He busied himself with reading the paper while waiting for toast to pop. When Phyl came into the kitchen, he had his head buried in a story about yet another reconsidered vote at city council.
"Do you need help with anything"
Cal looked up and his defences against her crumbled a little more. Phyl looked different. He sat still and tried to figure out what was different.
Phyl had a mysterious smile as she watched him examining her.
Cal moved closer and the puzzle started to come together. Phyl was wearing bright colours. She had dug into her closet to find a pair of green exercise pants and a bright yellow formfitting top. He finished his examination with her beautiful blue eyes and took another step forward. "I guess you're finally tired of dark clothes."
She walked over to the sink, passing very close so that she was inside his comfort zone.
Cal quickly turned away, afraid that he was going to react to Phyl in a less than appropriate way. Phyl managed not to look too smug as she filled a water glass. She recognized that she wasn't playing fair. Her mourning year was over, but Cal's was not. Ah, well, she could wait a bit longer, but there was no reason not to let him know she was interested.
As they were doing homework after supper, Lydia asked Felicity, "Did you see Mum?"
Felicity replied, "Yes. So did Dad. Today was the anniversary of your Papa's death, right?"
Lydia made the connection. "Right, the mourning period is over. I guess Mum is going to haul out her bright clothes again."
Felicity said, "That's not all."
Lydia asked, "What?"
"Didn't you notice?"
"Notice what?"
"Mum took off her rings. When she was washing up she only put her watch on the shelf above the sink. So I looked. No rings."
Lydia leaned forward and lowered her voice. "And she was really flirting with your Dad. Do you suppose she's admitted to herself that she wants to go out with him?"
Felicity sighed. "Well it's about time one of them came to their senses. I keep expecting to walk in on them kissing."
"It won't happen for a while. Your Dad is too stubborn to admit that he's attracted to Mum."
"Okay, Monster. Enough gossip, Dad will have my head if I don't get my homework done before it's time to go."
Cal sat at the computer to check his email and read some news. Phyl had been looking at him all evening like she had a secret – when she wasn't looking like she wanted him to drag her into a dark corner.
He sort of read a chatty email from Vivian about the latest antics of the kids. There was a picture of Jean and Lilian mugging for the camera with Roscoe the Great Dane looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. But his thoughts kept returning to the lit window across the street.
Aside from the form fitting exercise clothes that reminded him she was a very desirable woman, there was something else. Her hair was up in one of her loose braided buns, but that was a usual style for her. It was one he had trouble with because he wanted to find out if nibbling at the nape of her neck would give her as much pleasure as it would him.
No, it was something else. He opened an email from Jeremy and answered it. It was still bugging him.
He got up and stared out the window to see her shadowy form behind the sheers brushing her hair before bed. He had an image of her sitting on a vanity bench with her hair draped over her shoulders and him with a brush in his hand making her light ash blonde hair shimmer in the light of the side table lamp. He sighed and turned away.
He looked at the calendar on his desk and remembered the reason for her trip today. Harry died a year ago. He gathered his teacup and turned out the lights in the den before padding down to the kitchen.
He washed the teacup and put it in the rack. Then he almost smacked himself on the forehead. She had taken off her wedding rings. That meant that she was now finished with her mourning year and was free to do as she wished.
Cal went to a kitchen chair and sat down quickly. She was free to do as she wished. Was she wishing to pursue him? Cal didn't know how he felt about that. Obviously he was too old for her, so he would have to suppress these odd desires he was having. She was bright and lively and caring and available. She should have no problem finding a good man.
But as he was drifting off to sleep, a vision of Phyl's firm curves and beautiful silky hair rooted itself in his mind and he could almost feel her snuggled against him.
Chapter Eleven – March
"So, what do you think?" Cal glanced at his passenger as they took his new van out for a spin.
Phyl looked at the well appointed interior with the satellite radio, backup camera and built in 110 volt outlet. "It's roomy."
"I thought that I could use something with a bit more room." Cal pulled onto the Queensway and quickly got up to cruising speed. "I expect that as the retired guy, I'll be driving the girls to track meets and soccer games when they hit high school."
"And our trip to Virginia has nothing to do with it?"
Cal got a sheepish look. "Maybe..."
Phyl watched Cal as he drove. He seemed very excited about their upcoming vacation. If she was totally honest, so was she. Except that March break was the one time of the year that Harry had made into a true family tradition. All of the other holidays had competing priorities between her parents and his, but March break was their time. They had taken a couple of joint vacations with the Richardsons, but for the five years before he died they had driven to somewhere in the US South. Last year she was up to her neck in paperwork so they hadn't gone anywhere.
This year was going to be somewhat different. Harry would usually book them into a cabin or cottage and they would go riding or fishing or some other outdoors activity. Cal was obviously much more interested in museums and history.
"It was a great idea to have each person get to decide their priority activity and make sure that each of us gets a half day where we're in charge."
"Brenda and I came up with that when Elaine pointed out, quite correctly, that if it was majority rule, we'd never do anything except play football or go see old cars. So we made a family rule that in a week long vacation, each person got half a day where everyone had to do what they wanted to." Cal laughed. "Elaine wanted to go to a doll museum when she was seven. So we went, but all the dolls were in glass cases and she couldn't play with anything. But Mark had just gotten into making models and we had to drag him away when lunchtime came."
Phyl said, "I can remember the first time Lydia dragged Harry to a Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. He was expecting a small museum and a couple of monuments that we could see in an hour, but Gettysburg is huge and there are over a thousand plaques and monuments. By the time we were ready for lunch, Harry was admitting that it was very different from what he had expected. The last summer before Harry died we took the August long weekend and spent two full days touring the grounds on foot."
Cal snickered. "I know. Felicity bugged us so much about it that we had to go on Labour Day weekend. But Brenda insisted on paying for a guided car tour because she wasn't up to all that walking. I guess it might have been the start of the cancer that was making her tired."
They fell silent for a while as Cal eased left to take the 174 to Orleans. Phyl said, "It's very quiet for a van."
"That was the deciding factor for me. I don't like having to raise my voice to be heard. And all of the vans I looked at had DVD systems for the kids and 12 volt outlets for portable electronics."
Phyl declared, "I don't mind having the DVD system, but it only goes on after dark, okay?"
Cal took a quick glance at Phyl. "That's pretty emphatic. Any reason?"
"Music is fine but I want them to be looking at the scenery during daylight hours. You never know when you'll see a great blue heron or a really neat looking farmhouse."
Cal nodded and replied, "I've never had to think about that before. I've never had a vehicle with a video system."
"Harry rented a minivan with one when we took six kids
to one of Tim's baseball tournaments. There were so many fights over what movie we should watch. When I put my foot down about no more movies the whining was terrible. It was the last time we volunteered to drive a group like that. On the way back I insisted that there were no movies until after dark and things settled down a bit." Phyl took in their surroundings. "Where are we going?"
"Yarn shopping. Aunt Ros wants to knit you an Aran sweater so I'm supposed to have you pick out a colour of Aran weight yarn and buy sixteen one-hundred gram balls. She also insisted that it be single fibre yarn of natural materials. Wool is traditional, alpaca or mohair would be warmer, silk would be lighter, linen would be cool to wear but she said cotton would be too heavy."
Phyl was surprised. "Why would Ros want to do that for me?"
"She didn't say. I'm guessing that she wants to thank you for taking care of Felicity. Felicity is far and away her favourite in the family, although she thinks Lydia is pretty special, too. All her grandkids are overseas. Her daughter Jenna married an Australian who was serving as a deacon in Winchester. They moved to Australia thirty-seven years ago when he got his first parish and they've only visited once since. Her son Peter got a temporary job in Barbados almost forty years ago and never left. I don't even think he's visited but they talk most weeks. Since she hates to fly, she decided that Felicity and Lydia would be good targets to spoil. And she likes you."
Phyl thought about that and replied, "She's a very interesting woman. I knew her family had emigrated but not where. And I like her, too, even if she is blunt. Maybe because she's blunt."
"We're invited for lunch." Cal pulled into the parking lot of the shop. "I haven't accepted yet."
Phyl examined Cal's face and decided that it was something he wasn't really sure about. "If she's knitting me a sweater she'll have to measure me. As long as we get back home by three we'll be fine."
"Okay, I'll call when we get inside."
Phyl hadn't been in a specialty yarn shop before. It seemed cozy with walls of various yarns in all sizes and colours and fibres. There were sample squares hanging in front of many of the bins so that people could feel the fabric after it was knitted. There were racks of needles, more than she ever thought anyone would need in steel, plastic, bamboo and something that was advertised as milk protein strands. There were racks of books and patterns, sample sweaters and a pervasive scents of lavender, lanolin and dusty book. The place felt homey.
Cal was on the phone to Rosalind to let her know that they were coming for lunch. Phyl watched as Cal took his Daytimer out of his inside pocket and wandered over to the counter to write down some things.
Phyl asked the clerk where she could find the Aran weight yarns, explaining that a friend was knitting her a sweater. Over the next minute or so, the clerk got Rosalind's name out of her and said, "Oh, you are so lucky. She teaches classes here from May to October. She won't schedule classes in winter because she doesn't like to drive except on the clear days." Phyl was shown one of the Aran sweaters on display, a man's crew neck in traditional unbleached Merino wool with intricate ropes of Celtic knotwork covering the garment. "Rosalind made this one. We get lots of people looking at it but she won't take less than a thousand for it."
Cal sauntered over. Phyl asked, "Don't you have something similar to that?"
Cal shrugged. "I have three or four sweaters from Aunt Ros over the years. My favourite is the Kelly green one that I'm sure you've seen me wear."
The clerk led Phyl over to the section of yarn bins that held Aran weight yarn. "If none of these appeal, we have a few more baskets near the front that have Aran weight yarn, but maybe not enough for a sweater."
Cal stopped the clerk, "Wait. Aunt Ros wanted me to pick up..." He consulted his list and read verbatim, "Addi Turbo circular needles in 4.5 millimetre and 5 millimetre at least 80 centimetres long and preferably 100 centimetres. And she needs medium and large coilless safety pins. Plus she said you'd have the magazines you were holding for her." Cal looked a mild apology at Phyl as he followed the clerk to the cash.
There was a swatch of the silk yarn. It felt nice, but the sample was starting to pill so she didn't think that would be a good choice long term. The alpaca felt lovely but would probably be too warm and the colours were all earth tones anyway. The Lett Lopi was interesting – it looked very durable and came in some great bright colours, but it was scratchy. The Rowan mohair yarn felt beautiful, but it was also very warm and it was a wool-mohair blend, which Ros said she didn't want her to get.
The last one she tried was the Rowan pure wool Aran. Her penny pinching habits made her avoid even touching the sample square. At almost sixteen dollars a ball the yarn for a sweater would cost almost three hundred dollars. But she decided to touch it anyway. It was soft and downy and cushioned. She decided to rub it against her cheek and sighed with the luxurious feel of the fabric.
She went back to the swatch of Briggs and Little and put it to her cheek. It was nice but it was not very smooth. But it was only four dollars a ball. She started to check out the colours of the Briggs and Little when Cal grabbed her wrist and led her back to the Rowan. "No pinching pennies. Ros told me to get what you liked." He let go of her wrist and put his hand on her chin to tilt her head up to look at him. "I saw how you reacted to the Rowan."
Taking a deep breath she nodded meekly, then asked, "Which do you think suits me better, the forest green or the medium indigo?"
Cal took a ball of each and walked over to the window, beckoning Phyl to follow him. He held first one ball, then the other to her face. "The green is brighter, but the indigo almost matches your eyes. I'd go with the indigo." Then he made the mistake of looking into her eyes and felt that wall crumbling again.
Phyl felt the pull of attraction between them and swayed forward so that she was inside the reach of his arms. She saw the look of desire and then Cal blinked and looked away, blushing.
Gathering herself, she said, in an unsteady voice, "The indigo it is, then." She took the balls of yarn from him and went to the counter. "I need sixteen balls of this yarn, please."
The clerk said, "That will look wonderful on you. I think we have enough of the same dye lot. Let me check." She disappeared into the storage room and came out with two sealed ten-packs from the same dye lot and began to ring up the sale.
Rosalind was ecstatic at Phyl's choice. "I haven't worked with this yarn in too many years. Felicity prefers the Sirdar and Lydia prefers Lopi for some reason. And that lout likes Briggs and Little Tuffy with the nylon reinforcement. You do know, Cal, that it's supposed to be a sock yarn and not a sweater yarn?"
Cal rolled his eyes, "Of course I do. You tell me that every time but I mostly wear my sweaters when we're camping and the Tuffy doesn't break when it snags on bushes. I do have my Kelly green merino sweater that's starting to wear out."
Rosalind looked at him. "If that's a hint, dear boy, then go buy me some decent yarn and I'll make you another."
Cal smirked and said, "I'll be right back." He drifted out the van and came back in with twenty balls of the forest green Rowan.
Rosalind looked into the bag and laughed. "You know me too well, Calvin."
Cal beamed at his aunt. "Rather I was hoping to take shameless advantage of your generosity."
She waved him off. "Bah. I have two more months of staring out the window at snow covered fields. I need something useful to do with my hands. Will does most of the cooking during the winter so I don't have a lot to do until he's back behind the wheel of the tractor."
They made small talk about the girls and knitting and woodworking projects until it was time for Will to go check on lunch. At that point Phyl excused herself to freshen up, and Rosalind asked, "So when are you going marry that girl, Calvin?"
Cal glowered at his aunt. "I wasn't planning on it."
"Are you at least going to live together?"
"Aunt Ros! You know me better than that."
"So you are going to marry her."
"What gave y
ou that idea?"
"Well, I've given up calling you at your home number and when I call your cell I can usually hear Phyl in the background. When I did get someone at your home number during the day, it was Phyl that answered more than half the time. So what else am I to assume? Usually when a man spends that much time with a woman they are either married or courting. I know you aren't married to her because she isn't wearing a ring so you must be courting. And if you aren't shame on you."
"Ros, we're just friends"
"Just friends, my arse. I know you're still in your mourning year, but don't play with that girl's heart, Calvin."
"I'm too old for her."
"Nonsense. You're in better shape than Will was at fifty-five and he's still going strong. You take after the MacDougall side of the family, Cal, like me and Will. You won't die of old age or disease until you hit ninety at least. And everything else is in God's hands anyway. So, do you want to throw away thirty-five years with that wonderful young woman?" She saw the stubborn look on Cal's face. "I see you inherited the full MacDougall pigheadedness, too."
Cal smiled in spite of himself. "And you know this how?"
Rosalind looked at him in surprise. "You have to ask?" Then she gave a full throated laugh. She was still shaking her head when Phyl came back into the room.
Phyl asked, "Good joke?"
"No, we were just trying to figure out which of us was more stubborn," Cal replied.
Phyl looked appraisingly at the two of them. "I'd say Rosalind, but only because she can practice on Will."
They heard Will's laugh from the kitchen, then he said, "Lunch is on the table."
"Why did you buy a van, Dad? There's only you and Felicity." David's tone was somewhat belligerent.
"Soccer season is coming up and I'll be spending more time on the road. Both the Beast and the Monster are playing up a division on the elite squad for the Fury U-16s. I wanted something more comfortable than either my car or Phyl's station wagon for the road trips." There was a note of pride in Cal's voice.
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