33. Fisher
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
fisher
I guide Libby down the row, then slip into the chair beside her and sink low in my seat. These town meetings aren’t my thing, but she loves them, so I’m here week after week, and after each one, I’ve got a new honey-do list put together by the people of Monhegan.
Lucky me.
Libby grasps my hand and gives me a small smile, and that phrase—lucky me—takes on a whole new meaning. Because, damn, am I a lucky bastard.
“Oh no.” Wilder angles forward, leaning around Libby.
“Don’t fall under this spell. You and me, we have to talk.
” He beats his chest, right over the image of a harried rooster.
Its eyes are bugged out, its beak is open in a full squawk, and its feathers ruffled.
Above it, the shirt reads I’m fine. Everything is fine.
“Switch with me, darling.” Wilder stands and points to his seat.
Libby releases my hand and then gives Wilder a pointed look. “You’ve got five minutes, then I get my seat back.”
“Deal.”
Libby scoots over so she’s seated next to Maggie, and he flops down beside me.
“Nicole still driving you mad?” I cock a brow.
I swung by his place a few days ago to borrow stilts for Libby’s boat. It has a name, but much like Putt-Putt, I refuse to use it. I haven’t seen him since, which is unusual. Typically the guy is everywhere.
“No. First, the elephant in the room. You have a pink lake boat.”
No shit.
I nod but force my lips into what Libby would claim is a smile.
What else am I going to do? The Pink Lady now resides in the yard next to Hunter’s boat.
I want to be irritated. I’ve tried, but I gave up after I pulled up yesterday and found Sutton and Libby, clad in bathing suits, lying out in the boat, reading the second Baby-Sitters Club book together.
The boat will never putter around in the ocean. It barely made it to the island as it is. But it could be fun on a lake. Maybe I could rent a slip on lake Sebago. Or maybe buy a lake house. We could leave the island for weekends sometimes.
It’s so easy to picture the three of us on the lake. I don’t know about water skiing, but the girls would love tubing.
“You’re smiling about this?” Wilder’s voice jars me from my daydreaming.
I swallow. More and more, I find myself lost in the idea of a future for us. It’s a topic I need to bring up to Libby soon. Because it’s already August.
Which reminds me… “When are you sending Nicole home?”
Groaning, he runs his hand over his patchy attempt at a beard.
“Dude, I’ve tried. But she’s a teacher and she doesn’t go back to work until just before Labor Day.
She just keeps staying. She’s been in and out of the inn and rented two different cabins.
Even my beard doesn’t scare her. She thinks it’s cute. ”
I wince. I wish I could say the beard had filled in over the last month. It has not. It’s still as ratty and awful as it was on the Fourth of July.
“Something’s not right there.” He slumps back in his seat.
“Your five minutes is up,” Libby says, tapping Wilder on the shoulder. “The meeting’s about to start, and I’m sitting next to Fisher.”
With a deep sigh, my best friend shifts over.
“All right,” Cank calls from the front of the room. “Who wants to start?”
Libby raises her hand, and when Cank nods her way, she says, “I have a suggestion.”
“Oh yeah? What is it?”
“Well, I have a list.”
I run a hand over my face and stifle a groan. Here we go.
She clutches my thigh. “Shush, you. It’s for your own good.” Straightening, she affixes that bubbly smile to her face again. She’s always excited, and although I’m wondering what she’s getting me into now, I can’t fucking stop smiling.
Wilder glances past Libby and cocks a brow at me. I ignore him, choosing to focus on the front of the room rather than allow him to silently give me shit for being happy. Who’s he to talk, anyway? He’s wearing the crazy rooster shirt.
Libby clears her throat. “I think we are over-utilizing our sheriff.”
What the fuck? I whip my head around and gape at my girlfriend.
Without even looking my way, she pats my leg. “We don’t pay him. And yet we use him for pretty much everything.” She takes a deep breath and stands. “We need a mailman.”
All around me, people shrug and nod.
As my face heats, I sink lower in my seat.
Worrying her lip, she eyes Doris. “And the grocery store needs their own delivery person.”
Doris tuts and crosses her arms. “Well, maybe people should stop ordering difficult stuff.”
I straighten instantly and glare at the older woman.
I’ve warned her more than once to be nice to my girlfriend.
Maybe the diet ginger ale and the sherbet are items she can’t order in bulk since they likely won’t sell well to the rest of the island, but nothing Libby has requested has been extravagant.
Sure, Doris doesn’t make much money off Libby’s orders, but she’d do it for others without complaint.
The older woman shifts nervously in her seat, realizing she has now earned my ire.
Libby’s shoulder drops just a bit and she swallows thickly. But then Flora giggles, and my girl’s back straightens.
She cocks a brow in the baker’s direction. “And clearly we need an exterminator for Flora’s squirrel problem.”
Cank chuckles, though he quickly covers it up with a cough. “Anything else, Ms. Sweet?”
“Yes.” She nods crisply. “We also need a dock for the Pink Lady .”
Eyes squeezed shut, I blow out a breath. I could build a dock for Libby, but it wouldn’t make it through the waves caused by a single storm.
“Since when are we taking requests from uninformed summer people?” Flora calls out.
The crowd breaks into chatter, one person talking over another, and Libby seems to deflate, slinking back into her chair. When I spot her lashes fluttering rapidly, I realize she’s trying not to cry.
Fuck. What I’d give to throw Flora off the dock that I will now have to build.
It’s unrealistic, yeah, but if it makes Libby smile, then I’ll do it. Fuck it, I’ll build ten. And they can all wash away.
Voice wobbly, Libby says, “I’m gonna go.”
She stands and I move to follow her. My chest fucking aches for her. Flora could have said all kinds of nasty shit, but she didn’t have to. All she had to do was call Libby s ummer people to take all the wind from her sails.
I’m on my feet without hesitation. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves,” I say over the chatter.
One by one, people turn toward me. “I, for one, have never been so embarrassed to be from Monhegan Island than I am today. Since when do we treat people like this? All Libby has wanted since the day she arrived on the damn trash boat was to fit in with this island. She was kind. Quiet. She didn’t ask for much.
Just some sherbet and diet ginger ale and even that was too much.
” I glare in Doris’s direction. “She’s helping with the town play, she put all that time and effort into the parade.
Hell, she’s running errands around here for all of you.
” Chest heaving, I glare at them all, every last one of them, and point back toward the door where Libby rushed out just moments ago.
“That woman went without cable, hot water, clothes. She had her cable wires cut, she’s been hurt and shunned.
Yet, day in and day out, she’s had a friendly face for all of you. No matter what. Do better. ”
I move to push past Wilder to go after Libby when Cank calls after me. “Sheriff, you’re right. So is Libby. Come up here. What do you think about bringing on a mailman?”
I stop, hands balled into fists, but I don’t turn. I don’t give a shit about the mailman, especially when my girl is upset. With a long exhale, I shake my head, ready to rush off, but Wilder slams a hand to my chest.
“Dude, you can’t just leave. Especially when everything Libby said before makes sense. Come on. Give them some truth. You don’t want to be the errand boy anymore. It was Hunter’s thing. Not yours. And that’s okay.”
I sigh. “Five minutes.” Eyes narrowed, I stomp to the front of the room.
For the next ten minutes, I answer question after question from Cank, as well as half the people gathered. Most of them demand I keep one job or another. They all think they need my help, which is why normally I don’t push back.
But when Farmer Todd says, “I want to keep Fisher on goat duty, no one else can get the damn beast out of my green house, he has a magic touch. And what else do you have to do?” I’m done.
Glaring, I growl, “I still have a job in Boston.”
Are these people so goddamn self-centered that they’ve forgotten that? How else am I going to make a living since they don’t pay me?
The room erupts again, and I take the opportunity to get the fuck out.
“I’m leaving,” I mumble to Wilder. “Let me know what they decide.” I’ve only made it a step or two when I’m stopped by a hand on my arm.
The red nails come into view first, and on instinct, I pull away.
“Yes?” I ask Flora as I shuffle back a step.
Out of respect for Marissa’s memory I’ve given her cousin a lot of leeway over the years.
But knowing that Sutton is uncomfortable around her is all the encouragement I need to put a stop to her antics once and for all.
And after the way she was rude to Libby today, well yeah, she’s used up every bit of my patience already.
“I wanted to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night.” She drags her teeth over her lower lip, lashes fluttering. “I thought we could talk about Sutton and plans for the fall.”
I blink. She’s invited us to dinner a few times, and I’ve gone out of obligation, but never alone.
And fall plans? What’s there to discuss?
Sutton will go back to school in the fall and be part of whatever island activities are available, just like always.
And frankly none of that is Flora’s business.
“I don't think that’s a good idea.”
“But it would be nice. To have a break from everyone.” She reaches out but before she can touch me I cross my arms over my chest and take another step back. “We’ve never had the chance to hang out, just the two of us.”
“Why do you think that is? I’d never spend time with someone who refuses to serve someone because she doesn’t like her. Your attitude towards summer people is awful but with Libby you crossed a line. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m with Libby.”
Sending me a patronizing smile like she’s heard not a single word I’ve said, she nods. “For now. You and Wilder have your summer fun.” She chuckles. “But she’s leaving. Summer people don't stay.”
The statement is like a dagger to the heart. I might know Libby’s leaving, I might understand it, but my heart hates it. But my anger over her treatment of Libby is stronger. “And yet I’d still choose her over you anyway.”
Her mouth falls open and on a parting glare, I add, “Oh and Flora, you know all those fancy iced coffees and extra donuts I’ve been adding to my order? Yeah, those have been for Libby. My girlfriend. ”
Flora’s face is beet red but before she can even formulate a response, I stride away.
Walking out the back doors of the school, I head straight home. I should stop by and pick up Sutton from Mrs. K, but for now, talking to Libby is my first priority.
Her expression as she walked out gutted me. I should have followed her rather than staying around to answer questions. Yes, I might be important to this town, but Libby is important to me.
The second I step into the yard, Bing is at my heels.
“Stay,” I tell him on Libby’s front porch.
I tap on the door, but I don’t wait before I stomp inside. Only when I’ve got eyes on her do I slow. She’s standing at the counter, focus fixed on her phone. I brace myself, ready to be hit with a devastated look. Instead, when she looks up, her blue eyes are sparkling with excitement.
“Guess what?” She runs at me and jumps into my arms.
Damned if I know. I’m just glad she’s smiling. Instantly, my muscles relax, and I breathe her in.
“What?”
“I got an audition for the play,” she practically squeals.
“What?” I rear back so I can look her in the eye. They’re making her try out? She’s been part of the group all summer. Fucking hell, Maggie is the one person I didn’t think I had to talk to about being nice to my girl. I swore they’d become friends, so what the fuck is this?
“Yes!” She bounces in my arms. “The Boston theater called. They want me to come in this weekend.”
My heart plummets to the floor, but I keep a smile on my face. Boston. Of course she’s looking for acting jobs. But damn, the reality of her leaving once again smacks me hard in the face.
“Wow. Congrats.” I swallow back the pain creeping through my chest. “Can I take you out for the audition?”
Excitement radiates from her as she nods. “Maybe Sutton can come too.”
I shake my head. “She’ll stay with the Knowleses.”
If my time with Libby is almost up, I want a weekend alone.
Time to take her out and spoil her. The opportunity to tie her to my bed and make her scream my name.
I want to show her, and maybe myself, what forever would look like, if only it were possible.
Even if doing so will make it harder to say goodbye.