Page 36 of A Dead End Christmas
"Oh! Speaking of freezers…" I walked out to the family room. "Uncle Mike, I'm thinking of giving Jack a chest freezer for Christmas. He buys so much meat I think it would come in handy."
He grinned up at me, put Lou down on the couch, and stood. "A girl after my own heart. Practical presents all the way."
"Do you think it's not romantic enough?" Suddenly I felt panicky. Jack had given me the beautiful pendant that he'd had made especially for me, plus the pool.
Great.
"I'm a horrible girlfriend," I moaned.
"Give him some aftershave or something, too," suggested Uncle Mike, the storied romantic.
This was the man who'd once told Aunt Ruby that a new garbage disposal was a more useful anniversary present than flowers or candy, since she'd have the disposal for a lot longer. He'd shifted his thinking after she'd offered a bland smile and wondered aloud how the boy she'd gone to junior prom with was doing and whether he was still single and pining for her.
"Teddyalways brought me flowers," she'd confided in me and Molly, just loud enough for Uncle Mike to hear.
The next day, he'd filled the house with yellow roses—her favorite—demonstrating that an old dogcouldlearn new tricks.
But he'd installed the new disposal the day after that.
"Anyway, I was wondering if you had thoughts on a good make and model," I continued. "I'd appreciate any suggestions."
"Absolutely," he said, already pulling out his phone. "Now, the way that boy eats, you'll want at least nineteen cubic feet …"
I left him there happily comparing freezers and prices, and went back to the kitchen to whip up some pasta salad. Aunt Ruby was already at work on slicing pickles, tomatoes, and onions for the burgers and hot dogs, and Shelley sat on a chair texting.
"How goes the movie business?" I asked her.
"Me and Zane have story boarded the whole thing, almost, but we need to interview Grandpa Jed again to make sure we get the facts straight."
Jed was still in Orlando being wined and dined, as far as I knew, but he'd been gracious about helping the kids.
"I think he's coming home soon," I told her. "Ask Jack when he gets here."
Before Shelley could answer, we heard cars driving up, and everyone arrived at once.
I welcomed my guests and introduced Charithra around—they all knew Phin, of course. After that, the next two hours were a wonderful blur of conversation and laughter. By the time we'd finished dinner, I felt like I'd known and liked Charithra forever.
After everyone finished eating, Shelley settled in front of the TV to watch a documentary about haunted places, and the rest of us made our way out to the seating area by my new pool. Jack had hooked up a few outdoor heaters, so we were all toasty warm despite the December evening chill.
"Maybe now is a good time to talk about the elephant in the room," Aunt Ruby said. "Most of you own small businesses in town. What doyouthink about UltraShopMart establishing a store here?"
Austin folded his arms across his chest. "Respectfully, ma'am, I'm not in favor. My brother and I have been doing some research, and it looks like the UltraShopMart people run roughshod over every town they move into."
Dallas nodded. "Delvaney Craven is not a very nice guy. There are reports—unsubstantiated, to be fair, but where there's this much smoke, there has to be a fire—that he gets a million-dollar bonus for every new store. He's been their advance guy for a long time. And he's not very particular about what he has to do to get that million bucks."
"With a name like Delvaney Craven, his parentsdoomedhim to be a supervillain," I pointed out.
I got a chuckle, but it wasn't much of one. Everybody was worried, including me.
"He tried to buy the shop building and property," I said.
"Evidently, they plan to build a garden center there," Jack said, filling us in on what Dave had told him.
"Not to change the subject, but what do you know about this crime spree, Mayor Callahan?" Lucky asked.
"It seems to be petty crime, like the graffiti," she said. "At least so far."
"Not so petty," Lucky disagreed. "They did over five thousand dollars' worth of damage to one of our boats."
