Last Chance Book Club(5)
Author: Hope Ramsay

“Honey, I need to warn you. A single woman your age is like fair game in this town. The old ladies will be working overtime to match you up with someone, and Bill is the most eligible bachelor in town.”

Savannah shook her head. “If Jesus Christ Himself walked up that path and got down on His knee and begged me to be His wife, I would turn Him down.”

Rocky’s smile turned wicked. “Honey, I don’t think I’d want to marry Jesus either. That sounds kind of boring.”

“I’m not looking for anything exciting. I just want to be on my own.”

Rocky put her arm over Savannah’s shoulder. “Now, that I understand. But not forever. You’re just regrouping after a failed relationship.”

“More than one. I’m a disaster at love. I was divorced at twenty-two. And over the last few years, I’ve gotten engaged and subsequently broken up with two more complete losers.”

“Aw, honey, I’m sorry to hear that. But I have a prescription for your heartache.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s Bill Ellis. He’s cute but—”

“Oh, no. I was thinking that I need to take you to the Last Chance Book Club meeting tomorrow night and introduce you around. If you want to talk about failed relationships, the book club is the place for you.”

“What is it, like a lonely hearts club or something?”

“No, not exactly. It’s just that Nita Wills, our librarian, doesn’t believe in happy endings. So every book we read has a sad relationship at its core. I swear, the girls are getting tired of it. Tomorrow’s meeting might be the last straw. Nita told me just this morning when I ran into her at the post office that she was thinking about another Nicholas Sparks book for this month’s read. And you know what that means.”

“No, I don’t.”

“It means either the hero or the her**ne will end up dead at the end of the book.”

The lady with the dark hair and the flowers on her jacket told everyone that Mom was planning to move to this stupid town. Forever.

Todd couldn’t believe it. The place was boring. There wasn’t anyone here but old people. And there wasn’t anything fun to do. Besides, Last Chance was way far away from Baltimore. And if Dad had to come this far, he might not come at all. Dad was really busy a lot of the time. He was a lawyer during the week, and almost every weekend he was playing in some kind of billiards championship. He was a really good pool player, which was why he sometimes didn’t have time to see Todd.

Todd didn’t like the way his stomach felt. Like maybe he’d had too many pieces of cherry pie. Or maybe he shouldn’t have mixed the pie with the macaroni.

He headed across the crowded room. Mom was standing with the minister. Todd didn’t like the way she was looking up at the guy, like she was thinking OMG he’s hardcore or something. Whenever Mom looked at guys like that, it usually meant trouble. Mostly for Mom. He hated it when Mom cried. And guys always made her cry.

“That lady says we’re not going back home,” he said. He knew he’d interrupted the conversation, but who cared. This was important stuff.

Mom gave Todd the squint. She thought it made her look tough or something.

The minister dude looked down at him. “It’s rude to interrupt.”

“Is it true?” Todd asked, ignoring the minister.

“Todd, apologize to Reverend Ellis.”

Todd gave the guy a quick look. “Sorry.” He turned toward Mom. “Is it true?”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“No, now. Because if we’re not staying then you need to tell that lady to shut up about it.” He yelled this time and pointed to the woman in the flowered jacket.

Everyone in the room stopped talking. Everyone stared at him. Typical.

“Todd, go to your room.”

“Is it true?” Cousin Dash said. Todd turned around. Dash was standing by the doorway with a plate of pie in his hand. He didn’t sound like he was all that thrilled about what the lady had been saying either.

“Is what true?” Aunt Miriam asked.

“That the princess is staying, and she plans to revive The Kismet,” Dash said.

Everyone looked at Mom. Mom looked kind of annoyed. “Well, I guess it is,” she said.

The grown-ups started clapping. Mom looked super surprised. And in all that excitement, everyone forgot about Todd.

He turned away, his stomach feeling like crap. He got as far as the landing on the staircase before Cousin Dash chased him down.

“Cheer up, kid,” he said as he leaned into the railing at the bottom of the stairs. “Your momma won’t last long. Once she realizes that the old theater is falling down, she’ll be heading back to Baltimore lickety-split.”

“It’s okay,” Todd replied, “you don’t have to worry that I’m gonna get all emo.”

Dash frowned. “What does emo mean?”

“It means all depressed and stuff.”

“Oh. Well, I wasn’t worried that you were going to get depressed. Especially since y’all will be headed home in a week.”

Todd assessed his older cousin. He was pretty tight for a grown-up. And at least Todd and Dash were on the same side.

“I hope you’re right,” Todd said. But just to make sure of it, Todd planned to borrow Mom’s iPhone and call Granny Katie. Granny Katie would tell Mom what was the right thing to do. She always did.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Savannah got up early to make cinnamon rolls. They were Todd’s favorite, and she had hoped to get on his good side. But it didn’t work. He’d barely said a word as he scarfed down two rolls and then beat feet out to the porch. He was still ensconced on the swing with his PSP and his earphones.

Dash wasn’t much better. He took his cup of coffee and his bun out to the porch to eat.

It was a little disheartening to have her son and her bad-boy kissing cousin out there sulking. Together.

“You should go out and talk to both of them, sugar,” Miriam said. Her aunt was still wearing her house robe, and her hair was a mess. But at least Miriam had thanked Savannah for the home-baked rolls and had kept her company while she drank her second cup of coffee.

“I sure wish Rocky had kept her mouth shut,” Savannah said on a sigh. “That wasn’t exactly the way I wanted Todd, much less you and Dash, to hear about my plans. The thing is, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time. And when Uncle Harry died, I just pulled the trigger. But now that I’m here, I’m, well…”

Miriam laughed. “I know it’s a big step, but everyone in town would be overjoyed if you could revive the theater. Me especially. Earnest loved that place so much.”

“Yeah, he did.” Savannah drained her coffee cup, then took it to the sink to rinse.

When she was finished, she turned and leaned her backside into the counter. “I don’t want you to think we just invited ourselves here. My plan is to move into the apartment above the theater. That way, you and Dash won’t feel like we’ve descended on you without his permission.”

Miriam frowned. “But you’re family, and this house has more rooms than a dog has fleas.”

“I know, but Dash—”

“Hush. You and Dash and that boy of yours are all the family I have left. I want you to stay here. Nothing would please me more. Now do me a favor and go on out to that porch and have an adult conversation with your cousin. I can understand why Todd is sulking—you’re taking him away from his home—but Dash is a grown man and knows better.”

Miriam stood up. “And if you don’t mind, my arthritis is bothering me, so I’m just going to go have a little lay-down.” The old woman shuffled out of the kitchen. It probably wasn’t Miriam’s arthritis that was bothering her. Now that the funeral was over, the reality of Harry’s loss was starting to sink in. Miriam seemed a little depressed this morning.

All the more reason Savannah shouldn’t be rocking any boats.

She squared her shoulders and headed out to the porch. “Dash, do you have a minute?”

Dash looked up without any expression on his face. His swollen lip looked a little better today, and the bruise under his eye had turned green.

“Sure thing, princess.” He gestured toward an adjacent rocker.

“I was thinking maybe inside.” She glanced at Todd.

Dash turned toward the boy. “Hey, kid.”

Todd ignored him.

“Hey, you.” He nudged the boy’s foot, and Todd finally looked up from the screen of his PSP.

“You know how to work a lawn mower?”

Todd gazed at Dash as if he’d spoken in an alien language.

“Uh, no, he doesn’t. We live in an apartment complex and—” Savannah tried to explain, but Dash interrupted.

“Well, shoot, I guess I’ll have to show you. Because if you’re staying here, you’re not going to sit around on your lazy behind. Uncle Harry left a lot of chores.”

Todd’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. He simply stood up and stalked off into the living room.

Savannah didn’t know whether to laugh or yell. Yelling won. “Look, I get it. You’re still pissed off at me for some reason I don’t understand. But I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t take it out on Todd. I came out here to settle this thing between us once and for all.”

“Princess, I wasn’t taking anything out on Todd. I was just making the rules of the house clear to him. Folks living in this house have chores. You do remember that, don’t you?”

For just an instant, he sounded like Granddaddy. All the summers Savannah had spent here as a child, she’d always had chores. Which probably explained why she had gotten up so early yesterday and today. She’d done a lot of cleaning. A lot of dishwashing. And some cooking. And it felt right. Whenever she stayed here, she always got up early. There were always things that needed doing.

She glanced at the sagging porch step. “I can see how you’re holding up your end of the chores.”

“I’m going to fix that step. I was just waiting on Uncle Harry. He had a long list of things he wanted to fix around here, but if anyone tried to help him, he would get madder than a grease monkey with a bent dipstick. And getting that mad was bad for his heart. So I just let him go on believing the fiction that he was going to get well enough to do his chores, and I found other things to keep me busy. Now that he’s gone, I can finally get around to making repairs. Speaking of chores, are you going to take over the cooking? Because those cinnamon rolls reminded me of when Aunt Sally was alive.”

Savannah flushed with pride in spite of herself. Had Dash actually complimented her on something? That would be a first. “It’s Granny’s recipe, thanks. But about our staying—I just want you to know that Todd and I are not planning to live here with you and Miriam. We’re going to live above the theater while I fix it up.”

Dash stopped rocking and gave her one of his holier-than-thou looks. “Princess, I’ve been sitting out here trying to figure out how to explain to you that this plan of yours is not going to fly. Do you have the slightest notion of how much money it’s going to cost to ‘fix up’ The Kismet?”