They've come full circle, it seems- it's the start of Spring, Colorado snow just starting to melt fully away, and temperatures just beginning to reach semi-bearable levels. Buds are out on trees, but the threat of a final frost hangs over their delicate heads. Grace has had it up to here with winter, and so has most everyone she knows. Winter had become one long endless week, as far as she could tell, especially considering the amount of weekends she worked during school- and she just wants to break away from the homogeneous nature of it all.
It's mid-morning, nearing the lunch break she was ready for hours ago, when the sliding doors welcome a customer into the store. Grace steps around the nail polish display she is monotonously re-setting to greet whoever it may be, and is met with a sight she has no idea how to respond to. It's Buck, whose face she certainly hasn't forgotten, and he's chased by- is that? She thinks that it is- by the kid with the urgent need for stitches. "JD!" Buck hollers back to the young man, "this ain't no way to treat your elders-"
He's cut off by JD slapping his hat off of his head, looking smug. Buck scowls at him, slowly bending to retrieve the questionable article- a trucker-style hat with a reference to that missing shaker of salt on the front- and replacing it with feigned dignity.
Behind the two comes Josiah and Nathan, with Ezra on their heels. The broad shouldered man and his healthy-eating companion are laughing at the scene that's unfolding, Josiah arches his eyebrows in Buck's general direction. "I think you're lucky JD is the one who went after that hat, instead of a stranger."
Nathan nods, stifling a laugh. "Not a court in the land would convict 'em."
Ezra is absently adjusting his jacket. Grace notes that he seems to be in much better health this time, and watches as he glances up towards Buck and JD without turning his head. "I myself intend to shop only in the isles you do not." He makes a show of taking a wide berth around the two as he moves further into the store. "It'd be a pity if the moment God smites you stained my clothes."
Grace turns her eyes back to the door, sensing that more had to be coming. Sure enough, her favorite regular and- who was his calm friend? Vin- enter the store, and she finally scrapes together some level of professionalism and gives Chris a nod and a cheerful, verbal welcome. He returns the greeting with a smile, and Grace feels her atmosphere change. That is the brightest she's ever seen him be- maybe that old adage about "safety in numbers" is true in more ways than one.
Unable to stop herself, not on such a wild occasion as this- the crew that she attributes Chris' improved life to all in her store together?- she stops what she's doing with the nail polish shelves, and wanders up the facial care isle, where she can hear what's happening in the hair care isle one over, and sort of see it through the expensive bottled products on her side. Vin is browsing the shampoos, and JD watches, hands on his hips.
"You have been telling us about how great it is to be off the grid and live off the land and stuff for how long," he says shrewdly, "and yet you're gonna bring shampoo?" The younger man turns to Buck, throwing his hands into the air with drama. "This is an outrage."
Vin sends a good-natured scowl in their direction, mostly unbothered by their interruption. "If you ask me," he says, glancing pointedly their way, "roadtrip and suffering don't have to mean the same thing." Having delivered this argument, he returns his full attention back to the shampoo.
Somewhere behind him, she hears Chris choke, huffing, "You wanna bet?" to Nathan, who doubles over laughing at the exchange.
Meanwhile, other shenanigans seem to be happening elsewhere. Grace hears the sound of products hitting the counter up front, and turns on her heel to head that way. She has a customer, one who seems relatively normal by comparison, and she calls out a quick, "I'll be right with you!" as she approaches. Passing the seasonal and toy isle, however, she's just in time to see Buck and JD miming running over one another with children's sized toy cars leftover from Christmas clearance. She can only shake her head in amusement.
Once she has tended to the needs of her lone, normal customer, she hovers about the front counter, watching eagerly down the isles she can see from her position. The men have spread out through her store, engaging in various behaviors (only some of which could be referred to reasonably as shopping), and creating cheerful havoc wherever they go. Standing near the photo machines at the end of the front counters, she can hear Chris and Josiah talking.
"Where exactly is it we're headed, brother?" comes the booming voice of Josiah.
She hears shuffling, probably the sound of Chris pulling some sort of note or visual aid out of a pocket. "It's my old cabin. "
Nathan's voice gets added in here. "Didn't realize you were a vacation-home kind of type, Chris."
"Not really a vacation place." That's Vin, and she's beginning to realize that they're inching closer, coming up the isle with all the as-seen-on-TV products in it. "It's pretty well off the grid. Kinda small too." No one seems to question how Vin knows the most about this cabin- it's a given dynamic, just as JD and Buck begging a much harried Ezra in the toy isle to decide for them who gets the insurance settlement after their hit-and-run experience is a given dynamic (one that Ezra, struggling to escape the isle of nightmares, seems desperate to ignore).
"Gentlemen," he says to them, his tone almost begging, "I implore you to unhand me. Much to my dear mother's palpable disappointment, a lawyer I did not become." They're coming up the front of the isle now, entering Grace's line of sight. She hurries to find a task behind the counter and look as any typical clerk ought to, instead of like any typical eavesdropper.
Josiah chuckles. "You've got a real lose definition of a gentleman these days, Ezra."
Ezra meets his eyes with his own brand of palpable, but clearly put-upon disappointment. "Please don't remind me."
They're now converging on the cash register, and Grace hurries over, intent on offering the best service that she can. "How are you today?" she inquires lightly, watching as they pile their items onto the counter. Nathan has a small first aid kit, and a handful of healthy snacks. Buck and JD have an armload of unhealthy snacks, and several clearance Christmas items- a ridiculous light-up Santa hat, a bunch of little party poppers left over from the New Year, and Christmas Candy galore, just to name a few.
"We're doing quite well," Josiah tells her, approaching with items of his own. A small notebook and a box of pre-sharpened pencils, a clip-on reading light from some random end-cap, and several cans of premade chili. When Nathan sees the chili, he catches Josiah's eye, a silent question clear. The bigger man just grins, good-natured humor in his tone. "Clarity's just one of the perks of praying." This cryptic acceptance of his current non-skill level in cooking elicits laughter from the others, who have finally caught up, as Grace has begin to scan the items.
After bagging only a few things, she hesitates, seeing Chris, Ezra, and Vin bringing up the rear. "Is this all together?"
Everyone turns expectant eyes on Chris, and he glanced between them all, looking put upon, but resigned.
JD pats all of his pockets for emphasis, before saying, "Yeah, I guess I forgot to bring cash... I'll pay you when we get back?"
A chorus of something to similar effect erupts from several of the others, mostly in a teasing tone. However, the group's leader surprises her when he steps up towards the counter and agrees. "If I didn't know where you all live, I wouldn't be so nice about it," he tells them. The accompanying expression makes Grace feel like her hair is uncurling, but the tone is clearly for show.
She continues scanning, trying to seem professional, hoping that one of them had ever noticed her somewhat misplaced interest in the saga of their visits to her store.
Ezra and Vin are both hanging back, forming some sort of haphazard line behind the others. Chris looks over his shoulder at them. "Yeah, that goes for both of you too. Get up here."
Vin looks very skeptical. "I brought my own money, cowboy."
Ezra feels compelled to chime in as well. "Certainly, Mr. Larabee. I have never taken a loan from anyone in my life."
"Chris," the owner of the name corrects, in a tone that sounds like pure force of habit. "And I know that. Sometimes I think you two might actually be the only other adults." He releases a long-suffering sigh at this notion.
"Hey!" Nathan interjects, "Who's getting the useful supplies here?"
Chris ignores him, but he's facing away from him, so only Grace and the two adamant self payers can see his attempt to hide a smile. "This ain't about who's got what on them. This is has just become a group trust exercise." He gestures to the counter, stepping backwards out of the way, clearing a path for the two to approach.
Ezra and Vin exchange glances, before reluctantly agreeing and placing their items onto the pile. Ezra has a lone Sudoku puzzle book, and Vin has only a jar of coffee.
"I packed coffee," Chris volunteers, glancing Vin's way.
"I know. This is my coffee."
Chris nods in a point taken sort of way, and turns back to the front, as Grace is ringing up the last of the items.
JD's eyes land on the coffee and his eyes widen. "Wait, I almost forgot!" and off he bounces, almost running down the isle with bottled drinks and canned goods.
The others pay little mind, used to such energy, and Buck leans around Josiah to scrutinize the counter. "Say, Chris, what are you getting?"
Chris shrugs, looking just a little awkward, which is something Grace has never seen before. "Uh- nothin'." The five expectant gazes on him leads him to say just a little more, though it's not without some hesitation. "I dunno. I never bought anything in here before, except- Jack Daniels."
Vin grins, patting him on the shoulder, just in time for JD to come back with a case of iced coffee from the shelf. "Don't worry, I'm getting enough of this for you too," the young man encourages the man in mostly black, winking at Buck as he speaks.
Chris wrinkles up his nose. "That stuff is disgusting. I'd rather just drink out of the river."
Grace is still reeling from the realization that all this time, Chris has been stocking his home with those iced coffee cases because of the young visitor at his home, and for no other reason, when she scans the final item and begins setting the bags all up onto the counter. After reading out the total, she glances up at Chris and asks what she feels, at this point, to be the million-dollar question.
"Do you have a store card with us that you'd like to use today?"
"No, I don't really-"
"Chris!" That's JD again, more adamant this time. "You still don't have a store card? I mean, it's up to you, but I'm telling you... you remember how much money I told you that you'd save if you got one, right? You should really do it."
Grace waits, holding her breath. This mission of hers is not about a credit on her record or meeting a quota. That just passing through today attitude of Chris Larabee's has never sat well with her, and she senses that the others are aware of it as well. The sheer impermanence of his routine always stood out to her- and while she has watched improvement after improvement since he's acquired this group of men in his social circle, the unspoken, conscious promise in planning to return often enough to use a rewards card has become the pinnacle of success for him in Grace's mind.
Chris glances between the faces around him, finally smiling and making a what have I got to lose gesture with his hands. "You know what? I guess I might as well. Let's get one."
The others are hauling the bags out to their vehicle as Grace hands over the change and the new card, briefly explaining the system and how it works. "I expect you're going to get a lot of use out of that," she tells him lightly.
As he shoves everything into his beat up wallet, he just grins and shakes his head, pausing to look after the others, who are headed out the door. "I'm pretty sure I will."
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a/n: thank you so much for reading! just so you know, faves and reviews are my life-blood, so if you enjoyed, please let me know and keep me alive! xx