Tessa and Bree took seats on the oversized sofa along the wall and Viv prepared their drinks. In the back of her mind, she wondered who Bree belonged to. Tessa had introduced the girl as her niece but she was an only child. Her husband’s sister Amy had twin girls named Peyton and Paige but his brother Eric and other sister Nikki didn’t have kids, so she was at a loss.
This was Hope Falls, though, so she doubted she’d be in the dark for long. Viv was confident she’d know who the adorable Bree’s parents were by close of business.
She brought over the drinks, and noticed the two were whispering conspiratorially.
“Hey, no secrets,” Viv teased.
Tessa grinned down at the little girl. “Do you want to tell her?”
Viv smiled. “Tell me what?”
“She thinks you look like someone,” Tessa explained.
Viv knew what was coming. She got told she looked like a real-life version of Jessica Rabbit at least a few times a week. Sometimes from adults, sometimes from kids. Viv took it as a compliment whenever she heard it. Who wouldn’t want to look like the cartoon vixen?
Plus, Jessica Rabbit had one of the best lines in cinema history. “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”
I mean, come on. That is one-liner gold.
“Who do I look like?” Viv asked as she leaned over and dropped the drinks on the coffee table.
The girl had stars in her eyes as she said, “Giselle.”
“That’s a new one.” Viv’s eyes widened as she straightened back up. “Who is Giselle?”
“She’s from Enchanted,” Tessa explained. “Amy Adams played her.”
“Oh, right.” Viv remembered seeing the trailer for that movie. It had Mc Dreamy aka Derek Shepherd from Grey’s Anatomy aka Patrick Dempsey in it.
She’d never seen the film, but she did remember that Amy Adams was a cartoon princess that fell into a well and became a real-life person. Sort of like Pinocchio, she guessed. Amy had long red hair in the movie, so Viv assumed that was what Bree was seeing as a similarity.
Bree whispered something to Tessa who nodded at the girl then looked up at Viv. “Could you watch my camera, I’m gonna run her to the bathroom.”
“I’m on it.” Viv agreed.
The two women rushed around the corner, apparently, it was a bathroom emergency. Viv felt a little tug at her maternal strings.
One day, she promised herself. One day she’d be the one running someone to the bathroom. One day she’d meet her very own Mc Dreamy and she would get her happily ever after. Or at least, that’s what she was going to keep telling herself.
* * *
“Thanks for the opportunity.”Glenn shook Lucky’s hand as they walked out of the gym.
“Are you kidding me, man? Thank you!” Lucky slapped his hand on Glenn’s shoulder. “Glenn ‘The Gladiator’ Maguire! You’re a legend!”
Glenn didn’t feel like a legend. He would put himself in the washed-up category. His days of battling in the ring were behind him, but like the saying goes, those that can’t, teach. And since he was in his mid-thirties, his days of taping up his gloves were behind him. Even though he did have a nagging voice in his head that said differently. But he chose to ignore that voice.
Lucky headed back inside the gym and Glenn started walking across the street. His cousin-in-law Tessa, who had been at the fire station visiting Jake when they pulled up, had offered to take Bree to the coffee shop he’d seen so that he could take the tour of the facility, which Bree had not been interested in doing. As he made his way to Brewed Awakenings he glanced around at his surroundings.
There was no traffic at all on the road. The auto shop was closed, and it wasn’t even 5:00 p.m. on a weekday. There were a few firefighters milling around outside of the station but that was it. He could hear birds chirping, the breeze blowing, and the distant sound of rushing water from the river.
He’d never considered himself a small-town guy. He’d grown up in the southside of Chicago and had always thrived on the energy of a big city. Whenever he visited Hope Falls, he had to admit he’d enjoyed the slower pace, but that had only been for a few days at a time.
This was going to be for three months. He wondered if he was going to be like Bree on the road trip, bored out of his mind. He had his crazy family to keep him occupied, so there was that. But there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment or night life.
Who was he kidding? The most night life he had was staying up after Bree was asleep to watch Game of Thrones or some other equally adult programming that he couldn’t have on when she was awake. And when she was with her mom overnight, he usually just caught up on laundry or home repairs or something equally as mundane.
When he was growing up, he remembered his mom used to tease his dad whenever he didn’t want to do something because they would be “out too late” or when he did yard work instead of playing in the sprinklers with his kids, she’d call him a fuddy-duddy. Glenn wasn’t even sure exactly what that name meant, but he was pretty certain that’s what he’d become.