CHAPTER SEVEN
Lennox
I pulled into the parking lot of the Town Center Grocery Store.
It was more than just a grocery store though.
Inside a large, fenced area was a series of kiosks and stalls.
A kombucha and bagel hut, a few tourist trinket shops, a taco stand, a tea shop, a cannabis and hemp store, and of course, Slice of Heaven Pizza.
There was no parking allowed inside the fence.
So I found a spot on the outside, left Mabel with the bird, and booked it around to one of the openings.
The non-food serving places had closed up shop for the night, but there were a few people mingling in front of the taco place as well as the bagel and kombucha place. Slice of Heaven had the biggest line.
“Order for Lennox?” called out a large, bearded man from inside the little, round travel trailer that served as the pizza shop.
Perfect timing.
I stepped right up. “That’s me.”
He placed two large pizza boxes on the counter. “You paid online, so you’re good to go.”
“Thanks.”
I spun around with the boxes in my hand, just to crash into a pair of auburn pigtails and denim overalls.
Thankfully, I managed to keep hold of my pizza.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, only to take a step back in surprise.
“Three times in one day,” Naomi said, smiling. “I see you’ve got the same idea as we do: pizza for dinner.”
“Naomi,” called the bearded guy as he set a tower of pizza boxes onto the counter.
She stepped around me. “Thanks, Lenny.”
“You eating that all yourself?” Lenny asked with a chuckle.
“Been working all day. Got quite an appetite.” She shot him a wink, then stuffed ten bucks from the top pocket of her overalls into the tip jar.
Lenny’s laughed turned raspy before he called out the next name.
“Here, let me help you with those,” I said, offering to take a few from her pile. “You having a party?”
“Just pizza for thirteen. But Jagger McEvoy can eat two entire pizzas himself.”
I took five boxes off her stack, but she didn’t go very far before stopping at a gray collapsable wagon and unloading her five boxes into it.
“Oh. That’s handy.”
She took her five from me and set them into the wagon. “Not our first rodeo. There are so many of us; this is just easier.”
“You having a party?” We fell in line with each other and started to head toward the nearest gate to one of the parking lots.
She gave me a curious look. “You just asked me that.”
Fucking hell.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Lot on my mind.”
She shrugged and flipped her braids over her shoulders.
“We never used to need to order this many pizzas. But in the last year, we’ve added three to the fam.
So it feels like a party when we’re all together.
We try to do it a couple times a month. Pizza and games.
Though, the older the kids get, the less inclined they are to play Pictionary or charades.
” Her eyes lit up, and she got an excited gleam in them as I held the gate open for her to wheel through.
“You guys want to come over too? Play some games? Mabel and Austin got along well. Maybe she and the other kids will hit it off. We all know how difficult it can be to move somewhere and make friends, and with her being homeschooled it’s probably even harder. ”
“We’re actually on our way to Tommaso Barone’s. We found a wounded osprey on the side of the road, and Spencer said that if anybody can help, it’s Tommaso.”
Her lips twisted as she slid her foot under the hatch of her SUV and the door popped open and lifted.
“Well, maybe. But he’s not home. He’s at our place.
And honestly, I think your bird has a better chance of survival with the help of Danica’s daughter, Sam.
She’s been healing wounded birds, squirrels, and voles since she was this high.
” She held her hand about three feet off the ground.
“I’ve lost count of how many robins that kid has made wing splints for. ”
“Well, then I guess we’re following you home?”
She swung her arm around in a sweeping “come on ’round” motion before closing the hatch after loading up the pizza and wagon. “You know the way.”
“Glad I bumped into you. I’ll see you shortly.”
She shot me a wink, then climbed in behind the steering wheel.
I jogged down the row of cars to my truck and put the pizza on the back seat before climbing in. “Change of plans. Apparently, Tommaso is not the best person to take a wounded bird to. But I found out who is. So that’s where we’re going.”
Mabel was staring down at the bird; its big amber eyes blinking at her with more curiosity than fear. “Where?”
“Austin’s cousin, Sam, has apparently helped heal many wounded birds. So we’re going there. Back to the vineyard.”
Mabel didn’t say anything else. She just continued to hold the bird in the blanket close to her chest and make a “shush” sound anytime it tried to wriggle.
I pulled into the vineyard driveway just seconds after Naomi. I wanted to help her unload the pizzas since there were so many, but my kid took off toward the top floor front door of the house.
“That’s the right door,” Naomi called, as I glanced back at her.
Mabel rapped her knuckles on the door, and a moment later it opened to reveal a woman I recognized from the parent meet and greet on Sunday. “Hello,” she said curiously. “Principal Paul?”
“Lennox. Please,” I said. “Uh, this is my daughter, Mabel. We found an injured osprey on the side of the road, and then I bumped into Naomi while getting pizza, and she said your niece, Sam, might be able to help?”
“Sam!” the woman called into the house before stepping out of the way to let us enter.
But I just let Mabel enter. “I’m going to help Naomi with the pizzas.”
She nodded.
I booked it back down the stairs, grabbed the two pizzas from the back of my truck, then made it to the rear of her vehicle just as she was beginning to grab all ten boxes at once.
“Let’s not make me look too much like a fool,” I joked, as I took five from her stack. “Many hands, and all that.”
Her chuckle was soft as she used her elbow to close the hatch. “You know you have to stay for game night now, right?”
I grinned even though she couldn’t see it. “I kind of figured. Word to the wise, my child can be extremely competitive, and she will read all the rules of every game before playing, then be adamant that nobody deviates.”
“Nothing wrong with keeping people honest.” There was more of her delightful laughter as she started to climb the stairs ahead of me. I didn’t have enough pizza boxes in my arms to completely block out her ass that was directly in front of my face. Even in those baggy overalls, she had a nice butt.
We reached the top, and I followed her into the house, and ditched my shoes in the entryway when she did before continuing on into the house and kitchen.
Mabel and Sam, a little blonde girl whom I recognized from the school, were huddled over the island and a cardboard box a bit bigger than a shoebox. There was the sound of masking tape being pulled from the roll and other murmurs between the girls.
“Yep, that’s right,” Sam said softly. “Hold its wing out like that. Thanks.”
“It’s okay,” Mabel said to the bird in a quiet, calm voice. “We’re going to help you.”
A tall, broad-shouldered man in a thin, white T-shirt and faded jeans wandered in from the living room.
His mostly-gray hair was tousled in a deliberately messy way, and as he gave me a half-smile, the light from the pendant lights over the island caught on his silver scruff and made it shimmer.
“Hello,” he said, offering me his hand. “Tom Barone. I hear you were looking for me to help with the bird.” He had a thick Italian accent, but I understood him no problem.
“The one you are looking for is here. Sam is better than me with all animals.”
Sam glanced up at him and beamed before dropping her focus back to the bird.
“I just called my buddy, Spencer Paxton, and he suggested you. Then Naomi suggested Sam, and now, here we are.”
“You are the new principal, si?” Tom asked, though it wasn’t really a question.
“The old one was my neighbor. He was terrible. Terrible neighbor, terrible principal, terrible person. His daughter and grandson too. That little … diavolo.” He shook his head.
“Broke into my barn and terrorized my newborn colt.”
“He did what?” I asked. “Was the colt okay?”
“Si, si. He was. But he’d just lost his mother and was bonding with the surrogate. He was weak because his mother had been weak. She was in a kill pen before she was brought to me. They did not know she was pregnant. She did not survive the birth. It was very traumatic.”
“I can only imagine. I’ve heard many things about my predecessor. All I can do is try to be better—in every way. As a principal, a neighbor, and a person.”
“Who are your neighbors?”
“Rolph Mazurenko and his wife.”
“Oh, si, si. They have good eggs.”
“There,” Sam said, lifting her head. “We’ve secured the splint as best we can. Now all we can do is hope that it makes it overnight. It won’t be able to fly for a while, so we’ll need to feed it.” She glanced at Mabel. “What do osprey eat?”
“Fish,” my kid said without hesitation. “Do you have any fish here we can feed it?”
Sam made a face. “I’m a vegetarian.”
Chuckling, Tom rested an affectionate hand on her shoulder. “Si, piccola. But we can find the bird something to eat. Gabrielle, do you have some fish for the bird?”
The way he said Gabrielle’s name was almost musical, with a play of inflections and a gentle roll of the r. I could tell he wanted to add an a on the end and say “Gabriella,” but stopped himself.
The woman who’d opened the door for us re-entered the kitchen. “You want fish?”
“Si,” Tom said. “For the bird.”
“Like, what kind of fish? Will a can of tuna work? Or do you want a whole herring? Because you have to go to the dock for that.”
“Tuna should be okay for now. Or salmon,” Tom said, following her to the fridge where she opened the freezer side.