A Future for His Twins

by Susanne Dietze

  Faith moved closer to Tom so they didn’t have to raise their voices across the store. “I have been considering them, and you’ll be glad to know I decided to get a website, like you suggested.”

  “Good. It’ll help.” Tom fixed his gaze outside, like he was watching for a delivery truck. “But I was also thinking you should look into catering to your initial customer base. Both Willa and this friend of Chloe’s are in larger cities.”

  It took a moment for her to form words around the lump clogging her throat. “Are you suggesting I leave Widow’s Peak Creek? Move in with Chloe?”

  He met her gaze then, his expression sad. “I want you to have every opportunity, Faith. That’s all. You lost the museum, and I don’t want you feeling like you’re missing out on anything else.”

  That hadn’t been on her mind five minutes ago. Now she was starting to feel deflated as a day-old balloon.

  “I’ve got to get back to the store.” Tom beckoned his kids with a wave. “It’s going to be a busy several days if I’m going to be ready by the grand opening.”

  Still reeling from his remarks, Faith struggled to keep her tone even. “Anything I can do?”

  “We’re set, thanks.” His smile didn’t look quite authentic.

  “If I can watch the kids at all—”

  “Mom and Dad are on the few things I can’t get out of right now. Thanks, though.”

  Faith’s spirits weren’t just deflated now. They were decimated. “I’m here if you need me, okay?”

  “Sure.” He wasn’t looking at her. “Come on, guys, we’ve got to go unpack boxes.”

  “Can Miss Faith help us?”

  “Miss Faith has her own store,” Tom answered. “See you around, Faith.”

  “See you around.” Around where? The neighborhood? Church?

  I know he’s busy, Lord, but that was like we weren’t friends at all.

  Clearly, something had changed, and Tom wanted to put some distance between them now. She didn’t understand why or what prompted the change with him, but she had no choice but to respect it.

  Nevertheless, it was shocking how much it hurt when he and the kids walked out of the store.

  * * *

  Faith didn’t feel much better about Tom, or life in general, when the day of the grand opening celebration arrived clear and hot almost two weeks later. Summer came early to gold rush country, but the heat brought tourists, which was good for Main Street.

  For the first time since she’d opened Faith’s Finds, Faith’s mind wasn’t on the benefits of the high season. It was on the desk she was finishing up in the store’s back room, screwing knobs into the drawers. The knobs were all the same size and resembled delft-style tiles, blue painted on white, but each bore a different scene, which would go over well at Willa’s, in Faith’s thinking. One final twist and she set down the screwdriver. Done.

  Now what would fill her mind, since the distraction of the desk was finished?

  The lack of a museum? Or the lack of Tom in her life?

  He hadn’t so much as waved at her through the window for days. At church the past two Sundays, he and the kids left quickly with his parents, before she could greet them. Sure, he’d been busy getting ready for the grand opening of The World Outside. She’d heard workers hammering all day long through their shared wall.

  But Faith suspected Tom’s avoidance had more to do with him not wanting to see her, rather than his being busy. She must have really done something to upset him the other night at his house. The messy soap bubbles? Talking him down from his frustration with himself?

  Whatever it was, she couldn’t help but interpret his statement about her “looking at her options” in the city through a troubling lens. It sure felt like he had grown to dislike her so much, he preferred her to leave town.

  Should she consider leaving? This was her home, but maybe she needed to let go of her Widow’s Peak Creek dreams, like this shop and the museum, and open herself up to new ones. Like the desks.

  Is that where we’re heading, Lord? A new dream You’ve yet to show me?

  Somehow, the idea of running a new antiques shop with space to showcase altered furnishings didn’t feel right. But for so long—her whole life, it seemed—she’d yearned for support from her family, for a sense of belonging that she’d previously only experienced here with her grandparents.

  She’d felt it with Tom and the kids, too, but it turned out that hadn’t been the sort of belonging that lasted.

  Now, she and Chloe texted almost daily. Maybe God wanted her to continue that restoration work by being in the same town as Chloe.

  She exited the workroom in the back of the store and found Angie folding lace curtain panels at the counter, humming to herself. Faith came up behind her and looked out the window at the busy foot traffic on the street outside—people heading to Tom’s grand opening party.

  “I’m thinking of going, Angie.”

  “To the party? I thought we weren’t going until five.”

  Even though Tom was avoiding her, she’d decided to drop in to see the kids. She’d missed Logan and Nora so much, which made Tom’s avoidance all the more painful.

  But that wasn’t what she meant when she approached Angie.

  “I mean going to San Francisco. To visit Chloe.”

  Angie’s look was sharp. “For a second there, I thought you were going to say you might move in with her, like she wanted.”

  “I have to be honest, I feel...unsettled right now.”

  Angie’s demeanor changed to one of anguished sympathy. “Oh, honey, this has to be killing you, going to a party to celebrate a building you wanted for the museum. It’s awful.”

  “Thanks, Angie, but it’s okay. I’m sad, sure, but it is how it is. I’m happy for Tom and the kids.”

  “I thought maybe you handled the situation so well because you and he were—well, becoming an item. Ender could see it, too, but something’s changed in the past few weeks. That has to hurt.”

  “It doesn’t feel great, but the only thing we set out to do was handle our conflict like adults.”

  Angie rolled her eyes. “It’s all over your face, honey. You like him.”

  She’d better change her facial expression because she did not want those feelings to show. Or to even exist. She’d known that Tom wouldn’t date. And she didn’t want to be with someone who could cut her off like this, anyway. End of subject.

  A laugh carried through the wall between her and Tom’s store. “It’s after four. Should we just close up shop and go over there?”

  “It has been quiet in here since the party started. Sure.” Angie flipped the door’s open sign over.

  Faith tidied a few things before running upstairs to pat Bettina and freshen up—a quick swipe of lip gloss, a run of the comb through her hair. One side had lost the curl she’d given it this morning, so she shoved the un-wavy bit behind her ear and grabbed her beaded purse.

  “Ready?” Angie waited downstairs, her makeup reapplied and her hair glossy.

  “Let’s go.” Faith locked the shop up behind them.

  The doors to Tom’s store were wide open, allowing the happy noise of multiple conversations to spill onto Main Street. Faith fixed a cheek-aching smile in place and crossed the threshold.

  The place was packed with people. Kellan sipped what looked like apple cider from a plastic cup, and Maeve eyed a sign proclaiming rental prices for bikes and kayaks. Childish shrieking from the back of the store made Faith spin. “What in the world?”

  “A rock climbing wall,” said a familiar voice. Tom’s. He held out cups of bubbly cider to her and Angie. “I told you I was going to have one.”

  “You did, indeed. Well done.” It wasn’t a real rock wall, mounted to the wall like the one she’d climbed on in Sacramento. It was a gray plastic mountain-shaped play structure maybe seve
n feet tall, with footholds and a few openings to cling to, set atop a cushioned mat. Logan, Nora and two kids she didn’t recognize clambered over it. Ender stood guard, grinning like one of the kids.

  “Excuse me. I’ve got to go say hi.” Grinning, Angie slipped away.

  “Remember when we had pizza a while back and that vendor called? This was what we were talking about,” Tom said.

  It was awkward, standing here after not speaking for a while. His cologne didn’t even make her knees weak. The only thing she felt was a nervous hollow ache in her gut. “Well done. And congratulations, Tom. The store is amazing.”

  “You really like it?”

  Meeting his gaze hurt. “I do. And look at how many people are here. The grand opening is a success in every way, I’d say.”

  “I appreciate your help with the flyers and everything, Faith.” Tom glanced at her lips. “I should probably mingle.”

  “Yeah, of course.” Faith turned away and sipped her juice. Tom was the host of this party, but he could’ve spent more time talking to her if he’d wanted to.

  Why should he? They’d set out to be neighborly after their argument in front of the kids, and they were civil now. Mission accomplished.

  So was her mission to show up at this thing. Finishing her juice, she walked toward the playset so she could tell the kids hello before returning home.

  Angie and Ender weren’t supervising the kids anymore. Tom’s parents hovered at the edge of the mat, grinning ear to ear until they saw her.

  The kids spied her so it was too late to go somewhere else. “Hi, guys.” She hugged a sweaty Nora first, then Logan, once they dropped from the playset. “Good evening.” She didn’t offer her hand to Elena or Roberto this time, and they didn’t extend the courtesy, either.

  Logan tugged on her hand. “Faith, watch me.”

  So she did, clapping for him when he reached the top of the playset, then for Nora. “You’re king and queen of the mountain.”

  “Mount Santos,” Nora announced.

  “I like it.” Roberto grinned.

  “I like the whole store.” Maybe if Faith assured Tom’s parents she was glad for him, they’d loosen up a little bit where she was concerned.

  “Grandpa, I’m thirsty,” Logan called.

  Roberto joined the kids to search out juice just as Mayor Hughes, elegant in one of her tailored blazers, sidled alongside Faith and Elena. “Isn’t this wonderful?”

  “It is.” Faith clutched her empty cup.

  “Just what the town needed.” Elena probably hadn’t intended her comment to be barbed, but it hit home anyway.

  Mayor Hughes patted Faith’s arm. “Sorry about your museum, Faith, but I just don’t see it as a priority for my constituents. Resources would be better spent elsewhere.”

  She couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “It’s too bad, though. Your father-in-law donated several artifacts to me, including photographs of your husband’s ancestor founding Hughes Park. Until there’s a museum, there’s nowhere to display them.”

  The mayor shrugged, as if completely uninterested. “Since you have no need of them without a museum, feel free to leave them at city council when you go, then.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Aren’t you moving to San Francisco with your sister?”

  “You are?” Elena’s shoulders and frown relaxed.

  The mayor knew about Chloe’s offer? “Nothing’s been decided yet.”

  The mayor patted her again. “Sounds like a great opportunity for you. It’ll be good for Tom, too.”

  She had a million questions, but only one popped out of her mouth. “How so?”

  “Then he can open that wall between your stores. Double his capacity so he can put in a putting green and some other interactive displays. City council thinks it’d be a great draw to Main Street.”

  Elena’s thin penciled brows rose. “Oh, marvelous.”

  Faith didn’t trust herself to say much of anything, so she settled on a quick “Excuse me.” Where was Tom?

  Laughing it up with some guy in a red plaid shirt by the fishing rods, that’s where he was, like he didn’t have a care in the world. He must have recognized something in her expression because he excused himself from Mr. Red Plaid. “Something wrong, Faith?”

  “So you want my store now?”

  “What?” His low voice matched hers.

  “Mayor Hughes just told me all about your plan. City council is all for it. So is your mom, by the way.”

  So much for wanting to stay friends. So much for even being neighborly.

  She should’ve kept her distance from the start. It would have saved her a world of heartache.

  * * *

  Tom’s brain couldn’t keep up with her words, and the loud buzz of conversation around them made this all the more difficult to process. “Will you come into the office? Please?”

  “As long as you plan on explaining, sure.”

  Explaining what, exactly? He’d clearly missed something. He slipped with her through the mingling guests until they reached his office, a cramped space made more stifling from the unpacked paper boxes wedged between the empty bookshelf, the sleek slate-colored couch and his modern desk. Once Faith stepped inside, Tom shut the door behind them. “What’s going on?”

  Faith stopped in the center of the room, arms folded. Her white blouse and pale blue pants were soft and sweet looking, but she bore the fierce expression of a Valkyrie. “The last time we talked, you encouraged me to visit Chloe. Is that because you wanted me out? So you can expand into my store?”

  “I don’t want to expand into your store. The thought never crossed my mind.”

  “Hasn’t it? Then why is the mayor saying the council is thrilled about a putting green in Faith’s Finds?”

  “I don’t know, but it has nothing to do with me. I suggested you look into your options because I want you to feel fulfilled, Faith. I know how hard it’s been on you, not being able to start a museum. And I want you to be happy, so that’s why I said that.” He did want her happy, with all his heart. “It has nothing to do with expanding into your store.”

  She didn’t seem appeased. “So that’s not why you’ve been curt lately?”

  He could say the store kept him busy, but the truth was he’d been rude. For a purpose. To protect his kids.

  “I’m sorry, Faith.”

  It was all he could do.

  It was obvious, though, she wanted more. Deserved more. But he couldn’t give her anything, so he leaned against the desk waiting for her to talk.

  She was still in the center of his office, her eyes damp with pain. Pain he’d help put there. As much as he hated himself for it, he couldn’t reach out the way he wanted to. Couldn’t give her comfort. Couldn’t even tell her the kids had asked for her every day, because that would make things worse.

  All he could do was let her be angry at him. Angry and sad.

  She glanced at the ceiling. “I was thinking, literally ten minutes before coming here, that maybe I should leave town. Go be with Chloe, like you said. For a visit, and then maybe permanently, because things aren’t working out for me here.”

  Tom bore some responsibility for that. “If I hadn’t come back, you’d have had your museum by now.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. The mayor would’ve found something else to go in here, or limited the museum’s lease so she could kick me out as soon as something else came along.” She shoved a loose strand of hair behind her ear in a frustrated gesture. “I need to accept that and look into donating the artifacts in my possession to a gold rush–related museum elsewhere.”

  “I promised to help you, though. I still think there has to be a way to have a museum here.”

  She shook her head. “Maybe it’s time I stop asking God to bless what I want, and look at joining in
what He’s already blessing. It seems like the furniture adaptations are my future, not the museum, so...”

  The office door swung open, and his mom glared at him, then Faith. Faith forced a fake grin. “Sorry to keep you from your guests, Tom. Pardon me, Elena—”

  “Are they in here with you?” Mom craned her neck.

  “Who?” He pushed off from the desk.

  “Don’t joke. Logan, Nora, come out, now.”

  Tom’s blood iced. “They’re not here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Faith gasped and looked behind the couch.

  “Logan? Nora?” He peered behind the stack of paper boxes by the bookshelf. There was nowhere else to hide in the office.

  Fear, sharp and black, descended over Tom from head to toe.

  First Lourdes. Now his children. He’d stopped focusing on them and now they were gone.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Panic mounted in Faith’s chest, squeezing her lungs, as she hurried after Tom into the store, but she pushed at it before it took hold of her. Gaze darting everywhere for the two sweet faces, she forced her thoughts to fix on facts. “The kids went with your dad to get a drink.”

  Elena’s hands fluttered. “They came back after you left and they heard me ask Mayor Hughes about Faith leaving town. I didn’t think it would upset the kids, but Nora started crying. I looked for a tissue, and when I found one, they’d gone.”

  “You didn’t think it would upset the kids.” Tom turned back, his face contorted with fear. “They love her, Mom.”

  “I’m sure that’s not it, mijo. They’re playing hide-and-seek or something.”

  Tom shook his head and skirted the store, going from group to group. “Have you seen Logan and Nora?”

  Faith didn’t much want to engage Elena, either. Not when the kids were unaccounted for. Not with the way her heart seemed to have leaped out of her body, leaving her cold and empty.

  Since Tom was searching the store, she ran outside. No dark-headed kids. She peeked into her empty store, checked the alley and tried the street door to her apartment in case she’d left it unlocked, even though she knew she hadn’t.