Chapter 13
Alethea heard the Jeep pull into the driveway and then turned her attention back to the task at hand. More painting. Every muscle in her body seemed to ache after four straight days of sanding and painting but none more so than her triceps, which screamed from prior disuse. Danica on the other hand seemed to be showing no signs of fatigue at all, letting Alethea and Priya take turns soaking in the tub with epsom salts at night while she did her bedtime yin yoga routine instead.
The three of them had been making steady progress on the house, all things considered, and the upstairs was starting to show signs of all their hard work. Despite the headway they had made on the walls, they were still without any luck on finding a replacement contractor. Alethea had spoken with the owner, Hank, at the hardware store, but sadly, he was no help and the only contractor they could get to even agree to the job wouldn’t be available to start for another four months. Alethea was starting to panic. She couldn’t wait that long without the house bringing in some money. The small nest egg she had in the bank from selling Jackson’s furniture was enough to cover her living expenses for a few months at most. She’d need to get the house rented out on Airbnb before the end of the summer so that she could return to the city and start looking for a job.
“I need a break.” Danica walked into the room, holding up her paintbrush in surrender.
“Me, too.” Alethea put down her roller and put the lid back on the paint can. They headed down the stairs to find Priya in the entryway hauling a small console table through the threshold.
“That’s adorable!” said Alethea, “Where did you find it?”
“On the side of the road.” Priya shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t imagine who’d want to throw this little beauty away. Just needs a quick sanding and maybe a little stain but I was thinking it might look great in one of the upstairs bedrooms.”
“Did you want to come with us to the cafe for a coffee break?” Alethea asked, as she and Danica helped Priya carry the table into the parlor, where it would be stored out of the way for the time being.
“Ooh, perfect! I’ve been wanting to talk to the baker there to see if I can wrestle the secret to those muffins out of them.”
The Corner Cafe wasn’t a small space per se, but the way the bistro tables were arranged in a horseshoe shape around the display case and counter gave the cafe a cozy feel. Brightly colored vases of sunflowers and gerber daisies cheerily dotted the tables and ample sunshine streamed in through the floor to ceiling windows that lined the entire front of the store. Emma caught Alethea’s eye as they walked in and gave her a welcoming wave. The three women found an empty table across from the front door and took a seat while they made up their minds on what to get.
Once Priya had decided on a vanilla rose latte and Danica on an herbal tea, Alethea went up to the counter and placed their orders along with a large coffee with oat milk for herself. She happily chatted with Emma until the next customer came in and then rejoined her friends at their table. “Bad news, Emma said Joannie normally goes home by noon at the latest. She comes in before dawn to start the baking.”
Priya would have to come early one day if she was going to get any baking secrets out of Joannie. So instead, she caught her friends up on Jake’s latest adventure in France, telling them about his faux pas mixing up the terms Le Lait, which means milk, with Lillet, an alcoholic apéritif. As the three women were laughing at the thought of the waiter bringing Jake over a tall glass of milk instead of the glass of wine he thought he had ordered, the bells on the front door jangled and Danica’s expression suddenly changed to mischievous.
“Uh-oooh,” she said under her breath. “Don’t look now but here comes the Muffin Man.” She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.
Alethea glanced at the entrance only to immediately regret it, accidentally making eye contact with Brent. She quickly turned her head back to her friends. “Ugh, he saw me.” Why did she have to keep running into this guy? How she missed the city! Living in a small town did so little for one’s privacy.
“Well, hello there.” Brent grinned, his lips parting to show his straight, white teeth. He took his hands out of his back pockets and then turned his full attention to Alethea, his grin widening into a full-fledged smile.
“So, we meet again.” Those green eyes of his, the color of emeralds, seemed to draw her in, holding her gaze.
Alethea nodded dismissively and tried to sink down lower into the metal cafe chair.
He turned to Danica and outstretched his hand. “I’m Brent.” Danica and Priya took turns shaking his hand. “I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay so far,” he said once the introductions were done.
Danica motioned to the empty chair at their table. “Care to join us?”
Brent glanced over at Alethea to gauge her reaction and then looked back to Danica. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
Alethea lightly tapped Danica in the shin with her foot under the table, giving her a look she hoped was murderous. That only served to encourage Danica, whose smile deepened. “Oh, don’t be silly. Come sit.” She pulled out the chair and patted it insistently. Priya cleared her throat, doing a great job of covering up the laugh that had been trying to escape.
“I’m so sorry to hear about Queenie’s stained-glass window.” His face took on a serious expression. “That just about broke my heart to hear when Wilbur told us.”
Danica looked at him with new interest. “Yeah, well, Wilbur is just lucky that Alethea isn’t suing the pants off him for damages.”
He looked over at Alethea, that easy grin back on his face. “Oh come on now, you wouldn’t stand a chance. What judge wouldn’t side with a man terrorized by a demonic hell-cat?”
“I can’t believe he told you that!” Alethea was stunned. They all knew Wilbur had made up the story about Dandelion tripping him to save face about the accident, but was he really running around town telling people her cat was possessed?
“Me and Hank over at the hardware store just about bust a gut when he came out with that one.” He laughed, rubbing his forehead. “Wilbur’s a bit of an odd duck sometimes but he’s usually pretty harmless.” Brent’s expression turned thoughtful. “I have to admit, I was pretty surprised that he left Queenie in the state he did. He can tend to rub people the wrong way but smashing a window and then walking out on the project isn’t like him.” He looked down at his coffee, and there seemed to be actual sadness in his eyes. “I still can’t get over that window.”
Alethea glared at him. “And why do you care about that window so much? It’s my house that got wrecked, not yours.”
Brent looked up at Alethea and nodded. “You”re right, sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep. I used to do a little handyman work for your aunt on the side and Scarlet asked me to do a bit of restoration on the window a few years back. Honestly, it was one of the best pieces I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot. It’s hard to hear that a work of that caliber got destroyed.”
Alethea didn’t have a snarky comeback this time so she said nothing. She could tell that he was being sincere and his sadness at the loss of the window oddly gave her some comfort. It was hard to explain, but when the window broke, it felt like a part of her had shattered along with it. She still hadn’t worked up the courage to call her aunt and break the news to her yet.
“Do you work with stained-glass a lot?” Priya looked at Brent curiously.
“It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a teenager. My dad was a professional and he had a workshop out in our backyard. It just seemed a natural thing to do I guess, growing up with it.”
Danica’s eyes were as big as saucers. “Any chance we could hire you to make a new window?”
Alethea kicked her friend’s shin under the table again but this time there was force behind it.
“Ow!” Danica jumped but Alethea cut her off. “Um, what she means is that there’s actually not enough money in the budget for that.”
Emma walked over to the table carrying two mugs and set them down in front of Priya and Alethea, the interruption sparing the group from any more of the awkward conversation. “Vanilla rose latte and coffee with oat milk.” Then she came back again with two more drinks. “Herbal tea for you.” She placed the steaming ceramic mug in front of Danica. “And the usual for you.” She put down a large to-go cup in front of Brent.
“Thanks, Emmy.” Brent winked at the cashier and she smiled brightly, her round cheeks accentuating her freckles.
He turned back to the group. “Well, like I said, I don’t want to impose. I’ll let you ladies get back to enjoying this perfect summer day.” He stood, giving each of them a warm smile in turn. “It was nice to meet you both. And, Alethea, always a pleasure.” His gaze lingered on her just a fraction of a second longer than the others. She felt drawn in, his soulful green eyes like magnets to her own. She watched him walk out the front door, giving Emma a quick wave goodbye and holding it open so that a woman with two toddlers could come inside before he finally left.
“Girl, you’re lucky that I love you.” Danica glared at Alethea while she rubbed her shin. “What is wrong with you?”
“Sorry, it was a knee-jerk reaction. Literally.” Alethea felt badly about kicking her friend but not bad enough to regret doing it. She had to face this man often enough bumping into him around town, the last thing she needed was to have him working in her house! She didn’t trust herself or her emotions when she was around him, and she wanted to be as far away from Brent Cornerstone as she could possibly be.
“Mmm-hmmm. Well don’t worry, I’ll be getting you back for this one! Big time.”
“I don’t get it, what do you have against this guy? He seems so nice.” Priya’s look was one of genuine confusion.
“Exactly! No one that good looking is that nice. He’s a phony and I’ve had my fair share of people who pretend to be someone they’re not, thank you very much.”
Danica raised one eyebrow so high Alethea thought it might fly off her head, but thankfully she just pursed her lips together and stayed silent.
“Not every man is Jackson.” Priya said the words softly and wrapped an arm around Alethea, leaning her head against Alethea’s shoulder.
“She’s right, that piece of work is truly one of a kind.” Danica made a face like she was smelling rotten garbage.
Alethea looked down at the table. “Maybe not, but I’m not up for taking any chances.” She folded her arms across her chest in a self-protecting gesture.
“Oh, honey.” Danica moved over to where Priya sat with one arm around Alethea and bent down to embrace them both in a group hug. The three women stayed there like that for a few moments until Alethea let out a deep exhale.
“Better?” Priya asked.
“Better.” Alethea didn’t want to think about relationships or dating, at least not yet anyway, she wasn’t in any kind of shape for that. She was afraid the emotional toll of the last couple of months was really starting to get to her, with the strange fragments of memories that kept washing over her like a dream, not to mention the dizzy spells, lightheadedness and random tingling. Truth be told, it scared her. Would her memories all come flooding back one day, a deluge threatening to overtake her like a straw house caught in a flood? She shivered at the thought and took a sip of her still piping hot coffee, grateful that she had her friends for support.
….
That night, Alethea got barely any sleep yet again, waking up over and over from the same dreams. She was in a field of flowers, endlessly searching for something. Sometimes she found whatever it was she was looking for and would hold onto it so tightly it felt like her fingers might break, knowing that any second it was about to fall from her hands. Just when the dream would become hopeless, Brent would appear, kneeling down next to her to help her search or putting her hands in his to help her hold onto whatever precious possession she had. Sometimes he would touch her face, gently kissing her while she passionately kissed him back. She woke up angry and embarrassed, betrayed by her own mind. Ugh! Get out of my head Brent Cornerstone! was Alethea’s last thought before she finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep just before twilight.