Authors: Mariah Stewart
“Most times, I can’t even bring myself to speak his name,” Brooke confessed. “It just hurts too much to talk about him. I don’t know why I’m talking about him now.” She choked on a sob and Dallas got a glass of water for her. “I’m just so lonely with him gone, I don’t know what to do with myself. I thought maybe if I came back home here, I’d feel better, you know? Maybe things would be better.”
“Has it been?”
“In some ways, yes. Being in a place that’s familiar, with people I’ve known all my life, has been good. And it’s been wonderful for Logan to be able to spend some time with my brother. And my mom’s here with us and we’re all staying out at the farm, which my brother took over when my dad gave it up.” She smiled. “He’s been terrific about letting us stay with
him, but I know it’s putting a big-time damper on his social life, with his mother, his sister, and his six-year-old nephew underfoot all the time.”
“I’m sure he’s happy to have you there.”
“He says he is, but he’s been known to lie to be polite in the past.” Brooke sighed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t intend for this to turn into a weep-fest. I was just feeling so blue, coming back from the wedding. The last time we were all together was at my wedding eight years ago, and today everyone was remembering Eric and offering their sympathy.”
“It must have been a rough day.”
“Yeah.”
“And you came here to apologize and I did everything but kick your butt down the front steps.” Dallas frowned. “I’m really sorry. I’m embarrassed that I was so rude.”
Brooke waved a hand dismissively. “It was a misunderstanding, that’s all. Besides, after the way I used to treat you, I figure you owe me a boatload of rude.”
Dallas extended her right hand. “Friends?”
“Friends. Absolutely, yes. Friends.” Brooke shook Dallas’s hand. “Thank you.”
“So now that we’re friends, I need to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“Are you really studying to be a veterinary assistant?”
“Are you kidding? The first time someone brought in a sick animal, I’d lose it.” Brooke laughed. “No, I’m taking business courses now. I left college after my third year, but I’ve always regretted it. My brother suggested that I enroll at Chesapeake College and get
the credits I need for a bachelor’s. I needed an elective, so I signed up for animal husbandry. I grew up on a farm, so I figured it would be an easy course for me. So the next thing I knew, Logan was telling everyone that I was going to be a vet and work for Grant. I guess that’s the leap his little mind made, because he’d love for me to be a vet so that he could be around the animals all the time, and the only vet he knows is Grant. But the story going around—the one that has me planning to go to work for Grant so that I can seduce him? Totally not true.”
“Good to know.” Dallas nodded. “So, what do you want to do after you finish school?”
“Cupcakes.”
“You mean a bakery? I think there is a fairly new bakery in town, but Berry said it wasn’t great. Maybe you’ll—”
“Uh-uh.” Brooke cut her off. “Not a bakery. No breads. No doughnuts. No cakes, pies, or cookies. Just cupcakes.”
“I’ve seen shops that only sell cupcakes in just about every major city I’ve been in over the past two years or so.”
“No shop.” Brooke shook her head. “I want to go mobile. Sort of like a hot-dog vendor, but without the hot dogs. Just cupcakes.” She took another sip of tea. “I read about a woman who has a van that she takes around the city where she lives, and makes several stops every morning, sells out, then she’s home by noon. That’s what I want. I can sell in the middle of town, I can sell down on the dock and at the marina.”
“Do you need a permit for that?”
Brooke nodded. “I already spoke with the mayor
but she said there’s no precedent, and there’s no law against it. I imagine there will be something put in force now that I’ve raised the issue, but I don’t expect a problem with it. The important thing is that I’ll have time with Logan after school, we can have dinner together, and I can put him to bed. That’s my priority these days.”
“I think it’s a very clever idea. I like it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Ally began to bark at the side windows and soon was joined by Fleur. Dallas looked out and saw Berry parking near the back porch. The boys tumbled out of the car, and Dallas opened the door to let the excited dogs out.
“Be prepared for a bit of pandemonium,” Dallas warned Brooke. “The dogs make for quite a welcoming committee.”
“So I see.”
Moments later, Berry came into the kitchen with Ally at her side, and Fleur bouncing merrily between Cody and Logan.
“Did you have a fun time?” Dallas asked, ignoring Berry’s raised eyebrow at seeing her niece and Brooke obviously enjoying a tête-à-tête at the kitchen table.
“Yes!” both boys yelled.
“The movie was so fun. It was just like I pictured it in my head, Mom,” Cody said.
“And we had pizza,” Logan told his mother. “Pizza with lots of cheese on it.”
“Mom, Aunt Berry had figs on her pizza!”
“Fig Newton pizza!” Logan shouted, and the two boys fell over each other laughing.
“You might want to let those two run off some of
their excitement for a bit,” Berry told the boys’ mothers. “Not to mention the sugar from the ice cream we just had at Scoop.”
Dallas rolled her eyes.
“Well, I did make them drink water instead of soda with their pizza. You could thank me for that.”
“I thank you for including Logan in your fun,” Brooke told her.
“You’re welcome, dear. He’s no trouble at all, and certainly much more Cody’s speed than I am.”
“Come on, Logan. Let’s play with Fleur.” Cody tugged at his friend’s arm, and they raced out the back door with the dog.
“I think I’d like to go upstairs and change out of these clothes. I swear, it must have been a hundred degrees in that theater.” Berry started toward the hall.
“Thank you again for taking Logan today,” Brooke said.
“My pleasure, dear.” Berry turned and called her dog, and Ally followed her up the stairs.
Brooke turned to Dallas and said, “Since we’re friends … now it’s my turn to ask something of you.”
“Shoot.”
“It’s a favor.”
“All right.”
“If you don’t care about Grant as much as he cares about you, please don’t go out with him again, don’t spend time with him. Please don’t let him think for one minute that this time it will end differently.” Brooke set her glass on the table. “Please don’t hurt him this time around.”
“I don’t have any intention of hurting him.”
“Good. Then we’re all on the same page as far as
Grant is concerned.” Brooke stood. “I should get Logan and go on home. I’m sure my mother is wondering what happened to us.”
“How much do I owe you for all those newspapers you bought?” Dallas asked as they walked outside.
“How about a cup of coffee one day?”
“I’ll go all out and spring for lunch.”
“Lunch is tough.” Brooke shook her head. “I have classes every day and mid-terms are coming up. But my first class isn’t until eleven, so I’m good any morning after exams.”
“Give me a call when the smoke clears and we’ll get together.”
“You’re on.”
“Want to meet at Cuppachino? I’m getting addicted to their iced lattes,” Dallas confessed.
“My favorite place,” Brooke agreed.
“Great. You just let me know when you’re free.”
Dallas stood back with Cody as Brooke backed her car around Berry’s, and waved as they disappeared down the driveway and onto River Road.
Who’d have thought this day would ever come?
Dallas mused as she walked back into the house. Brooke Madison and Dallas MacGregor—BFFs, Berry would say. The Apolcalypse must be near.
The morning had begun so peacefully. Dallas had joined Cody and Berry for tai chi, and then breakfast, which had been on the dock at Cody’s insistence. But she and Cody had taken a walk down the path that ran behind the houses along the river, intending to go as far as the bridge about a mile upstream, and they’d startled a snake that had been sunning itself in the middle of the walk. When it rose up and began hissing, mother and child turned tail and ran back to the safety of Berry’s yard.
“Aunt Berry, there was a snake! It was really big!” Cody shouted as they ran across the lawn. He pulled up short in front of the chair where she was reading the morning paper and held out his arms to show her just how big it was. “The biggest snake I ever saw! And it was almost going to bite us! It opened its mouth like this.”
He demonstrated the snake’s wide-open mouth.
“Was its head slightly triangular in shape?” Berry adjusted her glasses upon her nose.
Cody turned to his mother and asked, “Was it?”
“Maybe. I was too busy screaming to notice.” Dallas
bent over and rested her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. “It had sort of a tip on the end of its nose, but we didn’t wait around to notice much else.”
“Most likely a hognose, dear.” Berry patted Cody on the back. “They play a tough game, but they’re perfectly harmless.”
“No, he was going to bite us, he was. He made a sound like …” Cody hissed.
“All part of the bluff,” Berry assured him, “but you were wise to just walk away. There are copperheads in the area, and we want to avoid them. They can deliver a very nasty bite. You’re more apt to see a water snake, though. There are plenty of those around.”
“Like the one me and Logan saw in the river last week?” Cody asked.
“Exactly. We give them a wide berth but they won’t bite unless they are threatened. I was always told that they aren’t poisonous, though some believe they are.”
“There was a snake in the river last week?” Dallas frowned.
“Of course. There are always snakes in the river, don’t you remember?” Berry folded the paper and dropped it to the ground.
“I guess I blocked it out,” Dallas admitted. “It’s the one thing Indiana Jones and I have in common: We both hate snakes. I don’t even like thinking about snakes.”
“Well, they do a job, and they do it well,” Berry told her.
“What job do they do, Aunt Berry?” Cody sat on the arm of the wooden chair.
“They eat rats and frogs and mice,” Berry explained.
“Why, we’d be positively overrun with rats were it not for the snakes.”
“Ah, that’s another thought I try to avoid.” Dallas shuddered. “Being overrun with rats.”
“I don’t remember you being quite so skittish when you were younger.” Berry trained her eyes on Dallas.
“I didn’t know any better then.” Dallas picked up the paper. “Oh, the
Gazette
. Grace’s paper, right? Anything in here I should know about?”
“Not really. It’s basically the same every week: what new shops have opened, who’s having sales, the calendar of upcoming events. Oh, but there is a rather nice article about the town festival,” Berry pointed out.
“What town festival?” Dallas scanned the front page.
“Discover St. Dennis, dear.”
“I discovered St. Dennis years ago, Berry.”
“No, that’s the name of the festival. They used to call it Founders Day, but someone wisely thought that sounded all too ho-hum. We needed something a bit more distinct. Several years ago, the Chamber of Commerce adopted ‘Discover St. Dennis’ as our town motto. I’m sure you’ve seen it on everything from T-shirts and aprons to tote bags and mugs. Anyway, someone proposed that we rename Founders Day as ‘Discover St. Dennis.’ I think it works quite nicely.”
“What do they do on Discover day?” Cody asked.
“What don’t they do? And it isn’t just a day, it’s the entire weekend, Friday through Sunday. There are sailboat races, a big picnic down in the park, and there are house tours in the historic district down around the square in the morning. There’s a race
through town early in the morning for those who run, and there are footraces for children after the parade.”
“There’s a parade?” Cody asked, wide-eyed.
“Oh, yes. They block off the side streets for that.” Berry stood and stretched. “It’s quite the weekend.”
“It all sounds like fun and I’m glad we’ll be here for it this year.” Dallas finished skimming the paper and refolded it.
“Me, too.” Cody nodded enthusiastically. “I love parades.”
“So do I.” Berry glanced at her watch. “Time to get ready for story hour, Cody. Run inside and wash your hands and find the book you took out of the library last week. We’ll want to take it back and get a new one …”
“Ah, bliss,” Dallas murmured as she booted up her laptop, having seen Cody and Berry off for the library. Yesterday she’d worked on
Pretty Maids
for hours, until Berry suggested that the three of them take a walk to a neighbor’s house where they’d been invited for an afternoon barbecue. Dallas had reluctantly shut down her computer, but later had to admit that she’d enjoyed the company of Berry’s friends and the stories they’d told about their days growing up in St. Dennis. Dallas mentally tucked much of it away, thinking that now would be a great time for Berry to start on her memoir. Dallas had suggested the idea as they walked home, but Berry had appeared horrified at the very idea.
“I don’t think so, dear.” Berry had shaken her head.
“Oh, but what tales you must have to tell.”
“There are some tales that weren’t meant to be told.”
“You’ve lived a fabulous life, Berry.” Dallas had slipped a hand through her aunt’s arm.
“Oh, indeed I have.” Berry smiled. “But that doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to know about it.”
Dallas had let it drop for the time being, but resolved to work on Berry again before the end of the summer.
She reached for the photo of Berry and the mystery man that she’d left standing against the desk lamp, but realized it wasn’t there. She moved all her papers around, picked up the laptop, and looked around the floor, but the picture was nowhere to be found. She reached for the photo album where she’d found it, thinking perhaps Berry had returned it there, but no luck. Her cell phone rang as she finished flipping through the pages. Caller ID announced that Norma was on the other end.
“You’re up early for a California gal,” Dallas said by way of a greeting.