Hope's Garden Read online

  “Those are some homes, aren’t they?” the old woman stated with the shake of her head. “Why would anyone want that much house to take care of?”

  “A lot of them are from California,” Cat explained. “They have to roll over the profit from the sale of their more expensive California homes into ones here.”

  Gage shifted his gaze and encountered Cat’s hooded expression. A prickle of uncertainty danced up his spine. “And the truth is, you can buy a whole lot more house for the same money here,” Gage offered.

  “It certainly seems so.” The woman nodded twice and hummed to herself or had she said words? “Well, Catherine, were you out looking at my land again?”

  The way the woman asked the question and stared searchingly at Cat made Gage think he was right. There was something about this land that Cat wasn’t telling him.

  Cat motioned toward Gage. “My partner is interested in buying it. He wants it for a golf course.”

  “And tennis club,” Gage added.

  The little woman turned keen, light-blue eyes toward him. “A golf course? You mean like when they play those golf tournaments on TV on Sunday afternoons?”

  “Yes.” Gage watched for the old woman’s reaction.

  “That’s an interesting idea.” She nodded twice, quick decisive nods and said something like, “Uh-uh.” She looked into his eyes again. “Now, I’ve already had two other builders look at that piece of land for a new subdivision.”

  Gage’s heart sank. That would raise the asking price.

  “But I like this idea.” She nodded twice again and made the same sound. “A golf course would be like a park, wouldn’t it? A lot of people could enjoy it.” She nodded again.

  Gage found himself nodding along with her.

  “How were you intending on financing your venture?”

  This did surprise Gage. He hadn’t expected business questions from this old woman.

  But he replied calmly, “I have a steady income from my partnership with Catherine.” Her name came out easily in this company. “I was in commercial real estate in Chicago. I’m sure I could raise enough money with investors I’ve done business with there for the down payment. Then I’ll sell memberships with yearly dues. That would cover operating expenses and improvements.”

  “Sounds like a good plan.” Her nodding and humming ritual came again. “I’ve heard good things about you.” The woman eyed him sharply. “But you would have to have a membership to play golf there?”

  “Since there is no public course nearby, I was thinking of having at least one public day each week. Then a nonmember would just pay a modest greens fee for that round.”

  “Good. I like that.” Nodding and humming. “That particular piece of land is so beautiful I’ve wanted it to give pleasure to as many people as possible.” The old woman grinned suddenly, lifting the wrinkles of her face. “Up to now, cattle have been the only ones to enjoy that view.” She chuckled, then turned her sharp eyes to Cat. “So Catherine, you decided you don’t want to buy it, after all?”

  The smell of chlorine filled Cat’s nose. She drew in the scene. The church’s junior high After-Nine-Night at the city outdoor pool washed over Cat—the feminine squealing and giggling, the masculine bellowing and taunting. She and Gage had come as the sponsors for their four young people. Girls chatted in clusters in and out of the water. Boys splashed the girls and cannonballed off the diving boards. “Yahoo! Watch this! I’ll get you!” Ker-splash! Waves of water surged over the sides of the pool, wetting Cat’s bare toes on the cement apron. The gurgling, aqua-painted pool illuminated by underwater lights gave the pool area an eerie look in the darkness.

  Chuck had stayed at home with Laurette who was counting the days until it would be safe to deliver. At least four more weeks were required, which equaled twenty-eight more days of lying on the boring couch. Aunt Bet had wisely excused herself from this rowdy evening, also.

  As Cat leaned her bare back against the high chain-link fence surrounding the pool, Gage lounged right beside her, only inches away. His proximity made the hair on her bare arms prickle. Inside, her emotions surged and swirled like the turbulent water in the busy pool.

  Gage bent close to her ear. “I think I may go deaf by the end of this evening.”

  As his lips moved so near her tender flesh, her ear tingled. The suave gentleman who had landed at Hope’s Garden on April Fool’s Day had vanished. Cat kept her unruly thoughts to herself as she gazed at him in the deep twilight.

  After a summer of outdoor physical labor, Gage—tanned and muscular—looked like a lumberjack. Or what she thought a lumberjack would look like in red swim trunks. Her lungs didn’t seem to be able to expand. She took a small breath, then answered with a teasing lilt to her voice. “You’ll survive.”

  “What?” He teased. “Did you say something?”

  His warm breath fanned against her cheek. Goose bumps blossomed along her arms. She punched the nearest of his rock-hard biceps.

  “Ow!”

  Her intense awareness of him threatened to drown her, so she motioned toward the deep end. “Go, jump in with the guys. Ryan looks like he’s about to start a fight. He has been dunking the unsuspecting.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Dunk him. That will show him how it feels. An important lesson.”

  Gage shook his head. “Brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  She waved her hands expansively. “Some of us have it. Some of us don’t.”

  He loped off.

  Relief flooded Cat. She scanned the crowded pool area for her two charges, Morgan and Ginny. Her unwanted attraction to her business partner, her cross-currents over his buying the McCanliss property, worry over Laurette and the baby had Cat on an emotional seesaw.

  To top it all off tonight, she sensed a crisis gathering with Ginny. Morgan had been subdued during the ride to the pool. Probably because Ginny had been as friendly as a porcupine. In the past two weeks, Ginny’s sullenness had reached a low point. At church on Sunday mornings, Ginny’s parents looked harassed. What was troubling that family?

  Cat strolled around the pool trying not to look as though she were searching for her girls. Finally, she spied Morgan and Ginny with their heads together, sitting side by side on one side of a picnic table in the snack area. Their secretive pose flashed like a warning yellow light.

  Cat’s first inclination was to walk up and ask Ginny what was bothering her. But the direct approach with Ginny had failed every time she’d tried it. Ginny didn’t want help from any adult, the enemy. Cat slowed down and sat at another picnic table behind them. What do I do, Lord? We’ve had luck with the other three. I see them growing. But what about Ginny?

  Cat stared at the back of Morgan’s dark hair and Ginny’s lighter head. Shrill voices ricocheted around her. Normally Cat would never eavesdrop, but something about the girl’s posture and Cat’s desire to help Ginny kept Cat where she was. Something was warning her. Ginny needed help. But what should Cat do? What are they saying to each other? Should I talk to her parents? What would I say? Are the girls plotting something I should hear? Lord, I just want to help.

  Standing in the cool water at the transition between the shallow and deep ends, Gage glanced across the pool. Cat wore a modest, one-piece coral-pink suit. With her abundant golden hair, tanned skin and lithe figure, she made an attractive picture. He had a hard time keeping his eyes off her.

  But keeping tonight’s role in mind, he picked Ryan and Phil out in the crowded pool. Ryan looked like he was wearing a flesh-colored inner tube around his pudgy waist. Phil’s ribs and arm and leg bones appeared to have only skin stretched over them. Working with Harry this summer would be good for both of them.

  Right now, his charges were contributing their fair share to the general din of screeches, splashes as well as the jiggling and thud of the two diving boards. His ears felt numb. But Gage continued to watch as Ryan and Phil hotdogged, taking turns jump
ing off the high dive.

  “Hey!” Gage shouted and waved both his arms. “Slow down! Don’t get too crazy, you guys! I don’t want to have to scrape you off the diving board or the bottom of the pool!”

  After waving both his arms over his head in reply, Ryan held his nose and jumped in.

  “His form requires a bit of work, wouldn’t you say?”

  Gage turned to see the senior pastor of the church in faded navy swim trunks standing beside him in the water. “Hello, sir.”

  The pastor, whose neck and face were dark from the sun, but whose chest and upper arms glowed white in the dim light, chuckled. “Don’t ‘sir’ me tonight. Don’t look like myself, do I?”

  Gage grinned. “I wouldn’t say that. From the neck up you look normal.”

  “The youth pastor bet me a sermon I wouldn’t have the nerve to show up in my trunks.”

  “You showed him.”

  “He was going to preach for me while I was on vacation anyway, but we like to joke.”

  Gage followed the pastor’s gaze. He was watching the future residents of the group home who were the special guests this evening. A few teens had gathered around them and were showing off their different strokes. “They seem to be enjoying themselves.”

  “Yes, I think they are going to be an excellent addition to Eden. We’re planning an open house late in August after they’ve moved in. Then all we’ll need to do is find them jobs. I’ve been talking to Mr. Burton at Venture.”

  Gage nodded.

  The pastor folded his arms over his skinny chest. “You seem to have settled right in here, too. I hear you’re interested in building a golf course on the McCanliss land.”

  “Cat would say Eden Gossip Central was working,” Gage said lightly.

  “I don’t consider good news gossip. I play golf. I’ll be the first in line to join your club.”

  “Thanks.” Gage fell silent. He’d tried to find out why Cat had led him to the McCanliss land when she had evidently wanted it herself. But she had only evaded his questions. What would she want the land for? And why wouldn’t she tell him?

  As Gage had gone through the negotiations with Mrs. McCanliss, contacting prospective investors and commissioning the environmental study, the golf course had become more and more crucial to him. If this worked out, he’d have sunk his roots deep here. Eden would be home. Eden would be his future. But would it be at Cat’s expense?

  “Is there something wrong?”

  Gage hesitated, then nodded. “I would appreciate your advice.”

  “About what?”

  “When Cat showed me that land, she didn’t tell me she had wanted to buy it for herself.”

  “I see.”

  Above them, Philip ran off the high dive and cannonballed, folding his knees and wrapping his arms around them. He hit the water. A mini tidal wave splashed up and over Gage and the pastor. When the waters receded, the pastor said, “You feel odd about buying the land then?”

  “Yes, I don’t want to take—”

  The pastor interrupted, “But you’re not taking it from Catherine. As I see it, she’s offering it to you.”

  “But should I take it, just because she—”

  “Catherine does have a very generous heart, but she must want you to have the land. You know the Simmons family has the reputation of being direct. Don’t look for hidden messages in their behavior. You always know where you stand with a Simmons.”

  Gage turned this over in his mind. He couldn’t argue with it. “I know. Thanks. That helps.”

  “Besides, you still have to win zoning approval from the county board.”

  This came unexpectedly. “Do you think that will be a problem?”

  The pastor gave him an enigmatic look. “Perhaps you should look into who is on the board. That’s my advice.”

  A loud piercing whistle sounded above them. “Break time!” The lifeguard shouted from his perch. “Everyone out of the pool!”

  As Gage pulled himself out of the pool, he wondered about the pastor’s cryptic advice about finding out who sat on the county board. Gage wanted to know. Or maybe he didn’t want to know.

  Through the warm August evening, Gage walked toward the local VFW Hall where the county board held its meetings. A few black, corn-fat crows squawked overhead. He felt like squawking back at them. This evening would be momentous in his life. He didn’t plan to take no for an answer. But tonight he’d find out whether or not it would be a long hard journey to his goal. He’d already discovered one possible opponent. He had taken the pastor’s advice and found out the names of the board members. All had been strangers—except for one name.

  He had wished that one had been a stranger, too. In spite of this, he had told Chuck to stay home with Laurette. He didn’t need a lawyer. Yet. The scolding crows chided him, as if to say, “So that’s what you think, buddy! We’ve got news for you!”

  “Gage!” An unexpected, but welcome voice came from behind him.

  He turned to see his partner getting out of her white Hope’s Garden truck. She waved. “I decided to come. I didn’t want to wait by the phone.”

  He made a wry face at her, but his mood lifted like a helium balloon on the wind. “I know what you mean. I would like to fast-forward this evening if I could.”

  Wearing a sleeveless jean dress, she strolled toward him. Her skirt rippled with her movement. When had she stopped calling him Farrell and switched to Gage? He wished he could call her by her full name, Catherine. “Cat” seemed so inadequate for the warm-hearted, lovely woman he now faced.

  “Worried?” She looked up at him, her toffee-brown eyes serious.

  Fleetingly, he contemplated brushing the soft lips turned toward him. Back to business!

  “Just a bit, but I’ve done all my homework.” He lifted a slender black leather portfolio, which he held in one hand. Offering her his other arm, he asked, “Shall we?” He almost added, “Catherine.”

  She took his arm. “By all means.”

  Gage savored the feel of her small hand in the crook of his arm. Having Catherine by his side set his confidence on high.

  As they walked into the low cement-block building, he blinked to adjust his eyes to the lower light. The vinyl-floored room stretched long and narrow before them. A pop machine glowed red, white and blue in one dark corner. Folding chairs and tables on long, wheeled racks lined the dingy avocado-green walls.

  The meeting took place at one end beneath long fluorescent lights, one of which flickered irritatingly. A smattering of people already sat in the metal folding chairs facing front. Five board members lounged around a narrow, folding table. Having timed his arrival with the start of the meeting, Gage now avoided looking at their faces, putting off confronting the one he knew.

  As he walked toward the chairs, familiar, friendly faces turned toward him—Bet, Hetty and her husband, the pastor, Philip and his mother, and Chuck.

  Gage halted. “Chuck? Who’s with Laurette?”

  His friend stood and slapped Gage shoulder. “Harry and Jo. They are waiting by the phone. She insisted I come.”

  Gratitude tightened Gage’s throat. He couldn’t speak, so he nodded. The support of friends meant so much. He and Cat sat in front of his supporters. Cat folded her hands in her lap and sent out vibrations of relaxed confidence. She still wouldn’t discuss why she’d been interested in the McCanliss land. But that was her decision. He didn’t doubt her complete support.

  The county board chairman, Jim Inman, called the meeting to order. The board secretary read the minutes from last month’s meeting in a dreary monotone.

  Avoiding facing forward, Gage picked up a printed agenda on the seat beside him. They had scheduled his proposal dead last. He put the page back down. Then he looked into the face he’d wished hadn’t been on the county board—Ed Myer of Myer Contracting.

  Myer stared back at him.

  When Gage had asked Chuck how Myer had gotten himself elected to the county board, Chuck had said simply, “N
ew people didn’t know his reputation.” Chuck doubted Myer would win a second term. But that didn’t help him tonight.

  Gage smiled nonchalantly. You don’t have the power to stop me, Myer.

  Myer stared back harder and straightened his chair.

  The boring meeting slogged on. A few flies and moths buzzed the lights. The flickering light made a crinkling noise. Outside, the bug-zapper crackled with action. A matter of an easement was discussed. Also a new traffic light was approved. Most of the board members acted as though they did their work completely unconscious of the sparse audience—except for Myer, who couldn’t take his narrow-set black eyes off Gage.

  A few people entered after the start of the meeting, but Gage faced forward, not wanting to appear in any way anxious.

  “Mr. Gage Farrell?” Jim Inman, the county board chair, finally announced. “We have your application for a zoning change. Will you come forward to answer questions?”

  Gage stood up. “Yes, sir.” He went forward and faced the board. He’d asked for zoning changes before. It was easy compared to figuring out Catherine’s mystery about the land.

  Inman smiled. “I want to say, Mr. Farrell, that your proposal is very thorough. I like that. Now you are prepared to purchase the McCanliss river property to be used as a golf and tennis club?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We usually don’t like to approve a zoning change for someone until the land has changed hands.”

  “Jim.” A voice came from the rear of the hall.

  Gage and the others all turned to see Mrs. McCanliss standing in the last row of chairs.

  “Yes, ma’am?” Jim replied.

  “Gage and I have signed papers of intent. The land is as good as his. I am not selling it to anyone else. I like the idea of that land not being developed for homes. This will be just like a park—”

  “A park for the rich,” Myer slipped in slyly.

  “That isn’t true,” Mrs. McCanliss retorted. “Gage, you tell them. I’ve got to sit down. My knees ache, and I don’t like talking at meetings.” Nodding and humming, she sat down. Aunt Bet went to sit beside her.

  Gage cleared his throat. “The golf course will be open one day a week to the general public who will be able to use it for a modest greens fee. Two of those four days will be weekdays plus one Saturday and one Sunday per month. The same with the tennis court.”