11. Lennon
Chapter eleven
Lennon
I would think I was being pranked if Hayes hadn’t warned me about Mrs. Riggins. What I didn’t expect was for the elderly woman to fly into the parking lot, coming an inch from the building before putting her car in park. The fear of her sending her Cadillac into the building was very real. “I’m telling you! Something is wrong with my car! Maybe the young man that helped me last week did something wrong.” The elderly woman adjusted the pearls around her neck, because who doesn’t put on full glam to get their car looked at?
“Mrs. Riggins, I’m terribly sorry that you are having some trouble with your car. It looks like Travis took care of you last time, and I can assure you, he is very qualified and good at what he does.” I stand from my chair and walk around the desk and stand in front of the woman. “Why don’t we head to the waiting room, and you can tell me about what is going on?”
Once I made her a cup of coffee and sit down next to her, the woman hasn’t stopped talking. After hearing about her four cats, and how Scottie pulled her over last week, I figured out the real issue. The elderly woman is bored. Her husband passed away five years ago, and they never had any kids. So, it’s just her, in that big old house, and no one to talk to. “And that brother of yours! It’s just plain highway robbery at what he is charging for a new furnace! Is he hurting for money?”
I jump up when I spot Travis walk past, and quickly catch up with him. Once in the hallway, I call out to him to get his attention, “Travis!” He whips around, looking surprised. “Hey, sorry. Mrs. Riggins is in the waiting room, adamant that her car is making a strange noise. I’m pretty sure she is just lonely, but do you have time to give the Cadillac a test drive?”
Travis steps closer to me, but he always makes sure to leave enough space between us. “Hey, Len. Yeah, that’s not a problem. She isn’t too bad. I stopped by her house last weekend and cut her grass. I can tell she just wants some company. I’ll take care of her.” He looks down with a small smile on his face as he walks past me and heads into the room. Once I see the smile spread across the woman’s face, I head back to my desk. I decide I need to give my brother a hard time about not cutting the elderly woman a deal.
I hear you are out there robbing the elderly women of Pine Creek.
Bub
Jesus Christ, this woman. I gave Mrs. Riggins a more than fair quote.
Bub
What did she tell you?
She wanted to know if you are having money trouble.
Bub
Fuck. I can’t have her going around town saying that. If Shelby finds out, she’ll beat my ass.
She wouldn’t choose violence; she would stop cooking for him, and that would be worse in his eyes. Cooking is Shelby’s love language and if she stops feeding you, you know you are in the doghouse for something.
“Crew’s Auto, how can I help you?” This is the second time today that I have answered the phone, and no one is on the other end. Maybe they have a bad connection? “I’m so sorry, if you are speaking, I can’t hear you. Please call again when you have better service, and we can take care of ya.” Hanging up the phone, I rub my temples, trying to ease the small headache I have forming. I was up too late, but sleep is not my friend, so I stay up and write.
“Headache?” I jump, spinning my chair around until I am facing one of the reasons I can’t sleep at night. Hayes. This man is plaguing my thoughts. From his slightly wavy auburn hair, to the Levi jeans, that perfectly sculpt his ass, to the slight dimple in his right cheek. This man is perfection. It really is unfair at how perfect he is.
And I am too broken for a man like Hayes. He needs someone with his shit together, and that is not me.
“Hayes!” Oh great, I am going to be a bumbling idiot today. “Headache…umm yes, just a small one.” Did it get hot in here all of a sudden? Am I visibly sweating? Get it together, Lennon. “I’m glad you came up here, I am going out for my lunch hour today. I’m going to the diner, if you want me to bring you back anything.” I glance down at my phone and see that Shelby has texted me, probably wondering where I’m at.
Shelby
Are you standing me up for our lunch date?
I would never. Leaving momentarily.
I look back up and catch Hayes giving me a look that I can’t decipher. Anger? Want? “You don’t have to ask, Lennon, you know that. Take your time and tell Shelby hi for me. And no thank you on bringing anything back for me.” Hayes sits down in my chair as soon as I get up and grab my purse, ready to man the phone while I’m gone. “Oh, before I leave. We have had a couple dead calls today. I answer, and no one is there. That was the call I had when you walked up.”
“Thanks, Lennon. I’ll look into it if it happens again.”
I make the quick walk to the diner, waving to people as I go. Slowly but surely, I am starting to feel more like myself. Pine Creek is a special place. When my parents passed away, the residents of this little town rallied and supported my brother and me. We had groceries delivered to our home every week. A cleaning service randomly showed up. Our yard was mysteriously cut every week. When I graduated, almost the whole town came and lined the walkway during the ceremony, yelling when my name was called.
Our world fell apart, but the people of Pine Creek were there to pick up our broken pieces. That is what people don’t understand about small towns. They see a small town and think that there is nothing to do, that the people who live there are too nosy for their own good. What they overlook is that living in a small town is like having one big family.
And when you suddenly lose two members of your family, you learn that having more family isn’t a bad thing.
Walking into the diner, I put a wide smile on my face, for the full restaurant. Just smile and wave has been my motto since moving back. The thing is, I want to talk to these people, but have no idea how to summarize the events that have taken place.
I spot Shelby already sitting in a booth near the kitchen and head that way. Shelby stands up and gives me a hug before we both sit down opposite each other. “Took ya long enough. I thought I was going to have to walk down myself and pull you out of there.” My best friend may only be a hair over five feet, but I have no doubt that she would have done just that if I hadn’t shown up soon.
I take a sip of coffee that was waiting for me. “Oh hush, you knew I was coming. I had to update Hayes on a few things before I left. And I needed him to man the front desk so I could leave.” I don’t tell her that I was waiting to see him before I left, not that I needed to update him on something important. That man can fill out a Henley like nobody’s business. And don’t even get me started on when Hayes laughs. When I hear the deep sound, the weight of the bricks that have been on my heart for years, lifts.
“Yes, and how is Hayes?” I look up from my cup of liquid gold to find my best friend with her signature smirk on her face. I’m saved from answering when someone calls for her from the kitchen. Before rushing off to see what the problem is, Shelby takes my lunch order, and leaves me to my thoughts. It is hard for my thoughts to be anywhere other than on Hayes. And Rosie. That girl is so special, and I don’t think she has realized it yet.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” I look up to find Stretch, a lifelong Pine Creek Resident, standing in front of the table with a wide smile on his face. He has his signature fedora on the top of his head, and he’s wearing a vintage bowling league shirt. His first name is actually John, but when you have such a cool last name, people start to use it. He used to own the landscaping business in town and was the one to cover the cost of having someone take care of our yard. I have a feeling that he was the one that orchestrated all of the things the town did for us .
I stand up and wrap my arms around the older man. I’m genuinely so happy to see him. Stretch is someone that I could sit with and talk for hours. He is a gifted storyteller, that only slightly embellishes. “Stretch! How are you? Please sit down, Shelby just had to run to the kitchen.”
“What’s going on, sweetheart? I can see the heaviness and the sadness in your eyes.” I look out the window overlooking our sleepy town, trying to get my thoughts in order. I know I can open up to Stretch, but am I ready? He sets his hand over my fisted ones and gently squeezes and waits me out.
I take another sip of coffee for some courage, and seeing as Shelby must be dealing with a big issue back there, I give the man an overview of my life recently. “Everything is a mess, Stretch. It’s a story as old as time. The girl falls for the wrong man. And he breaks her. If my parents could see me now, they would be so disappointed in me.”
I don’t notice that I am crying until I feel Stretch sitting down on my side of the booth and pulls me into a hug. I sit there with my head on his shoulder and release tears that I thought I was done crying. “Oh, Lennon. Sweet, sweet girl. Your parents could never be disappointed in you. I feel like there is so more that you want to say, just know that you are safe now and I’m here if you ever need me. ”
I see Shelby walking back over with our lunch, so I dry off my face the best I can before she reaches the table. “Sorry about that.” A look of concern crosses her face, surely noticing that I look worse than when I arrived. “How was your lunch, Stretch?”
Stretch gives my shoulder one last squeeze before standing up. If I’m not mistaken, he has tears in his eyes as well. “It was amazing as usual, Shelby. I better head out, but you ladies behave yourselves. No breaking and entering. And Lennon Rae, come visit me soon.” With a wave, Stretch makes his way out of the diner, and I focus back onto my friend.
“Everything okay back there?” I take a bite of my long-standing favorite chicken sandwich, that I have missed immensely. Shelby has a true gift in the kitchen. “Oh, yeah. Just the usual. Donno doesn’t like some of the produce I got, so he was throwing a fit.” Donno has worked at the diner since we were in elementary school but refuses to retire.
We finish our lunch, and I am thankful but surprised that Shelby didn’t bring up my conversation with Stretch. That isn’t my nosy best friend. Shelby’s personality is larger than life. She doesn’t hold back, isn’t quiet. She is handling me with kid gloves. We have never tiptoed around each other, or difficult topics .
I need things to go back to normal. I need people to stop thinking I am broken. When they treat me that way, it cements the thoughts in my head.
Broken. Never to be fixed.
Poor Lennon, she went and fell in love with a psychopath.
That Lennon, she was so smart. I don’t know what happened to that poor girl.