She thought about that. “All of the above.”
With a grunt, he pushed himself off the stool, picked up a cane, and wordlessly hobbled around the counter. He led her to a big stack of boxes, where he paused, turned around, and had a good look at her feet. “Pick up your foot, let me see the bottom.”
Madeline did as instructed, presenting the bottom of her foot.
He turned back to the boxes, found one about halfway down, wrested it from the teetering stack and handed the box to her. “Try these.”
Inside the box was a pair of hiking boots. Madeline instantly recoiled. “I was thinking something a little sleeker.”
“Sleeker,” he said, sounding annoyed. “You want good walking shoes, or you want sleek?”
“Right,” she said with a sigh, and sat down to fit the boots on her feet. The old man stood by, watching her as she donned them, then instructed her to walk. He nodded, then made her walk up a little wooden hill, and down again. He didn’t say a word, but then again, he didn’t have to. Madeline loved them. After two days of stomping around in her pumps, she felt as if she were walking on pillows. Soft, cushiony, supportive pillows.
“I’ll take them,” she said.
“You’ll be needing socks,” he advised, and bent down, fished around in another box and held out some thick hiking socks.
“Perfect! Thank you.” She was determined never to take them off. Never.
“Need a backpack? Flashlight? Camping gear? Guidebook?”
Madeline, whose mood had been miraculously transformed by supportive footwear, smiled at him. “No, thank you. But I will take this,” she said, and reached above her head and pulled down a bright pink ball cap. She’d never worn a ball cap in her life.
She paid for her things, wore the boots out of the store, and clomped back to the Grizzly, a smile on her face. Funny how such a small thing like comfortable feet could change a person’s outlook. For the first time in two days, Madeline felt as if she could tackle this thing. She knew what she had to do: Assess the situation, take control, and restore order. Simple.
SIXTEEN
So Dad came in while Marisol was giving me a rubdown, and like seriously, man, he is the last person I want to see when I’m with Marisol, but he always comes in like she’s just part of the furniture and starts talking and he said, “There’s a woman outside to see Luke.” And then he looked at Marisol like he was afraid she’d figure out who and start talking it up around town. Well, first of all, Marisol already knew. I said, “Julie’s been sniffing around my big brother,” and Marisol said, “Yeah, she’s on the hunt for a new baby daddy because word on the street is that Brandon is moving to Colorado Springs.”
I really like the idea that Pine River has a “street,” sort of like we’re badass here instead of a bunch of yokels trying to make a living.
Anyway, I knew it was Julie outside because she’d already called the house twice today. Dad was upset about that, too, because man, she did a number on Luke a few years ago. They’d planned the whole wedding. I think she even had a dress, and then she dumped him because Mom was sick all the time, and dude, Luke moped around. I mean, Luke said that he got it, that the Kendricks had a lot of issues, and who would want to marry into issues? But he forgot that love is a two-way street, and he needed Julie the most about then, and she bailed on him. You know what they say, love is blind, and Luke, man, he could have used a white cane or a Seeing Eye dog. But dude, we’ve never seen him like that, and just between you and me and the wall, he was a total dick to all of us. And that wasn’t the end of it! I think she’s called him up four or five times since then, needing him for this or that, getting his hopes up, and then backing off.
That’s what Dad is worried about, because we can both see that it messes with Luke’s head. But I told Dad not to worry, and he said, “Are you sure? Maybe I should have a talk with him,” and I said, “No, no, no, don’t do that. No thirty-year-old man wants to have that kind of talk with his dad, and besides, I am so sure, because I know Luke better than anyone, and I asked him once, I said, ‘so, are you over Julie?’ And he said, ‘so over,’ and he wouldn’t have said that if he hadn’t meant it.”
Listen, I know Dr. Phil wants guys to communicate better because he says it every day on his show, but if I ever met him I’d ask him why, because guys don’t need a lot of words to get our points across. Luke said he was over her, and that means he is over her. Paragraph, period, close the book.