Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Penny rolls the bottle between her palms, not in a rush to go or to fill the silence. I wipe a clean patch of wood as she and Pap chat about the nation’s capital, and I pretend I’m not listening to the cadence of her day—the way DC sharpens her vowels and how Whynot rounds them back out.
She flicks me a look, a quick pass of green eyes and pretty freckles beneath. “You ever miss anything, Sam? Or are you one of those rare creatures who landed exactly where he’s meant to be?”
“Depends on the night.” I gesture lightly at the empty stools, nod at both Pap and Penny. “On Wednesdays, this feels exactly right.”
“Hmm.” She smiles like she can see the rightness, too, in the quiet and the slow. Then she elbows Pap, affectionate. “And you? Are you still where you need to be?”
He snorts. “Well, gas is a little cheaper and the food’s better than up north.”
“Ambitious,” Penny teases.
He lifts his pint, takes another pull from his beer, smacks his lips, and says, “Well, there’s one more thing I guess I don’t miss—sleeping alone.”
The sentence hangs there a beat before Penny blinks. “Wait, what?”
Pap grins like a man who’s been waiting for that reaction. “Started seeing Sissy Givens a few weeks back.”
She nearly chokes on her beer and I have to force myself not to laugh. “Sissy Givens? Queen of the night, Sissy?”
“Don’t sound so horrified,” he mutters. “She’s a fine woman.”
“Of course she is.” Penny scoffs. “But she’s outspoken, loud, mean when she needs to be, and I heard she’s taken to hosting drag shows in Raleigh with Morri.”
Morri is an on-again, off-again resident of Whynot. Best friend to Lowe’s wife, Mely, he comes down to visit from New York City often and is as gay as the day is long in the summers around here. At first, no one quite knew what to do with someone so flamboyant and so at ease in their own skin. In the rural South, we fear what we don’t know. But over time, he’s become accepted—and still probably quietly judged—and that has included Floyd going to Raleigh with him to attend drag shows.
Now, Floyd knows nothing about drag queens, and I doubt he’s met a gay person before Morri, but that old eccentric is all about the experience, so no one thinks it’s that odd. Add Sissy into the mix, and we’re proof that small-town life isn’t all that boring.
Pap offers a wistful smile. “Yeah… Sissy’s pretty amazing.”
I can’t stop the laugh that bursts out of me. The sound earns me a glare, but even he can’t hold it.
“I think it’s great,” I say, still grinning. “Match made in heaven if you ask me.”
Penny turns to me, wide-eyed. “You do?”
“Sure. I’m a romantic at heart.”
One perfectly shaped eyebrow arches a little higher. “Really?”
“I’ve got layers,” I assure her, and Pap’s chuckle rumbles low.
“Sissy Givens?” Penny repeats, scandal still coloring her voice. “That might be the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard. I need to get by to see her.”
Pap drains what’s left of his pint, sets it on the bar, and pushes to his feet. “Don’t go making a thing out of it, but I’ve got to get going.”
“To see Sissy?” Penny says playfully.
“Lord no,” he scoffs. “That woman wears me out. Tonight, I’ve got a date with recorded episodes of Jeopardy.”
“Sounds wild,” Penny teases.
He tips his cap at her and then at me. “You two behave yourselves. Penny—don’t burn down the café.”
“No promises,” she calls after him.
The bell over the door jingles as he heads out, and for a few seconds, we both just stare at the space he vacated.
Penny’s still smiling when she looks at me. “Pap and Sissy Givens. That’s not a pairing I saw coming.”
“Man’s full of surprises,” I say, reaching for her empty bottle and setting another in front of her before she can refuse.
“I shouldn’t,” she says automatically, but I twist off the cap, anyway. “Long day.”
“Yeah,” I murmur. “You look it. And that one’s on me.”
Her head tilts. “Wow, your compliments just get smoother and smoother.”
“I meant it in a good way,” I say, amused. “You look like someone who earned her exhaustion.”
That softens her. She props her chin on her hand. “You ever notice how Whynot never changes? I’ve been gone for years, and it’s like I walked back into a paused movie. With the exception of Morri and Floyd’s antics to spice things up, everything is still trucking along at the same old pace, and people are still gossiping about the same old things.”
“That’s why I love it.”
“And that’s why I left,” she admits, smiling against the lip of her bottle. “But there’s still something about it that speaks to me. Like right now… I feel more settled here than I have in years. As tired as I am tonight, I feel accomplished.”