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“She left last night, thanks to whatever you said to her.”
I was too tired to be defensive, and Lottie wasn’t wrong. “I didn’t get a chance to say anything. She told me not to bother. She said it was all too hard and walked away from me.”
Lottie sighed. “And you didn’t go after her.”
“She asked me to leave her alone!”
The older woman shook her head, her bob staying frozen around her soft face like a steel grey helmet. “Men.”
Just then the bell over the door rang and Uncle Victor came strolling in like he owned the place, quite a feat considering the last time he’d been here, he’d been busily attaching furniture to the ceiling.
“Dan!” He boomed, spotting my son in the corner. “Oh, hey Mike,” he said upon seeing me. “It’s a regular Tucker family reunion,” he joked. And then he walked right up to the counter, leaned across it, and gave Lottie Tanner a kiss that I would have classified as a little too long to be coffee-shop appropriate. Besides that, what the actual hell?
Lottie pulled away, fanning her face and blushing madly, and then she said, “Good morning, Victor,” in the sweetest voice I’d ever heard her use.
“Are you two...” I gestured between them.
“Yes we are,” Lottie said, confirming whatever she thought I was indicating in my speechlessness. “Not all Tucker men are terrible at expressing themselves.”
“You’re kidding,” I said. My uncle had never said a whole lot that I could recall that didn’t involve yelling at the football games he watched on television or at Virgil and Emmett.
“I am not, and you had better figure what you’re going to do to get Addie to come back here, young man,” Lottie said, finally letting loose. “She only thinks she wants to go back to that stinky big city, but I know better. She wants to be here. With you, for God only knows what reason.”
I sighed. It seemed everyone knew my business long before I did. That said, I was pretty sure I needed their help. “Okay,” I said. “I give up. Tell me what to do.”
“Let’s get some muffins and sit down,” Lottie said, finally giving in and letting me have a muffin. She called Amberlynn from the back to work the counter, and we all sat around the table Dan had claimed by the window.
It was the longest Sunday morning of my life. But when it was over, I had a plan.
36
Forced March
Addison
We spent the rest of the day lounging, watching Netflix and enjoying doing almost nothing at all. But in the back of my mind I felt the pain of losing the life I’d begun to live, the ache where Michael had been, and the detached aimlessness of being dropped back into a world where I no longer seemed to belong.
Janet answered her phone late in the day, and went to her bedroom to talk, Allen giving me a shrug and a head shake to tell me he had no idea what she was up to.
She came back out, dressed to go out and grinning. “We should go to the park,” she said.
Allen and I exchanged a look and I considered my sweat pants and long T-shirt. In unison, we said, “nah.”
“Well you don’t have to come,” she told her boyfriend. “But Addie and I are going to take a walk.”
“We are?” I asked from where I lay, a tub of popcorn balanced on my stomach.
“We are.” She walked over, took my tub and pulled me to my feet. “Quick shower now. Just put your hair up, I guess. No time to fix it.”
“What? Who cares about my hair?” Janet must have thought I was really in danger of severe depression or something.
“Go on. Get dressed. Go!”
Fifteen minutes later, I was being dragged downstairs and out into the crisp November air of a late afternoon in the city.
About a block from Janet’s building, we turned right on Central Park West and strolled along the outer edge of the park. I pointed to a vintage Corvette parked on the other side of the street. “We found one of those in that old house I told you about,” I said, unable to keep my mind from lingering on the house, on Michael.
“Oh yeah? Like in the house?” Janet was glancing around nervously.
