Whispering Pines (Celia's Gifts Book 1)

by Kimberly Diede

  George and Lavonne had headed home two weeks earlier. Ben and Julie stayed home with Renee and Jess Friday evening instead of going out. They enjoyed a simple dinner of homemade pizza and played a few competitive games of Whist.

  On Saturday, Ben helped Ethan hang sheetrock in the lodge. Recognizing the kids deserved a little alone time, Renee kicked them out later in the day, insisting they grab dinner and a movie in town. Sunday morning all four of them got up and went to Mass. The weather was turning colder. They didn’t have any renters for the weekend.

  When they got back from church, they decided to have brunch before Ben headed back to college. Renee was out of coffee but remembered Val had left some in the lodge kitchen. She ran over there quick, promising to be right back.

  She was startled when the front door of the lodge wasn’t locked. Someone had been careless, surely, but still . . . it worried her. Making her way around piles of construction tools, she headed for the kitchen. She dug through the cupboard next to the sink, pulling out the can of coffee. As she turned to leave the kitchen, a sound stopped her.

  What was that?

  It sounded like dripping water. The sound was out of place in the empty lodge.

  Following the sound, she headed back toward the bathroom. Sure enough, she definitely heard a steady plop, plop, plop. Renee opened the door to the bathroom, confused. Why would one of the shower heads be dripping so profusely? The plumbing in that room had been hooked up the week before; as far as Renee knew, there hadn’t been any problems with it since. She reached over to the handle and tightened it, turning off the stream. Fortunately, it hadn’t been a broken pipe. Knowing how devastating water damage could be, Renee had been holding her breath since first recognizing the sound.

  Heading back to the duplex, Renee’s mind jumped between everything she wanted to accomplish before Matt arrived. She forgot all about the dripping shower. Jess had a nice meal on the table when she got back, and Julie was more relaxed than she had been in weeks. Renee was glad Ben had come to visit.

  She forgot to mention the dripping shower until mid-week when her brother came out. Ethan looked at her like she was nuts. He couldn’t think of any possible reason a shower would be dripping. Sometimes, he suggested, the water pressure from the well was funky, but that was his best guess.

  In the end, they chalked it up to a fluke.

  ***

  The day Matt was due to arrive dawned cold and overcast. A stiff, damp wind blew. Fall was in the air, even if summer refused to completely yield to it yet.

  With only three weeks until their open house, Renee wanted to get flyers up around the area. It would have been great to get a small ad in the newspaper and on the radio, but she needed to spend as little as possible on marketing the event—she needed funds for refreshments and decorations—so Julie was working on getting the word out via social media. Renee planned to distribute flyers and start looking for fall decorations early in the day, before Matt got in, but he pulled in earlier than expected.

  “Hey there, welcome back,” Renee greeted him as he hoisted himself out of a pickup. It was old and sported some rust. “Did you rent that beast?”

  “Nah, it was my dad’s. I was going to rent a car, but then I figured that was dumb. This old truck just sits there in the barn, needs to be driven once in a while. Now, come here. How ’bout a proper hello?”

  Renee laughed as she settled into his arms to kiss him hello.

  God, she had missed him since July.

  A screen door slammed in one of the cabins. The old wooden lodge door groaned on its hinges as Ethan came outside, balancing a pile of lumber scraps in his arms.

  “Hey there, buddy, get your hands off my little sister,” Ethan hollered over at the two of them, a grin on his face. He dumped the lumber in the back of his trailer and headed their way. He extended his hand to Matt, welcoming him back.

  “I heard you’d be coming back for a visit. Good to see you.”

  “Thanks, Ethan, good to be back. Sounds like you two have big plans for this place.”

  “Sure do. Renee can give you a tour. You won’t recognize it. Lots of changes over the past couple months. Would give you a tour myself but I have to check on another job and get to a football game by 4:30. But maybe we can sit down for a beer before you have to head back.”

  “Sounds good, looking forward to it!”

  Renee loved to see the easy banter between Matt and her brother. Even at her age, she still wanted her family’s approval.

  She walked Matt through the lodge, showing him the new configuration on the main level. Just as Ethan said, it was coming together. Matt led the way up the stairs but stopped at the top and Renee ran right into the back of him.

  “Wow . . . check out that view! Opening up this wall was brilliant,” he exclaimed as he made his way farther into the large open room, bringing Renee along by the hand. “Are you replacing these floors? ’Cause I wouldn’t if I were you. I love the old, scarred look of ’em.”

  “Nope, I’m with you on that. We’ll give them a good polish and make sure they’re smooth and won’t give anyone splinters. I want to use this area for exercise classes, maybe even yoga or dancing, in our retreats.”

  Matt again swung Renee into his arms, but this time he took her around the room in a quick little two-step, albeit without any music. Dancing led to a little more kissing and Renee finally had to pull back to catch her breath.

  “I can see we might not get a heck of a lot of work done while you’re here.”

  “Good point . . . I promise to behave—at least part of the time,” Matt quipped.

  Renee finished showing him the upstairs, especially excited to show him how the library was coming together. After the tour, they found Jess and Julie working back at the duplex. Following a warm round of greetings, Matt was curious what she had planned for the day.

  “I have some errands to run and then I thought maybe we could go out for dinner. Jess is going to a class tonight at the tech school. It’s on building entrepreneurial skills. I was going to go too, but since I would rather spend the evening with you, Julie is going in my place.”

  “In my experience, when a woman says she’s ‘running errands,’ it usually means shopping,” Matt said, grinning at Renee.

  “I agree—those are often my code words for shopping, too—but not today. I want to hang flyers and start gathering some fall decorations for the open house.”

  “Oh, see, still a little shopping in there.”

  “Well, OK, a little . . . but totally business-related.”

  Renee and Matt continued with their bantering back and forth as they headed out of the kitchen. Jess rolled her eyes at their departing backs, and Julie made a gagging motion. They both dissolved into giggles.

  “Those two act like a couple teenagers. I’m not used to seeing Mom flirt with a guy,” Julie complained to her aunt.

  “I know. This could get interesting. Have you noticed the way Grant’s been hanging around more lately, too? I think he might have the hots for Renee. Having Matt around might not sit well with him.”

  “Wait, what?” Julie hadn’t noticed Grant acting any differently. She never thought about her mom and men in the same sentence.

  “Mark my words, there’s going to be some male posturing going on here before too long. I don’t think Renee’s noticed Grant’s interest, either. She thinks of him as a brother-in-law. But Grant never even knew Jim. He may not think of her like a sister-in-law, infringing on his dead brother.”

  “Oh God, Jess, I do not want to think about Mom that way!”

  “Want to place a little wager?”

  Chapter 58

  Gift of a Pause

  Matt and Renee left in Matt’s truck. After getting the flyers posted, they stopped at a farm stand along the highway. Renee introduced herself to the woman loading a roll of paper into a cash register.

  “We’re holding a Halloween open house at Whispering Pines, our resort out on the lake. Have you h
eard of us?”

  “I know the place, but I thought it closed down a few years back,” the woman—who’d introduced herself as Agatha—replied.

  “It was closed for a while, but I inherited it from my aunt and have been able to get it opened this summer with lots of help from friends and family. I’m afraid most people around here either still think it’s closed or don’t know about it at all.”

  Matt began perusing wooden bins stacked high with produce, sensing this might not be a quick stop. Orange pumpkins ranging in size from baseballs to basketballs filled some of the bins, with still-larger versions laid out in neat rows on long wooden pallets. Other bins held gourds and squash, colors ranging from a deep green to gold, with some reds mixed in. He recognized some of the strangely shaped gourds—his own mom used to grow them in her huge garden when he was a kid. He only half-listened to Renee telling the woman about the resort, but eventually he sauntered back up to the two women, hands in his jean pockets. He was getting hungry.

  Smiling at him and wrapping her arm through his, Renee made introductions.

  “I was telling Agatha about our plans out at the resort.”

  “Did those plans include picking out some pumpkins before the sun sets?” Matt inquired with a wink.

  “Why yes, sir, that is part of my plan. Guess we better get moving. How are your pumpkins priced?” Renee asked, turning back to Agatha.

  “Tell you what, I want to help you make a go of this. I normally sell them by the pound, but for you, how does three dollars each sound?”

  “Like a steal!” Renee replied, hardly believing Agatha’s generosity.

  “I also want to donate a bushel of apples for you to use. Why don’t you give me one of your flyers, and I’ll post it here on our bulletin board. We get lots of folks through here between now and Halloween. I’ll be sure to promote it.”

  Together, the three of them spent the next half hour filling the back of the pickup with bags of apples, a pile of bright-orange pumpkins, a few white ones, and a variety of strange-looking gourds.

  Hugging her new friend, Renee settled up with her and insisted she attend the open house.

  “I wouldn’t miss it! See you in a few weeks,” Agatha said, waving them off.

  As they drove away, Matt gave her a playful little fist bump on her shoulder. “Look at you, networking everywhere we go,” he teased.

  “But, of course, what kind of small business owner would I be if I wasn’t putting myself out there, making contacts? Seriously though, I liked her. I felt like we connected. It would be nice to make some new girlfriends around here . . . seems like all we’ve been doing is working since we moved.”

  “OK, are we done running errands? Because I’m starving,” Matt complained. “How about if I stop by the hotel, get checked in, and we can go have dinner somewhere?”

  “If we stop at the hotel first, are you sure we’ll make it to dinner?” Renee asked, throwing him a sly smile.

  “Why, Mrs. Clements, what kind of man do you take me for? I wouldn’t want you to think the only reason I came to see you is for a booty call. At least I have the decency to feed you first.”

  She snorted with laughter.

  True to his word, he was the perfect gentleman. He checked in and they cleaned off the dirt streaking their hands and arms from loading pumpkins. They decided to try out the small Italian restaurant Agatha had suggested. Since it was a weekday, the restaurant wasn’t busy. They were shown to a corner table. The atmosphere was pleasant: dimmed lighting, a candle on each table, rich linens. Both ordered a glass of wine.

  “I feel a little under-dressed,” Renee commented, fidgeting.

  Raising his glass to her, Matt gave her an easy smile. “You look beautiful in the candlelight, Renee.”

  “Oh, now you’re going to make me blush. Thank you. And thank you for taking the time to come visit, Matt.”

  He didn’t have a chance to reply. The waiter picked that exact time to take the rest of their order. When they were alone again, Renee sensed a subtle shift in Matt’s mood. The playfulness was gone, replaced by a more serious set to his shoulders.

  “Renee, there’s something I want to talk to you about. I didn’t want to get into it over the phone, but it’s one of the reasons I came to see you.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Renee gave him a skeptical look. “Should I be worried?”

  Matt sensed her subtle withdrawal at his statement. “No, wait, that didn’t sound right. Let me start over. I have a . . . unique opportunity I need to make a decision on, and I wanted your input. I didn’t want to talk about it over the phone. I wanted to be able to get a good read on your reaction.”

  “Whew, you had me worried there for a minute. Now you have me curious. What is this opportunity that made you fly thousands of miles just to ask my opinion on?”

  Matt took a sip of his wine, giving himself a second. He knew he had to be careful how he shared what he was contemplating with Renee. He didn’t want to scare her off.

  “You know I’ve been talking a bit with Sheriff Thompson? I’ve bugged him on a regular basis to try to figure out what’s been going on around here. His lack of action, of reaction, was surprising to me, not to mention frustrating,” Matt said, pausing until Renee offered a brief nod. “He’d promise to look into something, and when I’d call him back, he hadn’t done anything. He finally admitted he’s been having some serious issues with his heart. He feels like it’s time to resign and move somewhere warm, get away from the stress of the job and try to get his health back before it’s too late. Problem is, he doesn’t feel like anyone on his team is ready to step in to the role of sheriff. They’re all either too inexperienced or too old to want to take on the extra responsibility. He asked me if I would ever consider taking over for him.”

  Renee didn’t interrupt, but she was looking at him with an odd expression on her face.

  “My first response was to remind him he is an elected official. He said he thought he remembered a clause in the rules that would allow a sitting sheriff to recommend a replacement in the event the elected sheriff resigned mid-term due to extenuating circumstances. Of course, the county commission would take a recommendation under advisement, and that group ultimately decides who they want to appoint to complete the remaining term. But Thompson has been around for thirty years and feels the commission would go with anyone he personally recommended for the job. He double-checked and let me know he did remember the rules correctly. I told him I might be interested, but I’d get back to him. Said I needed to think about it.”

  As Matt spoke, he rested both arms on the table, his hands laced together, his body leaning toward Renee. Renee sat back in her chair, arms crossed over her midsection. Her face did little to reflect what she was feeling. Matt hoped she wasn’t thinking this was all a terrible idea.

  “Renee, you know I’ve been thinking about moving back to the States. I feel like I’m missing out on too much, living so far away. So, what do you think?”

  Renee took her time responding.

  “Well, first of all, I have to admit I’m shocked,” she finally shared. “I know you mentioned the possibility of moving, but Fiji is such an amazing place . . . I didn’t know how serious you were about it. And I figured if you did move back, it would be closer to your sister and her kids, maybe even to your dad’s farm. Not to . . . me.”

  “Fiji is a beautiful place, and I would probably miss it in the middle of winter. But living there is different from visiting. Because I’m still relatively new to the islands, I don’t have family there and only a small handful of friends. All I do is work. If I do decide to move, I may keep my cottage there, rent it out. I remember you telling me how you wanted to build more than one income source after you lost your job and sole source of income. Got me thinking I need to do some of that, too.”

  “But what about your sister? And your extended family?”

  “After living a long plane ride from home, a day drive in the car to get there would feel c
lose. Besides, she has her own life and doesn’t need me hanging around all the time. But it would be nice to be able to see all of them more often.”

  Renee let out a long sigh, shifting her posture to match Matt’s.

  “OK, that makes some sense. You’ve obviously thought this through, and I appreciate you sharing this with me, but I have to ask . . . why couldn’t you talk to me about this over the phone? Why did you feel like you had to tell me face-to-face?”

  “To be frank, you’re one of the main reasons I’m considering this job, Renee. I haven’t done any looking around for anything else, which would be a wise approach if I were doing this strictly in the interest of my own career. But to be fair to you, I didn’t want to go any further with this until I had a chance to find out how you’d feel about having me living so much closer. I know our relationship is unique. Hell, some people prefer this kind of arrangement, where it isn’t possible to get too serious given the logistics of a long-distance relationship. But if I were to take this job, we wouldn’t be ‘long-distance’ anymore,” Matt stated, emphasizing his final point with air quotes.

  Renee folded back the napkin covering the bread bowl both had ignored up to this point. She pulled off a hunk of bread, handed it to Matt, and broke off another piece for herself which she buttered, her mind mulling over everything Matt had just shared.

  “Wow . . . I never thought it would be possible to have a traditional relationship with you. Are you sure you want to live closer to me? I’m a package deal, you know: two teenage kids, a dog, a house with a mortgage, and now a barely solvent lake resort I’m still trying to figure out how to run.”

  Matt laughed. “Of course I know you’re a ‘package deal.’ Your kids are great, and your dog loves me. Lots of people have mortgages. And having a lake resort to call your own is cool.” Matt sat back. “What else you got for me?”

  “Well . . . I guess that’s about it.” Renee gave a nervous laugh into her wine glass. “Like I said, I’m a little stunned right now. I don’t know what else to say.”