Free The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen Page B

was a nitpicker. Her husband spent a lot of time at his club, which was really a cigar shop downtown, to get away from her. It had taken Adam nearly a year to get her mail delivery exactly how she liked it. Flats together, folded and secured with a rubber band. Letters always separate. The two things placed in the mailbox side by side, never stacked.
    "Hello, Mrs. Ferguson," he said as he opened her box and put the mail in.
    "Nice to see you, Adam," she said. "That happens every day, you know."
    He stopped and reached into his bag for the mail for the next couple of houses. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked absently.
    "Josey. She watches you walk across the street every day."
    Adam looked up.
    "She's a nice girl." Mrs. Ferguson lifted herself to her feet with a grunt. "It's too bad no one sees it."
    "What do you mean?"
    "You aren't from here. You don't know the reputation Josey earned when she was a child."
    "What sort of reputation?"
    "That girl was the meanest, rudest, most unhappy child I've ever known. She could pitch the loudest fits when she didn't get what she wanted, so loud I could hear her from inside my house. I think she broke just about everything her mother ever owned. And she threw tantrums in public just as often. Ask anyone if you don't believe me. Every store owner in town has a story, and a bill. She used to steal candy. Her father was the only one who could control her, but he was hardly ever around. Her mother had her hands full. That's why Margaret never sent Josey to school. She hired tutors to teach her at home."
    "Josey?" Adam said incredulously.
    "I know. If I hadn't seen it for myself on many occasions, I'd find it hard to believe too. She grew up to be so pleasant.
    But she looks sad, don't you think? She reminds me of Rapunzel. You know, like in the fairy tale. The only time she leaves that house is to take her mother to her few social activities, or to run errands for her."
    No, Adam thought. That's not the only time she leaves.
    He turned to look at her house, more curious than he wanted to be.
    Rapunzel had been sneaking out of the castle.

 
    5

    Lemon Drops

    After leaving the letters with her mother, Josey hurried up to her bedroom and went to her window. Adam was still in the Fergusons' yard. With a gasp, she took a step back when he suddenly turned to look at her house.
    Adam was acting strangely and she had a bad feeling this had something to do with Friday night. They had a system, a routine, every day very much the same. She'd obviously startled him by stepping outside of that. While there was a part of her that relished the thought of Adam seeing her in a different way, she was mostly terrified of losing what she already had with him. She went to her closet and opened the door.
    "Don't give me any more advice," she said.
    Della Lee was reading through one of the old notebooks from her box. She was still dressed in most, if not all, of her clothing. Her hair was in a bun today, precariously held in place by her tiara. She looked up and said, "What?"
    "I said, don't give me any more advice. Stop trying to help me. I don't particularly like the way your plan is working out."
    "Why?"
    "Because Adam is acting funny," she said. "If you hadn't encouraged me to go out Friday night, I never would have seen him at the festival and . . . and freaked him out."
    "Did you touch him inappropriately? I never told you to do that."
    "Of course I didn't touch him inappropriately!"
    Della Lee closed the notebook she was reading, then she scratched her forehead. She was getting a little more pale every day, her skin becoming this glowing sort of white transparency. Maybe she'd gotten sick from swimming in the river at this time of year. "Well, it served her right. ^Who goes swimming in the Green Cove River in November? "Then how exactly did you freak him out?"
    "By showing up outside of this," Josey waved her arm, indicating her room, "in makeup and my hair down."
    "Oh my God, you mean he found out you're a