Second Hand: A Tucker Springs Novel 2

to have to bring in sometime for you to sell.”
“People are trying to work in here, you know,” El shouted back at him, gesturing to the student.
Denver made a big show of stretching. “Yeah. I’ll be by on Monday with lunch. We can hang out all afternoon and see who shows up.”
Fuck. Crossing back to Denver’s side of the laundromat, El tried to quell him with a glare, which only made him laugh. “Fine. He comes by every day to sell something. Are you happy now?”
“Giddy. El and Strawberry, sittin’ in a tree.”
“He is straight.”
“And thinking about acquiring a few angles, if he’s emptying out his house to get your attention. Interesting.”
It would only get worse if El admitted the reason Paul kept coming was because he’d told him he could only sell one thing a day. El would have sold it as a joke about how gullible and cute Paul was, which was what he’d told himself, except he knew Denver would never buy it.
El was starting to wonder why he had.

chapter 11
    B
    y Saturday, I had clematis planted against the corner of the house and a bit more pantry space for food I didn’t have. Velma appeared as I was weed-whacking around the base of Stacey’s sculptures.
    “It’s gorgeous.” Today’s tennis skirt was bright turquoise. A matching headband held her auburn hair off her face. “Just wait until they start to climb the trellis. They’ll be perfect.”
    I glanced over at Bill, who was once again standing in his front yard, water hose in hand, glaring at me. Once more I wondered if Velma was a judge for the Curb Appeal contest. If I won after taking her advice, would Bill be able to protest the decision?
    Was I entirely too worried about something so silly? Yes. Yes, I was.
Velma left, and I finished my weeding before heading
    back inside for a break. I was settling down on the couch with a huge bowl of pistachio ice cream when Stacey appeared. It was strange to see her walk through the front door as if nothing had changed. As if she still lived in the house. Her platinum hair was disheveled and there were smudges under her eyes. The small red birthmark high on her left cheek told me she had been crying. For some reason, it always became more prominent then.
“Stacey.” I stood up. “What are you doing here?”
    She shrugged and smiled at me awkwardly. “I thought I’d stop by and see how you’re doing.”
That was a lie. Something had obviously upset her, but confronting her about it wouldn’t do me any good. I had no idea what to say. What came out was, “Would you like some ice cream?”
She laughed, a sudden bright sound that took me back to our time together and made my heart ache. “Sure. Why not?”
My hands shook as I went into the kitchen and scooped some into a bowl for her. I wished I had another flavor on hand. She didn’t like pistachio. She would have preferred mint chocolate chip. She wrinkled her nose a bit when I handed her the bowl, but she smiled. “I’ve never understood the appeal of ice cream flavored like a nut.”
“Vanilla’s a nut. So’s chocolate, isn’t it?”
She shook her head. “No, they aren’t nuts, not at all. One’s an orchid and the other is a bean.”
They were? This was news to me. I felt foolish, though mostly frustrated. She’d completely missed my point, except now I couldn’t figure out how to articulate my point anymore. So I didn’t say anything. She sat on one end of the couch and I sat on the other, my stomach in knots. I couldn’t believe she was here. I tried not to wonder what it meant.
I looked at my own bowl of ice cream. I wasn’t even sure I still wanted it.
“Why don’t we watch a movie?” she asked.
“Steel Magnolias?” I hated that movie, but she loved it.
“I don’t want to cry. How about something scary?”
I looked through the movie cabinet. She’d taken most everything with her when she left, but I didn’t comment on that. There wasn’t really anything scary left, so we settled on Terminator 2. I put it in the DVD player and sat back down on the couch. She immediately came closer, not quite cuddling up against me. Should I put my arm around her? Could I hold her hand? Not since our days of dating had I been so unsure around her. I held perfectly still. I kept my hands to myself.
Halfway through the movie, she scooted even closer. She leaned her head on my shoulder in a way that was heartbreakingly familiar. She put her hand on my thigh.
“I’ve missed you, Paul,” she said quietly. “I’m