“Billie, this is coming up as an iron skillet,” the clerk said.
Billie left her register and smiled at Caleigh. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, we’ll get this fixed in just a sec. Amelia, you go ring up my customer, and I’ll take care of this.”
“What’s the problem?” another woman asked, and Caleigh noticed she was wearing a nametag with Manager under the name Lyn.
“This is ringing up as a skillet,” Billie replied. “The last time this happened, Blaze had to go into the system and enter a special code.”
“We ain’t bothering her today,” Lyn said softly. “Her mother’s in town. I heard Blaze on the phone telling someone her mother ran into a bookshelf in her house on a scooter. She broke a bunch of stuff, and Blaze is in a pissy mood.”
“Chantal Champlain’s in town?” Billie asked excitedly. “I promised my mom I’d get her autograph the next time she came here.”
“You probably don’t want to mention that around Blaze right now,” Lyn warned.
Caleigh leaned close to the counter and whispered, “Who is Chantal Champlain?”
“She’s an actress,” Billie said. “She played Evelyn Cleary on Love’s Law. That was my mother’s favorite soap opera. Momma loved Evelyn because she was one of those tough lawyers who tore up people on the witness stand, but she was a mother too. Evelyn’s kids were trouble, but she’d do anything to protect them, and that caused her problems. I think my momma could relate because my brother was a hellion.”
“I think that’s how Blaze described her mother earlier when I had to go in her office,” Lyn said. “Billie, if she walks out here, don’t let her catch you talking about her. I’m gonna go get on the computer and fix this.” She smiled at Caleigh. “I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m not in any hurry. I just moved here and I’m out having a look around.” Caleigh assured with a smile, hoping Billie would tell her more about Blaze. Billie didn’t disappoint.
When Lyn walked away, Billie leaned against the counter. “Before Chantal was on Love’s Law, she played in some movies, and in one of them, she did a sex scene. It was really kinda…well, gross freaky. I went to school with Blaze, and someone found a tape of the movie, even though it was old. They had parties and showed it, and just about everybody saw it. That’s when Blaze went crazy.”
“Define crazy,” Caleigh said softly.
“She was pissed off all the time and started arguing with teachers and the principal. If they told her not to chew gum, she would chew it and blow bubbles. She made a big to-do about the prom dress code when she found out she couldn’t wear pants. So she went to senior prom wearing a men’s suit, and her date wore a dress. That was hilarious because he had the hairiest legs I’ve ever seen, but he rocked the heels he was wearing. They got thrown out of the prom, then Blaze, who was in the school band, cut the back out of her pants and mooned the entire stadium during a performance as retaliation I think.” Billie looked around again. “People say she’s mentally unstable because of those things and the bunny incident this past spring. She’s always been nice to me, though, unless her mother is in town, then she gets bitchy and keeps to herself.”
“I’m getting the impression Blaze doesn’t like her mother.”
Billie grabbed a sales paper from the stack on the counter and pretended to be showing Caleigh something inside of it. She lowered her voice even more as she said, “Chantal left Blaze and her sister, Ronnie, when they were little for her acting career. They grew up without her, and my momma thinks that’s what made Blaze rebellious and angry when she was a kid.” She looked around again. “She was normal until the bunny thing set her off again—don’t even mention anything about Easter or bunnies around her. I think she might be back to normal now, but her eyes used to get big and one of them would twitch whenever someone brought up that particular holiday.”
Caleigh knew she shouldn’t have been entertaining the gossip Billie was willingly sharing, but she couldn’t resist wanting to learn more about Blaze. The more she heard, the more fascinating Blaze became. “What’s the bunny thing?” she asked as though she didn’t have a clue.
“Blaze’s ex worked at a nursing home and wanted to do an egg hunt for the residents and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Blaze makes a great bunny because she’s tall and thin. Anyway, she volunteered for the part, and she got into a fight. People around here made a big deal out of it, some even said she gave their children nightmares and ruined their Easter. Then Blaze made it worse by chopping the head off a plastic bunny in someone’s yard. That’s why we don’t mention Easter, and I ain’t looking forward to next spring if we get in the decorations for it. I don’t think a lotta people are gonna buy headless lawn ornaments. But she’s really nice the rest of the year. If I have to take time off when one of my kids is sick, Blaze doesn’t bat an eye even if she has to work in my place. Plus, I still get paid. Not many bosses are like that.”
“No they aren’t,” Caleigh remarked, trying to reconcile what she was hearing about the woman who’d been kind enough to change her tire.
“Hey, Blaze,” Billie said suddenly and very cheerfully.
Caleigh turned and smiled as Blaze approached. “Hi there.”
“Hi,” Blaze said with obvious surprise. “How’s the new job working out?”
“Oh, so y’all know each other,” Billie said nervously.
Caleigh returned her attention to Billie, and gave her a smile and a wink hoping Billie would understand she wasn’t going tell Blaze about their conversation. “She was nice enough to help me when I got a flat on Old Dump Road.
“I don’t start until Monday, so I came here to do a little shopping. You’re right, the store isn’t the same, but I love that you kept all the old stuff,” she said as she turned back to Blaze. “What’re the chances you’ll let me climb the old sliding ladder?”
Blaze laughed. “Zero. Sorry, it’s old and rickety and not safe anymore. It’s just for show now.”
“Damn! There were two things I always wanted to do when I was a kid—climb that ladder and get the horseshoe out of horseshoe tree,” Caleigh said.
“I’m so sorry to tell you that you won’t be able to climb that tree either. Lightning struck it a few years ago, and they had to cut it down,” Blaze said.
Caleigh’s jaw sagged. “What? Now I’ll never be able to pull the shoe and become queen of the horses.”
“The whole Sword in the Stone thing, right?” Blaze laughed and shook her head. “I thought I would pull it, and it would be a sword with a horseshoe handle.”
“Y’all have some wild imaginations,” Billie interjected. “I just thought it was cool that someone hung a horseshoe on a limb and it grew into the tree.” She patted the sales paper. “I was showing this nice lady some of our sales while she waited for Lyn to fix the barcode on her coffeemaker.”
Blaze planted her hands on her hips. “Did it ring up as a skillet?”
“Unfortunately,” Billie replied.
“Caleigh, I’m sorry about that,” Blaze said with a sigh.
“It’s no problem, really. I needed a break from sorting shoes,” Caleigh said with a laugh. “I’m enjoying being in here with some memories from my childhood.”
“You should see this then.” Blaze motioned for Caleigh to follow her behind the counter. They walked to the end of it near the old sliding ladder, and Blaze pulled a photo album out of one of the wooden cubes. “These pictures will really take you down memory lane.”
Caleigh’s eyes widened as Blaze opened the album to the first page, and she saw old black-and-white photographs of the sales counter. “Look at the stuff in burlap sacks.”
“Cool, right? People are finding pictures when they go through old things all the time, and they’ll give me a copy. I try to arrange them by decade in my album.” Blaze glanced at Caleigh. “I’m gonna guess you were probably a kid in the nineties, and that was probably the time period when your granddad broug
ht you here.”
“You’ll need to go back a decade for that.” Caleigh grinned. “I’m older than I look.”
“I’m thirty-nine, may I ask how old you are?”
“Two years younger than you,” Caleigh replied.
“We might’ve crossed paths in here.” Blaze flipped to a section and scooted the photo album in front of Caleigh. “Do these bring back memories?”
“Oh,” Caleigh said with a sigh as she gazed at the photos. “I’m going back in time.”
“I do too when I look at this. I came in here with my dad and my grandparents, and I’d get in trouble for digging into everything, but it was so cluttered and messy you’d find things that were like treasure. I found a pair of skates between bags of chicken feed.”
Caleigh laughed. “I found an art set with the canned goods. Did you think the bread tasted like fertilizer smells?”
“I thought that was how it was supposed to smell and taste until Dad suddenly refused to eat it, and my grandma started shopping at the grocery store.”
Caleigh’s former job trained her to be a shrewd judge of character. Perhaps it was she found Blaze attractive, but Blaze didn’t seem unhinged or crazy to her at all. After watching the videos she knew Blaze had been attacked, and it wasn’t simply a fight as Billie had claimed. She was intrigued and decided to see what side of the fence Blaze was on and asked, “Are we family?” with a slight smile and her brow raised.
Blaze failed to connect the queer dots. “I’m pretty sure the Breauxs and Sonniers aren’t related.”
Disappointed, Caleigh nodded. “Just checking.”
“Is the barcode issue fixed?” Blaze asked as Lyn set Caleigh’s coffeemaker on the counter.
“Kind of. The manufacturer’s code for the coffeemakers is identical to the in-store code we use for the skillets,” Lyn explained. “It should’ve rung up as an error because of the conflict, but for some reason, it always comes up as the skillet.”
“Well, I have some programming work to do,” Blaze said to Caleigh. “I’ll ring you up.”
They walked down to the register, and Blaze made an adjustment to what Lyn had scanned. Caleigh went to the other side of the counter and said, “Thank you for showing me the photo album,” as she slipped her bank card into the reader. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but the price I’m seeing isn’t what was on the shelf tag.”
Blaze nodded. “I gave you a discount for the inconvenience.”
“How will I ever repay your kindness since you slashed the price for me?”
“Come back,” Blaze said with a smile.
Chapter 4
Edie was at her mailbox when Caleigh turned into her driveway, and she walked over to Caleigh’s car as she got out of it. “Oh, you got a coffeemaker,” she said with a frown. “I meant to tell you I’d clipped a bunch of coupons for those out of yesterday’s paper. That one looks expensive, I hope you got a good buy on it.”
“Got it for half price.”
“That’s wonderful. Where’d you get it?” Edie followed Caleigh to her front door.
Caleigh had lived a long time without having to hide anything, and she wasn’t about to start. “At The Old Store. Blaze gave me a big discount because there was a problem with the barcode, and I had to wait. You wanna come in and see my new living room stuff that was delivered this morning?”
“This is just like the time I told you not to stick a fork in a power socket and you did it anyway before I could get to you. Fortunately, you didn’t get the fork in far enough to be zapped, but that might not be the case this time if you don’t listen to me about Blaze,” Edie complained as she stepped inside Caleigh’s house. “I like that soft gray color on that couch and chair. It looks good against that dark gray rug.”
“I have some red curtains and some throw pillows coming. I think they’ll make a nice splash of color.” Caleigh continued on to the kitchen. “Want some tea?”
“Yes, I believe I will.” Edie walked into the kitchen and noticed two new barstools. “Did these come today too?”
“They did. I’m gonna wait on buying a kitchen table until I pay off what I just bought. I have six months to do it interest-free.”
“What did you have in your old apartment, and what did the moving van deliver?” Edie took a seat on one of the stools.
Caleigh cut the tape on the box that held her coffeemaker with a knife. “The moving van brought my bed, some small tables, my refrigerator, and all my clothes. I have a lot of them.”
“Caleigh, I don’t mean to harp, but you should take my advice and stay away from Blaze Sonnier. She’s not the only other lesbian around—”
“She is?” Edie had Caleigh’s full attention then, and she pushed the box away. “Why didn’t you tell me that, and why didn’t she get my are we family gay reference?”
Edie looked confused for a moment. “I don’t want you to get involved with her. My sister found bad boys irresistible, and she ended up with a bad husband.”
“I’ve never known you to be judgmental. You’ve always had such an open mind about people, and I loved that because Mom and Dad stick stubbornly to their first impressions.”
“I am.” Edie looked as though she’d been slapped, then her shoulders slumped. “It’s easy to be open-minded about someone when you don’t have something at stake. You’re young and unattached and can live anywhere. I want you to meet a nice lady, so you’ll be happy here. Dean and I have a life and friends, but having you close by is truly a treat, and I can’t help but want to hang on to it.”
Caleigh toyed with a little piece of tape stuck to her palm. “I’ve been living like a nomad since I was in my early twenties. I got sick of it years ago. I don’t have any desire to move around anymore, and I’m already happy being close to you and Gramp here in Falcon.”
“Good,” Edie said with a smile.
“One thing working for MVP and traveling so much taught me is people are often not what they seem. I’m self-protective almost to a fault. It’s not easy for me to let my guard down and trust someone. You don’t have to worry about Blaze getting over on me.”
“I know her, or I did when she was a girl,” Edie admitted with a sigh. “Her grandmother Iona was a dear friend of mine. Blaze was sweet, but she changed when she got into her teens.”
“All kids do. I did. I changed when I was ten, and I stopped coming here on the weekends and during the summer, remember? It wasn’t that I loved y’all any less, there were things I wanted to do with friends.”
“We understood that. Blaze went through a different change, though. It seemed to happen overnight, she’d been sweet one day and the next very distant and rebellious,” Edie said with her brow furrowed as she stared at the box holding the coffeemaker. “Iona tried to talk to her, but Blaze wouldn’t tell her what was wrong. I thought Blaze might open up to me, so I tried to talk to her. I’ll never forget the…fury on her face when she told me I was not part of her family and to mind my own business, and that is the polite version of what she said. I was shocked and deeply hurt. After that day, I rarely saw Blaze when I visited Iona. The few times I did see her, she looked at me as though she hated me. I never told Iona what happened. I knew it would crush her, especially since Blaze was getting into all kinds of trouble.”
Caleigh was very disappointed by what she’d heard. “I thought Blaze was attractive and interesting, but if you would’ve told me about this instead of the bunny and band pants stuff, I wouldn’t have gone to her store.”
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Dean. I never told him or anyone what happened.” The lines in Edie’s face deepened as she stared into space. “Ronnie’s behavior changed after that day too. She wasn’t rude, but she didn’t hug me anymore. Despite what happened with Blaze, at Iona’s funeral, I wanted to be a source of support for her and Ronnie. I knew they’d just lost the most significant person in their lives, but they both avoided me. We had been like family, and I don’t understand what happened.”
/> “Was Blaze in high school when that incident with her happened?”
Edie nodded. “She was. Blaze’s mother left her and Ronnie when they were very young, that’s why Iona and Tate were helping Frank raise the girls. Iona told me all about it not long after we became close friends. She said it would’ve been easier if their mother, Chantal, had died or completely disappeared, but she was an actress on a soap opera. Everyone in town knew it, so there was no keeping Chantal a secret from Blaze and Ronnie. Iona and Frank thought it was best not to let the girls watch the show, but they were curious and would sneak and do it anyway. They would see the woman who was supposed to be their mother on TV taking care of other children, and it was terribly hurtful and confusing. Iona went through a terrible time consoling Blaze and Ronnie and trying to explain what was on TV wasn’t reality.”
“Did I ever meet them?”
“No. I knew Iona when you were little and used to stay with me and Gramp a lot. She and I didn’t get close until you found better things to do,” Edie said with a smile. “I’m teasing, stop pouting.”
“I think I might have a piece to the puzzle as to why Blaze acted the way she did. While I was in the store, a clerk named Billie, who is apparently Falcon’s official gossip, filled me in. She mentioned that Blaze went a little crazy in high school after a movie her mother was in surfaced. Apparently, her mother was in a raunchy sex scene, and all the kids watched it.”
“Oh,” Edie said with a groan. “Before Iona and I became close, Dean and I had heard about Chantal and wanted to see one of her movies. I’m pretty sure the one we rented is the one you’re talking about. I broke our TV remote because I kept trying to push fast forward during that scene, and your Gramp kept trying to push rewind. I finally threw it on the floor hard enough to shatter part of it.”
Caleigh laughed. “He’s such a shit.”
“Among other things,” Edie said with a smile that slowly faded. “I wonder if that was it. That movie…is that what made Blaze change?”
Blissfully Blindsided Page 4
