by Rachel Hanna
"I think she'll be okay. She's got a great mother," Cooper said, smiling over at her. Why was it that men with dimples were so much more handsome?
“Thanks. It's been a rough few years with her becoming a teenager. We were so much closer when she was a little girl and I could control everything. Now, I found out that I have raised a stubborn, hardheaded woman."
Cooper chuckled. "The apple doesn’t fall far…"
Kate held up a finger. "It's best that you don't finish that sentence." He smiled, that all too attractive dimple cropping up yet again.
"To save me from you pushing me off this mountain, why don't we go ahead and start eating?"
"Good plan," she said with a laugh.
She followed him over to the picnic table and sat down. As he opened the basket, she was amazed at what she saw. Assuming he would just bring sandwiches, she was pleasantly surprised when he pulled out containers that were covered, steam rising from inside of them.
"What is all of this?"
"I made my famous garlic chicken with cheesy mashed potatoes and homemade yeast rolls."
"Seriously?"
"Listen, my momma was an amazing cook. And since she had a bunch of boys, we were all forced to learn how to cook. I guess it's finally paying off."
"I guess so," she said, smiling over at him. As they started to eat, she was amazed at how easy the conversation went. He regaled her with tales of growing up in the mountains while she told him all of her worst experiences doing party planning for rich people.
"So, this louse of an ex husband of yours, how long has it been since Evie has seen him?"
"Years. He doesn't even send her a birthday card."
"What a jerk."
"How about you? Do you ever hear from your ex?" She didn't know why she was asking other than just morbid curiosity.
"No. In fact, she's married now, for the third time, and lives somewhere in Washington from what I hear.”
"Can I ask why any woman would leave you when you can cook like this?"
He smiled. "Apparently my ability to make strawberry shortcake was not enough to keep her from cheating on me with my best friend."
Her eyes widened. “Okay, we're going to have to come back to the strawberry shortcake because I'm going to need to know more about that. But, she cheated with your best friend? Is he still around?"
"No. I kicked him to the curb also. It was a really rough time in my life, to realize that I had nobody I could trust."
She took another bite of her roll, wishing he brought more but not wanting to gorge herself and look like some sort of pig. "I understand. I had always been pretty trusting, but Brandon shattered that into a million pieces."
"It took me a long time to realize that not every woman was like my ex. And not every friend is like my former best friend. People are people, nobody is the same. At some point, I realized that I just have to give people a chance and that sometimes it’s worth trusting someone, even if it’s a little scary.”
She took a sip of her sweet tea, still getting used to the taste of it. "I guess you're right. Although, I'm not sure I'm there yet. Anyone who wants to get close to me is going to have to climb up quite a wall.”
She said it more as a warning, wondering if it would scare him off.
“Well, then, I guess it's a good thing I have strong legs and arms made for climbing,” he said with a wink.
Something about that statement gave her a tingle.
Chapter Three
Mia stood outside watering her garden. Her mother had always wanted to have a big garden on the property, but they’d always been so busy and never had the time. Now, all Mia had was time. With the additional help of her sister, she could finally take a breath and know that she wasn’t alone in running the B&B. At least, temporarily. Who knew how long Kate would agree to stay?
As she drizzled water over her new plants – collard greens, different types of lettuce and broccoli - she thought about what it was going to be like if Kate and Evie ever left. She’d become very accustomed to them being there.
Kate had talked a lot in recent weeks about what she was going to do with Evie and school. One option was to take her back to Rhode Island, but there was a very good chance that the school she had attended wouldn't take her back anyway. That would leave Kate in the lurch trying to find a private school that she could afford.
Selfishly, Mia hoped Kate would stay there and put Evie in the local public school. But she didn't want to push, even though she secretly prayed every night that they would stay.
As she finished her watering, she pressed the button on the garden hose dispenser to roll it up. It came flying at her with a force she wasn't expecting, the tail end of it, heavy and metal, almost knocking her right in the face. Thankfully, she was alone and her new guests weren’t arriving until the evening, or that would've been quite embarrassing.
"Excuse me?" a man said from behind her. She froze in place. Nobody was supposed to be there. Kate was in town, Evie was out on one of her grand adventures in the woods, and Cooper only came around when Kate was there.
She slowly turned, and her legs almost gave way when she saw who it was.
"Travis?" she stammered, dropping her gardening gloves onto the ground beside her.
"Hey, Mia. It's so good to see you," he said, that familiar, lazy smile spreading across his face. She remembered that smile very well.
"What on earth are you doing here? The last I heard, you were living in San Diego."
"I came back to visit my mom and dad. Dad’s not doing very well."
She had loved his parents at one time. Mia had heard around town that his father had some health problems, and she occasionally saw his mother in passing on the town square, both of them keeping their distance.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I know how difficult that is. But why are you here, at the B&B?"
"I guess because I wanted to see you."
She laughed, more out of irony than humor, and shook her head. "After all these years? Not a phone call or a text or letter, even when my momma died? Now you want to see me?"
"Now, Mia, that's not fair…”
She put her hand up. "Let's not do this. There's no need to rehash things that happened long ago. I just don't understand why you're standing here right now."
"Well, I sort of have a room reserved here for the next week or so."
"What? Why aren’t you staying with your parents?"
“Like I said, Daddy isn't doing well. Me coming and going all the time would disrupt him resting, and we have other family in town that are using the guest room…”
"Look, Travis, I'm sorry. Your daddy is a good man, and I'm so glad that you're here for him. But you absolutely cannot stay here."
"Mia, you know as well as I do that there's nowhere else to stay in this town. I need to be near my parents in case Mom needs to call me. If I have to stay another town over, I might miss… Well, I might miss the end of my father's life. Are you really going to hold a grudge and keep me from seeing my daddy before he dies?"
She sighed, knowing exactly what that felt like. If she hadn't been there when her mother took her last breath, she never would've forgiven herself.
"Fine. But let's make one thing clear, Travis. We're not friends. We're not even acquaintances anymore. You're simply a guest at my B&B."
"Agreed." She walked past him. Travis followed along behind her as they walked around the front of the house and up to the front porch. "
"I'll get you checked in if you want to grab your luggage."
He nodded and turned toward his car. As Mia watched him walk away, she couldn't believe that Travis Norton was standing on her property. There was nothing else that would've shocked her more, even if a meteor came crashing out of the sky and hit her in the head right now.
Raven’s mouth hung open, her fork in mid air with a dollop of potato salad leaning over the edge dangerously.
"So you're telling me that Travis Norton is back in Carter's Hollow?"
Mia nodded. "You could've knocked me over with a feather when I saw him. Imagine me just watering my plants and then I turn around and see him standing there."
Raven ate her bite of food and shook her head. "You have plants now?"
"I'm growing a garden."
"Girl, you've never had a green thumb," Raven said, laughing.
"Okay, can we get back on topic? Travis Norton was standing in my yard!"
"So what is he doing here?"
"His father is ill. He wanted to come back here to be close to him in his final days."
"That's sad. I always liked his father."
"Me too," Mia said with a sigh. "And he’s staying at the B&B."
Again, Raven’s mouth dropped open, and this time she dropped a chunk of potato salad right on her white T-shirt. Groaning, she wiped it off and then looked back at Mia.
"Why on earth are you going to let him stay there? You know that's dangerous territory, Mia.”
"Trust me, I know. But there's no room for him at his parents’ house, and you know we’re the only place to stay in town. I felt bad telling him to stay outside of town, so far away from his dad."
"You were always too good to him."
Mia took a long sip of her tea, and then leaned her head over onto one hand.
“I have to admit, as soon as I saw him, those butterflies came right back."
Raven reached across and squeezed Mia’s hand. "You know that's not smart. He broke your heart."
"He was just the first in a long line of heartbreaks, Raven."
"We both know he was the hardest one."
“It was just young love.”
Raven leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "You realize who you're talking to, right?"
"It was a long time ago."
"Have you been practicing all of these statements? Travis was the love of your life, and he just about broke you."
"We were in high school. That was ages ago.”
"You can keep saying that, but I see the look on your face. You're playing with fire letting him stay there."
"I'm just going to do my very best to stay away from him."
Raven laughed. "And how are you going to do that when you run the bed-and-breakfast?"
"Well, I don't run it alone anymore. I'll just make sure that Kate is the one interacting with him as much as possible."
"Sure, that will totally work."
"You know, you could try supporting me," Mia said.
"You know I'll support you until the ends of the earth, but I hate to see you go into something and get your heart broken all over again."
Mia rolled her eyes. "Travis Norton is simply a guest at my B&B. Nothing more."
"I hope you're right."
Kate stood behind the welcome desk and smiled. It wasn't really in her nature to be this interactive with people. That's why she had enjoyed party planning because she got to be behind the scenes. But helping to run the B&B meant that she had to be the face of the place, and smiling was a new part of her job.
"Welcome to our B&B. We're glad to have you here. Can I get your name please?"
It wasn't like they had a whole slate of people checking in. The only person staying there had moved in that morning. Mia had told Kate who he was and how much she needed to avoid him, and so far that seemed to be working. Kate had done everything she could to make sure that Mia didn't run into Travis. But that also meant that Mia was eating dinner in her room.
“Our reservation is under Sylvia and Jack Townsend."
The couple seemed nice enough, but their demeanor was a little bit strange. Sylvia seemed jumpy, darting her eyes around the room like she was about to get caught for shoplifting. Jack, on the other hand, seemed completely disinterested.
"Oh yes, I see you right here. You're going to be in room four. Here's your key. Let me show you to your room," Kate said, walking toward the stairs.
The quiet nature of this couple was a little off-putting, even for Kate. She expected some sort of interaction or excitement when people came to visit the B&B. After all, it was out in the middle of nowhere, and most people who had traveled a long time to get there. But these two didn't seem like they wanted to be there at all.
"Here we are. There's a communal bathroom here across the hall. Just make sure to flip the sign when you're in there so no one accidentally walks in. Sometimes that lock doesn't operate correctly."
"The lock doesn't work?" Jack said.
"Only occasionally. Just make sure you really hear it click," Kate said, plastering on a smile. They had to get that lock fixed. She made a mental note to text Cooper about that later. Any excuse to see him.
She opened the door to their room, revealing one of her favorite spaces in the house. It was decorated in more of a French country style, something she had always liked.
"This is your room. If you need anything, extra towels or shampoo, you can just dial zero on the phone. Or you can come downstairs and tell us, of course. Dinner is at seven o'clock every night. Breakfast is at seven AM. If you have any special dietary needs, be sure to let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you."
She had memorized the little speech she was supposed to give, although when Mia did it, there was a lot more southern flair and silly jokes.
“Thank you. I think we’ll just settle in for a while and see you at dinner," Sylvia said, making it very clear she wanted Kate to make a quick exit.
"Of course. I think tonight we're having pot roast, one of our guests’ favorites. I hope you'll join us."
As she made her way out of the room, she had a funny feeling. There was something about this couple that was just a little bit off, but who was she to judge? As long as they paid their bill and and didn’t try to murder anyone, she would just let them be.
Sylvia unzipped her suitcase, pulling out a stack of shirts. She turned and put them in the top drawer of the dresser.
"I still don't understand why we came all the way here. What's so special about this place?" Jack asked, looking out the front window.
"You don't think it's beautiful here?"
He turned around and crossed his arms. "Come on, Sylvia. You know as well as I do that we don't come to places like this. Why did you bring me here?"
Sylvia walked over and put her arms around his waist looking up at him. "Because I thought it would be nice to get away for a while. You're always working. I saw this place in a magazine, and it looked quaint and out-of-the-way. I doubt we can even get cell service here."
He squinted his eyes, obviously still unsure of her motivation. "You normally like fancy hotels and room service. Now we're going to eat pot roast with strangers out in the woods. That just doesn't seem like you."
"Besides, didn’t you grow up somewhere around here?"
"Yes, and I left a long time ago. This place has a lot of memories I prefer not to recall."
"Are you ever going to tell me about those memories?" she asked, rubbing her thumb across one of his cheeks.
"Some memories are better left in the past."
He had said the same thing a million times before in their twenty years of marriage. No matter how many times she tried to get him to open up, he would shut it down almost as quickly.
There was so much about her husband that she didn't know, so many questions she wanted to ask but knew she wouldn't get answers to.
If he only knew why she brought him here. She was deceiving him, and she hated it, but she had to know for sure. She had to understand where he came from and what he left behind.
"I think we're going to have a nice time. You've been working really hard for a long time, Jack. Let's just take some time to enjoy being together. Besides, I know you can't wait to throw your fishing line in that lake out there."
He smiled slightly. "I haven't fished in a couple of decades."
She walked across the room and picked up his fishing pole. "No time like the present."
Evie couldn't believe it. Somehow she had convin
ced her mother to let her stay and enroll in school. As much as she hated school, it was certainly better to stay in Carter's Hollow than go back to Rhode Island and face all of the demons of her past.
This was a new start, and she was determined to make the most of it. Maybe she would actually make friends, for once. Maybe people wouldn't judge her for not having a dad or for being rebellious. Maybe she would be able to start fresh.
"I don't know where we're supposed to go. Is it down that hallway, or that one?" her mother asked, staring down at a printed map in her hand. "
"I don't know. I've never been here either," Mia said, looking back-and-forth.
For such a small town, everybody who lived there seemed to be inside of the high school right now. And everybody seemed to know each other.
Kids were running all directions, hugging each other after a long summer apart. Teachers were smiling and waving, parents were greeting each other with handshakes.
Evie already felt a little bit out of place. She didn't know anyone. Well, maybe except for the boy she met in the tree the other day. She wasn't even sure he went to this high school.
"Tree girl?" he said, as if on cue, from behind her.
Kate turned, cocking her head to the side. "Tree girl?"
Evie rolled her eyes. “Mom, this is Dustin. We met for a brief moment in the tree that I sit in on the property."
Kate smiled and reached out her hand to shake Dustin's. "Oh. Very nice. Good to meet you, Dustin."
“Good to meet you too, ma'am."
"Say, Dustin, do you happen to know where we can find the registration area?"
"Sure. Just take a left down this hallway. You should see it at the very end."
"Great. Come along, Evie.”
"See ya," Dustin said, winking at Evie before trotting off down another hallway.
She followed her mother to the registration area. There was a long line.
"Do you mind if I go walk around a little bit? I want to get an idea of where I'm going."
"But you don't even know your schedule yet."