I laughed before Dane could fire off a surly reply. “He’s the house manager. He handles the house account and pays the bills.”
“Among other things,” Dane said.
“What other things?” Avery asked.
“Anything having to do with the house,” he said.
Dane was famously stingy with his words. This was probably the most he’d spoken in one sitting since I’d met him.
I reached for my beer. “He does minor repairs, calls people in when it’s not minor, arranges for maintenance outside the scope of our jobs, that kind of thing.”
“Did you guys grow up together?” Avery asked.
Beck laughed again. “Hardly.”
Avery took a drink of her Coke. “Who came first?”
“Dane,” I said. “Then me, then Beck, when the bakery got to be too much for Evelyn.”
Avery’s lush mouth turned down in a frown. “I can’t believe I didn’t know she was struggling.”
I had the sudden urge to spin plates or juggle oranges or tell Dad jokes, literally anything to keep her from ever frowning again.
“You weren’t in touch?” I asked.
She shook her head. “She wasn’t my aunt by blood. She’d been around for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t really know her. I mean, I did when I was a kid but then my parents got divorced and my mom and I moved away when she got a job offer in the city.”
There was something heavy in her voice, and I sensed that there was more to the story.
Beck set down his fork, his plate clean. “What about your dad?”
She huffed out a wry burst of laughter. “He left long before that.”
More to the story there too.
“You never thought to call Evelyn?” Dane’s voice was cold.
I glared at him. “Not your business, bro.”
“She was alone,” Dane said. “Except for us, she was alone.”
“That’s not Avery’s fault,” Beck said.
Avery took a deep breath and set down her fork. “No, Dane’s right. I should have called. Aunt Evelyn always sent me birthday cards with ten dollars, and I always sent a thank-you note. For a long time I was just a kid. I didn’t really understand everything that had happened between my parents and I was…” She exhaled. “Well, I was dealing with it as best I could. Then I grew up and got a job and my life as a kid in Blackwell Hollow seemed so far away. But that’s no excuse. Aunt Evelyn never forgot about me. I should have called, should have visited once I grew up.”
I wanted to take her hand or give her a hug but that would be weird. We’d only known each other a few hours.
“It’s okay,” I said instead. “I think Evelyn understood. And Dane’s wrong — Evelyn wasn’t alone. She had us, but she also had the whole town. Everyone loved Evelyn, loved the bakery and the house. She had friends who were like family, people who cared about her.”
What I didn’t say was that Evelyn didn’t need anybody else, not the way most people did. She had been a self-contained unit, someone who was more comfortable being alone than in the company of others.
She kept everyone at a distance — even Dane, Beck, and me — but everyone loved her anyway.
Us included.
Avery nodded slowly. “Maybe you can tell me more about her sometime.”
“Anytime.” There was nothing I wanted more than to spend time with Avery Hart, staring into her warm brown eyes and having her all to myself.