Small-Town Mom (11 page)

Eli’s correction revived the quiver in her stomach. It was silly. She’d simply enjoyed working with someone who seemed to like home improvement work as much as she did. Someone who wasn’t in a rush to get it done and over with like Myles. Or, she had to admit it, like John had been. That’s all. There was no need to let herself be bothered about it.

“Okay.” She relented. “A cheeseburger special on Friday. Let’s get washed up. All of this talk of food has me starved now, too.”

Jamie led him down into the living room, catching her reflection in the mirror decorating the wall next to the open stairway. She ran her hand over her hair. The humidity in the attic had turned it into a tousled riot of curls.

“Hi, Mommy!” Opal greeted them from the front doorway.

Jamie stopped in mid-step and Eli almost crashed into her. Her gaze flew to the clock on the DVR. She hadn’t been keeping track of time. Her first thought was that she’d missed the girls’ pick-up time, which wasn’t like her.
No, it was only one fifteen.
She wasn’t supposed to pick them up for another hour. She placed her hand on her chest. She hadn’t given the girls a thought all morning.

“Hi, sweetie. Is everything okay?” Jamie descended the last three stairs. She looked past Opal for Rose, afraid her knee might have kicked out again. Rose had chaffed about taking it easy as the PA had instructed.

“Everything’s fine.” Charlotte Russell followed Opal in with her daughter, Katy, and Rose. “The presentation at the Fort was shorter than expected. Sonja called all of the parents but didn’t get an answer here.”

“She must have called the house phone. We were in the attic putting up insulation.”

“I see.” Charlotte’s gaze moved from Jamie to Eli.

Jamie’s heart dropped. Charlotte Russell was one of the biggest gossips in Essex County. She hated to think what the woman might be making of her not answering the phone and walking down the stairs with Eli looking somewhat disheveled. Jamie had always thought privately that Charlotte was unhappy in her life and wanted others to be as miserable as she was. Let Charlotte think whatever she wanted to think. Jamie looked up at the ceiling.
But please don’t let her share it.

“Since you picked up Katy this morning when her father’s car wouldn’t start, I figured I’d bring the girls.” Charlotte’s reference to her estranged husband dripped with distaste.

“Thanks.”

Opal broke the silence that enveloped the room. “This is Mommy’s friend Mr. Payton. He likes to come over and help us with things.”

Jamie cringed. Opal was not helping the situation.

“I know Mr. Payton.” If the silence in the room a minute ago was disconcerting, the chill that had taken its place was almost paralyzing.

“Charlie.” Eli used a nickname Jamie hadn’t heard anyone else use.

“Eli.”

Jamie realized that Eli hadn’t moved from his place halfway up the stairs. There was definitely some history between the two.

“Thanks again for bringing Rose and Opal home.”

“Yes, we’d better get going.”

“But, Mom,” her daughter Katy said. “I thought you were going to check with Rose’s mother about letting me stay here while you go grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping.”

“I’m sure it’s okay,” Rose said. “Right, Mom?”

“Not today.” Charlotte turned Katy toward the door and hustled her out.

Jamie had a sinking feeling not any other day, either, as long as she and Eli were friends.

* * *

Eli pounded down the stairs, a vein pulsing in his temple. He faced Rose and Jamie. “I’m sorry.”

The little girl looked at him then at her mother and scratched her cheek.

“For spoiling your plans.”

Rose tilted her head to one side and pursed her lips.

He wasn’t any better at talking with Rose than he was at talking with her mother. But—he thought about their bowling match and installing the insulation—he and Jamie did work well together. Maybe he should just avoid talking.

“Are you hungry?” Jamie asked with a forced cheerfulness that, from the looks on their faces, didn’t fool Rose and Opal any more than it fooled him. “I know you had lunch at the fort, but I bought your favorite cookies this morning. There’s one for each of you in the bakery box in the upper cupboard.” She gave the doorway to the dining room a pointed look.

“Okay. Come on, Opal.” Rose shot Jamie a befuddled look.

“I’m sorry about that.” Eli repeated himself. “Old bad feelings.” Feelings he’d thought he’d moved past.

Jamie bit her lip and nodded. “I need to see to the girls. The bath is down the hall. I can clean up in the kitchen.”

Jamie’s apparent need to put some space between them cut him. He took his time walking down the hall. He’d forgiven Charlie for her lies. But when he’d seen the look of panic on Jamie’s face and Rose’s disappointment, he’d almost lost it. It had taken all of his control not to physically remove Charlie from Jamie’s house. Fortunately, with some help from above, his rational side had prevailed.

Eli turned the water on full force and lathered his hands. Charlie could be vindictive and, according to his mother, she was a terrible gossip. The last thing he wanted was for Charlie to shred Jamie’s reputation to get back at him. He’d done a lot of things he wasn’t proud of when he was a teen but not what Charlie had accused him of. He shut off the hot water and splashed cold on his face. It didn’t even begin to cool him down. He dried his hands and face and mentally armed himself to face Jamie. When he’d returned to Paradox Lake, he’d prayed that his past would remain in the past.

“Mr. Payton.” Opal skipped up the hall to him. “I made you a sandwich. All by myself. Right here.” She motioned to the table as they entered the kitchen. “You can sit by me.” She hopped up on a chair.

Eli’s gaze went to Jamie. Her back to the table and him, she busied herself wiping down the counter in short, fast swipes.

“Come on,” Opal urged. “Try your sandwich.”

Still focused on Jamie, Eli took the seat next to Opal.

“It’s ham and cheese with special sauce,” she said.

He bowed his head in a quick blessing before lifting the sandwich to his mouth.

“Mr. Payton is saying grace before he eats like we used to,” Opal informed Rose in a loud whisper.

Jamie slapped the sponge against the counter.

Each swipe emphasized the spiritual gap between them, the same kind of gap that had hastened his and his former fiancee’s breakup. He bit into his sandwich, chewing without tasting. “Special sauce, you say?”

Opal nodded. “I made up the recipe myself.”

“It’s mustard and mayonnaise,” Rose said.

“You’re not supposed to tell. It’s my secret recipe.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

“I won’t tell.” Eli looked back at Jamie, who was wringing out the sponge so hard he expected her to tear it in half. “Aren’t you going to join us?”

She placed the sponge on the back of the sink in a precise line with the corner. “I’m not very hungry.”

“After all the hard work we did upstairs, you’re not hungry?” he teased.

She exhaled. “A glass of milk will be fine.” She walked to the seat opposite him and filled the glass sitting at that place with milk.

“I already poured your milk,” Opal pointed at the glass in front of Eli.

“Thanks.” He hadn’t even noticed it.

Jamie sipped her drink. “Did you have a good time at the fort?”

“Yes!” Rose said. “We got to go on a special tour, not the lame one we went on with school.”

Jamie focused completely on Rose as the little girl relayed her morning detail by detail. And Eli focused on Jamie. The stiff way she held herself. The smile that didn’t reach her eyes when she commented on Rose’s description of the morning. His anger simmered, whether still at Charlie or at the undercurrent of blame he felt from the way Jamie was acting he wasn’t sure. He and Jamie hadn’t done anything wrong.

He washed the last of his sandwich down with milk. “I’d better get back to work.” He pushed his chair back and rose.

“You really don’t need to.” Jamie ran her finger up and down her empty milk tumbler. “I mean, we made such good progress this morning. I’m sure Myles and I can finish it. You probably have other things you want to do today.”

The camaraderie they’d shared this morning had vanished like the morning mist on the mountains on a hot July day.

“I could finish it myself this afternoon.”

“No, really, Myles and I can do it.” Jamie’s gaze flitted from him to Rose to Opal and back to him.

He took that to mean end of discussion. “I’ll be going, then.”

“Doesn’t Mr. Payton get a cookie?” Opal asked.

He didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but it would buy him more time with Jamie.

She drew her lips into a thin line.

“No, not today. That will leave more for you and your sister.” He winked and Opal giggled.

“Bye, Mr. Payton,” Opal and Rose said.

“Bye.”

“I’ll get your coat.” Jamie walked him to the door. “Thanks for all of your help.” She handed him his jacket.

He pulled it on and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “See you Friday. Bowling.”

“Yeah, if I can make it. With kids, you never know what will come up.”

As he walked to his truck, he had a gut feeling that something would come up, which bothered him more than it should.

Chapter Eight

“N
ice work, Mom.” Myles slammed his backpack on the floor, startling Jamie so that she almost dropped the basket of laundry she was carrying.

“Hey,” she said sharply before she saw the pain in his eyes and the tear in the pocket of his coat. She put the basket on the table and softened her voice. “What?”

“The kids at school were talking about Mr. Payton’s new girlfriend.
You!
They were all looking at me in the hall. Don’t you ever think about anyone but yourself?” Myles pushed by her.

She grabbed his arm. “Stop right there. You’re upset, but that doesn’t give you the right to yell at me. Do you want to talk about it?” She was sure
all
of the kids weren’t talking about them. But someone must have said something that had really gotten to Myles.

He pulled away from her. “What’s there to talk about? You and Mr. Payton are having a thing and I didn’t even know it. You’re such a hypocrite, sneaking around behind my back. I had to slug Liam Russell for some of the stuff he implied about you.”

Charlotte’s son.
If Myles weren’t so upset and his words hadn’t tied her stomach in knots, she could have smiled at his paternalistic outrage.

“Sit down. Now. Please.”

He grabbed a chair, threw himself into it and glared at her. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to get a call about me fighting. The other guys broke it up before anyone saw us.”

She pulled out the chair next to him and sat. “Get this straight. Mr. Payton and I aren’t having a thing. We aren’t sneaking around on anyone.”

“That’s not what Liam said.”

The knot in her stomach tightened. Myles was going to believe a kid at school over her? Of course he was. Myles was a fourteen-year-old boy, and Charlotte’s son Liam was a senior and the school’s star athlete.

“He said his mother brought Rose and Opal home and you and Mr. Payton came down from upstairs looking all guilty when you heard them come in.”

She crossed her arms. “His mother told him that?”

“No, he heard her talking on the phone.”

Terrific! The whole town probably knew by now.
“Mr. Payton and I were insulating the attic. You knew that.”

Myles avoided her gaze. “You left the bowling alley with him Friday night. They all saw you.”

Jamie had no idea who “they” were or that so many people were interested in her every move. “Eli walked me to the car. We’re on the same team with Karen and Tom Hill.”

Myles pounded the table with his fist. “What about Dad? Have you forgotten all about him?”

So, that’s what was at the bottom of this.
She could worry about the gossip Charlotte was spreading about her later. Her baby was hurting.

She reached over and put her hand on top of his. “I know you miss your dad. I miss him, too.”

He shook off her hand. “Yeah, right. Mr. Payton isn’t half the man Dad was. You know Liam’s older brother, Brett? Mr. Payton is his father but he won’t own up to it. Liam said so.”

“Stop! You don’t know that’s true.”

Eli wouldn’t abandon a child, although he wouldn’t have been much more than a child himself when Brett was born. And a pretty wild one from what he’d said. No, if nothing else, Leah Summers would have made him take responsibility for his actions. Unless that’s why he joined the Air Force. He’d said the service had saved him. Was that what he’d been saved from? It would explain the tension between him and Charlotte on Saturday. Her thoughts ricocheted off each other, threatening to explode into a killer headache.

“And you don’t know it’s not true. I can tell by the way you’re thinking about it.”

“Enough!” She stood and shoved the clothes basket across the table to him. “Put your laundry away. I have to go pick up Rose and Opal from Girl Scouts. We can talk when I get back.”

“How do you know I’ll be here when you get back?”

She didn’t. She breathed in deeply. “Because I trust you to be here.”

“Fine.” He grabbed the basket and left the room.

She’d count that as one for her side.

Jamie bundled up and stepped out onto the porch. Sleet stung her cheeks. It looked like the January thaw they’d been enjoying was over, as if she didn’t have enough on her mind without the weather turning on her. She gritted her teeth and walked gingerly down the iced-over sidewalk to her vehicle. She knew how to drive well enough in icy winter weather, but she didn’t have to like it.

As she approached the end of the driveway, she heard the humming, scraping sound of the snowplow spreading salt on the road. She loosened her grip on the steering wheel and pulled out behind the plow, wishing she’d bought the new tires the crossover needed with her last paycheck, rather than putting it off until the next one.

While she waited for the plow to turn on State Route 74, Jamie lifted one gloved hand from the steering wheel and flexed it and then the other. She pressed the accelerator to follow the plow. Her car stalled. She turned the key to restart it. The engine made a feeble vroom and stopped. Jamie pressed the button for her hazard light. The signal on the dashboard didn’t flash.