Vivien helpedJake carry their dishes inside. “This was really nice,” she said. “Thank you for putting it all together. I didn’t deserve it.”
“Vivien—”
“No, really, Jake, I feel like crap right now—and rightly so. I really need to go and just try to get my head on straight. I’ve got a lot going on…a lot to think about.”
“Right,” he said. “Let me get my keys. I’ll drive you home.”
As he went to do so, he noticed her phone, which she’d left sitting on the side table next to the sofa. “Looks like someone’s been trying to reach you,” he said, handing it to her.
“Oh, crap—it’s Helga. She’s about ready to call in the Feds looking for me,” she said with a pained laugh. “Literally. I better call her. Maybe she’ll pick me up.”
Jake was all right with that. He needed a little time to settle his thoughts, because something had become very clear to him during their heated discussion and the churning up of the past.
Despite his own anger and pain, he very much cared that Vivien was hurting and grieving. He ached for her and the obvious shock and shame she felt…and even though he had things of his own to work through, he realized he wanted to be there for Vivien in her difficulty as well.
Damn. He wasn’t just not “over” Vivien…he was still in love with her.
And he wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do about it.
* * *
“I really don’t wantto talk about Jake,” Vivien told Helga. “I can’t. Not right now. It’s just too…painful.”
“All right, then,” said Helga, then muttered under her breath as she braked to avoid running into a pedestrian who seemed more interested in her huge elephant-ear pastry than looking both ways. “We can talk about other things—like who’s trying to chase you out of the Olivia Dee Theater.”
“Yeah, that’s only a slightly more appetizing topic,” Vivien muttered.
“But you never really told me about what happened with the two of you—just that Jake up and decided to move to Raleigh. And that he cheated on you.”
Vivien heaved a sigh. “I guess we’re going to talk about it anyway, aren’t we?”
Helga gave her a sunny smile. “That’s what friends are for. But seriously, VL, I’m worried about what’s going on at the theater.”
“I am too. I’m going to set up my own nanny-cams in the theater tomorrow,” Vivien said, having literally just made the decision. “I made the police report about my car, and you can come by and take a look at everything there at the stage. Maybe there’ll be some clue.”
“I’ll come first thing in the morning. Actually, I’ll have to pick you up, since you don’t have a car,” Helga promised. She looked smart and official in her crisp dark blue uniform and shiny badge. “I’m on till ten tonight, and there’s only two of us because Joe Cap is off on a college tour for his twins.” Police Captain Joe Longbow was better known as Joe Cap to both his staff and the locals. “I guess he figured things would be semi-quiet on a Thursday?” She shook her head.
Moments later, Helga had parked her police cruiser in a no-parking zone a half block from the tiny bungalow Vivien was renting until she found a permanent place.
“Perks of the job,” said the cop when her friend gave her a jaundiced look. “Makes up for being called out of bed in the middle of the night to break up a bonfire on the beach after it’s closed, or not being able to have a beer while at Maxine’s birthday party in case I’ve got to run to a call or break up a fight. Which, by the way, you missed this year.”
“The fight at Maxine’s birthday party, or just a fight in general?” Vivien climbed out of the car, then opened the back door to pull out the Nutcracker headpiece.
Helga rolled her eyes, looking at her from over the car roof and its siren. “The party, of course. There hasn’t been a fight for a while—not since Trib found out his pastry chef had slathered whipped cream all over, and presumably licked, the new, very hot produce guy earlier that day. Watching two gay men having a catfight is something I could have done without.”
“I miss Maxine’s party every year,” Vivien replied, walking across the road with the mask tucked under her arm. “Ever since I came to the one back in…what was it, four years ago, and she was trying to get me to hook her up with a tattoo artist? Remember that? She wanted me to bring one from New York, like I could put him or her in my suitcase or something. As if there aren’t any tattoo artists here in Wicks Hollow—or anywhere in Michigan.” She shook her head, happy to have a reason to laugh.
Helga chuckled. “No one in the entire county is dumb enough to try to ink Maxine Took.”
“True dat,” replied Vivien, digging out the key to her cottage.
“What did she want tattooed on her, anyway?”
“I think it was something likeExceptional and Eightywith a woman flexing her bicep…and this was three yearsbeforeshe was turning eighty,” Vivien said, shoving open the door. “That was pretty damned optimistic of her.”
“That sounds like Maxine. And oh, VL, I just love what you’ve done to the place,” Helga added dryly, stepping inside the cottage. “Geez.”
“I haven’t had time to finish unpacking. I’ve been alittlebusy, you know. And I’ve had to actuallycookinstead of ordering takeout, which is a real pain—”
