Charlie
On their way to the Jolly Ram, Anna pointed at the local bookshop.
“That’s where we were filming today. See?
All in one piece still.” She grinned proudly.
She didn’t realize he was more worried about what would happen after the movie was released rather than what could happen during filming.
Years of tourists could do so much more damage than one small film crew.
As they passed, the owner stepped out of her shop and closed the door. Anna called out to her. “Shelly! Hey, we’re all heading over to the Jolly Ram. Want to join us?”
“Right now?” Shelly asked.
“Yep. See you there?”
Shelly scrunched up her face as she considered the invitation, then finally nodded. “Sounds like fun. I’ll be right there.”
Charlie had to admire how easy it seemed to be for Anna to make friends with anyone and everyone she came across.
He’d known Shelly for years—well, in passing anyway—and he would never have thought to just ask her to join him for a drink.
Being in a group, and being a woman, certainly helped.
Either way, it was impressive to Charlie.
They continued to stroll toward the Jolly Ram, and Charlie couldn’t help noticing that they were moving at an unusually slow pace.
He had to wonder why. No chance Anna was enjoying his company as much as he was enjoying hers.
No one enjoyed his company enough to extend the amount of time they spent alone with him.
But she seemed content to meander around town, chatting easily to Charlie and everyone they ran into.
Somehow, everyone already seemed to know Anna well.
The Jolly Ram was already hopping by the time Charlie and Anna arrived.
Just seeing the outside of it made Charlie’s blood pressure drop a bit.
That log-cabin look had never changed, not in all the years he’d lived here.
He could hear that there was live music tonight, too, which was a lucky break.
The only thing that made him uncomfortable was the loud chatter he could hear from the crowd already inside.
“Hope John doesn’t mind me sending everyone his way,” Charlie muttered, thinking of the owner dealing with this crowd.
“If he hates money, he might.” Anna laughed. “My friends tend to order a lot of drinks, and they tip well. Your friend’s bar is going to do well tonight.”
Charlie sighed. “He’s not a friend, just an acquaintance.”
Anna’s eyes lit up with a mischief Charlie shuddered to see. “Oh, maybe we can change that tonight, huh?”
Before he could protest, she pushed open the door and walked in. Charlie followed, trying to grab her arm before she could go saying something she couldn’t take back, but he never did manage to stop her. She marched right up to the bar and called out John’s name.
Much to Charlie’s disappointment, John was actually working tonight. He waved Anna over like they were old friends. “Hey, Anna. Do I have you to thank for all this business today?”
She pulled Charlie up to the counter. “That would be Charlie’s fault. He told us this was the best place in town.”
“Charlie Greene,” John said. “I didn’t know you cared.” Charlie didn’t like his tone at all. It sounded far too friendly.
“You have the best establishment in town,” Charlie said matter-of-factly. “They asked for a recommendation, so I gave them the best one I had.”
“Ah, you flatter me, Charlie.” John laughed and then asked, “The usual?”
“May as well,” Charlie said. “Hope this crowd isn’t too much.”
“Are you out of your mind?” John started to pour Charlie’s drink as he spoke. “I’ve been hurting for business so bad. We were worried we weren’t going to make our bills this month.”
Charlie sat at his usual barstool, stunned. He’d had no idea the Jolly Ram was struggling. That must have been why the bar shortened its hours a couple of months back. “Man, I didn’t know,” he admitted. “Glad I was able to help, then.”
John laughed and served Charlie his drink. “Just don’t tell the band. They think they’re the draw, and it’ll break their hearts for sure.”
“Decent band,” Charlie said.
“Not bad,” John agreed. And that was the end of the conversation. Or it would have been had Anna not felt the need to extend it.
“Is the band from around here?” she asked.
“Next town over.” John turned to her. “But they’ve been playing here so long, we just think of them as locals.”
“They’re great,” she said. “Such a neat addition to the ambiance. I love it here. I’m so glad Charlie recommended it.”
Charlie didn’t think the band was half bad, but he wouldn’t have called them great.
Either way, her compliment made John smile in a way Charlie had never seen him smile before.
She seemed to have a diverse way with people.
She could be firm when she needed to, soft when she needed to, and uplifting when she needed to.
She could talk to a person for five minutes and know exactly what they needed from her.
Somehow, she used this talent to her advantage.
She’d used it with Charlie, too. He should have been offended that a woman had been able to manipulate him like that, but on the contrary, he had nothing but respect for her.
Some people were talented in surprising ways, and Anna was certainly one of them.
After about fifteen minutes of enjoying his drink at the bar in relative solitude, Charlie heard Anna’s voice again. “Shelly!” she said. “You came.” Her tone made it sound like Shelly was the person she’d been waiting for all night, like she wouldn’t be happier to see anyone else.
Shelly immediately echoed Anna’s enthusiasm, and the two women hugged like they’d known each other for ages.
“Come and meet my new friend,” Anna said, and Charlie looked around to see who she was talking about. For some ridiculous reason, he didn’t expect her to be talking about him. Even as the two women came closer to him, he fully expected them to keep walking past to someone else behind him.
Then they stopped. He glanced backward, noticed there was no one else waiting for them, and turned back with a groan. They were definitely here to talk to him. “Shelly, this is my friend Charlie. We’re filming on his ranch, too.”
“Oh, I know Charlie,” Shelly said, reaching out a hand to shake anyway. “Or I knew his father at least. He was always such a quiet child.”
As Charlie gripped her hand briefly, Anna let out a laugh. “Guess not much has changed, has it?”
Thankfully, Shelly cut in before Charlie could be expected to respond to that bit of nonsense. “So, you’re the ranch, are you? Are you excited to be famous?”
She was grinning, but Charlie didn’t find it at all amusing. “I’m only allowing it because I was going to lose the ranch. It’s a sacrifice to keep my property.”
“Oh, I understand that,” Shelly said with a nod.
“My bookshop wasn’t doing so well either.
No one seems to be shopping in brick-and-mortar stores anymore.
I know I should set up an online shop. It’s just been so daunting, you know?
This is going to give me more time to work it out.
” She laughed a nervous laugh. “Sometimes, it just feels like the world is moving on without me. Getting old is no fun, honestly.”
Charlie didn’t hear much of the last part of her confession because he couldn’t get past the first part. “You were in danger of losing your shop?”
“Well, yes. A lot of us are struggling in town. That’s why we’re so excited that our town council approved this movie.
We need a boost. Too many young folks are leaving town.
Not enough people coming in. It felt like we were on our way to becoming a ghost town for a while there.
I thought you knew that.” She cocked her head to one side in mild disbelief.
“Didn’t you say your ranch was in a similar predicament? ”
Charlie scrambled to answer her despite barely having the words. “Well, I wasn’t aware of how long the ranch had been struggling for. My father kept it from me, so I only just found out how bad it had gotten. I guess I had no idea the town was struggling as much as it was either.”
The bookshop owner reached up and patted him on the shoulder. “We’re all in this little boat together, buddy. Welcome to the club.”
It wasn’t a club Charlie particularly wanted to be part of, but he couldn’t deny that he was, like it or not. He spent the rest of that evening drinking and being introduced to people by Anna.
A couple of things occurred to him that he hadn’t considered before.
The first was that people in town actually did want to have a connection with him.
Their distance was due more to his standoffishness than anything.
The fact that they were all suddenly opening up to him simply because Anna was in the mix told him they really did want to be friendly with him.
The second thing he noticed was that almost everyone he talked to was struggling financially.
The businesses in Denson Oaks were all on their last legs.
Even the hardware store had been forced to cut employees and shorten their hours.
And those employees, if they couldn’t find work in town, had moved away to find it elsewhere.
The apartments they rented were left vacant, and the money they would have spent was being spent in some other town.
It really was an intricate ecosystem, and it was failing.
Charlie suddenly felt ashamed that he had tried to stop Anna from filming in Denson Oaks.
He hadn’t realized that he’d been in danger of losing the entire town anyway.
Denson Oaks was on life support. This movie could save it from total financial ruin.
And the tourism it brought in could bring businesses back from the brink, bring employees into town, and fill those vacant apartments for some property owners.
More people meant more revenue, and more revenue meant Denson Oaks could restore more of its historical buildings and fill more of its potholes.
And Charlie Greene had tried to sabotage it.
He hunched down in his seat, resting his elbows on the bar and staring down into his drink. “Something wrong?” John asked from behind the bar.
“Only me,” Charlie admitted. “I had no idea the town was as bad off as it was. I thought I was the only one struggling.”
John let out an airy laugh through his nose.
“You should talk to people more often, then. We’ve all been fighting for our lives for a while.
For the first time in years, we have hope that things might get a little easier.
We’re all lucky that fine woman happened to find our little corner of the world. ”
“Yeah,” Charlie muttered. Then he turned around on his stool to see Anna shaking hands with one person, turning to hug another, laughing and chatting, her cheeks pink with excitement.
She was beautiful, and her presence here represented hope to so many people.
In that moment, Charlie decided to do what he could to help her succeed in saving Denson Oaks.