Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“You wanna drop by their place and check on her?” Hutch offered.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to disturb them. Two sick people, and since this seems like a tougher strain, keeping Emma away from her mom and brother is a lot on him. I’ll text later.”
“You ready to head to dinner?” he asked.
“Yeah. Let’s close down and go.”
We did that.
Shortly after, I found that Hutch told no lies.
When we got to Luigi’s, not only did Gianni fashion a huge salad with chunks of meat, thick shaves of parmesan, and lots of romaine, olives and tomatoes for Hutch that he tossed in a vinaigrette (Hutch let me taste, it was delicious), he came out of the kitchen to do the handshake, back clap thing dudes do.
Hutch introduced him to me.
Gianni was all smiles and welcomes, but in a hurry, since the small restaurant wasn’t that busy but there were tons of deliveries going out the door for folks who didn’t want to brave the cold and impending sleet.
By the way, I got a delicious calzone covered in even more delicious red sauce and followed it up with homemade spumoni ice cream chockful of pistachios and cherries.
In other words, we were going back to Luigi’s.
I’d also sent an All good? text to Brett.
He did not reply.
This didn’t make me happy.
Sleet was what we walked out to, and I wasn’t feeling that.
“Maybe we should just go up the mountain,” I said to Hutch.
“I let the dogs out before I came down. They’re good.”
“No. It’s that I don’t like driving in this,” I admitted.
“That’s cool, babe,” he said softly. “It gets bad, I’ll drive and bring you back down to get your truck tomorrow when it’s clear.”
That was a deal, so we headed to the town hall, and I did it with Abigail’s description in my head, anticipating I’d walk into some form of Northern Exposure, or possibly better yet, a Parks and Rec situation.
But when we got there, there was hardly anyone there.
“I heard it’s always standing room only,” I told Hutch as I shrugged off my coat.
“This flu must have a bigger grip on the town than I thought,” he muttered.
“Mabel! Hutchison!” we heard in a tone that made me want to immediately stand attention and salute.
Instead, we both looked to the rows of sparsely occupied benches to see Mrs. Matthews, front and center, Ellis sitting next to her.
We headed that way and scooted down the row to get to her.
I tucked my coat in my lap when I sat, and asked, “Where’s Mark and Brooks?”
“Down with this dreaded flu,” Mrs. Matthews stated. “So is Helen, my daughter-in-law. It’s a disaster!” she announced irately, as if the flu came to Misted Pines just to annoy her.
Though, she wasn’t wrong. It was a disaster.
I turned to the elevated curved bench desk in front of us, seeing only an attractive blonde in the seat in the middle, another guy one chair over at her left, and that was it.
“Yes, more than half the council isn’t even here,” Mrs. Matthews pointed out. “Nor is Sheriff Moran.”
I turned to Hutch just as the attractive blonde reached to the microphone in front of her.
She leaned into it to say, “As this meeting was called to brief the town on the Stony Bluff situation, and our sheriff can’t be here since the flu going around has hit his house…”
Oh shit.
I exchanged another glance with Hutch before I pulled out my phone.
“…we’ll have to postpone,” the blonde continued. “We can inform you now that all is in order with the Stony Bluff situation, and once this flu moves on, we’ll reconvene. Now get home. Weather is coming in. And goodnight.”
While she said this last, I was texting Lillian, At the town council meeting. You and Harry okay?
“Well!” Mrs. Matthews huffed as we all got up. “They could have put a notice on the town’s internetty thing and saved us the trouble of driving all the way here.”
I couldn’t reply because my phone shook in my hand.
I looked down to a text from Lillian, or rather, Harry.
It’s Harry. Lillian’s got this bug. She’s fine, but it’s hit her hard. She’ll call when she feels better. Thanks for checking in.
Was it okay for a baby when its momma had the flu?
I obviously didn’t ask Hutch that, and not only because he might not know, but because my phone was now ringing.
I looked at it.
It was Brett.
I took the call immediately. “Hey, Brett.”
“I need to take you up on your offer,” he said in a harried way that freaked me. “Mom’s at home with the kids. Dad’s down with this flu. Abigail’s folks both have it. I’m sorry to ask, Mabel, I know you probably want to get back up the mountain. But you’re the only one I know who doesn’t have it or isn’t looking after someone who does. I’m at the hospital with Abigail.”