New Man in Town Read online

  Peter looked around the room as though weighing the reaction to the note, to him, to his camp. “I’d like to say that Mrs. Lowell makes a good point.” He paused to bow in her direction. “I am happy you let me come and speak to you tonight, but I am quite content to let the official vote be postponed. In fact, I would prefer it.”

  Thea tried to fight it, but a smile lifted one corner of her mouth. Grandmother had expected almost any response from Peter but this one. He outmaneuvered you, Grandmother. What do you think about that?

  Chapter Five

  Late in the afternoon, Thea chased Molly up the steep winding asphalt drive to their house. The tops of the leafless trees and evergreens swayed in the balmy late April wind playing a subtle accompaniment to her breathing.

  Molly turned and barked as though teasing Thea.

  Winded, Thea gasped, “Think you can beat me?” She shook her fist playfully. “I’ll catch you!” The retriever bounded ahead, disappearing around a turn. Thea, though breathless, sprinted after her around the blind tree-lined bend. She ran straight into Peter. “Oof!”

  Losing her footing, she stumbled backward. He caught her before she fell. With his strong hands, he drew her close. For a few exquisite seconds, she nestled safe against him. His clean soap scent blended with the natural pine fragrance around them. She battled the urge to snuggle closer.

  He steadied her, then set her back on her feet. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, bracing her hands against her knees, trying to get her panting and her reactions to him under control.

  “Sorry. I heard you and was coming down to join you for the last of your run.”

  She swallowed. “I ran into you.”

  They hadn’t seen each other since the church meeting. Now they stood gazing at each other. Peter’s uncharacteristic silence made it harder for Thea to speak. She tried to come up with a polite, coherent thought. But all that came to mind was Hold me again. Her attraction to him had grown more powerful in their days apart.

  His eyes searched her face as though delving into her thoughts. Avoiding this, she pushed a few strands of wayward hair back over her ear. Finally she managed to ask, “What can I do for you then?”

  He said in a husky voice, “I wanted to apologize to you.”

  Startled, she looked up into his face. “Apologize? Why?”

  “I didn’t listen to your gentle warnings about the camp controversy.” The trace of a smile tipped the corners of his mouth as though appealing to her.

  She struggled against her awareness of him. “I feel bad, too.”

  “Why?” His dark eyes widened.

  “My grandmother’s statement. I—”

  “Don’t apologize. How could you refuse? Besides, why would I hold you responsible for your grandmother’s words?”

  In the days since the meeting, Thea’d been too stung to face him. How could someone as fearless as Peter understand Thea’s dislike of making a public scene?

  Obviously frustrated with their idleness, Molly charged back. With two firm barks, she summoned each of them.

  Peter chuckled. “Well, we’ve been told. We’re holding up the parade.”

  Thea smiled, relieved there would be no bad feelings between them. The warm breeze wafted around her ears, blowing strands of hair from her braid into her eyes. Again she smoothed them off her face. Glancing up, she found Peter studying her.

  “Ready? Let’s go for it.” Peter jogged up the final incline.

  Thea caught up with him. Molly leaped and raced around yelping her encouragement. They jogged side by side. Thea felt wonderfully free after days of doubt.

  The winter had played its finale and departed. Spring had begun its first movement—hopeful, ardent. Was it the fresh spring air, the robin hopping on the edge of the grass—spring-green again from melting snow—that lifted her heart? Reaching their goal, they both flung themselves onto the dark green bench outside Thea’s back door.

  When Thea breathed normally again, she glanced at Peter. He was so handsome, with his dark hair and eyes and tanned skin above the collar of his red windbreaker. Sitting side by side like this, they must look like a bright cardinal and his drab mate. She’d never be able to attract such a dynamic man. She carefully damped down his appeal and spoke in a detached tone. “From what you just said, I take it you’re finally considering using some caution?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.” He grinned at her, a boyish teasing grin.

  “Why did you back off from the congregational vote?” To talk openly freed her. Her confidence unfurled like the daffodils blossoming by her feet.

  “What you mean is, how did I know not to press for a vote?” He draped his arm over the back of the bench, his nearness wrapping her in invisible warmth.

  A kind of bubble inflated inside her windpipe making it hard to talk. She swallowed. “Got me.”

  “You tried to prepare me. I didn’t listen. Your grandmother’s statement showed me it would be wrong to force people to takes sides.” His deep voice curled through her like a blues melody, lulling, mellowing her.

  “Why?” Thea let the harmony of the moment heal her frazzled nerves.

  “Once a person takes a stand it’s very hard to change that person’s mind.”

  Thea was impressed. “That’s very wise.”

  “Wise? No one has ever called me that before.”

  Thea didn’t know what to say to this, so she ruffled Molly’s fur at the back of her head.

  Peter petted Molly, too, as though avoiding Thea’s gaze. “May I ask you a question?”

  His sudden seriousness brought her up short. Would he ask her to do something she didn’t want? Uncertainty tinged her voice. “What?”

  “Do you think there will be a zoning challenge?”

  “Yes, they say you’re changing the way the land is used because you’re changing from a private to a charitable camp.”

  “You mean they’ll actually file a zoning challenge against me with the county board?”

  Picturing a blustering Mr. Crandon, Thea nodded.

  “Well,” he paused. “Guess I’ll be spending extra time in prayer. How soon do you think it will come?”

  A wave of admiration rushed through her. A fullscale fight didn’t even make him flinch! “Soon.”

  “What about you, Thea? Still sitting on the fence?” He brushed his fingertips through her hair. “Pine needles.”

  His touch beckoned her to draw closer. She resisted.

  “I shouldn’t have asked you that. I came to ask you something else.”

  “What?” Fighting her inner confusion, she focused on the nearby robin pulling at a worm.

  “I have to fly down to Milwaukee. Business.” He pulled a key ring from his windbreaker pocket. “A carpenter is coming to do several repairs at the lodge. Would you hold these and give them to him when he comes?”

  “Certainly.” Thea accepted them.

  “Thanks. You don’t think it will make you seem to have taken my side?”

  “I’m just being a good neighbor.” Her resolve to stand apart had nothing to do with that.

  “Good.” He stood up, gazing down at her. “I believe you will give me your support in time, Thea. But I only want it when you will give it to me freely.”

  After years of being commanded what to think, what to do, how to do it, she couldn’t speak because so many words crowded in her throat.

  Peter had charted his course. Her grandmother had planned hers. But Peter, who possessed a strong personality, had extended respect to her. He’d left the decision to her alone. Finally she said, “When will you be back?”

  “I’ll be gone nearly a month.”

  Glancing away, she hid the downturn in her mood at his news. “It’ll be warmer when you return.”

  He stood up and offered her his hand and gently pulled her to stand in front of him. She couldn’t stop herself from studying his face. She found him studying her, too. Unspoken words hung in the warm air around them.


  “Thanks.” Pulling away slowly, he patted Molly’s head and walked to his red van.

  He drove away, but the phantom sensation of his strong hand in hers lingered. Tonight it would be difficult to look over and see the lodge dark and vacant. To know that she would not see him again for several weeks. She felt a yawning emptiness at the realization. She heard her phone ring and hurried inside.

  As soon as she recognized Mrs. Chiverton’s scratchy voice, Thea wished she’d let the answering machine pick up. “Althea, what was he at your place for?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t spy on me.” The words slipped out of Thea’s mouth before she could stop herself.

  “I’m not spying! I’m keeping my eye on that man. Now what did he want?”

  To brush pine needles from my hair. Thea shook her head. “He just stopped to tell me he’s flying back to the city on business.” Why not tell this? Peter flying out of the county airport would be common knowledge within the hour.

  “Why?”

  “He left me a key for the carpenter.” No doubt the older woman would notice Thea giving something to the carpenter anyway.

  “You refused to take it, didn’t you?”

  “Now why would I refuse such a simple favor for a neighbor?”

  “You think I’m just an old nosy busybody,” Mrs. Chiverton said unexpectedly. “But I just don’t want you to get hurt!” Then abruptly she hung up.

  Thea shook her head and also hung up. Instantly the phone rang again. Frowning, she refused to answer ring after ring. The recorded message played, then Thea heard, “It’s Myra. If you’re there, please pick up.” Why had her stepmother called?

  Thea hurried to pick up the phone. “Myra, is everything all right?”

  Myra laughed. “You sound like I never call.”

  Thea couldn’t shrug off the feeling something might be wrong. “How’s Father?”

  “He’s fine. On the road this week.”

  Her father had spent her childhood on the road, marketing for a hardware chain. “You mean the usual?”

  Her stepmother laughed dryly. “We just hadn’t heard from you for a while so I thought I’d call.”

  As Thea chatted with her stepmother for a few minutes about inconsequential matters, she tried to figure out Myra’s reason for calling. Myra never called just to chat like this. Maybe she needed something for Thea’s stepsister. “How’s Cynda? Is she looking forward to getting her driver’s license soon?” Thea asked.

  “Not yet. Well, I just wanted to hear your voice. Give our regards to Grandmother Lowell. Bye.”

  Thea hung up. What was that all about?

  “Peter, please, I wish you hadn’t asked me.” As far as the cord allowed, Thea paced her kitchen.

  “I had to ask, Thea. You’re the first friend I made at Lake Lowell and I’d like to see one friendly face looking back at me at the meeting tonight.” Peter’s opponents had finally succeeded in getting onto the board meeting agenda tonight.

  She tried to ignore the coaxing tone in his voice. Or the undeniable happiness she felt hearing his voice again after so many weeks and knowing he was back, only steps from her door. “You’ll have many friendly faces there. Both Vickie Earnest and Pastor Carlson have called me already.”

  “So I’m not the first to call?”

  “No.”

  “You’re committed to staying out of this?”

  “Yes, I want to stay completely neutral.” And I don’t want to have to listen to hours of arguing.

  “Just coming isn’t taking sides,” he said.

  “I just don’t want to go.”

  He sighed with audible disappointment. “Okay. And thanks. You’ve really helped out while I was away.”

  “We’re neighbors,” she replied in what she hoped was a friendly, but not too familiar tone.

  “You’re sticking to that story?” he teased.

  “It’s the truth.”

  A moment of silence. “I won’t press you then. I guess I won’t see you this trip. I’m just here for the meeting.”

  At this news, frustration pinched Thea. She wanted to see Peter. They hadn’t seen each other since that brief jog at the end of April. Now Memorial Day and the summer camp season loomed just days away. Thea knew he’d be so busy once the camp opened, she probably wouldn’t see him all summer.

  “Will you pray for me tonight, Thea?”

  “I have been.”

  “Thanks,” he said quietly, then hung up.

  Peter’s voice, so rich and vibrant, had nearly enticed her to change her mind and go. Molly gazed up from where she sat at Thea’s feet. “Yes, that was your friend Peter.”

  Molly whoofed.

  Thea patted Molly’s head, then glanced upward. “God, Your will be done tonight.” Thea looked down at the retriever. “That is the best prayer, Molly. I don’t know all the answers and I’m tired of hearing everyone’s loud, incessant arguments and emotional opinions.”

  Molly barked encouragingly.

  Thea strolled to the open windows over the sink. She inhaled the soft late May air drifting in, scented by the lilac bush in full bloom outside the window. The bullfrogs across the lake bellowed their raucous wooing. When Molly ducked out the dog door, Thea murmured, “Have a date, Mol?”

  The phone rang.

  Thea turned, then leaned back against the counter. She couldn’t listen to another summons. After the answering machine picked up and played its message, a brusque male voice demanded, “Thea? This is the care center. Please pick up.”

  Thea’s heart jerked in her breast. She reached for the phone. “What’s wrong?”

  “Your grandmother insists you come in right away.”

  “Is she in pain? What happened?”

  “It’s just one of her whims.”

  Thea sighed. “You haven’t been able to talk her out of it?”

  “When have we ever been able to talk her out of anything?”

  Thea sighed and looked down at her jeans. Grandmother hated women in denim. “All right. It will take me a few minutes to change though.”

  “She says there isn’t time. Come as you are.”

  “What?”

  “That’s what she says.”

  Thea shrugged. “Very well.”

  After running a brush through her hair, Thea drove down the winding drive through the gathering twilight into town. Parking at the care center, she walked into her grandmother’s room.

  “It’s about time. What took you so long?” Her grandmother’s angry, though slurred demand stung.

  Usually Thea would have greeted the woman in the wheelchair with a kiss, but now she stopped just inside the doorway. Stifling her own annoyance, she replied calmly, “What is it, Grandmother?”

  “The county board meeting is tonight.” The old woman sounded like a fretful child.

  “I know.”

  “I want you to attend—”

  What! “I—”

  “Don’t interrupt. I want you to represent our fam-ily.”

  “Represent our family? Is something to do with our family going to happen at the—”

  Grandmother flung up her good hand in irritation. “The zoning challenge is tonight. You know that. Why must I still tell you to do things you should just know enough to do?”

  Thea gazed at her grandmother. Please, Lord, not another statement to read. “What do you think I should do there tonight? You know I don’t like speaking in public.”

  “I’ve long given up hope you’d take your rightful place in this community. You’ve never appreciated the position you were born to here. If something important is on the county board agenda, as a Lowell, you should attend.”

  Just thinking about listening to an evening of illtempered wrangling and mind-numbing parliamentary procedure made Thea seethe inside. “What do you expect me to do?”

  “I want you to listen and observe what happens for me.”

  Was that what I raced into town for? To be her eyes and ears. Thea’s irritatio
n grew. “Why? I’m sure Mrs. Chiverton will be there. Can’t she recount the meeting for you?”

  Grandmother pursed her lips sourly. “Louella has been my friend since we were babies, so I can say— without hesitation—she was born a fool and will die a fool. She’ll just tell me what she thinks I want to hear. I can’t count on her getting anything straight. You—whatever your failings—can at least get the facts straight.”

  Thea was inured to her grandmother’s slights, but she cringed at the unkind assessment of Mrs. Chiverton. How could her grandmother say that of her lifelong friend? “Wouldn’t it be better to attend yourself? You went to church—”

  “Why must I explain everything to you? That was a small, private group. I’m not going to put myself on display in public, let people gloat over me now that I’m like this! No! Never!” The old woman trembled.

  Watching her grandmother’s agitation, Thea felt concerned. Of course, this controversy over Peter’s camp loomed large in the older woman’s mind. Grandmother had been intimately concerned with her family’s land and social position all her life. Thea felt obligated to do as she wished.

  “I’ll go as long as you don’t want me to speak.” Just before this agitated outburst, Thea had almost declared her decision to remain neutral. But that would only upset her grandmother dangerously.

  “It’ll be too late for you to come back tonight to tell me what happened. Come tomorrow.”

  Pursing her lips, Thea drew close to the wheelchair and straightened the light afghan over the old woman’s lap. She leaned over and kissed her grandmother’s cheek. “Good night.”

  Grandmother Lowell nodded like Queen Victoria dismissing an ambassador.

  Outside in her car, Thea, disgruntled, thought over what had just taken place. Grandmother had done it again. If she had played “poor little me,” Thea would have known how to refuse, but Grandmother would not give in to her declining health and weakening influence—even if it threatened her health.

  If Thea refused to help, who knew what Grandmother might do. The old woman’s precarious health forced Thea to give in to her. A no-win situation.

  But worse than going to the meeting would be returning to be debriefed the next day. Thea cringed. Was there any way to delay or avoid that unpleasant exchange tomorrow? Thea watched the dash clock tick around. The board meeting started in twelve minutes. An idea occurred to her. Yes!