“Perfect… and my favorite.” She narrowed her gaze at him. “Did you call your mother to ask what I’d like to eat?”
“Of course. How else would I know?”
They ate companionably for a few minutes before he asked, “What do you make of Megan Mulcahy?”
His great-aunt slowly smiled as she lifted another forkful to her lips. Finishing the bite, she sighed. “You are a wonderful cook, Daniel. Did you know that some women couldn’t cook if their lives depended upon it?”
He shrugged. “Hunger is a great motivator.” He looked over at her and grinned. “I really love to eat.”
They were laughing when he got up to clear their places. “I’m trying out a new topping for the apple tart. I’d like your honest opinion about it.”
“Of course. Now, getting back to Megan, she’s the hardest working of the three girls.”
“She looked like she’d been inside that furnace she said she repaired earlier today.” He remembered wanting to brush the smudge of dirt off her nose. “I thought she was much younger when I caught her.”
“Caught her doing what?” Trudi leaned across the table toward him to hear better.
“Falling off the fence. Remember?”
“Hmmm… yes,” she answered. “Of course I do. I was just thinking.”
“You’ve got that look in your eye, Aunt Trudi.”
“Megan hasn’t dated, except for when that young man who left to play football for Ohio State comes back to town.”
Dan really didn’t think he wanted to know but needed to ask. “And how long ago was that?”
“A dozen or so years ago.”
He stopped midpour and set the coffee carafe down. “You have to be kidding me.”
Trudi shook her head. “I wish I was. That Van Orden boy broke Meg’s heart. But what I don’t understand is why she settles for a week or two of happiness out of fifty-two. He is keeping Meg right where he wants her—here in Apple Grove, waiting for his call.” She paused to draw in a breath before continuing. “A year or so after he left for college, Meg’s mother died, and Meg retreated from everything but taking care of her sisters and working at Mulcahy’s with her father.”
At his aunt’s encouraging, he picked up the coffee and started pouring again.
“Let me help you with that, Daniel dear.”
They worked together and had dessert served and coffee poured before they got back to the subject of Megan. “Maybe she really loves the guy.”
“I think not dating anyone when he’s not around has become habit,” Trudi said before sipping from her cup. “You can bet a man like Van Orden has a bevy of beauties at his beck and call back there in the city.”
He couldn’t help himself; he laughed. “You haven’t lost your flair for embellishing the facts. You could give grandma a run for her money.”
“She learned everything she knows from me. I am the big sister, you know.”
They were laughing again when he leaned over to squeeze her hand in his. “It’s great to be here. Thanks for putting in a good word for me.”
“Your résumé spoke for itself. All I did was make sure it was added it to those applying for the job. Every one of the applicants had the same consideration from the board, in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t, but it’s good to know. In case anyone asks, I’ll be prepared.”
“Oh, there will be a few making comments, after all, this is Apple Grove and everyone knows everyone else’s business. If one person is in favor of something, there are two more who are against it.”
“Should I be worried about anyone in particular?”
“No one except Meg for the moment.”
“It was funny, she kept trying to get me to tell her who I was making dinner for without coming right out and asking me, but I don’t think she heard me tell her I was cooking for you.”
“And how did that make you feel?” his aunt pressed.
He didn’t even have to think about it; he knew. “Flattered. It was interesting, but she mentioned Peggy McCormack. Why do you think that was? I didn’t really pay the woman any more attention than anyone else I met at Bill and Edie’s wedding.”
His aunt nodded. “Meg’s always been a bit touchy about the fact that her sisters inherited their father’s height and she her mother’s diminutive stature. Peggy and Katie are both tall, like the younger Mulcahy sisters.”
“That’s crazy. Who thinks of things like that?”
Trudi wrinkled her nose as she set her coffee down. “Women are fragile creatures sometimes, Daniel. Best you remember that.”
He cleared away the last of the dirty dishes and asked, “Are you ready for me to take you home?”
“Yes, thank you, dear. Dinner was such a treat… and I did enjoy dessert. It’s not often a handsome man goes to such trouble for me.”
He studied her as he waited for her to rise. “Are the eligible bachelors all blind here in Apple Grove?”
She patted her hair and laughed. “Lord love you, Daniel. It’s good to have you here.”
“It’s good to be here and to know I’m not all alone… I have family.”
“There are times when it seems like friends desert you, but family will always be there,” she said as he held the back door open and ushered her through. Arm in arm, she let Daniel lead the way outside to his car.
On their way through town, Aunt Trudi happily chatted about what was new over at her garden shop and the various plants she’d be “putting to bed” for the coming winter.
“Mom still rakes the leaves into her gardens for the same reason,” Dan told her.
When they passed the town square, she said, “I’ll be putting in mums and ornamental cabbages here in the morning.”
“Do you plant them all by yourself?” Dan asked.
His aunt drew herself up in the seat next to him and huffed out a breath. “I am perfectly capable, young man.”
“Yes, Aunt Trudi,” he agreed, smiling at the eccentric picture she made sitting there wearing her khaki jodhpurs; a white, button-down, collared men’s shirt; and her Wellingtons. “But that’s not the point—”
“Thank you for agreeing.” She waited a few minutes before adding, “Robert Stuart usually stops by to help on his way in to the Gas and Gears.”
Dan felt better; he was worried that his eighty-year-old aunt would try to do the work all alone. “That’s good because I don’t have a moment to spare until after practice tomorrow.”
“I could use a hand over at the shop Saturday morning if you’re free.”
“I’ll be there,” he promised. A glint of chrome glistened in the moonlight off to the left. “Aunt Trudi, what’s over there?”
She looked out the window and answered, “The back side of the cemetery. Oh,” she sighed.
He recognized the sleek black pickup before he noticed the compact curvy form of the woman who intrigued him. “Meg?”
“She must be troubled,” Trudi lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “She always visits her mother when she is.”
“Do you think we should—”
“Leave her be,” his aunt said. “Some things are best done alone. She’s a strong young woman who has been carrying too heavy a burden, but doesn’t always let it show.”
“I thought she lived at home and worked in the family business?” How could that be a burden?
Trudi shook her head. “Some of the strongest people I know work for family. It’s never easy; you can’t just up and quit if you don’t like the way you’re being treated or if the business isn’t bringing in enough money. Families stick together, weather storms together and all of life’s trials.”
“Is that what it was like working for your grandmother?”
She smiled. “I loved working with her. Grandmothe
r Phoebe knew I’d have to be tough to keep her business flourishing after she turned it over to me. I’m grateful for every day that I had working and learning alongside her.”
He thought she’d finished and was about to speak when she softly added, “Hard to believe she’s been gone close to thirty years now.”
Dan wanted their dinner date to end on a positive note, so he changed the subject. “My granddad still isn’t speaking to me. It’s been three years.”
“I heard from your grandmother that he was softening in his attitude once he discovered that you hadn’t sold the card outright, just pawned it. Too bad that the pawnbroker sold your Mickey Mantle card right out from under your nose.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t often think about his ex–best friend and was surprised that it wasn’t quite as raw a feeling as it had been the last time he had. “She knew I was a diehard Yankee fan. How could she not see it was a symbol of how much I loved her?”
His aunt patted the back of his hand. “So you pawned the card, but didn’t sell it? You were planning on buying the card back?”
“That was the plan, but my ex-friend and ex-fiancée changed that.”
“I’m truly sorry, Daniel,” his aunt soothed. “But things have a way of working out the way they’re supposed to.”
Dan cleared his throat and confessed, “She flushed the diamond ring I gave her.”
The sharply indrawn breath had him feeling a tiny bit better. He’d shocked his aunt, which meant she agreed with what he hadn’t even had a chance to say.
“Bitch.”
Shock had him slowing down, putting on the brake, and turning to look at her. “What did you say?”
“You heard what I said, young man.”
He swallowed his laughter; he didn’t want to get his aunt riled this late in the evening. He’d save it for Saturday morning when he planned to be at her shop. Needing to distract her, he said, “I heard that since they got married, he’s in debt up to his eyeballs.”
His aunt sniffed and nodded. “Serves him right. He bought her love, Daniel. Don’t you forget that she willingly sold it to the highest bidder.”
He had no response to that. His great-aunt was whip-smart and had hit the nail on the head. “Thanks, Aunt Trudi.”
She smiled as he helped her from the car and into the house that sat behind the garden center she lived and breathed for. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
“You’re welcome. It’s a rush to watch someone eating my food with such gusto and enjoyment.”
She tilted her head to one side and pushed a loose hairpin back into the bun on the top of her head. “In that case, you should know that I’m partial to lasagna.”
He laughed and hugged her tight. “How about Saturday after we finish up doing whatever is it you need help with?”
“I’m expecting a delivery of hay bales midmorning on Saturday, but need to make room.”
“Could you use a couple of extra hands?”
“The more the merrier. Who did you have in mind?”
“Maybe a couple of the guys from the team.”
She patted him on the shoulder so he could lean down and she could reach his cheek. She kissed it, then patted the side of his face. “You’re a good boy, Daniel. Don’t wait until Saturday to visit.”
He grinned down at her. “How early are you up in the morning?”
“I have my first cup of tea at four thirty—”
He laughed, surprised at how good it had felt. “That’s too early, even for me, but Wednesday morning the kids have an assembly and I don’t have to attend. I have the first period free.”
Her smile lit up her face. “I’ll see you then.”
After dropping his aunt off at her house, Dan drove through town. “Where is everyone?” From the way the street was deserted, he wondered if they rolled it up after nine o’clock only to unroll it again around five or six in the morning.
Just when he thought he was all alone, he saw headlights coming toward him. A black Ford F1 passed by him without slowing down. “Meg.” He wished he could follow her and make sure she was all right, but his aunt had known Meg far longer than he had. It would be best to follow Aunt Trudi’s advice. There were some things he wanted to say to her but wasn’t quite sure if he was pushing too hard too soon. She needed to know that he wasn’t chasing after Peggy or any other woman in town. He was a one-woman man and even though he hadn’t planned on it yet—wasn’t ready yet—he was looking for a one-man woman. Dan had a feeling that Meg was that woman.
When she turned off onto Goose Pond Road, he didn’t follow along behind. He’d wait until tomorrow to plan out their next meeting. By then, he should have figured out what move to make.
***
Meg felt better having gone to talk to her mom. Oh, she knew her mother’s spirit wasn’t in the cold, hard ground of Apple Grove Cemetery, but she needed something tangible to look at when she unburdened her troubles. The headstone with the words “beloved wife, loving mother” grounded her and had borne witness to more than one outpouring of Meg’s heart over the years.
She passed a car on the way back through town. Squinting, she tried to make out who was out at this hour, but all she could see was a dark car; she couldn’t make out the driver. Uneasy at the thought of a stranger driving through town from the direction of Miss Trudi’s home, she picked up her cell phone and dialed, but no one answered.
“She’ll be in bed by now.” Meg knew the woman got up with the birds just before dawn. But once the feeling started to unfurl inside of her, it wouldn’t go away. She’d had Sheriff Wallace on speed dial ever since the scare last year when she thought her dad had had a heart attack. She hit the number.
“Wallace.”
The deep rumbling voice of the man who’d been there through most of the disasters in her life reassured her that all would be well just by answering the phone. “Hey, Mitch, it’s me, Meg.”
“Everything all right?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a hinky feeling. I just passed a dark-colored car on my way through town.”
“Where were you headed?”
She sighed. It’s not like he didn’t know about her visits and would think she was crazy. Everyone in town knew she talked to her mom. “Just heading back home from the cemetery.”
“The car could have been coming from Miss Trudi’s place.”
“That’s what’s got me worried. I tried to call, but she didn’t answer, and you know how upset she’d be if I showed up on her doorstep, checking up on her.”
The sheriff agreed and asked, “Can you remember anything about the car? Could you see inside of it?”
She wished she could. “It was dark, and I wasn’t paying that much attention until the car had already passed me.”
“No problem,” he reassured her. “You head on home and I’ll drive on over and check things out. Miss Trudi has a soft spot for me.”
Relief swept through her, leaving a feeling of well-being, knowing he would handle things. He always would. “Thanks, Mitch.”
“Drive safe, you hear?”
She laughed. “I will.”
Lighter of heart, Meg headed home to the house she would be moving out of. In just a few short days, she’d be renting an apartment. What a concept! A place of her own.
With the worry of Miss Trudi in the sheriff’s capable hands, she drove the rest of the way home, formulating a plan for packing and how she was going to arrange her new space.
Meg wandered through the house in the dark, saying good-bye to her childhood memories. With a hand skimming the wall to guide her, she made her way down the back staircase from the second floor to the kitchen. It was really dark at the bottom, but she’d snuck up and down this staircase so many times as a kid, she’d have known the way blindfolded.
&n
bsp; The staircase opened up into the back of the kitchen near the pantry, where her dad used to stash his supply of potato chips and Funny Bones. Meg had a weakness for potato chips but had a bad habit of forgetting to close the bag tight, so her dad always knew when she’d been snacking on them; they weren’t as crisp the next day. But it was the chocolate-covered, peanut butter cream-filled snack cakes that got her into the most trouble. Just like the chips, she couldn’t eat just one and they had been her mom’s favorite too. Lord help the Mulcahy sisters if their mother found out they’d been in her chocolate stash—they’d be scrubbing toilets for a week!
Reaching above her head, she pulled the chain and the pantry was illuminated by the soft incandescent glow of the bare lightbulb hanging overhead. “Damn it, Grace, where did you hide them this time?”
Craning her neck to see, she caught a glimpse of the box of chocolaty goodness on the top shelf. Her sisters didn’t hide them on the top shelf to be cruel; it was just to keep Meg from eating the whole box, which she had done on more than one occasion. Knowing the shelves wouldn’t hold her weight now as they had as a child, she turned around and got a kitchen chair and carried it into the pantry to stand on.
Coveted box in hand, she sat down on the chair, opened the cellophane package, and gobbled the first cake in three bites. Once she’d satisfied the chocolate monster living inside of her, she put the box back on the shelf and the chair where it belonged. But she wasn’t ready to go back upstairs, so she nuked a mug of milk and carried it and the other cake out to the porch.
The autumn air was brisk, carrying a chill that would be gone come midmorning, but for now, she folded her legs beneath her and settled down to enjoy her late-night snack. As if on cue, the owl called to her from behind the barn. She smiled, remembering the nights she’d sat on her mother’s lap waiting for the owl to talk to them.
“Probably not the same owl,” she mumbled before sipping her warm milk.
“Great horned owls have been known to live for more than twenty-eight years, Meggie.”
She bobbled her mug and splashed warm milk on her thigh. “Gee thanks, Pop.” She got up to wring the milk out of her pant leg. “You could have let me know you were there.”
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