She takes everything!
“I’ll take the top two drawers, and you can have the bottom two?” she asked, and Lucy nodded as she crunched.
Taking the best drawers, too, huh?
“And there are only about six hangers in the closet. Okay if we split them?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Lucy acknowledged.
“Oooh, those look good,” Wendy said with a smile so bright that it could have caused a glare.
“You want one?”
“Could I?”
Lucy held out the package to her, and Wendy took one of the cookies and plopped down on her bed to enjoy it.
“Oreos are the best, aren’t they?”
“There is no better cookie,” Lucy agreed, slipping one shoulder up in a halfhearted shrug.
“I know it makes me a big nerd, but I also like Fig Newtons.”
“That’s Mattie’s favorite cookie.”
“Really?” Wendy asked, looking for all the world as if she were really interested. “They’re so great. I could easily put away half a package of them in one sitting if I’m not careful.”
All right now. Stop being my cookie kindred spirit. I need to not like you!
“Do you want some help unpacking?” Wendy asked with a sweetness that made Lucy pop another cookie into her mouth.
“Uh-uh,” she replied, and then she swallowed. “Thanks, though.”
Wendy scooted back on the bed and leaned against the wall while Lucy unpacked.
“I wonder what’s for lunch,” Wendy mused.
“Whatever it is, I’m sure Alison has it all color-coded and arranged to coordinate with our place cards.”
Wendy laughed out loud at that. “She could be the most organized person I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
“Ya think?” Lucy asked her with an arched brow, and they both chuckled, despite Lucy’s best effort against it.
It was going to be much harder to dislike this woman than Lucy could have anticipated. In fact, to make matters just about as bad as they could be, she felt like they could actually make a pretty good pair of friends. And that thought just about ruined her whole day.
The lodge was small but charming. Cobalt blue vases held pale chrysanthemums at the center of every redwood table and bench in the place. A floor-to-ceiling hedge of glass at the back allowed a spectacular view of breathtaking and colorful scenery, contrasting the homespun quilts and intricate, wood-framed leaf fossils displayed on the opposite wall.
When Lucy noticed Alison setting out name cards on the long table by the window, she immediately turned to Wendy and the two of them burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Matt asked her, but Lucy just shook her head and slipped her arm into his.
“What’s for lunch?” she asked him.
“They’re setting out a buffet for everyone in about ten minutes.”
Other visitors began meandering in just then, filling the rest of the tables. The delicate pop-pop-pop of a ping-pong game started on one side of the high-ceilinged room, and several dart games ensued along the line of half a dozen wood-shuttered boards.
“Listen, Mattie,” Lucy said as she covertly changed the name cards on their table to seat Matt next to her and Justin across from them rather than at the end of the table next to Wendy. “Please don’t be mad at me.”
“Why not?”
“Because you know I mean well?”
“No, you don’t, Lucy. You mean for things to go well, for you. And that’s just not like you.”
Lucy sat down beside him and touched his arm. “Matt.”
“You’re interested in Justin. That’s fine. You want to do things you hate doing just so you can fit in and impress him. That’s your prerogative. But manipulating people and moving them around to suit your own interests, and your interests alone…well, that’s something altogether different.”
Lucy considered Matt’s point of view, and a sharp pang of guilt pinched at the top of her ribs, just beneath her heart.
“I get it,” she told him. “And I’m sorry.”
“Good. Enough said.”
“Do I have to put your place card back by Alison’s?”
“Let’s not go crazy or anything,” he teased, and Lucy leaned over and patted the top of his hand.
“Lunch is served, everyone!”
Alison’s announcement punctuated the line already forming at the banquet table. Lucy filled her plate with pasta salad and sliced fruit and made a sandwich on sourdough bread with turkey and Swiss cheese.
She made it back to the table before Matt, and she smiled at Justin as he scraped back the chair across from her.
“That Alison sure is on the ball,” he said to her in a half whisper.
“What do you mean?”
“I got here early and moved my name card down next to Wendy’s. She must have seen it and moved me right back here!”
Why does Wendy Marshall have to be so perfect, Lord?
Justin looked like a lovesick schoolboy when he asked Brenda about her, and he went to the trouble of moving the place cards so that she’d be seated near him. He obviously has his eye on her. And now that I think of it, he seems to be after her in all the same ways that I’m after him. What is this, high school? Maybe I should pass him a note in study hall or have Mattie ask him if he likes me.
I’m going to try to get my insecurities more under control this afternoon. She’s just so beautiful and sweet and funny. Honestly, Justin would be lucky to have her. But can’t he please settle for having me instead?
Something in my gut tells me to just kick back and see how You work it all out. I know I’ve said I’m going to try to do more of that, Lord, and I really am. Maybe after we get home from the retreat.
Eager and hopeful,
Lucy
Chapter Four
LUCY GRABBED A BOTTLE OF COLD WATER AND CARRIED IT OUT THE back door of the cabin to the wooden deck. Folding one leg underneath her, she curled into the corner of the rattan loveseat hanging like a bucket from the beams overhead.
The multicolored forest drooped over the slope of the hills like a flowing carpet, and the dazzling autumn colors took on the sparkle of loose coins spilled over the landscape. The sky stretched taut and smooth into a splendid canopy, so blue that it made her heart ache a bit.
Orange, red, and gold trees rustled in the brisk breeze, humming a tune with their turning leaves, and Lucy closed her eyes and sighed. She imagined the fun such a creative God must have had in putting it all together. She liked to picture Him there, in the midst of a galaxy of nothingness, suddenly inspired into a frenzied burst of inventive originality…thinking up shapes and images, experimenting with colors, forming meadows with the palms of His hands, and using His enormous godly fingers to push mountains into being. This day and this scenery reminded her of how amazing and inventive her Father really was.
And I thought I was a design genius for creating a Tuscan-style wall in my kitchen with paint and faux stone.
“Are you ready to go?”
Lucy opened her eyes. Wendy was clutching her own bottle of water and was wrapped in a hunter green-sweater that matched the hue of their surroundings.
“Is it time?” she asked.
“They’re meeting at the cars in about ten minutes.”
“I’m ready,” Lucy said. But would she ever really be ready for fishing?
Wendy perched on the wooden railing and smiled. “You look sleepy. Were you trying to get a nap?”
“No,” Lucy told her. “I seldom sleep well when I’m away from home.”
“The heart of a homebody,” Wendy said with a grin. “Me, I’m the original wanderer. I can fall asleep anywhere.”
Lucy took a long draw from the bottle of spring water and closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting your quiet time?” Wendy asked, and she hopped down from the railing.
“Not at all. I was just enjoying the scenery.”
“Well, I think I’ll leave yo
u to it and go grab my bag. We’re going fishing today! Won’t that be fun? I haven’t cast a line in a month of Sundays.”
Her excitement brought a smile to Lucy’s face, but as Wendy’s tennis shoes scuffed across the deck, she wished she felt a fraction of the enthusiasm. All she could think about when she looked forward to the afternoon’s activity were the worms that would suffer from the clumsy poke of a sharp, shiny hook.
Please don’t let me look like a fool out there, Lord, she prayed. And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings any if you arranged some private face time with Justin, either.
She swallowed the last of the water from the bottle as she hurried into the cabin and headed for her room. After a quick glance in the mirror, Lucy took a deep breath. She’d bought this plaid flannel smock at Old Navy, and she liked the way it looked over jeans. This would be her chance to wear the new sunglasses with the burgundy frames, too.
Pay attention, Justin, she thought. Just for you, I’ll be the cutest chick in the hood. Oh, I mean, in the wood.
Just a few minutes prior, Lucy had been awestruck by the scenery at Buffalo National River Park. But now her stomach came to a full boil as Rob handed her a fishing rod. She knew she must have looked like a lunatic when her eyes met Matt’s, because he spontaneously snorted.
“Now remember,” Alison announced, clipboard in hand. “The limit is two catches per person, and if you catch anything shorter than fourteen inches, you have to throw it back. We have worms over there by Tony or live minnow down here by Justin. When we get back to camp, Dave and Betty Sue are going to host a dinner on the lawn behind the lodge of whatever we catch, if it’s not too cold.”
Lucy looked around her to find Justin leaning over the pack of fishing equipment and helping Tony pull it out of an enormous canvas sack. The way the sun caught his hair made it seem like a halo. And when he laughed, Lucy’s breath caught in her throat. He seemed so at home on the river, and she found herself wishing she’d embraced outdoor activities when she was younger and still had the chance. As it was, she felt a bit like one of those fish she was going to catch, removed from the river and trapped on dry land.
Not at all like the girl Justin had described. “He wants someone at home on a campground,” Brenda had told her.
Not too into her looks or high-maintenance—someone who can cook a meal, she recalled, and Lucy inwardly groaned. She loved a great meal as much as the next person, but the only substantial meal she’d ever mastered in her own kitchen involved a salad, some spaghetti, and a jar of Ragu. And on at least one occasion, even that had ended up in flames.
Matt caught her attention with a quick, “Psst,” and Lucy followed him down the bank. She groaned when he produced a couple of wiggling worms from the pocket of his khaki shorts.
“Remember what to do?”
“It’s burned into my memory.”
Matt chuckled as he attached the hook to the end of the line and held it steady.
“Go ahead.”
Lucy looked up at him, biting the corner of her bottom lip until she thought it might bleed.
“What?”
“I can’t feel my legs,” she whispered.
One side of Matt’s mouth quivered, and he quickly poked the worm with the hook and gave her a wink.
“Good job,” he said out loud as Justin, Wendy, and Brenda approached them. “Want to bait mine?”
“What are you, a girl?” Lucy cried, tossing her hair and rolling her eyes. “Bait it yourself.”
She sent an unspoken thank-you Matt’s way with an apologetic grin.
It seemed to Lucy that two minutes hadn’t passed since Wendy had cast her line, and now she was wailing with excitement.
“I’ve got a bite! I’ve got a bite!”
Justin, Rob, and Tony were at her side at once, and it appeared to take all four of them to reel the thing in. Lucy muffled a scream when the fish took two consecutive acrobatic leaps right out of the river and then actually walked across the water’s surface on its tail.
“He’s a fighter,” Justin called out, and the rest of the group moved in to watch and cheer them on.
When they finally reeled it in, Wendy was hopping up and down, high-fiving people as Justin dumped the captured fish into a large rectangular container. Before they closed the lid, Lucy noticed its beady red-gold eyes. It reminded her of a demonic shark she’d once seen in a late-night movie, and she had never quite broken free of the memory.
“I don’t think we have to measure that one, Wen,” Alison called to her. “It’s well over the fourteen inches long.”
“Smallmouth bass,” Jeff commented to Lucy. “They fight hard, but they sure do taste good.”
Lucy pushed a smile up to her face and then gagged back the wave of nausea that moved through her.
“Hold it together, girl,” Matt whispered, and he rubbed her back between the shoulder blades.
“Did you see those eyes?”
“Fish eyes, Luce.”
“Demon eyes,” she corrected him with a shudder. “Blecch.”
“They love to hang out in the weedy patches,” Justin told them. He smiled at Lucy and added, “You should cast out in that direction.”
She rummaged around for that smile again and pasted it on before reeling in her line and recasting, almost hoping there were no more red-eyed family members hanging out nearby.
Brenda had passed on the actual fishing, opting instead to paint her fingernails and watch the others from atop a nearby boulder. Wendy joined her there after bagging another whopper, and soon Matt and Justin followed suit. It seemed, in fact, as if everyone with a rod and reel in their hands had snagged themselves a respectable catch or two except for Lucy.
When she finally did get movement on her line, it turned out to be some unidentifiable miniature fish that seemed to laugh right in her face when Matt removed it from the hook and tossed it back to its home. Afterward, her baited hook just floated around in the water, humiliating her with its inactivity.
“It’s getting chilly,” Alison announced. “So what does everyone think? Shall we make our way back to camp a little early?”
“Let’s wait a few more minutes,” Justin suggested. And then, to make matters worse, he added, “Give Lucy a chance to catch something bigger than the bait on her hook.”
Funny. Just hilarious.
Turning her back to them all, she tilted her head upward and silently prayed. “It doesn’t have to be on steroids like Wendy’s, Lord. But something?”
Ten minutes later, Lucy felt a tug on the line. Then another.
“Mat–tie.”
By the time Matt reached her side, the line had extended out to its limit, and it was all she could do to hang on to the rod.
“It’s huge, Mattie!” she cried. “I can’t even hold it!”
As the others gathered around her, Lucy pumped the reel with one steady turn after another, biting down on her lip as she did. Her catch fought back, but she was determined.
Matt forged in front of her and lifted the line from the water, holding the flailing fish up toward her.
“Oh,” Tony sort of groaned. “Nice effort, though.”
“It sure is a little one, isn’t it?” Brenda asked.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to throw it back,” Alison told her. “Sorry, hon.”
Lucy’s heart sank as everyone, including Justin, returned to what they’d been doing before the excitement.
“Wait a minute now,” Matt interjected. “I don’t know about that. Who has the tape measure?”
Tony tossed it to him with an expression just south of hopeful, and Matt pulled it out with one hand while holding the wiggly bass with the other.
“Fourteen inches!” he declared. “We have a winner.”
Lucy’s enthusiasm returned, but only for a moment. It seemed that she and Matt were the only ones who saw the beauty in the moment. Wendy, however, gave her a very supportive pat on the back before walking away.
“Okay,” Alison declare
d. “Let’s toss the little guy in with the rest and head back for supper.”
Lucy was quiet on the ride back to camp. Not just because she’d now gained the reputation for snagging the Mickey Rooney of the Arkansas smallmouth bass community, but because of the look in Mickey Rooney’s eyes when she had.
She’d often thought that, if she didn’t love chicken wings and cheeseburgers and New York strip so much, she’d probably be a vegetarian. Chickens weren’t so adorable, of course. But big-eyed cows never failed to tug at her culinary heartstrings. Even so, she’d never once looked directly into the face of her dinner at the moment it was forced to give its life for her.
Lucy wasn’t sure she would ever eat meat and fish in the same way again, and she felt oddly irritated with Justin Gerard for being at the heart of these horrible feelings. It was for him, after all, that she’d murdered two worms and a baby bass in just a few hours’ time.
“What’s up with you?” Matt asked her as they strolled up the hill toward the cabins.
“I can’t get those eyes out of my head.”
“The fish eyes?”
“Yes,” she replied in defense. “Mattie, did you see the way it looked at me?”
When he didn’t respond, she turned to find him suppressing a wayward smile.
“Matt!”
“I know. I’m sorry. I did wonder how you were going to take this.”
“I think I need to be a vegetarian.”
“You do know that means giving up burgers, right?”
“Well, I was thinking I could be a vegetarian with special circumstances.”
A laugh popped out of Matt like a single cannon fire.
“I mean like never eating any living thing that I’ve looked in the face beforehand.”
“Ah. So you’ll still partake of the cows and the fish. You just don’t want to know where they come from.”
“Kinda.”
“I think that might be a good idea.”
Love Finds You in Snowball, Arkansas Page 4