Huh?Charleigh would have to look that up later.Whatever.
“Here, take a whiff.” Abigail plucks the bottle from Charleigh, twists it open. “Mmmmm…” she sighs. “Keeps your man happy.” A self-satisfied smirk creeps across her face.
Charleigh begrudgingly takes a shallow sniff. “It’s nice. But honestly, I don’t need any help withthat.”
Abigail screws the bottle shut. That same cheery grin is fixed on her face. “Yeah, well,” she says, turning, placing the bottle back atop the shelf, “weallthink that.” She murmurs this last part in a hushed tone, as if she’s saying it to herself.
“Excuse me?” Irritation ripples across Charleigh’s chest.
Unsmiling, she murmurs this last part in a hushed tone, as if she’s saying it to herself. The cheery grin is back, this time with a vengeance. Another tilt of the head as if Abigail feels pity for Charleigh. “Nothing.” She shakes her head like she’s removing unsavory thoughts. “Perhaps…you are looking for something else, then?”
Okay, Charleigh doesn’t like her. Doesn’t like how she carries herself. Her audacity, acting like she’s above her lot in life, unbothered by it. And, if Charleigh’s honest, what annoys her most is Abigail’s cheeriness, even if it’s the forced kind.
Charleigh looks past the woman to the rear entrance that, like the front, doesn’t have a door, just an open entryway. She hears sparkling laughter dancing across the field.
“Wanna see the rest of the place?” Abigail asks.
“Sure.”
Charleigh couldn’t give two shits aboutthe rest of the place, but she’s gathering intel, so she trails this woman to the little wooden back porch.
“I like to take my breaks out here. Have a rest, drink a cold glass of tea,” Abigail says, staring straight ahead. “In fact, I have some brewed. Would you like—”
Charleigh bats her hand in the air, declining. “No. Just drank a whole Coke in the car. But thanks.”
Charleigh follows the sound of laughter to a little toddler who is in a high wooden swing that hangs from one of the branches of the fat pecan trees. The child can’t be more than two, but she kicks her legs out and tucks them back underneath her as if she’s been swinging this way for years.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Abigail’s maple syrup voice reaches Charleigh’s ears. “Who in their right mind would leave their toddler out here alone? But that’s how I’ve raised them all. And they’ve come out just fine. Plus, Julia, my eldest, is back over there. So she keeps a watch on her.”
Abigail hitches her chin to the far southeast corner, where a teenager is outfitted, head to toe, in full beekeeper attire, hands rhythmically moving over pastel-colored bee boxes as bees spin and pirouette through the air.
“So, you have other kids, then?” Charleigh asks, trying not to make her inquiry about Jane so obvious.
A sigh seeps out of Abigail, as if she’s weary. “Yes, Julia over there’s my oldest, like I said. Eighteen going on thirty.”
Charleigh snickers.
“Oh, not inthatway. Thank God she’s not boy crazy. No, she’s my responsible one. Can’t wait to get out on her own, though. It’s Jane I’m worried about.”
Yeah, well me, too, Charleigh thinks but doesn’t say. “How so?”
“You got kids, Mrs. Andersen?”
“Just the one. Nellie. Seventeen. Turning eighteen next month. But going on thirty. Andinthat way you’re thinking.”
“Ha! Well, my Jane’s not here. The middle one. She’s off on her horse somewhere.” Abigail shakes her head again; a strand of her pale hair escapes the bandanna.
Dammit.Charleigh really wanted to lay eyes on her.
“She must be in the same class as my Nellie, or was, before school let out.”
A wistful look passes over Abigail’s face. “Can’t say I recall her mentioning your daughter. But we did just get here only a month ago.”
Charleigh can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing, Jane not bringing Nellie’s name up.
“You must’ve gotten started early? You look so young to have an eighteen-year-old.” There’s a bite to Charleigh’s voice; she can’t help it. Doesn’t want to help it.
Abigail’s face flushes. “I credit my skin-care oils for my youthful looks.” A smug sneer tugs across her face. “How old areyou?” she asks in a tone that implies she thinks Charleigh is very old.
