Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Or you’re making up another fantasy in your head, like the one you held on to all these years about this town being some mythical place where everyone walks around smiling.”
“Today I went to a party thrown in my honor at the house of a woman who was a complete stranger a week ago. Everyone smiled and had a great time. I think you’re the one who makes up things in his head. Why don’t you want this place to be as great as it is?”
Fox raised his beer to his lips. “High expectations usually lead to disappointment.”
“Jeez. You’re a bag of positivity. Maybe you could print that slogan on the nametags kindergarteners wear on the first day of school. That would shut down all optimism from the get go.”
His lip twitched. “Cute.”
“I am, aren’t I?”
He chuckled softly. “So what interesting characters did you meet at Bernadette Macon’s today?”
“It might be quicker to ask what boring people I met. This town has a cast of characters. But let’s see…I met Tommy Miller. He was my dad’s best friend growing up. Do you know him?”
“Flaming red hair and a laugh that sounds like it’s coming through a megaphone? He’s kind of hard to miss.”
“Yup. Then there was Ronnie Tremmel. He and my dad were in marching band together.”
“The over-describer. He owns the paint shop in town. I hate going in there. I ask him for a few green paint samples, and he spends ten minutes telling me about the color of moss.”
I laughed. “Oh my God. He does do that. He spent fifteen minutes describing the band uniform they used to wear—the colors, the lapel, even the shoes. And then he told me about a dish he makes, and he literally described the bubbles in the simmer. What about Georgina Mumford?”
“The waddle. She’s going to end up being Georgina Zimmerman.”
I couldn’t stop laughing. “God, this really is a small town.”
“What about your mom? Did you meet some of her friends?”
I shook my head. “No. Tommy Miller, my dad’s best friend, met her once when she came down on a break from school with my dad. A couple of other people said they knew her younger brother. But I didn’t get the feeling he was too popular. Their faces sort of changed when I said his name.”
“What’s your uncle’s name?”
“Ray. Ray Langone.”
Fox’s face did the same thing everyone else’s had done today. It was almost a wince, but people around here were too polite and covered it up. I pointed to his jaw. “That. That’s what they did.”
“Sorry.”
“My mom never mentioned her family, but my dad let it slip once that Ray was a bad gambler. Apparently he called on occasion over the years to hit them up for money.”
Fox nodded. “He’s a gambler alright. Drinker and a con man, too. Did some time for taking money from people for down payments on car insurance policies.”
“Did he not turn over the funds to the insurer?”
“Wasn’t even an insurance agent. Just went door to door and got some older folks a few towns over to fall for his crap.”
“Oh.”
“As far as I know, he’s kept out of trouble since he got out. Lives over on the north side.”
“Wait…Ray Langone is alive?”
Fox’s forehead wrinkled. “Was when I saw him a week ago. Something happen?”
“Well, my mom told me he was dead. A few years back, I’d been thinking about coming down to visit Laurel Lake. I asked my mother who lived here still from her side, and she said no one, that her brother had died from alcoholism.”
“Saw him stumbling out of the Crow’s Nest last weekend.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Sadly, I’m not even that shocked my mother would say something like that when it’s not true.”
“How long did your mom live down here?”
“She didn’t. Her family moved from Charlotte during her second year of college. Ray is ten years younger. They share the same mother but have different fathers. My mom was already living at Yale up in Connecticut when her mom and brother came to live in Laurel Lake. My parents actually met on a plane, flying home for Christmas break from school. They realized they went to the same school and were both going home to the same small town. The funny thing is, that was the last time my mom was ever in Laurel Lake. She didn’t like it here. She didn’t get along with her mother and hated that they’d moved again. Apparently, they struggled financially and got evicted a lot. They’d lived in a dozen places over the years. It’s why we never made it back to visit before my dad died, even though he always wanted to. Something would always come up for my mom.”
Fox sipped his beer, watching me over the bottle as he drank.