Chapter 7 Bennett
BENNETT
Forrester Sibling Group Chat
Bennett
Tips for owning a new pet?
Jules
Don’t do it.
Bennett
Too late.
Rosie
You are going to be the perfect pet owner, Ben! That’s why I left you Lizzie in my will.
Bennett
You did? I’m honored.
Jules
You want that hairless creature?
Rosie
My cat is adorable!
Bennett
It’s cool you trust me enough, Rosie.
Jules
Well, now I’m offended. Why didn’t you leave her to me?
Rosie
I left you my thong collection.
Jules
I don’t want ANYTHING of yours that’s been ANYWHERE near there.
Rosie
I mean my flip-flops, you freak. I have them in every color.
Haydn
Wait, back to Bennett’s text. I need more info.
Rosie
Greg’s trying to put a three-legged chihuahua on the streets.
Ben, Hansel needs lots of hugs and love. Snuggles. I can’t remember if he’s potty trained so you might need pee pads. And I’m pretty sure he’s on a specialized diet that requires homemade organic chicken. BUT HE’S ADORABLE.
Jules
Regretting this yet?
Bennett
I really should be.
Haydn
But you’re not?
Bennett
Hansel has one leg for every sibling who has abandoned me in Winterhaven.
Rosie
I’m literally getting on a plane to come to you RIGHT NOW.
Haydn
You have GOT to be kidding me.
Jules
I’m cool with a chihuahua leg taking my place.
Breaking up with someone when you live in a small town? Not ideal.
Someone breaking up with you when you live in a small town? Torture.
It’d been three years since Lily Savage broke up with me, and I still got pitying frowns and arm squeezes every time anyone saw the two of us in the same place.
Which was often. Because Winterhaven wasn’t only a small town; it was a small island.
And Lily Savage wasn’t some random woman; she was the sister of my brother-in-law—who just happened to be Winterhaven’s most famous resident, the starting center for the Peaks professional hockey team.
It probably didn’t help that I hadn’t dated anyone since she dumped me.
Risk getting my heart publicly shredded again?
No thank you. I had better things to do.
Like watching rom-coms with my siblings.
Jump-starting my truck again. Making a really delicious meal that’d last me an entire week.
Helping out-of-shape businessmen from Los Angeles or Phoenix catch fish they’ll brag about for the rest of their lives. Buying pee pads for Hansel.
My schedule was packed.
“How are you really?” Mrs. Mabel gripped my arm as I helped her walk up the dock ramp toward the parking lot.
She’d dropped off lunch for me as my three-day expedition had arrived back in town.
She said she’d just been thinking of me.
But as delicious as they were, her lunches always came with strings… of the inquisitive variety.
“I’m great,” I told her. Spending three days on the ocean with a couple of repeat clients who were generous tippers? I was in desperate need of a shower, though.
“You don’t have to pretend with me.” She squeezed my arm sympathetically as she steered me toward her car. “I’ve seen how you look at her. It really is romantic.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, Mrs. Mabel. I’d love your chicken salad recipe, though.”
She gave me the stink eye. “Don’t play dumb, Bennett Forrester. I may not have taught you in high school, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with gaslighting me.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face, feeling how wild my beard had gotten. This was a bit much, even for me. “I’m over Lily.”
“Ha! I’m not talking about Lily.”
“Okay.” I liked Mrs. Mabel. I didn’t always like her observations on my life.
“Don’t you want to know who I mean?” she pressed.
“Nope, doesn’t sound like it’s my business.”
She huffed. “Who else’s business would it be, besides Charlie Savage’s, I guess?”
I whipped my head toward her before I could stop myself. Her satisfied smile told me I’d given her the exact reaction she’d been looking for when she’d picked her way down the dock with two homemade sandwiches for me.
She waved with a smirk as she drove off, and I closed my eyes for patience. Patience for this whole dang town that couldn’t stay out of anyone’s business.
I headed toward the Forrester Expeditions storefront, a small wooden structure that had been there for the past fifty years and was starting to show every minute of its age.
The door swung inward on creaking, rusty hinges.
It kept going long past when it should have stopped, and then the top hinge pulled apart from the frame.
My door hung there like a loose snaggle tooth.
I’d have to add it to the repair list, along with the three leaks in the roof, currently being managed by buckets; the sketchy stair I was worried a client was going to fall through someday; and the window that wouldn’t close all the way in my office—which wasn’t a huge problem right now but was going to be a real headache in a few months when the snow came.
It smelled musty and wet in here, and every morning I expected to discover that the whole building had crumbled into a heap of rotted lumber.
I could operate without a storefront, but due to some out-of-towners coming into Winterhaven and attempting to poach all our customers, we had voted in an ordinance that businesses couldn’t operate on the docks without a license.
A license that required a fully operational storefront in a nonresidential area.
I’d voted for it enthusiastically. And then my building had betrayed me.
I was heading into my slow season, where I could go weeks between clients. I’d need every penny of my savings to get through the winter, as usual, which left almost nothing for structural repairs.
I grabbed my bag from my locker at the office. I turned my phone on, and it dinged with notifications after not checking it for days.
The family group chat was active, as usual.
Everyone was giving our older brother, Haydn, a hard time for one of his wife’s new songs that referenced a lover’s velvet lips.
Haydn first tried to defend his velvet lips, then leaned into it, and then banned their use of the word velvet for all time.
I chuckled and went back to my messages page, where a new text from my dad was at the top.
Orin
Hey, son. It’s been a long time, but …
I deleted it before reading more than just the preview, my hands shaking.
He and I had been in sporadic contact since we’d all moved to Winterhaven.
A text or two a year, maybe, that I’d reply back to, but then nothing for the last year, after he’d betrayed my little sister, Rosie.
It had broken her heart and tarnished all the sheen I’d managed to still see in him, even after everything he’d done.
I needed to block him, but every time I went to do so, I recalled some great adventure he’d taken me on when I was a kid.
Or all the late-night talks we’d have while gutting fish or exploring a tiny animal trail that always led somewhere amazing.
There’d been a lot of bad, but it hadn’t been all bad.
I didn’t know how to reconcile the good times with how awful he’d been for the last decade.
Guilt sat heavy in my gut. I would do anything for my siblings—had done everything for them. It shouldn’t be this hard to cut Dad out of my life.
I swiped his name away. I needed to focus on bookkeeping, not this.
Charlie, who I was not looking at in any particular way—no matter what Mrs. Mabel said—was coming over tomorrow with Hansel. I didn’t want to have to come into work while I was getting used to my new, furry roommate.
I went to sit at my desk, relieved to relax into the steady work of inputting data, when my chair collapsed beneath me.
Charlie arrived the next day at my townhouse, clutching her tiny, three-legged Chihuahua in her arms. Her hair was pulled into a falling-down, sideways ponytail, and she looked like she hadn’t slept for a week.
Hansel was a trembling mess, and the second Charlie set him down, he peed and huddled at Charlie’s feet.
What in the world had possessed me to offer to take in her dog? I was out at sea all the time and would need to find someone to watch him while I was gone. But the devastated look on Charlie’s face had been enough for me to decide I could jump through any hoops necessary.
“Charlie!” My baby sister, Rosie, squeezed past me and launched herself into Charlie’s arms, nearly knocking her over in her enthusiasm.
“What are you doing here? I didn’t think you were coming until next week!” Charlie’s voice was just as loud and high.
“I changed my flight!”
Hansel jumped around their feet, his tail wagging, a perfect little tripping hazard.
While the girls jumped and hugged, I skirted around them and went down to Charlie’s SUV to get the box filled with food, bowls, a leash, and an alarming number of green prescription bottles.
I snagged the dog bed with my free hand and took it into the house, past the girls, whose heads were bent close together as they whispered about something.
When they got immediately quiet and they both looked at me as I walked past, I had a pretty good idea of who they were whispering about.
“What?” I ran my tongue over my teeth. Maybe spinach from my omelet got caught in them.
“Nothing,” Rosie said, but she had a way of saying nothing that was calculating and implied a whole lot of everything.
A whole lot of everything I probably didn’t want to know.
I went past them into my townhouse and set Hansel’s things on the linoleum floor. Hansel followed the girls inside on shaky legs, stopping to sniff every corner of my place.
Charlie’s fond gaze watched him. “Hansel’s care requires a lot,” she started, apologetically. “And I’ve got a thing this afternoon.”
“What thing?” Rosie sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her for Charlie.
“A kind of secret thing.” Charlie cringed.
“We won’t tell anyone,” Rosie assured her. “Right, Ben?”
“Not a soul.” I mimed zipping my mouth shut. I grabbed a chair from the table and brought it over to sit in front of them. Hansel tentatively sniffed my leg. “Hey, little guy.” I dropped my hand down for him to sniff next, then gave his ears a scratch. He was softer than I expected.
“He’d probably let you pick him up,” Charlie said.
I scooped him into my lap, where he settled into a ball and closed his eyes. Maybe taking him in would be much easier than I expected.
Rosie snapped a picture of me and Hansel, and when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, I knew she’d sent it to our family group chat.
“We’re ready to know the secret.” Rosie turned her full attention to Charlie.
“Well…” Charlie bit back a huge smile. It was good to see her happy.
Since her engagement, her light had dimmed.
To see it still flickering gave me hope that everything really was going to work out well for her.
Charlie had been like a little sister to me for so long, and I wanted her to be happy.
But I could only do so much. She wasn’t actually my sister.
I couldn’t kidnap her and hold her hostage on the family island until she came to her senses, no matter how hard Rosie had tried to convince me last night that it was the only logical course of action.
“Okay, I know you won’t tell anyone.” A wide, breath-stealing smile broke across Charlie’s face. “Greg and I are in the final interview stages for Married in the Wild!”
“What?” Rosie squealed, and Hansel’s head shot up to look around before resting on my leg again. “I need all the details.”
“I applied a few months ago. They want to get a feel for our chemistry. We’re scheduled for a video call at four.”
“I love that show,” I said. “You’ll be perfect on it.” Charlie would know exactly which plants were edible and which would keep her alive and get Greg killed (unfortunately). She loved being outdoors, and she wasn’t one to ever give up—even when she should.
“Thank you,” she said. “I hope you’re right.”
“How did you convince Greg to go on the show with you?” Rosie asked.
“Well…” She glanced away from us and stared at her twisted fingers. “I had to give up Hansel and agree to move to Juneau.”
I glanced at Rosie, who looked as stunned as I felt.
Rosie stood and paced. “You mean Greg made you agree.”
“He didn’t make me.” Fire sparked behind her eyes. I used to see this a lot more, but now it was mostly when she was defending Greg. “It’s a fair compromise.”
I gave my sister a hard look, communicating with my stare that she needed to be very careful.
Rosie visibly swallowed whatever angry thing she’d been about to say. Her voice was almost strangled when she said, “But you love it here.”
“I do,” Charlie said, with false happiness, like she could convince us this horrible thing was good based on her tone alone. “But I’m sure I’ll love it there too. We each needed to give something, you know?”
Now I was the one biting my tongue to keep from saying anything. They both had to give something? More like Charlie had to sacrifice for Greg, who was never satisfied.
Rosie huffed out a frustrated breath. “I just think—”
I lightly nudged Rosie’s foot. Despite her defense and forced smile, Charlie was about to cry. At what point would she break?
“So how do I take care of Hansel?” I asked her. I ran my hand along his back, and Hansel’s eyes closed in contentment.
Charlie blinked rapidly as she stood to retrieve the box of dog supplies I’d carried in. She rooted around in it and pulled out a three-inch binder with tabs, gaining her composure.
Rosie stood with a yawn. She’d traveled almost twenty-four hours to get here. “Wake me when this is done.”
We both nodded as she stumbled sleepily toward the guest room.
“First …” Charlie flipped to a tab labeled phobias. “Let’s go over the list of things that scare him. Starting with cardboard.”