“Finally. Don’t know what’s taken so long,” Betsy continued to the other people around her. “Pride, Kenny. It all comes down to their pride, don’t it? Four grown men scratching their heads, unwilling to ask a boy to help them do the work,” she said, and Kendra’s smile slipped as she remembered Nick’s pride on their first date.
“That’s men for you, Bets. Anyway, is there anything I can do? Howard’s got connections who I’m sure could hel–”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kenny. We’ll all be fine. It’s just inconvenient that’s al– would you stop playing with that, you’re making it worse!” she screamed. “I’m sorry, Kenny, but I need to keep an eye on these boys, at this rate I’ll have nothing left to save, and Mark will have nothing left to fix,” she said. “Oh heavens, not another one,” she mumbled, and Kendra smiled more widely.
“That’s fine, Bets. I’ll call you later, I guess.”
“You’d better, Kenny. Notaku, don’t you start touching anything, the rest have already done enough damage, and I know that you’re plenty talented in a variety of areas but you and I both know that you ain’t got a clue how to fix my utilities,” Betsy said loudly, and Kendra smiled widely at the image she had in her mind of her tiny friend ordering around five fully grown men who were attempting to ‘help’.
“I’ll let you go, Bets,” she said loudly in an effort to catch the woman’s attention.
“Okay, Kenny. I’ll call you later on when everything’s sorted out here. I told you not to touch that! I knew I’d regret hiring a city boy like you,” she mumbled as she hung up, and Kendra found her brow furrowing in confusion as the call disconnected. Betsy had hired somebody on? Who? And why hadn’t she mentioned it to Kendra?
“Kendra?” came the familiar voice, and Kendra’s thoughts were diverted from life in Granville as she spun around to see her mom standing behind her looking wary. It had been over two years since they’d seen each other, and Kendra didn’t realize until that moment how much she’d missed the woman.
“Mom,” she breathed as tears started to fill her eyes. “How was your flight?” she asked tentatively, not entirely sure how to behave after everything that had happened. As much as they’d spoken on the phone to each other, this was different. And something she didn’t quite know how to handle.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Kendra squeezed tightly as her mom took in her appearance.
“It was good,” Marilyn finally said. “Just a minor delay.”
“Not too rough?”
“No,” her mom said as she continued to stare at her. “I’ve missed you,” she said quietly as tears filled her own eyes, and Kendra just stood there staring at the woman who had done so much for her. Who had sacrificed so much. Who had been her best friend for so much of her life.
“I’ve missed you too, Mom,” she confessed and watched as her mom came forward to wrap her arms around her as her tears finally broke through the barrier.
“I’m so sorry, Kendra,” she said into her ear. “I never meant to hurt you. Never. I’m so sorry that I did.”
“I know, Mom,” Kendra said quietly back as her own tears started to fall. “I’m starting to see things a little differently now,” she admitted.
“Thank you for inviting me,” her mom said as she pulled back and tried to straighten herself out.
“Thanks for coming. I know it might all be a bit … well, awkward. But …,” Kendra said and floundered for what to say next as she wrapped her arms around herself again.
“It’ll be fine. Your father and I are grown adults, we can handle it all,” her mom said with a tight smile, and Kendra studied the woman more closely. Yes, she’d definitely made the right decision. Her mom wasn’t as relaxed or as indifferent as she was portraying, and Kendra had a feeling that she knew the reason why. And it wasn’t fear over how they’d get on. It was because she still loved him.
Marilyn Wilcox was worried about being able to be near the man she loved without getting her heart broken again.
* * *
Mitchell wiped his hands and sat back against the wall with a smile on his face, along with the other men surrounding him.
“How long do you think we need to give her before she calms down enough to not bite our heads off?” the Sheriff asked, and the rest of them laughed.
“From the way she was earlier, I reckon we’d be better off camping out in here for the whole night,” Mark said.
“What are you talking about?” Mitchell said in surprise. “You’re the savior here. You’ll be getting free meals from now on, it’s the rest of us that she’s furious with,” he added as he gestured at the remaining men.
“Well, it weren’t my fault,” Walter complained. “That valve should’ve stopped the water flow, not let it out,” he grumbled.
“’Cept fer the fact that Betsy had already turned the water off, Walter,” Jim said with a smile, and they all laughed.
“Don’t know why you’re laughing, Mitchell, you’re the one that nearly blew all the dang electrics,” the Sheriff pointed out, and Mitchell blushed.
“Well, I didn’t realize that she’d dealt with that as well,” he said sheepishly.
“Don’t worry about it, Mitchell, she’s probably most annoyed at Growling Bear here,” Mark put forward with a smile, making the man in question groan.
“Thanks goodness you were able to fix all the blown fuses. Betsy would have killed me if all her electrical appliances had been fried because of me,” Notaku said, and they all laughed at that as well.
“Danged if I know why you’re all so happy in there!” came the strident voice of the elderly woman, and they all cringed while ducking their heads down again.
“Yeah, I think we best stick it out here for the time being,” Walter mumbled quietly.
“She’s going to force us to eat her chocolate pie, you know. That’s her preferred method of revenge,” Mitchell confided and smiled more widely as the rest of the men shuddered in anticipation of the ‘treat’.
“Well, you deserved it at the time,” the Sheriff put in.
“I know,” Mitchell said soberly.
“It’s in the past,” Notaku put forward. “Mitchell paid his dues, and proved himself. No need to bring it all up again,” he added, and Mitchell looked at the man in gratitude.
“You reckon we could sneak out like?” Jim asked as he peeked around the doorframe. “The water’s all cleared up. The appliances are all fixed. And everything else’s done. Maybe we could escape her wrath if we left for the night,” he added, and the other men nodded in agreement.
“Go on first then,” the Sheriff urged the man.
“Me?!” Jim said in shocked surprise.
“It was your idea,” Walter pointed out.
“I ain’t goin’ out there first,” he said with a vehement shake of his head.
“You scared of little old Betsy?” the Sheriff teased.
“Dang right I am!” Jim exclaimed, and they all laughed again. When nobody made to move Mitchell sighed and stood up, brushing himself down.
“I guess I’ll be the first to stick my head over the top of the parapets then,” he said and watched as the men sighed and smiled at him. His plan of ingratiating himself to the town had certainly worked, and if he hadn’t been accepted already, this latest action would have certainly sealed it for him.
Mitchell cautiously peered around the corner and thought over things. As much as his plan to befriend the town had been for the benefit of proving himself to Kendra he had to admit that he’d benefitted from it himself in other ways. He had friends now. Honest to goodness friends who he cared about and who cared about him.
The people in the town weren’t just acquaintances or neighbors, they were a part of his life, and it was a new experience for Mitchell. Back in the city he’d spoken to people and gone out with others, but there had never been any sort of connection or emotional involvement with them.
He knew it was mainly his own fault that that was how it had been; he’d been busy w
ith his career, but also unwilling to open himself up. Landing in Granville had changed all of that. Meeting Kendra had changed all of that. When he spent any time analyzing how things had played out with her he cringed. He’d been selfish, thinking of himself and his own goals instead of her in all of it. He’d put himself first, not thinking or caring about how it would affect her in the long run.
As much as he’d fallen in love with her he could accept the fact that he hadn’t deserved her. He was trying to change that though. Get himself to become a better person, a person that she could trust and rely on not to hurt her. He wasn’t sure he was there yet, but he was certainly trying. He thought others could see that change as well. Which was most likely the reason that they’d accepted him: because he was becoming a better man.
With a smile on his face he straightened up and headed more fully into the main part of the diner.
“I don’t know what you think you’ve got to smile about. You boys nearly ruined me,” Betsy grumbled from the side, and Mitchell turned to look at the woman who appeared worn out from the long day of drama.
Ignoring her grousing, he instead studied Betsy more closely and asked, “How you doing, Bets?”
Obviously taken by surprise at his gentle tone, she turned surprised eyes to him before clearing her face and shrugging. “It’s all fixed, right?” she asked, and he nodded in response. “Well, in that case I reckon I’ll be fine, Mitchell.”
“You sure?” he asked as he studied her pinched lips and pale skin.
“I’m sure. Back to business as usual tomorrow. Thank goodness for that,” she said in relief. “Where are the others?” she asked as she looked around.
“Waiting for me to take the brunt of your anger,” Mitchell replied honestly with a smile.
“You make us sound like cowards!” the Sheriff’s voice called out from where he was still hiding in the kitchen, and Mitchell and Betsy shared a smile at that.
“Come on out, boys,” Betsy called out to them and waited in silence until the other five men skulked out of their hiding place and entered the dining area. “Don’t look so scared. I ain’t got the energy to do anything to you tonight,” Betsy said with a sigh, and Mitchell noticed them all relax.
“We’re real sorry, Betsy,” Jim hazarded, and Betsy just smiled up at him.
“I know you were just trying to help,” she said. “But it’s all done and dusted. So you boys get on home, will you? I’ll see you all tomorrow at breakfast.”
“Sure thing, Betsy,” Walter said as he and everyone except for Notaku headed towards the door quickly, as though eager to accept the reprieve that they’d been given.
“You’re not going too?” Betsy asked the last two men, and Mitchell looked over at Notaku in question. Why had the man stayed behind?
Mitchell shook his head as he focused back on the small woman. “I want to make sure everything’s alright before you head out.”
“You’re a good boy, Mitchell. I’m heading straight home now,” she said as she patted his arm and got herself up to gather her belongings. “Oh shoot,” she mumbled to herself as she grabbed her possessions.
“What’s the matter?” he asked solicitously.
“I forgot to call back Kenny,” she mumbled. “She’ll be worried I’d bet,” Betsy sighed. “What time would it be there? It’s ten now so it would be eleven there. You think that’s too late to call her?” she asked Mitchell seriously, and he was surprised that Betsy would seek advice from him on the subject.
“Not if she’s worried,” he averred and watched as Betsy nodded.
“I’ll go call her now then, before it gets much later. You can head on off if you want. I’ll be fine on my own,” she said but Mitchell just shook his head.
“I’ll wait out front. You’ll have your privacy, but I don’t want to leave you alone here, Bets. And I’ll walk you home,” he added, making her clamp her mouth shut before glaring at him. He knew what she was thinking, that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and Mitchell just crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at her. There’d be no changing his mind on it all.
Betsy obviously realized the futility of arguing and just huffed before turning around to head to the telephone while mumbling about pushy city boys. Mitchell instead smiled at her grumbling before he was brought back to the present by Growling Bear’s voice.
“I’ll keep you company,” he said, and Mitchell turned to him in surprise. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while anyway,” Notaku added with a shrug before sitting down at a table near the front of the diner.
Following in the man’s wake, Mitchell sat down opposite the other man and waited for what Notaku wanted to talk to him about.
“So, Kendra,” the man started, and Mitchell tensed before just sighing and slumping in defeat. “You haven’t contacted her at all?”
“No,” Mitchell confessed.
“Why not?”
“Weren’t you the one to advise me to work on the town first?”
“I never said first. I just said that it was something you should do.”
“I wouldn’t be able to contact her anyway. Howard Powers made that perfectly clear. I just have to wait until she comes back.”
“What if she doesn’t?” Notaku asked gently, and Mitchell looked at the man in surprise. He knew that Kendra spoke to Betsy regularly and he wasn’t naïve enough to think that she didn’t speak to the man who meant so much to her either. If Notaku had been in contact with Kendra, did that mean that he knew something?
“What do you know?” Mitchell asked, and Notaku shrugged.
“Nothing. Only as much as you do. Possibly less, in fact. You work with Elizabeth every day, you’re more likely to have overheard anything or had her drop hints to you.”
“You don’t talk to Kendra yourself?” Mitchell asked in confusion, and Notaku just shook his head. “Really?” he asked to make sure.
“She’s busy with her father. She never contacted me while she was in Europe either,” Notaku said.
“But things are different this time around,” Mitchell hazarded. He wasn’t sure he wanted to bring up what had happened between Kendra and the man opposite him, but he recognized his need to. He needed Notaku to know what he knew, and he also needed to get over the whole incident himself.
“How so?” Notaku asked with a furrowed brow. “Oh,” he said in understanding as a light lit his eyes, “because of Kendra coming to me for help.”
“Yeah,” Mitchell said and repressed the feelings of jealousy. “I would have thought that that would have formed a strong bond between you two.”
“Do you want there to be?” Notaku asked sincerely while staring at Mitchell, and Mitchell sighed.
“No,” he finally answered.
“Then be glad,” Notaku said. “Nothing changed between Kendra and me, except for maybe we both know where we stand with each other now. And she no longer has to feel alone.”
“Alone?” Mitchell asked in confusion.
“She knows she can come to me whenever she needs to now,” Notaku said with a shrug, and Mitchell’s eyes almost fell out of his head at the man’s laid back response.
“What?!” Mitchell roared and watched as Growling Bear looked just as surprised by Mitchell’s outburst as he’d looked at the man’s pronouncement seconds before. “How the hell can you even say that?! I thought you were helping me! Encouraging me! How is that even appropriate!?” Mitchell said while standing up out of his chair.
Notaku slowly stood up himself while eyeing Mitchell warily. “You don’t want her to have as much support and help around her as she can get?” he asked cautiously.
“There’s support and help, then there’s what you’re suggesting!”
“What exactly am I suggesting?” Notaku asked with interested eyes as he continued to study Mitchell.
“You know full well what!”
“Yes. I do. But I’m not sure that you do,” he said calmly, and Mitchell found himself feeling
off-guard and suddenly unsure of himself at the man’s statement and tone. “What exactly am I offering to Kendra?” Growling Bear asked again, and Mitchell hesitated before replying.
“I saw you outside of Lucky’s,” he said and watched as Notaku just continued to stare at him, obviously waiting for him to explain himself more fully. “I saw the two of you together, Notaku. I saw you with her.”
“Yes. I was comforting her,” he said.
“That was some kind of comfort,” Mitchell grumbled, and Notaku’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re obviously referring to her kissing me,” the man said, and Mitchell found himself off-kilter again. Notaku wasn’t embarrassed, or ashamed, or even wary.
“Yes,” Mitchell said while trying to figure out what was off in this whole thing.
“She was upset, Mitchell. You’d lied to her. She needed to escape, to distract herself, and I was there. It didn’t mean anything,” he said.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“Yes. She didn’t care about me, Mitchell. She cared about forgetting you. You hurt her. A lot. Because she loves you. Yes, it’s supposed to make you feel better. A lot better. Would you rather she hadn’t been hurt by your deceit? That she hadn’t cared at all? Or maybe you’re upset about her methods of forgetting you. Would you have rather she found her way back inside a bottle again? Would you have preferred that?” he asked, and Mitchell squirmed before reluctantly answering in the negative.
“I won’t lie to you, Mitchell. I kissed her back. Of course I did. I’ve been in love with and wanted Kendra for a long time, but I knew that something wasn’t right, so I stopped it,” he confessed, and Mitchell looked at him in surprise. “Yes, she wanted to use me, and yes, I was tempted to let her, but it wouldn’t have been right. I told you once before that I love Kendra and want the best for her. I’m not that.
“She was upset. She was desperate. She was heart-broken. And she was vulnerable. I would never have taken advantage of her, Mitchell. To even think I would is insulting,” Growling Bear added, and Mitchell blushed.
“I saw you though,” he confessed. “I was outside the next morning, waiting to see her. I saw you leave.”
Masks and Lies Page 19
