Drat. “Ladies?” Goldie deserved a good home.
“Jessica.” Rose had rejection in her tone before the rejection ever came. “We’re so old, we don’t even buy green bananas. Taking in a pet at this point in our lives wouldn’t be wise.”
“I’m afraid she’s right.” Agnes idled at the corner. “Which way should we go?”
Jess longed to turn back. How could anyone reject such a wonderful dog? Baby gave Jess’s bladder a good kick, as if to say if things were different, Baby would want Goldie. How Jess wished things were different. She rolled up the window and leaned her head against the glass.
“You should take her by the schools first,” Mildred said from the front seat.
“Parish Hill,” Rose said from her side of the car. “The view is spectacular.”
“The town square is right here.” Eunice adjusted herself on the hump. “It’s the most romantic. And we are coming up on Valentine’s Day.”
“I believe Eunice has a good point.” Agnes made the turn to drive around the town square.
Jess glanced back. Duffy and Goldie stood on the lawn, looking like woebegone castoffs.
I won’t feel sorry for him.
But she did. He looked as if he’d just realized he didn’t want to be alone. Jess knew all about being alone.
Baby gave her bladder another thump. Jess patted her belly. She was lucky. She wasn’t alone anymore.
“Look around, Jessica.” Agnes could barely see over the dashboard, but that didn’t stop her from pointing out the sites. “This is where so many good things happen.”
The town square was a large, grassy space presided over by a large, spreading oak tree.
“We hold the spring festival here,” Mildred piped up.
“And pumpkin bowling for the Harvest Queen.” The way Eunice said it, she’d been chosen Harvest Queen a time or two.
“Marriage proposals.” Rose pointed toward the lone bench under the oak tree. “Will asked my granddaughter to marry him right there. It’s a town tradition.”
They drove Jess around the block for a complete view, and then headed toward the schools, chattering all the way. When they passed Duffy’s house again, he’d gone inside.
“It looks sad,” Eunice said when they parked in the elementary school parking lot. The high school was right next to it. She craned her neck to see past Mildred’s teased white curls.
Agnes shushed her. “It needs children, Eunice. Excuse me.” She stepped out of the car to make a call.
The playground equipment was rusty. The stucco walls were a dingy gray. Even the lines in the parking lot were faded. Eunice was right. It was sad. And then the sun disappeared behind a cloud and it became even sadder.
They moved on to an empty plot of land at the southern edge of town. The ribbon of two-lane highway that Jess had taken to get here curled around the far side of the property.
Agnes turned in her seat, smiling like a real estate agent on the scent of a sale. “Mayor Larry says there’s a small grocery store chain interested in building out here.”
“They’d open a pharmacy,” Mildred added. “With a drive-through, I hear.”
“And have one of those movie-rental machines.” Rose wiped the fogged window with her sleeve. “Do you think they’ll have musicals? I love musicals.”
Agnes and Mildred reassured her they would.
“Flynn mentioned last night that he’s got another lead on a doctor,” Agnes reported. “We could have used one with Rutgar on Sunday.”
“We could use a doctor who isn’t as old as dirt and about to rest in some.” Mildred’s comment received shushes from everyone in the car but Jess.
“But we don’t want someone wet behind the ears, either,” Rose allowed. She tapped Agnes’s seat back. “Where are we going next?”
“The bakery.” Agnes put the car in gear and headed back.
A few minutes more and they were driving down Main Street, which was filled with cars.
“What’s going on?” Jess asked. But no one answered her.
Agnes pulled into the one empty space on the street, right in front of the bakery. “We wanted to show you how many people are interested in you having a business here.”
Chairs had been placed on the sidewalk. They were all filled. More people were gathered inside. And they weren’t all elderly, gray-haired people.
Flynn had his arm around a woman with a long dark braid down her back.
Slade was there, holding hands with Christine, the winemaker Jessica had met the first day she’d come to Harmony Valley.
There was the young vet, Dr. Jamero, with his hand on the hip of a petite blonde woman who looked to be a few months pregnant.
There was a tall blond man with his arms around a smiling brunette with a streak of what looked like blue paint on her cheek.
And then there was Duffy, standing on the outskirts of the crowd with Goldie at his feet. He still had that lost and rejected look about him.
It took them a few minutes to get out of the car. Mildred with her walker. Eunice because she’d seen her reflection in the rearview mirror and worked like mad to fluff up her hair on one side.
A weed-thin Asian man sat in a walker and reached for Jessica’s hand as she approached. “We’re supposed to tell you what type of baked goods we’d buy from you. I got stuck with bran muffins.” He peered over his shoulder to make sure the woman with Flynn wasn’t within hearing distance, and whispered, “Don’t tell Becca, but I’d much prefer a chocolate doughnut.”
“Thanks for the honesty.” Jess moved on up the receiving line.
People wanted cookies and scones and cupcakes and brownies and all sorts of breads and muffins. They all seemed so happy to see her, ready to become her customers, and perhaps, her friends.
“This is my wife, Shelby.” Dr. Jamero looked like he was moonstruck in love with the petite blonde.
“I wanted to introduce myself because I’m pregnant, too.” Shelby’s belly was a molehill compared to Jessica’s mountain. “And reassure you. The hospital in Cloverdale is very close. Just thirty minutes. And Patti just retired here with her sister. She’s a nurse practitioner.” She leaned in to whisper, “I’d love to have someone else in town with a baby.”
Jessica’s cell phone rang. She stepped between two parked cars for privacy.
“Will you be in tomorrow?” Vera asked sullenly. “I had people asking for your blueberry scones this morning.”
Jessica refused to feel guilty. She didn’t normally work Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow, Tuesday, was her regularly scheduled shift. “I’ll be there.” But her gaze drifted to the bakery and the people who seemed to appreciate her more than her boss.
“Good. Your scones have become our bestselling item.” Vera was in a much calmer mood today. “Where are you? It sounds like you’re in a crowd. You didn’t lie to me and go to the Bahamas with a man you just met, did you?”
“No.” Jessica choked the word out. Her gaze collided with Duffy’s. Immediately, she felt steadier. “I’m at a bakery in Harmony Valley.”
“Your bakery,” Eunice said unhelpfully, having been eavesdropping. “We want you to stay.”
“What?” Vera shouted. “What was it that woman said?”
“She said have a nice day.” The lie dropped from Jessica’s lips easier than too-thin frosting from a teaspoon. Jess hung up.
She’d most likely have to deal with an upset Vera in the morning. But there was too much noise, too many people drawing her inside and wanting her attention for Jess to dwell on her boss’s mercurial moods for long. Besides, the Martin photographs were there at every turn.
Jess let herself get lost in the crowd and believe, if only for a few minutes, that she could have it all.
* * *
“DOES YOUR DOG need a playm
ate? My Bailey is free on Thursdays and Sundays.”
“So well behaved. Do you train dogs? My Sparky could use a little obedience work.”
“Which vineyard will you be working on next?”
“Are you and the baker having a baby?”
Each comment snipped at the cord tethering Duffy’s patience in place. And with each snip, Duffy took Ryan’s advice about misdirection and pointed toward Jess. “Have you talked to Jess? She’s a great baker.”
Residents turned away from him too easily. He’d come here because Agnes had given him a call after she’d taken Jess on a tour of the town. But now that he was here, he felt like an outsider. He was no longer the newest addition to Harmony Valley. It was Jess they flocked to. Not that she’d agreed to move here, but he had to face facts: it was only a matter of time before she did. He should be happy for her. Life didn’t always put dreams within reach.
Goldie whined softly, crowding his feet. She looked as if she were afraid she might be stepped on by an orthopedic shoe.
Duffy picked her up. “Don’t get used to this.”
She promptly licked his chin.
People were starting to leave, shuffling and limping and laughing as they headed toward cars or made their way down the block. Jess stood talking to Flynn and Slade. Duffy joined them.
“We’ve got trucks. We can move your things up here,” Flynn was saying. “Pick a day.”
A tic took root in Duffy’s cheek.
“I...uh...” Jess pressed her hands into the small of her back, gaze sweeping the sidewalk.
“You haven’t said no. To us that means yes.” Slade gave her his business card. “When you’re ready, we’ll be here.”
Jess opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. It was past lunchtime. She and Baby hadn’t eaten anything since Eunice’s teeth-staining mush. She didn’t have a bottle of water with her, either. Looked like pregnant brain was settling in.
“You guys forget how overwhelming Harmony Valley can be to newbies.” Duffy took her arm. “Baby needs to be fed.” He led her toward El Rosal.
“I’m still mad at you.” Jess tugged her arm free.
“I know.” He set Goldie on the ground. She trotted on the sidewalk next to him. “I’m not so happy with you, either.”
Jess walked in silence.
He should have left it at that. He couldn’t. “I earned it, you know.”
She kept walking, but wouldn’t look at him. A very un-Jess-like move. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“When Greg took the money, he left me to help Mom and Dad. I wasn’t the kind of guy who could just let them fend for themselves. Not only did I help them financially, but I was the good son. I showed up every weekend. I took my dad to watch Little League games, because he used to coach.”
“And they were free.”
“That, too,” he admitted. There was pride in his voice, shoulder to shoulder with the resentment. “I was there for my mom when she went through a cancer scare. I was there through my dad’s depression when he was rejected for experimental spinal treatment that might have restored the use of his legs. For fifteen years, I came second to them. Is it too much to ask that I take some time to worry about me for once?”
“I’m not asking you to take me under your wing.” She stopped. “I’m not asking to date you. I came here for answers and was overjoyed at the chance for Baby to have family.”
He stopped with her. Goldie trotted ahead to El Rosal’s patio, where a few bakery supporters had stopped for lunch. Several pairs of eyes turned their way.
It was Jessica’s gaze that caught him, along with her pique. “We can be friends, right?”
Her exasperation was clear, but being friends with Jess was impossible. Because he’d kissed her. Duffy’s nonanswer only seemed to frustrate Jess more.
“I haven’t asked a thing of you. I don’t plan on asking anything of you. And if your aversion to making friends annoys me, that’s my problem.”
He believed Jess. He knew her well enough now that he could tell the determined set to her mouth meant he had to explain or she’d keep at him about having a friendship.
Duffy tapped his temple. “Up here, I get that you aren’t going to ask for money. Up here, I get that you don’t want me on call for babysitting.” And then he placed a hand over his stomach. “But here. Here’s where all that worry sits. All the gone-wrong, what-if scenarios. This is where my memory of Greg lives. And I don’t think it’s ever going to move.”
But it was times like these, when he looked into Jessica’s dark eyes, when he wished it would.
A familiar white car turned onto Main Street and honked.
Duffy’s parents had arrived.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THEY HAD LUNCH on the patio of El Rosal, where Goldie was welcome to join them.
More clouds were gathering. The combination of the propane heaters lining the patio and Baby, plus the opportunity to be part of Greg’s family, should have warmed her. But she’d taken one look at Duffy’s mother and felt a chill in her bones.
Duffy’s father sat across from Jess in his wheelchair. His hair was a rumpled gray-brown. His face was creased with lines. Knowing some of his story, Jess could’ve assumed the lines came from stress and disappointment, but his caramel-colored eyes had too much twinkle and his smile too much joy.
“You knew my boy.” Thomas Dufraine reached across the table for Jessica’s hands. His legs may have been boney, but his hands clasped Jessica’s with strength and vitality. “And this—” he pointed to the belly crowding her ribs “—must be my grandchild.”
Jessica smiled tentatively.
Sitting kitty-corner from her, Duffy’s mother, Linda, hugged herself with bony arms and glacier-like disapproval. Her shoulder-length hair was too-dark brown, as if she’d just had it done and had used the wrong shade for her pale and pointed features.
“How did you make it up here so quickly?” Duffy asked.
“Your father saw on the internet when the road was scheduled to open.” Linda’s voice was sour, as was the downward slant to her lips. “We parked on the road for thirty minutes. Waiting.”
“We don’t know much about the last few years of Greg’s life,” Thomas said, brushing aside his wife’s bitterness. “Could you...would you...share?”
He wanted her memories. Beneath the table, Jessica’s knee started to bounce. Goldie had been lying on the patio between their chairs. She sat up and looked at Jess.
“I told you she had amnesia, Dad.” Duffy’s hand drifted from his lap to Jessica’s knee. His hand was big and reassuring. He may not want to nurture anyone, but he knew how to give comfort when needed.
Jess moved her smaller hand over his. “I remember only a few things.”
Linda cleared her throat and hugged herself tighter.
“The times I do remember were spent simply. He liked to go to the airport and watch the planes take off.”
The smile on Thomas’s face broadened. “I used to take you boys to the airport when you were young, remember, Michael?”
Duffy nodded.
“We went to the farmers’ market a few times. He...um...liked fresh vegetables.” She had the vague impression that Greg enjoyed talking to farmers.
“Linda’s quite the gardener. The boys used to help.” Thomas seemed delighted with Jessica’s vague recollections.
Linda’s face was pinched as tight as a dried prune.
“I’m sorry that I don’t remember more,” Jess said.
“You remembered who the father was.” There was no mistaking the venom in Linda’s tone. “And somehow you found Michael.”
Duffy gave Jessica’s knee a gentle squeeze. “She saw my picture in the paper. Otherwise, she’d never have found us.”
; “It’s a blessing.” Thomas rubbed his wife’s stiff arm. “You don’t question blessings.”
Linda wanted to. It was there in her unwelcoming eyes. But she sat as still as a statue immortalized in an unflattering pose. Only the flare of her nostrils gave away that she was actually breathing.
Linda was quiet all through the ordering process, quiet through the wait for their food and all through their meal, which she barely touched. Jess had considered Duffy a hard case when they’d first met, but Linda was a hard case times eleven thousand.
When they were done, Duffy took his father inside to use the restroom and pay.
As soon as the restaurant doors closed behind them, Linda uncoiled like a snake preparing for a strike. Her arms extended along the length of the table. Her hands gripped its edges. “Can you describe my son’s tattoos?”
The chill in the air became a brittle cold that needled Jessica’s bones. Baby pressed against her lungs. She managed to gasp out, “I don’t think he had tattoos.”
Linda didn’t acknowledge if Jess was right or wrong. “And his habits? Was he a morning person? Did he drive too fast? Did he slurp his spaghetti noodles?”
Jess didn’t remember. Baby squeezed her lungs some more. Her gaze darted to the restaurant windows, but she couldn’t see Duffy. And she couldn’t breathe. “Don’t you know?”
“Of course, I know.”
Jess couldn’t picture Linda holding Baby and singing sweet lullabies. She couldn’t picture Linda taking dozens of pictures at Baby’s first birthday. She couldn’t picture Linda shooing her out the door so she could babysit her grandchild. Which was exactly what Linda wanted, she realized.
“You want to make sure I’m not lying.” Jess tried to fill her lungs with air. Failed. Shifted. Wheezed, “I can’t prove anything.”
Linda’s gaze glittered with hate and suspicion. “Then we’ll want a DNA test.”
“To prove the baby is Greg’s?” Duffy had never asked for proof. “Do you have Greg’s DNA?” A strand of hair? A baby tooth?
A glint of movement showed Duffy pushing his father’s wheelchair closer to the door. Goldie was waiting just outside for him to return.
A Memory Away Page 13
