An Unexpected Suitor (12 page)

“Your turn, sir,” Jasper said, relinquishing his place at the churn.

Harry pushed back his hat and scratched his forehead as he studied the situation. “Seems to me, boys, that if we moved this thing onto that table there out of the sun, the ice wouldn’t melt so fast and we’d be in the shade as well.”

Billy gave his head a smack. “Now why didn’t we think of that?” With Jasper’s help, he heaved the churn onto the table next to Nola. “Guess that’s why you’re the one in charge, right, boss?” he teased.

“Guess so,” Harry replied and he finally looked directly at Nola.

“Anyone for lemonade?” Ellie called.

Billy’s hand shot up as he and Jasper headed for the kitchen door.

“Excellent,” Ellie said with a grin. “Come inside and squeeze the lemons for me.”

Once the others had gone inside, Harry concentrated on churning the ice cream and silently thanked Ellie for giving him this moment alone with Nola.

“I should go help,” Nola said.

But when she made a move to rise, she faltered. Immediately Harry reached for her, steadied her and eased her back onto the chair. “I’m pretty sure that even a bunch of actors can handle making a pitcher of lemonade,” he said. “Looks like you’re not yet fully recovered.”

“Just a bit dizzy. My father would have said I don’t quite have my land legs yet.” She leaned back in the chair.

“Must have been hard on your mother with your father being off to sea so much,” Harry commented as he returned to his churning but kept one eye on Nola.

“My mother had a difficult life.”

“And you?”

He saw her eyes widen at the unexpected question.

“My life has been just fine,” she replied, but she sounded less confident than she had in the past.

“Don’t you ever have dreams for a different future, Nola?”

She folded her arms around herself as if the balmy temperature had suddenly dropped by several degrees. “My dream is to stay here. You’re the one who went dashing off to find adventure. Did you find what you wanted?”

Harry shrugged and continued churning. “Maybe.”

“There’s no denying that you’ve certainly made your mark. To be such a success in business and also—”

“My business success is nothing more than a means to an end.”

“To what end?”

“To earn enough money so that I can comfortably devote the rest of my life to writing for the stage—to creating plays devoted to teaching God’s lessons while entertaining the audience.” He stopped churning and untied the bandanna from around his neck, then used it to wipe his brow. Stuff
ing the bandanna into one pocket, he pulled out the sheet of music from the other. “You dropped this at church this morning.”

He watched as she unfolded the single sheet, saw her cheeks color slightly and heard the barest intake of her breath as she realized what he’d found. “Thank you,” she murmured and quickly refolded the page and tucked it into the pocket of her skirt.

“I’d like to give that melody a try in rehearsal, Nola. If you don’t mind.”

“No, it’s not nearly ready—not nearly good enough.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Harry replied, then grinned. “Like my operetta. Give it some thought, Nola.” He returned to the churning. “Almost ready,” he said, removing the top to test the ice cream. “You made enough for an army here. No wonder it took so much churning.”

“Nola’s going to offer ice cream here in the tearoom garden,” Ellie explained as she arrived with a pitcher of lemonade and set it on the table with the berries and whipped cream. “That’s the test batch. Mimi,” she called back toward the kitchen, “ice cream is ready for tasting. Bring out the cake.”

Harry looked down at Nola who met his gaze with defiance. “It will be good for business,” she informed him. “We need to attract a younger clientele.”

“I didn’t say a word,” he pointed out, then offered her his arm to escort her to the table where the others were already cutting hunks of lemon pound cake and placing them in bowls.

“Jasper and I are going to the beach,” Billy announced once they’d each prepared a sundae and taken a seat around the long table. “Do you girls want to come?”

Harry saw that this was directed at the Kowalski twins who eagerly accepted.

“Ellie?” Billy asked when he realized she hadn’t been included.

Ellie laughed. “That’s for you young people,” she replied. “I’m going to take the rest of this afternoon for a nice walk and then some reading.”

“Countess?”

Olga lifted one eyebrow. “I walk in the evenings…alone.”

“Right,” Billy murmured. “I forgot.”

“Nola? How about you?” Jasper asked.

“Sounds like an excellent idea,” Harry said before Nola could answer. “Salt air and sunshine will do you good. You four go along. Miss Nola and I will see you down there once we get everything squared away here,” he announced.

Instead of looking at Nola for agreement, he polished off the rest of his sundae and began gathering empty dishes onto a tray. “You’re not planning on being open during the clambake? Everyone will be down at the beach, not here in town.”

“Not everyone. But no, the tearoom will not be open. How could I deny these wonderful souls the pleasure of an old-fashioned clambake?” She smiled at Billy as he scraped the bottom of his bowl and added it to Harry’s stack.

“Nola’s going to give away free samples of her ice cream at the clambake,” he said. “It’s her way of advertising the opening of her ice cream parlor.”

“Really?” Harry couldn’t help but be impressed. The woman had a head for business. He’d give her that.

“Well, not an ice cream parlor per se. I mean the plan is to use the garden here for the occasional ice cream social. Something for the younger set to enjoy.”

Harry glanced around at the space. “You’ll need more tables,” he said more to himself than to her. “I have some
small café tables with matching chairs that I ordered for the cabaret, but they aren’t right for that space. They’d work here, though.”

“I appreciate the offer but I can’t afford to buy new furnishings until I see if the idea is a success,” Nola said.

Harry shrugged. “I was going to send them back. You’d be saving me the cost of that. We’ll work something out,” he assured her and headed off to the kitchen.

“Come on, girls,” Jasper called. “By the time we get back to the cottages to collect our swimwear and then down to the beach the afternoon will be half-gone already. That okay with you, Mr. Starbuck?”

“Fine. Enjoy yourselves.”

Jasper and Billy each took a Kowalski twin by the arm and headed off. Ellie leaned down and kissed Nola’s cheek. “Don’t overdo,” she advised. “Come along, Countess.”

“Olga is quite apprehensive around you,” Nola said once they’d all left. “You do have that effect on people, Harry.” She brushed past him on her way into the kitchen.

“I certainly don’t seem to scare you,” Harry countered as he followed her and set the dirty dishes in the sink.

“I don’t work for you. Olga confided to me recently that she’s concerned about her future in the theater. Now that she’s getting older, she’s aware that roles she might play are limited. And both Jasper and Billy care a great deal about impressing you. It makes them vulnerable. It’s quite a powerful thing to hold a person’s future in your hand.”

“People determine their own futures, Nola. If they do a good job then they’ll succeed. Neither I nor my personal opinion of any one of them has a thing to do with it.” He had always been known as an easygoing if somewhat unconventional employer. A man who asked no more of others than
he expected of himself—and those who worked for him were well aware of that. At the cabaret he had done his fair share of the labor when a worker had fallen ill or been injured. It bothered him that she might think he was some kind of demanding overseer. “Ask anyone who works for me and they will tell you—”

“As I said, I do not work for you.” She ran water into the dishpan. “I’ll see to these later. If you’ll just pack the ice cream in ice, I’ll get my parasol so we can take that walk.”

“Now who’s giving orders,” Harry grumbled as he stalked outside.

From her bedroom window Nola watched as Harry meticulously cleaned up the mess left after making the ice cream. His shirtsleeves were still rolled back and she watched in fascination as he lifted the wooden churn as if it were no heavier than the pitcher of lemonade. He settled it on one shoulder and carried it off to the kitchen. A memory stirred.

That night when she had gone to find her brothers after her mother collapsed and Harry had run for the doctor, he had come back. He had stayed until he was certain her mother was going to be all right. And when he had reluctantly taken his leave, Nola recalled now that her mother had said, “Harrison Starbuck is going to make a fine family man one of these days. In spite of his reputation for rebellion, he cares so deeply about other people—especially people in need.”

Nola couldn’t help wondering what her mother might think of this Harry Starbuck. A minute later he was back in the garden, brushing the caps of the strawberries from the table onto the tray. He glanced around, then tossed them onto the compost heap she kept behind the garden shed.

Licking his fingers, he took a visual tour of the garden as
if to be sure he wasn’t missing something, then satisfied, he gathered the last of the glasses and utensils onto the tray and carried them into the house. The garden was as pristine as it had been earlier that morning. “I’m just getting my jacket,” he called. “I’ll meet you out front.”

The screen door to the kitchen banged shut behind him as he rounded the side of the house, rolling his sleeves down and fastening the cuffs. She couldn’t help noticing the boyish way he chewed on his tongue as he worked the fastening. It made him seem more vulnerable than she’d ever thought him before. Even as a young boy he had always seemed to be perfectly in control. She wondered why he had not yet married and decided that her mother had been wrong about him. The only “family” Harry concerned himself with was the company of actors charged with staging his latest play.

They crossed the footbridge to the stairway in silence, then Harry took her elbow as they started down the stairs. “Thank you,” she murmured, trying hard not to dwell too long on the warmth of his fingers through the thin lawn fabric of her sleeve. When they reached the last step, he immediately released her and walked alongside, his hands clasped behind his back. She couldn’t help recalling the flirtatious way Violet Gillenwater had snaked her hand through the crook of his elbow when the two of them went walking.

“I’m thinking that four small tables each with four chairs will present an inviting environment without appearing too deserted on those occasions—rare, I’m sure—when you have no customers for your ice cream.” It was as if no time at all had passed since he’d first offered the idea of café tables.

“I will make do with what I have, Harry,” Nola said. “But I do thank you for the kind offer.”

“I have a dozen of the things with four chairs for each,
but a dozen in that space would be too much. Six, perhaps—eight at most.”

Nola sighed. “Do you ever listen, Harry Starbuck? I mean it’s no wonder you were in constant trouble at school.” She stopped and faced him, lifting her parasol higher so she was certain he could see her face. “I do not need—or want—your tables and chairs.”

Harry grinned. “Come on, Nola. Of course you do. Do you think these young prima donnas from the city are truly interested in ‘roughing it’? Roughing it for them means going without the upstairs maid for a week. It means dressing themselves for the day without help. It means…”

“I am well aware of the expectations of my clientele, Harry. I am perfectly capable of attending to their needs on my own.”

Harry studied her for a long moment, so long that Nola could feel the sun warm her face through the protection of the parasol.

“That’s your problem, Nola,” he said. “You’ve never allowed yourself to need anyone.” He walked on without her.

Nola stood rooted to the spot where he’d left her. Should she go after him and protest the unfairness of that comment—especially coming from him? Should she return to the tearoom? Should she ignore him and join the others?

Billy was waving at her from the beach. “Nola! Over here!” He indicated two beach chairs that they had placed in the shade of a decaying old shipwreck. “Best seats in the house,” he shouted.

Just then Deedee ran up behind him and dumped a child’s sand bucket filled with sea water over him. Billy gave a cry of alarm and took off after her. The four young people were soon splashing happily in water up to their waists. Nola couldn’t help smiling at their antics.

And what’s so wrong with how I live my life? It gives me pleasure—and purpose—to help others the way I’ve helped these delightful young people. The way I helped my brothers and my sister build lives for themselves when others would have split us apart. The way I’ve…

“I’d like to apologize.”

Nola had been so intent on watching the others and reconstructing her defenses that she hadn’t noticed Harry retracing his steps. He was next to her now, his expression contrite. “What I said—it was unfair. I barely know you, after all.” He grinned and cocked his head to one side. “I wouldn’t mind remedying that, though. It occurs to me, Nola Burns, that if we stop fighting each other, we could be a staggering force for good.”