Thirty minutes later, Bettie and Emma Jo finally come home to find me still sitting in the exact same spot, still staring in shock at all the food in front of me.
“Jesus, what’s with all the food? Who died this time?” Bettie asks.
Emma Jo laughs and smacks her in the arm as the two of them pull out chairs and sit down next to me.
“I don’t…I have…I…”
They both look at me in confusion as I stutter and I try one more time to make the words form and come out of my mouth.
“They…I…people…I…meatballs,” I mutter, pointing at the pan of homemade meatballs that I have no idea who dropped off.
“Yes, you do have meatballs. You’re using your words, very good, Payton!” Bettie exclaims with a pat on my head, which finally breaks me out of my stupor.
I smack her hand away and attempt to glare at her, but as soon as I scrunch up my face, my eyes fill with tears and I drop my head down on top of my arms resting on the table.
“Oh, shit. We’ve got a crier. Emma Jo, this is all you. I don’t do crying,” Bettie announces, and I hear her chair scrape against the floor as she gets up from the table.
I feel Emma Jo rub her hands up and down my back and she squats down next to me and asks me what’s wrong.
“People brought food. And they were nice. And they told me I was pretty!” I wail, crying even harder now.
“Those animals! I’ll kill them!” Bettie jokes as she fires up Baby Cecil and starts making coffee.
Getting up from my chair, I move over to the box on the counter, picking it up and shoving it into Bettie’s arms.
“And those. THOSE!” I shout, pointing at the box Leo left for me on the table that I had to move to the counter when the food started piling up.
Emma Jo moves over to Bettie’s side as she lifts the flaps on the box.
“Leo gave them to me. I’m keeping secrets from him and he’s so sweet, and I’m the worst person in the world and I can’t believe he did that,” I cry, my tears falling harder and faster when they both gasp and Bettie pulls out one of the items inside.
“University of Kentucky,” Emma Jo says, reading the white lettering on the royal blue mug Bettie holds in her hands. “That’s where Leo went to college.”
Bettie puts the mug back in the box and pulls out another, this one black with the famous Las Vegas sign on one side.
“Ooooh, Vegas! I remember he went there a few years ago for a bachelor party for a guy he went to college with,” Emma Jo announces as I swipe the tears from my cheeks and move to stand in front of the box Bettie continues to look through.
With every mug she pulls out, Emma Jo gives us the meaning behind it until we get to the twelfth and final one. A purple mug with the words Bald Knob in white, surrounded by a big, red heart.
“He gave you coffee mugs of all the places he’s been since you left,” Emma Jo whispers, the emotion so strong in her voice that it quivers.
“That guy really did pine away for you all these years. He literally thought about you every time he went somewhere over the last twelve years, bought you a mug, and held onto them until you came back. Holy shit,” Bettie mutters, moving the box back to the counter and ripping a paper towel from the roll, dabbing it under her eyes. “God dammit. Now I’M crying. I hate all of you people.”
Emma Jo sniffles as well, grabbing her own paper towel to blow her nose and wipe her eyes, all of us standing around the kitchen like a bunch of cry-babies.
“Yeah, well I hate you too! You left me here alone all morning to deal with all the crazy people in this town,” I yell at both of them. “I found out how Jed was murdered, and I’m pretty sure I know what the murder weapon was, and I didn’t say anything to Leo about it, and I feel horrible because I think I’m falling in love with him, and then I find those mugs he left me, and then people start dropping off food and telling me they missed me and all kinds of other nice shit that just makes me nervous, and neither one of you were here to assist me in my time of need!”
Emma Jo wraps her arms around me from my side and Bettie goes back to Baby Cecil to finish making coffee.
“We’re sorry, but we’re here now. Let’s discuss the most important part of what you just said. You’re falling in love with Leo?!” she asks excitedly.
“Seriously? That’s all you got out of that?”
She shrugs and drops her arms from around me when Bettie hands me a mug of fresh coffee.
“Yeah, I’d like to review that statement as well,” Bettie says.
“We’re not reviewing anything because I don’t want to talk about it. I live in Chicago, remember? My life is in Chicago, not in Bald Knob,” I remind them, hating the hitch in my voice when I state the facts that suddenly make me really sad all over again. “How about we discuss what the two of you were doing this morning and why you weren’t here when I needed you?”
Bettie and Emma Jo share a look and I wait them out, crossing my arms and tapping my foot until one of them finally gives in. Emma Jo is the first to crack, unable to hold it together under the stare of my irritated glare.
“We called a meeting down at the square and I told everyone that Jed abused me our entire marriage,” Emma Jo blurts out, wincing as soon as she finishes when my irritated glare turns into full blown anger.
“WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” I screech.
“Oh, pipe down, nut job,” Bettie says with an eye roll. “It was time, Payton. And look what happened? The entire town stopped thinking you were a murderer, and now they love you and want to make you fat with all this greasy food. You’re welcome.”