The Last Chance Matinee

by Mariah Stewart

  “This is not the council’s problem, Miss Hudson,” Irene snapped. “Now, if we could—”

  “What kind of dogs are they, Miss Hudson?” Seth asked.

  “I believe they’re border collies,” Des told him.

  “Those are the dogs that are supposed to be the smartest, right?”

  “Yes, Mayor.” Des nodded.

  “Male or female?” he asked.

  Irene Pettibone shifted in her seat, making no attempt to hide her annoyance. “Mayor MacLeod—”

  “One of each,” Des told him. “What we need immediately are foster homes for them. Just someplace safe where they’ll be cared for until we can find permanent homes.”

  “I’ll take the male,” Seth announced. Before Des could react, he looked over the crowd, his eyes settling on Ben. “Anyone else willing to step up?” The room was silent, and he continued to stare directly at Ben.

  “Oh, hell, fine.” Ben raised a hand.

  Seth turned his attention back to Des. “Understand that this doesn’t solve the problem long-term. In the future, the council may want to consider what is involved in establishing such a facility. So if you have something specific in mind, write it up and bring it to the next meeting.”

  “I understand.” Des nodded. “Thank you.”

  “The chief and I will speak to you after the meeting about when to pick up our new companions.”

  Des thanked him again and passed the microphone back to the front of the room. Ten minutes later, the meeting was adjourned, and Des waited at the side of the room for Seth and Ben to finish their conversations with other residents.

  “How ’bout we walk outside and talk this over,” Seth said when he finally approached her. To Barney, he said, “Way to make friends on the council.”

  “Like tonight should be different from any other night. Your daddy would’ve been proud of you,” Barney told him. “He never let that old sourpuss push him around, either.”

  “Now, now, Barney. She’s our esteemed council president.” Seth suppressed a smile.

  “Whose big fat idea was that?” Barney frowned.

  “No one else wanted the job. Guys, Ben’s going to catch up with us outside,” Seth said, “so let’s head on out.”

  “Thank you again,” Des said as they followed the hall to the front door. “I was really starting to get annoyed with that woman.”

  Seth towered over her, so he leaned down as he lowered his voice. “Irene annoys everyone. Having her on the council is our cross to bear.”

  “One has to wonder what the people of this town did to warrant such a punishment.” Barney shook her head and went through the door Seth was holding open for her.

  “Lucille’s looking good, Barney.” Joe came up behind the group.

  “She’s loved and well cared for.” Barney nodded. “And yes, looking good for her age.”

  Joe touched Cara’s back. “I have some estimates for you in the car. How ’bout we walk next door to the Bullfrog, grab a beer, and go over them?”

  “Sure. We’ve been waiting to start adding up what this venture is going to cost us.” Cara smiled and turned to Barney. “I’m going to have a drink with Joe and—”

  “I heard. Go on.” Barney wagged a finger at Joe. “Just get her home before the bar closes.”

  “Hey, did you forget about us?” Nikki stood next to Lucille, Buttons sitting patiently at her feet.

  “We didn’t need to bring Buttons in, but thank you for being on call.” Des knelt down and picked up the dog. “Seth, meet Buttons.”

  Des held the dog up to him, then turned to Nikki and Allie. “Seth is going to foster one of the border collies. Isn’t that great?”

  “Really? Oh, that’s so cool.” Nikki beamed at him approvingly. “Which one?”

  “The male.” Seth turned as Ben came down the sidewalk. “Ben here is taking the other one.”

  “She’s a real sweetheart, Ben. You’ll love her,” Des promised.

  “Right, the bitch,” Ben said, his eyes on Allie.

  Allie looked as if she was dying to comment, but she stood and pushed the front seat forward so she could climb into the back. “So mission accomplished, right? All the dogs have homes and everyone’s going to live happily ever after. Once again, Des does it all. So can we please leave now . . . ?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The lighting inside the bar wasn’t great, but Joe found a table near the front of the room directly under a sconce. Cara noticed that some others who’d been at the meeting were clustered here and there throughout the room.

  “What can I get you from the bar?” Joe asked.

  “Beer is fine.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Joe returned with two beers in one hand and a bowl of munchies in the other. He handed one of the beers to Cara and placed the bowl in the middle of the table.

  “Yum. Peanuts and pretzels,” she said, reaching for the snacks.

  “Unhand my dinner.” Joe sat across from Cara. When she raised an eyebrow, he said, “Okay, you can have a pretzel. One of the broken ones.”

  She laughed. “Why didn’t you have dinner?”

  “I got held up on a job, and the next thing I knew, it was almost seven.”

  “Were you held up because you were at the theater?”

  “Eddie came back to check the traps, so I had to let him in. I’m thinking about having a key made for him, unless you object. That way he can come and go and the traps will be working overtime.”

  “That’s fine with me. You shouldn’t be on call every time someone wants into the building.”

  “Actually, as project manager, I should be.”

  “Is this going to be a problem for you, once the actual work begins?”

  “At times, maybe. But, as I told you before, I have great crews. I don’t have to be hanging over them eight hours a day. Besides, I want to be part of the theater’s comeback. People in town are very excited about it. Older people who were there as kids are nostalgic: They have great memories of the place and want to see it reopen. Younger people are just happy there might actually be someplace to go once it’s up and running.”

  A waitress passed their table. “How’re you doing, Joey?”

  Cara smiled. “I don’t think of you as a ‘Joey.’ ”

  “Old habits die hard, I guess.” He took a drink. “My dad started bringing me here from the time I was about four years old. He always called me Joey. Sue—the waitress—has been here longer than that, so she remembers.”

  “Your sister mentioned that your dad passed away a few years ago. I’m sorry.”

  He picked at the label on his beer. “Everybody’s sorry. Not so much that he passed away, but that he took others with him. If he’d hit the tree first, he wouldn’t have hit the car coming the other way.” He took a long sip, then lowered the bottle and added, “And Ben would still have his wife and son.”

  Cara’s mouth dropped open.

  “You didn’t know that? Yeah, my father was responsible for killing Sarah Haldeman and her and Ben’s two-year-old son.”

  Cara couldn’t find the right words, so she shook her head.

  “I told you my father was the town drunk. Ran his father’s business into the ground until it was worthless. Bankrupted our family.” His voice was filled with both anger and regret. “And killed my best friend’s family.”

  “But you and Ben are still friends.”

  “Ben has never held it against me, or my mom, or my sister. That should tell you exactly what kind of man we have running our police department.”

  “It’s hard to imagine anyone being that forgiving.”

  “He hasn’t forgiven my father,” Joe said pointedly. “He just doesn’t blame anyone but my father.”

  “Still . . .” It was almost unimaginable to Cara that someone could take your family away and you’d still be okay with anyone or anything connected to that person.

  “I know. But we’re as tight as we ever were. I was
there for him, and he’s been there for me. It’s what friendship’s all about, right? You’re there for each other when it counts the most. You support each other, hold each other up when things are rough.” His mouth curved into a barely there smile. “I guess that’s what love is, too.”

  “I always hear women talk about how much they love their friends—I certainly love mine dearly—but I’ve never heard a man say he loves his friends. It’s nice to know.”

  Joe’s smile grew just a little. “Yeah, we make each other as miserable as possible every chance we get and we’re competitive as hell. But there’s love there. I know they have my back, and they know I have theirs.”

  “Still, it’s remarkable that Ben has stayed so close to you after . . . after the accident.”

  “Ben knew my family had a loss as well. What my mother went through . . .” He shook his head. “It’s been very tough for her to go on after all that happened. She’s always been a sort of second mother to Ben. His mother left his father a long time ago, took his younger brother and sister with her. After his father died, Ben lived with us. As far as my mom was concerned, he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere else.”

  “So it’s almost as if you’re brothers.”

  “We were like brothers before that, but yeah, that sort of sealed the deal. My mother adored Ben’s wife, always teased that if it weren’t for his son, she’d have no grandkids at all. So she took the accident the hardest, I think. Yes, she lost her husband but she felt that Sarah and Finn were part of our family. I think she mourned them more than she mourned my dad.”

  “Wow.” Cara took a drink to give herself time to sort through all that Joe had just shared.

  “That’s why Ben is so tough on anyone who drinks and drives. There’s been many a night he’s taken keys from people who have been in here and stumbled out. He’ll drive them home but keeps the keys at the police station. You want your car back, you have to go into his office to get them.” Joe picked some peanuts out of the bowl. “And that’s why there is zero tolerance for driving impaired in Hidden Falls.”

  “If you don’t mind my saying so, I’m surprised that you drink at all.”

  “I’m a one-beer-a-night man. Maybe two if it’s a really special occasion. Once in a blue moon, maybe a glass of wine. But I don’t drive if I’ve had more than one, and I give myself an hour to make sure I’m not buzzed. Not that one beer ever buzzed me, but yeah, I’m sensitive to the issue.” He tossed the peanuts into his mouth. “I’m lucky that despite the fact that my father was an alcoholic, I never had much of a desire to drink. But that’s enough about me. How are you doing in your search for Fritz Hudson?”

  “I’m putting bits and pieces together, but I’m still looking. Just being in Hidden Falls and living in the house my dad lived in makes me feel closer to him. But I can’t say I’ve had any aha moments. Though I did learn that he was quite the athlete when he was a young man.”

  “Does that surprise you?”

  “A little. He never mentioned having played sports.”

  “How are you getting along with your sisters?”

  “Des and I have gotten along almost since day one. Allie’s been a tougher nut. There’s a lot of baggage between her and Des, and sometimes that surfaces. The short version is Des had her own TV show when she was a kid, and Allie didn’t.” Cara thought back to her 2:00 a.m. chat with Allie on the patio. “Actually, Allie has a lot of issues she needs to deal with.”

  “What’s going on between her and Ben, do you know? Man, she just about snarls every time she sees him.”

  “I noticed that, too. Maybe he reminds her of her ex-husband.”

  Joe nodded. “Maybe. Ben’s such a good guy, so easy to get along with, it’s hard to imagine anyone not liking him.”

  “She’s never really said why he annoys her so much. I just hope she tones down the sniping or we’re all in for a very rocky year.”

  “You think you’re going to be here for a year?”

  “We’re hoping it doesn’t take longer than that. I guess that’s up to you.”

  “It’ll be up to the subs and how quickly they work. Which doesn’t mean I’m above dragging things out if it keeps you around longer,” Joe replied with a wink. “But be prepared for everything to take longer than you plan. Which reminds me . . . I have some estimates and a few invoices for you.” Joe took an envelope from his inner jacket pocket and handed it to Cara.

  “Here’s Eddie’s bill for the first week. You can take a look at it and let me know if you have any questions.”

  Cara read through the invoice, noting how many times Eddie stopped to empty the traps.

  “I sure can’t argue with this. He’s doing the job we asked him to do. I’ll give it to Des to pay.” She folded the invoice and dropped it into her bag. “What else?”

  “These are the estimates from Mack for the electrical, and from the plumber.” He placed both on the table. “I expected to get the estimate from the roofers today, but it didn’t come in. I’ll check my office in the morning.”

  “I didn’t expect the plumbing work to be this high.” Cara frowned.

  “You can see what Liz is saying has to be done. Because you can’t use lead pipes in town anymore, and that’s mostly what you have, everything has to be replaced with PVC, which means she has to replace all the fixtures, too. You need handicap-accessible facilities on both sides of the theater, and a new bathroom downstairs near the office. All in all, it’s a lot of work.”

  “All right.” She sighed. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “Not if you ever expect to get the building open again.”

  “I hope we can reopen. I mean, what’s the point of doing all this if it isn’t going to be used.” She blew out a long breath. “I sound like Nikki. She said the same thing to Allie. I guess in the end we’ll have to sell it.”

  “Why?”

  “Allie won’t stick around. Des might. I know she does a lot of rescue work out in Montana, but she could just as easily do that here.”

  “And you?”

  “I have a business back in Devlin’s Light. I love my yoga studio. It’d be really hard to give it up.”

  “You couldn’t have a studio here?”

  “I could. I’ve thought about it, actually. I miss it so much. I still practice every day, but I miss the camaraderie of the people who come in for classes. First I’d have to find a place.” Her mind briefly went back to the first floor of the carriage house.

  “Barney would be your first student. She loves anything new.”

  He glanced at her unfinished beer. “That must be warm by now. Want a cold one?”

  “No, thanks.”

  Joe went to the bar to settle their tab, and Cara watched as he exchanged teasing but polite banter with one of the waitresses. Her mind went back to an evening about a year ago, when she and Drew were in a busy restaurant just outside of Devlin’s Light. The restaurant had been terribly understaffed that night, with two waitstaff to serve a packed house. Drew had berated their waitress because his steak was overcooked. Then he’d given her a hard time because she hadn’t brought him a drink refill when he’d wanted it.

  “For crying out loud, Drew, the woman is moving as fast as she can,” an embarrassed Cara had protested.

  “That’s her job,” he’d snapped, and she’d let it drop until he gave the poor woman an insultingly low tip.

  “I should use the ladies’ room before we leave,” Cara had told him on their way out the door. “You go get the car. I’ll just be a minute.”

  She’d gone back to the table and tripled the tip he’d left. “Sorry,” she said to the waitress who was clearing the table. “We had to get change.”

  The waitress had thanked her, but it was clear that she knew exactly what Cara was doing. “Thanks again,” she’d said in a weary voice. “It’s been a rough night.”

  There’d never be a need to clean up after Joe like that, Cara thought as he took her hand as they w
alked out into the cool March evening.

  She shivered as a breeze blew against her bare arms.

  He put an arm around her all the way to his car.

  “Now, I realize she’s not as fancy as Lucille,” Joe said as they reached his old Jeep, “but she’s a big step up from my truck.”

  “She has a name?”

  “A car has no name.” He parodied a line from Game of Thrones.

  “Oh God, not you, too.” She laughed as she climbed into the front seat. “We had a conversation about the show not too long ago, and Barney was appalled at some of the goings-on.”

  “Yeah, my mom won’t watch it either, so my sister comes to my place to watch.” He climbed behind the wheel and backed out.

  It took less than three minutes to arrive at the house. Joe pulled all the way up in the driveway and stopped next to the carriage house.

  “You know, I peeked inside the—”

  Joe leaned over the console and took her face in his hands and kissed her. She hadn’t been expecting it, but she found herself responding as if she’d planned it all along. His lips seemed to know their way around hers the same way his tongue seemed to know her mouth.

  It’d been years since Cara had been kissed by anyone except Drew, and she would’ve expected it to feel unnatural. But surprise, surprise, kissing Joe seemed like the most natural thing in the world, and she gave herself over to the feeling that washed through her. She felt a slight stab of disappointment when he pulled back and whispered, “So, you ready to make your debut at the gun club Saturday night?”

  His lips were close enough to her ear that she felt the softness of his breath on her skin. The light touch sent goose bumps up both her arms.

  “Saturday night?” She forced her eyes open, told her brain to focus. “Right. Saturday night. The gun club thing.”

  “Bluegrass. You’ll like it.” He kissed the tip of her nose and got out of the Jeep.

  He opened her car door for her and took her hand as they walked to the back steps. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Thanks again for the estimates and the advice and the drink and the—”