Chapter 11 #3
“Do people really gossip this much? I just went to Greta’s for a pastry.”
“People in this town gossip about anything, Dennis. You could miss a spot shaving and someone would have a detailed analysis within thirty minutes about how you were rushing to escape Annabeth Khouri’s house because you two are having a secret affair.”
“Damn. All that from a few missed whiskers.” He rubbed his chin.
“And pretty soon, you’re shacking up with Annabeth and she’s planning which engagement ring you’re buying her at Moore Mottin’s store.”
He reared back. “That’s a very specific joking scenario you’ve just spun.”
“Be warned. Annabeth’s on the prowl. You’re the only Luview brother left.”
“Excuse me? There are plenty of us in town.”
“Not from the core family. Dean’s the only boy who kept the name going.”
“You think Annabeth wants to–”
“Marry a Luview? Hell, yes!”
“She–that’s ridiculous.”
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know?”
“The minute Deanna showed up at Kendrill’s Market talking to Ed in the meat section about how you were retiring and coming home, one big game of telephone began. Before your mother was loading her groceries in her trunk, Annabeth was getting a mani-pedi to prepare for your arrival.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Doesn’t have to make sense. We’re in Love You, Maine, where people don’t always make sense.”
“I agree with you on that.”
From any other woman, Mel’s warning would feel like she was testing the waters.
Dennis knew from his mother that plenty of single women would have him on their radar.
His mom explicitly recommended he take his time in the “dating pool,” as if he were on a new season of The Bachelor: Love You, Maine.
All this kind of talk did was make him want Ana more.
But Ana didn’t want him, and that was that.
Wriggling in his pocket made him remember the sugar glider, whose nose poked out.
“He needs some freedom,” Mel reminded him.
“Don’t we all.”
“I meant to eliminate, unless you want your pocket turned into a toilet.”
“Keeping it real, Mel. Keeping it real.”
Bubbly laughter, girlish and sweet, poured from her. Mel was weathered and jaded, so the sound made him feel like he’d cracked open something good.
“If I have a role in this community, Dennis, it’s just that: keeping it real.”
Her phone buzzed again.
“Damn. Now I have to create a habitat for a lemur and an anaconda.”
“Kell’s an expert in lemurs,” Dennis said with a snicker, unable to keep a straight face.
Mel rolled her eyes. “Lemur costumes, maybe.”
She nudged a small box.
“Take that. You can carry him in it until you figure out a safe space. Dean and Deanna must have an old aquarium somewhere, right?”
Dennis set Magic down in the box. The poor little guy limped and looked up at him, as if to beg for more cuddling.
“Who can resist a face like that?” Dennis said with a laugh.
“That’s what Annabeth Khouri says anytime she sees you.”
If she weren’t like a sister to him, Dennis would think Mel was sharpening some claws of her own.
“This entire town is too lovesick,” he groused. “I expect this from my mother. Not you.”
“Just warning you, Dennis. Annabeth is… determined.”
“You can’t force love, no matter how determined you are. Doesn’t work that way.”
“Someone has a mushy side.”
“It’s a fact.”
“You ever been in love?”
“What?”
“You heard me. You ever been in love?”
“Why would you ask me that? Aren’t you in a rush to go to Fryeburg and rescue some animals?”
Mel scratched her chin, eyes narrowing as if she were trying to read him.
“You’ve never married. Never brought anyone home for Dean and Deanna to meet. Never lived with anyone. Last person anyone in town remembers you dating was Tricia Houle, and she left town a few weeks after you did and never returned.”
“She got into Penn, Mel. Met a math professor there and got married.”
“Point being, you aren’t exactly known for romantic relationships. Not public ones, at least.” Her squint changed, as if she were rethinking that.
“I do fine.”
“You deserve it, you know?”
“Deserve bachelorhood?”
She let out a barky laugh. “No. Love.”
“Now you sound like my mom, and I don’t need a second one. You want me to start prying in your business? Ask why you and Darren divorced when you seem to get along so well?”
The way she stiffened told him he’d hit a nerve. Good. She was banging on plenty of his like she had mallets on a calypso drum, so…
Her hand wave was dismissive, but she gave him a tight smile. “I deserved that. Sorry to be like the rest of them.”
“No problem.”
“You’ve got wounds, though.”
“Don’t we all?”
“Yours are a little raw.”
“Now you’re my psychiatrist?”
“All right. I hear you loud and clear. Going back to minding my own business.”
“Thank you. Can I ask a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Teach my mother that phrase?”
“Which one?”
“‘Going back to minding my own business.’”
Mel laughed, her wheeze loud and infectious, and Dennis joined in. When she could finally speak, her eyes were red from tears.
Planting her hand on his shoulder, she looked at him and said, “Some favors are too big to ask. Impossible task, my friend. Impossible task.”
Bzzz
His phone said Mom.
“Speak of the devil,” he muttered, looking at her text.
Can you swing by Kendrill’s on your way home and get some milk, rosemary, and a garlic bulb?
Followed by nine hearts.
“She’s doing it again. I’m an errand boy now,” he muttered as he typed back the letter K.
“Of course you are. What did you think would happen living in that family commune?”
“Compound. Not commune.”
“Whatever. You’re a better soul than I am. If I had to live with my siblings and parents, within three months, no one would be speaking to each other.”
“It’s not like that,” he said, smiling. “At all.”
“I know. Your family is special.”
“It is.”
“So special, Annabeth wants to join it.”
“Mel,” he said, backing up toward his truck. “You promised.”
“I never promised not to tease you.”
“BYE, MEL!” he shouted as he started up the truck, moving carefully so he didn’t smash Magic. “HAPPY TO DO YOU THIS FAVOR! HAVE FUN WITH THE LEMUR AND SNAKE!”
Laughing, she was back in the barn before he was driving away.
When he reached the main road and turned toward town, he looked down at his jacket and sighed.
Then thought about the stray kitten in the dumpster at the hotel.
Softy. He was a softy when it came to animals. That was true emotion. Love and caring.
Not the red, pink, and white that threw up all over downtown and pretended to be Love.
As he crossed into the downtown district, the distinct ding! ding! of a trolley bell confused him, his memory flashing to San Francisco or Old Orchard Beach.
But no. He was home.
Waiting at a stoplight, he turned and saw the electric trolley Rachel was so proud of stopped at a covered station, just big enough to hold about ten people.
Eager children held their parents’ hands as they boarded, the small crowd bundled in thick winter clothing, a little girl dropping a pink mitten on the ground.
Across the street, a bottle of Pepto-Bismol doubling as a police car made him smile.
The person in the front seat wasn’t his brother. He didn’t recognize the officer, who looked like a walking red pen in his standard-issue police uniform, with the red, well… everything.
Except black belt and shoes.
Man, he’d forgotten how bizarre Luview, Maine, really was.
Basic training had sucked as a barely eighteen-year-old, but it had really sucked when his fellow recruits found out where he was from. The teasing had been nothing but torment, though it toughened him.
All the circular baked goods in the mess hall had taken some getting used to, too.
Beep!
Caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the traffic light change, so he pressed the accelerator and made his way to the small parking lot behind the market.
A chain of stores along this part of downtown meant that street parking was at a premium, though the trolley really cut down on tourists parking along the main drag.
He grabbed a spot at the far edge of the lot and went in, Magic tucked in his pocket.
With luck, no one would notice.
“Milk, garlic, rosemary,” he muttered to himself as the automatic doors opened and he walked in through the rear entrance, which meant passing the meat department. Bending over for a basket, he hadn’t even grasped the handles when he heard:
“Hey there, Dennis.”
Looking up, he locked eyes with Ed Khouri, head butcher and Annabeth’s father.
“Hey, Ed.”
“Enjoying being back home?”
Stifling a groan, Dennis gave him the polite smile he was relearning and said, “Yep.”
Perhaps going laconic would give him more peace.
Ed just nodded, but showed no signs of ending the conversation, so Dennis gave him a wave and walked toward the dairy section. Bracing himself, he spotted two more people he recognized–Dotty Chen, the town librarian, and Ford Adams, one of the mechanics at Deke’s.
Dairy and produce, then he was out of here.
Head down, he grabbed a gallon of milk from the display case and turned toward produce.
Hold up. Did his mom want fresh rosemary? Or the kind in a jar?
Reaching in his pocket, he asked the question in a text, then headed for the garlic.
“Dennis!” a female voice squealed from behind him. Not one he recognized, either.
Turning around, he came face to face with Sheila Bilbee, his cousin Blake’s wife.
A hug, like it or not, came before words. Angling his shoulder, he tried to protect Magic.
“Sheila. Good to see you. Watching out for Magic in my pocket.”
Her body froze. “Excuse me?”
He winced, wondering how that sounded to her.
“Magic. He’s a sugar glider.” Stepping back, he gently pried the little creature out of his hiding spot, mostly to show Sheila he wasn’t being vulgar.
“Oh, my goodness!”
“His name is Magic.”
“Oh! So that’s what you meant.” Her face went pink. “Why are you walking around town with your pocket full of… that?”
He pointed to the bandage on Magic’s leg.
“Helping Mel out.”