Bluegrass State of Mind (7 page)

Looking around the cubicle she saw the
typical family pictures, desktop, and supplies all behind her. She
crawled forward, closer to the room. She sat down with her back
against the scratchy fabric and took a deep breath. She was sure it
was nothing. She just had to be sure though. She spun around on the
balls of her feet. She placed her hands on the cubicle wall and
slowly rose up...

Kenna awoke with a gasp. "Oh thank
God!" She was still in her soft bed in Miss Lily’s. She fell back
against the pillows with relief. Looking over at the clock she saw
that it was early. Too early, but she might as well get started on
her studies. She didn’t think she’d be able to go back to sleep
anytime soon.

Kenna pushed open the screen door and
walked onto the front porch. It was a cool spring morning so Kenna
pulled her Syracuse University Lacrosse on over her white t-shirt.
She was glad she had put on her old jeans this morning. She set the
heavy stack of Kentucky Statutes and Criminal and Civil Procedure
books down on the table beside the hanging white bench swing. The
bar exam was just two weeks away and she wanted to impress the
District Attorney at her interview tomorrow.

Arranging herself on the cushion, she
grabbed the “Green Book”, also known as the Criminal Law of
Kentucky book. It held all the relevant penal code statutes and
criminal law procedures she’d need to know for the job, and for the
bar exam.

She opened the heavy tomb and started
reading. She had a pen in one hand and highlighter in the other as
she alternated between highlighting important issues and writing
notes about cases. She had become so engrossed in her studying,
that she did not hear Mr. Wolfe’s whistling until he was half way
up the steps.

“
Good morning, my dear.
How are you this lovely spring morning?” he asked, jovial as
ever.

“
Good morning, Mr. Wolfe.
I am well. Just got up early to study some and prepare for my
interview tomorrow,” she smiled.

“
Well, I will make sure to
let Tom know you are more than prepared for the job when I see him
for lunch today,” Mr. Wolfe winked. He then added, “You make sure
you start calling me John or I will start thinking you don’t like
me too much.”

“
Thanks, John. What brings
you by this morning?” John’s jovial welcome dispelled the last of
the darkness left behind from her nightmare.

But before John could answer, Miss
Lily came bustling out the door, wiping her hands on her apron.
“John! What a pleasant surprise,” she said as she straightened her
shirt and wiped imaginary flour off her apron.

“
I came by to see if I
could talk my way into some of your banana nut pancakes, Lily
Rae.”

“
Of course you can. Come
in, come in.” Miss Lily, lacking her broom, had to herd John in
through the door with the dish towel that had been hanging over her
shoulder.

As she ushered John through the door,
Miss Lily turned and looked at Kenna. With a slight blush to her
cheeks, she hurried in after her guest of honor. Kenna smiled and
wondered if there might be something special going on between them.
But the thought of how Miss Lily’s sisters had cooed over him at
the cafe last night came back to her. Kenna laughed, old John was a
player.

Just as Kenna bent back over her book,
June came out looking perfect in another Ralph Lauren outfit. This
time it was a black jersey, belted wrap dress that stopped just
above the knee. She had on black strap sandals with three inch
heels and rhinestones running down the heel. Kenna suffered shoe
envy for a moment before looking up to June’s perfectly coifed
blonde hair and smiling face.

“
If I didn’t like you so
much, there is a very real possibility that I would knock you down
and steal those shoes,” Kenna said, eyeing the strapped sandals
again.

“
I’ll give them to you if
you want. I almost didn’t wear them since they are from Prada's
spring line from two years ago,” June said with such thought as if
she were still deciding if she should wear them.

“
Oh, well, in that case,
give them to charity. I couldn’t be caught dead in two year old
Pradas!” Kenna and June laughed.

“
That was very shallow of
me, wasn’t it? Well, do forgive me. The reason I came out was to
see if I could get you to join us for breakfast.” June waved toward
the dining room.

“
Sure, sounds great,”
Kenna said as she marked her place and set the book down on the
table. Kenna went to the sideboard and filled her plate with
blueberry pancakes, got a glass of mango orange juice, and sat down
at the table with June and Julius.

Julius looked up from his copy of the
Wall Street Journal, “Ah, good morning, McKenna. How is studying
going?” he asked.

“
Good morning, Julius. It
is going well. I have a good understanding of procedure, but am
trying hard to memorize the penal code,” she answered.

“
We are going to the sales
today if you’d care to join us. We will be coming back for lunch if
you want to make it a short day. It should be somewhat amusing as
there will be a little drama surrounding the normal backstabbing,
outbidding, and competitiveness that surrounds the sales. You
remember Will Ashton, of course. Well, I have heard his wife has
come back to town and will most likely show up for the sales.” He
gave a pointed look to June and went back to his paper.

“
What my husband means is
that she can’t stand to be out of the center of attention. I am
sure she will cause quite a scene in one matter or another. I do
not like to speak ill of anyone, but she is a witch,” June
whispered as if God would hear her and strike her down.

“
Wife?” Kenna asked. Her
stomach dropping and a painful squeeze took its place around her
heart. She knew she shouldn’t care that he was married. She had
assumed he was. But last night she got the distinct impression he
was single and interested in her. The pig! Just because his wife
was not a nice person, didn’t mean that he could go around taking
ladies out to dinner and trying to kiss them under the moonlight.
Oh, she was going to those sales today and was going to give him a
piece of her mind.

Not knowing the thoughts and feelings
flowing through Kenna, June continued on, “She dug her perfectly
manicured hooks into him when he was playing football in D.C. Her
father is in politics and she found herself a big fish alright.”
June leaned closer and dropped her voice to a whisper again, “But,
when he decided to retire and come back to Kentucky, she threw such
a fit. Some cameraman from one of those celebrity websites caught
her rant as she stood outside some celebrity charity event yelling
at Will that she would never move to some backwater state like
Kentucky. She refused to leave their brownstone and move into a
‘log cabin’,” June said, making the sign of two quotation marks
above her head. “As I said, she’s a witch. But, now she splits her
time between D.C. and Kentucky. She comes for the Derby because of
all the fame surrounding it. She’ll show up to any event with a red
carpet and national broadcast.”

“
Do they have any kids?”
Kenna asked. She was fearful that the man she had once held in such
high esteem had abandoned his wife and kids. No matter what, she
couldn’t ask for help from someone like that.

“
No. I don’t think she
could stand the idea of ruining her figure to have kids. Although,
Will’s never made it a secret that he would like some,” June
answered.

Kenna sighed and looked over to see
Mr. Wolfe staring at her. He gave a slight smile and then stood to
help Miss Lily clear the tables as they walked with their heads
together into the kitchen. Kenna turned back to June and Julius, “I
am sorry, I wish I could go with you right now. But I just have to
get more studying done. You can tell me all about it this evening.”
Kenna rose up from the table, said her goodbyes, and headed back to
the porch. She settled back down in the cushion and opened her
book.

An hour later, Kenna looked up from
her studying to see some people walking down the sidewalk. They
turned and waved, and she waved back. She smiled to herself
thinking the pepper spray and the endless hours of self-defense
classes were probably not as useful down here. Although, it might
come in handy if Miss Violet grabs her again and suffocates her in
her bosom. Kenna laughed at the thought and put her head back into
her book.

Upon hearing and feeling her stomach
rumbling, Kenna pushed up her sleeve and looked at her watch. Oh
gosh, it was almost two o’clock. She marked her page, piled up her
books, and carried them back to her room. She grabbed her purse and
headed for the cafe.

Miss Violet came out of the kitchen
carrying Kenna's lunch. "Thank you." Kenna said when her lunch was
placed in front of her. When the bell tinkled overhead she looked
up and smiled.

“
Hi Paige!”

“
Hello Kenna. How was your
first day in town? I heard you had a date with Will. Looks like you
found him alright.” She smiled and pulled out a chair at Kenna’s
table.

“
Incredible. I won’t even
ask how you know.”

“
That’s easy. I ran into
John on my way here.” Paige smiled and asked for a
salad.

“
I am glad I ran into you.
I wanted to thank you for all your recommendations. Miss Lily’s is
way better than any hotel.”

When Miss Violet returned with Paige’s
lunch, she pulled out the extra chair and sat down. Miss Daisy came
around the table and took the last chair.

"Now, we dish," Miss Daisy said.
"Everyone in the town knows you were in here last night with Will
Ashton and that he took you home. And Lily Rae said she had to take
the broom to him last night. I didn't take young William as the
type who got fresh so fast," Miss Daisy clucked as three sets of
eyes turned to Kenna.

She felt her face turn a light shade
of pink and had to suppress a giggle. She felt as if she had been
part of this town her whole life. The Rose sisters were like fairy
godmothers and she was Sleeping Beauty finally awakening from years
of the same old, same old big city grind. The feeling of warmth and
family radiated around the table. Kenna, who was normally so quiet
and suspicious of anyone but Danielle, felt like good old fashion
girl talk.

"You know, normally when I dish on a
guy it includes chocolate!" Kenna joked.

Apparently not willing to leave it to
chance, Miss Violet jumped up and disappeared into the kitchen
screaming, "Don't you say nothin’ until I get back!" Less than two
minutes later, Violet came back with a huge brownie smothered in
homemade chocolate fudge with ice cream on top.

"Wow. You really are a fairy
godmother," Kenna said out loud.

"Darn skippy," Miss Violet replied
with a grin lighting her face and making her look like a teenager
again.

"Well, I guess I can't get out of it,
can I?" Kenna said.

"Sure can't," Paige said. "I must
admit, I want to know about Will too."

"Well, we came from the sales and then
he fed me to the wolves here. But then he walked me to Miss Lily's
and we talked about our past, playing catch-up on our lives. Then
we were saying goodnight and Miss Lily swatted him with a broom."
Kenna said.

"Oh, come on gal. I know there has to
be more than that. Lily Rae doesn't bring out the broom unless the
young man is angling to get fresh," Miss Violet said and made a
move to take the brownie away.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk. Just don't
hurt the brownie," Kenna laughed and the others joined in a round
of giggles.

"Well, he was moving in for a kiss.
But we didn't get lift off because Miss Lily came out right before
we could kiss. He tried to kiss me again, but got another thwack
from her. I must admit, I was really hoping for that kiss," Kenna
told her avid listeners.

"I am really surprised that Will moved
so fast. He's usually so slow and he never has a girl around during
the sales or Derby because of Whitney," Paige said eliciting nods
from both Miss Violet and Miss Daisy.

"Whitney?" Kenna asked, her stomach
flopped as she waited to hear what Paige was going to tell
her.

"Yeah, Whitney Amber Bruce Ashton,"
Paige said, impersonating a very snobbish person.

Ashton, Kenna thought, her last name
was Ashton. It was true, he did have a wife. She couldn't believe
she'd been so stupid. What a jerk to cheat on his wife. It made her
so mad just to think about it. And, it seemed the whole town knows
about his cheating. Apparently he only curbs it when his wife is in
town.

Paige cut into Kenna's thoughts,
"Though, I usually just call her Bitch."

"Wow, you're the second friendly
person who said that today. What's wrong with her?" Kenna asked. It
seemed on cue, but the whole table rolled their eyes as if they
didn't know where to begin.

"This soup is too hot," Miss Violet
said in her snooty voice.

"This soup is too cold," Miss Daisy
imitated.

"This jewelry is so cheap," Paige
threw in.

"Don't you have any good service in
this hole-in-the-wall town?" Miss Violet said next.