LITMIR.BIZ

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an empty parking space directly across the street. Hayley recognized the fifty-something woman with her wild, unkempt gray hair, jumping out of the driver’s seat and hustling across the street, failing to even look both ways and nearly getting mowed down by a passing pickup truck with its horn blaring. She could hear the truck driver shouting out his open window, “Get out of the street, idiot!”

      The woman, Cloris Fennow, ignored him as she marched up to the Wicked ’Wiches truck, ignoring Hayley and Gemma. She violently pounded on the counter just below the service window.

      At first, Trudy didn’t hear her over the strips of bacon sizzling on her grill, but after a few more attempts at slamming her fist, Cloris finally got her attention.

      Trudy poked her head out the window, somewhat annoyed.

      “May I help you?” Trudy asked.

      “Do you have a permit to park here?” Cloris Fennow shouted.

      “As a matter of fact, I do,” Trudy said.

      “May I see it, please?” Cloris demanded.

      “Are you the police?” Trudy asked calmly.

      “I most certainly am not!” Cloris huffed.

      “Then I don’t have to show you anything,” Trudy said with a pleasant smile. “Now if you would like to order something, you’ll have to wait a few minutes.” And then she disappeared back inside her truck to resume preparing Hayley and Gemma’s lunch.

      Cloris reared back, thoroughly aghast and insulted, and twisted around to Hayley and Gemma. “I don’t know how she expects to do well in this town if she’s going to be so rude to the locals!”

      Cloris stared at Hayley and Gemma, as if expecting them to agree with her, but they didn’t. Hayley had never been a fan of Cloris Fennow. She liked that she was a bit of an oddball, opinionated, and creative with the name of her food truck, the only one in town up until now. But Cloris was also paranoid, abrasive, and basically unpleasant to be around, and so that was why Hayley made it a habit of avoiding buying lunch from her despite the fact that others in town had readily attested to the fact that Cloris made a decent hamburger, despite Sal’s opinion of her stale buns.

      But as the only game in town, Cloris didn’t feel the need to actually be nice to her customers. However, now that she had some real competition in the form of the pretty, young, and talented Trudy Lancaster, Cloris was going to be forced into making more of an effort.

      And that cold, hard fact did not sit well with her.

      In fact, it made her downright livid.

      “I don’t see how this woman can just blow into town with her big ugly truck and try to run me out of business!” Cloris cried, her face red and puffy. “Did you hear the Garbers passed me over this year in favor of this stranger? I mean honestly, what do we know about her?”

      Hayley decided not to point out that the Garbers had never hired Cloris Fennow to cater one of their Witches Balls because, quite frankly, nobody in town could stand her, least of all the Garbers themselves.

      “She has no history here!” Cloris wailed, stomping her foot.

      Trudy set out a plastic tray with two delectable-looking grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches and a generous pile of waffle fries on the side of each paper plate.

      Ignoring Cloris, Gemma picked up the tray and looked giddily at the sandwiches. “Oh my God, Trudy, they look absolutely delicious!”

      This innocent comment just enraged Cloris even further. She stomped her foot again and wagged a crooked finger at Trudy, who did not seem the least bit perturbed by her business rival’s childish temper tantrum.

      “You better watch yourself, lady, because I can play rough if I have to!” Cloris warned.

      “Is that supposed to scare me?” Trudy asked with a dismissive chuckle.

      “Mark my words, you will rue the day you decided to come to Bar Harbor and set up shop in my territory!”

      Cloris raced back across the street, again not looking where she was going, nearly getting hit by a passing Volvo, horn blaring. She climbed into her Burger She Wrote truck and roared away, nearly sideswiping two Cub Scouts who were in the middle of the crosswalk in front of her.

      Trudy, who possessed a remarkable sense of calm, glanced down at Hayley and Gemma, who were already diving into their sandwiches, and asked, “Should I be nervous?”

      Hayley shook her head, mouth full. Once she swallowed, she finally answered. “Cloris Fennow is just a big talker, kind of a crank. Believe me, there’s no need to worry.”

      Gemma, her mouth also full, nodded in agreement.

      Both of them could not have been more wrong.

      Chapter 6

      “I wish you wouldn’t speak to me like that,” Ted Lancaster said as he wandered toward the Wicked ’Wiches food truck, his phone clamped to his ear, grimacing.

      Hayley and Gemma, who were finishing up eating their sandwiches, eyed him as he approached, declining to greet him as he was too engaged in what appeared to be a very difficult, prickly conversation with someone. He did nod to them in acknowledgment as he continued talking. “Listen, I understand where you’re coming from, but at some point you’re going to have to make an effort to—” He paused. “Hello?” And then he sighed and stuffed the phone in his back pocket, frustrated.

      Trudy leaned out of the window of her truck. “Was that who I think it was?”

      “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Ted growled. “Sometimes she can be so... so... thickheaded and impossible.”

      “Just like her father,” Trudy joked, winking at her husband before glancing over at Hayley and Gemma, who were standing awkwardly nearby and chewing the last bites of their subs. “Ted’s daughter, Alyssa.”

      Hayley and Gemma both nodded, choosing to remain silent, not anxious to overstep their bounds and ask too many questions. But, fortunately, Trudy was in a chatty mood.

      “She’s been having a rough time of it ever since Ted divorced her mom and married moi.”

      “How old is she?” Gemma asked.

      “Twenty-one,” Ted answered gruffly, obviously replaying the conversation with his daughter over again in his head.

      “She’s a senior at Boston College, studying Education. She wants to be a teacher,” Trudy said.

      “Not anymore. She just told me she’s dropping out and moving to New York to sing in a rock band, if you can believe it. She’s in her final semester, with enough credits to graduate in a few months, and now she’s throwing it all away on a whim!”

      “Wow, is that why she called?” Trudy asked.

      “Yes, and to remind me what a terrible father I am,” Ted grumbled.

      Hayley and Gemma crumpled up the paper plates and tossed them in the trash can next to the food truck and were about to sneak away when Trudy drew them back into the uncomfortable conversation again.

      “There has been a lot of tension ever since I came onto the scene. A lot of it has to do with the age difference between Ted and me. Alyssa has made it quite clear that she hates the fact I’m closer to her age than I am to Ted’s.”

      “Look, I know how awful it is when your parents get divorced,” Gemma said softly, glancing furtively at Hayley. “But you can’t force them to stay together, and you certainly can’t control who they fall in love with.”

      Ted didn’t appear to be listening because he was too lost in his own thoughts. “She’s doing this just to get a rise out of me. She wants to get me angry because she’s so angry.”

      “Ted, maybe her going to New York is a good thing. If she wants to be a performer, that’s

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