Page 15 of The Chad Next Door
Hope
October 10
After stuffing a blanket againstthe bottom of my bedroom door, the rest of the house stays a little warmer. Despite telling Grizz that I am perfectly fine to handle everything on my own, I haven’t worked up the courage to check on the wolverine, which I need to do before I cover up the hole in the window. So I’m just going to wait things out until I’m hit with a sudden burst of bravery. Maybe that will be never. The couch really isn’t all that bad, and the kids have been spending most of their time in their rooms today, giving me a chance to get them signed up for school and even research a few remote jobs I could possibly do.
Not that I found much. When I had plans to study the stars and figure out what actually happens inside black holes, typing out captions on TV shows doesn’t exactly sound like a thrilling new career choice. I gave up on that hunt pretty quickly and put my focus more on the school side of things.
When I called Eleanor, she told me that she’d already mentioned the kids to the principal and they’re excited to add to their small numbers, though it sounds like there are some kids that get bussed in from almost an hour away. Despite being tiny, Laketown is in a pretty central location, so we have a grade school and a high school that serves all of the surrounding small towns. Eleanor also told me about the summer carnival, though I don’t know why I need to know about that in October. Apparently it’s a whole thing and people come from all over. There’s a Christmas festival, farmer’s market in the fall, and a tulip festival in the spring, and it all sounds pretty great. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Signing the kids up for school was the easy part, though. Telling them about it is going to be rough. Zelda will probably be happy, but I have no idea how Link is going to react. I figure if I take them into town to the little ice cream shop I saw on Main Street, I can soften the blow a bit.
Link, as usual, is sitting on his bed and staring out the window like he might find the answers to the universe out there. He hasn’t said anything since before we went grocery shopping yesterday, but he ate the chicken and potatoes I made last night, so I’m not going to push him. One step at a time is the way to go with this kid.
“Hey, kiddo. Anything interesting out there today?”
He shakes his head, even though his eyes are riveted on the trees. I don’t think he’s spent much time away from this window since I told him about the possibilities of mountain lions being out there. I’m pretty sure he would love to see one, which has me a little bit terrified. Grizz did offer up his dog, but I don’t know what a golden retriever could do against a big cat with claws and fangs. I don’t want to be the woman who’s known for letting her nephew get eaten by a mountain lion, so I’m going to be extra cautious about letting the kids play outside.
“You know what I think?” I say. “I think we should go into town for some ice cream. Celebrate our third day here. What do you think?”
“Of course we want ice cream,” Zelda says from the doorway, and I have to wonder how long she’s been standing there. I have a nagging feeling that she tends to keep a close eye on me whenever I’m around Link, like she thinks she needs to protect him from me. I have no idea why she would think that, and I hate that she doesn’t trust me yet. I don’t think either of them do, but they’re smart enough to know they don’t have a choice.
I paste on a smile and clap my hands. “Well, then let’s go!”
There are a good number of people in the ice cream shop when we arrive, probably because it’s the only dessert place in town, but I’m not complaining in the slightest when it makes both kids scoot up against my side and hold on to the edges of my coat. They haven’t been touchy feely even a little bit, and it’s killing me not having someone to hug. I’m a glutton for physical contact—case in point, the way I mauled Grizz with a hug yesterday—and it’s been literal years since I had someone I could interact with. Hopefully these kids will learn to love me enough to start actually touching me, but I won’t hold my breath. They haven’t before, so why would they now? They might just not be huggers, and I will have to be okay with that.
“You guys can choose whatever flavor you want,” I tell them when it’s our turn up at the counter, and their eyes bug out of their heads a bit when they see the number of options. There are only six flavors, but apparently that’s more than what they’re used to because they practically press their faces to the glass and start drooling.
I know for a fact that Bailey was obsessed with ice cream, so this feels weird.
“What does that one taste like?” Zelda asks, pointing to the vividly blue flavor.
The teenage girl behind the counter smiles. “Do you want to try it?”
Zelda’s jaw drops. “I can try it?”
“Sure.” She grabs one of the sample spoons and pulls out a little bite.
My heart melts a little when Zelda hands it to her brother and then requests another sample. She’s such a good sister, even though I know she’s having just as hard a time as Link is. She learned that from Bailey, who was always looking out for me when we were growing up, even when things were tough.
Once both kids have tried every flavor, Zelda asks for cookies and cream and tells me that Link wants the blue cotton candy kind, even though I have no idea how he told her that because he hasn’t opened his mouth except to put ice cream in it. They must have some sort of silent communication style going on. Maybe I can learn it if I study them long enough, though with my luck it’s probably Morse code or something. They seem like the sort of kids who would know that kind of thing.
Once we have our loaded cones, we find a seat in the corner next to the big windows that line the front of the store. It isn’t quite dark yet, and there are a lot more people outside than I would have expected. I guess it’s not so cold that no one wants to be out in the elements, but I never really figured a small town like this would have a thriving downtown scene. Most of the people wandering Main Street look on the older side, like retired couples who are now empty nesters and want to enjoy a more peaceful life away from the hustle and bustle, but there are a good number of young people too. Like,teenageryoung, notthe sort of people I could become friends withyoung. And while it wasn’t on my radar in the slightest, I can forget dating in Laketown.
June told me there are two single men under fifty in this town—I promise I didn’t ask her for this info—and both of them live on my street. One of them, an author, is basically a hermit and rarely comes into town or even leaves his house, while the other is my charming, friendly neighbor Grizz. She called him that too, by the way. Or, I think she did. She was sweeping up nails as she talked, but I’m pretty sure she called him Mr. Grizz. Maybe it’s his last name?
It doesn’t matter. There could be a hundred eligible men in Laketown and I still wouldn’t be interested in dating any of them. Not for a few years, if even then. More than likely, I’ll be on my own until the kids are grown up with families of their own. I’ve never had much time for dating anyway, so I don’t feel like I’m making much of a sacrifice by focusing on the kids.
“So, what did you want to tell us?” Zelda says.
I nearly drop my ice cream. “What?”
She points to her own cone, giving me her signatureAre you stupid?look. “You have bad news, right?”
Seriously, this kid is a little terrifying sometimes, and I genuinely wonder if she’s actually seven or if she’s seven hundred and trapped in a little kid body. “Are you psychic?” I ask her.
She scrunches up her face. “What does that mean?”
“Never mind. Why do you think I have bad news?”
