Checking Holly Twice, page 12
“Sounds like a great opportunity.” Could I sound more disingenuous? It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested. I was jealous of her other life.
“I must sound so vapid, pampered, and self-absorbed.” Her cheeks colored. “I shouldn’t have gone on like that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. This is your life and career. You have every right to have ambition. I like the way your face lit up when you were talking about the work.”
“That’s the thing. The work is so different from the fame. The latter wears me down, but I love acting. I’m even thinking about trying my hand at directing one of these days.” She lifted a shoulder. “But there I go again.”
“For someone with your talent and beauty, you have surprisingly low self-esteem.”
“You don’t know if I’m talented. You’ve never seen anything I’ve done.”
I laughed. “Guilty on that count. I’d like to, though. And I’m quite certain about your beauty.”
“Why don’t you have a television? I’ve been curious about that.”
“My sister didn’t want one when she had the kids. She was planning on homeschooling them and keeping them as sheltered as possible. I wanted to honor the television part. Homeschooling was a bit much though.”
“With your two jobs, I think you’ve had your hands full enough.”
“Speaking of which, I have a shift tonight at the bar,” I said. “I usually don’t get home until midnight.”
“What do you do with the kids when you’re working?”
“Mrs. Knight looks after them. For free.” Yet another kind person helping me out and asking nothing in return.
“I’ll stay with them tonight and give her a break,” Holly said. “She’ll have been with them all day.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?”
“This was more a run-away-from-reality type of trip. Being with the kids is fun for me. I’ll be happy if we can cook something for dinner together.”
“Will you wait up for me?” I reached across the table to caress her arm with my thumb.
“I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep, but I won’t be mad if awakened.”
“Deal.”
The server cleared away our dishes and asked if we’d care for dessert. We declined and asked for the check.
“I’m paying for this lunch,” I said to her, fully expecting her to protest.
Instead, she looked me in the eyes as if it she hadn’t just paid off more than a half million dollars of my debt. “Thank you. I’ll use the ladies’ and meet you at the front.”
I got my wallet out in preparation. It was stuffed with bills from the bar, all lined up in the same direction. The check came to almost seventy dollars plus tip. I took out my stack and counted off the what I owed. At least I could pay, regardless if it were with beer-soaked cash. I set the money on the table. Noticing that Holly had left her jacket hanging over the back of her chair, I grabbed it and went outside into the cold air to wait for her.
I stood under the awning over the entrance. Town was busy today with the after-Christmas sale hunters. I watched a young couple adjusting the straps on their twins’ stroller. Boys around eighteen months, the babies kicked their fat legs. Those days were behind me. Even as hard as they’d been, I missed the baby stage. Holly appeared a few minutes later. A fresh layer of lipstick stained her pretty mouth.
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered in her ear before holding up her jacket. “You forgot this.”
“I really am from California, aren’t I?” She turned around so I could help her into her newly purchased layer of warmth.
“What do you say? Should we go home and rescue Mrs. Knight?” Holly asked.
I yawned, sleepy. “Yep, let’s get home. I wouldn’t mind a nap.”
“You’re to do exactly that when we get home. I don’t know how you’ve kept up with this schedule.” She twisted around to face me and held my cheeks between her bare hands. “You’re my hero.”
I kissed her cold fingers. “Put your gloves on. It’s freezing out here.”
She dug them out of her pockets and tugged them over her fingers. “Much better.”
“It’s nice having you around. Naps are a luxury I don’t often have.”
“It’s nice being around.”
We stepped out from under the awning. The sun blinded me for a moment before I found my sunglasses. We’d only walked a few feet when Holly grabbed my arm then halted abruptly. “I think that’s a photographer.” She pointed to a man with a camera bag thrown over his shoulder walking quickly away.
Without thinking, I ran after him and easily caught him. To my embarrassment, it was my boss at the bar, Horace.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” Horace, in his fifties, had a wide face etched slightly with wrinkles from a lot of time outdoors. He was a bulky man, made even more so by his thick camel-colored coat. Underneath, he probably wore one of his trademark bright button-down shirts. “You all right?”
“I thought you were someone else,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“No problem. You looked like the devil was chasing you there for a minute.”
Holly had caught up with us by then. Her hands were in fists by her sides, but her expression changed from combative to curious when she saw that I obviously knew this man.
“It’s my boss,” I said to her. “Holly, meet Horace. She’s a new friend of mine.”
“Right. I heard you were in town.” Horace pointed to the damaged lamppost across the street. “A story like that doesn’t take long to get around.”
Holly covered her face with her gloved hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Well, since you offered the city a donation for next summer’s firework display in addition to replacing all of these old lampposts, I think you’re forgiven.”
“You did what?” I asked, surprised. “When did that all happen?”
“I called the city office this morning.” Holly shrugged. “No big deal. It’s the least I could do after making such a spectacle of myself.”
“Yeah, it’s all around town that you swept in and saved her,” Horace said to me.
“After I smashed the side of his truck,” Holly said.
“I bet he was a real bear,” Horace said.
“He was.” Holly’s eyes twinkled up at Horace. “But he got over that pretty quickly.”
“You always did have a way with women,” Horace said to me.
“Very funny,” I said.
“This one. A real charmer, right?” Horace asked, addressing Holly as if I weren’t there.
“He grows on a girl,” Holly said.
Horace looked from one of us to the other. “I can see you’ve had a real good Christmas.”
“Yeah, actually, could I talk to you for a quick second?” I asked. No time like the present to tell him I was leaving.
“Sure,” Horace said.
I gave Holly the keys to my truck. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just be a minute.”
She took the keys but nodded toward the kitchen shop. “I think I’ll pop in there for a moment but will meet you at the truck.”
“Great.”
Horace and I watched her sprint across the street. “She’s a beauty,” Horace said. “I mean, if you like girls.”
I chuckled. Horace was never shy about his attraction to men.
“Anyway, what’s up with you two?” Horace asked.
“We’re having a little fling. Nothing serious.”
One of his eyebrows quivered before permanently rising. “If you say so.”
“Yeah, here’s the thing. She…um…paid off all my debts.”
“Say what now?”
“Mortgage and everything.”
“Well, hell, boy, you must be good in bed.”
Hot, I yanked off my cap. “It was for the kids. I did it for the kids.”
He shifted from one foot to the other. “But accepting her help was hard for you.”
“Very hard.”
His thick dark eyebrows drew together. “I suppose you’ll be leaving me at the bar, then?”
“I’d like to spend more time with the kids on the weekends, so yeah.”
He slapped me on the shoulder. “Good for you.”
Horace knew the details of my money problems and understood how much this would truly change my life. As much as I knew he’d miss me at the bar, he was genuinely pleased for me.
“Any chance she’ll be back?” Horace asked.
“Nah. She’s like the wind. Just passing through.”
11
Holly
When we arrived back from town, Ruby and Dane were outside playing in the snow. They came running up to us and asked if we’d like to help them build a snow family. Thus far, there were two short snow people. One had Ruby’s scarf around its neck. The other had Dane’s knit cap perched somewhat precariously on its head.
“Please, Holly, we need a mom and dad now,” Ruby said earnestly.
“I’ve never made one,” I said.
All three of them stared at me. “Really?” Forest asked.
“No, but I can make a sandcastle like nobody’s business.” That wasn’t quite true, but at least I’d been to the beach.
“We’ll teach you,” Dane said. “There’s nothing to it.”
We got right to work, starting with making a small round ball of snow into a bigger one by rolling it so that it gathered more and more layers of snow. The children were only too happy to instruct me as to the nuances of such an endeavor, showing me how to keep my ball round instead of the shape of a short, fat hot dog.
“What do we use to make their faces?” I asked after we’d assembled a snowman and his wife.
Dane pulled a few items from his jacket pockets. “Mrs. Knight gave us some carrots for noses and grapes for eyes.” He showed me the contents of his pockets, which included orange wedges.
“What are the oranges for?” I asked.
“Their mouths.” Dane imitated a wide smile with his own mouth.
“I have oranges too,” Ruby said. “We asked for four sets so we’d have enough.”
“We should have made Mrs. Knight too.” Dane frowned. “Then the whole family would be here.”
The whole family? Did he mean me too? My stomach twisted with guilt. The longer I was here, the more potential I had to hurt the children.
Forest and I exchanged a worried glance before helping the kids put the faces of the snow family together.
After we were done, I stood back to survey our work. We’d stuck the orange wedges in with the rind facing outward, giving them a ghoulish appearance. “The mouths make them look like they’re shouting.”
“A bit, yeah,” Forest said.
“Or singing.” Ruby sidled up next to me and put her gloved hand in mine. “The mom needs a pretty scarf.”
I unwound my scarf from my neck. “Let’s give her mine. At least until I need it again.”
Ruby encircled the neck of our snow lady with my blue-and-white scarf. “She looks fancy now, like you.” She smacked her lips, clearly satisfied.
Forest placed his cap on the tallest of the snow people. “How’s that?”
“Good. Very good,” Dane said.
“We should check on the girls,” Forest said. “And gather up the eggs.”
“Do you want to see our chickens?” Ruby asked me.
“I can think of nothing I’d like better.” In truth, I would have rather gone inside to curl up in front of the fireplace, but I couldn’t bring myself to disappoint any of my snowman-building coconspirators.
We plowed through the powdery snow to the barn. Forest unlatched the door and the four of us went inside to the surprisingly warm room. The scent of dried hay hit me right away. I looked up to see bales stored in a loft above the chicken coop. Cubbyholes with torn pieces of sheet covering them lined one wall of the small barn. Several cabbages hung from a string tied around a rafter. Chickens must like cabbage. Who knew?
My gaze traveled to the other end of the barn where stalls big enough for horses or cows were empty. “Did you used to have horses or cows?” I asked.
“My dad. Back when.” Forest used a small pail to scoop out feed from a plastic bin. “You want to help feed the girls?”
I giggled. I loved that he called them the girls. “Sure. What do I do?”
“Just toss it around like this.” He took a handful and chucked the lot of it into the air, and it fell like rain onto the floor. Several chickens jumped from their boxes to peck around for their lunch.
I imitated Forest with another bit of their food. Two red hens joined their sisters. I was like Cinderella, I thought, smiling to myself. Lover of animals and domestic chores. Should I start to sing as she did in the animated film?
“What’s so funny?” Forest asked.
“I was imagining myself like Cinderella. But I know, this isn’t a movie. This is real life.”
“You’re such a city girl.” Forest tugged on the edge of my cap and then leaned close to my ear. “An adorable one.”
“Don’t flirt with me,” I said quietly so the kids couldn’t hear our banter. “I’m busy with my chickens.”
Ruby and Dane had each grabbed a wire basket from a hook on the wall. They started at opposite ends of the row of boxes, pulling up each cloth to reach in for the eggs. Some of the boxes had none, but most yielded one or two eggs. Forest followed behind to add additional sawdust to the nesting boxes.
“Why do they have curtains?” I asked.
“They like their privacy,” Forest said. “But the silly girls always seem to covet someone else’s box. They share when they could have their own.”
“Maybe they get lonely,” I said. Like me.
Forest shot me a look but didn’t say anything.
Dane had opened a box with a fat white chicken obviously sitting on an egg. She made a noise that sounded like the cross between a coo and a low-pitched chirp. Dane left her alone and went to the next box.
“Broody hens can get nasty,” Forest said. “So we leave them be and hope they’ll be distracted by all the stuff we leave for them to peck around for. I don’t like the kids to try to get the eggs from them if a girl’s in that state.”
I tossed another handful of feed onto the floor. A red one turned a beady eye in my direction, as if sensing a stranger.
“Do you ever worry about a fox in the henhouse?” I asked. “Like in a storybook?”
“Sure I do. In the warm months when they’re outside, there’s the danger of hawks and other predators too.”
“Are these eggs just for your use or do you sell them?”
He scratched the back of his neck and grimaced as if he were embarrassed. “I sell them. Every little bit counts.”
“There’s no shame in that,” I said. “Or anything you’ve done to keep the place going.”
“When I was a kid, we had Clydesdale horses. When dad died and everything went to hell, we had to sell them. He gave sleigh rides to people in the winters back then. It was a fun time.”
“Like the beer commercials?” I asked.
“They still have those?” Forest asked. “I remember them back when I had a television and got to watch sports.”
“There’s one with a puppy and a horse that gets me every time.” Back when he got to watch sports? He’d had definite longing in his tone when he’d mentioned sports. I was reminded once again of everything he’d had to give up for these kids.
We were finished up with the chicken chore and decided it was time to go inside and get warm. In the mudroom, all four of us took off our snow things and hung our jackets. The kids placed their baskets of eggs on the counter. “Where’s Mrs. Knight?” Ruby asked.
We followed the young ones into the living room. Mrs. Knight had fallen asleep in a chair by the fire. She stirred, then popped open her eyes as if someone had poked her awake. “Oh dear, I seem to have drifted off. After I heard your truck, I knew you were home and I guess my tired old eyes decided to take a rest. Is everyone all right?” She sat forward, brushing her jeans with her hands before getting to her feet. Mrs. Knight was as plump as a loaf of fresh bread and smelled like candied popcorn. If Mrs. Claus were real, she would look like Mrs. Knight.
“Nothing to worry about,” Forest said. “We built a snow family and fed the chickens.”
“And got the eggs,” Ruby said. “We had over two dozen today.”
“Good. I’m down to just one at the house. Mr. Knight loves his omelets, you know.” She lumbered over to the front windows to look out at the snow family. “Well done, loves. Does anyone need a warm beverage?”
I stifled a yawn. “I think I need a nap too,” I said to Forest.
“You should take one,” Forest said. “I might do the same.”
“Not me,” Dane said. “I hate naps.”
“Me too,” Ruby said.
No wonder Forest was exhausted. The kids might hate naps, but I bet he loved them.
“I’m hungry, Mrs. Knight,” Dane said. “Can I have the rest of my sandwich now?”
“Yes, I put it in the refrigerator,” Mrs. Knight said. “Eat at the counter, please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dane said.
“I’m going to eat the rest of my sandwich too,” Ruby said.
“Go on, then,” Mrs. Knight said. After the kids were gone, she said to Forest, “They were too excited to tell me all about Holly and then to play in the snow to eat much of their lunch. I made a deal with them that they could go ahead and play as long as they ate the rest of it later. I hope that’s all right.”
“I think you know by now I trust you,” Forest said. “I was telling Holly I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“Piffity poo, you would’ve done fine,” Mrs. Knight said. “You’re a natural, like your dad was. Anyway, I’ll stay with the kids for a bit longer, so you two go on upstairs and take a rest.”
