And he still had a minute and a half left.
“Did you really bless Deb’s heart?” Miss Dolly asked.
Anna looked to Jackson. He grinned at her, and one of her own popped back up. “Right there at the dinner table,” Anna said.
“Oh, listen to her,” Miss Flo said. “I love a good Northern accent. Isn’t that precious?”
“Ask her to say ‘about,’” Jackson said.
Miss Dolly clapped her hands. “She’s Canadian!”
“Minnesotan,” Anna said.
“Sugarplum, anything north of Kentucky’s all Canada to us,” Mamie said. “You bowl? We got us two lanes tonight.”
He saw the moment realization hit Anna Grace. She blinked at Mamie. A smile hovered on her lips, then her eyes went wide, darting between him and Mamie, her lips mouthing something that might could’ve beenShe’s Mae Daniels.
Anna squinted at Mamie one last time. Her cheeks flamed upand she turned an accusing glare on him. “Are youkiddingme?”
“Oh, Lordy,” Miss Ophelia said. “Rabid fan alert, lane six.”
“But Ilikeher,” Miss Dolly said.
“Would all y’all hush up,” Miss Flo said. “She didn’t know.”
He tucked his hands in his pockets and stepped back before Anna Grace decided to deck him with something stronger than a heart blessin’. “That’s about five minutes,” he said.
A squawk flew out of her pretty mouth. “We can’t leavenow.”
When he grinned, she scowled. “You’re on my list, Jackson Davis. On. My. List.”
Couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be.
“Aw, sweetie pie, don’t be holding it against him if he don’t like to talk about family,” Mamie said. “You saw the rest of it yourself tonight.”
And his Anna Grace, who could face down a hundred fire ant armies by now, got all flustered in front of Mamie. “I’ve been borrowing all your books from him,” she said. “I can’t read them fast enough. I’ve lost study time for you.”
Mamie winked. “I know, sweetie pie. Jackson told me. Told me more about you than he probably thinks he has, matter of fact. Now, we gonna bowl or not? Jackson hasn’t mentioned if you’re any good on the lanes.”
“Afraid to find out after she wiped me out in redneck golf,” he said.
When her eyes narrowed in that determined sort of way, he got a little kick in the gut.
Sothatwas why Lance was always throwing games for Kaci.
“How about we find out the old-fashioned way?” she said.
“You got a right good way with plans, Anna Grace.”
They rented shoes and settled in for an evening with Mamie and the Misses, who treated Anna to the finest hospitality this side of the Alabama-Georgia border. Whether hisAnna Grace rightfully kicked his rump on the bowling lane, well, that was between him and God.
And Mamie, he’d reckon.
Mamie cornered him during one of Anna’s last throws. He was lounging in the pit, watching Anna Grace’s hips swing as she approached the lane, her arm hanging lower than it had when they started. She was getting tired.
Mamie gave an evil chuckle. “You got it bad, sugarplum.”
“Yes, ma’am.” No sense in denying it. He’d fallen off the turnip truck and right into a pasture of love-patties.
