by Abby Knox
“Mom, it’s the middle of the day. Why don’t you go outside and get some fresh air? That’s kind of the point of me letting you come over to take my neighbor’s dogs for a walk. A walk involves exercise and sunshine and leashes.”
“I’m trying to find Orange Is the New Black,” she rasps.
I don’t smell any alcohol, so that’s a good start, anyway.
“Perhaps that’s because Dexter chewed through the Wi-Fi cable.”
“You should go wireless,” she says.
I place a hand on my hip. “Sure, Mom, I’ll just do that. Any minute now. Got my inheritance ready?”
She cackles and shoots me a side glance. “You could always ask your dad.”
I ball my fists. “Are you trying to push my buttons? No. No, I’m not going to rise to that, Mom. All I ask is that you get Justin’s pugs on their leashes and take them for a quick walk at the times I wrote down. It’s all there on the fridge. Mom, are you listening?”
She’s looking at her phone and absently answering, “Yes.”
“Mom!”
I can see that she’s texting someone. “What has got you so distracted?”
She chuckles at something then looks up at me again. “Nothing, never mind. Listen, I’m sorry. I’ll go walk them right now. I’m meeting a pet friend at the park, in fact. So don’t even worry.”
I study her carefully. I sense she’s hiding something, but it doesn’t smell like booze, drugs, or her usual chicanery.
“And now I’m late for work. So I’ve got to go. Just try to keep your shit together for one day, and don’t let my neighbors down. I like living here. And they’ve all agreed to help you.”
Mom cocks her head.
“What do you care if you’re late for work, you own the stupid Ferris wheel.”
I cock my head in imitation of her. “There’s that indomitable work ethic I got from my mother.”
I leave her with firm instructions for the cat injections and pug instructions, written down in sharpie and posted to the fridge, and give her a verbal reminder.
If she can’t even manage to care for my cats and some pretty laid-back pugs next door, how can I recommend her to walk the dogs of any of my other working neighbors?
I wish she understood what was at stake.
As I high-tail it back to my car, I find myself wanting to text Hudson. I don’t, because I know he’s busy, and I feel like I already distract him enough.
Reaching out to Hudson is sort of hard-wired into me. He’s my go-to guy. My north star.
I can take care of things myself, and I can get the Wi-Fi fixed, but having him as a sounding board when I’m frustrated, like right now, is awfully nice.
I never asked him for a thing, but he’s always been that for me.
When Billy Smalls pulled my braid in Kindergarten, and the teacher actually told me it was because he liked me, Hudson wasn’t having it. Even though Hudson was in the third grade, He sat next to me in the cafeteria every day after that. Soon, we began hanging out after school, walking home by way of the creek, where we’d end up at his parents’ mini golf shop. The Greens were just as kind to me as Hudson, offering me free ice cream and rounds of mini-golf whenever I wanted.
Later on, in sixth grade, Billy snapped my bra strap, and Hudson, then a ninth-grader, lost it. He shoved Billy against the locker and forced him to apologize. After that, nobody messed with me.
When my parents started drinking more and more heavily, or maybe that we just noticed how heavily they drank, Hudson’s tolerance for them went out the window. Hudson went through his own rebellious phase in high school, but when he saw the effects on me of my parents’ drinking, he sobered up fast. He became even more protective of me when Mom’s alcoholism started to compel her to steal money from me.
He often credits me with seeing him through his own tough times, but the truth is, he is my rock.
As I drive over to the Ferris wheel, I can’t imagine my life without him.
I think we would both be lost without the other.
When I arrive, I pop out my CD from my car stereo and add it to the Ferris wheel sound system rotation. I’ve got a good mix of new music and some older. After sundown, classic rock love songs are the vibe. One of my favorites is “I’m Gonna Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon. I always smile because Hudson can’t stand hearing that one, or my other favorite, “More than a Feeling” by Boston. What can I say? My fondest memories are of riding in the backseat of my dad’s old raggedy car, listening to classic rock. As much as I resent him taking off when Mom went to rehab, I still have a soft spot.
Before closing, I like to play some lonesome country tunes like “If You Could Feel My Love” by Garth Brooks. Hudson teases me, as he’s a little bit of a music snob and listens to nothing but early 1990s alt rock and grunge. We love to argue when I point out the dearth of nice love songs from that era.
I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I almost miss it when Tony and Tiny show up.
“Little Lady?”
I snap out of my daydream about Hudson to realize that my absolute favorite customers have arrived.
Tony is the only person in Cherry Falls who is allowed to call me “Little Lady.” I love it because I can see how he cares for the love of his life, Tiny.
They’ve been married for nearly seventy years, unbelievably.
They give me hope that true love exists.
“Is it sunset already?” I ask.
Tiny nods and then cocks her head at me. “Are you all right, dear?”
I smile at them and nod my head. No way am I going to burden them with the thoughts rolling around in my head.
“Can I ask you a question?”
They nod. “Anything, dear,” Tiny says.
I ask, “How long did you two know each other before you knew it was meant to be?”
Tony and Tiny look at each other and smile. Tony goes first, “She and I were best friends for years before I had the nerve to ask her out. When I did, to my surprise, she said no. It crushed me.”
Tiny nods and gives a slight pout of regret. “And then one day I woke up and realized, there’s nobody else for me. He’s my person. If I don’t fall in love with him, then what else is there? Nobody in this world speaks my language the way Tony does. And that’s when I knew.”
I nod and smile, holding back the lump in my throat.
“Thank you,” I say, a bit raspier than I would like.
As I always do, I fire up their favorite song, get them secured in their compartment, and watch them ascend into the sky, holding hands and laughing together.
The sunset is so pretty tonight, and although I have played this song hundreds of times, it hits me like a truck.
I am deadass in love with Hudson.
The tears of anxiety at how he might react to this are like a floodgate has opened. And pretty soon, I’m sobbing.
What am I going to do with myself?
I have to tell him. I have to risk losing him to tell him there’s no one else for me.
When their ride ends, Tony lovingly helps his little Tiny out of the compartment. It grips my heart the way he’s so sweet with her that my tears well up again.
“Sweetie, what in the world?” Tiny asks, handing me a tissue.
Tony places a hand on my shoulder and says, “Tell him. Right away. And don’t worry. He already knows.”
All I can do is blubber and keep the snot and tears from ruining my makeup.
Chapter 4
Hudson
Usually, when I’m done with work, the first thing I do is head over to the Reef Beach Bar on Sugar Road to say hey to bartender Lincoln Locke and the owner Daphne Dawes. Even though I don’t touch alcohol, I like to stop by for whatever creative virgin fizzy drink Daphne dreams up for me. After that, I typically stop by the Ferris wheel for a chat with Frenchie, head back to the boat I call home at the marina, kick up my feet, and watch the game.
Today, however, all I want to do is tell Adalee the
news.
This afternoon, Captain Jack approached me about a summer job chartering his fishing boat in the Florida Keys. I can’t believe my luck!
“I know you’re a hard worker, and you deserve to have a change of scenery. What do you say?”
I tell Captain Jack that I’ll think about it and let him know in a couple of days. Even though Gavin is a new hire, he’s proven himself reliable. He has earned the respect of everyone else who docks their vessels at Kissme Bay. I’m confident he would jump at the chance to run the place for the summer.
“Don’t wait too long. This is a prime opportunity to get some deep-sea experience handling a real boat. Here,” he says, handing me the keys. “Try it out for a night. See if you think you’d be able to feel at home on it, and then let me know.”
I bound away from work feeling like I’ve just fallen ass-backward into the first real opportunity of my life in this small town.
I know exactly who I want with me while I try out Captain Jack’s boat for tonight, and I want to make it extra special.
I hit the Kissme Sweet Shop, saying hi to Lily Velasquez. She already knows what I want when I tell her I need a “Frenchie salad” — a variety of M&Ms to mix together in a bowl. I then hit the supermarket for something healthy—cucumbers and tomato salad with fresh basil from her own garden. She always needs to have her vegetables.
When I arrive at Frenchie’s trailer to pick some of her basil, I don’t get the chorus of barks from the neighbor’s pugs. They’re usually sitting vigil in the window and bark at anyone passing by.
Adalee’s RV is dark, and I don’t see anyone anywhere.
I don’t know if this is a good sign or a bad sign.
Then, I see Justin approaching from his lot next door.
“She walked my pugs and brought them home. Then I saw her leave and walk to the end of the park lot with another man, and they headed that way.”
I scratch my head and try not to panic. I sign back to him, “I’ll let Frenchie know.”
I text her right away because my hackles are raised. I tell her what Justin told me.
Frenchie thanks me and then says she’ll contact her mom. “Can you stay there in case something is fishy? In case we need to go looking for the cats or my mom?”
I answer yes as if that was ever a question. I would die for this woman and her spoiled little felines.
I resume picking some basil for the salad and let myself into her trailer to assemble the salad. The only cats that greet me at the door are Butter and Jelly, which really makes me sense something is wrong. If I’m not mistaken, Peanut is the diabetic one.
To my relief, Frenchie texts me back to say her mom and her friend took Peanut and a menagerie of animals to the beach, and all seems to be well. She brought Peanut in a carrier so she wouldn’t be late in giving him his injection.
Something about it doesn’t sit with me, but I don’t push. Who is her mom meeting with, and why does the worst-case scenario always pop up in my head?
When I’ve got everything put together, I tap out an order to Cherry Pie Pizza and finally make my way back to Captain Jack’s boat. If I do this right, I’ve got the perfect night planned for my Adalee and me.
Chapter 5
Adalee
I’m just waiting for Amethyst, my most reliable employee, to arrive to take over the late shift. On weekends, the Ferris wheel runs as long as the amusement park stays open, which is midnight. Amethyst’s main job is to take photographs of people riding the wheel. The Ferris wheel mainly runs itself, but I always need someone there to make sure everything is running smoothly and safely, and Amethyst has been a quick learner in that respect. At first, I worried about her manning the wheel on her own. She’s petite and very pretty, and lots of male tourists would linger and stare at her when I first took her on. Lately, though, her much-older boyfriend, a guy everyone calls “Big,” has been hanging around. I wasn’t sure about him at first, but as long as he keeps Amethyst safe while I’m not around, I’m good with that.
In the hour since Tony and Tiny left, I had a heart-to-heart with myself, with the help of some of my favorite love songs.
Tony is right. I have to tell Hudson how I feel.
The dream I had this morning was not a fluke.
When Hudson shows up to pick me up, he bowls me over with a great big bear hug that lifts my feet off the ground.
My heart doubles in size at the feeling of being wrapped up in him. I inhale the scent of his button-up shirt deeply.
“Wait a minute,” I say, laughing as I step back. I look up and down at the blue oxford shirt, chinos, boat shoes.
“Are you running for office? What is happening with this outfit?”
He laughs and runs a hand over his face, and that is when I notice even his hair is combed.
“I have a surprise for you. I grabbed an overnight bag for you. I hope you don’t mind.”
I’m blown away. He’s the only person I trust to pack an overnight bag for me, so I’m not even mad about it. Not only am I not annoyed, I’m shocked and thrilled. He’s taking me somewhere overnight! I can’t believe this. Is this actually happening? Are we going to have a talk? Is he going to initiate it? Does he feel the same way?
All the things I felt when he hugged me told me my feelings are reciprocated. He squeezed me longer than usual. The noise he expelled was a mixture of comfort and longing, like a groan mixed with a sigh. And the rigidness I’d felt digging into my hip when he picked me up could not be denied either.
Dumbly, I say, “Should I leave my car here and follow you, or?”
“Ride with me. I want to tell you the news on our way to the thing.”
“The thing?” I quirk an eyebrow skeptically.
“That’s all I’m going to say! Don’t make me spoil it!”
I tease him, “What has gotten into you?”
But I know the answer to that. What has gotten into Hudson is the same thing that has gotten into me. Extreme feelings that reach way beyond friendship.
I pile into Hudson’s woody station wagon, and we head to the marina.
“Aren’t you sick of this place? You’ve been at work all day,” I tease. “I know full well he lives here in his own boat, but with the way he’s dressed up, I’d assumed we’d be going somewhere other than his usual hideaway.
“I have news. I’ve been offered a job over the summer in the Keys, chartering a fishing boat.”
I’m both thrilled and over the moon for him. I reach over and squeeze his hand while he drives up the coastline.
But a part of me is selfishly sad.
“That is amazing, Hudson! I’m so proud of you!”
He laughs, “I did nothing to earn it. Captain Jack just picked me out and asked me. I think he just needs a warm body.”
I scoff, “Fiddlesticks!”
He laughs at my corny exclamations.
“No, really. You work hard, you treat your employees and clients well. I’m sure he noticed you because of that.”
Hudson smiles and grips the wheel, a mischievous smile and a twinkle in his eye.
“I’m so lucky to have someone like you who believes in me, Adalee.”
Hudson never calls me by my actual name. It’s always my last name, French. Or his nickname for me, Frenchie.
He says my name softly like a love song, and it’s music to my ears.
“Of course, I believe in you,” I say as he parks at the marina.
We exit the woody, and he carries my overnight bag for me with one hand and reaches out to hold my hand with his other hand.
My stomach does the second backflip of the day. On any other night, I know he’d be holding on to me to keep me steady on this sometimes-rickety dock, but this feels different. Everything feels different tonight.
As we approach Captain Jack’s boat, I see the moon above the water. In the distance, pleasure boats with their tiny red lights blinking are scattered across the horizon. It’s a peaceful night, and the waves lap gently against
the dock and the line of sailboats.
“You know I get seasick. I hope you’re not planning on taking me on a cruise,” I say.
Hudson laughs and squeezes my hand. “You know I would never spring that on you.”
Appreciation floods me. He knows me so well and would never try to push me to get used to the water unless it was something I really wanted to do.
“I’m still not sure what we’re doing here,” I say.
When we reached the massive yacht at the end of the pier, he guides me across the gangway.
“What are we doing here? Are we allowed?”
Hudson explains that the captain gave him free access to the boat for tonight to see if he would like it.
“If I say yes, we leave in a week, and I’ll be in the Keys for the rest of the summer,” he says.
My heart plummets.
“I’m gonna miss you,” I say, my voice suddenly scratchy. He’s going places. He’s going to get out of here and see the world, and I’m going to be stuck here in an RV park looking after my mother.
But not tonight. Don’t get down on yourself tonight, little girl. Just enjoy whatever it is that Hudson has planned.
“The captain gave me the keys and said to see how I like it, see if I could see myself spending that much time on the boat. I’d have to live on it unless I pay for my own lodging at the Keys. But depending on tips, I can always earn enough money for some side trips. Maybe go snorkeling.”
“I’ve always wanted to go snorkeling,” I say.
He brushes my hair from my face.
“Come on. I’ve got pizza, salad, popcorn, soda, and your favorite dessert.”
I gasp. “M&M salad?”
He beams at me. “Yep!”
Below deck, he has an entire spread laid out on a nailed down coffee table inside the boat.
I look at the bowl, and he’s indeed done it. He gives me so much shit about it, but I know he loves me. Regular M&Ms, pretzel M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, and dark chocolate M&Ms are all mixed together. It’s my one sugary guilty pleasure.
