Chapter Nine
Nine
Hannah
It was heads. I’d chosen tails. I have no idea why. I never chose tails. I supposed it was only fair, given that Simon was so much taller than me. His head rested on one armrest while his feet hung over the other. How he was going to sleep like that, I couldn’t imagine.
As for me, I took the cushions off the armchairs and made a mattress out of them on the floor.
I’d definitely slept on harder ground at some of the campgrounds Dude and I had visited when the summer heat made sleeping in the van impossible.
With my dog pressed up against one side and my cannon on my other side, I felt confident that I was safe.
Maybe I was an idiot, but Simon struck me as a solid guy despite his shortsightedness in wanting to sell the house.
He’d been offended that I’d called him a lawyer but the storm had interrupted us before he’d told me what he actually did for a living.
I didn’t know how to bring it up now without it sounding like I was doing a background check.
Not that it was any of my business. The truth of the matter was, we’d both inherited this house and he had just as much right to be here as I did.
This brought me back to thinking about Pops and how much I missed him.
I wanted him here with me now so I could ask him the million questions that were swimming through my head as I listened to the rain—the thunder and lightning had finally stopped—like, Why hadn’t he ever invited me here to see this place of his?
Yeah, sure, I’d been busy with my career, my marriage, my divorce, the end of my career, the reinvention of myself in the aftermath of all that destruction, but I would have found time to come here to Pops’s special place.
Would I have, though? If I were totally honest with myself, I didn’t know if I’d have gone out of my way to visit Pops here.
The brutal truth made me feel terrible about myself and my priorities.
I wondered if Simon, who seemed to have been as surprised as I was to find out the cottage was a shared property, was feeling the same sort of guilt.
I was about to ask him when I heard a soft snore coming from the couch.
It seemed Simon was not suffering from the same curiosity I was or Dude’s neediness had worn Simon out.
Either way, I took it as a sign to get some shut-eye myself.
Snuggling up to my T-shirt cannon, I closed my eyes and let the sound of the rain on the roof lull me to sleep.
Dude barked right in my ear. It was his “stranger danger” bark so I bolted awake, expecting to be in my van but found myself on a living room floor instead. The cushions had separated and my butt was on the hard ground. I pushed the blanket I’d found in the linen closet off and sat up.
I glanced at the couch to find Simon there, with his head sandwiched between two pillows, obviously trying to muffle Dude’s barking. Good luck with that! As I pushed to my feet, Dude charged the front door, barking all the way.
I wondered if it was the attorney, Vincent, stopping by to see if we’d murdered each other in a property dispute yet. Wouldn’t he be shocked to hear that we’d had a sing-along to comfort Dude instead?
I opened the door to find a man, wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and a baseball hat with a fish embroidered on it, holding a chainsaw. I let out a yelp and slammed the door.
“O’Malley!” I ran into the living room with Dude on my heels, still barking. I yanked the pillow off Simon’s head. “There’s a man with a chainsaw at the door!”
Simon opened one eye. “And?”
“And what?” I stared at him, wondering how he’d missed the important part. “Chainsaw!”
“Did you ask him what the chainsaw was for?” Simon rolled into a seated position and scrubbed his thick hair with his fingers as if trying to wake up his brain.
“Um…no,” I admitted. “I saw the chainsaw and freaked out.”
He pushed to his feet. He was wearing the same shorts and T-shirt he’d had on last night, both of which were rumpled from his sleep on the couch. I glanced down and noticed I looked equally disheveled.
Dude was dancing around our feet, clearly needing to go outside. The knock on the front door sounded again, sending him into another frenzy of barking.
“I’ll put him outside and we can answer the door together,” Simon volunteered.
“Thanks, I’m not really functional before coffee.” I waited while he opened the back door and Dude bolted out.
It wasn’t that I was scared of a stranger wielding a chainsaw, but I was relieved to have Simon with me when I opened the door again.
“Mornin’.” The man tipped the brim of his hat at me. “Sorry if I startled you, miss. I’m Zach Pomeroy, I’m your neighbor down the road.”
“Oh…oh!” I felt my face get warm. “I’m sorry I shut the door on you. The chainsaw startled me.”
Zach looked confounded by this. He glanced at the chainsaw and then at me. “You’ve never seen one before?”
“No, I have…I just…” I could feel Simon shaking behind me. I didn’t have to look at him to know he was silently laughing at me. “I’m Hannah and this is Simon.”
Zach shook my hand, then Simon’s.
“Nice to meet you, Zach.” Simon gestured to the chainsaw. “I take it you saw our remodel.”
Zach frowned in confusion and then caught on and let out a chuckle. “Hard to miss.” He gestured to the side of the house. “That’s why I stopped by. I thought you might need a hand.”
I blinked. It had been a long time since I’d had neighbors of the neighborly sort.
In my old apartment building in the city, I knew exactly two of them by sight.
In the few minutes he’d been here, Zach and I had just exchanged more words than I had with either of those neighbors, and I’d resided there for five years.
“We definitely do,” Simon said.
I nodded in agreement. “Aside from the tree, our power hasn’t been turned on yet.”
“Wouldn’t matter if it was. The whole Split is out. I’ve got a spare generator you can borrow,” a voice piped up behind Zach. It was an older man, who had the same beaky nose and warm brown eyes as Zach.
“This is my dad, Roland,” Zach said, introducing us. “Dad, this is Hannah and Simon.”
I shook Roland’s hand and Simon reached around me to do the same. Roland stepped onto the porch just as Dude came bounding around the side of the house, barking like a fool.
This was Dude’s “Hi! Hello! I’m so glad you’re here! What did you bring me?” bark, so I wasn’t worried, but a stranger wouldn’t know that and I fully expected Roland to dart into the house to get away from Dude. He did not.
Instead, he went back down the steps and held up his hand in a stop gesture and stared at Dude in what looked like a meeting of minds. Dude skidded to a stop in front of Roland and sat with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his ears perked.
“How did you do that?” I marveled.
“Dad’s a dog whisperer,” Zach said. “And a cat soother, raccoon guru, opossum mentor, you name it, and Dad can tame it.”
“Impressive.” I gaped at Dude, who had never followed a command from me without a bribe being involved.
“We all have our gifts.” Roland shrugged.
“Backyard, Dude,” I said and to my surprise he trotted back around the house to his new domain. I glanced back at our neighbors. I wanted to ask if either of them had known my grandfather but I didn’t know how to finesse that into the conversation just yet.
“Roland, Zach, I see we all had the same idea to welcome the new neighbors.” I glanced past the two men and saw a very pregnant woman, carrying a tray of fresh fruit and pastries, with a man behind her, holding a carafe of coffee and looking like he planned to catch her if she teetered too far in any direction.
“Mornin’, Bebe, Luke,” Zach said, returning her greeting with a smile. “Per usual, we bring the power tools and you bring the pastries.”
The men stepped aside to let Bebe through and Roland clapped Luke on the shoulder as he walked by. It was a genuinely affectionate vibe among the four of them and I knew Pops would have loved that sense of community.
“Hi! I’m Bebe Abraham and this is my husband, Luke.” Bebe’s hair was styled in rows of braids that were pulled back from her face, accentuating her high cheekbones and large brown eyes.
“Hi, I’m Hannah Spencer and this is Simon O’Malley.”
“You two must be related to Billy Spencer and Bobby O’Malley then,” Bebe concluded.
“Billy?” I said at the same time Simon said, “Bobby?”
As far as I knew no one had ever called Pops Billy. He’d always been William. No nickname of any kind. I was guessing by the surprise on Simon’s face that his grandfather had never been called Bobby, either.
“Billy and Bobby were just the sweetest. Total relationship goals, you know?” Bebe continued without taking a breath. “Are you their children or grandchildren?”
“Grandchildren,” we answered together, and I sent Simon an annoyed look.
“When you said ‘relationship goals’—” I began but Bebe handed me the fruit and pastries and waddled past me into the house.
“So sorry to impose, but I’ve got to use the facility.” Bebe danced a little on her feet so I could tell it was an emergency.
“Oh, absolutely, I’ll show you…” I stepped aside as did Simon.
“No need,” Bebe cried as she hurried past. “I know the way.”
Luke smiled in bemusement. He ran his free hand over his close-cropped hair and said, “Sorry about that. My wife’s body is no longer her own.”
“Understood.” There was a time when the sight of a pregnant woman would have caused a pang in my heart, but I’d had five years to come to terms with my infertility and that my dream of having a husband and children of my own was never going to happen.
I was okay with it…mostly. I waved Luke into the house. “Come on in.”
“Roland and Zach, can I offer you some coffee or pastries?”
The father and son sent me matching grins. Roland nodded his head while Zach said, “We never say no to coffee. How about we look at that remodel of yours first, just to make sure my chainsaw can do the job?”