by Ross, Mia
* * *
Wednesday afternoon, Seth caught up with Lisa while she was at the lunch counter, filling a long row of sugar shakers. “Are you busy?”
Pausing in midpour, she cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do I look busy?”
“Kinda.”
“Trust me, I’m not. Go ahead.”
“This morning at breakfast, Aunt Ruth told me she wants to change out all the drapes and bedding in the apartments I’m working on. Then she mentioned putting new trim and a feature wall in each one.” He made a sour face. “I know Gus carries all that decorating stuff, but I’m no good at figuring out what goes together. I was hoping you could help me out.”
Glancing up from her task, she smiled. “You don’t trust Gus to be your interior designer?”
“Not a chance. After seeing his store, I’m guessing he’s not any better at it than I am.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m doing anything important here.” Taking off her ruffled apron, she went to the pass-through and yelled into the kitchen. “Taking my break!”
A muffled response came back, and she joined him on the far side of the counter. “I’m all yours.”
Even though he knew the comment didn’t mean anything special, he liked the way that sounded. As they left the diner, Seth noticed how men’s heads turned when Lisa walked by. The attention didn’t seem to faze her, though. She was either oblivious to it or immune. Since her sparkle struck him as being completely natural, his guess was the latter.
“Don’t those garlands look nice?” she asked, pointing to workers suspended in two cherry pickers, stringing long boughs over Main Street. “They’re going to put lanterns in the upswing parts. That’ll be so pretty.”
“Yeah, this place really goes all out for the holidays. You don’t see that much anymore, with money being so tight.”
“People donate the funds to make it happen,” Lisa told him in a proud tone. “It’s important, so we make sure it gets done.”
“Gotta admire that.” As he pulled open the door of Harland Hardware, they were greeted by a unique version of “Carol of the Bells.”
“Are they banging on metal?” Lisa asked Gus, who was filling a rack with work gloves.
“Hammers on anvils,” he replied with a grin. “That’s the name of their band, too.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “Where do you find these albums?”
“Santa brings ’em.” Sliding the last pair of gloves in place, he asked, “What can I do for you two?”
Lisa didn’t answer, and Seth realized she was letting him take the lead. After months of enduring people’s well-intentioned coddling, he liked that she was allowing him to stand on his own. “Aunt Ruth wants some redecorating done in those apartments. Lisa’s here to make sure I don’t pick out anything stupid.”
Laughing, she patted his arm. “Why don’t you hang with Gus while I check out the new stock? When I find some things I think Ruthy will like, I’ll holler.”
“Works for me,” Seth agreed quickly.
After she’d gone, Gus gave Seth a knowing look. “That girl likes taking care of you, doesn’t she?”
Seth’s first impulse was to deny it, but after a second thought he had to admit Gus might be right. Because he didn’t want to consider it any further right now, he opted for an old military tactic. He turned the tables.
“Mind if I ask you something?” he asked as he followed Gus to the main counter.
“Sure. Might not get an answer, but fire away.”
“What’s going on with you and my aunt?”
Looking neither pleased nor angry, the old Marine studied him through narrowed eyes. “What makes you think there’s anything going on?”
Seth knew he’d hit the nail squarely on the head, but he shrugged to keep things casual. “You’re in the diner at least twice a day, and even if she’s up to her ears in orders she always takes your table herself.” Grinning, he added, “There’s a huge mug behind the counter with your name on it.”
“Those fancy teacups of hers are too small for me. I’m just saving her time by getting all my coffee at once.”
“Uh-huh.”
After a few seconds, Gus relented with a hearty laugh. “All right, you got me. I think the world of that woman, and she doesn’t seem to mind me too much, either. Happy now?”
“I would be if you’d do something about it.”
Seth knew he was pushing it, but his aunt had been a widow for more than twenty years. She never complained, but he hated thinking of her rattling around in her big, beautiful Victorian house all alone. He was pretty sure if his uncle Paul had the chance, he’d tell her the same thing.
“And what about you?” Gus challenged with a knowing look. “When are you gonna do something about Lisa Sawyer?”
Feeling as if he’d been ambushed, Seth tried to spit out the answer that should have come easily. He had no intention of doing anything about Lisa, but for some reason he couldn’t form the words. What was wrong with him, anyway?
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Grinning, Gus deftly changed the subject. “So what is it you two are looking for?”
“I’m not sure,” Seth replied with a grimace. “Aunt Ruth wants something called ‘feature walls’ in these rooms, and Lisa thought wallpaper would look nice. I’m no good with that fancy stuff, so she’s helping me out.”
Lisa shouted for Seth, and he grinned. “There’s my cue.”
As he strolled past the counter, Gus called after him, “I’ve got shower curtains and bathroom googaws back there, too. Be sure to check those out.”
In reply, Seth just groaned, and Gus’s laughter followed him back into the decorator section of the store.
* * *
By the time they were finished at the hardware store, the storm that had been predicted all week was picking up steam. Lisa decided it would be smart to collect the bistro chairs and take them inside before they ended up down the street. There were twenty of them clustered around five tables, and she was fighting the wind every step of the way.
Fortunately, Seth pitched in, lifting two of the wrought-iron tables as if they were made of paper. With his help, the job went much quicker. She was holding the door open for him when a gust of wind roared down the sidewalk with the force of a runaway eighteen-wheeler. Behind it came a chilling rain, and Lisa was grateful when Seth lined himself up to shield her from the water coming in sideways under the awnings. Signs creaked overhead, and the trees lining the sidewalk were bent almost double trying to absorb the wind.
“Wow, this is really something!” she yelled over the noise.
“Almost done.”
He sounded so calm, she glanced over at him. Despite the power of that swirling wind, he looked as though he was doing nothing tougher than wading through ankle-deep water at the beach. Light as she was, Lisa knew if he stepped aside, she’d be blown into the brick wall behind her.
Suddenly, there was a harsh crack as a streak of lightning touched down close by. The roar of thunder was immediate, and she found herself flattened against the wall she’d just been thinking about. She could feel Seth’s heart thumping a measured, reassuring beat against her cheek, even though her own was racing along in sheer panic. After a few seconds, he pulled away, and she saw someone she’d never met before.
Alert and rigid, his hands braced on either side of her, he looked ready for a fight. As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, his eyes had gone a breathtaking icy hue. As his expression mellowed, the color came back into them, and he looked her over with genuine concern. “Are you okay?”
“You mean other than the fact that you just scared me half to death?” More than a little rattled, she hoped she’d managed to sound more or less normal.
“Sorry. Reflex.”
Nobody she knew had reflexes like
that. Quick and violent, they gave her a terrifying glimpse into his past. It was a view she’d rather not have gotten.
“What did you think was going to happen?” she asked.
Before he could answer, she heard the ominous groan of a tree and looked over to the town square. She watched in horror as an ancient oak the size of a tanker truck crashed through the roof of the oldest church in Harland. Whipping out her cell phone, she dialed 911 with one hand and dragged Seth along with the other.
“Pastor Charles’s car is in the parking lot,” she explained as they ran toward the little white church. “He’s probably in there.”
Before she even finished speaking, Seth broke into a full-on gallop, leaving her far behind. By the time Lisa shouted their location to the county emergency operator and got to the chapel, he was yanking boards away from the ruined doorway.
“He’s in there, all right,” Seth ground out between clenched teeth. “He heard me and called for help. Said the roof caved in on him and he can’t move.”
Sending up an urgent prayer for the pastor’s safety, Lisa helped Seth clear a space just wide enough for them to get through. When they had one, he turned to her and gripped her shoulders in his scratched, bleeding hands.
“Lisa, I want you to wait in the parking lot for the EMTs.”
“But—”
The look he gave her would have cowed the Devil himself, and for once in her life she went the meek route. Above their heads, one of the remaining roof trusses creaked and shifted, sending decades-old dust down on them.
“Be careful!” she cautioned as Seth slipped inside.
She peeked in behind him, watching him wade through pews and hymnals scattered everywhere, then duck under the enormous tree felled by the storm. Tossing aside beams as if they were Lincoln Logs, he made his way to the front of the church.
As the wind’s howling intensified, more debris rained down, and she lost sight of him. The idea of anything happening to this bewildering, courageous man terrified her more than anything had in her entire life.
“Seth?”
“Why are you still here?” he barked as the wail of a siren broke through the screeching wind.
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
He muttered a few things that should never be said inside the walls of a church, then she heard the word “woman” tacked on the end. She gathered he was referring to her, and not in a nice way.
“I’m fine,” he growled. “Go tell the EMTs to come in the back.”
This time, she did as he asked. Lisa scrambled away from the door just before the jamb splintered overhead.
“Please, God,” she murmured as she ran to meet the ambulance. “We could use Your help down here.”
* * *
Choking and squinting against the dust floating in the air, Seth pushed his way through the mess. Near the altar, he found an older man dressed in a gray suit pinned under a fallen rafter. Covered in splinters and dirt, somehow he managed to beam like the cherubs Seth had seen flying around the Sistine Chapel when he’d visited Rome years ago.
“Oh, praise the Lord! I wasn’t sure anyone would hear me over the storm.”
“Lisa Sawyer and I saw the roof go in,” Seth explained.
Despite his own predicament, the trapped man frowned in concern. “She’s not in here, too, is she?”
“No, she’s safe. The ambulance just pulled in, and she’s talking to the EMTs.” Falling back on relentless training that had become instinct, Seth quickly assessed the situation. Hunkering down beside the frightened pastor, he asked, “Can you move at all?”
“A little.”
Ideally, he’d have a couple of guys to help him shore up the pile so it wouldn’t shift uncontrollably and crush either of them. Unfortunately, ideal wasn’t the usual picture for him, so by necessity he’d gotten good at improvising.
Taking the handkerchief from his back pocket, he said, “This could get messy, and I don’t want you breathing in any more of it than you have to.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine. It might take a little doing, but I’m gonna lift this beam up. When you feel things loosen up under there, I want you to slide as far to your right as you can.”
Clearly fighting his fear, the pastor nodded, determination in his dark eyes. Seth tied the handkerchief into place for him and asked, “Are you ready, sir?”
“Ready.”
Seth yoked the beam on his shoulders and braced his legs for a test shove. The pile shifted but nothing big came crashing down, which told him the layers of debris were fairly well-balanced. Applying some more muscle, he managed to lever the beam up enough for the man to slide partway out from underneath.
“That’s good,” Seth told him as he carefully lowered the stack of splintered lumber. “Don’t move anymore till we can get a backboard.”
“I won’t.” He held absolutely still, which was a good sign. He was conscious and listening. Most people in this kind of situation wouldn’t be doing much of anything.
“You’re Ruthy’s nephew Seth, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“She goes on and on about you.” Sighing, he closed his eyes. “I see now she’s been holding out on us.”
What exactly had she told her friends? Seth wondered. Shaking off the uneasy feeling the question caused him, he focused on getting the pastor out of the church before the building caved in on them.
Now that their position was slightly less precarious, Seth decided to make some more space for the EMTs to move around in. Bracing his hands on the beam that held up one side of the pile, he drove in with every bit of his strength and shoved the stack away with a deafening clatter.
The weight of it carried farther than he’d expected, tearing a hole through the side wall. Fortunately, the framing structure held, but it still wasn’t quite what he’d had in mind.
He traded a look with the pastor. “Sorry about that.”
“There’s a leak behind that wall, anyway. We’ve been wanting to open it up and fix it for years.” Through the dust hanging in the air, those dark eyes twinkled at him. “We could use your help with that.”
As innocent as the offer seemed, Seth couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about being singled out this way. During his time in the desert, he’d been taught to blend in and disappear, so standing out in any way still felt like a bad thing to him. Harland was a completely different kind of place, he reminded himself. The people here were genuinely kind and helpful to each other. This was his life now—he just had to get used to it.
Something in the way Pastor Charles had phrased his request, making it so personal, made Seth want to agree even though he didn’t know the details. In his experience, leaping before you looked could be deadly, so he hedged. “You need a contractor for a job this big. I’m just a carpenter.”
“You know, son, I work for a carpenter who did some pretty impressive things.”
The reference to the faith he’d abandoned made Seth’s skin crawl. Before he could come up with a polite way to decline, two shocked EMTs appeared on the other side of the hole.
“We thought the whole place was coming down,” one of them said with obvious relief. “You okay?”
“I am, but Pastor Charles needs some attention. You’ll want a stretcher and a backboard, just to be safe.”
The guy cocked his head. “You a doctor or something?”
Hardly in the mood for twenty questions, Seth gave him a stern glare. Fortunately, the EMT backed off, grabbing his partner before hurrying back to the ambulance. Waiting for them to come back would only annoy him, so Seth knelt down beside the injured man.
“How’re you doing, sir?”
“A little sore, but I’ll be good as new in no time,” he replied with a grateful smile. “T
hanks to you.”
Seth wasn’t used to being around to get credit for what he’d done, so the praise didn’t settle well. “Just pitching in.”
Fortunately, the medics showed up and saved him from having to make any more conversation. Because moving around in the wrecked church was dangerous, Seth helped steady things while they got their patient strapped in and off to safety. When the scene was as secure as it was going to get, Seth stepped through the hole he’d inadvertently created. Actually, it was a good thing he had. It was a much safer route out than the way he’d come in.
As the ambulance pulled away, out of the corner of his eye Seth noticed something that looked out of place. The red-and-blue emergency lights swirled through the vivid colors of a stained-glass window that had somehow survived the cave-in.
A scene of Jesus surrounded by animals, it suited the small-town setting perfectly. The winking effect made him think of the Christmas lights he and Lisa had strung at the diner the other day. He’d seen more than his fair share of carnage, and there had never been anything beautiful left behind.
Did it mean something, or was it just a lucky break? While he was considering the possibilities, Lisa appeared beside him.
“That was amazing,” she breathed, admiration sparkling in her eyes. “I’ve never met a real live hero before.”
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said as they moved out of the path of two fire trucks.
“So was I, but I never could’ve gotten him out of there. He and his family will be incredibly grateful to you. Actually, the whole town will be. He means a lot to all of us.”
Perfect, Seth grumbled silently. He’d come here to lend a hand at the diner, not be the center of a lot of unwanted, undeserved attention.
Sighing, he looked down at the pretty waitress who’d been so kind to him. “Could you do me a favor?”
“Sure,” she agreed with a bright smile.
“Could you keep this quiet?”
“In Harland?” She laughed. “Are you serious? Everyone already knows.”
