My heart squeezes at the thought of leaving. “I wish you were staying longer,” Khloe says. “I’m just getting to know you.”
Nate and Sam rush past us to help Chester, who is having a hell of a time trying to close the door to Hazel’s. The wind keeps pulling it open on him. Nate grabs the door, but before he gets it shut, he gets a cane to the gut.
Nate lets out a loud oomph, and Sam laughs at him.
“Oh my God,” Khloe says, laughing. “Why did he do that?”
“That was Chester. He doesn’t like help. It hurts his pride, and right now, he’s working to impress Edna.” It’s funny how much I’ve learned about everyone in such a short time. I hurry to Nate and put my hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”
“Never been better,” he grunts.
“Last time I tried to help him, he got me right in the nut sack,” Sam says and puts his hands between his legs. “I was singing soprano for a week.”
“Look,” Khloe says, and we all glance up to see a doe and her two fawns walking down the street.
“God, they’re beautiful,” I say quietly. Cars stop to let them pass, and one of the shop owners tosses out a few apples. We walk slowly, not wanting to startle the animals, but jangling bells reach our ears, and from around the corner, Eddie comes racing down the road, scaring the deer away.
Khloe grabs my arm. “What was that?”
“That’s Eddie,” I say. “He’s an asshole.” I point. “And that’s Doug, his owner, trying to catch him.”
Khloe starts laughing. “Here I thought city living was crazy. It’s got nothing on this place.”
“Lunenburg is one of a kind,” I say. “Lots of crazy things happen here. I actually sailed a pumpkin the other day.”
A news van speeds past us, followed shortly by another. We all go still and exchange glances.
“My first question would be, what has Sam done now, but since he’s with us…” Nate says.
“Come on,” I say. We jog to the corner, and after we round it, we find a crowd of people standing outside Ironworks distillery. I shade the sun from my eyes and spot Frank from the garage chatting with my realtor Phillip, as well as Izzy and Heather.
Nate frowns. “I hope it’s not a fire.”
“No fire trucks. No smoke,” I say, just news crew, who are setting up their cameras and interviewing the locals.
Sam points. “There’s Jason.” We all follow him as he zigzags through the gathering crowd. “What’s going on, man?” he asks when we reach him.
Jason scrubs his face. “Look for yourself.”
We follow his gaze, and my head rears back when I spot an image of Jesus on the side of the building.
“What the heck?” I ask. “Did someone paint that?”
“Nope, it just miraculously appeared overnight. People are saying it’s the second coming or something like that.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Nate says.
“Sam, did you do this?” I ask.
“Hell no.”
“Let me get this straight,” Jason begins. “Jesus comes back, and the first place he hits is a distillery?”
Sam nudges him. “He can turn water into wine, you know.”
As I stand there in disbelief, figuring this is some sort of small-town hoax, from behind someone taps me on the shoulder and says, “Looks like you’ll be going on that camping trip with us after all.”
I spin around and find Faith and Amber standing there.
“You did say something about the second coming, right?” Faith says.
I open my mouth to protest, but Sam wags a finger at me. “Keeping your word is a big thing around these parts.”
I plant one hand on my hip and glare at Sam. “Are you in on this?”
He holds his hands up, palms out. “Nothing to do with it.”
I turn to Faith and Amber, about to protest, give them the best excuse I can think of, but when I see the huge smile on Amber’s face, I