November Rains (A Year in Paradise Book 11)

by Hildred Billings

  “…Your uncle Deacon, you remember him?” Yvette sputtered with tears in her eyes. “He rolled up to the house in his ’57 Chevy thinking he was the hottest shit in the family! Had the top down, seatbelt off, and wasn’t afraid to stand up on the damned seat with the wheels still rollin’!” She slapped her husband on the shoulder, which only made him laugh louder as well. I have no idea what’s going on. Uncle Deacon? There was someone in the family named Deacon Delacour? That poor sap. No wonder he overcompensated with a vintage convertible that he tried to crash to impress the rest of the clan. “Your grandmother about hurled herself down the steps and tackled him to the pavement! When we asked him what the hell he was thinking, he told us, ‘I wanted Yvette to see what an interesting man I’ve become.’”

  “You ask me,” Sean, Frankie’s father, said, “he was trying to show off for me. He still can’t get over how I showed him up at his bachelor party twenty years ago.”

  Yvette sat back, all mirth having fallen off her face. “Excuse me? When did you go to my brother’s bachelor party?”

  “Wait…” Here it came. Frankie was finally starting to remember. “Is this Uncle Dean you’re talking about? The used car salesman who ran off with a Guatemalan woman who was coming through town with her acrobatic troupe? And Grandma tried to disown them, but was forced to renege when she found out the woman was pregnant with twins and they were the first male grandchildren in the line?”

  Both of her parents stared at her as if she were talking nonsense. Come on. I’ve heard this story five hundred times growing up. Finally, Yvette said, “Since when do you have an Uncle Dean?”

  “Maybe I misheard his name when I was a kid. You know, assuming it’s the same one.”

  “Yeah, your Uncle Deacon is the one who married Emmanuella. They had your twin cousins, the ones your grandma put through college because she felt bad about their circumstance.”

  “Oh,” Dominic cut in. “So they’re why I couldn’t get gram-gram to spot me tuition. Okay. All right. Good to know.”

  “You’re not doing too bad, though,” Yvette pointed out. “You’re still on track to get your associate’s next June, right? Tell me, have you put in your transfer applications to UO yet?”

  “Told you, I was thinking PSU. If not them, then maybe UO. If I want to go into small business marketing, I need to go where the actual small businesses are in abundance.”

  “We don’t need our boy going to Corvallis anyway,” Sean said. “The boy is a Duck, not a Beaver.”

  “Out of context, Dad, that sounds really messed up.”

  “Even in context,” Frankie muttered.

  The timer dinged in the kitchen, alerting the family that the turkey was done cooking. Yvette motioned for Frankie to join her in bringing out the bird for cooling, but she had a feeling there were other things her mother wanted to talk about away from the guys.

  “Your brother is doing all right, yes?” Yvette grabbed the potholders and tossed her daughter a couple. “I know he tells us his grades are good and he’s getting things in on time, but I also know how awkward that online class taking can be. Tried it myself ten years ago, you know.” She opened the oven, which emitted the most fragrant smell Frankie had endured since she closed her Deli on Wednesday. “Ah, I know your brother’s still a good kid. I only worry about him, you know.”

  “Anyway…” Frankie cleared a place for the turkey on the table. She minded her mother’s movements until it was firmly placed in the center. “Dominic is doing well with his studies. You know as much as I do.”

  “And you?” Yvette poured herself a fresh pot of coffee while her daughter put the finishing touches on the turkey’s arrangement. “How’s the deli going? Dominic helps you out sometimes, yes?”

  That wasn’t an inquiry of genuine curiosity. That was Yvette reminding her daughter that they had agreed to allow Dominic to move down to his sister’s if he promised to not be a burden on her busy life. Yvette had always taken pity on Frankie for how old she was when Dominic was born. She was worried that I’d think I was supposed to be the free babysitter. Frankie had seen it happen to friends of hers. Friends who had been only children until middle or high school, then suddenly they had a squawking infant to help take care of, not that they signed up for it. Yet maybe Frankie had just been old enough to get out of that spot. Yvette only made it sound like she didn’t expect her daughter to help with baby Dominic.

  “He’s helping when he can. He has his own part-time job separate from me, anyway.” Besides, Frankie didn’t need to remind her mother that she couldn’t pay Dominic most of the time. His work at the deli was purely voluntary. I don’t like it, but I can’t afford to pay him minimum wage. On the days he helped out, she made sure to repay him in kindness, but it was why she didn’t harp on him helping outside of peak lunch rush.

  “Has he found a girlfriend yet?” Yvette asked with a lowered voice, as if her son and husband could hear her over their laughter in the other room. “I mean, if he’s like you, that’s fine, but a mother would like to have some heads up around here. When we were back home, your Aunt Millie went on and on asking about Dominic’s romantic prospects. She’s fallen in with a Voodoo priestess who has a bunch of spells and love potions, I guess. Told ‘em my son doesn’t need ‘em, but it’s a lot easier to lie when I’m, you know, not lying.”

  Remind me again why I never go visit Louisiana? Oh, right, the Delacours were the most dramatic people by the bayou.

  “I don’t know if he’s seeing anybody for sure, but I doubt it,” Frankie finally said. “Don’t consider it any of my business now that he’s grown.”

  “So like you,” her mother said with a scoff. “How can I share the gorgeous details if you don’t have any to share?”

  “Dunno. I’m not telling you about my love life, either.”

  “Now that I don’t care to know nothing about.” Frankie didn’t take offense to her mother’s dismissive notes. She’s not being homophobic. She’s being “I don’t want to imagine my grown daughter making love with anybody! Especially if I don’t get grandkids from it!” They may have had discussions about that over the years. Many, many years.

  Frankie had a theory, though. Any girlfriend of hers who could put up with Yvette’s nosiness was probably a keeper. Yes. Probably.

  They summoned the guys for dinner once all the fixings were on the table. Sean balked at the thought of Thanksgiving without any wine, and went down into the basement to drag up what he declared, “The best vintage for the season!” Dominic rubbed his hands to get a sip of that, and his parents didn’t think twice about letting his underage ass have a glass alongside everyone else. Frankie didn’t care, but she would never forget how many times the Deputy drove Dominic’s half-drunk ass home from some high school party or another. Guess he’ll always be a kid to me. When did he become old enough to have a glass of wine at dinner?

  When did Frankie become old enough that her mother stopped badgering her about her personal life?

  Sean cut the turkey and everyone else passed around the au gratin potatoes, the beans, and the homemade bread – although that had been made the day before, not that it was stale yet. It was while Frankie buttered a slice of bread and wondered when they would have jambalaya again that her little brother cleared his throat and made an unfounded announcement.

  “So, has Frankie told you that somebody back in Paradise Valley has a crush on her?”

  Frankie dropped her buttered bread and gaped at Dominic as if he had announced she had eloped when nobody was looking.

  “Oh?” Sean took a large gulp of wine and grabbed the bottle when he was finished. “Is that so? When were you going to share these lovely details with us, huh, hon?”

  “I…!” Frankie looked to both of her parents, who stared at her as if she had purposely kept them out of the loop. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Her cheeks grew hot. I know what he’s talking about. Oh, my God. It had to be Z. Or Elaine. Or whatever they were going to start c
alling her now. Why is he doing this? To what end, Dominic? Was he being a little troll? Since when did they have that kind of relationship as brother and sister? She was too old for this! “Who the hell has a crush on me, and what am I, sixteen?”

  Dominic chuckled. “You can’t turn this back on me, Sis. You know who I’m talking about. You’ve been talking to her for a mighty long while online, right?” He smugly turned his grin toward their parents. “Turns out that one of her online friends actually lives in our town, and recently confessed how much she likes Frankie.”

  Frankie’s nostrils flared so widely that she must have looked like a horse about to charge through the barn doors. “You sure got a big mouth on you, huh? Can you believe him?” She took a defiant bite of her Thanksgiving dinner. “Thinks he knows what he’s talking about, but he don’t know crap.”

  Their parents were not listening to her, though. Their attentions were solely on Dominic, the origin of all knowledge. “What’s she like, huh?” Sean asked. “How long has it been since Frankie had a girlfriend, anyway? About ten years?”

  Frankie almost choked on her beans. “It’s been sooner than that, Dad!”

  Dominic jumped in before his sister could make a bigger fool of herself. “I don’t know much about her background,” he admitted, “but she runs this really cute teashop that she just opened. Really good, too, she makes all her own cookies. You know how much I love my cookies.”

  Yvette sagely nodded. “I’d say this reminds me that I have some macarons for you to take home, but I need to hear more details about this, first.”

  “I think she said her mother was a former model in Nigeria.”

  Both Yvette and Sean exchanged a look. “So she’s black?” Sean plainly asked.

  “Dad!” Frankie could hardly believe that was the first thing he asked. What year was it? “Who cares? Who cares about any of this?”

  “I’m only saying,” Sean opened his big mouth to say, “it always surprises me to see another black lesbian. Times sure have changed, huh, Yvee?”

  “I’m sure she’s lovely if her mother’s a model. You know what Nigeria’s like, hon. They’ve got so many people and such a big industry that you have to really be beautiful to stick out to be a model!”

  “You got a picture?” Sean asked. “I need to see what kind of woman is really out of my daughter’s league.”

  “Dad!”

  Before Frankie could melt into the floor, Dominic provided the receipts their parents requested. Namely, in the form of a picture on Paradise Valley’s Chamber of Commerce website, which had been recently updated to include a headshot of Elaine Hadley and her big, big smile.

  “Woo! Look at that!” Sean jabbed his finger at his son’s phone screen. “She looks like a TV star with that haircut!”

  “How do you think she gets it so straight like that?” Yvette lowered her glasses to get a better look. “Either of you ask what kind of straightener she uses?”

  Frankie officially bowed out of the conversation, having lost the battle – and probably the war. Her parents continued to analyze Elaine’s appearance, all glowing praise, and grill Dominic about the possible wedding date. When Yvette got up to call her sister, however, Frankie put down her foot and said that this was Thanksgiving, and they should be thankful she didn’t break every phone in the house.

  “What’s wrong with you dating?” Yvette asked with a mighty huff. “You think you’re too good for it or something? Remember what you were like with that ex of yours? Claire, wasn’t it? The blonde?”

  Oh, my god. Her mother had trouble with remembering names and faces, and often defaulted to calling Frankie’s two major exes “the blonde” and “the redhead.” “You’re thinking of Riley,” Frankie muttered.

  “Right! Riley! I remember her.”

  “Right. We were just talking about her,” Dominic said.

  “Anyway!” Yvette continued. “Point is, Claire or Riley or whoever was totally beneath your league, yet you were such a cute couple.”

  “How does that work?” Frankie asked.

  “She’s right,” Sean interjected, “that doesn’t make any sense. How can she be beneath Frankie but make her look like a cute couple?”

  Yvette bristled in her seat. “I don’t… what… I know what I’m talking about!”

  Frankie glared at her brother sitting next to her. “You. Me. Living room,” she snapped.

  By the time she dragged Dominic into the other room, their parents had devolved into an argument over semantics that no longer sounded like anything that had to do with Frankie’s personal life. Yet she was incensed enough to practically drag Dominic by the ear and sit him on the couch.

  “What was that for?” she hissed. “Did I do something to piss you off, huh? Don’t tell me you haven’t been listening to what I say about Ela…”

  “I don’t think it’s how you think it is,” he interrupted his sister. “I talked to Elaine the other day. Asked her about her motives for moving to town, and whether she knew you from anywhere else. She claims she has no idea who you are. I’m inclined to believe her.”

  Frankie scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Why are you talking to her about this? It’s our business.” Business she decided to no longer entertain. “I don’t recall asking you to talk to her on my behalf.”

  “I didn’t talk to her on your behalf. I care about you, okay?” Dominic nearly threw his hands up toward the ceiling. “If someone’s stalking my big sis, I want to find out and do something about it. Now, on the other hand, if she’s got a pretty love interest that might be good for her, I want to know that, too!”

  “You are all nuts,” Frankie said. “Why you all make such a big deal about my love life…”

  “You ever think it’s because we love you and want to see you happy?”

  “Who said I wasn’t happy?”

  “I know you have your work you’re really proud of and are comfortable in your routine, Sis,” Dominic snorted, “but I also remember what you were like when you were in love. Just because those relationships didn’t work out, doesn’t mean we still don’t want you to be happy and in love. Sue me if I see a good opportunity for you and want to support that.”

  Frankie was speechless, simply because there were too many things to say, and not enough breaths to say them.

  “You should give Elaine a chance. At least to explain herself.”

  “What is there to…”

  Frankie knew she had lost this argument. For today, anyway. Her best bet was to return to the dinner table and hope their parents had moved on to another topic of conversation. Dominic might not forget, but he’d at least go along with whatever their parents decided to talk about.

  They could finish this exchange later. Back in Paradise Valley, where Frankie held a little more sway in her own household.

  Chapter 14

  ELAINE

  The review came out Thanksgiving weekend, right on time for Small Business Saturday. While everyone who went shopping at Macy’s and Wal-Mart on Black Friday shuffled back to town to act like they hadn’t done that, Elaine opened a regional newspaper to discover Tea & Thyme had been called, “A cozy little nook in the Lesbian Capital of the Northwest.”

  It was a lukewarm review. Not bad. Not glowing. The kind that would reach a new audience for Elaine, but it wouldn’t inspire people to rush over to Paradise Valley to sample her sustenance. She hated that she followed this up with a glance at her Google and Yelp! reviews, neither of which were higher than a four-star average. The good reviews lauded her homemade fare and bringing a little sophistication to small town Oregon, but there were many three stars that called Tea & Thyme “Meh.” For reasons they did not care to share, either.

  To add a little insult to injury, Elaine opened her shop on Saturday to discover the mayor hanging out in the parking lot, carrying with her a small shopping bag that did not look like it contained her groceries. Instead, it was the first official review of Tea & Thyme, professionally framed for Elaine’s conv
enience. Oh, and Karen was there to drop off her daughter for work, too.

  Oh, well. This could have gone worse.

  The new holiday weekend brought along a few more customers than the previous weekend, but Elaine discovered it difficult to keep up the enthusiasm now that she accepted this was much more difficult than she anticipated. The fun was sucked out of it. People’s responses were lukewarm? Now she felt lukewarm.

  She knew she needed to change her attitude if her business were to succeed in the long run, but for one day, she indulged in her moodiness. It didn’t help that she kept thinking about that bizarre conversation she had with Dominic about a week ago. Nor could she stop thinking about Fran’s silence since asking to meet. Elaine had sent one follow-up text asking if Fran was all right, but after that, she let the silence reign.

  Out of everything nagging at her, however, there was one thing that stood out above all the others. Frankie. For some reason, she thinks I don’t like her. Perhaps Dominic had misinterpreted his sister’s feelings, but Elaine had a feeling there was something else going on with the owner of the only deli in town.

  During a lull in customers around two in the afternoon, Elaine turned to Christina and asked if she was okay with minding the store for half an hour. With a shrug to confirm that Christina could, in fact, be left to her own devices, Elaine removed her apron and headed out into the cloudy day.

  It only took ten minutes of brisk walking to make her way to the other end of town, where Frankie’s Deli warned it would only be open for another hour to make up for being closed the past two days.

  Elaine scoped out the presence of customers and was relieved to see nobody but Frankie inside. On the other hand, this meant that Elaine was about to put her plan into action, and that was about as terrifying as walking in while Frankie was talking to someone else.

  She had promised Christina to only be gone for half an hour, and she already used up ten minutes. Plus the ten it would take to walk back to Tea & Thyme… it was now or never. If Elaine didn’t want to label herself a coward, she needed to move ass and flap lips.