Mama Gets Hitched by Deborah Sharp Page B

original concept.
    “Have you read it?” she asked me.
    “Can’t say that I have,” I said. “When you finish it, why don’t you give me a synopsis?”
    “Say what?” She stuck the end of a dreadlock in her mouth and sucked on it.
    “A summary.”
    She nodded, brushing the hair across her lip. “I’ll try, but it’s about ten times harder than anything I’ve ever read. I hope I can get through it, not to mention understand enough of it to give you that …” She paused.
    “Synopsis.”
    “Right,” she said, smiling. “Now, what can I get for you?”
    I told her to hand over a six pack of Heineken, and to make sure they weren’t warm ones.
    Watching her return to the register and place the beer on the counter made me think of an old joke. “Hey, what’s a redneck’s idea of a seven-course meal?”
    “A possum and a six-pack.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve only heard that one about two hundred times, Mace. I think I was still at Himmarshee Middle School the first time I heard it. How is old Mad Hen Wilson anyway?”
    That was how the students at my sister’s school referred to her behind her back. Little did they know that Maddie, Madison Wilson, actually embraced the nickname.
    “Doin’ fine,” I said. “Keeping the kids on their toes.”
    “Yeah, I’ll bet.” She put the beer into a plastic bag. “Anything else?”
    My eyes roamed over the offerings: chips, candy, milk, eggs, enough liquor for the next three spring breaks in Daytona Beach.
    “Still thinking,” I said.
    “Take your time. Hardly anybody stops in this late at night. I like the company, to tell you the truth.”
    A drive-thru in Okeechobee County had been hit recently by an armed robber. The cashier wasn’t hurt, but it had all the clerks nervous in the neighboring counties.
    “You remember that murder from last summer?” she asked me.
    Of course I did. The victim had been Linda-Ann’s boss. And Mama was briefly the prime suspect. I nodded.
    “Whatever happened to that good-looking cowboy who came in here the day I met you? The one you used to like. Did y’all ever get back together?”
    Jeb Ennis. I felt a shiver of desire at the thought of him. I guess with a first love that never really goes away.
    “He’s back on the rodeo circuit,” I said. “I don’t think Jeb and I were cut out to be a couple.”
    I wondered if the fit was better for Carlos and me.
    “I was just asking because I have a serious boyfriend now.” She looked down, studying the tip of one of her dreadlocks. “He’s my first one, if you know what I mean.”
    Judging by the blush on her pretty face, I knew exactly what she meant.
    “Trevor has changed the way I look at everything,” she gushed. “He’s in graduate school. And he’s incredibly smart. Trevor says I’m intelligent, too. He says I just have to learn to apply myself.”
    She gazed at the thick book on the counter. She didn’t seem all that eager to apply herself to it.
    “Just be careful, Linda-Ann.” I knew I was about to sound like an old fogey who can’t understand young love, but I couldn’t help myself. “It’s all right if both of you agree to make some compromises. But you should never let a man change you too much. When you try to be somebody else to make a man happy, you lose who you really are.”
    She chewed methodically on the end of her hair. I couldn’t tell if she was pondering what I said, or just passing the minutes until closing time. I glanced at the big clock on the wall. Ten minutes to midnight. I was beat. It’d been a long day.
    “I guess that’ll do it,” I said.
    “So, you’re done thinking? Should I just ring up the beer?”
    I was just about to tell her yes when I remembered the display of beef jerky that used to sit right on the counter at driver eye level. The spicy maple flavor was addictive.
    “What happened to that jerky y’all used to sell?”
    Her hair-chewing speed increased. “I moved them to the back. Trevor says eating