“You’ve been gone a while, Candy Cane. And Joanie, well, she’s never been good with change.”
“I know.”
“What you got there?” Brady asked, taking a step closer to the desk.
“Just a yearbook.” Then I stood and indicated the open box full of his stuff. “I found some of your crap while I was cleaning up. You want it?”
He was already poking at the contents.
While Brady was occupied, I slid his yearbook into my bag beneath the desk so I could thumb through it again later.
“Mom was pretty eager to get her craft room situated,” my brother said. “She packed everything up for me. I guess I must have missed this box.”
Brady had gone to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He spent four years there and then came back home with a degree in public relations. He’d been content to live with our parents for a while. I had the vague sense he’d moved out when he’d been twenty-four or twenty-five, but since I hadn’t been back to Kirby Falls, I’d never been to his home.
“Can I see your place sometime?” I blurted.
“Yeah, sure,” he replied without even glancing up from the box he was digging through.
Maybe I was quiet for too long, thinking about what a terrible sister I was, because his eyes cut my way.
“You really want to see my apartment downtown?”
I nodded quickly. “I want to see where you live.” He looked mildly alarmed, so I added, “So I can judge it and you accordingly. And offer my expert decorating advice for your bro pad.”
Brady snorted, then returned his attention to his old things. “You can come over whenever you want, buttface.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was grateful I had at least one sibling who wanted me around.
I blamed nostalgia, weather, and my sweet tooth for making me pull into the parking lot of the long-closed Sears department store.
The tiny hut that housed Bev’s Sno-Kones still sat at the back of the faded asphalt lot. The building was worn with faded cream paint on the outside and a dark V-shaped roof over the top. There was a large cooler behind the building as well as two trash cans. A window on the left side served as a drive-through for Kirby Falls’ residents while the window on the opposite side of the small building was for walk-up customers.
The lines weren’t too long today, just a handful of people standing single file on the right and three cars waiting in the drive-through lane.
I parked my mother’s Volkswagen Passat and hopped out, squinting to see the signage on the outside of the building as I approached.
Judging by the hours listed, Bev’s Sno-Kones still opened and closed whenever they felt like it. On hot summer days, you could usually count on lines wrapping around the building, but if it rained, they typically closed up shop. But most afternoons in May through September, you could swing by and get a snow cone or lemonade or soda poured over delicately shaved ice.
I had memories of Mom and Dad bringing me and my siblings by for a treat, usually early on in the summer, before the farm opened up for apple picking. We’d spend a Saturday swimming in Lake Archer and then drive back to Kirby Falls and wait, still wrapped in beach towels, at the order window with sunburned cheeks. I always got the bubble gum flavor.
Something new I noticed was a converted van parked off to the side and out of the way. It looked like Bev’s now offered shaved ice on the go. Catering and party rentals were available, or so the side of the van proclaimed. I made a mental note to add it to my notebook when I returned to the car as something to check into.
There were no welcoming picnic tables for you to stay and enjoy your purchase. No umbrellas to shield you from the punishing heat. Nope. Bev wanted you to take your shaved ice and be on your way. Loitering typically got you some side-eye from behind the order window.
Now though, I didn’t recognize any of the workers who were slinging sugar syrup. It just looked like two teenagers in there.
I was standing in line on the hot pavement, scanning the board listing all theflavors when I heard an obscenely Southern voice from behind me. “Candy Judd, as I live and breathe! How are you doing, honey?”
Turning, I found Vera Sterling, Kirby Falls’ biggest gossip and busybody, approaching from the parking lot. She skipped right over the two people in line behind me and came to stand at my side. I gave the preteen boy and pretty blond woman apologetic smiles before Ms. Sterling threw her arms around me for a hug.
“Hello, Ms. Sterling,” I mumbled against her shoulder, resisting the urge to tell her it wasCandacenow.
She pulled back and beamed. “Well, it is just so good to see you!”
I nearly winced as her clutching hands gripped my shoulders so she could get a good look at me. I could only imagine what she was seeing.
I hadn’t thought too much about my appearance when I’d run out of spray cleaner and needed to make a quick trip to the store. Despite the fans my dad had dropped by the office, it was still pretty hot in there.
