Gossip
So much of Will's life is influenced by the town gossips. In such a small town as Cold Sassy there really isn't much to do. The neighbors spend a lot of their time worrying about other people's affairs out of sheer boredom. Unfortunately for Will, this tendency to gossip gets him in trouble and grounded for kissing Lightfoot at the cemetery. A community so tightly-knit as Cold Sassy is slow to accept outsiders. Ms. Love comes from Baltimore, so she doesn't have a lot of friends in town. When she marries Rucker, she becomes the victim of some particularly slanderous rumors.
Grief
All of the characters are grieving over the loss of Mattie Lou at the beginning of the novel. This makes Rucker's second marriage, so suddenly, exceptionally strange. He misses his wife, to be sure, but he knows that he shouldn't be living alone at his age. He's the kind of man who thinks realistically about himself. As a consequence of his actions, his daughters have a worse time working through their grief. They don't understand his choice to get remarried so soon after their mom's death, so they withdraw from him. In particular, Mary becomes depressed. She holds his marriage against him, especially when he changes his mind about giving her the tickets to New York in order to take Ms. Love for a romantic weekend.
Confession
These people have a lot a secrets. In such a high-pressure community, it's no wonder that the neighbors feel inclined to keep their business under wraps. Will gets to be the confidant for several important secrets over the course of the book. To begin with, Rucker tells him his plans before marrying Ms. Love. Then, as he's getting to know Love better, Will learns the secret of their practical marriage. They got married as a contract for exchange of services, but they don't have a sexual relationship at the beginning. In New York, Love confesses the dark secrets of her past, explaining why she doesn't want to have a romantic relationship with Rucker. She was raped by her dad when she was a child, and now she feels worthless and undeserving of Rucker's affections. Finally, Love entrusts Will with the secret of her pregnancy after Rucker dies. She doesn't want the entire town to know her business, but she's nervous about being pregnant and friendless.
