Reflecting Love's Charms (Bellingwood Book 14)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  On top of all that, Polly talked Andrew, Rebecca and Kayla into helping her box up all of her things from the office. It felt strange to no longer think of that as her office, but change was on the agenda. As she looked at all of the boxes and furniture in front of her truck, it wasn't so much change as it was hurry-up-and-wait. Until she moved into an office at the Bell House, she didn't need any of the decorations and knick-knacks. Star Wars characters could just wait. Files that she needed to access on a regular basis had been moved into Henry's office. He made a crack about giving up half of his file drawers, but he'd rearranged things anyway.

  Stephanie and Kayla had moved into the downstairs rooms of the addition. It was funny to watch Stephanie and Jeff. He wanted to be a mother hen and she wanted him to leave her alone. The girl had found a backbone in the middle of all that had happened. Polly wondered if part of it wasn't the promotion she’d been given.

  When Jeff had tried to take Stephanie to his apartment Monday night after leaving the hospital, she put her foot down. She was willing to accept the room at Sycamore House, but she wanted privacy again. Two nights in the hospital with people walking in on her every moment was plenty. She'd let Kayla spend another night with Rebecca, but after that, the two of them were going to figure life out on their own.

  Hayden had one more final and he was finished. They would attend his graduation this weekend and have yet another party. Polly was about ready to be finished with parties. But this one would be small. They were moving Henry's grill over to the house and grill burgers and brats for their friends. Polly had asked about inviting his aunt and uncle. He'd made the call, but they weren't interested in participating. He shrugged it off, but she knew that it had hurt. It was still difficult for her to understand how indifferent those two could be to their brother's sons. That was probably one reason he wanted this to be low key.

  The door from Doug and Billy’s apartment flew open and Doug burst out with his two dogs. He stopped and looked at her, still sitting in her truck, then made the motion for her to roll her window down. Instead, she got out.

  "What are you doing down here?" he asked.

  "Just thinking about things." Polly pointed at piles in front of them. "All of the changes that are happening."

  "Did you hear about Billy and Rachel?"

  She flattened her eyes and pursed her lips. "No."

  "Yeah. They set a date."

  "When?"

  "Halloween weekend."

  "This year? What day is Halloween?"

  "It's a Monday, but they're going to use all of the decorations from your big party and have their reception on Sunday. They already talked to Jeff."

  "That's a really good idea, but wow? What do you think about this?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know." Doug stopped himself. "That's not what I mean. I think it's great that they're going to get married, but we haven't figured out who's going to move out yet. They told me I could stay here, but I have to get another roommate. I don't want to live up in that big place by myself."

  "I'm sure it will work out," she said. "Wow. They're finally getting married. She didn't say a word last weekend when we were setting things up for Rebecca’s birthday party."

  Doug chuckled. "They had a big fight on Monday because he was waffling on a date." He dropped his voice. "If you ask me, I think she has baby fever. There were a lot of babies and pregnant people and little kids at Rebecca's party."

  Polly tried to count in her head. It hadn't seemed like a lot. "And how does Billy feel about that?"

  "After they got over their fight, she had to go work and he told me he felt ill. He's totally not ready to be a dad."

  Polly nodded. "Hopefully he'll have some time between now and when that happens to get used to it."

  "I'll make a really cool uncle, though," Doug said.

  "And Billy's good with setting a date?"

  Doug rolled his eyes. "If it were up to him, he'd keep things the same and never change them. He's such a boob. I tried to tell him that he and I can't live together forever, but he thinks that if he just doesn't talk about it, Rachel will forget. I finally told her that she was going to have to push him into this. His mom told her the same thing."

  "He's going to drive her nuts for the rest of her life," Polly said.

  "Yep. Lucky for her I'm around to help keep him in line, right?"

  "Sure."

  Doug headed for the back yard. "If you think of someone who would make a great roommate, let me know, okay?"

  "On it." Ever since Doug had mentioned he was going to need a roommate, Polly's mind had been racing through all of the people she knew, eliminating them one by one and then considering others. She put her hand on the door to go inside and glanced back at Doug chasing his dogs. More change in store.

  She'd barely made it inside when her phone rang. What would Lydia be calling about?

  "Hello there," Polly said.

  "I had to tell someone. Aaron's taking me on a cruise!"

  "What? He never takes vacations. What am I going to do..." Polly refused to say the words. This wasn't about her. "How did you talk him into this?"

  "I didn't have to. Jill and Steve were planning an Alaskan cruise and Steve's being transferred so they can't go. Jill called us this morning and Aaron actually agreed to go. Can you believe it?"

  Polly stood stock still in front of Andrew's old nook. It had filled up with supplies this last year since he'd found a place in his own room at home for his books and treasures.

  "Are you there?" Lydia asked.

  "I'm in shock."

  "We leave in two weeks. It's perfect timing, isn't it?"

  "Sure?"

  "Well, Beryl will be in New Mexico and so I won't worry about being away from her. Then we'll be back before all of the excitement starts for the Sesquicentennial celebration. Won't it be perfect?"

  "You're leaving in two weeks for an Alaskan cruise. And Aaron is going." Polly was still shocked. Good heavens, she hoped she didn’t find another body while he was gone.

  "I know. Okay, I can't talk, I have a million things to do to get ready, but I had to tell you. I have to tell everyone. I love you, dear."

  "I love you too."

  Polly dropped her hand with the phone and shook her head. Good for them. Good for Jill and Steve. Lydia forgot to tell her where they'd be transferring to, but it would come up again.

  She went upstairs and looked around at the chaos that had erupted in the apartment this week. Rebecca's gifts were still lying around, even though they had told her over and over to put them away. Kayla was steadily working on Rebecca's bedroom, but at the same time, they were bringing home more junk from the girl's locker. Hayden had brought things upstairs that he would need for now. Polly knew better than anyone that little by little, more of his stuff would creep up from the garage, as it should.

  When she got to the living room, she sat down and moved things around on the coffee table. Rebecca had been working here each night, writing thank you notes for her birthday gifts. Cards, envelopes, pens and stamps were everywhere. And so was Polly’s charm bracelet. Rebecca had gathered all of the boxes, opened them and put it together one evening when she begged to be released from writing more notes.

  Polly ran her fingers across the charms. Each of these people had taken the time to think about their relationship to Polly. From Sal she’d gotten a coffee mug and from Joss there were two charms – a set of twin babies and she’d found a classic car. Henry told her it was a ’62 Impala – Nate’s car. Jeff had given her a calendar. She chuckled. It was perfect.

  Polly placed it on her wrist and fumbled to close it, finally getting the clasp to do what she wanted. She leaned back on the sofa and stroked Obiwan’s head. "Where is everyone?"

  At least now she could track Rebecca down. They'd gone to Boone after school on Tuesday to get cell phones for Andrew and Rebecca. Kayla had made the trip with them, but Stephanie insisted she had to wait for her birthday before getting a phone. It was only a co
uple of months away, so Kayla hadn't been too heartbroken, but she'd paid close attention when her friends were making choices.

  Rebecca had been beside herself and started downloading free apps before they got in the truck to come home.

  "Where are you?" Polly texted to Rebecca.

  In a split second, she received a reply. "Check it out. You can find me now. How cool is that?"

  Polly laughed. "It's cool. But where are you?"

  "Sorry. We're in Stephanie's room. She's showing Kayla pictures of the apartment they're going to rent."

  "She found one already?"

  "Yeah. It's really nice. It's in Andrew's old building. On the top floor."

  That would be perfect for them. Jessie and Molly lived in the same building. It was close to everything. The girls would have a great time. "When do they move in?"

  "June first if everything works out. She's close to Jessie! We can babysit all the time."

  "Sounds awesome. Did you take the dogs out?"

  Polly had to wait a few seconds for a reply. "Oops. No. Sorry. Andrew's on his way there."

  "What have you been doing all afternoon?" They didn't have much homework, but Polly knew there were a couple of big projects still due. "Did you get homework done?"

  Rebecca sent back a sad face.

  "Tell Stephanie goodbye and come home. You know the rules."

  The front door burst open and Andrew rushed in. "We're sorry. I'll take them out right now. Come on, Obiwan and Han. Let's go outside." He ran on through to the back door with the dogs rushing to beat him there.

  Polly shook her head at the commotion and sat down on the sofa. It took longer than she expected, but Rebecca finally came in the door.

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rebecca said. "We got busy with stuff and time got away from us."

  "What kind of stuff?" Polly asked. "You certainly weren't putting your things away."

  "I found this great game on the phone and we were..." Rebecca finally looked at Polly. "That was stupid of me. I shouldn't have said anything."

  Polly chuckled. It was so hard for Rebecca to lie about things, even when it got her into trouble. She put her hand out. "Phone, please."

  "But I won't do it anymore," Rebecca said, holding the phone behind her back.

  "We talked about this. Responsibilities come first. You aren't losing it forever. Just tonight. You can have it back tomorrow."

  "But that is forever. I can't text Andrew tonight."

  "I'm guessing that if his mother knew what happened today, he wouldn’t have his phone either. No worries."

  Rebecca frowned. "You can't tell her."

  "Oh, I think you'd be surprised what I can do. Phone, please."

  "This isn't fair. I just got it."

  "And you'll get it again tomorrow. But for now, you have work to do."

  Rebecca slammed the phone into Polly's outstretched hand, then winced when she realized what she'd done. "Sorry."

  "Uh huh. Go on out to the dining room and get started."

  "Please don't get Andrew in trouble, okay? It was my fault."

  Polly nodded. Tattling on kids wasn't her thing. She waved her fingers at the dining room and set Rebecca's phone on the coffee table in front of her. Stupid little girl. She laughed at the frustration Rebecca was going to continually face in her quest to become an adult. Polly distinctly remembered learning lessons over and over again. One night her father had sat down with her and asked why she didn't just do what she knew was right to do. That might have been one of the nights she'd stayed out too late without calling him.

  "It doesn't have to be this hard, Polly," he'd said. "My rules aren't difficult to remember. Figure them out and life gets much easier."

  They ended up having that conversation a couple of times before she finally realized that none of her friends were going to laugh at her for making a quick call to her dad to let him know where she was and when she'd be home. But with every new issue, it had always taken Polly a couple of stabs at independent thought before she realized that it was easier to follow his rules. She chuckled at the memory. Her adolescent brain insisted that he was just making rules to drive her crazy.

  "I get it now," she said. "You wanted so much for me. But I do believe the one I'm raising is more independent than I ever was. Serves me right? Probably."

  The dogs' nails clicking on the floor made her look up and she caught Obiwan as he leapt into her lap. "I missed you too," she said. "You were gone so very long."

  Andrew walked into the living room behind the dogs. "They ran all over the place. Sorry about being late."

  "You're fine. But you need to get busy on your homework."

  He looked back at the table. "I don't have much time before Mom picks me up."

  "Because you wasted it playing games?" Polly asked.

  He looked at the floor.

  "Maybe you should put in some extra effort while you have time. Okay?"

  "Okay." His shoulders drooped and he dragged his feet as he went back into the dining room to sit with Rebecca.

  Polly laughed again and kissed her dog. "They're so much fun to mess with."

  Both dogs took off at a dead run for the back door again and Polly stood up. It was a little early for Henry to be home, but he'd been around more this week. He still wasn't over Rebecca's kidnapping. Every night he sat down with her and asked questions about her day. It didn't take much to draw her out; she was a gregarious little girl. They'd talked about what had happened last Saturday night. Both Polly and Henry wanted to make sure that Rebecca had plenty of opportunities to talk about what she'd felt and how she was feeling now. That would slowly lessen over time, but Rebecca wasn't interested in talking to a therapist and Grey told them the best thing to do was let her talk about it when she needed to as long as she wasn't obsessing over it. So far, things were normal. Then again, Rebecca had dealt with quite a bit in her young life and she was pretty good at taking things in stride. Sarah Heater had raised a strong child.

  "Hello there," Henry said, coming in to the living room. He pulled her in for a hug and a kiss. "Good day?"

  "It was," Polly said. "You?"

  "I'm home early and I didn't punch anyone, so yeah. It was a good day."

  Polly took a deep breath. "I don't want to cook tonight. Can we go out to eat?"

  "I don't care," he said. "Davey's? Mexican? Pizza?"

  Heath and Hayden were walking through to their room. "Pizza?" Heath asked.

  "Pizza it is," Polly said. "Do you have homework tonight?"

  "Just some reading. I can do that later."

  "Do it now," she said with a smile. "We won't go out until later anyway."

  "Really?" he asked. "I've been working all day."

  She put her head down, shook it and laughed.

  "Now," Henry said. He put his arm around Polly's waist and led her into their bedroom. "What was that laugh about?" he asked once the door was closed.

  "I'm a parent," she said. "A full-blown parent of teenagers. I swear to you I never saw this coming, but here we are."

  "Are you overwhelmed yet?"

  "I'm still laughing about it most of the time."

  "That's good." He walked into the bathroom, stripping off his shirt. "I'm taking a shower."

  Polly locked their bedroom door and followed him. "What do you mean, that's good? Do you know something?"

  Henry turned to face her, surprise on his face. "No!"

  "You scared me, asking questions like that."

  He turned the water on in the shower and pulled his socks off. "You're doing pretty well at the whole thing and we're moving into that big house one of these days. We haven't rescued anyone in months. Somehow I think that break is nearly over."

  Polly flipped the toilet lid down and sat on it, then took her own shoes and socks off. "Don't say things like that. I don't need those words hanging over my head. I have enough to worry about with those two dead bodies and no killer." She pulled her shirt over her head, then unclasped the charm
bracelet and placed it in a basket on the counter.

  "You're worrying about only one killer?" Henry asked.

  "It has to be the same person," Polly said. "And since they don't know who it is yet, I'm worried there might be more bodies on the way."

  "You shouldn't worry. That’s Aaron's job." Henry watched as she undressed. "And what are you doing?"

  "I'm rescuing you from a lonely shower. Unless you want me to leave."

  He laughed and pulled her in for a kiss. "I love you so much, Polly Giller. You are never boring."

  "What kind of life would that be?"

  "Not ours. What do you think is next?"

  "Change," she replied. "Lots and lots of change." Polly kissed him again. "And that's just the way I like it."

  THANK YOU FOR READING!

  I’m so glad you enjoy these stories about Polly Giller and her friends. There are many ways to stay in touch with Diane and the Bellingwood community.

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  Don’t miss the first books in

  Diane Greenwood Muir’s

  Bellingwood Series

  All Roads Lead Home – Bellingwood #1

  A Big Life in a Small Town – Bellingwood #2

  Treasure Uncovered – Bellingwood #3

  Secrets and Revelations – Bellingwood #4