Page 5 of Small Town Swoo
“Michigan.”
“Wherever.” She flipped a hand in the air, as if every town that wasn’t L.A. was all the same to her. “What’s it called again?”
“Cherry Tree Harbor.” I thought about the small town on the coast of Lake Michigan where I’d grown up. “I’m headed there in a couple weeks for my brother’s wedding. I guess I could go a little sooner.”
“That’s right! Which brother is getting married again? The single dad with the twins who fell in love with the nanny?”
I laughed. I had four siblings—three older brothers and one younger sister—and Izzie was forever trying to keep them straight. “No, that’s Austin.”
“The former Navy SEAL who opened the bar?” she guessed hopefully. “The one dating the country music star?”
“Nope, that’s Xander,” I told her. “Devlinis the brother getting married. He’s the middle sibling, the one who lived in Boston who swore he would never tie the knot and then eloped out of the blue last fall.”
“Oh, right!” Izzie thumped a hand on the steering wheel. “With the girl whose family owns the ski resort.”
“Yes. They renovated the place over the winter and decided to renew their vows there, so the families could attend.”
“And your younger sister is . . .”
“Mabel,” I said. “She’s in graduate school.”
“Virginia, right?”
“Right.” I glanced at her. “I’m impressed with your recall.”
“You talk about your family a lot. You must miss them.”
“I do,” I admitted.
“So gohome, Dash,” she said. “Take a month off from this grind. Reconnect to your childhood self. Take long walks in the woods. Meditate. Strip away all the protective layers—and I don’t mean just your clothes. Open up your heart, look to see what’s buried there, and let yourselffeelit. Better yet, let yourselfshowit.”
That last part didn’t sound like a ton of fun, but I hadn’t been home in over a year, and I did miss my family. We’d always been close. My mom had died when I was only six, and my dad raised all five of us on his own. He’d never remarried, and he’d recently sold Two Buckleys Home Improvement, the business he’d inherited from his father and had run for decades, first with his brother and then with my brother Austin. Without work to distract him, I worried about him being lonely now that all his kids were grown and gone. Maybe I’d show up at the house and surprise him. He’d like that.
“Okay,” I said, pulling out my phone to change my plane ticket. “But can you please see about getting me an audition for the Katherine Carroll film? I’ll fly back if I have to. Or I can send a video. Whateverthey want.”
“I might have to call in a favor, but yes. I think I can do it.”
“Thank you.” I opened up the airline app and switched my flight so that I was leaving this Saturday morning—in two days—and flying home a month later. I figured that was long enough to walk around naked and get reacquainted with my childhood self or whatever. I wasn’t convinced it would help, but on the off chance Delphine wasn’t totally batty, I’d make the effort. Sometimes those woo-woo people were right about stuff.
Funny how she resembled Ari DeLuca so closely.
I wondered what Ari was up to these days. I knew she’d gone to the Culinary Institute after high school and then moved to New York City, but recently Mabel had mentioned she was back in Cherry Tree Harbor working at her parents’ diner. Maybe I’d go see her.
Surely enough time had gone by that she’d gotten over the rejection. After all, it had been eight years.
She couldn’t still hold a grudge, could she?
TWO
ari
Moe’s Morning Skillet
Fried Chicken and Waffles
Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Baked French Toast w/ Maple Coffee Syrup
