Page 56 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
A ghost pepper? Oh, dear.
He turned his phone sideways. “Or maybe a habanero. Kind of hard to tell.”
Either way. “Can somebody grab some milk?” Edith hollered. “It’s going to be okay, ma’am.” Maybe. If this woman stopped cutting off the circulation in Edith’s arm. “You guys? A little help.”
“The only person allowed to say marrying my wife wasn’t a good idea is me. Got it?”
Henry lifted his palms and took a step back, triggering the automatic doors to open. “I think marrying your wife is a wonderful idea.”
“Oh, really. So now you’re saying you’ve got a thing for my wife?” The doors continued closing and opening and closing behind them.
“I would never have a thing for your wife.”
“Why not? Something wrong with my wife?”
“Her entire throat is on fire for starters,” Edith shouted as the doors closed, both men now on the outside of the store.
“Did somebody say fire?” Gladys zoomed over in her electric wheelchair, stirring up a flurry of plastic grocery bagsbehind her. “Where’s the fire? I don’t see a fire. James, do something.”
“I am.” James jogged over, holding a gallon of milk and twisting off the cap. “Try this.”
“An entire gallon?” someone murmured. “That seems a little overkill. Did anyone even see him pay for it?”
Perm Lady grabbed the gallon, tilted her head back, and dumped it over her open-mouthed face in front of all the gathering onlookers.
“Oh, my—”
“Cleanup in aisle five.”
“I still don’t see the fire.”
“This exact same thing happened two weeks ago.”
The woman guzzled, sputtered, and coughed her way through the gallon of milk as if she were waterboarding herself. Finally she allowed herself to come up for air. “Ahhh,” she wheezed out. “Better... Much better... I think... I might... live.”
A flash of red curls streaked past the window, past Henry and the woman’s husband still arguing outside. The automatic doors opened a second later. “Here, let me through.” Gabby, winded, elbowed her way next to Perm Lady. “I ran out to my car and grabbed this.”
“Grabbed what?” Edith asked.
Gabby crouched down, hiked her arm back—
Edith should have known. “Gabby, don’t—”
Too late. She stabbed Perm Lady’s thigh with an EpiPen.
Perm Lady shrieked, looked down at her leg. Looked at Gabby. Looked at Edith. Then dropped the milk carton, her eyes rolling back, as she slumped to the ground.
Edith felt everyone’s gaze immediately swivel her direction. She was a nurse, after all. So she did what any nurse would do in that situation. She said, “James, do something.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Knock, knock, knock. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Knock, knock.
“I’m coming. I’m coming.” Henry hobbled to the front door, his knee stiff from overworking it these past few days. Anything to keep his hands busy and his mind off Edith. Seeing her in the grocery store had only rekindled his desire to be with her.
Too bad, once again, he’d managed to look like a complete idiot. After Mr. Locke had finished poking Henry in the chest and berating him outside the grocery store for having the hots for his wife, Henry didn’t even want to go back inside and face Edith. Was it too much to ask that just once he come across as a competent and respected man in this town?
Despite all that, part of him still hoped it was Edith at thedoor. Maybe Steve had shown up again. Maybe Edith needed Henry again. Maybe—
