Page 25 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

“Hi, Jo,” Caroline said, shoving a barrel curl lock of flaxen hair behind her ear as she smiled and waved.

Jessie walked past her, bumping Jo’s hip with her own. She grabbed two jars of honey and headed up front. The line here was almost as long as the line at the shop—it might have been longer, but it was hard to tell from inside the tent. “What are you doing here?”

Kathy grabbed a handful of oldHarvest Ranch TimesNewspapers that they were using to wrap the honey in before bagging them, and set them on the counter, she and Jessie grabbed a paper and each wrapped a honey before Kathy bagged them. The three women were working like a well-oiled machine.

Jessie faced her and leaned against the counter. “Allie talked to us last night. She told us the investors were coming in today, and that you would really need the help, so we volunteered. Grandpa Bo let me have the day off to help you.” Jesse worked at Winslow’s Books, the shop to the north of hers. Grandpa Bo Winslow wasn’t Jo’s grandpa, he was their cousin’s father’s father, but she always had a soft spot for the man. He’d purchased their very first jar of honey and treated her and Allie like they were actually his grandkids.

His wife, Maggie, who managed the shop, was just as kind, often bringing over lunch for her and Allie when they worked long hours. They’d been lifesavers. And it looked like yet again.

“I can pay you,” Jo said, then quickly did the math in her head to make sure she actually could.

Jessie rolled her moss-colored eyes.

Caroline looked at her. “We said ‘volunteered.’ We’re not taking a dime.” Caroline emphasized the word volunteer, and her sweet as honey accent drawled thicker than it normally did. She turned to Jessie. “Two clover honeys, Jess, and an orange blossom, please.”

Jessie marched past her and grabbed the honey as Kathy got the bag ready. “Listen,” she whispered. “We know you guys are struggling right now and we want to help. That’s what family’s for, right?”

There it was again. That sting at the back of her eyes. She’d managed not to cry all month, and she wasn’t starting now. “Thank you.”

“Where’s Allie?” Kathy asked. “I didn’t see her at all yesterday, and she was supposed to be taking this shift today, right?”

All morning long while she’d been cleaning the upstairs apartment, Jo had thought about how she’d ask Kathy to stay on longer today. The girl had already spent so many hours this week alone, helping them as they dealt with the move and the festival without complaint, and she’d all but decided to rat Allie out. She was still ticked at her, but at least she’d enlisted help before ditching out on her. “Tony had a family emergency. He and Allie left last night.”

Caroline turned all the way in her seat, placing her back to a man with stars in his eyes so big as he looked at Caroline, Jo thought he might tip over from the weight of them. “What kind of emergency?” her tone was thick with worry. Caroline was so sweet she made sweet tea seem bitter, she was so sweet she’d been named after Neil Diamond’s song “Sweet Caroline,” and her heart was bigger than a bushel of apples.

Jo rushed to reassure her. “No one’s hurt, it’s just something they had to deal with.”

Jessie nailed her with an appraising stare that made Jo nervous. Jessie had a way of reading people that Jo found unnerving.

“So, it looks as though I’ll be taking the Warners around.” She tore her gaze from her cousin and looked at Kathy. “Kathy, I know you’ve already covered so many shifts this week, but it’d really help me out if you could take the night shift?”

“Sure thing, Josie,” Kathy said and smiled. Then she seemed to see her, really see her. “Wait, what time are you meeting the Warners?”

Jo felt a nervous tug in her gut. “At six-thirty.”

“And you going dressed like that?” Kathy asked.

She glanced down at the grubby jeans and over-sized T-shirt she had on, with her dark blue hoodie tied around her waist. This morning she only had thoughts of getting the apartment scrubbed down and cleaned up, and in her rush to do so, she hadn’t given her clothes or her appearance any thought.

She touched her head in sudden horror of what her hair must look like. She’d never worn a messy bun before, that was more Allie’s thing, but she could definitely call what her hair looked like now a messy bun. She knew because this was the bun she put in her hair last night before going to sleep. And she hadn’t bothered looking in the mirror that morning in her rush to get out of her aunt’s house as soon as her mother would let her and to the store. She was a mess!

And she hadn’t showered in two days! She’d forgotten! Sneakily, she sniffed her underarm and groaned in disgust. She was a disaster!

She briefly thought of the impulsive hug she’d given Cash yesterday morning and felt her neck heating—but that’d only been one day sans shower.

She shoved the thought back, thinking of Cash right now wouldn’t help her one bit, and focused on the Warners. How was she supposed to convince these people their store was worth investing in without Allie and Tony’s good charms and proper hygiene to sweeten the deal?

Allie was the queen bee, Tony the scout, and she was just a worker bee. Allie was the one that came from royal jelly, not her. How would she ever pull this off?

Caroline jumped off her stool and rushed over. Kathy took over, and Jo could swear she heard an audible groan from what had to be several men, come from outside the tent.

“You have plenty of time, Jo,” Caroline said. “If you hurry, you’ll be able to pull yourself together, lickety-split. You’re as pretty as a peach, it won’t take much. And don’t you worry about a thing here. Cecilia will be at the store this afternoon until close to help your mama, and we’ll get organized to make sure you’re taken care of through the weekend. That way you can focus a hundred percent on getting the Warners to invest. They’d be fools not to.”

Jo chuckled. It seemed so absurd, but Caroline meant every word. She always did.

Jessie spoke next, in perfect deadpan. “But a shower might be in order.”

Caroline slapped at her, and Jessie ducked out of the way.

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