Connor poked around the piles of boxes and pulled out a cane fishing pole. “I helped get him and his mom home when his grandfather passed away.”
“Where was home?”
Connor knelt under the beams sloped toward the floor at the end of the room. He poked at a few pieces of pink insulation in the corner of the attic. “Mexico,” he said casually. “I think we’re going to need to add some insulation in this attic. It would be a quick improvement, and it will save you a ton of money on heating and cooling this place.”
Mexico. Like it was no big deal he had flown someone and his mom to another country for the funeral of a man he had probably never met. Laura closed the black chest.
“Does that work for you?”
Laura swallowed. “I don’t have much money, but I have a little. I’m going to pay for all the supplies and anything you need to pay the trades. I’ll just need your help keeping the costs down.”
“I understand,” he said, still kneeling and looking up at her.
Why did he have to be so nice? She wanted to despise him, and he kept messing it up for her. She almost felt worse knowing he was a genuinely good guy and still had told Thomas to dump her. What did that say about her?
Connor pointed to the boxes along the wall. “We need to get all these things moved to the long wall of the attic so we can add insulation over here, and one of us needs to get the materials at the hardware store.”
“I can move the stuff. You can take my credit card.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and opened the lid of a large baby-blue box.
Laura pulled back the yellowed tissue paper in the box and gasped. She sat on her knees and ran her fingers along delicate old lace. “It’s a wedding dress.” The sight of the gown was bittersweet.
She looked up, and Connor’s eyes met hers. She looked away, but when she glanced back up, his eyes were still locked on her.
She shifted her weight on her knees. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re really doing a great job on this house.”
Caught by surprise, Laura snorted. “Sure. So great that the inspector threatened to shut me down.”
Connor didn’t laugh. “I mean it. I don’t know anybody who could have done all this under these circumstances, and you’ve done it with poise and class.”
Laura looked in his eyes to see if he was teasing her, but he meant it. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.” She broke his gaze. “Now I need to figure out how to afford the light fixtures and hardware we need.” Laura had tried not to let the discouragement creep in after she had priced the items she would need to finish the house, but the numbers had been downright depressing.
Connor knelt down beside her on the rough wooden floor. “Let me buy them. They’ll be a housewarming present.”
Laura refused to become Connor’s charity case. She placed the lid back on the wedding-dress box. “Not a chance. Your time is enough. I’m not going to let you put anything else into this house.”
Connor pushed his hands against his knees to stand. “The insulation can wait until tomorrow. Let’s get out of here.”
Laura cocked her head. “Why? Where are we going?”
Connor smiled, revealing his white teeth. “I have an idea. We’re going on a field trip.”
Chapter 16
Connor walked with Laura into the enormous metal warehouse with a flat roof and faded yellow paint.
She scrunched her face at him. “Where in the world have you dragged me?”
Connor bumped his arm against hers. “Trust me. You’ll love it.”
The drive to Oklahoma City had been relaxed. He and Laura both needed a day away from Wyatt Bend. Connor could see how hard Laura had worked on the house, and he wanted to bring the fun back into the project. To Connor, remodeling a house, especially one as beautiful as hers, wasn’t much different than Laura painting a picture. It was about imagining what something could be and making it happen with your own two hands.
He fought back a smile remembering her painting in the barn. There was so much more to her than the prim and proper girl wearing pearls he had first met.
Choosing lighting and plumbing fixtures for the house might get Laura excited about finishing the work. It was a fun part of every project and helped pull all his plans together. Connor would love to buy the fixtures for her, but he could see arguing wouldn’t do any good, and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
A young guy with a ball cap watched a baseball game from a small TV on his desk. “Let me know if I can help with anything,” he said, not taking his eyes off the game.
They walked down an aisle of tall shelves full of old fixtures, antique doors, windows, and pallets of used bricks.
She reached up to a chandelier dripping with crystals and slipped a dangling tag between her fingers. “Isn’t this stuff expensive?”
Connor was thankful for the chance to help Laura again—to make things right—and he didn’t want to blow it. “It’s all salvaged from other places. Most of it’s going to be cheaper than what you would buy new.” He dusted a cobweb off a wooden column. “With your art skills, I know you could give these things a second life.”
Her eyes widened as she ran her fingers across the smooth curve of a carved door. “This stuff is incredible.”
They walked side by side down the crowded aisles of peeling wood and rusted metal. “Thanks for agreeing to help me.”
He had finally done something right. He had made her happy. That’s all he wanted.
“I’m glad you asked me. It takes my mind off everything going on with my mom.”
She looked into a box of antique hinges. “What do you mean?”
“Breast cancer,” he said. “The doctors said they caught it early, so we’re hopeful.”
Laura squeezed his arm, her eyes full of compassion. “Here I am complaining about my problems when your family is dealing with this.”
Her touch made it impossible for him to extinguish the feelings he had for her. “The doctor says she’s doing great. She’s a fighter, and she still says she feels extremely blessed. Her faith in God is astounding.”
“Even through her cancer she says she’s blessed? I need some of that positivity. How does she do it?”
His mom walked closer to Jesus than anyone else he knew. “Her faith is rock solid.”
Laura shook her head and stepped away from him. “She must be one extraordinary lady.”
The cancer treatment hadn’t damaged her joyful spirit. “You two are similar in that regard. Two strong women who handle everything with grace.”
Laura faced a stack of old screen doors leaning against the shelf, her smooth blond ponytail falling down the back of her neck. Laura stood out like a jewel among the discarded pieces. “You give me too much credit, Connor.”
Everything she had gone through with Thomas, all the broken promises, had only pushed her further away from her faith. Only Christ could heal those wounds. He prayed that Laura would come to see that. He stepped beside her. “Maybe you don’t give yourself or God enough credit.”
“Connor, I know you’re just trying to help, but right now God just seems like another set of standards that I could never live up to.”
His eyes met hers. “But you have it wrong. The beauty of it is that we don’t have to live up to those standards. We only have to admit we’re flawed and that we need Jesus to make us whole.”
Laura shook her head. “As much as I want to, it’s difficult for me to imagine putting my faith in anything right now.”
Laura turned away from him and walked down the aisle without looking back, leaving Connor’s chest as cavernous as the warehouse.
Laura pulled a cardboard box of antique light fixtures from the bed of Connor’s truck.
Connor took it from her arms with a broad grin. His eyes radiated warmth. “Let me get that.”
Laura picked up a couple of loose parts out of the truck and followed him toward the front porch. On the drive ho
me, talk of the house had eventually replaced the awkwardness left over from the conversation at the salvage yard.
As much as she wanted to believe God had a plan for her life, Laura just couldn’t get it to add up. What good could come out of Connor’s mother’s cancer? What about all the heartbreak and disappointment she’d faced? She looked like a failure to everyone she knew. Surely a God who loved her wouldn’t want to see her humiliated and hurt.
The box rattled as Connor set it on the front porch. He looked up at her, still leaning over it. “Don’t move.”
Laura froze with visions of snakes swirling through her mind.
Connor’s hand stretched out to the side of her head. When he pulled his finger away, a tiny ladybug crawled down his long finger.
“Some people believe ladybugs are good luck,” Laura said.
Connor took her hand and let the bug crawl onto her palm. “I believe in something greater than luck.”
She lifted her hand to her face. The ladybug made its way up her finger.
Connor took Laura’s hand and turned it over as the bug moved to the back of her hand. Laura hadn’t expected herself to forgive Connor for the secret he had kept and his part in her breakup, but his thoughtfulness and selflessness made it impossible not to. Connor was kind and bighearted, everything Thomas had never been. Beyond forgiving him, she felt herself falling for him, but she didn’t know what to do with the mix of muddied emotions.
The ladybug’s wings expanded, and it flew from her hand to the grass.
Connor poked around the tarnished metal in the dusty box. “We got some great stuff at the salvage place.”
“That was a clever idea you had,” Laura said.
“Come on.” Connor nodded toward the barn. “Let’s see if we can find anything else to use.”
They searched through the barn but didn’t find anything but old horse-riding equipment. Outside the barn, a row of wooden slats poked out from the tall grass. “What’s that over there?” Laura asked, pointing toward it.
Connor crunched through the grass and lifted a metal chain. “It’s an old porch swing.” He dragged the bench from the tall grass to the clearing under the elm tree.
Laura put her hands on her hips as she examined the piece.
She’d always wanted a porch swing. This one showed its age with multiple colors of cracked and peeling paint.
Connor laughed when she knelt to the ground and sat on the swing, her legs stretched out on the grass in front of her. The sun made its way through the web of branches above her. She closed her eyes and imagined the bench swinging on the front porch of the house.
Something blocked the sunshine on her face. She opened one eye to see Connor’s muscular outline in front of her.
“Can I join you?”
She scooted over to make room for him. “Take a seat.”
He lowered himself onto the swing, crossing one boot over the other, and stretched his arm out along the back of the seat.
The breeze blew across Laura’s face. She took in the views of the dirt road and the barbed-wire fence in front of them. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m really going to miss this place.”
Connor’s hand brushed the top of her shoulder.
A tingle ran across her neck. She leaned the back of her head against his arm. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
The tension drained through her body and out the heels of her feet. Something about the strength of Connor’s spirit told her everything would be okay.
“As much as I love helping you with the house, I dread the day you leave Wyatt Bend,” Connor said.
Although getting out of Oklahoma and the house at Canyon Crossing had been her motivation, the thoughts of re-creating her life in Florida now haunted her. She was tired of trying to be perfect and live up to the unattainable standard she had set for herself.
“Maybe you could stay for a while.” Connor’s voice was a low whisper.
She sat up straight and looked at Connor, but he stared straight ahead. “Connor, you know I can’t stay. My life isn’t here.”
He faced her. His eyes held nothing back. “It could be if you wanted it that way.”
The way he looked in her eyes when she spoke, like there was nowhere in the world he’d rather be, made all her concerns vanish. “I wish I could.”
A gust of wind blew a strand of Laura’s blond hair across her face.
Connor reached out and pushed it away. The palm of his hand was warm against her cheek, and it drew her to him. Laura closed her eyes as Connor’s lips pressed against hers.
She pulled away from him. She hoped the security she felt with Connor was real because she didn’t know if she could endure another heartbreak.
Connor threw his keys on the kitchen counter but didn’t bother to flip on the light switch. Just enough moonlight slipped through the blinds to blanket the room in a blue glow.
Connor placed both hands on the kitchen table and leaned over them. He let out a deep breath to grab hold of the ball of emotions that wound tighter in his stomach.
Connor had gotten wrapped up in the moment. Wrapped up in the sweet smell of Laura’s hair and the way her eyelashes fluttered when she laughed, but the kiss had changed everything.
There were still so many questions about her faith, about Thomas, but he could no longer lie to himself about his true feelings for Laura. There was no turning back. He couldn’t imagine life in Wyatt Bend without her.
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, sat on the bar stool, and listened to the beeps of the phone as it dialed Thomas’s number.
Hopefully Thomas could have a reasonable conversation, man to man. Then Connor would be able to move on with a clear conscience and maybe even a blessing from his oldest friend.
The familiar words of Thomas’s voice-mail message rang through the phone.
“Thomas, it’s Connor. We really need to talk. This is important.”
He ended the call and squeezed the phone in his hand.
Chapter 17
Laura spent an hour cleaning the 1930s wall sconces and restoring them to their original glory. She held one up and let the light from the bare bulb in the kitchen reflect off it. The man at the salvage place told her they had been taken from an old movie theater. They would look perfect in the entry.
The beauty of the shapes and colors of the hand-me-down items felt like salve to her artist’s heart.
Connor and Laura hadn’t spoken about their kiss on the broken swing under the elm tree. Laura appreciated that Connor was giving her time and space during the past few days. Every day they spent together working on the house and the more Laura got to know Connor’s kind heart, it had become clearer to Laura what she wanted. She respected Connor’s work ethic and love of his family, and Connor’s steady strength was like a sanctuary for her.
She headed to the living room to search for a screwdriver when a glint of red out the front window caught her attention.
Thomas’s sports car sat empty in the driveway. Her entire body tensed, and she fought the instinct to hide in the little room under the stairs until he was back in Florida.
Next thing she knew, she was looking at Thomas’s pale face through the window on the front door.
She held her breath and forced herself to open the door.
Thomas buried his hands deep in his pockets.
Not wanting to make things any easier for him, she waited for him to speak.
He gave a stilted smile. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
Laura couldn’t manage any imitation geniality, so she opened the door wide enough for him to step inside.
“Are you surprised to see me?”
More like traumatized. “You could say that.”
The sight of his smirk made her stomach turn. There would have been a wedding in a few days if he hadn’t walked out on it. A chorus of hurt and anger drowned out any distant memories of the warmth she’d had for him.
Tho
mas ducked down to force her to look at him. “Aren’t you happy I’m here?”
“Not really.” The words slipped from her mouth before she could take them back. At least she spoke the truth. Words of truth were past due between them.
The color in Thomas’s face reappeared. “This isn’t the welcome I expected.”
She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall to the living room. “What exactly did you expect? This is the first time I’ve seen you since you dumped me.”
He wore a perfectly pressed collared shirt and khaki pants, and his light hair sported a fresh cut. She pulled off the bandana from her head.
“I thought since you were still here, maybe you were waiting for me to come back. I thought you’d be glad to see me.”
In the beginning she had waited for Thomas to return but not anymore. “What are you doing here?”
Thomas looked around at the piles of tools and wood laying all over the living room and the tarp taped over the entrance to the hallway. “I wanted to check on you. Rachel said she hasn’t heard from you in a few weeks.”
Laura doubted she would have been strong enough to face Thomas if she hadn’t gone through these last few weeks on her own. “So you were worried about me?”
Thomas’s lips drew into a tight line. “I guess things didn’t work out like I thought they would. I don’t know. I just needed to know what was going on here and see it for myself.”
Laura fought to contain the pressure building in her chest. “Things change when you walk out on your fiancée.”
Thomas cocked his head at her as if he didn’t understand.
“I just don’t get it, Thomas. You disappear six weeks before our wedding. We hardly speak.” Her voice escalated with every word. “Why now? What do you want?”
Thomas threw his hands up. “I don’t know. Why do you ask so many questions?”
He wasn’t taking her seriously, and she had lost her patience with him a long time ago. She put a hand on her hip. “Spill it, Thomas.”
He rolled his eyes. “Why are you still in Wyatt Bend?”
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