Tangled in Time, (Miss Main Street Book 1)

by Angela Castillo

  TANGLED

  IN

  TIME

  Miss Main Street

  Book 1

  Angela Castillo

  Copyright © 2017 Angela Castillo

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1547022981

  ISBN-13: 978-1547022984

  To all the ladies who’ve dreamed

  about owning their ‘own little shop.’

  And all the wonderful small business owners

  who’ve shared their stories over the years.

  Contents

  1 Darcy’s Shop

  2 Ramsey

  3 The secret Door

  4 Ms. Travelsham

  5 The Johnsons’ House

  6 A meeting on main

  7 opening day

  8 outing in the park

  9 Agatha

  10 in the garden

  11 An Unfortunate Occurence

  13 On the Terrace

  14 Waiting on the Porch

  15 The Inspection

  16 Breakfast

  17 An Unwelcome Visitor

  18 Finally

  19 The Stuck Pig

  20 End of the Day

  1 Darcy’s Shop

  A n evening train’s horn blasted from the far end of town. All the county dogs bayed warnings from porches and yards. Trees rustled with creatures settling things for the night, and a toad croaked somewhere under Gran’s shop. Long shadows stretched from the board fence, reminders that Darcy had arrived much later than she’d intended. Despite the rushed state she’d been in most of the day-changing planes and catching cabs-she hesitated at the front gate of her final destination.

  Orange rays from the sunset settled over the ancient sheet-metal roof, enhancing the rusted golds and reds. Two top-story windows gazed down like a pair of friendly eyes.

  With each step forward, her stomach lurched, as though somehow, she was stepping back in time. God, help me.

  When she reached the porch, Darcy took a deep breath and grabbed the wooden banister. “Ouch!” She yanked her hand away.

  A splinter protruded from her skin, and a thin red line oozed from the gash. This hasn’t been my day. Squeezing her eyes shut, she took a deep breath and pulled out the offending shard of wood. Instead of following the childish instinct to suck on the injured finger, she rummaged through her purse for a tissue. All she found were a few crumpled dollar bills and a half-melted lipstick.

  A clatter came from the wide porch that fronted Gran’s shop. Darcy leaned against the railing. “Everything okay?”

  Kayla Dryfus, the girl who owned the cafe next door, looked up from the pile of junk she’d been digging through. Her cheeks were lightly dusted with freckles and flour. “We’re in luck. I left the spare key in my cash register, but there’s a copy right here under this brick.” She brushed soft auburn curls from her forehead. “We might need some WD-40 on this lock. The shop hasn’t been opened from the front since the funeral, and we’ve had a wet spring. ‘Course, we can get in through the back door. I always go that way to feed the cat.”

  Darcy moved up the shaky steps, wobbling slightly on her Kate Spade heels. “Might as well try it.” Her finger throbbed. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d encountered a splinter. Probably not since my last summer visit, seven years ago.

  A squeak from above caught Darcy’s attention, and she looked up to see a sign that read TANGLED IN TIME, swaying in the slight breeze. That sign is new. She frowned. The paint’s bright enough, but I probably ought to replace those chains. All I need is for the thing to come crashing down on a customer’s head.

  Kayla jiggled the key until a click sounded. “Aha!” The door swung open and she gestured for Darcy to enter first. “Everything should be fine. Haven’t seen any sign of rats, thank goodness.”

  “I sure hope not.” Darcy stepped inside. A musty odor filled the room, along with the thick fragrance of mulberry candles. Memories welled up like a fast-motion video of a flower in bloom, filling Darcy’s heart until she gasped. Glancing over at the sales counter, she almost expected to see her grandmother, with her pleated skirt and salt and pepper braid all the way down her back.

  A collection of chandeliers of every shape and size hung from the high ceiling. When Kayla flipped a switch, half of them lit up, revealing yellowed price tags. Darcy recognized many of them from her last visit. Gran wasn’t one to get rid of anything. “You never know what someone is going to want,” she’d always said.

  Shelves and displays filled the space, along with hutches, bookshelves and curio cabinets stuffed to the brim with every knickknack and collectable one could imagine. And, of course, the photographs. From stately black and white photos in four-foot high frames to thin color reprints that might have been cut from the pages of National Geographic. Gran couldn’t take a good picture ‘to save her soul,’ but she’d always had an eye for great photography. Which is probably what influenced Mom.

  Darcy moved around the room, touching doll’s faces and stroking fur coats. Some she remembered from the yard sale or swap meet when they had first been found. Gran would brandish a trinket with that twinkle in her eye reserved for treasures. “Imagine, Darcy! A real Hummel for two bucks! We’ve made our fortune today, my girl!” Certain seasons had been better than others in the store. Sometimes Gran would have to rely on her widow’s pension from Grandpa’s thirty years with the railroad for rent money or groceries.

  Darcy slid behind the glass counter, purchased from a dry goods store twenty years before. “My Gran loved this place. She would tell customers stories about the lives of artists and talk about items’ history. I learned more from her than any class in school.”

  Kayla picked up a tarnished pewter spoon and polished it with her shirt sleeve. “Your grandma was a great friend to me, ever since I opened my cafe two years ago.”

  Darcy raised her eyebrows. “You’ve owned your place for that long? You seem about my age, and I’m twenty-four.”

  “I started selling cupcakes door to door when I was sixteen.” Kayla put her hand on her hip. “I’d saved up enough for a shed in the back of my parents’ house and commercial kitchen equipment by the time I was eighteen. My business grew. I couldn’t afford to open a shop in the city we lived in, so I moved here, on my own. My parents took out a second mortgage to help me get started.” Tears glittered in the corners of her eyes. “I’ll be able to finish paying them back by the end of this year.”

  “Amazing.” Darcy breathed.

  “Your grandma helped me through some rough times.” Kayla placed the spoon back on the shelf. “The accident was a horrible shock. All of us on the lane miss her.”

  Darcy nodded, a lump forming in her throat.

  Kayla tipped her head back and looked Darcy in the eye. “Not that it’s my business, but what do you plan to do with the place? I’ve already talked to a few folks who might want to buy it.”

  “Thank you, but no. I plan to take over the store myself.”

  “How wonderful!” Kayla clasped her hands together. “It’s such a fun little shop. The place didn’t deserve to be made into a pokey old real estate or insurance office. Lots of tourists come this way. I think you’ll do well here and people in town will be glad you decided to stay.”

  Darcy picked at a glob of hardened glue on the counter. With her polished blond hairstyle, designer pencil skirt and ridiculous heels, she must look like the least likely candidate to take over the Tangled in Time antique store. But there was no sign of sarcasm in Kayla’s words or expression.

  Darcy’s boyfriend, Jared, had been much less supportive when she’d told him of her decision to move to the Texas hills three days ago.
She’d tried to push the conversation out of her mind, but it stuck there like a cocklebur in wool socks.

  Jared had rested his chin on steepled fingers and given her a patronizing smirk. “You want to live in the sticks?” He gave her the eye smolder that had sucked her into his world at that first party and gestured to his shiny leather couch. “Why don’t you come tell me all about your little plan.”

  With a sigh, she perched on the edge of the seat. How long had it been since they’d even kissed? Since Gran died. Every time he’d come by her apartment she’d allowed him to carry the conversation. Her mind had been buzzing with ideas for the shop, but she hadn’t even mentioned she was leaving.

  The day she’d finally brought it up, the plane ticket was already in her purse. “Gran’s shop was my summer getaway every year, and I loved it there.” She folded her arms and pushed back into the couch’s unyielding cushion. “You and I have had this discussion. I always wanted to go back to Wimber, someday. I planned to go help Gran, when she got to a place where she couldn’t run the store by herself. It’s the reason I graduated with a business major.”

  “Ah, yes. Your public college degree.” Jared pulled her hand onto his knee and patted it. “Sweetheart, I hate to say it, but you haven’t done anything with that piece of paper, unless you count your boutique position as a career.”

  Darcy’s shoulders sagged. “It’s almost impossible to get a job at that store. And I’m top in sales. I’m good at it.”

  “Of course, you are. So why would you want to leave? And what about us? Didn’t you even hear what I said at dinner with your parents the other night—when I told your father I’d been out ring shopping?”

  Something caught in Darcy’s throat and she choked. Coughing, she clutched at the water bottle on the floor by her purse. The cool liquid ran down her throat and she took a deep breath. Words tickled the tip of her tongue—I can’t be with you anymore. It’s over—but she imagined the curl that she knew would creep into his lip. I can’t deal with this right now.

  Jared pulled a handkerchief from his suit’s breast pocket and wiped up a few drops of splattered water. “I know you’re excited about getting married, but don’t die on me. Look, I think you should go down and see the place. Visit your grandma’s grave. Whatever you need to do for closure.”

  Darcy’s lips trembled. She pushed herself up from the couch and attempted to arrange her thoughts into a decent reaction. “I am going to Texas.” The resolution branded itself into her soul as she spoke. “I need some space right now.”

  “Sure, sure. I’ll miss you, babe. Just don’t stay away too long.” Jared extended his arms as though he expected her to return to his encompassing embrace, like she always had.

  Gathering her purse and water bottle, she moved to the door. “I’ll talk to you later.” She walked out, slamming the door of his top-level condo behind her. She fumed for about twenty floors of the elevator ride, but by the time she reached the bottom, a blissful lightness filled her being. Texas is states away. He’s too occupied with work to fly down, at least for a while. Plus, long-distance relationships had never lasted for her, even with the guy who had mattered the most.

  Jared hadn’t been the only one who didn’t appreciate her plans. When she’d given notice at the boutique, her coworkers had gasped at the idea of her trudging to some back-Texas town with no beach and the nearest high end anything hundreds of miles away. “Where will you get your nails done?” they screeched. “Surely not one of those little cave places in a strip mall!”

  Darcy’s parents knew better than to talk her out of it. Her mother dabbed tears from ivory cheeks and begged for phone calls and texted photos. “After all, it’s my own mother’s store.” Her father silently handed over a check for a thousand dollars before e climbed on the plane, and with equal silence, she promised herself to never cash it. The feeling was impossible to express. The shop was meant for her. As if God had wrapped it in a bow and placed it in her lap.

  “Here’s kitty.” Kayla interrupted her thoughts, pointing to the staircase. “He’s already been fed this morning.”

  “Oh, Linus, how are you?” Darcy reached down to scratch the cat’s ears, bedraggled and torn from years of defending his honor in the town’s alleyways.

  Linus sniffed her fingers, and seemed to decide he remembered her. He butted her hand with his head. A rusty purr rose from deep inside his furry orange belly.

  At least I have someone here from old times.

  “Will you be staying in the apartment tonight?” Kayla glanced up the stairs. “I also live above my shop. No sense running a cafe with a full breakfast if I can’t get there first thing.”

  Darcy leaned against the counter with a sigh. “No. I’ll be at the hotel for now. That reminds me, I’ll probably need a handyman to look at the pipes, stuff like that. Can you recommend anyone?”

  “Otis does that sort of work for the businesses down here. He knows the innards of these stores better than most of the owners. I wouldn’t call him until Monday, though. He likes his Jim Beam, and tends to get wilder as the weekend approaches. One day he came into my cafe on a Thursday afternoon raving about a bobcat stalking him up the street. I went outside to see Linus, switching his tail on the front patio.” Kayla stared at the ceiling, tapping her chin. “Yes, Otis will do fine. You won’t be able to Google him, though. Most folks around here still haven’t entered the digital age. He might be in the phone book.” She pivoted around the room, her eyes scanning the top shelves. “I’m not sure where your Gran would keep hers. I’ll look around the cafe for his card and bring it over tomorrow. Will you be here?”

  “I’m going to try to get started by eight.” Darcy pursed her lips. “I was hoping to arrive earlier today, but my flight was delayed and I had a mix-up at the car rental place. Since it’s getting late tonight, I suppose I’ll head on to the hotel.” She smiled. “Thank you so much, Kayla, for feeding Linus and taking care of the place for me. Would you mind if I had a few minutes by myself?”

  Kayla glanced at her watch. “Of course. Let me know if you need anything. And I’m sure the other ladies will want to meet you as soon as possible. Ms. Travelsham will be so excited you’re keeping the store.”

  Darcy tapped her chin. “Ms. Travelsham . . . doesn’t she own the bookshop? I used to go in there all the time when I was a teenager.”

  Kayla nodded. “Yes, it’s one of my favorite stores in town. If I wasn’t so busy in the café, I’d be there every waking moment.”

  “I’ll have to pay the shop a visit in the next few days,” said Darcy. “I wonder if she’ll remember me.”

  “Probably. She doesn’t miss much around here. Now before I forget,” Kayla pressed the key into Darcy’s palm. “I’ll bring you the other one from my shop tomorrow. Or, if you’d rather, I can hold onto it for emergencies.”

  “Sure, keep it just in case.” Darcy curled her fingers around the object, still warm from Kayla’s hand. “Did Gran give you any other keys?”

  “I don’t recall anything else.” Kayla frowned. “The sheds out back have combination padlocks. If you don’t know the numbers, all you will need is a bolt cutter. I haven’t gone near them. The key I gave you fits the front and back doors. Her apartment key is in the little dish in the kitchen upstairs, I never locked the door up there. Is there something else?”

  “That sounds about right.” Darcy plastered a bright smile on her face. Of course Gran wouldn’t have given anyone the secret key. How was she to know? She was in the best of health.

  “All right then, have a good night. I’ll be back tomorrow with that phone number.”

  Darcy went to the counter and surveyed the shelves by the ancient cash register while Kayla’s footsteps echoed through the room. The door slammed, and the only sound she could hear was the squeak of the ancient ceiling fan from the center of the store which always turned on when you hit the light switch, summer or winter.

  Remarkable how everything seems to be almost exactly h
ow it’s always been--with an extra sprinkle of dust. Darcy punched a few buttons on the cash register. Gran had taught her how to operate the cantankerous old machine when she was eleven. She’d never forgotten the first time she’d sold something and done the entire transaction on her own. From finding the price tag on the fragile china cup, to counting the money, to wrapping the dish with care to ensure a safe journey home. The thrill had gone all the way down to her toes and she’d never received the same satisfaction from any other job, even the high-end boutique where she’d sold thousands of dollars of clothes to customers every day.

  Linus threaded around her feet, and then jumped up on the counter.

  “You’ve had your dinner, don’t try to convince me otherwise,” she murmured.

  The cat pushed closer, knocking over a dusty frame.

  “Silly cat. Why did Gran allow you in here anyway? Wonder how much merchandise you’ve broken over the years.” She righted the picture and dusted the glass.

  A short, slightly chubby girl stared back at her, smiling so hard eye color was impossible to determine. She was dressed in an old t-shirt and cut-offs. Darcy smiled back. I looked so happy. I was such a mess—but so happy.

  Beside the girl was a tall, thin boy with dark hair and a determined chin. Her heart sped up the tiniest bit. Ramsey. I wonder how he’s doing? They’d been inseparable every summer. She’d received an invitation to his wedding two years ago, but had been in the throes of final exams in her last semester of college.

  Darcy placed the photograph back on the shelf.

  “Ow!” The splinter wound rubbed against the frame’s edge. In the excitement of exploring the shop, she’d completely forgotten her injury.

  She pulled open a drawer and there they were: the box of band-aids like always. Gosh, Gran. Even though you’re gone, you’re still looking out for me.

  Wrapping a bandage around her finger, she stepped back out to the front porch and peered down the street.