Eleven. It couldn’t be.
Wiping her hands clean, Merryn pushed through the swinging doors of the kitchen to see Austin waiting patiently by the display case. Although he was bundled in a full snowsuit, he stood as he did everyday. There was a part of her that wondered if he was a bit autistic or just severely OCD. “Hey Austin, lovely day we’re having,” she said as she approached and pulled out the loaf of honey wheat. “You’re my only customer so far today. If I could live on selling one sandwich, I’d be set for life with how much you love them.”
“I can’t stand egg salad,” he said.
She turned sharply only to realize she was wielding a knife, so she put it down. “Austin, you’ve bought probably a thousand egg salad sandwiches from me,” she said as she crossed her arms and caught sight of his deep chocolate eyes. “You know I have other types of sandwiches.”
“I know, but my mom only eats egg salad,” he said then did something very strange. He leaned back and rested on a table. “It’s pretty much all she eats really. If it wasn’t for your sandwiches, she’d probably of starved to death.”
A chill ran over Merryn and she realized, much like with her, the truth hurt worse than the speculations. “I’m sorry, I guess Darryl is derelict in his gossiping duties, I didn’t know.”
“He only talks about what’s happening now, not five years ago or notably non salacious as it is to have a few strokes.” Austin stood back up.
Merryn noticed the smell wasn’t there today.
“Anyway, you going to make me the sandwich?”
“Y-yes,” Merryn stumbled with her words. What could she say? It’s not like they had a friendship or this was something new. “Would you like a couple? Or at least a loaf of bread and container of egg salad? The weather isn’t supposed to let up for a few days and it will keep.”
“Then who would you have as a customer?” he asked with a softness in his voice.
“There are worse things then having you stop in for a few minutes.” She smiled as she wrapped up the sandwich in white butcher paper and placed a sticker to hold it in place. “Especially, since you’ve found your voice.”
“I’ve always had it, but your place is quite popular and I had enough gossip in my life.”
“You might have to move away then,” Merryn said. “Being quiet is just as bad as being boisterous.”
“What are they saying?” he asked as he leaned on the display case with a crooked smile.
“You’re the creepy old guy,” Merryn teased as she leaned on the case too and once she’d entered his personal space, a spark tore through her as a trembling found its way to her center.
“I’m not old.”
“Just creepy.” Her right eyebrow arched.
“I better get this sandwich to my mom…” He coughed as he stood back.
“Living on egg salad alone can’t be good for her.”
“It’s protein. Just like those nasty meal replacements she wouldn’t drink.”
“Take her something sweet,” Merryn said as she pulled a lemon Danish out of the case. “It’s soft, easy to chew…” Now that he was talking, she wanted desperately for him to stay around. “On the house.”
“I couldn’t.”
“It wasn’t an option.”
* * * *
Austin’s heart was pounding so hard, he was afraid Merryn would hear it. Had she been flirting with him? It’d been so long since a woman approached him and that was high school. But their quick banter reminded him of when he’d been with Rae in the beginning.
He wanted that again, but he felt like a stumbling fool every time he spoke around her. There wasn’t a history there. He didn’t know everything about her from the day she came into the world and he liked the mystery. It wasn’t that she was secretive. Merryn Sota was someone he wanted to know more about.
Taking the streets slow in his truck, he would have been better off walking the two blocks. His hands were all staying on the farm, so they didn’t risk driving in the snow. Now, he regretted not taking Merryn up on her offer for more sandwiches. Coming back into town wouldn’t be easy. The snow had already picked up. White out conditions when he was driving to his farm were to be expected. But in town, there weren’t open fields to let the wind take over and blow across the road. Houses and buildings were supposed to protect him from that, but it appeared not to be the case.
Shaking off the snow, he entered his mother’s home that was warm and toasty.
“Hey Austin,” Laurie greeted him. “Would you be willing to shovel the walk?”
“I was planning on it. How’s she doing?”
“Watching the snow in the picture window and listening to IPR.”
Austin checked in on her. The only connection he had with her came from her eyes. She was still in there. Trapped. It killed him to see her like that.
“Mom, I brought you a treat today. I’m hoping you’ll try it. A lemon Danish.”
Her eyes cut to him, looked down, then back up to him.
“You want dessert before lunch?” he teased and her eyes crinkled a bit. “Maybe Merryn was right.” He gave her a small bite of the roll, making sure to have a dot of lemon curd on the breading.
His mother chewed methodically then swallowed. Although she couldn’t smile, her lips twitched up a bit.
“Guess I should have been bringing you donuts,” he said and patted her hand. “Laurie will help you with the rest. I need to shovel. Do I still get five bucks for it?”
His mother responded with crinkled eyes and a bit of a grunt.
“Austin,” Laurie said as she sat next to his mom with the sandwich and a glass of milk. “Bill is going to stay home with the kids. I told him it’d be easier to just stay here till the snow clears. I’m not sure how that bills out though. The other girls have so far to travel.”
“I’ll talk with Brad and Gretchen. I appreciate you doing that. One less thing for me to worry about. Um…Merryn said she’d give me a container with egg salad and a loaf of bread to get her through the storm. Should I do that? The roads are getting worse.”
“Only if she has a fruit tart for me,” Laurie said. “And some more Danishes. I can’t believe Miss watching her weight ate that.”
His mother crinkled her eyes again.
“Call the bakery and have her put it together. Whatever you want from there. It’s the least I can do.” Austin tried to convince himself he was being practical. Laurie was going out of her way to help him. The least he could do was have food at the ready. Everything was closing down. Who knew if the Triple B would even be open tomorrow?
Merryn had his bag ready when he showed up a half hour later. The interaction was back to status quo.
Maybe he’d misread her response. He was out of practice.
As he headed up the street for the third time, his mind was wandering as he saw the warm light coming from the frosted windows of the Triple B. Suddenly, he hit a patch of ice and his truck couldn’t find purchase. White swirled around his vehicle as he tried to find a landmark to focus on and he found God for the first time since his daughter, Daisy died. Holding the steering wheel, he fought against the push, because he couldn’t let Trinity lose her father too. His biceps were drained from shoveling and he decided it would be best to turn into the skid.
The truck spun three times in his estimation. A bright light from the Triple B flashed as he spun. With a smash, he came to rest with a sideways jerk. His passenger door smashed against the wall with only a mound of snow stopping him from going through it.
Merryn came rushing from the front door to see his truck facing directly at her. His headlights created a halo around her baseball cap. She was hugging herself because she hadn’t grabbed a coat and was in short sleeves. Her head tilted from side to side as she approached his truck.
Austin froze. His knuckles white, as they clutched the steering wheel.
Merryn tapped lightly on the driver’s side window.
Licking his lips, he found his breath aga
in.
“Now, I have a good excuse for not shoveling my walk,” she stated plainly, when he rolled down his window. Her voice was in a bit of a tunnel. “My shovel is somewhere between your truck and the wall. So, is this your way of saying I need a drive thru?”
He dropped his head down and let out a gust of air.
“Austin, you’re good right?” Merryn reached in and cradled his face turning him to her. “Speak to me or I’m calling an ambulance.”
“Merryn, any chance you have liquor in your bakery.”
“I might.”
He opened the door with a click and got out. His hands trembled as he walked around to see the front of his truck. “Um…that would be a good spot for one,” he said.
“One what?” Merryn asked.
“A window. You know people just going for a walk could get some food.”
“I have a thirty thousand dollar oven there.”
“So, what you’re saying is you’re inflexible.”
When she smiled, he felt the tension melt from the top of his spine.
“Are you okay? What about whiplash?”
“I haven’t registered that yet.” He placed his hand on right side of his truck which was smashed up against the side of the building like he’d parked it there. If it wasn’t for the spinning skid marks across the street and destroyed side mirror, he could pull off the ruse.
“Three times in one day. You know you can stay for more than five minutes. I’m thinking of taken Darryl on as a dependent he’s here so much.”
“I probably should try to get it off the sidewalk.”
“Leave it,” she said as she took his hand and pulled him inside. “Even if that was a snow route, you’re not on the street.”
“I don’t want to have to call Katz and Kids.”
“From what I’ve seen, Aaron is busy on the interstate pulling people out of ditches and bringing them to the Worthington Arms.”
Aaron had a pretty good shop that had helped her when her SUV died, stranding her in Braden for a few days. It had been the first time she’d stopped for longer than to crash or eat. Right before the Founder’s Day festival and the brandied pecan pie bake off. The first day, she walked around the peaceful village and looked in the windows of an abandoned building. Craig Worthington and his wife had been very hospitable at the Worthington Arms. Even giving her a discount as she waited for escrow to close on the building.
“This storm is really bad,” he confessed as he sat down.
Merryn poured him a cup of coffee then added Irish cream.
“I really shouldn’t.”
“Drink. You’re an adult. It’s either that, or the brandy I use for the pecan pies or we go to my apartment and I get the real good stuff.”
“Oh right, you make the kind of pies that can be flambéed.”
“Darryl gave me his mother’s recipe.”
“You have something going with him,” he teased.
“Outside of some out of towner, he’s the only one to hit on me.”
“I doubt that.” Austin’s eyes lost their droop for just a moment as he gazed at her.
“I think I just put off that vibe. Totally taken.” Merryn wiped a few stray crumbs into her hand and tossed them in the garbage. “Sometimes, I still feel married I guess.”
“Yeah.” He took a long swallow of the warm coffee that had to be hours old and blanched. “This is horrible.”
“I’m sure it is,” Merryn said as she reached for the cup but he held on. Their fingers brushed and neither of them moved.
* * * *
“The color is back in your face,” Merryn noted as she stood stupidly with her hand still on his cup. “That’s a good thing.”
“I’m not a fan of the snow, less so of that damn black ice.”
They sat in silence. Merryn tried to read more from his words but nothing registered. His chocolate eyes pooled a bit with what she thought were tears, but none fell. When he looked up his eyes reminded her of the plaque at the school. “I have a random question for you,” Merryn said as she rocked her back on her heels. “If it’s none of my business it’s okay to tell me to bug off.”
“Not really something I need your permission on.”
“At the school the other day, I saw a plaque for a Daisy Larsen. Between the name and your eyes—well…” Merryn twisted her fingers nervously.
“She was my daughter,” he said solemnly.
She sat down across from him.
He curled the cup into his chest and looked at the swirling mocha liquid. “We lost her in a snow storm. Not as bad as this one.” He glanced up at the calendar on her wall and a tear escaped, but he wiped it away quickly. “I should…” He pushed up.
Merryn placed her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t mix emotions and bad weather. Nothing good can come from that combo.”
Austin appeared defeated and resigned as he collapsed back to the hard backed chair.
Again, the silence that seemed to surround him ate at her.
The silence was the pain tearing him apart from the inside. Words carried memories and he seemed to want to hold on as if the mere act of speaking could destroy them. “It’s been five years.” He bit his bottom lip.
A shiver shot through Merryn. Today, she’d learned more about her silent stranger than in the past three years of interaction. It was drawing her toward him and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that. Emotions being turned off were her specialty.
“I don’t know why I even told you that. You don’t care.”
“I gave you a shot, I’m your bartender now. Tell me your troubles. Please Austin, I’ll tell you mine. You know Darryl would pay good money for that.”
He chuckled a bit and a timer went off in the kitchen.
“Come back here with me. Cooking is good therapy.”
“Unless it’s grilled cheese, you’re not getting me cooking.”
“Oh, we’ll see.” Merryn placed the first round of pies the hotel ordered on a cooling rack, then adjusted the temperature for the cakes they wanted. “Can you grab the eggs from the fridge?” She pointed and Austin fell in line. “Don’t worry, I won’t make you do much.”
“You have that brandy?” he asked.
“I’ve got something better.” Merryn went up the back stairs to her apartment and dug in the back of her cabinet for a drink she’d brought with her from Cali. Her one vice. One case…She was down to the last few bottles. “Here.” Placing her measuring cup shot glass in front of Austin she went to the fridge and got her heavy whipping cream. The light amber liquid that was Liquor 43 poured seductively into the shot glass. She left about a half an inch from the top. The white cream bounced down in the liquor then came back up to the top, so the shot glass looked like a little beer. Golden amber on the bottom, white foam on the top. “It’s called a mini beer.”
“I wanted liquor.”
“It is, they just call it beer because of how it looks. Trust me, a shot, or two of that and you’ll warm up and relax. It’s call forty-three. A Spanish drink my ex always had around the house.”
“I’m not drinking alone,” Austin said.
Merryn retrieved another shot glass. Holding the glass up to her lips, she led the quick shot and Austin followed. The cold sweetness of the cream coated her mouth right as the alcohol warmed all the way down her chest. Austin tapped the glass for another and she obliged.
Merryn went back to baking, leaving the man to mix his own drinks if he wanted more.
“We were baking cookies.” Austin’s voice was distant as his eyes stayed locked on the mixer. “It was a week before Christmas.”
“When your daughter died?” she clarified.
“Yeah, we were out of butter.”
“Capital offense in my world.”
“My ex’s too, I guess. Daisy had just got her driving permit a month before. It was still light out and she wanted to drive.” Austin sat on a stool and passed the eggs to Merryn.
Cracking them into the bowl
, she began beating them as he continued his story, “I’d been on the fire department at the time.”
Being an all volunteer service most guys in town over twenty tended to be a part in one way or another. Each had training from basic to advanced life support. Merryn enjoyed their chili fundraiser every fall.
“Daisy…” His eyes became lost again as her name caught in his throat. “Rae had been reading The Great Gatsby in English when we found out she was pregnant. High school sweethearts and all.”
“Seniors?”
“I was,” he replied with the same solemn tone. “She was a sophomore. She still finished high school. Even got an associates in business. My mother saw to that, but I had to marry her.”
“Had? Did you love her?”
“As much as any seventeen year old can love someone.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be rude. So Daisy was going to get butter,” Merryn redirected the story.
“I had the scanner in the kitchen on the counter. There are times I love living in a small town.” Austin sat silently for what felt like a thousand heartbeats. “In a big city, they’d have never said the victim’s name over the scanner. Even if they knew who it was.”
A lump was burning a hole in Merryn’s throat as she saw the pain tearing through Austin as he relived what had to be the worst day of his life.
“The bridge with that little damn creek a half mile from town. Most days, it barely has a trickle. That day, it wasn’t much more than that. It was the drop over the bridge. We never even walked under it because it seemed so short. But a little sedan careened over the edge and a girl who was too excited to be on her way in town that she didn’t latch her seatbelt…” Austin ran his hand over his face to clear the tears. “Jesus, she was all I thought about when I was spinning out. Was that what she went through before she hit the edge and went over? Then I thought of Trinity, my youngest…”
“You have another daughter?”
“She’s a freshman at Prairie in Cedar Rapids. Rae and I tried to stay together after the accident, but when my mom stroked…too much tragedy I guess.”
Triple B. Baking Co. Page 4
