---

Townes arrives Wednesday August 28

Bobbie went out on her deck with her knitting and her phone. She ate a muffin and settled on the couch to knit.

She looked on her phone for a while and found pictures from Quinn and Ray’s party. She shared a couple. People could steal them and use them for that hashtag if they want. She looked up Townes again and was browsing some of his pictures and clicked like on one by accident. Oh no, she thought; he’s going to know I’ve been creeping him. Then she realized it is silly to worry, he probably won’t even notice. She stood up and stretched and took her plate in and thought Fossie might like going out there. She found the harness and he was OK with her putting it on. Then she carried him out to the deck and tied him to a chair leg.

She reclined onto the sofa and Fossie jumped up beside her. She drifted off….

She woke with a start and felt disoriented for a moment. She was out on the deck and clouds had moved in and it had started to sprinkle rain. She sat for a moment and her eye caught Fossie’s harness… and Fossie wasn’t in it. Dang, where was that kitty. She stood up and looked around a bit. He wasn’t on the deck. She looked over the side and saw no cat. She looked over the other side and saw four little dents in the hood of Johnny’s truck. Fossie must have jumped, or fell two stories.

She grabbed her phone and knitting and headed inside, pulled on a jacket and went down to see if she could find Fossie. She went and looked at Johnny’s truck and looked up to his Room.

He was sitting there, on the little deck outside his rear door. “Hey Bobbie, are you looking for something?”

Bobbie started up the stairs. “You haven’t seen Fossie, have you?”

Johnny laughed. “I saw him fly through the air and land on my truck and then he motored up the stairs to come and visit.”

Bobbie reached the top of the stairs and saw Fossie on Johnny’s lap. “I’m glad he’s OK, I think he must have used up one of his nine lives. He slipped out of his harness. I guess it is a little loose.”

“That guy, Townes, saw the whole thing; he thought it was crazy.”

“You talked to Townes Carson?”

“Sure, I told him you and I are childhood buddies and still play music together and that Fossie is your cat and you live up there.” He pointed up to her apartment. “I told him I was staying here until my homestead next door is finished and we talked about that for a while. He seems pretty nice. Mark gave me some burgers and brats; we should invite him for a barbecue tonight.”

“I’m sure he has much better offers to consider Johnny.”

The window in the room next to Johnny’s opened and Townes leaned his head out. “Hi Bobbie, I assure you I am not considering a better offer, I’d love to join you guys for a barbecue.”

Johnny waved to him. “Come here around 6 and we’ll head over.”

The window closed. Bobbie wasn’t sure what to do but she smiled at Johnny and picked up Fossie and headed back to her apartment. She wasn’t angry or upset or anything but she was a little sad that Townes had seen her in pajama pants, greasy hair and no makeup. And then she wondered why she cared about that. She went out on the deck and brought in the things. If it wasn’t clear tonight, we’ll have to cook the food inside or barbecue in the rain. She went in the storeroom and dug out a golf umbrella and put it beside the deck door. Then she went and had a shower and wondered what she should wear. She settled on a jean skirt, sandals and her favourite silk chemise with a linen shirt. She checked on Fossie who was snoozing, after all the excitement and headed down to the restaurant.

She talked to Mark for a few minutes and snagged a couple homemade buns and as usual, he made her take a plate of burger fixings and some salad he promised to bring them up before six. She went out to the SPOKES bar.

“Hi Chase, how’s the bar business going?”

“We’re doing quite well with the special coffees lately. Water Wheel coffee itself is also a good seller.”

“It’s so neat that Cool Beans makes us our own coffee blend. How’s your house renovation coming along?”

“Mink and I are beginning to make headway; We should be able to move in by Christmas.”

“That’s very exciting. You are doing a lot of work to it.”

“It may have been more practical to demolish and rebuild but we got too far along before we realized. There is something else we need to discuss.”

He sounded so serious that Bobbie sat at the bar. “Certainly, what is on your mind.”

“I got some unfortunate news last week. I had a few unusual blood tests and it turns out I have cancer.”

“Oh my god Chase, No!”

“Yes, I’m afraid I will need surgery and aggressive treatment and may still have a poor outcome. Mink and I spoke and we still want to stay in Crow Harbour so I plan to work as long as I can. This job is almost the first time I have been given this much responsibility and been on salary with fair compensation. I mean, I have made more money but that involved tips and wasn’t reliable. The motel location is so beautiful. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.”

“That makes your diagnosis a bit sadder.”

“No time for tears, you have a business to run. I have surgery next week and I’ve talked to a friend of mine about taking my place in the bar should you find him suitable.”

Bobbie smiled. “I trust your judgment. I’ll touch base later.”

Bobbie waved and went out the SPOKES door, around to the pool deck. She was lost in thought and almost bumped into Townes. “Oops, I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going.”

“Please, don’t apologize. I imagine there are a lot of things to consider while managing a place like this.”

“I have a lot of good people working here, I give them most of the responsibility for running things.” Her voice was wavering a bit and to her horror she let out a sob. Towns looked very concerned and she tried to pull herself together. “I’m sorry, I just found out one of my employees has a serious health issue.”

Townes made a move toward her. She put up her hands. “I’ll be fine; I’ll see you in a little while.” She turned and fled upstairs. She got into her apartment and leaned back against the door. She’d better pull herself together Johnny and Townes would be here soon. She went into her bathroom and threw some cold water on her face and updated her lip-gloss. She heard the elevator ding and she went over to greet them.

“Hi Bobbie. Are you doing alright? This is quite an elevator.” Townes moved in past her and looked around the apartment, taking in the views from the big windows.

Johnny put the food on the counter. “We’ll have to cook the stuff in here, it’s raining too hard out there. Townes said that he ran into you a few minutes ago and you were upset. Is someone sick?”

“I’m not sure if this is out in the open, maybe you could keep it to yourself but Chase told me he has surgery next week and ongoing cancer treatment to look forward to.”

Johnny moved over and hugged her. “Man, that sucks.”

Bobbie broke away and swiped away a tear. “Chase is certainly more philosophical about this. If we’re going to be sad; lets be sad with a drink. Townes, what’s your poison?”

They got drinks and Johnny offered to cook the meat so they sat at the kitchen Island while Johnny puttered around.

Townes put down his glass. “It’s a great pace you have here. So how long have you guys known each other?”

Johnny looked up from his cooking. “I met Bobbie the summer of our last year of high school. She was a timid kid all elbows and knees who had skipped a grade, so had no friends and I was an 18-year-old recovering drunk Irish immigrant. I was staying at my aunt’s place a couple of blocks from Bobbies place because my parents back in Ireland wanted to get me away from all my degenerate friends that were corrupting me.”

Bobbie laughed. “I worked part time at the local music store and I had a brand new-to-me guitar. I was sitting in the park where a few guys were playing soccer and I was trying to work up the nerve to try out my guitar.”

“I saw the girl with the guitar case and I was more interested in the guitar but I went up to see her. It was a great little guitar and when she played a tune, she didn’t suck. She let my try it and I played a something and immediately she started harmonizing with me. The more she sang: the prettier she got.”

Bobbie laughed. “Johnny broke all the hearts in high school. He wasn’t going to break mine.”

“You guys never got together?”

“We were both married to other people and now were both widowed. I was back in the UK and I lost mine to a bad speed ball and Bobbies husband had an aneurysm.” He smiled and took a drink. “And now she won’t have me.”

Bobbie took over cooking and turned off the stove. Enough about us, I think supper’s ready.” She moved over to the fridge and put a couple salads on the island. The guys went over to the stove and picked their burgers and dogs and Bobbie had a small burger and a healthy serving of salad.

“Let’s eat in the dining room, there’s no sunset tonight but it gets us out of the kitchen.”

They sat down. The table was set for three with woven bamboo place mats, linen napkins and a bowl of fresh vegetables as a centrepiece. Johnny topped up their wine. “So, Townes, you know all about us; tell us something about yourself.”

Townes sighed. “I don’t think I have any old friend stories. I was a bit of a solitary kid. We had a small house on my granddaddy’s land. My mom raised me alone, I never saw my Dad but I spent a lot of time with my grandpa. I went to a country type one room school house, was home schooled a bit and then I was sent to Switzerland for high school. I graduated there with one year towards a business degree and loads of connections.”

Bobbie frowned. “It must have been quite an adjustment to go form homeschooling to a Swiss boarding school.”

Johnny grabbed the plates. “Ya poor little rich guy. Say Bobbie have you got any of that cheesecake left?”

“I do Johnny, how about I make some Irish coffees to go with it.”