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Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13


Small Town—Big Parties

Josie

Did I walk into the wrong backyard?

There were balloons, music, a half-dozen Yeti coolers, and a gaggle of men congregating by a smoking grill. This must be a birthday party. Or maybe a graduation celebration. I hadn’t been able to find a number on the house when I pulled up, but to the left was six twelve and to the right six sixteen, so it had seemed only logical that this one was six fourteen.

I turned around to sneak out before someone realized I’d just crashed their party, when I heard my name.

“Josie! There you are!” Bernadette Macon pushed up on her tippy toes, flailing her arm around as she waved from the other side of the yard.

Oh Lord. I’m in the right place. But this was definitely not a small get-together…

I hesitated before walking to meet her in the middle of the yard. Bernadette swamped me in a hug like we were long-lost friends, rather than people who’d met at the coffee shop last week.

I smiled. “I thought I was at the wrong house. I didn’t realize you were having a party today. For some reason, I thought it was just going to be us and Tommy Miller, maybe a few other friends.”

She waved her hand around at the packed backyard and laughed. “This is a few other friends.”

There had to be fifty people milling around. “I’m not sure I even know this many people,” I said.

Bernadette hooked her arm with mine. “Well, you do now. All of these people are here to meet you. You’ve exchanged cards with a lot of them. When word got out you were the guest of honor today, my phone rang off the hook. It was fun being popular again.”

When I looked around, all eyes were on me. It was a little overwhelming.

“What do you have here?” She pointed to the stuff I was carrying. “Does it need to go in the refrigerator? If it does, it might have to settle for sitting on top of the ice in one of the beer coolers. My fridge is stuffed with eight gigantic trays of Hawaiian macaroni salad. It’s Troy Zimmerman’s favorite. His wife passed away six months ago—God rest her soul—and the ladies are all on the hunt now. Not sure why they bothered, he’s only going to have an eye for Georgina Mumford. She’s got a big waddle.”

“A waddle?”

Bernadette motioned to her neck. “Saggy skin. Troy’s always had a thing for a woman with a waddle. His wife looked like a turkey in that regard.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I held up the boxes. “Uh. No. Nothing needs to be refrigerated. I made cupcakes and rainbow cookies.”

“Good. Come on, let’s put them inside and get you some wine to help settle your nerves. You look like my students always did when I’d spring a pop quiz on them in English class.”

A few ladies were prepping food at the kitchen island. Just like in the yard, they all stopped what they were doing when I walked in.

“Now don’t scare the poor girl away.” Bernadette waved them off. “She’s not a chimpanzee in the zoo.”

The ladies promptly ignored Bernadette and walked over one at a time to introduce themselves.

“It’s good to meet you,” the youngest of the three women said. “I’m Lauren Arnold. We’ve been exchanging cards for a long time. Mine is the one with four dogs on the front.”

I pointed. “You always dress the dogs in costumes from nursery rhymes, but add a Christmas theme to it, right?”

The woman smiled proudly. “That’s me. I’m a seamstress. I make custom costumes for kids for Halloween. Well, and now for pets too. People took a liking to my Christmas card and started asking if I’d make something for their pets. So now my business is almost fifty-fifty, human and animal costumes.”

“I loved the Mad Hatter tea party scene you did last year.”

After Lauren, I met Wanda and Rena and finally a lady named Hope. Hope was petite, had naturally white hair that suited her, and the most gorgeous green eyes. There was something familiar about her, so I thought perhaps we’d exchanged cards and hers had a photo.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Josie.” She patted my hand and held onto it. “Your father was a dear friend of mine. I was so sad to hear about his passing years ago.”

“Thank you.”

Bernadette Macon handed me a glass of wine and piped in. “Hope here is being polite, because unlike me, she’s an actual lady. She and your father were more than friends. They used to suck face in the stairwell at school every chance they got.”

Hope blushed. “Bernadette, you hush now. Josie doesn’t want to hear about that. We were just kids. Her father was a happily married man.”

“Actually, I’d love to hear about my dad when he was younger. He died when I was thirteen, so I never had the chance to ask about his teenage years, other than knowing how much he loved living here in Laurel Lake.”

“The two of them were inseparable from seventh grade on,” Bernadette said. “So anything you want to know about your daddy, this one would know. If not, ask his best friend, Tommy Miller. He’s going to be here a little later.”

“Really? You and my dad were a couple for that long?”

Hope smiled and nodded. “And when I look back, I have nothing but fond memories of my time with Henry. He was a big personality, but also a gentleman even as a young man.” Her eyes lost focus for a few seconds and her smile widened. “He also told the worst jokes.”

I laughed. “Absolutely nothing changed then.”

Bernadette ushered the other ladies to the door. “We’ll leave you two alone to do some catching up. Come find me when you’re ready for more introductions, Josie.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Alone, Hope and I sat down at the kitchen table. I couldn’t help but notice the differences between her and Dr. Melanie Preston. Mom was tall with dark hair and eyes. She had a stern face, a practiced smile, and wouldn’t be caught dead in public without lipstick. Hope was petite with a welcoming demeanor. She wore her naturally white hair in a ponytail, and her pretty face was free of makeup.

“Did you and my dad meet in school?”

She nodded. “We did. He was in marching band, and I was in color guard, and we also had algebra together. We were friends, but we were both pretty shy. Math came very easy to me, but algebra was an advanced class, and some of the kids struggled. I’d started helping a few of the girls. Your dad came to me one day and said he’d failed the last test and needed some help. He asked if I’d be willing to tutor him. We spent a lot of time in the library together, and eventually he admitted he’d never failed a test and didn’t need help. He wanted to spend some time with me.”

“That’s so funny. You know he wound up being a math professor, right?”

She smiled. “I heard that. Got a real kick out of it.”

“So you two were together since seventh grade?”

“Eighth, actually. Valentine’s Day, to be exact.” Hope shook her head. “Your dad came to school in a suit and brought me flowers, then asked if I’d be his girlfriend. The other boys chided him something fierce over wearing that suit, but Henry didn’t care.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“Your father was a very sweet man. I’m sure your mom is something special, too.”

I forced a smile. “Oh, my mom is something alright.”

Hope and I spent the next twenty minutes talking. She told me a few more stories about my dad. It was clear she and my mom had more than physical differences. The two women couldn’t be more polar opposites of each other. Hope felt like the type of woman who would’ve fit perfectly with my dad. Yet no matter how much I felt like my parents were a round peg and a square hole, there was no denying my father had been head over heels for my mother. I suppose opposites do attract sometimes. Which made me think of my grumpy neighbor. We hadn’t spoken since yesterday when he’d helped me rip out the deck and we’d shared a nice lunch—only to have him shut me down for talking too much. The man was as confusing as he was handsome.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Hope?”

“Of course.”

“Why did you and my dad break up?”

“He got into Yale, and I was staying here to go to community college. I thought it was best if Henry got to experience things, so I broke it off. You know…if you love someone, set them free and all.” She smiled. “Turns out it was for the best. He found the love of his life away at college. A few years later, I met mine. My Joseph passed two years ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. I’ll never get over it, but I’m working on keeping myself busy. I teach a knitting class and do some volunteer work now.” She smiled. “I’m sure your mom had to adjust after your dad passed. It’s not an easy task.”

I nodded, keeping it to myself that my mom was definitely not knitting or volunteering. My mourning mother hadn’t even taken off the day of my dad’s wake. She’d done two surgeries before afternoon viewing hours began.

“How long are you in town?” Hope asked.

“I’m not sure. Probably another month or so. My dad inherited a house here in Laurel Lake many years ago. It was my aunt’s. When he passed, I inherited it. It’s been rented for a long time, but the renter recently moved out. I came down to fix up the place a bit, but it’s in worse condition than I thought. It’s keeping me busy. But I have to go back to work eventually.”

“Is the house your aunt Tessa’s? I think that was your dad’s only sister, right? Over on Rosewood?”

I nodded. “That’s the place.”

Hope smiled. “One of my sons lives on that block. You should reach out if you need anything. He’s very sweet. And he does construction, so he’s got every tool under the sun, too.” Opal walked into the kitchen from the yard. Hope smiled at her. “He’s actually Opal’s boss now.”

“You’re…” I blinked a few times. “You’re Fox’s mother?”

“I am. Have you two met already?”

“We, umm…” I wasn’t about to tell this nice lady that her son alternated between being a jerk and taking over construction at my house. Rather, I smiled. “He actually lives right next door.”

“Isn’t that something? I knew Tessa had lived on the block, but couldn’t remember which house it was. Well, I hope he’s been neighborly.”

If neighborly means watching me do yoga from the second floor…sure. Though I stuck with the positive. “He’s helped me quite a bit already.”

She beamed with a mother’s pride. “Wonderful. My son can come off as a curmudgeon at first, but he has a good heart. He makes time to have lunch with me every Thursday since his father passed, and he lets me come over and decorate his house twice a year—hang new curtains and stuff—even though I know he couldn’t care less about all that.”

I smiled. “You said one of your sons. Do your other children live in town, too?”

Hope shook her head. “It’s just Fox now. My other son, Ryder, passed away years ago. I don’t think I’ll ever remember to say ‘my son’ rather than ‘my sons’.”

“Of course not. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.”

Opal interrupted our conversation. “Can I steal our guest of honor away for a bit? I want to introduce her around.”

“Of course,” Hope said. “It was wonderful to meet you, Josie. You’re as lovely as your father was.”

“Thank you.”

The next few hours were a whirlwind. Opal introduced me to dozens of people, and most had a story to share about my father. I learned more about his childhood in one afternoon than I had in a lifetime. Henry Preston loved fishing, playing the drums, and he and his friend Tommy Miller were apparently a pair of pranksters. He loved to paint, like I did—something I’d never known about him. And he’d volunteered at the animal shelter, walking dogs and cleaning up after them. Ginny something told me he’d gotten her through math class in elementary school. She loved singing and hated math, so Dad had made up funny songs to help her remember formulas. She’d wound up becoming the local music teacher and taught his songs to her students for fun.

It was a great day, but by the time I left, I felt a bit overloaded—like I needed to sit in a quiet, dark room, or do something mindless and repetitive like ride a stationary bike. My brain needed to simmer for a while on all the information it had taken in.

I pulled into my driveway and looked over at my neighbor’s house. Fox was outside, pushing a wheelbarrow across the lawn with no shirt on. I licked my lips. Sex would really work to clear my head, too. Too bad that body was attached to such a jerk.

I’d poked that chest with my finger, and it was impossible to miss how the seams of his T-shirts stretched to their limits around hulking biceps, but seeing all that flesh bared at once was something else. The man was seriously stacked. Chiseled pecs, deeply etched lines contouring the peaks and valleys of abs, thick bulging muscles on his arms and legs. There wasn’t an ounce of soft anywhere on him. He didn’t wax like Noah, but his chest hair was trimmed neatly, and it suited him. Clean shaven would’ve seemed odd on a man like Fox, a man who was so…primal.

I sat in my car, enjoying the free show from a distance. Fox went back and forth, shoveling mulch from a pile on the driveway into the wheelbarrow, then rolling it over to the flower beds and spreading it around. Forget riding a stationary bike or sitting in a quiet, dark room. This allowed my brain to power down. I wasn’t sure how long I sat gawking, but by the time I got out of the car, there wasn’t much mulch left in the big pile.

Instead of going right into the house, I thought I’d share what I’d learned about my dad’s high school sweetheart. Plus, a close-up view couldn’t hurt…

“Hey.” I smiled. “Guess who I met today?”

Fox looked over and kept pushing the wheelbarrow. “A contractor to take over fixing up that shitshow of a house you got, I hope.”

“It’s not a shitshow. It just needs a little TLC.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed. “Truck Loads of Cash.”

I frowned. “Now I don’t even feel like telling you my funny news.”

“Oh no,” he said flatly.

“Jerk.”

Fox pulled off a work glove and used the back of his hand to wipe sweat from his brow. His eyes dropped to my torso, like he was noticing I had one for the first time. He swallowed before speaking. “What’s your news?”

“I met my dad’s high school girlfriend today.”

He shrugged. “Okay. I’ll bite. How did it go?”

“It went well. She was super sweet and had nothing but kind things to say about him. Actually, the entire day was pretty amazing. But that’s not the funny part.”

“You look like you’re going to burst if you don’t get it out, Josie.”

I smiled. “My dad’s girlfriend’s name was Hope.”

Fox’s brows drew together. “Hope who?”

“Hope Cassidy!” I clapped with excitement. “Isn’t that crazy? Your mom and my dad were a couple, apparently for a long time—all through high school.”

“She never mentioned that.”

“Did you ever have a conversation about who she dated before your dad? I never spoke to my dad about that, or my mom either.”

“I guess not.”

“Anyway… I managed not to laugh when she called you sweet. You’re welcome.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Any other fun news you want to share, or can I get back to work?”

Fox being Fox, he didn’t wait for me to respond. Just grabbed the wheelbarrow handles and started walking again. I followed.

“Don’t you even find it the least bit amusing that our parents used to date?”

“Nope. Because now I’m going to get my ear chewed off about you when I go see my mother. You’re already the topic of conversation at work because of Opal.”

Fox set the wheelbarrow down on the driveway and picked up a broom to sweep the remnants of mulch. He scooped a shovel into the pile and dumped the last of the chips into the nearby flowerbed. I thought he was done, but then I noticed cases of plants lined up on the front porch.

“Are you making a vegetable garden?”

“Already have one.” He pointed in the opposite direction of my house. “It’s on the side. Better sun exposure there.”

“I always wanted a garden. We never had one growing up. I was thinking of doing window plants in my apartment, but there’s not much room.”

Fox shook his head. “I don’t know how you can live somewhere with no yard or grass.”

“It’s funny. I don’t think I noticed it was missing in my life the last few years.”

“Shame.”

I looked around and sighed. “Yeah.”

Fox scooped up two tomato plants from the porch.

“Do you want some help planting them?” I asked.

“Is that your way of saying you want to help, but we’re going to pretend it’s me who needs the help rather than you who wants to give it?”

I smirked. “Pretty much.”

After a pause, he lifted his chin toward the garage. “There’s an extra set of gloves in the top drawer of the cabinet on the right.”

“Okay! But I think I’m going to change first.”

“Whatever.” Fox shrugged. He clearly wasn’t as excited as me.

I returned a few minutes later wearing cut-off shorts and a tank top. This time, Fox didn’t take as long to notice I had a torso. Every time I’d caught him looking before, I’d given him a free pass, not calling him out. Well, except for when I’d mentioned seeing him watch me from the window. But today, I felt bold. When his eyes made their way back up to mine, I arched a brow.

He ignored the challenge and walked around the side of the house. “Plants go six inches down and eighteen inches apart.” He gestured to some garden tools. “Small shovel is there.”

Over the next hour, Fox and I planted more than three-dozen tomato plants. We didn’t talk much, which was perfectly fine with me. By the time we were done, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the day anymore. Oddly, I felt very much at peace.

I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “I really enjoyed doing that. Who knew digging in the dirt could be so mentally relaxing?”

“Working outside is good for the body and mind.”

I brushed dirt from my hands and knees. “Thank you for letting me help. Especially since I know you would’ve preferred to do it yourself.”

Fox nodded.

I rolled my eyes. “You could at least feign that I’m wrong and you enjoyed my company.”

His lips quirked. “Thank you for helping me plant, doc.”

I did a mock curtsy. “You’re very welcome.”

Even though I didn’t want to go back home yet, it felt like it was time. “Well, I guess I should get going…”

Fox nodded again.

I hesitated a few more seconds, thinking maybe he’d say I shouldn’t run off so soon. But of course, this was Fox. “Okay, then. You have a good night, I guess.”

After I took a few steps, he sighed. “Do you want a beer?”

I turned with a smile. “Do you really want me to join you, or are you being nice because I called you out about not wanting me to plant with you?”

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Do you want a beer or not?”

I shrugged. Screw it. “Sure.”

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