Hank laid his lips briefly to Arissa’s before he pulled back and without any hesitation, Arissa slid to his side. Hank rose from bed and went straight to the shower. Afraid Arissa would join him, Hank took the quickest shower he ever had. He had a hard enough time leaving her in his bed; he couldn’t handle doing it to her twice. Once was enough to cause a chill to lay along his spine.
Arissa was in the kitchen with a hip to the counter and Hank’s travel mug in her hand. She rubbed her head again thinking maybe yesterday had all been a bad dream because the pictures that Catherine had taken were back in their places. The woman was more than a handful. When Hank appeared in the kitchen, she held his coffee out to him. He smiled at her. “Thanks.” He pressed his lips to hers then said, “Call you later.” And before he gave her a chance to speak, he ducked out the back door. The sound of the screen door slamming behind him, he felt that bang in his chest. The pain radiated through his body leaving a hurt he never felt.
Arissa stood in the kitchen, the sound of the door slamming echoing in her head. Her heart hurt. She wasn’t the only one to sense the tension. And given what fueled it, his mother, Arissa acknowledged there was a really good chance she was going to lose him, but if in the end he was happy, she’d find a way to move on too. She reached for her phone. Hya answered with a bellowed, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Call the Belles.”
Hya’s grunt was her only reply before she disconnected the call.
* * *
Hya studied the search results on the laptop, slapped her hand on the table again and said, “The altercation with that horse I thought was on the down low.”
Arissa stood in Hya’s kitchen, looking out at her yard, wasn’t even going to ask about the horse incident. There were some things better left alone. “She put the pictures back.”
Silence followed that comment before Maureen said, “What pictures?”
Arissa turned to Hya. “Every single one of them before he noticed they were gone.” Arissa had underestimated Catherine, and based on Hank’s reaction that morning, going toe to toe with his mother, Arissa wasn’t going to win. She looked at the other Belles. “Tell me about Phoebe and Hank.”
“Why?” Maureen asked. “You’re in his bed now.”
She shared with them her encounters with Catherine. Maureen was up and pacing. “Jesus. I knew she was overprotective to a fault but that’s just bullshit.”
It was Mille who said, “You’re thinking she did the same to Phoebe.”
“Yeah.”
“But again I say, he’s with you now,” Maureen said. “Let the past be in the past.”
Arissa wanted to but it wasn’t that easy. She held Maureen’s bewildered look. “Put yourself in my shoes. Having a man like that as yours and then learning the one he loved before you may not have left for the reasons everyone thinks. Knowing what you share with him, he shared with another…”
Maureen ran a hand through her hair. “And likely still would be.” She exhaled. “I get it. Shit, that sucks. So you want to know if what they had is worth you losing what you have with him?”
Just thinking about losing him hurt so much Arissa had trouble drawing a breath, living through it… “Yeah.”
“I suppose we could lie but that defeats the point,” Maureen said. “We need alcohol.”
“Already on it,” Mille said, filling up glasses of wine.
Maureen took a glass, drained it before she shared, “They were happy. Really happy. It’s kind of why I didn’t really like her because it was so natural, genuine.”
Arissa reached for a glass, needed to ease the sudden dryness in her throat.
“When she first arrived she was kind of a duck out of water, the big city girl adapting to a small town,” Millie recalled.
“I understand that,” Arissa mumbled.
“No, you were different. You eased into it seamlessly. It was harder for her to adapt, but she did.” Millie paused before she added, “She did for him.”
“Yeah, immersed herself into the town. Started the Blazing Days of Summer Fair that’s still going strong, and coming up soon. Was instrumental in getting Elmer and Sal their spot outside of Dehlia’s.” Maureen grinned remembering.
“That’s right, she did do that,” Hya added.
“Even got Hank to agree to a calendar featuring the sheriff and fire departments,” Maureen said, waving herself as she did. “He was February, her birthday month.”
“Got boxes of those in my bedroom,” Hya said. “Bought them out.”
Arissa didn’t want to hear anymore, but she had asked. What was clear, Phoebe and Hank were making a life here, just like she was with him now, and just like now, Catherine intervened and drove them apart.
“We need to find her,” Arissa said, filling her glass and taking a long sip. “She may have moved on, but I think we all know you don’t move on from a man like Hank. And hearing this…” She wiped at her eyes thinking of Hank and Phoebe in his house, the plans they surely made, the family they probably wanted. She felt even more like an outsider, a placeholder. “We need to visit her.”
There was sympathy in Maureen’s voice when she asked, “Are you sure?”
Arissa placed the glass down a little too hard. “It’s like I’ve stepped into her shoes, and I cannot tell you how awful that feels. I’m not giving up, and I’m not throwing in the towel. I intend to love him every second I’ve got him, intend to fight for us. I want to bring Phoebe back because I want him to choose me. I want him to have the choice and I want him to choose me.”
“Thatta girl,” Hya whooted. “A good old fashioned love triangle. Alright so let’s fucking find her.”
“How?” I asked.
“Well, she did start Bingo at the church too. And
