Colorado Cabin in the Pines (Peakview series Book 3) (2 page)

Penny squinted as the bright Colorado sunlight hit her eyelids. Opening them a tiny crack, she smiled at the dark blue sky outside her window. She had to admit she’d missed waking up to the blue sky over the mountains. All she saw out the bedroom window of her third-floor city apartment in the old brownstone was the brick wall of the building next door. Besides, in Chicago the sky was usually overcast in the morning. Colorado sunrises always made her feel like the whole world was out there waiting to be explored. She leaned back on her pillows, reminding herself that she was on vacation. She could stay in bed as long as she liked. She glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. Nine o’clock already? She didn’t want to waste the whole day. Stretching, she climbed out of bed and wandered downstairs to the aroma of fresh coffee.

“Mornin’ Mom.” Penny surrounded her mom in a hug from behind, placing a kiss on her cheek.

“It’s so good to have you home! Sit down and I’ll get you some breakfast. Did you sleep well?”

Penny reached around her mom to grab a large mug and pour herself some coffee. “I always sleep good in my old bed. So many happy childhood memories surround me in there.”

“Got any plans for your first full day back? Ann set a heaping plate of pancakes in front of her daughter.

Penny laughed. “You are going to make me fat this summer if you keep this up.”

“You look like you could use a little more meat on your bones.”

“Then none of my clothes would fit. My starting teacher’s salary won’t pay for a whole new wardrobe.”

She took a bite of a made-from-scratch pancake and sighed in pleasure. She had missed her mom’s home cooking. “Sure is good though. I’m going to try and just relax for a few days and then get serious about my lesson plans for the coming year. Maybe I’ll take a drive into town, and I want to take Ginger on a long ride later.”

“Did you enjoy your ride last night?”

“Yeah, it felt good to be back in the saddle. Ginger enjoyed going for a run again, too. Even Bandit had fun following along. She reached down to sneak a bite of pancake to her childhood companion, a miniature white and black Australian Shepherd.

“Don’t you be feeding table scraps to that dog. You’ll get her back into the bad habit of begging. She never does that with your dad and me.”

“You know who really loves you don’t you, girl.” Bandit wagged her tail in response. Time to change the subject.

“I met June Walker last night. It’s strange to have a woman at the Walker place, but she seems great.”

“She’s wonderful. She has quickly become one of my closest friends. For an Easterner, she fits right in. Did you see Luke?”

There it was. The question she knew her mom had been dying to ask. She opened the door for that one. “Yeah, working on his cabin. I stopped there for a minute.”

“And…”

“There’s no “and.” Luke and I…that was a long time ago. I’ve put him behind me. I’m sure he’s moved on, too.”

“I’ve never seen him with a girl since you left. June says she worries about him being so alone at his age. He should be out having fun. Such a serious young man. Maybe you two could hang out this summer.”

“Mom, don’t go trying to do any matchmaking. My life is in Chicago. You know this is just a vacation, right.”

“Right. How is Darren, anyway?”

“Darrell. His name is Darrell, mom, and he’s good. You know we’re teaching together next fall. He’s leading a summer program for at-risk youth at the school and working on getting our classrooms set up. I’m thankful that he’s there for the summer, since I decided to escape. Where is Daddy this morning, by the way?”

Since retiring from the Farm Bureau last year, Dad was never far from home.

“He’s probably at Violet’s shooting the breeze with his buddies. He’ll be back in a while.”

“If you don’t mind, maybe I’ll head that way myself. Catch up on the latest Peakview gossip. You want to join me?” Penny put her dishes in the sink and took a last swig of her coffee.

“Thanks, but no. I have a lot of work that I want to get done in the garden today. You go right ahead.

***

Penny pulled her Camaro up in front of Violet’s Café, the one and only hangout in the small mountain town of Peakview—population somewhere around 100. If you wanted to know any local gossip, Violet was your go-to person. She’d run the small café since before Penny was born. Not much happened in the entire county that Violet wasn’t aware of. Besides, Luke and his dad stopped by there almost daily, and she wouldn’t mind running into him again.

She barely opened the front when Violet looked up and smiled. “Well, Penny Anderson. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” The older woman wiped her hands on her apron and walked around the counter to give her a hug. “Gary said you were back for the summer. Let me look at you. You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Thanks.” She looked down the counter and couldn’t stop the frown that formed on her face. Luke wasn’t here. If you are looking for your daddy, he left a few minutes ago with Tom Peyton. They were heading up to Peaktop Ranch. Would you like some breakfast?”

“Just coffee, please. Mom already stuffed me full of her homemade pancakes.” She took a seat at the end of the counter and said hello to the few other locals. “So what’s new in our little town?”

Violet poured herself a cup and took a seat next to her. “Quite a lot really. You know that Howard and I got hitched a couple of weeks ago?”

“Mom mentioned it. Congratulations. Mr. Crandall is such a nice man. I can’t even remember how many times he rescued me when my old Camaro chose to break down.”

“I’d forgotten about that car. Is it still running?”

“As a matter of fact, it’s parked right out front. I flew home, so I’m going to be driving it for the summer. Tell Howard he may have some business from me.”

“And then there’s Melanie and her daughter Sophie who opened Sophie’s Choice, the bookstore across the street. Melanie is Howard’s daughter. It’s a long story, but he never even knew she existed until a few months ago. I’m so thrilled to have a new daughter and granddaughter.”

“I noticed the shop when I drove up. Is that really the same old eyesore that had sat there deserted for so many years? I remember as kids, we used to think it was haunted.”

“Yep, the whole town pitched in to fix it up.”

Penny downed the last of cup and asked the question. “So have the Walkers been by today?”

“Jeff and Luke stopped by right after sunrise. You have to get here earlier if you want to catch our busy ranchers. Speaking of Luke, if I remember correctly, you and he were an item for quite a while. Have you seen him since you got back?”

There it was again. Why had she thought she could escape her past in her tiny hometown? “Way back in high school, but that over years ago. We’ve both grown up and moved on.”

“That’s a shame. He’s such a nice young man. Have you seen the cabin he is building out on the ranch? Looks like the perfect place to raise a family.”

“I’m sure that he and any women he ends up with will be very happy there.”

“Funny, I don’t think I’ve seen him with a girl since you left.”

Penny stood up to leave.

“The coffee’s on me. Don’t be a stranger.”

“Thanks, Violet. It’s good to see you again.”

Penny started up the Camaro and headed back toward home. Had time stood still in this place? Why did everyone still think of her and Luke as a couple? It had been four years, for goodness sake. She had moved on—she enjoyed her life in Chicago and her relationship with Darrell. She had the life she had always dreamed of, and yet…seeing him last night had thrown her for a loop.

When she arrived back home, her mom was still busy in the garden, so she went upstairs and searched the back of her cluttered closet. She pushed her old clothes aside to find the large plastic bin that held all of the treasured mementos from her life here in Peakview. She hadn’t looked at any of it since she graduated from Mountain High. She lugged the heavy bin over to the center of her bed and flopped down to relive those days. Ever since she caught the first glimpse of Luke’s cabin the prior evening, there was one specific item she couldn’t get out of her head. She didn’t even know if she’d saved it.

Opening the first shoebox, she pulled out pieces of her life; football programs, prom tickets, corsages, movie ticket stubs, letters, poems and snapshots, so many pictures—pictures of Luke, pictures of her and Luke, pictures of her and Luke and various other friends, pictures of Christmas mornings—Luke with her family and her with his. Their lives had been so interwoven for five long years.

She couldn’t remember exactly when she first met him. He was in her kindergarten class and pretty much every class after that. She first really noticed him at the beginning of sixth grade at Peak Middle School. He was so good looking! All the girls in her class had fallen in love with him the instant they started noticing boys as more than an annoyance. He was a jock, a superstar at everything he attempted. She was shy and quiet, and he hadn’t given her the time of day.

That all changed the summer after their eight grade year when his mom died of cancer. Being caring person her mom was and being the closest neighbor to the Walker Ranch, her mom had taken Jeff and his boys under her wing. With Penny in tow, they made daily trips to the Walker’s with food, and to help around the house. One day Penny wandered down to the barn while her mom did some laundry. She quietly tiptoed into the horse barn. She loved the sweet aroma of fresh hay mixed with smell of horses. Thinking she was alone, she hummed one of her favorite songs as she petted a horse in the first stall. Suddenly, she jumped. Was that a noise from the far back stall? Making her way through the semi-darkness, she found Luke, the cocky football star lying in the hay sobbing. She lost her heart to him that second. His back was turned toward her and without thinking, she crouched down beside him and wrapped him in her arms. Instead of pulling away as she feared, he snuggled closer to her. They simply laid there in silence until his sobs finally subsided. This was a much different Luke than the one she’d envied at school. She’d have been content to stay there forever. That was the beginning. By the time their first year of high school started in the fall, they were inseparable.

“What are you doing, honey?” Her mom’s voice brought her back to the present.

“Just going through this old stuff from high school. I might throw some of it away, make a little more room in my closet.”

“That would be a first. Come on down when you’re done. Your dad and I are sitting on the back deck enjoying the afternoon sunshine.”

“I’ll be down in a few.”

Penny set aside the remaining shoe boxes, and there underneath was what she had started out to find—her sketch pads. She gently pulled the two large pads out and ran her hand over the covers. She had once dreamed of becoming an artist, back before she faced the reality that a career should be something you could make a living doing. She’d carried those pads with her all through high school. She opened the first one and began thumbing through the worn pages. There were drawing of horses, and Bandit, and Luke on horseback, and lots of trees, mountains and sunsets, all drawn with her charcoal pencils. How she’d loved those pencils the year she got them for Christmas. When she didn’t find the picture she was searching for, she set the first pad one aside and opened the next. Her mouth fell open. There it was.

It had been a warm summer afternoon following their Junior year. They had taken a picnic lunch and a blanket and made their way on horseback up to the ridge on the Walker Ranch. After eating, Luke stretched out on the blanket and told her this was where they were going to build their future home. They talked about the horses and kids they would raise together. Then Luke laid back, covered his face with his cowboy hat and dosed off. She retrieved her sketch pad from her saddlebag and started drawing. When she finished sketching, there was a perfect likeness of the hill with a log home in center, complete with a large wraparound porch and picture windows to view the sunsets. At the top, she had written in block letters OUR HOME. Then she punched him in the ribs to wake him up and handed it to him.

Luke looked up at her with love in his bright blue eyes and gave her a quick kiss. “It’s perfect,” He’d said. “I’ll build it for you. I promise.”

With tears in her eyes, she closed the pad and put it back in the box. What hit her like a ton of bricks last night was true, the house Luke was building was the one she’d sketched that day five years ago.

***

Luke leaned back and twisted his spine from side to side to get the kinks out. This was tiring work. After finishing the roof and installing the doors to keep the weather and critters outside, he moved on to the hardwood floors. With the master bedroom floor completed, he moved a sleeping bag in and now spent most nights sleeping up here in his own space. It had been two weeks since Penny stopped by and he’d managed to avoid her completely. Seeing her again stirred up too many unwanted feelings. If he spent any time with her, he’d get sucked right back in and then be devastated when she left in a few more weeks. Nope, he refused to put himself through that. So he cut down on his trips into town, and the few times he caught glimpses of her and Ginger out riding, he made sure he headed in the opposite direction. He somehow managed to forestall June’s desire to invite the whole Anderson family over for dinner.

He picked up another board and nailed it into place. Dang it, this was supposed to be her home, too. The ghost of Penny loomed strong in the cabin tonight, so he put down his tools, untied Geronimo from where he stood patiently outside, and headed to the one place he always found peace.

Geronimo made his way up the well-worn path almost by memory. Luke reined in the horse as they crested the hill. He climbed out of the saddle and walked over to the marble bench overlooking the small wooden cross and the vast valley beyond. He felt
her
presence. This was where they’d spread his mom’s ashes and created a memorial to her memory. Had it really been ten years? It felt as if Mom was right here with him. He came here often when he needed to think. He’d talk to her and sometimes it seemed she talked back. Tonight he simply leaned back and watched the sun slowly approach the western horizon. “Mom, Penny’s back. What should I do?”