Matt opened up the box and the heady scent of cookies greeted his senses. Mouth watering, he read the note, ascertained the cookies were from Tate, the woman he’d helped out earlier in the week after the car accident. He vaguely remembered her from school. Perhaps a year or so behind him, definitely not from his circle though.
Knowing she wasn’t a terrorist, he gave in and shoved a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. And moaned. Holy shit, that was the best thing he’d ever eaten, even better than Maggie or his momma’s cookies though he’d never admit it to them. An oatmeal cookie followed. Nope, that was the best cookie he’d ever eaten. Peanut butter chips in oatmeal cookies? Fabulous. Thank goodness she’d been okay after she’d gotten whacked by that car. The world couldn’t live without this cookie-baking goddess.
Looking at the outside of the box, he realized the address was the beauty salon just across the way. He’d have to go and thank her in person.
He’d saved some folks, helped at quite a few accidents and emergencies and fought fires in and around Petal for the last decade. Still, he could count the number of times he’d received a thank you note on one hand. It felt good to be appreciated.
Finishing up in the late afternoon, Matt grabbed what was left of the cookies, knowing he’d have to work out extra after the dozen or so he’d scarfed down since the mail came. He’d had to hide them from the rest of the weenies at the station who’d have swiped them if they’d known. And with cookies as good as the last five in the box, he wasn’t gonna share.
He’d never been inside the beauty salon though he’d seen it just about every day for years. He had a vague idea that the women in his life got their hair done there, but that was the extent of it.
When he opened the door, the jingle of pretty wind chimes greeted him first, followed by the pleasing sound of feminine laughter. Oh how he loved the sound of a woman’s laugh.
Smiling, he headed toward it. He saw her before she saw him. Her hair was the prettiest blonde he’d seen on a woman and unless he was mistaken, she came by it naturally. It hung in a high ponytail and still cascaded down her back in a long spiral curl. Those wide blue eyes of hers were set off by some floaty-looking blouse that was a sort of pinkish-orange. He was sure they had a name for it, women always had names for colors like that. He’d say that Nicholas had light green walls in his room but Maggie had told him they were sea-foam green. He’d just looked at his brother over her head and Kyle rolled his eyes back at him.
She was short. Like really short. And all curves. Her musical laughter cut off when she caught sight of him and then began to choke.
Dropping his things on a nearby counter he rushed to her, concerned as she waved him off, her eyes widening as she backed away.
“She’s all right,” one of the other women said.
Tate recovered and turned a shade of red he was sure they had a name for too, but it was clear she’d either injured herself or was mortified.
“Fuckety fuck,” she muttered as she tried to catch her breath.
“Are you all right?” He touched her arm.
Her blush deepened as she nodded, sending her ponytail swaying. “Fine. Um, can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. Apparently I forgot that.”
He grinned. “I’m Matt Chase. I just wanted to come by to thank you for the cookies.”
“Oh...oh, I’m glad you got them. I should have just brought them over but I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to get away and my family was sort of trying to steal them and if I hadn’t wrapped them up they’d have ended up at the University of Georgia with my kid brother and sister.”
He couldn’t stop grinning. The woman was like one of those little dogs with all the energy. “It’s fine. They’re really good. Like criminally good. In fact, and if you repeat this, I’ll deny it, they’re the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. You missed your calling you know. You should have opened a bakery.”
“Her cookies are a drop in the bucket. She makes a peach cobbler that’ll bring tears to your eyes and the most perfect scratch biscuit you ever tasted. That’s until you try her chicken paprika,” one of the women, clearly a relative, told him proudly.
“Stop it now. I already said you could have Saturday off.” Tate winked and the other woman laughed. “Oh, my manners! I’m Tate Murphy. Aside from bleeding all over you the other day, I figure we haven’t been formally introduced.”
He shook her hand, still wearing a stupid grin.
“This is my sister Anne and the sister just younger than her, Beth.”
He nodded to all of them and noted they all had the same nose but they were redheads with green eyes while Tate had blue eyes and blonde hair. She was also a lot shorter than the other sisters, who were at least five-seven or so.
“Nice to meet you all. I think I know your brother Tim. He and I were just a year apart in school. We had a few classes together. Redhead right? Green eyes? Freckles?”
“That’s our brother.” Tate grinned.
“He’s a nice guy. Tell him I said hello. Well, I don’t want to keep you all. I just wanted to thank you for the cookies.”
“Well, thank you for helping me. A few cookies are nothing in comparison.”
He liked her smile. Wide, open.
“I’ll see you around then.” And he realized that he’d never bumped into her at all around town. Which was sort of silly considering they worked right across the street from each other.
“Night, Matt. Nice to meet you. Your mother talks about you all the time.”
He stopped as he’d reached the door and heard her laugh. “You knew that’d get me, didn’t you?” he said, looking back over his shoulder at her.
Her eyes widened in mock surprise. “Me? I have seen you naked though. With a cowboy hat on even.”
He groaned, knowing the picture. His momma did love to show that picture of him at about eighteen months old, naked as a jaybird wearing a cowboy hat.
“Are you imagining me naked now?” he teased back and she blushed bright red again. He toyed with asking her what women would call that shade of red but decided against it. He winked and waved. “See you around, Tate Murphy.”
He whistled all the way to his truck.
* * *
“Fuckadoodledoo. I cannot believe I nearly choked to death on my own spit when I caught sight of the man in my own shop.” Tate fell into a chair and put her face in her hands.
Beth chuckled. “He’s so handsome I’m surprised you could talk. Nice too. And clearly, he liked you, Tate.”
“Oh yeah, ’cause I’m totally his type.” Tate rolled her eyes.
“Stop it,” Anne said harshly.
“What? Come on, Anne. You’ve seen the women on his arm. What do they have in common with me other than like, having skin and hair and basics like that? You know what the Chase wives look like.”
“I won’t hear you speak about yourself in his voice, Tate. I won’t, damn it. You are the best woman I know. Period.” Anne was so vehement it took Tate back a bit.
Tate stood and hugged her sister. “Hey, I’m not putting myself down. I swear to you. But I’m being realistic. Anne, there’s a place between Dad and being totally delusional. Matt Chase dates tall, strikingly beautiful, thin women. I am none of those things. Oh, now let me finish! I’m attractive in my own way but I’m five foot one and not thin and while I wouldn’t crack mirrors, I am not strikingly beautiful like Jill or Beth.”
Beth snorted. “You’re the best of us, Tate. I don’t know a woman more beautiful than you are and that’s the honest truth. I do have very nice knockers though not as big as yours.”
They laughed, the tension broken by Beth’s silly comment.
“We on for Martini Friday?” Anne kissed Tate’s cheek and squeezed Beth’s arm.
“Hell yeah. My place in two hours. No boys allowed. I picked up vodka yesterday and I’ve been marinating the chicken and shrimp all day.” Tate grinned.
Tate went home and tried not to think about what an utter lameass she’d been in front of Matt Chase. Choking, blushing, making that stupid crack about him being naked and then his question. If she’d known him better she’d have told him the truth. Hell yes she’d been imagining him naked. Had done for years now. It was her daily pastime. She got bored? Picture Matt Chase nekkid and at her beck and call. Waiting for the dentist? Imagine Matt Chase having her be naked and at his beck and call. Oh so many variations on such a fine theme. Matt Chase naked. Yep.
Every Friday her sisters and sisters-in-law all congregated at one of their homes without husbands and children and had Martini Friday. Sometimes, usually during the summer, it would be Margarita Friday instead but the idea was to gather, blow off the week, eat tasty food and have some drinks.
Tate changed and started the broiler before grabbing the ingredients she’d need from the fridge and cabinets. She loved the time just before people came over. That effort in preparing things for others, in sharing her food with them, in making her house comfortable and inviting.
Once she’d made the salad and pulled out the mini appetizers she’d prepared the night before, she dropped the chicken onto the broiler and moved into the living room to light candles.
PJ Harvey on the stereo singing about New York City made Tate sway a bit as she took the glasses from the cabinet and put them on a tray. It’d been a while since she’d had a date over for dinner. Cooking for dates was an odd thing. Some men liked it and enjoyed it but others, well, their feelings about her weight transferred onto any event with food and made her feel self-conscious. She hated that. Her father made her feel that way and she didn’t want anyone else to ever do that to her again.
She’d known why Anne got so angry earlier. They all knew Tate had continually redirected his attention onto herself so her siblings could be spared their father’s emotional abuse and Tim had done the same with the physical abuse. Her siblings were fiercely protective of each other and most especially her over her weight. It was a thing, a wound they all shared because of how cruel her father had been about it. While Tate truly wasn’t bothered by it most of the time, they all took great umbrage when anyone ever made a flip or unkind remark, even Tate herself.
Talking on the porch lifted her out of her thoughts. She greeted her sisters with a smile.
* * *
Like he did every Friday, Matt got together with his brothers at The Pumphouse for a few games of pool. He was the last single brother, a fact that every woman in town seemed to take up as a challenge. Free beers came his way multiple times a night, women traipsed past and bent over with come-hither looks.
“I hate to admit it, but all this is tiring.” He took a shot and missed.
Shane chuckled. “I figured it’d be hard on the last single Chase brother.”
“Well, and now that Liv is pregnant, it’s like blood in the water. Women not only throwing themselves at me but wanting to talk about babies too.”
“Let yourself be caught then,” Kyle said, grabbing one of the beers that’d been sent over.
“Hey, I will when it’s the right woman.”
“The right woman isn’t gonna send over a beer and lean over so you can see her hoo ha,” Shane grumbled.
Marc laughed. “What was that Daddy said back last year? Something about cookies? You hang out much at the Honey Bear lately?”
“Hardy har har. Speaking of cookies, do any of you know Tate Murphy?”
“Tim was in my year. Nice enough, I think. He was out a lot. He’s a plumber here in town now. Damned good one. You know those roots on that oak in our backyard? Totally screwed up our laundry room plumbing. He came in and fixed it all. Nathan, he’s one of the younger ones, he teaches at the high school with Maggie. You should ask Momma, she knows all that stuff.” Kyle studied the table before taking a shot.
“Why?” Shane looked at his brother across the table.
“You know I helped out the other day when Charlie hit her? She sent me some cookies and I went in to thank her today. She’s sweet. I was just wondering about her. Seems silly that in a small town I don’t know someone so close to my age.”
“I doubt she moves in the same circles.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Marc?”
Marc drew back, surprised at the edge in Matt’s voice. “Nothing. She’s just not at The Tonk that I’ve ever seen, or here. Never seen her at the places we seem to hang out. So it’s not a stretch to think she moves in different circles. What’s your problem? She do or say something to upset you?”
“No. No, I’m sorry. I just took it the wrong way.”
“Like how?” Marc leaned on his cue.
“She’s, well, she’s sort of heavyset and if I remember correctly, Tim always had messed-up clothes and was working on the side.”
“You thought I meant since she was fat and poor she wasn’t our kind?” Marc narrowed his eyes at his brother and Kyle put a hand on Marc’s arm.
“No, I think Matt likes her and is feeling protective of her. Like you’d be of any one of your friends. Right?” Kyle asked Matt.
Matt nodded. “And she’s not fat. Don’t say that.”
“I was being sarcastic.” Marc sent him an agitated glare.
Matt put his cue away. “Whatever. I need to go. I’ll see you all on Sunday.”
Shane frowned and motioned to Kyle and Marc to stay back while he followed Matt out the door.
“Hey, asshole, wait up,” Shane called out and Matt stopped, his shoulders drooping.
“I want to go home. Why are you pestering me?”
“Take your attitude down a notch or five or I’ll have to kick your punky ass, Matt. What’s going on with you? You’re all over Marc tonight.”
“I’m just—I don’t know what I am. I suppose I just felt bad for them all the sudden. The Murphys. Anyway, it’s been a long week. I’m going to go talk to Momma and then go home. I’ll see you later. I’m all right, really.”
“You know where I am if you need me, okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Shane.”
Shane squeezed his brother’s shoulder and let him walk away.
Matt drove over to his parents’ house. The lights were on so they were still up. He tapped on the back door and his mother looked out the window, frowning as she opened it.
“Well, come on in, boy. Why did you knock?”
He kissed her cheek and waved to his father, who sat in the breakfast nook, a steaming cup of tea at his right hand and the newspaper spread on the table before him.
“I didn’t want to barge in and wake the baby up. It’s after nine.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sit down. I just made some tea and got Nicky down. He loves being with his Nanna and Pops.” She smiled at the mention of her grandson, who’d be turning a year old in just a few short months.
“Pretty soon you’ll have another one to spoil.” He grinned and she did too. His father chuckled as he put the newspaper aside to drink his tea and visit with his son.
“It’s a happy time around here, isn’t it? What brings you to my kitchen?” She poured him some tea and put a slice of coffee cake in front of him.
“Momma, do you know much about the Murphy family? Tate?”
She smiled, the way she did when she thought of someone she liked, and relief settled into him. “Tate’s a sweetie pie. She was just telling me you and Shane helped her the other day after Charlie whacked her with his car. I tell you, I know it’s a sin but I was relieved it was someone else’s bad driving that got them in trouble for a change.”
Wisely, Matt avoided his father’s gaze so neither man would laugh. He knew his mother would pick up the story so he ate the cake and waited.
“Anyway, Tate and her sisters own the salon where I get my hair done. Liv goes there regularly and Maggie from time to time too. Anne, the sister, she does my hair but Tate does all that newfangled razor cut stuff and the color jobby with the aluminum foil strips.” Polly shrugged. “She’s a nice girl. All those kids turned out so well. Especially considering what they came from.”
Edward sighed and patted his wife’s hand.
“What do you mean?”
“The father, um, Bill, yeah that’s right, total drunkard. Lazy fool. Those kids went hungry a lot, I think. We tried to think on ways to get them food but the father...” She shook her head. “Refused any so-called charity. We did manage to get the kids free lunch at school. That Tate, she’s something else.”
“Why do you say that?”
Her very perceptive eyes narrowed, homing in on him. “Why are you asking?”
“She sent me cookies today for helping her after the accident. I met her when I went to thank her. She seemed nice but I realized I didn’t know much about her. Kyle suggested I ask you.”
She harrumphed. “Tate Murphy is a nice girl, Matthew Sebastian Chase. She and her older brother are the ones who raised the rest of those children. Eight in all. The mother, she’s worse than the father. Kept having ’em and running off again with some new man who blew through town. I saw Tate with babies on her hip when she was in kindergarten. They didn’t have the same kind of child welfare services then. But from what I’ve seen and heard over the years, every single one of those kids went to college if they wanted to or some kind of trade school and they all pooled together to pay for it. Tate and Tim being the oldest have done the lion’s share.”
“How come I never saw any of this?” Matt felt shame that all this happened to people his age and he never knew.
“Oh, they lived over in the trailer park on Ash. Not like you had much call to get out that way. You were lucky children to have your lives free of that sort of thing.” Polly clucked.
The other side of the metaphorical tracks. That part of town was ramshackle and dark. Not the tree-lined stately homes of his neighborhood or even the nice residential flavor of the majority of Petal. That side of town had more burnt-out cars and trucks up on blocks than oak trees.
He stayed and visited with his parents for a while longer and went home. But Tate’s wide, friendly smile stayed with him even after he’d turned off the lights.