“I’ve noticed she seems happier now that she’s not up front all the time. Not that I can blame her. The customers can sometimes be overwhelming. That said, if I give you Taylor, then I’m down another part-time front person.”
“If I have my way, you’d be down one full-time and one part-time person.”
I leaned in and twisted her notebook around to read it better. What I saw there had my heart sinking and my heart soaring at the same time. I always thought that was something people just said, but when faced with a situation like this, there was no other way to feel.
“HOWDY, NEIGHBOR,” A voice said from the driveway. “Are you okay?”
My head snapped to the left, and I sat up in the chair, surprised to see the sun was down and the crickets were chirping. Brady and Haylee had left an hour ago, and I had stayed outside to think about what she had to say. I must have fallen asleep.
“Hi,” I said, wondering if I could stand up without falling after sitting for so long. “I’m fine. I was just sitting out here thinking.” I registered a crackling and then noticed the campfire in his yard. “I guess you’ve been watching me sleep.”
He chuckled and motioned at the missing fence. “I suppose the fence did keep the nosy neighbors away, but I didn’t mind the view one bit. Want to come and sit by the fire?”
“Sure,” I agreed, pushing myself up. “I have some orange creamsicle cake. Are you interested?”
“Do fourth graders love dodgeball?”
“My assumed answer is no, but something tells me it’s yes.”
He chuckled and bounced on his toes. “Secret aggressions and all that.”
“Boy, do I know about those,” I muttered, taking a moment to make sure my leg was under me before I moved. “I’ll grab the cake and meet you over there.”
He jogged over and grabbed my elbow, helping me to the door. “I’ll wait here and carry the cake for you. It’s dark, and I don’t want you to fall.”
I nodded vaguely and slid the door open, thankful the lights were off. There was enough ambient light from outside that I could make it to the bathroom where I quickly checked my hair, washed my face, and used the facilities. I grabbed a couple of Tylenol from the bottle in the kitchen and swallowed them down before I pulled the cake from the fridge along with two forks, and made my way back to the door.
He took the cake in one hand and my elbow in the other and helped me across the uneven ground to a chair by the fire. He pulled his chair closer to mine and held the cake out. “This looks delicious.”
“Well, Haylee Davis made it, so yeah, it’s delicious.”
He chuckled and took a fork, stabbing into a piece and savoring the flavor on his tongue. “Man, you aren’t kidding. Everything she makes is amazing.”
“Orange creamsicle is her favorite, so she’s especially good at this one. I swear she can bake it in her sleep.”
He laughed and leaned back in the chair while he finished his piece. “She probably has. I can’t imagine being a baker and working that early every day.”
I nodded without speaking, staring into the fire and then up into the sky. It was cloudy like it had been all day but also humid and hot. I was worried about storms, and I was searching the horizon for any sign of a problem.
“I had a nice talk with Brady,” he said, and I nodded, my eyes still on the blackened sky. I didn’t want to miss any early signs of a storm. “We talked about grilled cheese on his famous sourdough bread, which he promised me a loaf of, and how Lake Pendle is filled with sharks. I’m told they like to nibble at your toes.”
“Mmm-hmm,” I said, nodding along as he spoke. His laughter filled the air, and I whipped my head in his direction. “What’s so funny?”
He was shaking his head at me as he finished his slice of cake. “I just told you Lake Pendle was full of sharks. You said mmm-hmmm.” `
I rubbed my temple with fatigue. “Sorry, I’m a little bit distracted tonight.”
“I can tell. Want to talk about it?”
“No, but only because I haven’t worked it out in my head yet.”
“Which is kind of the point of talking it out,” he said on a chuckle. “At least that’s what they told me in college.”
A rumble of thunder filled the air, and I jumped, my gaze back on the sky to search out the lightning.
“It’s a long way away,” he said immediately. “There wasn’t even any lightning.”
His words didn’t comfort me the way he expected them to. I understood that the way I felt about storms wasn’t normal. I understood that other people thought I was looney tunes, but that didn’t make being me any easier.
“How was your day?” I asked to change the subject. “I suppose the summer is full of to-do lists you don’t get to finish during the school year.”
“You aren’t kidding. There’s always something to do around here, and that’s not even taking the curriculum work, classroom orders, and reading recommendations to finish into account. People think teachers have the summer off,” he said in quotation marks, “but that’s so far from the truth.”
“At least you get paid, right?” I said on a laugh.
He shook his head. “Actually, I don’t get paid. I mean, I get a paycheck, yes, but only because they take my pay for nine months and spread it across twelve. I have the choice to take it all from September to June and just get bigger checks, but then you have to be dedicated to saving money to get you through the summer,
