“Thanks.”
Opal broke the silence that enveloped the room. “This is Mommy’s friend Mr. Payton. He likes to come over and help us with things.”
Jamie cringed. Opal was not helping the situation.
“I know Mr. Payton.” If the silence in the room a minute ago was disconcerting, the chill that had taken its place was almost paralyzing.
“Charlie.” Eli used a nickname Jamie hadn’t heard anyone else use.
“Eli.”
Jamie realized that Eli hadn’t moved from his place halfway up the stairs. There was definitely some history between the two.
“Thanks again for bringing Rose and Opal home.”
“Yes, we’d better get going.”
“But, Mom,” her daughter Katy said. “I thought you were going to check with Rose’s mother about letting me stay here while you go grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping.”
“I’m sure it’s okay,” Rose said. “Right, Mom?”
“Not today.” Charlotte turned Katy toward the door and hustled her out.
Jamie had a sinking feeling not any other day, either, as long as she and Eli were friends.
* * *
Eli pounded down the stairs, a vein pulsing in his temple. He faced Rose and Jamie. “I’m sorry.”
The little girl looked at him then at her mother and scratched her cheek.
“For spoiling your plans.”
Rose tilted her head to one side and pursed her lips.
He wasn’t any better at talking with Rose than he was at talking with her mother. But—he thought about their bowling match and installing the insulation—he and Jamie did work well together. Maybe he should just avoid talking.
“Are you hungry?” Jamie asked with a forced cheerfulness that, from the looks on their faces, didn’t fool Rose and Opal any more than it fooled him. “I know you had lunch at the fort, but I bought your favorite cookies this morning. There’s one for each of you in the bakery box in the upper cupboard.” She gave the doorway to the dining room a pointed look.
“Okay. Come on, Opal.” Rose shot Jamie a befuddled look.
“I’m sorry about that.” Eli repeated himself. “Old bad feelings.” Feelings he’d thought he’d moved past.
Jamie bit her lip and nodded. “I need to see to the girls. The bath is down the hall. I can clean up in the kitchen.”
Jamie’s apparent need to put some space between them cut him. He took his time walking down the hall. He’d forgiven Charlie for her lies. But when he’d seen the look of panic on Jamie’s face and Rose’s disappointment, he’d almost lost it. It had taken all of his control not to physically remove Charlie from Jamie’s house. Fortunately, with some help from above, his rational side had prevailed.
Eli turned the water on full force and lathered his hands. Charlie could be vindictive and, according to his mother, she was a terrible gossip. The last thing he wanted was for Charlie to shred Jamie’s reputation to get back at him. He’d done a lot of things he wasn’t proud of when he was a teen but not what Charlie had accused him of. He shut off the hot water and splashed cold on his face. It didn’t even begin to cool him down. He dried his hands and face and mentally armed himself to face Jamie. When he’d returned to Paradox Lake, he’d prayed that his past would remain in the past.
“Mr. Payton.” Opal skipped up the hall to him. “I made you a sandwich. All by myself. Right here.” She motioned to the table as they entered the kitchen. “You can sit by me.” She hopped up on a chair.
Eli’s gaze went to Jamie. Her back to the table and him, she busied herself wiping down the counter in short, fast swipes.
“Come on,” Opal urged. “Try your sandwich.”
Still focused on Jamie, Eli took the seat next to Opal.
“It’s ham and cheese with special sauce,” she said.
He bowed his head in a quick blessing before lifting the sandwich to his mouth.
“Mr. Payton is saying grace before he eats like we used to,” Opal informed Rose in a loud whisper.
Jamie slapped the sponge against the counter.
Each swipe emphasized the spiritual gap between them, the same kind of gap that had hastened his and his former fiancee’s breakup. He bit into his sandwich, chewing without tasting. “Special sauce, you say?”
Opal nodded. “I made up the recipe myself.”
“It’s mustard and mayonnaise,” Rose said.
“You’re not supposed to tell. It’s my secret recipe.”
Rose rolled her eyes.
“I won’t tell.” Eli looked back at Jamie, who was wringing out the sponge so hard he expected her to tear it in half. “Aren’t you going to join us?”
She placed the sponge on the back of the sink in a precise line with the corner. “I’m not very hungry.”
“After all the hard work we did upstairs, you’re not hungry?” he teased.
She exhaled. “A glass of milk will be fine.” She walked to the seat opposite him and filled the glass sitting at that place with milk.
“I already poured your milk,” Opal pointed at the glass in front of Eli.
“Thanks.” He hadn’t even noticed it.
Jamie sipped her drink. “Did you have a good time at the fort?”
“Yes!” Rose said. “We got to go on a special tour, not the lame one we went on with school.”
Jamie focused completely on Rose as the little girl relayed her morning detail by detail. And Eli focused on Jamie. The stiff way she held herself. The smile that didn’t reach her eyes when she commented on Rose’s description of the morning. His anger simmered, whether still at Charlie or at the undercurrent of blame he felt from the way Jamie was acting he wasn’t sure. He and Jamie hadn’t done anything wrong.
He washed the last of his sandwich down with milk. “I’d better get back to work.” He pushed his chair back and rose.
“You really don’t need to.” Jamie ran her finger up and down her empty milk tumbler. “I mean, we made such good progress this morning. I’m sure Myles and I can finish it. You probably have other things you want to do today.”
The camaraderie they’d shared this morning had vanished like the morning mist on the mountains on a hot July day.
“I could finish it myself this afternoon.”
“No, really, Myles and I can do it.” Jamie’s gaze flitted from him to Rose to Opal and back to him.
He took that to mean end of discussion. “I’ll be going, then.”
“Doesn’t Mr. Payton get a cookie?” Opal asked.
He didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but it would buy him more time with Jamie.
She drew her lips into a thin line.
“No, not today. That will leave more for you and your sister.” He winked and Opal giggled.
“Bye, Mr. Payton,” Opal and Rose said.
“Bye.”
“I’ll get your coat.” Jamie walked him to the door. “Thanks for all of your help.” She handed him his jacket.
He pulled it on and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “See you Friday. Bowling.”
“Yeah, if I can make it. With kids, you never know what will come up.”
As he walked to his truck, he had a gut feeling that something would come up, which bothered him more than it should.
Chapter Eight
“Nice work, Mom.” Myles slammed his backpack on the floor, startling Jamie so that she almost dropped the basket of laundry she was carrying.
“Hey,” she said sharply before she saw the pain in his eyes and the tear in the pocket of his coat. She put the basket on the table and softened her voice. “What?”
“The kids at school were talking about Mr. Payton’s new girlfriend. You! They were all looking at me in the hall. Don’t you ever think about anyone but yourself?” Myles pushed by her.
She grabbed his arm. “Stop right there. You’re upset, but that doesn’t give you the right to yell at me. Do you want to talk about it?” She was sure all of the kids weren’t
talking about them. But someone must have said something that had really gotten to Myles.
He pulled away from her. “What’s there to talk about? You and Mr. Payton are having a thing and I didn’t even know it. You’re such a hypocrite, sneaking around behind my back. I had to slug Liam Russell for some of the stuff he implied about you.”
Charlotte’s son. If Myles weren’t so upset and his words hadn’t tied her stomach in knots, she could have smiled at his paternalistic outrage.
“Sit down. Now. Please.”
He grabbed a chair, threw himself into it and glared at her. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to get a call about me fighting. The other guys broke it up before anyone saw us.”
She pulled out the chair next to him and sat. “Get this straight. Mr. Payton and I aren’t having a thing. We aren’t sneaking around on anyone.”
“That’s not what Liam said.”
The knot in her stomach tightened. Myles was going to believe a kid at school over her? Of course he was. Myles was a fourteen-year-old boy, and Charlotte’s son Liam was a senior and the school’s star athlete.
“He said his mother brought Rose and Opal home and you and Mr. Payton came down from upstairs looking all guilty when you heard them come in.”
She crossed her arms. “His mother told him that?”
“No, he heard her talking on the phone.”
Terrific! The whole town probably knew by now. “Mr. Payton and I were insulating the attic. You knew that.”
Myles avoided her gaze. “You left the bowling alley with him Friday night. They all saw you.”
Jamie had no idea who “they” were or that so many people were interested in her every move. “Eli walked me to the car. We’re on the same team with Karen and Tom Hill.”
Myles pounded the table with his fist. “What about Dad? Have you forgotten all about him?”
So, that’s what was at the bottom of this. She could worry about the gossip Charlotte was spreading about her later. Her baby was hurting.
She reached over and put her hand on top of his. “I know you miss your dad. I miss him, too.”
He shook off her hand. “Yeah, right. Mr. Payton isn’t half the man Dad was. You know Liam’s older brother, Brett? Mr. Payton is his father but he won’t own up to it. Liam said so.”
“Stop! You don’t know that’s true.”
Eli wouldn’t abandon a child, although he wouldn’t have been much more than a child himself when Brett was born. And a pretty wild one from what he’d said. No, if nothing else, Leah Summers would have made him take responsibility for his actions. Unless that’s why he joined the Air Force. He’d said the service had saved him. Was that what he’d been saved from? It would explain the tension between him and Charlotte on Saturday. Her thoughts ricocheted off each other, threatening to explode into a killer headache.
“And you don’t know it’s not true. I can tell by the way you’re thinking about it.”
“Enough!” She stood and shoved the clothes basket across the table to him. “Put your laundry away. I have to go pick up Rose and Opal from Girl Scouts. We can talk when I get back.”
“How do you know I’ll be here when you get back?”
She didn’t. She breathed in deeply. “Because I trust you to be here.”
“Fine.” He grabbed the basket and left the room.
She’d count that as one for her side.
Jamie bundled up and stepped out onto the porch. Sleet stung her cheeks. It looked like the January thaw they’d been enjoying was over, as if she didn’t have enough on her mind without the weather turning on her. She gritted her teeth and walked gingerly down the iced-over sidewalk to her vehicle. She knew how to drive well enough in icy winter weather, but she didn’t have to like it.
As she approached the end of the driveway, she heard the humming, scraping sound of the snowplow spreading salt on the road. She loosened her grip on the steering wheel and pulled out behind the plow, wishing she’d bought the new tires the crossover needed with her last paycheck, rather than putting it off until the next one.
While she waited for the plow to turn on State Route 74, Jamie lifted one gloved hand from the steering wheel and flexed it and then the other. She pressed the accelerator to follow the plow. Her car stalled. She turned the key to restart it. The engine made a feeble vroom and stopped. Jamie pressed the button for her hazard light. The signal on the dashboard didn’t flash.
Certain the battery must be dead, she got out, opened the hood and checked the terminal connections. They were tight. She had jumper cables in the back. Maybe she could flag down the next car to come along and get a jump. Or maybe not. The alternator belt was missing. It must have broken and fallen off between here and the house.
She left the hood up and climbed back in the vehicle to call for a tow truck. Her old van had been in and out of the shop for service so many times last year that she had the number memorized.
“Hill’s Auto Repair.”
“Tom, it’s Jamie Glasser. I’m stuck at the end of my road.”
“Are you okay? Are you off the road? This storm is looking to be a real beast.”
“I’m fine. The car’s on the road. It stalled out. Looks like the alternator belt broke and the battery’s dead.”
“It may be a while. Jack has the truck out on another tow. I hate to make you sit there and wait. If the Longs are home, their boys could push your car into their driveway and give you a ride home.”
“That would work, except that I was on my way to pick up Rose and Opal from Scouts.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll call Eli. He was just here taking care of his mother’s repair bill. He’ll be going right by there.”
“You don’t have to do that.” A red pickup turned the corner and stopped parallel to her. “He’s already here.”
Eli knocked on the window and she opened the door a crack so he could hear her. “I can’t open the window. The car’s dead.”
He stepped back. “I can take a look at it. I have tools in the truck.”
“Thanks. But there’s nothing you can do.” She explained the situation.
Eli opened the door the rest of the way. “You must be cold. Get in the truck. I have a tow chain. I’ll pull your car into the Longs’ driveway. You can run up to the house and let them know it’s there, and we’ll pick up Opal and Rose.”
He offered his arm to help her across the slick pavement. She linked her arm around his elbow, feeling his strength beneath her hand. It had been a long time since she’d accepted anyone’s support.
He opened the door. “Watch your step.”
Jamie climbed in and settled into the heated leather seat. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until the heat of the cab hit her.
He joined her in the cab and pulled the truck across the road into the Longs’ driveway to turn around so that he could hook up her vehicle for the tow.
“While I get your car, see if one or both of the boys are around to help me push it into the turnaround so it’s not blocking the driveway.”
“I can help you.”
“I know, but why should you if we have free teenage labor to do it?”
She laughed. “Good point.”
Jamie and both of the Long boys were waiting in the turnaround when Eli got back. While she was up at the house, she’d tried to call the scout leader with no success. She’d had service on the road, but five hundred feet away at the house her cell phone had no service bars. And the Longs’ cable phone was out because of the storm.
Eli and the boys made quick work of detaching her vehicle and moving it into the turnaround so they could be back on their way.
“I tried to get Tom on the phone to let him know we moved the car, but I don’t have any reception.” He maneuvered the truck around and pulled onto the road.
“Me, neither. I just tried to call the girls’ scout leader.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The school.” She checked the clock on th
e dashboard. “I wish I could have gotten through. I was supposed to have been there to pick them up a half hour ago.”
“Hey, you tried. You would have been early if you hadn’t had car trouble. And you can’t be the only parent delayed by the storm.”
She formed a steeple with her hands and pressed her fingertips to her lips. His ready encouragement gave her a glimpse of how Eli dealt with the kids as a guidance counselor and youth group leader. “I don’t want to wish anyone harm. But I wouldn’t mind if some of the others were late.”
She dropped her hands to her lap. Especially after last Saturday when the leader couldn’t get through to her about the early finish to the Fort Ticonderoga trip and Charlotte had brought Rose and Opal home.
Jamie studied Eli’s profile out of the corner of her eye. The aquiline nose, strong cheekbones. Charlotte’s oldest son, Brett, flashed in her mind. The college student had the same sandy brown hair as Eli. Did he have his other features, too?
“Don’t worry. I’ll get you there to pick up Rose and Opal.”
“Hmm?”
“Your expression. You looked concerned.”
“Not about that.” She pressed her lips together. “Myles told me something when he came home today. About something that happened at school.”
“He didn’t come in and talk with me about anything.”
“He wouldn’t have.”
Eli straightened and leaned back in the seat.
“Some of the kids…” She clasped her hands in her lap. “Liam Russell was taunting him about you and me.”
“That woman!” He stopped. “I take it Myles didn’t like the idea.”
“No. I set him straight that nothing is going on between us.”
He stared ahead, seemingly intent on his driving. “Good.”
His sharp tone slashed through the small distance separating them. She looked down at her hands. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“You and Charlotte.”
His jaw tightened.
“Is…” She swallowed. “Is Brett yours?”
“No.” The single word reverberated off the close walls of the truck cab.
Small-Town Mom Page 9
