19. Ansley No Notes
ansley: no notes
I HAD BEEN SO DISTRACTED since I heard the news about the docks, since I’d had my internal back-and-forth about whether I believed Jack could be involved.
I’d wanted to call him right away, but, of course, he was on a plane, so I couldn’t.
He’d texted me when he landed that he was jumping straight on a work call.
Then I’d had an install for a client that had lasted until well after nine p.m. I’d missed a couple of calls from him and a text saying he was at dinner with John.
By the time he’d gotten back to his hotel, I was asleep, sound asleep, which made me think I couldn’t be that worried, right?
I’d called him before work this morning, but, with the time change, it was only six there, so I figured he was still asleep.
And I’d been so busy this morning… Well, at any rate, was this going to be my life if we moved to Chicago?
Never being able to find a minute to catch my daughters because even a small time change could make a world of difference?
I didn’t want to find out. And I really didn’t know what to do.
But, for the moment, I couldn’t worry about any of that because Kimmy pulled up in front of the store in her huge truck with her hazard lights on.
It wasn’t like you could park a truck downtown that was hauling a trailer full of hay.
I ran out to meet her, practically jumping up and down. Things might be weird with Jack, but it was hay day!
“I’m so excited!”
“Me too!” she enthused. And getting Kimmy to enthuse was pretty hard.
I spotted Tyler in the truck. He rolled the window down and waved sheepishly at me. Four more of his hoodie-wearing buddies were sitting in the trailer, on bales of hay.
I was trying to be neutral. I had to see this boy all the time. I couldn’t make him feel uncomfortable around me. Plus, Vivi’s side—even though I was on it!—was pretty weak. I felt like they would probably get back together. And even if they didn’t, well, kids didn’t always make the best decisions.
“Hi, honey,” I said.
“Hi, Ansley.”
We’d gotten on a first-name basis during the whole love affair.
“What are you doing out of school?”
“Since the hay bales are a fundraiser for our new lockers, they let us out to help and get some service hours.”
I smiled. I, for one, was grateful. Hay wasn’t heavy, necessarily, but it was bulky, and strong boys with work gloves were a value add. That was true for most situations, come to think of it.
I looked down the street. “I don’t want to hold up progress, but I haven’t gotten my coffee yet. Where the heck is Keith?”
Kimmy shrugged. “Beats me. In the old days I wouldn’t be one bit surprised by Keith flaking out, but he’s been very dependable the past couple years.”
“I know.” I sighed. “Well, I guess we’d better hope he finds us along our route.”
She held out our list. “Sorry, Ans. We’ve got to get this done.”
Hay day was one of my favorite days of the year in Peachtree Bluff.
Well, one of my favorite of the fall, anyway.
But there were so many days I loved in Peachtree that it was hard to rank them appropriately.
In advance of the Halloween Hoedown, an event that basically took over downtown with carnival rides, food trucks, street vendors, face painting, a bluegrass band and dance floor, a hayride and hay bale maze, most of the houses went all out with their fall decorations so that the people walking around felt fallish and festive wherever they were.
This year I was having a little “night before” party to thank all the volunteers, which is why when we got to my house, only the third on the list, poor Tyler had to unload thirty bales of hay.
“Ansley, honestly. What are you doing with all of this?”
I just smiled because I had a vision. I was going to set up a dozen bales—two layers high—going all the way across my yard.
They would get draped with a tablecloth and adorned with flower arrangements, in pumpkins, of course.
I loved real candles and wasn’t a huge fan of the LED ones, but I also wasn’t a masochist and didn’t want to burn the whole town down.
So, we’d have floating LED candles surrounding the centerpieces.
The remaining bales were seating. The whole thing was going to be very charming and would look cheery set up all fall long to boot.
I was so excited it almost took my mind off the husband I hadn’t talked to.
We made a few more deliveries—three bales for the Wilders, one for the Pages, two for the Marshalls—before we got to Mrs. McClasky. She had ordered six bales, a few of which she would use to stuff her scarecrow.
As the boys began unloading, I stepped out to supervise.
Lord knows, if Mrs. McClasky’s hay wasn’t just right I’d be hearing about it.
I shaded my eyes and, as though he’s been sent from heaven, as though he might have been a mirage, Keith appeared.
I waved him down as if he weren’t headed toward me anyway.
“There you are!” he said as he approached.
“Here I am? There you are. Man, I need some coffee!” It did occur to me that I could have walked the extra block to Peachtree Perk or, God forbid, made my own coffee.
But that wasn’t our way here downtown. It barely occurred to me.
Keith looked tired. And kind of rumpled.
“Not to be nosy, but you’re kind of late today. Did you oversleep?”
He laughed. “Did I oversleep? No, Ansley, I did not oversleep. I had to drive back from the fact-finding mission you sent me on.”
I took a sip of coffee, scarcely able to breathe with joy. It was the chocolate pumpkin spice but with my oat milk instead of Sloane’s dairy. It was so good that it took me a few seconds to gasp. “Keith! No! I wasn’t trying to, like, pimp you out.”
“What can I say, Ansley? Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the good of the town.” He laughed. “And, uh, let’s just say I didn’t suffer too much. I kind of like Teresa. We’ll probably go out again.”
Kimmy joined me, hands in her pockets. “Keith slept his way to the dock intel,” I said.
She patted him on the back. “Well done, my boy. And?”
“The rumors are true. The council did decide in closed session to sell to Port-of-Call Properties. Evidently, Dockmaster Dan’s thirty-year lease is up, and he doesn’t want to renew without the town agreeing to some improvements.”
I perked up at that. “Okay! That’s not a problem. We’ll get the improvements done! We’ll band together, raise the money, sell some hay.”
“Ansley, it’s ten million dollars’ worth of repairs.”
Kimmy whistled. “That is a lot of hay.”
Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that. I was also on edge waiting for Jack’s name to come up.
I wanted to know if Teresa had mentioned him, but I didn’t want to look eager for information like I didn’t know what my own husband was up to.
Even still, my stomach sank. If Port-of-Call Properties was the buyer, all signs did point to my commodore husband.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s bad. But it’s not impossible.
” It felt impossible. But I was already going through a list of donors in my head we could get to write large checks.
No one in this town was going to want the docks to turn into a carnival.
Sure, that was fun for a day at Halloween, but the rest of the year we are a pre-revolutionary town with history, a pedigree, and a lot of crotchety residents who hated change. Like me.
“Ansley, you’re going to have to go talk to the town council,” Keith said.
Kimmy nodded in agreement.
“Me?” I asked, incredulous. “Why in the world would I do such a thing? I have no involvement in town politics. I don’t even know what some of this means. I am not the person.”
“Oh, you’re the person, alright,” a voice behind me I instantly recognized said.
I turned, and Mrs. McClasky was holding a bright red yard sign that said KEEP OUR DOCKS PUBLIC in blue. “Ansley, you sort of run everything around here. You know that.”
I let out a noise that bordered on a guffaw. “I don’t run anything.”
They all just stared at me. Well, maybe they were right. Maybe I kind of did. Good for me. But I didn’t want this responsibility. Not one bit.
I pointed at Mrs. McClasky. “I believe you are the one who runs things.”
She waved her hand. “Yeah, but everyone’s sick of my rants. I’ve burned up my whole book of matches already. You’ve only lit, like, one.”
That made me laugh. I pointed to the sign. “You know, if you channeled all of this into something positive, you really could take over the world.”
She nodded. “I know. Instead, I’m just here to make sure Peachtree Bluff doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket.” She gestured to a stack of boxes near her. “And I was hoping you guys could deliver these signs along with the hay.”
“Brilliant,” Kimmy said. “We’ll do that.”
I paused. “But we’ll have to ask people. What if they don’t want one?”
They all looked blankly at me again. “What if our neighbors don’t want a sign protesting their losing access to the water they love?” Keith asked.
“And having to hear the cockroach of the sea going back and forth down our once elegant sailing waterway?” Mrs. McClasky added. The cockroach of the sea was, in this scenario, the Jet Ski.
I looked to Kimmy. “No notes,” she said.
“Alright. We’ll deliver the signs.”
“I’ll be out spreading the word,” Mrs. McClasky said.
As we walked away I said, “Oh my gosh, Kimmy, has hell frozen over?”
She shook her head. “I was just wondering the same thing. When have we ever been on the same team as McClasky?”
I laughed. “You know, it’s kind of pleasant to be swept along for the ride instead of being at odds.”
“Totally.”
The boys were all on their phones sitting around the edges of the trailer. “Okay!” I said, snapping them out of it. “Are we ready to get back in action? If you can all go grab a handful of signs from Mrs. McClasky, we’re going to deliver them with our hay.”
They all walked into her yard. No one asked any questions.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and my stomach flipped.
Not in a good way. It was Jack. I had to talk to him about this.
I knew I did. But it wouldn’t change my opinion.
Even if this was his doing, even if it was his brainchild, and we stood to make millions off it, I was opposed.
I stood on the side of our town and that was that.
So I didn’t answer. I didn’t think I could talk to him without asking.
And I couldn’t know yet. I just couldn’t.
So I texted him a picture of the hay bales instead.
That’s my girl! he texted back.
Always taking care of our town.
I wanted to type back, unlike you, who sold us out.
But, in my heart of hearts, I couldn’t imagine he would do something like that.
I just couldn’t. So I decided that Jack was going to be innocent until proven guilty, and I was going to wait as long as humanly possible before I proved him such—you know, just in case I was wrong, and he was guilty.
Tyler walked toward me, and I smiled. “So,” I said, “are you and your friends going to help set up the hay bale maze this year?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The whole football team. Poor Kimmy. It’s kind of hard because everyone isn’t that, um, brainy…”
I laughed. I looked around like Vivi was going to intuit me fraternizing with the enemy, like maybe I should walk away. “Well, I really appreciate it. This whole Halloween Hoedown is a ton of work, but nothing is a bigger job than the hay bale maze.”
“I can’t believe you’re chairing that and planning Emerson’s wedding.” As soon as he said that, he made a face like he wished he hadn’t. He looked down at his shoes. “Which I guess I will no longer be attending.”
I winced.
“Look, Ansley, I know you’ve heard Vivi’s side of the story, and I know she’s your granddaughter, but I would do anything to get her back. I promise you, cross my heart, that it wasn’t what it sounds like. I have my side of the story too, and I’m pretty sure it proves my innocence.”
As my phone beeped in my pocket again, I hoped against hope that my husband could make that exact same claim.