We pulled into the driveway, and Rachel pulled my picture out of her bag and set it on the passenger’s seat. I popped the trunk to pull out her dress, and I handed it to her, grabbing the cupcakes as well and setting them on the passenger floorboard. I followed her to the house so I could see Jeff’s reaction to her new look, and she turned to me as she got to the door, taking a deep breath.
“Today has been so awesome, Camdyn, thank you,” she said. I gave her a quick hug and agreed with her, and then she pushed the door open. I followed her in a few steps until I could see Jeff’s face, and then I waited for him to look at her. He took his eyes from the TV and glanced up, slowly rising to his feet.
“Wow, Rachel,” he said, “your hair looks really different.”
“Do you like it?” she asked timidly. He smiled and nodded his head, walking over and folding her in a big hug.
“What do you think, Cole?” I asked, poking my head around the door so I could see him on the other side of the room where he sat.
“You look beautiful, Rach,” he told her, rising from his chair and moving to the center of the room. “Jeff, it’s been fun, but I better get going.”
“Okay, thanks for hanging out,” Jeff said, winking at me. I smiled as I followed Cole out the door, shutting it behind me. I stepped up until I was walking beside him, glancing over at him and smiling.
“You weren’t worried about us, were you?” I asked.
“No,” he said, and then looked down at me. “Well, maybe a little.”
“I’m glad you’re here, because I got you something, on the passenger side of my car,” I told him. He smiled as he headed that way, pulling the door open. He picked the picture up off the seat, pulling it closer to his face.
“Camdyn, this is incredible,” he stated, looking intently at the photo. “I don’t think you could look more stunning. Are you really giving this to me?”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. “Actually, I was talking about the cupcakes, but…”
“Yeah.” He shook his head, pulling the cupcakes out of the car. “Sorry, I knew that.” He smiled at me then, one of those melt your heart smiles, and I lost all control of reason.
“You know, why don’t you take the picture too?” I asked. “That is, if you want it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Uh-huh,” I mumbled, picking the picture up and handing it to him. His fingers brushed mine, and I smiled up at him.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Did you two have fun?”
“Sure,” I told him. “We went shopping, got makeovers. Oh, and we had lunch with your ex-girlfriend.”
“You did what?” he asked, smile leaving his face.
“We ran into Stephanie,” I continued hesitantly. “Rachel invited her to lunch. She was really nice.”
“Steph’s always been a great girl,” he said. “How is she?”
“She seemed good, but I don’t really know her,” I offered. “She seemed happy.” I intently studied his face for some sense of what he was thinking, but I got nothing other than shock.
“That’s good,” he told me. “So yesterday you hung out with my mom, today with my sister, then you had lunch with my ex… What are you going to do tomorrow, hang out with my kindergarten teacher? My old baseball coach?”
“Tomorrow is unscripted,” I stated, “but you have offered some interesting possibilities.”
He stepped toward me then, put his hand on my shoulder, and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. I felt my pulse quicken as the warmth of his breath trailed across my skin, and as soon as he leaned back, I looked up into his eyes.
“Thanks for the cupcakes,” he said. I pulled out my keys and headed around to the driver’s side, opening the door.
“You’re welcome,” I told him. “Oh, by the way, I bought a handbag today. I just thought you would want to know.”
He smiled, and I slid down into the car seat, started the engine and backed out of the driveway, keenly aware that Cole was watching.
Chapter Fourteen
Thursday morning I awoke staring at my laptop on the dresser, guiltily thinking that I was wasting the extra time I had been given to extend my deadline. I decided I would go to the library that day and do a little more digging, just to appease my conscience, although I didn’t expect to find anything else. At least it would be a diversion, and it would keep my mind off the fact that Cole took my picture home the night before, which would be a good thing, because it was driving me absolutely crazy. I had tossed and turned half the night overanalyzing what it meant, and why he wanted the picture, and a million other questions that had no answers.
When I pulled up at the library, I thought about calling Trina, since I knew I had a phone signal. I didn’t have anything new to tell her, though, so I hesitated. Lily saw me through the window and started waving, so I headed inside. She grabbed me as soon as I was in the door, pulling me to a secluded part of the library and asking me about Cole. I tried to act nonchalant about everything, and eventually she relented and began talking about other things. After about twenty minutes, I asked her if she wanted to help me do some digging, and she agreed.
The other librarian peeked over her glasses at us a couple of times, but I figured as long as Lily was trying to help me, she wouldn’t complain. After all, it did look like we were conducting research, even though Lily was whispering as fast as her lips would go. I had previously discovered the land information that gave the location of Willa’s home, and I spread a map out on the table to see if we could figure out where it was. After some careful plotting, we believed we had the location. I compared it to a current map that Lily provided, and a familiar road name caught my eye.
“This is the road the Parkers live on, isn’t it?” I asked Lily. She looked at it again, and shrugged her shoulders.
“I think maybe? It’s been a while since I’ve been out that way, but that seems right to me.”
“Interesting,” I offered. I pulled up the information that showed that Willa was on the wagon train alone, noting that it came from a private source in Kentucky, and I asked if Lily could help me find out who that might be. She said she didn’t think she could, but she would check. She disappeared for a long time, so I sat there filtering through the old records, finding nothing helpful. I had almost given up on her when she crept back into the room and sat across from me, looking very much like a cat that had eaten a parakeet.
“So, I couldn’t find anything,” she started in a whisper, motioning to the other librarian, “so I asked Ollie to help me. She was pretty hesitant at first, but I told her if she had something good, you would name a character after her in your book.”
“Lily, you didn’t!” I hissed, giggling.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t think of anything else to say,” she admitted with a big smile. “Anyway, that won her over, and she was able to find it. Sybil Brantley from Louisville, Kentucky. Sorry there isn’t more information, but it’s a start.” She handed a paper over to me with the name scribbled across the top, and I thanked her, telling her that it was great. I slid the paper into a protective folder in my planner and asked Lily if she wanted to go to lunch. Within a few minutes, we were on our way across the street to the café.
As we walked inside, Lily told a few people hello, and we were seated in a booth by the window. Thankfully, we had a different waitress than I had the last time, who had glared at me for the duration of lunch. We each ordered chicken sandwiches, and then she started complaining about how there were not enough single guys in town. I laughed and told her maybe she needed to expand her horizons, but she told me she had expanded them to a one-hour radius and still couldn’t find a man. It was at that opportune moment that I felt someone slide in next to me, and I looked over to see Jake.
“Hey, heartbreaker,” he said, winking. “Lily, how’s it going?”
“Good,” she answered, her voice suddenly changing. I smiled and tried not to look at her.
“You working with Cole today?” I asked
him, glancing behind me for any familiar faces but not seeing any.
“Was this morning, but we finished early,” he said. “Listen, I don’t know what you’ve done to my buddy, but you are making him completely crazy.”
“What do you mean?” I protested. “I haven’t done anything to him.”
“Oh, you know, Monday you couldn’t talk to him about anything, he was just off in another world someplace. Worked with him again yesterday, he was better, but still really quiet. Today, it was like he was on top of the world, singing while he worked and everything. I’m telling you, it has to be you, because Parker never has moods – he is just Parker, cool and collected all the time.”
“Well, I don’t see how that’s my fault,” I stated, turning to look at him. He just smiled and bumped me with his elbow.
“It is if you go around making guys fall in love with you, heartbreaker,” he chuckled. “I’ve never seen Parker so distracted in my life.”
I felt my face grow hot, and I pondered ways I could escape the conversation. Glancing across the table where Lily was gazing at Jake, I suddenly had a brilliant idea.
“Oh, you know what?” I said, looking down at my phone as though checking the time. “I totally forgot that I told Rosalie I would be back to help her. And I already ordered that sandwich, too. Jake, I don’t suppose you would be willing to take my place? I’ll pay for the food.”
“Sure, I guess,” he said, and Lily looked up at me with wide eyes. Jake stood to let me out of the booth, and I apologized to both of them. As he sat down, I stood behind him and winked at Lily, watching a look of realization cross her face. I stopped on the way out to pay for lunch, and then I looked over at them one more time. Jake was telling a story, and Lily was laughing. Mission accomplished.
I went back to the library to gather my things, made sure to tell Ollie thank you for the information, and then decided to check out the cemetery again. I thought about stopping at Rosalie’s to grab a bite, since I had given Jake my lunch, but I decided against it. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day, so I might as well enjoy it while I could.
It took forever to get to the cemetery, because I got stuck behind an older gentleman on a tractor. Normally I would have been irritated, but I could sense that this whole waiting experiment was changing my attitude. As I pulled into the drive, I thought about the last time I was here, when Cole and I had basically taken turns throwing mud at each other, both literally and figuratively. Now that I knew the whole story, and that he believed I had been lying to him, I totally understood why he was angry. That wasn’t a good reason to try to ruin my clothes, though, even though I had to admit it was a little funny now that I was removed from the situation.
I walked over to Willa’s gravestone, noting that Robert’s was next to hers, and then I started looking around for other relatives. I saw a couple of Clarks nearby, but one stone about ten feet away caught my eye. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I walked over and knelt down in front of it, brushing away the dust and dirt that years of neglect bring. I felt an odd mix of excitement and sadness when I realized what it was, and I sat down in the grass and stared at that stone. It was very simple, with no symbols or words or dates, but the names I recognized: Catherine William Oliver Clark. Anyone else who saw the stone would probably think it was just a strange name, but I knew the truth. This grave held three babies, and the heartache of my ancestor.
I sat there sadly pondering the remains of a life. On one side was Willa’s tombstone, so beautifully describing her accomplishments and strong character. On the other side, what was surely her deepest heartbreak, all three relegated to one tiny stone, as though not notable on their own. No dates, no sentiment, just three Clark babies, all together as if they were one. It almost made me feel sick.
I felt a closeness to Willa then that I couldn’t explain, as if we were the only two people who really knew what that stone entailed. I needed to know more about her, and the only logical path within my reach was to go back to the Parkers’, armed with my new map, to see if that was really where she lived. I pulled my car out, having no problems now that the mud had dried, and was on my way. A few minutes later, I pulled into the driveway and checked my reflection in the mirror. Even though I felt like I had seen a ghost, I still looked fairly presentable. I brushed a little dirt off my knee as I opened the car door, glancing down at my cutoffs and green v-neck to make sure I wasn’t filthy.
Making my way to the house, I knocked on the door. When there was no answer, I knocked again. Having no success, I walked around the side of the house, where I noticed Liz hanging a couple of quilts on a clothesline. I called her name so I wouldn’t frighten her, and she turned and waved, sliding the last clothespin on the quilt and walking toward me.
“This is a surprise!” she said, stepping forward to hug me.
“Yes, I had a bit of a surprise today, too,” I told her, holding out the map. “Turns out Wilhelmina and Robert Clark lived right around here. Is this your property?” I pointed to the map, and she looked down at it and nodded.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she stated. “My great-grandfather lived here, and I know the land had been passed down.”
“There’s not still anything here that you know of…” I started, but Liz shook her head slowly.
“No, nothing like that. The old house was torn down when we built this one, and it was nearly falling apart.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” I sighed. “I guess I was just hoping to find some tangible connection to her, to walk where she walked, or sit where she sat. That probably sounds silly.”
“Not really,” she said, reaching out and putting her arm around my shoulders, pointing out behind the house. “That land is what you have marked on the map. If it was her land, I’m sure she walked it. I can walk it with you, if you want.”
“Yeah, I would like that,” I told her. I filled her in on what I had found at the cemetery, trying not to be too melodramatic, but she must have sensed how I felt, because she linked her arm through mine as we walked out through the trees. She told me it must be difficult not getting too close to my subject matter, when I was thinking about Willa all the time, trying to imagine her life for my book. Plus, her blood was flowing through my veins, so of course I would feel it more personally.
We walked the land for almost an hour, and I tried to imagine what it would have looked like when Willa was there, but I didn’t have much success. Part of me thought it was probably similar to what I was seeing, but I knew that couldn’t be accurate. I didn’t get much out of it other than a nice walk with Liz, which was pleasant enough on its own. When we came to a fence, she told me that was the end of their land, and the rest of that map was on the other side. I sighed loudly and told her that was disappointing, but she only laughed.
“I’m sure if you ask nicely, you will have no problem getting a personal tour of that side of the fence,” she said.
“Probably not,” I agreed. “People have been pretty friendly here.”
“Well, if he’s not friendly, you send him over here and I’ll have his dad talk to him,” she laughed.
“So the house next to yours is…”
“Cole’s?” she finished. “Yes, it is. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”
“Well, I did give him some cupcakes yesterday, so I think I have worked my way back to his good side,” I teased. She smiled as we turned to walk back in the direction we came.
“Rachel picked up Charlotte this morning, and she said you two had a wonderful time. She was just beaming about everything you had done for her: the dress, the hair, the pictures...”
“I don’t know what I did for her, other than talk her into things,” I laughed. “I had a great time, too.”
“Maybe you girls can have more times like that, do you think?” I instinctively knew what she was asking, so I kept walking and took a deep breath.
“I guess time will tell,” I said. She stopped walking and turned to look at me.
> “You know Rosalie would love to have you as long as you’ll stay.”
“I know,” I stated, looking down at the ground. “I couldn’t be more grateful to her, and I love Rosalie; she’s been unbelievably good to me, even though I didn’t deserve it. I can’t just crash at someone else’s house indefinitely, though.”
“So where will you go, if you leave?” she asked, turning and walking toward the house again.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I don’t know what to do next, or where to go. I suppose I’m waiting for some great inspiration, or divine intervention, or something.”
“You just need to find your roots, that’s all,” she told me. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared ahead after her, feeling exposed. She turned around and looked at me, asking if something was wrong.
“No,” I insisted, shaking it off and walking ahead. “That’s just the last thing my grandmother said to me. She told me to live a wide open life, but to find my roots, too.”
“She must have been a great lady, your grandmother,” Liz stated, wrapping her arm around my waist.
“The best,” I agreed. “She’s all I had in the world, besides Charlie. Now that Charlie and his wife are starting a family, it’s just me.”
“It’s never just you, Camdyn,” she told me softly. “I hope you get your divine intervention, and I hope you have your eyes open enough to see it. When you do, grab it with both hands.”
I was afraid to say anything because I was feeling a little emotional, so I just put my arm around her as we walked in silence to the house. When we reached the back yard, she asked if I wanted something to drink, and then she went inside for some water while I sat on the back porch. She was gone for quite a while, and I thought about going in after her, but just as I was about to get up she came out with the glass. We sat on the porch for a few minutes longer while I drank the water, and when I decided to say my goodbyes, she brought me a plate full of cookies and asked me to take them to Cole’s. I asked if that was her way of twisting my arm to get me over there, and she just winked and told me goodbye.
A Reason to Run (The Camdyn Series Book 1) Page 20
