Shelter Me: A Frazier Falls Novel Read online

  Shelter Me

  A Frazier Falls Novel

  Kelly Collins

  Copyright © 2020 by Kelly Collins

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Victoria Cooper Art

  Contents

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  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Thank you for reading.

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  Chapter One

  Eli

  I was eager. I was egotistical. I was edgy. Hell, I was Eli Cooper, and that said it all.

  “You want a coffee, love?” Alice let the brown-handled pot swing back and forth between her fingers. “You look like you could use a piece of pie too.”

  From my brother Owen’s favorite booth in the corner, I glanced around the diner and could see why he chose it. Nothing happened in Alice’s Diner that he wouldn’t see.

  “Thanks, Alice. I’ll take my usual.”

  “You’re a creature of habit.” She filled the empty mug.

  “And that’s a problem?”

  “Not for me, but it must get boring for you.” She darted off to fetch me a slice of apple pie.

  She was right, I was a creature of habit. I loved everything about my simple small-town life in Frazier Falls because it was predictable and perfect, all the way down to Alice’s apple pie.

  I knew myself, and there were three truths that would never change.

  First, I didn’t have lofty ambitions. What I wanted was a steady but satisfying job—better if it was stress-free and didn’t come with a horrible whip-wielding boss. Setting up Cooper Construction with Owen and pulling in our younger brother Paxton meant we bossed ourselves, or rather Owen bossed us because we allowed it.

  Second, I wasn’t comfortable with people I didn’t know. The best thing about Frazier Falls was I was familiar with everyone.

  Third, I could be an asshole. I’d always known this, though most people around me did not. In public, I was perfectly polite and kind to everyone. On my own, or with my brothers, it was another story.

  I spent my free time, pretending I knew what everyone was doing, and their reasons for their actions. It was a game Mom and I played to pass the time when I was a child. She called it I Know You. We didn’t know anything, but we made up amazing stories about people that entertained us for hours.

  The best thing was, nearly fifty percent of the time, I was right, which made it more satisfying. The sly and stupid suggestions about what John Reilly was getting up to behind the doors of his bar, or whether Rachel Wilkes knew how to run a convenience store, or whether Sandra the hairdresser kicked out her no-good husband Paul for drinking or cheating on her, entertained me. With Paul, it was usually one or the other, though my guess was both. I was curious about Lucy and why she was the town gossip, or how Alice managed to stay upbeat despite the work and patience it took to run the diner.

  Alice plopped the plate of apple pie in front of me. “I added a scoop of vanilla because you look like you needed it.”

  Staring at my plate, I wanted to scream, but instead, I looked up and smiled. “Thanks, Alice. You’re the best.”

  When she walked away, I pushed the ice cream to the side before it could melt into the perfect flaky crust, making it soggy. Damn … even Alice was becoming unpredictable.

  With the first bite, I thought about Carla Stevenson. I had to hand it to my brother. He’d found a great woman who happened to come with a nice sibling. The joining of the Stevenson Mill with Cooper Construction was a boon. Liking both the Stevensons was a bonus.

  A hand waved in front of my face. “Eli, are you spacing out?” Paxton appeared out of nowhere. “Where did you go?”

  I swatted him away as I took another bite before the quickly melting ice cream could touch it.

  He slid into the bench across from me and picked up a spoon, taking a big bite of ice cream, which saved me from leaving it on the plate and potentially hurting Alice’s feelings.

  “I was thinking you should stop flirting with Carla, you moron.” No way would I tell him the truth. That I was missing our mother, and the predictability of our lives. Pity parties didn’t go over well with the Coopers.

  “I don’t flirt with her. She belongs to our brother.”

  I laughed. “You want to tell Carla that marrying Owen will make her his property?” I shook my head. “Make sure you wear a cup when you do. She’ll kick your gonads so far up, they’ll be stuck in your throat.”

  “Dude, I’m not telling her anything. Just stop breaking my balls because I like her. She’s going to be family.”

  Paxton had admitted to being half in love with her in high school. He said he wasn’t anymore, but I wasn’t convinced. There was something about the way he looked after speaking to her that made me think he was either lying to me or lying to himself. Or maybe he was envious of the love our brother had. It was also a possibility that I imagined something that was there for my amusement. No matter what, it got a rise out of my younger brother, which was a perfect distraction for me.

  “When are you going to find your own girl?”

  “When are you?” he grumbled as he collapsed against the blue pleather seat. “God, I can’t believe Carla told you I liked her.”

  My future sister-in-law, Carla, who everyone called Carl, had impeccable timing. She laughed loudly before she made Pax scoot over. “I think it's cute that you liked me in the first place.”

  “Stop ganging up on me.” Pax’s lips stretched into a thin line. “Having one Eli is enough.”

  Carla sat taller and pressed her palm to her chest. “I’ve reached Eli levels of mockery? I’m honored.”

  “You’re hilarious,” Pax grumbled.

  “You realize this was the stuff I was talking about, Pax. You’re blushing,” I said, causing my brother to roll his eyes and curse under his breath.

  Carla looked at me, amused. “I guess we should stop picking on him for now,” she looked at Pax and turned back to face me. “Do you have any clue when Owen will get back? He’s not picking up his phone.”

  I glanced at my watch, frowning. My brother was late, but one look out of the window confirmed why. It was snowing hard enough to block the visibility to the stores across the street.

  She followed my gaze. “It’s really coming down.”

  “Only in the last couple of minutes. You should head over to Owen’s place before the snow keeps you trapped here. Which I wouldn’t wish on anyone because the central heating upstairs is down.”

  “I was thinking you’d turned it o
ff to torture me,” Pax complained as he rubbed his hands together. “Or to keep me doing my work instead of falling asleep.”

  “Did it work?” I asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

  “Nah. Now I’m down here getting warm on the outside and freezing my innards by eating your ice cream.”

  I pushed my plate in his direction. “Eat the rest of it, and then head on home.”

  “What about you?” Pax asked. “You shouldn’t stay either.”

  I looked at the spreadsheets in front of me. “I’ll finish up the finances for the month, and I’ll be done.”

  “But,” Pax began, confused, “there are still a few days of January left. Wouldn’t it be better to do it all when the month is over?”

  I shook my head. “We don’t have any projects to work on until February, which you would know if you had read the report I sent you this morning.”

  My brother let out an exaggerated sigh as he slid his arms into his jacket and nudged Carla out of the booth. “I’ve got a busy schedule. With winter upon us, the days are shorter, and things are slowing down at work, but picking up in my social circle.”

  “You mean the Geriatrics Are Us fan club?”

  “Someday we’ll be old too. And I hope there’s someone willing to shovel our driveways or mow our lawns.”

  Carla laughed as she bundled herself into her purple parka. “I’ll be leaving too. Do you need a lift, Pax?”

  “Nah, I drove here this morning.”

  She looked at him slack-jawed. “You drove your car? Here? In the snow?”

  Pax made a face. “Just because I crashed a few times back in the day doesn’t mean I’m an atrocious driver.”

  “Yes, it does,” I interjected. “Carla, please take Paxton home. I don’t trust him behind the wheel. He’s liable to run over the very people he helps.”

  Pax swore at me but accepted the order. When it came down to it, he knew as well as I did, he’d barely made it to the office alive this morning. He had failed to change the tires on his car for the snow this year. He was convinced it would clear up in a day or two like it always did.

  However, this winter had arrived with a vengeance and brought the heaviest snowfall Frazier Falls had seen in thirty years. Blankets of the white stuff kept the masses inside.

  I smiled to myself as Pax and Carla left Alice’s Diner, leaving me in blessed silence. It only took fifteen minutes to finish up the report I’d been working on, but something was keeping me from heading home. I didn’t know what. Maybe it was because my house was empty.

  There was something satisfying about working in the peace and quiet of an empty office or the corner of the diner, but going home to an unoccupied house was another feeling entirely.

  I wasn’t lonely. I wasn’t. Getting the fire going in my living room, cooking dinner, and sitting down with a beer to watch a movie while the snow continued to fall sounded great, but in order to do that, I had to first set foot inside a cold, empty house, and then wait for it to become welcoming.

  Shit … maybe I was lonely. The idea of someone at home waiting for me sounded wonderful.

  The reality was, even if I were to find a girlfriend, asking her to get a fire going for my return was ludicrous—and old-fashioned. It was right up there with telling a woman she was a man’s property.

  The way things worked between my mother and father was different from how couples behaved these days. The Cooper household had been warm and welcoming because of Mom. I relished the memories of my childhood in winter. A blazing fire. Hot cocoa. Cookies straight from the oven. My mother’s smile. That was the best. The thing I missed the most.

  I shook my head; I wasn’t twelve anymore. I was thirty-four and quickly approaching thirty-five. Hell, I was certain I was more of an adult than Owen was half the time. He still kept secrets like his propensity for panic attacks. Only a few months ago, he had a complete meltdown in public at his architecture conference. Sometimes I felt like the older brother. Though I took comfort in knowing he was doing much better now, I couldn’t stop worrying, regardless.

  “Hey, where is everyone?” Owen called out. I looked up to see him entering the diner. He was covered in snow. His boots were packed with the stuff, insulating the sound of his footsteps when he walked inside. The cold wind breezed past the open door, bringing with it a flurry of snowflakes.

  “Close the door,” Alice called from the counter. “Were you born in a barn?”

  He grinned and shut it, though it barely made a sound through all the snow gathered around the frame.

  “It’s getting bad out there.”

  “That’s why everyone went home,” I said. “Pax came in late because of it.”

  “He was up at the mill this morning,” Owen moved toward the booth. “Then he went into town to help out Lucy Rogers and John Reilly.”

  “Why did John need help?”

  “You honestly think he could unload all the stock in this weather? The kegs would be half-frozen. Pax, not wanting to go to Huck’s if John had to close the bar, helped him out.”

  “How selfless of him,” I said with a measure of sarcasm. “By the way, Carla came by earlier.”

  His eyes lit up. “When did she leave?”

  “About ten minutes ago. I told her to go straight to your place.”

  “Thanks, Eli. Do you need help with anything?” I could tell he was hoping the answer would be a resounding no.

  I shook my head, smiling. “I’m about to head out myself. Did you take the truck?”

  “I did. Do you want a lift home? I don’t think your car will cut it in this weather.”

  “I could take the company truck.”

  “Don’t be silly. Grab your jacket, and we’ll swing by Wilkes’ convenience store for beer.”

  “I’m not going to your place to drink.”

  He looked at me. “Doesn’t mean you won’t want some for yourself.”

  “Very true. But nah, take me straight home if that’s okay.”

  I paid the bill and shrugged on my jacket. We dashed through the falling snow in a hurry to get to my house so Owen could get home to Carla.

  I reasoned that I didn’t have space in my life for a girlfriend, even if I had wanted one. The business and my brothers were enough to handle. And yet, when I set foot in my cold, empty house, I felt hollow.

  Chapter Two

  Emily

  “Ma, if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, of all the places in the world to move to, why did you move here?”

  “Because the air is clean, the people are nice, and it’s quiet.”

  “What you did was choose someplace like Ireland in a different country.”

  “Not really, the accent’s all wrong. But you know … that sounds tempting—”

  “No,” I interrupted, suppressing a shudder, “don’t even joke about going back. You hated small-town life, and yet, came to Frazier Falls like you were a moth, and the town was a flame.”

  “Emily, you adored Ireland until we moved to California.”

  “Exactly—until—but I’d never go back now that I know there’s something else out there. This place isn’t much better than Ardmore.”

  “Oh, come now, sweetheart, the snow is beautiful. And if you would only visit in the summer, you’d see it’s lovelier here than California.”

  I cringed at the thought. When Mom and I had moved to the United States, I’d waved my miserable existence in Ardmore, Ireland, goodbye. The village I’d lived in had barely over three hundred people—three hundred people that never stopped talking about my father’s philandering. Even though Frazier Falls had closer to five thousand, somehow, the place felt exactly the same. Small. Cramped. Full of busybodies. There was nothing to do for anyone over the age of five or under seventy.

  It was fine for Mom. She had turned seventy last year but had moved to Frazier Falls fifteen years prior when I’d started my freshman year at Berkeley. She loved it as much as I loathed it.

  I should have be
en in California, getting past the post-New Year work slump and preparing for a busy February, but Mom was sick. Her health had been iffy for a few years, and now it was getting worse. I’d taken time off from work since the New Year. My plan was to get her to move to California, so she’d be close, and I could take care of her.

  “You know, Emily,” Mom continued as if I wasn’t in a terrible mood already. “If you tried to make a couple of friends here, you wouldn’t be as lonely when you visited.”

  “I’m not in high school, Ma. I’m thirty-three.”

  “Yes, and friendless.”

  “I have lots of friends back in Los Angeles, which is where I’ll be next week. There’s really no point making an effort.”

  A flash of sadness crossed her eyes, and I immediately felt awful. Mom was digging in her heels. We were both jockeying for the same outcome. She wanted me to stay, and I wanted her to go.

  “I love being with you, but you know I have to go back. My life is there. I’m a city girl. Besides, it pays the bills.” I raised a brow, hoping she wouldn’t make me point out that my income helped her too. It paid the medical bills her insurance didn’t cover and put a new roof over her head when the old one leaked.

  My mom laughed. “If the weather keeps up like this, you won’t be going anywhere until spring, Miss Flanagan.”

  There were some things that would make the list of my worst nightmares. Walking into a room full of spiders was one. Having to eat lentils for the rest of my life would be another. Getting snowed in was the worst. Talking about it almost made it possible, so I shifted the conversation.