by Judy Baer
“Morning, Norah,” Chuck greeted me. “Nice day.”
“It was.”
They both turned to stare at me. “What happened?”
“My supplier says my last payment never arrived yet the bank says the check cleared.” I blathered out what Annie had told me, my face getting warmer by the second. The sun wasn’t terribly warm or high in the sky, but I felt my skin burning. Finally it occurred to me, I was blushing.
It certainly wasn’t caused by my proximity to Chuck, who smelled of soap and raw meat, so that left Nick as the source of my reddened condition. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he, unlike Chuck, smells faintly of musky shaving lotion and leather. Normally my body doesn’t form opinions without bringing my brain up to date on its status, but it certainly was happening now.
“Why are you two looking at me like that?” I took the defensive as Nick and Chuck stared at me.
“I’ve been having mail trouble, too,” Chuck said. “Officer Haley tells me that we’ve got to stop using our mailboxes. Apparently someone’s filching the checks we mail and washing them.”
“Washing?”
“Removing the ink, rewriting the check to cash and pocketing the money,” Nick explained.
Washing laundry, yes. Washing checks, no. If criminals would spend their time putting their cleverness toward good behavior rather than bad, we’d have cures for everything from mosquitoes to world conflicts.
Nick noticed the distress on my face and followed me into the shop after Chuck had gone. Annie, upon our arrival, scooted to the B and B to put out fresh water.
“I’ll take the information, Norah. We’ve had several reports of this type of thing in the last couple days. We’re working on it.”
“You’ll probably never ‘work’ that four hundred dollars back into my bank account, will you?”
“I’ll do my best.” Then he stood awkwardly rooted to my floor like he was standing in a puddle of spilled soda pop, his dark blue eyes darting side to side.
Little sparks of electricity ignited the air between us. It snapped, crackled and popped, like milk on Rice Krispies but far more potent.
“Nora, ah, I…I’m sorry about your check.”
“Thanks. Me, too.” I leaned forward a little, hoping to encourage out of him whatever it was he wanted to say.
“I just wanted to tell you I’m looking forward to this weekend.”
Me, too!
Chapter Eleven
Sunday is still a long way off and a lot can happen in a week. It can be aeons, in fact, between Wednesday and the following Sunday.
I didn’t have the opportunity to talk with Lilly the next day about my unexpected dinner invitation because her part-time helper was minding the store. Lilly hadn’t told me she was going to be gone. It’s odd. Lilly and I usually talk several times a day and neither of us makes a move more significant than cutting our fingernails without the other knowing about it.
It was Julie Morris who greeted me on the sidewalk this morning looking almost happy.
“Ready for your grand opening?” I inquired.
“I think we are. We’ve already had more business than we expected. Pond Street has been good to us.”
“It’s good to everyone. Very few stores change hands here.”
“I can understand why.” She took a breath and sighed deeply. “I’ve dreamed of a place like this. Somewhere small and peaceful yet urban, a place where people are friendly and things are…more manageable.”
Manageable. Who or what was more manageable? Bryce?
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Junior the Defiant much since they arrived. No loss really. He is likely the kind of boy who skulks inside all day playing video games and slinks out at night to hang with his friends. Or perhaps that’s not fair. Maybe I’m underestimating him. Lilly said she’s seen him helping out at the store. Imagining him behind the counter ringing up the purchase of a Barbie doll translates into a King Kong–Faye Raye image for me.
From across the street, Auntie Lou beckoned me over. She was wearing a thick black skirt and a print blouse overlaid with a ruby-red hand-knitted cardigan. Her shoes were white lace-ups with cushiony bottoms and good arch supports, “nurses’ shoes,” I call them. Her knee-high nylons were rolled to little sausages around her ankles and she wore a flower in her thinning hair. In other words, Lou was all dolled up.
“Don’t you look nice today.” I gave her a hug and took the chair beside hers. “Are you going somewhere special?”
“Nowhere. I’ve decided to change my image and start dressing up. What do you think?”
“I think your image is perfect as it is, any way it is.”
“Don’t be kind, girl. Tell me the truth.”
“You look great. Younger, even.”
“‘Younger?’” Auntie Lou beamed at me. “Now that’s what I like to hear! It’s not easy to think of yourself as old. Seems to me they’re making adults much younger these days.
“I wish I weren’t so stiff and achy.” Her eyes began to twinkle. “Of course, I like to think that if God really wanted me to touch my toes these days, He would put them on my knees.”
“Are you still concerned about those tumbles you had? Young people trip and fall, too, you know.”
“A little.” Her expression told me it was much more than just “a little.”
“You’ve got lots of years left in this shop, Auntie Lou. Don’t let this get you down.”
My stab at being a cheerleader didn’t do much to encourage the home team.
She looked at me sympathetically, as if I were a poor, misguided child. “You’re young yet, dearie. People don’t interpret my stumbling on a broom handle the same way they might if you’d done it.”
“I don’t see…” Then I stopped because, of course, I do see.
“Ignoring the facts doesn’t change the facts,” Auntie Lou continued. “I’m an old lady and it shows.”
“What better kind of lady for an antique shop than an ‘old’ one?” I countered. “I never heard you say a word about old age until recently.”
Auntie Lou gazed toward the street, fixing her eyes on nothing in particular. “It’s like this, Norah, I’ve begun to realize these days that life is like a roll of toilet paper.”
She snagged my attention with that one.
“At first, the roll goes down very slowly, but the nearer you get to the end, the faster it goes. I’m afraid I may be getting to the end of my roll, Norah. And I’m going to fight back.”
Still processing the toilet paper metaphor, I could only echo, “Fight back?”
Auntie Lou’s button eyes took on a cagey expression and she leaned toward me so her mouth was close to my ear. “I want you to assure me of something.”
“Yes?” I ventured cautiously, wondering what was coming next.
“I want you to promise that you’ll make sure no one kicks me out of my home before I want to go.”
A tickle of anxiety fluttered in my stomach. Me?
“I don’t have any family, Norah, except you and that fat old cat, and both of you have been adopted into my heart. I’ve fallen twice in the past few days and I’m not happy about it. I want to know that someone—you—will be my advocate…just in case.”
“In case what?”
“I don’t know. I can’t predict the future.” Her eyes clouded. “I saw that lovely Mazie Henderson the other day. Her children are forcing her to move out of her home. They say it’s ‘too much for her’ and that she’ll be ‘safer’ in a place near them.” Lou snorted so loudly I flinched. “What they don’t know, because they refuse to listen, is that by moving her away from her home, her garden, her church, her friends and her routine, they’re going to hasten her death.” She shook her head gloomily. “Mark my words.”
“You’re blowing things out of proportion, Lou. You tripped on a broomstick. You fell out of bed. You aren’t going anywhere. Okay?”
“Just remember what I said, dearie.” There w
as a lively intelligence in her eyes. “Life is tough, but I’m tougher. Me and my Maker are in charge of it and no one else.”
With those cryptic words, she patted my hand and said, “Now why don’t you run into the back of the shop and get us some nice iced tea.”
After leaving Lou’s, I spent the rest of the afternoon getting very little accomplished except wondering where Lilly was and what had gotten into Auntie Lou.
I diverted myself for the afternoon by ordering freeze-dried liver and pooper-scoopers but it wasn’t until I was heading for home that I saw Lilly.
She flagged me down as she drove past in her little yellow Miata.
“Hop in, we’re going for sushi.”
Sushi is my least favorite food, but I was too curious to turn down her offer. Why anyone wants to eat raw fish is beyond me. That would be like swallowing one of the guppies out of my fish tanks. If I wanted to do that, I’d leave a little wasabi and soy sauce in the fish section for an afternoon snack.
It was difficult to talk with the wind whipping through our hair so I sat back to enjoy the ride. Lilly is a good driver but a fast one. She’s had dreams of racing cars. She even went to high-performance race car driving school and she can talk about cars with 800 horsepower and V-8 engines with the best of them. Beneath her fluffy exterior beats the heart of a fierce competitor. Lilly simply doesn’t like to lose—at anything—ever. When Lilly can’t have something, she wants it even more. For me, not being the competitive type, it’s a little difficult to comprehend, but it works for her. She’s built her business from scratch with pure determination.
We pulled into the parking lot of the fashionable new hot spot Lilly had chosen. That’s another skill of Lilly’s, scoping out the newest and trendiest of everything from clothing to dining.
After we’d ordered crab meat with wasabi mayonnaise and karei shio-yaki—she says it’s flat fish with salt—for Lilly and vegetarian sushi and miso soup for me, I could finally ask the questions that had been burning in me all day. “Where have you been? I was getting worried about you!”
“I had the most wonderful day.” Lilly’s faced softened with a rosy glow. “I went sailing with Connor.”
No wonder she was radiant. “No kidding? I didn’t know he’d asked you. Details! Tell me all about it. I want details.”
Lilly frowned for the briefest second then broke into a smile again. “He didn’t exactly ‘ask’ me. I just put myself in a position so that he almost had to ask me.”
“You stowed away on his boat?”
Lilly ignored that. “Early this morning, I saw Connor at the slip where he keeps his sailboat. I casually walked over and started a conversation. I told him how much I love sailing and what a beautiful day it was. And he asked me to join him!”
How could he help it, without looking like a real jerk? I wondered. But I’m the least aggressive woman I know when it comes to men. Growing up, I was always a tomboy and had all the male friends I wanted. Now, when I meet a new man, if I don’t hear a hint of those bells I’m waiting for, I’m not all that interested. And, of course, I reminded myself, I have Joe.
“Well, you certainly go after what you want.”
“I think he likes me, Norah.” Though Lilly is always beautiful, her porcelain skin glowed. The last time I remember her being this excited was when she found a Vera Wang gown at the consignment shop for only thirty dollars.
“How could he not like you?” Sometimes Lilly’s lack of self-esteem blows me away. I felt like I was back in junior high.
“We ate lunch on the boat. He had a basket of breads, cheeses, fruit and chocolate. Ziga’s packed it. He does treat the place as his kitchen. I can see now why he thought it was no big deal to take you there.”
Well, thanks a lot.
Still, I was glad to hear relief in Lilly’s tone. The idea of me and Connor together had bothered her a great deal—that competitive spirit of hers rearing its ugly head.
Lilly rambled on for several minutes before I asked, “When will you be seeing him again?”
She dismissed the question with a little flick of her hand. “We didn’t get around to discussing that. Soon, I’m sure.” Then she took both my hands in hers. “I am so happy, Norah. And I’m so glad I was wrong about you and Connor.”
“Trust me, you were very wrong about that.”
Reminding myself never to go after the same man as Lilly even if he were Adonis or George Clooney, I bit into my faux sushi and wished for a juicy burger with fried onions and a side order of waffle fries.
I heard a raucous squawking from the front of the store and ran out to find Bryce Morris and a boy I didn’t recognize standing by the desk eyeing Winky. He clung to his perch, flapping his wings and chattering in birdspeak. Winky threw his head around and complained loudly. I can’t remember ever seeing him so upset. Bryce didn’t look so good, either. He was pale and there was a grim set to his mouth. His friend, however, dressed in even more outlandish garb than Bryce, seemed perfectly at ease, with the air and confidence of a smarmy politician at a baby-kissing contest.
“What’s wrong with your bird?” the junior politico asked. “We walked in here and he started squawking, just like that.”
Bryce stepped back, shifting so that he was turned away from the other boy and buried his chin in the collar of his T-shirt.
“I have no idea. I’m sorry if he bothered you. It’s not like him. Are you okay?” I had one eye on Winky and one on the boys, not knowing who to tend to first.
“Yeah. No dumb bird’s gonna get me.” He scowled at Winky.
Bryce snapped out of his trance to remember why he was here. “My mom is having a dumb tea party and I’m supposed to give you this dumb thing.” He thrust an invitation across the counter and sneered.
This, I thought, had become a very dumb conversation.
Though Julie has stopped by to chat a few times, I don’t see her as the party-giving type. I also hadn’t expected that she could get her sullen son to do anything as mundane as deliver envelopes.
“Thank you, I…”
“Whatever.” Bryce turned his back to me and sauntered toward the door, the hems of his black denim pants dragging on the floor. His friend followed, then turned back to give a parting barb. “You should probably put that stupid bird in a cage so he doesn’t hurt somebody. You could get sued if he hurt a little kid.”
I reached out to stroke the agitated Winky who was still squawking and fluttering his wings. “Why’d you do that, Wink? You talk big but you don’t scare people. I don’t want you to get us in any trouble….” My words trailed away as I saw a bright splash of color on the floor beneath his perch. Slowly I leaned down and picked up the feathers. They were Winky’s no doubt and, much to my horror, they were tipped with fresh blood. These hadn’t fallen from Winky’s body, they’d been pulled.
I was still troubled about Winky the next morning when I stopped by Auntie Lou’s to return a book she’d loaned me.
Auntie Lou had mentioned that Bryce Morris occasionally visited the store, seemingly fascinated by a very old pinball machine she had on sale. She hadn’t seemed bothered by his brooding ways. “Kids,” she’d said, “and their phases,” as if that explained everything.
I might have told her my suspicions about Bryce but when I arrived she was already upset and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.
“I’m missing twenty dollars from the till!” she announced when I walked in the door.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I know what I took in yesterday and twenty of it is missing.”
“Maybe you forgot….”
She gave me an admonishing look.
“Okay, so you didn’t forget. Then what happened?”
“I have no idea….” She rummaged around the many papers near the till and then held up an envelope. “What’s this?”
I recognized the pastel floral envelope. “Julie from the Toy Shop is having a tea. It’s probably your invitation.�
�
“When did it come? There’s no stamp on it. Why would it be just sitting here?”
A sudden sinking sensation torpedoed through my stomach. Bryce delivered it, of course. Had he pulled out Winky’s feathers and a twenty-dollar bill out of Auntie Lou’s cash?
Feeling thoroughly depressed, I slunk back to the store wanting to go home, crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. I hate being disappointed by people. Now I had to figure out what to do about Julie’s son, Winky’s tail feathers and Auntie Lou’s twenty-dollar bill.
I walked into the store and Annie greeted me with a squeal. “Look what came!”
A dozen flawless yellow roses sat on the counter between fungus medication for fish fin rot and bagged catnip. Fortunately roses look good in any setting.
“Where did they come from?”
“The deliveryman just left.” Annie pointed to the card but before I could take a step, Lilly flounced into the store carrying a hatbox.
“You’ve got to see this, Norah, it’s perfect for you…oh, roses! Who are they from?”
“I don’t know. I just got here myself.”
“Well, it’s not your birthday.” Lilly put the hatbox down and headed for the roses. Before I could make a move, she plucked the card from the bouquet and opened it.
As she read the inscription her face crumpled. Without another word, she dropped the card on the counter and walked out.
Annie and I exchanged a startled glance. She picked up the card and handed it to me. As I read the inscription, I felt my insides implode.
Norah—
I hope you’re having a wonderful day.
Connor
Chapter Twelve
I followed Lilly into The Fashion Diva but she wasn’t happy to see me. She looked at me as if I’d tried to slap her in the face.
“What’s this about?” she demanded. “‘I hope you’re having a wonderful day’ signed Connor? What’s going on between the two of you?”
I wanted to shake her for even thinking that there was something between Connor and me, but the evidence was condemning. What on earth had the man been thinking…or fantasizing? Suddenly I wanted to shake him, too.
