Daydream Retriever (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 10)

by Susan C. Daffron

  Daydream Retriever

  An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy

  Book 10

  Susan C. Daffron

  Published by Magic Fur Press

  An imprint of Logical Expressions, Inc.

  PO Box 383, Sandpoint, Idaho 83852, USA

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business organizations, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Susan C. Daffron

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher.

  ISBN:

  978-1-61038-046-1 (paperback)

  978-1-61038-047-8 (EPUB)

  Digital Edition 1.0 – October 14, 2016

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Table of Contents

  Synopsis

  Chapter 1 - A Family Matter

  Chapter 2 - Welcome Home

  Chapter 3 - Little Piggy

  Chapter 4 - Hero Dog

  Chapter 5 - Advice

  Chapter 6 - Visiting

  Chapter 7 - Time Capsule

  Chapter 8 - Adjustments

  Chapter 9 - Solving Problems

  Chapter 10 - Excursions

  Chapter 11 - X-rays & Walls

  Chapter 12 - Barnacles & Bean Dip

  Chapter 13 - Mondegreens

  Chapter 14 - Decisions

  Chapter 15 - Epilogue

  Thanks for Reading

  Dedication & Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by Susan C. Daffron

  Daydream Retriever

  An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy

  Book 10

  by Susan C. Daffron

  Synopsis

  To Lisa Lowell, it seems like her life is defined by all the things she isn’t anymore. She’s not a world-class skier, not a wife, not a full-time mother, and not even a patient striving to get well. So who is she now? When her brother asks Lisa to help her family, she can’t find an excuse not to flee her empty nest and return to her hometown of Alpine Grove. Tasked with remodeling her parents bizarre old house and preparing it for sale, Lisa confronts personal failures and memories she’s avoided for years.

  At the local ski resort, Lisa ends up on a collision course with Pete Harmon, a retired cop fighting his own battles with the past. As Lisa contends with a disobedient foster dog, aggravating contractors, and the demands of her nutty great aunt Betty, she discovers that being accident-prone may not be the only thing she has in common with Pete.

  Daydream Retriever is a romantic comedy novel of approximately 88,000 words.

  Chapter 1

  A Family Matter

  It was a sad commentary on the current state of her life that getting a phone with caller ID was arguably the best thing to happen to Lisa Lowell in 1997. She’d finally purchased a new telephone with a display, so she was empowered. Now, like the rest of the world, she could identify and evade telemarketers and other annoying callers.

  Because of this newly acquired knowledge, Lisa had been able to successfully dodge calls from her brother Larry for the past week. Of her three siblings, Lisa found her brother Larry the most irritating. Maybe it was because he was the youngest. Everyone had always doted on Larry, and because of the wide gap in their ages, Lisa and Larry had been blessed with vastly different experiences growing up.

  Larry was a lawyer and ever since he’d graduated from law school, he’d taken on a pompous air and manner of speech that drove Lisa nuts. And since her divorce, Lisa was perfectly happy to never talk to another lawyer, ever again.

  Of course, even considering their age difference, Lisa and Larry had experienced life with the same parents, which was why he was calling her. He wanted her help with a “family matter,” and when Larry wanted something, he could be extremely persistent. Like most lawyers, he loved to pontificate, and nothing made him happier than a good debate, even when it was with Lisa’s answering machine.

  Lisa had avoided returning Larry’s calls because she hadn’t been feeling well and couldn’t face talking to him. But it wasn’t like she could avoid him forever. With a sigh, Lisa dialed the number for Larry’s law office in the small town of Alpine Grove. A woman with a businesslike voice answered, proclaiming her name was Brigid. Momentarily startled that Larry wasn’t answering his own phone anymore, Lisa said, “Hello, I’d like to speak to Larry. It’s his sister Lisa and I’m returning his call…or calls.”

  After a protracted delay, Larry came on the line. “Hello, Lisa. I’ve been attempting to reach you for quite some time. How is your health? Are you feeling well?”

  “I’m a little snuffly and my throat hurts, but I think it’s just a cold. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back sooner.” Lisa didn’t want to get into the details of her recent doctor visit and was glad Larry couldn’t see her rolling her eyes. He was in hard-core stuffy lawyer mode again. Ugh.

  Larry continued, “We have a situation here and I would like to request your assistance.”

  “What kind of situation? Are Mom and Dad okay?” Lisa’s parents owned the hardware store in Alpine Grove and all of their children had worked there at one time or another. Stocking shelves and doing inventory at Lowell’s Hardware had been a big part of Lisa’s life when she was growing up. She had counted more nuts and bolts than anyone she’d ever met, aside from her siblings. If anyone asked her what a Lenker rod or mortar hawk was, she could tell them. But so far no one ever had, and her knowledge of obscure hardware wasn’t something she wanted to include on her resume.

  Larry cleared his throat emphatically as if he were about to launch into a closing argument. “Our parents are fine, but Mom is insisting on a vacation. However, Dad won’t go anywhere until the house sells.”

  “The house still hasn’t sold? I just assumed it had and no one bothered to mention it to me. What’s taking so long? I know the interior is dated, but the place is huge.” More than a year earlier, their parents had moved out of the house Lisa had grown up in and purchased a small cottage in town that was closer to the hardware store.

  “The real estate agent is requesting that we do some work on it. Or, in her words, ‘it will sit up there on that hill like a petrified dead squirrel forever.’ Sitting empty also isn’t helping matters. I’m afraid it will fall into disrepair, especially if we have another bad winter like last year.”

  Lisa was pretty sure she knew where this was going. “You don’t expect me to do something about this, do you? I don’t live in Alpine Grove.”

  “Bev told me that you are on winter break from your classes, and you aren’t doing anything right now. You’re the only one who has the time to deal with this issue.”

  Lisa’s best friend Bev still lived in Alpine Grove and always said she never talked to Larry, a claim that obviously wasn’t true. “Why don’t you ask Leo to help? He lives there.”

  “You know he’s at the hardware store every day. Mom and Dad wouldn’t know what to do without their heir to the family enterprise.”

  Lisa put her palm over her eyes. Larry wasn’t wrong about that. Their brother Leo had lived and breathed hardware almost from the moment he could walk. Her sister Lynn wasn’t an option because she lived on the East Coast. Lisa knew what Larry was going to say next, but she asked anyway. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

  “Clean out the
house, sell the old furniture, and remodel the place. I’m told magenta is no longer in style and the decor should be modernized.”

  “What does Mom think about this? We’ve been telling her to get rid of that ugly furniture and carpet for decades and she wouldn’t budge. She loves her ‘color palette,’ as she calls it.”

  “Dad asserts that he’s more interested in the money from selling the house than he is in sixties decor.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. How many times have I heard Mom go on and on about the ‘professional decorator’ she hired? Someone would have to use a blowtorch to get that wallpaper off. And how are you supposed to cover kelly green paint? Even after thirty years, it’s still practically fluorescent. Then there’s the magenta room, which we all know hasn’t improved with age. I was embarrassed to bring friends over when I was twelve. Now it’s beyond saving.”

  Larry didn’t say anything for a long moment. “There’s another complication.”

  “Beyond the fact that you expect me to go behind my mother’s back and remodel her house? That’s fantastic. What is this complication?”

  “You know that Aunt Betty has been residing at the nursing home here in town, right?”

  “Yes, I visited her last summer after she moved there.”

  “She’s quite a bit better. Or I thought she was. But I think, well, I’m not sure, she may be having a few other issues. She has embarked on a peaceful protest.”

  “What is she protesting?”

  “She’s convinced that if someone cleans out the house, precious items of hers that she has stored there will be lost forever. She wants to make sure nothing is sold that she wants to keep.” Larry cleared his throat. “Betty requested that I make up a legal document giving her first right of refusal.”

  “What precious items? And why would anything precious be left in Mom and Dad’s place after they moved?”

  “I’m not entirely sure.”

  “Assuming these precious items actually exist, what is Betty going to do with them? She’s in a nursing home and doesn’t have any place to put much of anything anymore.”

  “Those questions did come up, but she was adamant. You know how she can be. She is worried about what she terms ‘her stuff’ to a rather extraordinary degree.”

  Lisa sighed. “Betty was always a little off. That’s not news. I’m told she prefers the term eccentric though. She thinks it sounds classy.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of that. However, she went on a hunger strike until I acquiesced.”

  “Acquiesced?” Lisa wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her brother. “In other words, you caved. Larry! How could you?”

  “Please don’t talk to me like one of your children. You weren’t there. Betty can be extremely persuasive.”

  “If you’re going to act like a child, I’ll treat you like one. And let’s face it, Betty knows you’re a wimp.”

  “I’m going to choose to ignore that comment.”

  “I don’t understand. What stuff is Betty worried about? It’s not even her house. This makes no sense at all.”

  “I’m sure you can determine what she wants after you get here. The bottom line is that your family needs your help, Lisa. I am unable to assist because I have a tremendous amount of work to do right now. In fact, I would also be willing to hire you part-time temporarily to help me file documents with the courthouse and do other errands. I need someone with a flexible schedule whom I can trust.”

  “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Bev says you have nothing else to do.”

  “Bev has a big mouth. I have no interest in visiting Alpine Grove in the winter and I don’t have a car right now. It finally died.” Lisa tried not to dwell on the recent demise of her faithful 1973 Volvo 144. It had racked up two hundred and seventy-three thousand miles before it went toes up. The car was one of the last mementos of Lisa’s many years of motherhood and relegating the old boxy beast to the junkyard had been almost physically painful.

  “You can rent a car to get here and then I’d be happy to loan you my truck during your visit.”

  “You mean the ratty old hardware truck that you painted that disgusting pink color? I can’t believe you still have that thing.” The truck had been her father’s before it was passed down to Larry. Originally, it had been brown with the words Lowell’s Hardware painted on the side doors. Larry had painted the truck to cover up the text, although Lisa thought the color was far worse than the words ever were.

  “For the record, the truck isn’t pink. The Dodge is salmon colored and has four-wheel drive. It also runs, which is more than you can say about your car.” Larry cleared his throat again. “Lisa, you have to help me. There’s no one else I can ask.”

  Lisa couldn’t think of anyone else Larry could call either. No one other than a family member would be able to go through the thirty years of memory-laden artifacts lurking in their childhood home. She was going to kill Bev for this. What a blabbermouth.

  Unfortunately, to kill Bev Lisa would have to return to Alpine Grove, and after she hung up with Larry, she was going to have a long conversation with her friend. Being best friends entailed certain responsibilities.

  Lisa put her palm over her eyes, wishing she had any other alternative, but she finally relented. He was right. It was her family and she should help. “All right Larry, fine. I’ll do this and help you, but if you and Dad are keeping this from Mom, I want no part of your lies.” Even though it went against her better judgment, after all these years she was finally going to visit her home town of Alpine Grove in the wintertime, which was something she’d vowed never to do.

  Beverly Kinnear had been Lisa’s best friend practically since the day they met in third grade. No one was better at talking Lisa down off the ledge than Bev.

  Lisa dialed the phone and smiled at the sound of Bev’s voice. “Hi, it’s me. Are you busy?”

  “I’m always busy; hold on a sec.”

  Lisa could hear the sound of the phone thumping onto the table and Bev shouting at her kids.

  “Okay, I’m back. What’s up?”

  “I went to the doctor,” Lisa said. “And because of you, now I have to go to Alpine Grove.”

  “The doctor? What happened? I thought you had a cold. Are you coming here for some type of treatment, honey? What’s going on?”

  “No, well, yes, I’m going there, but not for treatment. I do have a cold, but it could have been something worse.” Lisa touched her neck with her fingertips, prodding at it gingerly. “I was worried my glands might be swollen. It could have been the cancer coming back. The doctor called me back for another test, and I almost had a nervous breakdown.”

  “What test?”

  “They wanted to test for strep.”

  “But nothing to do with cancer, right?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  “Do you have anything other than a cold?”

  “No. The strep test was negative. But you remember what happened the last time the doctor called me back. He felt a lump, and then you know what happened after that too.” Lisa touched the scar at the base of her neck. The next few weeks had been a whirlwind of tests that confirmed her doctor’s suspicions. She’d had to undergo surgery to remove her thyroid gland. Afterward, she’d spent several days in the hospital, in isolation, while she received treatment with radioactive iodine to eliminate any remaining cancer cells.

  Bev said, “Of course I remember. But right now, everything is fine, right? So what’s the problem? You’re all panicky. I can hear it in your voice.” Bev paused and Lisa could tell she was covering the mouthpiece with her hand, but Lisa could still hear the faint sound of Bev’s voice yelling at one of her kids. “Don’t you even think of doing that, Kenny. I’m watching you.”

  Lisa ignored the interruption and continued, “Well, I don’t feel well. I just…I don’t know. I feel unsettled, like something’s not right. I don’t feel good.”

  “I keep telling you, you’re not sick
and you’re not gonna die. You’re bored and you need something else to think about. I know you had cancer and that was a bad thing, but you got better. The doctors said you’re fine now and it’s way past time for you to get on with your life. You need to find something to do.”

  “I am doing something. I’m going to school!”

  “And we all know that’s been working out mighty fine for you.” When Bev was frustrated, her Texas accent reasserted itself. Even though she hadn’t lived there since she was nine years old, traces of the slow drawl still lurked in the background. “You hated your classes and said it was a waste of time. And the term just ended, so now what? Did you ever decide what you’re gonna sign up for next?”

  “I was thinking about maybe making some decisions, but then the car died and Larry called.”

  “The ancient green machine finally bit the dust?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid it’s terminal this time. I need a new car.”

  Bev cleared her throat. “Honey, I hate to say this, but since your kids left all you do is think about being sick. It’s a good thing you don’t have a cat or you’d spend all day mumbling at the critter about your aches and pains.”

  “I had cancer! What if it comes back?”

  “You told me all the tests are clear. They gave you a completely clean bill of health. Heck, you’re probably in better shape than I am.”

  “That’s not true. I don’t feel good.”

  “You never feel good. When was the last time you actually felt good?”

  Lisa gazed up at the ceiling. “Well, before the divorce and the girls left for college, I guess. It was before I got sick.”

  “When you were diagnosed with thyroid cancer, you had no symptoms. Now you have symptoms and no cancer.”

  “I know. But I don’t feel good.”

  “You told me you got your drugs figured out.”

  “I know. It’s not the thyroid medication. That’s fine, and I don’t feel tired or cold like I did before. I suppose maybe I am okay, except for the sniffles and sore throat. But I feel all antsy and anxious.”