The Belle of Linley Cottage

Lillet, Maryland, was one of those townships between real towns; a picturesque view from the highway that travelers never thought to stop at while they moved on to their real destination. Most people wouldn’t know how to get there if they tried.

Zach, however, knew far too well how easy it was to turn off the highway a couple of exits back from the actual view, then venture a mile down the road before turning onto a maze of side streets, until veering left on the road that led downhill into the town. It was easy for anyone who had lived in Lillet their whole lives, not someone who just wanted to pass through. Most of the townsfolk wouldn’t venture outside of Lillet unless they had to for their job or a grand event that wouldn’t happen in the small community.

The problem for Zach was that everything in Lillet felt small. The postcard view lied about how big the town actually was. There was only one road into town, only one high school that everyone attended, only one grocery store to find food, the list went on. The city felt like its own little self-contained ecosystem that was broken off from the rest of the world, and Zach couldn’t stand it most of the time, but it did inspire him to write his favorite story idea to date: Project Void, a tale about a small team aboard a ship in deep space surrounded by never-ending darkness. If Zach had a therapist, they would probably have a field day after reading it, but it was nowhere near ready for anyone to read. That was a long-term goal. He first needed to focus on getting his life back on track.

While Zach planned to be back in town by one, DMV traffic put him there closer to half-past two, which was probably for the best. The lunch crowds were back in their offices, and school kids were still in class, leaving Zach some time to sneak into town without being spotted by anyone. Even so, it was hard to blend in while driving his grandmother’s Ford Mustang down Main Street, which hadn’t changed at all.

It was still the same block of multicolored brick buildings it always had been. The bookstore, the thrift shop, the cafe, and the arcade were the main sights to drive by. Zach could still remember the weekends he and his friends had spent on that strip, making their rounds before heading to their favorite spot in town.

He pulled the car into the parking lot behind the row of buildings and let himself take in the quiet. After spending the rest of the night covering his head with his pillow to filter out the continued ruckus from graduation parties, it was actually welcome to hear very little going on for once. When he got out of the car, the heat of the day came on at full force. Perhaps wearing a sweater vest wasn’t the best idea when Maryland was prepping for summer, but he did really like sweater vests.

He walked around, and entered the first cream-colored storefront that housed his home away from home: The Book Haven. The doorbell rang above him, and the familiar smell of paper and lemon floor cleaner comforted him immediately, alongside the hum of the air conditioning. 

The Book Haven was a store designed for book dragons to come and begin their book hoard, something Zach had started to do once he’d saved up enough money. When he was younger, his family didn’t go to the bookstore. His father was a librarian, so Zach got most of his books from there and found nothing wrong with that until he learned that he always had to return the books after he read them, which broke his heart. There were some books that Zach never wanted to part with, so he constantly checked them out again and again until he was told someone else had them on hold.

And then The Book Haven opened up.

He and his best friends, Kit and Joon, had been waiting for the next book in their favorite adventure series The Sea Guardians to come out when Kit’s father surprised them by taking them to The Book Haven and buying them each a copy.

Zach had immediately fallen in love with the place. 

At the time, he was only interested in children’s books, but over the years he had managed to go through every nook and cranny of the store and picked up books from nearly every section. The wages he’d eventually earned from The Book Haven almost immediately went back into the store, and he started to build up his own little library in his room. He made a Bookstagram during his sophomore year of college to document his library growth over the years. Not that he let anybody in his personal life know about that—Beau had only found out about it when he looked over Zach’s shoulder in the middle of him making a post—but through social media, he had found a plethora of new books that he wanted everyone to read and see on the Book Haven shelves if Des had the room to take his suggestions.

It was easier to suggest things to people who didn’t know him well in real life. It was why Zach had the best track record of convincing customers to buy the books they came in for. He always reminded them that the more they read, the more they could hone their reading tastes and find their forever favorites, so Zach read a multitude of books to figure out his top recommendations for people new to different genres, leading him to know the store like the back of his hand.

The display of new releases was front and center as it always had been, with a sign of the store’s book dragon mascot, Wyatt, showing them off as a new addition to his hoard, his yellow scales shining like gold when bits of sun came through the window. Behind the table was a maze of hardwood bookshelves of varying sizes that led to other tables of recommendations, and a small children’s reading area in the back of the store. To the right stood the hardwood counter and the display of impulse purchases, and to the left, the selection of romance books—affectionately known as the Love in Lillet section after the lighthouse lovers— took up most of the wall, save for the front section near the door reserved for history books about Maryland and town lore.

Zach fell back into his natural walk through the store, strolling along the Love in Lillet wall before weaving through the aisles and finding himself in front of the writing and grammar books, looking for titles he didn’t already own or read like he always did. He had just picked a promising title when he heard footsteps approaching him. “You know, I should really just get rid of that section.”

Zach smiled. “Then why would I have any reason to come here?”

“Because you miss me,” the familiar voice replied in his usual gruff tone.

“Nah,” Zach chuckled, finally letting himself look up at one of the only people he didn’t mind seeing: Des Davis, the proud owner of The Book Haven and more beanies than one could imagine. Many people thought he wore one to hide his bald head, but Zach was one of the few who knew it was because he wanted to look like Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft. 

Zach didn’t think it came across well, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell him, especially when he gave him unimpressed looks like the one he was giving now. “Don’t play with me. I know you missed me.”

Zach held his fingers up with minimal space between them. Des chuckled as he rubbed his bearded chin. Zach was trying to ignore the tan line where Des’s wedding ring used to be when Des said, “Now, what happened to going to New York and changing the publishing industry forever?”

Zach bit his lip but then let out a breath and replied, “The plan got derailed, but it’s a minor setback. I was wondering,” he said as he put the book back on the shelf, “would you mind if I came back to work here again for the summer?” Zach paused when he saw the frown on Des’s face. “What?”

Des sucked his teeth. “I’m sorry, Z. Not that I don’t want you back, but I thought that you would be otherwise occupied by now. I already hired someone to take your usual spot.”

“You did?” Zach said, trying to ignore his heartbeat revving up in his chest.

“Yeah, and I can’t afford to take on anyone else full-time.”

“Oh,” was pretty much all Zach could say as another one of his plans was shredded into a million pieces. 

Before he could go into a full-blown panic, however, Des said, “Hey, but I still need someone to do part-time on the weekends if you’re interested.”

“I can do that,” he said without hesitation.

“You sure? Cause I know you usually can’t do Sundays, and—”

“I’ll make it work,” Zach insisted. He was going to make it work. 

Des nodded. “All right. Well,” Des held out his hand, “welcome back to The Book Haven team.”

Zach shook his hand with as much faux enthusiasm as he could muster before letting it drop. “Hey, if you want to, you can start using your employee discount now,” Des chuckled.

Zach shook his head. “Nah, that’s fine. I’m barely reading at the moment anyway. I only wanted to stop in to see what was here and…” Try to get back a job that’s already been taken. Zach smiled at Des and hoped he couldn’t notice the shaking of Zach’s hand. “I’m good. Maybe next time.”

“Alright.” The bell rang again, pulling Des’s attention. “Well, we’ll talk later, and I’ll have the paperwork ready for you on Saturday.”

“Sounds good. See you then,” Zach said before rushing past him to get out of the store before he did anything that might show the oncoming panic in his head. 

What the hell was he supposed to do now? It should have been an easy comeback, but Des was right. He wasn’t supposed to be in Lillet at all, so why would Des hold his old job for him anyway? At least he had a part-time gig, but that meant that he was still going to be in his house for most of the week, and knowing his father, he was going to come up with some job for him to do if he didn’t find something else. Even when he was younger, his father hated the idea of his kids doing nothing during the summer. He came up with Camp Roberts, where they would do workbooks, write up reports, and make presentations, basically extending their school year until they started up again in the fall, and Zach did not want to give him a chance to make an adult version of that.

 The sun and the radiating heat of the sidewalk nearly blinded him as he stepped back outside, taking him out of his spiraling thoughts, but he was so focused on letting his eyes readjust that he was completely caught off guard when something knocked him down to the ground.

“What the hell?” he groaned as he pushed against whatever was on top of him. He tried shielding his face with his hands from whatever it was, and when he finally got a glimpse, he saw a furry behemoth of an Australian Shepherd attacking him with his tongue.

Zach grimaced.

He was not a dog person.

He heard something squeaky come closer before the mass of multicolored fur was pulled off of him. “I’m so sorry, he’s usually not that aggressive with his affection,” someone said above him.

Zach took a moment to breathe before he finally put down his hand and looked up. He was practically knocked down again when he took a good look at the dog’s owner. It was a woman, a very pretty woman. She was the type of pretty that made people do a double take to make sure they hadn’t imagined her beauty: Copper brown skin that shone in the sun; thick, curly black hair framed her face past her shoulders, along with rounded rectangular glasses with thick brown frames. Not to mention a smile that made her denim overalls and white long-sleeve combo look that much cuter.

She was just really pretty.

And Zach didn’t do well when it came to talking to pretty girls.

“You okay?”

And he had been staring at her for far too long to look anything but creepy.

He quickly lifted his head off the ground but regretted it when he got a bit dizzy. “Do I look okay?” he grunted as he used his hand to stabilize the oncoming headache, and that’s when a wagon came into focus. She was pulling an honest-to-God red wagon behind her that was filled to the brim with floral packages. Zach’s mouth worked faster than his brain when he groaned, “Who pulls a wagon around anymore?”

Her brows raised above her glasses frames as she looked down at him. “I do,” she said in a firm tone.

“What are you, five?” he questioned, again without thinking, eyes widening when he realized what he said.

The woman’s head tilted. “Excuse me?”

Zach cringed. This was not a new thing. Whenever Beau dragged him out to bars to try and integrate him into college nightlife, Zach had no idea of how to talk to women there. He could handle the ones who approached during class or at the library, but in social settings where he already felt uncomfortable, his niceties filter was completely shut off. While his friends were used to his abrupt talk and overly honest commentary, they had informed him that what he usually said off the top of his head could come off as rude, or in this case, insensitive. “N-Nothing. Dumb thing to say.”

“I’ll say.”

Zach looked back up at the woman who had a saccharine grin on her face. “Maybe the heat’s getting to your head, you should probably do yourself a favor and take off that sweater vest.”

Zach narrowed his eyes at her. “I like my sweater vest, thank you very much.”

She smiled at him. “And I like my wagon, so why don’t you just say sorry and we both move on with our days.”

Zach bit down hard on his lips; apologies didn’t come easy to him, but he just wanted to go home, so through gritted teeth, he said, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Apology accepted,” she chirped with a very smug smirk before giving him another once-over. “Now, you need help getting up?” 

It was then that Zach fully felt the gravel underneath his palms and realized he was still lying on the pavement. He quickly scrambled to his feet. “I’m fine.” 

“Good,” she nodded, giving him another toothy grin before wrapping her dog’s leash around her hand. “Then have a nice day. Come on, Appa.” And with that, the girl and her dog went back to walking down the street, her wagon squeaking behind her.

Zach scoffed at the sight before wiping the excess rocks off his hands. He looked down at his sweater vest and grimaced at the dregs of dog drool and fur left on it.

Without another thought, he shoved it off and balled it up, cringing as he felt a wet substance squish against his hand. He turned back toward the parking lot and made haste back to his car. Now, he couldn’t get home fast enough; his shower was calling him.

After passing through the town square, the older brick buildings faded into true suburbia. Houses and cars lined the streets, leaving barely enough room to drive down them, but Zach managed to get to his childhood home without having to pull to the side to allow someone else to pass him.

They lived at the end of the street at the end of the final street of their neighborhood, which always made Zach feel they were boxed into a corner. The idea of walking to town from there was preposterous; it would take over an hour to walk through the neighborhood to the main road, and another half hour to get anywhere fun. He was fortunate though that their home wasn’t cramped enough to make him feel like he was stepping on anybody’s toes in a house of five. It was a house with white sideboards and gray windows that barely looked like it was two stories, perfectly nested at the end of the cul-de-sac.

After pulling into the driveway that was barely big enough for two cars, he sighed. It immediately felt like the last four years hadn’t happened. He had spent summers and most of his winter breaks here, but now he was moving back as a college graduate for an undetermined amount of time. So much for holiday and birthday visits.

He took a deep breath to push those thoughts away. He needed to focus. His siblings were still in school, and his dad and grandmother were at work; he needed to take advantage of an empty house while he had it.

He grabbed his bags and aloe plant out of the car and walked up to the front door. Once he unlocked it, he quickly moved to turn off the house alarm and put down his things. He took stock of the living room to his right, and the kitchen to his left, both unchanged except for a few of his younger brother’s toys hanging around. The stairs in front of him hid the way to his father's and grandmother’s bedrooms, and the laundry room. Upstairs were his and his siblings’ rooms. He should count himself lucky that he didn’t have any random roommates to deal with after graduating; his first roommate in college had been a pain in the ass, and while Beau wasn’t bad to live with, it had been hard for him to take a gamble on asking to bunk with someone he only talked to when they were in class. He knew what he was coming back to for the most part: a rambunctious six-year-old, a moody teenager, a gruff father, and a sweet old lady. He could handle that.

He took off his shoes, lugged his things up the stairs, and went to his room. He immediately smiled at his bookshelves once he opened the door. They were filled with all of his favorites that he'd bought from The Book Haven over the years. The whole thing was one of his prized possessions that he had been devastated to leave behind for college. His bed still sported the quilts that his Mimi made him as a Sweet Sixteen present. The mahogany desk that was his father’s growing up was empty, but it would soon be filled with his notebooks, pens, and laptop again.

He put his aloe plant on his window sill, before dropping everything else at the foot of his bed and going into his bathroom. He groaned when he saw the mess that his little sister, Amaya, had made of it in his absence. She invaded it every time he went back to school. He had no desire to deal with the cleanup, though, so he just shoved all her stuff to the side, stripped off his soiled clothes, and took a quick shower, rinsing off the dog drool, gravel bits, and hopefully most of his stress.

After getting out, he changed into a t-shirt and some sweatpants he found in his dresser, before going out into the hallway housing the variety of family photos that they had taken throughout the years, and which charted the progression of their family growth. There were some early shots of just him, then plenty of shots from after Amaya was born before their little brother, Corey, was added to complete their family six years ago. Zach’s high school diploma sat proudly under a group photo of him and his friends from graduation, and he knew his college one would be added soon enough next to his father’s.

Right where his mother’s used to be.

He took off his glasses and was starting to rub out the wetness welling in his eyes when he heard the door unlocking downstairs. He went downstairs just as the first shipment of Roberts came through the door. The smallest of them spotted him first.

“Zach!” Corey squealed at the top of his lungs as he ran over to his older brother, who immediately stooped down to hug him.

“Hey, bud,” Zach chuckled as he held his mini-self closer. The kid was already growing up far too fast for his liking. “Mimi pick you and Maya up from school today?” he said, pulling back.

“Yeah, can you pick us up tomorrow? I want to show you my school. You can meet Mrs. Jones.”

Zach didn’t have the heart to remind Corey that he’d gone to his school and had had Mrs. Jones, previously Ms. Thatcher, as his teacher long before he was born, so he just nodded. “Sure, bud.”

“Yay!” Corey screeched as he held onto his brother tighter.

“‘Sup, loser?”

Zach glanced up to the door to see Amaya standing there, as well as her perpetual shadow of a boyfriend, Owen Miller. She had grown up far too fast for his liking as well while he was at school. Before he went to college, she was a somewhat sweet, and slightly nerdy twelve-year-old. Now she was a full-blown pain in the ass. She had started modeling herself after MJ from the newest Spider-Man franchise, and it took up far too much of her personality for his liking, but given that MJ looked pretty similar to her (except for Amaya’s umber brown skin and hair), it wasn’t a surprise. Still, he didn’t like that her Marvel fascination just enhanced the amount of snark that she’d been developing over the past few years.

“Go away, nerd,” Zach said as he let go of Corey, who promptly ran up to his room. He then turned his attention to Owen, who was already staring at him nervously. Owen had been one of Amaya’s best friends in middle school, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with him, but Zach had been shocked to get the news that they had started dating when he came back during winter break. So, like any good big brother, he went into overprotective mode whenever Owen was around, which was a lot. “Miller,” he said, looking him up and down.

“Hey, Zach.”

Zach just kept staring at him blankly, making the boy shrink in on himself. At least, shrink as much as a Black, broad-shouldered, beefy lacrosse player could.

Amaya rolled her eyes, grabbing Owen’s hand in hers before dragging him up the stairs.

Zach groaned as they walked through the house without taking their shoes off, but didn’t get a chance to yell at them before Mimi came through the door, immediately unwrapping the scarf around her graying locs. She hugged him with a wide grin across her face. “It’s good to see you, baby.”

Zach rolled his eyes. “You saw me two days ago.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not happy to see you.”

Mimi was one of the sweetest people you would ever meet. If he ever needed somebody to lean on for support, he knew that he could count on her. Also, she was the only one who could order his dad around, so having her in his corner meant everything to him.

Zach pulled back from her before looking at the keys he put in the dish earlier and plucking them out. “Thanks for letting me use your car,” he said, trying to take it off his keychain.

“Keep ‘em.”

Zach looked up at her. “What?”

“You probably have more use for it than I do anyway,” she said with a smile. Zach tried to contain how giddy he felt, but it probably showed on his face anyway.

“Seriously?”

“Consider it a graduation present,” she said while using her bright red nails to pinch his cheek, which he didn’t mind at all. This was one of the reasons why Mimi was the greatest. He had a car. It was probably only going to be for the summer, but he now had a way to leave the house whenever he wanted.

Finally.

Zach smiled before putting the keys back into the dish. “You are the best, Mimi.”

“Anything for you, baby,” she said after releasing his cheek.

“And I swear, I’ll drive you anywhere you need to be this summer,” Zach promised, making her smile wider.

“I know you will.”

As she went to go to her room, Zach was ready to go hole up in his own when Corey attached himself to Zach’s legs.

“Zach, can we go to the park later so I can go down the big slide?” he asked, looking up at his older brother.

Zach shook his head. “Not today, buddy.” He knew how their dad would feel if they went without his permission.

Corey looked like he wanted to hop up and down and hold onto him until he said yes, but then the door opened again. Zach felt his spine stiffen as his father walked through the door, already shucking off his suit jacket.

Corey just ran up to him and hugged his legs. “Daddy!”

“Hey, Corey,” Jedidiah smiled as he rubbed a hand over his youngest’s head, then looked up at his oldest. “Zach.”

Jedidiah Roberts was already intimidating as hell with his large stature on a good day for Zach, but today, when he felt like he’d already had enough, he was feeling like a new kid coming in halfway through the school year and being met by the captain of the football team, which Jed was back in his day. Just one of the many differences between Zach and his father.

Zach was an academic through and through, but his father had always wanted him to get into sports growing up. It felt odd because he was now one of the town librarians, but he was still a huge football fan, yelling at the screen during every Ravens game and coaching the little tag football team in town. He tried to have Zach join it when he was younger, but Zach lacked hand-eye coordination, hated running, and the idea of tackling or getting tackled scared him out of his mind. Eventually, his father accepted it, but it took a long time, and Zach still felt like it was hard to talk to his dad about things he wanted. Talking to him in general was hard.

“Hey,” Zach said quietly.

Jed raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me. Just ‘hey.’ Try that again.”

“Hi, Dad.”

Jed nodded. “That’s better. Did you unpack already?” 

Zach shook his head. “Not yet.” 

“Well, get on it, then you can come help with dinner.” 

“Oh, Daddy, can I help?” Corey said as he bounced on his toes while pulling on the sleeve of his father’s dress shirt. “Please, please, please!”

“Corey—”

“Please,” Corey said as he practically climbed up their father like he was a tree. There was a time when Zach was like that with him too. That moment had long since passed, though.

“I could take him off your hands. He wanted to go to the park,” Zach suggested, but his father immediately scooped the little one into his arms.

“No, that’s fine. Let’s go cook, little man.”

Corey cheered as they walked into the kitchen, allowing Zach the chance to scurry back up the stairs. Once he was up, he peeked into Amaya’s room and saw her and Owen cuddling on the bed, her head on his chest. If it was anybody but his sister, he would’ve thought it was cute, but since it was his sister, he knocked on the doorframe. The sound made Owen fall off the bed into the nest of pillows Amaya kept next to it.

Amaya turned to the door and glared at him. “Hey!”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me. Dad’s home, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want to see y’all in a bed together, so you should be thanking me. Keep to your separate corners. And I expect you to take your stuff out of my bathroom after dinner.” He left with a chuckle, but the smile slid off his face as soon as he closed his bedroom door behind him.

He needed a new plan.

If he got lucky, whoever was working full-time at The Book Haven would give up the job, and Zach would have an easy way back into his retreat, but he couldn’t rely on that. 

He took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of his bed.

He just needed to focus.

As long as he didn’t get distracted, he could make this work.

Other Job Types to Consider

1. Tutor (School’s Almost Out, not worth starting up)

2. Server at Papa Porter’s (Far too many people go there and I’ll have to talk to a ton of them)

3. Mowing Grass (Taken, everybody uses the same guy)

4. Freelance…reader

5. Fuck my life