good experiences with dogs or people living where she did.”

“Dogs are resilient.”

“Well, they shouldn't have to be.” Addie knelt down and stroked Delilah's head. “I brought her some more blankets and food.”

“You look nice.” Jasper looked Addie up and down. “Are you headed somewhere after this?”

“Thanks.” Addie crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “Wanda is having a going-away party for Bobby.”

“I heard Bobby got a job.”

“Yeah, somewhere down in Mississippi?”

“That's what my mom said. They're headed down that direction for a week or two. My dad made some joke about hoping they didn't meet him on the road.”

“So you're here alone?”

“Yep.”

“Then I'll stay with you,” Addie said.

“Go on to the party. Wanda will never forgive you if you don't go,” Jasper said. “I've known Wanda a long time. You don't want her sore at you.”

“I don't want to leave you all alone.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “I hate to break it to you, but I've been alone before.”

“I was just trying to be nice.”

“I know you were.”

Addie stood there awkwardly. She wasn't sure what else to say, but she knew she had to say something. The tension between the two of them was driving her crazy. “Jasper, do you want to talk about things?”

“What things?”

“You know, things between us.”

“I don't know if that's a conversation I'm ready to have,” Jasper replied.

“Look,” Addie began, “I don't want to be the girl who needs some sort of definition, but I'm tired of secrets. I'm tired of not knowing the answers to so many things. To everything. I don't need for everything to make sense, but I'd like it if I had just a few more pieces of the puzzle.”

Jasper took a step toward her, but he wouldn't meet her gaze. “That's just not something I can give you right now.”

Addie bit the bottom of her lip. “I've got to go.” She thought
maybe he'd say something, anything to keep her from leaving like he had the night she brought Delilah. That seemed to be what they were best at—feverish refusals to leave. But Jasper said nothing, and Addie realized that she was going to have to make good on her threat. Without another word, she opened the door to his house and walked back through it.

C
ARS WERE LINED UP ON EITHER SIDE OF THE STREET WHEN
Addie arrived at Wanda's house. She didn't recognize any of them, and the way she was feeling, she wished she'd just gone home and made up an excuse. Surely Wanda would forgive her for being sick or possessed or caught up in the zombie apocalypse.

“Addie!” Wanda flung open the door. “Come in! Come in!”

“Sorry I'm late.” Addie put on her best smile.

“Where have you been?”

“I couldn't figure out what to wear.”

“You couldn't answer the phone to tell me that?”

“I guess I didn't hear the phone.” She avoided looking directly at her friend. Wanda had a way of being able to tell when someone was lying, and this was especially true when it came to Addie. Looking directly at Wanda was a little like looking directly at the sun. Blink once at the glare and she'd call your bluff.

“Well, you look great,” Wanda said. “Let's get you something to drink.”

“I haven't worn this in forever.” Addie glanced down at her denim skirt and black silk tank top. “It's nothing fancy, but this is my favorite skirt.”

“Nothin' fancy is my motto for life.” Wanda handed Addie a red plastic cup filled with an amber-colored liquid. “Drink up, sugar.”

Addie took a sip and winced. “This is awful!”

“I know.”

“Why did you give it to me?”

“Because you look like you needed it.”

“I do, but I don't want to throw it back up. Don't you have beer or anything?”

“Loren would love to get you a beer.” Wanda nodded toward the couch in the living room. “He was starting to think you stood him up.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just go over there and talk to him.”

“I don't want to.”

“Don't be rude.”

“I'm not being rude.”

“Yes you are. He's watching us.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I didn't tell him anything other than that you'd be here,” Wanda whispered. “I also might have told him that you are not, in fact, dating Jasper Floyd.”

“That's true,” Addie muttered. She wished the words didn't sound so resolute, but there they were, out there for everyone to hear. She was
not
dating Jasper Floyd. He'd made that very
clear. She cringed as she thought about how she'd asked him if he
wanted to talk.

“Just go talk to him,” Wanda said, shoving Addie forward. “Stop looking around like one of these people ran over Felix and try to have a good time. It's not going to kill you to talk to him.”

Addie tugged at the hem of her skirt. Squeezing past a group of people having a heated conversation about Chinese food, she made her way over to the couch. With his thick hair and dark features, Loren was good-looking; of course it wasn't going to kill her to talk to him.

“Hi there, Adelaide,” he said. His drawl was thicker than Wanda's, slower. “Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”

“A beer would be great,” Addie replied.

“Be right back.”

Addie sighed and leaned back onto the couch. She avoided Wanda by looking down at her hands. She couldn't stop thinking about what Jasper had said to her. If that wasn't a conversation he was
ready to have,
then she wasn't prepared to sit around and wait for him.

“Here ya go, sweetheart.” Loren sat down next to her. “Coors Light okay?”

“Not really, but I'll live.” She didn't like him calling her sweetheart, even though she knew it was more a southern thing than it was Loren being patronizing. Still, she didn't like it.

“Too good for cheap beer?” Loren's dimples deepened.

“I'm not too good for cheap beer. But I am too good for crappy beer.” Addie took a swig from the bottle.

Loren let out a hearty laugh and ran a tanned hand through his thick, dark hair. “That's all that's left, so I apologize if I've offended your delicate palate.”

“You don't sound much like a farmhand.”

“Is there a certain way a farmhand is supposed to sound?”

“I just mean that you don't sound like most farmhands I've met.”

“And how many farmhands have you met?”

“You don't sound like Clyde.”

“Sweetheart, I'm in trouble if you're comparing me to Clyde.”

“I guess you're right,” Addie said. “It's not really fair to compare you to Clyde. He's such a gentleman.”

“You're a clever girl, Miss Addie.”

“Thanks.” Addie sank back into the couch. Maybe being called sweetheart wasn't so bad.

“Wanda tells me you're from Chicago.”

“I am,” Addie replied. “What about you? You're not from Eunice, are you?”

“I'm originally from Jackson.”

“Mississippi?”

“Is there another one?”

“How'd you get all the way up here?”

“I followed a girl,” Loren replied. “It didn't work out, but I thought I'd stay for a while.”

“What was a girl from Eunice doing in Jackson?”

“College or something.” Loren's response was slow and thick. “Hey, is there a reason Redd Jones is glaring at you?”

Addie's heart leapt up into her throat. Redd was standing in the kitchen, his meaty hands clasped around a six-pack. She turned back around to Loren and said, “I don't know. I hardly know him.”

“He sure seems to know you.”

Addie squeezed her eyes shut and pretended that Redd wasn't
walking over to where she and Loren sat. He didn't see her; he didn't care about her. She had no reason to be worried.

“Hello, Adelaide,” Redd said.

“How are you, Redd?” Addie opened one of her eyes. He was towering over her.
He knows,
she thought.
He has to know.

“I coulda sworn the rumor was that you and Jasper Floyd was seein' most of each other.” He sneered down at Loren and Addie. “You plan to get around to every man workin' on that farm?”

Loren stood up. His forehead came up to the middle of Redd's neck. There was something large about him, however, something about the way he carried himself. “You've got a fresh mouth there, boy.”

“Who you callin'
boy
?”

Addie could already see where this was headed. And it wasn't anywhere pretty. “It's okay, Loren,” she said. She stood up. Then, looking up at Redd, she said, “I'm not seeing any part of anyone on the Floyd farm.”

“That's not the way I hear it.”

“I can't help what you hear.”

“You reckon I heard wrong?”

“I don't reckon anything,” Addie replied. She wanted to run. She wanted to be anywhere but where she was, perched precariously between Loren and Redd. But she knew she couldn't run. Guilty people ran. Besides, he probably knew where she lived. She couldn't let him know she was afraid of him. “The way I hear it, part of the Floyd farm used to belong to you. But I think that was before that part ended up being auctioned off on the courthouse steps.”

Redd broke off one of the beers in the six-pack, slinging the
remaining five down onto the couch. “That what them Floyds tell you?”

“That's what everybody tells me.”

“You think you know people in this town?” Redd asked, but it was more of a statement. He wasn't going to give her any time to respond. “
I
know the people in this town.
I
know what they want, and
I
give it to 'em.”

“Good for you” was all Addie could manage to say. He was standing so close to her now that she could feel his hot breath beating down onto her face.

“You don't fuckin' know me.” Redd pointed to himself with force, his right thumb pressing hard into one of the buttons on his shirt. “And if you don't know me, you don't know this fuckin' town.”

“I think it's time you be movin' on,” Loren said through his teeth. His jaw was clamped shut so tightly that the muscles in his face were working overtime.

“I ain't goin' nowhere.”

“Redd!” Bobby appeared very suddenly, stepping in between Redd and Addie. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard there was a party.”

“Just a little get-together.”

“Sure looks like a party to me.”

“It ain't much.”

The two men faced each other, neither one breaking eye contact. There was a conversation going on, but nobody's lips were moving. Finally, after what felt like years, Redd spoke. “So that's how it's gonna be, huh?”

“I 'spose.”

“After everything I done for you?”

“What have you ever done for me 'cept get me into trouble and addicted to nicotine?” Bobby reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “You think I owe you somethin'? Here, take these.”

Addie stared at the pack of Marlboro Reds that Bobby thrust into his friend's chest. There must have been at least fifteen cartons of that brand inside the trash bag on the day she found Felix. She'd peeled pieces of the blood-soaked cardboard off his body, tiny pieces sticking to his wounds. There had been ashes in his eyes and cigarette butts in his stomach. Doc told her he must've been so hungry he'd eaten the discarded butts of the person—the man Addie knew was standing in front of her—who abused him. Fury filled her all the way from the bottom of her feet to the top of her head. She wedged herself in between the two feuding men until she was so close to Redd that she could smell the dirt underneath his fingernails. “I think it's pretty obvious that nobody wants you here.”

Redd wrapped his bear paw of a hand around one of Addie's arms. “Shut up.”

“I know who you are. I know exactly who you are, and you're nothing like this town.” Addie looked him dead in the eyes. “You're nothing but a coward.”

Redd gave Addie's arm another bone-crushing squeeze before he let go, sauntering out of the living room with Bobby on his heels. He was as calm as ever, a kind of furious apathy that was one of the most unsettling things Addie had ever seen, and she was afraid.

“Well, what in the hell was that?” Wanda asked. She had been watching the scene unfold from the kitchen. “I was ready to come over there and jump on that man's back if he didn't let you go.”

“I'm fine,” Addie said. She looked down at her right arm. She could still feel the burn of his skin up against hers.

“Redd and Bobby had a fallin' out, but Bobby won't tell me why. You know somethin' about that?”

“No.”

“Yes you do.”

Addie's phone began to ring. She stood up and walked away from Wanda toward the back of the house. “Hello?”

“Addie?”

“Jasper?”

“Sorry,” Jasper said. “I'm a little distracted. Delilah is in labor. I thought you'd want to know.”

“She's in labor? Did you call Doc?”

“I did. But he's out of town. He can't be back much before the morning.”

“I'll be there as soon as I can.” Addie hung up the phone and returned to Wanda. “I have to go. I'm sorry. I promise you that I'll tell you everything soon.”

“Where are you going?”

“I'll call you tomorrow.”

“You can't even tell me where you're going?”

“I'll tell you,” Addie promised. “Just not tonight.”

“You need to be careful going wherever you're going,” Wanda replied. “Redd's as mad as an old, wet hen.”

Addie was pulling away from the curb when Loren stepped out in front of her car. He waved and gave her a sheepish grin. “Are you leavin' so soon?”

“Yeah, I've had all the excitement I can stand for one night.”

Loren leaned in through the window and said, “Well, I was hopin' I might take you out one night.”

“Thanks,” Addie replied. “But I don't think so.”

“Why not?”

“I just can't right now, that's all.”

“It's just dinner,” Loren said. “I promise no shitty beer.”

Addie laughed for the first time that night. She tried to remember what she'd told herself about not waiting for Jasper, about not waiting for anyone. “I guess I've got time for dinner.”

J
ASPER WAS PACING
the floor when Addie arrived. He looked like he'd been up all night, even though it was scarcely one
A
.
M
. His hair stood on end and he was barefoot. He was wearing sweats and a ratty old T-shirt. It was, in fact, the shirt Addie borrowed the night Felix had raided the chicken coop.

“How is she doing?” Addie asked. “Where is she?”

“She's in the closet,” Jasper replied. He led Addie to the closet in his bedroom. “I made a whelping box so that she wouldn't try to hide.”

“You made her a what?”

“A whelping box. It's just a place where she can give birth comfortably. Sometimes dogs try to hide when they're in labor.
Whelp
means give birth. Her temperature is ninety-nine degrees. I think she'll be having these pups pretty quick.”

Addie hurried into Jasper's bedroom and peered into the closet. “Eeeew.”

“Hush,” Jasper said. “That's not a comforting sound. She needs to be comforted.”

“I'm sorry,” Addie whispered, sitting down next to Jasper. “How can you tell it's time?”

“Well, the discharge that you squealed about for one,” Jasper said. “But also because her belly is hard as a rock. Here, feel.”
Jasper grabbed Addie's hand and placed it on Delilah's stomach. “See?”

“Wow.”

“Hopefully we won't have to help her much,” Jasper continued. “But we need to stay close just in case.”

“Okay. You know a lot about this kind of thing.”

“I grew up on a farm,” Jasper replied. “I've assisted in many live births.”