Salty Pickle: A Grumpy-Sunshine Romantic Comedy by JJ Knight
Author:JJ Knight [Knight, JJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-09T00:00:00+00:00
20
COURT
The moment I ask the question, I know itâs the wrong one.
Lucyâs happy expression dissolves. She pokes at her food with her fork.
I decide to pivot. âNever mind. Itâs fine. Howâs Matilda holding up?â
Lucy bites her lip, but she answers. âSheâs good. She likes the mist.â
I regret trying to make small talk. This is why I donât have women over. Or anyone over. Iâm shit at this.
The room rings with the sounds of our silverware stabbing the plates in the silence.
I scoot my chair back, planning to make an excuse to hole up in my bedroom.
But Lucy speaks, so low that I almost donât hear her. âIt was my Grandma BeeBee.â
I lean forward. âBeeBee?â
âHer real name was Beatrice, but I couldnât pronounce that when I was little.â
âCute.â
âShe was my fatherâs mother. She had a small farm. It had been bigger, back when my grandfather was alive, but sheâd sold off pieces of it every few years so she could pay the taxes on the part she lived on.â
Lucyâs face relaxes as she talks about this woman.
âShe grew most everything she ate. She had goats.â Lucyâs smile grows wide as she remembers the good parts. âAnd a cow, also named Beatrice. Always. Lots of different cows I remember, and they were always Beatrice.â
âHer little joke?â
âShe was very self-deprecating.â Lucy takes a long drink of water, and Iâm mesmerized by the movements of her long, tender throat.
âYou two were close?â
She nods. âI practically lived over there. We grew plants. Pickled and preserved everything from jam to radishes.â
âWas your dad not like her?â
Lucy shakes her head. âNot in the least. Itâs like he tried to be the opposite. I was the only one in the family who felt the same as she did about the earth.â
âShe sounds special.â I donât want to ask if sheâs around. Itâs clear sheâs not.
Lucy confirms it. âShe was. She died while I was in college. My father had Beatrice the Eighth cut into steaks and put BeeBeeâs farm on the market to be sold to a strip mall developer.â
I sit up. âHe didnât ask if you wanted it?â
âHeâs a commercial real estate agent. BeeBeeâs farm was probably a real feather in his cap.â
Now her eyes glisten.
âOh, Lucy. Iâm sorry. Did it get built?â
She shrugs. âI donât know. I refuse to drive out there and look. Itâs outside Louisville. I canât bear to see it. I want to remember it as it was.â
âI passed through that area last year. Thereâs farmland out there.â
âBut the city was encroaching.â She returns to dragging her fork through the casserole.
I run the back of my hand over my beard. So, this is her fallout with her parents. âWhat about your mom?â
âSheâs a petroleum engineer!â Lucyâs lips press tightly together. âItâs like he married someone as far from BeeBee as he could get!â
âWere you vegetarian when you were a kid?â
âAs soon as I could protest. Age six or so. They went to great lengths to fool me. Grinding up meat and mixing it in my soups.
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