Page 28 of Need You
“What exactly does a slump for you mean?” Deb asked.
Delaney pondered how honest she wanted to be and decided to go with the entire truth. “I haven’t designed anything since my divorce. Like nothing. Nada. Zip.”
“How long ago was the divorce? Wait. Hold that answer.” Frustrated with the slow service, Foster got up, went to the bar, and returned a few minutes later. “Maureen decided to take a break. Boden is sending over one of the new waitresses. So, how long since the divorce?”
“A year.” She grimaced.
“Holy shit, you haven’t been able to design anything in a year?”
“Nope. Most days I sit, staring at my sketch pad. On the good days, I draw something and realize it’s a piece from one of my earlier collections.”
“Has this ever happened to you before?” Deb grabbed a handful of peanuts from the basket at the center of the table.
“Nope.”
“It’s the aftermath of the divorce,” Hannah chimed in. “After a relationship dissolves you go through a period of being shell shocked.”
Delaney knew that Hannah had been married to someone else before Josh but was sketchy on the details.
The waitress finally came over and they gave her their orders.
After she left, Delaney said, “I don’t know. I’m worried that I’m tapped out, that my creative juices died with my marriage.”
“I doubt it,” Foster said. “You’re just going through a phase. We all do at one point or another.”
She hoped that’s all it was. Otherwise she’d have to find a new vocation.
The door swung open and Colt and two other men came into the bar. Colt immediately spotted them and approached the table to say hi, bussing Hannah on the cheek.
“What about me?” Deb protested.
“I thought you were only interested in Win’s kisses.” Colt winked.
She gave him the middle finger and he laughed all the way back to his party, which had grabbed a booth at the front of the restaurant.
Hannah gazed over at the three men and back to their table. “I bet they’re having a meeting about Pond.”
“The mayor?” Delaney asked. The creep had once tried to hit on her at a city council meeting right in front of Robert while they were trying to get a variance to build their house larger than city code allowed for their lot size.
“Mm-hmm. He’s making poor Colt’s life a living hell,” Hannah whispered.
“Why?” Foster asked. “He’s the best chief we’ve ever had.”
Hannah shrugged. “According to Josh, he doesn’t like Colt. Thinks he’s too tight with the residents and doesn’t kiss up enough to tourists.”
“The guy’s a dick,” Deb said, and they all turned to stare at her. “Not Colt, Pond Scum. I know everyone thinks he’s the second coming of Christ. Handsome, rich, and charming. But I think he’s unctuous. Why don’t the Garners get him recalled? They’ve got the clout.”
“I don’t think so,” Hannah said. “Carter Pond won by a landslide. He’s very pro tourism and all the members of the Glory Junction Chamber of Commerce are counting on him to turn the town into an Aspen or Jackson. At the last chamber meeting he read aBloomberg Businessweekarticle to us that said ski towns are the richest small towns in America.”
“We’ve already become one of those towns,” Deb said. “Six years ago you couldn’t have carried Delaney’s clothes in your store. No one here could afford them. But now they sell like hotcakes.”
“I guess Pond thinks we can do better and the chamber is definitely drinking his Kool-Aid.”
“What’s Colt planning to do?” Foster asked.
The server brought their food and Hannah waited until she left to respond. “What can he do? The mayor’s his boss.”
Delaney had had no idea that Colt was experiencing work problems. All the evidence appeared to suggest the opposite. He was well liked. And ridiculously dedicated. Whether it was late at night or the wee hours of the morning, she often heard him speeding down their easement road to deal with a police matter. Now she felt guilty for giving him crap about the parking space.
