clearing the table, and she quickly hustled back into the dining room to stop them.
“You put those dishes down and get on out of here. Go sit out on the porch, and I’ll bring out some tea. Dishes keep, good company doesn’t.” She shooed them out the screen door, and they found themselves standing there awkwardly, not sure exactly what had just happened or how they ended up alone again, something neither of them wanted.
“I should actually get going,” Piper said just louder than a whisper. “It’s getting dark and I don’t know these roads very well. It’s taking me a while to get accustomed to things down South, especially no street lights on these country roads.” She fished in her pocket for her car key and looked through the screen door, hoping to see Betty on her way back out.
“I know, moving down South takes a little while to get used to. I was young when we moved here from New Jersey, but it took me years to get accustomed to things like chicken fried steak and grits. Listen, you might as well have a seat. Dark or not, Betty won’t let you go without a little time on the porch, it’s what we do on Wednesday nights. She’s been letting Jules off the hook, but I think that’s only so she doesn’t have to listen to Scott snoring after he falls asleep on the swing. If you want I’ll follow you home, make sure you get there safely.” Bobby flopped down on the squeaky swing whose chains groaned under his weight.
Piper forced herself to brush past his offer. She pushed out of her mind the thoughts of him getting her home safely, and the even more dangerous thought of him getting her to her bed safely. She did not like how she felt in Bobby’s presence, how caught up in him she was getting. He was taking up far too much space in her head. Instead she went right for the other interesting part of his statement. “You’re from New Jersey?” Piper asked, intrigued enough to sit down next to him without thinking of how boorish he had been toward her.
“I knew you weren’t charming enough to have been born here. You lack the innate warmth of a southerner. I mean you have that endearing little drawl and the yes ma’am thing going on, but I knew you were too brash to be a good ol’ boy. Northerners are a different breed. We’re skeptical and hotheaded. I could tell you had a little of that in you. I blame it on the cold winters. There is something about dredging through icy puddles before the sun comes up that makes it impossible to love thy neighbor the way people do down here.” She poked his chest accusingly with her finger. It was firm and muscular and bent her finger back slightly.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it. I like to think I have more than a yes ma’am and a drawl. I learned the exaggerated wink, and I’m practically a professional chitchatter in the supermarket. You’ve got the wrong idea about me. If you had met me a month ago, you’d think I was the poster child for southern gentlemen. You, on the other hand, are clearly from the north. Which frosty New England town do you hail from?” Bobby asked, starting to realize Piper hadn’t said much at all about herself in their few encounters. She had clearly tried to drop her accent but it still lingered enough for him to hear it occasionally.
Piper wasn’t sure how she had let this conversation get away from her. This is what happened when she let little pieces of her former self show through, people always wanted to dig deeper. If she hadn’t been lost for a minute in the majesty of the setting sun falling behind the tree line, then she would have been more effective in guiding the conversation.
“We moved around a lot. But this is as far south as I’ve ever been, and sometimes I feel like I’m on a different planet. What’s this whole sweet tea thing about? They know it tastes terrible, right? I can’t tell you how many glasses I’ve had to choke down since I moved here just to be nice.” Piper hoped a little commiserating about the swill of the south, as she liked to call it, would have them focusing on something other than her mysterious past.
Betty pushed the screen