River Town Box Set

by Grant C. Holland

  Lacey cocked her head to the side. “Are you sure everything is okay, Mr. Sexton? You look a little…off.”

  Brody knew that Lacey was trying to be helpful, but he wasn’t ready to talk. He waved her off saying, “I think I’m still a little shocked about Dak’s return. I need to get to work here at the desk. It looks like I’ve got a pile of email and snail mail to sort through.” Brody was still shocked about Dak’s return. In fact, he was reeling. Life went from sensations of floating on a puffy, romantic cloud to tumbling back to cold, hard earth in minutes. He stared at his computer screen and tried to concentrate.

  Lacey said, “Oh, and Mr. Sexton, don’t worry that this will cause any problems with our work. Seb and I have talked it through more than once. Work is our priority when we’re here. We’ve done a good job keeping them separate so far, and we plan to keep doing that.”

  Brody wished that he could keep his own personal life out of work. He said, “Thank you for that, Lacey. I trust both of you. I don’t think it will be a concern, but I do hope I get invited to the wedding.” He chuckled softly.

  “Oh, we’re a long way from that,” said Lacey. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. You know I’ve never been a bride.”

  “I didn’t know that for sure. I don’t think I ever asked you directly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the future.”

  Lacey giggled softly and returned to her work. Brody told himself that the conflict with Dak was just a speed bump on the way to the future. He successfully shifted his attention away from his worries and checked his bank account. He stared at the screen and could not believe his good fortune. If everything fell through with Dak, at least he had money to invest in starting a new life. Brody lowered his head into his hands on his desk knowing that he would take Dak any day over the money.

  The day moved slowly. Brody guessed that it was like dragging your feet through a massive slick of molasses. It was close to the Labor Day holiday, and families in town focused on their back-to-school activities instead of home projects. He helped a few customers during the day who asked for home plumbing parts and advice on the best table saws for a particular job.

  Brody was relieved when the clock approached 5:00 p.m, but he was also frustrated trying to figure out how he would spend his evening. For the last four weeks, he expected to spend it with Dak, and he’d heard nothing from Dak all day.

  When he arrived home, Brody gave in. He decided to call Dak and hoped that he would get an answer. After the third ring, Dak said, “Hey, Brody, how are you?”

  His voice was calm and relaxed. Dak sounded like nothing unusual had happened. Brody said, “I’m okay, but I’ve been wondering about you. I’m sorry for what happened. Is there anything I can do to make it better? I didn’t expect this.”

  Dak said, “Just relax for me, okay? I need space. Just back off for now and give me that space. Are you okay with that?”

  “Not really, but do I have a choice?”

  “No.” The phone connection clicked off.

  24

  Dak

  Dak arrived at the Corner Hitch bar downtown at around 9:00 p.m. He received a hero’s welcome from Jake, the bartender. They high-fived over the bar. “Hey Dak, my man! You’re home off the boat. How’s life treating you? Where’s your guy, Lewis?”

  “That’s really old news, Jake. We broke up over a month ago. It turned a little ugly.”

  “Oh, sorry to hear that. We haven’t seen you for over a month. Are you still drinking the usual?”

  Dak nodded. He scanned the clientele, and he half hoped that he would spot Brody sulking over a beer in the corner, but he was out of luck. Jake slid a cold mug over the bar, and Dak slapped down payment and a generous tip. “I’m gonna go have a seat. It’s good to be back.”

  Jake raised an eyebrow as he watched Dak walk away. Dak usually liked to hang out at the bar and shoot the breeze. Jake pulled a white towel from under the bar and proceeded to wipe it down while the business was slow.

  Dak seated himself at a small round table about halfway back in the bar. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked for any messages. It was an unusual feeling to be only two days back home and hanging out alone without any messages on his phone. In fact, he was usually wandering into the Corner Hitch with a man at his side.

  The next several minutes passed while Dak fiddled with the phone. He looked for the latest news from high school friends on Facebook and then silently read through news headlines. So much of it seemed to be happening so far away.

  He looked up when the door to the bar opened. He squinted at a man he’d never seen before. The stranger chatted briefly with Jake. Dak watched as Jake poured in the ingredients of a cocktail and shook it before dispensing it into a rocks glass. Dak wasn’t sure what all of the ingredients were, but it was something like an Old-Fashioned. He thought he saw both the brandy and fruit.

  When the man turned around, Dak bit his lip. He was handsome. He wasn’t particularly tall, but his shoulders were broad. He looked like Dak expected a high school football player to look if his shoulders and chest filled out after graduation while not getting fat. So many of Dak’s old high school buddies ballooned when they stopped working out to keep the calories from piling on.

  The man’s hair was coal black and buzzed short except on top. He wore business casual clothes with jeans and a button-up plaid shirt. The stranger started to walk toward the back of the bar until he glanced at Dak and their eyes met.

  It was enough to intercept the man’s path. He sauntered over to Dak’s table and asked if he could have a seat. Dak smiled and motioned to the opposite chair. He said, “Be my guest.”

  The man started to sit, but then he stopped and offered his hand to shake instead. “I’m Alan. I’m new here in town. I’m looking for friendly faces.”

  Dak stood and shook hands. He said, “Dak here. I’ve lived in Coldbrook Bend almost my entire life.”

  Alan sat at the table and placed his glass to his right. He said, “I hope that means it’s a good place. My friends all say I’m crazy moving to a town this size, but I think I’ll like the slow atmosphere. It’s just Boomer and me at home, so it’s important to meet my neighbors.”

  “Boomer?” asked Dak.

  Alan grinned. “Oh, that’s my bassett hound. He looks so sad even when he’s happy.”

  Dak chuckled. He liked Alan already. His manner was laid-back and relaxed, and he was happy to talk. He was likely to be a good fit in Coldbrook Bend. Dak received vibes that Alan might be into men, but he wasn’t sure yet. He decided to keep his thoughts close to his chest until he found out more.

  “Is it okay to ask what brought you here? Coldbrook Bend isn’t exactly a magnet for people moving in from elsewhere.”

  “The different parts all sort of came together. I got hired on at Tar-Mor down in Zephyr, and I have an elderly great-aunt who lives up here.”

  “You look too young to have an elderly great-aunt.”

  Alan laughed. “Nice flirt attempt there, Dak. I’m pushing thirty. Sometimes people think I’m a few years younger. Anyway, she’s moving out of her house into an assisted living facility, and she wanted to keep her bungalow in the family if possible.”

  Dak grinned. “It all comes together perfectly except for living in Coldbrook Bend.”

  “There’s something wrong that I don’t know about?”

  “It’s just a pretty small town is all. Don’t go looking for serious nightlife on a Friday.” Dak felt a twinge in his gut when he talked about the negatives of living in a small town. He was aware of the irony of walking out on Brody when the idea of moving to Minneapolis came up.

  Alan said, “Well, it looks like I might be making my first friend. I didn’t do this well back in Des Moines.”

  “You’re from Iowa?” asked Dak.

  “I’m from all over, honestly. I’m a military brat, and I went to eight schools before graduation. Then I headed east for college and moved back to the Midwest w
ith my degree. I think three years in one place is my personal best.”

  “Wow. I can’t imagine that. How do you hang on to a relationship like that?” Dak knew the answer to his question was probably obvious, and he didn’t understand why he asked it in the first place. He cringed and waited for the response.

  Alan held up his ringless hand and laughed. “I guess this gives you the answer. By the way, is there someone special in your life, Dak?” Before the answer, he followed up with, “And I don’t mean to hit on you.”

  Dak smiled at the additional bit of information. He didn’t believe it. Alan was on the hunt for guys. Unfortunately, he would want an answer, too, and Dak wasn’t sure what to say. In normal circumstances, he would angle to have Alan in bed later in the night. Fortunately, his gut told him what to say. He thought about Brody lying naked in bed at his side after twenty years and blurted out, “Yeah, his name is Brody.”

  Alan whispered, “Damn, sexy name. Do you have him locked up at home?”

  Dak laughed at the comment, and then he made up a story. He wasn’t proud of his quick little lie, but at least the primary point was truthful. He said, “Brody had to work late, and he goes in early tomorrow morning, so I thought I’d come down and have a nightcap solo. Corner Hitch is my favorite bar in town, and Jake is a kickass bartender.”

  Alan tilted his head to the right. Dak didn’t know how he knew, but it was apparent that Alan didn’t believe the little story. He asked, “Late, huh? And yeah, Jake does a great job with an Old-Fashioned.”

  Slipping his hands under the table and rubbing his thighs through his jeans, Dak said, “Okay, yeah, I made it up. I didn’t want to get into the real story, but we’re having a rough time.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” said Alan. “Don’t tell me any details if you don’t want to. It’s just good to have company, and when things smooth out, maybe I can meet Brody, too.”

  Dak could feel the words on his tongue before they started to spill out of his mouth. “He’s trying to push a little hard and take things over.”

  “Some guys are like that. Two roosters in the henhouse eventually fight.”

  Dak laughed. “Yeah, you’ve been living for awhile in the Midwest. Brody came into some family money lately, and it upset the apple cart.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “Yeah, it is, but it makes him think that I’ll jump at all of his plans. He has money now, and he thinks it puts him in charge.”

  “Does he have bad plans?” asked Alan.

  “He wants to ship us out of here to the Twin Cities. He’s got his mind set on a condo, and he wants to skip out on Coldbrook Bend.”

  “Is that all bad? Just a minute ago you were talking down the small town.”

  Dak pulled his right hand up above the table, grabbed his beer by the neck and took another swig. He said, “Yeah, I know. That line slipped out of the gut. You know how your brain insists on something, but then when you talk about it in the middle of a conversation, your mouth says something else?”

  Alan laughed. “I’ve had that happen once or twice.”

  “So I guess I don’t mind so much moving to the city if that’s what Brody wants. It could be a lot of fun, but I work on the river, and I don’t like being the one pushed around. I already had a boyfriend who tried to point out how much smarter and more cultured he was than me.”

  Alan held up a hand. “Woah, Dak. I don’t know him, but do you really think Brody’s trying to do that?”

  Dak lowered his head. Saying anything remotely negative about Brody felt like he was betraying the most important person in his life. It was like a dagger to the gut. He was pretty sure that’s why he walked away. It would tear him apart to get into a big argument. “No, I don’t think Brody would do that at all. He talked about me going back to school for a new job. Fuck, he’s not my dad.”

  Leaning forward and tilting his head to the side to try and connect with Dak’s eyes, Alan said, “You like him a lot, but isn’t there someone you should be saying all of this to instead of me?”

  Dak looked up and said, “Honestly, you’re too fucking smart for Coldbrook Bend. Maybe down in Zephyr, but up here…”

  With a light chuckle, Alan said, “You’re the best man I’ve met so far in town, Dak. You’ve made my day.”

  25

  Brody

  Sitting in the corner of the sofa, Brody wanted to find a sappy old movie to watch. He needed a good cry. His mom was gone. Dak was gone, and he was worried that Lacey might run off with Seb and leave him without his best two employees.

  Brody made a ham and cheese sandwich with an extra thick layer of mayo and piled potato chips on the opposite side of the plate. He poured himself a glass of milk and carried it all to the living room. Setting it down on the coffee table, he stared at the plate and glass and realized that he wished he was a kid again.

  Unlike the stories he heard from many other people, Brody’s high school experience was positive. He hung out with friends every weekend, and that meant Dak was there most of the time. Brody glanced at the living room bookcase and saw the four yearbooks he’d stuffed in next to his mom’s Jane Austen collection when he unloaded boxes. He decided that looking at high school photos of Dak would either make him smile or break down completely. It was like picking at a scab to see if it was healing yet.

  Brody tugged at his sophomore yearbook, and it caught on something in the rear of the shelf. He tugged again, and the yearbook slid about an inch forward but then caught on something again. Brody didn’t want to pull hard because he was worried the entire shelf of books would tumble into the floor.

  Methodically, Brody started further to the left on the shelf and began removing Jane Austen novels. After he took down the third volume, he saw what was causing trouble. A small soft cover book with a dark maroon cover was wedged into the rear of the shelf behind the other books. A plastic laminate cover protector was coming loose in a corner and stuck to one of the yearbooks.

  Brody reached his long arm deep into the bookcase and tugged the small book out. The cover was leathery, and the ruled pages inside were yellowed. He carried it over to an easy chair and held it under the side table lamp to take a closer look. Brody gasped when he opened the cover. It was his mother’s diary.

  He began to leaf through the pages. He recognized the dates. It started the day after she married Brody’s father, and it ended the day before she entered the hospital for the last time. Brody asked himself, “How did she keep this from me all those years?”

  As he leafed through the pages, he noticed that she skipped up to months at a time without writing new entries. She also had periods in which she wrote a new entry every day for a few weeks.

  For a moment, Brody wondered if he should just close up the diary and tuck it back into the back of the bookshelf where he found it. Diaries were meant to be private, and, after the discovery of Great-Uncle Clyde’s story, Brody believed that his mom had secrets that she wanted to keep.

  Brody whispered, “Secrets…” He thought about the relationship with his father. Brody knew that he couldn’t resist reading. He opened the diary to the first written page and read the words of his mother gushing about the beauty of her wedding.

  An hour later, Brody was still reading, and the sandwich and milk on the coffee table were untouched. He wiped tears from his eyes when he read about his mom’s fears about being alone near his dad. When he couldn’t read any more of their story, he skipped ahead.

  The pages were filled with expressions of love for her son as he grew up. Brody read about her pride at his good grades in school, and she mentioned a friend named Dakota. She talked about helping Brody’s friends on school projects when she worked in the library, and she interrupted recounting events to list favorite recipes and talk about the cooking process.

  About halfway through, Brody found the primary section he was looking for. His mother wrote:

  “Spent an amazing afternoon with Uncle Clyde and his new boyfriend,
Wiley. We took a picnic to Sawyer’s Grove Park and listened while Wiley sang and played his guitar. I pulled out the camera to take photos. They are so happy. It breaks my heart that they can’t let anyone know.”

  Brody choked up as he read it. Knowing Wiley’s wealthy background and the fact that they lived in small-town Minnesota in the 90s, Brody was not surprised that they needed to keep their relationship secret.

  Brody leafed through more pages about school activities and the everyday work life of a librarian. He skimmed two more years of entries before Clyde appeared again.

  “Life is cruel. Uncle Clyde has the disease. Wiley found the marks, and they received the diagnosis today. Uncle Clyde made me promise not to tell anyone, not even our closest family members, about the disease. I’m still the only one who knows about Wiley. I think Wiley is in shock. I held him while he cried.”

  Tears filled Brody’s eyes. He closed the diary and set it on the side table. He knew that he couldn’t read more in the same night. His stomach was already tied in knots. His mother went to the grave keeping the tragedy a secret. Still, he didn’t understand why she couldn’t share the story after Uncle Clyde was dead. Wiley moved across the country, and Clyde left no descendants. Brody didn’t think their story could have caused any harm.

  Brody turned to the sandwich and milk on the coffee table. He took the milk to the kitchen and rinsed out the glass before putting it in the dishwasher. He poured himself a glass of iced tea instead and returned to the living room.

  Old sitcoms were the centerpiece of the rest of his evening. Brody put everything else out of his mind while he laughed along with the studio audiences. He bit into the sandwich and concentrated on tasting and chewing. He knew that any lapse in concentration might take him back to subjects that would generate more tears.