2. Brock

Chapter two

Brock

T he rest of my day was spent in the dark, dusky attic, pulling down Christmas decorations. Once I found them. They’d been shoved to the farthest corner—of course. When Pops died, a lot of his belongings were boxed and stuffed up here, without much attention to order. Looking around, I figured I would need to finally get to sorting through all these things. Most of it I would keep, but some I would donate, and sadly, I was sure a bit of it would end up in the trash. It felt wrong for any part of Pops to go to the trash, but this wasn’t him. It was only stuff. And it was for another time. Now was the time to drag that old artificial tree to the opening and down the rickety stairs so Eddy could fuss over it. Only Eddy could get me up here doing this. But I would do anything for my excitable sweetheart.

“The tree is coming. Watch out.” That was the only warning I gave before the bulk of the box slid down the stairs, ending with a thump at the bottom.

“Woah. This is big. Does it even fit in the living room?”

“Yes. Pops always put it there when I was a kid.” I backed down after it, since it was the last thing to go down, and pulled the attic closed behind me. “It’s been up here a few years though. I don’t know what kind of shape it’s in.”

“It’ll be fine…” I recognized that sound from him, and when I turned, I saw a familiar expression on his face.

“What?”

“Why don’t we take this one to the store and get a real one for here?” His eyes lit up, and I wanted to give in, but I knew better this time.

“Eddy. This…this is huge. And do you really want to deal with pine needles everywhere?” I sure didn’t. “It won’t fit at the store. We need to get a tiny one for there.” Pops had never decorated Books Beans and Buns outside of a few signs in the window. I don’t know why, but this would be a first. But I knew my store and this tree would not work. “Sorry, but I’m going to have to say no on this one.”

Eddy pouted. “Fine…”

“But wait until you see all this stuff.” Pops had collected many things over the years, and a lot of it was from my childhood, packed safely away every year so it could be preserved. Eddy would totally get a kick out of it. And it would distract him from not getting his live tree. “Why don’t you call your mom and have her bring some things?”

“What kind of things?” He dragged one of the smaller boxes toward the living room.

“Sentimental things. Whatever she might still have from when you and Greg were kids.”

Eddy looked up at me, puzzled at first, but then his eyes flew wide and sparkled. “Oh! There’s stuff from your childhood in here.” He pointed to the box he was still struggling with.

“Yee-ees…”

“Woo-hoo. Let’s get these open.” He circled the box and shoved at it.

“Here.” I saved him from straining his poor muscles and moved the box into the living room, followed by the others, while Eddy started opening things up.

While he unwrapped ornaments and other Christmas nicknacks, I started on the tree. “I think I remember how this thing goes together.” It was a full, seven-foot blue spruce, a classic look. I fiddled with the stand and started inserting branches. I was totally absorbed, concentrating, and about halfway through when Eddy shrieked. “What? Are you okay? Eddy?”

“Ohmygawd, yes. Look at this.” He held up a Styrofoam ball with red felt strips circling it. I knew what it was. He turned it around, showing me a picture of myself from kindergarten or first grade.

“Yep, I made that.” I refused to be embarrassed by my chubby little six-year-old cheeks.

“Were you in kindergarten? This is sooo cute.”

“About that. I guess. There are a lot of treasures like that, I’m sure. Oh, look. I made this one in like third grade or something.” I reached for the thread-covered orb. “We used to have a few of them, but slowly, over the years, the thread came undone.” This one was a faded pink and had plastic gadgets stuck into it. I didn’t know what they were, but they probably helped keep the thing together.

“Pretty. Delicate then?”

“I guess.”

Eddy set the ornament aside carefully, cushioning it with a bit of tissue paper before digging back into the box. A few minutes later, he burst out laughing. “Ohmyheavens! This has to be you and Jackie, right?”

It was a Polaroid of us wearing reindeer antlers and big red rubber noses. “Heh! That was Christmas break from my freshman year at college.”

“Is this at the store?” He looked closer at the picture.

“Let me see.” I snatched it from him to inspect it. “Yep.” Bookshelves could be seen in the background.

“So cute. And young.”

“Hey, I’m not so old now. That was only a few years ago.” Actually, it had been too many, and I hadn’t felt that carefree in a long time. Until I met Eddy. “Maybe those noses are in here somewhere and you could wear one.”

“Haha. Not. I want to see you in a Santa hat though, so maybe I’ll be your sexy elf.” He wiggled around where he sat as if doing some kind of sexy dance, but it was really quite silly.

“You’re always my sexy elf.”

He stuck his tongue out at me. “Whatever.”

I finally got the tree up, and Eddy had the boxes unloaded with strings of lights crisscrossing the living room. It was a mess, and tomorrow, the store would be worse. But Eddy’s eyes had a renewed sparkle in them, so I didn’t care. Much.

And then he scowled.

“What’s wrong, sexy elf?”

“None of these lights work.” In fact, he had several strands lit up. “I mean. They do. But they don’t. Look.” He pointed to unlit bulbs all over the place, and then he held up two strands that each had half their lights out. “I can’t work with this.”

“Let’s run into town and get new ones.” Simple.

But Eddy had more scowling.

“What?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping to use what we had and not have to go anywhere. I still have to call a bunch of people and see if Mom can come early.”

“What? Why? Why would she need to come early?”

“She will want to help decorate the store. Don’t you think?”

“Eddy…” As much as he frustrated me, I would actually drive to Sacramento and back if I had to. Anything to make him happy. Almost.

“Whatever. Come on. Can I go like this?” He wore a T-shirt with some kind of video game graphic on it, but it wasn’t one of his. And it was a little too big on him. Add to that his Sponge Bob sleep pants. And matching slippers.

“Can you throw on jeans and sneakers instead?”

“Yes,” he huffed as he stomped off. But it didn’t take him long, and in a few, he was back, his clothes completely different.

“You could have worn the same shirt.”

“Why?” He shrugged. “If I was going to change, might as well change it all. Besides…” He tugged at his branded shirt with his company logo emblazoned on the front. “Might as well get some advertising in.”

“I call bullshit.” This was a small town and everyone in it already knew who he was and what he did for a living. He had no need to advertise. Evelyn and Reuben, the mailman and partner in gossip crime, had already done that for him.

“Whatever. Let’s just go.” I didn’t want to go anywhere with a cranky Eddy, though.

“Hey…” I grabbed him, wrapping him up all snugly in my arms. “Are you still commando?” I whispered in his ear.

“Ha! I wasn’t earlier, but now I really am. It’s your punishment for making me change.” He shook his ass, so I grabbed it.

“I’ll take care of that when we get back.”

Eddy laughed then and didn’t stop smiling as we headed to the car. Mission accomplished.

We parked in the little lot at Nuts and Bolts, the local hardware store, and walked up. Eddy darted over to the rocking chairs they’d put out in the front. It was a nice addition, and many of the locals spent time there hanging out and people-watching. And gossiping. Eddy rocked back and forth, talking with one of the said locals, Mr. Avery. He was an old guy who’d lived in Foggy Basin long before I was a kid here. He was old now and often confused me with Pops. But I didn’t mind. It was nice to see someone still here after all this time. It reinforced the impression that in small towns like this, some things never changed. And never needed to.

I left Eddy rocking with Mr. Avery and walked inside, where there had been plenty of changes since Hudson had come back to town. He took over the store with his partner, Jack, who was also a local when Hudson’s father retired. They made a great couple and a great team. They cleaned the store up and shifted the inventory around. Everyone could tell that it was better now. They carried so many things that people needed, saving them a trip to the next town, and for some, that was lifesaving. For us, it was an amazing convenience.

They had put all the holiday stuff right out in front, so I didn’t even have to search the store for it. Other places might have put it in the back, so you had to wander through the entire store to get to it. I could not complain about how Huson and Jack ran this place. It was new, revitalized, but still a Foggy Basin staple, not unlike my store, and they always took the town population into consideration when laying things out.

Eddy sidled up next to me while I looked at the boxes of Christmas lights. “It’s too cold to sit for long. I don’t know how Mr. Avery does it.”

“He’s used to it.”

“Mmm…I guess. I’m going to grab a cup of coffee to warm up. Be right back. Oh! Want one?”

“No, thanks.” I didn’t often drink coffee that wasn’t Pops’ blend. Hudson had put a station in the front of the store from the local bakery, Don’t Go Bakin’ My Heart, along with pastries. Their coffee was good, but not Pops good. I admit my bias, though.

I’d picked out a few boxes of lights before Eddy got back. “Here. Open your mouth.”

I obliged, trusting him completely, and he stuffed something yummy inside. “Aww. Dah goo.” Hard to talk with my mouthful of all that sweet goodness.

“It’s Percy’s. Of course.”

All the pastries Percy and Ben made were fantastic. No lie. I might not drink their coffee, but I’d eat just about anything that came from their bakery.

In addition to the lights, Eddy grabbed a box of multi-colored plastic ornaments. And I slid in two mistletoe springs with big red bows. We dropped some of the stuff off at Books Beans and Buns, including a small tree, sized appropriately for the store, before heading home. Eddy called his mom to see how fast she could get here and if she needed transportation while I drove. He missed her so much. I needed to do something about that, one way or another.