Page 6 of Hand Picked
Figured that the only kid in the Hollow who was sad for a day off wasmine.
“He’s a little scientist,” Emma defended fondly. “I think it’s cute.”
“It’s not cute. He’s just overly attached to his beloved Mr. Williams,” I scoffed. “He’ll get over it.”
Knox and Gage exchanged a look.
“Speaking of getting over things, isn’t it beyond time thatyougot over this whole… thing you’ve got against Luke Williams?” Knox demanded, with that big-brother superiority I hated.
I folded my arms over my chest. “The wholethingthat involved him letting my kid go home from school with my ex-wife, without informing anyone, so that we all searched frantically for him for hours? No,” I shot back. “I don’t feel over that.”
“But you know it wasn’t Luke’s fault,” Gage said reasonably. He ticked off his otherreasonablearguments on his fingers, “The principal told him to do it. He had no legal reason to—”
“Yes, yes, I know.” I huffed.
It turned out I still had the capacity to feel some of Hawk’s overblown outrage after all… mine was just directed at my neighbor.
“So, then?” Gage prompted, tenacious as always. “What’s the deal? Why pick on Luke when you’re usually so… fair?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth and told myself to keep quiet. I should have known better than to bring up Saint Luke’s name in the first place, because as far as I was concerned, we’d talked the topic of Luke Williams to death around our kitchen table—although, like aWalking Deadextra, it kept popping back to life.
For months, my family had been telling me howkindour new neighbor was. Howsmarthe was. What a greatteacherhe was.
I couldn’t turn around without hearing, “Give him another chance, Webb!” or “You two could be friends, Webb!” or “Thomas Webb Sunday, you did not need to buy out all the ice cream in Little Pippin Hollow just so Luke can’t find any!”
All that time, I’d tried to explain that Luke Williams mightseemlike a lost orphan with his overgrown dark hair, comically large blue eyes, and habit of talking like agosh-dang-freakity-forkingpreschooler who worried he might get grounded for cussing, but he was actually a grown man.
A grown man who’d won a house and a shit-ton of land without having to work a day in his life for it.
A man who’d gotten all up in my business from the day he’d arrived in town last summer and systematically destroyed my peace of mind.
It wasn’t just the outrageous mix-up with Aiden last fall that pissed me off either. Hell, no. It had started way before that. And the things he’d done to annoy me… well, okay, they admittedly didn’t sound as logical as those arguments Gage had been ticking off… but they felt real, damn it.
Like, the way he’d turned my son’s head so that all Aiden talked about anymore was “super cool” Mr. Williams—who had endless time to chat, and do craft projects, and read stories, and listen to Aiden’s most drawn-out theories, and teach Aiden “literally everything, Daddy” from astronomy to philosophy to computer science to meteorology to what color cows liked best.
Or how Luke always seemed to beright therewhenever I turned around, getting coffee at Panini Jack’s, or chitchatting with the woman who ran the feed store about his damn sheep, or grabbing the last container of Boston Cream Pie ice cream out of the freezer at Peebles’, smooth as you please, when everyone knew I was the only person in town who liked that flavor and Chuck ordered that shit especially for me.
It was infuriating.
Every time I came face-to-face with the man, my chest went tight and my gut clenched, like my body was trying to give me a warning my brain didn’t know how to interpret.
I didn’t think Luke Williams was abadperson, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. Dangerous to my equilibrium and dangerous to my peace of mind.
I had too many people counting on me to be okay with that.
“’Scuse me, are you Webb Sunday?” a wheezy male voice said.
I turned and saw a short, heavyset man smiling expectantly up at Knox.
“I’m Webb.” My voice came out grumpier than I meant it to, since I was still thinking about Aiden’s teacher, and I deliberately tried to soften it as I added, “What can I do for you?”
The little man smoothed down his wispy hair. “Stephen Fox, Esquire,” he said, offering me a hand to shake, like I was supposed to recognize the name.
Knox and I exchanged a look. I wouldn’t put it past Amanda to get a new attorney to represent her in our custody dispute and sic him on me in public.
“Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. “Mr. Fox, if this has something to do with my custody agreement, my attorney has already filed our custody petition…”
“Your—? Oh, heavens no! No, nothing to do with that, I assure you. I’m representing Luke Williams, of course. Your neighbor.”
