Chapter 29 Avery
AVERY
Main Street was surprisingly busy and I wondered if it was because of the town meeting or because it was almost summer. Winter had receded, leaving Blackwell Hollow in the perfect in-between of spring, when it was warm enough to go out in shorts but not hot enough to require a ponytail.
Clara stepped onto the sidewalk as I passed, a patchwork bag over one shoulder and a set of keys in one hand. “Hello there!”
A long skirt flowed around her legs, and her silvery hair was loose around her shoulders, making her look like a beautiful, wise crone.
“Hi.” I stopped walking. “Closing up for the night?”
She nodded. “Going to run home and grab a bite before the town meeting.”
“I’m heading there myself,” I said.
“Are you?” She sounded pleased.
“Lena told me about it. We’re meeting up.”
“Oh Lena is such a sweetheart.” Warmth flashed in Clara’s blue eyes. “I’m glad you’ve met. It’s good to know people your own age in town. Other than the guys, I mean.”
I tried to keep a bland expression on my face even though every mention of the fact that I lived in the same house as Beck, Noah, and Dane threatened to make me blush, like every person in town knew I’d let Beck give me an orgasm, that I would have done the same with Noah if we hadn’t been in public, and that I was increasingly fantasizing about adding Dane to the list.
I didn’t even bother reminding her that I wouldn’t be in town long. Like Dorothy, I was sinking into Oz, my old life further and further away.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you at the meeting then.” I edged away from her, not wanting to get into any of it: how long I’d be in town or my new roommates-slash-employees, and definitely not my newly subversive sexual fantasies.
“See you there,” Clara said.
I’d taken a few steps toward the crosswalk when I remembered something. “Hey Clara?”
She turned away from the door and dropped her keys in her bag. “Hm?”
“When I went to visit Evelyn I noticed there were some other flowers on her grave. Peonies. Was that you?”
A gentle smile washed over her face. “Afraid not, although I am overdue a visit. That would have been Dane.”
“Dane?” I practically choked on his name.
“He takes flowers once a week. Like clockwork.” My brain stumbled over the information. “See you in a few!”
She floated away from me on a sea of patchwork fabric, leaving the scent of roses in her wake.
I stood in front of the flower store, trying to process the information.
Dane had been the one to leave flowers on Aunt Evelyn’s grave.
And he did it every week. But the more I thought about it the more I realized it wasn’t the leaving of the flowers that was surprising.
Dane had been offended on Aunt Evelyn’s behalf that I hadn’t stayed in touch with her. He obviously cared about her.
It was the part before the cemetery that was hard to imagine: Dane going into Clara’s shop, making small talk while Clara wrapped the peonies for Aunt Evelyn, buying the flowers, leaving with them in his hand.
Dane with his tattoos and his scalding glare and the angry set of his jaw.
It was hard to imagine him holding a bunch of fragile, velvety flowers, carrying the bundle down Main Street on his way to the cemetery.
But according to Clara, he had. He did.
I was still standing in front of Clara’s shop when the street lights on Main flickered to life.
A glance at my phone told me I was running late for my meetup with Lena, so I crossed the street and entered the square, following a handful of other people who also seemed to be making their way to the town hall.
I followed the path past the playground and the dog park, hooked a right at the fountain, and followed the signs pointing to town hall.
The walking path became more crowded with people as I approached a two-story brick building.
Cherry blossoms fluttered to the ground from the trees that lined the path, street lights lined the walkway leading to the wide front steps, and an old-fashioned clock tower rose into the twilight sky above the second floor.
I spotted Lena right away, standing out front and looking at her phone. She was still wearing the shorts and T-shirt she’d been wearing at Sugar Pine, but now I could see the T-shirt was vintage, the name of a band from the 80s that my mom listened to emblazoned on the front.
She looked up as I approached, scanned the crowd, and smiled when she saw me. Her glossy black hair, freed from its ponytail, swung around her shoulders as she walked toward me.
“You made it!”
“Yeah, sorry. Ran into Clara on my way.”
She did a double take on my face. “Everything okay?”
Was I that transparent? “It’s fine. I just…” How was I supposed to sum up my quandary with Beck, Noah, and Dane? “She told me Dane takes flowers to my Aunt Evelyn’s grave every week and I’m still getting my head around it.”
She looked confused. “Why?”
I laughed. “Have you met Dane?”
She shrugged. “Sure. He’s kind of a tough customer, as my grandma would say, but he adored Evelyn. I think he thought of her as a second mom or a grandparent or something, on account of what she did for him.”
I shook my head. “What did she do for him?”
Lena lifted her eyebrows. “Oh… you don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Dane was raised in foster care.”
I blinked. “He didn’t have parents?”
“He had parents. They were just, like, really messed up or something. I think Evelyn kind of gave him his first real home. And she trusted him, you know? Like she let him run her house, her money. Not everyone felt that way about Dane before he went to work for Evelyn.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just… he was a bit rough around the edges, you know? Kept to himself, didn’t make eye contact.
I’d never heard of him actually doing anything wrong, but let’s just say the old man who used to own the Morning Basket — before Morgan and Tessa — kept an extra close eye on him in the store.
And the one time someone graffitied the hardware store, Sheriff Granger questioned Dane. ”
“Sheriff Granger?”
“He was the sheriff before Sheriff Crowe, and he really didn’t like Dane.” She laughed a little. “Although I think the feeling was mutual.”
“So everyone in town thought Dane was some kind of criminal just because he was a loner and grew up in foster care?” Anger tightened in my chest, which was super confusing.
“Not everyone,” Lena said. “Just some people.”
“That’s lousy.”
Shitty, I thought. That’s so shitty.
“Totally. But Evelyn turned that around for him. Some of the people in town were worried about her, thought maybe she must be losing it to invite Dane to live in her house, to give him access to her accounts and stuff.” Lena smiled.
“But Evelyn was a good judge of character. She knew Dane was a good guy underneath all his attitude. And then, because she trusted him, everyone else started trusting him too.”
“That’s nice but it shouldn’t take one person to be nice to someone for everyone else to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
“Agreed,” Lena said. “But you know how small-minded people can be. Most of the people in Blackwell Hollow aren’t like that, but there’s always a few. Evelyn really changed Dane’s life. He even dresses different now.”
“Different how?”
“For one thing, he used to wear this leather jacket everywhere. And, like, ripped jeans and these big black boots.” She grinned. “I know he’s your roommate and everything, but I don’t mind saying he was pretty hot. Still is, but you know, different hot now. Responsible hot, in control hot.”
The thought of Dane being in control immediately put my mind in the gutter.
Not a good sign.
“Anyway,” Lena continued, “it doesn’t surprise me that Dane takes Evelyn flowers every week. She was really good to him.”
My mind struggled to form a new picture of Dane. One where he wasn’t a surly, judgmental jerkwad but a lonely man with a tragic history who’d found a home with Aunt Evelyn, who’d taken care of her house and business.
Who’d taken care of her.
Someone who owed her a debt of gratitude and still paid on that debt even though she was gone.
“You ready to go inside?” Lena asked, glancing at the door to the town hall.
Traffic had thinned while we’d been talking, and I realized the meeting was about to start.
“Sure, let’s do it.”
“I hope Rosie brings Mayor Biscuit,” she said on our way up the stairs. “That’s always entertaining.”