The Cotton Queen by Morsi Pamela

Author:Morsi, Pamela [Morsi, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

BABS

I WAS SO PROUD to see Laney take her place on the dais as Cotton Queen. It should have been the perfect start to a perfect senior year. But, of course, Laney never liked things perfect. She wasn’t willing to even try out for cheerleader. She wouldn’t use her musical talent for marching band. She wasn’t interested in elevating her social position at school or even being named Most Likely to Succeed. Laney was completely focused on her life after graduation. And all the arguing in the world wasn’t changing her opinion one bit.

“This is the best year of your life and you’re intent on wasting it,” I told her.

“If this is the best, I might as well put my head in the oven right now,” she answered.

She was not overly dramatic. I didn’t worry that she was unhappy. Laney just had no sense of what things could make her life easier. And she was stubbornly unwilling to take advantage of her advantages.

I had to work all through high school. There was no wiggle room in that. Uncle Warren and Aunt Maxine needed me and I owed it to them to help out.

Laney, on the other hand, made a choice to work. I could understand helping Uncle Warren after school. But he’d died and the Shoe Shop was sold, so there was no reason why she couldn’t quietly step back from Aunt Maxine’s businesses. But she didn’t. She continued to run errands, keep books, help with taxes and inventories and fill in wherever and whenever she was needed.

I complained to Aunt Maxine about it.

“Laney wants to work for me,” she said. “I appreciate the help and I’ll miss her when she goes away to school.”

“She’s not going away to school,” I told her. “She’ll go to community college here in town.”

Aunt Maxine laughed and shook her head.

“You don’t talk to that girl much, do you?”

“I talk to her every day.”

“Well, you must not be listening,” Aunt Maxine said. “She’s applied to colleges all over the country. She’s even talked about Harvard and Yale. I didn’t even know that girls went to those schools.”

“Laney is not going to Harvard or Yale,” I stated with complete conviction. “She’s not leaving home. She’ll get all the education she needs by being a wife and mother right here in town.”

“I haven’t heard her say anything about wanting to be a wife and mother,” Aunt Maxine said.

“Young girls will have their silly fantasies,” I explained. “They’ll talk about wanting to be ballerinas or fashion models. But when it comes right down to it, women are still women. And the measure of their success is still the man that they marry.”

Aunt Maxine shrugged, unconvinced. “That was sure true in my day. And in yours, too. But the world has changed. These gals today, they look at things differently.”

I shook my head. “All that ‘I Am Woman’ nonsense is just that, nonsense.”

I’m not sure I convinced my aunt, but at least she didn’t argue with me.

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