“Mm-hmm.”
“What’s that mean?”
Maria pursed her lips, her mug rattling against the tabletop as she placed it down. “Hamlet is a small town. Real small. I mean, it’s so small that Hamlet’s not even the name—it doesn’t have a name. Do you know what a hamlet is?”
Tess had no idea where Maria was going with this. Because she liked Lucas’s sister, she decided to play along. She thought about it. The most she could say she knew about Hamlet was that it was a Shakespeare play she never had to read.
Was it the one with the whole “To be or not to be?” speech? Maybe. Probably not what Maria meant, though.
She shook her head.
“A hamlet is another name for a small village. Perfect for us, right? For years, we were the no-name hamlet where the local kooks chose to build their homes between the rocky ridge of the mountains and a deep valley. We have n
o reliable phones. Internet works sometimes, not always. Some of the houses on the gulleyside of town have televisions but it wasn’t worth it to lay cable all over so that’s hit or miss. And, yet, we stay. In a good year, there’s maybe two hundred of us. I see you, bellisima, so lost, so confused. Do you know why I tell you this?”
Tess reached for her hot chocolate, took a tentative sip. Still warm, but cool enough to drink. After she took another gulp, she met Maria’s friendly smile. And she understood. “It’s like you told me before. Small town, everyone knows your business. But it also means you know about them.” When Maria nodded behind her mug, Tess guessed, “You know something about the deputy.”
“I’m not a gossip, Tess, but I watch. My brother, he always says to me, ‘Maria, keep your nose in your own home’ and I try. Except you’re in my home now. While you stay in Ophelia, I'll watch out for you. You’ve only been here for a handful of days. How well do you know Mason Walsh?”
It wasn’t hard to be honest. “Not well at all. He pulled me over when I had a little too much to drink, and he made me spend the night in the holding cells. That was supposed to be it. But then… with Jack…” Tess gave a helpless shrug before grabbing her mug if only to have something to do with her hands. “I’m not a complete moron and, hell, he hasn’t been exactly subtle. I know he’s attracted to me, but I can’t figure out why he turned like that. He was so sweet before and now… it’s like he’s changed. He’s so…” She couldn’t find the word.
“Intense?” Maria suggested.
That was it. “Yes!”
Maria nodded, her long dark hair spilling over her chest as she leaned in conspiratorially, both elbows on the kitchen table. “Oh, yes, Mason can be very intense at times. Ever since he was a kid. We went to school together and, I remember, when we were in elementary school…” She let out a sharp whistle. “You never wanted to get between baby Mase and his pudding cup.”
Tess appreciated Maria’s attempt at lightening the mood. It didn’t necessarily work—talking about the deputy just brought back how unsettled his confrontation made her—but she appreciated it anyway.
Maria could tell her light-hearted tone wasn’t helping. She ditched it in favor of being real with her guest. She kept her voice soft, almost hypnotic as she coaxed Tessa’s attention on what she was saying rather than the slap of her cocoa against the mug as she swirled it.
“I don’t think it’s so much that he’s attracted you. With Mase, it’s never that simple. I think he’s convinced himself that you’re the one for him.”
“I barely know him—”
“Doesn’t matter, sweetie. Trust me. I haven’t seen him so far gone over a girl since Lindalee Murphy.”
“Have I met her?” Tess asked.
Who knows? She’d been hidden away in the bed and breakfast since Sunday so she knew it wouldn’t have been in the last few days. The morning she discovered Jack’s body was still mainly a blur; as a defense mechanism to keep her from breaking down, she approved of the curtain in her mind, though it made moments like these awkward. She could’ve stumbled into Bigfoot and she wouldn’t have remembered that.
“Oh, no. At least, not in Hamlet. Lindalee was an outsider—”
“Like me,” she interrupted.
“Yes, like you, only she moved with her family here when me and Mase were taking high school classes. I guess you could call them sweethearts. They dated for, oh, close to two years, but I was there the day they met. Mason claimed her as his girl from day one. She never stood a chance. They were inseparable.”
Were. A pit formed in her stomach. The idea of drinking any more cocoa made her sick. She placed the mug down, nudged it away from her. Don’t ask, she ordered herself. Something told her she didn’t want to know.
Don’t ask. Don’t do it. Don’t—
She had to. The words blurted out: “What happened to her?”
“Don’t know. After graduation, she told him she couldn’t do it anymore. She left Hamlet to go to college and, well, she never came back.”
“Never came back,” Tess echoed, her tone curiously flat. Yup, she admitted, definitely shouldn’t have asked.
Maria’s big blue eyes widened. “I didn’t mean it like that. Sometimes people actually make it out of Hamlet,” she explained. “I mean, I won’t, no. She must have.” A pause. “He might be intense and all, but Mase is totally harmless.”