by Josie Kerr
“Oh my Lord. One thing at a time, Tally. Right now my goal is to intervene before fists start flying.” Liddie took a deep breath and then strode up the stairs and into the shop, hoping she looked more comfortable than she felt. The shop wasn’t that large, but the carnival glass room was located at the rear of the house, so she followed the sound of rumbling voices to the back.
Tobias knew that Liddie’s uncle Ace wasn’t a huge fan of the Harper men in general, or of him in particular, but he didn’t expect the burly sexagenarian to come at him with a vintage thermos. Yet here he was, backed into a corner by an old man with an oxygen tank, when all he wanted to do was talk to the thermos-wielder’s niece.
“Please, Ace, I just want the chance to talk to her. It’s been thirty years—”
“Damn straight it’s been thirty years,” Ace spat. “And it’s about twenty-nine years and three hundred sixty-four days too late for talking, Harper.”
“You don’t get to decide that for her, Ace Hopewell. If she lays eyes on me and immediately tells me to go to hell, that’s fine. Well, it’s not fine, but I’ll accept that answer and won’t darken your doorstep again.” God, uttering those words made him want to throw up, but he meant them. If Liddie told him to stay away, he would.
Bunny, always the more sensible of the two and who seemed more sympathetic to Tobias’s situation, attempted to reason with his hotheaded partner. “Both of you, let’s just take some deep breaths and consider Liddie’s point of view. She’s found out that her favorite uncle has the same type of cancer her husband had, and she’s just picked up and moved to, literally, the opposite end of the country, back to a town that served her nothing but humiliation and heartbreak.” Bunny glared at Tobias during the last part of that statement. “I’d be worried if she wasn’t at least a little conflicted and emotional. So put that thermos down, Ace. And, Harper?” Bunny directed his attention at Tobias, who suddenly felt like he was fifteen again, standing in front of these fiercely protective men for the first time. Bunny squinted at him, then shook his head and shrugged. “All I have to say to you is if I even get an inkling, the tiniest psychic tickle that you’re playing games? I will end you and not think twice about it.”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias responded automatically and was slightly peeved at himself for doing so. “Well, since Liddie’s not here, can I leave a number so she can get in touch if she wants to?” There. That was a mature request.
“I’m here now.”
Tobias turned and saw Liddie standing in the doorway, wearing a small, amused smile on her face and holding what looked like a pastry box in her hands.
“Liddie.”
Her smile faded and was replaced with an indescribable expression. Not pained exactly but something adjacent to it. “Hello, Tobias.”
Hearing his full name on her lips gutted him more than any blow Ace or Bunny could dole out. She’d called him “Toby” the night before, but sometime between that first glimpse and this one today, she must have done some thinking.
Liddie handed Bunny the box she had in her hands. “I left the coffees on the table behind the register counter. I have a sneaking suspicion they’re beyond saving, but you never know. There are breakfast sandwiches and pastries in the box.” Then she turned to Tobias. “Why don’t we step outside?”
“Okay.” Tobias still couldn’t quite believe she was right here in front of him, close enough to touch. And as much as he said he just wanted to talk, he also wanted to put his hands all over her, to see if she felt the same way she did thirty years before. Most of all, he wanted to get close enough to her to smell her hair.
“We’re just going to be out back, you two, so behave,” Liddie warned her two uncles, and Tobias had to suppress a smile at her no-nonsense attitude. “Come on, Toby.”
Toby. That’s more like it.
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Liddie led Tobias out the back door of the shop and headed toward a tree-shrouded picnic table. She slid onto one bench, and Tobias took a seat across from her. After that, they sat in silence for a few long moments, studying each other.
Tobias figured he should be the first to break the silence since he was the one who forced the issue, but he didn’t know quite how to start. He’d gotten some basic information from Kat about Liddie’s life before her return. He knew, of course, that she had a daughter, who also had a daughter, and that she was a fairly recent widow, but that was about it. He really didn’t want to talk about the mundane trivialities of everyday life, such as where she’d been living, if she worked outside the home, what she enjoyed doing when she wanted to unwind, but the important things—did she love her husband, was she happy, did she realize that Tobias had thought about her every single day since that fateful one more than a quarter of a century earlier?
“I remember the very first time I saw you.” Liddie was staring straight at him—not a confrontational look, but not a soft gaze either. “You were with your father, setting up for that God and Country thing the county used to do for Independence Day. I was there with Mother and Daddy, and I remember Ann Bristol doing her loud drunk-whisper thing, repeating some gossip about Chet.”
“I remember that concert. Chet was in an especially crap mood that weekend.”
Liddie nodded. “I remember seeing him punch you. Not slap, or shove, or any of the stuff that was pretty unacceptable but mostly ignored, but just balled up his fist and punched you on the side of the head.”
“Yep. I remember that, too, though I don’t remember what I’d done or hadn’t done to set him off that time. Which is odd, because I usually remember that stuff.” Tobias exhaled and absentmindedly scratched the back of his neck. He didn’t know exactly how he’d thought this reunion would go, but it certainly was not like this.
“You look good,” Liddie blurted. “I just had to tell you that before I lost my nerve.”
This time when their eyes met, Liddie’s shined with a bit of that spark he remembered. She’d had the reputation for being a Goody Two-shoes and somewhat snobby, but those who really knew her knew that Liddie Hopewell was fearless and a little bit stubborn. Okay, quite a bit stubborn, enough to where she would not back down from something she believed in. That spirit was what snared Tobias, because Tobias’s old man had already broken him, and he needed all the spark he could get.
Her cheeks flushed, and Liddie let out a shaky laugh. “Okay, yeah, that didn’t really garner the reaction I thought it would.” She blew out a soft, whistling breath and turned her head away.
“Now I don’t want to compliment you because you’ll think I’m just doing it because you did it first.”
She laughed at his candor and shrugged her shoulder. “I wouldn’t be averse to a compliment, regardless of whether you thought it was simply a polite gesture or not. A woman of a certain age takes any sort of flattery she can get.”
“Man, ain’t that the truth,” Tobias muttered, thinking about Candy and her constant need for reassurance and attention.
“I didn’t think you would actually agree with me,” she scoffed.
Tobias pressed his fingers against his eyes. “This is not at all how I wanted this to go.”
“And how did you want this go, Toby? Hmm? Did you think we’d pick right back up like nothing happened? Because I don’t know about you, but a whole boatload of stuff happened between then and now.”
“What happened, Liddie? Life?” He scoffed at her. “Yeah, life happens; it just happens. People get married, get divorced, have babies, change jobs. That’s what happens . . . after.”
“Such a typical male response. ‘It just happens.’ ”
Tobias saw her jaw clench as she shook her head in disgust. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t a clue as to where to begin because he didn’t know what life had thrown at her.
“Tell me about your life, Liddie. Everything from the moment we last saw each other until right now.”
“I heard what you said to my uncle back there—about wal
king away if I told you to.” Liddie stared straight ahead, at something Tobias couldn’t see. “You know it’s not as simple as us trading life stories. There’s just too much . . . stuff that’s gone on.”
“I can’t believe you don’t want to even try.”
“I can’t believe you’re this naïve after all the crap you’ve been through.” Liddie leaned over and patted Tobias’s hand. “Goodbye, Toby. I’m gonna go inside now.”
Tobias didn’t watch her go, but he waited until he heard the screen door slam before he got up and headed back to his truck. Maybe he was naïve, and he was definitely going to prove to be a liar, because he wasn’t going to just walk away, not after all this time. He knew there were going to be some bones rattled, but, hell, he had to kick up some dust in order to wipe the slate clean, right?
Liddie hid in one of the interior rooms, one with no windows, so she couldn’t see Tobias still sitting there at the picnic table, so she wouldn’t be tempted to go to him and spill every single detail of the previous thirty years like he’d asked her.
“He’s gone, Liddie.” Ace leaned against the doorjamb. “You okay?”
“Maybe.” She leaned back against the wall with a sigh. “He wanted me to tell him about my life from the time we last saw each other until now.”
“So you didn’t tell him anything.”
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I got kind of snippy with him.”
“And now you feel bad . . .”
“Yeah, a little.”
Ace crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t owe him a story. You don’t owe anyone anything.”
“Chloe Elizabeth Douglas, you do not walk away from me while I’m talking to you!” Tally’s voice reverberated down the hall of The Backward Glance. Ace raised his eyebrows at Liddie, and she just shook her head. She loved her daughter and granddaughter dearly, and she’d missed them during their six-week separation, but, boy, she sure didn’t miss their squabbling.
“I’m just coming to tell the uncles and Mimi ‘hello.’ Jeez,” Liddie heard Chloe mutter before seeing her poke her head through the door. “Hi, Mimi. Hi, Uncle Ace.”
“Hey, sweetie.” Liddie squeezed her granddaughter in a side hug, and when the girl didn’t squirm away, she knew something was up. “What have you been up to today?”
“Not much, because there’s nothing to do in this little poky town. There’s not even a library!” Chloe leaned closer into her grandmother.
“The county library is only fifteen minutes away, Chloe. That’s closer than we were when we lived in California. What do you say about heading over there tomorrow?”
“I’d say, ‘I’ll pass,’ because it’s closed tomorrow. It was closed today, too.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t know how you didn’t go crazy, Mimi. What did you guys do for fun? Chase goats? Make cheese?”
Liddie snorted. She didn’t have much input because she didn’t do anything in high school except go to church and school. And if he was playing close enough, she’d sneak out with Candy Bristol to go see Tobias Harper play.
“That’s not very fair, Chloe,” Ace said. “There was always hay baling and pig racing.”
Liddie had to laugh at Chloe’s shocked then disgruntled expression.
“Now you’re just being a smart-ass, Uncle Ace,” Chloe groused.
“Better than a dumb butt,” he shot back.
“Ugh. I cannot wait to go home!” Chloe stomped out of the back room, passing her mother without speaking.
“Don’t stray too far, Chloe. We’re going to head home and start supper in just a few,” Tally called after the teenager.
“I take it you haven’t told her that this is home now?” Liddie watched her daughter squirm.
“No, I have. That’s what I was telling her when we got here. Or rather, I was trying to tell her, but she wasn’t listening.” Tally rubbed her temples. “Tell me I haven’t made a mistake, Mom.”
“I don’t think you’ve made a mistake.”
“But. . . .”
“No ‘buts,’ sweetie. You’re doing what you think is best.” Liddie pulled her daughter into a hug. “Oh, baby, I know it’s hard.”
Tally swiped at her eyes. “It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.” She gave her mother a watery smile. “I don’t know what I would have done without you and Bunny and Ace.”
“You would have figured it out, just like we’ve always figured stuff out. Chloe’s not at the easiest age to begin with.” Liddie stopped short of saying “I remember you at that age” because that wasn’t helpful at all. “She would have been starting a new school anyway. This is just a more extreme version of that.”
The teenager in question poked her head around the corner. “I thought you said we were going to be leaving really soon?”
“Hey, squirt, you said something about goats earlier. Do you like goats?” Ace’s question made all the women turn to him.
“Are you talking to me, Uncle Ace?” Chloe adjusted her satchel on her shoulder, obviously ready to go.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you, Bickle. Do you like goats?”
Chloe looked at her mother, who shrugged, and then to her grandmother, who grinned because she thought she had an inkling where this was headed.
“Who’s Bickle? Is he one of your crazy friends?” Chloe scowled. “Yeah, I like goats all right, especially the little ones. I like watching the YouTube videos of them prancing around.”
Ace clapped his hands together. “All right. I’ll call Saffron tonight, and we’ll go over there tomorrow since the Hillbilly Library isn’t open tomorrow. ‘Who’s Bickle?’ That’s just sad . . .” He gave Liddie a look of faux disapproval but then winked at her.
“On that note, we’re outta here.” Tally fixed a smile on her face, and Liddie cringed inside, recognizing that perky “It’s all good, fiddle-dee-dee” look as the one she wore for most of her life. When she and Tally had some time alone, sooner rather than later, they needed to have a frank discussion about self-care and fresh starts. Of course, Liddie knew this was the pot calling the kettle black, so she made a promise to herself to start practicing what she preached.
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Liddie sat in the antique rocker on the wraparound porch of her uncles’ house, rocking slowly and thinking about nothing in particular for once. Snippets of memories flitted on the periphery of her mind’s eye, but for the most part, she managed to just enjoy the evening air.
She heard the screech of the screen door’s hinge but didn’t take her eyes off the huge magnolia that dominated the Bunsen-Hopewell backyard until Bunny cleared his throat.
“Mind if I join you?” Bunny settled heavily into one of the rockers, not waiting for an answer.
“It’s your house, Bun,” Liddie said with a laugh. “You can do whatever you want to.”
“How long have we been friends, Liddie?”
Liddie shrugged. “I remember you from Miss Amy’s Sunday school class, and that’s when we were four. So, close to forty-five years. God, we’re old.” She chuckled, but the laughter died in her throat as he turned to her, his expression deadly serious. “Bunny, what’s going on?”
“How many times have I steered you wrong?”
Liddie swallowed hard. She didn’t think she liked where this conversation was headed. “Never. You’ve always done right by me. Always.”
“How many times have I made you mad?” The barest hint of a smile appeared on his lips, and Liddie had to laugh.
“Oh, about a million, but usually because you were telling me something I needed to hear but didn’t want to believe.”
“So, approximately twenty thousand times a year since we’ve known each other. “ He flashed her a smile. “That’s roughly fifty-four times a day.”
“That sounds about right,” Liddie said with another smile. “Why do I think that you think you’re going to make me mad again?”
“Oh, I know I’m going to make
you mad.” Bunny chuckled this time.
“Okay, then go ahead.”
“Tobias Harper.”
“What about him?”
“He came to see you today.”
“Yes, he did.” Liddie studied a whorl in the wood plank under her feet.
“What did you think?”
“I think . . . he wants some answers to some hard questions.”
“What else?”
“I think . . . I owe him those answers, even if he doesn’t know what he’s really asking me.”
“What else?”
“I think he looks really, really good,” she admitted with a straight face.
“Baby girl, that man has always looked really good.” They both laughed then.
“So this is your way of telling me I need to pull up my big girl panties and go see Toby and . . . tell him stuff.”
“Yeah.”
Liddie shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, I thought so. By the way, you didn’t make me mad.”
Bunny grinned. “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Liddie threw back her head and laughed, long and hearty.
“Okay, girl. I’ll leave you alone to mull. I just had to say my piece.” Bunny got up from the rocker and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I wouldn’t sit on this too long. Who knows who is going to come out of the woodwork once news gets out that you’re back.”
“If you mean Candy Bristol, oh, I already ran into her. You know she ran right home to that mother of hers to gleefully relay the news that I was a fat grandma.” Liddie snorted. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to be a fly on the wall during that conversation or not.
“Oh, damn. Less than forty-eight hours in town and you’ve already been into the belly of the beast.” He gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re back, Liddie. I hope you are, too.”
She nodded, and Bunny slipped back into the house, leaving Liddie alone with her thoughts.
She’d been mulling over her reaction to Tobias all afternoon. All these years, she’d imagined what would happen if she and Tobias ever saw each other again, ever managed to be alone long enough to have a real conversation.