CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Van
“I’d like to include you at my Christmas Eve dinner,” Sadie said, clearing her throat. “Of course, if you’ll consider my invitation.”
She’d surprised me when she came into the mercantile twice since her outburst in the parking lot, but an invitation was astonishing news after what she’d said to me.
Chip urged me to avoid her, but that wasn’t my style.
This was her third visit in as many days, and I did my best to serve her like I would any other customer.
“Have you spoken with Chip?” I asked, being careful to sound friendly. “I’m not sure he believes your previous invitation still stands.”
Sadie clutched at her neck, distress evident as she pinched her lips and glanced around the interior of the store. “Uhm,” she began, nervously trying to maintain eye contact.
I decided to make it easier on her. “Would you like me to check with Chip?”
“If you wouldn’t mind, son.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” I confirmed, shifting gears to make her feel comfortable. “How’s the planning coming for your dinner?”
She placed a dozen eggs on the counter and began rearranging a box of Hershey bars sitting near the cash register.
After gathering her thoughts, she spoke.
“I’m not sure anyone is attending now that I’m the topic of the gossip mill,” she admitted.
“Well, James, my grandson, is, but I’m afraid I’ve offended the only other guest.”
My feelings about her were clouded by the memory of our last interaction. I’d assumed she was crazy and mean. But the older woman in front of me appeared nothing like that.
“I bet you’re concerned about nothing,” I soothed, hoping I sounded sincere. “You can count on me and Chip. And have you invited Bertie?”
A bright red flush started at her neck and moved higher than a thermometer in the desert as it raced up her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but seemed to reconsider her response.
“Bertie Baxley?” she croaked, acting as if she barely knew who that was. “Well, she… her and… me and…”
I interrupted her, sparing whatever word salad she was preparing. “Bertie will be all alone if Chip and I join you for dinner,” I said. “And she was kind enough to invite us to her home after hearing we may be without plans for Christmas Eve.”
“Of course she did,” Sadie harrumphed, pinching her wrist. “I mean… how thoughtful.”
My need to burst out laughing caught me off guard. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why two of the most prominent women in town despised one another. The two of them barely tolerated each other when in the same room.
Chip had explained that Sadie believed Bertie was a man stealer. Bertie believed Sadie was just angry because her father had forced her to marry a man she didn’t want to marry. The gossip was enhanced by Bertie’s belief that Sadie’s hand in marriage was traded for a few head of cattle.
“So,” I continued. “When I ask Chip about dinner, should I invite Bertie as well?”
“Bertie will decline,” she insisted. “She dislikes me.”
Chip was about to walk through the garage door when he spotted Sadie. He hesitated when I glanced his way. Apparently, he understood when I conveyed with my eyes that I was in the middle of some repair work.
“But what if Bertie doesn’t decline?”
The idea of her opening her home to Bertie appeared to put her squarely in the middle of a conundrum. I could tell she wanted Chip there, and assumed I was now invited because she’d heard Chip and me were a couple. But Bertie? That possibility obviously hadn’t been considered.
“I’m not sure I can seat that many guests,” she explained. “I mean, with me, James, Chip, you, John Thomas, and his folks, and then Bertie as well?”
“John? As in Chip’s ex?” I clarified, keeping my reaction as calm as I could.
“Why, yes,” she replied. “And his parents, Harold and Jeanie Thomas.”
“But I thought you just said there was only one other guest?”
“The other attendees must have slipped my mind,” she corrected, the previous look of contrition disappearing quickly. Suddenly, and perhaps not surprisingly, the true Sadie reappeared.
“So you heard John is returning to Missile?”
“Of course, yes. I heard the great news,” she answered. “I’ve been a longtime friend of the Thomas family. I imagine you understand how delighted they are that John is coming home where he belongs.”
Her attempt at disguising her true intentions suffered tiny cracks the more she spoke.
She’d almost had me fooled. Glee was the only word that came to mind as she explained her worry over seating arrangements.
As much as I wanted to feel sorry for her, the more she revealed who she truly was, the less inclined I was to do so.
“How about this?” I countered. “To solve your seating issue, how about we move the dinner to Chip’s cabin?”
The cracks I’d noticed a second before were quickly becoming earthquake rubble.
She took a step back and stared at me. I imagine to take full measure of an assumed foe she’d encountered.
My earlier concern that the poor woman was lonely and had decided to eat crow, as well as acknowledge her transgression, was way off base. Sadie Hatfield was cunning.
“You’d actually have John as a guest at Chip’s?” she asked, looking around in case she’d misheard me, possibly looking for witnesses.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “No different from you inviting me to your home, where John will be with his parents.” I let that sink in for a moment before proceeding.
“You know, the other guests: Chip’s ex, his parents, and then, of course, Chip himself.
We may as well have them all over to the cabin.
Plus, Bertie can be there too. How about that? What do you think?”
Her well-rehearsed plan had a giant log dropped in its path. I knew what she was up to, and she’d just gathered that fact. I didn’t enjoy playing these types of games, especially with my desire to be respectful of Chip’s neighbors, but this woman was evidently not on my side.
“You seem more evolved than I imagined.”
“I try my best, ma’am,” I said, laying on the charm thicker than her face makeup.
“However,” she began, doing what I anticipated she would. Adjust her plan. “Perhaps my home is larger and better suited to accommodate that many.”
“Large enough to include Bertie?” I inquired, smiling.
She glared at me but managed to keep her mask of civility firmly in place. “I think I can arrange it so.”
“Lovely,” I replied. “I’m sure Bertie will be delighted to attend. I know Chip and I will be.”
Sadie snatched her eggs off the counter and walked off without so much as a goodbye or a fuck you. Chip, watching from the garage, immediately came rushing to the counter.
“She looked pissed,” he said, watching as she roared out of the parking lot. “What did you say to her, Van?” he asked, still following the billowing exhaust as she headed down Main Street.
“I accepted her invitation to Christmas Eve dinner.”
“You what?” he asked, spinning around to face me.
“Yep! She stopped by to invite me,” I clarified.
“But I’m not going, remember?”
“I’d like you to go now,” I pleaded. “I mean, come on, she took the time to come over and invite me. And she included Bertie.”
Chip looked outside toward the street again. Perhaps to verify he’d actually seen Sadie in the first place. He turned back, an incredulous look on his face. “Bertie?” he interrogated. “Mrs. Hatfield invited Bertie? To her house? On Christmas Eve? For the second time?”
“With some urging,” I admitted.
He grabbed my arms and held me at arm’s length. “You are a miracle worker, baby. I swear, I can’t believe that,” he expressed, disbelief lacing his voice. “And to think you thought she had it out for you.”
“I know, right? To actually think she had it out for me,” I agreed, deciding he didn’t need to know I was onto her and her wicked plan to reunite John and Chip.
I told myself I wasn’t hiding things from Chip. Besides, I wasn’t positive Mrs. Hatfield was that devious. But in the event she was, I wanted to face what could otherwise easily happen behind my back. She may as well take her best shot, and I would do my best to present mine.
“You’re so evolved,” Chip said, rubbing my hand in his. “I’m so proud of you.”
That was the second time in five minutes someone had referred to me as evolved. But was I?
“Oh, I almost forgot,” I began. “John and his parents will be in attendance on Christmas Eve.”
You’d think I’d smacked him across the face. “The fuck they will!”
“Sadie has invited them,” I said, nonchalantly unwrapping a Hershey’s bar and shoving it in my mouth.
“We’re not going then,” he insisted, grabbing my favorite candy bar and taking a huge bite. “And I apologize for the eruption. You surprised me, is all,” he added, talking with a mouthful of chocolate.
During his outburst, and before he stole my candy, he’d dropped my hand faster than a lightning strike on a sizzling summer’s afternoon when I delivered the shocking news.
I took the Hershey’s from him, set it aside, and stepped closer, laying my head against his chest. He instinctively wrapped me in his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head.
He felt like home, and I knew I had to make sure I made one for myself with him.
“We might as well face the reality now rather than later,” I said, my voice muffled against his chest. I moved my head and looked up at him. “If we plan on sharing a life in Missile, we should show a united front.”
“Jesus!” he huffed, pulling me closer. “I don’t know about this, Van. Are you certain you’re up for the scrutiny and the bullshit?”
“What are you worried about?” I asked, concerned I didn’t step on his toes or do anything he felt was none of my business.
“Only that you’ll decide to leave town.”
I snuggled closer against his chest, inhaling his Irish Spring scent. “If I’m so weak I can’t fight for the man I love, you’ll be lucky I did leave.”
“I’d follow you,” he said. “I don’t need this town that much.”
I can’t exactly say where the bravado and the strength to face my fears head-on came from, but I was convinced Chip and my future happiness required a mental strength I may have lacked before coming to this quaint town. Now I needed to dig deep and listen to my inner voice. Chip was my man.