“Well, I’m hardly one to give advice in that department,” I told her.
“Still no sign of Jon, I take it?”
“Nope. Not a word.”
“Well, it’s only been a couple of days. Maybe he’s just blowing off some steam, getting some fresh air.”
“Hey, you wanna come over? We could order a pizza and have some wine.”
“You know no one in Muskrat Creek delivers food,” she laughed.
“Right. Like I said, you wanna bring over a pizza and, uh, some wine?”
“How can I resist an offer like that? You need anything else? Should I stop by and buy your groceries or pick up your dry cleaning?”
“Could you? I can give you a list,” I laughed.
“I’ll stop by Moe’s and order us a pizza. He’s right next to the liquor store, so I can get us a couple of bottles of wine while I’m waiting. I’m sleeping over though, so make sure there are fresh sheets on the guest bed.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
An hour later, Becky arrived with an extra-large sausage and mushroom pizza and two bottles of merlot. I realized I hadn’t eaten, and it smelled delicious.
“Thank you for picking this up. I’ve just been so busy trying to get everything together for the clinic that I haven’t even had time to shop.”
“No problem. How’s all that going?”
“It’s going, as far as getting set up, but no calls yet. I need patients.”
“Give me some of your cards, and I’ll palm them out to the farmers and ranchers that use the bank. I know some of those guys need large-animal vets, and they’re bound to be happier with a local than having to call someone in from the next county.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
“Pfft. Don’t worry about me. I happen to know about a little fling going on around there that makes me bulletproof.”
“What? Who?”
“Theron Perrimont and Abigail Benning, the head teller.”
“Gross! He’s so… Ewww.”
“Right? Can you imagine him all naked and sweaty?”
“That’s disgusting.”
“And then there’s Abigail. She looks like she’s afraid of her own shadow. I can’t imagine her having some torrid love affair with anyone.”
“Are they both married? I know I saw a wedding band on his finger, but I haven’t seen Abigail for years. I don’t think she was there when I came in for the loan.”
“I can’t remember. Yeah, she’s married, all right. She got pregnant right out of high school. You were already gone, but it was all anyone could talk about. No one knew who the father was, and she wasn’t telling. Turned out it was Bobby Townsend.”
“The preacher’s son?”
“Yep. Reverend Townsend made him marry her, and they’ve been together since. She can’t stand him—I mean, who could?—so I guess she found herself someone on the side.”
“How do you know about her and Perrimont?”
“I caught them together in the records room one afternoon when I went back to put away a box the branch manager asked me to take back there. They both almost lost their shit, begged me not to tell. Anyway, she oversees all the tellers, so I’m golden.”
“This town is just full of secrets.”
“Yep. It always has been.”
“It still is.”
“So, what’s the deal with you and Jon? You can’t still be mad at him for trying to help you with your loan? You forgave me, so why are you being so hard on him?”
“It’s bad enough that he meddled in my loan. He put himself in financial jeopardy. I don’t want him compromising his business for me. I wanted to do it myself,” I said before taking a bite of pizza.
Becky laughed and sipped her wine. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Kidding about what? It gets worse. He also had his mother’s engagement ring reset into another ring, I assume, for me. I found it sitting on his coffee table when I went there looking for him. I know how hard he’s worked to get himself back on his feet. I don’t want to be the one that causes him to lose anything.”
Becky put her wine down and looked at me, her face a mixture of bemusement and confusion.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Rain, any girl in this town would kill to have Jon Rayburn pay an ounce of attention to her. Like, I understand that you’re fiercely independent, and good for you not wanting some man’s money. But plenty of girls would take it happily, so no wonder he’s confused. He’s hot and he’s rich, at least by Muskrat Creek standards.”
“Rich?”
“Yeah, girl. You said he’s worked hard to get back on his feet, and that ain’t no joke. Since returning to Muskrat Creek, he’s slowly but surely bought every distressed property on the market and flipped it. With the new auto plants in Moseley and Townsend, there haven’t been enough houses, and some people prefer to live out of the city anyway. Jon’s made millions.”
“No. That’s crazy. Why wouldn’t he have told me that?”