Chapter 11
The next day I stood outside the hardware store wondering what to do next. I’d already finished all the errands I could come up with and I couldn’t go grocery shopping until I was sure it was safe to go back home. Maybe I could buy all the nonperishables first? I rubbed my eyes in frustration.
At least my morning hadn’t started with banging. No, this time I was treated to the visual delight of Charlie in sleep shorts so tiny they showed the curve of her ass.
Meanwhile she wouldn’t look me in the eye. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so stupid.
So she saw me naked? Big deal.
Although I had to admit that it would be a huge deal if I had seen her naked. Even though she hated me, and I found her stuck up and anal retentive, I couldn’t help fantasizing about her in the shower again.
God, the thought of Charlotte Monroe on her knees in front of me was enough to short-circuit my brain every time. I couldn’t even imagine pushing through those full lips while she looked up at me with those big dewy eyes.
Even her blowjobs were probably angry.
I groaned and pinched my nose in frustration. This wouldn’t do. I couldn’t go back there until I was sure I had these errant thoughts under control. I glanced at my phone to see the time. It was only a little after ten. Surely she was out of the house by now?
As I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk trying to decide if it was worth the risk to go home, I heard a familiar little growl.
“Would you come on?” a voice whispered from behind me.
When I turned around, Charlie was a few feet away tugging on the end of a retractable leash while her little dog friend sniffed my boot. It was obvious that she’d been hoping to sneak by without having to speak to me. Since I loved nothing more than scuttling her plans, I raised my voice as loud as I could when I spoke.
“Good morning, Charlie! Fine day, isn’t it?”
“Well, I thought it was until now.” She plastered the biggest fake smile on her face before turning to leave, but the dog resisted her effort with a pitiful little whine.
“He looks better. Did you give him a bath?” I wasn’t sure why I was determined to engage her in conversation other than the fact that she so clearly didn’t want to talk to me.
Annoying Charlotte Monroe was an evergreen joy, it seemed. I fully expected us to be puttering around town in our eighties still slinging insults and rolling our eyes at each other. The mental image of us as little old people took me off guard for a moment because I was struck with how much I actually hoped it would come true. It was a stupid thing to wish for since Charlie would likely have moved on to some other place to live long before then.
“Yes. He got a bath.”
“As long as you didn’t do it after midnight, we’re safe.”
“What?”
“Obviously he’s a gremlin disguised as a dog.” I was a little surprised she didn’t get the reference after how many times we’d watched that old movie as kids.
She rolled her eyes before tugging on the leash again. The little dog paid her no mind as he growled playfully and tried to bite one of the laces on my boot.
I moved my foot away slightly. “Hey! If you want to bite me at least buy me dinner first.”
He seemed to take that as a challenge as he hopped around, chasing my foot like it was a game. But at some point I must have done something he interpreted as aggressive because he suddenly went wild, barking furiously at my feet.
“What did you do to him?” Charlie accused.
I pointed down at the dog who was still barking madly like he was being attacked. “All I did was move my foot. Does he have a thing about boots? Did he get stepped on or something?”
She peered down at him curiously. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s just remembering the day he met you.”
“Funny.”
“I can relate. I feel uncontrollable rage when I see you, too.”
Shaking my head, I looked back down at the little dog. It didn’t look like he was going for my ankle this time so I took the risk of petting his back. His huge tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted. When he pawed my leg, I picked him up.
“Wow, Meatball. Really? You have no loyalty.” Charlie scowled at me, but she reached over to give the puppy a scratch behind the ears.
“Meatball? You’re actually calling the dog Meatball?” I cracked up.
“Well, it’s better than calling him the dog.” She lowered her voice while she imitated me.
“At least it’s accurate. The little bastard ate my food.”
She scowled. “Don’t call him that. He’s just a baby.”
“He’s a homeless thief.”
She leaned over to kiss Meatball’s head before whispering, “If this is going to work, you cannot be nice to Rix. We do not like him. Stranger Danger.”
When I heard the distinctive sound of water hitting the ground, I looked down to see that the dog had just peed all over my favorite boots. I scrambled to adjust my hold to keep it away from me until the stream finally stopped. Then just when I relaxed, he let out one last shot that hit me right on the thigh, leaving a huge wet spot on my jeans.
“Well, it seems the gremlin has unlocked his first weapon: the pee cannon. You’ve trained him well.” I handed him back to Charlie carefully.
She gulped. “Okay now I actually feel kind of bad. I didn’t expect that to happen. He just went to the bathroom on five different trees.”
“I think he was saving that one for a good cause.”
She leaned down to whisper in Meatball’s ear. “Good boy. You get an extra treat today.”
I shook my boots to get as much of the pee off as possible before making my way over to my truck. The last thing I wanted was for that smell to get into the interior.
I should have been annoyed that I needed to go home and change but honestly, it was kind of funny. From stealing my food to destroying my clothes, the dog was racking up points in our ongoing war.
I was going to have to step up my game.
* * *
As soon as I got in my truck, I decided to go ahead and get my groceries before I went home. Going home to change my shoes would waste way too much time and I was due at work soon. This was a small town, so everybody knew everybody’s business. Going into the general store with dog pee on my boots definitely wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened.
I drove over to the general store, which was a charming old building on the corner of Main Street with a striped green and white awning. As far as I knew, the store had been here as long as the town had, and it had always been run by a Murphy.
When I walked in Mrs. Murphy, the elderly store owner, glanced up from the magazine she was reading. “Morning, Rix.”
I waved back and grabbed a basket. “Morning, Mrs. Murphy.”
My first stop was for snacks. I couldn’t survive on the wheat grass and berries that Charlie seemed to love. I would die if I didn’t get some real food.
Just the sight of all the potato chips lined up made my mouth water. I grabbed a salt and vinegar, a sour cream and onion, and two different types of Doritos. I looked down at the handheld basket I was carrying and then walked back up front to exchange it for one of the small push carts.
I loaded my cart with all the chips before moving on to the dairy section. I was a simple man and I wanted simple, old-fashioned ice cream. Vanilla. Chocolate. Butter pecan. Not those tiny cartons with the weird names.
As I reached the ice cream case, my heart sank. Mrs. Murphy had apparently rearranged everything again. All I could see was vegan, low-fat, non-fat...
“What the hell is the point of non-fat ice cream? Might as well just eat an ice cube.”
“The vanilla is on the bottom shelf.”
I stiffened. Then I turned around. Janelle had a handheld basket hanging on her arm and looked like she was dressed for work. Maybe she was going in late today.
“Thanks.” I knelt and grabbed a tub of the vanilla ice cream.
“You’re welcome,” she replied.
God, this was awkward. As I turned to leave, Janelle cleared her throat. “So how have you been?”
“Fine. How about you?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
She shrugged. “I got a promotion.”
“That’s great. Congratulations.”
I moved down to the milk. I wanted the real stuff, not that almond garbage Charlie bought. Janelle followed a few feet behind. I could feel her eyes on me as I looked over the offerings. I grabbed a gallon of 2 percent and dropped it into my cart.
“My cousin Theresa is getting married,” Janelle said finally. “She wants me to be one of her bridesmaids.”
The word bridesmaid hung heavily in the air between us. Janelle had already been a bridesmaid in four weddings.
I swallowed. “Tell her I said congratulations.”
As I was about to walk away again Janelle laughed. “That’s all you can say? Congratulations?”
The store was empty, save for Mrs. Murphy at the front counter. Every so often she flipped a page in her magazine, but I could tell she was listening.
“What do you want me to say, Janelle?” I asked finally.
Her face fell. “I don’t know. Maybe that we didn’t waste a year of our lives. That we can start over. That you miss me.”
That hit me right in the gut. I took a deep breath and walked back toward Janelle. “I wasn’t trying to waste your time. I thought we were having fun. Maybe I was the only one having a good time.”
We stood in silence, both pretending that we didn’t notice Mrs. Murphy hanging on our every word. She wasn’t even pretending to read her magazine anymore.
She sniffled. “Sometimes I wonder what could have been if we”d tried a little harder.”
“I think we tried. Both of us. We just wanted different things. It’s okay. We’ve both moved on.”
Her gaze turned speculative. “I heard you moved in with that girl. Tana’s friend. What was her name?”
I sighed. Janelle could be catty as hell and the last thing I needed was her targeting Charlie.
“I had to find a room to rent after you kicked me out. You remember throwing all my shit in the grass, right?”
Her expression turned mulish. “I was upset, okay?”
“I get that. I was upset, too. Being screamed at will do that to you.” I moved around her and started walking toward the front of the store. Maybe an audience would discourage further conversation. I should have known better. Janelle followed so closely that when I stopped, she crashed into my back.
“Did you ever love me, Rix? Even a little?”
I looked over my shoulder and the sheen of tears in her eyes was unmistakable. That was why I’d left.
Okay, technically she had thrown me out, but that look was why I’d stayed gone.
It was hell being with someone every day knowing you could never be what they needed. I hadn’t intended to lead her on. Things between us had started more out of convenience than anything. I think we both had just gotten tired of the dating scene.
But somewhere along the way her feelings went somewhere that mine couldn’t follow.
“I’m sorry, Janelle.”
We both knew what I meant by that.
The sound of the cash register startled us both. Mrs. Murphy looked at me with sympathy. “You ready to check out, hon?”
“Yes.” I grabbed everything in the cart and started piling it on the counter. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Behind me I could still hear Janelle sniffling. Mrs. Murphy glanced over at her in between scanning items. I groaned. It would be all over town by tonight that I’d broken Janelle’s heart. Again.
“That’ll be $18.73,” Mrs. Murphy announced.
I shoved a twenty-dollar bill across the counter and grabbed the bags. “Keep the change.”
Suddenly Janelle sniffed even louder. Then she sniffed again.
“Rix. Is that you?”
I looked at her. Her cheeks were still wet but now she was looking at me with disgust. She put her hand over her nose.
“What?”
“You smell like … ”
Just then I remembered Meatball’s pee attack. It startled a laugh out of me. Both Janelle and Mrs. Murphy looked at me like I was crazy.
“It’s a long story. But anyway, I have to go. Congratulations again on the promotion. That’s impressive. See, you’re doing so much better without me.”
I backed out of the store, still laughing to myself at the looks on their faces. But as I got into my truck, I couldn”t help but wonder when things got so complicated.
* * *
Later that afternoon, I was still thinking about the pee attack while restocking the shelves. Leave it to Charlie to bond with a dog that had a vendetta against me. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the little gremlin was pretty funny. His aim was impeccable. I was never going to be able to wear those boots again without remembering that.
“What are you laughing about?” Dad asked once the customer he’d been helping finally left.
“Just thinking about attack dogs.” At his curious look, I shook my head. “Nothing. You had to be there.”
He came from behind the counter and pulled out his Swiss Army knife so he could open one of the boxes next to me. We worked in comfortable silence for a while before he glanced over again.
“I’ve been meaning to ask how Charlie is doing out there at the Everett house all alone.”
My back stiffened. Had someone seen us talking in town this morning and told him? I hadn’t been surprised that Janelle knew since she and Tana had friends in common, but I’d hoped I had a little longer before the gossip trickled over to my parents’ age group.
I wasn’t planning to lie. But it wouldn’t take much for my parents to get the idea that something was going on. Despite our hatred for each other, my parents adored Charlie and always had. If I showed even the slightest bit of interest in her then my mom would start “forgetting” that she’d invited Charlie over on the same day I usually visited or any number of other ridiculously obvious setups.
“Fine, I guess.” Hopefully that sounded appropriately noncommittal.
Dad continued chatting as he opened another box. “The place has gotten really run-down over the years. That’s a lot of work for one person to handle. But I’m sure you already offered to help. You’llgive her a way better deal than anyone else she could hire.”
“You’re sure, huh?” I watched him from the corner of my eye. My mom was usually the one matchmaking, but that didn’t mean my father was immune.
“Of course, I’m sure. You’re my son and I raised you right. Although I fully admit that was ninety percent your mother’s doing.”
I laughed. “You might have had a little more impact than that.”
“Son, you would never let a family friend get taken for a ride by those fancy city contractors. They charge twice the price they need to. Those scammerswanted twenty thousand to redo a bathroom. Twenty thousand!”
“Dad.”
I needed to redirect his attention before he went on a complete tangent. He had a tendency to get riled up when talking about money.
“I’ll take a look at any estimates she gets to make sure they’re fair. She’s not going to get scammed.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it. It’s good she’s back after that New York business. People around here takecare of each other. We always have.”
He turned away when the bell over the door chimed but not before I spied the satisfied smirk on his face. I sighed. It was a good thing I’d already decided to help Charlie out since my dad had just taken me from zero to sixty in less than five minutes.
I had been played by a master.
“Nice guilt trip, Dad.”
He shrugged. “I said it was ninety percent your mother. I have to do my ten.”
As he wandered off to help a customer, I thought back to how Charlie had looked yesterday after I’d pulled her out of that hole in the porch. She’d looked so … defeated. Home improvement shows made everyone think they could renovate over the course of a weekend, but the reality was rarely so simple. Not to mention that it could be dangerous, something she had already found out the hard way.
What if Miss Pauline hadn’t been home?
How many hours would she have been stuck there before anybody thought to check on her?
We might not be friends but that didn’t mean I liked the idea of her getting hurt. Now that I was living there, I could at least make sure there weren’t any other major disasters waiting to pop out.
As much as she hated it, she was going to have to get used to my help.