Canyon Weddings

by Julie Jarnagin

  Relief rushed into her at the sight of a black metal toolbox on an uneven workbench.

  She wrapped her hand around the handle.

  “Laura.”

  Laura’s body jerked in surprise, and she spun around, knocking the toolbox and all its contents on the floor.

  The outline of Connor’s solid frame stood outside the doorway. Laura bent over to recover from the jolt he’d caused her.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  Each time she saw him, all the hurt rose to the top. She stood straight, pushing her shoulder blades down. “I’m fine. What are you doing here?”

  He stepped inside the room. A beam of light revealed a deep crease of confusion across his forehead. “Herschel told me you needed me to help with a project today.”

  That nosey old man couldn’t leave well enough alone. “Herschel needs a lesson in minding his own business.”

  Connor turned around with his arms behind his head. “I should have known.” The words bounced through the barn. When he turned back to face her, disappointment danced in his eyes.

  Laura glared at him, both hands on her hips. “What did he tell you?”

  “That you ‘needed’ me.” He made quotation marks with his fingers.

  Laura balled her hands into fists and tried to squeeze away the frustration. “When I went to pick him up this morning, he had decided that he couldn’t help me work on the house anymore.”

  Connor’s face shifted. “What? How could he do that?”

  Laura shrugged. “He’s persistent.”

  Connor stepped closer. “What are you going to do?”

  Taking offense at the worry in his voice, Laura picked up a rusty hammer from the dirt floor of the barn. “I’m going to keep working on the house until it’s ready to sell.”

  He rocked back on his heels. “You’re really going to try to do this by yourself?”

  She jutted out her chin in false confidence. “I can do it.”

  She tried to walk past him, but he reached out a hand to stop her. “Laura, I could still talk to the roofer about your house. Just let me help you with the big stuff.”

  His gentle touch caused her throat to constrict, making it difficult for her to speak. “No. It wouldn’t work out, us working on the house together.”

  He pulled away from her. “If you ever change your mind …”

  She held her hand up in the air, unwilling to listen to his empty words. “I know, I know.”

  Connor’s Adam’s apple sunk as he swallowed. “I’m really sorry, Laura. I hope you can forgive me.”

  Laura gritted her teeth, pushing her emotions down. The old Laura would have forgiven him, assuming the best, but she lived in reality now. This wasn’t a fairy tale, and she wasn’t the same wide-eyed girl who’d arrived in Wyatt Bend.

  Laura pushed her hair from her face, pretending he didn’t make her stomach flutter. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

  “For what it’s worth,” Connor said, “I think you’re great—wonderful, actually. I really regret that I lost the chance to get to know you better.”

  Laura’s heart raced as Connor climbed into his truck.

  When it pulled away, she resisted the urge to chase after it. She wanted to wave her arms in the air and when she saw the brake lights of the truck, run to Connor’s window and beg him not to go.

  But she didn’t. She stood in front of the barn, her feet planted inside the rubber boots with her hands hanging at her sides. She was officially alone. The barn cast a long shadow, which had engulfed her.

  The house that had once been her dream was now the thing standing between her and her future.

  Connor drove his truck in front of Bonnie’s Blooms just as Herschel ducked out of the Wyatt Bend Retirement Community van. The retirement community was a source of pride for Connor. People like Herschel deserved a great place to live, and in a small town like Wyatt Bend, sometimes there was nowhere to go if they weren’t ready for a nursing home.

  Herschel stretched out his long legs, spotted Connor, and stuck his hand high in the air.

  Connor waved back at the feisty old man.

  As Connor searched for a space to park on the town square, he let out a wide yawn. Between his encounters with Laura and his concern about his mom’s health, he was lucky he slept at all. He reminded himself God was in control, but it was hard to accept when his life was in such chaos.

  He parked the truck and made his way toward the shop. Connor had been out on job sites all day, and now he had another project on the agenda. Everytime Connor convinced himself to put Laura out of his mind, she reappeared. He had too many things colliding together in his thoughts right now. He normally led a pretty low-key life, just the way he liked it. Lately it had been anything but.

  Inside the flower shop, Connor found Herschel right where he knew he’d be. “Hiya, boy,” Herschel said, standing up from where his elbows rested on Bonnie’s worktable.

  There weren’t many people who could get by with calling Connor “boy,” but Herschel was one of them.

  Connor smiled at Bonnie who stood on a step stool behind a small bouquet of daisies in a square vase.

  “How did I know I’d find you here, Herschel?” Connor asked.

  Bonnie looked over the large glasses resting on her nose.

  Herschel pointed a finger at him. “Are you here to buy flowers for the lovely Laura?”

  Connor pointed a finger right back at Herschel. “No, sir. I’m looking for you.”

  Herschel gave him a wide-eyed innocent expression. “Me?”

  Connor crossed his arms. After the awkward encounter with Laura, Herschel owed Connor some answers.

  Herschel had said, “She needs you,” and that was all Connor had to hear. He should have known Laura hadn’t been the one to ask for his help like Herschel had implied, but the image of her angelic face waiting there for him to come had been too much for him to resist. “I know what you did.”

  Bonnie jerked toward Herschel. “What did you do?”

  Herschel’s face sagged. “Oh, you know me.” He let out a forced laugh. “Always getting myself into trouble.”

  He pressed a hand on Connor’s back. “Let’s talk outside.”

  Connor let the old man lead him toward the front door. Bonnie continued to question him until they were outside.

  Under the green awning, Connor waited for Herschel to explain himself.

  “What’s bothering you, boy?” Herschel asked, leaning against the brick wall of the barbershop next door to Bonnie’s.

  He took in a deep breath. “I’m disappointed in you, Herschel. I rushed out there to help her.”

  Herschel slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Boy, I knew you’d come through. How’s the house coming? From the moment I saw you two together at the hardware store, I knew. I may be old, but I know love when I see it.”

  “Love?” The words caught in Connor’s throat. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Laura’s feelings for me are a lot closer to hate than love.”

  Herschel threw his hands out in front of him. “Did you even try?”

  “I went there and offered because I thought she had asked me to. Why’d you let me think Laura wanted my help when she didn’t?”

  Herschel sucked in air. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t think she’d turn you down.”

  Connor couldn’t say he blamed her. He hadn’t given her a good reason to trust him.

  Herschel hung his head. “I don’t know what gets into me. I had good intentions.”

  Herschel’s good intentions had caused him to look like a fool in front of Laura. “I know what you were trying to do. You were trying to push Laura and me together, but it’s not going to happen. Now she’s trying to do it on her own.”

  Herschel rubbed his smooth chin. “Well that’s quite a shame isn’t it?”

  They stepped closer to the building to let a kid on a skateboard whiz by on the sidewalk. “You need to go apologize to Laura and get back t
o helping her with the house.”

  Herschel shook his bowed head. “I just can’t do that, Connor.” When Herschel looked up, he failed at hiding the mischief in his eyes. “I’m sure you two will figure something out.”

  Connor wanted nothing more than to protect Laura, but he had no clue what that meant right now.

  Chapter 14

  On Saturday morning, no trucks sat outside Will and Cassie’s house, and no workers milled around the perimeter. Laura sighed with relief and pulled the truck around to the side of the home. She would work better alone, without distractions and without Connor.

  Last night Laura had sat at the old kitchen table with the mismatched chairs and punched numbers on her finances. She needed money, and as uncomfortable and humbling as it was to return to Will and Cassie’s house, Connor had offered to pay her a good amount for the mural.

  When she called Connor, the consummate businessman, he didn’t fall through on his promise to use her for the project. His voice had even risen with excitement when she asked him if she could complete the work. Laura would just have to risk any uncomfortable encounters with Connor for the opportunity to work on Cassie and Will’s mural.

  She had been making real progress on the house during the past week. She had already ripped the ugly floral wallpaper from the walls and finished scraping the paint off the cabinet doors. The changes felt like she was destroying the house and the dreams it held. She didn’t need to start doubting herself now.

  Laura climbed out of the truck and tied a yellow bandana over her blond hair to protect it from paint. She wore the vintage pearl-snap shirt and the overalls that had become her official work uniform. She had created new sketches for the mural, and it had come down to two choices. The first was a collection of characters from nursery rhymes, and the second was a huge tree with draping branches, birds, nests, and all kinds of little details to make it special.

  She reached into the bed of the truck and plucked out the bucket of painting supplies. The idea of picking up a paintbrush was the only thing she had to be excited about right now. She had missed the days of mixing paints and cleaning brushes.

  She stood on her tiptoes and ran her hand along a rough cedar beam on the front porch until she felt the cool metal of the key, just where Connor had said it would be.

  Inside she inspected the work she had done last time she had been there—two weeks ago when she’d found out the truth about Connor.

  He had seemed so sincere, but Thomas had seemed sincere when he had asked her to spend a lifetime with him. She couldn’t always believe what she saw or what she felt. She couldn’t begin to figure out what she believed when it came to God. She used to believe, but now she couldn’t trust her own instincts. Hadn’t God let her down even more than Thomas and Connor had?

  She ran her hand across the base coat, pleased with how it had dried. She stared at the clean slate before her, full of possibilities.

  The familiar smell of paint brought back memories of the hours spent in the studio at art school. Those were the days when she had nothing to think about except what she would create. School had come easily to Laura, but the art classes stimulated her and kept her interested.

  Laura pulled her sketches from her bag and smoothed out the creases with her hand. Laura had secretly hoped she would be pregnant within the year and painting the nursery walls of her own home. She never told Thomas this because she knew it would scare him, but she had assumed he would be ready, too, once they settled into their new lives. She realized now what a huge mistake that was.

  She sized up her sketches. They still weren’t quite right. The cartoonish clouds and sun wouldn’t do. If she was going to start painting again, it had to be something she loved, something special for the new baby. If she didn’t follow a sketch, the painting might turn out as dark and depressing as her current state of mind.

  Laura picked up her sketch pad and pencil and headed out the door.

  The backyard had a short wooden fence with a full view of the canyon.

  Just off the covered patio stood a stone fire pit, and a ledge with a concrete top served as a counter in the outdoor kitchen. Connor had thought of everything in this house. Visions of a large gathering around the fire made her long for a big family of her own.

  Laura slipped off her flats and stepped up onto the ledge. It gave her the perfect view of the canyon below.

  She sat cross-legged with her sketch pad in her lap. The colors of the canyon walls were like nothing she had ever seen. The red had stripes of orange, pink, and salmon, which made the green leaves of the trees pop. If only she could create something a tenth this stunning, she’d be a millionaire and wouldn’t have to worry about mortgages and credit card bills.

  She sketched the elegant lines of the wall and the soft shadows from the trees. As she sketched, she felt the tension draining from her fingers. She flipped to another page to capture a different angle and then another until she had lost herself in the work. All the hurt, anger, fear, and confusion poured out onto the sketch pad.

  Footsteps approached from behind her.

  She turned around, pencil still to paper.

  Connor’s face brightened. “I’m glad you actually showed up.”

  The lead of her pencil broke with a sharp snap. “You hired me for a job and I’d like to finish it.”

  He leaned back as if her words pushed him backward. “I’d like to finish the job you hired me for as well.”

  Laura’s heart thudded in her chest. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  An uncomfortable pause hung between them.

  “Do you like the patio?” Connor asked.

  He probably thought she had lost her mind, just sitting outside staring out over the canyon. Laura scrambled down off the ledge. “I do.” She held her sketchbook in the air. “It’s beautiful here. I came up with some new ideas.”

  He looked out over the top of the canyon. “It is beautiful. I guess when you see it all your life, sometimes you stop noticing.”

  How sad that someone could stop recognizing something so perfect.

  “I’m glad you decided to come back,” Connor said.

  She shook her head at words unsaid. “I need the work. I’ll be out of here as soon as I can.”

  The sight of Laura on the back patio hit him like an unexpected rain shower on a grass fire. Laura was still distant, but she had decided to return to finish the mural. It was the first glimmer of hope that she might forgive him.

  In the kitchen, Connor pulled a light fixture from a box. When it hadn’t come in with the others, Connor asked the guys at the hardware store to put a rush order on a new one. Everything needed to be in place before Will and Cassie moved into the house. Now that Laura was here working on the mural, it would all be perfect.

  Connor climbed the ladder and reached for the wire hanging from the ceiling anchor.

  As he touched the wire, a spark shot out of it, and the unexpected jolt pushed him off the stepladder to the floor with a hard thud against his shoulder. The light fixture crashed to the floor beside him.

  Starbursts floated in his eyes, and a deep groan escaped his lips. Footsteps padded across the room, and Laura appeared over the granite breakfast bar. Connor lay on the cold tile and held his throbbing shoulder. A loud gasp escaped from Laura’s lips.

  He pushed himself up to a sitting position, his arms propping him up as she ran around the kitchen island to where he sat.

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Connor threw his shoulders back as if nothing had happened and then winced. “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?” Laura asked, her pretty features still scrunched tight.

  He tried to shake the buzzing from his head. “I’m okay.”

  The stepladder he had been standing on lay beside Connor and wires hung from the ceiling. He picked up a piece of the broken fixture.

  “You fell?”

  “That’s half of it.” He sighed. “I don’t know what got into m
e. It was a rookie mistake.”

  “Huh?”

  Connor massaged the back of his shoulder. He was embarrassed to admit what he had done, especially to the woman he wanted to convince to hire him to remodel her own house. “I forgot to turn the electricity off before I tried to install this new light fixture. My mind was on other things.”

  Laura clapped a hand over her mouth.

  Connor clambered to his feet. “But I’m fine. Got a good jolt that knocked me off my ladder.” He had installed hundreds of lights. He’d never forgotten to flip the electricity off at the breaker. He’d been distracted lately.

  “I’m just glad you’re not hurt.”

  His body may not have been hurt, but he’d bruised his pride. “Did you decide what to paint?” he asked, desperate to change the subject.

  She held up her sketchbook. “I have it narrowed down to two drawings. I just hope I can exceed your expectations.” Laura’s eyes lit up as she talked about the mural.

  No matter how hard she tried to hide her artistic spark, it rushed out of her. “You already have,” he said.

  Laura shot a look toward him and then dropped her gaze back to the floor.

  His conversation with Rachel replayed in his mind. He would want to know the truth if he were in Laura’s shoes.

  Connor cleared his throat. “Have you talked to Thomas lately?”

  Laura closed her eyes and held her hand in front of her face. “No,” she said firmly.

  “I really think you should try….”

  “Connor, stop.” Laura shook her head. “I’ll finish the mural only on the condition that we don’t ever talk about Thomas or anything that’s happened between us.”

  Another secret. Maybe it was better this way. He couldn’t stand the idea of bringing Laura more pain.

  Laura blew her hair out of her face as she examined the mantel she had sanded and refinished.

  Most of the changes she had made had been cosmetic, necessary, but most of them had involved painting, sanding, or removing carpet. It was time to dive into the list she had titled “Scary Stuff,” which inventoried all the big things Connor and Herschel had told her needed to be done to put the house on the market. Getting it sold served as her motivation every day as she climbed out of bed with tired muscles and every lonely night she spent alone in the house. If she could get past this list, she would be on her way to moving back to Florida—and on with her life. She’d search for a new job in graphic design. With the money she would make on the house, she could rent a place in the city.