Page 45 of Hazel and Elijah Find Out: First They F*cked Around

Mom squinted at my blank expression before flicking one hand. “Okay, don’t tell me. But I still think it’s very sweet.”

“You know this rumor mill goes in both directions. You’re renting the cabin for another month?”

“I am.” She beamed. “I’m really enjoying myself. I figured, why not? I wanna remember what November is like up here.”

“Did you also rent a four-wheel drive vehicle with snow tires?”

“I did.”

“Okay, then I’ll worry less.”

“Oh, son, you don’t need to worry. Turns out, there’s a lot of people up here that will help me if I get stuck in a ditch.” Her eyebrows twitched, and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “I forgot how much I liked being a part of this place.”

I made a “Hmm” sound of understanding.

She looked up at the clock above the cash register. “Well, I should get to Bettie’s Pour House. Ginny is driving me to Deb Creger’s for Euchre Club.”

I narrowed my eyes in mock suspicion. “Now I see where you’re getting your intel.”

Mom leaned forward and whispered, “Those women knoweverythingthat’s going on around here.”

Laughing, I stood to give her a hug goodbye. “It’s about time I head out, too. Gonna go for a walk on the beach with Hazel before we get dinner.”

“It’s a great day for it. She seems wonderful; I can’t wait to meet her. I only vaguely remember her as a kid.”

“It’s still new.”

Didn’t mean I wasn’t in over my head.

“You seem…” Mom tilted her head, considering me. “Committed.”

“I’ve been committed before,” I argued.

“Of course. It’s just different.”

A twitch of my eyebrow was my only acknowledgment.

“Okay, well, I’m off. Be safe. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Have fun.”

I ordered a vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso for Hazel, and promised to tell her that Millie said hi. She was a tall woman, with an easy smile. And then, I left Country Grounds a few minutes later.

Taking in the beautiful fall day—my breath coming out in swirling steam—I turned the corner toward the vet clinic. A man just a few feet away made me come to an abrupt stop. He was almost exactly my height and stature.

I knew I’d run into him eventually, but seeing my dad without a warning shot anxiety through me.

When I’d cut my visit short last summer, he and I had not ended on good terms. I couldn’t remember a time we ever had been.

His venomous, harshly whispered words, “How did you come from me?” had me, on more than one occasion, considering going back to therapy. It couldn’t be healthy to imagine cutting him just as deeply as he had me. I probably shouldn’t circle back in my memory to the disgusted way he looked at me.

“Don’t make her pay for your sins,” he’d warned. And I was pretty sure Hazel was paying for what he perceived as my sins. In fact, his smear campaign against the auction was probably done in an attempt to hurt me, and not necessarily Hazel.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t catching any of that heat.

But Hazel certainly was—on the internet, in haughty side-eyed glances at the grocery store, and with a dip in appointments at the clinic.

She just wanted to raise money for the humane society. Money she needed because Dad loved control more than he loved anything else.

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