Maple Sundaes & CIder Donuts

by Olivia Gaines

  “Jake, I’m letting you know upfront. If Jean comes for my wife with all that backbiting and gossiping and making Leta out to be the town leper, I’m going to handle her,” Evan said with a deadly coldness in his voice.

  “Whoa Dude, I hear you. I’ll talk to Jean,” Jake promised.

  “Do it now before she gets on the phone and starts her campaign,” Evan said, looking around the half a house, pleased with how it would give new life to the old house he grew up in.

  “Man, a campaign, what are you talking about?” Jake said, genuinely surprised.

  “Come with me,” Evan said, leading Jake to the office, he opened the front door to find Jean on the phone and heard the name, Leta. Without hesitation, he said the words as loudly as he could so the gossipy person on the other end of the line could also hear his words, “Jake, I don’t like men. Stop trying to kiss me. Jean would be mortified if she knew you were making a pass at me.”

  Jake’s jaw dropped wide. Jean hung up the phone. The words she was trying to form came out as small spit bubbles. If she wanted to play games with the small-minded town’s people, he had just outmaneuvered her and the queen was in jeopardy. Leta had come to save him and the last thing he would do is allow her to drown in a lake town full of buoys clamoring for her head.

  “Jean, you came to Leta to sell that half of a house. You will not use my wife as your latest campaign of misery. If you do, I will spread the word that your husband wants to leave you because he likes men,” Evan said. “Sorry Jake, but my mother lived a life of misery in this town because of Jean’s mom and the other gossiping witches. You will not do it to my wife.”

  “How dare you!” Jean said.

  “No, how dare you! Don’t ever mistake my quietness for anything other than abject boredom with the small mindedness of despondent people like you. Keep Leta’s name out of your mouth and I will keep quiet about the knowledge I have of your husband’s frequency in having a dick in his. Are we clear?”

  Jake, visibly shaken, took a seat in the nearest chair. His bottom lip quivered as he looked at Evan in absolute shock. He thought no one knew his secret. “How? Evan, how...does anyone else know?”

  “Man, everybody knows,” Evan said, going back to the bored expression he was known to wear. “People also know that Jean bought this business to make you seem manlier and keep a hold on you.”

  “Oh my God, we are ruined,” Jean said, throwing the phone across the room.

  “Jean, nobody really gives a shit. Some men have lived double lives since the beginning of time. Your kids are well-balanced and healthy, and both of you have a place in this community,” Evan said. “Jake, if this means there is an issue with us and the house, I understand; however, my wife wants those bedrooms and walk-in closet. So, this whole scenario aside, I’m going to look for you in the morning.”

  Jean was beside herself. “If you think after everything you said, I’m going to sell you that half of the house, then you’re out of your rubber-stamping mind, Evan Eaton!”

  “Oh shove it in your pie hole, Jean!” Evan said, exasperated with them both. “No one is running to your offices to buy half a fucking house. My wife wants it, and if need be, I’ll throw in an extra three grand, but that’s it.”

  “When did you get to be such a tough guy?” Jean nearly spat the words at him.

  “The moment you decided you wanted to mean girl my wife. You can also put your friends on notice that if they come for Leta, I have enough dirt on everybody in this town to write a tell-all book. Don’t mess with me and don’t fuck with my wife,” Evan said. “Are we clear?”

  Jean sat for a minute contemplating everything he’d said to her. She’d known Evan their entire lives, had grown up with him and learned to swim in Lake Winnipesaukee in the Tadpole Swim Club at the same time. He’d always been a quiet man, reserved in his words and never one to take sides. He played high school sports, was captain of the Lacrosse Team, and also played rugby. The men in town respected him and often followed his lead. If he were to flex his muscles and let the word drop about her husband’s secretive activities, she and Jake would be laughed out of town. Their children would be the town lepers.

  “We’re clear,” Jean replied, garnering a new respect for the town grump herself. “She must be really something special, Evan.”

  “She is and she deserves a chance to be happy here,” he replied, looking at them both. “Are we good?”

  “Right as ripples,” Jake answered. “The team will be at your place at 7:30, and we’re out by 5:20 and don’t work on Saturday.”

  “I’ll have a pot of coffee on in case you need refills, but please bring your own Porta-Johns because I will not have those men traipsing through our home,” he said, nodding his head and taking his leave.

  Evan never cared for either Jean or Jake. In his estimation, they were two people who tried their best to be the “It Couple” of Meredith. In the eyes of Evan Eaton, they were more like the “shit couple” who spread manure wherever their feet touched. He sure as hell hated that Jean showed up on his doorstep. It was a problem he didn’t need.

  THE LATEST CALL FROM Claudia was also a problem Leta didn’t need, an hour-long whine fest on Kevin, the football player’s treatment of her, his lack of attentiveness and finally why Leta hadn’t been available to take her calls. Of course, the conversation always came back to Claudia and what Claudia needed. Leta answered the phone and mentally prepared herself for the interview.

  “Hello Claudia, how are you?”

  “Leta, my God, I called you like six times and you didn’t call me back,” Claudia whined. “What is going on with you?”

  “Claudia, I needed a change in my life and to get away from Atlanta,” she said softly.

  “You left Atlanta? I never thought I would hear such a thing,” Claudia said. “I miss you. Where are you? I want to see you.”

  “Honestly, I would appreciate a little space until I can work through a few issues I’m dealing with in my life right now,” Leta said.

  “Stop playing with me, Leta! Seriously, where are you?”

  “I’m not kidding with you, Claudia. I needed a break from Atlanta and if I may say it, also from you,” Leta said, exhaling years of frustration.

  “Me? What did I ever do to you outside of being your friend?”

  “Claudia, you’re not my friend. I’m your friend. All I’m asking is for a bit of space to clear my head. I love you, but right now, I need...I need less of the familiar,” Leta confessed.

  Leta could hear the impatience in Claudia’s voice and the next line would become filled with petty jibes, snarls, and petulant demands. There was no time for it today. Evan would be home soon, half a house would be delivered in the morning, and dinner was ready. She’d set the table with the limited dishes available, excited for when her household of goods showed up on Friday so she could set a real table with linens instead of paper towels. A buzzing in her ear forced Leta to tune back into the conversation.

  “Leta, please explain to me what’s going on. Are you in danger?”

  “Claudia, I need a break. I need a break from my overbearing parents trying to control everything in my life. I need a break from my overachieving big brother, and most of all I need a break from you. I’ll call you when I’m ready to talk more, but please give me a little space,” Leta pleaded. “Know that I love you, but I need...just give me time.”

  She didn’t wait for the next words but disconnected the call. The days of suffering the toxicity of others at the sake of her own happiness were over. She had a husband to love and a potential infant seeded by a green-eyed witch growing in her belly.

  “Lord, let me stop calling our love child a demon before I talk bad upon our firstborn,” she said aloud, rubbing her stomach. Leta was so deep in her own thoughts that she looked up, surprised to see Evan standing in the living room. “Oh shit, you scared me! How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough...our love child?”

  “W
e’ll get there,” she said, giving him a smile and removing her hand from her stomach, “Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah, for more than just dinner. I brought flowers and chocolates,” Evan said, handing her the box of candy from the same corner store she’d stopped in earlier. Leta couldn’t fault the selection when as far as she knew it was all the town had to offer.

  “Me too. It’s been a hellauva day,” she replied. “Any good news to share?”

  “To say the least, and dinner smells wonderful,” he responded solemnly. “I just semi-outed Jake, but he’ll be here in the morning with your half a house. They’ll bring a porta-john so those men won’t need to come in the house gawking at my fine-looking, sexy wife. They can pee in their own pot.”

  “Husband, that was a great deal to unpack in one sentence. How do you semi-out a man, and wait, you’re telling me that Jake is on the down-low?” Leta inquired, moving to the kitchen to bring the pork chops to the table.

  “Jake has been sneaking dick rides since high school. As much as he and Jean tried to keep it hidden, the man has an addiction.”

  “A dick addiction; that’s clever.”

  Evan found himself laughing as he washed his hands in the sink in the hallway bathroom. When he came to the dining room table, the flowers he’d given his wife were in a vase. After seeing the same images over and over, it was easy to notice the small touches Leta had added around the house and the place smelled better; hard as he tried, he couldn’t rid the home of the corn chips and sausages with sauerkraut scent.

  “Leta, I haven’t smiled and laughed this much since I left college,” he confessed, taking a seat at the table. “There are a couple of things I want you to understand about living here. This is a small town with the normal small-town problems. When we factor in homogeneity and toss in you and me, well it’s a recipe for gossip and nitpicking. I’m a man who barely speaks if asked a question who has been stuck in a job that I’m really good at but don’t like, but I live here because this lake is my world.”

  “Okay, fair enough, but why did you feel a need to semi-out Jake?” she asked, spooning mashed potatoes onto his plate.

  “First, please tell me about your parents and life in a big city like Atlanta,” Evan asked, nearly drooling at the perfectly cooked chop.

  “Changing the subject?”

  “No, it will help to make my point,” he said. “Indulge me, wife.”

  Leta picked up the knife and sliced off a small portion of the chop, putting in her mouth. The juicy pork flavor burst on her taste buds, filling her mouth with liquid smoke and rubbed rosemary. She sipped a bit of iced tea, then answered.

  “My father is a federal judge. My mother is a civil attorney fighting the good fight on gentrification. My brother, Trevor, who is two years older than me, is a civil rights attorney who works closely with my mother at Feldman and Associates trying to save older neighborhoods,” she said.

  “Where do you fall in the whole spectrum of legal eagles?”

  “I’m also an attorney, but I specialized in forensic insurance investigations. My job kind of came from need, based on unscrupulous practices by corporations and local thugs to get good people out of their homes or off lands that have been in families for centuries,” she said. “I investigate to make sure houses that have stood for generations didn’t spontaneously combust for the right of way for a parking lot for a football stadium. Basically, my job is to gather the facts, investigate laws relating to the case, complete communication with the insurance company, and represent the client in court if necessary.”

  “Pretty wonderful life full of meaning and purpose for your fellow man,” Evan said, looking at the brown pools of warm liquid in her eyes. His lips drew into a fine, tight line. Exhaling softly, he spoke.

  “My father was the parks and recreation manager for the Town of Meredith until he retired. My mother was a homemaker not by choice but because Jean’s mother was a gossipy bag of hot air who made my mother feel as if she didn’t have a place in this town. My mother is clinically depressed, still is, but healthier than when I was a child. I’d come home from school each day, I never knew if I was walking into a home with a drunk woman passed out on the couch, a woman in the throes of a crying fit, or if she’d still be in the same smelly clothes that she’d worn for a week.”

  “Evan, I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Don’t be, I’m letting you know so you don’t mistake anything those women offer you to be taken as friendship. They are not friends to anyone, and I know this from first-hand experience.” Evan sliced through the chop, shoving a medium-sized chunk into his mouth. “When things got terrible for my Mom, Darla’s mother starting coming by to see Mom each week. I thought, great, if my Mom has a friend, she’ll get better.”

  “I hope this story has a happy ending,” Leta mumbled, noticing the sadness in his eyes.

  “Darla’s mother had a tawdry affair with my father, in this very house. Often, they carried on while my mother was sitting on the couch zonked out from her meds,” Evan said. “Just because she was zoned out didn’t mean she wasn’t cognizant. She was aware of what was happening around her, she was just helpless to fight through the fog and demons in her head. My mother attempted suicide at the encouragement of Jean’s mother. I doubt that Jean and Darla are any different than the women who brought them into this world and raised them to womanhood. I don’t like any of them and I won’t hesitate to speak my mind. I will not flatter them with niceness for the sake of getting along.”

  “Evan, the pieces of the puzzle aren’t connecting. Is this why people think you’re the town grump?”

  “I don’t socialize with these people. I don’t spew platitudes of niceties because a person is having a bad day. I keep to myself because I know how they operate,” he said. “They think I’m the town grump because I am.”

  “We can’t live our lives locked inside this house away from the world. We need friends,” Leta said softly. “I would love to have another couple so we can go to see a show in Manchester or a weekend away kind of thing.”

  “Odd, you just told your lifelong friend you need time and space from just that same thing.”

  “Yes, I need space from Claudia who’s going to take it extremely personally that I came here and married her man,” Leta said with wide eyes.

  “She lost me by forfeit. And if that creepy ass Coraline the matchmaker was correct, Claudia is too late. You’re already carrying my child, which makes me your man,” he said with fact-based correctness in his tone. “Does the idea that at this very moment you could be pregnant scare you?”

  Leta knew the answer in her heart, but her mind sent forward waves of doubt like soldiers on the battlefield trying to overtake a stronghold. She had prayed before she left home hoping she was doing a great deed not only for Evan but for herself. It was not going to be comfortable in the long run, but for now, she was prepared.

  “I’m ready to be a mother. I’m ready to be a wife. I’m ready to be both of these things with you. Evan, I arrived mentally equipped to become yours and I’m not afraid of what this life will bring,” she said.

  “That’s all I needed to hear,” he said, “and this meal is fantastic. Thank you for making me excited to come home. Loving you is getting easier by the minute.”

  “Your honor, I rest my case,” Leta added with a smile.

  Chapter Twelve - Kindness

  Leta stretched lazily in the bed, rolling over to run her hand over the belly of her husband who was not beside her this morning. Concerned, she rose from the inflexible mattress, anxious for her items to arrive in three days, along with her own vehicle, so she could get a really good night’s sleep. She looked out the window once her sluggish body reached the kitchen to see the image of a man in a single scull rowing a boat coming across the lake. The ease with which he moved across the water appeared as if the man and the scull were one.

  The longer she looked, the more entranced she became. Green mottled water called to her like a
Siren in the rocks baiting sailors to swim to them. Panic filled her from the nails of her toes to the top of her rapidly beating heart that an emotion so strong for a body of water could touch her so deeply. Tears welled in her eyes when she realized her husband never moved or fully left Meredith because he loved the lake. The lake was his true love and he was connected to it in a way that had just reached her.

  Evan rowed the scull to shore, tying the rowboat to the dock and hopping out with ease. His shirt showed signs of dampness from his efforts as he made his way towards the house. Evan spotted her in the window. He stopped.

  Leta waved at him, thinking she needed to get coffee on, but that look he gave when he spotted his wife in the window meant more than good morning. Turning from the window, she ran to the bathroom. She opened the mouthwash, sloshing a good portion about in her mouth, then giving a good gargle before spitting it out. A damp washcloth was run over her face to freshen up. She heard the screen on the front door open. Leta stepped around the corner to find him standing there, waiting for her.

  “Good morning,” she said blushing. She was learning to read her husband’s body language.

  “It can be,” he said, giving her a smile. “Leta, I am a morning person. I rise early and get in my work out before starting my day.”

  She pressed her lips together, understanding the context of what he was saying. None of this was going as she’d hoped. They were supposed to have this whirlwind romance of roses, poetry, and afternoons on blankets by the lake drinking wine while nibbling on sharp new England cheddars. All she wanted at this very moment was to get naked.

  “Let’s make it a great morning,” she said, removing her pajama top and exposing her breasts to the fresh morning air that came inside the house with the man.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Evan replied, walking over and lifting her into his arms. His mouth was hungrily seeking hers with a ferocity he hadn’t shown the previous three times he’d made love to her. Anxious hands yanked at his clothing, freeing him from the sweaty garments and exposing his damp body to the greedy nails which raked at his back. No words were spoken as they fell to the bed, Leta under the weight of him. Evan pressed forward, connecting their bodies, moving at a fevered pace, holding her close, and whispering praises in her ear.