Page 65
CHAPTER 65
I t was kind of a mess at first, the week after Serena gunned down Herc in my shop.
Getting Herc’s blood out of the shop floor was a pain in the ass, but getting rid of Herc was easier. Luke burned his body and sent the ashes to Serena in a big Ziplock bag and told her to scatter them somewhere awful. We haven’t seen her since.
Luke’s project was getting Jackie and Quill set up in what had been Nice Funerals. Reggie was experimenting with wood signs since he figured those would sell faster than sculpture. Pike and Coral were pretty much settled in above Ecstasy permanently, and Reggie was staying with them until he was sure everything was back to normal, and then he’d go back out to the A-frame. Mom had signed the Oddities building over to me and now we had a Christmas tree upstairs in our living room, and one downstairs in the shop, both with some of Ozzie’s Santa skulls on them. They were beautiful.
I said “we” because Marley had moved in to our apartment, which William took gracefully, even curling up next to him while he slept, probably because Marley put out a lot more body heat than I did. At times, a lot more heat. I really loved Marley sleeping with me.
Marley was pretty happy, too.
Mom taught me how to make lasagna since her oven wasn’t hooked up at the cottage and for some reason she’s decided to never make it again, so I made up three pans of it and took one of them out to the cottage, already baked because even though the kitchen wasn’t finished, there was a microwave out there, so no problem. I took another of the pans over to Coral, and then I put the last one in the oven for Marley and me. It was a big hit, but I told him I’d make it once a month, no more, because my mother was right, it was a pain in the ass to make, so he told me to show him how to make it, and it turns out, he had a great time with it because he loves assembling different parts into one thing, so it’s going to be his signature dish.
So it's all been fast and confusing and exciting, but all that really matters is that at the end of the day, I meet Marley in the kitchen, and we make dinner and talk about our days and make plans and laugh. I’ve never been more sure of anything than I am about Marley and our future. We know we’re really young, but we both know what we want, so I think we’re going to be fine. Especially since he’s making the lasagna from now on.
And I’m much better. I almost never have nightmares now, and if I do, Marley is right there beside me to say, “Wake up, Malone,” in a half-asleep voice, and I roll into him, and he puts his arms around me and we fall back asleep and it’s all right again.
I think that’s where we all are now. We’re all right again. We’re gonna be better, we have big plans, but we’re all right again.
And my shop is going to be glorious ?—
The door to my future glorious shop opened and Marley came in.
“Max has lost his mind,” he said, but he didn’t sound upset.
“What made you think Max was sane?”
Marley held up a metal star badge. “He just made me a deputy.” He looked at the star. “I think.”
“Were you ever going to say no when he asked for help?”
“Of course not.” He sounded outraged.
“Then you were already his deputy, the badge is just jewelry.”
Marley opened his mouth to argue and then stopped. “Okay.”
I was going to go on but the door to the shop opened again, and Oxley Crothers came in.
“I need you to get Hermione out of my bookstore,” he said to me, sounding a lot firmer than he had before, but I knew Oxley.
“No,” I said.
He looked surprised.
“My mother gave you every chance, she even stole your keys back for you, and you still let Hermione back in because she’d have sex with you. My mom has moved, and I’m not going to do this dance with you.”
“But she has my keys again—” Oxley started and Marley shook his head.
“Mr. Crothers,” he said politely, “we’re forty years younger than you are. Why are you coming to us for answers?”
Oxley looked around. “Well . . .” and I could see that he was seeing Ozzie and then my mom everywhere. Like their wisdom had soaked into the place and he could just grab some of it off the shelves.
The door opened again, and Hermione came in, bright-eyed and flushed, which I figured meant she was here to do battle.
“OxOx!” she said and then stopped. “Oh. I thought Rose was here.”
I couldn’t help myself. “OxOx?”
She brightened. “You know, like XOXO, only backwards.”
Oxley looked at Marley, pleading.
“Cute,” I said.
“Oh, I think so,” Hermione burbled on.
The thing about Hermione is that there’s always intent under the burble.
“So this is your shop now? I love it. New management all over Rocky Start.” She went over to Oxley and put her arm around him. “OxOx and I are making big changes! This town needed us young people!”
Oxley looked at me in mute appeal.
“Oh, that’s wonderful.” I came around the counter to the young person who had twenty years on me and gave her a hug, which surprised her.
Then I handed Oxley his keys back.
“Do not come back here for solutions. That was my mother. If you come in here again, you’re gonna buy a teacup. Are we all clear on that?”
Oxley nodded, clutching his keys like they were a lifeline.
Which Hermione would have back by the end of the day, but that was his problem, not mine.
Marley looked at me when they were gone. “OxOx?”
“Yes,” I said. “The guy she acquired after Sidsie.”
He nodded. “You got any cute names for me?”
“Center of my existence and reason for living?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the shop,” he said, but he grinned when he said it. “Hey, how about schnitzel for dinner tonight?”
Here we go, I thought. Somebody else who thinks I’m my mother . “I have no idea how to make schnitzel.”
He looked surprised. “Oh, I’ll make it. I like making food.”
He made it sound like “I like building cars.”
Which, now that I thought about it, was probably true.
“You run the shop,” he said. “I’ll make dinner.”
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me,” I said.
“I think that was the money Ozzie left you,” he said. “Which reminds me. You know that Venus de Milo thing down in the basement you want me to bring up? The head fell off. There was $50,000 in it. I left it down there so you could get it yourself. There’s leftover lasagna for lunch, right?”
“I’m going to love you till the day I die,” I said.
“Damn right,” he said and kissed me.
I wasn’t kidding, either.
We’re going to be just fine.
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- Page 65 (Reading here)
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