“Coffee, please. Black.”
She returned with a large white mug, steam swirling from the top, and set it in front of him. “You’re the road man, aren’t you? Here to save the town, so I hear.” She smiled, and the wrinkles on her cheeks gathered into pleasant curves.
“Thomas Baker with Shuster Construction.” He gave her a weak smile. “I don’t know about saving anything; I’m just here to connect your town to the highway.”
“Name’s Clara.” She slid into the chair on the other side of the table. “You don’t mind if I rest a bit, do you?” She stared hard at Thomas. “D’you know what I think? It’s a crying shame to destroy Miss Olivia’s pond, with her just losing her parents and all. She’s quite the sentimental girl, not like most of the young-uns who want to rush off to the city as soon as they reach an age where the police won’t haul them back home.”
“Her parents are dead?” He hadn’t seen them around, but he assumed they wintered in Florida, like half the nation.
“Died in a car accident about two years ago. Didn’t make the curve at Bowman’s Point one night. We lose a lot of people that way.”
“I’m sorry to hear about her parents.” So she was running the hotel on her own. More reason to get the road built. “It seems Miss Miller has a lot to gain by connecting the highway with the town.”
“Oh, that’s right enough. We’re all doomed without it, but you know...well, maybe you don’t know. Not yet anyway, you being so young. What I’m trying to say is, sometimes the price of success is too high, and we need to search for alternatives.”
He rubbed his forehead. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me, Miss Clara.”
“Just don’t go breakin’ Miss Olivia’s heart when there are other ways.” She stood and sauntered back behind the swinging kitchen door.
Thomas drained the mug and dropped a five-dollar bill on the table. As he reached the sidewalk, a man about his age approached, his black dress coat unbuttoned, revealing a navy suit and tie. “So what do you think of our sweet little town?”
“I can see why you need to connect to the highway.”
The man held out a gloved hand. “Mitch Carter. Soon to be vice president of East Kansas Community Bank and on the fast-track to success.”
Thomas took an instant dislike to the man. He tried to reason why—maybe the swagger that suggested he thought too much of himself.
“I was at the meeting last night.” Mitch crossed his arms over his chest. “I hope you don’t let our town princess sway your plans.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“Olivia Miller. We’re soon to be engaged, so I am aware of her charms. But you and I, we’re businessmen. That old pond is nothing but a mud-hole most of the year. She has a sentimental attachment to it that, fortunately, the rest of the town doesn’t share.”
So Olivia was engaged, or almost, according to this puffed-up no-good. What had he expected after fifteen years, that she would remember and wait for him? He heaved a sigh, knowing that was exactly what he had hoped. “So what do you want from me?”
“Start the road.”
7
“Did you pack everything you own?” Olivia tugged the suitcase, moving it one more step up the staircase.
Donna Vaughn gripped a small overnighter in her left hand while her other hand dragged the larger companion. “You know it’s a horrible drive to get here, don’t you?”
“I know, and you make it every year to help me with the party.” Olivia felt her muscles unknot. Donna was the distraction she needed after her meeting with Mr. Dixon. How had her life gotten so out of control in less than twenty-four hours?
“First, I have to drive the car around all those mountains,” Donna said. “Weave to the right, zag left, slow down, speed up. Brake, turn, coast. It’s enough to make me crazy.”
“I know.”
“And then, when you think you can’t take any more, the road widens and you see the town, if you want to call it a town.”
“You love East Kansas, and you know it.”
Donna paused midway up the stairs. “I do love it. Every time I come here I feel like I go back in time.” She pulled the bulky suitcase up another step. “You drive into town and angle park in front of any store you want. From there you walk up and down the street, glancing into businesses like Henry’s Furniture and the pharmacy, I can’t remember its name.”
“East Kansas Pharmacy.”
“And everyone is walking. They all say hi—”
“Actually they say ‘hey.’”
Donna laughed. “What was I talking about, anyway?”
“You were telling me how wonderful my town is.”
“So when will you hire a bell-hop? How about some tea when we’re done?”
“You ask me about a bell-hop every year, and I tell you every year that I don’t need one. And I put the kettle on the stove when I saw your car.”
The women reached the top of the stairs and the worn carpet of the hall. Four doors on each side were spaced equally. They stopped at the second door on the left, Room Four.
“Remember how your dad used to try to carry all my stuff at one time?”
Olivia smiled. “And he usually dropped something.”
“That’s why I bought heavy-duty suitcases. Just for him.”
Olivia’s shoulders drooped. “I miss him.”
“I miss him, too.”
Olivia fell into Donna’s waiting arms. How long had it been since anyone had held her? She missed her father’s tender squeezes, her mother’s kisses. Sniffing, she pulled away. “I better get you settled, and then we need to talk.” She dreaded telling Donna that this would be her last Christmas vacation at the hotel.
Room Four remained just the way the two women had decorated it years ago when Donna first started coming home with Olivia during college breaks. They’d chosen pale blue, floral wallpaper and an old braided rug because it reminded Donna of her grandmother’s house.
Olivia ran a finger across the faded yellow stain on the comforter, a reminder from when they had spilled tea during a gab-session years ago.
They unpacked Donna’s clothes into lavender-scented drawers and the tall maple armoire.
“You know you can borrow some of my clothes,” Olivia said as she closed the last drawer. “And you didn’t need to bring shampoo and conditioner.”
“Habit. How about some sassafras tea?”
They headed to the kitchen.
Olivia dropped the sassafras bark into boiling water. “How’s the job?” she asked.
“So-so. I have to bite my tongue a lot.”
Olivia laughed. “Your tongue must be raw. I never knew you to hold back if you had something to say.”
“True. It’s the red hair. But what about you? Is the hotel full?”
Wanting to delay the bad news, Olivia turned to the cupboard for cups. She poured the amber liquid into their special china teapot with vining roses trailing up the side, the one they always used during Donna’s visits. As they sat at the kitchen, Olivia shared the budget issues, the need to move to find a job, and the probability of losing the hotel.
“I thought the state was building a road to the highway. Wasn’t that supposed to save the town?”
“About that road!” Olivia’s cheeks warmed. The china cup clanked against the saucer. “The construction company wants to fill in the pond and run the road right through Miller’s Field!”
“Isn’t there somewhere else the road can go? I mean, they have the whole town, don’t they?”
“Something about the topography and the slope of the mountains, according to the guy they sent from Shuster Construction.”
“Most likely some old geezer who doesn’t care about anything but asphalt and dollars.”
Olivia winced. “He’s not that old. I took him down to the pond this morning, but he didn’t seem too impressed.”
“OK, let’s move on to something else. How’s the love life going? Is that guy, Mitch,
still hanging all over you?”
Olivia rolled her eyes.
Donna’s brows rose. “So update me.”
“Everyone tells me I should marry Mitch.”
“He’s cute enough.”
“He is nice looking. And he has a steady job at the bank.”
“But…”
Olivia shrugged. “Once he gets some banking experience here, he wants to transfer to a big city.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“But I don’t want to live in the world of metal and glass.”
“But you do want to get married someday. Face it, Olivia. East Kansas is not a great place to meet guys.”
Olivia ran her finger over the rim of the teacup, wondering if she should share her deepest secret, the one she had never told her before, even though they were best friends. She carried the tea set to the sink. “I feel stupid telling you this, but I’m in love with someone else.”
“Olivia! That’s wonderful! Who is the lucky guy?”
“That’s the stupid part. He doesn’t really exist.”
8
Thomas stood outside Paulson’s Diner, cell phone pressed to his ear. The sun had dropped behind the mountain, and early stars dotted the graying sky. He remembered that long ago summer and how the stars had shined on the town of his mother’s birth, the town she’d refused to return to. Now the air settle into a peaceful sleep, wrapping the hollow in a comfortable sense of safety.
Thomas hated the calm. He hated the stars, and he hated the nice people who said ‘hey’ as they passed him. More than anything, he hated having this conversation with his boss. “I know the deadline, Stephen. I can’t do anything about the Town Council.”
A mother, father, and four kids, all boys, passed. The mother held the smallest who looked to be about two, while the dad corralled the other three. The family entered the diner.
The scent of slow-cooked beef wafted through the open door. His stomach rumbled. “The council chairwoman said Monday…yes, I met with her.” The site needed prepped before the end of the year, but there was no sense in moving thousands of dollars of equipment to East Kansas until he knew where to place it. “I have a plan.” He rolled his shoulders back and forth. “Give me the weekend.”
Pocketing the phone, he heaved a sigh. The logical place for the road was right where he planned to put it. The town supported him, even though several voiced concern over losing the pond. It was just a pond, right? But the fact that he had wandered the town the entire day rather than going back to his hotel room and chance running into Olivia meant…yes, he had lost his backbone.
He entered Paulson’s Diner, planning to drown his misery in a plate of pot roast and gravy.
~*~
“He spent a summer here,” Olivia explained as she washed the thin porcelain cups. “We were together constantly.”
“So he does exist!” Donna’s eyes sparkled. “Call him up. When was he here, last summer?”
Olivia shook her head.
“The summer before?”
“A long time ago.”
“When!”
“I was ten years old.”
“You were ten?”
“I know, I know. I told you, it’s stupid.”
“So you are in love with a boy who hadn’t even reached puberty when you knew him and has probably forgotten all about you?”
“That’s about it.”
“Oh, man.” Donna laughed. “You know how ridiculous that is. The solution, though, is simple enough.”
“That being˗”
“Fall in love with someone else. Olivia, you hang on to the past as if it’s your only hope for happiness. You know there is good in the future, too, don’t you? Your hotel, the pond, this boy, they are all part of the past, a wonderful past, but a past that should be taken out and looked at like a post card, not something you have to continue to nurture in order to keep the memories alive.”
Donna repeated what Olivia had told herself over and over. She tapped her fingers against the countertop. “How about we go to Paulson’s for supper?”
9
It seemed no one in East Kansas wanted to cook this evening, and local options were few.
Olivia chastised herself for not putting something in the crock pot. But the day started badly and had not gotten any better, except for Donna’s arrival. Now, with strains of Christmas carols breaking through the din of voices and the clatter of dishes, they settled at the end of the line. “At least we’re inside,” Olivia said to Donna as the door swung closed behind them.
How had Thomas Baker spent his day? He hadn’t come back to the hotel except to leave the skates she’d loaned him at the front door. But then, he hadn’t checked out, either. She was unexplainably drawn to him but pushed aside romantic notions and focused on the fact that Thomas Baker was responsible, in part, for her problems. It would be less difficult leaving East Kansas if the pond remained as her family’s legacy.
“How much longer?” the man in the front asked.
The harried young hostess scanned the packed dining room. “I don’t know. People are eating slow.”
“Can’t you hurry them up?”
“We may have a long wait,” Olivia mumbled.
A mother stood and pulled a toddler from the highchair. A long-legged girl, struggling into her fluffy blue coat, followed her father to the side counter. The father chatted with the waitress as he ran his credit card through the scanner. After signing the receipt, he stuck a toothpick between his lips, guided his daughter in front of him and followed his wife out the door.
“This is what I miss when I go home,” Donna said.
“Crazy and noisy?”
“The sense of family. Everyone belongs. I feel as if I belong.”
“You do belong. You’ve been in East Kansas dozens of times. People know you.”
“That’s not what I mean. There’s something special here.”
Something special that Shuster Construction and its handsome foreman would destroy. Before Olivia could voice her thoughts, the slender hostess motioned to them.
“I can get you seated if you’re willing to share a table.”
“What do you think?” Olivia asked Donna.
“Fine with me.”
The hostess led them through the maze of happy eaters sitting in front of plates of meatloaf, fried chicken, and pot roast.
A preschool girl darted between the tables, her dark curls bouncing like springs.
Olivia stepped over a smashed French fry on the tile floor.
Situated against the window, one table had a single patron.
Olivia skidded to a stop.
Donna nudged her. “This place is blessed! That man is a hunk!”
The hostess stopped and nodded toward the empty chairs.
Thomas stood, his smile ragged.
“Hi, I’m Donna Vaughn. This is my friend Olivia—”
“We’ve met,” Olivia said, staring. There was something about him…
“Thomas Baker,” he said to Donna and then resumed his seat. “I saw you standing in line.”
“You know each other?” Donna asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down. “Why’d you never introduced me to him?”
Olivia had no choice but to also sit. “He just got here. He’s the man from Shuster Construction.”
Donna’s face lit up. “The road man who’s building…oh. Oh!”
“Please, go ahead and eat,” Olivia said. “No sense in your food getting cold.”
Thomas slid a chunk of pot roast around in the gravy.
“You didn’t spend much time at the pond,” Olivia said. “Your skates were on the porch when I got back from my meeting.”
Thomas winced.
Olivia instantly regretted her tone. She hadn’t meant to insult him.
“I saw what you wanted me to see.” He kept his gaze on his plate.
A stocky, middle aged waitress took their orders.
“So, Thomas, are you really filling i
n the pond?” Donna’s battle tactics would wear the man down in her own direct way.
Olivia tried not to laugh.
Thomas set down his fork. “I know the pond is a special place for the town.” He stared across the room.
Olivia held her breath. Was he wavering?
“But?” Donna asked.
“Here you go!” the waitress breezed up and plopped down some dishes. “One house salad with grilled chicken and one fried chicken dinner.”
Thomas pushed back his chair. “I’ll leave you ladies to your food. And Olivia, I enjoyed skating with you today.”
“So that is your contractor?” Donna bit into a chicken leg, the crunch audible in spite of the noise in the room. “Mmm. This is yummy.”
“He’s not my contractor.”
Thomas paid his bill at the counter, pushed open the restaurant door and headed toward the hotel.
The unsettled feeling in Olivia’s stomach worsened. She should know him, but how?
~*~
Thomas opened the canisters, releasing the familiar scent of worn paper, and spread the maps across the floor of his hotel room. He held the edges flat with his work boots. Maybe something had escaped him, some curve in a mountain, or the location of a fault-line that would force him to divert the road. It would cost more money and take more time, but it wouldn’t be his fault.
Outside, a car horn sounded a short beep, followed by an equally clipped reply. Two drivers, friends most likely, acknowledging each other the way people do.
There was another place to build the road. He had spotted it when he began to study the maps after the contract was signed. But the location had two flaws. One, it would cost more money. And two, the bigger of the hurdles, the land was owned by the most selfish man alive.
An hour later he stood, working the kinks out of his back. There was absolutely no way to build the road on public land without destroying the pond.
But he had told Stephen he had a plan. He clenched his teeth, a habit he was trying to break. A headache built behind his eyes.
The thought of being in the old man’s presence made his stomach tighten, but after fifteen years, he would go see him. A life with Olivia was impossible, but maybe he could save her pond.
Christmas in East Kansas (Christmas Holiday Extravaganza) Page 3
