by Tess Rothery
In fact, just considering that idea made her realize she was worried about nothing. Karina Wyandotte had gotten under her skin. She felt guilty, but that didn’t mean she was guilty.
Something else was bugging Hudson, and Taylor couldn’t guess what it was.
As for Reg, somewhere out there was a girl desperate to jump into marriage for the sake of having a ring. He wouldn’t even have to wait for true love.
She was tempted to call John Hancock and see if he wanted to eat at that fancy cliff side vineyard restaurant with her. She rarely called him and when she did, her ideas were rarely impressive to the pseudo-sophisticate and his trust fund.
But she didn’t. She’d see how the conversation with Hudson went first.
She had plenty of day off still, and though she had learned the two murder victims had been seeing each other, she was far from any kind of solution. Plus, she hadn’t heard from Dayton, the stealer of her bedroom, all day. Taylor had forgotten her, but on seeing the messy sheets and blankets, she remembered and worried.
She sent the teen a quick text. Simply, “where are you?”
Dayton replied just as fast. “w/cooper.”
Taylor exhaled. While not a recent convert to weightlifting like Clay, Cooper was at least young and energetic. And he cared about Dayton. He wouldn’t let a killer stab her in the back and shove her in the closet.
Taylor sat on her messy bed and opened her laptop. She needed to learn a little bit more about Leon and Karina.
For as long as Taylor had been at the computer, she had little to show for it. Leon Farkas was on the Bible Creek Care Home website with a mini bio. Graduate of St. Paul School of Theology, hailing from Oklahoma. Happy to join the family at Bible Creek. No mention of his actual family, Mrs. Sylvester. A handful of other sites promised more information, but they were all behind a paywall, and she didn’t know which one would give her a virus and which would give her the info she was after.
Cricket Jones was a local. She showed up on a community bulletin board from the late 90s. She commented on the Comfort Facebook Page. She posted pictures of the creek glistening in the sun to her Instagram. But there were no pictures of her and Leon together. Her Facebook page was private. She was listed on the alumni page for the high school, but she was older than Taylor by about fifteen years and younger than Taylor’s mom by about five. Taylor didn’t know her.
She should have.
If she hadn’t moved to Portland so long ago, she would have.
When she went downstairs, Ellery, Grandpa Ernie, and the macaroni were all gone. Ellery had left a note that they were going for a mid-afternoon coffee at Rueben’s.
Taylor sat on her front step and texted Dayton.
She responded, “Still good.”
Taylor texted Belle.
She didn’t respond.
There was so much day left, Taylor itched to fill it with accomplishments. Achievements. The satisfying feeling of having gotten something done.
She drove to Eugene, an hour away, and went to the mall.
Hudson was coming by tonight and in a terrible mood. Maybe if she had something new to wear, it would cheer him up.
Shopping would certainly cheer her up.
When Hudson came by to pick her up, not only did Taylor have a new pair of jeans that fit like they were made for her and a pair of wedge sandals that improved the look of the jeans, but her highlights had been attended to and she had a fresh manicure. French tips, because she had heard it might come back in style and wanted to be ahead of the curve.
She wore a layered, flowy, silky, spaghetti strap tank that hung loose and showed just enough of her lacy bra, if she leaned forward.
Still, as they drove off to dinner, he was quiet.
“Can you tell me what’s up now? Please?”
“I’m trying not to make a big deal of this, but small towns gossip.”
“True, they do.” Thoughts of what Belle and Karina had accused her of ran through her mind. “But you don’t live in Comfort, so it can’t really bother you too much.
“My family does.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone out with Reg last night. I don’t like him as much as I thought I did.”
Hudson stopped slowly at the red light as though her words had no effect on him.
“But this does seem like an overreaction, don’t you think? We’re both seeing other people.”
“Reg? You ate with him?” Hudson shrugged. “I guess people talk about that. I was thinking of Cricket.”
“Don’t hold back. You know I’d like to talk about this. I got to talk to Frida, remember her from the school cafeteria? She works at the care home and had plenty to say.”
“What did she say?” Hudson pulled into the parking lot of a diner on the far side of Willamina.
Taylor was glad she had gone for jeans, but still felt overdressed. “Wonderful things about what a caring, generous, good woman she was.”
“She was.”
“Did you know her well? She’s quite a lot older than…us.”
“I didn’t date her, if that’s what you’re worried about. She was twenty years older than me.” He turned, his eyes mournful. But he lifted one eyebrow, just a little. “I’m only interested in one older woman.”
Taylor laid her hand on his knee and spoke softly. He was clearly hurting, but he’d never get it off his chest if he waited till they were inside. “Hey, Hudson. What’s bothering you? I’ve never seen you down like this.”
“Cricket Jones was everything Frida said she was. She was also almost my stepmom.”
“Ah.” She squeezed his leg slightly. She knew what this kind of grief felt like.
“It was years ago, when I was in elementary school. She lived with us. Honestly, it’s a bit blurry. I think she was my babysitter for a while, and then my dad fell in love with her. He proposed with all us kids there, and she stuck around another five or six years. Then moved on. We missed her, but I get it now. Relationships don’t last forever.”
“Help me understand what gossip has to do with this.”
“I was working at the high school today. Repair work to the ramps on the portable buildings. I grabbed breakfast at Rueben’s on my way in. The family behind me said Cricket killed Leon and then offed herself.”
“She couldn’t have. She was stabbed in the back and shoved in a closet.” Taylor spoke softly, trying to offer him some comfort even with the horrible words.
“She was found in a closet and stabbed in the heart,” he corrected.
“That would be a particularly vicious kind of suicide. I can’t imagine she did that to herself. It must have been murder.”
“Someone at the table argued that side. They said Cricket and Leon were both murdered because they had broken up a marriage.”
A picture of Karina’s fury came to her mind. She seemed like she would have killed. “Had either of them been married before they met each other?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know Cricket was living in Comfort.” Hudson stared into the distance through the windshield of his truck.
“Let’s get some food in you.”
“Thanks for listening. I have a mom, of course. A good one. But Cricket was good too. She didn’t deserve this.” He didn’t make a move to leave the car, so Taylor picked up his hand and kissed it.
“Thanks for always being there for me, Taylor. I know I’m awful in the morning, and I know you’re not looking for a boyfriend. But you really are the best.”
She kissed his hand again, then she kissed his lips. She might have kissed him all evening, but a family in a minivan pulled up and a passel of kids poured out.
“Shall we eat?”
He looked at Taylor, and at her suggestive shirt, then started his car. “We can do better than this.”
Taylor texted Belle that she wasn’t coming home tonight.
Belle responded K.
Chapter Eight
The next morning Hudson wasn’t being a pain.
Taylor was swaddled in his down comforter, sipping coffee from a hand-thrown mug.
Hudson lived in a large airy home with a view of Moon Creek just outside of Blain, a community so small it made Comfort feel big. His home was quiet and modern, but in a hand-hewn kind of way. He had built it himself, for the most part.
She couldn’t see herself living in this house, way out here, or raising a family in it, but she couldn’t see him anywhere else.
“Are you going to try and find out who murdered Leon and Cricket?” Hudson asked.
“Yes.”
“I’d like to help.” He sat on a bench made from a slab of pine resting on cast concrete pillars. “For Cricket’s sake.”
“We’ve got to learn more about Leon. He’s the mysterious one. I’d like to talk to more of the staff at the old folks’ home, but that door is barred to me by the angry gatekeeper.” Taylor sipped the coffee and watched him closely to see how he’d react.
“You think I’d do any better?” He was nonchalant, almost too much so.
“Go see your Grandpa. He can take you to visit his friends. Ask lots of questions about Leon. Sign into the visitor’s sheet and go about your business. Smile pretty at Karina and compliment her about something.”
“Come with me.”
“That would be ideal, but I think Karina would make a stink if she saw us together.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re my girlfriend.” He turned his gaze away from her with a frown, then left the room.
Nope. Taylor wasn’t. He was right. Karina really had no business being so nasty.
Taylor didn’t owe Karina an apology for Hudson deciding to move on, and she didn’t owe him anything, either. Though, after last night, Taylor wondered if maybe she owed herself.
If this wasn’t true love, she didn’t know what was.
She dropped back onto her pillow and closed her eyes.
After dinner, they had driven back here, lit a fire in the stone fire pit at the back of his property, and watched the stars fill the sky while they talked about their families, what it means to be family, and what their hopes were.
It was late when they went inside, and though they kissed and snuggled, Taylor somehow fell asleep in his arms, and he didn’t wake her.
When she woke the next morning, she was still wearing her date clothes, and the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee meant he was in the other room.
Nothing had happened. Nothing, if you didn’t count the heart bonding and the trust that they had built.
Her heart pattered at the thought of it. Perhaps, just perhaps, she really was falling in love with Hudson East.
She joined him in the kitchen. “I really do want to go with you to talk to your Grandpa and his friends.”
“Good. Also, Karina had a different view of that relationship than I did. For example, I thought we had been a couple for a year.”
“Funny, she said two.”
“That’s what she said when I ended it too. But a few dates don’t make a couple, right? You know that at least. We were only a couple after we decided we were. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she was way too high strung for me. I tried to let her down gently, but it turns out, I was too gentle. She started counting us as a couple a long time before I did, and she didn’t realize we weren’t together. Just thought I’d been busy working, I guess.”
“Not till you and we started seeing each other, I suspect.”
“Exactly.”
“Can I ask what you said to her when you let her down gently? So, I’ll know how to recognize it myself?”
His eyes twinkled. “But we’re not a couple.”
“Still, it’s good to be prepared.”
“Don’t judge too harsh. I was trying to be kind.”
“Out with it.” Taylor refilled her cup, ready for anything, and very curious what a man like Hudson considered gentle.
“I said that it was really sad when you liked someone but realized it just wasn’t working.”
“Followed by?”
“No, that was it.”
“Are you sure there wasn’t a goodbye kiss and a parting look?”
“This is probably where I screwed up. I said it at the beginning of the date, then took her out for dinner.”
“Tell me you didn’t stay the night with her that night.”
“No, I didn’t. As far as I knew, we were done.”
“Did she act like her heart was broken over dinner?”
“I assumed she felt the way I did, and our friendly dinner meant we could still be friends.”
“This is very good information for me. I will keep an eye out for a comment about relationships in general manner followed by a nice dinner.”
He laughed. “If you ever agree to be mine exclusively, I plan on making it stick.”
Taylor rolled her eyes, but her face heated up nicely. Maybe this was love…maybe it would stick. “I have to get to the shop today. Call me later and let me know when we can go see your grandpa and friends.” Taylor looked down at her silky date-night top. “I’ve got to go get dressed for work.”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Will do.”
Taylor texted Dayton when she got home.
Dayton replied, “Still at Coopers,” so Taylor let it be.
She wished dinner with Reg had gone differently. She’d feel so much better about everything if she had the solid advice from the deputy to help her take care of this scared kid. Especially now that Cricket was dead. For all Taylor knew, Cricket had also caught a glimpse of the killer.
But so long as Dayton didn’t run around alone and stuck by a family that cared about her, surely it would be okay.
Probably.
Maybe.
Taylor pondered this all day as she rang up customers and restocked shelves. Around three, Clay came downstairs dressed like he had a business meeting. He stopped at the register and leaned on the counter like it was a bar.
“Going somewhere?” Taylor asked, eyeing his khaki trousers, button-down shirt, and navy blazer.
“The bank.”
“Oh?”
“You need a business loan.”
“Excuse me?” Taylor narrowed her eyes at him.
“Your mom hadn’t taken out a loan in ages. You’ve been using all cash. Do you know what your credit rating is right now?”
“When you have plenty of cash, you don’t need a credit rating.”
“But it’s a good time to get one, for if you need it later.” He loosened his tie a bit.
“You’re not authorized to take out a business loan for us, you know that, right?”
“Thought I’d pick up Ernie on the way.”
“You’re insane, get back upstairs.” Taylor flung a small roll of cotton floss at him. She knew he was lying, because they both knew Ernie would never leave the house with him.
“I have a date?” Clay said it with eyebrows raised, like a question.
“Try again, this time make it believable.”
“I thought I’d see what kind of mortgage I could qualify for.”
“And you need to do that in person? The internet isn’t good enough for you anymore?”
He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. This one must have been the truth. “I think it would be better for me to talk in person. My credit rating doesn’t really exist. Never had a credit card. Dad gave me that old car. I lived with you.”
“And you had all those scholarships for college. Dang, you don’t have a credit score, do you?”
“Nope. Thought I’d drive into McMinnville and see what interest I could get. Unless maybe your buddy John Hancock could help me out.” He offered her his affable grin.
“Try your luck in McMinnville first. John isn’t in the mortgage business.”
“Got it. See you.” He gave her a jaunty salute and left behind a jangle of bells.
Clay was exhausting. It would be nice to get him out of her apartment. It might make folks stop talking too.
Later, w
hen Taylor closed up, John Hancock called. “U of O symphony orchestra is doing the Alan Thicke retrospective again—it’s a mini-symphony of theme songs. I thought it was right up your alley. Are you free next Saturday? It’s a fundraiser.”
She bit her bottom lip. That did sound right up her alley. Symphonies are the stuffy kind of fancy, and though she liked a fancy night out, the music could get a little dry for her taste. Television theme song symphonies, on the other hand, were fancy and fun.
Then again, if she was really and truly falling in love with Hudson, would she go to any kind of symphony with John Hancock?
John was just a friend. A person needed friends. “Yes, definitely. That sounds like a blast.”
“Fantastic. If you don’t want to meet me there, I’ll have to come by pretty early to pick you up. That okay?”
“Of course.”
“Like, four pm early. We’ll eat after.”
“That’s perfect. See you Saturday.”
She felt guilty as she swept, dusted, and generally cleaned the shop.
Going to a concert with a friend wasn’t cheating.
Especially if you didn’t have a boyfriend.
She’d have gone with Belle or with maybe Sissy Dorney. And since Belle and Sissy were the only two people Taylor could think up to go to a concert with, it showed she really did need her friend John.
Stupid puritanical world making her think it was wrong to just enjoy life.
Like Taylor had to want to be settled down and married just because she was thirty.
She didn’t have to, and she resented how much room it was taking up in her brain.
But last night, and this morning…love, like, real love, had seemed very close at hand.
If only John Hancock had been gay. Then she could go to whatever fancy event he could come up with and no one would mind. Or if he was her cousin or something.
These were small towns. She should start telling people he was her cousin.
She stifled a laugh.