Return to Paradise

by Laina Villeneuve

  “I never knew Shawneen had a kid, and I’d never have taken you for her daughter.” He paused and combed his manicured beard with his fingertips before he continued. “You look more like sisters, honestly.”

  Flattered, Shawneen smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “Oh, you’re too kind. My years of youthful beauty are spent. What I wouldn’t give to be in my twenties again, and courting one of the Weaver boys.”

  She said it as if men were steps on a social ladder she hoped to climb. Hagen’s face flushed pink when he glanced at me. Had he not seen the rainbow sticker on my truck, or was he unclear on what it meant? If Shawneen had seen it, she didn’t understand its significance if she thought I would take her place in courting this boy she held in such high esteem.

  “Hagen, get on over here and help me with these curtains. I’m sure you don’t even need a ladder to reach the other side there.”

  In case I ever forgot, Hagen was stamped into the leather along the back of his finely tooled belt. His ridiculously pointed boots were obviously custom-made as well. I didn’t think much of the outfit that had never seen work, and worried about the weight of Shawneen’s introduction and what they both expected from me.

  “All I’m asking is that you give these a chance. I can take ’em back if you don’t like ’em.”

  The curtains or the guy? Hagen stood with one thumb hooked on a belt loop, and I did my best not to stare at the large bronc on his gold belt buckle. I shifted my focus to the pencil-perfect part of his hair, dark waves that he’d tamed with gel. Still worried about Shawneen’s intentions in bringing Hagen along, I threw out a line to see if it might be because he could be an asset to my resort. “Are you a masseuse?” I asked, using the title on purpose, my thoughts on Lacey.

  His laugh revealed straight white teeth. “Not for hire,” he said in his rich voice.

  “Hagen grew up here and knows more about ranching than anyone I know,” Shawneen said. “We talk about it whenever he comes to the restaurant.”

  “Which is kind of a lot,” he admitted. “It’s too tempting right across the road from my parents’ feed store.”

  “Oh, I’ve been there. It’s a few shops down from Lacey’s,” I said.

  “Of course he’s familiar with Lacey,” Shawneen said dismissively. “Before you go any further with that garden idea of hers, you should talk to a rancher about how to use the property. Hagen agreed to take a look around and see how well suited it would be to run livestock.”

  I sighed with relief. “It wasn’t enough to keep Hot Rocks going.”

  “But Charlie’s boss didn’t think about guests like you do. Maybe the two of you could team up. Hagen saw the field you were thinking of planting down by the road. Couldn’t hurt to show him the rest of the place. You two go on. I’ll get these curtains all set.”

  Watching her mess with the curtains was making me feel sick, so I thumbed in the direction of the back door. Hagen followed with an eager look that unnerved me almost as much as Shawneen’s showing up.

  “Hey Houdini,” I said absentmindedly as I patted his head and walked down the steps.

  “There’s…a horse on your porch.” He held both hands up to protect his shirt as he scooted around Houdini’s big noggin.

  “He might follow, might not. He does his own thing.” I kept walking. “I’ve got this corral here. The holding pen and barn.”

  “You don’t have a stall for the horse?”

  “I tried to keep him in the barn, but he escapes. He has a fondness for visiting Lacey at work.”

  “She’s over in East Quincy.”

  “Weird. I know.” I couldn’t suppress the smile that accompanied the shared puzzlement Lacey and I had over Houdini’s visits. He hadn’t been back to her garage since we’d started dating despite the invitations she extended to him when she was at my place.

  “Couldn’t you make the barn more secure?”

  “I kind of enjoy his company around the house.”

  “Shawneen said that he took a dump on her car. If you’re running this as a guest ranch, you don’t want him damaging property.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Houdini had ambled over to the barn and stood in front of the latch.

  “You don’t have any livestock in the barn?” he asked following my line of sight.

  “No. I’ve got a loaner tractor holed up in there, but mostly empty space.” I didn’t feel like moving Houdini to give Hagen the full tour. Had it been Lacey, I might have pulled her inside and had her show me what our first kiss could have been like the evening she came out to talk about my field. Or maybe we could have a literal roll in the hay.

  “You have a pretty smile,” Hagen said.

  I quickly turned away from him, trying to shoo away the image of Lacey stretched out on a bed of straw and get my face in order. I didn’t want him to get the wrong impression and think that I was reacting to him. I had to redirect my thoughts, but the more I tried to push Lacey out of my mind, the more ideas I got. My skin tingled as my imagination fed it memories of how good Lacey’s hands felt on me, and I was shocked to feel moisture pooling between my legs. I gulped, genuinely flustered, grasping for anything to save me.

  “Hey you two,” Shawneen called from the porch. “How’s it look?”

  “Real good!” Hagen said. I couldn’t see his face, but I still felt his eyes on me.

  “Aren’t you two a picture. Wouldn’t it be exciting if the two of your dreams matched up?”

  So she was matchmaking. I didn’t like her smile, and suddenly I felt pressure on the small of my back. I whipped around to find Hagen attempting to guide me back up to the house. Could he feel the heat my daydream of Lacey had generated? I stepped away quickly and returned to the house, nodding and agreeing with Shawneen as she pointed out what she liked about her curtains, anything, anything to get the two of them to leave.

  I didn’t even wait until their car was out of sight before I dialed Lacey.

  “I need you,” I said without preamble.

  “Madison, what’s wrong?” She sounded alarmed.

  “I’ve got a problem.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “One only you can help me with.”

  “Is that so?” I could hear the relief in her voice. She dropped it a notch as she engaged in the flirting I’d started. “Can you describe this problem?”

  “I seem to have developed a drip.”

  “Oh, that does sound bad.”

  “When do you think you can trace the source?”

  She sucked in a breath. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

  I flopped down on the couch holding the phone to my chest. My eyes flicked to the curtains. “Damn,” I whispered, wishing that problem were as easy to solve.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Lacey

  I’m embarrassed to admit how quickly I became accustomed to eating dinner with Madison. When she called to say that she was running late and had not even started cooking, I said it was fine, we could fend for ourselves, but had proceeded to stand in front of my refrigerator with no motivation to cook for myself. Two weeks into dating Della, and I was finding excuses to keep my evenings to myself. Two weeks with Madison, and home alone, I felt like a single horse hitched to a double yoke.

  “Hey Lacey,” Hope greeted me ten minutes later when I pushed through the door of Cup of Joy. “It’s been a while.” She smiled at the reason behind my having been away from her diner so long.

  “I forgot how important it is to support local business,” I shot back. Whenever I berated myself for not cooking, Hope would argue the positive side of my decision to eat out.

  “Uh-huh. Do you know what you want?”

  To be at home chatting about my day with Madison, I almost said. It was more than the pleasure of cooking for two. I missed her company. I missed feeling her next to me even when she was fully clothed. “How about a chicken pesto sandwich, fries and a soda?”

  I realized that if Madison had come alone, she would
have brought the biography of Woodrow Wilson she was now reading. Not in the habit of carrying a book, I spent the time running through a shop problem. The Ford sedan Gabe’s mom drove had developed a vibration that I couldn’t pinpoint. I’d already checked the obvious—tires and wheels were balanced and all of the suspension pieces were tight and functioning properly. I hated to give it back to Gabe with the issue unresolved, but I was stumped.

  Hope returned with my soda, forcing Mrs. Owens’s car to my mental back burner.

  “What are you doing working, anyway?” I asked, knowing Hope had cut down the hours she spent at the diner to spend more time with her family.

  “Our waitress went home for the summer. Dani didn’t take any summer classes, so she’s home with Joy until the fall semester. By then Jalisa will be back to take my hours, and I’ll be MOD again.”

  “MOD?”

  “Mom on Duty. That’s what Dani calls it. Every once in a while, she’s Administrator on Duty at the college.”

  “It sounds like a nice trade-off for both of you.”

  “It is, so why do you sound like I ran over your cat?” She rested her elbows on the counter, propping her chin.

  “I couldn’t track down what’s wrong with Mrs. Owens’s car.”

  “Hmmm. So it has nothing to do with you being here alone?”

  The bells chimed before I could answer, and the one problem I had with Madison walked through the door.

  “Evening Shawneen,” Hope said, sweet as syrup. “Did you want to add anything for yourself to Dennis’s to-go order?”

  “I already ate,” came Shawneen’s curt reply.

  While Hope retrieved Dennis’s dinner, Shawneen sidled in next to me at the bar, muttering about how miserable Dennis could make her life.

  I called Madison. I frowned when her voice mail picked up. “Hey, I didn’t end up cooking. I’m at Cup of Joy if you haven’t eaten yet.”

  I couldn’t help but notice a sly smile creep across Shawneen’s face. “She might be busy for a while if that was Madison you were calling. She was talking about some electrical work the other day, and I suggested Hagen go out and give her a hand. You should have seen the way she blushed over him when they first met. I don’t get why he didn’t ask her out right then, but that’ll change.”

  Hope paused ever so slightly before taking the credit card Shawneen slid across the counter. “Hagen Weaver?”

  “There aren’t two Hagens in town as far as I know.” Shawneen barely glanced in Hope’s direction, even when she returned with the receipt. Shawneen signed her copy with a flourish and left it on the counter. “Take care Lacey,” she said over her shoulder as she left.

  “I don’t see how you put up with how rude she is to you,” I said incredulously.

  “It got better after I had the baby. Now she can go back to pretending I don’t exist. She couldn’t ignore the baby or how it got there. What’s your excuse?”

  “My excuse?”

  “For putting up with her?”

  “If I don’t, I give her more ammunition to hate lesbians. If I’m nice to her, she’ll eventually see how wrong she is.”

  “What’s this about Hagen?”

  “Let’s find out.” I already had my phone out and had typed in Is Hagen really at your place? I hit send.

  “You know that you fix cars, right, not people?” Hope asked.

  “I know that,” I said, distracted by Madison’s reply: Y. I flushed hot, not liking her evasive question, or the fact that she hadn’t told me that he was there when she called off dinner. How could she not guess why I would want to know if he was with her? I typed back, Because I thought we were having dinner together. To Hope, I said, “But clearly you think that being nice to Shawneen could help bring her around. Otherwise, you’d refuse to serve Shawneen and make Dennis come in for his own food.”

  “Fair enough.”

  My phone rang. I apologized to Hope and answered it. She waved off my apology and disappeared into the kitchen.

  “Sorry. Got lost in one last project. You seemed off in your last text.”

  “I seemed off,” I snapped. “You’re the one asking why I want to know if he’s there in the first place.”

  “I told you he was here.”

  “No, you said ‘why?’”

  There was a long pause. “Doesn’t the letter Y mean yes?”

  I rested my head in the palm of my hand. “I thought you didn’t want me to know he was there.”

  “You were jealous?” She sounded relieved, and there was something else in her voice, a squeal of disbelief. “You’re still at Cup of Joy?”

  “Yes.” I overenunciated the word.

  “Get me whatever you got. I’m starving, and I’ll be there in five.”

  “Madison wants one too,” I said to Hope when she came back with my sandwich.

  “Everything’s okay?”

  “I really thought there was a chance what Shawneen said was true, and she was out there having fun with that brat.” I’d never been a fan of Hagen’s. Nobody wanted to be friends with the snob his parents had raised him to be, and he did nasty things to try to fit in. My brothers were always part of the in-crowd, and he tried to ingratiate himself by impressing them with pranks that always went a little too far.

  “Madison doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would mess around on her girlfriend.”

  “I know,” I said, realizing how quickly I’d let Shawneen’s insinuation get to me. Hope had been right. “Seems Shawneen knows how to push all my buttons.”

  “That she does.”

  I sat with that new knowledge until Madison arrived and slipped her arms around my middle. My body said yes to every spot she touched. I noticed the twinkle in Hope’s eyes when she saw me resting against Madison. It meant a lot to be confident about affection in public. I had Hope and Dani to thank for the trailblazing example they set in town, and the look she gave us made me think she was happy to see another couple being affectionate.

  Hope delivered Madison’s sandwich. Madison squeezed me before sitting to eat. “You didn’t seriously think that I was choosing Hagen over you.”

  “I thought you were blowing me off.”

  “You know how I lose track of the time. I was trying to do better in wrapping up, but Hagen stopped by, and I saw my opportunity to get that bum outlet squared away.”

  “I’m sorry. I let Shawneen get me worked up about why he was out there.”

  “I don’t see why you’re worried about it. It’s like Gabe bringing the tractor by, and I like that I’m making my own friends and not relying on yours.”

  “It’s not like Gabe. Gabe doesn’t expect any favors in return.”

  “Neither does Hagen.” Though her reasoning didn’t match mine, she’d already moved on to another topic with Hope. “The whole reason I needed to get to it today is that I have my first real guests coming in tomorrow.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Hope said.

  “I wanted to thank you for your help. I’ve booked several weekends since you suggested where to start my advertising.”

  “I’m so glad.”

  “The one coming in tomorrow requested the room with the private bath. I thought I had all day to get everything ready, but I kept getting interrupted by the phone.”

  “Reservations?” Hope asked.

  “A few.” They high-fived. “Some queries too, and then Shawneen who was especially chatty.”

  “Probably keeping you on the phone, so she’d know you were there when she sent Hagen over.”

  “He’s not her puppet.”

  “I don’t trust him. That’s all. You didn’t grow up with him.”

  “No. I didn’t.”

  The way she said it, it hit me that she would have if Charlie had stayed in Quincy. What would we have been to each other if we’d all grown up together? I softened when she draped her arm around my shoulder.

  “Nobody’s ever been jealous of who I spend my time with before.” Madison beamed.


  That smile mixed everything up. All I wanted to do was keep that very smile on her face. That felt more important than insisting that she set up some better boundaries with Shawneen and Hagen.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Lacey

  I was under Mrs. Owens’s car tightening a hose-clamp around the driveshaft when the Nova pulled up. After a week of mulling it over, it hit me that the vibration could be a problem in the link between the transmission and the rear end. I’d gone over the driveshaft carefully and thought I’d found a spot where a balance weight was missing. When I drove it with the hose clamp, I’d be able to tell if I was right.

  “Be with you in a minute,” I said.

  “Take your time.” Despite my signs warning customers to stay out of the shop, she’d drifted toward my bench while I had snugged the hose clamp in place. Gritting my teeth, I rolled out to deal with her latest problem.

  “How can I help you, Shawneen?”

  “The car’s fine. It’s Madison I wanted to talk about.”

  That stopped me short. My belly clenched in anticipation.

  “I’m so grateful to you for bringing Madison back into my life. It was real sweet of you to arrange for us to meet each other here after so many years apart. A nice gesture, if you will, seeing as we spent the first four years of her life together here.”

  I felt a but coming.

  “But I was thinking you could give her a little space. Seems like the two of you spend an awful lot of time together.”

  “I didn’t realize anyone was keeping track.”

  “Well, I’m sure she appreciated all the help you gave her settling in, getting to know the area, but don’t you think now it would be best to…step back…give her some breathing room?”

  “We happen to enjoy each other’s company,” I said, wishing I could be blunt and claim Madison as my girlfriend.

  As if reading my mind, she sighed dramatically and said, “Well the amount of time you spend together could start to give folks the wrong impression.”