by Amy Boyles
Chapter 4
I took Dottie’s peaches over to the Peachwood Quilting Bee as a gift to Malene for making me the chocolate silk pie.
The quilting bee was located in the back of the Peachwood library, of all places. Once a week three older ladies got together to quilt and gossip.
I parked my old Ford, which sputtered and squealed to a stop, right as Shane was walking into his bar. He took one look at me and crossed the street, heading over.
At the same time I noticed the ladies in the quilting bee through the windows. Malene saw Shane trotting, and she waved over the rest of her friends to take a gander at him. Next thing I knew, three wrinkled faces were pressed against the glass, ogling Shane Prader.
I rolled my eyes. I swear, those old ladies would give catcalling construction workers a run for their money.
Shane came to a stop in front of me. “Hey, Clem. You out buying for old Dooley?”
I groaned. “Not at the moment, thank goodness, but I did have to deal with him today. I swear, between Malene, Willard and Dooley, I really don’t know which of them is the worst.”
As Shane laughed, the corners of his eyes fanned. “Listen, I’m getting off work early tonight, and I was wondering…”
Oh my gosh, was Shane Prader about to ask me out on a date? Everyone knew that he’d been seeing a nail technician a couple of towns over. Had they broken up?
“Yes?” I said, tucking my chin so that Shane wouldn’t see my neck get all red and splotchy. Whenever I got nervous, it always showed on my neck first—big red blobs that looked like puzzle pieces dotted my flesh.
I did not want Shane to think that he got me all worked up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Malene watching the whole thing, and I swear she was mouthing for me to go for it.
That old lady didn’t even know what was going on. But no doubt Malene thought she did.
Shane’s gaze cut to his feet before lifting to meet mine. “I was wondering if you’d like to grab a couple of beers, make a fire and sit in an open field and talk.”
“You got women problems you need to chat about?” I asked.
Shane chuckled. “No women problems. I just thought”—his gaze seared into me and I knew my neck was a splotchy mess, so I tucked my chin even farther—“that it was time I got to know you better.”
“Oh,” I replied, unsure of what to say.
A rapping on the window grabbed my attention. Shane and I glanced over, and Malene shouted, “Say yes!”
I raked my fingers through my hair and exhaled. “Well, at least we were able to keep it quiet for—never.”
Shane laughed again before turning away from the window and focusing on me. “So, you up for it?”
What else was I doing tonight? Poring over color swatches? Sitting by a fire with a hot guy sounded a thousand times better than sitting at home, alone.
“Sure thing,” I said. “I’d love to.”
“Pick you up at seven?”
“Perfect.”
Shane went on his way, and I stalked toward the library, glaring at Malene through the glass.
The three ladies sat quietly quilting in a room off the main floor of the library. As soon as I entered, Malene glanced up. “Why, Clem, what are you doing here?”
“Don’t even try to act like you’re not in trouble.” I handed her the peaches. “Those are from Dottie. They’re thanks for the chocolate silk pie.”
Malene opened the sack and inhaled. “Does Dottie know you were bringing them to me?”
I shook my head and sat in a rocking chair. “No. Why?”
“Because,” Norma Ray said, “if Dottie knew you were giving them to Malene, she wouldn’t have given them to you in the first place.”
“Oh Lord, you women and your rivalries.”
Norma Ray peered up from sewing, the square of fabric about an inch from her face. “It’s well-known that the only reason Dottie became the Peach Queen back in ’62 was because she was dating Dooley at the time. If she hadn’t been dating Dooley, Malene would have won. Now, where did I put that backing? A minute ago it was right here.”
“If you wore your glasses, you’d be able to find it,” Malene said snidely.
“I do not need glasses,” Norma Ray countered.
Where Malene wore slippers everywhere she went and always had her blue hair up in a bun, Norma Ray was the complete opposite. She dressed in colors reminiscent of spring, cardigans and button-down blouses. Needless to say, Norma was very put together except for the whole thing about wearing her glasses.
“You do need glasses,” Urleen Crenshaw said. Urleen was the youngest of the three, if you considered sixty-five young. But she was also a mother hen, as was proven when she pulled out an extra set of glasses from her purse. “Take these, Norma. I got them at the Walgreens. They’ve got just about everything at the Walgreens. Why, I swear, if you need anything, you just go there and they’ll have it for you.”
Norma swatted the glasses away. “No thanks, I’m doing just fine on my own. Ouch! Poked myself with the needle.” She popped her finger into her mouth as Urleen and Malene shot each other pointed looks.
“Whatever you say,” Urleen said.
“Enough with all this nonsense.” Malene put down her square and glanced at me. “What were you and Shane talking about?”
I scoffed. “Since at the window you commanded me to say yes, I figured you already knew.”
“Oh, we do,” Urleen stated, “but we just want to make sure.”
“What happened with Shane is no one’s business,” I said.
“I agree,” Norma Ray chimed. “If the handsomest bachelor this side of the Mississippi wants to take our sweet Clementine out on a date, it’s nobody’s business but y’all’s.” She eyed me with excitement. “That is, unless you want to go ahead and confirm our suspicions.”
There would be no getting out of this, would there? Unless the quilting bee knew exactly what was going on, their heads would fall off. It just came with the small-town territory, I suppose. Old ladies had to know all the ins and outs and the happenings. So me and Shane having a private conversation would just about drive those three bonkers.
I sighed. Might as well tell them before Malene started a rumor that Shane and I were getting married. Heck no, I would not put that past her. Trust me, it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened, and I doubt it would be the last.
“Just so y’all won’t make up some crazy story, I’ll go ahead and tell you.”
Malene smiled before quickly forcing her lips back into a neutral position. “Oh? Well, only if you want to. We’ll be okay without knowing.”
“Now that is a lie, Malene, and you know it,” Urleen quipped. “Why, you were just saying that if you didn’t find out what Shane asked, then you were going to follow his truck tonight.”
My jaw unhinged as I stared at her. “Malene, are you honestly telling me that you would have spied on Shane just to find out what he had asked?”
Malene grimaced. “For the sake of this town, I would, and I’m not ashamed of it. Why, one time, my snooping paid off. Old Man Juniper was just about set the town on fire. If I hadn’t discovered him making Molotov cocktails, half of Peach Street would have burned to the ground.”
“I’ve never heard that story,” I murmured.
“That’s because Old Man Juniper doesn’t try that sort of thing as much anymore.” Malene shook a finger at me. “But you can bet your biscuits that I still watch him.”
“Now, now, we all know the service that you do for Peachwood, Malene.” Norma Ray reached over to pat her hand and ended up patting the rocking chair’s arm instead. “You are a gem to us. Why is your hand so wooden?”
“Because you’re fondling the chair,” Urleen said sharply. “If you’d wear your glasses, you would know that.”
Norma Ray scoffed.
“Shane asked me to sit by a bonfire with him and have a couple of drinks tonight. No big deal. He said he wanted to get to know me better.”
“Ooo, somebody likes somebody else,” Malene gushed. “That Shane’s a good one. You couldn’t do much better than him, at least not in Peachwood.”
“Isn’t he dating that nail tech?” Urleen asked.
“That’s what I wondered.” I slumped down into my chair and brought one leg over the other, wagging my foot in the air. “I was sure he had a girlfriend.”
Norma Ray hiked her shoulders to her ears. “Probably broke up. You know how it is with these young folks and their social media.”
Urleen scowled. “What does social media have to do with anyone breaking up?”
“You know, maybe she posted a nudie picture and Shane didn’t like what he saw.” Norma Ray dropped her voice. “Maybe she has a mole on her bottom or zits on her boobs. Who knows.”
I bit back a laugh. Oh Lord, what these women didn’t say.
Malene poked the air with her finger. “There’s one definite way to find out if they broke up.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
When she spoke, her words were laced with mystery. “The gossip line will tell us. All we have to do is start the gossip line phone tree and we’ll know the truth in minutes.”
Malene put down her quilting and rose. I lifted my hand to stop her. “That’s okay. You don’t have to do the gossip line, at least not for me. Why don’t I just go on my, er, date, or whatever it is, and find out what he wants.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Malene winked. “But I’ll still start the gossip line.”
I groaned. “Can you do me a favor and not start that until after I leave?”
“Fine by me,” she said.
I glanced at my watch. “Oh, would you look at that. I need to stop by Architectural Scavengers.” Rising, I shouldered my purse. “I promised Sadie that I’d check out their light fixtures for Dooley Hutto’s barn.”
Malene pulled a face.
“What?” I said. “What’d I say?”
“It’s not what you said,” Urleen answered, “it’s who. You were talking about Sadie.”
I threaded my fingers through my hair. “What is your deal with her, Malene?”
“Oh, it’s not just her deal,” Norma Ray corrected. “It’s all our deals. None of us like her. She’s as bad as her mother.”
Her mother? “Why?”
The three women exchanged a quick look before Malene spoke. “Don’t you go worrying about other people’s business now, Clementine. You’ve got enough on your hands with that handsome Shane asking you out.”
“‘Don’t go worrying about other people’s business’?” I repeated, dumbfounded. “That’s all y’all do.”
“Well, we’re old so we have a right,” Urleen replied. “When you get to be our age, you can dally in other folks’ affairs as well. Until then, it would be best if you just stuck to what you know—yourself.”
“So you’re not going to tell me,” I said.
Malene shook her head. “Some things are better left not talked about.”
I stared at them a moment, wondering if it was worth it to press the issue. Deciding that it wasn’t, I stretched and rose. “All right, then. Y’all keep your secrets.”
As I started to walk out the door, Malene’s voice stopped me in my tracks. “Clementine?”
“Yes?” I asked.
“Thank you for the peaches, and figuring that I’d see you pretty soon, I brought your next few days of breakfasts.”
My ears pricked up at that. I never, and I mean never, turned down one of Malene’s desserts. Yes, I ate dessert for breakfast—sue me.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Malene’s eyes twinkled with delight. “Coca-Cola cake.”
I know my jaw hit the floor. “With homemade icing?”
Malene winked at me. “You got it, kiddo. It’s the good kind of icing—the kind that has a little crunch.”
“Where is it?” I said, almost too excitedly.
Malene nodded toward the table where the ladies had deposited their handbags. I quickly spotted the foil-covered dish and nabbed it before Malene changed her mind. “Thank you, I’ll bring back the dish.”
Malene smiled like a Cheshire cat. “I know you will, dear. I know you will.”
Chapter 5
“This is really nice, Shane. Really nice.”
Shane and I sat behind a small bonfire that he’d built on top of a bluff. Beyond the fire, trees swayed from the forest floor—tall pines, oaks and poplars. The bluff was high enough that we were nearly eye level with the tops of the pines. Watching them sway had almost a dizzying effect.
Lady darted among the grass, trying to find crickets that chirped.
“Be careful, Lady,” I cautioned. “Stay close.”
She gave me a side-eye glance before heading off into a thick patch of grass.
Shane threw a log on the fire. “You promise that you’re not just pretending to like it?”
I huddled under a blanket that he’d given me. “It’s amazing. Really and truly beautiful.”
He pointed to the sky. “Sit out here long enough and we should be able to see shooting stars.”
“I don’t recall the last time I watched one.”
He smiled, his eyes shining. “Then maybe it’s about time you remember.”
The way the words slipped from his lips surprised me. Shane and I had always been friends, but this new attention was something that I didn’t know how to take.
I snuggled down into the canvas chair and eyed him shyly. The angle of his face as he stared at the fire highlighted how handsome he was—as if it were possible for him to be more good-looking.
I licked my lips. “Can I ask you something?”
He stoked the logs. “Sure.”
“I was surprised when you asked me here tonight,” I said. Ugh, how I hated to do this, but I had to know what was going on with him. “I thought that you were seeing someone.”
“I was.” He paused, considering his words. “We broke it off a couple of weeks back. It just wasn’t the right thing for me.”
The way he looked at me made my heart jump. This was so strange. We’d never gotten together before, I guess because usually one of us was casually seeing someone else—him more than me.
Ugh. Dating. I hated it. It seemed like all the guys who asked me out were either ten years too young for my thirty-three, or they were forty years my senior. I’d arrived in Peachwood at twenty-eight, and in small towns like this one, most folks were married by then—men and women. I had dated a few guys. They were nice, but none of them ever lit me up.
Shane was about the only person who did, and he was always seeing someone, but never too seriously—at least according to Malene. He didn’t strike me as the type to be serious.
Maybe I wasn’t the serious type, either.
“So you never settled down,” Shane said suggestively.
And here it was…the question as to why I wasn’t married. “I’ve never met anybody I wanted to settle with, I guess.” Totally true, and somewhat of a lie.
My mind flashed to that night in a bar, when I met him, the man who’d made it hard for me to trust any other man alive.
Shane settled back onto his chair and stared into the flames. “You know, I was hurt real bad once, by my high school sweetheart. I thought we’d get married. Thought we’d have kids, the whole thing.”
Here it was—Shane’s wound, whatever had stopped him in the past from committing to anyone. “What happened with her?”
“Found out that she cheated on me. With my best friend.”
“Ouch.”
“You could say that.” He picked up a piece of kindling and broke the small stick in half before tossing it into the fire. “It crushed me. I had bought a ring and was this close”—he pinched his fingers—“to proposing.”
A little sympathy whimper escaped my throat. Shane’s gaze landed on me and he smiled. “I got lost after that, didn’t know what to do with myself. So I sold everything and moved here, to Peachwood
, the place of second chances.”
I shivered.
“Cold?” He handed me a flannel blanket to lay across my legs.
“Thanks,” I said gratefully. “But what makes you say that, that Peachwood is the place of second chances?”
“Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? A place where folks move in order to forget their past. I mean, maybe you didn’t come here to escape something or find something else, but I certainly did.”
Wow. In all the time I’d known Shane, we’d never had this deep of a conversation. But since he’d dished up his history, it was only fair that I did the same thing.
“Well,” I said slowly, trying not to let the crushing feeling of hurt overwhelm me as I spoke. You would think since it had been years since all of it happened, that I would have dealt with it by now. But some trauma, no matter how deep in the past it lay, still lived as a spot sore to the touch well within my heart.
I cleared my throat and started again. “There was a guy who I trusted, foolishly, and he did something that really hurt me.”
Shane’s face tightened with anger. “He didn’t, um…did he?”
I quickly put his fears to rest. “He didn’t assault me, no. It wasn’t anything like that.”
The truth was, what happened was impossible to explain to anyone who wasn’t like me. They wouldn’t understand. I’d moved to Peachwood to escape magic and everything it held. I was one of the few witches in the world who didn’t want to live around other witches. All the trust I had for my own people had been lost.
That’s what happens when a wizard attempts to steal your powers.
“For what it’s worth,” Shane said, “I’m sorry that whatever it was occurred. If you ever want to talk about it, you can. I’m a great listener.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I may take you up on it sometime.”
In spite of the fact that we sat in front of a fire drudging up our painful pasts, I found myself smiling. This was good. This was what I needed.
My stomach filled with butterflies, the kind that whirl around your belly when you know that you like someone. How I wished that Shane and I had done this before, gotten to know one another.