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“What? Why?”
“To check in? To make changes? No fucking clue. But she’s mad that I wasn’t able to do the strawberries, just like everyone else was?—”
“You’re one person,” she said shortly. “You did what you could. If Mollie wants the berries back, then she can do it herself.”
I laughed. “I doubt she’ll do that. She has no idea what she’s doing. She didn’t even know the farm turned a profit.”
“So, whynow?”
“No idea, but she’s staying at the farmhouse.” I let out a harsh sigh. “It’s awful.”
Jackie completely stopped cutting my hair, and that’s how I knew she was well and truly shocked.
“Do you wanna stay with me? Both you and Eric are welcome.”
Still to this day, it baffled me when she offered help. When I had been struggling with running the entire farm myself, she’d worked on the berries as long as she could. And when I took custody of Eric, she’d bought every single thing I’d needed for him and refused any money from me to pay her back.
“No,” I said. “But thank you. I’ll handle it.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Mostly hope she gets over whatever made her come out here.”
“If it gets to be too much, let Eric come and stay with me. The last thing he needs is to have drama at home right now.”
“That’s unfortunately not a problem. He loves her.”
“What?”
“She was up early playing marbles with him.”
“Interesting.” Jackie slowly returned to cutting my hair. “So, she’s nice?”
“Too nice.”
She hummed. “I wonder what she looks like after all these years.”
Like an angel sent to fucking destroy me.
But then I caught the pensive look on Jackie’s face. “No,” I said. “Don’t even go there.”
“Sorry.” She shrugged. “Just thinking of all the possibilities.”
“That’s not one of them.”
Jackie nodded and finished my haircut, but her smile never waned.
And I knew I’d never hear the end of it.
7
MOLLIE
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Kerry Winsor
Sometimes you try so hard but have to realize that others won’t do the same.