Here in My Heart: A Novella (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano Page A
Authors: Anna DeStefano
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that she got to the Dream Whip before dawn on Saturdays, prepping for a day of burgers and fries and shakes, as well as the farm-to-table organic salads she’d convinced Vivian to begin selling a few years back.
Vivian had let it slip once that she’d fought the idea. But within a week of being added to the menu, the healthier options had been selling well, and she’d begun trusting Dru’s instincts. The resulting menu expansion, according to the financials Brad glanced at on Vi’s home computer each time he was in town, had become the most profitable segment of the Dream Whip’s business. All of which he’d be happy to share with Dru if she’d let him—instead of looking as if she might smack him with the same enthusiasm she was currently using to flatten her hamburger patties.
She hadn’t opened up when Brad knocked on the front door of the Dream Whip. Thank God for the key Vivian still kept on the hook beside the kitchen phone. He’d let himself in. Stepping back into the restaurant he’d grown up in had stopped him cold—red upholstered booths and chairs, white tabletops, everything edged in vintage chrome that might have looked beaten up to some. To him, all of it, especially the spacious counter in front where people were greeted and orders were placed and staged before they were carried out to waiting tables, would always feel like home.
He’d pushed through period swinging doors to the kitchen. The cramped space beyond was still overcrowded with industrial-grade appliances that hadn’t been state-of-the-art when he’d worked there as a kid. He’d found Dru elbows-deep, forming by hand the all-beef, secret-spiced patties that would become mouthwatering burgers when she opened the joint at eleven.
“I didn’t need your help when I was eighteen,” she finally said. She flattened another patty onto a paper-covered sheet pan. “I don’t need it now.”
“You didn’t have anywhere else to go. You wanted to stay in Chandlerville.”
“You don’t know that.” She kneaded a handful of the fresh ground beef that Watson’s Butcher Shop delivered seven mornings a week, every day except Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.
“I know you.” That was why he’d repacked his things into his duffel bag that morning. He’d bunk with Travis the rest of his stay in town, so he didn’t run Dru out of Vivian’s. “This town and having a place in it you could call your own is all you’ve ever wanted. So I asked my grandmother to help, five years ago. It’s your doing that Vi wants you to stay now. I’m sure everyone else in Chandlerville does, too. Horace told me you’re a Girl Scout leader, a volunteer at the Y beyond radKIDS, a tutor at the middle and high schools. You help out the Dixons when they need you, on top of the work you do at the restaurant and how much more Vi’s depended on you at home the last few years. You’re dug in. You’ve made a good life for yourself and everyone around you. Don’t piss that chance away because you’re still mad at me.”
“Another chance that’s going to be because of you, whether I want it to be or not?”
“So what? The only person who cares about you and me anymore is you .” Brad saw her blink as if he’d slapped her. “That’s not what I meant. I care about your happiness. I want you to have whatever Vi wants you to have.” Surprisingly, he realized that he did, even if it meant he lost the house. “But for this to work, you’re going to have to get out of your own way about us.”
“ This isn’t going to work.”
“Why not?” The pros and cons had rolled around in his mind until dawn. “Travis forgave me. So did your parents and Vi. No one else in Chandlerville knows me well enough anymore to care about what happened when we were in high school. Meanwhile the business is solvent. It’s thriving in hard economic times. And your fingerprints have been all over how Vi’s run things for years. You’ve been invaluable to her here
Vivian had let it slip once that she’d fought the idea. But within a week of being added to the menu, the healthier options had been selling well, and she’d begun trusting Dru’s instincts. The resulting menu expansion, according to the financials Brad glanced at on Vi’s home computer each time he was in town, had become the most profitable segment of the Dream Whip’s business. All of which he’d be happy to share with Dru if she’d let him—instead of looking as if she might smack him with the same enthusiasm she was currently using to flatten her hamburger patties.
She hadn’t opened up when Brad knocked on the front door of the Dream Whip. Thank God for the key Vivian still kept on the hook beside the kitchen phone. He’d let himself in. Stepping back into the restaurant he’d grown up in had stopped him cold—red upholstered booths and chairs, white tabletops, everything edged in vintage chrome that might have looked beaten up to some. To him, all of it, especially the spacious counter in front where people were greeted and orders were placed and staged before they were carried out to waiting tables, would always feel like home.
He’d pushed through period swinging doors to the kitchen. The cramped space beyond was still overcrowded with industrial-grade appliances that hadn’t been state-of-the-art when he’d worked there as a kid. He’d found Dru elbows-deep, forming by hand the all-beef, secret-spiced patties that would become mouthwatering burgers when she opened the joint at eleven.
“I didn’t need your help when I was eighteen,” she finally said. She flattened another patty onto a paper-covered sheet pan. “I don’t need it now.”
“You didn’t have anywhere else to go. You wanted to stay in Chandlerville.”
“You don’t know that.” She kneaded a handful of the fresh ground beef that Watson’s Butcher Shop delivered seven mornings a week, every day except Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.
“I know you.” That was why he’d repacked his things into his duffel bag that morning. He’d bunk with Travis the rest of his stay in town, so he didn’t run Dru out of Vivian’s. “This town and having a place in it you could call your own is all you’ve ever wanted. So I asked my grandmother to help, five years ago. It’s your doing that Vi wants you to stay now. I’m sure everyone else in Chandlerville does, too. Horace told me you’re a Girl Scout leader, a volunteer at the Y beyond radKIDS, a tutor at the middle and high schools. You help out the Dixons when they need you, on top of the work you do at the restaurant and how much more Vi’s depended on you at home the last few years. You’re dug in. You’ve made a good life for yourself and everyone around you. Don’t piss that chance away because you’re still mad at me.”
“Another chance that’s going to be because of you, whether I want it to be or not?”
“So what? The only person who cares about you and me anymore is you .” Brad saw her blink as if he’d slapped her. “That’s not what I meant. I care about your happiness. I want you to have whatever Vi wants you to have.” Surprisingly, he realized that he did, even if it meant he lost the house. “But for this to work, you’re going to have to get out of your own way about us.”
“ This isn’t going to work.”
“Why not?” The pros and cons had rolled around in his mind until dawn. “Travis forgave me. So did your parents and Vi. No one else in Chandlerville knows me well enough anymore to care about what happened when we were in high school. Meanwhile the business is solvent. It’s thriving in hard economic times. And your fingerprints have been all over how Vi’s run things for years. You’ve been invaluable to her here
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