Chapter 16
It’s not an uncommon thing for me to help a neighbor or two while on my route. I always assume I’ll have at least three extended stops during the day. Sometimes, there’s less than that. Sometimes, more.
Today, I’m halfway through my route, and I’ve already had eleven.
That’s right. Eleven.
This most recent one is at least legitimate. Mrs. Gordon flagged me down as I approached her mailbox and asked if I would mind clearing some heavy branches off her porch that fell during the thunderstorm a few nights ago. Mrs. Gordon is pushing eighty, so the request makes sense, and it isn’t the first time I’ve paused my day to give her a little muscle help.
But just as I’m carrying the last branch to the tree line to toss it, she offers me a sweet smile and says, “So you and that Robin girl are a thing now? How lovely. I always thought she was adorable in a rough-and-tumble kind of way.”
Not even forty-eight hours after our first fake date, and a good portion of Green Valley knows some version of what happened at Genie’s.
“Yes, ma’am,” I say, not wanting to go into it, but not about to be rude either.
“You know...” She leans in close, as if telling me a secret despite there being no one else around. Though, if it were a juicy enough piece of info, it would also make the gossip circuit, most likely by magic. “I’ve always liked you the best of the Kraut boys. Robin chose well.”
Then, Mrs. Gordon winks at me and slips a butterscotch candy into my palm.
As I drive off, sucking on my payment, I ponder her words. The idea that I’m being measured and ranked against my cousins doesn’t sit well with me. I’d say we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
But I guess if the hierarchy is based on whether we’d step out on our significant others, I outrank Daren there.
Fucking Daren.
Every time I start to feel the slightest twinge of guilt for my part in this relationship deception, all I have to do is remember that night. My cousin with Trinity in his lap. Robin crumpled on the floor of my bathroom.
Any emotional turmoil Daren is experiencing right now is well deserved. Hopefully, it’ll have him reevaluating how he treats partners in the future.
Will he change his ways?
Honestly, I didn’t even know that was his way. Daren had had a few relationships before Robin that ended amicably. At least as far as I know.
Did he cheat on those women too?
If he did, he never told me.
It’s only another fifteen minutes before I’m waylaid again, but this time not by a sweet old lady. The man hovering beside his mailbox is Terry Carvers, a local electrician that often helps Farm Mountain Marriages when an event requires special lighting. He’s a good friend of my dad’s, and he’s known me since I was a toddler.
“Hey there, Arthur,” he greets me with a broad grin. “Nice to run into you.”
The other ten-plus people who’ve slowed my route down today all used similar opening lines, each of them pretending like they just happened to be wandering out to their mailboxes when I showed up. When, in fact, I spied at least two sprint from their front door when I turned the corner onto their street.
Guess the Kraut gossip is the hottest around. Must be a slow week.
“Terry,” I say, keeping my greeting short in hopes this conversation will be too.
“You know, now that I’m seeing you”—his torso blocks the front of his mailbox so I can’t do anything other than hold out his stack of letters and wait for him to accept it—“I wanted to say, I heard the strangest thing at Big Bob’s Bait and Tackle.”
People think women gossip, but they’ve got nothing on old men who fish.
I grunt, in the vain hope my nonanswer will let me move along.
Terry doesn’t take my hint. “Now, I heard that Daren and his gal had a falling-out and something about you taking her out for drinks and dancing. I thought, Now, that can’t be true.”
Another grunt is all I give him, but he doesn’t need much.
“Funny thing is, your old man and Jensen walked in the shop at the same time as I was hearing the news. From what I could tell, them boys didn’t know nothing of it. Jensen’s face got mighty red.” Terry finally grabs his mail, only to slap the envelopes against his thigh while he chortles, as if my uncle’s temper is an amusing thing.
Fuck.
I knew that word would get around eventually, but damn. The consequences of my fake relationship are getting real now.
“Have a good day,” I mumble to Terry and accelerate, glad he’s the last house on his street so I have a reason to turn the corner.
Okay. They know. Everyone knows.
The weird revenge plan is happening, and tomorrow, at our family dinner, I’m going to have to face the backlash.
The idea of all the people I love staring at me with anger and disappointment in their eyes makes my stomach turn.
But then I think of Robin, her cheeks wet with tears.
“Why do I still love him?”
My resolve becomes as solid as concrete.
Whatever comes, I’ll take it. Because Robin deserves the loyalty of at least one Kraut.