Mills

Being the youngest was not ideal but being the one closest to dad had its perks. Well, not when he was still trying to slap me upside the back of my head for fucking up. He was right but Rebecca and I had been fighting for a while now. I don’t even know why but we’d been at each other’s throats for little to nothing. Shit like, I forgot to call or I didn’t notice her haircut. She kept talking about marriage and shit I hadn’t even gotten to yet in my life. One of my brothers was engaged to be married and the other one was lovesick over a woman. I had been in a relationship with the same woman for seven years. We’d talked about the marriage thing, even looked at houses, but I never felt compelled to do anything about the next steps. We weren’t there.

Up until recently, I could only see myself with her but now I started to see Miller Timms without her. What I really wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, and Rebecca was no longer in the equation. I think she subconsciously knew this and that was why we were constantly fighting all the time. If I had to be honest, I think she felt the same way.

Today, she and I were arguing because I planned to go on a trip with just my brothers and I did not include her. Knox was having a hard time, so J.D. thought it would be a good idea to get him away for a bit. Rebecca must have overheard the conversation, then she starts to mention marriage, yet again and I had to remind her who she was talking to, because I was not her father.  He did not dictate my life, nor would begging move me. If I were to tie the knot, it would be on my own accord.

This did not have me in a good mood. Needless to say, when a customer came to the counter for checkout, I was snapping. Most people knew us and were a lot more patient, but that constant ringing of the bell and all the shit with Rebecca yelling in my ear, pissed me off even more.

When the woman walked away from us, I was relieved even though I knew Pops would lose his fucking mind.

Which he did.

Hence, why I was at this woman’s house who slammed the door in my face twice. That shit pissed me off even more but there was something cute about her.

I left, but I knew that would not be the last of her. I’d make sure of it.

The next day, I was actually sitting at the barn’s open window so that when customers did come, I was visible, available and ready. Pops didn’t have to threaten to kick my ass, even though he already did. He was right. The man had always talked about people first and in this case, the customer was always first and right.

It was about ten o’clock in the morning when I saw a familiar figure come trotting over the hill that separated our land from our neighbors. The woman, whose name I didn’t catch, lived on a small patch of land owned by Walter Munn. The man had been a long friend of Pops and he obtained his income from the realty business, even in Libby.

“There you go,” I heard her not so small voice.

It was a sound that a man could come to love but her tone was not happy.

The woman from yesterday walked over with the bags that I left in her porch chest. Any sort of food that wolves or raccoons could smell and steal was not ideal.

Once she reached the wooden table we used to weigh, inspect and ring up, the woman dumped the contents of the bags on the table and glared at me.

She was pretty cute.

“When I say I don’t want to patronize you, that means I don’t want anything from you and I mean just that.” A sharp hiss came from her mouth. “Not even charity, a gift, or dropping food on my porch. Are we clear?”

Leaving the food that she originally wanted was Pops’ idea because he always felt we needed to right our wrongs. Tripling the food, she wanted was my idea because I figured she was new in town and needed some extra things, so she would not spend all of her money at Sarah’s. I had heard there was a new stranger in town that Knox had insulted during one of his drunken rages against women. The funny part about that was that folks thought I might have known the woman because she was black like J.D.’s fiancée, Tess and her best friend, Nina. I guess Libby was that small of a town to know that any new face, especially a black woman, had something to do with the Timms.

Sadly enough, Rebecca said we were progressive because everyone wasn’t so open to races mixing. I never figured she was one of those people until recently. That shit downright pissed me off because she was someone I had known, dated and loved for years. How did I not see that side of her? Mills thought she treated Tess different and though I wasn’t willing to admit it at the time to him, I knew it the minute it happened. I called her on that shit. Rebecca tried to act like it was an honest mistake but it was a glaring red flag for me.

“No, we’re not clear.” I hopped over the bottom half of the barn window.

It wasn’t an aggressive move but it could have been. This woman didn’t flinch.

“Your name?” I asked.

“No need for you to know.” She countered. “Now, are we clear?”

“We’re not.” I folded my arms over my chest. “We wronged you and we’ll make it right.”

One of her perfectly arched eyebrows rose before she hissed back, “No, you wronged me.”

“Fine,” I snapped. “I did. Now, the question is, are you going to get over it?”

“Get over it?” She scoffed.

Well, if I thought she would stay and argue, I was wrong. The woman turned on her heels and started to walk away.

“You can leave,” I called, “But I’ll only be there again tonight with more stuff that we think you might need. Also, the next night, the night after that and the next. Hell, I can keep this up for as long as you’re here. You’re in one of those college programs, aren’t ya?” My arms stayed folded. “What’s that the rest of this semester? Wait, is it two years?”

The curvy thing huffed and I remained in place.

“Are you one of those?” Her back remained to me.

“One of what?” I laughed.

“Those folks that don’t seem to understand the word no. That type.” Annoyance clearly in her voice.

“Oh, I’m a Timms, lady.” I informed her. “I understand the word no, just fine. Now, do I abide by it? Well, that’s something different.”

It seemed as if she was talking or negotiating with herself. Then she quickly turned around and marched back over to me, gathered the bags, put everything she dumped out, back into the bag and asked with a huff, “Is that it? Will you leave me alone now?”

“Need a name.” I replied.

“Nadine.” She held out her hand, palm up, as if to ask if there was anything else.

“I need a meal.” I found myself saying.

Those narrowed eyes hit mine before she asked, “What?”

What was wrong with my mouth?

“Going to need you to cook me a meal.”

I kept going. It was too late to back down at that point.

“I’m not cooking you a damn meal!” Nadine hissed with wide eyes. “Are you mad?”

“Listen, darling. Your call. You want me to stop and not harass you for two years or however long you’re here? Make a man a meal. As a matter of fact, make two men a meal. My Pops’ reputation will be restored.”

Her head was shaking as if she could not believe that was happening. I could have sworn she muttered, ‘if he had you, his reputation would forever be destroyed.’

“You’re mad.” She repeated.

“What say you, ma’am?” I asked with one challenging eyebrow.

“Fine.” She snatched the bag in front of her and said, “I’ll cook a meal.”

Nadine began to walk off and I called behind her, “Cook here tomorrow and we eat at six.”

The curvy shape of the saucy woman swayed in the sun and the contrast of her skin and the grass green sundress made the image before me, absolutely perfect. What made it funny, was her middle finger going up as she made an exit.

***

“POPS, THAT WOMAN FROM over the hill is coming to cook us dinner tomorrow.” I called when I heard pots and pans clanging together in the kitchen.

“Oh, yeah?” He hollered from the other room. “She any good? Don’t eat everyone’s cooking.”

Shit if I knew how good she was, I just wanted to be around her.

“Don’t know.” I admitted.

“What? Is Rebecca coming?” He asked.

“No,” I answered quickly.

Pops poked his head out of the kitchen doorway and asked, “Urr, something I need to know about?”

Huh?

“No.”

“You invited a gal over here to cook dinner for you and your Pops. You don’t know if she can cook or not, and your own girlfriend of umpteen years is not invited.” One of his greyish eyebrows rose. “What did I miss?”

Well, when he put it like that, it seemed like something was amiss.

“It’s nothing, Pop. Not trying to hear Becca’s voice. That’s my right.” I clarified.

“Yeah, son.” He moved outside of the kitchen, so I could see his whole body. “Not saying it ain’t your right, just be careful with the line. That uh, Oprah lady say people can cheat emotionally. They don’t ever have to get naked and bang, but they still cheated. Don’t want you to have that sort of situation.”

I could have acted like I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I knew and deep down somewhere I couldn’t reach; I didn’t care.

“Not looking to have any situation, Pops. Just...she’s cooking dinner for us. It ain’t me alone.”

Pops lips turned down and he sucked in air.

“Yeah, well. Can’t say you weren’t told.” He called back, before walking back into the kitchen to bang more pots and pans around.

I went to my house almost thirty minutes away with the nagging feeling that Pops’ words would haunt me but instead, I turned off my phone and played Fortnite with my PlayStation.

The next morning, I woke up with a burst of energy. It stemmed from anticipation and I knew it. What I didn’t know was Rebecca would decide to make her rounds to start her shit right after the lunch hour since she worked at the law firm in town as the legal assistant. She had started college a few years ago but dropped out after she failed her biology class. My major was in agriculture and biology, but Rebecca wanted no help from me. On a drunken day, she jokingly admitted that I intimidated her intellectually. At the time, I didn’t push it but I never forgot the statement because it made sense as we began to argue over minuscule things.

Around one o’clock, Rebecca’s small, red Ford pickup turned and kicked up dust around the barn and it was almost as if her hair was burning red, which matched her face. The woman was hot and for the life of me, I could have cared less.

“Miller,” her voice snapped. “Miller!”

She called me that when she was on one. There was no need to respond since she was standing in front of me. 

“Rebecca,” I responded in a bored tone.

“I haven’t heard from you in god knows when. No return of my calls and after our last discussion when you hung up on me.” Her voice lowered. “What’s your deal?”

Granted, it felt like the two of us have been fighting nonstop for the past year. Therefore, my simple life was becoming complicated and my patience was thin.

“I’m tired, Becca.” I made a point to look into her eyes. “I’m tired of the fussing, arguing, and it’s all the fucking time. No one knows why, but I’m tired.”

This caused her to gasp and the wind in those sails quickly deflated.

“What are you saying?” She said in a low voice.

“I’m saying, I’m tired,” I repeated.

Her eyes met mine.

“You don’t want to be with me?” She asked. “We’ve been working at this for a long time, Mills. I mean, by God, we should be married by now. You don’t just throw what we have away like a holy sock. Every couple goes through rough patches in their relationship. We’ll weather the storm.”

It wasn’t clear why she set me off, but she did. I hopped over the half window and hissed, “What would our marriage look like now? You think being married fixes anything? Having kids going to fix that? What do we have, Becca? I ask this all the time and you never have an answer but it’s your solution to the problem. We’re not kids anymore and adding legal and permanent bags to an already broken wagon is foolish at best and asinine at worst.”

Rebecca’s face morphed into another ball of fire before she hissed back at me, “You just think you’re better than me. I may not be the smartest, but I know you, Mills. I know your family and y’all think that because y’all made some money off a half-wit idea that y’all are better than the folks of Libby. Well, y’all not. No matter where Knox moves and how much y’all are in the papers, or you are teaching at that college. Y’all still the boys that clogged up the creek and painted downtown red. You ain’t no different than me. I know you.”

All I could see was pure venom in her eyes. That reference to my family and how we thought we were on airs burned me up.

“What’s with your fixation with my family? Huh? They ever treat you different? They didn’t invite you in or act like they didn’t like you?” I asked.

“Yes!” She shot back.

“They’ve never,” I fired back to her with anger embedded in my tone.

“Oh, yes! J.D. yelled at me and so did Knox.” This was her retort.

“Because you were rude to our guest.”

“I was a guest too!”

“No, Rebecca. You were family.” I answered.

“Were?” Her eyes grew to the size of saucers.

My head shook because I had enough of these arguments. There was no getting through to her about anything and I was tapped out.

“Rebecca, bye. I am at my place of business and as I told you before, I’m tired.” Turning my back, I hopped back over the half door and went into the barn.

“Miller,” she snapped. “Miller, come back here and you talk to me. You owe me that.”

“I owe you nothing,” I yelled back. “Nothing at all.”

She was yelling and saying something else, but I checked our inventory until I heard the bell. I don’t think I could count jars of strawberry preserves anymore. It was nobody but Ms. Ida with her daily visit to see Pops. She bought something every single time and found an excuse to go to the house or the farm, wherever he was. We would always laugh and tease Pops about it and he’d just cuss us out.

This time, Ms. Ida started telling me about the local gossip, including one graduate student who had moved over the hill and probably needed a friend. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought the woman was trying to hook me up.

“I have friends,” I replied with a lift of my brow.

“Well, yeah. I know ya got friends, but maybe a companion?” Her bushy eyebrows rose in wonder.

“A companion?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she turned and murmured, “That thing ya father won’t budge on.”

“Ur,” I wasn’t sure what to say.

Then the older woman waved me away and said, “I know ya got that Becca girl but...” she leaned towards the window and whispered, “I ain’t never liked that one no way. Too needy. Not right for you. She wants someone like her daddy. Just lovesick with no spine. That mama of hers will run that man into a heart attack. Take it from me. That ain’t you.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the older woman’s words.

Wise ones, for sure.

“Ms. Ida, come over for dinner tonight.”

She turned her head towards the house before she lowered her voice. “Ya father going to be there?”

This woman had the most massive and public crush on Pops. He acted like he couldn’t stand her attention. Ever since our mother left, he was on this women ain’t worth the headache sort of mantra. 

“Yeah, he’ll be there.” I informed her.

“Sure, I’ll bring my famous string beans casserole.” She offered.

“No need, we’ll have everything provided. Just bring yourself.” I smiled.

She patted my face and said, “You were always the handsome one.”

The truth was we all looked very much alike, depending on the state of our facial hair.

“Okay, see you there.”

That was payback for Pops slapping me upside the back of my head. He’d only do it again but I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when Ms. Ida came by.

***

ON A TYPICAL DAY, I would take a shower at night and handle all of my facial grooming in the morning. I deviated from my regular schedule and took an additional bath. When I walked downstairs as it was close to when folks started to cook dinner, Pops took one look at my attire, snorted and said, “Just dinner, huh?”

There was no use in arguing with him about the what and why of my relationships.

Around six-fifteen, a knock on the door came pulling me from my trance after getting sucked into watching some stupid ass cartoon with a baby dragon who caused havoc in the forest and spoke no English.

Hopping up to get the door, I hear a small, “Hello.”

It was the woman, Nadine, from over the hill. She was clothed in a sundress and had a lab coat hanging over her forearm. In her hands were several brown bags of Rogers Produce.

Holy shit.

Nabbing her elbow, I tried to push her back out of the house but was interrupted.

“Is that fucking Rogers in my house?” Dad screeched.

“Shit,” I muttered. “We don’t bring Rogers in this house.”

Nadine’s wide, brown eyes met mine and utter confusion was mixed in with a little shock.

“What?” She asked.

“He said we don’t bring Rogers in this house.” Pops reiterated. “You didn’t tell her?”

His attention turned towards me but I shrugged and pulled her closer to my side. Her little head turned up and she snatched her arm away from me.

“Well, sir. I don’t support you or your son’s business. So, I can’t shop here. Therefore, I need to purchase my produce elsewhere.” She looked at me again. “So, yeah. Are you all, ready to eat or am I released from this asinine deal?”

All eyes turned to look at one another before they fell on me.

“Yoo-hoo,” Ms. Ida called from behind Nadine. “I’m here for dinner.”

Pops rolled his eyes in the air and murmured, “Mother of God.”

He jerked his head toward the kitchen, signaling for me to follow him.

Shit.

He marched towards the east side of the room and after welcoming Ms. Ida, I followed him.

The old man had a mostly salty beard and less pepper mix. He still looked younger than most. In shape, muscular and every woman, single or connected, wanted a piece of Pops. He would have none of it.

“You invited her over here as some part of a deal?” He hissed. “Thought you said you fixed this. I’m almost scared to eat the food as piping mad as she looks.”

“Pops, it’s fine.” I laughed. “She’s fine. Just got her panties in a twist.”

Damn, that was the wrong metaphor to use by the lifting of Pops’ eyebrows.

“Come on, it’ll be fine.” I turned to leave.

“Son, you better make this shit right. Figuring she’ll be over here more often than not, so if she brings Rogers in here again, I’ll be the one needing to make it right.”

Pops and his hate of Roger Prado has been happening since we were kids. Apparently, Troy went there to buy some food, but overcharged him by almost eight dollars. This was before the time of electronic registers, nutrition labels and apparently standard prices. When my brother returned home with a bag of groceries that were so overpriced, Pops drove him back down to Rogers and they got into a big brawl and Roger would not refund the money. It was that year, that Pops started to actually sell the vegetables and other things from the farm to the locals. This was to put a dent in Rogers Produce, which it did and provide other work besides tending to the horses, fields, and other animals. My schedule still consisted of working on the farm and then the produce after we finished that work. We had discussed training a student or kid to work at the store, because if I was to take over the farm and needed to keep the other things like the store running. 

The older man pushed past me and went back into the living room. I followed only to see Ms. Ida and Nadine whispering and nodding their heads.

Shit, nothing good can come from two women agreeing in a house of men where there is already contention.