‘They stuffed the poor bastard,’ Craig said, shaking his head.
‘How come I’ve never heard of this?’ Dean asked, frowning.
‘None of us had until about eighteen months ago, when Elvis was donated to the museum by the Rhodes family and the historical society did some research on it,’ Emma said.
‘I’m leaning towards the burger myself,’ Craig informed his friend.
‘As long as you’ll be okay sleeping out in the shed if you do,’ Emma said lightly, reaching across her husband for the salt shaker.
‘Oh, come on. Tourists like burgers.’
‘And just how are we supposed to promote said burgers, with names like the “Ring Burner” and the “Heart Attack”?’
‘It’s hilarious,’ Craig chuckled. ‘Trust me, the tourists will flock here to try one.’
‘The tourists can discover Bob Baxter’s burgers when they come out to see Elvis,’ Emma said.
‘I think you’re missing out on a winning drawcard,’ Craig said, tucking back into his meal.
‘Elvis has been around a lot longer than Bob Baxter,’ Emma said, closing the subject.
‘I’ll make sure I check it out next time I’m in town,’ Dean promised.
After the meal, Emma went to put the younger kids to bed and Bel started packing the dishwasher. She didn’t know how her friend did it, running a household with four kids under seven, as well as the farm work that needed doing when Craig was away working off property. Bel came outoccasionally for a sleepover to keep her company and do what she could to help out, but Emma managed to run a tight ship. The kids all had their routines and she was one of the most organised people Bel knew—always cooking and prepping meals and school lunches. It was exhausting just watching her some days. But her friend seemed to thrive on it. For as long as Bel could remember, Emma had said she couldn’t wait to be a mum. Bel on the other hand still had no clue what she wanted. Sometimes she felt like a colossal failure, twenty-nine years old and still living in the same town she’d grown up in.
It hadn’t been the plan. She’d been ready to leave a few times over the years, and felt the urge to maybe go to university and do something different … marketing or promoting, maybe even get into advertising, writing or …
Well, there’d been endless possibilities, but then her gran’s health had declined, and—despite Gran telling her she didn’t want Bel staying for her sake—there was no way Bel was leaving her. Her uncle and aunt were never going to be any comfort. If they’d had to, they probably would have hired someone to sit with her or clean the house now and then, but Bel couldn’t think of a more depressing or lonely life for Gran. So she had stayed and she hadn’t regretted it, not ever.
By the time Gran had passed, Bel’s burning ambition to go explore the world dimmed. If she were being completely honest with herself, she’d gotten to the point where the thought of leaving everything she was familiar with scared her.
It was stupid. Logically, she knew there was nothing to be afraid of, but there just wasn’t anything she wanted to do badly enough to compel her to step outside her comfort zone. She didn’t need much. She’d inherited Gran’s little brick cottage, she had a job and a reliable car. She could afford to shop whenever she felt the need to splurge a little, but honestly, she really didn’twantanything. Except books—they were her only real passion. She’d always been okay with things the way they were. At least, until lately.
It was when she’d look at Emma and Craig together that she’d sometimes get a pang of loneliness in the pit of her stomach. Sure, it would be nice to have someone of her own, to love her and look at her the way Craig looked at Emma, but she wasn’t going to find that here in Wessex—and leaving what she had here for the off-chance she might find that out there, somewhere? That was a big risk, and she was no longer the starry-eyed teenager who thought heading out into the big wide world was some exciting adventure. Did she really want to look for a new job? Meet new friends? After all, she already had friends here, and what if she discovered that it wasn’t really any more excitingout therethan it was here?
It wasn’t that she hadn’t started opening her mind to new possibilities either, she had. Over the last few years, the desire to leave to find adventure had been pushed to one side, but the desire to find that special someone to share her life with had become stronger with each romance novel she read. Shewanted to feelthatexcitement—that heady love-at-first-sight thing.
That’s where the soulmate list came into it. She’d taken what she’d learned fromMindfulness and Manifesting a New Youto heart—the whole attracting-what-you-put-out thing made sense to her. Gran had been a big believer in it, even if she hadn’t read a single book about manifesting. She’d always said, ‘If you smile, people will smile back at you, but if you walk into a room with a sour look on your face … well, everyone’s going to avoid you, aren’t they?’ It was pretty much the same principle—you attract the vibration you send out. So Bel had written her list and sent it out to the universe to bring her a soulmate. So far, the universe was working slowly, but that suited the part of her that was a little bit afraid that meeting her soulmate would mean leaving Wessex. But if that was what the universe had in store for her, then she supposed it would give her an opportunity or sign. Bel just hoped that when that day came, she’d be ready.
She glanced up from placing a dinner plate in the dishwasher to find Dean carrying in more dirty cups and cutlery.
‘Thanks. Put them down anywhere,’ Bel said, gesturing towards the countertop.
‘I’ve been meaning to say hello and catch up properly when I’ve been in the shop, but you’ve always been busy.’
Bel looked up at him again, wondering why he was so fidgety. ‘Yeah, it gets a bit hectic sometimes.’
‘I didn’t want you thinking that I was being unfriendly or … anything,’ he said, handing her a glass tumbler.
‘It’s okay,’ Bel said. ‘We weren’t close or anything at school.’
‘I guess not. That’s probably my fault. I was talking to Craig earlier, and we were reminiscing about the old days … we were little shits back then, to be honest,’ he said, sending her an off-centre kind of grin.
For a moment his smile caught her off guard. ‘Youwere,’ Bel agreed, ignoring the strange moment. ‘You used to make fun of me reading at lunchtime and play keep-away with my books whenever you got the chance. Then there was the frog-in-my-lunch-box incident.’
He chuckled. ‘That was kinda funny … your face when you opened the box and it was sitting there, looking up at you. But it wasn’t just me,’ he protested.
She gave an involuntary shudder at the memory. Still to this day, she hated frogs. ‘No, I suppose not.’ Now that she thought about it, she did recall that Craig and a few of the other boys they’d hung around with back then had been equally annoying. Funny that she’d mostly only remembered Dean.
