“That’s the way you like it, Mama. I like it with cream only.”
“Oh. Well, then I guess I’ll have a second cup.” She picked up the cup and sat down on the edge of the bed. She took a sip and sighed. “Perfect.” She glanced at Dixie. “Are you going to eat? A lady never skips the most important meal of the day.”
Dixie had always lived by her mama’s sayings. But not today. Her stomach was too upset to put anything in it. She moved the tray to the side. “Thank you for making me breakfast, but sometimes a lady is just not hungry. Where’s Daddy?”
“I left him at the boardinghouse. At breakfast, he got into quite the political discussion with the little old woman who owns the place.”
Dixie couldn’t help but smile. “Miss Gertie.”
Winona took another sip of coffee before she placed the cup on the tray. “She’s quite the character and made it clear how lucky we were to get a room on such short notice. She also told us how proud she was of the deputy you’ve become.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wish I could’ve witnessed your progression. One of the hardest things I’ve done as a mama was to stay away from here these last few months and let my baby grow up.”
“I’ve been grown up for a long time, Mama.”
“No, honey. You might’ve look like an adult, but inside you were still a little girl. And your daddy and I were the reason for that. You’re our only child; we didn’t want you to grow up. We wanted you to stay our baby forever. I wanted to dress you up in fancy dresses and show you off on a big stage and your daddy wanted you to follow in his footsteps so he could be right there with you all the way. I didn’t realize our mistakes until you threw your little tantrum when your daddy wouldn’t give you the money for your business.”
“It wasn’t a tantrum. It was a calculated plan.”
“Tantrum or calculated, it was pure foolishness.” Winona paused. “Or at least I thought so at first. You had me worried sick, Baby Girl, that some criminal would shoot you. But now I realize God had a plan all along.”
“Yeah,” she said dryly. “He obviously wanted to punish me for trying to manipulate my daddy.”
“It was wrong to lie to your daddy and me, Dixie Leigh, but God didn’t punish you, honey. He blessed you by getting you out from under your parents’ rule and putting you in this perfect little town.”
It was a perfect little town. And it wasn’t only the town that was so perfect, it was the people who lived there too. People who had welcomed Dixie into their hearts and homes like she was family. A day didn’t go by that she wasn’t asked to dinner or some birthday or special celebration. She usually had to work, but she had accepted a few offers. Like Luanne’s offer to join the Simple Book Club and Cheyenne’s invitation to her middle school graduation.
The thought of missing both made tears fill her eyes. “It is a perfect little town. And I’m going to miss being their deputy so much.”
“Then why did you turn in your resignation?”
“Because Simple deserves a better deputy than me.” The tears leaked out and ran down her cheeks. “A smarter deputy.”
“Smarter? No one is as smart as my baby girl.” Winona picked up the napkin from the tray and handed it to her.
Dixie blotted her cheeks. “Please don’t tell me you forgot how much I struggled in school, Mama. You wanted me to keep my dyslexia from Daddy, but you were there in the teacher’s meeting.”
Her mother’s eyes widened. “I told you to keep the secret from your daddy? I believe you were the one who cried and begged me not to tell him, Dixie Leigh. I agreed at the time because I didn’t want you throwing a fit in front of your teachers, but later I told your father everything.”
Dixie stared at her. “Daddy knew I was dyslexic? Then why would he push me to go back to law school?”
“Because he knew you could do it. You can do anything you set your mind to, Dixie Leigh. You’ve proven that time and time again. You never have let a little disability keep you from what you wanted. Which means you’re stronger and smarter than most people.”
Dixie was too stunned to speak. She just sat there as her mama continued.
“And what makes you think you’re not a good deputy? Miss Gertie certainly thinks you are. So does her niece Reba and her husband. And so does Lincoln. I guess he went on and on about what a good deputy you are to his boss.”
“Lincoln was just hoping word would get back to daddy and he’d get his promotion.”
Winona smiled. “Funny, but Lincoln didn’t strike me as a brown-noser. In fact, when he answered the door and your daddy asked him what exactly had been going on, he told him it was none of his business.” She smiled. “Just like you did. I knew the second you walked in the door that you had found yourself. I’ve always told you that you can tell a lot about a person by their walk. And you didn’t walk in the door as much as strut. A confident strut that said you were a woman who knew who she was and what she wanted.”
Dixie blew her nose in the napkin. “I thought I did.”
“And now you don’t? I never took you for a fickle female, Dixie Leigh Meriwether. Once you make up your mind about something, few things can change it. Now you’re sitting there telling me that just because a man told a little fib, you’re starting to doubt who you are and what you want?”
All the anger
