After Alex headed back to his booth, Lincoln popped over to For Pet's Sake. Midge and Stan were on the sidewalk in front of their store, handing out little tchotchkes to everyone who went past. Children got pencils, plastic bead necklaces with paw print medallions, and little boxes of animal crackers. Grownups got punch cards to use in the store (with two bonus spots pre-punched), coupons, and pens.
He had to smile at his aunt and uncle. They were both in their element, chatting with everyone about the wonderful weather, the incredible turnout, and the fantastic events coming up later in the day.
"Lincoln! So nice to see you." Midge grabbed him in a massive hug while Stan clapped a hand on his back.
"Did you need help with anything?"
"Aren't you working at the shelter booth?"
"I helped set up, and I'll go back later to help tear down." He'd come a long way with his social anxiety and awkwardness, but manning a busy booth and making small talk with hundreds of people while trying to sell them calendars and ask for donations was still a bit too far out of his wheelhouse.
"We've been telling people to stop over and get a calendar."
"Or a new pet," Stan added.
"You guys are the best." He stepped off to the side as they greeted a cluster of folks walking by. When they passed, he asked, "How long are you going to be out here?"
"Until we run out of stuff to give out." Midge gestured to a half-full large cardboard box on the card table beside the front door. "Then we have to mop, feed the fish, and do the trash, and then we're going to relax and see what all's going on. And get some funnel cake. I keep seeing people walk by with it and it looks delicious."
"I can take care of most of that for you." Easy peasy. He went into the store, and like he'd done a million times since he was a young boy working here, he gathered all the trash. He took a quick walk around the aisles, looking for anything out of place, like the inevitable empty drink bottles people left in random spots on the shelves. He straightened a few crooked items, then took all the trash to the back room.
He followed the routine to feed the fish, then mopped the floors, starting at the front door and working all the way to the back storeroom.
He propped the back door open so it wouldn't lock him out as he took the trash bags down the stairs to the dumpster. He lifted the lid and slung the bags into the container.
"Lincoln! Lincoln!"
He whirled around to see Abby atop a pony. "Hey! Look at you!"
The woman led the pony in a wide turn around the parking lot. As ponies sometimes do, it left a fresh present from its backside on a pile. The woman apologized and promised to clean it up.
Abby's eyes got wide and she laughed. "He pooped!"
Working with animals, Lincoln was no stranger to poop. As the pony ambled away, he grabbed a shovel from beside the dumpster and headed for the stairs to retrieve a heavy duty trash bag and a pair of work gloves from the storeroom.
Halfway up the stairs, a noise from behind the dumpster caught his attention. He slowly backed down the stairs and cautiously walked over, giving the dumpster a wide berth.
A woman hunkered beside the dumpster, holding her phone out in front of her.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh!" She gasped and toppled backwards onto her butt.
"What are you doing?"
She shoved her phone inside her coat. "Nothing."
Something felt off. "Were you… are you taking pictures of the kids?"
She scrambled to her feet and straightened her coat with an indignant tug. "Certainly not."
She didn't look like his idea of a homeless person, but who could know anyone's circumstances. He asked, "Do you need food?"
Her mouth flopped open, shocked and offended. "Of course not!"
"Then why are you out here?"
She flipped her hair with a quick shake of her head. "If you must know, I was simply getting a picture of my granddaughter on the horse."
Granddaughter? Surely not. "Why not stand out front with the rest of the families taking pictures?"
She pressed her lips together. "My circumstances are unusual."
He reached to his back pocket to get his phone. "Yeaaaahhh, I'm going to call the police now."
At that, the woman took off running down the alley.
"Hey!" He took a few steps to run after her, but stopped. Thanks to Alex's need to test security cameras, the store's property was videoed from every possible angle. He hurried back into the store and made sure the door was secure, then hustled toward the front. He wanted to catch Gretchen before Abby got off the pony and they disappeared into the festivities.
He slipped out the front door and went over to where the rides were set up just as Abby was being helped off the pony. He waited to see which direction she went before going over to find Gretchen.
She stood along the side with her parents and gave Abby a big smile as she started talking about the amazing pony.
He sidled up to her. "Hey, can I talk to you a minute?"
She still smiled, but through gritted teeth, she said, "Now's not a good time."
"I know. But this is important."
"Not a good time." She was clearly not happy to see him.
He didn't want to blurt anything out that Abby could hear, so he leaned in and as quietly and quickly as he could, said, "A strange woman was taking pictures of Abby."
Her head snapped up. "What? When? Where?" The color drained from her face as she frantically looked around at the crowd and tugged Abby against her. "Where, Lincoln?" she demanded.
Brian said, "Let's get out of the way," and steered their little group away from the growing pony crowd.
Lincoln followed Gretchen, who had a tight hold of the hood of Abby's coat. He hadn't meant to upset her.
They ended up a few blocks away, where the buildings gave way to a park with benches around the monuments dedicated to the town's fallen soldiers. A massive pine tree had been erected, covered with tons of lights and surrounded by colorful fake presents at its base.
"This is boring," Abby said with a scowl.
"Mommy needs to talk to Lincoln for a minute. Just hang out right here with Grandma and Grandpa."
She led him to a bench several yards away and sat down.
Lincoln sat beside her. "I don't know if it's anything, but it was weird. I was taking stuff out to the dumpster when Abby yelled at me to look at her on the pony, so I watched until they were back around the building. When I turned around, there was a woman behind the dumpster taking pictures. She said she was taking pictures of her granddaughter. I think she meant Abby. As soon as I said I was calling the police, she ran away."
Gretchen didn't seem surprised. Scared and concerned? Yes. Surprised? No.
"We have cameras everywhere, so it'll be no problem to get them to the police and figure out who she is."
Gretchen finally looked up at him. "I know who she is."
"Who?"
"Abby's grandmother. Carla."
Lincoln sat back. "What's she doing here?"
"She said Seth died and Abby's all she has left."
"Whoa. She just showed up here, though? That's… something's not right."
"I need to call Sheriff Grady. He escorted her off the property already." She got up and went over to talk to her parents. A minute later, Brian was on his phone.
"I'm hungry," Abby announced.
Lincoln walked over and spoke quietly so only Gretchen could hear. "If you want, you can get food and eat in the back room of the pet store so you don't have to keep looking over your shoulder."
"Thanks." Her relief was unmistakable.
Brian lifted Abby onto his shoulders and they walked back into the crowd, stopping at various booths to put together a meal.
Back at the pet store, Midge and Stan had given away all of their trinkets and were getting ready to lock up. Lincoln ushered everyone inside and saw Gretchen's sigh of relief when he locked the door behind them.
"Not many places to sit and eat out there, are there?" Midge said. She put a finger to her chin and looked at Abby. "You have a pug, don't you?"
Abby nodded vigorously. "His name is Walter."
"Walter! That's a great name for a pug. I think I have something you can take home for Walter, if you like." She disappeared into one of the aisles.
Lincoln led everyone back to the combination storeroom/break room, where there was a big table and plenty of chairs.
Midge came back with an elf-shaped chew toy for Walter.
"Thank you! He's so cute," Abby gushed, immediately tucking the elf under her arm while she ate.
Midge beamed. "We're heading out. Be sure to lock up when you leave."
"I will." Lincoln got up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Enjoy the festival."
They'd just finished eating and Dory said, "What do you think we should do now?"
Abby piped up, "I want to see the parade!"
Lincoln glanced at the event schedule Midge had tacked on the bulletin board. "Looks like the parade is in half an hour."
Gretchen put her head in her hands. "I don't know, honey, I was thinking we could go home."
"Why?" Abby demanded.
Dory and Brian exchanged a look. "We'll all stick together. It'll be fine."
Lincoln saw the muscles at the back of Gretchen's jaw work as she clenched her teeth.
"Mommy, please? I didn't sit on Santa's lap." Her chin quivered with disappointment.
Gretchen smiled. Lincoln recognized it as her theater smile. "Okay. But you have to stay close to me and Grandma and Grandpa all the time, do you understand?"
Abby's little brow furrowed. "Is it 'cos of that lady?"
He saw Gretchen wrestling with the answer. "Partly, yes," is what she ended up saying.
Abby seemed to take it in stride.
Brian reached over and flicked her braid. "You can watch from Grandpa's shoulders. Mommy can grab the candy for you."
"Yay! Candy!"
Lincoln said, "We can watch right out front here. The parade starts right over at the park and ends at Prescott's."
Sitting on Brian's shoulders only worked until the first float was past, then Abby wanted to be down on the ground, grabbing her own candy like the other kids who darted from the sidewalk onto the street.
Lincoln could feel Gretchen's tension. She kept an eagle-eye on Abby, tensed to leap if anyone came out of the crowd. The high school marching band had Abby enthralled, clapping her hands to the beat of the drums. Local politicians sat on the backs of convertibles, waving and tossing candy to the kids. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had a float competition to see who could get the loudest cheers.
The Dairy Princess and her court tossed cow-shaped erasers instead of candy. A huge, bright red, antique farm tractor pulled an elaborately decorated flatbed trailer carrying a Christmas tree and a red bench, occupied by none other than Santa Claus, who smiled and waved and Ho-Ho-Hoed all the way through town while four elves tossed down handfuls of candy canes.
Lincoln kept an eye on Gretchen, and one on Abby, as all the floats made their way past. The junior high marching band brought up the rear of the parade with an excellent Christmas carol medley.
As they passed, the crowd folded in behind them, going back to browsing and shopping and eating.
Gretchen's forced smile was stretched tight.
Lincoln wasn't sure how to help her.
She said, "We should—"
Brian held up a hand. "Hang on, I got a message from Grady." He listened to his voicemail and grinned. "They picked her up. She'll be a 'special guest' until Monday morning at least. So we can relax and enjoy the tree lighting."
"Are they sure it's her?"
"One hundred percent."
Abby was too busy sifting through her bag of candy to pay attention to what the adults were talking about.
Dory must have seen the incoming anxiety attack the same time Lincoln did. Gretchen pulled in huge breaths that made her entire torso rise and fall, visible even under her puffy winter coat.
Lincoln was already fumbling in his pocket for the keys to the store when Brian held his hand out for Abby's. "How about we go watch the ponies some more?"
Abby squealed with excitement and shoved her candy bag at her grandma. "Ponies! Ponies!"
Lincoln unlocked the door. He and Dory practically dragged Gretchen inside. Dory said, "Would you feel better if I stay with you, or go with Dad and Abby?"
Gretchen's breathing was even heavier now. She simply pointed toward the door.
As soon as Lincoln locked the door behind Dory, Gretchen sucked in a massive sobbing breath.
He grabbed her waist and led her to the storeroom. He steered her to a chair and before she could sit, she sobbed uncontrollably. Gently, he undid her coat and tugged it off. Then he slid a chair against hers and sat down so he could pull her against his chest. He stroked her hair and said, "It's okay, she's okay, everything's okay now."
He had no idea if she could even hear him over her sobs. There were no tissues in the storeroom, but a half-used roll of paper towels was within reach.
After a few minutes, the shuddering sobs subsided and Gretchen wiped her face and blew her nose. She sat up and closed her eyes, pulling in deep breaths and releasing them slowly.
"You okay?"
She snapped, "No, I am not okay."
It really was a dumb question, wasn't it? Obviously there was more going on than he was aware of. "Do you want to talk?"
She blew her nose again, then glared at him. "To you? After you ghosted me for a week?"
"I…" He trailed off. He hadn't meant to ghost her, but he kind of did, didn't he?
"You what?"
"I'm sorry. Last weekend was a whole mess, and we can talk about that later. But I want to know if you're okay. What happened with that woman?"
Gretchen sighed. She wasn't sure which topic was more uncomfortable–Carla, or last weekend's events.
"You know all about Seth's parents dragging me to court, trying to get visitation–correction, trying to get joint custody. Well, we have permanent restraining orders against him and his parents. They have to stay away from Abby and from me. We haven't seen hide nor hair of any of them for almost five years."
"And she just showed up here today. That's crazy."
"She approached Abby. Just walked right up to her like it was no big deal. Dad was talking to Sheriff Grady, and he told her to leave or she'd go to jail. She said she was leaving and I stupidly thought she did."
"Hey, don't do that. Any normal person would have listened to the sheriff and been glad they weren't going to jail."
Her chin quivered. "I thought she was going to grab her."
"Hey, hey." He pulled her against his chest. "I can only imagine how terrifying it was."
She sniffled and pushed back from him. "I need to get myself together and go out there with Abby. Is there a restroom?"
"Yeah. Right there." He pointed to a doorway mostly hidden from view by two storage shelves. "I'll wait out front. Take your time."
He went out by the counter and waited. A few minutes later, she came out. The only evidence of her crying was a little redness around her eyes that could easily be mistaken for being out in the cold air all day. Must be all those years of theater and switching roles and emotions at the drop of a hat.
She zipped her coat and smiled. "Let's go."