Page 32 of His Wounded Heart

I take out my regular phone and text Trenda to say she could skip the store, since I was already here picking up the food. I get a thumbs up emoji in reply. I turn to go back in the store and I meet Roger with two more boxes in his arms. He can’t see over the top; he’s peeking around the side.

I pluck the top box out of his arms before it falls over. It’s light as air.

“What’s in here?” I ask.

“Stuff from our bakery. The stuff at the food pantry was stale. The last box is inside. It’s from the dairy department. Then you’re good to go. Zarek has a lot of produce and boxed goods coming.”

He stops short. “Did you buy Fred Sanderson’s truck?”

I nod, and we set the boxes in the back. He looks down then looks at me. He smiles and puts out his hand. I don’t know why, but I shake his hand anyway.

“What’s that for?” I ask.

“For getting rid of that atrocious set of balls that Fred had hanging from the back of his truck. I always shuddered when I saw that.”

“It wasn’t my style.”

“Thank God.” He pats me on the shoulder. “So is Zarek going up the mountain?”

“No, Bernie had asked me to do it while he was down with the gout, so I’ll do it. Trenda said she has the coordinates for everyone, so this shouldn’t be a problem.”

Roger looks up. “You don’t have much time; the storm is closing in fast.”

NOAA said I had at least twenty-four more hours, so I wasn’t worrying…much.

“Thanks again,” I say to Roger as I get into my truck. I head to the hardware store and I see all the propane tanks sitting on the sidewalk. As I get closer I see Dave leaning against the ‘Pick-up/Drop-Off Zone’ sign as I pull up.

“Let’s get them loaded,” he says as I turn off the truck’s engine.

After we’re done loading them I ask what I owe.

“Just get the empty tanks back, and we’re square.”

“That’s a bunch of bullshit,” I argue.

“I could just unload them all,” Dave says with a grin.

Bastard.

I grin back. I could learn to fucking love this town!

“If you’re going up the mountain in this coming storm, you’re going to need to load up with other gear. Do you have a chainsaw, shovel, winch? You know what I mean.”

“Bernie left me a chainsaw up at the cabin. It works fine. I’m not sure I saw a shovel, and yeah, this truck has a winch, but I need a heavy-duty tarp. Do you have one?”

“Sure. I can set you up with the tarp and the shovel,” Dave says.

I follow him into his store; this time he is going to take my money.

After I have everything paid for and battened down, I head to the fire station, which is easy enough to find since I pass it almost every single time I come to town. When I pull into their parking lot, Trenda pulls in behind me.

As soon as we both get out of our vehicles, she marches over to me and thrusts her fists on her hips. “You realize you’re an aggravating man, don’t you?”

“I’m happy to know that I’ve been downgraded to aggravating in the eyes of womankind. According to my ex-wife I was a hell of a lot worse than aggravating.”

Her lip twitches and I can see she’s holding back a laugh.

“So, tell me what she called you so I can use those terms to let you know what I think of your high-handedness of going to the store and packing up all those boxes and paying for them.”