Her Summer Crush, page 17
* * *
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, we’re not having family Sunday?” Luci pressed her cell phone to her ear to be sure she heard her father’s response. She’d been home from her outing with Cody for only a few minutes before her father called to deliver the shocking announcement.
“We decided to skip it this week.”
“We? Who’s we? I don’t remember being asked my opinion.”
“Your mother and I decided.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“She’s not feeling well, and I have work to do.” He sounded tired, not at all like his usual energetic self and not all that convincing, either.
“What’s wrong with Mom? And why are you suddenly working at home so much? You never used to do that.” Luci paced to her patio door and gazed out at the rapidly darkening sky.
“So many questions, Luci. Your mother has a headache. Something she ate, she thinks. And I have a lot of extra work, that’s all. We’re very busy at the bank.”
“What about Don and Arliss, and Francine and Will?”
“Don’s going fishing, and Arliss is taking the kids to a birthday party. Francine’s showing houses, as usual, and Will said he didn’t want Anna to cook if she wasn’t feeing well.”
“I’d be glad to do the cooking.”
“No, no,” he said quickly. “We’ve already decided.”
“I’m sorry Mom’s not feeling well, but I’m also disappointed. One of the main reasons I came back to Willow Beach was because of our family. We’ve always been so close...”
She wanted him to reassure her that the family was still close. But he remained silent. She sensed he was waiting for her to say goodbye and hang up.
Which she did.
As she bent to switch on the lamp by the sofa, she saw the yellow bowl and the photo album. Luci dropped onto the sofa and picked up the bowl. She ran her fingers over the smooth surface, recalling all the times she’d seen it displaying her mother’s roses at the family home.
She put down the bowl and picked up the album. She paged through the pictures, stopping to look at those of her family. Everyone looked happy.
So much had changed since then, and looking at the photos now brought a painful tightness to her chest. Tears blurring her eyes, she closed the album.
What had happened to her dream?
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Luci finished eating her oatmeal and toast and washed her dishes. She stood in the center of her apartment, looking around. Now what? With no family Sunday, she had the whole day with nothing to do. Okay, she could do housework. She got out the vacuum cleaner and swept and dusted. Opening the patio door, her gaze fell on the flowers her mother had planted. She hoped Anna was recovering from her headache. She’d call home later and see how she was feeling.
As the day wore on, finding something to do posed a challenge. She thought about calling one of her friends, but the ones here in town were all married with their own families and their own Sunday plans. The singles had moved away. Maybe she should move away, too. Maybe she didn’t belong here anymore.
But where would she go?
As she wandered aimlessly around the apartment, her thoughts turned to Cody and yesterday’s outing. What had that been about? He’d wanted her to share his enthusiasm for his life’s work. Well, fine. But why, when he’d be leaving soon.
Or had yesterday been his roundabout way of asking her to share his life? Was she being tested to see if he wanted to take their relationship to the next level? Whatever that was.
Her gaze fell on her computer. She sat at the table and turned it on.
Cody had sent her some of the photos they’d taken yesterday. “For your files,” his message read.
Viewing the photos would only remind her of their time together, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to think about that any more. But, with nothing else to do, she might as well take a look.
The pictures of the fish jumping brought a smile to her lips. He’d liked what she’d said about that, something about “a golden necklace.” She hunted up the notes on her phone and read them. Hmm, maybe she could take that idea a bit further. Why not? She had nothing else to do.
She put the best of the fish photos in a separate box, with her words underneath. Then she added some more text as the words came to her, revisiting the moment when the fish leaped from the water, arcing into the air as though saying, “Look at me. Look what I can do.”
She sat back and read what she’d written. Not bad. She brought up the next picture, one of the stream and the opposite bank. The sun carved a path through the pine trees. A path leading where? She thought about that for a while and when an idea came to her, she wrote it under the photo. She’d worked her way through half-a-dozen photos by the time she realized she was doing exactly what Cody had wanted her to do: adding text to his pictures.
After a while, she turned to the pictures she had taken and was soon adding text to those.
Kinda fun, really.
But probably a waste of time.
Still, she had gained a better understanding of Cody’s love of spontaneity.
She shut down the computer and ended the day with a walk on the beach. At least she had the beach. She’d loved walking along the shore since she was a toddler holding on to her mother’s hand.
The beach was like an old friend. She loved listening to the soft shushing of the waves, the calls of the gulls and the singing of the wind in the dune grass. Placing her feet in the sand, one step after another, while gazing out to sea...to forever, soothed her troubled spirit. And today it didn’t let her down.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HER MOTHER’S GARDEN, always so neat and well tended, was dry and full of weeds. Anna must be really sick, Luci thought. Her chest tight with worry, she grabbed the vase of flowers and hurried into the house.
“Hello!” No one answered her greeting. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. Usually, if not in her garden, she could be found in the kitchen or in her sewing room stitching quilts for the church’s Christmas bazaar.
Luci climbed the stairs and went down the hall to her parents’ bedroom. The door was open. The bed had the covers tossed back on one side, with the other side undisturbed. The bathroom door stood open. She crossed the room and peeked in. No one was there, but the scent of her father’s aftershave lingered in the air.
She continued down the hall. The doors to all the bedrooms were open except the one to Francine’s former room. Luci knocked on the door. “Mom, are you in there? It’s me, Luci.”
“I’m not feeling well, Luci,” came her mother’s muffled voice.
“I know, but can I come in?”
“If you must.”
Juggling the vase in one hand, Luci opened the door. The blinds were closed, and the room was dim and stuffy. Her mother lay in bed, her face turned toward the wall.
Luci approached the bed. “I brought you something.”
Her mother slowly turned her head. Her eyes were red rimmed.
“From the Blossom Shop.” Luci set the bouquet on the nightstand.
“They’re beautiful, dear. Thank you.”
Luci sat on the end of the bed. “Mom, what’s wrong? Dad said you’ve been having headaches. Have you seen a doctor?”
“No. I’ll be all right. I’ll get up later.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“No, dear. Don’t you have to be at work today?”
Luci smoothed a wrinkle in the bedspread. “I do. I just wanted to check on you during my lunch hour.”
“Could you hand me a tissue, please?”
“Sure.” Luci picked up the box of tissues from the nightstand and held it out.
Anna sat up and plucked out a tissue. She wiped her eyes and then lay back down. “You’d better go now. I don’t want you to get into trouble with Glen.”
“All right, but call me if you need anything. Promise?”
“I promise.” Anna sighed and closed her eyes.
Checking her watch, Luci saw the time was now one thirty. Still, before she left, she tidied up the kitchen and watered the garden.
Her mother’s roses reminded her of the time when she was learning to ride her two-wheeled bike. She’d fallen off and skinned her knee and collapsed into tears. Her mother had bandaged her wound and then brought her a rose. “Smell this,” she’d said, “and you’ll feel better.”
Luci had inhaled the sweet scent and as her mother promised, she felt better. Perhaps that was why she’d brought flowers today—hoping a bouquet would comfort her mother. Sadly, that hadn’t been the case.
When Luci entered the chamber office, Marge looked up from her desk. “Glen’s looking for you.”
“Oh? Something important?”
Marge gave a cynical-sounding laugh. “With him, everything’s important. Pressure, pressure.”
Luci hadn’t gone far down the hall when Glen stepped from one of the offices. “Luci, there you are. You get held up at lunch?” He tapped his wristwatch. “It’s past one.”
“I know. I stopped by my parents’ house to check on my mother. She’s not feeling well.”
He fell into step beside her as she continued on to her office. “Sorry to hear that, but shouldn’t your father be the one to take care of her?”
“Our family is close, Glen. We all take care of each other.”
“Hmm, well, that’s nice, but we have a business to run here.”
“I know and I’m back now. Was there something in particular you wanted to see me about?” They reached her open office door and she turned to face him.
“Yes. The printer’s waiting for the copy for the new brochures.”
Luci closed her eyes. “That’s right. It was due—”
“Last Friday.”
“I’ll take care of it right away.”
“See that you do.” He swiveled around and headed back down the hall.
As Luci entered her office, Tessa turned from her station at the worktable. “I thought maybe you were taking the rest of the day off,” she said.
“I had some personal business to take care of.”
“Uncle Glen’s been in and out for the past hour.”
“I saw him on my way in. Everything’s under control.”
Actually, everything was not under control. Luci still hadn’t finished writing the copy for several of the brochures. She’d completely forgotten about the printer’s deadline because she’d been preoccupied by the family’s troubles. She had no one to blame but herself for this predicament.
Luci looked up the printer’s number and called him.
“We’re on a tight schedule,” Joe Manning said when he came on the line. “I needed your stuff on Friday.”
“What if I got it to you first thing tomorrow?”
“Hold on, lemme check.”
Luci waited. In the background, machinery whirred, a door slammed, someone shouted and someone else laughed.
Joe finally returned. “You get it here eight a.m., I can make it work. Maybe.”
“Thanks, Joe. I owe you one.”
“S’okay, I owe your dad a few. He gave me a good deal on a loan, few years back.”
Luci shook her head as she hung up. Was there anyone in town who didn’t owe her father a favor?
Now, to finish the brochures. She opened the file and started to work. Thankfully, most of the updates in this batch had already been done.
She’d been working for a few minutes, concentrating hard, when she became aware of Tessa standing behind her. “Did you want something, Tessa?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Can I help?”
The sincerity in Tessa’s voice took Luci by surprise. She whirled around and stared. “You want to help?”
Tessa frowned. “Okay, so you don’t want me to.” She took a step away.
Luci held up her hand. “No, no, wait. I, ah, yes, you can help.” She searched her mind. “How about proofreading? Finding any mistakes I might have made.”
“I know what proofreading is, and doesn’t your computer do that?”
Luci winced at the return of Tessa’s defensive tone. Still, this was the first time she had asked if she could help instead of waiting to be told what to do. Maybe they were making progress.
“The word processing program doesn’t always catch everything,” Luci said. “It takes a human eye, too. So, if you’ll do that, I have the copy on the lighthouse ready to print out.”
“Okay.”
Luci hit a couple keys and in a few seconds the printer hummed. Tessa plucked the paper from the tray and took it to her seat. For the next few minutes, they both worked in silence, the only sounds the ringing of Marge’s phone and Glen, having a conversation in the hallway.
When Tessa finished reading the copy, she approached Luci’s desk. Luci stopped typing. “What’d you find?”
Tessa held out the paper and pointed to a spot. “Shouldn’t this be a capital L because it’s part of the official name of the lighthouse?”
Luci inspected the copy. “Yes, it should. Good eye, Tessa.”
Tessa stood taller and smiled. “I could do another. It’s easy and the photos are cool. Like this one.” She indicated the photo on the brochure’s cover, showing the lighthouse and the rock promontory it sat on, as well as a glimpse of the beach below.
“Yes, Cody is a good photographer.”
“He’s nice, too. He said he’d help me with taking pictures, if I wanted.”
“Oh, when did he say that?”
“At the sand-castle contest. When we were setting up. Only there wasn’t time that day. And soon I’ll be leaving.”
Her voice held a wistful note and once again, Luci registered surprise. “Won’t you be glad to go back home?”
“Oh, I don’t know. This place kinda grows on you.”
Luci laughed. “I know what you mean.”
The afternoon passed, and both Luci and Tessa made progress. For the first time, Luci felt as though they were a team. Then, a knocking on the window captured her attention.
Carl. She might’ve guessed.
He peered in, one hand at his brow to block out the sunlight, the other poised to knock on the glass again. Luci sighed. Tessa squealed and tossed down the brochure she was proofing. She ran to the window. He spread his palm on the glass, and she matched his with hers.
“Tessa...” Luci began.
“Okay if I go a little early today?” Tessa pleaded.
“How early?”
“Like now?”
Luci checked her wristwatch. Four-thirty. Still half an hour until quitting time. Carl had turned from the window, stuck his hands in the back pockets of his cargo pants and paced to the fountain and back, glancing at them every now and then.
“You leave early lots of times,” Tessa said.
“Yes, when I have somewhere to go on business.”
“You said you were late today because of personal business.”
Luci couldn’t argue with that. “All right. You have been especially helpful today. Go.”
“Thanks. You’re the best.”
Watching Tessa sprint toward the door brought to mind an adage Luci’s mother used to quote—one step forward, two steps back. Yep, that certainly fit her relationship with Tessa. Shaking her head, she turned back to her work.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Luci was working at her computer when Cody arrived. “Are you okay?” he asked after they’d exchanged greetings.
Luci yawned. “Tired. Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“What was that about?” He lowered his voice and added, “Or shouldn’t I ask?”
“No secret. I forgot a deadline for the printer and was up late finishing the brochures.”
“You shoulda called me.”
“Nothing you could do, Cody.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Keep the coffee hot. Hold your hand.” He grinned. “That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?”
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s done now and delivered this morning. Your photos are great, by the way. Take a look at the printouts on Tessa’s table.”
He walked over and picked up the new brochures. “Not like you to forget a deadline, Luci,” he said as he flipped through the pages.
“Yeah, well, I’ve had a lot on my mind. That’s my excuse, anyway. Not that Glen would buy it.”
Cody looked up. “He give you a bad time?”
She waved her hand. “Oh, the usual.”
He put down the brochures and went to look out the window. “Are you sorry you went with me on Saturday?” he asked in a low tone.
“No, Cody, not sorry. None of this is your fault.”
“Did you get the photos I sent you from our trip?”
“I did.”
“Did you, ah, do anything with them? Not that you had to or anything...”
“If you mean, did I write any captions, okay, I might have written a few.”
He turned and shot her a smile. “Hey, great. Can I see?”
“I’ll email them to you.”
“Okay.” He looked around. “Where’s your assistant, by the way?”
“She went to the post office on an errand for Marge.”
“I hope she’s back by lunchtime.”
Luci shook her head. “I’m not going out to lunch today. I want to get started on the PR for the clambake the chamber puts on in September.”
“It’s just one party after another around here,” he said. Then he sobered and looked out the window again. “I’ll have to miss that.”
