“Maybe once I put a fence in, she’ll get the hint.”
“I don’t think you can build a fence tall enough to keep her out when she’s in a mood to annoy your dog.”
He left then and, since there was no reason not to, Meredith allowed herself the pleasure of watching him walk away. There was a confidence to his stride—to everything he did really, except maybe grilling steaks—and she certainly liked the way he moved.
It was good, she thought, to feel the stirrings of desire again. She was young. She knew she would find love again, and finding a man attractive was a good start. Terrifying, too, since she’d been with Devin since college, but healthy.
Maybe if she was desiring somebody more suitable—like a man who actually lived in Blackberry Bay and wouldn’t be running back to the city at the end of the summer—she’d more nervous about it. There was a big difference between being ready for physical attraction and being ready for an actual relationship, so quietly and secretly lusting after Cam was perfectly harmless.
With a sigh, she shoved herself up off the swing and walked back toward the house. Sophie was going to a puppet show at the library as part of their summer reading program and, if she knew her daughter, she was going to forget how excited she’d been and start dragging her heels. She liked the book parts a lot more than the social parts, but Meredith was sure she’d have a good time once she was there.
“Do you think there will be a lot of kids there?” Sophie asked once they were finally in the car and headed toward the library.
“I’m not sure, but it would be fun to meet new kids. Some of them will be your age and you can meet them before school starts.” She was careful not to use the phrase “make friends” since that seemed to put even more social pressure on her daughter.
“I hope I like the school,” Sophie said, and Meredith sighed. One worry at a time.
“I think you will. I loved it when I went there.”
It took her a few minutes to find a place to park, so the program was getting ready to start as she found Sophie a good place to sit. “I’ll be back before it’s over, but you wait here in the children’s section until you see me, okay?”
Sophie nodded, and then a musical introduction started. Another girl around Sophie’s age smiled shyly at her, and when Meredith peeked around the corner a few minutes later to check that Sophie was doing okay, the two girls had moved their chairs closer together. She took that as her cue to leave.
She had an hour free and no idea what to do with herself. There was a time she would have taken advantage of Sophie’s social events to do errands that weren’t child friendly, but in the last few months, she’d gotten used to her daughter doing everything with her. And they’d done all of their errands already, so it was literally a free hour.
With no destination in mind, she descended the library stairs and started walking.
Not having Sophie with her would have made it the perfect time to stop into the town hall and see what the rules were for putting up a fence, but after a quick search on her phone, she found out they were open from 9:00 a.m. to noon every other Saturday and today wasn’t that Saturday.
Then she saw a sign that read Bishop’s Auto Care & Bakery, and stopped in her tracks.
Reyna Bishop. There was a name she hadn’t thought of in years. Reyna’s dad owned the auto shop in town, and her mom had always been the star of the bake sale fund-raisers. At some point they must have combined their talents.
She could get a cupcake, and maybe find out if Reyna still lived in town. She wasn’t sure how many of her old classmates would have stuck around after graduation or come back after college, but it was probably time to start finding out.
A small bell rang when she walked into the bakery, and the older woman behind the counter greeted her with a smile. “Good afternoon. What’s your sweet tooth in the mood for today?”
“You probably don’t remember me, Mrs. Bishop, but I went to school with Reyna. I’m Meredith Price now, but I was Meredith Lane then.”
“Oh my goodness!” Mrs. Bishop shook her head, but she was grinning. “You’ve hardly changed at all! How are your parents doing? I’ve only seen your mom a few times since they moved out of town.”
“They’re well, but you’ll probably see more of them now that I’ve moved back to town. I have a little girl who’s six, so I don’t think my mother will be staying away as much.”
“Oh, you’re the one who bought the house next to Carolina Archambault’s cottage?” When Meredith nodded, she whistled through her teeth. “That’s a beautiful house. I heard about your husband, though. I was sorry to hear it.”
“Thank you.” There was always a pang of grief when she talked about Devin, but they weren’t as debilitating as they’d once been. “So how has Reyna been? Does she still live in town?”
“Oh, she’s good. And she’s working out in the garage right now, as a matter of fact. I lost my husband a few years back to cancer and she stepped in to help him out and never left.”
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Bishop. I didn’t know.” She knew how it felt to lose the man you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with, but it didn’t help her know the right words to say.
“I wouldn’t have expected you to know, but thank you.” Mrs. Bishop sighed and reached out to put her hand over Meredith’s on the counter. “I’m doing okay, but I guess you know how it is. Some days are better than others.”
She nodded for a few seconds because she wasn’t sure if she could force words past the lump in her throat. Losing Devin had been a shock—her entire world changed in one phone call—but Mrs. Bishop had lost her husband slowly and she wasn’t sure which would hurt more. But either way, they’d each suffered a devastating loss. “That’s very true, though I have more better days than not now.”
“And you’ve got your daughter to brighten your days.”
“She’s definitely a bright spot.” Just thinking about her made Meredith smile, and Mrs. Bishop smiled, too. “Do you think Reyna would mind if I stopped in to say hi?”
“Of course she wouldn’t. You can either go back outside and around to the shop door down back, or you can go through that door there and at the end of the hallway is a door into the shop office.”
“I’ll just go around,” she said. “But I’ll take a couple of those gigantic brownies there to save for dessert first.”
Once she’d tucked the pastry bag into her tote and said goodbye to Mrs. Bishop, she went back outside and around the corner to the entrance to the auto part of their auto care and bakery endeavor.
The smell of oil and old engine parts greeted her when she walked into the office. To the left was a door she assumed led to the hallway back to the bakery. In front of her was a tall counter with a computer on it, as well as a stack of service slips. And to the right was a large garage door that was up, allowing her to see into the service bays.
“I’ll be right there,” a woman called, and a minute later Reyna walked into the office. She’d hardly changed at all, with a navy Bishop’s T-shirt and stained jeans hugging a figure that had turned all the boys’ heads in high school. Her thick reddish hair was up in a messy bun, and she had a smudge of grease on her cheek that did nothing to mar her beauty.
“Damn, Meredith Lane. How’ve you been?”
“Good. It’s Meredith Price now, though.”
“It’s been a long time.”
Reyna said the words matter-of-factly enough, but Meredith felt a rush of shame, nonetheless. It had been a long time since they’d spoken, even though they’d been really good friends all through school. But when Meredith had gone off to college, she’d gotten so wrapped up in her studies and building a new life in California that she’d just fallen out of touch with her friends in Blackberry Bay.
A lot of people looked up old friends and classmates on Facebook, but she’d never gotten a
round to it. She’d never thought about it, honestly. Her parents were always just a phone call away, and she’d let the rest of Blackberry Bay fade away. She’d signed up for the app only because it was how much of the information regarding Sophie’s activities and friend groups was shared, and that was the extent of what she’d used it for.
Now, feeling the loss of an old friendship so keenly, she really wished she’d looked up Reyna and other friends and maybe reconnected, even if it was on the internet.
“I heard you were back,” Reyna continued. “With a little girl?”
“Sophie’s six. She’s at the library right now for a summer reading program event, but hopefully I’ll get to introduce her to you soon.” She was fishing for encouragement and a little embarrassed by it, but she wanted a sign Reyna would be willing to pick up their friendship again, or at least be open to starting a new one.
“Sure, that sounds fun,” Reyna said. “I’m pretty busy right now, but are you going to the fireworks next weekend, for the Fourth? Maybe we can meet up there?”
“That sounds great. I hadn’t even thought about the Fourth yet. We used to have so much fun when we were kids.” Blackberry Bay put on a great show for Independence Day.
They reminisced for a few minutes, laughing over shared childhood memories, including the time Hunter Fleck had smuggled some of his dad’s cigarettes to the town square on fireworks night. He and his friends were smoking them in the bushes beyond the grandstand and the fire department, thinking the bushes had caught some random sparks from the fireworks display, had turned a low-pressure hose on them.
But when that story was over and silence started filling the office, Meredith felt compelled to fill it. “So, did you get married? Any kids?”
“Nope.” Reyna sighed. “I don’t have great luck with men, and I haven’t been in a hurry to have children with any of them, so it’s just me and Mom.”
“I was sorry to hear about your dad. You run this shop alone now?”
“Yup. It wasn’t exactly what I’d planned to do with my life, but it pays the bills and it makes me happy right now. Plus, Mom and I weren’t ready to give it up.” She shook her head and then smiled. “So let me give you my cell number and you can text me when you get to the park so we don’t miss each other.”
Meredith added Reyna as a contact in her phone and typed in the cell number as Reyna gave it to her.
Then she recited hers as Reyna copied it on a scratch pad next to her computer. “I’d put it right into my phone, but it’s turned off right now thanks to a first date who wanted to bring me home to meet his mother after dinner.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch is the official motto of my dating life so far.”
“Well, I’ll let you get back to work. But Sophie and I will definitely see you at the fireworks next weekend.”
“Sounds great. It’s good to see you again, Meredith.”
She left the garage feeling lighter than she had in a long time. She’d had a lot of friends in California, of course, but they’d come to her through Devin’s work or Sophie’s social circle. Having a friend who knew her and with whom she had a shared history felt different.
The cherry on top of the good-day sundae was the smile on Sophie’s face when the puppet show ended and she threw herself into Meredith’s arms. “It was so fun, Mommy!”
“You can tell me all about it in the car, okay?”
And she did. As soon as Meredith’s door closed, Sophie started talking. “Kiki is my new friend. Her name is Christina, but her baby brother called her Kiki before he could talk right and now everybody calls her that.”
Meredith listened to her daughter chatter away all about Kiki and the puppet show, and smiled. It was good to see her daughter coming out of her shell again.
They both were, she thought as she pulled into the driveway and saw Cam leaning against his car with his arms folded, staring at his cottage.
“I’m going to tell Cam about the puppet show,” Sophie said, and she was out of the car as soon as Meredith killed the engine.
She tried to call her back, but Sophie’s excitement was so obvious, all she could do was laugh helplessly. It seemed like Cam had a way of charming both Price ladies.
* * *
“Cam!”
He sighed, knowing his train of thought was now derailed, and turned to face the girl sprinting toward him.
“Hey, Sophie. What have you been up to?”
What followed was a deluge of high-pitched words about puppets and a Kiki, and he could barely keep up with what she was talking about. But it had to do with the library and he knew how she felt about books, so he surmised Sophie had a really great afternoon.
“Do you have a library card?”
The abrupt silence after her question and the intense look she was pinning him with made it clear this was some kind of character test as far as she was concerned. “I don’t have one, but I can put it on my list of things to do.”
“My mom can help you,” Sophie said earnestly, and he heard the choked-off sound of amusement her mother made. Meredith was behind him now, so he turned so he could see her on the other side of his car. “Mommy’s good at getting library cards.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a library card, now that you mention it,” he said, mostly in anticipation of Sophie’s reaction.
She didn’t disappoint. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, hanging there for a few seconds before she shook her head. “You’ve never had a library card? Like...ever?”
“Not ever. I used the library at school and in college, but I’ve never had a town or city library card.”
“That’s very sad.” The genuine sorrow for him in her eyes almost broke his heart.
“Maybe your mom will help me get one,” he said, wanting Sophie’s smile to light up her face again. Meanwhile, Meredith made the same face her daughter had a moment before—eyes wide and mouth open.
“She will!” Sophie faced Meredith, practically bouncing up and down on the toes of her tiny pink sneakers. “Mommy, you’ll help Cam get a library card, right?”
Meredith shot Cam a look that should have set him on fire before smiling at her daughter. “Sophie, I’m sure Cam is perfectly capable of going to the library and getting a card.”
“But he’s never had one!”
Came enjoyed the way Meredith had to take a breath before plastering a smile on her face to answer her daughter. He also appreciated her not taking off a shoe and chucking at his head since he’d obviously put her in this position deliberately.
“If Cam needs my help getting a library card, then I’m sure Lisa will help him. Maybe doing paperwork is hard for him.”
“Hey now,” he protested, but Meredith only gave him a sweet smile.
Okay, maybe he deserved that, but he wasn’t ready to surrender yet. “Maybe the next time you two go to the library, I can go with you to get a library card, and then I’ll take you out for ice cream to celebrate.”
Meredith’s eyes narrowed, but Sophie was already jumping up and down, clapping her hands. “Please, Mommy? Please?”
Cam had made a critical error. He could see it in the way Meredith’s spine straightened and her lips pressed together. In the game of Annoy Your Pretty Neighbor, he’d overstepped.
“We’ll see,” she said.
“You always say that, Mommy. Please? Cam needs a library card and you love ice cream. It’s your favorite!”
“Okay,” she said, followed by a deep sigh. “Yes, we’ll do that. Now, you go inside and take Oscar to the backyard so he can go potty since he’s been waiting for us. Make sure you clip his leash on and double-check it before you open the slider.”
As soon as Sophie flashed him a triumphant grin and skipped into the house, he held up a hand. “Before you say anything, I’m sorry. I don’t have any experience with
kids and I didn’t see the situation I was putting you in until it was too late.”
She’d opened her mouth to speak—or more likely to verbally shred him—but she closed it again for a few seconds and then she nodded. “Thank you for that, since you didn’t really give me a choice without breaking my daughter’s heart. Using a child to manipulate her mother into a date is not cool.”
It was his turn to start to speak and then not say anything right away. A date? He’d said he’d treat Meredith and Sophie to ice cream after a trip to the library. Was that really a date?
Based on his heart rate and the heat that flooded his body, he wasn’t opposed to the idea of going on a date with Meredith. But the logical part of his brain knew getting involved with a widowed single mother was a bad idea, destined to be messy when he left at the end of the summer.
“I just wanted to push your buttons a little,” he finally said. “And I thought Sophie might find a trip to the library and then ice cream exciting. She’s cute when she’s happy. It wasn’t any more than that, but I’m still sorry.”
“She’s always cute. And she’ll definitely love a day that includes books and ice cream.” She smiled. “And so will I.”
Crisis averted, he thought, relieved. “Hopefully the legal paperwork I have will be enough for them to give me a library card. I’m afraid Sophie might be tempted to storm the castle on my behalf if they decide I’m not enough of a resident.”
She laughed. “She would definitely storm the castle if they denied you. But when I was a kid, they had summer cards for the lake people, so even if all the paperwork related to the house isn’t officially in your name yet, you should be fine. And speaking of summer residents, why were you just hanging out, staring at the cottage, when I pulled in?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Debating its curb appeal.”
“It’s certainly...eclectic.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“No, but if you’re talking about curb appeal because you’re going to put it on the market, people who can afford properties on the bay, especially with a private dock, generally aren’t looking for eclectic.”
More than Neighbors Page 6