AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he didn’t come over last night, she thought he was busy. That he was at work. That he had other plans. Then she peeked out of her window, saw that he was already settled in at home, and she wondered if maybe he’d finally gotten sick of her.
Well, only one way to find out.
She woke up the next morning eager to flag down Franklin before he left for work. Most of the earlier storm had either melted away or added to the solid sheet of ice that made up the surrounding area near their cabins. She had no doubt that he’d be heading down the mountain path—and she was right. Too bad he was already gone before she woke up.
That was okay. Gloria was used to it. After taking a couple of hours to create, make, then set an ice cream specifically to thank Franklin—and possibly say sorry for whatever sent him running—she climbed in her car, silently thanked him again for the snow tires, then drove into town.
She was surprised to see that Franklin’s Garage was open, though there was no sign of the big, blue pick-up truck out front. She wondered if he had brought his car inside of the garage.
Nope.
When she walked through the door, she heard a familiar male voice, but that wasn’t Franklin talking.
She’d know his voice anywhere.
Bailey was sitting high on the counter, her legs crossed, dangling, her radio brought up to her lips as she talked to someone on the other side of the line. She was laughing at whatever he had just said.
As soon as Gloria walked in, Bailey jumped down from the counter, bright eyes narrowed on the ice cream container.
“Hey. Listen. I’ll talk to you later. Bye,” she said quickly, switching the radio off before setting it on the counter behind her. Hands empty, she waggled them at Gloria, gesturing at the ice cream container. “Oooh… is that for me? Gimme.”
Gloria laughed, handing the container over. “Well, I had brought it for your brother...”
“Frank’s not here, but I’m sure he won’t mind if I just have a bite or two.”
In her experience with some of the Hamlet teens she’d already scooped for, a bite or two inevitably turne
d into the whole container. If Franklin got even a bite or two of his own from the serving, she’d be surprised.
Gloria waited for Bailey to take the container over to the fridge in the far corner of the office, jamming the ice cream into the icy freezer, before she asked her, “Where is he?”
“He was working on some fancy project in the back earlier, but he’s gone now. He won’t tell me what it’s about, but I know he had to head out of town to get some materials he needed for it. I was already at the garage so I opened up, but I’m not expecting him back anytime soon.”
“Wow. Whatever he’s working on, it must be important for him to skip work.” Especially since, after the snow—and Gloria’s injury—had kept him trapped on the mountain all those days earlier in the week. She had thought for sure she’d find him at the garage, one way or another.
“Oh, yeah,” agreed Bailey. “He’s been spending days on it so far, all secretly in his workshop. I’m dying to get a peek at it, but he keeps it locked. Eh. One day he’ll forget and then I’ll figure it out. I just gotta wait.”
Gloria always wondered what it was that Franklin did in his garage all day. There were only so many cars in Hamlet, and it wasn’t like they were breaking down constantly. There had to be some days where Franklin didn’t have anything to do, right?
Wrong.
Thanks to asking the right questions of some of the Hamlet gossips—starting with Bailey, though Addy seemed to have an ear turned in every direction—she learned that while Franklin was the town’s only mechanic, that wasn’t all he did down at his garage.
He not only knew how to blow glass, which amazed Gloria, but those big, strong hands of his were able to do all kinds of metalwork, from helping the townspeople repair jewelry to creating metals bowls.
She was still trying to figure out how to slip that into a conversation. While Gloria was hesitant to let her neighbor discover she was asking questions about it, the ice cream connoisseur was dying to ask him to make her a new freezer bowl.
Not today, though. Not while Franklin was out of town.
Might as well take a few minutes to chat with Bailey since she had made the trip down the mountain. Nodding over at the radio Bailey left on the counter, she asked, “Was that Ethan on the communicator? When I came in, I mean.”
“On my— you mean my radio? Um. Well, yeah.” The teen looked embarrassed, but she looked pleased, too. “I guess it was.”
“I thought I recognized the voice. He’s a friend of yours, right?”
Twin spots of color rose high on her cheeks. “A friend. Maybe more. It’s new.”
“That’s so nice. You guys would make a cute couple and he seems like a good kid. I like him.”
