Chapter 5
Charlie
I found myself sitting on a stool next to a small metal table in the corner of the renovated kitchen.
“This is impressive,” I told them honestly. They’d sent me pictures of the state of the kitchen when they first got here, and it was night and day.
“Thanks,” Dana said over her shoulder.
She was “quickly tossing together” something for us to eat, and it had already taken twenty minutes. Nic had just grinned, then given her wife a fond look behind her back. We both knew that cooking was Dana’s love language, and as a chef, she couldn’t do anything simple, even for us. Maybe especially for us.
Nic leaned to the wall as she rocked back on the stool in a move I found funny and terrifying.
“So, the dogs. They seem great.”
“Oh yeah, they’re wonderful.” Nic beamed. “Steve is a purebred Cane Corso, and Cricket is some sort of a shepherd mix. Likely Caucasian and whatever. We’ve been thinking about doggie DNA testing her but haven’t gotten to it yet.”
I nodded. “Marlie is super into dogs right now. I’ve read her many a dog breed description for a bedtime story in the past six months, so my expertise says she’s a bit light in color for a Caucasian Shepherd only, even though the looks fit.”
“Those kids are hilariously weird,” Nic said fondly.
“They are, but then again glass houses and all that.”
Dana snorted.
“Where did you get the dogs?”
“Oh, Steve was an owner surrender at this shelter in Brooklyn. He wasn’t doing really well there, and we just fell in love with him when we first saw him,” Nic explained.
“We were looking for a dog there, but also not really, because we were about to leave for here soon.” Dana grabbed some plates, and seeing that, my stomach suddenly growled loudly.
“Cricket is from a shepherd rescue I found in Albany,” Nic continued. “We thought having a shepherd would be great for the property, given how it stretches to the back and into the woods. Sheps keep wildlife at bay and such.”
“It’s a great idea. I’m glad the dogs get along so well.”
“Steve can be a bit standoffish at first, but he loves kids so damn much. He just acts like he’s this big tough guy.” Dana chuckled, then carried plates filled with food to us. “Here you go. Two omelets with a side of stir fry veggies and sausages.”
My mouth watered instantly. “This looks amazing.”
Dana did her “aww shucks” thing of shrugging a little as she turned to go get her plate. “It’s what we had available.”
Nic rolled her eyes.
Dana pulled another stool for herself, and we ate in silence, content to hang out like this for the first time in much too long.
“So, have you guys figured out where you’re going to live yet?” I asked when Nic got up and started to gather our empty plates.
“My builder here knocked down a wall from between two rooms on the backside. The ones closest to the office share a wall, so we put a door there,” Dana explained. “We’re thinking you can have one of those rooms or we can figure out if one of the cabins is more to your liking.”
I hummed. I knew they had big plans for the rooms, I just couldn’t remember the details, just that they weren’t even halfway through the renovations on the motel side and had barely touched the cabins.
“I don’t want to take away another room,” I said firmly. “You’re already down two with your place, so I’ll deal with a cabin even if they’re in worse condition.”
“They’re not that bad. Well, not all of them,” Nic amended. “Babe, do we have those chocolate cookies?”
“Yeah, in your jar, I just moved it over there.” Dana gestured toward a… cookie jar shaped like a panda bear?
Nic danced over and grabbed three cookies, then distributed them among us. “Let’s go for a walk, see the cabins before you decide,” she told me.
Dana got to her feet, kissed her cheek, and went back to continue whatever prep she’d been doing when I arrived.
Soon, we were walking across the parking lot.
“Steve, you coming with?” Nic asked the dog, who sighed and got to his feet, then stretched his large, sleek body.
“Big stretch,” I said automatically and got a tail wag as a response. Score.
Cricket joined us as soon as we made it to the end of the parking lot. She appeared like a ghost from among the trees.
“She patrols the area constantly. Hates to be indoors, too. We’ll have to build a shelter for her somewhere for the winter. Force her inside with us if need be when the worst weather hits.”
It struck me then that there would be weather. Snow.
“I haven’t seen snow in ages.”
“Since you came to visit us in Brooklyn? What was that, three years ago?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Huh. Well, there’ll be a lot of it here come winter,” she said brightly.
I hoped I could share her optimism when the time came.
The walk from the parking lot was uphill for a moment, before the ground flattened again. I’d seen a few photos when they’d tried to entice me into coming here, but that’d been in the springtime, and it all looked so different now.
The trees on either side of the road were tall and gorgeous, and after inhaling the rest of my cookie, I did the same to the clean, fresh, pine-scented air.
“It’s amazing here.”
“It really is. Dana’s doing so much better, too.” Nic smiled. “This was definitely the right move for us.”
I offered her my arm, and she took it. “You seem happier. Both of you.”
“We are.”
We rounded a bend and immediately, I could see what looked like a large manmade pond to the right. Slightly to the left where the road ended sat eight cabins in a loose circle. There was an old building behind them.
“There’s no parking here?”
“Nope. We think the old owners wanted to keep this side car free or something. There’s plenty of parking space at the motel and all.”
I shrugged. “Makes sense, I guess. What’s the extra building?”
“Old shower rooms. There wasn’t running water in all of the cabins originally. They fixed up a handful before they ran out of money, and then the owners got too old and illness happened….” She trailed off, sounding sad.
I could easily see how this had been someone’s dream, once.
“Where did the owners live?”
“Oh, there’s an old house in the woods over there,” she pointed back toward the motel, slightly behind the pond. “You can’t see it from here. It’s in decent condition though it does need work, but it’s far too big for the two of us, and we wanted to be at the motel for emergencies and such.”
“Well, if it’s too big for you two, it’s going to be even bigger for me,” I said before she could suggest that. I saw the idea forming in her head.
“We’ll see.” She stuck out her tongue and went to one of the cabins. “Come see.”
I followed her as she dug out a delightfully old school ring of keys from her pocket. She found the correct one and opened the door.
“How does this one look?” she asked, flicking on the lights.
It was a small cabin, just one room with a kitchenette and small dining table on one side with what had to be a bathroom behind it, and a couch and TV combo on the other side, with a decent sized bed against the back wall next to the bathroom door.
“Looks good to me,” I said, shrugging. “If the water and power are on, I’m fine with this.”
“This is the one that’s in the best condition. The others have some issues, but I’ve been concentrating on the motel.”
“Completely understandable. You said it was mostly cosmetic work there?” I went to peer into the bathroom that seemed serviceable. Nothing fancy, but I didn’t need fancy.
“Yeah. I have knocked down walls on the roadside too. I made a couple of bigger rooms for families to use, but the rest are regular. There were sixteen rooms; we’re down to ten plus two big ones, and then ours, of course.”
“You’ve been busy.”
Nic laughed, the sound happier than I’d heard it be in years. “Yes!”
“And you love it.” I went and gave her a hug.
“I love the place. And my wife.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I murmured into her hair.
They’d been a bit rocky at one point just before Dana had her burnout. Nic had told me she wasn’t sure how long she could take the way Dana was acting.
She pushed me away and wiped at her eyes, snorting softly. “I hate it when you make me cry, Glasses.”
“No, you don’t.” I pushed my glasses up my nose and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go see the house?”
“Yeah.”
Steve, who had laid down by the cabin stairs got up and wagged his tail at us. Cricket wandered in from behind the shower building.
“Come on, doggos.” Nic practically skipped down the road, with Cricket at her heels.
Steve, on the other hand, gave me a look of “can you believe that?” to which I chuckled and patted his massive head.
“We can walk, buddy. It’s fine.”
Sighing, he trudged along next to me, until we caught up with the girls where the almost completely overgrown road to the house was.
“I didn’t even notice this when we passed it,” I confessed. “How did I not see it?”
Nic shrugged. “You’re not always the most observant of men, buddy.”
I cracked up. “I just called Steve ‘buddy’,” I explained when she looked at me like I was nuts.
“Well, you’re both very… buddy-like.”
I followed her through the woods, completely unable to tell how far we were walking. I just knew it was pretty close to the road, yet somehow completely hidden away.
Then, we stepped out of the woods and into a small clearing, where an odd, Victorian looking, faded yellow, two-story house sat.
“Oh wow,” I managed. “That’s… something else.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
Nic skipped up the stairs onto the creaky porch and unlocked the door. “Come see.”
I followed her inside. The house was gorgeous, even if it could do with a lot of updates. The wallpaper lining the entrance hall and the staircase to the second floor was peeling and definitely from the sixties, if not the fifties.
Nic showed me around the house. There was a seventies style kitchen, a living room with more of the weird flowery wallpaper, a separate dining room, and a half bath combined with a laundry room off the kitchen.
The upstairs had another bathroom and three smaller bedrooms. The main bedroom spanned most of the back of the house and had been renovated sometime in the last fifteen years by the looks of it, complete with an en suite.
“This is really big,” I murmured, a bit awed at everything I was seeing.
“That’s what he said?” she asked, smirking as she pushed open the last door.
I rolled my eyes, not feeling like answering her silliness, even though I could admit it was well-timed.
“All these are kids’ rooms?” The first two were clearly girls’ rooms, the final one had blue space themed wallpaper. All the rooms had been lived in with vigor. The house had once been full of life.
“Yeah. They had three kids. The realtor said one lives somewhere in Wyoming, another in Europe. Third one passed away in her early twenties.”
I frowned. I couldn’t even imagine that kind of pain. Well, I could, given how close I was with Blue’s trio, and it gave me the shivers.
That made me think that my brother would love this house.
“Maybe when Blue and the kids come over, they could stay here?”
“Law’s gonna visit with the kiddos?” Nic asked, excited as hell.
“I’m hoping so. Maybe we can convince them to head over for Thanksgiving or something?”
“What’s the situation with Caitlyn at the moment?” she asked as we started down the stairs.
“She’s gonna have to move around the end of the year for her new job, I think. At least the writing’s on the wall. Seems like there’s plenty of holiday parties and schmoozing she needs to do before that, too.”
“Ah, thus asking them to come over in case she can’t be home?”
“Yup.”
“Well, they’re welcome whenever. I’ll use your brother for cheap labor though, I know he’s handy.”
Chuckling, I said, “You know he wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I managed to get my SUV to the cabins and unpacked it pretty efficiently. I’d forbidden Nic from helping, because she had more stuff to do at the motel and I could deal.
There was a flat spot behind the cabin, toward the pond, and I put all my weights there. Hell, maybe we could build a little deck there? I’d have to work out indoors once the weather changed, but for now, I couldn’t picture a better place for exercising than this. The serene view in front of me calmed something inside me in a way nothing had in a while.
Suddenly, rings appeared on the surface of the pond. Then a few moments later, a couple of more. Was the pond stocked? Or had it been? Huh. I filed the thought away to ask Nic later.
Once I had everything inside the cabin, I realized how little stuff I had. It was… sad as fuck, really. Everything I owned that held any value to me fit inside this small cabin. I’d never been materialistic, but shouldn’t I have more things to show that I’d been on this planet for thirty years?
I tested the bed and decided the mattress needed to be changed, but it would do for a few days. I grabbed all the bedding, folded it neatly, and then took it to the cabin next door Nic had left open for me so I had a place to put things I didn’t want or need.
I’d have to go to town to see what kind of options they had, since all I’d brought from Phoenix were my two favorite pillows I couldn’t sleep without.
I was sorting through the box of things marked “Kitchen” when there was a soft “boof” at the door. Smiling, I went to open it.
“Steve, what are you doing here?” I asked, grinning at the dog.
He sighed and plopped his butt down on the tiny porch. He turned his head as if to dismiss me. That was when I noticed a note taped to his collar.
“What’s this?” I took it gently off him and patted his head.
Either the cell reception isn’t great for your carrier over there, or your phone is on silent. Again . You have about two hours before dinnertime. Attendance required. So, if you want to head into town for something, now’s the time.
I chuckled at Nic’s pointy handwriting. I’d driven through Fairville on my way here, so I knew it was ten or so miles away. I had plenty of time.
“Steve?” I grabbed my wallet and my phone that was on silent, and stepped out carefully so I wouldn’t step on the dog. “Want to go for a drive?”
Steve perked up and let out a sound that I could only call cautiously excited. I opened the back door for him.
“Don’t worry, we’ll stop at the motel to ask your mamas if it’s okay for you to come with.”
As if understanding what I’d said, he jumped in and sat his butt down. I wondered where Cricket was since I hadn’t seen her in a while, but I wasn’t worried. I had a feeling she wasn’t a car ride type of dog anyway, given that she had a job to do.
I turned the radio down so it wouldn’t hurt Steve’s ears, and then turned the SUV very carefully in the space that was almost too small for my ship of a vehicle.
Nic was coming out of their room in the back of the motel when we rolled down the hill, so I waved at her and she walked over to the entrance.
I lowered my window.
“Hey, sorry, my phone was on silent.”
“Is it still on silent?” she asked, raising a brow at me.
I grimaced, grabbed the phone from the holder in the dash and turned the sound on.
“Can your boy come for a ride with me?” I asked, pointing my thumb over my shoulder.
She peered in, then let out a bark of laughter. “I didn’t even see him there with the tinted windows and him being black. Hi, sweet boy. Are you going on a drive with Uncle Glasses?”
There was an immediate sound of tail thwapping on the seat, which made me smile.
“I’ll be back well before dinner. Can you give me pointers for where I can find some bedding and good groceries?”
“I certainly can do that.” Nic leaned against the car. “If you go to Altmann’s, you can get everything you need, and Steve can go in with you. They’re family owned and very friendly and love Steve.”
Smiling slightly, I added a couple of things to the list on my phone. Nic wanted candy and a certain juice she loved, and I’d never remember the latter without a list. I really wanted to check out the little town I’d be calling home from now on. I just hoped the people were nice.