Paradise Park

by Carolina Mac

  He opened the door of the rig for Ted, sat in the driver’s seat and stared at the screen. Grace.

  ‘Beer and steak tonight?’

  Lonnie whistled as he tried to text and Ted ran back to the truck and jumped in. “Shit, Ted. I hardly know how to do this. Give me a minute.” Ted patiently sat in the shotgun seat supervising Lonnie’s texting with a watchful brown eye. After a couple of tries, Lonnie typed ‘sure’ and pressed send. “We’re gonna hafta practice if she’s a texter. I suck at that.”

  Another signal. “Jesus.” Lonnie shook his head, his dark mop flopping in his eyes.

  ‘Later.’

  “She’s cooking us a steak, Ted. I think she likes us.”

  Ted stuck his head out the window, salivating as thoughts of steak swirled through his head. His long rusty ears flapped in the breeze.

  After unloading skids of paper products at the depot, Lonnie headed home empty. He was pissed he couldn’t get a load until Monday. “If the truck’s empty, we’re not making any money, Ted.” The hound’s sad eyes told the story. He was suitably depressed.

  There was no sign of Grace when Lonnie backed the sleeper in. Not often he came home without a load. Full loads meant he could make his payments. Couldn’t miss too many loads. He locked the truck, unlocked the trailer and headed for the shower. The hot water running over his body soothed him.

  I’m not gonna think about the truck payment tonight.

  After he toweled off his thick dark hair, he cracked a cold one while he shaved. He splashed on the new cologne, fed Ted then wondered if now was the right time to go next door. He didn’t have a feel for the dinner thing.

  “Let’s go, Ted.” Lonnie sauntered through the screen door with his dog on his heels and ambled over to the trailer next door. He was startled to see a big black Harley parked in Grace’s driveway and a dude with long hair and tats standing beside her at the barbeque. Lonnie wondered what was going on. He could feel the heat rising in his neck as he approached.

  Grace looked up and she wasn’t wearing her happy smile. “There you are, sugar pop. I was wondering when you’d be home.” She ran over and hugged him and whispered in his ear. “I don’t know this guy.”

  Lonnie wrapped both arms around her, planted his mouth on hers and pulled her in tight to his body. He kissed her for a long time, feeling the warm honey flow through his veins. He never wanted it to stop. Then let her go and said, “I missed you, baby.”

  Grace smiled and said, “I could tell.”

  The biker walked towards his ride, face stormy. Jaw tight. “Nice meeting you, Grace. You’ll be hearing from me.” He started the Harley, revved the engine and let the exhaust hammer through the pipes like thunder. With a squeeze of the gas he roared out the driveway and sped down the curving road into the lower part of the park.

  “Who was that?” asked Lonnie.

  “His name’s Rob. Says he lives with his brother in the park. Just moved here and he wants to be friends. I just moved here myself and I’m not sure who I want to be friends with… not yet, anyway.”

  “Did he just see you outside and hit on you?”

  “Yep. I was starting the barbeque and he drove in and parked his bike.”

  “Uh huh.” Lonnie could feel anger stuck in his throat. He’d never been angry because of a girl before. What was wrong with him?

  “Dinner’s ready. Let’s go inside.” Grace forked the steaks from the grill onto a platter and headed for the door.

  Lonnie and Ted followed her into the kitchen. A lot of the boxes were gone from the front room. The round table was set with blue woven placemats, silverware and condiments for steak and baked potatoes.

  “Wow, you did a lot today,” said Lonnie looking around. “The place looks great.”

  “Thanks, I’ll get you a cold beer.” Grace got a couple from the fridge and poured hers into a glass. “Sit down. Let’s eat while it’s hot.”

  “I can always eat,” Lonnie said with a grin.

  “How was your trip to Kingston?” she asked as she passed the meat to him.

  “Not bad. Didn’t get a load when I got back to the depot in TO. Pissed me off.”

  “You have to keep the truck rolling to make money.”

  “I have payments.”

  “Of course, you do, you’re a young guy with your own truck. I love the paint job. Black and purple. Looks super cool. People will remember the colors before they recall the name on the side. Human nature.”

  Lonnie raised his eyebrows. Grace was smart. “This meat is good and I love baked potatoes on the grill.”

  “Thanks, and thanks for helping me with the biker dude. I enjoyed the kissing.” She giggled.

  Lonnie grinned. “I’ve got lots of that.”

  Grace cut a healthy chunk off her meat, put it on a plate and gave it to the dog. “Here, Ted. Have some steak.”

  “Shit, he won’t want his kibbles anymore.”

  Grace cleared the table and poured coffee. “I didn’t have time to make any dessert, but I bought a pie from the bakery.”

  “Pie’s good.”

  “Lemon meringue okay?” She cut the pie into quarters and put a big slab on his plate.

  “Love it.”

  “You’re easy to please, Lon.” She smiled at him and he melted.

  “You have no idea how easy I am.” He chuckled.

  “That blonde girl from two trailers over came here around five and asked me if I wanted any painting done. She said she gave you an estimate on your living room.”

  “She wanted three hundred bucks to paint that one little room. I had to say no thanks.”

  “I can paint it for you for nothing. I do my own decorating.”

  “Don’t you have to write all day on your computer and stuff like that?”

  “I can’t write twenty-four seven. Almost, but I have to take a break sometimes.”

  “How many books have you written?”

  “About a dozen. Nothing compared to some of the authors out there today. Drop in the bucket.”

  “You must be smart. I don’t know how you think up stories and get ideas.”

  “Anything can give you an idea. Anything. You just have to be open.”

  “Right. Guess I’m not open.”

  “You must be, sugar pop. You write songs—that means you’re open to ideas.”

  “Never thought about it like that.”

  Grace got to her feet and took mugs out of the cupboard. “Let’s take a coffee onto the deck. You must want a smoke.”

  Lonnie grinned. “You a mind reader too?”

  “Ted, bring your steak bone.”

  Lonnie lit up and leaned on the railing crossing his long legs at the ankle. “I’m glad you bought this trailer, Grace.”

  “Me too. I wouldn’t have met you, Lon.”

  “So how does a beautiful girl like you not have a boyfriend?”

  “I used to date when I lived in town. You know, looking for the right guy and all the rest of it. Guys would ask me out. Take me out for dinner, then try to get me to sleep over as soon as we were done dessert. They didn’t want to know me as a person. They didn’t care what made me tick or what I wanted out of life. They took one look at me and had one thought in mind. I got sick of it and stopped going out. I concentrated on writing. I bought my truck and worked on it with my brother. It was a fun project to do together.”

  “Gorgeous truck.”

  “Thanks. Jerry and I put lots of after-market bling on it. Took it off-roading a lot and had a few laughs.”

  “You have a great relationship with your brother.”

  “Our Mom died when I was fourteen and Jerry watched over me. He’s protective.”

  “I noticed that.” Lonnie grinned. “He didn’t seem happy that you were moving up here by yourself. He’s worried and rightly so. Beautiful young girl alone and defenseless. He wants me to watch out for you up here.”

  Darkness had fallen and they were still talking on the deck. Ted was snoozing beside
Lonnie’s feet, his paws twitching as he chased some dream rabbit down a hole. A loud rumble and a couple of back-fires broke the silence of the warm night and Lonnie watched the big Harley cruise by, drive to the end of the road, turn around and cruise back again past Grace’s trailer.

  “Ted and I will be staying here tonight,” Lonnie said. “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

  “You don’t have to do that. He’s probably harmless. I’ll be okay.”

  “Maybe yes, maybe not. I’m going to lock my trailer and I’ll be back.”

  Lonnie and Ted returned and Grace had gone inside. She cleaned up the dishes and found bedding and pillows for the sofa. She waved through the screen door for Lonnie to come in.

  “I’ve got you all set up.” She pointed to his makeshift bed.

  “I don’t want you to think I’m one of those guys that want to sleep over right after dinner,” he said with a grin.

  Grace laughed. “I don’t think that, Lonnie. I want you to stay. Want to give me one of those kisses you’ve got a lot of before I go to bed?”

  Lonnie nodded, pulled her close and kissed her with all the passion he felt for her. Grace thrust her tongue into his mouth and buried her hands in his thick mop of hair. The electric honey surged through all of Lonnie’s veins and his legs turned to mush.

  Grace let him go and her eyes sparkled. “Hey, cowboy, we might have a good thing here.”

  Lonnie smiled and listened to his heart pound as he watched her walk down the hall and flick off the light.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  HAROLD DIPPED THE corner of his fried egg sandwich into the puddle of ketchup on his plate and raised it to his mouth. He felt eyes on him, looked up and saw Betty Farrell staring at him through the screen door. She gave him a little wave and he motioned for her to come in.

  “Don’t usually see you out and about this time of day, Betty. You’re a night hawk, ain’t ya? Up watching all those infomercials and then you sleep until noon.” He chuckled then took a good look at her. Betty had dark smudges under her eyes and she looked unusually stressed. She never looked too good. How good could you look at eighty-six? Normally she was a happy person—always smiling. Not today. Using the table for support, he stood up, limped over to the stove, poured a mug of coffee and set it down in front of his guest.

  “Thanks, I could use a cup,” she said in a gravelly voice. She laced the dark liquid with three spoonsful of sugar. “Harold, you old bastard, how long have we known each other? Must be thirty years at least.”

  “Yeah, must be,” he said raising his eyebrows. “Where you going with this, Betty?”

  “I’m worried about Mabel. She’s my best friend as well as my next-door neighbor and she’s gone, Harold. G-O-N-E. Edgar told me she went out west and I don’t believe that line for a second. I know all of Mabel’s family and she’s told me stories about that woman out west many times over. They never got along and there is no way in hell she would go out there for a visit.”

  “Maybe they made peace now that they’re older and they wanted to get together and catch up.”

  “No, Harold. I might have overstepped and you’re the only one I’m telling this to, but I phoned out there to her so-called step-sister and that mean, nasty woman laughed in my face. She said Mabel would never be invited to her house as long as she lived. She’s not there.”

  “That’s where Edgar said she was and he said she took the dogs with her.”

  “I know what he said, Harold. I’ve been over to his trailer enough to drive him crazy and he’s sticking to that story. He’s taking load after load to the dump. All of Mabel’s stuff that she saved or hoarded or whatever you call it is disappearing. He’s making a clean sweep. We should call the police.”

  “Call the police?” Harold frowned thinking about the police coming and questioning everybody in the park. All the residents would be as mad as hell on a Sunday and take it out on him. He wished his wife was still alive. She always handled the park business and placated the residents and kept them happy. She was so bloody good at it. He missed her more every day.

  “Missing person, Harold.” Betty said in a whisper, “Face it. Mabel’s a missing person.”

  “Give me another day, Betty. I’ll drop over to Edgar’s this afternoon and see what he’s up to. I’ve known that man for forty years, and I can’t believe he did anything to his wife.”

  “If you don’t come up with anything by the end of the weekend, I’m going to the police station on Monday morning and report her missing.”

  Harold nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll see what I can do.” Harold showed Betty out and watched her totter along the path by the pond until she was out of sight. He glanced down at the stray cat sitting on the porch step and asked, “Do I look like, Sherlock Holmes?”

  LONNIE OPENED HIS eyes and for the first couple of seconds wondered where he was. Gracie was working on her laptop on the kitchen table and drinking coffee. Lonnie had been up a couple of times in the night thinking he heard Harley rumblings and wanting to be on the safe side. He pulled his shirt over his head and stood up spotting Ted under the table at Gracie’s feet. He grinned and headed for the bathroom.

  “Good morning, cowboy. How was the sofa?”

  “Nice and comfy,” he said in passing, “be right back.”

  Lonnie ambled back into the kitchen awash with a warm feeling he had never experienced before. Maybe it was love, maybe it was absence of the loneliness that always lurked so close to him since his father had died. He plopped down at the table, dying for a smoke, but not wanting to be a jerk and bolt outside.

  “Let’s take a coffee onto the deck. You must want a smoke,” said the angel in the red tank top. Her hair was wild this morning. Wisps hanging in her eyes and making her all the more beautiful. If this is what she looked like first thing in the morning, he was in for the long haul. Hell yes.

  A grin spread across Lonnie’s handsome face. “Uh huh.” He took the mug she offered, held the door for her and waited for Ted to stretch and take his own sweet time getting up. He set the coffee on the railing and lit up a smoke. “You’re working already this morning?”

  “Thought I could write a chapter while you were sleeping. Writing is a quiet occupation.”

  “Sure is. I never heard a thing.”

  Lonnie finished his smoke and his coffee and wondered if he should leave. “I should go grab a shower. Then I’ll cut the grass.”

  “I want to make you breakfast first,” Grace said, “or have your shower while I get it ready, then we’ll eat together.”

  Lonnie grinned, “I’m not that educated on what I should be doing around beautiful women, but you probably already guessed that. I’ve never slept over at a girl’s house before.”

  “You don’t have to do anything special around me, cowboy. I like you just the way you are.” She winked at him and he felt a little tingle.

  “Come on, Ted.” Ted raised his head, gave Lonnie a glance and didn’t move. He was sleeping close to Grace’s chair.

  “He can stay here and protect me,” she giggled.

  “Traitor,” Lonnie hollered as he ran across the lawn to his trailer.

  After breakfast, Lonnie started the lawnmower and cut the grass. He finished behind his trailer and was about to start Grace’s lawn when he saw the Harley come around the bend in the road and cruise right into Grace’s driveway. She was inside the trailer. Lonnie shut off the mower and walked towards Rob who was booting his kickstand into place on the gravel.

  “Can I help you?” Lonnie sized Rob up. Same height as him, a bit slimmer and younger. Yep, a lot younger—early twenties. Maybe weighed twenty pounds less. Good looking kid when you got past the long wild hair and the huge chip on his shoulder. He could take him. Easy.

  “Came to see Grace.” He pointed at the trailer. “Go get her for me.”

  “I won’t get her for you. She’s working.”

  “I know she’s here. Her truck’s here.”

  Lonnie stood, feet spread
apart and crossed his arms across his chest. “Doesn’t mean she’s not working. She works at home.”

  “What kind of work does she do?” asked Rob.

  “None of your business.”

  Rob took a step closer. “Think you’re a tough guy?”

  Lonnie never moved. “Do you?”

  Rob looked him up and down. “I could take you in a split second.”

  “Uh huh.” Lonnie stepped closer to Rob and scoped out his arms. Muscular. He definitely worked out. The kid reeked of booze. “Why don’t you go on home, buddy and sleep it off. Kind of early in the day to be jacked up.”

  “None of your business what time of day I’m jacked, motherfucker.”

  “See you did some time. Nice prison tat on your neck.”

  “So, what?” Rob took a drag on his smoke and leaned on his Harley.

  “So—nothing. Parole officer might want to know you’re pissing off the neighbours.”

  “Think you’re scaring me?”

  “I want you to do the right thing and leave Grace alone.”

  “And what if I don’t?”

  Lonnie shrugged, stepped closer. “I’ll make a call.”

  Rob chuckled. “Cops don’t scare me.”

  Lonnie whipped out his phone and pressed 911. He talked to the operator while Rob stared him down. “They’ll be along soon and you can tell them why you’re over here bothering a girl who doesn’t even know who the hell you are.” Lonnie climbed the four steps to Grace’s deck, sat down on the top step and blocked the entrance.

  “You stupid prick,” shouted Rob, “I’ll get you for this.”

  “For what?” Lonnie lit up a smoke and waited. Rob sat defiantly on his ride and stared at Lonnie. When the wail of sirens could be heard in the distance he mounted his bike, burned through the park gate and headed down the highway.

  Grace came outside when the police cruiser pulled into her drive. “I heard all that in the kitchen,” she said. “You handled it well.”

  “I wanted to smash him in the face.” Lonnie paced. Adrenaline pumping. Trying to hold it together. “That’s what I was dying to do.”