Page 98 of On the Run
She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled slowly, hugging the iPad. “Toby-Trey Elford, you are a true hero, setting all this up.”
I bit my lip. Toby had acquired himself a nickname, and I thought it was adorable. I wasn’t quite sure how Toby-Trey felt about it.
Toby shook his head and set his drink down. “Oh, I can’t take any credit for that. The letter was all Beale’s idea, and Aunt Hagatha’s followers were beyond generous.”
“I just can’t believe she published it!” Littlejohn’s girlfriend, Veronica, managed to sound really glad and really horrified at the same time. “I think hitting up her readers for donations like that is kinda tacky. But I mean, I’m glad for y’all and for John. Obviously.” She touched her ample cleavage and smiled up at Littlejohn prettily, and you could practically see the cartoon swirls in her eyes, he was so hypnotized.
Meanwhile, Toby’s smile hardened to the point where I had to poke him in the ribs.
He glanced over his shoulder and gave me a look that said,What?
I narrowed my eyes a little.I thought we were giving her the benefit of the doubt for LJ’s sake. I thought we were reserving judgment.
Toby inhaled and set his head in a way that screamed,Benefit revoked because his name isLittlejohn,not John.
Which, honestly, was a really good point.
“Oh, I don’t know,Ronnie,” Toby said. “I think Hagatha encouraging readers to write in about their favorite little-known charities is an amazing idea.”
“Veronica,” she corrected. “Not Ronnie.”
“Oh, silly me! I thought we were playing some kind of name-shortening game! My bad. I’m new to small-town life.” Toby’s smile was the kind of slow poison that wouldn’t catch her until she got home. “But as for why Hagatha chose Beale’s letter…” He gave me a mischievous look. “I find Beale averypersuasive letter writer.”
I shook my head slowly. The man I loved was pure trouble and drama and every other thing I’d thought I never wanted, and in a few minutes, I’d get to take him home to our new home—a gorgeous, single-story, huge-windowed place we’d rented from Littlejohn that Toby had promptly dubbed the Terracotta Palace, and where a professionally framed vomit bag now hung in our bedroom alongside a printout of Hagatha’s letter to me.
I couldn’t have been happier.
The ’80s rock ballad playing over the speakers cut out, and there was the sudden whine of feedback as someone—oh, good Lord, my dad—unearthed a microphone.
“I now declare this meeting of the Whispering Key Bridge Fundraising Committeeclosed! And I’d hereby like to open the Whispering Key Welcome Party in honor of Toby-Trey Elford!”
The entire bar erupted in a chorus of “Surprise!”
My cousin, Fenn, appeared from somewhere, along with Lety, Bubba, Scotty, Jeremy, Barbara, Carolyn, Taffy, and Orry—more Whispering Keysters than I could even count—and all of them came over to tell Toby how glad they were that he’d picked up stakes in New York and moved down here.
Honestly, it had been a near-run thing as far as I was concerned. When I’d packed Marjorie up and brought her to New York, I’d had the idea in mind that if I somehow got Toby to take a chance on me, I’d happily stay, even if I had no idea what that would look like.
But when I’d told Toby so, he’d looked at me like I was several sandwiches shy of a picnic. “Permanently? Under no circumstances, Beale Goodman. Jonquil would fly up and smack us. Since you’re here, it’d be great to show you around this weekend, but I talked to my boss today and told her if all went well, I’d be moving to Florida. We can sublet the apartment and maybe sell it eventually.”
And all of that had sounded really, really good, but the best part had been thewe.
Maddie McKetcham ran up to our table carrying an enormous banner that read TEALE 4EVA! in bright purple glitter.
Toby reached for my hand and gave me a look that said,What the fuck is going on?
I gave him a return look that said,Around here, baby? Who the hell knows?
“Madeline,” Toby said, staring at the sign. “What a truly… triumphant work of art. Thank you.”
Maddie beamed. “Iknewyou’d like Teale better than Boby for y’all’s ship name.”
“Our ship name.” Toby closed his eyes and nodded. “That’s… yes. Remarkable.”
“Littlejohn had us vote.”
Littlejohn nodded. “Ronnie here thought ‘Boby,’ but I wasn’t so sure.”
“Veronica,” his girlfriend, who was probably not going to be his girlfriend for very long, reminded him.
