by S. A. Wolfe
“What the hell is the right thing?”
“Dude, that’s the great fucking mystery. But you know what you need to do first.”
I’m standing there with a wet kitchen towel compress around my neck, waiting for him to elaborate and give me detailed advice.
“Good run. I’ll see ya later, dude,” he says as he heads out the front door.
I know what I need to do. It rings through my brain. And I do know.
• • •
“Are you sure?” Danny Bourdain asks.
“Yes, I’m sure. Thank you for everything,” I reply and end the call.
After Danny, I have a brief chat with Harmony to confirm what she and I discussed the night before. She says she has always believed I would do the right thing and not make the grave mistake of putting a job before Finn or the people who matter to me. It’s nice to hear her say this, that she has faith in me. Then she puts Finn on the phone so I can tell him the news.
He isn’t letting me have any part of the good-natured Finn. He says, “What?” as if I am an annoying interruption. Then I give him the full story of how I got blindsided by the glamour of the job opportunity, and I end it with an apology like I’ve never given before.
I get choked up thinking about him at the other end of the line. A boy who has been waiting for his father to come into his life, and then I enter with a bang and almost ruin all of our lives with my grandiose agenda.
“I love you, Finn. Don’t doubt that.”
“I know,” he says in a voice so small I can barely hear him.
Bash is the next call. Then I shove my phone in my back pocket and head to Blackard Designs to see my brother.
Cooper is usually in the factory part of the shop, working the big ovens they use to age and weather some of the wood before it’s crafted into furniture. I walk around the noisy factory in a hard hat, looking for him and trying to stay out of everyone’s way until Daisy, the receptionist, physically removes me. She shoves me out of the factory and walks me past the woodworking studios until we reach Carson’s office.
“Can you handle your brother?” Daisy says to Cooper. “He’s a nuisance on the floor!”
“He’s a nuisance, period,” Cooper adds.
Carson is sitting back in his desk chair with his dirty boots up on his desk, and Cooper is sitting in front of it. The desk is strewn with burgers and fries from Bonnie’s Diner. They laugh as Daisy pushes me into the room and closes the door.
“Ten is a little early for lunch,” I comment, putting my hard hat on the desk and sitting in the chair next to Cooper.
“We started work at five this morning,” Carson says. “Have to load a huge order in an hour.”
“What’s up?” Cooper asks me.
“Do you have a number for a hit man?”
Cooper laughs. “Need a problem to go away?”
“Adam Fucking Knight. You don’t have to kill him, just maim him where it counts, like his dick.”
“Hell, Imogene can take care of that for you.”
“Seriously, use your connections to find out what you can on the guy. Please.”
“Back up, dude. Is this about Talia?” Cooper asks.
I nod. “I need to know what I’m dealing with. Who I’m competing with.”
“Settle down, Corleone. You’re the guy who’s been putting everything and everyone else aside for Danny Bourdain. What’s going on with Los Angeles? You’ve been really cagey about it and avoiding my questions for the past two weeks.” Cooper gives me the hard-nosed MacKenzie look, the one perfected by my father when one of his kids was in trouble.
“I’m not going. I’m staying in New York.”
“Really?” Cooper says with a smile. “Glad to hear it.”
“That’s great,” Carson says. “It’ll be nice having you here. Are you going to keep living in Hera or move back to the city?”
“Hera.”
“What went down with Bourdain?” Cooper asks. “I was pretty sure he had brainwashed my little brother and was going to have you moved out there in a matter of days.”
“It came pretty damn close to that. I was ready to go.”
“And what about Bash? He must be relieved,” Carson adds.
“I think I’ve saved our friendship. How did you know Bash didn’t want to go?”
Cooper sighs. “If you hadn’t been so caught up in your own drama, the restaurant, and chasing Talia, you would have known that Bash has a sweet little crush on Kimberly, my favorite librarian.”
“I haven’t been paying attention. I guess it’s getting serious. Funny, I thought I was evolving, with Finn and all. It took a good reaming from his mother to wake me up.”
“Good,” Cooper says. “What’s going on with Talia? Have you spoken to her?”
“No. We’ve managed to dodge each other at the restaurant. I don’t know how serious she is about Adam. Bash doesn’t know any more than me. His head is in the clouds over Kim. He said Talia hasn’t mentioned anything out of the ordinary. But I know her. She’d keep it quiet.”
“Why can’t you just ask her directly? What’s with this covert operation of getting intel from other people?” Carson asks.
“Like I said, I want to know what I’m dealing with before I talk to her.”
Cooper chuckles. “You think I’ll find the smoking gun on Adam, and you can use it in a case for yourself to persuade Talia not to see the guy?”
“I’m feeling kind of desperate. I’ll try anything.” I stand to leave.
“I know that feeling. It’s not good. It leads you down a rabbit hole of guessing games and wasted time.” Carson points a french fry at me. “Don’t go there. Talk to her.”
“It’s not that simple. I said something … Jesus, I actually encouraged her to go out with Knight. Thought I was being big about it.”
“Well, aren’t you a fuckwad.” Cooper sits up and leans toward me. “I’m going to pull in some favors and get that information on Adam for you. I expect it to come back clean. Let me be clear, Peyton, you have a kid who needs you, so you need to know exactly what you’re doing for his sake. If Talia is this important to you, make sure you’re not playing some game just because you like the competition with Adam Knight. You’re either all in or you’re out.”
“I’m all in. I’m staying in Hera, and I’m going to be a full-time father to Finn, and I’m going to run Swill.”
“Who wants a shot of scotch?” Carson pulls the bottle of Macallan out of his desk drawer.
“Me,” Cooper and I say in unison.
Talia
GREER IS HOSTING THE girls’ night at her home. Her twins spent the day with their father, and then he dropped them off, stomachs full of fast food, and hands gripping bags of candy as the women started arriving. Imogene helped Greer get the kids in bed, and by eight, they were asleep and we were in the kitchen, mixing cocktails.
I brought appetizers I made at home and uncover them so the eating can commence. Jess gives Greer a belated housewarming gift—cases of margarita glasses, martini glasses, champagne flutes, and wineglasses for reds and whites. Emma unwraps a tray of antipasto that Dylan artfully assembled, and Lauren and Kim both produce bags of Doritos and Lay’s potato chips because everyone will want something crunchy and greasy.
“My God, I can’t remember the last time I did this,” Greer squeals as she sits on her new sectional couch. She’s out of her work uniform of designer blouses and high-heeled boots, and cozied up in slouchy sweats. “My ex installed the new TV last week. It was a gift! Can you believe it? He thought my thirty-inch TV was kind of sad, so he surprised me with this sixty-inch monstrosity. I have to say, he’s so much more thoughtful as a husband and father now that we’re divorced.”
“Maybe he’s found some new woman and feels guilty,” Imogene says, planting herself in the middle of the couch so she faces the center of the big screen.
“Imogene, you always manage to turn something nice into something ugly,” Jess says.
“Hear, hear,�
� Lauren says. She and Kim arrange all the food on the oversize, square coffee table in front of us so we don’t have to exert extra energy to walk to the kitchen for snacks.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Kim says. “I think it’s great that you and your ex-husband get along so well. I think it’s sweet he’s doing these extra nice things for you. He must see how hard it is to be a single parent when he has them for weekend outings.
“I saw him at Swill the other night when he brought the kids in for dinner while you were working. He kept his cool during Owen’s meltdown and Nikki’s refusal to eat. He must appreciate what you do every day.”
“Are you always this sunny?” Imogene asks Kim. “I’ve known you forever. When does bitterness and cynicism kick in like it did for the rest of us?”
“Kim is a naturally happy person,” Lauren says. “She chooses to see the glass as half-full, and you choose to see it as perpetually empty.”
“She’s in love,” I say, and Kim’s face turns a lovely shade of pink.
“It’s Bash,” Greer says to the others. “Talia and I have watched that little relationship blossom over the last few weeks. They are so cute together. It reminds me of that blind young love you have in high school. Except without the stupid teenage behavior.”
“I’d like to have a strong drink first if I’m going to be hearing about teenage love,” Imogene grouses.
Kim laughs. “I’m sorry, Imogene, but the DVDs I brought tonight are Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club. Classics. Teenage Love.”
“Are you kidding me?” Imogene shouts. “Those are my mother’s favorite movies. Why aren’t we streaming Black Mirror or Mindhunter?”
“Because I won’t have my cable or Internet until next week,” Greer explains. “I got a DVD player with the TV. That’s why I asked Kim to bring some videos from the library.”
“Well, congratulations,” Imogene says to Kim and raises her martini glass. “A toast to Kim and Bash. And may we all have a lifetime of hormonal teenage love like every character Molly Ringwald ever played.”
“Yes!” Lauren says. “I love those movies.”
“I’ve never seen them, so I don’t have a clue,” Jess says. She’s sipping the very strong drink Imogene made her and takes a moment to realize all eyes are on her. “What?”
“Where did you grow up to have such a deprived childhood?” asks Greer.
“I missed out on the whole high school teenage experience. I watched movies my parents chose. Oldies like Stalag 17. The Queen.”
“Goodness,” Greer says.
“They’re good movies,” Jess says defensively. “Not romance. No romance with my parents. Definitely no hot guys.”
Kim starts us with The Breakfast Club, and there’s an audible swoon from Lauren and Emma when Judd Nelson appears, which I don’t get at all.
Greer scoots over on the couch, closer to me. “Are you going to tell us about your date with Adam Knight?”
“It was nice. We’re becoming good friends, I think.”
Imogene overhears our whispering and pulls her gaze away from the movie. “Really? Nothing is going to happen with Adam? You looked happy when you came back from your date. I see you two talking all the time—at the diner, in front of yoga class. I thought for sure you two had planned that.”
“Nope. Just friends. He’s been putting together a business plan for me, helping me out.”
“Helping you out with Pickwick?” Imogene asks, alarmed. “Is he buying it? Is he buying it for you?”
“No, nothing like that. He’s teaching me some basics on land acquisition and developing a property. Looking for investors. That kind of thing. Now, can we watch the movie?”
Greer looks a bit reflective. I’m sure she’s dying to know if I have feelings for her brother.
“Peyton has always been something of a closed book with me when it comes to women,” she whispers so only I can hear. “I liked seeing you two together, sneaking around. It was sweet. Have you spoken to him since he got back?”
“No. We said everything we could possibly say before he left on his trip. It was kind of ugly. And honestly, I can’t do this anymore with Peyton. We shouldn’t talk to each other. Ever. It’s hurtful.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Greer’s face falls. “I was hoping his trip would give him more perspective on why he’s better off being his own boss here.”
“I can’t talk about it with him anymore. We have completely different views on the subject. I really want to get back into my own kitchen. Today, I heard from another tenant that the renovations are complete, so I’m going to talk to my landlord to see how soon I can get back in there.”
“I’ll miss seeing you at Swill. I really will,” Greer says.
I smile. “We’ll still have that sadistic yoga class together.”
Greer looks like she wants to say more on the subject of her baby brother, but then she just pats my leg and we finish watching the first movie.
“These films make teenagers believe in fairy tales,” Greer says. “It sure didn’t work out for me. I was divorced before my twins turned three. Movies like this are kind of masochistic, if you ask me.”
“Same here,” I say. “Men don’t live up to my expectations.”
“I was you once!” Imogene points an empty vodka bottle at me. “But then I found that there are more men. They’re everywhere!”
“That’s helpful,” I say.
“She’s drunk, but she’s right,” Kim says. “Over the last three years, I only had two dates. Then I met Bash, and I’m crazy about him. I’m so happy he’s not moving to Los Angeles with Peyton.”
“Bash didn’t tell me that,” Greer says softly, looking worried.
“Oh, I think I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone,” Kim says, swaying a bit with a drink in her hand. “Bash told me after he spoke to Peyton, but Bash hasn’t told anyone else. I think I just spilled his beans.”
“It’s all right. We were going to find out soon enough,” Greer says. “It’s just that Bash and Peyton have always worked together. If they’re dissolving their business partnership, it means Peyton really is leaving all of this behind. It makes me sad. I love working with him.”
“Aw … It’s making me sad to see you sad.” Kim pops open the other DVD case. “Time for another movie to distract us.”
I don’t think there’s any movie that could possibly distract me from thinking about Peyton. I talk like I’m confident and not at all upset over Peyton. I’m faking it. All of it.
The thought of not being with Peyton hurts beyond anything I have ever experienced. The thought I may never see him—him leaving Hera altogether—pains me beyond belief. The only other person in the room who seems to be experiencing a similar grief is Greer. She thinks she’s losing her brother, the sibling who helped her get her life back on track after her divorce.
Maybe everyone thinks I’m losing a short-term lover, but lover isn’t adequate enough to describe what Peyton has been to me. He was my true friend, my love. Love. He gave me love and showed me how to love myself when I could only see a flawed self, a flawed family, and a flawed future.
Peyton
“THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS! I’m so happy for Finn. And you. And I’m happy for me! My God, I had no idea how hard this would be on me. I knew you wanted to work for Danny Bourdain, but I don’t think I ever really considered the consequences until I heard you were going and Bash was staying.” Greer smiles and sighs with relief.
“I didn’t realize the impact it would have on Finn or me. Which is an understatement.”
“I’ve never told you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and the kids. Giving me this job, this new career, this new life in this town—I owe you so much gratitude. I have loved working with you. And when you convinced me to leave Brooklyn, I was doubtful, but you were right. The thought of not working side by side with you didn’t really hit me until a few days ago, and I can’t tell you how sad I’ve been over this. Have you told Tali
a?”
“I’m talking to people in a specific order so the town isn’t buzzing with gossip. I don’t want her to hear a twisted version. But I’m struggling with how to approach her … what to say. I was in bad form the last time we saw each other. Now you know why I haven’t been going in to Swill before four—afraid to face her.”
“About that. Heads-up, Talia is a bit jaded about you. Men, in general.”
This is hardly new information, except it’s worse hearing my sister confirm it.
“She’s torn, and supposedly she and Adam are not a thing.”
“Supposedly,” I say skeptically.
• • •
I head over to the Blackard factory again to see if Cooper has any damning evidence on Adam that I can use when I go begging to Talia.
That’s what it will come to. At some point, I’ll have to beg for her forgiveness for my behavior—anything for her to choose me.
I’ve timed it so Cooper and Carson are having lunch again in Carson’s office, eating sushi. It always comes as a shock to tourists that Hera has fresh sushi at The General Store. They employ a real sushi chef, Daniel Takahashi, who left a high-end Manhattan restaurant to park his sushi station in the town’s small grocery. He dubbed himself early on as Sushi Dan and built a loyal following among Hera’s residents and people in the surrounding towns with the help of daily Instagram posts by him and his fans.
“What have you got for me?” I ask, closing Carson’s office door.
“We have extra sashimi. It’s excellent,” Carson says, pointing a chopstick at it.
“Not food. I want to know what you found out about Adam. Did you run a background check?” I ask Cooper.
“Jesus, you’re really worried about this guy.”
“He’s the only thing that stands between me and Talia.”
Cooper eyes me with concern. “You sure? You don’t think that jerking her around for months has anything to do with her seeing other people?”
“Seeing other people?” I raise my voice. “Who the fuck else is she seeing?”
