Goodbye Earl(74)

“Y’all will talk soon, Si. She meant it when she said she’ll love you forever—trust me. Kase doesn’t say stuff like that about everybody. They have to earn it,” Ada said.

*



Once July rolled around, Silas started hanging out again with a girl named Lane he half dated before Kasey, and one night at the lake house when Mr. and Mrs. Castelow were out of town, Silas got the drunkest Ada had ever seen him and he called Lane Kasey more than once. She got so furious at him she slapped his face and left the party early. Ada and Grayson put him to bed, and he kept asking them to find Lane and tell her he was sorry. He said Kasey had run off with his virginity and his heart, and he felt like he was stuck in a bad fucking rom-com.

He hung out with Ada and Grayson a lot after that, and they didn’t mind. Silas also picked up extra work with his dad, building decks and fences in both Goldie and Adora Springs, and Ada even gave him some work to do at the bakery sometimes, having him help her take inventory and entertain the kids when she and her mom had birthday cake tastings for persnickety parents.

*



With Rosemarie gone on the mission trip to Costa Rica, it was just the AC of RACK left in Goldie, which brought Ada and Caro closer than ever. Ada fussed at both Caroline and Taylor easily when they were in the kitchen with her while she was trying to finish dinner. Taylor’s new collie puppy was circling Ada’s feet, jumping up at her apron strings.

“Y’all! There are too many people and dogs in here. Caro, I’ll keep an eye on your cake; step out for one second, please! Taylor, take the puppy outside and go invite one of your friends over because I made way too much potato salad again,” Ada said, shooing them out. Taylor scooped the puppy up and ran to their daddy, asking him to go pick up her friend.

Caro sat outside of the kitchen.

“Good. Stay right there.” Ada held her hand up at her. “You’re too tall to be in here right now.” She went into the fridge for the romaine lettuce and tomatoes. She’d already grilled the chicken, and next, she’d slice it for the salad.

“I still can’t believe somebody gave me all that money for school. Myrtle won’t tell me who it is, and Beau swears he doesn’t know, but I can’t tell if he’s just a good liar,” Caro said.

“I’m so excited for you, no matter who it is,” Ada said, going in the knife drawer.

“So, should I remind Beau that I turn eighteen next week?” Caro asked.

Ada started chopping but stopped to check Caro’s coconut cake in the oven. “Looks almost ready. And yes. Get a T-shirt that says OF LEGAL AGE right across your boobs in big red letters with an arrow pointing up at your face and another arrow pointing down at your itsy-bitsy, Caroline,” Ada said. “I’m serious. Well, half-serious. Let’s throw a party at the lake house and invite him, and I’ll order a big one balloon and a big eight balloon, and we’ll tie them to the posts out front. He won’t miss that. He probably has his own countdown going.”

“He does not,” Caro said, shaking her head.

“Do you want me to throw you this party or not? You’d said something about having a small one, but let’s have a huge one. Everything’s been so sad lately. Let’s make it happy,” Ada said.

“Okay,” Caro said.

“Okay!” Ada said. “Now get your bony ass in here and pull the cake out of the oven, please.”

Ada was extra excited about the party since that meant she could plan two birthday parties back-to-back. First Caro’s, then hers. Anything to take her mind off Kasey and Kasey’s mom and her own mom was a win.

The week before, Holly Plum had drunk one and a half bottles of red and tripped over the puppy and fallen down their front steps, throwing her back out so bad she needed surgery. She’d been laid up, high on pain pills, and although they had a nurse and a maid and plenty of help if they wanted, Ada and her dad had been doing everything the maid didn’t do. So, Ada had been either going to the restaurant to get meals or making them all herself in their kitchen.

She heard Grayson and Silas walk up the deck steps, meaning that soon there would be more tall people filling the room. She chopped faster.





2019


33





Kasey


As predicted, on Thursday night there was a small tornado in Adora Springs that uprooted some old trees and tore part of the roof off a high school. On Friday morning, Kasey was out by the lake behind the farmhouse—mostly for the fresh air and distraction—moving some smaller branches away from the big ones that had fallen during the storms. The water would rise soon. She envisioned herself a few hours into the future, down there with Trey, luring him closer and closer until he was wet and wetter, going under. She wondered if she’d have to hold his head, if he’d make a lot of noise. If Nosy Nancy would be able to hear him yell. She remembered all the times Roy yelled. All the times her mom screamed. No one seemed to care.

Her mom had told her that after he finished building it, her dad said the farmhouse felt like the only farmhouse in the world. That was what her daddy meant it to be, and there was something hidden and untouchable about it.

That was the attitude Kasey had to keep if she was going to do this right.

“This is the only farmhouse in the world,” she said aloud to no one.