California Homecoming (13 page)

She hit the jackpot in the next store — a dozen sepia-toned paintings of someone’s aged and grumpy relatives. They would be perfect for the hallway and stairs. Her other find was a cut glass ceiling lamp to light the entryway.

Packages safely in the trunk, she drove out to the edge of town, parked in the lot and stared at the waves hitting the sand while letting her thoughts come uncensored.

The weekend had been a strain. For all she hoped for a reconciliation with Rick, they hadn’t made any progress. If anything, they were further apart. She’d have to work harder. Her baby deserved every chance in the world to succeed. Rick was right. Studies showed kids with two parents did better than those with only one.

At least that’s what some research said. She imagined if both parents were addicts, other options might be better.

California it might be, but the sun still went down early in the winter. As she drove north, Sarah’s spirits drooped with the darkening day. She passed the exit to the inn and went down to the seaside shops of Costanoa. She needed a drink with a friend, even if the drink was tea and her friend was the waitress serving it to her.

Costanoa Grill was empty except for a few patrons watching a basketball game on the bar television. Sarah spotted Mandy and waved. Mandy pointed to a window table and mouthed, “It’s mine.”

Sarah gratefully lowered herself into the wooden chair. Although she’d slept in, her lack of a nap was beginning to catch up with her.

“What’ll it be?” Mandy asked. “How was your weekend?”

“Tea. Tense.”

“Chamomile for you, my girl.” Mandy slid a menu onto the table. “You should eat something.”

“I had a late lunch at Ben’s, the new restaurant in Rio del Mar.”

“Then you definitely need dinner.”

Sarah’s stomach rumbled in response.

“See? I’ll be right back.” Mandy dashed off to another corner of the restaurant.

Sarah stared out the window at the small shops that made up the town. Across the street was a tiny, but elegantly appointed inn. She knew from talking with her mother that it was doing well.

I hope my inn will be as successful.

Mandy placed a pot of tea on the table, along with a cup and a tea caddy with a variety of individual packets and sweeteners. A creamer and saucer of lemons were set beside it.

Sarah stared at the bounty. “I hadn’t thought about what I needed for tea service.”

Mandy slid in the chair across from her. “Me either. It makes me wonder what else I left off your list.”

Sarah laughed. “I’m sure opening the inn will be an adventure. As long as we have enough paper towels and toilet paper we should be fine!” She poured her tea, using the chamomile Mandy had suggested.

“So — tense, how?”

Leaning back, Sarah sipped her tea before she answered. Mandy was at work, they weren’t getting into a long discussion. And she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to share.

“Spill.” Mandy must have sensed her hesitation.

“I’m confused. I should be doing everything I can to make sure my baby has an intact home. But I say things that upset Rick and we wind up fighting. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

“Maybe it’s not you. It takes two to tango — remember?”

“But it
is
me. I can’t seem to keep my thoughts to myself.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t do this all by yourself. He has to accept you the way you are. What kind of parent is he going to be if he gets mad every time he doesn’t like what he’s hearing?”

Sarah put down her cup. She’d never looked at it that way.

“What do I do?” Her voice was musky with tears.

“Can you talk to your mother? Annie?”

Sarah shook her head. “Like I said, Mom has her own perspective on this matter. If I talked to Annie without Mom? Are you kidding?”

Mandy frowned. “You’ve got a point.” She stood. “Wait a minute. Both Annie and your mother talked to someone. A life coach, I think. She may be able to help.”

“Maybe.”

A patron at another table signaled for Mandy. “Got to run. I recommend the crab cakes.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“I’ll put the order in.”

I wish the rest of my life was this easy.

Her phone rang. Sarah glanced at the number on her screen. Her mother.

She let it go to voicemail.

• • •

The next morning Sarah rose with determination. She was going to stop letting other people derail her life. She didn’t need to talk to a life coach or a therapist. What she needed to do was put some steel in her spine and get things done.

An hour later, she was stymied. The plaster lath behind the wallpaper in the entry hall wasn’t strong enough to hold her hooks. In fact, all she’d managed to do was put several large holes in the walls. As for the light fixture, she had no idea how to get power to that part of the room without electrocuting herself.

She sighed. She was going to have to hire an electrician.

The one thing she could do was work on marketing. She walked away from the mess, brewed a cup of tea, and settled in her office. As she was bringing up the website to work on it, her cell phone rang again. She glanced at the readout and let it go to voicemail.

Her mother could get answers from Rick if she wanted them so badly. Sarah didn’t know what to say.

An hour later, a knock on the door disturbed her progress.

She expected to see her mother, but when she opened the door she was surprised to see Hunter standing there. She smiled. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.”

They looked at each other for a long moment, but the silence wasn’t unpleasant.

“Is your — ” he began.

“Rick? No, he’s not. He doesn’t live here.”

Hunter pursed his lips, opened his mouth as if to ask something and shut it again.

The cool morning air began to seep into the house and she shivered.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t make you stand her with the door open. “I stopped by to see if you needed any help. As a friend, I mean. Nothing more. I’m at loose ends waiting for another sheetrock job and figured you could use some help. Any more leaky faucets?” He grinned, but there was a question in the smile.

“You said you were familiar with electricity. What
exactly
do you know about electricity?”

“You mean other than turning it off before you start work?”

Damn.
He wasn’t going to be able to help. She so wanted to have him around.

I shouldn’t be having these thoughts.
She looked at Hunter and warmth flooded her body.

No need to think about it now.

He glanced at the entryway walls. “Looks like you went looking for wires.”

“No.” She followed his gaze and grimaced. “I was trying to hang hooks.”

“Tough to do on plaster lath.”

“So I discovered.” She shivered again. “I don’t think there’s anything to help with if you don’t know much about electricity. Thanks for stopping by.”

“Wait!” he said as she started to close the door. “I can handle electricity. I was just kidding around.”

“Really?” The corners of her lips lifted. “Come in! Let me make you some coffee!”

He chuckled. “What do I get if I know how to fix those holes?”

“Leftover chocolate torte from the Costanoa Grill?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Daisy raced from her spot in the drawing room, barked excitedly, and stood on her hind legs, her paws on Hunter’s shoulders.

“Hi there, Daisy,” Hunter said. “But you better get down. Not a good habit to get into. I’m sure the highfalutin people visiting Sarah’s Inn wouldn’t take too kindly to being pawed.”

Daisy obediently got down.

Sarah raised her eyebrows. “Highfalutin?”

Hunter laughed. “One of brass was an older guy from the south. He had some really strange expressions. I guess I adopted a few.”

“I guess, but if I don’t solve my electric problems, I’m not going to have guests of any kind.”

“At your service, ma’am. Although I have to say … ” He looked around the bare room with a grin. “Some furniture would do as well.”

She laughed and joy eased the tension from her shoulders.

Once she’d set the coffee and cake on the kitchen table, she sat down with him.

“Still planning on a slow open for the spring?” he asked.

She nodded, breaking off a piece of cake with her fork. “Mandy and I — you met her at the work party — are going to an auction next week in Livermore. I hope to find enough pieces to furnish at least one bedroom and the sitting room. Why don’t you come with us? We could use a strong back.”

As soon as she said it, she regretted it. She had no right. In fact, Rick had specifically asked her not to date while she was trying to work things out with him.

It wasn’t a date. Not really. But still …

Hunter shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m here to help, as a — ”

“I know, as a friend.”

“My going with you to Livermore could be misconstrued. Especially, by your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. Rick’s the father of my baby.”

Hunter looked pointedly at Sarah’s waist. “You can’t be that far along. So he was someone to you fairly recently. I’m not sure why you’re making that distinction if you’re seeing him again. You are, aren’t you?”

She stared at the table top, unsure how to answer, except there was nothing to do but tell the truth. Taking a deep breath, she plunged in.

“I found out I was pregnant in December. I’m due in August. Yes. Rick and I were together then. But as soon as I told him about the baby he wanted no part of it.”

“And now?” Hunter gazed at her steadily, seeming unafraid of her answer.

She looked down at the table. “Now? I don’t know. We’re trying. He’s coming out every other weekend. But … ”

She didn’t know what to say.

“Well, you have to give it a chance.” His face was stoic, as if he was hiding his disappointment.

Anger flashed, although she wasn’t quite sure why. He was only saying what she’d said to herself. “Why? My mother raised me fine after my dad died.”

“Rick is alive.” Hunter sipped his coffee.

She fumed. He shouldn’t be on Rick’s side. “What about you? You told me your parents didn’t love each other, but they stayed together. Was that better for you or not?”

He put down his coffee cup and looked out the window. “I really can’t answer that.” He stood up and added, “How about you show me where you want this new lamp of yours.”

He was nuts.

Hunter fed the 2 × 6 through the table saw. The smell of pine rose from the spinning blade and he breathed deeply, soothed by the aroma of creation. Only a few more cuts and then he’d be able to stain the pieces with a dark walnut he’d picked up yesterday when he’d gotten supplies to fix Sarah’s wall.

His lips curled as he remembered how Sarah had tried to help him with the lamp. He’d finally had to send her off to do something else before she hurt herself. It had taken a chunk of the next day to fix the walls.

His smile slipped. The whole thing had been great until he’d finished and was ready to go. She’d given him an impromptu hug as a thank you. It had taken all the will he had to simply accept the gesture instead of pulling her into his arms and kissing Rick out of her memory.

Damn!
The blade whined as it hit a knot and broke the final few inches of the board he’d been cutting. He shut off the saw and examined the damage.

“What are you doing in here?” Joe asked as he stuck his head in the room. “You’re going to wake the dead with all that noise.”

“Knot.”

“Bummer. You going to need to redo it?”

Hunter shook his head. “It broke on the scrap side.”

Joe came in and leaned against the wall. He looked like he had when they’d been in junior high together. All he needed was a cigarette to match the cool-guy look. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“Nothing. Just working with the wood.”

“Hey. Remember me. I’ve known you most of your life. When you were sick over what was her name in eighth grade?”

“Mariah?”

“Yeah, her. You’ve got the same look.”

Hunter rolled his eyes. He set up two sawhorses and began to lay out the strips of wood across them. “Where’s the Shop-Vac?”

“Nope. Not telling you,” Joe said.

“C’mon. I got to get the dust out of here before I start staining. You know that.”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on with you.”

“I told you. Nothing’s going on.”

“I would have thought you’d learn to lie better overseas,” Joe said with a big grin on his face. “You were always terrible at it and you haven’t gotten any better.”

Hunter glared at him. “Shop-Vac.”

“I’ll sic Mary on you.”

Hunter didn’t stand a chance against Joe’s wife and he knew it. He leaned against the workbench and wiped his hands with a rag. “I’ve had the stupid luck to become attracted to a woman who is pregnant and hasn’t decided whether she wants the father around or not.” He glanced up at Joe. “Satisfied?”

“Ah, the innkeeper.”

“The innkeeper.”

“You’re so — ”

“Yeah.”

“Shop-Vac’s in the other room. I got a burst of energy and cleaned. Mary was happy.” As Hunter went to retrieve the vacuum, Joe called out after him. “So what are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re not going to fight for her? She’s still free until she’s got a ring on her finger.”

“She’s
pregnant
.”

“And alone.”

“Kinda.”

Joe cocked his head and Hunter took the opportunity to rev up the machine and clear out the sawdust. The simple task gave him a measure of satisfaction.

He was accomplishing something, no matter how small.

Joe didn’t leave. Instead, he waited until Hunter was finished.

Hunter pursued every last speck of sawdust with the vacuum.

Joe didn’t move. If anything, his grin got bigger.

When the machine finally wound down, Joe asked, “What do you mean ‘kinda’?”

Studiously putting the machine back where he found it, Hunter tried to think of the best reply.

“It means,” he said with a sigh, “that the ex is sniffing around.”