Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
“ But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them forever.”
~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
E lle leaned against a low bookcase separating the children’s section with the rest of Cow Tale, the village’s only bookstore. Each week, Mathew hosted story time. To the delight of the pint-size attendees, he acted out the characters’ voices, used props, and sometimes dressed up like the characters. This week, Fitz sat in his lap, grinning crookedly at the attentive listeners. The plump pug had been recruited as a prop for this week’s story about a Clifford the Big Red Dog-sized pug named Franklin.
“He’s so good at this,”Elle whispered to Noah as Mathew concluded the story to the beaming smiles and happy claps of the children surrounding him.
“He is,” agreed Noah, who was there to pass out cookies and coupons from his bakery, the Farmer’s Wife.
“Though, Fitz is the real star.” She pointed at the wiggly pug being adored by entranced children. With Clayton at the clinic, Elle had volunteered to bring Fitz.
“Agreed.” Noah broke a sugar cookie and offered Elle half.
Between cookie bites, they settled into a companionable silence. Somehow over the three weeks Noah went from the boy she’d daydreamed about to the man she called friend.
Twisting at a sudden crash, she looked beyond the woman picking up a book and landed on a little boy. His curious face pressed against the glass. Big brown eyes peered through the window. A doting hand sat upon his shoulder. Hair the same chestnut shade as his tumbled over a woman’s face as she bent, whispering into his ear, eliciting the eruption of an oversize grin on his small face.
“I’ll be right back,”Elle said to Noah and headed to the door.
She stepped outside to the sidewalk. “Summer.” Elle greeted her old frenemy.
Summer Michaels stood next to the little boy clad in a Jets sweatshirt and shorts. The late summer almost autumn mid-morning air was cool.
“Eleanor.” Summer’s hand remained protective on the little boy.
“Who’s this?”
“This is Liam, my son.” Pride sparkled in her chocolate eyes, the same as her sons, as she looked down at Liam, his eyes fixed on Fitz through the window.
“Hi, Liam.”
“Hello. Nice to meet you. I am Liam.” He introduced himself as if reading a script and extended his hand.
“Hello. I’m Elle.” She shook Liam’s outstretched small hand.
Looking up at his mom for reassurance, she nodded and smiled at him. Those little eyes turned back to Mathew who danced between the bookshelves lining the store’s aisles, a barking Fitz in his arms.
“He loves dogs,” Summer explained.
“They’re the best, especially Fitz.”
“He’s a pug.”Liam’s stare remained locked to the window. “Just like Otis.”
“He watched Milo and Otis with my dad. He’s now obsessed with pugs. Well, with all dogs, really. He’s been reading books about dogs and learning lots of facts about them.” Summer said with a “proud mama bear” quirk of her lips.
“Liam, would you like to meet Fitz?”
“Yes, but…” Liam trailed off, a frown pulling at his mouth.
“It’s okay, baby. We can see Fitz from here.”Summer squeezed Liam’s shoulder again.
Elle’s eyes flicked to Noah inside and mouthed for him to grab Fitz and come out .
“Here’s Fitz!” Noah announced when he emerged a minute later.
A bright grin exploded on Liam’s face as Noah joined them, holding a wiggling Fitz.
“Hi. I’m Noah and this is Fitz.” He crouched, holding Fitz close to the open-mouthed boy.
“Can I?” Liam’s hopeful eyes peered up at Summer.
She smiled.“Of course, baby.”
“Hi Fitz. Nice to meet you. I am Liam.” His tiny fingers skated along Fitz’s silky fur.
A contented moan purred out of the pug.
As if remembering his manners, Liam looked at Noah. “Hi Noah. Nice to meet you. I am Liam.”
Noah shook his hand.
A short while later, Elle sat next to Summer on a bench as Liam skipped down the street with Noah and Fitz. Summer had explained that her eight-year-old son was on the Autism Spectrum, which made large group events challenging.
“We’ve tried to join story hour in the past, but the level of noise in a bookstore and coffee shop proved too distracting for him,” Summer told her. “Sometimes too much distraction triggers a meltdown. The stimulation of loud noises and crowds can overpower Liam’s ability to be present in the experience.”
They’d come early today because Liam had seen Fitz’s picture in the advertisement for the event, but it was still too much for him. So, they watched from outside. A sharp tug jerked Elle’s heart. So often, she’d spent much of her life looking in from the outside.
“He’s eight, but he reads at a sixth-grade level. You could call him a voracious reader,” Summer chuckled. “I bring him to the library three times a week.”
“Liam’s a reader like you were.” Elle offered, a wistfulness curving her lips up.
Summer grinned. “Oh, my goodness we were fanatics about The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley books.”
“Until I moved on to Austen.”
“I just checked Pride and Prejudice out from the library.”
Elle tipped her head. “Have you read it before?”
“No. I kind of lost that love of reading for a while. In the last year, I started getting back into it because of Liam. The classics section is right across the hall from the children’s and Young Adult reading rooms in the basement of the library. I hang out in that section and that way I’m close to Liam while he’s in the children’s room. I want to give him a little independence. You know, not hover. But I want to be close, just in case he needs me,”Summer said, her eyes following Noah and Liam who were about three blocks down the street.
“What part are you at?”Elle warmed to the conversation, and the chance to discuss her favorite parts of the novel.
“Jane is sick at Mr. Bingley’s and Lizzie has come to visit her. Can we talk about Caroline Bingley? She’s the worst.”
Elle nearly spit out the sip of tea she’d just taken.
Summer raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Elle’s cheeks heated. “In high school, Carmen, Beth, and I played a game where we would assign characters from different Austen novels to our classmates.”
“Let me guess; I was Caroline?”
Elle nodded.
“Makes sense.” Summer’s brows drew together. “I was pretty terrible in high school. Especially to you.”
Elle merely nodded again.
“I’m really sorry. I wish I had some excuse like in the movies where we find out the bully has a reason for being a jerk and we realize they are just hurt. You know hurt people hurt people.”Summer punctuated her point with a jab at her own chest. “I was just an asshole. I got into high school and made friends with some of the ‘cool’ kids. They picked on you, so I did too. I was so focused on making them like me that I lost a true friend.”
“Wanting to belong can be catnip for us.I can understand wanting to be accepted.”
“Yeah, but you never compromised who you were.You were still you…” She paused; her mouth opened as if trying to think of what to say. “…still Eleanor.”
“I go by Elle now.”
A thoughtful grin etched Summer’s face. “Elle. It fits you.”
“You’re not Caroline Bingley anymore,”Elle said, placing her hand on Summer’s.
“Thank you. Now, my job is to keep the Caroline Bingley’s of the world away from Liam.”A hint of a ‘don’t mess with my cub’ glint lit her eyes.
“Can I ask where Liam’s dad is?”
“He’s not in the picture.” Her smile tightened in a firm line. “It’s better that way.”
Elle nodded. She suspected there was more to that story, but she’d wait until Summer was ready to share. They all had unshared chapters of their stories. Elle understood that better than anyone.
Liam skipped over; hand clasped with Noah’s. “Mom, look what Fitz can do.”
“What, baby?”
“Here you go.” Noah handed Liam a small piece of peanut butter cookie.
“Fitz, sit!”Liam commanded, holding the cookie up.
Fitz’s wiggly butt plopped onto the sidewalk.
“Fitz, shake!” Liam held out his palm and Fitz tapped it with his front right paw.
Liam gave Fitz the treat and a scratch of his ears for good measure.
“Very cool,” Summer praised Fitz and Liam.
“I taught him everything he knows.” Noah winked.
“Mom, Noah owns the bakery. He said I could have a cookie. Is that okay?” Liam asked.
“Hope I didn’t overstep. The free ones I brought are gone, so I texted Diana at the bakery and said if my new friend Liam stops by to give him his favorite cookie on me.” He looked between mother and son.
“Noah, that’s very kind of you. I will totally pay for?—”
He held up his hand, stopping Summer’s offer. “It’s a treat for my friend here. How often do I get to look like a baller in Perry?” Noah insisted, his blue eyes warm like a tropical sea.
“What’s a baller?” Liam asked, his face scrunched.
“It’s someone really cool that everyone wants to be around,” Summer explained.
“Oh, like Fitz!” Liam declared cheerily.
“Yep.”All three adults laughed as Liam fawned over Fitz.
“I am so sorry for how I was to you,” Summer whispered, as she hugged Elle goodbye.
Elle murmured back, “I know. That’s not you anymore.”
“You’re a good egg, Davidson.” Noah looped his arm around her shoulder as Summer and Liam moved down the street.
“She’s not who she used to be.”
She’d seen glimpses of her old friend and hated the way the feeling of lost time rushed over her. She’d missed Summer, the old, pre-high school Summer, and was grateful for the reconnection with her. There wasn’t much time left in her stay in Perry, and it felt like she had a lot of time to make up for.
“Are any of us?” Noah said, a deep breath accompanying his words.
How true that is. Elle studied him. So much of the boy she’d crushed on in high school was still in the man that stood beside her, but he was so much more. Kindness and thoughtfulness were wrapped in this handsome package. Behind his charming smirks was a perceptiveness that most people didn’t realize was there.
A perceptiveness that led him to play matchmaker. Clayton had told her how Noah encouraged him to go for it with Elle after she’d returned.
“When you said it was about time at the wedding when I turned you down, so I could dance with Clayton, you weren’t just talking about now were you?” She arched her right eyebrow.
A bashful smile quirked on Noah’s lips. “I’ve long suspected how Clayton felt about you. He wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was when he’d stare at you all the time in high school.”
It was strange to think that a man like Noah, who pushed his friends to chase the women they liked, was single. On paper and in person, Noah was rather perfect. Even if he wasn’t Elle’s perfect, she knew he was for someone.
“You know she’s pretty cute.”She hip-checked him, her stare following Summer and Liam as they walked into the bakery down the street.
“Oh my god, you sound like my mother,” he groaned.
“How dare you!” she said in mock dismay. “Seriously, though. How and why are you single? You’re good looking. You’re successful. You’re nice.”
Somehow Aunt Janet had possessed her. Elle was not responsible for the words coming out of her mouth. It was Janet, totally Janet.
“I am waiting for the right woman.” He shrugged.
“I can understand that.”
“Because you waited?”
She nodded.
“Until Clayton.”
“Until Clayton.” She smirked.
“Speaking of Clayton…” He let out a heavy breath. “You leave next week. Have you two talked about it? About what happens, then?”
Saying nothing, she looked away.
He sloshed a hard breath. “I don’t want to pop the bubble you two are in. I’m Team Clayton and Elle all the way, but you two should talk about what happens when you head back to California.” He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “There doesn’t have to be an expiration date.” His soft voice almost mocked with its promise of what couldn’t be…or could it?