by Kym Roberts
“Would you like some help?” I asked.
Mac nodded enthusiastically, and I felt like we were playing charades. Yet at the same time, it was still progress since he wasn’t looking at the floor. He was communicating, and it was a moment to celebrate.
“Come on, Princess, Mac needs our help.”
Mac waited like a gentleman for Princess and me to enter the computer section before him. I smiled as we walked by, pleased about the developing trust.
“I…need…the latest you have on building an app.” Mac was breathing hard like the entire sentence had been a workout. I wasn’t sure how he communicated with Jamal, but this was the most he’d ever said to me.
“Of course. We’ve got a section right over here about app building and we just got a new book in that deals with IOS 10. It might be what you’re looking for.” I pulled the book from the shelf and turned to show him, but Mac wasn’t paying attention. He was watching Princess, who had her ears down and was peeking outside the stall.
“Is everything okay?”
Mac jumped. Nodded his head and looked back down at the floor. “Th…thank you.”
“We also have a couple of books involving Android applications. Would you like to see those?”
“No. No. This is good.”
“Would you like me to help you find something else?”
Mac shook his head. I got the impression he was done talking. His shoulders were hunched and his gaze had returned to the floor as he took the book I offered. He quickly opened to the index and began scanning the page, periodically glancing up at me, as if he wanted me to leave.
“If you need anything else, just let me know. Princess and I will be up front.”
Mac didn’t even look in our direction. He quickly began thumbing through the pages, and Princess and I headed back toward the register.
“That was progress, Princess.” I leaned down and scratched her ears as I sat down. This was why I loved Hazel Rock. The simple things meant the most. Life didn’t get any better than that. I took a drink of my sweet tea and savored the goodness even if the batch tasted a little stale.
Princess squawked. And rammed her nose into my ankle.
“Ow. What’s gotten into you?”
She stood up on her hind legs and pawed at my thigh. Her nose twitched, and her ears flattened.
“Princess?” I’d never seen her quite so agitated. I looked around the store, but the only ones there were Mac and me. “Do I need to make another appointment for the vet? Is your foot bothering you?” She hadn’t been herself all morning. She’d skipped breakfast and had been attached to my leg since I’d gotten out of bed. Maybe it wasn’t because she sensed something was weighing on my mood. Maybe she was the one who was under the weather. I picked her up and put her on the counter, she immediately went for my glass of tea and nearly knocked it off the counter with her nose.
“Hey!” I grabbed the glass as it began to topple over. “What’s wrong with you?”
I took one more drink and moved my glass to the other counter, then began looking at her leg. Her injury was almost completely healed, and I didn’t see anything else wrong with her. “I think I’m going to make an appointment for you at the vet.”
The door to the barn swished open, followed by the ding of the bell. A man in his thirties walked in and approached the counter. He looked vaguely familiar, with short brown hair and blue eyes. His facial features were pleasant, highlighted by the best-looking eyebrows I’d ever seen. They accentuated his blue eyes nicely. He was average height, average weight, and his clothes were nothing special, just a pair jeans and a T-shirt.
“Welcome to the Book Barn Princess.” I grabbed Princess and put her in her bed under the counter. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“I actually came here to talk to you.” He smiled and held out his hand in greeting.
I stood up a little light-headed and found his grip to be stronger than what I expected. “What can I do for you, Mr.…”
“Perkins, but please call me Marvin.”
My smile slipped. Marvin Perkins. “I’m sorry for your loss Mr.…Marvin. Delbert was a good man.”
“He was a good man. Maybe a little unorganized, but a good man.”
“What can I help you with?”
“It seems my brother had developed an app.” He paused and I wondered where the conversation was going to go.
“What kind of app?” I asked.
“I believe the name was Build a Library.” He waited expectantly for me to say something, but I didn’t know what to say.
“Oh.”
“Yes, well.” He looked around the store—assessing everything from the antique register I no longer used thanks to Delbert hooking the new one up to our inventory program, to the back door and the stairs leading to the loft. “Is there someplace we can sit and have a glass of sweet tea, perhaps?”
“Of course.” I grabbed my glass and moved around the counter. “We have a tearoom back here for our customers and for group gatherings.”
I glanced into the computer section to see if Mac was doing all right, and found him with his nose deep in the book I’d handed him.
“I’m getting us some sweet tea, Mac. Would you like some?”
Mac shook his head, but never looked up. It was still progress from his last visit.
Marvin saw our Midnight Poet Society display and stopped to take a look.
“Are you a fan?” I asked.
“You could say I’m her most avid fan.” He picked up a copy of Lucy Barton’s Canoe Moon. “I just picked this one up the other day when you were having your birthday party. Do you mind if I take it into the tearoom and read a few pages while you pour my tea?”
“Not at all. Plenty of our customers sit for a spell and decide if they want to purchase a book.”
Princess chose that moment to chase after us, snuffling and snorting the whole way.
“That’s quite an exotic pet you have.” Marvin’s lip lifted. Despite his polite words, I could tell he didn’t like being near Princess. He liked it even less when she ran between his feet and nearly knocked him into a set of deer antlers.
I grimaced and shooed Princess away. I might have to rethink our use of antlers as coat hooks.
“You’ll love our sweet tea,” I said. “It’s my momma’s recipe.”
“Is your mother here?”
“No, she died when I was a kid, but her recipe lives on for me to pass on to my children.”
Marvin sat down at the table closest to the door, and I poured him a glass of tea. Feeling a headache coming on, I decided to top off my own as well and sat down with him and took a sip.
“What did you want to see me about?”
“I was wondering how you started your Book Seekers app.”
“The app doesn’t belong to the Barn. My cousin is the brains behind it.”
Princess chose that moment to run into Marvin’s leg. His nostrils flared, and for moment, I thought he was going to punt her across the room.
“Princess, no.” I started to get up and grab her, but Marvin stopped me.
“She’s fine. I’m a stranger in her territory. Please sit and enjoy your mother’s wonderful drink with me.” Marvin set the book down on the table between us. “It seems we have a lot in common, you and me. My brother developed an app just like your cousin, and we were test running it before the grand opening. I put two hundred thousand dollars down as an investment. We lined up the Book Grove as a test run site, but things started to go wrong when that electrician cut the power lines and ended up damaging the software. Delbert said it would take him a couple weeks to repair. And then your cousin moved in and got his running before Delbert. I lost all that money as soon as your cousin went live with the Book Seekers.” Marvin took a sip of tea, and when he began to talk again, his voice had turned
to a sneer. “Someone had to pay for that—and he did, with his life.”
I froze with my tea halfway to my mouth. Had he just confessed to killing someone? I wasn’t sure if I heard him right and asked, “Are you talking about Matt Allen?”
Marvin laughed and when he laughed, it was like the grim reaper swallowed you whole. It was beyond creepy. “What would make you think that?”
Princess began clawing at Marvin’s shoe.
“I’m so sorry.” I rubbed my throbbing temple. When had my headache become so unbearable? My thoughts jumbled. I must have misunderstood what he said. Maybe I had been working too much. “She’s never…” I didn’t know what I was going to say. The thought flew out of my brain before it really entered. I shook my head and tried to remember what we were talking about, but it was completely lost.
“You look rather pale. Why don’t you take a drink of tea?” Marvin handed me my glass, and I welcomed the cool sweet drink against my lips, but then felt it dribble down my chin. I suddenly wasn’t feeling very well at all. My head floated, like it belonged on another body.
A body I couldn’t control. I tried to focus on the glass in my hands, but it was like everything was in a different dimension and my head was lost in outer space. I looked around the tearoom, trying to decide if I could make it to my apartment, or if I should sit where I was. Sitting sounded like a good plan.
I looked over at the man at the table with me, what was his name?
“My brother went so far as to warn you off. But you didn’t take the hint. I believe he even shot your armadillo and ran you off the road in Eduardo’s truck. When you persisted with the news conference—he gave up. Just let my money burn up in the smoke of that electrician’s errors.”
It was only then that I knew I was in serious trouble. This man had wanted me, Princess, and my cousin dead. I tried to stand, but fell back in my chair. He said something but I didn’t quite understand why he was talking about canoeing. Was that what we’d been talking about? I tried to focus on Lucy Barton’s book on the table. It said something about a canoe and had a picture of a woman hanging over the side of one. Had I just been reading the back cover copy? Wasn’t this the book I was dying to read? Or was I just dying?
“Are you having problems focusing, Charli?”
“Blah blah blah blah…” I said.
“I don’t think I quite caught that.” The man grabbed my elbow and whispered something about assisting me to a more comfortable location. I was stumbling next to him and something brushed my feet.
“Tell your disgusting little rodent to take a hike,” he hissed.
“Blah blah blah…” I said, but I was trying to ask why I would ever tell Princess to take a hike, I loved her. There was no way I would want her to do anything but stay by my side.
“You think the fresh air and a canoe ride would be good for you? Why, of course, I’ll escort you.”
I had no idea what he was saying. Worse yet, my tongue made my voice sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher when I tried to speak. It was monotone, incoherent, and sounded like it was coming from the other room.
I clung to his arm as my right leg decided to buckle, and I knocked my glass of tea off the table. My mom’s recipe, my Southern comfort that I loved, spilled all over the floor.
“Where…are…you taking her?”
That voice I knew. It was Mac…wasn’t it? Where was he? I turned my head to look over my shoulder, but the room spun. When I finally did see him, Mac’s face was in triplicate—times two and he was holding quintuplet pink armadillos.
I tried to say, “Princess.” I had no idea what came out.
“Mac. Everything is fine. I suggested Charli lie down and soothe her headache and calm her queasy stomach since she has a canoe ride planned for this afternoon. I’m just helping her upstairs to her apartment.”
I looked at the man I’d just met, who knew I lived in apartment behind the bookstore. Had I told him I lived there? The lines of his face blurred as my head bobbed.
The fresh cool breeze slapped my face. A moment of clarity hit me, and I knew something was terribly wrong. I grabbed for the gate and held on as we went through the narrow path between the buildings to my apartment.
He yanked on my arm but I held fast. The wind soared through the alley, pelting us with cold rain. The man called me a name I really didn’t care for, and that’s when I heard it. My momma’s sign swinging above us screeched its disapproval. Iron on iron can make a horrible noise when it wants to—and that sign wanted to.
Everyone in town believed my momma guarded the front door of my apartment by possessing that sign. I believed it too—sometimes. When it came crashing down on his shoulder, I smiled. He cussed and pulled my grip loose from the gate.
Moments passed. Maybe more, I wasn’t sure. I was just suddenly aware that I was floating, cold, and alone. I tried to pick up my head, but it wouldn’t move. My head was stuck against the side of something very hard, and pink.
Princess? No, my cheek was smushed against a smooth surface and someone was talking to me—above me.
“Bon voyage, Charli. Say hello to Delbert, Eduardo, and that lowlife piece of crap electrician who started all of this for me.”
Then he was gone. I was alone and wobbling; the only thing I could hear was the rain and the wind as water splashed over my face and body. Inside, I felt like I was burning up; outside, I was shivering. My body was no longer mine and I wondered if this was what an out-of-body experience felt like. Had I suffered a stroke? An aneurism? Would a bright light lead me to where everything made sense?
I drifted. Alone. In the darkness. I thought of my dad. Of Cade. Of Mateo. I thought of Princess and wanted to hold her one more time. I wanted to laugh with Scarlet, and dance with Sugar and the rest of the women of Hazel Rock even if it was Mike Thompson singing the night away. I wanted to see the Book Barn Princess make it big with the best authors vying to get a spot on our schedule for a book signing. I wanted to discover more books, more art, more life…
All I discovered was more darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“That’s her! She’s still inside!”
“That’s who?” I mumbled. “Stop yelling.” My bed swayed and rocked. I had the worst case of the stomach flu I’d had in years.
“Grab it!”
My bed lurched. My stomach rumbled. I moaned and moved to sit up. My arms and legs, however, wouldn’t cooperate.
“I gotcha, Princess.”
Chocolate-brown eyes hovered above me. No, I was wrong. They were hazel. I blinked, trying to focus on them, and they turned blue, with wet stringy red hair.
“Talk to me, Charli.”
“Scarlet… Your hair…” It looked terrible. It never looked bad. Today, it looked like she’d been walking in the rain for hours.
A loud cheer surrounded me and captured me in a bubble of pure joy. Except that joy was about to split my head wide-open. I moaned and another cheer broke out. At that moment, I decided to close my eyes and keep my mouth shut. It worked. No more yelling—just moving.
“Stop.”
“We’re going to transfer you into our boat, Charli.”
Boat? Why would I get in a boat? I was sick. I didn’t have time to protest. My bed swayed and rocked. Water splashed my face. I coughed and gagged, then cussed whoever decided to move me from my comfortable bed that felt like a slab of cold, wet granite.
Someone laughed—a deep masculine sound I would’ve enjoyed any other time, just not today.
“Cade Calloway?”
“I’m here, Princess. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Could you tell them to stop pulling on me?”
“Charli, does anything hurt?”
“Mateo?”
“Yes, it’s me. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I hurt everywhere.” My surround
ings were starting to become clearer, I wasn’t in bed. I wasn’t in my apartment. I was being moved from my canoe to a fishing boat. “What happened?”
“Let’s worry about that later. Right now, I want to get you comfortable and warm,” Mateo said.
As soon as the words left his mouth, I was bitterly cold. Up until then, I hadn’t felt anything except wet. My body began to shake, and I was gently put in a seat on the boat. Warm arms wrapped around me.
“I’m so glad we found you.”
I opened my eyes, and the first face that was completely clear was my daddy. I’m not sure what came over me, but I started to cry. The tears flowed almost as hard as the rain around us.
“You’re safe, Princess.” Daddy hugged me tight, absorbing all the rattling from my bones. Scarlet squeezed in on my other side and began hugging just as hard as my daddy. We made it to the shore, where an ambulance was waiting.
“Is that for me?”
“We need to get you checked out. We don’t know what he gave you.”
“What who gave me?”
“Marvin Perkins. We came back and found you missing. Mac waited for us to get there. He told us you’d left with Marvin, and when Marvin came back to the store alone, Mac sat on him until we arrived.”
Nothing was making sense, but I recognized there was a reason behind my fogginess. I wasn’t dying, I wasn’t going to see a bright light, and I wasn’t going to leave this world without laughing and dancing and hugging my loved ones one more time. Tears began to fall again, but it didn’t matter, because tears in the arms of loved ones was much better than being alone.
I was loaded onto a gurney and put in the ambulance. I didn’t have much control of my limbs, but I could at least feel them. The doors began to close and I asked if Scarlet could come with me.
The paramedics looked at each other, and Mateo spoke up. “She needs Scarlet in the ambulance with her. Skip the rules for once, guys.”
Moments later Scarlet was inside the ambulance with me as they cut off my clothes and wrapped me in dry blankets. Someone stuck an IV in my arm while Scarlet held my hand.
