In His Eyes

by Barbara Lohr

  Finally, a shout went up from the far end of the search area. “Over here!” Everyone turned. They swept through the high, damp grass, and Diana prayed they’d found Luanne, and that she’d be all right.

  She followed Will toward the excited voices. The search party pulled back when he arrived. Surrounded and safe, Luanne looked scared to death. Will approached her. “Hey Luanne, it's me. Will. You're all right now.”

  “I want to go home,” Luanne wailed, plucking at her wet shirt. “I want my mam.”

  Just a tiny thing, she cowered from all the attention. Her white hair was matted, and she shivered in a light summer top. Shielding her face when the light hit her, she turned toward Will, no doubt responding to the kindness in his voice. “I'm looking for my mam. She'll be mad that I’m not home.”

  Keeping a little distance between them, Will held out a hand. “We'll go to your mam's right now, Luanne. Can you take my hand?” When her knuckled hand reached out, the group exhaled.

  One of the EMTs appeared with a stretcher, but Will warded them off with a shake of his head. But he did accept an umbrella. Together they all walked back to the building. Diana could hear him talking to Luanne in soothing tones. What an amazing man.

  How embarrassing that she was ogling him like this, but Will looked riveting in that wet shirt. Was anything more attractive than compassion? Time to turn down the hot-o-meter. A confused elderly woman was safe, and that was the main concern tonight. Luanne looked up at Will as if he were a savior, and he was probably was for her. In Diana’s eyes, he was a hero.

  Relief made her knees wobbly as Diana followed the group back. She couldn’t recall another time when she’d experienced this life-and-death urgency. And she’d been a part of it. Once inside the facility, Luanne blinked in the bright lights of the reception area. Will whisked her down a hallway with comforting words. “Let's just get you settled, Luanne. You're home now.”

  Jan, the head nurse, thanked the crews. “Hot coffee in the break room,” she told them. “Good work tonight, everyone.”

  The crisis had passed and now Diana felt she didn't belong, a familiar and unwelcome feeling. While the EMTs and the First Alert team clapped each other on the shoulders and headed down the hall for coffee, Diana slipped out into the dank night air. The rain had stopped. Clouds moved stealthily across the sky, allowing just a glimpse of a moon. Exhausted and lost in thought, she took her time on her way back to town.

  Tonight she'd seen Will in a completely different light. How could she measure up to that? Indecision gnawed at her empty stomach when she reached the house and hurried into the bathroom to check the damage. One glimpse in the mirror and she froze. Red bumps swelled all over her face, along with an angry streak from that branch. Her eye makeup had streaked, giving her serious raccoon eyes. The hairdo? Forget it. Her shiny blonde curls had been reduced to a dirty brown mess.

  And Will had seen her like this?

  Chapter 5

  Climbing the steps to Diana’s cottage the following afternoon, Will heard a lot of slamming around. Warm pizza box in hand, he listened. She was belting out “Be My Baby,” and he smiled. Hadn’t heard that in a while. Was she dancing too? With a hot rush, he remembered how she’d felt in his arms at the Firemen’s Ball.

  He shut that down fast and rang the bell. The singing stopped.

  A few seconds later, she peeked out from behind the curtain. Maybe he should've phoned first, but he’d been in a rush. She'd been so amazing the night before. He never would have pictured Diana Prescott slogging through the fields, looking for Luanne Gummer. It really touched him to see her eyes fill when they finally found his missing resident. A pizza was the least he could do. Besides that, he wanted to see Diana. Their date had been cut short.

  The door cracked open. “Will?” Diana was wrestling a blue bandana from her head.

  “Hey, beautiful. Want a short visit from a tall friend?”

  A Rosie the Riveter t-shirt clung to her figure, and she was yanking her curls over her face. “Hey, are those bites from last night?”

  Her hands flew to her cheeks. “Do they look that bad?”

  Will wanted to bite out his tongue. “You can hardly see them. Have I come at a bad time?”

  The helpless look in her eyes told him yes. He shifted uncomfortably in his dockers. Her eyes fell to the box, and she opened the door. “First you bring me roses and now pizza?”

  Coming inside, Will made sure he didn’t step on her bare feet. “I figured I owed you dinner after last night. How about lunch instead?”

  “You really are too cute. I’m just straightening up.” Following her to the kitchen island, he was pleased to see his roses in a vase.

  “Where should I put this?” He lifted the pizza box.

  She pointed to the open side door. “How about the picnic table?"

  “Fine with me. Beautiful day. Want me to bring anything out?”

  “No. I’ll be there in a minute.” Was Diana freaking out? Hands on her cheeks, she was backing up into her bedroom. “Just need to get organized, okay?”

  Organized? He had no idea what she meant. “Fine. I’ll be outside.” With any luck, she would not change that t-shirt.

  Outside, the sun was peeking through some clouds, and squirrels chased each other in the trees. Sliding the pizza onto the table, Will sat down and leaned back on his elbows, facing the yard. Diana had a pretty little place. Small but private. Someone had obviously liked flowers enough to plant the black-eyed Susans, daisies and other plants, but it probably wasn’t Diana. Weeds had sprung up and were fighting for their territory. “If you give a weed an inch,” Grandma Trudie had always said, “it’ll take over your whole garden. You have to pull them out when they’re little rascals.”

  Feeling antsy, Will sprang up and started yanking away. The August sun felt good on his back. In the distance, he heard the whine of a motorboat out on the lake. He could use a little beach time, preferably with a certain beautiful blonde.

  But Diana was more than that. The thistles fell from his hands, and he bent to scoop them up. Last night had been such a surprise. She was so down to earth and honest.

  “Hey, you don’t have to do that.” Diana appeared at the kitchen door, her blonde hair in a braid over one shoulder. He was relieved that she hadn’t changed from her shirt and white shorts. Flip-flops slapped her pink-toed feet when she came down the stairs. She glanced accusingly at the pile of weeds.

  “Just filling the time. Pretty flowers out here. My grandmother always loved the black-eyed Susans.”

  “I sure don’t have a green thumb. Guess that’s clear.” It tickled him when Diana frowned at the flowers as if they were naughty children. “What can I get you to drink?”

  “Any kind of pop is fine. Let me help you.”

  Following her back up the steps and into the house, he took in the long legs that stretched from her cut-offs to her flip-flops. That restless feeling zapped his nerves. Maybe he was just hungry. From one of the cupboards, she took out some plastic glasses and then rummaged around in the refrigerator for the pop. Will chose one. By that time, he wanted to run the icy bottle over his pulse points. His heart had definitely revved up. Diana smelled like antiseptic ointment, which today he found sexy.

  A pail and mop leaned in a corner of the kitchen. “Looks like I interrupted something.”

  “Nothing that I can't pick up later. How’s Luanne?”

  “Doing fine.” They talked about the night before while she finished stacking a tray with the drinks, paper plates, napkins and some silverware. “Here, I’ll take that.” He grabbed the green tray while she held the door open. By this time, flies buzzed around the cardboard pizza box and he didn't blame them. His stomach growled.

  Diana looked over and smiled as she flipped open the top of the box. “Sounds like you're hungry. Wow. Will you just look at this? My favorite things.” Her eyes circled back to him, glowing like he’d just give her the Hope Diamond.

  “Hope I got it righ
t.”

  “You listened,” she said in that breathy voice that made him uncomfortable in a good way.

  “This is what you like right? Spinach, peppers, olives.”

  Her eyes widened. “Sure is. A lot of times I just forget to eat lunch.” Picking up a knife, she filled both their plates.

  No wonder she bordered on skinny. “How can you forget a meal? You should have three squares a day.”

  She shrugged a slim shoulder. “Sometimes I just get busy.”

  They settled back in the shade of the oak tree that towered overhead. Contentment filled him, and so did the sight of Diana. She ate with gusto. No way was this pizza going to last her for two days. The crust was thin, just the way he liked it, with lots of cheese heaped on the toppings. “This is my first Brewster’s pizza,” he said.

  “You have a lot of exploring to do.”

  “Maybe I need a guide.”

  Her chewing slowed while her cheeks flushed. She swallowed. “In lots of ways, I’m new here too, Will.”

  “Good. We can take it on together.” He pictured long rides up the highway, her hair blowing in the wind.

  “You know what? I might take you up on that. That is, if you mean it.” She shot him a shy, sideways smile. She had a sensitive side. Will knew how that felt. This wasn’t the time to tell her she had spinach stuck in her teeth.

  For a couple of minutes they munched in silence. Her moans of appreciation didn't go unnoticed. His body was taking them way too seriously. When she licked her fingers, he had to look away.

  “Do you live in town, Will?” she finally asked. “Or out closer to your work?”

  When he took a deep gulp of his soda, he found her eyes on his neck, lips slightly parted. He swiped the heel of one hand across his mouth. Their eyes locked until she looked away. “I live in one of those condos up on the ridge above Red Arrow Highway. Bowling alleys used to be there, or so I’m told.”

  “The pastel buildings with the white trim? The ones that are all different colors?”

  He laughed. “Got it. I guess everyone notices them, although the town is full of pastel condos from what I can see. And my staff tells me that a lot of people aren’t happy about it.”

  Diana turned reflective, the sunlight playing tag on her face. “The book group told me that homes like this one were torn down to build those condos. All rentals now, so folks have mixed feelings.”

  “A sore subject with some people?”

  “Yeah, like Cole Campbell. Some folks want the town to stay the same.”

  She’d mentioned Cole, and he had questions. “So if you don't mind my asking, how did you end up going to the Firemen's Ball with Cole? You said you were fixed up.”

  Diana gave a sigh as if she’d explained this too many times. “Kate’s high school friends, Sarah and Chili, are part of our book group. They asked me if I would go with Cole. I knew him. We'd done some work together on the town development, so it wasn’t totally awkward. There was nothing between us, but I like the women in that group. I went along with their plan to get the two back together.” She dipped her head, looking embarrassed.

  “But you and Cole weren’t…?” He wanted everything to be clear.

  “Oh no, no. We were never that way. Maybe we were both too busy. Relationships take time. That was back in the spring. My summer line was arriving at Hippy Chick. Cole was busy with new projects. Timing is everything.” Her eyes clouded and he wondered what that was about.

  Pushing the box toward him, she said, “Only one slice left. Take it now or be responsible for me not fitting into my jeans.”

  “Can't let that happen.” He liked the way she looked in her jeans.

  While he chewed, she chattered about her book group. He should be happy. At least he knew she wasn’t interested in Cole. “Why didn’t Kate just tell me?” he finally asked.

  “What? Oh, you mean the dance.” Her face clouded. “They were off again, on again. She didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “Trust me, I am not hurt. In fact, I like the way things ended up.”

  When she blinked her baby blues, he got a head rush.

  “I’m glad, Will.”

  Could he put two words together after that? “Looks like we got caught in the middle.”

  “Maybe. Kind of stupid, really. Guess I wanted Chili and Sarah to like me.”

  The bare honesty of her words stunned him. “Why wouldn’t they?”

  Her laugh held a self-conscious edge. “I know. Crazy, right? But I didn’t grow up here. Newcomer and all that.”

  “Odd guy out, huh?” He was trying to wrap his mind around this.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Reaching out, she whisked something from his face. His skin tingled. “Any regrets?”

  “Not at all.” Did he have crud hanging from his chin? Still, having her fuss over him was a turn-on. “I didn’t really know Kate. Thing is, with my job I don't get a chance to meet many women under the age of sixty.”

  “What about the people you work with? Nurses and medical techs? They must drool over their handsome administrator.”

  She’d hit his personal hot button. “Dating the staff is a bad idea. Some administrators might do it but not me.” He thought back to Indianapolis and things he would never share. Back then, he’d been young and green.

  Tilting her head to one side, she regarded him with thoughtful eyes. “You've got principles, Will. Good values.”

  How exciting. Not hot. Not sexy. More like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

  ~.~

  Her comment came from her own past, and she was uncomfortable going there. “So, Luanne’s better today? Poor thing looked so terrified last night.”

  “Settling in. Of course, she has the usual confusion. That’s just the stage she’s at with her disease.” But his eyes seemed troubled.

  “How about the staff? Do they know why it happened?”

  He sucked in a breath. “All of the exit doors are alarmed, and none went off. That’s a problem. I have to go over protocols with Jan and see what happened.”

  “Being responsible for people’s lives can’t be easy.” Her mind ran over the possibilities. “Do you think someone on staff left the door open?”

  Will flicked at the last crumb on his plate. “More likely, a staff member took a smoke break outside, which isn’t allowed. Like most facilities, we’re non-smoking.”

  “Sounds complicated and tricky.”

  “It’s disappointing. Certified nursing assistants in small rural areas like this aren’t easy to find. Training them takes time. Besides that, I really like my staff.” He opened both hands as if he hoped a solution would drop into them. “A lot of the women are single mothers.”

  “And you hate to fire them?”

  He grimaced. “Exactly.”

  She felt touched that Will confided in her. How she wished she could help. Tucking the empty plates into the cardboard box, she closed the carton. “I sure don't envy you. Back in Chicago, I had to fire a worker for taking money right out of the till. Made me mad, but more than that she let me down. I’d trusted her.”

  Will’s expression smoothed. “So you know the feeling. Dealing with employees can be hard sometimes.”

  She enjoyed his interest. Diana had no one to talk to about business issues. “Maybe. I’ve never had any complaints from employees. Well, except for the girl who stole from me in Chicago. I’m just glad we’re closed Sunday and Monday.”

  “You can't work all the time.”

  “How many hours a week do you put in?”

  Will gave an easy-going chuckle. “Couldn't even tell you. I’m always on call, like last night. In a way you are too, right?”

  “But the work you do affects lives. My shop caters to women’s whims.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short.” His hand covered hers. Heat that didn’t come from the warm picnic table cascaded through her body. “Clothes seem pretty important to women.”

  She stared at their hands, suddenly wanting to feel his on
other parts of her body. Snap out of it. “Oh, ah, come on, Will. Doesn’t even compare with helping seniors in their final years.”

  The topic had turned serious. Next to the work Will did, her own career seemed frivolous. “Sometimes I wish I were a teacher or a lawyer.”

  “Why, in heaven’s name?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Slipping her hand from his, she rolled a napkin into a tight tube. “I’d help people more. Be taken seriously.”

  “Come on. Running a shop is no picnic.” Amazement crossed his face.

  “Trust me, owning a shop called Hippy Chick is not taken seriously.” Why was she being so open with him?

  “You mean by men?” he said quietly.

  “Right. Men.”

  “Then you haven’t met the right man.”

  Well. That look in his eyes gave her shivers. Looking down, she picked at her pink nail polish. “All I know is you’re a great guy, and Gull Harbor Care Center is lucky to have you. But I have to be honest, I hope my grandmother and aunt can stay in their own home.”

  “In Newtown, right?” He grinned and the mood lightened.

  He remembered. “Exactly. Where people know them.”

  With a sigh, Will stretched his long legs out to the side. His muscled calves made her glad he’d worn shorts. “That’s why I came to Gull Harbor. There’s a family feeling in this town, don’t you think? Isn’t that why you left Chicago?”

  She swallowed hard. Sure, they were being honest with each other but her past? No way was she sharing that. Bryce Williams had been a huge mistake. No one in town knew. Diana wanted to keep it that way so she chose her words carefully. “At first I thought Chicago was so exciting. The restaurants, the shops. But after the recession hit, I wanted to start over somewhere else. My grandfather’s inheritance made that possible. I was ready to leave the big city.” And the biggest mistake of my life.

  “That’s true for a lot of people, especially when you come from a small town.” Looking thoughtful, Will propped his head on one hand. “A lot of learning to do, right?”

  “Right.” And she wanted to start with him. Would his thick hair feel coarse or soft? She flattened her hand on the table.