by Lynne Gentry
Tugging at her shirt hem, Leona knew that since Saul had never mentioned her disgraceful actions, he was too much of a gentleman to call out her unkempt appearance now. “Is there something else, Saul?”
He thrust out his hand in an unexpected gesture of friendship. “I wanted to wish you good luck, Leona.”
She accepted his offer of a handshake. “I’m only moving across town.”
“Change isn’t always easy.” Saul’s grip was painfully strong. “But it is the only way forward.”
Still angry that J.D.’s secret stock investments had forced her into bed, so to speak, with a man who only recently started attending her church, Leona pulled free. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She would trust Saul Levy with her finances, but not her personal struggles.
Without another word, Saul executed a well-heeled pivot and strode down the steps and back toward his well-ordered office.
“That was awkward.” Roxie’s touch jarred Leona from her stare glued to the lawyer’s hasty retreat.
“Saul Levy is one tightly-wrapped package,” Leona agreed.
“Maybe you should invite him to your dance class. A couple of good spins around the ballroom floor might loosen him up.”
Leona gave Roxie a disgusted scoff. “That devil doesn’t dance.”
CHAPTER TWO
“I think that’s the last of it, Parker.” Leona held a towel in one hand and the knob to the lopsided screen door of her new home with the other. Rain pounded the small awning over the stoop and threatened to whip the door free of its broken hinges.
“Good thing y’all started after church. We just barely beat this toad strangler.” The handsome county extension agent wrung water from his t-shirt. “Might even get enough rain to break the drought.”
Leona held out the towel. “And send the weevils looking for higher ground.”
“Which will lead to a bumper cucumber crop for the Story sisters, and you know what that means.”
“More pickles,” Leona laughed.
Parker refused the towel. “Wouldn’t want to track mud on your new carpet, Mrs. H.”
White carpet was a stupid choice, she knew. But it was her choice and she’d always wanted thick, snowy rugs.
“I’ll rent a shampooer and let you push it, if it’ll make you feel better.” Leona pulled him in. “Since you won’t let me put gas in your truck, you’re gonna let me feed you. Amy’s bringing pizza.”
David poked his head out from behind a stack of boxes. “You know Momma’s not going to let you leave hungry, right?”
“Guess I’ve got time to help you set up your electronics.” Parker shucked his shoes at the door and came inside. His strapping 6’4” frame seemed to shrink the living room even smaller.
“Momma’s right. We couldn’t have done this move without you and your truck.” David held out a ball of tangled electrical cords. “Want to tackle the TV or the computer?”
“The computer’s a priority, if you don’t mind, boys.” Leona squeezed through the tight maze of boxes, painfully aware she should have let more stuff go. “Never know when Ivan might need me to work on an article from home.”
Parker dried his hands on his pants. “Computer it is then, but after that I gotta scoot.”
David dug the router and modem out of a box. “What’s the hurry, man?”
“I’m taking a Spanish class at the high school. We’ve got our final in a week.”
“Spanish?” Leona ripped open the box marked PAPER GOODS. “I’ve always wanted to learn a foreign language.”
Parker studied the knotted cords. “It’s not too late.”
“You’re right, Parker.” Leona pulled out a stack of paper plates. “I’m going to add Spanish to my bucket list.”
“Right after dancing,” David mumbled, his disapproval evident. “Momma’s signed up for ballroom dancing lessons.”
“Dancing?” Parker grinned. “Good for you, Mrs. H.”
“First, a new house.” David struggled with the new flat screen TV he was trying to lift out of the box. “Then dance lessons. What next, Momma? Skydiving?”
“Maybe.” Leona flashed a tentative grin. She’d always wanted to take dancing lessons but J.D. had refused. He claimed they were already so in sync they didn’t need professional help. But then he’d also claimed they were always flat broke. “I might even try snorkeling.”
“You know you have to go near water to snorkel, right, Momma?”
Leona’s stomached clenched at the thought. “Okay, traveling then.”
Parker dropped the computer cords and rushed to David’s aid. “Nothing wrong with broadening your horizons.” He held the T.V. box while David pulled on the screen. “I’m fixin’ to do the same.”
“You want to take dance lessons with me, Parker?” Leona asked. “Kendra Smoot has converted that deserted gas station and repair shop out on the highway into a studio.”
“Didn’t one of her kids fall in the old oil pit?” Parker asked.
“She has so many of them, she didn’t even notice until bedtime,” David teased.
“They’ve covered the pit, David,” Leona said. “Since Kendra started her studio she’s lost all her baby weight. Folks are driving for miles to take her tap, jazz—”
“Salsa?” Parker peeled the box from the TV. David staggered under the weight.
“I believe she does offer salsa,” Leona couldn’t contain her excitement at the possibility of snagging a partner.
“I might try to squeeze in a couple of salsa lessons,” Parker grabbed one end of the TV, allowing David to shift to the other end. “I plan to tear it up at every village celebration when I move to Guatemala.”
“Guatemala?” Leona and David said simultaneously.
Parker set his end of the TV on the antique dresser Leona had spent several days transforming with chalk paint. “Leaving in six months.”
“Another mission trip?” David asked as he brought his end to rest on the dresser.
“No.” Parker pulled the cords from the empty box. “I’m relocating. Permanently.” Excitement radiated in his eyes. “Already put my ranch on the market and started training the new county extension replacement agent.”
Leona felt her heart lurch. “Why Guatemala?” What she really wanted to ask was did Maddie know he was contemplating a massive lifestyle change? One that could forever put an end to Leona’s hopes that once her daughter finished her residency she’d come home and realize Parker was the man for her.
“Last summer’s mission trip cemented my plans.” Parker unwound the twist tie around the cords. “There’s a medical clinic down there in desperate need of repairs and the village where the clinic’s located is struggling to access fresh water.” He plugged the cord into the back of the TV. “They need an extension agent.”
David clapped him on the back. “They couldn’t get a better man.”
“Is this the clinic where Maddie did a summer internship?” Leona asked as nonchalantly as she could.
Parker’s cheeks flushed. “It is.”
Leona sat on the stack of boxes. “Maddie loved that place.”
David shot her a daggered look that said leave it alone, Momma.
Parker plugged the cord into the wall. “I guess you could say it was Maddie’s fault I fell in love with that place.”
“Fell in love?” Leona asked despite David’s finger slicing across his neck warning her to back off.
“I remember how radiant Maddie looked when she came home after spending the summer in those rugged mountains,” Parker said. “She was on fire.”
“Luckily it was just the flu and not some horrible tropical disease,” Leona said.
“No, I meant, on fire for the Lord.” Parker’s eyes sparkled, adding to the impish charm that endeared him to everyone he met, everyone but Leona’s daughter. “Maddie has always known what she wanted. But after spending a summer in Guatemala, she came home convinced,” he said. “I wanted in on whatever it was that could give a person such
a sense of purpose.”
“Have you told her?” Leona asked. “I mean about your decision to move?”
“Tried, but busy medical residents must not answer their phones.” Parker pushed the power on the TV and it flickered to life. “I can’t wait around until she does.” Disappointment flickered in his eyes for an instant. Then he quickly changed the subject to the short list of potential volunteer worship leaders he’d help train to take his place.
Saul was right. Moving on wasn’t easy. At any age.
Later, after they’d finished eating pizza, Leona gave her favorite song leader her blessing. Then she watched as a diesel pickup carried her hopes of Maddie finding happiness into the rainy night.
CHAPTER THREE
“Morning, Leona,” quipped the Mt. Hope Messenger’s number one reporter without looking up from her computer.
“Morning, Modyne.” Leona loved the smell of ink, pulp, and possibilities that hung in the air of a small town newspaper office. Digital news could never replace the touch of a human hand feeding the words through a press, or so she prayed.
Modyne continued to peck away on her keyboard. “Did the rain soak your mattress yesterday?”
There were worse things than ruined furniture. Letting a good man slip away from her daughter was one of them. “Parker had a tarp.” Leona stopped at the desk of the grisly reporter who claimed she’d given up retirement because she hated living in a cramped RV with a man who snored. “Anything happen over the weekend?”
Truth was Modyne didn’t like missing out. Leona had discovered an increased fear of missing out to be one of many hazards associated with the news business. Her sharpened senses had detected an underlying story in Parker’s behavior. Had she not followed her gut and poked her nose into his business, she might not have learned about his Guatemala plans until it was too late. As it was, she’d have to work fast to implement Operation Unite Maddie and Parker. Six months was pushing it, especially when she considered how those two had circled each other for years without admitting how they felt about each other. But, she’d reminded herself as she’d pondered this predicament well into the night, David and Amy had fallen in love in a fraction of that time. All she needed was a reason to bring Maddie home. Immediately.
Modyne tilted her head toward the stack of messages on the corner of her desk. “Maxine wants you to do a background story on that new doctor.”
“Dr. Calvert’s been here two years.”
Modyne peered over her glasses, her fingers still flying over the keyboard. “Like I said...new.”
She needed something bigger than Maxine’s dislike of their local doctor to pry Maddie away from her residency commitments for a few days. “Maxine doesn’t want background. She wants dirt.” She wadded up Maxine’s message. “I’m not aiding and abetting that woman’s campaign to run a perfectly competent doctor out of town simply because the man refuses to date her daughter.”
The irony of those words pricked Leona’s conscience. How was her plotting to run Maddie’s life any different than Maxine plotting to run Nellie’s? It wasn’t and she should be ashamed. And she would be if it hadn’t suddenly occurred to her that a potential opening at the hospital might be just the bait she needed. She mentally backpedaled. What was she thinking? She couldn’t sabotage a man’s career. Not even if it meant letting Maddie ruin her own.
Modyne raised her palms. “This ain’t church, Leona. And you’re not the pastor’s wife anymore. You don’t have to justify anything to anyone. Not even those silly dance lessons you’ve signed up for.”
“I still need to be careful. This is a small town with big ears and bigger mouths. My boy can be hurt.”
“David can fend for himself.”
For now, David and Amy were on what was known in ministry circles as the honeymoon period. But their first year, when everyone believes the new pastor can do no wrong, was now behind them. It was only a matter of time before they could do nothing right. Whispered curiosity as to when David and Amy would start their family was already beginning to circulate. She hated to think of the sadness this would bring once it became evident that the answer was never.
“I hope you’re right.” Leona pushed her fears to the back of her mind, determined to break herself of the tendency to worry. “Come take dance lessons with me, Modyne.”
Modyne waved her off. “The reporter beat has flattened my feet.”
“I need a partner.”
“RV living was my mid-life fling. Time for you to have yours.”
“If you change your mind, the first lesson is Friday night.”
“I’m free Friday night.” The booming call of adventure startled Leona.
She hadn’t heard this special voice in years, but instant recognition stirred so many wonderful memories. Leona whipped around to see a tall, sturdily-built man clad in a short-sleeved olive shirt, multi-pocketed vest, and khaki cargo pants. Sandy hair curled out from under a leather safari hat sitting rakishly-low across one side of his tanned face. Other than a few lines etched by too many years in the African sun, Roy McGee hadn’t changed a bit.
“Roy?”
White teeth flashed in his pleased grin. “I’ve got moves smooth as a gazelle.”
“And the subtlety of a bull in a china shop,” she quipped.
“LeLe Harper.” He opened his arms. “Beautiful and quick as ever.”
No one but this man had ever gotten away with calling her such a silly nickname. Not even J.D. “Roy!” She ran to greet her friend.
Roy’s strong arms scooped her up and swung her around.
Leona’s head was swirling with questions by the time he set her feet back on the worn wooden planks. “What on earth are you doing in Mt. Hope?”
“Visiting my supporting churches.” He held a steady grip on her shoulders, eyeing her with sincere appreciation. An appreciation she hadn’t seen in a man’s eyes since J.D. died, and hadn’t realized she missed so much until now. “This time, I made sure Mt. Hope Community was first on my list.”
“Why’s that?” she asked, although she had a sinking feeling she already knew. Why hadn’t it occurred to her to have a believable explanation handy? Of course, Roy would be curious as to why a small church that normally sent a paltry one hundred dollars a month would suddenly gift him ten thousand dollars.
“I think someone must have found oil on the church property,” he teased.
“Why would you say that?”
“Howard was one of many of my supporters who sent me an email saying their church was unable to help pay my expenses to bring Ivy’s body stateside after I lost her. So I buried her in Africa. Then, two years later, a sizeable deposit from Mt. Hope shows up in my bank account. I’ve got to get to the bottom of this miracle.”
A change of subject suddenly seemed in order, especially since Leona could feel Modyne’s eyes boring holes in her back. She shimmied free of Roy’s grasp. “I’m sorry about Ivy.”
Roy’s cavalier smile slid, revealing a glimpse of raw pain. “I’m sorry about J.D.”
A comforting current of understanding passed between them and aroused so many wonderful memories. While J.D. and Roy had been swamped with grad-school Greek, Leona and Ivy had busied themselves making ends meet on student loan budgets. She couldn’t begin to count the times she and Ivy had combined their limited groceries to make a meal and share dreams. Since those long ago grad-school days, she and J.D. had gone on to serve two different churches while Roy and Ivy had traveled the world raising support for their main focus: a string of missions across South Africa. So many times she and J.D. had talked of going abroad for a visit, but they’d never been able to scrape together the funds.
“Are you hungry?” Leona asked.
Roy’s smile crinkled the lines around his eyes. “If you’re making chicken pot pie.”
“I’ll make you dinner while you’re here, I promise. But I just moved into my own place and I couldn’t find a stew pot right now if I had to. Come back at noon, and we’l
l go next door for a quick bite. I’ll introduce you to my mission field.”
“That’s right.” His eyes scanned the newspaper office. “You’re a working woman now. I’m impressed.”
“I’ve always worked, Roy. Just never got paid.” She held up her finger. “Do not quote that eternal reward line you and J.D. used to toss at Ivy and me whenever we complained about another night of mystery-meat goulash.”
“Those were good times, weren’t they?” Roy chuckled.
Leona swallowed and whispered, “The best.”
“David at the church?”
“For the first time in years, it’s not my job to know who’s in the church office.”
Roy’s big hand cupped her shoulder. “You can take the girl out of the parsonage, but you can’t ever take the call of ministry out of the girl, LeLe.”
Was that true? “You’re welcome to drop by the church. Shirley will know David’s schedule.”
“I’ll give your boy a shout-out, thank him for the financial support then swing by and pick you up for lunch. Sound good?”
Leona’s heart skipped a beat. Not because she’d just made her first lunch date with a man who was not her husband, but because David didn’t know about her contribution. It wouldn’t take her son two seconds to trace the large sum back to her. She made a mental note to text David with a reminder to keep her money a secret.
“David has always enjoyed your adventure tales, Roy.”
“And you?”
“Every time I hear your incredible stories, it makes me want to explore the world that much more.”
He took her hand and brought it to his lips, his eyes capturing hers. “It’s not too late.” He tipped the brim of his hat and headed out the door.
Roy’s kiss still sizzling on her hand, Leona turned.
Modyne was wearing her I-just-landed-a-front-page-story smile. “Old friend?”