Page 44 of Here & There

I shouldn’t be hurt by the rejection. I knew he’d say no when I came up here. Still, I scratch the back of my neck. “You sure?”

“I’m sure, yeah.” He hesitates. “Thanks.” Then he closes the door in my face.

At least he was nice about it. Sort of.

The video game sounds resume.

I sigh as I head back down the stairs. The social worker said to expect all kinds of moodiness. “It’s partly what he’s been through—moving across the country; his mother dropping into his life, then out of it again; meeting his father for the first time. But part of it is just normal teenage hormones.”

I actually consider going for ice cream on my own. Then I give my head a shake and instead take Tink out to the Oceanview Inn to make sure those dipshits are behaving themselves.

The rain has finally come back after this spell of nice weather, just in time to match my foul mood.

When I pull into the driveway—finding it hard to believe it was just this morning that I drove here with Nate to get Shelby—my headlights dance over the ATVs parked haphazardly around the lawn, which is now fixing to turn to mud. Most of their trucks are gone, though. For a moment, I have the panicky thought that they’re at the dirt track, but when I text Chris to check, she assures me they aren’t. In the three years they’ve been coming to town, they haven’t discovered the track—or if they have, the locals have chased them off.

I check in with Diane and Ben, who invite me in for tea and assure me things are okay, that they think the group is out at the bar over in Swan River. Ben apologizes again for letting the men stay, though he’s looking at his wife when he says it.

I don’t blame them, except for the part about letting Shelby stay there with them. But Shelby’s hard not to want to help, so I’ll give them a pass. “I’ll check back in tomorrow night,” I tell them after a quick cup and a cookie I can’t resist, because Diane makes great cookies. I’ll have to get her recipe. “Just let me orFred know if they pull anything at all,” I say, and even Ben hugs me after that.

I do a quick circuit of town while I’m out, but it’s mostly dead as usual on a Monday night. The Dinghy’s closed on Mondays, so I skip that one before reluctantly heading back home. She hasn’t even stayed a single night, but somehow I already feel Shelby’s absence sitting heavily on my shoulders as I head down my road.

Back home, I check in on Nate. The sound’s off, and for a moment, I’m hopeful he’s gone to bed early.

But he comes to the door wearing a huge set of headphones.

“Turn that off at eleven, please,” I say.

He pulls the headphones off. “Huh?”

“Eleven,” I say, a little snippy.

Maybe I wouldn’t feel this heavy emptiness if one thing was going right in my life. But right now it’s oh for three. One being Nate, Two being Shelby, and Three being every other goddamn thing.

“Fine.” Nate pulls the headphones back on. He holds the door open, and for a moment, I think he’s inviting me in. Then Tink trots past me, climbing up on Nate’s bed and yawning contentedly.

I’d feel betrayed, but I don’t even mind tonight, because at least one of us gets to spend time with him.

After heading back downstairs, I decide to jump in the shower to clean off from the day’s work. I like going to bed clean. It’s a miserable shower, though. I forgot that I ran the dishwasher and clothes washer before I left, and my hot water runs out when I’ve still got shampoo on my head.

I swear as I rinse off in the cold.

To top it all off, as I’m toweling off, I hear a noise outside—an unmistakable scrabbling sound on the deck.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumble, wrapping the towel around my waist. Something I didn’t mention to Shelby is that I’ve hada problem with raccoons out there lately, thanks to Nate leaving food outside on the table a couple of times. Once those little buggers get a taste of free dinner, they keep coming back.

I stalk out onto the back deck, and sure enough, one’s right on top of the table. The rain’s died off, but the deck is still wet and freezing cold.

“Hey!” I call. “Scram!”

The cute little menace ignores me, of course.

I glance around, then pull my towel off and snap it in the air in his general direction.

He looks at me like he’s enjoying the show.

“Little fucker!”

Another scrabbling sound comes from over by Shelby’s room. For a moment, I panic, holding the towel between my legs. But then a second raccoon pops out from around the side of the building.

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