Love Finds You in Treasure Island, Florida

by Debby Mayne

  This time Amanda wouldn’t fall for it. She’d bring it to church on Sunday and give it to Rosemary then.

  It still made her smile, thinking about what lengths Rosemary was willing to go to for her son. Her own mother had been so wrapped up in herself, it wouldn’t have crossed her mind to find a man for Amanda. Not that Amanda needed a man….

  After she finished sweeping, Amanda locked up, hopped on her bicycle, and headed home. She’d just bumped off the curb when a car horn blasted behind her. She stopped and waited for the car to make the turn before proceeding. Treasure Island used to be so peaceful, and now the traffic was getting so bad that riding a bicycle was becoming a dangerous sport. Still, she loved riding with the sun beating down on her back and the gentle breeze caressing her face.

  She pulled into her yard and secured her bicycle at the pole by the side door leading to the kitchen. When she walked into the house, she encountered Lacy standing at the stove, stirring something in a pot. That was something she didn’t see often.

  “What’s for supper?” she asked as she stepped up to glance in the pot. Lacy turned, her face contorted in a frown. “I’m trying to make stew, but it’s all lumpy.”

  Amanda saw clumps of flour floating on top of the thick brown liquid. “Why don’t you spoon some of those out? It looks pretty good underneath. What kind of stew is it?”

  “Hamburger, potato, carrot, and bean stew.”

  “Interesting.” She’d never had hamburger stew before. “Where’d you get the recipe?”

  “I made it up.”

  That explained why she’d never heard of it. At least Lacy was getting creative and making an effort. “Why the sudden interest in cooking?”

  “Brad misses home-cooked meals.”

  Amanda pursed her lips and nodded. “Makes sense.” She leaned over and looked in the pot again. “I like all the ingredients, so I bet it’s pretty good.”

  Lacy looked up at her, and a smile slowly crept over her face. “I hope so. I told Brad I’d come over and cook for him and Timmy sometime.”

  Amanda took care not to act too surprised. She put her gear on the side counter by the door and sat down at the kitchen table. “So how’s it going with Timmy?”

  Lacy shrugged as she turned back to stir her stew. “What do I do with these lumps?”

  “Want me to help you?”

  “No.” The sharpness in Lacy’s voice startled Amanda.

  Amanda held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, I was just offering my assistance. Put the lumps in a bowl.”

  “Then what?”

  It took every ounce of self-restraint to remain sitting. Amanda had always done everything for her sister, so she knew she needed to accept Lacy’s desire to do it herself.

  “After you get all the lumps out, you can toss them.”

  Lacy looked at her quizzically. “Isn’t that wasteful?”

  What would be wasteful was having to toss the entire contents of the pot. “No, cooks do it all the time.”

  “Oh.” Lacy opened a cupboard, pulled out a bowl, and held it up for inspection. “This one okay?”

  “It’s fine.” Amanda doubted that the small cereal bowl would hold all the lumps she’d seen floating, let alone the ones beneath the surface, but she wasn’t about to interfere any more than she needed to.

  “So what’s going on with you and Jerry?” Lacy asked.

  Startled by this out-of-the-blue question, Amanda hesitated for a few seconds before answering. “Nothing is going on. Why?”

  Again Lacy shrugged, as she continued lifting golf-ball-sized lumps from the stew. Amanda wondered if there would be anything left without the lumps.

  “I think it’s time you let down your guard. It’s been awhile since Eric…well, you know.”

  Amanda didn’t want to even think about Eric, let alone talk about him. In fact, when she allowed thoughts of Eric to linger in her mind, she became physically ill. “I don’t think it’s any of your concern.”

  Lacy turned and glared at her with squinty eyes. “You can’t keep hiding from men forever, Amanda. Jerry seems like a sweet guy, and it’s obvious that he likes you a lot.”

  “Yes, and it’s also obvious that he’s on vacation, and after it’s over, he’ll go back to Atlanta. Then what?”

  “People move all the time.”

  Amanda snickered. “Yeah, like I’m going to shut down the bicycle business I’ve worked so hard to build, and he’s going to abandon his elderly parents who obviously need his help.”

  “If you really love each other, you’ll figure out a way.”

  Who said anything about love? Lacy could stay in her fantasy world if it made her happy, but she didn’t need to intrude on Amanda’s reality.

  “Don’t worry about it, Lacy,” Amanda said as firmly as she could without sounding bossy. “You stick to your love life, and I’ll worry about mine.”

  Lacy grinned. “Your love life, huh?”

  Amanda rolled her eyes then glared at her sister. “Stop it, okay? Don’t make something out of nothing.”

  Lacy’s eyes widened then she slowly nodded. “Okay, okay, just sayin’…” A half hour later, Lacy sat down at the table with Amanda, bowls of still-lumpy stew between them. Amanda bowed her head and softly said a blessing for the meal. When she lifted her head, Lacy was staring at her.

  “Tell me what you think.”

  Amanda nodded as she lifted her spoon and scooped some of the meat and gravy. One taste was all it took to let her know that Lacy needed more instruction in the kitchen.

  “Well?”

  Amanda pointed to Lacy’s bowl. “Try it yourself and tell me what you think.”

  Tears instantly glistened in Lacy’s eyes. “I don’t want to. It looks gross.”

  “It tastes a little better than it looks,” Amanda said. “But maybe next time, you can cook something a little easier.”

  Lacy looked down at her bowl and made a face. “Is it that bad?”

  Amanda fished out a carrot and ate it as she thought of something that wouldn’t destroy Lacy’s spirit. “The veggies aren’t bad.” She forced a smile.

  Lacy looked crestfallen. “I’m hopeless in the kitchen.”

  “No, you’re not,” Amanda said. “You’re just inexperienced. You never had to cook before, so why would you expect to be an expert at it? It’s my fault you don’t know how, and I’m going to do something about that starting tomorrow.”

  Lacy rolled her eyes. “It’s totally not your fault. You’re my sister, not my mother.” She lifted a green bean then dropped it back into her bowl. “It’s not your job to teach me how to cook.”

  Biologically that was true, but in every other sense of the relationship, Amanda had acted as Lacy’s mother since she was very small. “Okay, it’s not my job, but I want to do it. It’ll be fun.”

  Lacy thought about it then nodded. “So what do you want me to cook first?”

  “How about meatloaf?” Amanda figured that would be hard to mess up.

  She watched Lacy mull over the idea. “Okay, but I want you to let me do it all. You can be there, but I don’t want you touching it.”

  Amanda lifted her hands. “I’ll be totally hands-off. Why don’t I make you a shopping list so you can get everything you need, and when I get home, we can get started right away?”

  Lacy frowned. “I wanted to go to the mall tomorrow. Can you stop off on your way home and get the stuff?”

  So much for being hands-off. “Sure, I can do that.” She stood and carried her bowl to the sink. “Let’s get these dishes done so we can walk down to the beach and watch the sunset.”

  Lacy tilted her head to one side and gave Amanda a look she knew very well. “I hope you don’t mind, but I promised Brad I’d meet him for ice cream…” She glanced at the clock. “In about fifteen minutes.”

  Maybe Lacy was hopeless. “Okay, go ahead then. I’ll clean up.”

  Amanda seethed as her sister headed back to her room to primp before running o
ff to meet Brad. She wondered if Timmy would be with him or if he’d be stuck with the teenage sitter.

  Lacy popped into the kitchen on her way out. “In case you’re wondering, Timmy is acting a little better in the classroom. I told Brad what you said, that it might be a good idea to give him a little more of his time, and it seems to be working.”

  “That’s good.”

  “No, really,” Lacy said as she hovered at the door. “I really do think he wants to do the right thing. It’s just that he has never known what that was.”

  Amanda saw her sister’s sincerity. “I’m happy for both of them.” Lacy waved her fingers. “I won’t be too late. I have to get up early tomorrow.” The door slammed behind her, leaving Amanda alone to finish cleaning the kitchen.

  Her anger now diffused, Amanda’s thoughts drifted to other things… like Jerry and his folks. She didn’t expect a future with Jerry, but she had to admit that she enjoyed hanging out with him. His parents’ matchmaking attempts were a little annoying, but they were cute.

  Lacy was only gone a couple of hours, but when she walked in, she had a dreamy look on her face. Amanda liked seeing her sister happy, so she went to bed feeling good. The next morning, Lacy was gone by the time Amanda got to the kitchen. She’d left a note on the counter letting her know they’d have to put off her meatloaf cooking lesson for a few days because she had plans for dinner. That was fine with Amanda. The rest of the week was uneventful, with the exception of seeing Rosemary and Harold riding past her shop on their rented bicycle-built-for-two. They always slowed way down and sometimes stopped as Rosemary pretended to adjust something with her shoe or pants. Amanda knew they hoped for a chance encounter with her, and she made sure it didn’t happen. It didn’t seem right, since Jerry wasn’t there.

  On Sunday morning, Amanda awoke with a hint of expectation and a healthy dose of self-restraint from rushing to the church. She hated to admit, even to herself, how much she looked forward to seeing Jerry after not even a glimpse of him for days.

  She forced herself to slow down during a light breakfast of oatmeal and orange juice. Lacy had decided to sleep in, something she did more often than not on Sunday mornings, to Amanda’s dismay. It was much more difficult getting Lacy to church these days, now that she had so many other things on her plate. Amanda prayed for her sister daily, and she knew she needed to leave all the saving up to the Lord.

  Standing in front of her closet, Amanda surveyed the possibilities of what to wear. Since she wore athletic clothes to work all week, she only had a few nicer things suitable for church. Hmm. Maybe the sale is still going on at the mall. She made a mental note to make a trip to her sister’s favorite department store.

  She finally settled on a pair of lightweight navy slacks and a sleeveless white cotton button-front blouse with a tie neckline. On her way out the door, she stepped into a pair of closed-toe flats. Yeah, she looked drab, but until now, she never really cared—at least not since Eric.

  After pulling into the church parking lot, Amanda’s skin tingled with excitement over the mere thought of seeing Jerry. She forced herself to hold back as she said a prayer for peace and the ability to keep her emotions in check. The last thing she needed was to get all worked up over a guy who wouldn’t be here more than a few weeks.

  Finally, she sucked in a breath and got out. The sun had already heated up the blacktop, so she hurried toward the air-conditioned church situated in a strip center on the edge of Treasure Island. Since all the other businesses in the building were closed on Sunday mornings, she knew the church would be packed, based on the number of cars in the parking lot.

  The first thing she did once she got inside was scan the crowd. No sign of Jerry or his parents. Suzanne had turned around and was waving for her to join her. She grinned at her friend and made her way to the second row from the front.

  “Looking for someone?” Suzanne asked. “I heard you invited that handsome guy who brought his parents down on vacation.”

  “Lacy has a big mouth.”

  Suzanne smiled and turned to face the front, where the band had already begun playing one of her favorite worship songs. The services lasted a full hour and then the pastor invited all visitors to hang around for coffee and pastries. Since she’d forced herself to keep looking straight ahead, Amanda wondered if Jerry was somewhere behind her.

  As soon as they were dismissed, she darted over toward the room they used to greet visitors, but there was no sign of Jerry. Disappointment washed over her.

  She’d left her Sunday school workbook in the car, and since she still had about twenty minutes before it started, she ran out to get it.

  “Amanda, sweetie, we’ve been looking all over for you.” Rosemary’s strong, raspy voice caught her attention. She turned around and spotted Jerry standing between both of his parents—all of them dressed a little nicer than anyone else in the church. Her heart flipped as she waved back and headed toward them.

  “I was close to the front,” Amanda said.

  Rosemary rolled her eyes. “These two took forever getting ready, so we slipped in a little late and had to sit in the very back along the wall. I could barely hear the preacher, but it sounded like a nice message.”

  “Yeah, I like what he said about finding heavenly treasures here on earth,” Harold added.

  Rosemary gave him one of her trademark looks. “You would.” Amanda forced herself to overcome the fluttering sensation that had accosted her. “We’re about to start Sunday school. You’re welcome to join us.”

  Jerry glanced at his parents then looked at her. “Maybe next week. We need to get back to the condo.”

  Harold looked tired. He was a little more hunched over than normal, so Amanda nodded. “I understand.” Even Rosemary appeared wiped out. Her heart went out to the Simpson family.

  Rosemary clicked her tongue as one side of her mouth quirked. “I’ve got an idea. Jerry, why don’t you take us to the condo and come back?”

  Jerry looked lost for a second before he recovered and turned to Amanda. “How long do I have?”

  She glanced at her watch. “Fifteen minutes, but it’s okay if you walk in a little late. We generally do a round of introductions before the Bible study actually begins.”

  “Okay, let’s go, folks,” Jerry said as he ushered his parents away. He turned back to Amanda. “Save me a seat, okay?”

  She nodded and smiled as she went to her car for the workbook. Suddenly, her heart felt lighter than it had in days.

  Chapter Five

  Amanda told Suzanne she was waiting for Jerry and then took a seat near the door. She didn’t think Jerry could possibly make it back on time, but the group was larger than usual, and it took awhile for Pastor Zach to get everyone’s attention.

  “Hey, thanks for saving my seat,” Jerry said as he slipped into the chair next to her. “My parents have been pushing themselves pretty hard lately, so I needed to get them back to rest.”

  “I understand,” Amanda said, as she opened her workbook to the page where she’d filled in the blanks for the weekly Bible lesson. She showed him the verse they were studying, so he opened his Bible to follow along.

  After introducing himself, Pastor Zachary Holister had everyone say their names and where they were from. Then he asked everyone to bow their heads for an opening prayer.

  As she sat there while Pastor Zach prayed, she was aware of the effect Jerry’s presence had on her nerves. It had been a very long time since she’d been in church with a man. When the prayer ended and she opened her eyes, she turned to Jerry. He sat staring straight ahead at the pastor, who’d taken his place on a stool at the front of the room.

  The Bible study lasted about forty-five minutes. As Pastor Zach wrapped it up, he invited anyone with questions to go to the front of the room, and then he was swarmed.

  Jerry turned to Amanda and gave her a thumbs-up. “He’s a gifted preacher.”

  Amanda nodded. “We’re fortunate to have someone who can relate to so
many people.”

  He shifted from one foot to the other. “I’d like to chat with him, but I don’t want to leave my parents alone too much longer.”

  “They’re probably fine,” Amanda said. “They just looked exhausted, but I bet that’s from doing so much. I know how I am when I go on vacation. I want to get it all in before I come back home.”

  He cleared his throat and looked around before settling his gaze back on her. “I wish that’s all it was. There’s something I failed to mention. Not only is my dad in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but my mother just found out she has Parkinson’s. They’re in an independent-living retirement facility in Atlanta, but it’s just a matter of time before they either have to go into assisted living or move in with me.”

  Amanda’s heart lurched. “Oh, I didn’t realize that.”

  “I know.” Jerry gestured toward the door. “Let’s walk out together… that is, unless you want to hang around for something.”

  “No, I’ll walk with you.” They headed out in silence, and when it was time to part ways in the parking lot, she turned to face him. “Is there anything I can do? I mean, if you need someone to help out or something…”

  He slowly broke into a grin and shook his head. “I appreciate it, but I think we’ll be fine. They’re still able to do things without me, but they tire easily and Mom is so worried all the time. That’s part of the problem. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re on edge with each other.”

  Amanda opened her mouth but closed it before she stuck her foot in it. From what she could tell, Jerry was at least as worried and as on edge as his parents were. Calling that to Jerry’s attention wouldn’t bode well at the moment.

  “Thanks for inviting us to your church.” Jerry took a step back.

  “I’m glad you all came.” Suddenly, Amanda remembered his mother’s address book. She pulled it out of her handbag and handed it to Jerry. “Do you mind giving this to your mom?”

  Jerry chuckled as he took it from her. “She doesn’t give up.”

  “I can see that.” The brief brush of his hand against hers sent a tingle up her arm.