Tanner rolled his eyes. “I’ll take it,” he said, grabbing the handle. “I’d hate for you to hurt those pretty hands of yours. They must be insured for a million dollars.”
“Two, actually.” Gray shrugged, remembering his own outrage when he’d first discovered that fact.
Tanner reached for the guitar case, but Gray got there first. “I’ll bring this one,” he said, gently lifting the strap over his shoulder. As he followed his aunt inside, the smell of butter cookies filled his nose, making his mouth water.
He was home. Whatever that meant. Maybe a few weeks here wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Chapter Two
In spring and summer, Friday evenings meant Chairs, the strange name the good folk of Hartson’s Creek gave their weekly gatherings. They’d all congregate in the front yards alongside the creek, bringing jugs of sweet tea and the odd bottle of something stronger, along with their own chairs that gave the gathering its name.
Chairs had been a part of Maddie Clark’s life in Hartson’s Creek for as long as she could remember. As a child, she’d run around playing games while the adults talked, reveling at the freedom of being able to mess around until dark without being sent to bed. Then as a teenager, when she’d do anything to avoid having to go and listen to boring grown up talk. The kind of small minded gossip that made her grateful to be offered a scholarship place at The Ansell School of Performing Arts in New York to study for her Bachelors in Music.
And yeah, she had no doubt that she was the subject of a lot of petty gossip when she came home less than a year later, and unwilling to tell anybody why. Not that anybody said a word to her. Not when she was waitressing at the diner, nor when she was teaching piano to the younger kids in town.
Still, her mom enjoyed being able to catch up with her friends and neighbors, and find out what was going on around town. For her mom, Maddie grinned and bared it, pushing her mom across the road in her wheelchair. She had an old, fold up chair for herself, the legs looped over her shoulders to carry it. A small cooler filled with sweet tea and snickerdoodles rested in her mom’s lap.
“There are a lot of people here tonight,” Maddie remarked as they reached the creek. “Must be the weather.” It was her favorite time of year. Spring and summer were battling it out for dominance, the result already a foregone conclusion. The cold and snow of winter was just a memory, made more hazy by the warmth in the air and the smell of corn in the breeze.
She wheeled her mom over to where her friends had set themselves up, next to the refreshment table, where she unpacked the food they’d brought before pouring her mom a glass to drink from. Then she carried her own chair over to where the younger crowd was gathered. Women she knew from when they were at school gossiped about their husbands and called out to their children to calm down when their voices got too loud. The husbands were standing by the creek, drinking from brown beer bottles and laughing, ignoring everything around them as they dissected that week’s football game.
“Did you hear the news?” Jessica Martin called out before Maddie could open her chair and place it on the grass.
“No.” Maddie smiled politely. Jessica had been in the same grade as Maddie’s sister, Ashleigh. They’d been cheerleaders together for as long as Maddie could remember, though she’d been six years younger than them both.
“You want to guess?” Jessica asked, rubbing her hands together. “Oh, you’ll never guess.”
“There’s been an outbreak of chlamydia among the over fifties?”
Maddie bit down a grin at Laura Bayley’s deep voice.
“No. Ewww. Of course not.” Jessica wrinkled her nose. Then she looked at Laura. “That’s not true, is it?”
Laura shrugged. “Nothing would surprise me around here.”
Shaking her head, Jessica turned back to Maddie. “Have you heard from Ashleigh lately?”
“She lives in the next town,” Laura pointed out. “It’s not exactly Antarctica.”
Maddie shot Laura a look of gratitude. Though Laura was a few years older than Maddie, they’d been friends since Laura had opened up her dress shop next to the diner where Maddie worked. Her favorite part of the day was when Laura came in for her morning coffee. “She came over with her kids last week,” Maddie told them.
“And did she say anything?” Jessica asked, leaning forward, her blonde hair falling over her face.
Maddie blinked. “Like what?” She could feel her stomach tighten. Was there something wrong with Ashleigh? Or even worse, Grace or Carter? Maddie loved her niece and nephew like they were her own.
Jessica sat back in her chair. “I guess she doesn’t know then.”
“Know what?” Maddie asked, trying not to sound exasperated.
“That Jessica’s the typhoid Mary of the chlamydia outbreak,” Laura whispered from the corner of her mouth. Maddie laughed, in spite of herself.
“That Gray Hartson’s back.” Jessica gave Laura a smug smile. “I guess I’m the only one who knows anything around here.”
Maddie felt herself freeze, in spite of the warm air surrounding her. “Gray Hartson?” she repeated, ignoring the strange drumming in her ears.
“Yep. Carrie Daws told me. The one who works at the grocery store. According to her, he arrived in a black Rolls Royce.” Jessica folded her arms across her chest. “I guess that’s how the rich and famous travel when they’re visiting their hometown.”
“Is that why Becca isn’t here tonight?” the woman sitting next to Jessica asked. “I was wondering about that.”