Love Me Tender

by Wendy Vella

“Being nice, even though you’re odd.”

  “Small town, Rory, we’re all slightly weird. You need anything, track me down at the ranger station on the mountain road.”

  “Right, got it.”

  She wouldn’t but it was nice of him to offer anyway, and it made her feel better, because two people had stood up for her today... well three, actually. The elderly man in the grocery store, Fin Hudson, and the disturbing Jack Trainer.

  It didn’t matter anyway. Rory wasn’t here to make friends, she reminded herself again. Getting in her car, she started it and headed in the direction of Bas’s garage. She knew the way there because her eldest brother, Leo, had been his friend when they lived here. Sometimes he’d let her tag along when he went to visit Bas and play in the cars. She’d thought herself pretty cool to be hanging out with her brother and his friend. That had only added to the overinflated opinion she’d already had of herself.

  “God, I was horrible,” Rory muttered, passing the large banner strung across the main street advertising the Santa Run. She’d be gone by then.

  Situated off the main road, Basil Automotive now had two old gasoline pumps stationed either side of the entrance. To the left was another building, which Rory’s memory told her had once been an office and storeroom. Painted rust red, it had white trim around the gutters and doors. The sign said Basil’s Bargains.

  “Short and to the point,” Rory said, parking her car. Getting out, she pulled down her hat as an icy blast hit her. She’d forgotten how cold it could get here. But it was a fresh, clean cold, the kind you didn’t mind as long as you were dressed for it.

  Walking to the door, she took a deep breath and entered Basil’s Bargains. If he threw her out, she’d just have to drive to the next town to find what she needed.

  “Be right with you.” The gruff voice came from behind a large chest of drawers. “Feel free to browse.”

  Christmas music played here too, and decorations were strung across the roof.

  Rory’s heartbeat increased as she walked deeper into the shop. It would be hard if Bas turned on her, because she’d once thought of him as her big brother, just like the two she already had. With him and her brothers, away from others, she’d often just been a little sister and not a precocious brat.

  “Looking for anything in particular?”

  Inhaling, Rory turned, and there he was. The big grizzly bear of a man that was Basil Owen.

  “Bas.” Her throat was so dry she had to swallow.

  “Rory?”

  She nodded. Waited to see how he would react to her.

  “Well hell, little girl, come here.”

  He grabbed her, hugging her close against his wonderful big body. Rory swallowed down the tears as she let him hold her.

  “Look at you, all grown up.”

  He held her shoulders, his eyes studying her. Bas had a way of really looking at a person.

  “You look unhappy, and there’s a whole ton of shit going on behind those eyes, Rory.”

  “You cannot tell that from just a look,” she scoffed, pushing out of his arms.

  “I heard you were back in town. Had a few of the locals come through spouting a load of trash talk about you. I put them straight.”

  “Don’t defend me, Bas. It’s best just to let it run its course.”

  “I’ll defend you if I want to. You were the little sister I never had.”

  “Thanks. At least you didn’t think of me as Princess Aurora May.”

  “Oh, you were a Princess all right, but when we were away from others, you were just Rory.”

  Rory stayed silent.

  “It was your parents’ fault. All that money they splashed around all the time, giving you and your brothers everything you wanted. It was bound to go to your head.”

  Rory didn’t want to talk about that time in her life, so she asked about him. “Tell me all about your life, Bas. What’s been happening?” she said, turning to looking around the shop.

  Her arm was grabbed and she was turned back to face him.

  “What happened after you left here, Rory?”

  “Please, Bas, not now.”

  Whatever he saw in her face stopped him digging deeper, but it was just a temporary reprieve, she knew.

  “Are you back for a while?”

  “A bit, but not sure how long yet.”

  “Why?”

  Rory shrugged. “Nana left us her house. The boys didn’t want to come, but someone had to as we need to get it ready to sell and pack up her things. So here I am.”

  “I’m sorry people will be unhappy you’re back.”

  “Already bumped into a few of them this morning, and yes, they aren’t happy.”

  “No one has a right to go at you about what happened. It had nothing to do with you or your brothers.”

  Rory shrugged. “I can handle it. Plus, there’s the fact I was a bitch, and my brothers were horrible too.”

  “You were kids, Rory.”

  “It’s okay, Bas... really.”

  “Leo never spoke to me again, you know. I tried to contact him, but he, and all of you, just disappeared. I friend requested him on Facebook, and Matt, but neither of them accepted.”

  “Yeah, well don’t feel too bad about that, we pretty much closed ourselves off from everyone after it all went down.”

  “You’re all still tight though, right?”

  “Sure, we catch up as often as we can, but mainly via Skype these days. Now I need a few things, Bas. Mind if I look around?”

  She felt his eyes on her, but he didn’t push the subject of her brothers.

  “I called in a few times to check on your nana’s house.”

  “I didn’t find out until a letter arrived she’d died,” Rory said, feeling the guilt again. “I didn’t even know she was sick, even though we wrote to each other regularly.”

  “Connie kept things like that to herself. We didn’t know how bad she was.”

  Rory felt sad her nana had died without family around her, but she couldn’t go back and change anything, no matter how much she wanted to.

  “Did you look after the house? Because it’s in way better condition than I expected.”

  He shrugged. “She’s only been six months, but a lot can happen in that time.

  “I was pretty shocked when I found out she’d left it to us. I actually only received the papers two weeks ago, and with Dad dying not long before, things were all over the place.”

  “He’s dead?”

  She nodded, swallowing down the painful lump in her throat. “And mom.”

  “Aww hell, Rory. I’m sorry.”

  “I know, but we had each other, me, Leo, and Matt. Do you know where Henry is, Bas?” Rory wanted the subject changed, and her nana’s donkey provided that.

  “I think the Trainers have him. Once your grandmother died he got lonely, so they moved him.”

  “What’s the chances of some service here, Bas!”

  The words came from the workshop.

  “Get lost, Trainer. I don’t serve losers!” Bas roared the words over his shoulder, while winking at her. He then gave her another hug. “I’ll come back and we’ll talk, Rory. You go on and take a look around.”

  Rory was happy to do that, and even happier not to see Jack Trainer again, if that was who had called out to Bas. She remembered them, the wild Trainer boys. All three had been scruffy, angry, and looking for trouble. Not the type of boy her parents had wanted her going anywhere near when she lived here. Funny how it was actually her that people should have avoided.

  Chapter 6

  “The key word in the phrase service industry is service, Bas!” Jack yelled through the door connecting the work shop to Bas’s Bargains. A weird combo, but it seemed to work. Before the place opened, their nearest thrift shop was in the next town over.

  “Once we get these parts, you can buy me lunch. It’s freezing, and I need sustenance to warm up.”

  “How come I have to buy you lunch when you own a bar
that could serve us for free?” Jack said to his brother.

  Joe, the oldest trainer sibling, wanted his wife’s car fixed, so he’d roped Jack in to help.

  “Second to that is why don’t you just bring Bailey’s car in to get fixed? How come I have to do it?”

  “Because you and I will fix it with love.”

  Jack shook his head. “You are such a Scrooge.”

  “It’s called economizing. Now Bailey’s pregnant, we need to tighten our belts.”

  Well built like their little brother, Luke, Joe had held his family together when it should have imploded. He had bullied Jack and Luke until they toed the line, and then wrestled them into the people they were today. Jack would be forever grateful to Joe for that, as he’d been on the path to self-destruction when his brother tracked him down.

  “You’re gonna let Bailey breathe, aren’t you, Joe? No watching her every move, okay? She’s smart and can take care of herself.”

  “I’d never do that!” Joe looked genuinely affronted.

  “Are you shitting me? You’re constantly riding all of us.”

  “To be better people, and it’s called guidance.”

  Jack laughed so hard that Bas finally made an appearance to see what was happening.

  “Trainers.” He nodded. “What’s the joke?”

  “Joe believes he doesn’t have a managing personality, Bas. Set him straight will you.”

  The mechanic/entrepreneur looked amused, then pitying.

  “Fuck you both,” Joe muttered.

  “Nice tree.” Jack nodded to the branch stuck in an oil can in the corner. It was listing slightly and decorated with duct tape and beer tabs.

  “Cut me a break, it’s authentic.”

  “It’s something all right,” Joe added.

  Bas moved closer, leaning in. “You both know Rory Haldane is back, right, and some locals will come down hard on her? I’ve had a few in here and put them right, but it’s only just begun in my opinion.”

  Jack hadn’t told his brother he’d seen her already, or that he’d behaved badly when he did.

  “She’s through there, buying some things.”

  “Must be hard on you, Bas, considering you were tight with her brothers.”

  “Jack, that little girl was once the sister I never had, and Leo and Matt were my buddies. Sure, her old man was a dickhead, and the mother a puppet, but when we were alone, they were good friends.”

  “Not so much away from you then,” Joe added. “I have to say the Trainers weren’t princes either, but those Haldanes were just plain nasty, Bas.”

  Bas blew out a loud breath. “Yeah, I know it, but I saved Leo from getting his ass handed to him once. After that we all got along when we were alone. I saw the shit they did, but never to me.”

  “I just hope things don’t get too bad for Rory.”

  “Princess Aurora May is just plain Rory now?” Joe asked.

  “She’s always been Rory to her brothers and me.”

  “Well let me assure you shit is already going down as you predicted,” Joe said, which relieved Jack because it meant he didn’t have to.

  “I’m sure as hell hoping you Trainers aren’t involved?”

  Bas was a grizzly bear of a man, and he could do mean better than most.

  “You should know us better than that, Bas.” Jack crossed his fingers behind his back.

  “It must have been someone else telling me to leave town earlier then.”

  Jack cursed softly as Rory Haldane stepped through the door. Her hat was pulled low enough to cover her eyebrows, and her cheeks were pink from the cold. She was glaring at him again.

  “I then put your hot water on and got your power working. I think that squares us up. And let’s not forget I soothed the angry mob who were after you in the grocery store.”

  “You also said you couldn’t fathom how my nana loved me, and that she should have thrown a party when the Haldanes left town.”

  Just Jack’s luck she had a good memory.

  “You told her to leave town?” Joe questioned him.

  “I was tired, we’d been rescuing stupid tourists for hours,” he told his brother. “I may have said some things I shouldn’t have.”

  “Twice,” Rory Haldane said with a malicious glint in her blue eyes.

  “I’m over it now,” Jack said, sending the glare right back. “And I’m sorry, okay. I was out of line.”

  “You don’t sound sorry.” She raised her chin.

  “Well I am.” Even to his ears he sounded pissed off and in no way contrite. He couldn’t help it; the woman made his hackles rise. She was like a bristling hedgehog with all that crazy hair.

  “Hi, Rory, I’m Joe Trainer, and much nicer than my middle brother.” Joe stepped forward, all smiles and warmth.

  “Hi.” She shook his hand, still frowning.

  “Not sure you remember us or not?”

  “I do.”

  “How’s Matt and Leo?”

  “Good.”

  She wasn’t exactly forthcoming, her words clipped and cool. Princess Aurora May wasn’t much of a talker, was Jack’s guess. Something else that had changed since she’d lived here. Before, it was hard to shut her up.

  “What are they up to now?” Bas asked.

  “Leo’s a manager for a drilling company, and Matt is in construction.”

  “No shit? I was sure Leo would be a politician. He could talk anyone into doing anything.”

  Jack had kept his eyes on Rory during this exchange, and saw that talking about her brothers made her uncomfortable.

  “I’ll go hire a trailer, Bas, because I will get a new mattress too now.”

  “You thinking of staying in town for a while, Rory?” Joe asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Joe smiled. “No need for you to hire a trailer. We have the pickup; we’ll take it to the house for you,” he said before Jack could stop him.

  “No, thanks.”

  “I insist.”

  “So do I,” Rory said.

  “Why?” Joe wasn’t used to having his kind gestures thrown back at him.

  “Look, thanks and all that, really, I appreciate the gesture, but it’s better if I do stuff alone.”

  It was an odd way to phrase a refusal, but Jack filled in the dots.

  “We can handle ourselves. Ex-bad boy Trainers after all,” he said before he could stop himself. Jack wanted nothing to do with this woman, and yet her refusal to let him and Joe help made him want to force her hand, which made no sense at all.

  “I don’t want your help.”

  She didn’t follow that up with a thanks to soften the words, or any small talk. Rory Haldane just turned around and headed back into Bas’s Bargains.

  “Her brothers were obnoxious, but not outright bad from what I remember,” Joe said.

  “That you saw,” Bas confirmed. “Not everyone did bad shit out in the open, Trainer, like you idiots.”

  “There is that.” Jack was in total agreement—as was Joe. They’d done things for maximum disruption and effect... and it had worked.

  “Neil’s due back soon. I’ll have him watch the shop, and load Rory’s mattress on my truck,” Bas said.

  “If she lets you,” Jack added.

  “I’m way bigger than her.”

  “But she has a large attitude is my guess.”

  “Probably had to have one,” Bas said. “Now, what can I do for you two.”

  They got their parts and left, heading for the noodle bar. Thankfully, not running into Rory again.

  “It’s freezing,” Joe said, burrowing into his jacket.

  “You’re going soft.”

  He stopped as he looked up at the large banner now strung across the middle of the street farther up the road from the Santa Race one. It hadn’t been there when they passed before.

  “Bachelor Auction. Help our kids get to Carnegie Hall?” Jack read the words as he looked at his brother. “What the fuck?”

  Joe
had his eyes on the banner, a small smile on his lips. “Makes a man happy he’s married.”

  “I’m not doing it.”

  “Aw come on, stud. You’ll be the hottest ticket at the event. Bailey will get you there, you know she has that way about her.”

  “No, absolutely not.”

  “Hello, Jack.”

  Mrs. Carbine was in her sixties and had a blue tint to her hair due to her salon appointment the second Tuesday of every month.

  “Oh hey, Mrs. Carbine. How’s things with you today?”

  Her husband had passed away a few years ago, and she was always at him to come and have a meal with her. He’d done it once, and never again. She’d spent the evening trying to lure him into the bedroom.

  “I’m saving up for you, Jack. You and I will have a proper date this time.”

  “Oh... ah, well—”

  “He’d really enjoy that, Mrs. Carbine. You excuse us now, we have somewhere to be.” Joe then grabbed his arm and tugged, making Jack follow him.

  “I’m not doing it, Joe.”

  “Sure you are.”

  They headed into the noodle bar, and Jack thought he would need to be strong about this. He had no intention of humiliating himself by being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

  “Jack, how are you?”

  “Hi, Babs, you’re looking hot as always.”

  She giggled.

  “Babs.”

  “Oh hi, Joe.”

  “You got a table for us, sweetcheeks?”

  “Sure, Jack, you two come this way.”

  “It’s like I’m invisible when you’re around... only with the single women of course,” Joe said once they were seated.

  Jack shrugged. “Just so we’re clear, I am not doing the auction, and you can tell your wife I said that.”

  “Whatever, and you will because you can’t resist Bailey. I wonder why she’s back here?”

  “Bailey?” Jack looked at the menu. “She came back because she couldn’t live without you, from memory. Don’t get that myself, but everyone’s different.”

  “You know who.”

  “Why do you care? Rory Haldane is nothing to you. Or me,” Jack said, dropping the pretense.

  “It can’t have been easy coming back. Why now, years later?”

  Jack smiled at Babs as she came back to their table.