Page 9 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)
SEVEN
BECKETT
Madeline: Dad didn’t show up for court.
I stared at my phone screen for a long beat, rereading the words a second, and then a third time.
Leave it to my sister to skip small talk or any form of pleasantries first thing in the morning.
She’d always been a rip-the-Band-Aid off kind of person, even when we were kids.
But fuck, this was not the way I wanted to start a day that was already overflowing with to-dos.
“Everything all right, dear?” Connie Weston asked, carrying a full plate of pancakes to the table and setting it in the center. Where Nana was tell-it-like-it-is sassy and full of vinegar, Luke and Connor’s grandma was sweet as a peach pie.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, hoping to rub away the frustration that had no place here. “Yeah, just family stuff. ”
“If there’s anything we can do to help, just say the word.”
“Thanks.”
There wasn’t much anyone could do to help when it came to my family, unless they could convince my sister that my parents were a lost cause. I sure as hell couldn’t get through to her. Thirty-plus years had proven that.
I took a long sip of coffee, and shot off a quick reply just as Dale joined us at the table.
Beckett: How bad is it?
Madeline: They’re being evicted in three days.
I didn’t want to care. I spent too many years hoping Dad would get sober and stay that way.
Or that Mom would kick him out for good, and stop taking him back.
But the cycle never broke. No matter how much Madeline and I tried to intervene, it never mattered.
Those two were an inevitable, unavoidable train wreck destined to collide over and over.
It was best if we stayed the hell out of the way.
My saint of a sister, however, kept putting herself right in the middle. She still had hope.
I stayed in Richmond until she got engaged to Kyle.
My brother-in-law was the best kind of human there was.
I owed him a lot. The day after they married, I enlisted in the Army, and got the hell out of Dodge.
I’d only been back twice to see their twins.
I went no contact with both my parents years ago.
Madeline was the only reason I even knew they were alive.
And—at least currently —out of prison. Dad for DUIs; Mom for writing bad checks.
Most days, I really wasn’t sure how Madeline and I turned out so normal.
Madeline: You have any rentals coming available?
Fuck. This was not a conversation appropriate for the Westons’ breakfast table. I put my phone face down on the table, and took the offered plate of bacon.
Growing up, breakfast was always cold cereal—if we were lucky enough to have milk in the fridge. Mom only ever made a fuss about meals when she and Dad first reconciled. By the end of one of their toxic cycles, we were lucky if the bowls in the cupboard were still intact.
The Westons had spoiled me these past two months.
“Joe called,” Dale said as my phone buzzed. I ignored it. “Said the drywall is in for your latest project.”
I was grateful for a shift of focus, allowing a mental to-do list for the Kniffen Street house to run through my head now that the drywall order finally arrived. “Thanks. I can swing by and pick it up while I’m in town today.”
“Luke told you about the bookstore?” Connie asked, her expression fragile as she spread butter onto a pancake and slathered it in her homemade strawberry syrup.
No one spoke it, but I pieced together that Connie hadn’t stepped foot inside her late daughter’s bookstore since her passing.
I imagined it was too hard, but I didn’t know if seeing it sold would be harder.
“He mentioned it yesterday, when we were out at Ghost Lake.”
Instantly, the image of the feisty redhead in the wet T- shirt that clung to her skin trespassed across my thoughts.
She was wearing a red lace bra underneath.
Whether that was true, or now part of the fantasy I conjured up overnight, I was no longer sure.
I spent the night tossing and turning, wondering what became of Red and her quirky dog with his sonar-capable ears.
With any luck, they were a hundred miles down the road by now, and I’d have nothing more than her purple paddle to assure me the encounter was real.
“What did you think of the cabin?” Dale asked, obviously sensing his wife’s uneasiness about the bookstore, and moving the topic away from Joe. I felt like an ass, thinking about a woman I barely knew, instead of extending compassion in this delicate situation.
“It has good bones.”
“It’s never been updated,” Dale pointed out. “It would be another project, if Karl is even willing to sell it. He’s been known to change his mind.”
“Luke mentioned that.”
“You’re more than welcome to stay here as long as you like,” Connie said, her words almost a plea. “We love having you.”
“I appreciate that.”
My phone buzzed against the table again, and I shoved it into my jeans pocket without reading the new slew of texts my sister sent.
I wasn’t going to offer up one of my rentals, but I wasn’t ready to have that argument with her, either.
She’d beg me to give them a month—to buy them time until they found somewhere else to go.
Or she’d offer to pay their rent, though I knew Kyle would quickly put a stop to that idea.
“You sure everything is all right?” Connie asked again.
“Yeah.” I didn’t share much about my family with anyone.
Luke knew more than most, but even he didn’t know the brunt of it.
I planned to keep it that way. After a lot of thinking last night, I could finally see myself settling in Bluebell Springs, at least for a good, long while.
I didn’t need to taint that vision with toxic family baggage.
“Just some family business. It can wait until after breakfast.”
“How’s Millie doing this morning?” Connie asked Dale of their rescue cow who’d been limping for the last two days.
“The same. Vet’s coming out later to check her out.”
I was thankful the breakfast table conversation shifted to farm topics as I cleaned my plate. Connie turned down my offer to wash the dishes, as she did most mornings. I promised to be back this evening for family dinner, and headed into town.
I knew Joe needed to sell his late wife’s bookstore, but I was equally sure he didn’t want to. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.