Keys in hand, he came around his desk and was heading for the door when Leta walked into the office. A sense of relief washed over him at seeing her standing there. Most of the morning he’d wasted on people he barely spoke to on a regular basis who dropped in to wish him well. Thus far, he’d received two pies, a brisket, and a plate of singed cookies.
“Hey, handsome,” Leta said, coming to the counter and setting the bag of goodies on top of the polished wood surface. “Kiss me and tell me I’m pretty.”
Evan leaned forward, puckered, and kissed her lips, saying, “I’m pretty.”
“Aren’t you awkwardly charming? Maybe I should let you eat that dry ass bologna sammich and those three burnt cookies and take home all this yumminess in my pack,” she said, touching his hand.
“Oh, don’t do that. My heart would be permanently broken at the loss of your delightful company,” he said, tapping her hand with his index finger. “However, in my own defense and based on what I know about marriage, when a wife shows up with lunch, she’s either purchased a thing her husband can’t afford, or she’s here to tell him he’s going to be a Daddy.”
“Listen at you all full of praise and adoration. You’re being nice because of the possibility that I’m incubating the next Merlin,” Leta said, causing Evan to break his normal gruff composure and laugh loudly.
The laughter brought his secretary Magda running into the main room. The Town Manager left his office along with the Judge who had performed their marriage ceremony. Each of them barreled into the office, almost skidding to a stop.
“I heard an odd noise, then I looked up and saw Evan’s face doing weird things. Oh my God, do we need to call 9-1-1?” Magda asked with genuine concern on her face. “Is he having a stroke? I know CPR. Let me at him.”
“Magda, don’t you have papers to file or wings to pluck off flies?” Evan asked, going back to the same face he had held for the past fifteen years. His facial expression resonated a look of bored and unamused with the entirety of his life. At least it had until last Friday. Now his eyes held a spark which hadn’t been present before. “My wife came to bring me lunch and tell me that she’s made a purchase I shall be paying for until I retire.”
“Or that we made our very own little hellion child over the weekend,” she said with a smile.
Magda was tickled more than she could stand, covering her mouth to hide the loud snorts coming from behind her hand. The idea of a sexual Evan wasn’t a thing she’d ever fathomed in the five years she’d spent working beside him. He was just this dude. Her boss. A gumby in real live pants and a button down, not a sexual being that copulated and tried to make babies. All of it was just too weird.
“Oh my goodness, Evan, this is just too, I dunno, like eww,” Magda said.
“I feel the same way when you clip your toenails in the breakroom, but you don’t see me judging your personal choices. Get back to work,” he gruffed at her. “Leta, let’s go into my office.”
“Evan, it’s a nice day. I was hoping there was a park bench or an outside seating area where we could eat. I brought a blanket,” Leta said, arching her eyebrows.
Tom Foredan, the town manager and brother of the cheapest man in town, Willis Foredan, gawked at them both. “Evan?” he asked with bushy white eyebrows which indicated it was nearing time for the old man to go home and take a seat.
“Yes, Tom?”
“This woman is your wife?”
“My wife’s name is Leta Eaton,” Evan said with a tone of challenge in his voice.
Tom cleared his throat, shuffled his feet, and then spoke, “How did you? Where did you? You do know she’s black?”
Evan eyes grew wide as if he were in shock. He turned to Leta, his mouth opened in surprise. “You know I’m color blind, Leta! Why didn’t you tell me you were black?”
“Evan, I thought you knew,” she said, clutching her imaginary pearls. “After we made such hot steamy love, I didn’t think the color of my skin would matter. I just knew you’d grow to love me for who I am, your wife.”
Her expression was priceless as she and Evan looked at each other and burst into laughter. “Man, would you bring your silly butt on before this soup gets cold. It is my Grandmother’s recipe, and it is lip-smacking good,” she said, waving her husband towards her.
“I don’t know, Leta. Is your Grandmother a black woman too?”
“Last time I checked, so was my Momma and Daddy,” Leta said, picking up the lunch bag.
Evan reached for her hand, “Leta you do know this means we’re gonna make some light-skinned black people.” He looked over at his boss Tom. “Lots and lots of interracial babies.”
Leta blushed under the gaze of the Judge, Tom, and Magda. “Jeepers man, I hope you give a girl a chance to catch her breath,” she told her husband, biting her bottom lip.
“Nope. I’m going to keep you pregnant often and frequently until that .3% or the population hits a whole number in Meredith,” he said, winking at her.
“You gosh dang sweet talker. Sign me up for some of that!” The laughter followed them out of the office, leaving Magda, Tom, and the judge all looking at each other, uncertain how to process this new version of Evan, after only a weekend.
Tom spoke first, “Do you guys think that after all of this time, Evan has been sneaking off and making it with black girls?”
“It would explain why he’s never seemed to date any of the ladies in Meredith,” Magda said. “I’ve worked here for five years and no one has ever called his office number or shown up at his office, except her. She walked in on Friday, they got married, and she came back today to have lunch.”
Tom coughed loudly, “I’ve heard they’ve been all over town this weekend. People are excited that she’s here. Evan is so different. Has that Evan been hiding inside of the grouchy bastard we’ve been locked in here with for the past fifteen years?”
“A better question is where the hell did she come from?” the Judge wanted to know.
“Georgia, that’s what’s on her license,” Magda said, “and you know what? I like her. She has this really cool energy about her, a vibe people call chilled. She’s all chilled. The idea of having a cool black girl friend is exciting. I hope she and I can become gal pals.”
“Evan really likes her too. He was laughing and smiling and talking about sex. I’ve never heard him ever make a sexual reference in the fifteen years he’s worked in this office. Not even when there’s nothing but guys around, fishing, hunting, doing guy stuff, he never has once made a sexual innuendo. I thought he was playing for the other team,” Tom said.
“Technically, he is,” the Judge said, cracking a smile which made them all laugh. “Honestly, I didn’t think he had it in him. I’m feeling kind of proud of the guy.”
“She’s a nice-looking lady and brought him lunch. That daily bologna sandwich and an apple every day would have driven me crazy,” Tom said, laughing. “The man is going to get some variety in his dull life.”
“May we all be the better for it,” the Judge said, going back to his office.
OUTSIDE, SEATED ON a blanket Evan hadn’t seen since his teen years, his wife spread out crackers, sharp Vermont white cheddar, and the hot soup poured from a thermos he used in winter when he went hunting. There was a single ham sandwich cut in half and two cider donuts. She’d gone through the cabinets and found items familiar to him to create a moment in his day that he would remember. This was her A-game and Evan appreciated the effort.
“Nice,” he said, “but how much is it going to cost me?”
“Excuse me?” she said, giving his legs a little shove. “We’ve never had a chance to talk about finances, husband. Truly, if I wanted, I have enough on my credit card to buy, chain, and keep you as my pet. We haven’t even talked about my liquid assets and cash balances.”
He arched his eyebrows.
“What?” she inquired, asking about his facial expression.
“The idea of being chained up as your pet kind of turned me on,” he sai
d, squinting at the realization, taking the cup of soup, inhaling the scent. “It has turned me on a lot actually.”
“Good gravy,” Leta replied. “Focus, husband. And just to make sure I’m being honest, I spoke with Jake over at J & J Prefabs. Well, let me back up, his wife stopped by the house this morning with Marisa and Darla, I’m not going to go into that weirdness, but Jean said they had half a house to unload.”
“Yeah, the other half fell in Lake Winnipesaukee.”
“The half that survived has an additional bedroom, a walk-in closet, laundry room and a master bedroom with a garden tub, a walk-in shower and double sink,” she said, passing him half a ham sandwich. “I got him down to ten, with the install in less than a week.”
“Ten what?”
“Thousand, versus the fifteen Jean was trying to get, which includes the installation in a week,” she told him. “I’m good for half if you want to go the other half. He wants it this afternoon. Here are the photos.”
Leta pulled out her phone, showing Evan pictures of the new bedroom she deserved along with the garden tub with jets to blow against her back which would ache in pain as the baby of the High Priestess of the order of Merlin grew inside of her belly. The sandwich half she held in her hands, taking a small bite, enjoying the flavor pops of the spicy brown mustard.
“I like. One week you say?”
“Yep, one week and we can have a new master bedroom, completely installed for ten grand,” she said turning up the cup and getting a mouthful of warm goodness. “Again, I will put up five.”
“No, I’ll do the whole ten. I’ll write a check. Do you want to take it to Jake?”
“I can,” she said, watching him bite into the sandwich and watching his eyes roll up in his head.
“You know he’s a terrible businessman. A good contractor but terrible businessman,” Evan said. “Speaking of that, Donnie came by and purchased a license and building permit to do the front porch. Are you building this team you spoke of on Saturday?”
“Maybe, but I have to discuss a lot of this with my husband. I’m kind of worried though. My husband is so tight around the mouth, when he whistles it looks like a butt hole with hemorrhoids. He laughed today and three people thought he was having a stroke,” Leta said.
“Yeah, screw that guy,” Evan said.
“Don’t give me any ideas,” she said, reaching over to squeeze his thigh.
“Shit, keep that up and I’ll get out there and build you an entirely new house my damned self. Forget buying half a house; I’m going to fell trees from the property, plane them by hand, and make furniture from the remnants,” Evan remarked, reaching over to touch her cheek.
“Now that turned me on,” she said, biting her bottom lip as she stuck her middle finger through the center of the cider donut, moving it in and out very slowly.
“Leave, right now. Go home, Mrs. Eaton, before the people of Meredith see your O-face,” he said, leaning in to kiss her taking the cider donut from her hand. “I’ll see you when I get home.”
“What about finishing our lunch?”
“Hmmm, I appreciate the thought, but my thoughts are going to make doing my job for the remainder of the day very hard,” Evan said with a light smile.
“Ooh, you said very hard,” Leta said, chuckling.
“Go home, wife,” he said getting to his feet. He offered her a hand, pulling her gently to a standing position. “This is nice. You make me feel calm. I like you more and more each minute. Life with you is going to be easy.”
She only smiled as they packed up the remains of the lunch and he walked his wife to her car. He provided a light kiss, and she asked about the check.
“I’ll call Jake to come over and get it,” Evan said.
“Thank you, husband,” she said, leaning for another kiss. “See you tonight.”
Chapter Eleven- Niceness
Five minutes after five in the afternoon, Evan left the Town Hall of Meredith and headed toward J & J Prefab Homes. He’d spoken with Jake on the phone once Leta left his office and told the construction worker turned business owner to expect him later in the day. His primary focus was getting home to his wife. The idea of people dropping in on her uninvited didn’t bode well with him. He intentionally lived a private life away from the noise and the public. It was bad enough he worked for the town, and interacting with his fellow Meredithians from behind a counter worked just fine for him. He didn’t want to see them at his house at a cookout or him operating the grill playing host as they ate up all his food. It wasn’t his style to play host or entertain visitors. He sure as hell didn’t enjoy spending time with the likes of Jake Foley.
Evan parked at the front door of J & J’s, coming up the front stairs to hear the full-blown roar of a fight in progress between husband and wife. He wanted to turn around and get the hell off the porch, but he had promised Jake he’d drop off the deposit so his team could get started in the morning on the install of the new bedroom. He tapped lightly on the door to let the couple know he was coming inside.
“Oh, Hey Evan,” Jake said, trying to put on a calm front. “I was waiting for you.”
“Don’t be all friendly to him, Jake. His sassy black wife sauntered in here and pulled the wool over your eyes and sold you a bag of beans. We needed that money to save the business,” Jean shouted at him.
Evan didn’t appreciate her words and least of all her categorization of his wife, and he didn’t hesitate to let her know his feelings. She wasn’t invited to his home. He lived on the outskirts of town. Jean drove out of her way to insinuate herself into their lives and wanted to play the victim now that she couldn’t have her way. His tone was harsh when he spoke to her, daring Jake to intervene.
“Jean, you brought your bankrupt ass twenty miles out of your way to our home to solicit a favor from my wife. She didn’t come to you or seek you out. You came to her asking for her help to save your business,” Evan said.
Jean balked at his words. Her hand flew to her breast in indignation. She explained slowly as if he were hard of understanding.
“I told her fifteen thousand with labor and installation. She came in here all citified and got my husband to do the whole job for ten thousand! We’re going to lose the business,” Jean said, stomping her foot while turning red in the face.
“And what the hell does that have to with my wife, Jean? See this is why I don’t fool with none of you,” he said, turning around to head out the door.
Jake stopped him, “Evan, I quoted your wife a fair price. She told me what Jean offered and I lowered the price so I could get that half of an albatross from around my neck and get out from under this business. I hate it here. I hate New Hampshire. I hate the cold winters and most of all, I resent the hell out of my wife pushing me into a business I didn’t want in the first place!”
“Jake, you don’t mean that,” Jean said, choking back tears, sucking back the anger.
“I do mean it and if for once you’d listen to what I’m saying versus trying to bully me into what you want, then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have started to hate you too,” Jake said, feeling lighter after having unburdened himself. “I’m doing the job for ten thousand, Evan. Did you bring the deposit of half?”
“Yes, I have it right here,” Evan replied, pulling the check from his front shirt pocket and handing it to Jake.
“Jean, can you please print the man a receipt for his payment? I have the paperwork here, but first let me take you outside to see what you’re buying. Leta loved the bathroom, and it will make a nice addition to your current home,” Jake said, leading Evan out the door.
A manly silence floated between the two as they pulled back the plastic and stepped inside the half of a house. The air was thick and Evan didn’t know what to say to Jake. Based on the conversation, the man was miserable. He eased into the discussion with a man he’s known since childhood, but never troubled himself to befriend. They lived different lives. He didn’t get down the way Jake liked to play. Evan
also knew about the closet where Jake hid the skeletons of sailors passing in the night. He broached the subject lightly, not wanting to ruffle any feathers.
“Jake, do you remember why you married Jean?”
“Barely,” he said, looking down at the toe of his boot. “Life was so much simpler when I went to work every day and came home to my wife and kids. This new setup feels wrong. I go to work each day with my wife. Jean doesn’t know how to separate the business from home, as well as our finances, which are a mess. After a while, as my father would tell me, there is no better teacher than an ass whooping.”
“Losing the other half of this house into the lake was a pretty good whooping.”
“You’re telling me, but Evan, I saw it as a blessing in disguise. All we need is ten grand to break even and we can close up shop. I can go back to work, and she can get a desk job,” Jake said. “We have some property on the lake where that office building would be perfect for a lake house, and we could rent it out in the Summer season and make money to get back on top in less than nine months. I’m ready to let this mess of a business go.”
Evan moved into the master bedroom, looking at the space and clean lines. It would be a nice addition to refresh the old lake house. He saw why Leta wanted the building as their own.
“Jake, I don’t appreciate Jean badmouthing my wife, laying blame on her. That is not going to fly with me. Leta hasn’t done anything wrong in this scenario. I won’t have her ostracized because Jean’s pissed at you,” Evan said. “Give me your word you’ll nip this in the bud.”
“Consider it nipped,” Jake replied, holding up his Boy Scout honor fingers. Evan had served in the same troop as a scout with Jake as children. He also knew Jean. The woman had a propensity for convincing everyone in town that the molehill Evan married would turn into Mount Vesuvius. She was a great deal like her mother in that way; pushy, gossipy, busybodies who lived to make others as unhappy as the two of them were.
Jean’s mother and women like her did it to his mother. They were not going to do it to his wife. He wasn’t a kid anymore. Evan wouldn’t sit back and watch them hurt Leta.
Maple Sundaes & CIder Donuts Page 11