“He was the first vendor to sell my bars.” Glori held a glass under the ice dispenser, the cubes clunking together. “He was quite a character. We miss him and his funky little store.”
“Is that the market you’d mentioned?” Phinny asked Declan.
“It was the market before the population exploded around here.” Glori poured the tea.
“Eventually, the big grocery stores took away his business,” Declan said. “First, Jackson got one. Then, Calamity. But he stuck it out because he liked hanging out with his friends.”
“You called it funky?” Phinny asked.
“He sold the most unusual things.” Glori laughed. “Sam had a heart of gold. If someone was hurting financially, he’d let them sell holiday pies or banana bread. Eventually, he had to create a whole section of the store for products made by locals. He had everything in there. Aprons, homemade soaps, candles…”
“Is that why he did that?” Declan asked. “I never put it together.”
“That’s because he never talked about it. The first time he did it, he set out an order form for holiday pies, and it just happened to show up right after Joanna Cleary’s husband passed quite suddenly, leaving her in a bind.”
A sharp pain in his chest had Declan’s hand going over his heart. “That was”—he cleared his throat—“nice of him.”
“He was a good man.” Glori handed out the glasses. “He was also direct, so you either loved him or you hated him.”
I loved him.
And he missed him every day. Even when he tried his hardest not to think about it.
“I see you’re following in his footsteps,” Glori said.
“What do you mean?” Had he offended someone? Some people considered him closed off or gruff, but he didn’t think he’d ever been rude.
“I’m on the board of the Sunshine Community, and I know you let them use Sam’s place to house homeless mothers and their children. That’s a wonderful thing you do.”
He could feel Phinny watching him, so he tipped his head back and glugged the sweet tea.
Glori’s cool hand settled on top of his. “Sam would be very proud of the man you’ve become.”
No one had ever said that to him before, so he hadn’t known how much he’d needed to hear it. But with both women staring at him, he didn’t want to sink too deeply into it. He hoped they couldn’t see how much it had affected him.
“What happened to his market?” Phinny asked.
How did she do that? He’d perfected the fine art of revealing nothing, so how did she read him so well that he knew to change the subject? “He sold it when he got sick.” He’d never been so in sync with someone before. It felt like they were on the same team. “It was just too much for him to handle.”
He liked that she didn’t try to change him the way so many people over the years had done, trying to get him in touch with his feelings. He was very aware of them thank you very much. He just didn’t see the point in wallowing.
“That man was a fighter. He had an aggressive form of cancer and was given—what? Three months to live?” Glori asked.
“Three weeks.” He would never forget that call. He’d just come off the ice, high off a huge win against Minnesota. In the locker room, they were all celebrating, changing out of their sweaty gear. Someone had just doused him with Gatorade to celebrate his hat trick. The screen of his phone had lit up, and he’d wanted to ignore it, revel in the glory.
But it was a Calamity area code, and he’d gotten a strange prickle at the back of his neck. Right there, amidst the laughter and jostling and shouts, he’d answered. Turned out to be Sam’s doctor.
The news had knocked out his knees. He’d had to sit on the hard bench. What he remembered most was the contrast. Everyone laughing, joking, lockers slamming, pads hitting the floor. And inside, Declan had gone perfectly still.
“And yet he held on for another year and a half.” Glori patted his shoulder. “And this man dropped out of college and gave up hockey to come home and take care of him.”
“That was a wonderful thing to do.” Phinny gave him that warm, sweet smile that reduced him to mush.
Declan didn’t want to talk about this anymore. “You mind if I use the bathroom?”
Glori pointed. “Powder room’s right there.” As he headed for it, he heard her say, “They were very close. Personally, I think Sam fought as hard as he did because he didn’t want to leave Declan alone. It was just the two of them.”
“What happened to his parents?”
“Oh, it’s an awful story. They were so young. They barely had enough money to keep a roof over their heads, but they’d scrimped and saved for their first vacation. There was—”
Declan closed the door a little too hard. We’re supposed to talk about Kurt. Not relive my childhood. To be honest, he’d only ever known his grandfather. He was six when his parents died, so he didn’t have a lot of memories of them beyond the photographs his grandfather had kept.
It was Sam he mourned.
Sam, he missed.
Just for one moment, he let himself remember, but the sinkhole opened at such an alarming rate, he had to shut it down. He washed his hands, splashing cold water on his face.
When he came back out, the women were laughing.
“He did that?” Phinny asked.
Declan found them eating slices of honey cake.
“Well, I’d asked him to be more romantic…” Glori hunched a shoulder. “That was his version of it.”
Good. They’re talking about Kurt.
“That’s really sweet, though.” When Declan settled at the counter with them, Phinny touched the back of his hand. “Glori was saying she’d always wanted Kurt to be more romantic, but they had different ideas of what that looked like.”
“I wanted flowers. I wanted him to whisk me off to Paris. Instead, he had my oil changed. He once got me a new roof. Can you believe that? I came home to find a truck in my driveway and workers hammering away.” Glori gave a sad smile. “But the problem was mine. If I’d been less caught up in my notion of what a relationship should look like and more focused on what I actually had, I would never have questioned Kurt’s romantic nature. He didn’t do flowers, but every time he saw me, he told me I was beautiful. He asked me about my day and took care of me when I was sick. And let’s be honest, I wanted more than he was willing to give. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned in life, it’s to listen when people tell you who they are. If you want to get married, don’t date a man who says he doesn’t. I thought Kurt would fall so in love with me that he’d eventually give in.” She held her hand out, looking at her empty ring finger. “He did love me. He just didn’t express it the way I wanted it.”
“Did you ever get married?” Phinny asked.
“I did. It didn’t last. That’s why I came back to Calamity.” With a wistful expression, she shook her head. “I gave up the only man I’ve ever loved all for some silly fantasy.”
“Did he date anyone after you?” Phinny asked.
“Nope. I put us through hell for no reason.”