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“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Betsy whispered urgently the moment Todd stepped out of the bathroom.
“Going to the bathroom…” Todd said with a raised brow, feigning his confusion.
“No, Todd Rollins Mackewain! You know very well what I mean. What are you doing, with her?” Todd stared, his mouth opening and closing like the fish he used to catch in the creek behind Betsy and Mike’s house when we was a boy. He’d never been able to lie to Betsy—not since he was the 10 year old neighbor child who spent more of his time in Betsy and Mike’s kitchen than he did in his own. But of course, there’s always a first time for everything.
“Don’t you like her?” Todd asked, pretending to be affronted. “Because I know the bedazzled ‘Tenessee’ shirt might be a little much, but she cleans up real nice I promise.” Betsy smacked his arm, and there was nothing playful about it.
“You know very well that I wouldn’t care two figs if she walked in here wearing a paper bag, Todd Mackewain. What I do care about is that sparkly rock the size of a goose egg on her left hand. I know you didn’t give it to her. So who did?” This stung a little, though Todd couldn’t have put a finger on exactly why. He’d chosen a lonely existence after all, only breaking his rule once. For Nelson. Todd pictured the slobbering bulldog mix who had been his faithful canine companion for over a decade, and a smile quirked the corner of his mouth.
When he’d stumbled upon a cardboard box labeled “free puppies” outside a bar one late fall evening in Missouri, he’d intended to walk right past. The box had looked empty anyways, and he hadn’t had a dog since he was very young. But then he’d heard a heartbroken sound, and decided to investigate. When he peered over the lip of the box, there was one wrinkly pup left, his wide eyes full of sorrow, and longing. The night was turning cold. Though Todd’s gift only worked on humans, he’d seen enough deaths to know when a fellow creature was in trouble. Todd had picked up the sorrowful creature and tucked him inside his flannel jacket before he even knew what he was doing. He’d skipped the bar that night and driven to a pet supply store instead—and Nelson, as though knowing just how lucky he was, let his stubby tail wag freely as he rode in the passenger seat that first long drive together.
All at once, the sorrow of losing Nelson crashed over him again. Someone ought to know the truth, he thought. And it may as well be Betsy.
When he looked back towards her, her lips were pursed. She was studying him the same way she had when he was a boy trying to steal an extra cookie from the ceramic cookie jar on the kitchen counter the moment her she turned back.
“Fine,” he said, “I’ll come clean.” Betsy waited, her careworn face inscrutable, but her eyes lightened with the beginning of his confession. “We met at a bar last night, and I didn’t mean to, but I looked into her eyes and saw…I saw her death and…”
“Todd,” she interrupted, putting a soft hand on his arm,“you know I’ve known about the gift, even when before it was your own—and I know it breaks your heart, but there’s nothing you can do…”
“Betsy, she died TODAY. At the hands of her new husband.”
Silence fell between them, and Betsy went very, very still.
“How…how awful…” she managed to get out, her lips parted in horror. Todd shifted uncomfortably.
“I need to get back,” he said.
“Yes,” Betsy agreed. She’ll be missing you.” She released his arm, then turned slowly and walked back into the kitchen as though she were in a trance.
“You weren’t lying about these pancakes,” Margery said around a mouthful as Todd slid back into the booth. “MMMMMM! And this SYRUP. What do they put in this syrup?” She lifted up the glass syrup container and turned it in the light as though this would allow her to seed the ingredients. Setting it down, she swallowed her bite of pancake and gathering a stray bead of maple syrup with the pad of her pointer finger, popped it into her mouth. “MMMMMM!” She exclaimed again. Todd chuckled.
“It’s what they DON’T put in the syrup,” he said. “Most greasy spoons like this one use that high fructose corn syrup ‘pancake syrup' crap. But not Betsy and Mike. They get theirs from a farmer friend up in Michigan. That right there is Grade A 100% real Maple Syrup.” Margery’s eyebrows rose slowly at the declaration, Todd guessed, assessing how many dollars worth of syrup she had poured onto her plate assuming it was the cheap stuff.
“Good to the last drop,” she said, swiping her finger along her plate again, and sucking it clean as Todd finally began to tuck into the pancakes that had arrived from the kitchen while he’d been talking with Betsy. He must have glanced back in her direction because just then Margery cleared her throat and said, “they seem nice.”
“Who?” he said, turning his neck so fast he cricked it a little.
“Your family.”
“Oh. Yeah..” he said rubbing the sore spot with his left hand. “Betsy and Mike…they’re great. They didn’t raise me exactly, but they looked after me after my grandma died. My mom was working two jobs just to keep us afloat, and Betsy and Mike…I spent every day after school at their house.” He glanced up at her, not sure what kind of expression he wanted to see on her face at this confession. He was met with eyes so full of kindness, it almost distracted him from the dot of syrup at the corner of her mouth. He had to clear his throat before speaking again to stop from either laughing or crying, he wasn’t sure which.
“My mom was gone a lot too,” she said, sparing him from immediate speech. “After my Dad left…and it was good he was gone if you know what I mean…but after he left, money was tight. Real tight. And my mom always wanted the best for me you know?” Here Margery began gesticulating with her fork in the air for emphasis. “She wanted me to take dance lessons like she never got to, and she wanted to move us to the nicer neighborhood on the west side of town…but the bills were a lot with one waitressing job. So she picked up an early morning shift delivering newspapers too.”
“That must have been hard,” Todd said at last, chewing thoughtfully, his chin dimple appearing and disappearing with each bite of pancake he consumed.
“I didn’t mind it so much,” she said, “except I guess the part where I woke up alone.”
“And what did she think?” he said.
“Of what?”
“Of your fiancee?”
“Oh.” she chased the few remaining blueberries around her plate with her fork. “She likes Shawn…I mean…liked him, okay I guess. He didn’t like me spending much time over there, but she was so busy anyways and honestly…she just wanted someone to be there to take care of me in case…” her lip trembled. “In case, she didn’t make it.”
“What do you mean?” Todd asked, his forehead lined with concern, his blue eyes trained on her face with all the force of a metal detector prying coins from the sand.
“She…” Margery took a breath. “She had cancer.” She said at last. “Pancreatic. Stage two so they think they got it with this last round of chemo, but you know how these things go…it…” she paused again, her fork lodged in a blueberry, her eyes locked on his. “It really shook her up.” She popped the blueberry in her mouth.
“And you too I’m sure.” Todd said taking another bite.
“Yeah. Me too.”
“And does he,” Todd asked, feeling the rise of hope in his chest.
“Does he what?”
“Take care of you?”
Margery froze, her fork suspended above the second to last of her blueberries. Suddenly, and quite without her permission, her eyes were brimming with tears.
“He…he tries.” She said, staring at her plate, her fork frozen in her hand. Without thinking Todd reached across the small booth and grabbed her left hand where it was balling up the paper napkin.
“Margery,” he said gently, “I know I haven’t known you very long, and I know I am, as Betsy would call me, and ‘incorrigible flirt,’ but please hear me when I say this: Trying isn’t good enough.”
“I know but he….”
“Trying. Isn’t. Good enough.” Todd spoke so firmly Margery glanced up from her plate. What she saw in his eyes was not the dispassionate care of a stranger, but some emotion lost between anger, sorrow and desperate hope.
“I know,” she found herself saying aloud. She lifted her napkin and wiped the corners of her mouth. And even though she didn’t remember the conversation that led her to being in Tennessee with Todd for breakfast this morning, she knew that the her from the night before had made the right choice, somehow. She had to trust that. “I know,” she said again more firmly. Then abruptly, “I’d better call my mom and let her know…the wedding’s off.” She pushed up from the booth and pulled out her phone, looking down at the screen as she walked towards the front door of the diner, only narrowly avoiding crashing into another party of patrons.
Todd felt relief wash over him, quickly followed by an unrelenting terror as he had two thoughts almost simultaneously;
1. Thank God she isn’t marrying that murderous asshole.
and
2. What am I going to do when she finds out that I lied to her?
There was a settledness in Margery that she hadn’t felt in years. After the long hug goodbye with Betsy and Mike, and promises to let the road lead them back to them again soon for more pancakes the size of their faces, Margery and Todd walked back across the highway towards the big rig.
“So…” she began. “What now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…you’ve been so kind to me…a complete stranger. First driving me out of town when I asked you to, even though I was SUPER drunk. Then feeding me the most delicious pancakes of my life…,” here she paused, tucking a stray piece of blonde hair behind her ear.
“Don’t forget introducing you to the wonders of real maple syrup.” Looking up she saw he was watching her face intently as she spoke again.
“Yes, that too. You’ve been so kind. But,” here she paused, “I was supposed to be getting married today and now—”
“Now, what?” His blue eyes were soft and kind, they held none of the teasing from a moment before.
“Now…I don’t exactly know what to do.” They reached the cab of Todd’s truck and stopped for a moment. Todd turned to face her at last, looking thoughtful.
“The way I see it you’ve got a few options.” Margery stood silently listening, her arms crossed over her bedazzled chest. “One: we can get in this truck and I can drop you off at the nearest airport with a flight back to Ala—.”
“I don’t want to go home.” she said before he could finish. A flush of heat raced across her cheeks.
“Or…,” Todd began smiling, “we can get in this truck and you can join me for an impromptu cross country road trip. As long or as short as you’d like I promise. I’m a contract carrier so my work takes me to more…scenic locations than average.” Margery knew the curiosity must be sparking in her eyes at this, and she had no wish to hide it. Todd smiled. “I can offer you an excellent playlist, the best roadside snacks a trucker can offer, and though the ‘accommodations’ are a little mean, I promise to teach you how to roll out of the lower bunk without falling on your face.” He was smirking, but Margery ignored this. She blushed once more as she recalled the way she’d indelicately flung herself free of the sheets only this morning.
“Sounds like a good way to spend your time,” she said after a moment. “Road tunes. Snacks. Seeing beautiful places. Meeting interesting people….”
“You, Margery, are the only interesting person I have met in a long, long time.” His blue eyes flicked back to hers and she stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say in reply.
“So you’re saying you don’t take it upon yourself to rescue every drunk damsel in distress that needs a ride home then?”
“Well…”he said as if he’d say yes, with a flirtatious gleam in his eye. “well…no.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, almost seeming embarrassed. Then grinning again, “I try not to pickup any one who isn’t wearing either a tiara, or some sort of bedazzled t-shirt at least.”
“Good,” Margery said, turning towards to cab once again. “I’d be embarrassed to be seen with a trucker who picked up just any old cargo off the side of the road…” Todd opened the passenger side of the cab and she attempted to clamber in gracefully, but failed, her foot slipping on the very first step. Todd put a hand out to stop her fall, and it landed on the side of her hip. Her face flushed. I’m going to need some better shoes if I have to do this all the time.
“Careful there,” Todd said, “I don’t want my passenger princesses to fall and break her royal neck before we’ve even gone anywhere interesting.” He’d removed his hand as soon as she was steady again, but Margery could feel her chest going splotchy in any case. She found herself reluctantly grateful for the god-awful t-shirt she was wearing.
“I’m no princess believe me,” Margery sniffed, trying to regain some dignity and composure as she climbed in her seat. She leaned over and yanked the cab door shut right in Todd’s infuriatingly-dimple-chinned face. As she stared out the windshield, trying to cool her cheeks, she saw that the day was overcast, but still the sun managed to poke its head through the breaks in the clouds every so often. It was a perfect day for a drive. A moment later, Todd swung himself behind the wheel.
“Well Margery,” he said, clicking his seatbelt and prompting her to do the same. “As long as you’re riding in my truck, I plan on treating you like a queen. Especially while you’re wearing that shirt covered in jewels...” Margery rolled her eyes.
“Just drive Todd.”
“It would be my pleasure. Here in Nashville, there are a variety of loads I could pick up that will take us to all different destinations, and I’m the dispatcher’s favorite so I leave it to you Passenger Princess Margery—which way shall we go? North or South?”
“Let me guess, your dispatcher is a woman, and you flirt with her shamelessly on the radio in order to get your own way.” Todd smiled and winked at she glanced at him sidelong.
“I find a little friendliness smooths the road to everyone’s satisfaction,” he paused again, studying her face. “So Margery, what’ll it be? North, or south?” His eyes still gleamed with mischief as he glanced at her, but something about his air seemed to respect the gravity of this moment—of this choice. Her choice.
Margery had never felt so free.
“North,” she said. And without another word, they pulled out of the parking lot and began the journey north.
Todd and Margery’s story “Just Drive” will continue in Part Four! Click the link below to Subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!
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I love their chemistry! The laughs and the tension are so great, and the whole story is a delight!
I’m hooked and I can’t wait to see her reaction to finding out that she was kidnapped and saved from certain death. I’m curious… can Todd see her new death now?