Page 62 of One Chance to Stay
“Ask Meredith and Leonard.” She took the next pie, setting it in its box. “Let’s just say Mr. Palito’s family tree assignment brought some things to light.”
I didn’t know if I should laugh. “Wait. Did they stay together?”
Evelyn cackled. “Wouldn’t that be the talk of the family reunion!” She gave me a bump with her hip, working her way to pie number three. “I might have swooped in that summer. Cute face, very handsy. He didn’t survive the summer.”
“He died?”
She scowled. “I dumped him.”
“Oh.”
“This is Firefly, not a true crime podcast.”
“Nobody suspects a small town,” I said. “It’s the perfect cover.”
Evelyn finished tying the knot, sealing the pie in its box. She held the ends, as if she were about to finish the bow, but paused. Her finger twirled the string about for a moment before she glanced in my direction. The banter ended, and the tension became palpable.
I recognized the chewing on her bottom lip. “You want to say something?”
Instead of responding, she reached into her pocket and produced a phone with a neon-pink case. With a couple of clicks,she opened a photo. She pushed it in front of my face, and it took a moment before I could make out the?—
“Wow.”
“Grace sent it.”
Less than an hour for the gossip to rush through Firefly. In the photo, Seamus held me firm in a low dip. It wasn’t the muscles in his arms or even the way I clung for dear life that caught my attention. I pinched the screen, zooming in.
“He’s smiling,” I whispered. I hadn’t spotted the grin as I clenched my eyes, hoping he wouldn’t drop me. The entire night had been magical, but this… this made it hard to catch my breath.
“Jon told me all about the hot bartender at Spectrum. More than once, he described you as a ‘looking only’ employee.”
I ran through the labels. Gay? Bi? Pan? When I met Seamus, it had been about survival. The more time I spent with him, the more I questioned my sense of self. I still hadn’t come to a conclusion, and perhaps there never would be a tidy box I fit in? I had spent enough time with men struggling with their identities to know the path was neither linear nor logical.
“Things change,” I said. Honest, but still unclear.
“Firefly has a way of doing that. You think you’re going to stay at a cute little bed-and-breakfast, and suddenly you have a new life plan?”
It sounded goofy, a tagline for a website. Yet Evelyn had kicked me in the pants and given me a career destination. Much like the pies, she knew how hard to push and when to let the words hover in the air. I’d need to ask if Firefly offered classes on how to convert its visitors. This town might as well be a magical portal, but it didn’t lead to a destination. It introduced you to the best version of yourself.
“Can you send me this?”
“Do you want the seventy-six other photos? There’s a cute one of Walter doing a tango with Mabel.”
I only needed this one. “Sure.” I’d eventually look at the rest.
She returned to her bow tying. With a well-rehearsed motion, she finished the pie in front of her and moved me further down the line as she stepped up to the next.
“Do you know Julie?”
She chuckled. “Sly subject change.”
“Like that, do you?”
She caught me. If I analyzed all the little changes in my life, I’d find I had blown up my five-year plan. If I was going to have this conversation and wade through my emotional baggage, I wanted Seamus in the room. After all, he was the one who had me dragging it from the closet and dusting it off.
“I think Julie grew up here. Her mom is a legend on the basketball team. They took the team to state finals.”
I shot her a confused look.
