Chapter Twelve
Jamie sat in his carfor a few minutes, in a daze.“Why didn’t I know about any of this?”Thinking out loud, his voice strained even to his own ears.“Who would have thought that Mamaw and Papaw were...well, rich?”He laughed a short, hard laugh.“Marlene would be fit to be tied if she had any inkling that they had been well off.”He laughed again, almost hysterically.He had to shake his head to clear it.
He put the car in reverse.“Because they were simple but happy people who didn’t care about money or how things looked.They cared more about their family in the diner and himself, and that was enough for them.”He pulled out onto the main road.
“I wonder...”he turned left at the light and headed towards the industrial part of town.He drove for a bit and slowed down.“It’s right around here, I think.”He leaned forward as he looked for a specific sign.“Yep.There it is.”
He quickly pulled into the parking lot of the wholesale fishmonger.“Time for a treat!”
Jamie smiled as he locked his car and made his way into the fishery.There was a small bell over their door that jangled.It was almost the same as in the diner, except this one was brass.
“Hello, what can I do you for?”A sturdy-looking man in a vinyl apron and ball cap asked.
“I’d like to see if you have any shrimp?”Jamie said, looking closer at the man.“Jeff?”
The man narrowed his eyes at Jamie.“Well, I’ll be damned.Jamie Puckett.”He walked around the big glass case full of fresh fish and seafood laid out over ice.
Jamie flinched and braced for a punch in the face, or who knew what.When he saw Jeff’s big, meaty hand outstretched, he slowly took it.The grip was firm but not menacing, which he honestly expected.
“I was really sorry to hear about your grandparents.They were good people.”Jeff shook Jamie’s hand and released it.He looked down at his rubber boots.“Man, I...”He looked up.“I really need to apologize to you.”He took a deep breath.“What I did to you when we were in school was...”He paused.“It was just inexcusable.There’s no other way to say it.I’m sorry, and if I could take it all back, I would.There have been many times when I hated myself for what I put you through.”
This was not at all what Jamie was expecting.Jeff and his good buddy Paul had tormented Jamie from the time he moved in with his grandparents until he left Columbus.He was so stunned that he just stood there.
“I mean it, Jamie.I’m sorry.”
“I uh...don’t know what to say, Jeff.”Jamie looked around the store.It smelled like fish, but fresh fish, not old, dead fish, which he’d experienced in many seafood stores.He looked Jeff in the eyes.They were about the same in height, but Jeff still outweighed him by at least forty pounds.“You were...my worst nightmare.Hell, I even had actual nightmares well into my early twenties about what you and Paul put me through.”
Jeff’s face turned bright red; his gaze turned downward.
“I can only imagine,” he muttered.“I amsorry, though.I mean it.”
“It was years ago,” Jamie said.“Why not make a new start of it and...just try and put it behind us.What happened to Paul?”
Jeff looked up, a shocked look on his face.“Yeah?I’d like that.”Jeff looked out of the glass windows of the front of the store.“Paul...he’s in prison.Got caught robbing a liquor store and shot a cop.Not dead, but shot him just the same.He won’t be getting out anytime soon.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised about Paul.”Jamie leaned forward.“But if you ever try that shit with me again, I will fillet you like them fish you got in that case.I’m damn good with a boning knife.”
Jeff grinned.“Yeah, I bet you could.I’ve heard you’re good with a knife.”
“And I’m fast.I could run circles around you!”Jamie made a pointed look at Jeff’s waistline.
Jeff let out a hearty laugh.“Hell’s bells, my two-year-old can outrun me these days.”
Jamie stuck out his hand again.“To new starts?”
