Page 32 of Opposites (Never) Attract
“Oh, my God,” Harmony breathed. “Slow down.”
I crept along Hangman’s Lane.
“None of it has changed,” she breathed, looking at the old store fronts.
“Well, your sister is serving something called cold foam with coffee at the café. Folks are real excited about it.”
“She’s one step closer to a Starbucks,” Sunshine murmured.
“That’s what Amity said.”
I was happy to see her smile.
“God, look at those stupid statues,” she said, as we drove by the town square. At every corner was a bronze statue of some violent moment between the McGraws and Calloways. The bootlegging Calloway just after she was killed by the McGraw Sheriff. The Calloway widow who was shoved over Widow’s Peak, only to survive long enough to kill her murderer.
In place of pride, right in front of the train depot that served as our municipal building and historical museum, was a bronze recreation of a gallows where Widow Callow was hanged.
I forgot how much I loved the morbid whimsy of this town.
“They’re talking about building a statue recreating Ethan and Harmony’s wedding.”
“You’re joking,” she said.
“This town doesn’t joke about the feud.”
“Or its statues.”
I was about to take my foot off the brake so we could head down past the school and the emergency clinic, but someone shouting my name stopped me.
“Tag! Tag! Wait up!”
“Uh oh,” I muttered, as I saw the older man running as best he could from the municipal building towards my truck. “It’s Mayor Gallup. I’ve got to pull over for him.”
“Please don’t,” Sunshine groaned. “Let’s just pretend you didn’t hear him?”
“Can’t do that, sweetheart. You might be passing through, but this is my home. If the mayor needs me, he needs me.”
“Great,” she muttered. “I picked a getaway driver who also happens to be an upstanding citizen.”
I parked the truck in one of the open spots along the square, and leaned out the window. “What can I do for you, Mayor?”
He came right up to the truck, his hands curled over the door, like he was holding on so he could catch his breath. I hadn’t seen Mayor Gallup move that fast in years. His big, fancy rodeo championship buckle from about forty years ago was barely visible under the curvature of his belly.
“Tag! Just the man I wanted to talk to. I heard this business with Leroy’s will isn’t over and the ranch is still in-”
I opened my mouth to interrupt him, because he clearly didn’t recognize who was in the truck with me, but Sunshine got there first.
“How do you know about Leroy’s will?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Mayor Gallup asked, looking past me to Sunshine in the passenger seat.
“Mayor, you remember Sunshine, the oldest Calloway girl.”
“Well, I’ll be a sonofabitch, you’ve grown up into something special,” he said, pushing his head into the truck. “Quality, my dear, I can see it from here.”
“Hello, Mayor Gallup,” she replied, cooly. “Amazing to come home and still find you in office. What’s it been now? Twenty years straight?”
He laughed like she was telling a joke. “No term limits in the Gulch. Thank goodness. I just keep running andwinning. Running and winning. What’s a mayor to do? Am I right? Now, you must be home to help settle all this will nonsense, once and for all. Never thought I’d see the day when the McGraws called in a Calloway to help settle things, but after Ethan and Harmony, I guess all sorts of pigs are flying.”
