Sally gave her a once over again, then said, “Whatever you say. Now, what can I get you?”
By the time Michelle left the diner, she’d met half the town, been ogled at by every man, and was sure that Sally hated her. All she wanted to do was go back to her room, unpack her stuff and take a nap; her first day in Gypsum Creek had been far more exhausting than she’d expected.
But a nap wasn’t in her future. Instead it took her hours to unload her car and unpack her stuff. She’d just finished unpacking when she heard the bell ring for dinner and headed for the dining room downstairs. What greeted her made her wish she’d stayed in her room.
Stephanie had warned her that the house was full of men, but she was still surprised when she found so many seated at the dining room table. Suppressing a groan and trying to keep her face neutral, she started to sit down, but then Stephanie came through the door from the kitchen, her hands full of food.
“Oh, Michelle, I thought maybe you’d like to keep me company in the kitchen for dinner,” she said.
Michelle was so relieved, a huge smile appeared on her face. “That would be nice,” she said, sliding around the table towards the door Stephanie had just come through.
“Boys, this is Michelle; she’s going to be staying for the summer, so I’m sure you’ll have time to get to know her, but I’m going to steal her for tonight,” Stephanie said, putting the food on the table.
The men groaned, disappointed, but no one said anything. Then one man spoke up. “We’ll let you steal her tonight, but tomorrow night she has to eat with us.”
Michelle wanted to say that she wasn’t a thing to be bargained with, that she’d eat wherever she chose, but instead, wanting to keep the peace, she smiled, and said, “That’s a deal.”
Promising herself that she’d not only lock her door but put a spell on it, she followed Stephanie to the kitchen where she found Millie seated at the big scarred work table. “Hi, Ms. Millie, I didn’t expect to find you here,” she said, sitting down next to her.
Ms. Millie smiled at her. “I tried to eat with all those men once, and that was enough for me. Besides, this is where we ate dinner most nights, especially when daddy was gone,” she said, then launched into a story about her father.
As Millie talked, she relaxed, feeling more at ease than she had for most of the day. Stephanie set down heaping plates in front of each of them, then joined them with her own. When Millie had finished her story, she handed her a fork and said, “No more stories until you eat.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes, Michelle discovering that she was hungrier than she thought was halfway through her food before she looked up to compliment Stephanie on the meal. But before she could open her mouth to speak, a face appeared in the window above the sink, and for a second, she wasn’t sure if it was a real person or a spirit.
But then the face wavered and disappeared, leaving the window empty. Looking back down at her plate, she began a mental list of what she’d need to do before she went to sleep that night to protect herself from the spirts that were sure to be haunting the old house.
Chapter Six
***David***
When David walked into the kitchen of the boarding house, Stephanie was just putting a new pot of coffee on. “That’s exactly what I need,” he said, collapsing into a chair.
Stephanie turned and looked at him. “You look like you didn’t get much sleep last night,” she said, getting a cup down for him. “This will be ready in a few minutes; you can fill me in while we wait.”
David knew that he couldn’t tell her the truth, couldn’t tell her that he’d spent hours looking out the window in his rooms above the store watching Michelle’s window. Couldn’t tell her that even after he’d fallen asleep, he hadn’t been able to keep his mind of the dark beauty with impossibly blue eyes.
“I couldn’t sleep last night; too much going on I guess,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Stephanie looked at him suspiciously, but let it go. “What brings you by this morning?” she asked instead.
“I got permission from the town council and the pastor for Michelle to look through all those old records at the church,” he said. “I just wanted to stop by and tell her.”
“Shouldn’t Sophie be handling all that?”
“She’s still stuck in Nashville with her lawyers,” he said, taking a big sip of the coffee Stephanie finally set down in front of him. “She won’t be back for a few days. I guess they ran into some trouble with the state.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Stephanie said, looking out the window at all the activity in town that morning. “This town needs this.”
“Sophie doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, but she has to stay and deal with it, so for now, that means I’m playing host,” he said. “Has she been down yet?”
Stephanie shook her head. “Not yet, but she had a long day yesterday.”
David nodded; he knew that she hadn’t shut her light off until well after midnight, knew that because he hadn’t either. He’d stood at the window for hours watching her shadow cross in front of the window over and over as if she were pacing the room. She’d opened all the windows then shut them three times, and he was sure once that he saw smoke pouring out the window.
He drained the cup, got up and put it in the sink, then asked, “Could you send her over to the store when she gets up?”
“Sure, no problem,” Stephanie said, taking a sticky bun off a plate and handing it to David. “Eat this; it’ll make you feel better.”
David smiled at her and took the bun. “Thanks, Stephanie. I feel better already.”
***Michelle***
Michelle woke to bright sunlight pouring through a crack in the curtains and groaned, then stretched. It had been late before she’d finally climbed into bed, but her cleansing and protection spells had worked; she’d slept soundly since not a single spirit had come to visit.
Unless you counted the dark-haired woman she’d been dreaming about since she was twelve. But that spirit never disturbed her; in fact, she usually woke up with a sense of well-being after one of those dreams, just as she had this morning.
Part of her still believed as she had when she was a girl that it was Molly Swensen trying to communicate with her, but she knew better, just didn’t know who the woman was. When she’d finally told her grandmother about her dreams, about the woman in old-fashioned clothes who came to her in her sleep, she’d called her a spirit guide.
Michelle wasn’t sure if that was true either; the woman never gave her any guidance, just that wonderful feeling of well-being that had gotten her through some of the worst days. Days when she was fed up with her family and their constant demands that she be what they wanted her to be, days when she didn’t have the strength to fight them.
Riding on the feeling, she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom and the giant claw-foot bathtub. After a longer than necessary soak, she braided her long hair and pinned it to her head, threw on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt and headed for the kitchen.
She was relieved to find the house quiet, unlike the town, which was noisy with the sounds of construction on the store across the street. When she walked into the kitchen, Stephanie was bent over the sink, her hand inside a whole chicken, several more lined up on the counter.
“It looks like you’re feeding an army,” Michelle said.
“You have no idea how much those men can eat; it’s a full-time job just to keep them fed,” Stephanie said, putting the chicken into a pot.
She washed her hands, got them both a cup of coffee, and sat down with Michelle. “Did you sleep well? Hope the house wasn’t too noisy for you.”
“Not at all. I didn’t hear a thing, slept like a baby,” Michelle said, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Breakfast around here is pretty simple; there’s cereal and bagels. I don’t cook breakfast; lunch and dinner are all I can handle,” Stephanie said, pointing to a counter lined with breakfast foods.
/> “That’s fine with me. I don’t eat much in the morning,” Michelle said, getting up and making herself a bowl of cereal and grabbing a banana.
“David stopped by this morning,” Stephanie said, then waited for Michelle’s response.
“Oh, I didn’t expect that,” Michelle said, feeling a little thrill rush through her.
“He got permission for you to look through the church records, but he wanted you to stop by the store first,” Stephanie said, a little smile on her face. “Guess you two had a good time together yesterday.”
Michelle wasn’t sure what to say at first, was still a little shocked by the thrill that rushed through her when she thought of him. But finally, she said, “He’s a nice guy, and really cares about this town.”
Stephanie nodded, and again, Michelle felt like she’d passed a test she didn’t know she was taking. “He gave up a life in Nashville to come home. I heard he even had a girlfriend.”
Michelle felt a strange feeling of unease when Stephanie mentioned David’s girlfriend. She explored the feeling a little further and discovered it was jealousy, which really made no sense since there was nothing between them.
“Oh, really? What’s she like?” Michelle asked, unable to stop herself.
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders. “No one knows; he hasn’t brought her up here yet,” she said, then got to her feet. “I’d better get back to work if we want to have lunch today; those chickens aren’t going to cook themselves. I sure will be glad when there are some more places to eat in this town.”
Michelle finished her breakfast, still a bit unnerved by the emotions racing through her, put her bowl in the sink and went back up to her room to get ready for the day. As she filled her backpack with all the things she thought she’d need for her search of the church records, she realized that she hadn’t heard from Sophie yet.
The researcher in her knew that she shouldn’t move forward until she’d seen Molly’s journal since it was the foundation for her thesis; if it was fake, anything else she discovered would be worthless. But the little glimpse of what was in that back room at the church she’d gotten yesterday had piqued her curiosity, and she couldn’t resist another look.
She crossed the street and walked into the store, hoping that it wouldn’t be difficult to find David in all the commotion. He was standing in front of the soda fountain, in a deep discussion with one of the construction workers, a scowl on his face. Ducking into a corner, she watched as he used his hands to illustrate his point.
They were nice hands, she decided, big, even for a man. But he was a big man; at well over six feet, he towered over most of the construction workers. His broad shoulders and muscular arms making her shiver just a bit, then blush at her thoughts. That didn’t stop her from studying him quietly from across the room.
His nose was a little bit too big, his jaw just a little too prominent, but together they gave him a rugged look. When he finally turned, and saw her, his eyes locked on hers, and she felt that tingling deep inside again, and knew that it was his eyes that had her hooked.
Blue as a mountain lake, they pierced through her, as if he could see deeply into her soul, as if he could see things that no one had ever seen before. Momentarily taken aback by her response to his eyes, she stood motionless as he approached her.
“I see you finally managed to get out of bed,” he said, smiling at her.
It took her a few seconds to reply, her heart pounding in her chest. “I had a late night,” she finally said.
He nodded as if he’d already known that, then said, “I have good news and bad news for you today.”
“Give me the good news first,” she said, sure what it was.
“I got you permission to look through the old records in the church,” he said.
“And the bad news?”
“I have to stay with you.”
Michelle thought about that and decided that didn’t sound so bad. “Well, I think I can live with that, but you’re going to get bored just watching me.”
David laughed, and said, “I doubt that would ever happen,” his blue eyes flashing with amusement.
Michelle felt a blush spreading across her cheeks, and a tingle erupted in her middle. “I’m, ummm, ready when you are,” she said, completely confused by her response to David.
When they got to the church, he led her to a back door, down the same hallway, and into the storage room. She’d forgotten how crowded the room was, had only been picturing the huge piles of old books in the back of the room.
Standing in the doorway looking at the mess, she said, “I think we might have to move some of this stuff to get to the books I need; they’re way in the back.”
David smiled at her. “That’s why I’m here.”
Michelle felt that little stab of desire again and tried to push it down. “Okay, then where do we start?” she asked, wanting something to distract her from David and his sparkling blue eyes.
David put his hand on a pile of boxes. “Right here, I guess,” he said, opening the box and peering inside.
Michelle looked inside the box, her curiosity driving her to pick up the first item in the box. “This is an old lantern, probably from the 1930s,” she said, reaching in for another item.
Soon they had a pile of antiques stacked in boxes in the hallway, along with a pile of trash, and Michelle knew that the little room held more treasures than even she could imagine. “You have enough stuff here for a museum. Some of this stuff is worth a lot of money too.”
David looked around the room. “This might take longer than I thought; let’s try to move some of this so you can get to the records in the back. You didn’t come here to help us build a museum.”
Michelle smiled at him. “I don’t mind; I am a history major after all.”
Chapter Seven
***David***
When Michelle smiled at him that way, he knew that he was in trouble, that he was quickly becoming infatuated with her. “But you came here to research Molly Swensen. Sophie will be upset with me when she finds out you wasted a whole day helping me.”
“But it wasn’t a waste; it’s history, not the history I was looking for, but valuable nonetheless. And I had fun today,” she said, giving him another one of those smiles.
David’s heart began to pound, and his palms got sweaty when she smiled at him, and he knew that he had to get away from her before he made a fool of himself. “Tomorrow we’ll do a better job of finding what you came for,” he said, turning off the light. “I’ll walk you home.”
He left her on the porch of the boarding house, then headed straight for his rooms above the store. It had been a long and difficult day; trying to hide his attraction to Michelle was far harder then he’d ever imagined, but he had no other choice.
A woman like her would never be interested in a man like him; he wasn’t educated, or handsome: he was just an average man from the mountains who knew how to work with his hands. He’d managed to hold his attraction to her in check that day, hadn’t looked quite as foolish as he had the day before, but that had only made things worse.
Michelle had relaxed with him that day, had treated him like just another person, and he knew it was because he’d stopped ogling her like she was something good to eat. The problem with that was now that he’d gotten to know her better, he wanted her even more.
Today he’d discovered that under her beauty, there was an intelligent woman who loved old things and wanted to share that love with the world. He found that there was more to her than just good looks, that she had a streak of kindness, and a sense of humor that matched his own.
He headed for the shower, hoping to drive Michelle from his thoughts, but she was firmly fixed there, the sound of her voice and her laughter echoing through his mind. Cursing Sophie for putting him in this position, he got dressed and headed for his truck; it was well past time for a visit to the farm, and it might just provide the distraction he needed to clear his mind.
When he turned o
nto the farm road, the sun was just beginning to set, but he couldn’t miss the new cabins out behind the house or the new roof on the house. His mother came out of the kitchen door, wiping her hands on a towel, and waited for him to get out of the truck.
“It’s about time you got out here. I have so much to show you,” she said, then headed for the fields behind the house.
He had to run just a little to catch up with her. “Hold on, mom, give me a minute to catch up,” he said.
He followed her to a four-wheeler and got in next to her when she started it up. “These were Jessie’s idea; cheaper than a tractor and a lot more useful,” she explained as they drove into the field.
David was a bit surprised at what they’d done with the cornfield and had to admit that if it worked, the farm would make more money that year than it ever had in his lifetime. She showed him the new cabins, which were simple but would provide enough comfort even for people used to more luxury.
After they came out of the last cabin, they walked around the house to the kitchen door. His mother stopped at the door and turned to him. “This is the best part,” she said, opening the door and letting him go in first.
David didn’t get far into the room before he had to stop; gone was the old, worn kitchen of his childhood. It had been replaced by a modern but warm room that featured a huge wooden table in the middle, modern appliances and a pantry stocked to the ceiling with food.
“You could feed an army with this kitchen,” he said, looking around in shock.
“At least twenty people, I think,” his mother said. “We haven’t tested that yet, but I’m thinking about having a party.”
David looked at his mother in shock; she’d never thrown a party in her life, not even for their birthdays. “A party?”
She shrugged her shoulders, “Why not? It would be fun; I haven’t thrown a party since your father died.”
Young Love (Wolves 0f Gypsum Creek Book 3) Page 4