“Mighty big of you to be willing to bail me out like that.” She stopped pacing and faced him, hands on her hips.
“Look—I was trying to be nice. I don’t appreciate your attitude.”
“No. You look. Your attitude is the problem. Just because I’m a blond whose features are put together in an okay way, you think I don’t have sense enough to handle my own business. So, being the big strong he-man you are—”
“I’m sorry.” He interrupted her, partly to stop her from saying anything else, but he meant the apology. She had no idea how sorry he was that he’d gotten involved. Why he’d ever tried to do something for her, he didn’t know. “I should have called you. You just had so much going on that I thought I could help.”
His apology seemed to roll right off her righteous anger.
She pushed to her feet. “This discussion is a waste of time. Is Quinton going to be able to fix the car?”
“He should have it done this afternoon. As good as new.”
“Great.” She grabbed the doorknob.
“Brandi?”
“Yes?” She glanced around, pinning him with a questioning look.
“I’m almost afraid to ask, but would you like a ride into town to pick it up?” Jake felt like biting his tongue, but with the words already out it would do no good.
She stared at him, and he could almost see her mentally counting her options. “Yes, thanks.”
“Four thirty?”
“I’ll be ready.” She closed the door without another word.
Jake flopped down into his computer chair, exhausted. Hurricane Brandi had left the building. Or at least Jake’s room.
Six
“Valerie!” Brandi tapped on her sister’s door. “I need you.”
The teen opened her door a crack, cell phone pressed to her ear. “I’m on the phone.”
“That’s what you said an hour ago. I have to go into town to get my car, and I need you to help Gram while I’m gone.”
Valerie glared at her. “This is important.”
Brandi sighed. She’d counted on Valerie’s half-day school schedule to be a big help. So far her sister had spent every afternoon locked in her room. “Can you be downstairs in ten minutes?”
“Do I have a choice?”
Brandi sighed. What had happened to her adoring sister? “Not really.”
Valerie closed the door in her face.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Brandi muttered and hurried down to meet Jake. She would have to deal with Valerie’s problem soon.
Jake stood with his back to her, looking out the front window. Much as he’d stood that night eight years ago when he’d come to pick her up. His hair had been damp then, too, curls in the back barely brushing his neck. She remembered thinking at the beginning of that night that Arkansas had some good things after all. With a jolt she realized where giving him the benefit of the doubt had gotten her then. Stranded and humiliated.
She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
He spun around. A grin split his face, and she knew a lesser woman would have gone weak in the knees. Instead she stared at the braided rug. Was that hand-braided?
“You ready?”
She looked up and nodded. “Anytime.”
He held the door open for her and followed her to his truck. As soon as he started the motor he tuned into a country radio station.
She should have known.
He motioned toward the radio. “Do you mind?”
She shook her head. She didn’t mind, as long as she could repeat to herself over and over, “I’ll have my own car back in thirty minutes.”
“Are you still mad at me?” With his right hand he turned the volume down. Maybe he was more perceptive than she’d thought, both to her music tastes and her mood. But how did she respond to a question like that?
She stared out the window as she considered possible answers. Should I be?. . .Not at all. . .Maybe a little. Or the honest one. “Yes.”
“Ouch.” His dimple appeared briefly, so she wondered if he thought she was kidding.
She looked over at him and raised her eyebrows. “The truth hurts.”
“So what can I do to make it up to you?”
Leave me alone? No, there was a limit to the amount of honesty a ten-minute trip could stand. And she was pretty sure she’d reached it. “Really, Jake, let’s forget it. Thank you for taking care of my car.”
“Why are you so afraid for someone to help you?”
“It has nothing to do with me not being willing to take help.”
“Then what does it have to do with?”
She tapped the beat to the current song on her knee. Surprisingly it wasn’t half-bad. “Control. It probably has to do with control.” She made a face. “Satisfied? I’m one of those control freaks you always hear about, so beware.”
“I think there’s a difference between being a control freak and liking to control your own destiny, for lack of a better word, in this crazy world.” Jake flipped his blinker and maneuvered the truck onto the road.
She added amazing insight to her list of reasons to keep her guard up around him. Right behind finely tuned physique and killer grin. How much was a girl supposed to take?
When she didn’t speak, he continued. “Don’t you think God gives us a desire to think for ourselves?”
“Definitely.”
One more for the list. Spiritual depth. That was unexpected and tougher to resist.
But then Mitch had seemed strong in his faith, at first. That had been the main reason she’d gone out with him. That and the fact that he was settled and steady. Something Traveling Jake, the baseball man, didn’t have a clue about.
She needed stability. And she could only have that if she counted on God and herself, and no one else. She mentally shredded the list. Some things were better not thought about.
She looked at the creek as they passed smoothly over the low-water bridge. The water down below rippled cheerfully. Not a hint remained of the dangerous monster within.
“It sure looks different, doesn’t it?” Jake asked quietly.
She nodded. If the list hadn’t been lying in tiny imaginary shredded strips on the floor, she’d have been forced to add sensitive to it.
When she didn’t speak for a few minutes, he eased the radio volume up slightly. She stared out the window until they reached town. It hadn’t changed a bit. At least on the outside. Same psychedelic painted flower shop. Same full-service gas station. The pizza parlor sign still touted “Made Fresh Daily” as their claim to fame. She’d always wondered who would buy day-old pizza.
In spite of its idiosyncrasies the town seemed to suck the next generation of residents easily into its swirling vortex of sameness. Les operated his dad’s towing business. Dana had opened a beauty shop on Main Street. Quentin worked for his brother at the mechanic shop. Brandi had been lucky to escape.
“Whatever happened to Elizabeth Battlestone?” Elizabeth had been one of her few friends. Mostly because she always had her nose stuck in a book, so she was harassed by the other girls almost as much as Brandi was. Before Jake answered, Brandi saw the library sign. No doubt Elizabeth was in there, cataloguing books.
“She’s an award-winning Christian novelist. She writes under her married name—Elizabeth Campbell—but you can find her books in most any bookstore.”
“Really? I think I’ve seen her books.” So much for Brandi’s theory. “So she moved away, too.” Who could blame her after the way Tammy and the other girls had treated her?
“No. She still lives here. She’s on the city council and is president of Friends of the Library. She married Steve Campbell, a buddy of mine from college. They own a successful computer software company off Main Street.”
“An award-winning novelist lives here?” And the owner of a computer software company?
“Along with an Olympic gold medalist and a pro-baseball player.” His self-deprecatory grin belied the proud words.
Bran
di thought of adding famous model to his list of noteworthy locals, but if he chose not to mention Tammy, why should she? “Olympic gold medalist?”
“Yeah, didn’t you know Mr. Johnson won a gold medal for swimming before he started teaching agriculture?”
She shook her head. Somehow during her brief time in the seemingly inconsequential Arkansas town, Mr. Johnson’s claim to fame had eluded her.
Jake nodded toward the coffee shop. “Of course, there are our most famous residents. Or at least they should be.”
“The domino players?” Brandi grinned. It was amazing how differently two people could look at one town.
“Yep. The recipients of at least a dozen Purple Hearts and half a dozen Congressional Medals of Honor are sitting in there at those tables.”
“Wow. I’m impressed.” Brandi said it in a teasing tone, but she was. To her core.
“It’s about time.” He smiled.
“Maybe I’ll look up Elizabeth since she’s still in town.”
“I know she’d be glad. She asks your parents about you all the time. Haven’t they ever mentioned it to you?” Brandi shook her head. She hated to tell him she’d made it clear to her mom and dad years ago that she didn’t want to hear anything about Arkansas. She breathed a sigh of relief when the auto shop came into view.
“Here we are.” Jake grinned and whipped his truck into the parking lot and killed the motor. “Let’s go get your wheels so you can be in control.”
She blushed. “Lead the way.”
❧
A car door slammed. Jake pushed back from the computer and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. Time for a seventh-inning stretch. He stood and walked to the window.
In the driveway below Brandi retrieved blue plastic grocery bags from the convertible trunk and passed them to Michael and Melissa. The threesome’s easy camaraderie was evident, even though he couldn’t hear their words. When both kids had several bags, Brandi grabbed the rest and slammed the trunk. With her hair up in a high ponytail, she didn’t look much older than Michael.
It had been over a week since Jake had taken Brandi into town to pick up her car. Almost everything in the car had been salvageable, so he’d helped her carry her things up to her room that day. She’d thanked him, but he could count on one hand the number of words they’d exchanged since then. Why he kept trying to get through to her, he really didn’t know. Changing her attitude toward Arkansas—toward him—represented a challenge. And Jake could never resist a challenge.
When he was young he’d been determined to prove he was more than just the baby brother of the McFadden boys. So every test that came his way he jumped into it with both feet, and he had the scars to prove it. That hadn’t stopped teachers from comparing him to Cade, Holt, or Clint, but at least his peers knew he was an individual in his own right.
His natural talent for baseball had given him a good way out of his brothers’ larger-than-life shadows in high school. By the time he’d reached college he’d found another way. Playing the rebel. Wild parties became the normal way to spend a weekend. He hadn’t figured out it wasn’t a game until it was too late.
He slapped the desk. The best thing he could do right now was get out of this room for a while. Away from bad memories, plummeting Web site stats, and fears that he would never recover.
❧
After two weeks of preparation Brandi would be welcoming her first overnight guests to the B&B in a few hours. She was probably frantic trying to get everything ready. Maybe he should help.
He could hear Brandi calling Valerie’s name as he stepped into the hall. On second thought maybe he should stay out of the way and let her take care of it herself.
As he passed Valerie’s door, it burst open.
“I said I’ll be there in a minute!” Valerie screamed, practically in his ear.
Her red face turned ashen when she saw him. “Jake. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
“Hey, no problem. I have another ear.” He smiled at the girl who had practically been a ray of sunshine until a few weeks ago. “I’ve missed seeing you at meals. Everything okay?”
She shook her head, and tears filled her eyes. “I guess.”
“Rough time at school, huh?”
She nodded.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not right now, but thanks.”
“If you ever change your mind, I do have one good ear left.” He spied a stack of blank B&B guest comment cards on a nearby table. He quickly jotted down his cell phone number on one and handed it to her.
A smile flitted across her face. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”
After Valerie closed her door, Jake said a silent prayer for her. She needed to talk to someone soon. Brandi would be the logical choice, but Valerie would have to come to that realization on her own. Even though reaching out to troubled teens came naturally to him, Jake was through interfering in Miss California’s life.
He could hear Brandi barking orders to Michael and Melissa as he walked quietly down the stairs. The foyer was empty. Ducking his head a little, he eased the door open and slipped out onto the porch.
The first hint of autumn crispness filled the air. He took a deep breath. The slight breeze carried a fragrance of peace and sunshine that chased away his earlier doubts about pitching again. The Creator had outdone Himself.
“There’s nothing like the first real day of autumn, is there?”
Jake jumped then smiled.
Elva had stretched out on a chaise lounge at one end of the long porch with an open book on her knees.
“Nothing at all,” he agreed.
“I have to rest on the ice pack for twenty minutes and do some crunches.” She closed the book and laid it beside her on the porch. “I couldn’t bear another second of that room.”
“I know what you mean,” Jake said. “My walls were closing in, too.” He walked over and sat in the rocker nearest Elva’s chair.
“It’s hard for me to be here and not be able to help Brandi,” Elva said. She raised her knees up and repositioned. “I tried to tell her this old house has been receiving guests for so long it could almost do it on its own. But she didn’t listen.”
“You sound like you’ve known this house longer than eight years.”
“Yes, my sister owned it for forty years and ran it, first as a boardinghouse and later as a B&B. When she died, I inherited it.” She wrinkled her nose. “I had no desire to leave my home, but Tom and Lynette were thrilled about the idea of running the B&B and making a home for their four children.”
She raised her head, tightening her muscles, then relaxed. “They’d lived with me since my husband had died, and I hated to see them go, but I knew it would be perfect for them. And it was.” Elva focused on Jake again as if she’d been lost in the past for a few minutes.
“They seem to have really made a home here,” Jake said. Not very many people loved as unselfishly as Elva had, giving up seeing her kids and grandkids regularly, so they could be happy.
“Yes, they do, don’t they?” She smiled. “I’m thankful God blessed them with this. They needed roots, but it took some time for them to find their place. Everything happens in its own time.” She waved her hand toward the house. “But right now Brandi’s in a tizzy about the guests coming, and there’s not a thing I can say to calm her down.”
“She strikes me as the type who needs to do things her way.” Jake mentally patted himself on the back. Considering she seemed like a borderline control freak at times, he deserved a gold star for that tactful understatement.
Elva snickered. “You know her pretty well.”
Jake rocked slowly without speaking. Even though he wished it were otherwise, nothing could be further from the truth.
Almost as if she read his mind, Elva continued. “Brandi had never lived more than a year in one place when her family moved into my house after Sam’s death. She was going into the eighth grade. Every day for the next four years she blossomed.” She m
otioned toward the morning sun. “Con-sistency was her sunlight. Moving her here right before her senior year turned her life upside down way more than any of us realized it would. After that, I think she decided she would never allow herself to be vulnerable to someone else’s decisions.”
“That must have made for a lonely life.” His heart went out to the little girl, longing for a home then having to leave the one she finally had.
“It seems like every time she’s let her guard down, she’s been hurt. So I guess she figures lonely is worth it as long as she’s safe.”
Jake remembered Brandi’s caustic attitude in high school. Had that been a defense mechanism? A protective wall?
“Now, if you’ll help an old lady up from here, my twenty minutes are up, and I’ll leave you to enjoy this beautiful day in peace.”
Jake gently lifted her to her feet and said good-bye. After she went in, he remained in the rocker, thinking about what she’d said. Brandi needed to trust someone enough to consciously put herself in that person’s hands. Until that happened, she didn’t have a chance at happiness.
He grimaced. Who was he to psychoanalyze someone else’s life when he couldn’t even manage his own?
Seven
“Can you believe it’s really over?” Brandi could hear the triumph in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. She’d been so nervous.
Valerie laughed. “Another day, another dollar.”
“Yeah, it’s old hat to you, but to me, surviving our first night with guests and getting them all safely tucked into bed is a victory.”
“Tucked into bed?” Valerie looked up from the magazines she was straightening and raised an eyebrow.
“Figuratively speaking, of course. But I did hear you offer to read a bedtime story to the five-year-old in the Wizard of Oz suite.”
“Well, the little squirt wasn’t going to settle down if I didn’t, especially after her mom let her have that extra helping of chocolate pudding at supper.”
“Good point. I should have known you weren’t being nice for no reason,” Brandi teased.
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