She was trying to decide if green onions were an acceptable substitute for leeks, when someone behind her said, “Josie? Josie Witherspoon? Is that you?!”
Even after all these years, she recognized the strawberry bubblegum voice. She tossed the green onions back, and rapidly pushed her cart towards another part of the store in the hopes that the woman would decide it was a case of mistaken identity. But sure enough, she heard the click-click of running heels behind her and before she could clear the corner, her pursuer had caught up with her.
“It is you!” Mindy cried triumphantly, stepping in front of Josie’s grocery cart.
“I was just buying some champagne and I saw you over here and I said to myself, ‘Is that Josie Witherspoon? No, it couldn’t be!’ But it’s you! Josie Witherspoon, as I live and breathe… you’ve even got the same glasses!”
Josie touched the frames of the old cat-eyes Beau had brought her. She’d worn contacts when she’d been married to Wayne, but contacts cost money, so when her dailies finally ran out, it was back to the same glasses she’d had before meeting her “Prince Charming”.
“Cat-eyes never seem to go out of style,” she said, trying to sell it.
Mindy batted her pretty blue eyes. “Oh, I wouldn’t know about that. My eyesight’s still twenty-twenty.”
Of course it was. “Well, it was nice seeing you, Mindy,” she said, trying to work her cart around the petite blond.
But Mindy sidestepped her, saying, “You can’t go yet! We haven’t caught up. I’m assuming you’re back in town because you’re taking care of the Prescotts like your mama did?”
How Josie wanted to tell her that wasn’t the case, but it was, so… “You guessed it.”
Mindy clapped her hands like she’d won something. “So it’s true, then? Beau is really back in Forest Brook, recovering from his football injury? Eliza Hill said she saw a limo driving onto the Prescott estate. And everybody knows Kitty only uses Nolan’s town car service on the rare occasion she’s in town these days. But back to Beau—they said he was blind on SportsCenter. Is that right?”
“I can’t really say… ”
“Of course you can’t,” Mindy said in a sympathetic tone. Then she leaned closer and half-whispered, “I heard from Chelsea Mannis, who heard from Darryl Winters, that Beau made all his people sign confidentiality agreements, so no one can say anything, which is why no one’s really sure if he’s blind or not. But that NFL Scandals site says he’s only been seen in sunglasses since his accident and that the Suns should be announcing they’re dropping him any day now.”
Josie was impressed. For someone who didn’t seem terribly bright, Mindy had managed to dig up more dirt on Beau than Josie had, and she was living with him.
“Just tell me this,” Mindy said, edging even closer. “Does he still have those dreamy silver eyes of his or are they all bloodshot and gross now?”
Josie was not only offended on behalf of any visually impaired person who didn’t have what Mindy would deem as acceptable eyes, but also a little stymied because she really had no idea how to answer that question. Beau kept his sunglasses on at all times, maybe even when he was sleeping, and she hadn’t seen his eyes in real life… well, since her mother’s funeral.
Mindy continued, “Because if they’re still dreamy, I could totally come over and cheer him up. But if they’re gross, well, have you heard from Colin lately?”
Josie’s mind was spinning at this point. “Wait, are we talking about Colin Fairgood now?”
“Did you see him at the CMAs?” Mindy rolled her eyes in obvious pleasure. “Talk about hot! I see his mama all the time, since he bought her a house right across from Mike Lancer’s—can you believe it?” Mindy’s eyes widened at the apparently scandalous prospect of Mike’s former housekeeper living across from her old employer. “But he always manages to slip in and out without me seeing him. I don’t suppose you’ve heard from him lately?”
“No, I’m sorry to say we fell out of touch.”
“Of course you did,” Mindy said, slapping her forehead with her perfectly manicured hand. “I mean, Colin is such a big superstar now, and you’re…”
She scanned Josie’s outfit, a plaid button-up paired with an old pair of blue jeans and tennis shoes. She smiled brightly. “Well, you’re still the same old Josie. I swear except for the hair you haven’t changed a bit!” Mindy tilted her head to the side. “What made you decide to get such a drastic haircut? Is it popular wherever you were staying all these years?”
Josie reached up and self-consciously touched her hair. It was short at the sides, leaving her kinky corkscrews to fall where they may. Wayne had preferred her hair straight and down her back, the same kind of hair worn by the wives and girlfriends of most of his law firm colleagues. So before leaving Atlanta, she’d gotten her hair cut into a style she knew her former husband would have despised and had kept the sides short ever since.
But the way Mindy was looking at her, she felt less like a free woman and more like an unfashionable freak. “I was ready for something a little different.”
Mindy patted her arm, like she was an unfortunate mental patient. “Well, good for you. I say, whatever makes you happy!” She plastered on one of those fake Southern smiles, one thing Josie hadn’t missed during her cloistered marriage. “Well, Josie, it was just so great to see you. I’m going to tell everybody we know you’re back in town helping out poor Beau. Right where you belong.”
Then she walked away, leaving Josie rooted to the spot with embarrassment for herself and her situation.
Right where you belong.
The words followed her home and echoed in her ears as she unloaded the groceries. Beau had his appointment with the neurosurgeon next week, and who knew how long he’d need her services after that? She had to figure out how to get more money.
An idea popped into her head then. Granted, a rather unappetizing one, but it was better than anything she’d been able to come up with so far that day.
She pulled out her cell phone and reluctantly tapped in the number Beau’s mother had last called her from.
CHAPTER 7
JOSIE WAS AVOIDING HIM. That much was obvious. In the last twenty-four hours, she hadn’t come into his room unless it was to bring him his dinner or if he wasn’t there. He’d come back from his workout session with Mac to the smell of cleaning products lingering in the air.