6. Maisie
Chapter 6
Maisie
E verette is what a postcard picture of a small town should look like. Jem chatters at me while we drive through the square — which has an honest-to-god gazebo — and I answer some of her questions by rote.
The deeper questions, like where I’m from or why I’m traveling get vague responses. By the time we pull up to the garage, which is right off the square, I’m mostly comfortable. Audra fell asleep in her car seat about ten seconds into the ride, which is understandable considering the time of evening and the last few days.
Jem parks the car, and we both climb out. Harlan’s truck pulls up behind us, and he and Boone step out of the cab.
God, he’s tall. So tall that I barely come up to his chest. His broad shoulders strain the confines of his uniform shirt, and while I can appreciate the view from a purely female standpoint, his size doesn’t win him any favor with me. Neither does his choice in career.
I’ve been made to feel small, I’ve had my own smaller stature used against me, and no matter how attractive I find the sheriff of Everette, I won’t ever put myself in the same situation I ran from again.
“Here. Follow me,” Harlan says to me grabbing Audra’s car seat handle before I can. Jem and Boone hang back, and I’m thankful for it once I see my camper sitting in the vehicle bay.
Jesus Christ. We survived that.
The front end of the camper is bashed in, the driver’s side of it worse than the passenger. Crumpled metal and broken bits of bumper hang from the hood. The sidewall where my kitchen sat is dented and carved inward where it hit the embankment. There’s still dirt and dried grass stuck to the side of it. The window that was over the sink area is completely gone, shattered, the pieces probably still littering the side of the ditch.
While the camper is level now that it’s upright and parked at the garage, the back end tips downward and I note that I not only popped both tires, but from the looks of them, the rough terrain of the highway and then off-road shredded them.
Jedd thinks he can fix this ? There’s no way. My camper is totaled, and I don’t have the money to replace it right now.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell am I going to do?
My heartbeat thuds in my chest as I think about how much worse me and Audra could have been hurt. If I didn’t steer into the skid, or tap the breaks, or any of the things I did in the split seconds that the whole accident happened, would I even be alive? Would Audra?
A shudder hits me right between the shoulder blades as all of the horrible possibilities filter through my mind at the speed of light and my breathing goes choppy. There’s a weight on my chest when I think about how seriously Audra could have been hurt and my eyes start to prick with tears from the impending panic attack.
“Hey. Hey. You’re okay. You’re fine.”
Harlan’s quiet words filter through a tunnel full of fog, I nearly can’t make out what he’s saying to me through the ringing in my ears.
A light touch comes to my shoulder, and I flinch from it, stumbling back until my ass meets concrete as I sit down hard.
The sound of something scuffing on the pavement filters through and I watch as Harlan places Audra’s seat down before kneeling in front of me. He holds his hands up in front of him. “I’m not going to touch you. I promise. But I need you to breathe. Breathe with me.”
I suck in a lungful of air that tastes like glass shards and panic. It wooshes out of me and some of the pressure in my chest eases.
“That’s good. Good job. A couple more. In and hold it for four seconds, then exhale for four seconds.”
Following the cadence of Harlan counting in his smooth voice, some of the panic eases and embarrassment filters in.
I’m sitting on the floor of a car repair shop having a panic attack, while the sheriff that I’m supposed to stay with coaches me through breathing.
I’m fricken hopeless.
“I’m so sorry.” I breathe out raggedly once I have enough air and the vise on my throat loosens enough to speak. “I’m not usually like this.”
Harlan shakes his head. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. You and your daughter are safe. It looks worse in the light of day, and it was a traumatic experience for you. I’m sorry. I should have thought of that before I brought you down here, or at least warned you. ”
I suck in another searing breath. “Why are you being so nice?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You, your brothers, your sister-in-law. You’re all so nice, buying Audra a car seat, letting me stay with you, and I don’t understand why. People aren’t that nice.”
Harlan’s hazel eyes are steady on mine as he kinda half smiles at me. “We’re friendly folks here in Everette. I’m sorry that hasn’t been your experience wherever you were before you came here.”
I dust my hands off on my thighs, and Harlan stands from his crouch. Instead of offering me his hand to help me up, he takes a step back to give me space, and that gesture makes me want to cry all over again.
“Let’s get you packed up, and we’ll head to my place. Jedd has some boxes around here somewhere.”
“Why would I need boxes? A night’s worth of clothes and toiletries should be fine.”
I’m not staying with him longer than I have to. The itch to keep moving, to get somewhere that no one knows me or my daughter pokes at me incessantly.
“There’s no saying if you’ll actually be able to reinstate your rental, so you might be here for longer than you intend. Might as well pack for the extra time, it’s easier than coming back again if you need to stay longer.” His no nonsense response makes sense and is logical, but the rational side of my brain is clearly malfunctioning — as evidenced by me losing my shit at the sight of my wrecked vehicle.
Too tired to put up a fight, I just nod and scoop Audra’s carrier up to skirt around to the other side of the camper. I’m careful not to look at it too closely, in case the damage to this side reignites whatever weird panic took over a few minutes ago. Harlan keeps his distance the whole time I pull open the side door. The steps are missing, and I wonder what happened to them for a minute before hauling myself into the back of the camper.
If I thought the outside was bad, the inside is infinitely worse. All of my cookware fell out of the cabinets and is broken on the ground. Shelves and counters sit empty, the entirety of our belongings is strewn about the open space.
Our meager belongings are sitting on the floor, broken beyond repair.
The sight of Audra sleeping peacefully in her car seat soothes me.
We’re fine. We’ll be okay. Everything else can be replaced.
Just get it done. Shut it down. Get what you need, and then deal with the rest later.
I set Audra on the bed and grab a duffle bag from one of the compartments and start to fill it with clothes and necessities for me and Audra. I pack more than I normally would at Harlan’s advice, and after a few seconds, I have everything that we need for the next few days.
Moving to the front of the vehicle, I open the oversized center console and pull out my laptop and charging cables. I need money and the only way for me to get it is to complete the jobs I have lined up. Popping the lid open, I look over the device, and it seems like the only thing fully unharmed from the wreck.
Thank all of the shiny gods in the universe. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost this thing.
The repairs on this beast aren’t going to be cheap — if it can even be fixed — but while we’re not destitute, I don’t have enough right now to pay for the expense of getting the camper road-worthy or replacing it.
“Here you go,” Harlan says after stepping into the camper behind me and dropping some boxes on the counter to the left of the door.
I nod toward my stuffed duffel, and say, “I think I got it all in there. Thank you though.”
He nods. “You’re welcome.”
After slinging the strap of my duffel over his shoulder, he leaves the space and I follow him back into the garage bay clutching my laptop to my chest.
Boone and Jem are still waiting outside of the garage, but Jem’s holding a disposable coffee cup now, and Boone’s got his arm slung over her shoulder.
Jem eyes the laptop in my arms, and asks, “Work?”
I nod.
“What do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Website design. I work with clients to design and maintain websites.”
“Oh my god. Shut the fuck up,” she exclaims.
My head jerks at her yell, and I say, “Okay.” The word drawn out from my confusion.
“This is perfect. I’ve been having the worst time getting the café’s website up and running — that’s what I do, I own the town café — and I’ve been trying to build it, make it pretty and set up online ordering, but for some stupid reason, I can’t get it to work. Would you be able to take a look at it for me? I’d obviously pay you for your time.”
Not in a position to turn down money, I say, “Uh. Yeah. Sure. I guess.”
She smacks her thigh. “Perfect. I’ll swing by with coffee tomorrow, and I can show you what I want done and then we can figure out how to fix that whole mess.”
“I don’t drink coffee, but I’m happy to help with the website.”
Jem gasps theatrically. “You don’t drink coffee? What? How?”
I shrug. “Just never like the taste of it.”
“What about tea?”
“You mean watered-down tree bark?” I joke.
“Oh lord. You’re seriously jeopardizing our friendship here, girly.”
Friendship. The word should make me nervous, but instead a warm feeling takes up residence in my chest, and I smile at Jem. “Just means there’s more for you.”
“You’re a single mom, traveling with your infant daughter, and you’re telling me you don’t drink any type of caffeine?”
“I think she prefers energy drinks,” Harlan offers next to me.
“You drink that poison but don’t like the taste of coffee or tea?” Jem is yelling now, but in an over-the-top funny way.
“Yeah. But I don’t drink them often, since I’m still nursing. I shouldn’t have a lot of caffeine, so it’s really only when I absolutely need it.”
Jem sniffs dramatically. “I guess that’s okay then.”
The urge to chuckle at her theatrics rises, but I smother it.
No friends. No staying in one place too long. Keep Audra safe. The alternative is too terrifying to think about.
Harlan moves to the back of his truck, and after putting my duffel inside, goes to Jem’s car to clip Audra into her car seat. Once I’m back in the car with Jem again, she fills the silence with her website. I offer to show her my portfolio of websites that I’ve done and the maintenance packages that I offer when we get together.
Do I want to do the job for her after the painstaking lengths I’ve gone to in order to remain pretty much anonymous with my clients? Not really. But I need the money that she could potentially pay me for the work.
She shouldn’t be paying you at all, she bought you a freaking car seat and her brother-in-law is letting you stay at his house.
The thought is an uncomfortable one. But I really need all the money I can get right now.
I have no idea what the cost of repairs is going to be. I have no idea if the camper can even be fixed at this point, and it’s better that I plan for the worst, which is having to buy a whole new rig, then put my confidence in sunshine and rainbows of everything working out.
Nothing ever works out. Not for me at least. Not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
Jem drives out of town and pulls off the road onto a lightly paved driveway that’s flanked by pine trees.
“Harlan doesn’t live in town?” I ask, nervous at the thought of being out here alone.
Jem shakes her head. “No. He likes his privacy and being the sheriff, if he lived in town, people would stop over for every little thing.”
While it makes sense, again, the logical part of my brain just sees the lack of neighbors and the longer drive into town as trouble for me.
I don’t have a car. Or a way for me to get into town. I’m just about to bring it up to Jem when she says, “Don’t worry. Between the Calhouns and me someone will always be around to give you a ride if you need it.”
Not used to relying on other people, I don’t respond. First order of business tomorrow is finding a rental car company. I can put the cost on a credit card and worry about paying for it later. I can’t be without transportation .
Jem pulls in front of a two-story house. I eyeball the structure, but because it’s dark out, I can’t really see much other than the shape of it. But there are no other houses close and that makes anxiety stick in my throat.
Harlan pulls the sheriff’s vehicle next to us and climbs out. Jem and I both get out of the car, and before I can get Audra out of the back, she comes around the vehicle. “I’m going to give you a hug.”
She steps forward and lightly wraps her arms around me. The warning helps, and I manage to avoid flinching at the touch.
Once Jem lets go, she opens the back door and unclips Audra’s seat from the base and hands her to me before unlatching the base and handing that to Harlan, who came up behind me.
“Come on, I’ll show you the place,” Harlan says.
“We’ve got to take off. Boone’s gotta be up early for work and the morning coffee crowd waits for no one. I’ll be by sometime after ten tomorrow and we can chat,” Jem offers, and I nod.
Boone tips the bill of his ball cap in my direction. “It was nice to meet you. Holler if you or your girl need anything.”
I watch as they get in their car and drive off.
I’m officially alone with Harlan. And the look in his eye tells me he has questions.
Questions that I’m going to have to dodge answering.