Diana Anderson - Entering Southern Country 01 - Famous in a Small Town Read Online Free Page B

overweight.
    Mavis, their cook, brought two glasses of iced mint tea and set them down at their place settings. The plump older woman smiled at Suzanne. “Will there be anything else?”
    Angus looked up at her. “Have you seen Lupe?”
    She lost her smile and looked at him. “No, sir.”
    His jaw clenched. He ran a hand over his hair to the base of his neck and rubbed his fingers into the tight muscles.
    “Why, dear,” Suzanne said, “Lupe quit yesterday morning. Don’t worry, I’ve called the cleaning service, and they’re trying to find someone to take her place.”
     

7
     
     
    “Virgil?” Wanda called out as she entered the front door of their trailer. She toted the plastic grocery bags to the kitchen counter. A crease formed between her brows. His truck was parked in the driveway. Maybe he was still out in the woods, but he seldom stayed out after ten in the morning when the temperature was so high. The temperature gage on the front porch read ninety-two degrees.
    With the back of her hand she wiped the sweat from her brow. She tucked her gray-streaked, light brown hair behind her ears and fluffed her bangs.
    “God, I hope he didn’t shoot himself.” She peeked through a crack in the cardboard over the front window. The glass hadn’t been replaced since the blast. There wasn’t a visible clue to his where-abouts, not even a deer hung from the rope that dangled over the number two washtub under the tree out front. She walked from the open kitchen and living area toward the hallway and then followed dirty footprints on the carpet that she had vacuumed that morning.
    “Virgil?” She glanced in the bathroom. His dirt crusted boots were on the floor near the commode. Chunks of dried dirt and leaves were tracked into the bathroom that she’d mopped a day ago. She walked on down the hallway and came to an abrupt halt at the doorway of their bedroom. Her mouth gaped.
    He was stretched out on their bed and wore nothing but an ear-to-ear grin. His hands rested under his head and his legs were crossed at the ankles. He had an erection.
    “What … ?” Wanda was speechless as her dark blue eyes scanned the bedspread. She stepped over to the foot of the bed. “Where … ?” She reached down to touch the slips of paper scattered about on the faded blue bedspread. When her fingertips touched one, she jerked her hand back. She snatched one up and eyed it. “Oh, my goodness! Where did you get all of this?” She jerked her eyes toward him. “Virgil, please tell me you didn’t rob a bank.”
    He laughed. “I ain’t robbed no bank.”
    She held up the one hundred dollar bill and asked, “Is this … real?”
    “Hell yeah, it’s real.” He sat up, grabbed handfuls of bills scattered on the bed around him, and tossed them into the air. “Baby, we’re rich.”
    She reached out, grabbed several more bills, and eyed them. “They’re all one hundred dollar bills.” She looked at him again. “Where did you get this?”
    “Buried in the woods back behind the house.”
    “But—”
    “Don’t worry ‘bout it, Wanda. It’s all ours free and clear.” He hopped off of bed and hoisted the duffel bag from the floor and set it down on the bed. Dust flew up and then settled on the bedspread. He reached inside and pulled out a stacked bundle of one hundred dollar bills. “There are five hundred, one hundred dollar bills in a stack.” He flipped through the ends. “There are thirty-nine stacks in this bag not countin’ what I’ve got here in my hand.” He pointed to the bed. “And what you see scattered here is just one stack.” His eyes twinkled with tears. “Do you know how much that is?”
    Confusion covered Wanda’s face.
    His throat tightened. He swallowed several times and wiped a tear from his cheek. “Two million freakin’ dollars!”
    “You counted it all?”
    “There was a stack with a busted band, but I’m sure it’s all here.”
    “And … it’s ours?” Wanda brought the bills in