Read Online The Sisterhood of the Queen Mamas by Annie Jones - Free Book Online

hand.
    Maxine sighed, and I knew she had begun to see my point.
    We’d been told we could come out today if we parked along the side, out of sight of the road. That meant we had to walk around the chipped but still impressive screen of the drive-in screen to get to the gate where everyone entered on flea market day. I don’t think Bernadette had considered that little hike when she had dressed this morning, and I could just imagine her stomach clenching as she thought about the kinds of things her mother and grandmother might say to her about the foolishness of her choices. I was wondering what I might call out or do to help her along when Jake finally paused and reached down to slip the keys from Bernadette’s hand.
    She tipped her head up to look into his eyes. There were not many men who stood over her that way, and I could tell she liked the new experience. She said something, glanced down, then lifted one foot and rotated her ankle.
    Jake laughed and held his arms up, and I could just imagine him saying, Here, jump in my arms and I’ll carry you away.
    Then, without making a big deal out of it, he offered her his arm to steady her as they began to walk toward us again.
    Big sigh. “I mean, I was never one of those who found it her place to meddle in people’s love lives. To try to get everyone neatly paired up and married off.”
    “Mmm-hmm.”
    “But I just have this good feeling about Bernadette and Jake.”
    “A good feeling about…” She put her hands on her hips. “Were you not at the church yesterday? Because I honestly believe that was you I saw there setting up this subcommittee and arranging for us to come out here this warm Thursday morning to take a tour of the place without the distraction of the flea market traffic and vendors.”
    “What’s your point?”
    “Did you not see that travesty yesterday? The man thinks the girl is a klutz. And he is not wrong in that thinking.”
    “Klutziness is no obstacle to love, Maxine.” Though it suddenly occurred to me that if she stumbled while hanging on to his arm, and he ended up twisting his ankle or tearing his shirt, it might be an obstacle to other things—like wanting to ever be around her again. Now that would be an obstacle to love. “But I think, once he sees her here in her natural setting—”
    “Her natural setting? She’s not an exotic bird released into the wild.” Maxine flapped her arms a couple times to bring home her point. “She is a never-married bridal-and-formalwear retailer who has a small and a tiny bit tacky booth peddling classy things at a not-so-classy flea market to people like you and me who stop to ooh and aah over them but never buy a thing, Odessa. Seeing her here is only going to cement in the man’s mind that she is always out of her element.”
    “No. You don’t think that of her, do you?”
    “I think…Odessa, honey, all your good intentions aside, I think that anybody who has that feeble self-esteem and that family of hers will always seem out of her element until she learns to stand up for herself. You want to help Bernadette? You help her do that. Don’t try to get her married off to a minister. You of all people know how easy it is to lose yourself in that role.”
    It was good advice.
    I’ve never been good at taking good advice.
    The pair reached us and greeted us. I must have smiled a little too long or too sweetly at them, because after a second or two, Jake glanced down at the arm Bernadette was holding, then at me, and then stuck out his other arm. It had all the markings of saying to me that he wanted to make me feel included, but I knew that to Bernadette it said what everyone from her closest family to the delivery boy who praised her company’s name really thought. You are nothing special, girl.
    I refused the offer with a pat, then stood back to let them lead the way around to the front of the drive-in.
    “Don’t you see, Maxine?” I tugged on her to keep her from marching right up