Buzz Off - By Hannah Reed Page 0,81

that I was going to tell her that I had bought into the gossip to the point that I thought Grace had murdered Manny to be with Clay.

Holly did manage to walk in the door by ten o’clock, one whole hour earlier than her regular shift. By then Ray Goodwin had already made a large delivery, in spite of my constant reminders to deliver after three o’clock in the afternoon when strong young male workers were around to help stock shelves. Ray seemed to hate anything smacking of authority and so instead, wasted time doing the opposite of whatever he was asked to do. He had a you-aren’t-the-boss-of-me attitude, which clearly hadn’t taken him very far, career-wise.

“Did you pick up that honey from Grace’s?” I asked him.

“Didn’t know you needed it right this minute.” He put special emphasis on the last word like I was nagging him.

“I don’t really, but soon, okay?”

Ray shrugged. “I’ll get to it.”

I rolled my eyes and went back inside. “Call over to the Craigs,” I said to Holly, noting how great she looked. Rested and carefree. “See if one of the twins can come in early to help stock, ASAP.”

Holly gazed at the boxes of produce still waiting to be moved to the bins and shelves and nodded. “Better them than me. I didn’t sign on to do heavy lifting.”

“Right. Since the boxes are strategically placed right next to where they need to go, you must be referring to hefting those two-ton tomatoes from box to bin.”

“That’s right.”

“I love you,” I said, surprising myself. I floored Holly, too, because she stopped and stared. “I couldn’t have managed this last week without you,” I told her.

I’ve never seen my sister smile quite that wide. “Thanks. It’s nice to be appreciated.”

“Don’t I know it,” I agreed. “Hey, guess what? Hunter and I have a date tomorrow night.”

“I knew something was up! Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.” Which was true. We hadn’t discussed it. Saturday night was coming up fast and I had a real date. Where we went didn’t matter one bit.

Lori showed up for her two or three items as usual, making her one of our daily customers, which had to be intentional on her part. The woman was so annoying, she liked to irritate me on a regular basis.

“Any luck selling Manny’s home?” I asked her, really hoping this particular sale went nowhere. Manny hadn’t wanted to sell and I wished everybody would respect his wishes, at least for a while.

“As a matter of fact, I am negotiating a deal on the Chapman property,” Lori gloated. “But I can’t talk about it at the moment.”

“Then why are you?” Holly said, earning a glare from Lori.

“Who’s making the offer?” I wanted to know.

“You wouldn’t know the name.”

“Try me.”

“Confidential information,” Lori said, flouncing toward the door. “Once the deal is done, you’ll be one of the first to know.”

I called Grace.

“I want to rectify any wrongs,” I said to Grace when she answered her phone. I wanted to ask her about selling out, but first I had to mend fences. “Once and for all, I want to squash both rumors going around—the one about you and the one about me. And I’d like your help.”

“What rumor about me?”

I took a deep breath and plowed in. “That you and Clay were having an affair.”

“Are you spreading lies about me?” Her voice had risen to a range unknown to humankind. “Haven’t you done enough damage?”

“NO! Wait! It was P. P. Patti who’s been spreading it, after she saw you at Clay’s house. But I know why you went there and I’m going to fix the damage Patti did.”

“How? Are you going to tell people the real truth? That I only went to Clay because I wanted honesty about you and Manny and I thought he might answer my questions? Maybe you could start with telling me the truth about you and my husband.”

This wasn’t going well.

“Patti started that one, too. She’s a menace, destroying families and relationships. Manny was my friend and that’s as far as it ever went. He loved you.”

Grace started crying.

“Look,” I said, “I’ll get Patti to tell you the truth, that she started the rumor and that it was all a lie. Okay?”

I thought I heard her say “okay,” before she hung up, but her voice was so low and so anguished, I wasn’t sure whether she’d agreed to my plan.

Honeybees work together in fine-tuned harmony, making sure their hives are functioning as they