Cut out cookie, p.2
Cut Out Cookie, page 2
“Well… thank you, I’m sure,” Vic said hesitantly. It would be ungracious not to acknowledge and accept Melissa’s condolences. Still, she didn’t want to discuss any of the sordid details in front of the other ladies. And who knew how much Melissa had already told them? Vic wouldn’t know until she started getting condolences from others as well.
“Yes, we were all sorry to hear,” Lottie Sturm chimed in.
Her tone clearly indicated that she was holding something back. “But what could be expected from the Jackson clan?” or “We always knew you came from bad stock,” or something along those lines. Lottie was one of the women who would never accept Vic for who she was. If she was polite to Vic, it was only because she knew Erin would eject her from the bakery if she weren’t.
“How is your poor mother?” Melissa asked, oblivious to Vic’s discomfort. “It must have been such a trial for her, your pa being so sick. I heard he was on his death bed.”
Vic nodded reluctantly. “I’m sure she’s doing better now that everything is back to normal. Pa was lucky to recover. It was pretty perilous for a while there.”
Melissa gave a little gasp and covered her mouth in horror. But her eyes were dancing and it was obvious that she was enjoying the drama and having Vic as a captive audience.
“We were all praying for him,” Cindy Prost chimed in. She was sitting beside her daughter, Bella, who was one of Erin’s best employees. Even though Bella was still in high school, she had a good business mind. She was very responsible and often had ideas for Erin to try out to improve areas of her business. Cindy glanced sideways at Bella to make sure she heard and approved of this comment. Erin had her doubts that Cindy had prayed about anyone in Vic’s family. Unless she was a closer relation than Erin thought. Many of the families in the area were related, and the Prosts and Jacksons had been around for long enough that Erin was sure the families’ genealogies probably connected at several different points.
“We sure were,” Bella agreed, and her words sounded genuine. She’d held down the fort while Vic and Erin had been in Moose River, and she had expressed her good wishes for Vic’s father and the family several times. Erin never sensed the same insincerity in Bella as she did in Cindy.
Vic too sensed this and nodded real appreciation to Bella. “Thank you for that. It was miraculous that he survived.”
Erin knew that sooner or later, one of the ladies was going to bring up Vic’s brothers and their actions. She looked at Vic and cocked her head slightly, as if listening carefully.
“Vicky, would you mind getting the phone in my office? I can hear it ringing.”
Vic stared at her for a moment in confusion. There was, after all, no phone in Erin’s tiny, closet-sized office in the back. There was a wall phone just inside the kitchen doorway so that if a customer called, they could answer it from either the front or the back, but that was the only hard-wired phone in the bakery. Erin used her cell phone for everything else. Then understanding came into Vic’s eyes, and she nodded and hurried into the back, out of the reach of the ladies’ pointed questions and comments. If Erin needed a hand with anything in the front, she knew that Bella would jump in to help. Vic could hide out in the back and tidy away anything that had been left out in the kitchen.
The atmosphere in the bakery deflated as everyone watched their prime target retreat and disappear out of reach of their barbs. Lorrie Sturm gave Erin a glare, understanding that Erin had intentionally removed Vic from the line of fire.
“It was so kind of you to go to Moose River with Vic,” Mary Lou commented. She took a sip of her tea. She had not taken any of the cookies, always mindful of her figure. “You are always looking for ways to help people.”
Erin’s face warmed at the compliment. She wasn’t quite sure how to respond. It was true; she did the best she could to help those in need. But she was too modest to like having this brought to everyone else’s attention. She shrugged and looked away. “Thank you.”
Conversations shifted and the focus moved away from Erin and Vic, since they would not indulge the women’s interests. After draining a cup or two of tea, the ladies started looking at their watches and excusing themselves. Bella hovered as her mother made movements toward the front door.
“Can I help you clean up, Erin? We can wait for a few minutes.”
“No, it’s okay,” Erin assured her. “There’s not much to do. I’ll see you next week.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. Take care. Thanks for coming, Cindy,” Erin raised her voice slightly to acknowledge Cindy’s departure as well. Not a “see you soon,” but more of a “don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”
Bella gave Erin a grin and scurried after her mother. Mary Lou was the last to leave, though usually she was one of the first, staying for just long enough to satisfy the others that she had made an effort.
“You can tell Vic that it’s safe to come out now,” Mary Lou said dryly. She patted her iron gray bob, though she didn’t have a hair out of place.
Erin acknowledged this with a smile. “Vic! All clear!”
Vic poked her head out the door and looked around. She nodded at Mary Lou. “Sorry about that,” she apologized, her cheeks growing pink. “It was a longer call than I expected.”
Erin gave an unladylike snort. “Hopefully, by next week, they’ll have moved on to other things. Or maybe you should give someone else the shift next week. They’re bound to have something else to gossip about in two whole weeks.”
“Maybe I will,” Vic agreed.
Mary Lou gazed at Vic for a moment in silence. “I do wish you the best with your family,” she said eventually. “I hope that… y’all will find some peace.”
“Thanks.” Vic blinked, her eyes swimming with tears. “I hope that too.”
Mary Lou nodded once, smoothed invisible wrinkles on her pants, and left the bakery. Erin flipped the sign to Closed and locked the bolt on the door without a word, and they each moved quietly around each other to gather up the few things that needed to be put away.
“I swear, I thought things would be better this week,” Erin sighed. “I thought that giving them a couple of weeks would head off any problems.”
“Things must be too quiet in Bald Eagle Falls.” Vic swiped at the corners of her eyes when she thought Erin wasn’t looking. “We’ll have to stir up some trouble!”
CHAPTER 3
There had been enough trouble in Bald Eagle Falls in the time that Erin had lived there. She was hoping to avoid any more. If she never had to deal with another dead body or family crisis, it would be a miracle.
“Terry and I are going into the city this afternoon. Did you want to go along?”
“I’m sure you and Officer Piper don’t need a third wheel hanging around,” Vic told her. “Willie is supposed to be picking me up anyway. I thought we’d try to hit a church service there and then go to a movie or the park or something. See what we feel like.”
Vic didn’t go to church in town because of their intolerance. She knew the kind of prejudice she would face if she tried going to the Baptist service as she was. They would welcome her only if she gave up her “sinful” ways and went as a boy. And there was no way she was doing that. She’d found an LGBT-friendly congregation in the city that she attended occasionally and hoped that God would understand her not attending in Bald Eagle Falls the rest of the time.
Not a believer herself, Erin found it hard to believe that any all-knowing god would insist that Vic go through the pain and dysphoria she would suffer if she forced herself to dress and act in a way that was not true to herself. But who was she to say? Other people could choose to believe what they wanted to. And hopefully, would allow Erin to not believe as she wished.
They heard a truck pull into the parking lot in the back of the bakery and the tap of the horn.
“There he is,” Vic looked around the kitchen to make sure that they had completed the cleanup and everything would be ready for Monday morning. “All right, see you tonight. Or not. We might stay over in the city since I’m not on shift in the morning. We’re taking Nilla.”
Erin nodded. “Have a good time.”
Vic hesitated for a moment, as if she would dispute it and say that she would not have a good time in the city. What was that all about? Then she just nodded and turned to the back door. “You too.”
Erin and Terry enjoyed themselves in the city and were back in good time so that Erin would have a chance to look over her planner notes for the upcoming week and have a bit of relaxing time before heading to bed. It wasn’t always easy for them to sync up their schedules, with Erin working baker’s hours and Terry doing shift work with the police department. Their sleep schedules were often off by hours. But they still tried to spend some time together every day, wherever they could fit it in.
Erin was sitting sideways on the couch with her feet resting against Terry’s thigh as she wrote lists of things to do and he watched an old western on TV. With the way that Erin was turned, she could see through the kitchen window on the back of the house. She was surprised to see headlights as a vehicle pulled onto the gravel pad.
Terry sensed her gaze or attention shift and looked at her face to see what she was looking at.
“Vic home?”
Erin nodded. “I thought they would end up staying in the city tonight. Vic had said that they might.”
“Maybe Willie had other plans.”
“Maybe.” Erin hoped that Vic hadn’t been too disappointed, whatever it was that had kept them from staying.
She pretended to herself that she wasn’t still watching out the window, spying on Vic. She just happened to be watching as a shadowy figure stepped out of the passenger side of the extended cab of Willie’s truck, and then Vic crossed in front of the headlights as she marched purposefully toward the stairs up the side of the garage to her loft apartment, Nilla running to keep up.
Erin’s stomach was tight. By the speed and jerkiness of Vic’s gait and the fact that Willie did not get out of the truck to follow her, she guessed that they’d had an argument and Willie would not be going in that night.
“What’s wrong?” Terry asked, looking at Erin and not turning to look out the window.
“Looks like Vic is upset about something. Willie isn’t getting out.”
“Mmm.” Terry still didn’t look at the window. Erin didn’t know how he could keep from indulging his curiosity and looking to see for himself.
“What does that mean?” she challenged.
Terry looked at her, surprised. “I didn’t mean anything. Just acknowledging what you said.”
“It sounded like… you weren’t surprised.”
“Why should I be surprised?” Terry asked carefully, trying to read her expression.
“They usually get along. It isn’t like they’re always fighting. And you know how Vic has been lately. It’s a hard time for her.”
Terry nodded. “So…?”
“It isn’t necessarily Vic’s fault if they’re arguing.”
“Didn’t say it was.”
“But you implied…” Erin trailed off, hearing herself and knowing that she was pushing it too far. Terry hadn’t said anything offensive. He hadn’t criticized Vic or Willie or said they were always fighting or that Vic needed to get her head on straight if she wanted to keep her man.
It was Erin’s own fears that bubbled up, always worried that arguments would lead to violence. Perhaps violence to each other, and perhaps to innocent bystanders.
She wasn’t a foster child anymore. She didn’t need to worry that the parents were going to explode and that terrible things would happen that were beyond her control.
It was just Vic and Willie. A few cross words or Vic spending the night by herself were not the end of the world. She and Willie would make up again the next day, once they’d both had a chance to cool off.
Lights went on in Vic’s apartment over the garage, and only then did Willie shift the truck into reverse and pull back out of the parking pad.
Despite whatever they had said to each other or argued over, Willie had still stayed to make sure that Vic was safely inside before leaving.
Erin kept looking over at Vic’s dark apartment windows in the morning, expecting her to come down for a quick breakfast of tea and toast together. But she knew that Vic wasn’t on the early-morning shift and that she had stayed up late the night before. Or at least, later than Erin had.
Erin had a difficult time sleeping after her usual wake-up time, even on days off. But Vic would have taken a sleeping pill and probably wouldn’t be up for several more hours. Erin liked it when they worked the morning shift together. Still, sometimes one of them or the other needed a break, had an appointment to get to, or needed to cover someone else’s afternoon shift.
After a good night’s sleep, she was sure Vic would be feeling a lot better. A good sleep could do wonders for a person physically and emotionally. Erin wished that she could get a good night’s sleep herself. She felt like she had been lagging behind for a couple of weeks now, almost since they had returned to Bald Eagle Falls.
She turned her attention to the orange cat winding around her ankles, making increasingly louder “feed me” noises. If she didn’t take care of him, she was either going to trip over him and fall on her face, or Terry was going to wake up. Ever since his head injury, he’d had a harder time going to sleep when he wanted to and staying asleep. At one time, he’d been able to go to sleep within minutes of lying down, no matter what the time of day. His body and brain were so well-trained to be able to switch shifts as required. Bald Eagle Falls did not have a large enough contingent in the police department to have a designated day shift and night shift. They each did what they could.
“Shh, shh. You’re going to wake up the whole neighborhood,” Erin chided. “Come here and get your breakfast and quit being so loud.”
She let K9 out to do his business in the dog run. Marshmallow waited patiently for her attention, as usual, and Erin grabbed some chopped vegetables from the fridge for him to supplement his rabbit pellets.
The toast popped, the kettle whistled, and there was just enough time for a quick breakfast before starting her morning’s baking at Auntie Clem’s.
CHAPTER 4
Erin was keeping an eye on the time, unable to stop thinking about Vic and whether she was still upset after the argument with Willie the night before. Maybe it had all blown over and there was nothing to worry about. But she wanted to know that her best friend was okay.
They always closed for an early lunch for the employees between the morning rush and the lunchtime rush. They couldn’t go all day without eating, and it wasn’t professional for an employee to be munching on a sandwich while trying to serve customers. Sometimes it was difficult to close and they ended up eating in shifts, but usually, there was a lull and they could close for half an hour to take a breather and some sustenance.
Vic showed up during Erin’s lunch break just as expected. Bella had helped with the morning shift, and she sang out a hello to Vic when she showed up and grabbed her backpack. “See you tomorrow,” she told Erin, waved to them both, and left.
Vic nodded to Erin. “Morning, sunshine.”
Erin smiled. “Good morning. For a few more minutes. How are you doing?” She was careful to keep the question uninflected, as if it were just a routine question any old morning, and not that she had seen that Vic and Willie were fighting and was concerned about her.
Vic sighed. “Bit tired today. I guess we did too much yesterday. Wore myself out more than I expected.”
Close up, Erin couldn’t make out any shadows under Vic’s eyes, but they did look a little puffy. Like she had been crying or was short on sleep. If there had been dark circles, Vic had carefully concealed them with makeup. Erin’s stomach clenched and she had a little pain in her chest at the thought of her friend lying awake crying over whatever had happened with Willie.
But maybe she was just imagining it, seeing what she expected to see after Willie had dropped Vic off the night before and not stayed over. Maybe Vic had just been tired and ready for bed, and Willie had other things to do. Or he had to be somewhere early in the morning and didn’t want to wake her up when he arose. Erin could have misinterpreted the whole thing.
But she didn’t think so.
“What did you guys do yesterday?”
Vic busied herself in the kitchen after putting her purse in Erin’s office. After tying on an apron, she drew a cup of coffee from the carafe and checked the counters and fridge and the checklist on the counter to see what needed to be done.
“Went to church. Picnic in the park. Some shopping and errands. Nothing earth-shattering.”
“That sounds nice.”
“How about you and Terry?”
“A movie. Thai food. Then back home to relax and make sure that everything was arranged for the week.”
Vic nodded. She didn’t give any indication that she had seen the lights in the house on when she had returned home. No comment on the fact that Willie hadn’t stayed over or what his plans were for the day.
Erin chewed her sandwich slowly, watching Vic’s preparations and hoping she would say something that would put Erin’s worries to rest.
Mid-afternoon, Erin looked up when the bells over the door jingled and saw Officer Handsome in uniform, his trusty K9 companion at his side. She smiled.
“Terry!”
“How are you doing?” He leaned over the display case to give her a quick peck. “Having a good day?”
“Eww,” Vic teased. “How unsanitary. We sell food here, you know. There’s none of that going on.”
Erin and Terry both smiled at the teasing, Erin’s face getting a little warm and the dimple appearing in Terry’s cheek. K9 sat down at his side, waiting patiently.
