Sweetheart

by Sarah Mayberry

  “And now I want to give you the rest of your birthday present. You got the most important part this morning,” Dave said, giving the world’s most ostentatious wink.

  Zara punched him in the arm and everyone laughed. “He made me pancakes, people. Get your minds out of the gutter.”

  “Pancakes with the works,” Dave said, winking again.

  This time Zara laughed, shaking her head at his clowning. Then Audrey came forward with a beautifully wrapped box and handed it to Dave, and suddenly I was incredibly nervous because this was the big reveal.

  “What have you done?” Zara asked. “I told you the party was my present. I told you I didn’t want anything else.”

  “I know, but I wasn’t born yesterday, babe. You’re looking at a man with well-honed survival skills. And excellent taste. Open your present,” Dave said.

  Shaking her head again, Zara applied herself to removing the ribbons and wrapping paper. When she’d exposed the lid of the box, she glanced at Dave, a puzzled frown on her face.

  “I have no idea what this is.”

  “Open the box,” Dave said.

  I swallowed a nervous lump, and Beck tightened his arm around me before leaning close to my ear. “Brace yourself. She’s about to lose her shit.”

  Zara lifted the lid, and we all watched as her eyes popped wide open. She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Then she looked at Dave, astonished.

  “How did you do this? Oh my God, I can’t believe this. They’re beautiful. Oh.”

  She lifted a boot out of the box, holding it with such reverence I almost laughed, I was so touched by her reaction. A little stir went through the crowd, and I saw a couple of people point in my direction, identifying me as the bootmaker.

  “Our house is on here. And us with the kids.” Zara laughed, lifting her face to her husband. “And there’s a mountain goat.”

  “Had to get the goat in there,” Dave said, his smile wide as he watched Zara enjoy her gift.

  “Haley, where are you? Get up here. These are amazing,” Zara called out, scanning the crowd for me.

  Beck gave me a little nudge to get me started, and I reluctantly joined Zara and Dave in front of everyone.

  “Thank you. These are... I don’t have the words. They’re so special. I’ll treasure them forever,” Zara said.

  “It was my pleasure,” I said sincerely.

  Zara gave me a big squeezy hug, then insisted on taking off the high-heeled sandals she was wearing and putting the boots on.

  “Totally knew this would happen,” Dave said smugly. “There’s a pair of socks in the box.”

  Someone brought over a chair, and Zara sat and pulled on first the socks, then the boots.

  “Oh, they’re so soft. And they fit perfectly.”

  She tied the laces and stood, then took a few steps, her eyes glued to her feet. “I’m going to be too scared to wear them, they’re so amazing.”

  “They’re designed to be worn,” I said. “They’re protected and waterproofed. Just apply a clear leather treatment at the beginning of each winter, and they’ll last a lifetime.”

  A bunch of people came forward to inspect the boots and I took advantage of the opportunity to slip away and rejoin Beck.

  “You’re a rock star,” he said as he tucked me against his side again. “Get used to moments like that. They’re going to keep happening.”

  “I’m just glad she liked them.”

  Beck gave me a fond smile. “I know you are, you ridiculously modest human.”

  After a few minutes, Roddy lit the candles on the cake and Dave started a rousing round of Happy Birthday. Zara was laughing so hard she had trouble blowing out the candles, but she eventually did and Roddy got busy handing out pieces of cake.

  The night got rowdier after that. Beck and I danced, then he took me outside to kiss me silly, then we danced some more, and I got to have a whole conversation that was mostly coherent with Leo Trevi and his lovely wife, Georgia. She asked a lot of questions about my shoemaking process and made me sweaty-embarrassed with her compliments about my work. She wasn’t the only one who came over to let me know how much they admired Zara’s gift. Every time it happened, I caught Beck watching me with a knowing, proud smirk, one eyebrow cocked as if to say “see?”

  It was nearly two by the time the crowd started to thin, and Beck and I mutually decided we were partied out. We had just said our goodbyes to Zara and Dave and thanked them for a great night when Georgia Trevi caught us as we were about to leave.

  “I just wanted to show you this,” she said, handing me her phone.

  An Instagram post had a close-up shot of Zara’s boots as she struck a pose.

  “I hope I got the name of your business right. It’s Haley Made, right?” Georgia asked.

  “That’s right,” I said, a little stunned by how many likes the photo had, even though it had only been posted an hour ago.

  “Those boots are wearable art, Haley. Hope you’ve got a lot of capacity in your inbox.” Georgia patted my arm approvingly.

  I was feeling a bit dazed—and, let’s be honest, tipsy—as Beck and I made the short walk through the woods back toward the Gin Mill and the Busy Bean.

  “Great night,” Beck said, tilting his head back to look at the stars. “I love nights when the air stays warm even after dark.”

  “It’s nice. I could do without the bugs, though.”

  “All part of nature’s bounty,” Beck said in a very bad attempt at an English accent.

  “Was that...was that supposed to be David Attenborough?”

  “Pleased to meet you, milady,” Beck said, offering me a half bow.

  “So now you’re Oliver?”

  We made our way up the hill laughing and messing around. We let ourselves into my apartment to find Larry very happy to see us. Beck took her outside to take care of business while I brushed my teeth. Then we tumbled into bed and even though we were both tired and footsore from dancing too much, we very quickly got each other so hot and bothered we wound up having a frenzied, satisfying five minutes of glory before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

  The next thing I knew it was morning and Beck was easing out of the bed to pull on his boxer briefs. Seeing me stir, he rested a hand on top of my head, ruffling my hair affectionately.

  “Just gonna let Larry out.”

  I peered blearily at the clock on my bedside table and saw that it was just before eight. “Ugh.”

  “I’ll bring you back some water,” Beck said. “And some Tylenol.”

  I held up two fingers.

  “Two Tylenols. Got it.” He disappeared out the door.

  I flopped back onto my pillow and blinked at the ceiling, trying to work out how bad my hangover was. I didn’t feel nauseous. So that was good.

  An abrupt knock on the front door made me start, and I swore under my breath as I swung my legs over the side of the bed.

  I couldn’t think of a single person who would show up at eight on a Sunday morning and figured it was probably someone with the wrong address. I shrugged into a bathrobe and made my way to the front door.

  “Hello?” I asked, opening the door just wide enough to show my face and nothing more, blinking in the bright morning sunlight.

  Two people stood on my doorstep, their faces worried.

  “Mom, Dad,” I said stupidly.

  “We’re sorry to disturb you so early, sweetheart,” Mom said. “But your father and I are about to drive down to New York to get your sister. She and Jonny had a big fight last night, and he’s kicked her out of the apartment. We’ve been on the phone with her all night.”

  “Oh, no,” I said, pushing my hair off my forehead as I tried to get my fuzzy brain to think. “What can I do to help?”

  “That’s what we dropped by to ask you,” Mom said. “I’ve been sorting through a bunch of things in the house and storing the stuff we plan on giving to Goodwill in Jess’s old room. It’s a disaster in there, and I reall
y don’t want Jess to come home to that when she’s so fragile.”

  “Of course. I’ll head over to your place today and get it cleaned up,” I said.

  “Just dump it all in the garage,” Dad said. “Probably where we should have put it in the first place.”

  “Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Mom said, shooting him an annoyed look.

  “Is Jess in a bad way?” I asked, heading off a minor domestic squabble. My parents had a tendency to get snappy with each other when they were stressed.

  “She’s very upset,” Dad said. “That’s why we insisted on her coming home for a few weeks.”

  “She needs to have the support of her family around her,” Mom agreed.

  Dad looked at his watch. “We’d better get going.”

  “Leave the house to me,” I said. “I’ll make sure her bed is made and all that stuff.”

  “Thank you, darling. We knew we could rely on you.” Mom leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek.

  I heard the heavy tread of Beck coming up the hallway behind me.

  “Oh. Hello,” Mom said, her gaze taking in his big body clad in nothing but boxer-briefs. “We didn’t know you had a guest.”

  Her cheeks went pink, and I could feel my own face getting warm. They knew about Beck thanks to the conversation on my birthday, but there’s nothing like getting visual proof of concept.

  And there was a lot of proof on display.

  “Beck and I went to Zara’s birthday party last night,” I explained, even though I was twenty-six years old and didn’t need to justify myself to my parents.

  “Hi Mrs. Elliot, Mr. Elliot. I didn’t realize you were here,” Beck said, shooting me a sideways look.

  If I had to interpret it, I’d say it was part Thanks for the heads up, and part Help! Your Mom just saw me in my underwear.

  “Daniel. It’s nice to see you again,” Mom said.

  My father offered his hand and Beck had to lean across me to shake it, the whole exercise deeply awkward.

  “Mom and Dad are heading down to New York to bring Jess home,” I explained.

  “Right,” Beck said.

  For a moment we were all silent, stuck in conversational limbo as we remembered that Jess was Beck’s ex and that things hadn’t ended well between them and that she was currently unaware of Beck and I being in a relationship.

  Facebook relationship status: It’s complicated.

  “Good to see you again, Daniel,” Dad said heartily. “But we really need to hit the road. Come on, Lois.”

  “I’ll call and keep you posted,” Mom said.

  “Same. Drive safe,” I said.

  My father lifted a hand in acknowledgement, already heading for the car. I gave my mother one last wave before shutting the door and turning to face Beck.

  “Sorry. That was... unexpected.”

  “Your father doesn’t own a shotgun, does he?”

  “Don’t worry, he knows that ship sailed a long time ago,” I said with a quick smile.

  “I take it Jess has had a meltdown?”

  “She’s broken up with her boyfriend, Jonny. Apparently, he kicked her out.”

  My fuzzy brain was coming back online, and it was starting to sink in that it must have been a tough night with Jess if my parents were driving to Manhattan this early in the morning.

  Beck’s eyebrows lifted slightly, and I knew he was holding back a bunch of stuff. Even though we’d moved past the whole my-sister-is-your-toxic-ex phase, there were still a few elephants left in the room between us. For example, we’d never had that conversation where he filled me in on his breakup with Jess. Probably because neither of us had been very eager to have it.

  “Mom and Dad asked me to get her room ready for her. Apparently it’s full of a bunch of junk. So I think that’s the end of brunch for me today, sorry,” I said, pulling a face.

  “I’m happy to help. Slinging boxes around is pretty much my wheelhouse these days,” Beck said easily.

  “I can’t ask you to do that.”

  It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that Beck could help.

  “You didn’t ask, I offered. We can grab something to eat from the Bean on the way. Larry will be okay in your parents’ yard, right?”

  I stared at him, touched by his easy generosity. “Thank you.”

  He dropped a kiss onto my mouth. “Anything for my favorite girl.”

  Every day brought new revelations about Beck, almost all of them good. He made me so happy, sometimes it was hard to believe this was real.

  “Come on.” One of Beck’s big hands landed on my ass, encouraging me toward the bedroom. “We’d better hustle if I’m going to have my wicked way with you before we leave.”

  “That wasn’t part of the schedule we just discussed,” I said.

  “Babe, it’s always part of the schedule.”

  I was still laughing when he tumbled me onto the bed.

  33

  Beck

  It was weird returning to Chris and Lois Elliot’s house. I’d only ever visited a handful of times before Jess and I left for New York together, but it was a place I had firmly consigned to the past, never to be revisited.

  And yet here I was, following Haley up the walk to the front door. From what I could see, not much had changed. Chris Elliot had always been very into his lawn and it was still perfectly cut and perfectly green. There was still a birdbath in front of the living room window, and the doormat still had Welcome printed on it in cursive script.

  “Take it your Dad is still obsessed with his lawn?” I said as Haley unlocked the front door.

  “Oh yes. It’s his pride and joy. I once caught him on his knees with a pair of scissors trimming a strip he’d missed with the lawn mower. Completely nuts.”

  “Is your Mom still teaching?” I asked as I followed her into the entryway.

  A glance into the living room showed me that nothing had changed in there, either.

  “She’s committed to that job until retirement,” Haley confirmed. “She loves it and they love her.”

  She led the way into the kitchen and I set down the takeout bag I was carrying. There were grease spots from our cheese and bacon bagels and my stomach rumbled in anticipation as Haley grabbed a couple of plates and passed one to me.

  We sat opposite each other and applied ourselves to breakfast, the silence broken only by the occasional “Mmm, so good” from one of us.

  I finished first and stood to wash my hands. There was a photo frame on the window ledge behind the sink, and I studied the shot of Jess and Haley as little kids. They had looked a lot more alike when they were children, and I realized for the first time that they shared the same nose.

  “Is it strange for you, being back here?” Haley asked.

  I shrugged. “A little, I guess. It wasn’t as though I came here much, though. Jess wasn’t big on hanging with my family or me hanging with hers.”

  “She never used to bring her boyfriends home. You were the first, now that I’m thinking of it. Mom and Dad were super excited about you,” she said with a small smile. “They thought you were a sign she was settling down.”

  I raised my eyebrows but didn’t say anything. Jess had resisted everything domestic and routine in our relationship. She’d been terrified of being boring and missing out.

  I dried my hands on a dishtowel hanging from the oven handle. “Ready to do this?”

  “Sure. Although I feel like I should give you one last opportunity to bow out if this feels too weird.”

  “It’s fine.” I wasn’t going to leave Haley lugging boxes around on her own.

  “All right, then.”

  She led me down a hallway and opened the door at the end.

  “Oh boy,” Haley breathed.

  We both fell silent as we took in the mess inside—boxes piled against the wall, boxes on the floor, piles of clothes on the bed, an old exercise bike, a bunch of small items crowded together on a dresser.

  “What’s the best way to get into
the garage from here?” I asked.

  “There’s a door in the laundry room, which is off the kitchen.”

  I headed back up the hallway and then checked out the garage. There was plenty of room, and I figured if we stacked the boxes along the rear wall, her parents would still be able to fit both cars in the space.

  I returned to Jess’s bedroom to find Haley sorting through the clothes on the bed.

  “These are all Jess’s. I can’t believe she left so much behind,” Haley said.

  Being intimately familiar with Jess’s shopping habits, I could.

  “I’m going to start getting rid of these boxes.”

  “Right. Good plan.”

  Haley and I hefted boxes for the next ten minutes, making multiple return trips to the garage. Haley grabbed a couple of trash bags next and bundled up the clothes while I ferried out the exercise bike and some musty-smelling snow gear.

  By the time we were done the room was empty of everything except the single bed and the dressing table. After Haley found the vacuum cleaner, I took care of the floor while she went to find some clean sheets.

  “Thank you so much for doing this,” she said after dumping sheets and blankets on the bed. “I would have been here all day if you hadn’t.”

  Not to mention exhausted. At least half the boxes had been filled with books and I’d banned Haley from attempting to carry them, they were so heavy. Her parents should have thought of that before they dropped this job on her, but I suspected they’d been too focused on their other daughter to consider what they were asking of Haley.

  Haley glanced around the room. “Do you think we should move the bed under the window? That was the way Jess used to have it. It might feel more like home that way.”

  “Sure, why not?”

  We each took opposite ends of the bed and pushed it across the carpet, adjusting it until it sat beneath the window. The new position provided a prime view of the backyard.

  “Pretty nice room. I think mine was half this size growing up,” I commented, appreciating the size of the space.