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“Faith is not pleased with me, it’s fair to say. But after the phone call, I was prepared for that.”
“I heard about the phone call.”
“She let me have it,” Ryan said.
“She’s a firecracker, that sister of mine.” Noah smiled. “Gotta love that about her.”
Ryan didn’t touch that comment.
“So, thirteen years. Why so long without a visit?” Noah asked.
“Eleven,” Ryan corrected, looking at a sign beside some muffins under a fancy-looking cover. “What the hell is a mystery muffin?”
“You guess the ingredients, you get a free muffin and coffee.”
“You’re messing with me?”
“All true, bud,” Buster said, returning. “So the fifteen years you’ve been gone. Why so long?” he asked, clearly having overheard Noah ask the same thing.
“Eleven.”
“Because he’s a useless human,” a voice said from behind him. “And I want one of those coffees while you’re making it, and as I’m a local serving the medical needs of Lake Howling, I get the first mug.”
Jake McBride and a young girl were walking to the counter. His daughter, Rose. Ryan pulled that from his memory. His mother was old-school and wrote him long letters filling him on the goings-on in Lake Howling, and Hope usually emailed him with them, a softer, more gossipy version. He was fairly up on the state of play.
Like the others, Jake had aged, but the gray at his temples and few lines worked. He’d been a doctor in the US Army Corps, and now ran the local medical center with his mother.
“I’m a local. Born here, remember? McBride. You got uglier, if that’s possible.” He greeted his old friend as he had the others and then dropped to his haunches. “Hey there, beautiful. You must be Rose. I heard everything about you from my sister, Hope.”
She wore a jacket with some kind of pink-haired princess on the front and small pink boots. She had a sweet face, wide brown eyes, and a big smile.
Jake groaned.
“Seriously, bud, she is worshipped by about ten uncles and equally as many aunts; could you maybe throw out an insult or two?”
“Don’t mind Daddy, he’s old, and grouchy, Mommy says.” Rose had a lisp that elevated her cuteness. “I saw you on TV the other day, and Daddy told me you used to sing with my mommy and Aunty Annabelle at school sometimes.”
“I did. We were the best school band for miles.” So, someone here had seen him on TV.
“Mommy said that. Do you singFrozensongs?”
“You an Elsa fan?”
“Yes, but I like Olaf too.”
“Who wouldn’t? He’s kinda cool, right?” Ryan broke into a rendition of “Let It Go.” He knew it from memory, as one of his band members had a daughter who listened to it at least three times a day. That stuff was such an earworm. Rose joined him, and they belted it out together.
When he was done, Rose clapped and squealed, then threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He hugged her back. Ryan had always loved the innocence of kids. They rarely judged you for your sins.
“But I still sing it better, right?”
Rose took her arms from around his neck and ran at her daddy. “Way better, Daddy!”
“Well, that put you in your place,” a voice said.
He looked to the door and saw Faith. She gave him a blank look before looking at Rose, and everything changed.
She softened, and it reached all corners of her face and nearly had as much impact on him as her naked body had. Nearly. “Hey there, baby girl. Come and give Aunty Faith a big smooch.”
