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My stomach twisted over a few points in that infor ones I dropped into the rocking chair across from her and folded my arms over my stomach

"Anyways," Rose waved her hand, "she stopped by to see you Sheol’ honky tonk next weekend and was just double checking to otten cold feet"

"I doubt even if I tried to back out, Josie would letwhy she’d showed up in person There was a great invention, only about two hundred years old, known as the telephone she could have used But I knehy she’d stopped by Why she’d probably wasted fifty gallons of gas in that gas-chugging machine of hers to drive fro to his place

I wasn’t a fool Josie irl I’d everwoman That meant she was the most saint-like of sinners

Jesse had been hers for a couple of years I’d only spent a couple of weeks with hiot over He was the type of guy a girl spent her whole life asking herself, What if? He was the type of guy a woht about when she sat across the dinner table froirl didn’t get over End of story Truest story ever told

I knew because I felt the saht Josie doesn’t take no for an answer too often" Rose’s expression changed It eclipsed from carefree to worried I’d rarely seen that shift on her face "That’s why I was so surprised when she took a no froether with hiht She didn’t plead her case She justlet hio" Rose’s forehead lined as she studied the planks of the porch, like perhaps, within their cracks and crevasses, she could find the answers "I don’t knohat happened between those two, lord knows Jesse’s lips are sealed, but you don’t go fro to say each other’s na"

What happened between Jesse and Josie seemed to be the million dollar question No one see for Jesse after they broke up Even though he tried not to sho , I could tell A mother always knohen one of her babies is in pain" I bit ue and kept my opinions on the matter to myself "But I think ave a sad s to beher like a daughter without even realizing it"

"You miss her," I said It was obvious from Rose’s expression that she did

"I do I did a lot when they first broke up, but ti hold of the swing’s arh, is the reassurance of knowing ood person to spend his life with When he ith Josie, I knew he’d be well taken care of and loved At the end of the day, that’s all a mother can ask for when her little birdies leave the nest" Rose exhaled slowly through her nose "That they’ll find another nest as loving and warm as the one they flew froed

I knew Rose wasn’t saying any of that to hurt me--she didn’t have a clue how I felt about Jesse--but her speech, co point That last wooden block slid out of the tower and otten lost inside of it and mistaken it for reality

And I’d just woken up

I stood and found uessed after waking up, I could accept my fate bravely "Rose? Would you mind if I took the rest of the day off?"

Her face flickered with concern

"I’ve had this nasty headache all day I can’t seeer into oing to find a quiet place to park it under a tree and hope so to Rose I hated lying to herto anyone else, but it had to be done I couldn’t ether She’d see right through my act, or I’d lose it in front of her, and I didn’t want her to know about Jesse and ive her a reason to be ashamed of her son and aard around me

"Did you take so

"Only about a hundred," I exaggerated, "but this thing’s beyondlike she wanted to wrap"Of course Take the rest of the day off and just give a holler if you need anything"

Guilt reed How easily I’d pulled the wool over her eyes "Are you sure you and the girls will be all right? I can check back in around dinner tiwe could do it in our sleep Go find yourself a shade tree and get some rest" She pointed at the old trunk on the porch where she kept pillows and blankets "Grab a blanket and pillow, and I’ll check in on you later"

"Thanks," I said as I opened the trunk and grabbed the first blanket

"You’ve got your phone with you?"

I patted -in-on-et soirl You must have a headache Your humor is off this afternoon"

I flashed Rose a wave before heading down the porch steps and bee lining for the field My lungs weren’t working right Not since Garth’s, and Rose’s, words I felt like I could barely fill theot froain

After hoofing it through a field of grass up past my shoulders forIt didn’t ot or how fast I walked I still couldn’t breathe quite right My heart felt like it was shriveling to the size of a raisin, andthrough it