Lonnie blew out a breath, sharing a sympathetic look with her. “He’s something else, huh? I mean, kinda badass on the one hand, but kinda just an ass on the other.”
Cassidy shrugged, trying to play it off. “Hopefully, he moves on quickly. But if someone rented out a cabin to him, I’m writing them a scathing letter.”
Lonnie gave her a strange look.
Cassidy paused in helping him unpack her basket. It was the second strange look she’d received in less than twenty minutes. “What?”
“You don’t know who he is?” Lonnie asked, his voice registering a high octave of disbelief.
“Mac Boyer,” she answered. She wasn’t a big sports fan, and she didn’t watch much television. If he was famous, she didn’t know it. He had the air of someone entitled. “Why? Who is he? Football player?”
Lonnie shook his head, scanning her items. “No. He’s your neighbor. Moved in about a week ago, I guess. He bought the broken-down shack.”
“That’s him?” She heard alarm bells in her head.
“Yeah. He and Marge already had a run-in, too, something about him breaking something in the bathroom. He’s not a real people person.”
“You don’t say,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, and he goes through beer and condoms like a mother of ten goes through a gallon of milk,” Lonnie said. He smiled sheepishly. “Kinda badass. Don’t know why he doesn’t just order the condoms online and get home delivery. He could order by the caseload.”
Cassidy gave the boy a disapproving look. “So he can show off for impressionable college-aged young men.”
Lonnie shrugged. “Dunno.” His tone made it clear he was reluctant to give up his hero-worship. He aimed his scanner at the beer.
Cassidy put out her hand. “No, I’m not taking that, after all.”
Lonnie shrugged and set it aside. “Cool. All of this on your account?”
“Yes, thanks, Lonnie.”
Lonnie paused, suggesting, “I don’t know what he was saying to you, but it didn’t look like you two were being very friendly to each other. Momma always said you attract bees with honey, so maybe you should bake him a casserole—welcome him to the lake.”
Cassidy returned his strange look. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”
“Maybe he needs a friend.”
Cassidy gathered up her items and grumbled back, “Then he can get a turtle.” Taking her bags, she exited through the back entrance where Silas would be waiting.
They were attentive, Silas and Marge. Marge had been the one to motor the expanse of the lake every day to check on Cassidyafterward. From one day to the next, the woman hadn’t known if she’d walk in on the bawling Cassidy, the catatonic, or the angry one. Cassidy would go days without moving from the sofa, without eating, drinking, or bathing. Marge had the uncomfortable task of hospitalizing her more than once for dehydration but never allowed the doctors to put her into psychiatric care.
Well… she’d called thelasthospital stay “dehydration,” but they all knew differently; they just didn’t talk about it.
Cassidy owed a lot to Silas and Marge. At the time, and for months after, she would have been happy to join her husband and child in the ever-after, but those two stubborn old people held onto her and refused to let her slip away. Them, and Fred, Elijah’s dog…theirdog, she corrected herself. They were the reasons she eventually bathed, ate, and dressed in something other than Elijah’s T-shirt; it was for them she put one foot in front of the other.
She remembered receiving the card from the vet prompting her to bring Fred in for his vaccinations. So she did. Something simple had kick-started her. Something mundane and ordinary had her existing again.
“Don’t look like you got much,” Silas fussed, noting her one bag.
“It’s enough,” Cassidy assured him. “By the way, speaking of the devil does conjure him.”
Silas gave her a wary look. With her history of depression and loss, he probably wasn’t sure where she was about to go with the comment.
“I ran into the newly landed lord himself inside,” Cassidy quipped.
Silas chortled. “He and Marge went head over ass a few days ago—couldn’t get it all straightened out, something about a broken sink in the bathroom—she got hot over his attitude. What d’you think?”
“Tell Marge I’m with the sisterhood.” Cassidy smiled. “Solidarity. Safety in numbers.”