“Honey, I need to warn you. A single woman your age is like fair game in this town. The old ladies will be working overtime to match you up with someone, and Bill is the most eligible bachelor in town.”
Savannah shook her head. “If Jesus Christ Himself walked up that path and got down on His knee and begged me to be His wife, I would turn Him down.”
Rocky’s smile turned wicked. “Honey, I don’t think I’d want to marry Jesus either. That sounds kind of boring.”
“I’m not looking for anything exciting. I just want to be on my own.”
Rocky put her arm over Savannah’s shoulder. “Now, that I understand. But not forever. You’re just regrouping after a failed relationship.”
“More than one. I’m a disaster at love. I was divorced at twenty-two. And over the last few years, I’ve gotten engaged and subsequently broken up with two more complete losers.”
“Aw, honey, I’m sorry to hear that. But I have a prescription for your heartache.”
“Please don’t tell me it’s Bill Ellis. He’s cute but—”
“Oh, no. I was thinking that I need to take you to the Last Chance Book Club meeting tomorrow night and introduce you around. If you want to talk about failed relationships, the book club is the place for you.”
“What is it, like a lonely hearts club or something?”
“No, not exactly. It’s just that Nita Wills, our librarian, doesn’t believe in happy endings. So every book we read has a sad relationship at its core. I swear, the girls are getting tired of it. Tomorrow’s meeting might be the last straw. Nita told me just this morning when I ran into her at the post office that she was thinking about another Nicholas Sparks book for this month’s read. And you know what that means.”
“No, I don’t.”
“It means either the hero or the heroine will end up dead at the end of the book.”
The lady with the dark hair and the flowers on her jacket told everyone that Mom was planning to move to this stupid town. Forever.
Todd couldn’t believe it. The place was boring. There wasn’t anyone here but old people. And there wasn’t anything fun to do. Besides, Last Chance was way far away from Baltimore. And if Dad had to come this far, he might not come at all. Dad was really busy a lot of the time. He was a lawyer during the week, and almost every weekend he was playing in some kind of billiards championship. He was a really good pool player, which was why he sometimes didn’t have time to see Todd.
Todd didn’t like the way his stomach felt. Like maybe he’d had too many pieces of cherry pie. Or maybe he shouldn’t have mixed the pie with the macaroni.
He headed across the crowded room. Mom was standing with the minister. Todd didn’t like the way she was looking up at the guy, like she was thinking OMG he’s hardcore or something. Whenever Mom looked at guys like that, it usually meant trouble. Mostly for Mom. He hated it when Mom cried. And guys always made her cry.
“That lady says we’re not going back home,” he said. He knew he’d interrupted the conversation, but who cared. This was important stuff.
Mom gave Todd the squint. She thought it made her look tough or something.
The minister dude looked down at him. “It’s rude to interrupt.”
“Is it true?” Todd asked, ignoring the minister.
“Todd, apologize to Reverend Ellis.”
Todd gave the guy a quick look. “Sorry.” He turned toward Mom. “Is it true?”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
“No, now. Because if we’re not staying then you need to tell that lady to shut up about it.” He yelled this time and pointed to the woman in the flowered jacket.
Everyone in the room stopped talking. Everyone stared at him. Typical.
“Todd, go to your room.”
“Is it true?” Cousin Dash said. Todd turned around. Dash was standing by the doorway with a plate of pie in his hand. He didn’t sound like he was all that thrilled about what the lady had been saying either.
“Is what true?” Aunt Miriam asked.
“That the princess is staying, and she plans to revive The Kismet,” Dash said.
Everyone looked at Mom. Mom looked kind of annoyed. “Well, I guess it is,” she said.
The grown-ups started clapping. Mom looked super surprised. And in all that excitement, everyone forgot about Todd.
He turned away, his stomach feeling like crap. He got as far as the landing on the staircase before Cousin Dash chased him down.