“Okay, we’ll be up in my bedroom.”
Megan furrowed her brow. “What’s that all about? You have to get permission all over again?”
Lil snatched Megan’s hand and led her toward the stairway. “Dad’s just worried about Mom. I’m moving out no matter what. Unless … are you here to talk about the doddy house?”
“No. It’s about Fletch.”
Lil almost missed her footing. She was glad that Megan was following her up the stairway so she couldn’t see her shock. Had they seen each other? She didn’t know what the man was capable of when it came to destroying her heart. Now that she knew Fletch was deceitful, it seemed possible that he could have been attracted to Megan all along. Why wouldn’t he be? Megan was way prettier. And ever since Megan had arrived, she’d sported a guilty expression.
Lil closed her bedroom door behind them. “So don’t keep me in suspense. What about him?”
Megan sat uneasily on the edge of the bed. “He came to see me.”
Lil wanted to scratch the man’s eyes out. Instead, she snatched up a white eyelet pillow and hugged it to herself. “Oh?”
“He tried to make me his ally.”
She lowered the pillow to her lap. “What do you mean?”
“Fletch asked me to help him win you back.”
Lil tossed the pillow aside. “What?” It was exactly what she’d hoped for, but it was still unbelievable. “But—”
Megan moved to the middle of the bed and crossed her legs. “Why is that such a shock? He really likes you. He always has.”
Although it was a relief that Fletch hadn’t asked Megan out, Lil was wary about his intentions. She propped her back against the headboard. “So he’s winning you over? I have to warn you, he’s persuasive. You can’t be naive around him, Megan.”
“There’s more.” Megan fleetingly touched her arm. “This is hard for me, so please, just listen while I try to explain.”
Lil nodded. Even though she’d just warned Megan not to trust Fletch, her rebellious heart grasped for a ray of hope, willing Megan to say something that could mend their broken relationship. “Okay. You talk. I’ll listen.”
“He and Vic both volunteer at a farm shelter for abused farm animals. It’s just getting started, but his mentor has other ones already operating. He’s the man who helped Fletch get his education.”
“Marshall. I know all about him.”
Megan frowned.
Lil’s hand went up to muffle her mouth. “Sorry. I’ll be quiet. Go on.”
“He asked me to go with him to the shelter to meet the people there.”
“You didn’t!”
Megan nodded. “I met a girl there named Ashley. She told me a story about Fletch. Do you want to hear it? Because it might help you understand him.”
“You know you can’t bait me like that. Yes, I want to hear the story she told you.”
Lil listened, and the story meshed with what Fletch had already told her about himself. Megan helped her see that Fletch had been backed into a hopeless corner.
“But if he liked me, why did he take pictures at our farm? Didn’t Matt’s friendship account for anything?”
“Because he only has a few farms where Vic leaves him alone. He hasn’t had that many opportunities. And he thought since you were his friends you’d understand.”
“He should have asked for permission. Why didn’t he take pictures of the animals at the shelter?”
“They don’t have very many animals yet. You should ask him these questions.”
“I don’t know.” Lil shook her head. “I’m afraid to talk to him. I like him so much, and he’s so persuasive.”
Megan twisted her hair. “There’s more. Now keep in mind that the only reason I listened to Fletch was for your happiness. If there was a way for you two to make amends I …” She shrugged.
“I know how you like to see things get resolved. I understand.”
“I hope so, because I never asked him to, but he set up that interview with Char Air.”
Lil’ s mouth fell open in disbelief. He’d won over Megan by dangling her dream job. Lil fought back the tears. “He bribed you. Surely, you see that.”
“I do. It was a rotten thing for him to do, and I told him so. I also told him I wouldn’t go to the interview. And I won’t. But he was desperate to win you back. And that’s why I went to the farm.”
Lil sighed. “If you get the job, would you be working with Fletch?”
“No. Of course not. Marshall uses their company. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going on the interview. This isn’t about that. I just came to convince you that I wasn’t trying to betray you. My intentions are pure.”
“I can’t believe you guys talked about me behind my back. That you went to the shelter.”
“Fletch told me you’d understand because you had intervened in Katy and Jake’s relationship. That’s why I went. I thought it was what you would have done for me if our situations were reversed.”
Lil narrowed her eyes. She wanted to object, but it was similar to the situation with Katy. She had even tricked Katy into seeing Jake. She guessed it was true that she reaped what she sowed. Now she knew how humiliating and infuriating it felt to be on the recipient’s end of a matchmaking scheme. She should apologize to Katy again. Only Katy was in love, living the happily ever after. “I don’t know what to say.”
Megan nodded. “You have a lot to think about. I don’t know if Fletch is right for you, but if you want him, the next time he calls, you should pick up the phone. Now that you’ve both had time to think about everything, just listen to what he has to say.” Megan released her hair and gave her head a little shake so that it fell down her back again. “I need to go, but can you forgive me for interfering?”
“It hurts, but you’re right. I did the same thing to Katy. And I feel bad for Fletch that nobody listens to him.”
Megan moved off the bed. “Sleep on it. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Lil stood. She resented her friend’s interference, but Megan’s intentions were too sincere to rebuke. She remembered how happy Megan had been to hear about her successful interview. She felt terribly guilty that she had landed her dream job while Megan was sacrificing hers. Whether Fletch was trustworthy or not, she couldn’t stand in the way of Megan’s second chance. She clutched her friend’s arm. “You have to go on that interview.”
Megan’s eyes lit up, and Lil saw how badly she wanted the job. But her friend shook her head. “I can’t. That’s not why I met with Fletch. I didn’t come here because of that.”
“I know. But let’s do it for the doddy house.”
“I don’t know. We better pray about it.”
Shrugging, Lil replied, “Okay. But I promise I won’t hold it against you. I want you to get that job.” She followed Megan downstairs to the door and gave her a forgiving hug before letting her go.
When she returned to her room, Lil considered Megan’s petition. If what Megan said was true, Fletch still wanted to date Lil. He wanted her to give him another chance. Like Megan suggested, she prayed, but she still didn’t have an answer. Contemplatively, she stretched out on an heirloom rug and started her sit-up routine. “One. Two. Three. Four,” she counted, getting warmed up.
Then her mind fell into a chant. “Five. I’ll answer the phone.” She sucked in her abs. “Six. I won’t. Seven. He deserves a chance.” She took a deep breath. “Eight. He’s a deceiver. Nine. He loves me.” She puffed, “Ten. He loves me not.”
CHAPTER 20
You have the natural instinct … eh … take this pan a moment. I’ll be right back.”
Volo Italiano was not a typical restaurant because Giovanni was not a typical chef. He didn’t go by the books. Lil quickly discovered that her boss was temperamental and acted on his whims.
Lil stirred the sautéing ingredients and watched Giovanni push open the door to the cooler. She had flourished under a week of the chef’s praise and instruction. To her utter amazement, he�
�d personally taken her under his wing, allowing her to do jobs that were normally reserved for the cooks with more seniority. She’d gotten to do more than polish the stainless and stir the sauce. Giovanni was a hands-on boss. He ran an orderly kitchen, and nobody complained because he was a likeable man who had earned their respect. Most likely, he’d given them all breaks at one time or another.
Volo Italiano was nothing like Riccardo’s, where everybody had been on edge and out to get one another. The politics of her old workplace had not been a new experience for her because she had experienced the same type of rivalry at culinary school. She had thought it was just the way of the outsiders. But Volo Italiano had a friendly, family-like atmosphere, where everyone had welcomed her, not even questioning her about her plain clothing or head covering.
At Riccardo’s, she had opted to quit wearing her head covering even before the church elders lifted the restriction. She’d never appreciated the little piece of organdy like her friend Katy, who thought it represented her faith.
With Lil, it was just a necessary contrivance, even an embarrassing one, that made her an object of curiosity to the outsiders. How she envied the Mennonite girls in progressive churches who never wore theirs, even to church.
When their congregation had taken a fresh look at the ordinance last year and then voted to change it, Lil had rejoiced that she only needed to wear it to church meetings.
She thought sadly of her dad’s recent disapproval, how she’d donned it again to make life at the farm easier. She considered it a temporary nuisance. Yet she had found herself wearing it to Volo Italiano’s. But she would make some changes when she moved into the doddy house. The first thing she would do was get her hair trimmed.
Giovanni returned to her side. “Now! Remove. Now!”
She jerked the pan from the gas burner and looked up in confusion, for even though she’d been daydreaming, she had been watching, and the vegetables were only half cooked.
“Most cooks leave it too long. I remove it before the celery and onions are clear. They will keep cooking after you remove them from …” His hands made a circular, churning gesture as if she would fill in the words for him. “Eh … the fire.”
“Yes, sir.” Another little secret to store in her mind’s recipe box. She set the pan on a heat-safe surface for him to add in his tomato mixture. She felt the vibration of her cell phone in her apron pocket and turned slightly to peek at its screen. Her heart drummed beneath her white blouse and bib apron. Fletch again. She hadn’t quit with ninety-nine sit-ups instead of her usual one hundred for nothing.
Turning her back to her boss, she pressed the send button and without any small talk said in a breathless voice, “I can’t talk. I’m at work.”
“I’ll call back.”
Her thumb pressed the red button, and she dropped the little heart-stopping rectangle back into her apron pocket. Her hand shaky, she moved back to the chopping board to resume the dicing she had been doing before Giovanni had taken her aside for special instruction.
“Grab some new gloves,” Giovanni said, more snippy than usual as he passed behind her.
Embarrassed that he’d caught her phone conversation, she snapped off her little white gloves, tossed them in the garbage, and wriggled into a fresh set. She quickly apologized. “I’m sorry. I had to get that call.”
“Your old boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“I hope that was wise, no?” Then he turned away. “Elaine, take over … eh … I have my ordering to do.”
Lil felt crushed under Giovanni’s sudden change of attitude. She peeled an onion and chopped and diced until her eyes watered.
In the clinic’s side yard, where Buddy often lounged and chased birds, Fletch pumped his arm in the air. Although Lil’s voice had been curt, she had finally answered her phone. That was a good sign. He hoped Megan had convinced Lil to accept his apology. He watched a cone-necked collie sniff around the yard’s perimeter.
Vic was treating Fletch better now, as if he wasn’t that kid who had been plunked into his life just to make it miserable. And he wasn’t. He wanted to take some of the strain off Vic’s shoulders, if he could. He was grateful that Vic had allowed him to do the surgery on the collie. The tumor had been successfully removed. The dog moved slowly, not chasing birds like Buddy, but his teeth dazzled whiter than Buddy’s. Fletch didn’t like putting an animal under unnecessarily, especially his own companion, but Buddy would need his teeth cleaned one of these days.
Vic stuck his head out the door. “Got an emergency call. Take over here?”
“Sure.”
The vet’s head disappeared just as Fletch’s phone rang. When he saw the name on the screen, his heart leaped. Stuffing one hand into his jeans pocket, he answered it with an enthusiastic, “Lil!”
“I just wanted to ask if you’d please stop calling me.”
His hand flew out of his pocket, and he switched the phone to his other ear. “I don’t think I can do that until I have a chance to explain some things.”
“I have a new job, and I don’t want to lose it.”
Whatever that meant. All she needed to do was set her phone on vibrate. But she was opening the door to him, even if it was only enough to get one toe inside. He tried to remember what he’d planned on saying, only his mind froze. All he could think to say was, “I can’t quit calling. I’m falling in love with you.”
“What?”
Not the response he had hoped for. “Look. Can I meet you after work?”
“No. You’re not listening to me. I don’t want you to know where I work.”
“Okay. Then let’s meet someplace else. Any place. You name it. I have to see you.”
“How about my living room?”
He could tell by her tone of voice it was a challenge. “I don’t think your family would let me remain there long enough to properly beg your forgiveness. Matt forgave me. On Sunday.”
“He told you that? Wait. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to beg for my forgiveness. I forgive you, too. Just quit calling, all right?”
Fletch could tell she hadn’t forgiven him at all, but her contrivance might be a small start. “I’ll meet you at your swing at …” He didn’t know what time she got off work, so he made it late. “At midnight.”
There was a brief silence. “Don’t bother coming,” she said. “I won’t be there. You’re wasting your time.” Then his phone went dead.
He took off his cap, slapped his knee with it, and put it back on. He didn’t believe her. Lily would be there.
Lil stood in front of her bedroom mirror. She ran a brush through her hair, then replaced her head covering and pinched her cheeks. I’m falling in love with you. It had been all she could think about. She heard the downstairs grandfather clock chime on the quarter hour. I’m falling in love with you. She wouldn’t go until one minute after midnight. That would make her at least ten minutes late and give Fletch time to change his mind. She didn’t wish to appear eager. She moved to the edge of her bed and prayed. Lord, help me to know if I can trust him. Please reveal the truth to me. Help me let him go again, if he’s not the one You’ve chosen.
Grandfather Landis’s clock chimed again, and she counted its bongs. One, two … and finally the twelfth bong. One more minute, and then she’d go. I’m falling in love with you. She watched the face of her cell phone with anticipation until the time finally changed. Her heart thumping louder than the clock’s bongs, she crept down the stairway and made her way stealthily to the mudroom.
She opened a utility drawer and stuck her hand in, groping for a round handle. When she clutched the flashlight, she tucked it into a fold of her skirt and cast a glance over her shoulder and down the hall to her parents’ bedroom. Thankfully, nobody stirred.
Lil flicked the deadbolt and slipped through the door, quietly closing it behind her. She stepped into the night. Overhead, a million crystals sparkled. All around her was the hum of nature’s nighttime. The moon was full, and altho
ugh she didn’t need it, she turned on the flashlight, making zigzags across the tall grass so she didn’t surprise any snakes or other night creatures.
I’m falling in love with you. Me, too, she breathed. Her heart drummed wildly for she felt as though she was Juliet sneaking out to meet her Romeo. She felt guilty because the family didn’t like him. He was a traitor, after all. But she couldn’t resist the urge to let him have his say. Even if she didn’t fully trust him, it would be thrilling to hear words of love from the man who resembled the Rollo of her daydreams.
She hadn’t told anybody about that because she didn’t want to provoke snickers, but one morning she had awakened after a night of restless dreams, remembering that Fletch was the exact image of Rollo. He was the boy she had always imagined in her childhood daydreams. Without the long flowing hair, of course. That coincidence, along with everything else that had culminated since she smashed into Fletch’s car, made this rendezvous seem all the more fated. Traipsing through the darkness, she had the eerie sensation that Fletch was supposed to be a major part of her destiny. If only she could trust him.
A sudden hoot from an owl brought her hand over her heart. She paused, momentarily, thinking there would soon be one less mouse to keep out of the mudroom, then picked up her pace. By the time she neared the swing, the intensifying night sounds had her running.
“Over here.”
Now breathless, she shined the light. She saw Fletch standing with both hands in his pockets. It tugged her heart, for she’d often seen Jake do that when he was troubled. But she tried to remain strong. “I almost didn’t come. I shouldn’t have. I felt sorry for you out here alone with the foxes.”
He smiled. “I’m grateful you came.”
She cast a backward glance. “I don’t think I’ve ever been out here this time of night. Alone, anyways.”
“You aren’t alone.” He stepped toward her.
One of her hands flew up to ward him off. If he touched her, she would lose all her good intentions to think rationally and block out his words: I’m falling in love with you. She hoped he didn’t say that again. She prayed he did.
Plain City Bridesmaids Page 51