Hot Southern Mess - Chapter Three (Six Months Later)

“I can’t believe you are leaving me,” Sofia pouted while I forced the door of my used Subaru Forester closed. The vehicle now held everything I owned. Well, at least everything I was going to keep.

“It’s not like I’m never coming back,” I told her. “I’ll be crashing on your couch every few months when I come back to town for client meetings.”

Sofia rolled her eyes. “It won’t be the same,” she said, her light French accent carrying on the delicate breeze. “I should never have encouraged you to start your own business. You’d still be working in the office with me instead of running off to parts unknown.”

“Parts unknown? I’m not on an expedition with the Travel Channel,” I laughed. “I’m just moving back home to Mississippi. At least for now.”

“I understand,” she conceded. “My own family in Le Mans would dance in the streets if I decided to move home again.”

“I’m not sure anyone is dancing in the streets for me, but I’ve missed them a little too long. My sister is about to have another baby and I feel like I’ve watched the other two grow up on social media so far. It will be nice to be there and get to know my nephews.”

Sofia nodded and her tight, spiral curls bounced. Her hazel eyes brightened, almost glowing against her dark skin. “I have never been to Mississippi. Perhaps a visit will be in order.”

“I would pay money just to see that.” Sofia’s personality was bigger than all of Magnolia Flats. “You’d take the whole town by storm.”

“What will I do without you? Who will order Thai food with me at four in the morning while we binge watch British television?”

“We haven’t done that in months.”

“But the possibility was always there.”

“I tell you what. Next time you get the urge, we’ll video chat and binge watch together. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be eating Thai food, but we’ll make it work.”

“I will miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.” And with one last hug, I climbed into the driver’s seat, no longer in a New York state of mind.

************

Two days and a body full of sore muscles later, I pulled into the driveway. It was still surreal that it was mine. Nana had lived in this house on the edge of town since long before I was born. Much of the furniture and almost all of the keepsake items were gone now, bequeathed to my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins so the place was practically bare. It wasn’t the same, and yet it was.

There was a scratch beneath the welcome rug where my brother fell and chipped a tooth when he was ten. There was a dent in the garage wall where a plastic sword fight with my cousin, Trey, had gotten a little too competitive. And of course, the spots on the ceiling in the kitchen where a bottle of something fizzy had exploded in celebration of my aunt’s wedding day. Just like Nana, I refused to patch or paint away any of it. This house told a beautiful story and I wouldn’t erase a single word of it.

The only furniture in the house consisted of a couple of chairs in the living room, a kitchen table, and my old childhood bed. For the last several months, I had only spent a few days at a time here and hadn’t needed more, but now that would change.

Maybe I’ll talk Fi into going furniture shopping with me in a day or two. I have enough boxes to unpack to keep me busy until then anyway.

The grocery store had to come first. My stomach rumbled louder than the thunder steadily moving closer. I quickly moved the boxes from the Forester to the parlor, dumping them unceremoniously on the floor so that I would have a place to put the foodstuffs in the car and set off.

“Olivia Montgomery,” a voice called as I unashamedly munched on a bag of granola in aisle three, and began loading my cart.

I swallowed and set the granola in the basket, wiping my hands on my jeans in a most unladylike fashion. “Mrs. Helmsley. How are you?” I reached out to shake the hand of my stepmother’s friend, but the woman engulfed me in a hug instead.

“Why, my gracious, haven’t you just blossomed. I still remember when you were just knee high to a grasshopper! What on Earth are you doing here?” The woman is shorter than me and I could see that her roots were showing. Whatever I said to Mrs. Helmsley would be beauty shop gossip by the next morning at ten.

“Well, most of my business is done online, so I decided to move back a little closer to family. At least for a while. Nana’s house can’t just sit empty, but I couldn’t bear the thought of selling it just yet. This seemed like the best option.”

“It’s so nice to hear of one our young people moving home instead of leaving. I’m so glad you’re back. Why didn’t your mother tell me?”

Probably because it was easier to pretend she wasn’t ashamed of me when I was over 1,000 miles away. “You know Gretchen, she’s full of surprises,” I answered with a shrug.

“That she is. Well, I better run along, Martin will think I got lost in the soup aisle, but you don’t be a stranger, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered with an easy smile as the woman sauntered past, and then rolled my eyes at her back.

I had at least two similar encounters before I made it out of the store. There would be welcome home casseroles ringing my doorbell in no time. Gotta love a small town.

After I unloaded the groceries in my grandmother’s kitchen - my kitchen- I sighed and picked up my phone. Who was I kidding? I was starving and didn’t have the energy left to cook. Tonight was a pizza night.

While I waited, I hooked up the TV and set up the wifi. I bribed my sister, Julia, to be here earlier in the week when everything was hooked up so I didn’t have to wait when I got here. I propped my feet on a box and started streaming something from Amazon just in time for the doorbell to ring.

“Thank Heaven, my stomach is about to eat itself.”

“How come I had to hear from Tammy Helmsley that my little girl was back in town?” my dad asked as he handed me a pizza box.

The delivery boy pulled out of the driveway and took off. “I could have paid him, at least.”

“I tipped him well,” Carson Montgomery shrugged. “You were supposed to call when you got here.”

“Daddy, I’m twenty-seven years old. I can handle a few boxes and a grocery run by myself. I was going to call you in the morning.”

“Gretchen is offended. She was going to cook dinner for you.”

“And if I had called expecting dinner she would have been equally offended,” I mumbled to myself.

“What?”

“I said I just wanted to relax a little here. It was a long drive and after the last eighteen months in New York, the quiet was a welcome change.”

He gave me a look that said he had actually heard the original statement, but I feigned innocence.

“Uh-huh. Well, tomorrow night you can come over for dinner.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Another look.

“Yes, sir.”

He stayed to chat while I munched on pizza, stealing a piece for himself. I get along well with my father and didn’t mind the company. He was easy going and accepted that I was an adult with my own life, so our relationship was usually smooth sailing. When he got up to leave, he patted the wall by the door.

“I’m glad you’re home, Baby Girl.”

“Me, too.” I think.

“Nana would be thrilled. You know she was proud of you, right? She just missed you a lot.”

“I know.”

He nodded and headed out onto the porch. “You need to fix that light,” he commented, gesturing to the burnt out bulb on the left side of the door.

“Will do.”

“See you tomorrow night.” He got in his truck before I could respond to that, no doubt avoiding any attempt I might make at an excuse for not going. It’s not that I don’t ever get along with my stepmother. Gretchen was pretty nice, but she still treated me like a teenager and that drives me crazy.

By the time I turned out the light to go to sleep, I wasn’t sure what had worn me out more; the almost eighteen hours I spent driving to get here, or the handful of hours since my arrival. As I fell asleep, I was desperately hoping I hadn’t just made a huge mistake.