by Tl Reeve
“Eden!” Ralph’s voice came in and out. “I was just ready to send a message.”
“Did you get the parts?” she yelled. “What’s going on?”
“We have scoured the country. I can get you the battery, but the water pump is on backorder. I even searched dealerships. It’s a faulty part,” Ralph told her.
Eden balled her hand in a fist. “Surely there has to be one somewhere?”
“Nothing, nada. Sorry.” Ralph raised his voice over the static. “I’ll keep checking.”
“I need a tow to get this guy out of here. He needs civilization.” As she waited for the answer, she hit her desk. Her muscles tensed. What if they could come pick him up? What if they couldn’t? Whatever, but before her turned her world even more topsy-turvy with his words and his harebrained scheme of some concert, he had to go.
“No can do,” Ralph said. “Why don’t you take him to the next town and let him plug in and we’ll get the parts when we can?”
“You know this is insane, right?” What did it take to get one man out of a tiny town?
“I’ll message if anything changes.”
The line went dead. Not even a dial tone, just some little clicks that signified she was connected to something somewhere.
“Aha!”
From behind her a man yelled. Eden’s heart seized, and she dropped the phone receiver. “Ah!”
Perry ran up to her. “I knew it.” He bent down, picked up the receiver, and showed it to her. “I knew you had technology. I knew it.” As if he’d won a trophy, he raised the phone high in the air. “The telegraph was just fucking with me, right? Don’t worry; we can have a variation on that theme later. In fact…” He put his arm around her and pulled her in for a light yet lingering kiss.
Before she lost herself yet again, she pushed him back. “Until your parts come or I can get the car transported, I can arrange to get you to a real town with technology.”
Without a word he stared into her face.
“Perhaps you can get back to Los Angeles, and I’ll get your car fixed and once this whole thing is sorted out, I’ll have it transported over,” she continued.
He crossed his arms.
At the way he focused on her, she shifted her weight from one foot to the other but pressed on. “Alternately, since I wasn’t able to service your needs, perhaps we can get you home and you can arrange to have the car transported.”
Finished with everything she needed to say, she waited for him to respond.
He stood there, unmoving, unflinching.
Not wanting to remain in silence and needing to get on with their plans, she decided to speak. “Why don’t we get started?”
After a pause, he swallowed and inhaled. “The only person working on my car is you, and I am not going anywhere until the work is done.”
His low tone and the intense way he gazed at her made her cheeks heat.
“Also I have no doubt that you will service my needs.” He leaned forward until they were nose to nose. “I have a lot of needs.”
Her throat went dry, and she licked her lips.
“That better be you priming the pump.” With a bite of ownership, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.
No, she didn’t protest. Maybe she let out a little gasp at the unexpected movement, but she certainly didn’t fight him.
“I take it the parts aren’t available?” He inched closer to her.
“Correct.” She breathed the word.
“Did they give you an estimate?”
“Not today.” Another day and another night with Slick. She needed help. Maybe she should go to the city.
“All right.” He nodded. “Then there will be no talk of cars and repairs. The parts will get here when they get here and until then we are going be together.”
How had she ended up in this position? Parts came in a day. Tow trucks were readily available. Things like this didn’t happen. “What are you doing? What are we doing?”
“I am learning about you and this town. You are showing it to me. We are delving into our relationship, because like it or not, I’m here.” He took her hand and kissed the back.
She wanted to pull her hand away but was powerless. “Why me?”
Before answering, he grazed his lips over hers. Her body combusted at the simple gesture. She’d never had that with any other man.
He slid his lips over to her ear. “Say you don’t want me, and I’ll figure my own way out of here.”
His words sent shivers down her spine. The man was a player, a talker. As a concert promoter, he was nothing more than a fancy salesman, and she was here buying anything he was selling. Her silence served as her answer.
“Excellent.” He rewarded her with a kiss. “Then let’s do what any self-respecting couple does when they have a day on the town.”
“What would that be?” She was in this, deep and far, so gone she’d lost sight of the ending.
“We will paint the town red.” He winked, laced his fingers in hers, then led her out of the garage and swiped his hand out in front of him. “It may only take a gallon of paint, but we are still doing it.
She turned back to the garage housing Perry’s car. Soon enough he would drive away, and she would be left to clean up the mess.
Eventually Perry would have to return to Los Angeles.
Eventually he would have to face Lyle, his career, and what he had messed up.
Eventually reality would hit.
Everything in life had an eventually.
He put his arm around Eden and gazed down upon the woman.
Eventually he would also have to have her, and he couldn’t leave this one-street town without knowing she was his. Somehow, before he left, he had to get her to believe not only in him, but in what he could do for the town.
“What do you want to see first?” Eden pulled her hair out of her ponytail, causing her crimson locks to tumble down her back.
Unable to stop himself, he combed his fingers through her crowning glory. She was an interesting woman, one who didn’t need any adornment to make her more beautiful. “I’ll tell you what I would like to see all the time.” In order to ensure she understood his meaning, he stared into her eyes and gave her a slight smile. What he would call his knowing smile.
As if trying to hold back her words, she pressed her lips together and turned away.
If nothing else happened on their tour, he had to break down some barriers. “Eden.” He moved in front of her. “Look at me.”
With a shake of her head, she did as he requested.
“No parts are coming today. I’m not leaving today. Can we have today?” Maybe if they took it one step at a time…
“I suppose that’s all we have.” Her voice came out low, laced with questions.
“Until we have tomorrow.” He took her hand and swung it back and forth.
The corners of her mouth threatened to rise in a smile, but he could tell she fought any signs of happiness.
“Tell me about the town named after you,” he said.
After a pause, she took a breath and walked forward. “If anything, I am named after the town. The town was named for my great-grandmother.”
They went toward the convenience store at the garage.
“My great-grandfather won the land in a bet,” she told him.
At the same time, they both let out a little laugh.
“Really?” This story was getting good.
“Yep.” She entered her store. “They were gambling in Las Vegas, and he won the land. He really thought he’d hit it big.”
“Well winning a big piece of land would be hitting it big.” He let her lead him up and down the aisles. The little shop boasted all of the normal convenience-store goodies, including candy bars, soda, snacks, and crackers.
She took him over to the corner with a rack of picture postcards and pulled out a black-and-white one. “It used to only be this garage and the boarding house.”
He stood closer
and peered down at the image. At the bottom, written in an old-fashioned cursive, it said Welcome to Eden. A Rest for the Weary. In many ways, it was true.
“My great-grandfather thought he would build a little oasis. A respite. It would start with these buildings and grow.” A bit of longing pulled at her words, and she put the postcard away.
He pictured a man similar to Eden’s father thinking he’d made it, that something had finally changed his luck. He had land, a lot of land, ripe and ready for development. “What happened?”
Her hand in his, they walked back outside. She stopped in the middle of the street and shielded her eyes, gazing out in the direction of the highway. “People grow older; gimmicks don’t work; what you thought you could do never really materializes, and the world goes on. Suddenly you’re a stop, not a destination.”
He tightened his hold on her hand. Her words spoke of much more than a town forgotten. Along the way, she’d also been left by the side of the road. Right there he made a promise to himself that this would never happen again.
In a sweet, serene silence, they wandered along the buildings. Both he and Eden waved at a few members of her family during their little stroll that took in each simple building. “It seems as if each generation left its mark on the town, added something, and that, Slick, is all about Eden.”
They stopped outside the antique store. “I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface.” He took the lead, and they went inside.
On his first day, when he’d run in there, he’d barely entered before he’d left. Everything had seemed as though he’d been thrown back in time, and this place hadn’t helped his state of mind, had only added to his panic.
Several days in, with Eden by his side, he could now look at this store a little differently. No longer was it junk reminding him of a lack of technology. Instead, all around him were remnants from a time gone by, from a town trying to hang on, from a place that screamed to not be forgotten.
Every inch of the store was covered in things from yesteryear, be it a bedroom set better left back in an old sitcom, to appliances back when they’d had style. He wrinkled his nose when he spotted a racecar set he used to have.
“What’s wrong?” Eden stopped.
“I didn’t know toys I played with were considered antiques.” Suddenly he felt old, really old. By the time his father was his age, he’d been a senior account manager for an office-supply company, had a wife, a mortgage, and a kid. He’d never figured he’d would only have a few years left with his family. Eden didn’t realize her luck.
Perry lifted one of the cars. He’d always insisted on being red. All he had to show for his years on the planet was a broken sports car and an unsteady job.
Beside him Eden sighed, and, instinct taking over, he put his arm around her and held her close. “I also have this.”
Brow furrowed, she looked up at him.
“I have you and I have this town and what I can do.” The vision of his concert bringing the world to this place solidified in his mind.
“You don’t have me.” She backed away and disappeared around a corner.
No, they weren’t traveling down this path again. He went after her and found her standing by a stack of vintage electronics. An old huge computer, a console stereo, and even a cassette tape player and VHS machine. “What’s going to be your mark?” He ran his fingers over a pile of old records. “What is it that you are going to leave behind for the town that bears your great-grandmother’s name?”
She went to an old television, one of those monsters that had an antenna and everything. “I think that my mark will be bringing it back to its roots. Realizing what it was meant to be and not fighting it. The land here is beautiful.” Her voice took on a faraway tone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a couple of old turntables and a mixer. The kind he’d used to play with back in college when he’d spun records for local clubs. Maybe everyone was right about the town and it was giving him what he needed. “Did you ever think if you wanted to bring the town back to its roots, you would do what your great-grandfather wanted?”
She aimed an old television remote at him. “Is there a way to turn you off?” The distinctive click of the vintage buttons echoed in the quiet shop.
“No.” He went to her and put his hands on her hips. “In case you didn’t realize, Eden, you only turn me on. Make no mistake: you are mine.”
“I don’t know what to do with you.” Her body relaxed and melted into his.
“There are so many things.” He curled his arm around her and cupped her backside. The woman’s body was made for his, and he wanted to dive in. “How about we grab some dinner at the diner, find a bottle of wine, and sneak up to my room? We can listen to the nothing and be together.”
In an unexpected move, she stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a light yet lingering kiss.
It took less than a second for his body to react. “See, I have amazing ideas.”
“As amazing as they may be, the only wine we will be sharing tonight will be at the family dinner table, and the only flames we will be fanning are from the Hanukkah candles.” She put the remote aside and traveled down another aisle.
Once more he studied the turntables—a piece of him, his history. Maybe he had to show her what could be, what the town could be, how they could make history together. Everything would happen eventually.
6
Night Six
Eden sat up straight at the table and with perfunctory, precise movements, cut her waffles exactly on the lines and ate one square at a time.
No, this wasn’t how she usually ate, but right now she was trying to do anything to make sense out of her world.
Once upon a time, actually less than a week ago, her life had been normal. She would work on the occasional car, pump some gas, sell a few candy bars to passersby. Her family the center of her life, everything had been calm and cool. Days blended into one another, and that was how she liked it.
“Good morning!” Slick practically flew down the stairs.
“Here, take your seat—your waffle is ready.” Her mother motioned to the chair and dashed into the kitchen.
True to the name she’d given him, he walked around the table and slid his seat next to hers.
Right as her mother returned with his waffle, Slick leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Good morning,” he growled in her ear, giving her the shivers.
The smile on her mother’s face could have powered the generators of Eden for a year. With much flourish, she put the plate down in front of Slick and hugged him. “Enjoy, I can make more.” She then made a production out of putting a dollop of butter and generous portion of syrup onto his dish.
“Thank you. I love round waffles. They taste much better than square ones.” With a laugh, Slick dug into his breakfast.
Eden continued to eat her waffle squares, lamenting the fact that since they were round waffles, some squares weren’t perfect. Of course, nothing in life was perfect.
“What are your plans today?” Her mother joined them at the opposite side of the table.
The mention of the day made the scant bit of appetite she possessed vanish.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Slick staring at her, really studying her. Between wondering if she had something on her face and wishing she didn’t like how he looked at her, she put her fork down and pushed her plate away.
“I take it by Eden’s reaction that we still have no auto parts or tow trucks and I’m still but a happy captive in this great land.” He put his arm around the back of her chair. “Am I right?”
Without a word, Eden nodded. In her entire life she’d never had seen or heard of something more ridiculous than not being able to get this guy out of here. She was cursed for sure.
Her mother clasped her hands. “It’s like a Hanukkah miracle.”
Eden supposed one person’s curse was another person’s miracle, but she was still the woman’s daughter. �
�What is so miraculous about a bunch of morons who can’t get a car part and a guy who has nothing better to than be here stuck in this town? Who lives like that?”
Slick tapped her.
“What?” Fine, she faced him. Him and that face. Him and that expression as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Him and his ideas on how he could help her town. Just him.
“Not to state the obvious, but you live like that.” He grinned the smile of someone who’d bested another.
Her every muscle stiffened. “I live with my family and work in the family business.” She narrowed her eyes. “Isn’t anyone missing you?” If she disappeared for three minutes, her parents would put out a search party for her. Did no one else find it odd he didn’t need to contact anyone? Even after he’d found out they had a semi-working phone, he never asked to use it.
The smile on his face dulled. “Maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to have that.”
“You have that now!” Her mother jumped up from the table, rushed over, and hugged him. “You have that with our whole family, especially Eden.”
Eden almost rolled her eyes, but restrained herself when she caught him staring at her.
Her mother went between them and hugged both of them to her copious bosom. “Since Eden can’t fix your car today, the two of you should do something together.”
Why Eden was shocked at this suggestion, she didn’t know. Still, she had to do anything to prevent more time with the gorgeous man who seemed to fit right in with her and her family and set her hormones ablaze.
“I have to work.” Eden glanced out of the window. No one had come yet this morning, not even for gas. In fact, no one had come by yesterday when she’d spent the day fooling around with Slick. The town always provided what she needed, and right now she needed some customers. Where were they?
“Your father and I can man the shop. Anyone who needs a repair can wait.” At last her mother released them. “I have the perfect idea for you and Perry.”
“There is nothing more I would like than to spend the day with Eden.” He leaned into her.
