Chapter Five

 

 

IVY

 

“I think this is the last box,” I called, jamming it in the back of his pickup. I closed the tailgate and leaned against it while he double-checked the room for anything he may have forgotten. Since the bed and all the furniture was the hotels, he would have to sleep on an air mattress tonight until we could get a bed for him tomorrow. Truth be told, I was glad he was moving into the house. I didn’t like the idea of living there alone. The house is too big, and a bit too isolated from the street for me to be living by myself. I know Lucille did, but Lucille was a much bigger force to be reckoned with. Nobody messed with Lucille.

My entire shift today was spent accepting congratulations from the customers, baking, and talking to all the waitresses to see who wants more hours. If I could give my waitressing hours away I wouldn’t have to hire anyone. Three of the girls decided to split them, each taking an extra shift, which I liked because I didn’t have to train a new waitress while learning how to steer the helm. It freed up those twenty-four hours for me to be doing managerial work, baking, or any other shifts I had to cover due to sickness or time off. I felt better after talking to Mason about the way the kitchen worked, and he agreed to stay on as kitchen manager. He would help me with the ordering, managing the busboys, and trying out new menu items.

Now, I had until tomorrow morning to help Shep move in. In return, he and his brother, Felix, were going to do all the heavy lifting at my apartment tomorrow while I was working. After work, I would help pack and load the boxes. I didn’t have but a small truckload in my apartment once they moved the bed, couch, and a few end tables. It would be a fast and simple move, which left me Sunday to clean the apartment and get my deposit back, which I planned to put in the house fund.

He pulled the door closed and I noticed the way his t-shirt pulled taut over his chest, making me uncomfortable in places that haven’t been uncomfortable for years. Uncomfortable might not be the right word. Electrified might be a better one.

He dangled the keys. “I’m going to return these quick.”

He turned and jogged to the office. My eyes were glued to his jean clad butt in all its glory. Why am I lusting after him now, after all these years? “It’s creepy, Ivy. Stop it,” I ordered myself aloud. I had to spend the whole night with him, not to mention live with him, and I didn’t know how I was going to keep from drooling if I kept up with this line of thinking.

He didn’t let the door hit him on the way out when he left the office, brushing his hands off in the universal sign of ‘finished’. He ran up and grabbed me, lifting me by my waist and dangling me from the ground. “Good riddance!” He laughed before he sat me on the ground and opened my door for me.

I hauled myself into his truck, the cool November air typical for Michigan sneaking in through the cracks in the old machine. He cranked the engine over, started the heater, flipped on the lights, and turned left out of the driveway.

“I can’t believe you’re finally leaving the old dump behind,” I sighed. “I hated the place since the first day you moved in.”

He shrugged, his flannel-lined jean jacket making it an exaggerated motion. “It wasn’t a bad place for a single guy in the beginning, but now it’s less than desirable.” He picked my hand up off the seat. “I want you to know I’m beyond appreciative for the room, Ivy. I didn’t want to move back in with my mom, but I was getting close. The amount of smoke seeping through my walls was starting to affect my breathing.”

I frowned. “Shep, why didn’t you say something? My apartment is small, but I could have put a futon in the living room for you. With your lungs, it’s dangerous to be in an environment you can’t control. That includes your mother’s. She would stress you out and you would either kill her or die of an asthma attack.”

He turned behind the diner to the house and once there, he did a Y turn to back the truck up to the front door. “She means well, God love her, but man she likes to be in your business.”

He climbed from the truck before I could answer, so I did the same, unlocking the front door and propping the screen door open, making it easier to unload.

“Let’s dump it all in the foyer,” I said. “Then you can take only what you need upstairs. The rest can wait until tomorrow. No sense wearing ourselves out.”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed, handing me a box.

I set it on the floor and turned back. He was holding another, waiting for me to grab it. Deciding it was the easiest way to unload, I repeated the process over and over until the truck was nearly empty, I was sweating, and we had a pile by the stairs.

“All I have left are the weights. I’m going to take them right upstairs. Why don’t you go grab us some beers?”

I pointed at the truck. “I can’t if you’re unloading it.”

He laughed and pinched my nose. “They’re in the fridge. I bought some groceries today to get us through until next week.”

I pinched his nose, too. “Good thinking. I’ll be back,” I said in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.

I moseyed to the kitchen while he grunted his way up the stairs to the bedroom. I opened the fridge and saw he had bought more than a few things. He’d stocked it with beer, soda, lunchmeat, eggs, bread, condiments, fruit, yogurt, and cheese. Out of curiosity I opened the freezer and a pizza sat in the nearly empty space. There was a tag on it and I read it aloud.

“You’re it, Nosy. Now you can make the pizza,” I read, laughing.

I pulled it out and preheated the oven, taking stock of the kitchen and what I would need for baking and cooking while I waited for it to heat up. There wasn’t a thing I could think of I didn’t have at my apartment or wasn’t left in the kitchen by the movers. Lucille definitely didn’t lack for kitchen utensils and gadgets. Once the newer electric oven beeped I slipped the delicacy onto the top rack and set the timer. He strolled in as I finished.

“Got a minute?” he asked. “Or are you too busy being nosy?”

I spun around and punched him in the shoulder, laughing when he deflected my blow. “I’m not nosy when it’s my own freezer. You just wanted me to do the cooking.”

He grinned. “You’re right, I’m transparent. Come with me,” he said, pulling me along to the stairs. He motioned to them and I stared at the fourth one from the top in surprise. “It looks exactly the same as the others,” I said climbing the stairs and pushing on it carefully. “How did you do this?”

“I found the paint in the basement and a spare couple of stair treads covered in cobwebs. I’ll admit it would have been considerably harder otherwise.”

I laughed and he motioned for me to finish going up the stairs, so I did. He covered my eyes from behind and walked me forward, pausing when he reached his destination. He took his hands off and I stood in the door of the bathroom.

My mouth dropped open in shock. “You got the showerhead and rod up already? How did you have time to do all this? Didn’t you have to work today?” I asked, turning into him.

“I did, but Felix was off, so since you’re letting me live here rent free, I asked him to get the stuff and hang it after I fixed the stair early this morning. I’m surprised you didn’t see his car here.”

I shook my head. “I never looked outside. I had my hands full with customers wishing me congratulations on the new business, while attempting to figure out how to run said business.”

He pursed his lips and tossed his head back and forth. “Okay, I’ll give you a pass on it. What do you think?”

I was already almost to the tub, inspecting the way it hung from the ceiling in the old-fashioned shower look, but with modern day finishes. “It’s wonderful. You know how I hate taking a bath,” I said, nodding appreciatively.

“Yup, you hate stewing in your own juices, as you so ladylike report.”

I jumped and he ran, down the stairs and to the kitchen, before I could chase him. His laughter echoed through the house and my heart swelled with joy at the sound. I wondered what was happening to me and what I had done. Was I about to move in here with my best friend, who I suddenly had a teenage crush on? Before I could answer that question, I needed more booze.

 

 

IVY

 

I was relaxed and happy, my belly full of pizza and a cold beer in my hand. We had set up his TV to watch our favorite Friday night shows while we ate. They brought Lucille’s furniture back in after they finished cleaning, so we were cross legged on the couch, the way we used to play video games, finishing America’s Got Talent. He clicked the TV off and I leaned back on the couch, my eyes heavy.

“I’m exhausted. We have to do this moving stuff again tomorrow?” I asked, moaning a little.

He laughed, setting his empty can on the floor. “Think of it as the last time you’ll have to move for a long time, hopefully.”

“Fingers crossed,” I said, my digits entwined. “Did your mom ever respond to your text about Wynette?”

He shoulder-bumped me and grinned. “You remembered her name. You’re ahead of me!” he said, laughing while giving me a high five.

“Wynette rhymes with Lynette,” I parroted. I motioned with my hand. “Well, did she?”

He sucked his lower lip into his teeth and bit down, nodding and shoulder shrugging. “She did,” he finally admitted. “Not happy, you were right, but I stopped over at noon and worked my sonly ways with her. She agreed to stop setting me up.”

I jumped backward and my beer almost spilled everywhere. He caught it in time and set it next to his. “Your mom agreed to stop setting you up? Your mom?” I asked again.

He was nodding along, as seemingly confused as I was. “She said she would. Now whether it happens or not is another story.”

I shook my head, my eyes almost rolling around in their sockets. “It won’t happen. Did I tell you about the date she set me up on a few weeks ago?”

“Um, what? My mother set you up on a date?” he asked dumbfounded. “You should have told me, I would have put a stop to it.”

I smiled lazily as I lay on the back of the couch. The busyness of the day, and the alcohol, was catching up to me, leaving my body exhausted but relaxed. “I didn’t think it was a big deal. I figured I would go to make her happy and if it worked out then great, but if not, it would be a good reason to tell her I wasn’t interested in dating.”

“Since you’re sitting here with me on a Friday night, I’m assuming it didn’t work out,” he deduced.

I laughed, a half-snort half-giggle leaving my lips. “Not by a long shot. He was a farmer, Shep.”

He started to laugh, his whole body shaking from one simple word. Farmer.

When he could speak again he wiped his eyes and copied my posture. “You can’t stand the smell of a farm. Tell me he took you to dinner.”

I shook my head on the back of the couch. “I drove out to his farm under the ruse of picking him up for dinner. Apparently, he only has an old farm truck and didn’t think it was clean enough to take a date to dinner in.”

“You use the word ruse as if dinner didn’t happen,” he said, a grin on his face.

“Not together anyway,” I agreed, rolling my eyes. “I got out there and he introduces himself, tells me some strangely personal things about himself and his chronic illness stopping him from doing certain farm chores, and how he’s looking for a woman to share the workload on the farm with him. Then, he proceeds to take me on a tour of the barn.” I gagged a few times in an attempt to avoid spewing my dinner simply by thinking about it.

“How did you do it without puking?” he asked, completely stunned.

“It wasn’t easy,” I admitted, crossing my arms over my chest. “Thankfully, I was wearing a scarf, so I tucked my face into it and pretended I was cold. The first place he took me was to the milking barn where he introduced me to every cow, by name, while they were being milked. Then he took me to a room next to the milking parlor where all the calves were kept. He introduced them all by name and told me which milking cow was which calf’s mother.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said, groaning with embarrassment. “The guy needs some dating tips.”

“You aren’t kidding, and neither am I. As we finished he told me he planned on giving me a test on the names of the cows and chickens he introduced me to.”

He burst out laughing, bending over at the waist, his chest and back heaving as if he could barely breathe from laughter. I put my hand on his back and rubbed, something I’ve done since childhood, knowing if he wasn’t careful, he was going to have an asthma attack. He’s been a brittle asthmatic since he was four, and while he does a good job of controlling it, if he laughs too much, he’ll have an attack.

“Shep, deep breath in, buddy,” I said, concerned.

He nodded and held up his hand. “I’m fine. I can still talk,” he said, though his words were still coated in laughter.

I kept rubbing his back, not because he needed me to but because I loved the way he felt under my hand. His muscles were rippling from laughter and his skin was warm. He was thin under his cable knit sweater, but he was all muscle. The doctors once told him if he worked out he could build his lung capacity and lessen the number of asthma attacks, so he took them to heart. He’s still skinny, but at least now he looks after himself and takes his medication regularly. It’s expensive, and I know he struggles, which is why this new job would help him out more than anyone at the city understands.

He sat up and my hand reluctantly fell from his back. “I’m okay. Man, that’s some funny stuff. After the fact, of course.”

I leaned back again, but kept my eye on him to make sure he didn’t start wheezing. “No, it was funny at the time, too. It took all I had in me to keep from laughing.”

“Inquiring minds want to know. Did you pass the test?” he asked, a naughty grin on his face. The guy is a shyster and he knows it.

“I failed miserably,” I said, shaking my head. “Clara, Luna, Michelle, and Moon in the Sky; who came up with these names?” I asked laughing. He had his hand over his mouth as I ticked off the names.

“Terrible is what it is. How did you get out of dinner?”

“I had a plan. He went to adjust a cow’s milking apparatus, which gave me an opportunity. I opened the sounds in my phone and hit the button to start playing a ringtone. His back was to me and couldn’t see what I was doing. I hit the button to make it stop and pretended like I was talking on the phone. I hung up and told him my mom was in trouble and I had to split.”

He snorted with laughter, his shoulders jiggling. “Your mother? That’s all you could come up with? She’s been dead for nine years.”

I shrugged. “He didn’t know she was dead and who can deny their own mother. He’d spent twenty minutes telling me how important his family was and why he didn’t want to move off the farm. I figured saying my mom needed me would carry some weight.”

He shook his finger at me. “I always knew you were a smart cookie, Susanna Ivy Lancombe. The question is, what did you tell my mom?”

I blew out a breath, my lips puckering with the motion. “I told her he was too needy for me, which wasn’t a lie. She pursed her lips and sighed, saying we were both impossible. I told her maybe it would help her heartburn if she stopped setting us up on blind dates.”

He grinned, hugging me, and smacking a kiss on the top of my head. “I love you,” he said, his voice filled with amusement. He paused, as if he realized what he said, and stuttered to cover his admittance. “Uh…well…because you’re so innocent. Like my mother is going to stop setting us up.”

I rested on his chest, his heartbeat strong and his skin heating his sweater to snuggly sleeping temperature. “Clearly it didn’t work, since she set you up last week.”

“She’s impossible,” he agreed. “I think farm boy has to go into the Dating Disaster Book. Have you entered it already?”

I stared up at him under my sleepy lids. “You have to ask? I don’t open the book unless we’re together. It’s sacred, Shep. I waited to tell you until it was far enough in the past you wouldn’t get mad at your mom. Maybe we can enter it in the book tomorrow night when we move everything of mine over.”

He leaned down and kissed my head. “It’s a date,” he said, his voice soft and tender. “I should take you home. It’s getting late and you have to work early.”

I nodded, my eyes closed and my body relaxed as I snuggled into his chest. “I don’t want to move.”

“You have to be at work in the morning, babe,” he whispered. “You’ll need clean clothes.”

I shifted and wrapped my arm around his waist, a lazy smile on my face. “In my office,” I said, my voice barely audible.

He rubbed my arm and kissed the top of my head. “Okay, sweetheart, rest then,” he whispered. “I’ll keep you safe.”