eye makeup was worn off from crying, she took up the seat next to me and held my hand.
“Well, what do you want to know?” she asked.
“Is he with her again?”
“I don’t know. She used to pop in and out, but I haven’t seen her in a year or more. I didn’t know she was his fiancé—ex-fiancé, anyway.”
“What’d he do after I left?”
“He ran out after you, tried to get your attention, but you were drivin’ like a bat outta hell. You nearly ran over Drunk Tony who was passed out on the lawn.”
“Oh, no! Is he okay?”
“He’s fine, didn’t even know what happened until he woke up with a face full of road dust. Hart bought him a shot, so it ended up being a pretty good night for him, all-in-all.”
I fidgeted with the hem of my dress, swallowing hard and willing Luanne to continue.
“Sam was in a right state. Came back into the bar and had a face-off with Hart.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, as you may’ve surmised, Hart is no stranger to nursing a broken heart.”
“Your Aunt Jo?”
Luanne nodded. “He’s been mad for her going on forty-four years now. They had a pretty heavy thing before she married Uncle Rodney. Neither one of ‘em has ever been able to walk away from their history together.”
“Is she still in love with him?”
“She tries to hide it, but, yeah, she’s still holdin’ a flame for the old biker. After you left, Hart started in on Sam pretty good. Told him he was a fool to let you slip through his fingers. Said Sam’s been making nothing but mistakes since he and Roxy split, and you’d be better off without him if that was the way he was gonna behave.”
“What’d Sam say?”
Luanne squeezed my hand and turned to look at me fully. “He told him to stay out of his business.”
I waited for Luanne to continue. I knew there was something else. “Just tell me.”
“He left the bar with Roxy. She seemed pretty pleased with herself, made me strongly reconsider Jo’s ‘No Baseball Bats to the Head’ rule.”
Luanne gathered her legs up onto the sofa and leaned into me, wrapping an arm around my neck and resting her head against my shoulder. “It’s not you. You know that, right?”
I closed my weary eyes and felt fresh tears escape to travel silently down my cheeks. “But it is me,” I said, my words thick and hoarse. “I can’t get it right. I’ve tried so hard to get it right and it always ends the same way, with me crying on your couch and my heart broke, again.”
I started crying in earnest then and Luanne held and shushed me, softly petting my hair until all my tears were spent. At about 1:00 a.m. she tucked me into her bed and told me things would look better in the morning. But I knew she was wrong. The morning would come, bright and cheerful, but I’d still be alone.
The fairgrounds are abuzz with activity. The Daughters of the American Revolution are pinning American flags to every square inch of their tent. Their worn hands and silver heads are moving quickly in patriotic fervor. Four tents down the row, the old men of the Elks Lodge have taken their seats behind a long table. Tall hats rest impressively on thinning hair as they openly observe the high school varsity cheerleaders practicing their spirit-fingers and toe-touches.
I approach the Brook’s Bath and Body Shop tent which is sandwiched between Carly’s Sweet Treats and The Canvas Corner. The latter sells canvas tote-bags screen printed with pictures of your grandchildren or favorite dog. The Bath Shop’s tent is in the center of the entire fair and a mere twenty feet from the funnel cake stand. I shudder to think of what Brook had to do to get us this prime location.
I spot Amber, wrapped in a calf-length trench coat and huddled in a back corner of the tent. Her brow is creased and she looks like a kitten that’s been thrown into a dog fight.
“Sorry I’m late,” I say, dropping my purse behind the makeshift counter.
“Whatever.” Amber hugs herself and looks away from me. She’s rocking back and forth, her nervous anxiety showing in her movements even if she won’t cop to it.
“Is Brook here yet?”
“Yeah, she just went to get another box of product from her car and asked me to start setting up for her.”
I look behind me at the empty table and then to the full cardboard boxes sitting