Grace hesitated. It would’ve been her first lie and she could tell that, despite the way he shot the questions at her between taking bites of his food, he would call out any attempt at being less than honest.
“I know Maria’s brother. Lucas. He was a neighbor of mine. We were talking one day about small towns to settle down in and he told me about Hamlet. I was interested in moving—” true “—and he suggested I visit Hamlet, give Ophelia a try.”
Sly picked up his glass, took a swig of the orange juice. “Oh? Lucas, huh? How is the doc doing?”
There was something about his conversational tone. Grace couldn’t describe what, though. Only that it made her a little uneasy. And she totally understood Lucas’s worry that too many people back in his hometown would be curious over what he was doing now that he left.
“He’s good,” she said simply. If Maria wanted to elaborate, she could go ahead. That was as much as Grace wanted to get involved.
Maria draped her arm around his shoulder, reaching around Sly to add another stack of toast to his plate. “He’s happy, tesoro. That’s all I can ask for.”
Thank goodness for Maria’s mild rebuke. Sly let the questions go after that. He finished his breakfast, kissed Maria goodbye, and headed off to the station. Once he was gone, Maria turned to Grace and tried to explain.
“So that’s Sly. He’s a Marine, retired, and he’s very proud of being our sheriff. He takes our safety seriously.”
“I see that.”
“Still, I should’ve warned you. Colpa mia. After all the buzzes, from Phil and Erlinda, then Guy Larrabee who’s down by Bonnie Mitchell’s inn… if he didn’t ask a couple of questions, I’d be worried. You’ll be fine now. He likes you.”
Grace wasn’t so sure about that. There was a kindness to Sly that seemed very much conditional. As long as she respected Ophelia—respected Maria—they would get on just fine. From what she gathered, there had to be a reason why outsiders were treated like criminals. Innocent until proven guilty? Not for this sheriff.
It didn’t really bother her. If she was being honest with herself, she liked how hesitant the locals were to invite, or even accept, an outsider into their town. But she had to ask, because she still didn’t know—
“Buzzes? What do you mean?”
“Oh. Right. It’s so easy to forget that we do things our own way. Okay, so I said something about radios last night? Yes?”
A couple of people had. The cop she met. Sly. Maria, too. Grace had had the image of a 1980’s boombox in her head since the cop first mentioned one. She was betting that was wrong.
She nodded.
Maria drew a rectangle in the air with her fingers. “It’s about this big, usually black. Tessa used to call it my walkie talkie. I guess she’s right. It’s how we communicate in town since there’s no cell service. Depending on the settings, you can hear someone’s voice or a buzz.”
“Like when a phone rings.”
“Si. That’s what we mean when we say buzzes ‘cause, well, that’s what it sounds like. Everyone in town uses their radios to keep in touch.”
That made sense. She remembered seeing something like that tucked on the deputy’s belt. The sheriff’s, too. Of course, the Hamlet Sheriff Department would carry radios like that. She just thought they were part of their uniforms.
But then she began noticing them every time she left Ophelia.
She was careful not to go anywhere close to the town’s exit. But that didn’t mean she was going to sequester herself in the Sunflower Room. Even when she was in the city, or in Dayton, she refused to allow Tommy to turn her into a hermit. So she was careful not to leave the safety of the hidden town, while she went out and explored what Hamlet had to offer.
It, uh, wasn’t much.
By the time she was midway through her second week in town, Grace was starting to get antsy. Still no sign of Tommy, which was great. Amazing. Thanks to Ophelia’s security, she slept well at night. Maria kept her fed; she was sure she already put on at least five pounds and, considering how her stress had affected her appetite these last few months, she knew she could stand to put on a good ten more. Her hair stopped falling out as much. She was feeling good.
But she was also feeling bored.
Following Maria’s suggestion, she spent an entire afternoon at Isabella’s Beauty Boutique and got her hair done. It had been so long since she did something just because she wanted to. A trim and a style gave her deep brown hair some life. The manicure was gorgeous. And, after the women in the shop stared at her until she introduced herself, she met some of the locals.
Of course, like she had done with Sly, she kept most of the details about herself under wraps. It was a defense mechanism and she hated that she had to do it. Since she didn’t want to have to go through that again, she stayed inside the bed and breakfast.
She read. A lot.
And she thought about what she could do to kill some time. Maria was wonderful, and she spent hours with her in the evening as they shared supper, but Grace needed something to occupy herself when Maria was busy with her art or with Sly. Maria was a sweetheart, but she didn’t sign up to be Grace’s entertainment.
So, when she had nothing better to do, she danced. If the weather was nice, and sometimes even on the afternoons when it rained, Grace would put on her headphones and dance for hours in the peacefulness of Ophelia’s backyard.