The Prodigal Comes Home (6 page)

“I suppose I should let you get back to your dinner.” Delia’s sigh made it clear she would much rather join them.

“I’ll walk you out, Mrs. Peake.” Matt linked his arm through Delia’s and escorted her out of the kitchen. When he returned a few minutes later and took his seat at the table, Zoey couldn’t help but notice that he looked a little grim.

Zoey bit her lip. Maybe Delia had taken the opportunity to explain the reason behind her less-than-warm welcome.

“Matthew, would you like to pray?” Liz asked.

“Of course.”

Zoey bowed her head but jumped when she felt Gran take hold of one of her hands…and Matt the other. The warm press of his fingers sent little electrical charges shooting up her arm. It was all she could do not to yank her hand away.

“God, thank You so much for today. For this food and Your many blessings. Thank You that Liz is out of the hospital, and we ask for Your continued healing now that she is home. Thank You for Zoey and her willingness to put her life on hold in order to be here, where she’s needed.”

Zoey opened her eyes but Matt’s prayer continued to echo through her soul.

In her self-imposed exile, she hadn’t felt needed in a long time.

“Y
ou’re still here.”

Matt heard Zoey’s steps falter as she walked into the kitchen and spotted him at the sink, finishing up the dishes. Her look of dismay told him that she’d thought—or more likely
hoped
—he’d already left.

“I thought I’d straighten up while you helped Liz get settled for the night,” he explained.

“I can take over now. I’m sure you’re anxious to get home.” Zoey straightened her shoulders, as if preparing for battle. But what—or who—was she fighting against? That’s what Matt couldn’t figure out.

“I don’t mind. It’s not like I have a long drive home, you know.” He flashed an easy smile. “I live next door.”

Zoey didn’t respond to the gentle teasing. If anything, it looked as though she was tempted to bolt. Again.

Matt tried to trace the change in her mood to its source.

They had worked well enough together while preparing the pizza.

Some of the tension had eased from Zoey’s slim shoulders while they chopped up vegetables. But after Delia had left and Matt had given thanks for the meal, it was as if a wall had gone up between them.

Matt hadn’t attempted to draw her out during dinner, afraid that if he did, she would find a reason to excuse herself from the table. She seemed content to listen while he caught Liz up on some of the things happening at church during her stay at the hospital. For a woman who made her living performing on a stage, Zoey Decker certainly shied away from being the center of attention.

The truth was, Matt could have finished the dishes and been long gone already. But he’d lingered in the kitchen, hoping to have another opportunity to talk to Zoey.

He wasn’t sure why he felt so drawn to her. Especially when she seemed so uncomfortable around
him.

That was another thing Matt couldn’t figure out. Sure, there were always a few people who fidgeted and stammered when they discovered a pastor in their midst, but for the most part he was able to put them at ease. To draw them out. One of his professors at the seminary had gone so far as to call it a gift.

Dr. Woods probably would’ve lowered Matt’s grade if he witnessed Zoey’s reaction to him.

He turned back to the sink and waited. A few seconds later, Zoey joined him there but maintained a careful distance. Not that it mattered. Even with a foot of space between them, every nerve ending in Matt’s body kicked into high alert.

Zoey picked up a towel and reached for one of the china plates in the dish drainer. “I think Gran must be the only person in Mirror Lake who doesn’t have a dishwasher.”

“She probably is.” Matt gave the soapy cloth in his hand a meaningful wave. “She claims that washing dishes by hand gives a person time to think.”

“She used to tell me the same thing when I was sixteen. I didn’t believe her then either.”

Sixteen.

Another piece of the puzzle that was Zoey. Matt realized that getting to know her was going to take time. And patience.

Somehow, he knew it would be worth the effort.

“Does Gran still hang the sheets outside on the line to dry?”

“Every Monday morning, April through October.” Matt’s heart contracted at the pensive look on Zoey’s face.

“I always wondered where Gran got all her energy,” she said. “Grandpa used to say that just watching her made him want to take a nap.”

“I know, she amazes me,” Matt agreed. “You are going to have quite a challenge convincing her to rest, you know.”

“I already figured that out.” Zoey’s lips curved into a smile. “She said that she needs something to do, so I told her that giving me orders definitely falls into that category.”

Matt laughed. “You are a wise woman, Zoey Decker.”

The smile faded.

“You don’t agree?” Seeing the shadow that skimmed across Zoey’s expressive face, Matt pushed a little, wondering where the question would take him.

She put the last plate back in the cupboard. “I think we’re done here.”

Matt inwardly winced.

Right into a brick wall, that’s where it had taken him.

“You’re working too hard.”

Oops.

Zoey glanced over her shoulder and saw her grandmother standing a few feet away, arms folded over her chest.

The last time Zoey had checked, Liz had fallen asleep on the sofa while watching one of her favorite afternoon programs. Zoey had hoped to finish mopping the floor in the front hallway before she woke up.

“I like to keep busy.” It was the truth. And it kept her thoughts from straying to her grandmother’s next-door neighbor.

Most of the time, anyway.

To her relief, Matt had left right after they’d finishing cleaning up the kitchen the night before. Unfortunately, his absence hadn’t prevented his smile from continuing to linger in her thoughts.

Throughout the night and right into the next day.

“What are your plans for the rest of the afternoon?” Gran’s voice tugged Zoey back to the present.

“I thought I would put in a few loads of laundry and start supper. Straighten up the parlor before your friends arrive.” Zoey saw the tiny frown that appeared on Liz’s brow. “Unless you have something else you’d rather have me do?”

“I want you to take a walk,” Liz said. “You’ve been cooped up in the house with me all day.”

“I like being cooped up with you.” And taking a walk definitely increased the possibility of running into people Zoey remembered from the past.

People who remembered
her.

Zoey wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

“That’s very sweet, Zoey, but I do admit to having an ulterior motive.”

Zoey grinned. “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true.” Her grandmother’s eyes twinkled. “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind running a quick errand for me while you were out.”

Zoey sucked in a breath. Released it slowly. This was the reason she had come back to Mirror Lake, she reminded herself. To help Gran out. “Of course not. What do you need?”

“I looked at the pattern Delia dropped off last night and I’ll need two more skeins of yarn for our next knitting project. I wouldn’t be in such a rush if the group wasn’t meeting here tonight.”

See what you got yourself into, Zoey? And you have no one to blame but yourself!

“Some of the girls order their yarn off the Internet now, but I always buy mine at the variety store,” Liz was saying. “It carries a good selection and I like to support the local businesses.”

The variety store. On Main Street.

“Sure.” Zoey forced a smile. “I can go as soon as I finish the floor, if you’d like.”

“Whatever works best for you, sweetheart.”

To get the errand over with as quickly as possible, that’s what worked best, Zoey thought. Before she could change her mind, she asked the question that she didn’t want to ask.

“Can you think of anything else you’d like me to do while I’m out and about?” If Gran needed a prescription refilled or cream for her morning coffee, Zoey preferred to accomplish everything in one trip.

Liz tipped her head. “Come to think of it, there
is
something else. Did I mention that I’ve been the choir director at Church of the Pines for the past few years?”

“No, you didn’t.” But Zoey wasn’t surprised—her grandmother had a beautiful voice. She remembered Liz singing praise songs as she worked around the house. Grandpa Jonathan would whistle along, enthusiastic but off-key.

“Every day is a celebration,” Liz would say. “You can always find a reason to praise God.”

On the outside, Zoey had rolled her eyes. What she hadn’t realized was that on the inside, the words had been planted like seeds in her soul, lying dormant until the right conditions caused them to sprout.

“Diana Riggs took over the choir while I was in the hospital, but she’s going out of town for the weekend. She knows I like to tie in the songs with Matthew’s sermon.” Zoey braced herself, knowing what was coming next. She knew, she just
knew,
that Gran’s second errand would somehow involve Matt. “She asked if I’d look over the music she selected for this Sunday’s service.”

“No problem.” Zoey tried to hide her relief. “Where does Diana live?”

“Oh, the music isn’t at her house. She left it at the church, along with Matthew’s sermon notes. Do you mind stopping by and picking them up?”

Yes.

“No,” Zoey said weakly. “Of course not.”

“Wonderful.” Gran’s response was much more enthusiastic.

“I’ll have a pot of tea ready by the time you get back.”

Fifteen minutes later, Zoey shrugged on her navy-blue pea coat and was on her way out the door. The temperature had slowly crept into the upper forties so she decided to take her grandmother’s advice and walk downtown instead of drive.

Mirror Lake hadn’t changed much from what she could see. Like many other small communities in the northern part of the state, it had flourished during the lumber era but gradually dwindled in size and population. But local pride ran as deep as the roots of the towering pine trees. The town’s turn-of-the-century charm had been preserved in the sturdy brick buildings that lined both sides of Main Street. Businesses catered more to locals than the tourists who kept to the main highways. The lake itself wasn’t large enough to appeal to people who wanted a vacation spot that offered more than beautiful sunsets and a quiet place to fish.

There were no fast-food restaurants. No shopping malls.

As a teenager, Zoey had thought it was the end of nowhere.

A mission school in Africa had seemed more appealing at the time, if her parents would have agreed to take her with them.

Zoey tried to shake the thought away, but it clung like a burr to her soul. It had been the final rejection. Her parents leaving her in Mirror Lake.

They’d claimed it was for the best, but Zoey knew the truth. The decision had been the best one for
them.
She’d disappointed them in so many ways, she didn’t blame them for not wanting to deal with her anymore.

Zoey had vowed to make them sorry for leaving her behind, but in the end she was the one who had been sorry.

The bell above the door of the variety store announced her arrival and brought a woman rushing out of the back room.

“Can I help you find something?” The smile was friendly. The face unfamiliar.

“I’m looking for the yarn.” Zoey’s hands fisted inside of her coat pockets.

“Second aisle, all the way down on your left. If you need help, just give me a holler.”

“Thank you.” Zoey quickly retreated as two more customers came in, stomping the slush from their shoes as they chatted.

She located the craft section and glanced at the length of yarn tied around her wrist in order to find its match on the shelf.

“Did you hear that Decker girl is back in town?”

Zoey froze as the two women who had come into the store made their way down the next aisle. She couldn’t see their faces, but their voices carried through the shelves that separated them.

“I can’t believe she’d even show her face in Mirror Lake again. Especially after what she did.”

“Apparently she moved back in with her grandmother. You’d think Liz would know better.”

“It sure didn’t work out the last time she tried it.”

“I heard that Liz just got out the hospital a few days ago. Maybe she doesn’t feel well enough to show her the door.”

“Well, hopefully someone’s keeping an eye on Liz. To make sure she doesn’t get taken advantage of…”

The conversation faded as the women turned down another aisle.

Until now, Zoey hadn’t realized how much she’d been holding onto the hope that time and distance might have softened peoples’ hearts. Changed their perspective a little.

But then again, why should it? She still carried the memory of the accident with her every single day.

Tucking two skeins of yarn under her arm, Zoey hurried up to the cash register before the women finished their shopping and circled back to the front of the store.

The woman behind the counter, however, seemed determined to prolong the transaction. “This shade of green is very pretty. What are you going to make with it?”

“I don’t knit. I’m buying the yarn for someone else.” Zoey resisted the urge to scoot around the counter and ring up the purchase herself.

“Did you see the coupon in the newspaper this week? With a ten dollar purchase, you get a free votive candle.”

“I don’t have a coupon…”

“Don’t worry about that,” the clerk said cheerfully. “I always put a few extra aside, just for customers like you…somewhere.” She began to sift through a sheaf of loose papers on the counter.

“That’s all right.” A note of desperation crept into Zoey’s voice. “You can save the coupon for someone else.”

The two women rounded the aisle and paused for a moment in front of the candy bar display.

“Here it is!” A colorful strip of paper spun across the counter. “Now, I’ll just need some information for our mailing list. What is your name?”

“Zoey Decker.” Zoey kept her voice low.

“Oh! Are you by any chance related to Liz Decker?” The clerk’s eyes brightened with curiosity.

The women behind her stopped chatting. And Zoey was suddenly struck from behind by an invisible wave of disapproval.

“She’s my grandmother.”

“I know Liz.” The clerk’s smile widened. “When my husband and I moved here last year, she invited us to church. She’s a very special lady. You’re blessed to call her family.”

“I know.” If only Gran could say the same thing about her.

“Your total is ten dollars and fifty-three cents. You can choose your favorite color—”

“Here you go.” Zoey paid for the yarn, snatched up a yellow candle and fled.

“Matthew!” Liz put down the magazine she’d been thumbing through with a smile of delight. “I didn’t expect to see you this afternoon.”

“I had to pick up something at home and thought I’d stop in and say hello.” Matt leaned down and planted a kiss on Liz’s cheek.

“Sit down for a few minutes.” Liz patted the spot next to her on the velvet sofa. “I was just reading. Again.”