Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Josie

“Hello?”

“Hi, Josie?”

The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “Yes?”

“It’s Opal.”

“Oh. Hi, Opal.”

“Hope you don’t mind, but I schmoozed Sam at the home-improvement store into giving me your number.”

Yet again, it was apparent how different small-town life was from city life. I couldn’t imagine the guy at the Home Depot on Twenty-Third Street even knowing my name, much less giving my telephone number to someone. If that happened back home, I’d probably get a restraining order. Yet here, it seemed perfectly normal.

“No problem. What’s going on, Opal?”

“I was hoping you’d be up for lunch today. I have a little present for you.”

“A present? For me?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not expensive or anything. But I’m guessing you’re the type of person who doesn’t judge value by a price tag. If I’m right, my gift is priceless.”

“You have me intrigued now…”

“That’s what I was hoping. One o’clock work okay?”

“Sure. Why not.”

“Woodwards on Main Street. It’s the little café on the same side as the Beanery.”

“I know it. That’s perfect. See you later, Opal.”

My ankle was still pretty sore, so I left a little early for my lunch date and stopped at the small pharmacy in town to pick up an ACE bandage. The woman behind the counter smiled at me. “You must be Josie.”

I should’ve been used to it by now, but it still caught me off guard when a stranger knew my name. “Yes. How did you know that?”

“My aunt Frannie mentioned you were in town. Plus, I recognize you from the picture you sent years back. I’m Lily Dunn. We exchange cards a few times a year.”

I didn’t remember all the names on my card list these days, but Lily’s I did. Mostly because she had sent me one first. She and I were about the same age. Her aunt had told her about the card I sent, and Lily thought it was fun. She didn’t receive a lot of cards herself, so she’d mailed me one, and I’d added her to my list.

“Lily, it’s really great to meet you. You and your aunt were the first people I exchanged cards with. It’s meant a lot to me over the years.”

“Me too. I was looking forward to telling you a story in my next card. You’re part of the reason my boyfriend and I got together.”

“I am? How?”

“Mark was a friend of my older brother’s in high school. I always had a secret crush on him, but he was three years older and my brother saw me as a little girl, so it was never going to happen. He went away to college and got engaged, and so did I. Over the years, he and my brother fell out of touch, but I always kept tabs on him on Facebook. Last year, my fiancé and I split, and then around Thanksgiving, I noticed Mark had changed his status from in a relationship to single. A few days later, your annual Christmas card showed up. I don’t know why, but it got me thinking. Cards made you happy, so you took the bull by the horns and sent them out, hoping you’d get what you give. That afternoon, I decided to mail Mark a card. I wrote him a note and mentioned that I was single and wondered if he might be interested in meeting up sometime. He sent me back a card, and one thing led to another—we’ve been together since a little after New Year’s when we met for dinner.”

“I love that! Good for you, Lily. I’ve never thought of my cards as inspiring in any way, but I’m happy to have been a little part of you taking the chance.”

Lily and I stood talking for another fifteen minutes, and by the time I left, it felt like I’d caught up with an old friend. I almost forgot to buy the ACE bandage I’d come for. Her story was exactly what I needed today, especially after I’d gone out back to look at the deck in daylight and realized not only was it rotted, but so was the dock at the edge of the water.

Opal was already seated at the café when I walked in. She waved animatedly, as if it were possible to miss a woman wearing a neon green top. It was the second time we’d met and the second bright outfit I’d seen her dressed in. Somehow the bold colors went with her personality.

She stood as I approached and wrapped me in a warm hug with a matching smile. “There she is…”

“Hi. Sorry if I’m a minute or two late. I stopped in at the pharmacy and met someone I’ve exchanged cards with. We started talking, and I lost track of time.”

“Lily Dunn?”

“Yes, she was so nice.”

Opal nodded. “Sweet girl. She’s Frannie’s niece. Glad she finally hooked that Mark Butler. Girl had been crazy about him since she was a kid.”

I smiled thinking how Lily had just told me she’d had a secret crush on her brother’s friend. Seemed there weren’t actually too many secrets in Laurel Lake.

I shook out the cloth napkin on the table and draped it across my lap. Opal lifted a small bag from the floor and held it out. “For you.”

I was curious, so I dug right into the tissue paper. “Oh my gosh. Is this what I think it is?” The phone book was a little thicker than the tattered one I had, but still less than fifty pages in total. I fanned through it with a smile.

“It’s hot off the presses. No one even has it yet. The town used to be the one to put it out, but they stopped doing it seven or eight years back when they got hit with some budget cuts and lost the girl who updated it. My friend Margene started doing one instead, every other year as a fundraiser. She sells a bit of ad space inside and charges people ten dollars for the book. Last time she donated over two-thousand dollars to the animal shelter. I figured the one you had was your daddy’s, so it had to be outdated by now.”

“It definitely is. Mine is over twenty years old.”

She pointed at the booklet. “That one has home addresses, home phone numbers, and the cell phones of just about every resident of Laurel Lake. Figured it would keep some of your cards from getting returned and wasting postage.”

“Thank you, Opal. This means a lot to me.”

“My number is in there, too. Anything you need, don’t be afraid to use it.”

As I slipped it back into the bag, the back cover caught my eye. There was a half-page ad for Cassidy Construction, most of which was Fox’s face.

Opal noticed my staring. “He’s not going to be happy when he sees that. The grump refuses to include his information in the book. Says anyone he wants to have his phone number already has it. A couple of months back, I told him I wanted to run a cheap ad and the money went to charity. I didn’t mention where. He grumbled fine, so I took the liberty of putting his mug on the ad, along with his cell phone number. Figured it would attract more attention than a logo.”

“Oh boy.” I chuckled. “I would love to be a fly on the wall when he sees this.”

“He’ll fire me. Again. But then he’ll realize he doesn’t know any of the passwords for the software we use, and he’d have to answer the phones and be friendly to people. So he’ll get over himself.”

“Sounds like you really have his number.”

“He wasn’t too hard to crack.”

“Maybe for you, but I find the man confusing as heck.”

Opal smirked. “He spends a lot of time fighting the war inside of him—the one between good and evil. But one thing you can bet on, Fox Cassidy will always, in the end, do the right thing. These days, that pisses him off.”

“These days? So he wasn’t always so grumpy?”

“Nope.”

“What made him that way?”

“The usual. Trying to change things that couldn’t be changed, and instead, they wind up changing you. I think we all have things in our lives that turn us into different people. Sometimes it’s for the better; sometimes it’s for the worse. But we evolve and move on the best we can.”

I certainly understood that. I wasn’t the same person I’d been even a few months ago. I nodded. “That’s very true.”

“But I have a hunch there’s another change coming for Fox Cassidy. A good one this time.” Opal’s eyes sparkled. “And for you, too.”