Madeline arched her eyebrows. “In the mood for a road trip?”
I shrugged. “Why not? My truck’s parked outside.”
* * *
I punched my way through the radio stations every time a romantic song came on.
Like Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
“I love this song,” Madeline said.
I hit the dial.
Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie’s “Endless Love” came on.
“Oh my God,” she swooned. “This movie made me cry!”
I hit the dial again.
We heard the catchy beat of a-ha’s “Take On Me.”
“Oh yes!” Madeline said.
Oh no!I thought to myself and punched the dial again.
I breathed a sigh of relief when Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys began singing “Different Drum.”I left the radio playing and quickly thought of a conversation filler to distract from my game of musical chairs on the radio.
“So, I haven’t even asked where you’re from. I mean, before you moved to Mulligan’s Mill. I’m sorry, that’s rude of me.”
“Don’t apologize. If I’m honest, I tend to avoid the topic unless people bring it up.”
“You don’t like to talk about it?”
“I can talk about it,” she said. “It’s just that I prefer not to. But since you asked, we might as well get it over and done with. I was married to a man whom I genuinely loved once. We lived in Ann Arbor in a house with a porch and a picket fence. He worked as the gym teacher at the same school where I taught math. For the most part, our marriage was pretty much perfect, until the day I received a text from one of the mothers at the school, telling me that my husband had just broken off a year-long affair with her. She was angry and hurt and felt the need to tell me all about my husband’s infidelities.”
“Oh God, that’s awful.”
“She said she thought I should know what was going on behind my back, but what she really wanted to do was destroy his perfect life… and in doing so, she destroyed mine. Only, it made me realize we didn’t have the perfect life at all. Our marriage was nowhere near perfect, only I was the last to know. That was over a year ago now. I left Ann Arbor and moved in with my sister in Cedar Rapids for a while to get back on my feet. By the time I was ready to face the world again—to trust anyone again—a teaching job came up here in Mulligan’s Mill and I snapped it up. And here I am… sitting in your truck… in search of a cologne that won’t attract seagulls… or blind you for life.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. “Wow, that story really does suck. No wonder it’s not your favorite topic of conversation.”
“I’m sorry. It sounds like such a tale of woe-is-me, which is why I hate explaining it. But I fully intend to change my destiny in Mulligan’s Mill. It’s time to take back control of my life, do the things that make me happy.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Poker nights. Long drives through the countryside. I might even find happiness in someone’s arms again, who knows?”
The song on the radio ended and it was back to the love songs.
This time it was “Close to You” by The Carpenters.
I decided to turn the radio off altogether.
* * *
Claudio twirled the end of his pencil-thin moustache. “Dean?” he said in an Italian accent so thick, I was convinced it was fake. “You mean the fragrance released by the singer, Dean Reeves?”
“That’s the one,” Madeline and I said at the same time.
