The Guest Book Read Online Free PDF

wouldn’t be eating steak every night, but they’d be on their own again.
    She’d smiled at Hank, her ticket to freedom, hoping he hadn’t been too repulsed by the stain on her shirt.
    “Okay, well, just get those forms turned back into me soon as you can, and I will have you on the schedule for training starting next week.”
    “That sounds great! Thanks again!” She’d backed out ofhis office, waving frantically, a broad smile on her face that melted as soon as she raced from the store toward her mother’s house and her hungry, wailing daughter.
    Hank’s tone of voice changed, became somber, bringing Macy back to the present as the air in the room seemed to shift. Hank was predicting layoffs if the economy didn’t get any better. Ward’s Grocery was a small store known for gourmet and specialty items. But as the economy took its toll, people didn’t make room in their budget for specialty or gourmet items. They decided they could drink Lipton tea and didn’t need the organic, flavored teas Macy had drawn pictures of for a display last week.
    She caught Avis’s eye and returned her forced smile. They were both worried and —smart mouth or not —they both needed their jobs. Avis had two kids in college. And, according to her, big kids were more expensive than little ones. Macy shuddered at the thought.
    After the meeting, Avis sidled up to her. “How was your mom’s?”
    “It was another birthday.” Macy didn’t mention the announcement of the trip.
    “Sounds ummm …”
    “Depressing? Morbid?”
    “Yeah, something like that.”
    “Well, you can’t monkey with tradition,” Macy said. “And after ten years, this counts as tradition. A depressing and sad tradition, but a tradition nonetheless.”
    Avis shook her head. “I still can’t believe she keeps celebrating his birthday.”
    Macy shrugged and pulled her purse strap across her shoulder. “She misses him. We all do. This is a way of making him feel — I don’t know — less gone, I guess.”
    “Think she’ll ever stop?”
    Macy thought of the missing pictures in the shrine, the hopeful look on Brenda’s face when she’d mentioned the trip. She looked down at her phone, silenced during the staff meeting per Hank’s rules, to make sure Brenda hadn’t called about Emma.
    “I wonder sometimes what it would take. To make her stop. But I can’t imagine what it could be.”
    “Maybe ole Hank’ll sweep her off her feet one of these days, and she’ll be too smitten to mourn your dad anymore.”
    Last week she and Avis had snickered at their registers as they watched Hank help her mom out to her car even though she only had one small bag of groceries. He’d scowled at them when he came back in and retreated to his office.
    “Let’s hope not,” Macy quipped, and headed for the door with a wave to her friend. She shook her head at the thought of her mom with a man other than her father. She couldn’t decide if it would be worth it to see her mom with someone else if it meant she would move on from his memory. But if her mom could possibly move on from Dad’s memory, did that mean Macy could as well?
    After ten years, that seemed about as possible as Hank suddenly turning into a nice guy.

four
    Y ou wanted to see me, Hank?” Macy leaned on the doorframe of the tiny office that the staff jokingly referred to as “The Troll Hole.” The room reeked of the unique scent that was Hank: sweat, coffee, and his atrocious cologne. If someone were closed up in here too long, they would probably die of toxic exposure or something.
    “Yeah, Macy. I approved your time off for that vacation your mother arranged. You have her to thank for that.”
    “Oh, thank you.” She had been standing by her mother when she’d made the call Hank was referring to. But she feigned surprise. It had been two months since Brenda had announced the trip, and Macy could hardly wait to go. “That was awfully nice of her.”
    “She’s a lovely lady. Very devoted