New Year Nuisance

Excerpt

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Chapter One

“Don’t even get me started on your replacement.” Mae West wore a pair of black skintight leggings with a lime-green wool sweater and her fancy New York booties. I’d noticed those right off when she rolled into my hometown of Normal, Kentucky, a few years ago before I’d moved to Holiday Junction. 

I mean literally rolled into town in a camper van. 

She’d not stopped talking since  walking off the airplane at the Holiday Junction airport, which was about the size of her camper van. 

“Mae, this is Rhett Strickland.” I barely got the words out between her breaths before a huge smile curled up on her face.

She abruptly stopped, flung a strand of her curly honey-blond hair behind her shoulder, and threw her arms around him.

“Rhett!” From her voice, she clearly thought he was someone he wasn’t. “Nice to meet you. Any friend of Violet’s is a friend of mine.”

“Welcome to Holiday Junction.” He peeled himself off Mae. His brows rose, and he looked at me with a half-cocked smile. “Are all the people from Kentucky this friendly? Because Violet sure wasn’t this friendly the day I met her right in this very spot.”

He grabbed the handle of Mae’s luggage and jerked it to full extension so he could roll it behind him. 

“I guess Violet’ll have to bring you home for a visit.” Mae wiggled her brows. 

“Oh no.” I cackled out loud and pinched off a piece of the bagel I’d gotten from the airport’s small café while I’d waited for Mae’s plane to land. “We aren’t an item. Heck no.” 

A weird nervous laugh I’d not recognized came out of me. 

“You said Strickland.” Mae started to say something that didn’t need to be said before I grabbed her by the elbow, jerking her to me.

“I’m so glad you called after the Christmas you had.” I had to change the subject of my love life when I didn’t even know what my love life was all about. “Let’s get you in the car.” 

Rhett was a catch. Don’t get me wrong. And we’d had a little spark between us. I’m talking tiny. Just a flicker, really.  After there’d been too much going on in my new life to even think about lighting that wick, it was quickly put out. 

On the other hand, his cousin, Darren, didn’t seem like my type, and even though I wasn’t on the prowl, he seemed to be around…. everywhere. 

Over Halloween, we’d shared a kiss, but it’d never gone any further than that. By the way he’d slid me into his arms that night, I thought for sure I’d have a date to the New Year’s Eve celebration, the famous Sparkle Ball, but he was like a cricket. 

Silent during the day but loud at night. 

Calling him “loud” was giving him too much credit. It was the bar he owned that was loud at night. The jiggle joint. 

At least that was what I called it, even though the name on the solid door read BAR. 

I didn’t think I had to say much more than that it was… a jiggle joint. Truly, there was a lot more drinking, throwing darts, and rowdy chatter than jiggling going on. 

I had to walk past the bar every night on my way home from my office at the Junction Journal, the local newspaper of which I was the editor in chief, photographer, journalist, and, well, all the things. 

“Rhett is the security guard here at the airport,” I told her. 

We followed Rhett into the one-room terminal before he stopped shy of the one TSA agent and Dave. 

Mae’s eyes grew big when she saw Dave. 

“Okay. You have no business talking about the strange animals we have back home.” Mae laughed. 

I bet she couldn’t wait to tell people back home about him. 

“He was the local rooster who was part of the security team. Dave was better than any sniffing security dog out there.” Rhett was confident in telling Mae about Dave and a few of his rooster-sniffing stories. “And we have a dog for mayor.” 

“That I do know.” Mae pointed at the jar on the podium where Dave and the TSA agent were perched. “What’s that?” 

“Those are worms—treats.” Rhett picked up the jar. Dave clucked to life and stood tall like a soldier. 

“I’ve seen it all.” Mae turned to me and wagged a finger. “Don’t you ever make fun of Normal again.”

I smiled. Being around Mae brought a sense of familiarity that made me long for the comforts of home. Though I couldn’t get back to Kentucky anytime soon, I was going to soak up all the joy it brought my soul to see her and gab about all the friends we knew. 

Rhett unscrewed the lid off the jar and held it out for Mae, who took a dehydrated piece of worm. 

“Just give it to him,” Rhett instructed her and pretended to hold a piece for reference. 

“Thanks, Dave.” Mae threw her head back and laughed with her mouth wide open.  “We might be hillbillies in Kentucky, but this town is strange,” she whispered between us.  

“When I saw Violet come in this morning to greet you, I was thinking she was sneaking off to some big interview. You know, I met her the day her plane made the emergency landing.” Rhett continued to walk us through the one-room airport toward the door. “She certainly didn’t like my uncle then and can barely be in the same room with him now.”

“You’re the police chief’s nephew. Not son.” Mae snapped her finger, and the emerald ring she wore flickered as the light inside the airport caught it. 

“Mae,” I gasped and grabbed her hand to look at the engagement ring Hank Sharp had given her. “I love it.”

I did love it but was a little shocked it was an emerald. 

“I keep forgetting you’ve been gone since I got engaged.” She curled her hand in and pulled it to her chest as though she didn’t want me to see it or talk about it. “Speaking of rings, you aren’t going to believe what I’m about to tell you.”

“I can’t wait.” I was giggly with excitement to have Mae here, even if it was only for a few days and most of those would be taken up by writing the coverage of the New Year festivities for the Junction Journal. 

Holiday Junction was a small town, just like my hometown. And true to its name, they celebrated every single holiday. But the big ones—you know, Easter, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Christmas—now those celebrations were over-the-top. 

The Sparkle Ball was this year’s theme for the New Year’s Eve celebration. 

When Mae called to wish me a merry Christmas, I had mentioned the big Sparkle Ball and how the Junction Journal was sponsoring it. Within seconds, she invited herself, and here she was, a couple of days away from the turn of the new year. 

Trust me when I say I was surprised. It wasn’t like Mae and I were best friends in Normal. Honestly, quite the opposite. We’d fought tooth and nail, butted heads, to be truthful. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d be celebrating the turn of a new year with Mae West.

“This is far as I go, ladies.” Rhett stopped shy of the double sliding doors leading to the outside world. “Duty calls. The next plane should be arriving, um“—Rhett joked and checked his phone—“two days from now.”

Holiday Junction had very few flights in and out, but there was a much bigger airport an hour or so away. If anyone needed a flight, they could drive there. 

“It was nice to meet you, Rhett.” Mae had really put on the Southern charm, a far cry from when I’d met her years ago, when she showed a hard exterior. “I sure hope to see you at the fancy Sparkle Ball.”

“You sure will.” Rhett said his goodbyes.

It was nice to see this side of her, and it made me happy she was here. We’d never had any sort of sleepover or true get-together just as friends. More times than not, we met during my interviewing days as a reporter for Channel Two news, my daily talk show, or for the Normal Gazette. 

“I have to admit I was a little nervous when you told me you were coming out,” I said and walked out of the airport. “Are you okay?” I asked, pointing at the trolley stop sign. 

“Yeah. You know.” Mae wiggled her finger in the air. “Wedding stuff plus Mary Elizabeth and, well, the whole Sharp family saga.” 

She left the word hanging and looked out into the distance. 

“That’s gorgeous.” She pointed at the snow-covered landscape where the mountains rose in the distance. A few of the peaks were hidden behind a veil of white, as if reaching up to touch the sky. 

“And this crisp air.” She sucked in a deep breath. 

“It is amazing here.” I took in the trees, which were coated in a layer of frost. The branches were heavy with snow, and the ground was a blanket of white. The snow crunched underfoot as we walked into the glass enclosure to wait for the next ride into town. 

“It really is pretty here.” She looked at me, and her eyes dipped. 

There was more to Mae’s visit than just a visit, but I’d give her space, and in her own time, she’d tell me. I had to ask about the word she’d let dangle before she’d noticed the landscape.  

“Saga?” I asked and saw Goldie Bennett was at the helm of the trolley. The shimmery red-sequined shirt looked like Goldie was starting her own personal New Year’s party. 

Ding, ding. The clanking trolley bell clapped as it approached. Goldie slammed the brakes on and pushed the lever that swung the door open. 

“Welcome to Holiday Junction, Mae!” Goldie blew on the dazzling, shiny gold-and-silver fringe blowout on one of those cone-shaped cardboard New Year’s Eve hats with fuzz all over the edges. “We are so excited you’re here. Climb on in.”

“Okay.” Mae’s eyes lit up. When she took a step up, she glanced back at me. “And I thought this was going to be a boring week.”

“Nope. Normal, Kentucky, has nothing on Holiday Junction.” My body shivered as the goose bumps crawled along my skin.

end of excerpt