“Why are you being so nice?” I ask. “I mean, I’m sorry, I’m just shocked, I guess. Seems everyone else hates me right now.”
She gestures away my concerns. “Oh, Lucy is just bitter that you left and did everything she wanted to do, travel, you know? Trina,” she says, referencing her middle sister, “is indifferent. With three kids and one on the way, she doesn’t have the energy for much of anything. Mama and Daddy will always love you for pulling me out of the lake.”
“Well, that’s good to hear, but I was talking more about locals. O’Malley tried to throw me and my friends out of his restaurant on our birthday, and I’m turned down every time I try to get something done out at the lake. I was just refused service by Mecklenburg Paving and Exterminators Plus.”
Her face drops in a frown. “What? Oh, no, that’s not happening on my watch. Let’s just fix that right now.”
I don’t know what that means, but she hauls her big belly off the bench, hooks an arm through mine, and drags me back into the hardware store, chattering about “people in this town” and “small-minded stupidity.”
She walks straight into Dan’s office and knocks hard on his desk, making him jump.
“Brianna,” he says, irritated. “What the—” He spots me behind her, and worry creeps into his gaze.
“I understand you just refused this amazing woman service.”
“I’m just busy is all.”
“You don’t look busy to me. In fact, I talked with your wife today, and judging by how strapped she said you are for money, I very highly doubt you’re busy at all. Unless, of course, you’re busy doing something other than exterminating, and if that’s the case, you can be sure I’ll be standing behind Marcie when she kicks your ass.”
“Okay, okay.” He makes a stop gesture. “Fine. Mice. I’ll get rid of them.”
“And you’ll give her twenty percent off because you were such an ass when she came in the first time.”
“Bri—” he says, clearly annoyed.
“And I believe you can start today, right?”
“Fine. Yes.” He looks past Bri to me. “I’ll be out this afternoon.”
“Thank you,” I say, truly grateful.
Bri turns, hooks her arm through mine again, and marches me across the street, repeating the exact same scenario at Mecklenburg Paving, only she uses a competing business as leverage and how angry Mr. Mecklenburg would be, hearing his wife turned down a large account.
We
walk out with a promise of an estimate within twenty-four hours, and I can’t help the shocked certainty that the archangels sent me the miracle I needed in the form of Bri.
“Well, that sucked my energy,” Bri says. “Sit a minute?”
“Of course.” We take a seat on a different bench. “I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
“Not a problem. People around here can be stubborn.”
“Are you still teaching?”
“Yep, first grade.”
“Eesh. Bless you.”
She laughs and nods. “Out for the summer now, thank goodness.”
I squeeze her hand. “I’ve always thought of you as the little sister I never had. Thank you for not hating me.”
“I could never hate you.” Her gaze goes distant for a long moment before returning to mine. “You know, you’re the only woman who has ever made Levi happy. I mean, really happy. It was always like a switch flicked on inside him when you came in June, then flicked off when you left in September.”
She grows pensive. “It flipped off permanently when you went to Paris instead of coming back. Took him a long time to rebound, though I can’t say he’s ever been the same. He’s a lot more guarded now. Can’t seem to hold on to a relationship. His girlfriends always get fed up with his commitment issues and walk away.”
My mind races back to the night on the boat. To the way he shut down after sex.