The Roundabout

by Gerri Hill

  “It’s just a matter of time before they all hit you up, my sister included,” she said. “You’re single—or I’m assuming you’re single—you’re attractive and you’re new in town. Beware.” Then she frowned. “You’re not interested in dating? How old are you?” she asked bluntly.

  Leah smiled. “I’m fifty-one…but my age has nothing to do with me not wanting to date.”

  “Oh? Bad breakup?” she guessed. “I can relate. I have totally sworn off women. I will never date again.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  Megan took a swallow of her water, contemplating telling Leah about Tammi and Erin. But then she came to her senses. Why in the world would she tell that to Leah Rollins, of all people? But she was curious about her.

  “You ever been in love?”

  Leah nodded. “Yes. Madly.”

  “Good. It’s nice to know it’s out there. In my experience, it doesn’t exist,” she said, noting the bitterness in her voice.

  “So you haven’t been in love, yet you’ve sworn off dating?”

  Megan sighed. “I thought I was in love. I guess I don’t know what it feels like.” She met Leah’s eyes, trying to decide if they were a smoky gray or a smoky blue. “What happened with you? I mean, if you were madly in love?”

  “Oh. Well…”

  Megan’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. She died? I’m so sorry,” she said quickly.

  Leah grinned. “No, no. Nothing that dramatic.” Then she tilted her head. “Well, I guess it was dramatic.”

  Megan leaned forward. “Oh, no. She went to men?”

  Leah nodded. “Yep.”

  “Oh, God. That’s the worst. Was she bi?”

  Leah shrugged. “Well, she claimed she was straight.”

  “Straight?”

  “Of course the five years we were together, there wasn’t a straight bone in her body,” she said easily.

  “Oh, I hate women like that,” Megan said.

  Leah shrugged again. “It’s in the past. But it took me a while to trust anyone after that.” Then she laughed. “I’d go out with them and then I’d ask them if they were sure they were gay or if they had a secret crush on men.”

  Megan laughed too.

  “Most thought I was crazy and wouldn’t go out with me again,” Leah said. “And over the years, I’ve found that it really wasn’t worth the trouble.”

  “So in a roundabout way, you’ve sworn off women too.”

  “In a roundabout way, I suppose.”

  As they looked at each other, Megan realized that there was zero hostility between them. That was a first. Perhaps it was good that she had had to hide from Mary Beth. It gave her and Leah a chance to chat about things other than parking.

  “Well, I should go,” she said as she stood. “I’m late as it is.” She handed over her empty water bottle. “Thank you.”

  “Sure.”

  They went back downstairs into the shop, but at the front door, Megan paused, looking in both directions down the street.

  “I hope she’s not in the grill waiting for me,” she said. She was about to go out when she saw the door open and Nancy walked out. She shielded her eyes as she looked around, no doubt looking for Megan. Then Nancy put her phone to her ear and Megan held her own up. “Wait for it,” she murmured. She answered on the first ring.

  “Where are you?” Nancy demanded. “You’re late.”

  “I’m hiding from Mary Beth,” she said.

  “She already left.” Then Nancy laughed. “And as a warning…you might want to avoid Facebook.”

  Megan gritted her teeth. “Son of a bitch,” she muttered as she pocketed her phone. She glanced at Leah. “Are you friends with Mary Beth?”

  Leah shrugged. “Well, I hardly know her, really. I met her at the party, that’s it.”

  Megan rolled her eyes. “On Facebook!”

  “Oh. Yeah. Why?”

  “Where’s your phone? Bring it up,” she said impatiently, waving her index finger in a circle.

  Leah scrolled through a few screens, then her eyes widened. “Good Lord.”

  Megan snatched the phone from her. Her breath left her as she stared at a picture of herself. It was a torso shot, slightly below her hip bone up to the swell of her breast. Another centimeter and her nipple would be showing.

  “Oh. My. Freakin’. God. She has lost her mind.”

  Leah took the phone from her, staring again at the picture. “Wow. Just…wow.” Then she grinned. “Are you sure this is you?”

  Megan slugged her in the arm. “Of course I’m sure it’s me!” she snapped. “I’m being exposed—little by little—by a crazy woman!”

  Leah laughed as she rubbed her arm. “So tell her you’re dating someone. Surely she’ll stop then.”

  Megan stared at her blankly. “In this town? I know we have a large gay population, but still, everybody knows everybody. You can’t make up a date in this town.” God knows, she would have tried already if she thought it would work.

  Leah put her phone away and shrugged. “So use me.”

  Megan’s mouth dropped open. “What? I don’t even like you.”

  Again, an easy smile lit her face. “Well, I’m not crazy about you either, but hey…I’m just offering. If you want to make them stop…and besides, it’ll save me from having to turn down any potential dates too.”

  Megan met her gaze. Was Leah serious? And would she actually consider it?

  Megan pointed out the door. “I…I need to go.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The lunch crowd was in full swing by the time Megan finally stepped behind the bar. She’d only had to endure three exaggerated wolf whistles as she passed through the grill.

  “I’ll kill her,” she mumbled under her breath, then she forced a smile as a man at the end of the bar raised his hand. She walked over to him. “Another beer?”

  “Coors. Draft,” he said before shoving an onion ring in his mouth.

  She absently filled a mug and took it over to him. There were only three people eating at the bar and the other two were drinking tea. She went to the opposite end and leaned against it, letting her mind wander back to her conversation with Leah Rollins. It was a perfect solution, she admitted. If they pretended to be dating, then surely Mary Beth would back off. Surely. The problem was, would anyone actually believe that they were dating? Nancy wouldn’t, that’s for sure. She’d have to tell Nancy it was all a farce.

  She shook her head. No. Nancy wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut. She’d end up letting it slip—probably to Mary Beth—that they were fake dating. Or worse, she’d tell Susie and then the whole damn town would know.

  If you couldn’t trust your own sister with a lie, who could you trust?

  If it got out that she and Leah weren’t really dating, she’d never live it down.

  Oh, this is a really bad idea.

  She couldn’t actually believe she was contemplating it in the first place. As she’d told Leah, she didn’t even like her. But maybe they could pretend to date for a couple of months. Tourist season would be in full swing then…surely this crap on Facebook would die down or they’d all lose interest in it. It would be in the thick of summer, everyone would be busy. Surely they could pull it off. She stared up at the ceiling and shook her head.

  “This is a really bad idea,” she murmured.

  “What are you mumbling about?”

  She turned to Nancy and shook her head quickly. “Nothing…nothing.”

  “I need a margarita on the rocks, no salt and an extra spicy bloody Mary,” she said.

  Megan raised her eyebrows. “Extra spicy?”

  Nancy shrugged. “That’s what he said.” Nancy sat down on one of the barstools to wait. “Why were you so late?”

  “Sorry. I made breakfast at the last minute so it put me behind on my treadmill session,” she said. “And I was rocking it, by the way.”

  “Five miles?”

  “Six today,” she said. “And I felt great. That is
, until I saw Mary Beth when I drove up.”

  Nancy laughed. “She saw your SUV outside and thought you were hiding in here. She looked everywhere, including the ladies’ room.”

  “She’s insane,” she said as she slid over the margarita. “I was hiding next door.”

  “Oh? With Leah Rollins?”

  “Yeah. When I saw Mary Beth, I pulled into the first spot I found. Unfortunately, it was for Ruby’s,” she said with a smirk. “Leah promptly informed me that I was in a reserved spot. I’m telling you, she’s obsessed with the parking situation.” She didn’t admit that Leah had been teasing at the time.

  “Were you at least civil to her?”

  “Of course I was civil. Unlike her, I’m over the whole parking thing already.”

  “I don’t know why you don’t like her. I think she’s really cute. And I just love her hair.”

  Megan shrugged. Yeah, Leah was cute…for being over fifty. And yes, her hair was kinda unique.

  “She has dreamy eyes too,” Nancy added with a sigh.

  “Dreamy?” She wouldn’t go that far.

  “Maybe I should ask her out.”

  Megan’s eyes widened. Oh, crap!

  But Nancy waved her hand in the air. “I’m not her type apparently. I flirted with her at the party. I flirted with her when she had lunch over here the other week. She totally ignored my hints.”

  “Sorry,” she said as she passed across the bloody Mary after stabbing three olives on a plastic toothpick.

  “Oh, well,” Nancy said as she walked off.

  Megan slowly shook her head. If she and Leah fake dated, Nancy would be pissed. Or hurt. Or both. Of course, if it came to her sanity or her sister…well, she could lose her sanity, but she wouldn’t lose her sister…right? Maybe she should check with Leah to see if she had any interest in Nancy. That would be the logical thing to do. But Leah had already said she wasn’t interested in dating anyone. And if she did like Nancy, then why would she even suggest they fake date to begin with? No…she didn’t have any interest in Nancy. Poor Nancy.

  “Oh, this is a really bad idea,” she murmured.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Before Leah bought the old bookstore last fall, she’d spent nearly a week in town playing tourist. Well, snooping around the other shops, really. Before she’d even decided on Eureka Springs, she’d also gone up to Branson, but she could tell immediately that the vibe in that town wasn’t for her. It catered to an older, more conservative crowd, and she’d felt out of place walking the streets there. Here, it was completely different. The staircase streets were jam-packed with lively, colorful shops. The crowds were eclectic and diverse, young mixed with old, the people watchers and free spirits, old hippies and young hipsters. She’d felt at home immediately.

  But the problem remained, what type of shop did she want? Probably not the wisest thing—to purchase a shop and no inventory—but she wanted a new start and she now had the time and money to make it happen. But what, exactly, did she want?

  Most of the shops in town were specialized, but not all. There was a shop that sold glass and crystal, not much more. The quilt shop. The Christmas shop, which sold all things for the holiday and not a single thing that wasn’t Christmas-themed. There was a shop that sold decorative signs, both metal and wood. A shop that sold windsocks and flags. A shop for yard art and bird feeders. A gift shop for souvenirs, the T-shirt shop, the candle shop, the chocolate place, the turkey jerky place. There was even a shop she referred to as the junk shop. Some of the merchandise was duplicated from shop to shop…like T-shirts and coffee mugs, but most was unique to each shop.

  What she wanted for her shop was variety. She wanted her shop to be like the town itself—diverse—with a wide range of inventory. But flipping through the catalogs she’d ordered, she realized how easy it would be to overdo it. She also realized why most shops specialized. It was much simpler.

  Well, her original plan seemed logical enough, at least to her. T-shirts, wind chimes and such. By snooping around in the shops last fall, she’d gotten an idea of what the top sellers were in each place. She would collectively offer those items at her shop as well as a few things that had caught her eye in Branson, namely, wood carvings and chainsaw art. The fun part was going to be shopping for it all.

  Now all she had to do was wait for Tony to finish the remodeling, which would be only a matter of days. Gordon Russell told her that her new sign for out front would be ready in about ten days…the first of May. Once the sign was up and her inventory started trickling in, Ruby’s would be ready to open for business. Did she dare shoot for a June first opening?

  She sighed. That, of course, was the scary part—actually opening for business. She shook her head. No, the scary part was the fear of having no customers.

  * * *

  Megan paused halfway between the grill and the bookstore. This is a terrible idea, she told herself once again. Terrible. But Nancy had heard that Mary Beth’s next Facebook post was due out in a few days. Couple the prospect of a new picture with that of her latest date offer—Gwen Barksdale—and the terrible idea didn’t seem quite as terrible. Gwen had heard “through the grapevine” that Megan was now “on the market.” Gwen Barksdale was very nice. She was also sixty-five years old…her mother’s age. No, the terrible idea didn’t seem terrible at all from that vantage point.

  Of course, now—as she contemplated going to Leah Rollins and accepting the ridiculous fake date offer—she was hesitant to actually go through with it. Because the chances were really, really good that they wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Was she prepared to suffer through that humiliation just to avoid being exposed on Facebook by Mary Beth Sturgeon?

  “Hell, yeah,” she murmured as she started walking again. It did occur to her that if they were found out to be fake dating, Mary Beth might go berserk and post all of her pictures anyway, but that was a chance she’d have to take.

  The front door to the bookstore stood open and she walked inside, looking around at the changes Tony had made. It hardly looked like the same place and she supposed she’d have to stop referring to it as “the bookstore.”

  “Hello?” she called loudly. “Leah?”

  “Back here.”

  She walked around to where the coffee bar used to be, amazed at the transformation in the last week. With all the shelves and coffee bar gone—plus the new windows out front—the store looked much bigger than before. It was bright and airy and she wondered what kind of store Ruby’s would be.

  As she looked around, Leah came out of the back room. Mr. Carlton’s old storage room, she remembered.

  “Hey Megan. What brings you around?” Leah asked. “Mary Beth stalking you again?”

  Megan smiled briefly. “I haven’t seen her, thankfully. Although Nancy’s heard from Susie that Mary Beth plans her most provocative post yet.”

  “Can’t wait,” Leah teased as she wiggled her eyebrows.

  Megan ignored that and motioned behind her. “What’s back there? Still storage?”

  “Part of it,” Leah said. “I squeezed in a corner for my office. Come take a look,” she offered.

  Megan didn’t recall there being any windows in the back that faced the alley, but now the old storage room was brightly lit by the noonday sun. Leah nodded at her unasked question.

  “Yeah, I had to have windows. It took them one whole day to knock out the wall.”

  “Not worried about someone breaking in from the alley?” she asked.

  “Well, there’s no window in the part where I’ll keep my inventory, but I didn’t realize we had to worry about crime here.”

  Megan shrugged. “No, not really. But during the summer, there are lots of people in town who aren’t locals, including seasonal workers,” she said.

  “I guess I’ll take my chances,” Leah said. “I don’t imagine I’ll have anything so expensive in the shop that someone would break in to steal it.”

  Megan arched an eyebrow. “What exactly is Ruby’
s going to be?” It was a question that had been bouncing around town for weeks. Even Susie didn’t have a clue.

  Leah smiled. “Yeah, well…that’s kinda a work in progress,” she said.

  Megan’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God! You don’t even know, do you?”

  Leah laughed. “Don’t tell anyone, please. They’ll think I’m crazy.”

  “You are crazy!”

  “Oh, I have a plan. In fact, I was in the process of ordering stuff when you came in,” Leah said, pointing to the laptop that was on top of an impeccably clean desk. “Tony’s finished with everything so I’m ready to roll.”

  “What about tables, shelves? Display cases?” she asked. “The place is gutted.”

  “Already ordered. Should be in next week. Gordon Russell is going to install all of that for me, as well as a sign for out front.” She looked at her questioningly. “I’m sure you didn’t come over to discuss my shop though.”

  “Oh…well.” Megan twisted her hands together, wondering if she should reconsider. But then she pictured Gwen Barksdale’s face as she’d asked her out, Gwen’s eyelashes fluttering seductively at her as she’d waited for Megan’s answer.

  “Problem?”

  Megan sighed. “Gwen Barksdale asked me out.”

  Leah smiled. “And who is Gwen Barksdale?”

  “She owns the Christmas store.” Then she smiled too. “And she’s sixty-five.”

  Leah laughed. “Wow. And you’re what?”

  “Thirty-nine.” Megan could see that Leah was trying to keep the smile off her face.

  “Well, I’m sure Gwen is very nice. When are you going out with her?”

  “I’m not going out with her!” She took a deep breath. “I wanted to see if your offer was still on the table.”

  Leah’s eyebrows rose. “What offer?”

  “That… you and I,” Megan said, motioning between them, “would fake date.”

  Leah nodded. “Oh, that offer. Actually, it’s very much on the table. It seems Tony is trying to set me up with a friend of his…or a friend of his partner’s,” she said.

  “Let me guess…Carla?”