Chapter 42 The shit show
The shit show
Gage
Zoey: I have some big news. Well, two big news…newses? Newsi? Whatever, come find me at the bonfire, and I’ll give you all the newsuals.
Me: You know texts like this terrify me.
Zoey: Why do you think I keep sending them? See you at the lodge!
The lodge was busier than I’d ever seen it on a Saturday night. Story Lakers old and new mingled on the patio and shoreline with visiting readers. There was also a small surprising contingency of Dominion neighbors and tourists.
The crickets and tree frogs were drowned out by the beats of Darius’s little sister deejaying on the far side of the patio.
Billie and Hana had set up two pop-up bars outside to keep up with the overflow from the lobby, where Opal was holding court with Darius, my parents, and some of the Haven residents.
By all accounts, Reader Weekend was a hit.
Hazel’s signing was a sold-out success. My parents’ farm sanctuary was off to a great start, earning more than $5,000 in donations for the day.
Town businesses were reporting record sales.
And all fourteen displaced animals had been adopted in mere hours, mostly by the retirees at Story Lake Haven.
All thanks to Zoey.
I didn’t know if she knew it yet, but today had proved just how well she fit here. And I was going to find a way to convince her to stay.
Something sharp poked me in the side. “Weenie?”
My sister had wheeled up next to me and was brandishing a roasting stick.
“Ow, Larry. What the fuck?” I said, rubbing my ribs.
“It’s for the bonfire. I thought you’d want to impress Zoey with a weenie,” she said, all innocence.
“For the record, I’ve already impressed her with my weenie.”
“Ew.”
“You started it,” I reminded her.
“Yeah. Yeah. I really like her, Gigi.”
“So do I.”
“And not just because she ruined Dominion’s Boozetag,” Laura added.
“She did what?”
“It seems Dominion’s event couldn’t pass the surprise safety inspection today. And now it sounds like their insurance carrier might be dropping the town,” Laura said smugly.
“And what did Zoey have to do with that?”
Laura snorted. “I’m not telling you if you’re going to prosecute her for it.”
“I’m always Team Zoey,” I assured her.
“Inspectors mysteriously received an anonymous tip about the event and the shoddy construction of the platform. The whole thing was shut down before it even started,” she explained.
“How did she even have time…? You know what? Never mind. That woman never ceases to amaze me,” I said.
“So you gonna wife her up or what?” Laura asked.
“If I can convince her to stop wreaking havoc long enough to fall in love with me.”
“Good luck with that.” My sister pointed across the crowd to the bonfire on the beach, where my client Audrey was laughing with her kids as they attempted to roast marshmallows.
She looked more carefree than she had in years.
“By the way, nice job getting Audrey away from that prick Gerald. I hear she and the kids are moving to be closer to her parents.”
“That should help,” I predicted.
“It helped me. Did you know today is the anniversary of the first time Miller and Levi left on deployment after I had the boys?”
The memories hit me like a flash.
I need you to watch out for them, Gage. Take care of my family when I’m not here.
“I was scared shitless,” Laura continued. “I still felt like a kid myself, and there I was with two babies. But I had Mom and Dad. And I could always count on you, Mr. Dependable.”
She was teasing, but my ears were ringing. Maybe I’d been there for diaper changes and day care drop-offs. But when it counted most, on the side of that road, I hadn’t been there. I hadn’t protected her or the kids from a loss that would never heal.
When Miller had tasked me with protecting his family, I’d been a twenty-year-old kid. His faith in me, the fact that he trusted me with the most important things in his life, had meant everything to me. That responsibility, that trust, had made me feel like a man.
Grief was thousands of different moments over the course of a lifetime. It was thousands of ways to miss someone.
“That’s what family is for,” I said gruffly.
“I’m glad you’re my family.”
“You’re not wearing your wedding ring,” I noted. My voice sounded strained to my own ears.
Laura reached under the collar of her Reader Weekend T-shirt and pulled out a chain with two wedding bands on it. “It felt like it was time. But I still wanted to keep it close for a while.”
“I love you, Larry.”
“Love you too, weirdo. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go instruct my children to make me and Val the perfect s’mores.”
“And I have a redheaded maniac to sweep off her feet.”
Laura paused and took a deep breath. “Miller would have loved all this.”
“Yeah, he would have,” I agreed, feeling the loss like a boulder in my throat.
“I like to think he’s still around. Still looking out for us. I found a dime on my floor mat this morning.”
“They just seem to find you,” I said.
“Thank you, Gigi.”
“For what?” I asked uneasily.
Her smile was soft and sad. “For being you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
“Yeah. Right.” She sent me a knowing wink and wheeled off into the crowd.
I watched her as she made her way to a table on the far side of the patio. Hazel, looking happy but exhausted, was seated next to Cam, who looked just plain exhausted. And there was Zoey standing behind them, her unmistakable laugh carrying on the night air.
My feet were already carrying me toward her like she had a gravitational pull when the crowd parted and I saw the pink leash in her hand. Buttercup was perched in the chair next to Hazel, looking adoringly at Zoey.
Zoey Moody had willingly adopted a dog. That was definitely big news. It was a sign. I was going to marry that woman, and we were going to spend the rest of our lives driving each other crazy.
I couldn’t fucking wait.
My parents and Levi joined the happy crowd at the table. Everyone I cared most about was right here within fifty feet of me.
Everyone except Miller.
I was halfway across the terrace when Valerie walked up to the table with two glasses of wine. She put one down in front of Laura and took the empty chair next to her.
The grief that had been tiptoeing around the edges of my consciousness hit me like a sledgehammer.
I still couldn’t believe it was Valerie and not Miller bringing Laura a drink and joking with Cam and Hazel.
He should have been here to watch his kids grow up, to enjoy his retirement from the military, to take Laura on all the vacations she’d always dreamed about, to lend a hand on the farm.
To still be the one I called for advice on life.
But he was gone, erased from our lives forever, and now the woman who’d taken him from us was sitting in his place.
For a second, I felt the tenuousness of life. Of how one moment, everything could be fine, and the next, it could all be taken away.
We’d survived it. We were making the best of it. But would I survive the next bad thing? Would I be ready for it? Could I stop it before it happened?
Zoey leaned over and said something to my sister that had Laura throwing her head back and laughing. Zoey’s hair seemed to glow red under the torchlight. She was ethereal and real and beautiful and messy, and my heart ached to be closer to her.
I was in love with her. I wanted her to stay, to be part of my life, my family. But could I survive if the next bad thing happened to her? Could she survive it if it happened to me?
If I hadn’t been watching her so closely, I would have missed it. Zoey’s brows pinched as something along the shoreline caught her attention. She was already handing the leash to Laura and on the move before the first startled cry rang out over the music and everything stopped.
I was running before I even knew why. But in a second as I dodged my way around people still having fun, it became clear. Zoey was running toward Audrey, who was on the beachfront with her kids. But she was leaning back at a funny angle, a look of terror on her face. And then I saw why.
Gerald, her soon-to-be ex-husband, stood behind her, arm tight around her neck. Audrey’s eyes glittered with fear that I could see from yards away. Her kids stood rigid, still holding roasting sticks.
“Zoey! No!” I shouted as she barreled through the crowd toward them.
Adrenaline slowed time, and I saw the face of each bystander as they went from surprise to shock to horror as they cataloged what Zoey had seen before any of us.
I was too far away. I was going to be too late. I wasn’t going to be able to save her.
“Cam! Levi! Miller!” I barked, praying that one of them was closer than me.
I saw Laura pushing back from the table and Valerie putting herself in front of my sister, blocking her.
And then Zoey let out a chilling scream.
My heart stopped even as my body continued to move.
Everything registered to my senses in fractured pieces.
The surprise in Gerald’s bloodshot eyes.
The fear in Audrey’s. A cry from Hazel as she grabbed for Audrey’s kids, pulling them to safety as Cam raced forward.
They went down in a heap, and I lost sight of her for a split second.
Everyone was finally moving now, tightening a circle around the disturbance rather than running away. Because that was what Story Lake did when one of our own was in trouble. Levi and Cam waded into the mess, one step behind me.
Gator picked up a folding chair and wielded it like a pro wrestler. “Lemme at him!” On my left, Erleen Dabner from the town council led a pack of furious readers armed with wine bottles off the patio into the sand.
“Zoey!” I called, pushing through the crowd.
Audrey was on her hands and knees, sobbing and crawling toward her children.
Zoey was rolling on the sand with Gerald. He was on top of her, pulling his arm back as he wound up to hit my woman.