“Perhaps volunteering can pay off?”
“You never know.” Mary smiled.
Angela left the cool of the library and stepped into the heat of summer. They were experiencing a warm spell, at least that’s what people called it; she thought it more hot. Possibly the concrete in the town retained more heat than out at the lake. Probably that’s why so many people headed for the lakes any chance they could. She knew there would be a breeze on the deck, so she did her grocery stop almost at a run.
I need to get home. She caught herself. Home. She had referred to Lynn’s house as home. How had that happened so quickly? When she thought of the house she had lived in, it was surrounded by dark clouds and ugliness. Much as she had loved that house, it was no longer home. She stopped at a stop sign and waited for a car to pass. Had she divorced herself from it when she was getting it ready to sell? Or when did it happen?
Her phone beeped the text sound. Taking the ads for no texting to heart, she pulled over and hit the button.
Lynn: ETA?
She texted back, Ten minutes, and pulled back on the road. The driver in the oncoming car waved at her. Do I know that person? No, people just do that around here. Angela Bishop, I think you have indeed found home. Now to be able to support yourself. The money from the house will not last you forever.
Lynn said to pray for and about everything. I used to practice that more but…There was always that but. Lord, you know I need a job. I don’t need a lot of money, but I really need to leave the house money in the bank for emergencies. I need a job with benefits, like health insurance. I need to make a list. She turned into the driveway and her heart leaped. She would have sworn it did. She was home.
When she came into the house, she found Lynn and Judith out on the deck. Lynn waved a hand. “Iced tea is fresh in the refrigerator. Come out and kick back for a while.”
“Thanks. I need to get out of these clothes into something cooler.”
“The breeze will help that.”
She didn’t bother to hang up her clothes, tossing them on her bed, but slipped into shorts and a tank top, her feet in flip-flops, and headed for the refrigerator. “Anybody want more?”
“No thanks. Did you have lunch?”
Angela thought a moment. “No, I guess I didn’t. I couldn’t wait to get home.” She took her icy glass outside and sank down on a lounger in the shade. “Ahhh.”
“Phillip called to ask if the two of you want to go out tonight, if the lake stays calm.”
Judith whooped. “That would be marvelous. Yes!”
Peace! Quiet water! Angela hesitated. “As long as I don’t have to get wet, I suppose so.”
Lynn smiled. “Good. That’s the best way to see the loons and the eagle’s nest and shorebirds, although there aren’t many of those around right now. And we have kingfishers nesting.”
“And the peace.” Judith stared at her iced tea glass. “Don’t forget the peace. Escape from burdens.”
Angela looked at her. “Your school is a burden?”
“Burdens are things you can carry. I am swamped. Buried, never to see daylight again. Angela, we’ve had two pop quizzes in precalc already; I scored twenty the first time and forty the second. And that is with tutoring! It’d be zero without.”
“So already you’re twice as good as you used to be.”
“Those are failing grades!” she roared.
Angela shrugged. “You’re only two weeks into it. I predict that all of a sudden it will click, you’ll get into the rhythm of it, and you’ll sail by with an A.”
Judith sniffed. “And I predict that those rosy, rosy, rose-colored glasses are blinding you so bad you’ll walk into a brick wall.”
Angela sat erect and tossed her legs over the side. “Speaking of bricks, I thought I might make biscuits tonight, but I’m not going to turn the oven on. Too hot. Any requests for supper?”
Lynn said, “The salad is all made except for cutting up the tomatoes, and the chicken is breaded. It’s on the middle shelf in the fridge.”
“At least it’s not raccoon.” Angela shoved herself to her feet, leaving her flip-flops beside the lounger. She left the others laughing and went into the kitchen.
The wood floor felt cool to her bare feet. She got out the chicken, basking momentarily in the cold air, and brought out the bag of freshly shelled peas. She pulled the big cast-iron frying pan off its peg on the wall and dashed olive oil liberally into it from a cruet beside the stove.
The more she worked in this kitchen, the better she liked it. It was so well organized that very few changes were needed to make it uniquely hers. Rarely when she would show a house could she crow, “And look at this marvelous kitchen! Well designed and well organized. It will make cooking a breeze and getting creative a pleasure.” She could certainly say that of this one. Except for the stacks of a latest project, of course. Lynn seemed to love to make a mess.
She got three potatoes out of the drop-open root bin. When was the last time one saw a root bin in a kitchen? Only kitchens that had never been remodeled since the thirties that she knew of. And yet this kitchen had one designed right into it, and she knew the Lundbergs had built this place. Mashed potatoes? Fried? If fried, thin sliced or chunked, home-style? They already had fried potatoes in various forms several times this week. She’d mash them. With sour cream, garlic, and chives, of course. She quartered them and dropped them into the two-quart saucepan.
She oiled a small iron skillet to sauté the mushrooms and onions she chopped for the peas. As they sizzled, she started a fire under the big skillet. When the oil began to move around on the bottom of the skillet, she laid the chicken pieces in. They sizzled happily. She set a splash screen over the pan.
No doubt they’d be eating out on the deck tonight, so she chopped and added the salad tomatoes, put the place settings and condiment basket on a tray, and carried it out. Judith stood up. “Here, I can set up.”
“Thank you.” Angela went back inside. She put the peas on, added the onion and mushrooms to them, and studied the stove. The meal was still plain. Mundane. They needed some little thing to jazz it up. She surveyed the canned goods in the pantry. Aha! Cranberry sauce! She opened a can and turned it out into a serving dish. She never made dishes with this many calories in her old home, and she reveled in her ability to at last cook large, so to speak. With élan and ritz.
The potato skins came off readily once they cooked. She skinned about half of the potatoes, leaving the skins on the rest as she mashed, then whipped them with the salt, garlic powder, a dollop of sour cream, butter, and milk.
Heaping them into a dish, she sprinkled a bit of dried parsley over the top just because. The peas went into a smaller serving dish, and the chicken, golden brown, looked elegant layered on a plate. She called the ladies to the table, garnering tons of praise as they tasted the food. And that satisfied her immensely. It was not like Jack’s praise. He would offer praise, but there was always the negative add-on: “Nice, but you know we’re both paying attention to our weight” or “Nice, but I bet you can do even better if you try harder.”
Hmm, the potatoes really were very good.
They were cleaning up after the meal when Phillip showed up.
“I’ll get my stuff.” Angela abandoned the kitchen and dug out her fishing equipment, her gift from kids who cared. The dishes would just have to do themselves tonight; the others abandoned the kitchen as well and headed down to the dock. Phillip had already piled the life vests, paddles, and oars on the dock.
Lynn explained, “Phillip is hyper-concerned about water safety. He got his kids drown-proofed before they were a year old. Now all three of them swim like otters. Wait till you see them.”
“Swim…but the lake is still terribly cold. Shouldn’t it be warming up by now?” Judith looked over the dock edge at the water.
“I suspect the locals swim in it before people from, say, Florida would. And by September it’s quite nice.” Lynn buckled into her life jacket. �
��Angela, let’s you and I head out that way, and Phillip and Judith can go out that way.”
“Dibs on the rowboat.” Judith walked over and untied it. Phillip dropped the oars into the oarlocks and they crawled aboard.
If she had to go out in a boat, Angela would much prefer one that was not as tippy as a canoe, but well, here she was. She put her fishing gear in near the front, stepped into it, and settled onto the front seat. The canoe wobbled a little as Lynn put her own fishing gear in the back and climbed in behind it, giving Angela a bit of a fright. Just a bit. Angela pushed off as if she’d been doing this for years. In other words, smugly.
“Let’s try that cove.” Lynn nodded to the right.
They paddled over and Angela got out her box of lures. “Which one do you recommend?”
“You never know this time of year. Try them until one works. I used this one last time.” With a practiced flick of the wrist, Lynn cast her line near a fallen tree. “You seem to be recovering beautifully from your old life. I am so glad.”
“Thank you. I would not have guessed this change of scene would be so healing. Charlie still waxes eloquent about the time he spent here with Phillip and Tommy. At last I can see why.”
“I hope now that they have an excuse, your children will come visit. It would be marvelous to see him again and meet your daughter.”
“I’m getting vague promises from them. I hope so, too.” Angela reeled the line in to change lures.
“Is your life here becoming more satisfying?” Lynn reeled her line in as well. Apparently she, too, had guessed wrong on the first one.
“Satisfying.” Angela thought about that. “I like the word. And now that my life is so different, I’m beginning to see that my former life was not really very satisfying at all.”
“For example…?” Lynn prompted.
“I’m finally no longer obsessed with making one more real estate sale; you cannot imagine how wearying that is. You land a sale and immediately you have to make another sale. And another. And I love not having to look gorgeous every moment. I see now that it was never my strong desire; it was Jack’s expectation, even when we went to bed at night.” She paused, thinking. “On the other hand, I’ve noticed that I’m gaining a little weight.”
“It’s not apparent.”
“Jack would have noticed, believe me. When the children were growing up, I was pleasingly plump, you might say. He let me know he didn’t like that. So once the children went into high school, I really started working on my weight, on my hair, everything. I dropped the twenty pounds I’d picked up after we married and then lost ten more besides that. Unfortunately, I see I’ve gained back three.”
“So you can gain seven more is what you’re saying and still weigh the same that you did as a bride.”
Angela laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“And do you realize how many women would love to get back to what they weighed when they married?”
“True. It’s not just the weight. All of it. Here I can wear flip-flops without getting some snarky comment.”
“Less pressure, in other words.”
“Exactly. And less judging. Shucks, no judging.” She cast out her line. “And volunteering in a library again, and it’s not just kiddy lit in the school library, real grown-up books. Besides which I’m recovering my joy of cooking. That is very satisfying to me.”
“Well, we certainly appreciate it. You’re a splendid cook. And you have the garden looking perfect.”
“It’s fun. I don’t—” Her bobber dipped and she drew the line aside. “I have one!”
Lynn grabbed the net and leaned forward, extending it close to Angela. The fish flopped into the net, and Angela could at last get a good look at it. “That’s not a walleye. Is it a trout?”
“No, a whitefish. A nice one, too.”
Angela retrieved her lure and dropped the fish into the creel. She twisted around to look at Lynn. “Lynn, ‘satisfying’ does not begin to describe it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
That was the most fantastic Fourth I’ve ever seen.” Judith took her coffee mug to stand in front of the window beside Angela. “Fireworks all around the lake like that last night, and today it is back to placid.” The sun had just leaped into the sky, making the blue even deeper as it traveled. While the men had picked up most of the debris from their own dock, the beach and lawn needed some more policing, decorated with pieces of red, white, and blue leftovers.
Angela would agree in spades. “I never tire of looking out over the lake, the sunrises like this, but all through the day. Always changing, no wind, puffs of wind, clouds, no clouds, birds, no birds.” They both caught their breath as a flock of honkers settled on the water, their big gray bodies and black arched necks visible from a distance.
“Did you see the mother the other day with her line of goslings behind her?”
“As I said about my own kids: they grow up so fast.”
They turned to grin at each other when the rooster crowed. His voice didn’t crack for a change. “I think he’s got it.” Judith sobered. “You know where Lynn is? She’s usually right here enjoying the view by now.”
“Probably out in the garden. You going shopping to all the sales?” Angela asked.
“You have to be kidding. I do not go to any madness sales. Not after holidays and really not after Thanksgiving or Christmas. Melody talked me into it one time. I learned my lesson, and that was a fabric store. Women can get really pushy.”
Angela half smiled at the thought. “I used to. A friend of mine and I would get up before dawn and be in line to open the stores. Not anymore, especially on some of those sales, they open in the middle of the night. Even if the merchandise was free. Besides, there aren’t any morning-after sales in real estate.”
“Maybe there should be. Like mattress sales to celebrate Washington’s birthday.”
The rooster crowed again and this time he had an echo.
Judith giggled. “That red one thinks he should crow, too.”
“Phillip said it was about time to turn him into fried chicken. He’s big enough.”
Judith turned toward the door. “I’m going to let the chickens out of the coop and feed them. Are you at the library today?”
“Not today.” Angela’s cell did the two-toned signal for texts. She checked it and stuffed the phone back in her pocket. Jack. Her stomach clenched. When would she be able to get beyond reacting to these messages, let alone hearing his voice? The fury flared again, like a bonfire when someone threw on gas. She walked inside, dumped the dregs of her coffee in the sink, and went to stand in front of the fridge. “I feel like cooking. You want breakfast?”
“Sure,” Judith tossed over her shoulder on her way out the door, scooping up the pail of kitchen scraps they kept for the chickens.
Angela decided to bake muffins, so she got out the ingredients and turned on the oven. She was just sliding the muffin pan into the oven when Judith came back.
“Lynn isn’t out there. Did you know that Homer likes to lie at the fence and watch the chickens?”
“Really? Is her SUV out there?”
“Yes. Besides, if she goes somewhere she always leaves a note.”
Miss Minerva announced her entrance with a demand for breakfast.
“Where’s your mother?” Angela reached into the cupboard for the kitty food and poured the kibbles into Minerva’s bowl. The cat strolled over, sniffed, and looked over her shoulder.
“No, you get the canned food at night. Kibbles in the morning. You know that.”
Another sniff and she crouched down to eat one kibble at a time.
“I’m going up to see if she’s in her room.” Judith returned in a couple of minutes. “She’s still in bed.”
“Is she sick?”
“I have no idea. But how anyone can sleep with the rooster crowing and the birds having a community meeting in that tree off her window…”
“Perhaps she just had a bad
night.”
“Let’s eat while the food is hot, and then I’ll go check on her.” The two took a tray with hot apple muffins and scrambled eggs out on the deck, where Homer joined them.
“After breakfast, I’ll go pick up the stuff down there.” Judith pointed toward the lake.
Angela shrugged. “That would be a good kid job.”
“True. I forget about child labor. You think I should call Maggie and ask?”
“Why not?”
Judith wagged her head. “I don’t know, guess I’m not comfortable doing that.”
“All she can say is no. I know the guys are going somewhere this afternoon. Miss Priss is coming here so Maggie can sleep.”
When they finished, Judith cleaned up and Angela headed for the stairs. She paused in the doorway, to rap or not, decided not to, then tiptoed over to the bed.
“I’m awake.”
Angela leaned in closer. “Are you sick, Lynn?”
“Just had a bad night. Minerva came for me.” She threw back the covers and swung her feet over the side. Once she was sitting, the cat eased into her lap and patted her cheek with the paw tipped in white toes. “I know.” Lynn patted the cat and rolled her head from side to side. “Thanks for checking on me.”
“Judith came up a while ago before she left for school. The muffins are still warm, and I’ll scramble you some eggs, too.”
“I better take a shower and see if I can get going. I’ll warm it up when I get down there.”
“You sure you’re not running a temp or something? And by the way, you don’t have to get up if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks, I know, but Priss is coming over later and I promised to have cookie dough ready.”
“What kind? I’ll start it. I’m in a baking mood today.”
“Jack texted again, right?”
“How’d you know?”
Lynn snorted. “You always bake when he tries to contact you.”
“Well, I guess that’s better than hiding in bed. Tried that and it didn’t help.” She shrugged. “You want roll out, drop cookies, or bars?”
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