Chapter 6
SIX
“Looking back, my childhood was a wonder. Running barefoot on a hot summer day, catching grasshoppers, and doing it all with my best friend.”
—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,
Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes
“Once again, Mr. Ferris,” I said, trying to keep my voice even, “the price for a cup of coffee went up to a dollar fifty at the beginning of the year.”
“This is highway robbery. It used to be a dollar.” He glared at me through oversized prescription glasses.
“I’m sorry.” I took a deep breath and counted to ten. It had already been a long week between the birthday party, my broken car, and that weird conversation with Mae. My patience was working overtime.
“I’m on a fixed income, you know.”
“I know.”
He muttered something under his breath and slapped down two quarters on the counter. “I should take it out of your tip.”
I barely contained my eye roll. “But how will I survive without that quarter?”
With one last dirty look, he turned and stomped toward the door. That was a guy who sent his grandkids a dollar bill for their birthdays and thought he was being generous.
“See you tomorrow,” I called out.
He shot a hand up and waved without turning around.
“Can I get another cup of coffee over here?” Ali Goodnight, my sister’s best friend, Abe’s little sister, and esteemed mayor of Two Harts, yelled from across the café.
“Me, too,” Mae chimed in.
I took my time grabbing the coffee pot and stopped twice to refill cups before I found my way to the corner booth where Ali, Mae, and Ellie sat. An unholy trinity. The three of them had a standing coffee break every Thursday at nine in the morning.
After I refilled everyone’s cup, I gasped. “Oh, no, that might be decaf. I am so sorry.”
I was not sorry at all. And it wasn’t decaf. But a girl had to have some fun when these three purposely came every week to heckle me.
“Gross.” Ali frowned. “What’s the point of coffee then?”
Ellie dumped her third teaspoon of sugar in her cup. “I think it’s yummy.”
Mae snorted.
“What?” Ellie asked.
“Would you like a little coffee with your cup of sugar?”
Pink tinged Ellie’s cheeks. “Sorry. I like it sweet. Leave me alone.”
“What’s all this?” I pointed at the papers spread out on the table.
Ali bounced in her seat. “We were going over some logistics for the Founder’s Day celebration.”
Every year, the town held a festival—a small parade, vendors, and a reenactment of the founding of Two Harts.
(Which was written and performed by the fourth grade class at the elementary school.) This year’s Founder’s Day was a bigger deal than usual.
We would be celebrating one hundred and fifty years since the two Hart brothers made their way to a small patch of land in Texas and called it Two Harts.
Ali had been talking about it non-stop. Each year since she’d become mayor, she’d grown the event a little bigger.
Her enthusiasm was contagious, which was how she roped Mae and Ellie onto the planning committee.
Personally, I tried not to make direct eye contact lest she think I was volunteering for anything.
“Actually…” Ali gazed at me, speculatively. “Did you hear we’re bringing the Miss Two Harts pageant back this year?”
“Why?” I couldn’t think of a more disturbing activity. Maybe falling into a pit of vipers?
“It’s tradition,” Ali said. “Or it was. It’s been forty years since the last one.”
“Why’d they stop?” Ellie had moved to Two Harts six years ago. She could be forgiven for not knowing all the lore.
Ali waved impatiently. “Oh, two of the contestants got into a fight over a baton. The thing was on fire at the time. It flew off the stage and caught a man’s toupee on fire.
He happened to be a judge, some radio announcer from Houston with a popular morning show.
To save him, the mayor ripped the toupee off his head and jumped on it to put the fire out.
“The guy was livid, went on his radio show, and ranted for days about it. The mayor figured we should take a break for a few years until it all blew over but a few years turned into four decades.”
“All over a toupee.” Ellie looked mildly impressed.
“Hell hath no fury like a man whose toupee has caught fire,” Mae said.
“Anyway, it seemed like the perfect time to bring it back.” Ali smiled widely. “The age limit is twenty-five, you know. How old are you again, Iris? Twenty-three?”
Three pairs of eyes swung in my directions. I stared back in horror.
“Oh, no. Absolutely not.”
“But it could be fun,” Ali said. “You could be the cool, edgy contestant.”
“Edgy?” I said, my voice higher than normal.
“She does wear black all the time,” Ellie said. “And those blue streaks in her hair… I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a dress. She’d look so cute all dressed up. You know I was once Miss Tomato Harvest. I could help you.”
“Leave her alone. She looks terrified,” my sister, my hero, said.
Ali grinned. “Calm down. It was a joke. Iris could never do a pageant.”
I frowned. It was one thing for me to be dead set against the idea. It was another thing for someone else to deter me. “What’s that mean?”
Ali shrugged. “It’s just not your thing.”
She was so right, of course. But still… The contrary part of me rose up. “I could do a pageant. I don’t want to do a pageant. There’s a difference.”
“Of course,” Ali said sweetly like she was talking to a four-year-old who’d just announced unicorns were real. “Absolutely.”
I smiled back. With teeth. I did not care about some stupid pageant, but I did care that everyone thought they knew me so well. I schooled my face into one of disinterest and gave a classic response. “Whatever.”
The bell over the door chimed and Ali grinned, waving wildly. “Abe. Come sit with us.”
He brushed past me to slide in the booth next to his sister. Smears of dirt and grim covered his ratty jeans and t-shirt. His fingernails looked like they’d been dragged through the mud. Honestly, he was filthy, but for some reason, that made him more attractive.
Ali slung an arm around his shoulders despite his appearance. “Brother of mine, it’s good to see you. Iris, get the man something to drink.”
“Yes, great ruler and mistress of all.”
“Could I get a glass of water, please?” Abe asked.
“Only because you asked nicely.” I shot her a smug glance and headed to get the water.
“Thank you,” Abe said when I returned and set the glass in front of him.
“What’s it like to be back in Two Harts?” Mae asked.
“It’s different. It will take some getting used to, but I think it will be good for Hallie.”
“I’m so glad you’re here. I’m never letting you leave.” Ali smiled up at her big brother. “How’s it going with Dad?”
It was no secret that Abe and his dad, Eli, had always had a rocky relationship. I didn’t know the full story, but I knew enough to know the ridge between the two of them had been deep. Only in the last three or four years had Abe and Eli begun to mend their relationship.
“It’s going… slowly,” Abe said. “Mom is excited though.”
“Mom is over the moon to have Hallie close. She has someone to take shopping now,” Ali said.
Abe frowned. “I figured she would spend time with her since school’s out for the summer and I have so much work to get done on the shop.
But she told me this morning that her and Dad are taking the RV to Oregon to spend the summer with Cal and Mel.
They’re leaving in the next week.” Cal was the oldest Ramos brother.
He and his wife, Mel, were expecting their first baby next month.
Ali straightened. “She hasn’t said anything to me about this.”
“They just decided today.” He nudged her with his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll hear all about it in detail later. It leaves me in a bind though. I need to find a sitter for Hallie or I’m never going to get this shop ready.”
“I can’t wait for that place to look brand new,” Ali said. As mayor, she’d been on a mission to up the “cuteness factor” of our town. We were once number two hundred and eighty-seven on a list of America’s three hundred prettiest cities. Ali was determined to get us back on that list.
Abe grimaced. “It’s going to take a lot of work and Hallie hates hanging out at the shop.”
“I wish I could do it but there’s so much going on.” Ali glanced at the papers scattered across the table.
“I’m sure you can find someone,” I said. “Maybe a teenager who’s looking for a summer job.”
“I can give you a few names,” Mae said.
“I’m sure someone’s out there who could do me a favor.” He gazed at me with a speculative glint.
Oh, no. Don’t get any ideas, buddy. I have a life to figure out this summer, thank you very much.
The last thing I needed was to be in charge of a kid.
Except for Lulu, my niece, or Oliver, Ellie’s son, I didn’t really have any experience with children.
As the youngest by nine years, I was the kid in our family.
No cousins or younger siblings to chase around or babysitting gigs when I was a teenager.
“Miss. Miss,” someone shouted across the room. He held up his mug.
“That’s my cue.” I had never been more excited to refill someone’s coffee.