Your Cheatin Heart

Chapter Twenty

I could hear the choir tuning up and the organ wailing as I stood outside the Ledbetter Greek Methodist Church, waiting on Bo

I was half hiding underneath the shade of a pin oak, tugging at my blue skirt and wishing it was a tad longer. It's one thing to be a Reba McIntyre look-alike on stage, but it is quite another to carry it to church. I had on a high-necked white shirt and prissy white shoes. Not a rhinestone in sight. And I must've passed, 'cause Bo

"Hey," I called softly.

Bo

"Lord, honey, you liked to scared me to death! I thought you was one of the bazaar ladies." She took a deep breath and gave me a thorough onceover. "Dang, Maggie, you must want this'un bad to dress like that!" Not that Bo

"I got good news for you, though. I forgot, we're having a pinto bean supper after church today!"

"How's that good news? I don't like pinto beans and the last thing I want to do is-" Bo

"His mother will be working the line, you idiot! We'll sit at her table!" Bo

"Praise God," I whispered and followed her.

The church was relatively small and very old. Thick windowsills and whitewashed walls. Pretty stained-glass windows depicted the saints and Jesus, all having a time of it being Christians. Bo

Bo

I looked. Bo

Bo

I don't remember the pastor's sermon. He was a small, bland little fellow with cherry red cheeks and a look of surprised i

When the choir started the last hymn, Bo

The "Amen" had barely left the preacher's lips when Bo

Bo

"Sit here," she'd said, placing me next to the one empty chair at the table, facing a blank wall with a colorful picture of Jesus at the Last Supper. "That's her chair there. You wait, as soon as the line gets started, she'll come around!"

But when Flo Weathers did appear, I found myself suddenly shy. What was I go

"Well, hey there, ladies!" she cried, setting her plate of pinto beans, cornbread, and coleslaw down with a gentle thunk. "Bo

The others laughed, apparently well familiar with Flo's patter.

"I'm Flo Weathers. Welcome to Ledbetter Greek Methodist." Bo

"I'm Maggie Reid," I said, smiling right back at her, but trying not to look too closely into those clear blue eyes.

"Flo, Maggie works with me down to the Curley-Que, but she's going into a new… Ow!" Bo

"Hairdresser, huh? You single?"

The ladies laughed again, a comfortable here-we-go-again laugh that signaled familiarity.

"Listen, Maggie," Flo said, leaning closer to me. "Don't pay them a bit of mind. I'm just a mother looking out for her handsome, smart, and newly single son."

I raised my eyebrows and smiled politely. "Well, yes, ma'am, I am single," I answered.

"Hmmm," Flo said, breaking a piece of corn-bread, but not making any moves to eat it.

"Tell me about your son," I said, doing my best not to catch Bo

"Oh, he's a doll!" one of the blue-haired ladies said. The others murmured their agreement. "And so polite," another said. "A real lady killer," the third one said.

That stopped the crew in their tracks and they all looked across at the little birdlike lady with the blue-and-pink straw hat. She turned scarlet.

"Well, what I mean is, he's a gentleman, of course, but a real charmer!"

Flo looked back at the line where the servers were doling out plates of beans and saw something she didn't like. She hopped up and was gone before anyone could say another word.

"I'm sure he's a nice boy," I said, smiling, "but if he's newly single, he's probably not anxious to meet anyone new."

A slight cloud passed over the group, then a plump lady with a bright purple dress spoke up.

"What happened to little Marshall was a pitiful shame!"

"I'm sorry," I said, picking at my pinto beans. "Did his wife die?"

"Oh Lord, no, and sometimes we think it might've been better if she had." The purple dress looked back where Flo was dumping beans into a large pot, then back to me. "His wife left him for another man!"

"No!" I said, seeing Bo

"Yes!" they all cried in unison.

"And him working like he does, solving all those horrible murder cases!" The purple dress was upset. "She just run out. Left everything but her clothes and took off with one of his best friends. He ain't been quite right since. Flo's just worried sick! He don't go out much. He don't come to church. He don't hardly even associate with his friends anymore, either. I guess he just don't trust nobody and I can't say as I blame him."