Pete was slammed with customers while the band played. The music was okay, but it wasn’t really his taste. There was more screaming and slamming on the cymbals than he preferred. But he’d deal with it in order to snowboard on the slopes all day and work at night.
After high school, he’d opted to go out and explore the world, much to his parents’ displeasure, citing that he should go to college and find a career. Settle down with a wife and kids someday. That wasn’t Pete’s thing. Snowboarding was his one true love. His goal was to board every big ski resort in the mountains, maybe make it in the competitive world. He’d headed west after graduating from a small high school in Vermont. Now, he found himself in Oregon. He should have been preparing to leave here, but something had kept him from making plans to do so, and he couldn’t put a finger on why.
At the moment, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the curvy brunette nursing beers at the end of the bar. He had been flirting with her between delivering drinks until he and Dimitri ended up switching sides, and now all Pete could do was glance in her direction. She was quiet, reserved, didn’t seem to talk to many people. Her friend approached her once while the band was playing, urging her to go on the dance floor, and that’s when he first noticed that she signed to her friend. Growing up with a hard-of-hearing dad, he could understand the brunette, and he almost laughed out loud when she told her friend that she’d talked to three other girls who were there for Trek.
His name was actually Trek. Whether that was completely made up or some nickname, Pete didn’t know. Trek brought women to the bar all the time, but not for screwing. He wanted this bar wall to wall with as many women as possible because where the women were, the men would follow and the band took a small cut of the drinks on the nights they played.
“Switch sides?” Pete asked Dimitri, who shrugged. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist, and if it wasn’t for the cute brunette he desperately wanted to talk to, Pete would have been bored most of the night working beside Dimitri.
Pete went right over to the brunette, wiping down the bar top and taking the empties piled along the bar. “Another?”
She shook her head and glanced toward the dance floor where her friend was now dancing with Trek while the band took a break. They were surrounded by a lot of other girls who looked as if they might start a brawl.
“You sure?” he asked her.
Her cheeks reddened, and she shook her head once more, not speaking. He knew how reserved his dad was about using his voice, so he didn’t want to push her, but at the same time, he wanted to have a conversation with her.
After helping a few more customers, he noticed she kept staring at her phone then out at the dance floor. Fuck it. He went to her end of the bar. He could tell she was about to slide off the stool, probably tell her friend that she was leaving, and he knew he might never see her again. Something inside him said he couldn’t let that happen.
She was already smiling and shaking her head as he approached, but he lifted his hands and signed, Water? A shot of tequila? What do I have to get you to stay a little longer?
Her head rocked back and a giggle he could barely hear over the music came out of her. She situated herself on the stool and signed back, A shot of tequila, I guess.
My name is Pete, he signed.
Bea.
And for the rest of the night, Pete was the worst bartender to everyone except Bea.
I crack my neck and flex my fingers. God, it feels so good to have a story that can’t stop coming to me. It’s as if it’s just flowing out of me, and I can barely type fast enough to keep up.
Grabbing a yogurt that I brought with me this morning, I sit in the stillness of the cottage, smiling to myself. Hudson is picking up Adley from preschool today. I have the entire cottage to myself for a day of uninterrupted writing, and for the first time in a long time, I’m excited by the prospect.
I walk over to the couch, ready to write another chapter, when I spot a white shuttle pull up in the driveway. I figure they must have the wrong house, but then I see the script on the side and sigh. Northern Lights Retirement Center.
There goes my productive day of writing. I turn my cochlear implants back on.
Alice and Jean get out of the van with bags of stuff in hand, two men trailing behind. Glancing around, I wonder if I can sneak out somewhere, but they all stare at my SUV in the driveway, and I hear them arguing about who they think it is, making my escape impossible.
I’m thrown when they don’t knock on the door but use a key to gain entry. Since Adley is with Hudson, I can go home and write, although I feel as if there’s some kind of magic here helping me get the words in. Still, I pack up my stuff.
“Palmer?” Alice stops in the doorway with some other friends of my great-grandma.
They’ve tried to fill the shoes of my great-grandma Dori and her friend Ethel Greene, two meddling grandmas who pushed all their kids toward the loves of their lives. No one can fill their shoes though.
I wave, reaching for my coat.
“We didn’t know that Lance had given the key out. So, you’re the next, huh?” Alice says.
I nod.
“Why doesn’t she speak?” a man behind Alice asks. I’ve never seen him before, and I’m not sure if he’s the new driver or what.
“She’s deaf,” Jean says.
Well then.
“It’s hard of hearing,” Alice corrects. “Sorry, Palmer, this is a new resident, Neil. He’s our driver now.”
I wave and smile.
“Why did they give you the key?” Alice asks, nosy as always.
“Um…” I say, and Neil smiles as if I’m a toddler in the middle of a tantrum and using my words. None of them sign, so I have no choice but to speak unless I want to grab a piece of paper and write it all out, which I don’t. “I’m having a hard time writing.”
Neil’s smile grows bigger, and I become more irritated.
“Oh…so no problems with Hudson?” Jean asks.
This type of thing is one reason I almost didn’t move home after finding out I was pregnant with Adley, but I knew that even with Hudson’s help, I would need the help of my family as well. And truth be told, although they’re big and loud and nosy as all get out, I love them. I loved growing up in Lake Starlight, and I wanted that for Adley too. But everyone in town knowing everything can be a bit much sometimes. Especially with Buzz Wheel, an app that reports on the secrets of its town residents.
“Who’s Hudson?” Neil asks.
Jean stares blankly as though she’s already had it with him. “Her daughter’s dad.”
“Her husband?” Neil asks.
I slide on my coat, and Alice approaches, shaking her head. “No. No. We’ll leave. We just wanted to get out of the home for a while. They were trying to get us to do a Richard Simmons workout video. Where do you think they dug that thing up from?”
“It’s okay, I can head home.”
“I’m lost. She has a husband and a daughter, and she comes here? Sounds like trouble.” Neil chimes in with his two cents.
“They aren’t married,” Jean informs him.
“Who isn’t married?” Neil asks, talking louder each time he opens his mouth.
“Palmer and Hudson. They aren’t married.” Jean shakes her head and gives me an apologetic look.
“But they have a daughter?”
“Oh, you old fool, you don’t have to be married to have a child.” Jean crosses her arms and turns away from him.
“So, they’re divorced?” Neil continues trying to understand my life.
“No,” Alice and Jean say in unison.
“What happened to being an honorable gentleman and marrying the woman you get in trouble?”
“Oh jeez.” Jean sighs. “Hudson didn’t get Palmer in trouble. They slept together and conceived a baby as friends. Now, they raise that daughter and live side-by-side. It’s really a great situation for Adley.”
“Who’s Adley?” Neil asks.
“Don’t answer,” Alice tells Jean and turns to me. “I am glad I ran into you, though, because we picked your book for book club. Everyone at Northern Lights is going to read it.”
“Um…I’m sorry?” I had to hear her wrong. Why would they pick my book?
“We picked one of your books. We can’t wait! We’re just waiting for all of the paperbacks to arrive, then we’re going to read in chapters and have discussions. Would you be willing to come and talk?”
This has to be a joke. A group of senior citizens wants to read my romance novel? I mean, I know a lot of my readers are older, but I don’t know them personally. Just the mental image of Alice and Jean reading my sex scenes makes me want to cringe. People always think it comes from personal experience. It’s fiction, people.
“Please. We’ve never had an author at our meetings before,” Alice says.
Jean clears her throat.
“Well, we had that one who wrote a book on the habits of bird mating, but that isn’t the same thing as a fiction writer.” Alice widens her eyes at me, and I see the resemblance to her granddaughter, Aubrey, who is Calista’s best friend.
I would have never wanted anyone to tell my great-grandma Dori no, so I find myself nodding. “Okay.”
She opens her arms and pulls me into her, although her head reaches my breasts, and I’m afraid I’m going to smother her. Drawing back, she keeps her hands on my arms. “Thank you. I can’t wait to tell everyone. I’ll be in touch on dates and times. We should leave you to it then. If we enjoy this book, maybe you’ll become a regular, and we’ll read all your books.” She looks over at the table.
Then she walks over and grabs the white envelope there, seeing my name on it. Calista told me that Alice was the one who first gave her the key to the cabin, that Great-Grandma Dori put her and Jean in charge of getting it to Calista.
“Have you read it?”
I shake my head. “Not ready.” Maybe the truth will stop Alice from continuing to pry into my life.
She nods. “Well, you should soon. There’s a reason your cousin picked this moment to give you the key. Whatever is in that letter will help guide you along this journey.”
My eyebrows scrunch. I don’t understand what she’s talking about.
She sets the letter back down and takes my hands. “Just read it, please…soon. I’m saying this as a grandma. It’s important, right, Gilbert?” She turns to the old man who has remained silent this whole time.
“She was quite adamant when she left them with me.” Gilbert, who used to be the town lawyer, must have been in charge of Great-Grandma Dori’s things, but I know Calista has all the letters now.
I nod, though I’ll open it when I feel like it, without anyone forcing me to.
“Well, let’s go, gang.” And just like that, Alice is back to business.
“We’re going back?” Neil says. “I thought we were staying here?”
“Get a clue,” Jean says and walks out with Gilbert following her.
They leave, and I shut the door, grabbing my laptop again.
I write until late, and although I could spend the night, I want my own bed, so I drive home. The lights are on at Hudson’s. When I look at the time, I know he’s likely giving Adley a bath right now. Boy, do I miss her already, and it was just this morning when I saw her last. I could easily go over there, Hudson wouldn’t care, but with Theresa in his life, I feel as though we’re going to have to start maintaining some boundaries. Boundaries we’ve never had before.
I park in my one car detached garage, and as I walk to my door, I hear Hudson whisper-shout my name. Turning around, I walk toward his back door. He’s standing there barefoot in jeans and a sweatshirt, his hair messy. It’s my favorite look on him.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“We have a problem.”