Page 8 of Love That Sass

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What the heck am I doing back in this place? Dear Lord, if Pop could see me now—he’d probably ask for a beer.

Gwendolyn’s thoughts raced from one thing to another so quickly they were liable to make her sick, but she just couldn’t slow them down. At least the roadhouse was on the outskirts of town, and no one she knew would see her.

She doubted many members of the small church she belonged to, where her Pop had been a deacon, attended the raucous bar. That was one saving grace. But what did she really care? She needed money and bartending was an honest living.

“Hi Gwen! What are you doing here?” a somewhat familiar voice called out.

Dang it.

She turned her head and saw Kelly Vanderbilt running up to greet her. She’d been one of those annoyingly perky teenagers at Maccon City High School. Not one of Gwendolyn’s small circle of friends, but they’d had some classes together.

“Hi Kelly. I’m training to be a bartender here,” she told her, with a tight smile on her face.

Kelly was tall and blonde with a svelte physique and flawless skin. She was gorgeous in a way Gwen could never compete with, so she never tried. Why bother? She knew her limitations, and she was perfectly happy with the face and body God gave her.

“You? I thought you were like super religious?” Kelly said, though it sounded like a question to Gwen.

“Nothing against bartending in the Bible, Kelly,” she teased, and the other woman laughed.

“I suppose not. Anyway, good luck. It’s a good place to work, just don’t break your heart on any of the guys. These boys are all dogs!” she said cheerfully and ran inside.

Gwen shook her head after the woman, tapping her fingers against her pocketbook as she followed much more slowly. She thought about what Kelly said about her being religious and supposed she had earned that rep back in school.

Oh, there were plenty of things about the church she did not agree with, but that was neither here nor there. Pop was a deacon, and she had attended services with him every Sunday. She even taught Sunday school classes when she was younger. Later, she was giving art lessons at the local preschool, but after circumstances, she’d lost that job.

She’d been so happy when Pop had been accepted into Hope Springs Senior Residence Center in Blue Valley. It was rated the best assisted living facility in three counties, and Lord knew Pop deserved the best.

After her parents skipped out on her, Gwendolyn was left with nothing and no one. Pop was her father’s father. He hadn’t seen his son in years, and he didn’t even know Gwen existed until a kind woman who worked for the Division of Child Protection for the state of New Jersey had tracked him down.

He’d come down to the home where the DCF agent had taken her like an avenging angel. His wife, the grandmother she was named after, had passed from cancer a few months earlier, and Pop, aka John Hoffer, had thought himself alone in the world. She could still recall the first time he came to see her…

Gwendolyn had a cut on her knee from where an older girl had shoved her on the playground and it was still oozing blood. Pop kneeled down in front of her and took a clean white hanky from his pocket and introduced himself.

“What happened there?” the old man had asked her.

“I got pushed. Who are you?” Gwen asked in return, clutching her ratty old teddy bear to her chest.

The old man had a thick mass of white streaked gray curls on top of his head, kind brown eyes, and a smile she sort of recognized.

“I’m your grandfather. You can call me Pop, little Gwenny. Your father is my son,” he explained as he cleaned my scrape.

“Dad went away with Mom,” Gwen whispered, her little six year old brain trying to wrap around the enormity of what that meant.

“I see. Well, your Granny went away to Heaven a little while ago.”

“Heaven? I don’t think that’s where Mom and Dad went. I’m sorry Granny left you,” she whispered.

“Don’t be. Heaven is a wonderful place where we get to see and be with all our loved ones. I will join her there someday. But not for a while.”

“Oh. Maybe I could go there too.”

“To Heaven? Sure you can, but not for a very long time, Gwenny. You still have stuff to do here,” Pop said and smiled kindly.

It was the first time anyone had offered her such a sweet expression. Her own troubled parents were too involved with whatever had brought them down so low to pay any attention to her. She was just something extra to them.

“I’m scared. Don’t wanna stay here,” she confessed.

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