Chapter 21
Noah
Students will be able to play it cool even when situations heat up.
I was an awkward mess the second I pulled up at Twin Tulip and climbed out of the truck on Saturday night.
Shay walked out of the house in jeans that hugged her thick hips and a sweater I wanted to get both hands under, and I couldn’t speak.
Her hair was different, maybe a little wavy, and the makeup she’d used on her eyes made it seem like her lashes went on forever.
All I could do was stare at her for a long, long moment.
She stopped at the top of the porch steps. “What is it?” She glanced down at her sweater, her jeans. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. You’re—you’re perfect.”
She ran her hands down her thighs. “Then what are you looking at?”
A flashback of all the times I watched you go to festivals and dances and dates with someone else. All the times I never thought I’d get a chance to be the one taking you with me.
Instead of saying that, I jogged up the steps to meet her. “You look nice. Your sweater. It’s really—nice.”
“Oh. Thank you.” She glanced up at me. “You’re still giving me a weird face.”
Yeah, well, it was weird getting all the things I’d ever wanted. Somehow, I still didn’t feel like I was doing this right.
“What are you guys waiting for?” We glanced up to find Gennie leaning out the window, sword aloft. “Come on ! We’re gonna miss it!”
“No, we won’t.” To Shay, I said, “She’s been sitting in front of the door and asking if it was time to leave yet for the past two hours.”
“So, she’s excited.”
“You could say that.”
She smiled and leaned in to bump her shoulder against mine. “Let’s not keep her in suspense.”
* * *
I held four five dollar bills just out of Gennie’s reach. “This is twenty dollars,” I said, “and it’s more than enough for all the games and rides.”
“What about lemonade?” she asked.
“That too. Make good choices. Don’t spend it all in one place. And don’t start any fights.”
“Those fuckers better not start any fights with me.”
I pulled the cash back. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” she muttered. “No fights.”
“Good.” I handed over the money and watched as she tucked it into her fleece jacket’s interior pocket. “Stay where I can see you.”
I watched as Gennie ran, arms outstretched, toward the game stalls. Beside me, Shay laughed, saying, “You know she’s going to win the biggest stuffed animal here and you’re going to have to tie it down in the bed of your truck, right?”
“I’m betting on it. I need something new to scare foxes away from the henhouse.”
She motioned to the area packed with local vendors and artisans as we strolled by. “Do you need to do anything tonight?”
“No, thank god. We scheduled crews for the entire day and cosponsored the event but I didn’t have time to sign on for anything else.
Something always comes up, you know? The boosters always have a last-minute emergency.
They need gift basket donations for a silent auction or someone to rig up a generator or more hands to help with ticket sales.
And that’s just the event side. You wouldn’t believe the mayhem involved in planning these things.
There’s always a committee or a board in need.
Last year I started sending our marketing person but they’re not happy unless I show up to these infernal things.
Like I want to sit around someone’s dining room table and talk about themes for the holiday bazaar. ”
Shay hit me with a long stare. “So, what’s it like being the most in-demand guy in town?”
I took her hand. A smile forced its way across my face as she laced our fingers together.
I wanted to do much more than hold her hand.
I wanted to pick up where we’d left off in the pantry.
But I’d spent the past few days obsessing over that exact thing and I didn’t know if we could do it.
First, because I was about as smooth as sand.
But also because Gennie was never out of sight.
I didn’t know how to keep things stable and do right by her without forgoing my life in the process.
That could not be the way this was supposed to go.
It couldn’t be the cost of taking her into my care.
To this point, though, it had been the cost. Not that I’d devoted much time to sex or dating since moving back to Friendship, but Gennie’s arrival cut it all the way down.
We were finally at the point that she could handle spending the day at the Castro ranch without panicking that I wouldn’t come home.
Leaving her with a babysitter in the evening—even if it was someone she trusted, like Gail—was tricky.
Either I left the house after she was asleep or I accepted that she wouldn’t get to bed until I was home.
None of this made for prime dating conditions, and frankly, I had no interest in going out with someone only to spend the evening loaded up with anxiety and checking my phone every three minutes.
“It’s exhausting,” I said with a laugh. “Popularity is not the gift anyone thinks it is.”
“I’m sure,” she replied. “Was it tough, taking all of this over from your parents?”
“Exhausting,” I echoed. “The expectation is that I’m just like my dad.
For a lot of people, he was the heart of this town and they assumed I’d simply”—I swept an arm in front of me—“step into those shoes. I can’t tell you how many times people tell me how he would’ve handled things, or better yet, that he’d approve of what I’m doing. Or not. I get plenty of that one too.”
She murmured in agreement. “You’ve worked wonders, you know. Regardless of what your father would’ve thought, you’ve built a little empire here.”
“Fortunately for you, that empire involves fresh loaves of bread.”
“I knew it was a matter of time until you figured me out.”
She leaned into me as a family passed on her side and it took everything to hold in a groan.
As we walked, we ran into a bunch of her students.
They all came over to say hello and tell her about their adventures this evening.
There were prizes to show off and wild stories about the tilt-a-whirl ride to recount, and Shay listened to all of it with the same attentiveness she showed Gennie.
It was unbelievable but I hadn’t formed a clear picture of Shay as a teacher until now when she was nodding enthusiastically while a kid with all the ketchup in the world smeared across his face and shirt told her about the Ferris wheel.
She did this every day . She entertained the nonsensical ramblings of dirty children and somehow managed to impart knowledge to them.
Most of the parents didn’t even notice me.
The ones who did skated a quick glance in my direction and noted my hand on her waist though they were more interested in Miss Z than anything else.
That suited me just fine. I could silently stand here and let her shine all night long.
It was safer too. I was never more than a second away from referring to Shay as my wife and that was the last thing she needed me saying.
The only time I had to speak was when those parents also had kids working at the creamery.
They always needed me to know that Emma’s clothes still smelled like waffle cones or Zeke referred to his biceps as the double scoops.
Those were the ones who blinked at me and Shay like they were trying to do mental math and they were satisfied, if not a little surprised, with the result.
After we’d greeted every small child within a five-mile radius, we meandered through the food truck lane, stopping every few feet to study the menus.
“Remember the old harvest festivals?” she asked, waving a hand at the long lines waiting at every truck. “We had stale chips and orange cheese that came out of a five-gallon can, and potato sack races.”
“With actual potato sacks,” I added. “From the Vaudereil farm.”
She peered up at me. “Did you buy that place too?”
“Yeah, but it was a clean deal. I didn’t have to do anything crazy like marry their granddaughter to get it.”
An elbow landed between my ribs. “I always knew it was like that,” she muttered.
“It’s not,” I said. “And you know it.” She gave me a sweet smile.
“They moved away. I don’t remember where.
The grandkids had no interest in the land but they didn’t want to sell to real estate developers.
Remember Marta Vaudereil? She was the one who had the Don’t let the bastards grind you down bumper sticker.
She was cutthroat. I liked that chippy old bird. ”
“I do. She and Lollie were tight. They’d drink Manhattans on the porch at ten in the morning and, as they’d say, shoot the shit.” She laughed. “What did you do with their potato farm?”
“We turned the old farmhouse into the bakery and we grow a ton of vegetables on that land. Asparagus, carrots, lettuce, squash. It’s the reason we were able to start a community-supported agriculture box.
Before that, we just didn’t have enough variety to justify the price.
” I pointed at the bounce house in the middle of the track loop.
“These kids have it good. Remember the hay bale maze on the football field? That thing was a nightmare.”
“Speaking of nightmares,” Shay said, “don’t look now but your friend Christiane is headed this way.”
Immediately, I searched the crowd to find Gennie. If Christiane Manning was here, so were her kids, and I needed to know they weren’t busy tormenting my niece.
“She’s at the water gun game.” Shay nudged me as she tipped her chin toward the stall on the opposite side of the field. “And she’s with a friend. Can you see her? That girl with the ponytail. They’re playing together.”
“Noah! Hello, hello! Noah, over here!”