“It’s the most peaceful room I’ve ever seen,” Katrina said.
Conrad smiled. She sounded sincere.
“I’m going to plant more trees outside, too.”
They walked a little farther. “I wanted slate floor in the kitchen, but I need to get the plumbing finished first. It’s an old house and it wasn’t set up for a dishwasher and an icemaker on the refrigerator.”
“You’ve already got the stove, though,” Katrina noted as she walked over to the double-oven appliance. “You even have a grill in it. I’ve seen these in the gourmet food magazines.”
“I don’t cook much,” Conrad said. “But I’m hoping this might inspire me to learn.”
Katrina took a few steps farther and stopped. Conrad was following right behind her. He liked letting her discover his house at her own pace.
“This has got to be the family room,” she said. “All of those built-in shelves along one wall. You could put overstuffed chairs in front of the shelves, which would, of course, have family photos and books lined up on them. There’s so much light coming in it’s a great place to read.”
He nodded. “I thought I might add a drafting table, too. For when I want to—” He stopped. Linda would not approve, but he continued. “For when I want to draw the inside of engines. All kinds of engines. I like to do that sometimes.”
Conrad held his breath, but Katrina didn’t look dismayed or anything. The café owner must be wrong about women thinking that sounded boring.
“You’ll want to get a chair that’s the right height to go with the table,” was all she said. “I imagine you could spend hours working there.”
Conrad felt the breath ease out of him.
“I turned two of the bedrooms into a large one,” he said as they walked farther into the house. “I haven’t done much in the room yet, but I plan to have a sleeping area and then a sitting area in the alcove so people can talk together in the evenings if they want.”
Katrina looked around the room and then nodded her approval. “If you put hardwood floors in here it would be big enough for dancing. Even when you’ve got the furniture in place.”
Conrad hadn’t blushed since he was eleven years old, but he felt the heat sweep up his face. The image of Katrina in her nightgown swirling around the room with him was more than he could calmly take.
He managed to clear his throat and said, “I am planning on wood floors.”
“Good,” was all she said to that.
He wondered if he imagined the satisfaction in her voice, but he didn’t have the nerve to ask her about it. What could he say anyway? If she wasn’t willing to date him, it stood to reason she was miles away from agreeing to anything more.
After they left the bedroom, Katrina got her camera out of the bag and set to taking photos of his house. The living room, the kitchen, the bedroom—she shot them all from slightly different angles.
Fortunately, she didn’t require much in the way of conversation from him.
When Katrina finished with her pictures, she put her camera back in the bag and he picked it up to carry for her just like his whole world wasn’t changing as they spent more time together.
He was beginning to believe God could be moving in his life. Maybe Katrina would come to church with him this morning. Maybe she would realize God loved her. Maybe the two of them could get to know each other better and eventually, well, go dancing in his bedroom as man and wife.
Conrad stopped himself. The very thought of getting married made him feel as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff. He wasn’t sure he had what it took to love someone until death did them part. And it wasn’t just death. So many things could happen. He’d never realized the courage of ordinary men like his uncle.
Katrina carried the inside of Conrad’s house in her mind as they left. She planned to make double copies of those photographs so she’d have something to remember. She’d even managed to get Conrad in a couple of the shots. He hadn’t realized she was taking his picture along with the rooms of his house. She planned to hold on to these photos and bring them out whenever she started to miss him.
She promised herself she wouldn’t cry, but she would remember him all the same. It would be best for him if she stayed away until she knew whether her cancer was gone. But she would miss him all the same.
The light had turned a little whiter as they walked down the street. The golden glow had lessened some, but the overall quality of the light was better. The dampness was beginning to dry off of the asphalt and Katrina could walk better in her heels. She was relieved because she didn’t want to run around town barefoot.
As they neared the bent stop sign, a couple of old pickups pulled onto the gravel road that crossed the asphalt. High weeds lined the sides of both roads.
A young blonde woman stepped out of one of the vehicles and Katrina wished she had an electric fan. The woman must be Lucy and she had long blond hair that shone in the sunlight. If they could make it look as if the wind was blowing, Lucy and her hair would make as striking a photo as any of the women Katrina had used from the modeling agency in Los Angeles.
Just then the doors to the other pickup opened and Tracy and Pete got out their respective doors.
“Oh, no,” Katrina said. She couldn’t hear what the two were saying, but they were clearly arguing.
“We better get over there,” Conrad said as he picked up their pace.
They were a few yards away when they first heard the words being shouted.
“It was not an insult,” Pete yelled. He was as indignant as a barnyard rooster. “It was a kiss!”
With that declaration, everyone was stunned into silence. Katrina looked over at Conrad, but he looked as confused as she felt.
“I gave you a thermos of coffee,” Tracy finally said, her voice strained. She looked at Pete and then turned to Katrina to explain. “It was just a simple gesture of goodwill because he was taking your picture. He didn’t need to kiss me.”
“I see,” Katrina said although in truth she didn’t really understand anything except that it was apparently all her fault. Then she noticed that Tracy looked as if she might cry at any minute. “We may as well get started.”
Katrina hoped to get everyone so busy that no one would notice the tears forming in the other woman’s eyes.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” Pete said and he looked down at his boots. “I shouldn’t have bitten your head off just because you gave my face a little slap. I’ve had worse.” He paused a second and then added, “Although not because I’ve kissed anyone. Usually, I’ve been slapped for not kissing them.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Tracy snapped. Her lips pinched together, but at least she had control of her tears.
“I’m sure you do, ma’am,” the ranch hand said and, with that, he reached back into the pickup and pulled out his Stetson.
“I’m ready when you are,” Pete said as he pushed the Stetson down on his head.
Katrina nodded and started to think of where everyone should stand. She liked nothing better than staging a photograph. She could imagine what it would be like with the light hitting it this way and that way. She’d ask for a full smile from one model and a half smile from another. She’d move an arm or a foot. Sometimes she’d shift a prop. Although with the stop sign, she’d have to move the models around it instead of moving the sign.
“Just so everyone knows,” she said. “This is not a digital camera. So you won’t be able to see your pictures right away. I’ll have to develop them.”
Once she started taking pictures, she wasn’t distracted by the people watching her. Not even Pete and Tracy, who were standing so far apart they were clearly trying to show they were not together, could break her concentration, although they kept glaring at each other, which pretty much said they had to be together. And then there was Conrad, who she didn’t have time to think about—not now, anyway. Maybe when she’d finished the photos she’d have time to sort him out in her mind.
Cha
pter Nine
Katrina took the last photo. She had ones of Lucy smiling up at Pete and of him looking down at her with a smoldering look in his eyes that seemed a little maniacal to Katrina. Of course, that might only be because Lucy couldn’t seem to look at Pete without being afraid. The whole setup came out more like Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, rather than two people in love.
“I don’t think any of these pictures will work,” Katrina whispered to Conrad who was standing beside her. “It’s the—”
“The look in their eyes,” Conrad finished for her.
She nodded and continued in a whisper. “Maybe we should have Pete put his hat back on. Then we won’t see his eyes.”
“But we’d still see Lucy’s. You’d think you were asking her to look at a grizzly bear instead of some harmless ranch hand.”
Katrina lifted her eyebrow. “He didn’t sound harmless when he was yelling.”
“Maybe Tracy can show her how it’s done,” Conrad said.
“No, I—” Katrina started to say, but Conrad was already walking over to the woman. Well, it couldn’t be any worse than it was now, she finally decided.
“Just relax your shoulders,” Katrina said as Tracy walked over hesitantly. “Imagine you’re on some beach in Fiji with the breeze blowing in your hair and the flowers swaying and—”
Pete snorted. “Her and her big city places. Nothing around here is ever good enough for her. She has to go running off to the bright lights.”
“I came back, didn’t I?” Tracy had bright red spots on her cheeks. “And what do you care about where I’ve been?”
Now, Katrina had to figure out how to calm Tracy down.
“Coming home is good,” Katrina said with a smile for the other woman.
“Oh, she did that, all right,” Pete muttered under his breath.
“Look—” Katrina spun around to face the ranch hand and she saw that his face was pale. “Are you okay?”
“Of course, I’m okay,” he snapped back.
Katrina looked at him in dismay. “Maybe it’s too much to ask. We’re just trying to show Lucy how two mature adults can look at each other with admiration and affection when they need to—” Katrina stopped.
Pete’s color had come back and so had his attitude.
Just then Conrad stepped up and put his hand on Pete’s shoulder. “If you need to think of something, remember that knocking sound in your pickup. Pretend you’re looking at the mechanic who’s going to fix it for free if you pull this picture off looking like a reasonable human being.”
Pete looked at Conrad for a long minute and then nodded.
“I am reasonable,” he said calmly as he walked back to the sign and gestured for Tracy to follow him. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Katrina figured that probably wasn’t the best way to stage a romantic picture, but if it worked for the two of them, she’d be there to shoot it.
She had her eye to the camera when she noticed that things were going terribly wrong. The look of wretched hopelessness on Pete’s and Tracy’s faces stunned Katrina.
She took the shot before she thought too much about what all that meant. She could never use that picture, of course. The emotions it showed were too raw. The two of them had heart, but it wasn’t the calm, pretty kind of heart she figured the calendar people would want.
“Well,” Katrina said as she stepped away. She tried to keep her voice even so she wouldn’t give anything away. The two might not realize what their faces showed. “That one we won’t use, but maybe Lucy—could you stand where Tracy is? Maybe we can get another one at that angle.”
“Can I have one of me and Ben, too?” Lucy asked shyly. “When we’re finished with the real pictures, I mean.”
Katrina nodded. “Sure. I’ll shoot a couple of them for you.”
She looked over at the young man who had been patient while his girlfriend gazed into Pete’s face. He didn’t look at all jealous. Of course, Katrina couldn’t fault him for that. Lucy certainly hadn’t managed to look smitten with the ranch hand. Both Lucy and her boyfriend looked so unbearably young, though, as if life hadn’t touched them yet with any of the other problems that tormented people like Tracy and Pete.
Katrina looked back at the couple in their forties. She wondered what was keeping them apart. Or if they even knew they were in love.
Conrad hung back so he could help Katrina finish what she needed to do with her photo shoot. He’d been impressed by how good she was at setting up her pictures. Even he could tell that she tried some innovative angles. And the way she used that rusted old signpost to balance everything in her pictures was amazing.
She was also very kind to Lucy and Pete, promising them payment for their photos if she was able to sell them for the calendar. The ranch hand snorted when she said the calendar was Romance Across America, but Conrad noticed he didn’t say no when Katrina offered to pay him if the picture was used.
“Maybe I’ll hire you to shoot some pictures of my gas station,” Conrad said as Katrina zipped up the bag with her camera inside. “I could use them when I want to run an ad in the newspaper.”
“Sure.” She smiled. “I can focus on your clean windows. I’m sure your customers appreciate knowing you take such care of your building and their cars.”
“I could come up with a new slogan,” he said as he reached out to lift her bag. It wasn’t heavy, but he could carry it on his shoulder easier than she could on hers, if for no other reason than that he was wearing boots and she was wearing those black high heels that didn’t provide an ounce of support.
He offered his arm and Katrina took it without even breaking her stride, which made him feel good.
“The only photo I took that shows any kind of love is that one of Tracy and Pete,” Katrina said as they walked back toward his gas station. “And I didn’t do anything to make it happen.”
“You shot the picture,” he protested as they stepped up on the asphalt road. The ground was firmer than it had been yesterday. Maybe it was finally drying out.
“No, I mean—I like to set the picture up. The angle that the woman is leaning in, the distance everything is from the camera lens. But the anguish on their faces. I’m just not comfortable with such strong emotions being out there for everyone to see.”
“I respect you for leaving them their privacy,” Conrad protested. “That’s not wrong, it’s—”
“I’m not saying I regret that,” Katrina said. She kept her eyes on the ground and Conrad didn’t think it was because she was worried about falling. “I’m saying I wonder if it’s going to stop me from being a good photographer.”
Conrad stopped. They were across from where the church stood. Lights were on in the building, but Sunday school wouldn’t start for another hour.
Katrina looked up at him when he stopped. “My sister used to say I needed to express my feelings. I try, but it’s like something blocks them. I wonder if that affects my photos. Maybe that’s why the calendar people didn’t buy any of the pictures I sent. Maybe that’s why my pictures didn’t have heart.”
“You’re a great photographer,” he said as he looked her square in the eyes. “I’m sure the calendar people probably do want pictures with lots of emotions, but those feelings don’t all need to be painful ones. There are good emotions, too. Like joy. Contentment. Excitement.”
“I guess,” Katrina said without much conviction.
Conrad took in a breath. “I’m not always comfortable with strong emotions, either. I think I may have burned out when my mom died. For years, I didn’t even like Christmas. Or birthday parties. Or anything. I just wanted peace. Every time the other kids were happy, I was worried something awful was going to happen.”
Since yesterday morning, Conrad had told Katrina more about himself than he’d ever told anyone. Not that people hadn’t guessed how difficult things had been when he was a child. But he hadn’t said anything. He knew the risk he was taking. Katrina might leave when he
r sister got here. All of the secrets he told her would make him miss her more if she left.
They walked in silence for the last few minutes until they reached his uncle’s house. Conrad wiped his feet on the outside welcome mat and then opened the door. The faint smell of gingerbread still filled the house.
“I could fix us some coffee,” he offered as he stepped into the entryway. “We’ve already had quite the morning and you haven’t even told me everything your sister said yet.”
Katrina followed him inside the house. “She didn’t really say much. It was the tone of her voice that worried me more than anything.”
Conrad sat the camera bag down on a table beside the door. Daylight was just beginning to seep into the room, but it was still dark. He walked over and turned on a floor lamp that stood by the sofa. Suddenly, he could see everything.
“Oh, I should—” He grabbed the gray wool blanket he’d used for his bed last night and started to fold it.
“Here. Let me help,” Katrina said as she took one end of the blanket. Together they shook it out and started to match up the correct corners.
“Thanks,” Conrad said. “Aunt Edith likes a tidy house.”
They folded the blanket in silence.
“I wonder what went wrong with my sister and her husband,” Katrina finally said. “I know they loved each other when they got married. I heard it in Leanne’s voice when she told me about Walker back then. I was half jealous that she had someone she felt that way about. And it seemed like he felt the same way.”
Conrad took the folded blanket and set it on the back of the sofa. Then he sat down and gestured for Katrina to sit as well.
“How does she feel now?” Conrad asked.
“She’s scared of him. And surprised, I think. She told me she’d been the one to buy the car. She’d worked in some grocery store for a few weeks and used that money to buy it.”
“I suppose things change. Maybe he’s worried he was losing her.”
Wife Wanted in Dry Creek Page 10