by Beth Andrews
* * *
AARON WAS CONFUSED. “What was that about?” he asked the mayor.
For a second, it seemed as if Ray was going to say something, but in the end, the mayor just shrugged and handed Aaron a bunch of papers.
As Aaron filled out all the paperwork, he wondered what he’d done now. Obviously, Maeve had wanted the house, but she had a house already.
As he wrote out the check, it finally occurred to him that if she had a house, she must have wanted this one for something else.
“You’re sure you won’t tell me what she planned on doing with this place?”
The mayor shook his head. “Ask Maeve.” He paused and asked, “What are you going to do with it?”
“The house is a wreck. I don’t need to be a contractor to know that it’s a money pit. And, it’s an eyesore. I thought I’d be doing a public service by pulling it down and using the lot to expand the store’s storage facilities.”
Something in the mayor’s expression told him that Maeve’s reason for bidding on the house had nothing to do with tearing down the building.
Well, he had an invitation to dinner tomorrow. He’d find out more then.
Maeve Buchanan intrigued him. It had been a long time since a person had managed that.
When his uncle suggested he come here to look after the store, the notion had come to him that maybe a change of scenery would help motivate him. Ever since he sold the rights to the computer program he developed, he’d been searching for a new project that would excite him. His program had been a revelation. After he’d attended a lecture by a professor who was using a voice synthesizer, Aaron became convinced that he could convert some of his basic AI software into a more human-sounding instrument. The concept had been brewing in the back of his mind for a year. Every morning, he’d take his laptop out to the lanai, sit down with a cup of coffee, try to code for a bit, and then call it a day.
As it turned out Valley Ridge wasn’t the answer to his getting down to more serious work because the only thing here that seemed to hold his attention was Maeve Buchanan.
He wasn’t sure why spending time with Maeve meant so much to him, especially when he annoyed her so easily.
He should probably bow out of joining her and her family for Thanksgiving, but he knew he wouldn’t.
CHAPTER FIVE
NORMALLY, MAEVE loved Thanksgiving. She loved spending the day on the farm with her mom and Herm. She loved the smell of turkey and pumpkin pie. She loved the sense of family as the three of them worked together to put dinner on the table. She loved the parades. She even loved when Herm put on his football game. She and her mom would play an epic game of Scrabble, and then she would curl up with a book for the rest of the afternoon.
She loved Thanksgiving because it was the holiday that represented home and family to her.
This year, things would be radically different. Since her eat-in kitchen was too tiny to accommodate even such a small group of guests, she spent the morning moving furniture around and setting up the table in the living room. There was a bit more room in there, but not much.
She’d waited all night, hoping that Aaron would phone and tell her he couldn’t come to dinner after all.
The phone never rang.
That wasn’t a shock to her. Aaron Holder didn’t seem to worry about what other people thought of him. She’d let her guard down after finding out they shared an appreciation for books, movies and riddles, but her first impression had been right—he was annoying and she didn’t like him.
Since he didn’t call and cancel, she at least hoped he’d be the last to arrive. He seemed to get along well enough with Josie. Maybe she’d seat him beside her new friend and he would eat and then leave immediately after dinner.
Again, she wasn’t the least bit surprised when he was the first one to show up. “I came early so I could help.” He offered her a grin, as if nothing was wrong.
“I don’t need any help from you,” she said and regretted how curt it sounded. While he might be rude and abrasive, it didn’t mean she had to be. Her mother had raised her right.
She tried to soften the statement to something her mother would approve of. “I have everything ready.”
“May I come in?”
She realized he was still standing outside and reluctantly opened the door to allow him to enter. But to be sure he was clear on where things stood between them, she sighed. “Yes. You can put your coat on the hook and have a seat. I’m finishing up the potatoes.”
“I could help,” he offered as he took off his coat.
She wanted to say, Sure you could help, but we both know you won’t. Though she knew she wasn’t being fair to him. He didn’t know why she was bidding on the house. And it did border his uncle’s property.
Ray had called her after Aaron left his office. He told her Aaron had bought the property in order to add the lot to Jerry’s business. That made sense. She shouldn’t blame him, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
Ray told her to tell Aaron why she wanted the building. Maybe he’d let her buy it from him. But she wasn’t going to bother. He’d jacked up the auction price so high, she couldn’t afford to buy it and still fix it up.
She was glad she preferred hand-mashed potatoes to those that were done with a mixer because it gave her an outlet to vent. She slammed the masher into the poor potatoes with far more force than was needed.
Aaron pulled her red stool up to the counter and took a seat. After watching her in silence for a few minutes, he said, “Okay, so explain to me about yesterday. I asked the mayor, but he wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“What’s to explain?” She slammed the masher. “There was an auction.” Slam. “You won.” Slam. Slam. “I lost.” Slam.
“I can’t figure you out,” he said softly.
That was fine because Maeve wouldn’t have known how to explain herself to him, anyway. She kept silent as she continued mashing the potatoes.
“Why was buying this house so important to you? You have a house. Did you want something bigger?”
“My house is plenty big enough.” Well, it was plenty big enough for a single woman, but it wasn’t quite as comfortable for a large family dinner with friends at Thanksgiving. “And anyway, it wasn’t for me.”
“Then who?” he asked.
She had mashed the potatoes within an inch of their lives. She spooned them into a serving bowl, covered them and put them in the oven.
“Who?” Aaron pressed.
“It’s a long story,” she said, not wanting to explain her failed idea to the man who’d derailed it.
“I’m still the only one here, so we have a while.”
She wanted to snap that he was the only one there because he was the only one rude enough to show up early. Instead, she answered his question. “I wanted that house to be the first one my new foundation bought and renovated.”
“What foundation?” he asked.
She didn’t say anthing right away, but that didn’t seem to bother Aaron. He sat quietly, watching her as he waited.
“Valley Ridge Homes, or something like that.” She realized she’d jumped into this so fast, she didn’t even have a name for the charity. “We’d take old, abandoned homes and fix them up, then allow low-income families to buy them. They’d be getting the equivalent of a low interest mortgage from the foundation and we’d have the ability to adjust their payments on a sliding scale, according to what they earned. The money they paid toward their mortgage would be put toward purchasing other homes. After a few years, it would be nice to have it be a self-sustaining venture.”
“I’m sure there are other homes around town,” Aaron said.
“I know there are other deserted homes in Valley Ridge. But there are all sorts of governmental hoops to jump through before t
he town can deal with them. I’m not sure what it entails, but Ray says there’s nothing else that’s even close to available right now. And trying to buy a foreclosed home takes longer than buying an abandoned place, plus the cost is way out of my league. This house was my only option if I wanted to get started right away. Ray bumped up the auction by a couple of weeks to help me out.”
“So wait until something else comes up,” Aaron said.
“I can’t wait. I wanted to get the house ready for Christmas.” She pulled the cranberry bread out of the refrigerator and placed it on a serving plate. She took a deep breath and said, “It was probably a dumb idea, anyway. You probably saved me from myself. I mean, I’ve never renovated a home, but I’m sure that doing it in four weeks takes more man power and money than I could’ve mustered.”
She cut the delicate bread into thin slices.
“Why by Christmas?”
She glanced out the kitchen window at the RV parked next to her house. “Josie and Boyd are here until the baby’s born. And the baby’s due after Christmas. If the house was habitable and ready, they’d have the option of staying. Boyd’s been picking up odd jobs all over town. Josie’s right, he can do just about anything. If a full-time job came up and there was a house for them here, why go somewhere else. Without the house?” She shrugged. “Like I said, it was a pipe dream. Even if I had gotten the house, full-time jobs are hard to come by in a community as small as Valley Ridge.”
It had started to snow, and the ratty RV looked even rattier than usual. She hated thinking of Josie moving to a strange town and trying to take care of a new baby in that old thing. But the idea of taking an equally ratty house and making it livable in a month was absurd.
“Yes, you probably saved me from myself,” she repeated. “I tend to have grandiose ideas and not really think them through. I mean, even if I could get volunteers together and organize donations, having the house done by Christmas would take a miracle. And I know from personal experience that those are few and far between.”
“Is that what happened with the library? Was that a grandiose idea that you didn’t think through?”
She nodded and smiled, despite how dejected she felt. “That might have been one of my better ideas. It didn’t cost much money.”
“No, it just costs you your time.” Aaron paused, then he added, “I guess I don’t understand why you’d be so gung ho about buying a house for someone else.”
Maeve pulled out a container of olives from the fridge and, her back to him, answered, “Because they need one.”
“But they want to move to North Dakota.”
She turned around and set the olives on the counter. “They don’t want to move there. Boyd feels he has to. But can you imagine what it will be like for them? A young mom with a newborn and a toddler stuck in that RV all day while he’s at work...if he finds work.” What if he couldn’t find work? What if their money ran out far from home, far from new friends?
“Again, those are reasons why it would be good for them. But why does it matter to you so much?” Aaron asked again.
There were many things about herself she didn’t understand, but this one thing, she understood completely. Why did it matter to her? She never spoke of it. At first, it had been a source of embarrassment. Later? It just wasn’t something that came up in conversation often.
She looked at Aaron, so genuinely puzzled.
“Because I was homeless once.” The words exploded from her, as if she’d had to push them past some inner barrier to get them out. “Because I know what it’s like to live out of something that sits on four wheels. And it was only me and Mom. I can’t imagine what it would be like for a whole family to live like that.”
* * *
AARON COULD SENSE how hard that admission had been for Maeve. He felt...
Hell, he simply felt.
For two years he’d cut himself off from friends and family. He’d hid himself away and buried himself in his work...well, not really work. He buried himself in the appearance of work. He still had ideas. He simply didn’t have the drive.
Now he was in Valley Ridge, running a store and listening to some crazy redhead...and he felt.
“I’ve spent my entire adult life squirreling money away in order to be sure I never lost my home again,” she said quietly. “I live simply. Count every penny. But the other night, when we watched A Christmas Carol, I realized that money that sits in a bank is all well and good, but I could take that money and use it for something even better. For me it’s all about the security. Something I can fall back on if something catastrophic happened. But if I gambled and risked it, that money could be something more. It could be a home for someone who doesn’t have one. It could be the start of a new foundation—a foundation that helps many families find homes. It could be hope. I think the easiest way to kill someone’s soul is to take away their hope.”
Aaron studied her. No one could be that generous. No one could take all their hard-earned money and just decide to give it away.
“You see that cross-stitch?” Maeve pointed to the wall. “I can’t save the world, but I can try. I can try. Maybe that’s the real answer to your question. That’s why. I understand what Josie and Boyd are going through. I can’t save the world, but I can help this one family. And if they still decide to go to North Dakota, then I can save one other family. I can start this foundation and work with the mayor and maybe help other folks in Valley Ridge. What more do you need to know?”
That was the question. Aaron should be satisfied. She’d answered him. She’d experienced hardship in her past and now she wanted to make a change for someone else. Okay. He got it.
Well, he mostly got it.
And doubt crept into his thoughts. She had to have an angle. No one bought a house for people they had only recently met, even if it was cheap. There had to be something that Maeve would get out of it. Being homeless once and understanding what the family was going through wasn’t enough of a reason.
Everyone had an angle.
Everyone looked out for number one.
He wanted to figure out what Maeve was after. He needed to understand her.
The last time he’d felt like this was when he’d started to work on his artificial intelligence program. He’d known what he wanted it to do, but he wasn’t sure how to make it work. He became obsessed with figuring it out. He dropped out of college and spent more than five years focusing on it to the point that he put the rest of his life on the back burner.
Maeve seemed too good to be believed. And he knew from past experience that too good to be believed was never as good as it seemed.
“Forget it,” Maeve stated. “Like I said, it was an unrealistic dream. You did the right thing. It was going to take every cent I’ve saved to make it happen. And even at that, there probably wouldn’t be enough time to get it done before they left for North Dakota.”
Someone knocked at her door and she turned toward the sound. She looked a bit panicked. “Please, don’t mention this to anyone. If it had worked out I would have kept it a secret from Boyd and Josie anyway, until the house was ready. But since it didn’t, I’d prefer to not say anything at all.”
“Let me help with dinner and I’ll keep my mouth shut,” he offered.
“Do you always have to bargain?” she asked.
He’d never thought about it, but as he did now, he admitted that he could trust in a bargain because he knew what someone got out of it. “I guess.”
“Fine.” She opened the door and Josie, Boyd and Carl walked in. “Welcome,” she exclaimed with far more enthusiasm than when he’d arrived. “Josie, you met Aaron at book club. Aaron, I’m not sure if you’ve officially met Boyd yet. Boyd, this is Aaron. We met him when we went for propane after the storm. And this is Carl. Why don’t you all give Aaron your coats. He came early to help out. And Josi
e, I left the couch against the wall in the living room. You make yourself comfortable and keep your feet up so that you can join us at the table for dinner later.”
“Between you and Boyd, I don’t have a choice but to listen to the doctor’s instructions, do I?” Josie groused.
“No, you don’t. If the doctor hadn’t allowed you to come over here today, I was going to find a way to have Thanksgiving in the RV if it killed me.”
Aaron believed she would have. It wouldn’t have been much harder fitting everyone into the RV than it would be fitting all of them in her small house.
He looked around the cottage. He could see through the archway into the living room. There was a fire blazing in the fireplace and the couch they’d watched the movie on the other night had been pushed against the far wall. He wasn’t sure how she’d managed the table. Then he noticed that underneath the fancy tablecloth there were what appeared to be sawhorse legs.
Maeve must have seen him looking. “Necessity is the mother of invention. And some plywood and nails don’t hurt. Voilà—a table big enough for Thanksgiving dinner.”
Josie sat down and held her hands out for her son. “Maeve’s bossy, but Boyd’s even worse,” she quipped. To her husband, she added, “I can handle Carl without getting up, I promise.”
“Bossy, bossy, bossy,” the toddler parroted, then took his mother’s long braid in one hand, and curled up next to her.
“It’s almost nap time,” Josie said. “I’m hoping he can make it until after dinner.”
A few minutes later, Maeve’s parents arrived. Aaron watched her mother as she bustled around the kitchen, helping Maeve. Renie, as he was instructed to call her, had shoulder-length white hair with a few streaks of soft reddish-brown color. It made for a striking contrast. He suspected that back in her day, her hair had been as red as Maeve’s.
Her husband, Maeve’s stepfather, Herm, was a relaxed, easygoing guy in blue jeans and a flannel shirt.