River Town Box Set

by Grant C. Holland

  Puck opened the box, and the ring inside caught the sunlight streaming in through the patio door. Ross held his hand to his mouth as he watched.

  “Ross, I’m not a guy who can make fancy speeches, so I’ll make this one short and sweet. Will you marry me?”

  Ross waved a hand in front of his face. His first attempt to speak failed. He tried again and managed to whisper, “Yes! A million times yes!”

  Rhea held one hand in front of Addie and wiped away tears from her cheek with the other. “The two of you are perfect for each other.”

  Puck stood as Ross held out his hand for the ring. While he slipped the ring onto Ross’s finger, Puck stared into his eyes. He said, “We’re not married yet, but we will be. I think we might be ready to buy a house.”

  Ross pulled his hand to his mouth again as he said, “Oh, shit, I’m going to cry. I can’t help it. I’ve dreamed about this since I was a teenager.”

  Puck reached out for a hug and said, “Go ahead and cry. This is a happy day, and happy things make you cry.” He kissed his future husband and stared into his blue eyes. “You, me, and Addie in a house we’ll make our own.”

  Rhea pulled her hand back, and Addie raced to the embracing couple. She tugged on their jeans. Puck reached down to lift her up between them. He kissed her cheek, and she giggled.

  Reaching her arms around Puck’s neck, Addie exclaimed, “Daddy!”

  Puck pointed at Ross and asked, “And who’s this guy?”

  Addie turned her head to face Ross. She laughed again and shouted, “Daddy!”

  Whispered Promises

  1

  Parade Judge

  Sid winced slightly from the sharp elbow thrust into his side by his former riverboat buddy, Dak. He said, “C’mon, Sid, everybody loves a parade. You’ve got the bands, the politicians, and, most importantly, those floats.”

  Sid ruffled through the folder of rules and regulations that Brody, Dak’s husband, handed over when he offered the float judging opportunity. At least that’s what Brody called it. Sid was beginning to see it more as a source of angst about who should win and how he should judge. Picking winners in a small town where everybody knew each other wasn’t his idea of fun.

  The first float Sid decided to judge was built by the Chamber of Commerce down the road in the town of Zephyr. They celebrated local history by constructing something that looked like a covered wagon. Sid never was a stellar student, but he remembered stories about the steamboats in southeastern Minnesota from elementary school. He’d never heard about wagon trains in Coldbrook Bend.

  “What’s the deal with the wagon, Dak? I thought those were on the Oregon Trail.”

  “You’re asking the wrong man. For me, the 60s is ancient history. All I know about pioneers came from when my mom insisted that I watch Little House on the Prairie with her. I begged off after two episodes.”

  Sid glared at Dak. “That’s not helpful in the least.”

  Sid was thankful for Dak’s efforts of helping him out in town after the accident, but the domesticated Dak was a creature that required some adjustment to understand.

  The only features remaining that gave observers a clue about Dak’s previous employment helping operate tugboats on the Mississippi River were his broad shoulders and thick, muscular chest. The years of living ashore and his marriage to Brody caused a transformation. Instead of t-shirts and leather jackets, he now wore glasses with thick, amber-colored frames that set off his red hair while dressing in button-up shirts like his husband.

  The upright pillar-of-the-community Dak made Sid feel slightly out of place in his faded t-shirt and jeans. Fortunately, his old friend looked beyond the surface appearance and eagerly invited Sid into his circle of friends.

  “How exactly do you do this?” Sid flipped nervously through the pages in the folder. “I’ve got this one sheet here that says ‘Aesthetic Appeal,’ and then it has twenty different items to consider. What the hell? It’s a float. It looks like a leftover stage set from the junior high school’s spring play, and it looks like there are five more in the parking lot across the street almost the same. How do I decide?”

  Dak slapped him on the shoulder. “This is why Brody picked you. He preys on the new guys in town. There’s not enough sense in your head yet to turn him down. I’m retired from parade judging. It came back to haunt me. I had bad dreams about pickup trucks with a float hitched on the back end turning into something like a Transformer and chasing me down the street. Now, I mainly come early for the funnel cakes. The oil’s still fresh, and the powdered sugar isn’t clumping together yet.” Dak illustrated his point by scooping up a bite from the paper plate in his right hand.

  “Where’s your little girl?”

  “I’ll bring Penny to the parade itself later, but she’s staying with Alan and Diego while this pre-show goes on. Penny loves their basset hound Boomer. He makes her giggle. By the way, how do you get along with Diego? He’s a generous guy, but I always thought he could be a tough boss.”

  “He’s a teddy bear,” chuckled Sid. “Honestly, he is. I think that’s why he hired my boss. Mike runs a tight ship in our department and reports directly to Diego.”

  Sid turned his attention back to the task at hand. He knew that he was whining when he complained about the judging, but Dak was the closest available sounding board. Brody was somewhere else in the gathered crowd hobnobbing with local leaders.

  “And I don’t know the politics of it,” said Sid. “I grew up down in Zephyr and never came up here for this parade. There has to be politics. What if somebody gets pissed off, and then they want to kick me out of town?”

  Laughing out loud, Dak said, “I’ve never seen a parade judge tarred and feathered, so I think you’re safe on that score. If you screw up, your scores will balance out with the other three judges. If they come after you, point your finger at somebody else.”

  Dak held up his free hand and gestured to his right. “There’s the man you want to see. Ask him any and all of your questions.”

  Frantically brushing his hair back over the crown of his head with his fingers, tall, slim Brody joined the pair. He held a clipboard in his right hand, and his eyes darted furtively back and forth looking as though he expected something significant to take place any minute, but he wasn’t quite sure what it would be.

  “Brody!” called Sid. “What the hell is all of this? Can I just say which one I think is the best or rank them one through five? Do I have to give some fancy reason why?”

  Brody ignored Sid for a moment and turned toward Dak with a face contorted by worry. “Where’s Penny?”

  Dak calmly licked powdered sugar from his thumb and said, “She’s with Alan and Diego, remember? I’m picking her up about thirty minutes before the parade starts. I left the lawn chairs at the curb in front of the house to reserve our viewing spot. I hope you’re not too busy over here, and you can join us by then. Alan’s bringing along his little grill so they can make that roasted sweet corn Mexican street style.”

  “Oh, great to know, that’s good, excellent. I hope I can be there, too. There’s a lot going on here. My brain’s a little scattered. You know how important the Founder’s Day Parade always was for my family.”

  Dak smirked slightly. “It is a major responsibility here corralling these floats.”

  Sid butted his way between them. “And yeah, I’m about to screw it all up. Now, how do I…?”

  Brody waved a hand. “One to five, yeah, that’s fine. Scribble down the names. That’s all we need. We’ve got three other judges, but I’m not sure they’re here yet.”

  Before Sid could ask any more questions, Brody was off wandering in a different direction.

  “Damn, something’s up with him,” said Dak. “I know Brody like the back of my hand, and he’s always the calm, cool, collected one even on parade day. He must have someone causing trouble at the store. That can throw him off. He’s such a great supervisor that he rarely has any problems. When it happens, it ta
kes him by surprise.”

  “Out at Home Pro?”

  “Yeah, supervision issues are about the only things that knock him for a loop. He’s always relaxed at home with Penny while I’m the one that freaks out when she lays her hand on a pair of scissors or trips over a toy and starts to cry.”

  “Aww, that’s adorable. Who would’ve known you were such a sweetheart with kids after the way you were on the boat.”

  Dak’s forehead furrowed. “How was I, Sid? They put me in charge of the shift. I couldn’t have been too awful at the job.”

  Sid closed his folder and held up a hand. “No, hold on. I didn’t mean anything like that. You were on the blunt, all-business side of things. I didn’t see that soft heart often. Dak on the boat didn’t seem like the guy with a gentle touch for a little girl who looks up at you, smiles, and says, ‘Dad.’”

  “Damn, I love when she calls me that,” grinned Dak. “It makes me fuckin’ proud, you know? I barely knew my Dad when I was little. I’m not going to let Penny spend her years growing up like that.”

  “Well, she’s got a good start with twice as many dads as most kids.”

  Dak shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard all of those comments and jokes.” He started to stuff another bite of funnel cake in his mouth when his eyes opened wide, and he put the bite down on his plate.

  A short, dark-haired man with glasses approached. He wore a pale blue dress shirt with khakis. He said, “Damn, Dak, you look like you’ve seen a ghost, buddy.”

  “Lewis? Buddy? Since when do you show up backstage at the annual parade? And use a word like ‘buddy?’ Did the world tilt oddly on its axis?” Dak held out a hand palm up. “Should I expect snow in late June next?”

  Lewis clapped Dak on the shoulder and glanced at Sid. He gave the stranger a quick once over before he turned his attention back in the direction of Dak, his ex-boyfriend. “I was curious about the event. I’m a new man these days. You’re an inspiration for me. I’m paying proper attention now. Brody’s got himself a good man. I should’ve sorted this all out long ago.”

  Sid raised an eyebrow, and he mouthed the word, “Who?” at Dak.

  “Oh, pardon me.” Dak stepped slightly to the side to open up a path between Sid and Lewis. “Sid, this is my…uh…friend, Lewis.” He turned in Lewis’s direction and added, “Sid worked on the riverboats with me. He’s onshore these days but not by choice.”

  Lewis reached out to shake hands, and Dak noticed that he held on a little longer than necessary. Lewis asked, “Was it your choice to get off the boat? Did a shipping company go belly up? I haven’t heard anything about that.”

  As he slowly extricated his hand but kept his eyes glued on Lewis’s face, Sid said, “It was an injury. I let go of a big fat wire at the wrong moment and ended up with a smashed elbow. Fortunately, the docs up at the hospital in Red Wing pieced it all back together. I could have been knocked clear off the boat into the river. It was forty degrees out, so I guess I’m overall a lucky guy.”

  As soon as the word tumbled out of his mouth, Sid remembered the opinion of his orthopedic surgeon. The doctor said that he should use fortunate about his fate and not lucky. He explained, “If you were lucky, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

  “So will you go back on the river when it’s all healed?” asked Lewis.

  Sid shook his head. “It’s mostly healed now. I only have an occasional sharp pain if I put too much pressure on it using my forearm or twist something in a funny direction. It will always be too fragile to return to the boats, but I can do almost anything else. My primary doc said I could even play football if I wanted to, but he didn’t want me to risk permanent loss of the use of the elbow out on the river.”

  “Well, welcome to Coldbrook Bend,” said Lewis. “Are you living here? I think I’d have noticed you if you grew up here.”

  “I’m Zephyr born and bred. It’s a long story, but you might have noticed it’s a little cheaper to set up housekeeping in the Bend. I don’t know whether it’s permanent, but I’m here for now.”

  Dak watched the exchange, and as long as both men were smiling, he was happy. A past version of Lewis was skeptical about every new person who moved to town, but it didn’t look like he reacted that way to Sid. Lewis’s facial expressions radiated curiosity, and he leaned forward to listen carefully to every word from Sid’s mouth.

  It was a little bit like watching a movie. Dak gobbled another bite of the funnel cake as he looked back and forth depending on who was speaking. If it were a film, the viewers would all wonder whether the changes in Lewis’s personality were for real. They would hold their breath as the story unfolded.

  Lewis said, “Yep, prices are a little lower here. Some say it’s because there’s nothing to do. Others, like me, prefer the quieter pace of life. Do you ever stop in for a drink downtown at the Corner Hitch or maybe coffee at the donut shop earlier in the day?”

  “Occasionally both,” said Sid.

  “Then perhaps I’ll catch you there.”

  Dak blinked hard when Lewis reached out for another quick handshake using both of his hands to envelop Sid’s right. “Oh, um, yeah, it’s been great to meet you,” said Sid.

  Dak downed the last of the funnel cake as he watched Sid turn and stare intently at the back view while Lewis walked away and disappeared into the crowd.

  2

  The Store

  With a grin spreading from ear to ear, Brody watched Penny as she stamped her feet with joy each time a band passed by. When a police car pulled up the rear to complete the parade, she turned toward her dads and asked, “Is there more?”

  Dak scooped her up with one arm. In his rumbling, resonant voice, he said, “Aww, sweets, that’s all there is for this year. I think it’s almost time to get some lunch for you. Let’s wave goodbye to all of our friends.”

  Puck leaned over and wagged his hand in a gentle waving motion. He said, “I’m kind of sorry now that I left Addie at home with Ross. We’ll all have to come to the parade next year. I’d love to see what Addie thinks, and she adores Penny.”

  “Absolutely,” said Brody. “Maybe I can haul the gas grill out here in the front yard, and we can make a big party out of it. Dad can cook up a mess of hot dogs and burgers in nothing flat.”

  Dak added, “If he’s lucky, maybe Sid can weasel his way out of the float judging next year. He was a nervous wreck a couple of hours ago. He’d rest easier at my side operating the grill.”

  Brody smiled. “He did a great job, and I’ll tell him that. He picked the winners right in the order they finished. The other judges fell in line with his choices.”

  Puck laughed and leaned in close with a stage whisper. “I’m smart enough to avoid hanging around when you’ve got your eye out for parade help. I helped build a float one year. Stuffing crepe paper in thousands of chicken wire holes isn’t my idea of fun.”

  Diego appeared and offered Dak and then Brody massive hugs. They each stumbled backward a step from the force of the embrace. From over Diego’s shoulder, Alan waved. Before he could turn and walk away, Brody stepped to the right of Diego and caught Alan, “Can you hang back for a minute?”

  Alan glanced over at his partner. He asked Diego, “Can we have a few seconds?”

  “All the time you need. Maybe I can hug Dak’s big bruiser body for a little longer.”

  Both Diego and Dak laughed out loud. When the hug ended, Dak turned toward the house after one last look at the friends heading off to their cars in all directions.

  Brody hung his head while he walked at Alan’s side.

  “What’s up? You look worried or maybe even upset. That’s not like you on parade day. This is usually one of your favorite days of the year.”

  “Aw, fuck, I didn’t know who to choose for this conversation, and yeah, there’s something big on my mind. You’re all incredible friends. I only know that I can’t talk to Dak yet. I’ll have to eventually, but I’ve still got a huge rock in my gut, and I�
��d probably break down if I told him right now.”

  Alan’s eyes opened wide. “Holy shit. That sounds dire. What’s up? Or, maybe I don’t want to know. You sound like you’re either deathly ill or you’re thinking about the big ‘D’ word. If it’s the latter, don’t do it. You’ve got the best husband around—excepting Diego.”

  “Oh, no, I’m sorry.” Brody reached out and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s nothing like that, but I’m an emotional wreck.”

  “Okay, yeah, I see that. You’re ready to scream or cry, one or the other, but I still have no clue why. You’ll have to fill me in. You can keep it to yourself if you want to, but I don’t think that’s why you pulled me away from the others.”

  Brody shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “It’s the store.”

  “Home Pro?”

  Brody nodded and raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s all a huge drama, and I’ve watched it unfolding all week long. Now I feel helpless like I can’t do anything about it. In the beginning, I thought I might luck out and stop everything in its tracks. I set up multiple meetings with supervisors, and I even called a board member that I know personally.”

  Alan watched as Brody kicked at a dandelion growing in the crack of the sidewalk. “I’m still not sure what’s up. Toss me a bone and get to the point. Honestly, that will help.”

  “They’re planning to close the Home Pro store here in Coldbrook Bend. There, I said it out loud. I have to believe it now.”

  Alan offered a hug. He wracked his brain for something helpful to say, but the only word that came out was, “Wow.”

  “I spent over an hour on the phone with the regional boss yesterday. I pulled out all the numbers I could, and I even requested a trial period to prove that we can pull our weight.”

  “And what happened with that?”