Sommer Marsden - Chasing Shade

‘If I lie and say I wasn’t looking would it earn me points?’ He bit into a piece of bacon and it only accented how hungry he was. He hadn’t realised.

‘No. But admitting you were would earn you some. I think it’s been a long time since someone’s checked out my ass.’ She leaned against the bench opposite him and watched him eat.

‘I doubt that. I think they’re just more skilled at hiding it than me.’

She smiled at that. ‘Anyway, how long you looking to stay?’

It was Archie’s turn to shrug. ‘I have no clue. I’m sort of rambling. Found myself suddenly without a home or a job or even a temporary place. So yeah…just the kind of guy you want checking out your ass, right?’

She crossed her arms over her chest and a small frown twisted her lips in the most adorable way. He wondered what it was like to kiss Betsey. And then reminded himself it was a dangerous thought to be having. Emotional ties to people weren’t exactly his thing right now.

‘Everyone has crappy times in life,’ she said. ‘If you have any interest in staying here I wouldn’t recommend the one-night-seedy-hotel route.’

‘No?’

‘No. I think you should come home with me,’ she said.

He almost spit out his coffee but settled on choking on it instead.

She held up her hands saying softly, ‘Put your hands up, put your hands up,’ as if he were a child. Another endearing quality of pretty Betsey.

When he could breathe again she laughed softly. ‘I know how that sounded. I meant to my trailer park. We’re not far from here and Mr Booth, he owns the place, is looking for a handyman. Our last one…well, he died.’

‘It’s not a haunted trailer park, is it?’

At the counter Mrs Kline snorted with laughter. She wasn’t very subtle with her eavesdropping, Archie thought.

‘No. It’s just he was old. Anyway, we need a new one and it comes with employee quarters.’ The last two words were accompanied by air quotes.

‘Air quotes make me nervous,’ he said.

She snickered. ‘They should. It’s an ancient trailer with bare necessities but it’s a paying job and it’s better than living in your truck, right?’

He eyed his truck. On its last legs, floor full of rust holes, running on fumes half the time and threatening to die the other half.

Then he looked at Betsey. Wouldn’t be so bad to have her as a neighbour. Not from what he could see.

‘What do you think?’ she asked. ‘Sounds like you could use a stroke of good luck. Even if it’s modest.’

He nodded. ‘Sounds good. What makes you so sure your trailer-park owner will hire me?’

She winked. ‘He asked if I’d help find somebody. I just found somebody.’

‘What if I’m an axe murderer?’ he asked, finishing off his first egg in a big bite.

‘You don’t look like one,’ Betsey said.

He was teasing her. It did strange things to her insides. It had been a long time since a man had flirted with her or teased her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. It had been a long time since a man whom she welcomed advances from had done any of those things. Mostly it was guys she considered like a brother or an uncle or a dad. But this man…she’d noticed him before he’d even come in and she couldn’t quite help noticing him over and over again. Every time she turned away and then looked back, her stomach did that strange dropping thing that was both exhilarating and terrifying.

‘Maybe I’m one too. One axe murderer would have nothing to fear from another, now would she? Clearly if I can wield an axe I can take you.’

‘I like the sound of you taking me,’ he said softly.

When her face coloured, she put her hands to her cheeks. ‘Wow –’

‘Sorry, sorry,’ he said. ‘But touché. What time do you get off your shift, Bets–’

‘Betsey, Jesus Christ, order up! Flirt on your own time.’

She turned even hotter and brighter red, she could tell. ‘I get off in an hour. Sorry. I have to –’

He waved her off and she fled, grateful that he couldn’t see her face any more. She was fairly certain it was somewhere around the colour of Santa’s suit.

When she got close to the order window, Tony leaned in and growled, ‘Knock it off.’

She gulped and grabbed her plate from the steel shelf. At the last second Tony’s hand shot out and he held her in place. ‘But you could do worse, kid. I think we’d all like to see you go out on a date.’

That was worse than him barking at her. His encouragement tinged with a touch of pity. This pseudo-family she’d managed to create for herself was wonderful and full of life and…nosy as hell.

‘OK. I mean yes. I –’

‘You haven’t had a date in ages…’ He was about to go on, she could tell.

‘I haven’t found a nice guy, Tony,’ she sighed. ‘Now let me get my order out before it comes back to you for being cold.’

He released her immediately because nothing stuck in Tony’s craw worse than food being returned.

She hustled to the man who’d ordered the fried chicken plate and delivered his food. Her eyes, traitorous things that they were, kept wanting to dart over and check out Archie. When she did let them wander in his general direction he was still polishing off his number one breakfast. And watching her, of course.

A sharp burst of electric attraction rattled her bones and she hoped no one could see how shamelessly interested she was. It had been ages since her last date, because either men seemed to not fit into her life or they saw her – once they realised who she was – as a sideshow freak. An attraction to be shown to the world. She didn’t need that. She’d rather be alone.

She found herself watching him again, not even realising it, as she wiped down the deserted end of the counter. Everyone was taken care of and she just needed to clean up and pray for no new diners before her shift ended.

He waved her over and Betsey went, half afraid he’d just tell her to stop staring, it’s creepy.

‘Do you need a takeout box?’ she asked.

He waved a hand at his now empty plate – but for fruit – and laughed. ‘Not really.’

‘You were supposed to save some of that, weren’t you?’ She couldn’t help but smile.

‘I was. But I didn’t.’

‘Did you need more coffee?’

‘Sure. And water? And just to say hi.’

The last bit set her body buzzing. Betsey trapped her tongue between her teeth and tried to keep a sharp focus. ‘Hi.’

‘Did you know there’s a dead woodchuck out there on Main Street?’

‘Woodchuck?’ She glanced at Tony. He sighed, waved his spatula and made a placating motion with his hands. All intricate pantomime for ‘sit down, for God’s sake’.

She sat.

Archie smiled at her. It did strange things to her insides all over again.

‘It was actually, I’m fairly certain, a hairpiece. A weave.’

Betsey put her head in her hands and started laughing. ‘Oh, my God. There are way more of those things around here than you’d believe. Bus stop, roads, lawns! I find them all the time at the trailer park.’

‘So this place – what’s it called?’ He pointed outside and actually ate one of the wrinkled grapes off his plate.

‘Turner’s Corner.’

‘Turner’s Corner.’ He nodded. ‘Which is Deep Creek Adjacent. It’s just a place for old weaves to die?’

‘Seems to be.’ She spun a spoon on the table. Round and round and round again just to distract herself from thinking about how nice it was to be sitting here. How good it felt to joke with someone.

‘Is the trailer park far from here?’

‘Not really. About a mile. I usually walk unless someone –’ She cut herself off, realising what she was about to say would sound like a hint. ‘I usually walk.’