by Mary Frame
I cringe, an image of her and Jared popping involuntarily into my head.
There’s an unfamiliar churning in my stomach when I think about Jared, and when I think about Jared with Eleanor.
“Maybe Jared likes those things,” I say out loud, fishing for a little more information.
“I don’t think Jared is into her like that, although Mrs. Olsen sure does try. She’s been working on Jared ever since he moved back. Lucky for him, there aren’t many single women in his age range. Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it.” She pauses and eyes me speculatively. “Although you’re here now. His pool has widened.”
“Jared doesn’t like me,” I say quickly.
“That’s not true.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he likes everyone.”
“That’s a terrible answer.”
“It’s true though. He comes across as a turd-nugget sometimes if you don’t know him, but inside he’s like a giant marshmallow.”
“Hardly.” I know, I’ve felt that hard chest.
“I’m telling you, it’s true. I’ve known him a long time.”
We’re silent for a moment. The ice cream has been demolished and now we’re munching on buttery popcorn and sipping our margaritas while Reese Witherspoon wins her case because of a bad perm.
“I heard you and Jared ran into the Newsomes up in the woods,” Tabby says.
“Yes.” I grin at her, making the nearly dry mud mask crack on my face. “They were naked.”
She laughs. “You’re kidding.”
I grimace. “I only wish I were. My retinas are permanently scarred.”
“I knew the whole break-up thing with them was bullshit. They like to play games with each other.”
“I guess that’s one way to keep the romance alive,” I muse. “Speaking of romance, what’s going on with you and Ben?”
“What? Who? Nothing.”
“I know you guys hook up all the time.”
A slow red hue creeps up her neck. “We do not hook up.” She won’t meet my eyes. Instead, she shoves a handful of popcorn in her mouth and chews loudly.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
She finishes her chewing and takes a drink of her margarita before saying, “Having a psychic friend is really cramping my style.”
“I don’t have to be psychic to know there’s something going on there.”
“It’s possible we maybe sometimes share a little, teensy-weensy, no-big-deal, I-kiss-my-grandmother-with-this-mouth kind of kiss,” she relents, but adds, “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are you sure? It’s obvious he’s into you.”
She snorts. “Right, he’s into me like people are into the DMV.”
“The other night, he seemed pretty upset when Mrs. Olsen mentioned Jack. Who is Jack, by the way?”
“He’s a guy who works at the store sometimes.” She waves me off. “Mrs. Olsen has lost her damn mind. Jack is like eighteen. I’m old enough to be his . . . much older sister.”
“I don’t think Ben agrees. He didn’t seem happy.”
“Ben and I are never going to happen. He doesn’t like me like that, we’ll never be more than occasional make-out buddies, he will never take it any further, and we are never ever getting together. Like ever.”
“Why?”
She’s quiet for a moment. Her gaze is on the TV but I don’t think she’s really watching. When she speaks again, she’s more serious than I’ve ever heard her. “We’re friends. We’ve known each other since we were in diapers, and he’s Troy’s best friend. If we did take it to the next level and things didn’t work out, we wouldn’t be able to escape each other. It would make it weird for everyone.”
“That sounds like the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.”
“It is. But it’s his excuse, not mine.”
I wince. “Ouch.”
She shrugs.
“What’s your excuse?”
“I can’t be with someone who doesn’t love me as much as I love them.” The words come out easily, almost as if they don’t matter, but I can tell they do.
I’m not sure if there’s anything I could do to help her, but I want to try.
“Here.” I hold my hand out. “Let me see your palm.”
“What? No.” She smacks my hand away. “I don’t want you to do your voodoo shit on me.”
“Stop being ridiculous. You’ve been begging for my voodoo shit for days. Now hold my hand.”
She puts her hand in mine. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask to hold hands since we first met.”
“Stop being creepy or I won’t rub your feet later.”
She snorts a laugh.
I examine the lines for a moment before speaking. “Your heart line has an offshoot. See here?” I point. I have learned some things from all my psychic book reading. “This means that you have a choice. One path will lead to this little, weak line that tapers off into nothing. This other line is longer and deeper.”
“Longer and deeper, huh?” She starts laughing, her shoulders shaking, her palm twitching in mine. “I definitely want the guy that can go longer and deeper.” She snorts.
“Stop laughing. This isn’t funny. I didn’t mean it like that!” I smack her on the shoulder.
She pulls her hand back. “Okay, Yoda, I get it, choose wisely, don’t sleep with the weak ones, yadda yadda yadda.”
“What if Ben is your longer and deeper?”
Her laughter subsides and she gives me a sad smile. “It doesn’t matter, if I’m not his.”
Chapter Sixteen
The next morning, I’m home alone making coffee when I hear a thump at the door. I startle and Gravy hisses at me from his perch on the counter.
“How is it my fault someone is out there?” I ask the cat as I walk past him.
He stares without blinking, jumps off the counter, and flicks his tail at me before disappearing into the living room. He moves pretty smoothly for a cat missing a leg.
The porch is empty.
I talked to Paige thirty minutes ago and she won’t be home for another hour.
The floorboards squeak underneath as I approach the stairs leading down to the walkway. At the top of the steps, I lean forward to peer around the bushes lining the front of the house.
“Gary?”
He’s sitting on the lawn in front of the neglected rosebushes. He’s even scruffier than the last time I saw him.
“Are you okay?”
He nods. “I wanted to check on Gravy.” His face is so small and sad.
“You can come see Gravy any time you want.”
“I can?” He gazes up at me, eyes almost as big as his face.
“Sure. He’s inside, I think in the living room. Come on.”
His eyes widen even further, and a grin spreads across his small face as he scrambles to his feet and follows me into the house.
We find Gravy in a sunny spot on the living room floor, rolling around and exposing his belly. Until he sees me.
Gary kneels next to him and pets him, and Gravy doesn’t hiss. The bastard actually purrs.
“Stupid cat,” I grumble from the doorway.
“What?”
“Nothing. Would you like something to eat? I was going to make some pancakes.”
I wasn’t, but the child has that hungry look about him. It might be a boy thing.
“Okay,” he says, not turning around, his attention focused on Gravy.
A few minutes into the pancake flipping, Gary ends up in the kitchen. That damn cat is even letting Gary hold him, all awkward and three legs akimbo, and Gravy doesn’t fight it, just lounges there limply like he’s not the antichrist.
“Gravy really likes you,” I say. “He likes Paige, too, but I’m not sure if he likes her enough to let her hold him like that. You’re very lucky.”
Gary nods and sets Gravy down gently on the floor before sitting at the table.
I flip a few pancakes onto a plate and set the
m in front of him with a small bottle of syrup.
“Do you want some orange juice?”
Another nod.
I get everything in front of him and watch as he practically shovels the food in his mouth.
While he’s eating, I use up the remaining batter.
When all is said and done, the small child eats six decent-sized pancakes.
“Can I bring some to my brother?” he asks, eyeing the remaining food.
“Sure. Where is Greg?”
“He’s sleeping. He wasn’t feeling good. But maybe this will make him feel better.”
“Pancakes cure all sorts of sickness.”
That perks him up almost more than Gravy. “You think so?”
“Absolutely. If he’s doing better, you guys can come back later today. We’re having a grand opening and there will be food and a bounce house and lots of people.” Apparently, Tabby’s young employee has a bounce house that his parents bought. He agreed to come over and set it up for us.
“Really?” His eyes widen. “We can come?”
“Sure. Your dad can come, too.”
At the mention of his father, his expression turns pensive. “He’s not feeling well either.”
He’s lying. I know it. Instead of pushing him, I change the subject.
“The opening isn’t until later in the afternoon, because of the festival, but if you come over by two or three, that would be good. We’ll have a lot of people around and plenty to eat and some fun things to do.”
He seems excited about that, so I pack the leftover pancakes along with a couple of apples into a small paper bag and Gary leaves to check with his brother. I watch as he disappears out of sight around the next block.
While I’m still standing out front, Tabby pulls up in an old pickup truck full of crap. Troy and Jared are with her.
“I thought I’d bring some extra muscle,” she tells me when they all exit the vehicle and start unloading tools and tiles and other various items.
“Tabby, we’re not remodeling, we’re just doing a little cooking and cleaning. We don’t need all this stuff.”
“Oh I know, but there’s another storm system moving in next weekend and I wanted to get your roof fixed so you don’t get more water. Mold is the last thing you want, trust me.”
I open my mouth to argue but she stops me with a hand.
“It won’t take very long. Troy and I will work on the roof and Jared can help you with the last-minute stuff for the shop.”
My stomach somersaults. I haven’t been alone with Jared since the break-in at the gas station and his big apology. Since he started being all nice and weird.
The shop is set up with everything we need, but we still need to make some appetizers and such for the opening. I spent a good chunk of the check from the police on the food, and I hope it’s worth it.
“Any progress on the case?” I ask Jared once we’re both doing something, me chopping vegetables while he throws some fake cheese into a Crock-Pot for a dip.
I never said it was fancy food.
“Nope. It’s like this guy is a ghost.”
“Maybe it’s a girl.”
“Could be.”
He turns on the Crock-Pot and leans against the counter next to me. “There’s no sign of forced entry at the gas station, and the only two people with keys are the owner and the manager. The owner has no reason to destroy his own property, and the manager was out of town on the night of the break-in.”
“Maybe the owner wanted insurance money?”
Jared chuckles. “Billy wouldn’t know the first thing about insurance fraud.”
We’re silent for a moment, the only sound the knife hitting the cutting board as I chop.
“Have you—”
“What do you—”
We both laugh a bit awkwardly. “You first,” I say.
“Have you had any more . . . I don’t know what you call them, visions?”
“No.”
He nods and we resume our silent cooking.
“What were you going to say, before?” he asks.
“I was wondering what there is to do around here, for fun.”
He eyes me speculatively. “Like what kind of fun?”
“I mean, with Paige. I wanted to take her somewhere fun for kids.”
“Oh. Well, there’s a movie theater downtown, but they usually only have one or two things playing at any given time and they’re usually already available on DVD. The drive-in should be opening soon, too. That’s a little ways outside of town. There’s also a zoo of sorts, an animal rescue place about an hour south.”
I frown. That’s too bad. Paige loves animals. “Anything within walking distance?”
“Why within walking distance?”
“Our car is broken. I haven’t had a chance to get it fixed with everything that’s been going on.”
“Do you want me to take a look at it?”
“No,” I say firmly.
“You could borrow my car for a few hours if you need to. Anytime.”
“I couldn’t impose on you like that.”
And I wouldn’t want to be any more indebted to the people around here than I already am. Plus, offering a handout is almost offensive. Like I can’t take care of Paige and our needs on my own, when I totally can.
Although I didn’t react this strongly when Tabby gave me stuff. With Jared, it’s different.
“It wouldn’t be an imposition.”
“It’s fine,” I say, my voice a little more terse than intended. “I’m sure after today things will slow down a bit and we can get the car running.”
And I can get the money to get it fixed.
We’re quiet after that, no chitchat other than what’s necessary to hand each other utensils and get everything arranged on platters or in the oven.
Paige comes home and helps us in the kitchen. She seems tired but happy from her sleepover. It sounds like she and Naomi had an evening similar to mine and Tabby’s, minus the margaritas.
We’ve finished stacking trays into the refrigerator for later when a small voice interrupts us.
“Miss Ruby?”
I turn around at the sound of the voice.
Gary is back, standing in the doorway, and he brought his older brother this time.
Greg doesn’t exactly seem enthused to be here. I wonder if he’s still not feeling well. He has gray smudges under his eyes, and he’s paler than the last time I saw him at the festival.
“Hey, Gary. You came back a bit early.”
“Did you guys want to hang out and wait for the bounce house?” Paige asks them.
They both perk up at that.
She leads them outside, Gravy trailing after them.
“Will you help me get the pitcher down?” I ask Jared, pointing to the top of a tall cabinet. “I can bring some lemonade outside. I’m sure Tabby and Troy need a break by now.”
Jared nods and reaches up over me, grabbing the glass pitcher and setting it on the counter. The kids left the front door open and I can hear Troy yelling something about a football.
By the time Jared and I make it out front to see what the noise is all about, Troy has all three kids, including Paige, set up on the front lawn and he’s showing them the proper way to line up and tackle.
“You’re my offensive line,” he tells Paige.
“By myself?” She does not sound impressed.
I set the pitcher of lemonade and glasses down on the front stoop and Tabby bounces up the steps, pouring herself a glass and taking a few big swallows. She’s still got a tool belt wrapped around her waist. She looks like Home Improvement Barbie.
“We fixed up the bad spots for now, and that should last you through the summer, but you’ll probably need an entirely new roof next year,” Tabby tells me. “We should look into metal. It lasts longer in the harsh seaside climate.”
Next year. I won’t be here next year.
I shove that thought aside.
Almost everything is
ready for the opening and now I don’t have to worry about the roof leaking any more than it already has.
“Thank you,” I tell her, but she waves off my appreciation and stalks off to the truck to unload her belt.
Jared sits on the porch swing next to me and we watch the boys and Paige play.
Gravy decides he’s in love with Jared and rolls around at his feet, exposing his stomach. And when Jared bends over to pet his soft underbelly, Gravy purrs.
“What is this?” I can’t help but say, gesturing to the beast. “This cat loves everyone but me.”
“Where’d you get him?”
“I bought him from Greg and Gary.”
He nods. “They seem like good kids. I think they’re pretty new in town. I don’t recognize them.”
We sit on the porch in silence for a few moments before Jared speaks again. “It’s nice of you to spend time with them.” He’s still scratching Gravy’s belly, but he looks up at me when he’s finished speaking, his dark eyes appearing brighter in the sun.
I squirm under his gaze. “It’s no big deal.”
A grumbling on the side of the house catches my attention. It’s Mr. Bingel, out in his yard getting ready to trim his already perfect rosebushes that he was just out here trimming this morning.
He pretends like he doesn’t notice us, but it’s impossible to miss Troy roaring on the ground, covered in laughing children trying to get him to drop the football.
I have to laugh.
This is what I’ve been missing. The kids on the lawn, sitting on a porch swing, drinking lemonade in the sunshine. I wish all life could be as simple as this.
“Hey, Jim,” Jared calls out when he spots Mr. Bingel. He stands up and ventures over onto Mr. Bingel’s side of the yard.
My mouth drops. I’ve never crossed the invisible line. I’m pretty sure I’d get my head clipped off with Mr. Bingel’s shears.
But Mr. Bingel doesn’t seem to mind Jared’s presence as much as mine, even though he’s still scowling. They shake hands and talk, but I can’t hear their conversation over the giggles and chatter on the lawn in front of me.
“Hey.” Tabby sits in the space Jared vacated.
“Tabby, thanks for doing all of this. I really appreciate it.”
“Not a problem. We help each other around here. Next time I need a psychic prediction, I expect you to return the favor.”