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I continue to make my way through the damage, writing down the pieces that have been destroyed in one column and anything that’s missing in the second. So far, they’re all just in the destroyed one. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad about that fact.
Teller and Sutton are going through and picking up the display case glass and I sidestep them as I make my way farther down the aisle. Madelyn, Flynn, and Lyla are working on sweeping up the pieces of the damaged items that I’ve already accounted for. Arlo and Hudson seem to be trying to fix the cash register up front and I wonder if I’m going to have to get a new one. The drawer looked pretty bent last night.
We work in mostly silence. I think that everyone is lost in thought. Maybe they can just feel my sadness in the air and they don’t know how to make it better.
I don’t look up from the display cases. I just want to get this done as fast as I can. Maybe if I get it all cleaned up this awful feeling in my stomach will go away.
I barely notice when Teller’s phone goes off. It’s Stan and I listen to them talk for a moment before he hangs up.
“We need to get back to work,” he tells Sutton and Lyla apologetically. “A big tour bus just pulled up.”
“Thanks for all of your help,” I tell them honestly.
They all hug me again before they file out the door. I’m sure that they’ll be back after closing or maybe on their lunch break and I try to make a mental note to buy everyone some lunch or dinner. Hell, maybe both after all of the help that they’ve been.
“I need to run to the restaurant for a delivery too, but I’ll be back in about an hour, hour and a half,” Hudson tells me and I nod.
“Thanks for your help,” I tell him and he gives me a quick wave before he heads down the street toward his restaurant, Prim + Proper.
“I think that I can hammer this drawer back into shape,” Flynn says as he takes a look at the cash register. “Do you have any tools here?”
“No,” I say, wondering if there’re any tools at the market or back at my place that I could run and grab.
“No worries. I’ll go grab one from Teller and be right back,” he says with an easy smile.
“Madelyn!” Cassie, one of the cashiers at the Destiny Falls Market calls a few feet away from the front doors and Madelyn sighs as she heads to see what she needs.
“I’ll be right back!” She promises and I smile and go back to writing in my notebook.
I’m trying to ignore the fact that it’s just Arlo and me now. I never know what to say to him and that’s why I try to make sure that I’m never alone with him, so I don’t have to try and scramble for something to say.
“I’m surprised that you’re awake so early after last night,” I comment, my voice still coming out a little hoarse.
My throat hurts from crying so much last night and holding back more tears this morning. Arlo doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does, he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he gives me a smile as he bends down to sweep up some glass.
He looks tired. His hair is still a little wet from a shower and his clothes are fresh, but I can see the drag smudges under his eyes and the weary set of his mouth.
“I knew that you would be here bright and early and I wanted to help. Looks like I wasn’t the only one,” he says, nodding to where my friends just left.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell him and he shrugs.
“I wanted to. I’ve always liked your store.”
“You have?” I ask, looking at him in shock.
He just gives me an easy grin.
“Yeah, I have. History was always my favorite subject in school.”
“Mine too,” I say, smiling down at my shoes.
“It’s cool that you get to be surrounded by it all day.”
His words are meant to be a compliment but they hit hard. All I can hear is my grandma telling me that I’m living too much in the past and that I need to enjoy the present.
“You don’t think that I’m living too much in the past?” I blurt out.
I wish that I hadn’t said anything because now Arlo is looking at me like he just got a big piece of a puzzle that he was working on. It makes me nervous and I clear my throat and go back to sorting through the broken pieces.
