I force a smile. “Yes, thank you. Had to take a phone call. Safety, you know.”
From his reaction, I’m reasonably certain he doesn’t remember me. “Ah! No worries, then. Sorry I startled you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the consideration, though.”
With that, he smiles and walks back across the road, to where a tractor with a mower deck attached to the back sits idling just inside his fence.
I roll my window up and check for traffic before pulling out onto the road. Nearly anywhere else, I would’ve been worried about someone drawing a gun on me, and I dang sure wouldn’t have rolled the window all the way down.
But not here, of all places.
Welcome back to Maudlin Falls, pendejo.
I wonder how long before my luck runs out and someone recognizes me?
Hopefully not before I’ve had a chance to find out whether or not Tomas is still single.
And whether or not he hates my guts.
Chapter Three
Tomas
Even though we’re not open yet, I take the first phone call of the day at 7:20, because I know my employees are busy finishing last-minute pre-opening prep.
“Maudlin Falls Mercantile and Feed,” I answer. “How may I direct your call?” I mean, we don’t really have a sophisticated phone system. We have four lines, and we put the caller on hold and then page for someone to pick it up, depending on who’s in on any given day.
“Oh,yes!” the frantic woman gasps. “Thankgod! Are you open?”
“We open at 7:30, and—”
“Please tell me you have drain snakes!”
I prop the handset between my shoulder and ear as I swivel my chair so I can pull up stock on my desktop computer. I have a laptop that goes with me between here and home, but this one stays here and when I’m working, I usually have it open to our internal system for just this reason.
“Yes, ma’am. I have two different styles in stock.”
“Great, I—Johnny, Iswear, if you don’t getawayfrom that toiletrightnow, Iwillmake you dig a hole in the backyard and do your business there for therestof theyear!”
I struggle not to burst out laughing. Wouldn’t be the first time in my life I’ve dealt with a parent needing to dig a toy out of a toilet.
Won’t even be the first one thismonth. “Ma’am, do you need me to have this delivered to you?”
“Can you? Oh, my goodness, that would be amazing, thank you!”
“No worries. What happened, if I might ask?”
She starts to tell me, bursting into tears halfway through the story. Her ten-year-old son got mad at his little brother for breaking one of his game controllers, so he flushed the other boy’s favorite superhero action figure.
Which is now stopping far more than crime.
And she’s a single mom.
Something tickles my mind. She sounds really familiar. “Is this Kelly Ayers?”
She sniffles. “Yes?”
I’m glad I’m the one who took this call. “This is Tommy. Tom Levesque. I’ll grab a few things and be right over.” I don’t even need to ask her address—she lives two houses down from me. Her parents were friends with my parents. Fortunately, they left her their house when they died, because her ex-husband divorced her for another woman and is currently dodging paying child support.
