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I drove in silence to the body shop, and just as we pulled in, she seemed to snap awake, blinking a few times and looking around before realizing what was going on.
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I must have been more tired than I thought.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
As soon as we were in, she ducked into the restroom, and when she came out, she looked like she had wiped off most of the makeup and tried to put herself together. There was still a bit of eyeshadow around her eyes that made them stand out, but otherwise, all I could think was how great she looked even without the makeup on. She had her arms pulled across her chest and was shivering, and I went out to the car and pulled out an old flannel I kept in there at all times. I offered it to her, and she took it, thanking me repeatedly and wrapping up tight in it.
It didn’t take long before the car came into the lot on the tow truck. Marvin himself had been driving it, and as he got out and made his way back into the building, I could tell it wasn’t going to be good news.
“Sorry, miss,” he said. “It’s late in the afternoon, and with my help leaving early due to the storm, I have a full plate for today. I’ll get to it first thing in the morning, though.”
Allison looked deflated, and I stepped up next to her.
“Do you need a ride somewhere else?” I asked.
“I can’t ask you to do that,” she said. “You’ve been so nice to me already.”
“It’s seriously not a problem,” I said. “Besides, I can’t just leave you sitting here in the shop.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m sure there’s a rideshare service I could call.”
“Not in Murdock,” I said, laughing a little. “Best you can get is a taxi from another town. But that would be ridiculously expensive, and I really, honestly do not mind driving you.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding and smiling a little. “Let me grab a bag out of the car.”
I waited for her as she dipped into her car’s backseat, rummaging around until she found a couple of duffel bags and brought them with her. Once in the truck, I started the engine and looked over at her.
“So who are you in town to visit with, Allison?” I asked.
“I’m not here to visit anyone,” she said. “If you can believe it, I’m coming home.”
4
ALLISON
“Home?” he asked.
He looked shocked, which I understood. I had been saying it just to see what it felt like. It was as strange as I thought it would be.
“Yup,” I said, sighing.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just figured you were visiting. I didn’t realize you were from around here. Murdock is… really small. I thought I knew just about everybody in town.”
“Technically, I’m not from here,” I said. “I visited a lot when I was younger, though. My grandparents lived here and I’m moving in to fix up the house where they used to live. They left it to me. I needed a fresh start, so I figured, you know, what the hell? What’s better than going backwards to get it?”
“And then this all happened?” he asked, motioning toward the car in the garage bay of the shop.
“Yes. All this,” I said, nodding.
“Well, that’s a hell of a welcome home,” he said.
“You’re telling me.”
As he pulled out onto the road at my direction, I thought about what had led me to this place in my life where I was depending on a stranger to drive me around a town I never expected to come back to after my grandparents died.
I had stayed in touch with my grandparents as I grew up, though I felt like we drifted apart a little. They came to visit me as much as they could, and I enjoyed their company, but I didn’t want to go back to Murdock after Dad died. I just couldn’t bear the trip. It was too painful to drive down those roads and not have potato chips and silly music and my father’s heavy laugh.
When my grandparents passed, within a month of each other, I was told that they left me the house. They had long since moved out and into a small apartment in Austin, renting out the place to a couple of different tenants through a management company. But then, just before my whole life imploded on me, I found out the renters had skipped out almost a year before. The property was in terrible condition and in need of some repair.
By that point, things with my boyfriend were already not great. They almost immediately went to hell in a handbasket right after.
He had insisted on handling the finances, something I was uncomfortable with because not only did he have a tenuous grasp on math, but also because it felt like he was doing it as a measure of control. At first, I tried to convince myself it was him being chivalrous and traditional. Then, I found out that he had simply been stealing from me, not paying bills and not passing on important mail to me. When I found out what he had been doing, I exploded on him, and he handled it about as well as I should have expected by that point.
