“I’m sorry I ate too much, Mom. I won’t do it again.”
Allison gave her a gentle smile. “I know you are, honey. It’s OK, I’m not mad. I just want you to feel better. Let’s go downstairs, and you can pick what to watch on TV, and like I said, if you’re feeling up to it, you can have some toast before you go to bed.”
They ended up watching one of Lucy’s old favorites, Frozen, although she wasn’t up to singing along as she usually did. But the girl did manage to eat two pieces of dry toast and drink half a cup of tea with milk and honey before she went to sleep. Allison didn’t manage to make any dinner for herself until she’d put her daughter to bed, and watched her for half an hour to make sure she actually did fall asleep.
So much for the first day of the Harvest Festival. Tomorrow had to be better, didn’t it?
Chapter 14
It was two days now with no word from Allison, not even after he’d given Lucy a message from him. Could he have been wrong all along about her feelings?
Or had they changed? Had she gotten cold feet, after asking him out for coffee and then inviting him to join a family dinner? It was possible; people changed their minds all the time, didn’t they?
There was only one way to find out. Surely she’d be at her booth today, if he didn’t see her somewhere in the crowd watching the parade this morning.
He staked out a prime spot right on the corner of Main and 5th Sts, and he was joined before too long by his coworker, Tricia Darlington. “I hear you’re two-timing Teresa Rampton-Brewer,” she said by way of greeting.
Several responses came to mind, but he saw the sly grin just beginning to form on her lips, and settled for, “Very funny.”
“I thought it was,” she said, still grinning. “Seriously, though, I hear you’ve been spending time with Allison Miller.”
Was everyone at school keeping tabs on him? “Who from?”
“Her daughter. She was telling one of her friends all about it.” She laughed, and patted his arm. “I couldn’t help but hear. She was out behind the building, and I had the window open in my classroom while I was straightening up. And she raises her voice when she gets excited.”
“I’ve noticed.” What else could he say?
“Anyway, I’m glad to see Allison’s starting to put herself out there. It’s been four years since...” Mike just stared at her; obviously she thought he already knew whatever she was about to say, but stopped herself.
“Since what?”
Now the grin was gone, and her face was reddening. “I shouldn’t say, it’s none of my business.”
Now it was Mike’s turn to laugh. “Really? Seems like my social life has been everybody’s business lately.”
Tricia considered that. Mike watched her intently, not noticing the first of the floats going by, not hearing the marching band accompanying it. “It’s not a secret or anything.”
“Then tell me, please?”
Tricia took a deep breath. “It’s been four years since her husband passed away.”
How had he not considered that as a reason she was raising Lucy by herself? He’d just assumed she was divorced, without any evidence at all. “I had no idea,” he said. “She’s so young, I never thought about that.”
“It was a car accident,” Tricia said. “I got the whole story from her mother. She’s been so strong, trying to do everything she could to make life as normal as it can be for Lucy. I’m just glad she’s – well, anyway, you know what I mean.”
He did. It took a lot of strength to go it alone, rather than try to fill the empty place in her and her daughter’s life with the first man who looked like a halfway-decent fit, as Isabel had done. And maybe it took even more strength to start looking for someone to build a new family with, after four long and hard years.
But however strong Allison was, it had to be confusing trying to sort out her feelings. It made perfect sense that she hadn’t called him back. It didn’t mean she wasn’t interested, it didn’t mean that she didn’t like him, it just meant she was taking baby steps.
And, honestly, so was he.
IT WAS A CONSPIRACY. The universe was determined to make her miss the whole Harvest Festival. That was the only explanation.
Her alarm clock hadn’t gone off, Heaven only knew why, so she’d slept until nearly ten o’clock. So had Lucy, still getting over the effects of too much cotton candy yesterday. By the time they were both clean, dressed and ready to go, the parade was over, and they were due out at the Benedict Homestead Heritage Farm for the arts and crafts fair. Thankfully, Jessie had agreed to go on ahead and get the store’s tent set up at the farm, so everything would be ready when they got there.
But they weren’t getting there anyway, because at some point last night, a tree branch had fallen and shattered the windshield of her car. She had no choice but to wait for the auto glass people to show up and fix it, and Lucy was forced to wait with her, because after a dozen phone calls and texts, it was clear that everyone they knew was already at the farm and unavailable to come by and pick Lucy up.
“This stinks, Mom!”
“Yes. Yes, it does,” Allison agreed. “But you know what? We’re not going to let it get us down. And we’re not going to miss the whole festival.”
Lucy whined, “But we are missing it!”
“We haven’t missed the Ball yet. We’re going, you and me. You can wear that nice dress Grandma got you for your birthday, the green one, and I’ll fix up your hair, and you can even wear those clip-on earrings that I know Aunt Jessie bought you last month.”
There was no whining in her daughter’s voice now. “Really, Mom?” Allison nodded. “That’s great! Except,” she hesitated, but after a moment worked up the courage to go on, “what about Mr. Jensen? Don’t you want to go with him?”
She did. But she hadn’t heard from him in a couple of days, maybe he’d lost interest in her. He hadn’t even called her – or had he? She realized she hadn’t checked the messages on her cell phone since she’d left it home when she took Lucy to the emergency room the other night. And, sure enough, there was a message from Mike. It was just a few seconds, just asking her to call him back, and she hadn’t, and then she’d been unavailable all day Friday and all day so far today, and how was he to know it was all due to forces beyond her control?
There was only one thing to do, but when she did it, her call went immediately to voicemail. His phone wasn’t even on, apparently. But she left a message anyway. “Mike, this is Allison. When you get this message, please give me a call back. I think we’ve got some things to talk about.”
Chapter 15
Neither Allison nor Lucy were at the arts and crafts fair. Nobody had seen them all day. At The Last Page’s tent, an older woman who had to be Allison’s Aunt Jessie was running things.
“Do you know where Allison is?”
Jessie looked him up and down. “You must be Lucy’s teacher. Mr. Jensen, right?”
“Yes. But it’s Mike, please.”
She nodded. “Jessie,” she said, extending a hand. He shook it. “She’s home, waiting for somebody to come out and fix her car.” She looked at her watch. “Well, hopefully they’re done by now, she called me three hours ago. I doubt she’ll get out here before the fair is done, though.”
He could just go over to her house, but that would be presumptuous, wouldn’t it? She was obviously having a bad day – a bad couple of days, considering she’d been stuck at the store all day yesterday. She probably didn’t want to be bothered at home. And she probably wouldn’t be at the Ball tonight, even if her car was repaired.
“Thanks, Jessie. I guess I’ll talk to her later, then.”
It wouldn’t be tonight, but maybe tomorrow, at the big town potluck lunch. That would be a good time to talk to her. Let her have some peace tonight after all the craziness she’d had to deal with. But what would he do tonight?
He could still go to the ball himself. Even without a date, it would probably still be a pleasant ev
ening. He’d have coworkers there to talk to, and he had to wear that new suit sometime, didn’t he?
“GOOD AS NEW, MS. MILLER,” Sean the auto glass man said. “Better, even. And like I told you, we have a five-year warranty, so you’re protected.”
She paid Sean, then gave him an extra $20 for having to come out during the harvest festival. When he was gone, she looked at her phone – it was five o’clock. “OK, Lucy, get inside. We don’t have a lot of time to get ready.”
It took almost an hour and a half; Lucy needed to take another bath, and then she demanded to wear her hair up, the same as Allison herself was, and after that, Allison had to do her makeup and pick out just the right necklace and earrings to match her dress.
When she came downstairs, Lucy clapped. “You look beautiful, Mom!”
“You’re not so bad yourself, honey. You’re going to break some hearts when you get older, you know that?” Hopefully, not as many as Allison herself had in her high school days, but history did tend to repeat, didn’t it?
“Why would I do that, Mom? I don’t ever want to break anybody’s heart!”
“I didn’t either, Lucy.”
The poor girl was confused, which was a good thing. “I don’t understand, Mom.”
“You’re not supposed to yet. When you get to high school, you’ll know what I mean.”
They drove downtown and parked in front of the store. The police probably wouldn’t be doing parking patrols tonight, and everyone in Blessings’ small police department knew she owned the store, so it was unlikely she’d be ticketed anyway.
It was only half a block to the town hall, which was decked out in tiny white lights for the Ball. “It’s beautiful, Mom!”
“It certainly is, honey,” Allison agreed. She stopped just in front of the steps up to the front entrance to admire the decorations, and she felt someone – a couple of someones – coming up right behind her.
It was four people, actually. Lucy’s best friend Bailey Evans, and her big sister Jennifer, along with their parents. Bailey grabbed Lucy and pulled her away, with Jennifer following right behind. “Lucy, I’m going to go inside and find someplace to sit. Come look for me when you’re done talking to Bailey.” Allison didn’t really want to know what the girls were going to talk about, but she had a pretty good idea all the same.
Chapter 16
Mike hadn’t actually been inside the Town Hall before. He was impressed at the job the organizers of the Ball had done; it looked festive and inviting, totally unlike the busy and official place it was most of the time.
There were enough pumpkins to make Halloween decorations for the next century along the long hallway that led into the large room where the Ball was being held, and the smell of cinnamon drew him inside.
He nodded and smiled at all the people he knew on his way to the food in the back of the room. He spotted several of his fellow teachers, and there ahead of him, filling a glass with punch, was his boss, Principal Peterson.
There were already couples dancing – adults, teens and a couple of younger kids. Directly under one of the stars that had been hung from the ceiling, there was Bailey Evans dancing happily, if inexpertly, with another girl who looked like an older version of her; an older sister or possibly a cousin.
He saw no sign of Allison, though, not that he was surprised. After all the trouble she’d had with her store, and her car and who knew what else, he didn’t really expect her to show up. He wouldn’t have, if he’d had all that happen to him just in a couple of days.
Bailey saw him and waved, and he waved back. Then she leaned in closer to her cousin, or sister, or whoever it was, and whispered something. She was probably just telling the other girl who he was.
He filled a glass with punch – he had no idea what was in it, but it smelled wonderful – then he loaded up a plate with food and started looking for a table to set it down. Before he took two steps, though, someone crashed into him, sending the food flying, and the punch spilling all over his suit.
It was Bailey Evans.
“Oh, Mr. Jensen! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!”
No, she wasn’t, and his first instinct was to yell at the girl. But he didn’t; he mentally counted to ten, pasted a smile on his face and told her, “It was an accident, don’t worry about it.” Honestly, despite the nervous expression on her face, he got the feeling she wasn’t worried about it, but he couldn’t say why. “It’s fine. But if you could point me towards the bathroom, I’d like to clean myself up a little.” There wasn’t much he could do, probably, but anything would help at this point.
“I’ll show you,” the older girl said. “And, Bailey, you just stand there out of the way and don’t cause any more trouble, OK?” Bailey nodded, and the older girl led Mike back out of the room, out a different door than the one he’d come in, then halfway down a corridor that hadn’t been decorated. “It’s right there,” she said, pointing out the bathroom.
It was one of those “family” bathrooms, slightly bigger than the usual one-person rooms in public buildings, and with a baby-changing table folded up against one wall. He closed the door behind him, and turned the little lock on the handle, and tried to make himself presentable again, as hopeless as that was.
“HI, TRICIA.” IT WAS Lucy’s teacher from back in first grade, the first teacher her daughter had when they moved back to Blessings.
“Hello, Allison. I’m so glad to see you out tonight. We heard about your car, I didn’t know if you’d come after all that fuss.”
Blessings never stopped reminding her that it was a small town. But that was fine; it wasn’t as though her car problems were a big secret. Who cared if everyone at Lucy’s school knew? “I figured after I missed everything yesterday and today, the least I could do was come to the Ball tonight.”
“And you look lovely,” Tricia said. “Did you dress for anyone in particular?”
Again, no secrets, right? “I’m pretty sure you already know, or you wouldn’t be asking.”
Tricia nodded. “Mike’s a good man. I’m just happy to see him getting to know you. After his di – never mind, forget I said anything.”
There was only one thing she could have meant to say, only one word Allison could think of that began “di.” For an instant, she wondered why Mike hadn’t said anything about it, and she felt herself getting angry, but that was ridiculous. Not to mention horribly unfair. She’d only known the man a little more than a week, they’d probably only talked for a couple of hours if you added it all together, it was crazy to expect that he’d open up about something that was very personal and probably very painful.
Besides, she hadn’t said anything to him about the accident; he had no idea she was a widow.
“Consider it forgotten,” Allison said, with a smile that was mostly genuine.
Before Tricia could say anything more, Lucy came up to her. “Mom, I need your help! My hair clip broke, and now it’s all a mess.”
“OK, we can fix that. Let’s just find the bathroom,” she told her daughter, and then to Tricia, “Sorry, duty calls.”
Lucy pulled her down the corridor and then into another hallway off to the left. “I know where it is, Mom. Remember, we had the field trip here in October?” She didn’t, honestly, but she followed Lucy all the same.
About halfway down the hall, there was a family bathroom. Lucy opened the door for her, which was a little bit surprising. She walked in, but Lucy didn’t follow. Instead, the door shut behind her, and she heard the lock click. “Lucy! Lucy Charlene Miller, you open the door this instant!”
It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t alone in the bathroom. Standing right in front of her, paper towel in hand, dabbing at a huge stain all down his shirt, was Mike Jensen.
Chapter 17
“Hey, I’m in here!” For a moment, Mike didn’t realize who had just stepped into the bathroom. But then his brain processed what – and who – he was seeing. “Allison?”
She sh
rugged. “Yes, and you can thank my daughter.” Allison turned the doorknob, to no avail.
From outside, Lucy shouted, “You guys need some time alone! I’ll come back in a little while!”
“I guess we weren’t moving fast enough for her,” Mike said, laughing. There was really no other response.
It was only now, after another moment, that he fully appreciated what he was seeing. Allison was – well, she was beautiful, there was no other word for it. Her dress, the sapphire earrings that matched it perfectly, the way she had her hair up like someone right out of a movie, all of it – beautiful. And she was laughing, too.
“I guess not,” she answered, looking him up and down. “That’s a great suit, by the way. And I’m assuming Lucy’s friend is responsible for your shirt?”
“Yep,” Mike said. “They really got us good, didn’t they?”
“It couldn’t have been Lucy’s idea. Or Bailey’s. It must have been Bailey’s big sister. Lucy probably asked her for advice, and she cooked up a plan to make us talk to each other.”
Mike had to agree. “Not that I need any help talking to you. I mean, I’ve been wanting to for a couple of days now, but...”
Allison walked over to him, took his hands in hers. “But the universe kept working against us. The stupid alarm at the store, the car, Lucy going to the emergency room...”
“What?” When had that happened?
“Thursday night.”
And now the question of why she hadn’t called him back that night was answered. “She looked fine on Friday at school.”
Allison nodded. “She was. She fell down in the storeroom, and I was just being careful, but she just bruised her arm. Anyway, we’re here now, and I guess we’re stuck until Lucy decides to let us out.”
“We could scream and try to get someone’s attention.”
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