Home Sweet Home (24 page)

A single light turning on.

T
he next morning, Andi sat down across from her client in the inn’s dining room. Rebecca’s eyes were full of concern as she placed steaming teapots on the table. Andi was glad to know she had a friend’s shoulder to cry on. Later. First she needed to have a difficult discussion with her client.

“I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Klein, so that I can give you the news in person.” She paused. “I resigned my position with Marks & Banks last night. I will no longer be working on your project.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that, Andrea. Although your mother was telling me that you’ve been a great help at her store.”

She hadn’t always been sure that she was doing a great job at Lake Yarns during the past two weeks, but she’d done the best she could. And she was proud of what she’d learned about running a knitting store.

“I’ve enjoyed myself more than I knew I would,” she finally said. But she wasn’t here to talk about her plans to run Lake Yarns. “Although I won’t be working with you any longer, I still feel compelled to give you my honest opinion about your plans to renovate the historic buildings. Stores like my family’s yarn store that are in historic, preserved buildings, even the old carousel in the park, are all extremely important for small towns like Emerald Lake. Not just for my family, but for the generations of people who know that they’re part of a real strong community. That is why I’m afraid I cannot endorse your newest plan to continue your development into the historic buildings.”

Strangely Mr. Klein didn’t look upset by her opinion. More thoughtful.

“Do you know what I did this morning, Andrea? I woke up early and spent some time walking down Main Street, looking into the windows of local shops. You see, you sold me so thoroughly on the allure of the Adirondacks, I had to come and see it for myself. I had to come see what I was missing.”

He smiled at her, and she was surprised to find herself smiling back.

“Last night I sat in that barn and listened. Really listened. What I didn’t understand about the workings of a small town, your mother explained. The conclusion that I came to, by the time I got back to my room at the inn, was that the only way our project could work for all parties involved is if all parties are actually involved.” Andi could see the excitement in his eyes as he said, “I want this to be a first for our company, a community-based project that will set the stage for future growth that benefits real people, not just the corporate bottom line.”

“I’m thrilled to hear you say all of this.” And she was, even if she wouldn’t be working on the project anymore.

“I thought you might be. I had the utmost faith in you to lead us into a brand-new way of doing business, Andi.” He gave her another smile. “I still do.”

It was the first time her client had ever used her nickname. He never would have known she had a nickname if he hadn’t come to the town hall meeting, if he hadn’t seen her surrounded by people who had known her—and loved her—her entire life.

“Is there any chance I could convince you to do one more project?” he asked. “I know you’re needed at your mother’s store, but perhaps since you’ll already be working from Emerald Lake, there would be a way for you to oversee our project. A new one, Andi. One that will be good for everyone. For the locals who need to downsize, for the city folks like me who desperately need a quiet place to go, for my company. And for you, too.”

Everything had felt so black and white the night before. Nate and the lake and the yarn store versus her job and the city. And she had made her choice when she’d resigned her job.

But perhaps Nate had said it best:
“Andi, it’s not black and white. Leaving doesn’t have to mean cutting ties.”

She’d always assumed that moving back to Emerald Lake would mean giving up every last part of her life in the city. But was that assumption also wrong?

“I need some time to think about it, Mr. Klein. Honestly, your offer sounds wonderful, but I can’t put myself first this time. I just can’t.”

“I understand that, Andi. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious that you get to stay in Emerald Lake.” Mr. Klein’s expression changed slightly. “I’m hoping to come back for a visit in the very near future.”

Andi immediately understood what he was asking. “I’d like that very much. Just be sure to let me know you’re coming next time. My mother is a wonderful cook, and there’s nothing she likes to do more than to make sure people feel welcome.”

A grin lit up his handsome face. They stood up and shook hands. “I’m looking forward to hearing back from you on my offer. I’ll be seeing you very soon, Andi.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it, Mr. Klein.”

“John, please.”

Noticing that the glow in his eyes mirrored the one she’d seen in her mother’s just last night, Andi was glad to be beyond formalities.

“John, it is.”

Andi left the inn and headed out across the waterfront park. Unlike last night when she’d run blind from the town hall meeting, she knew exactly where she was going today.

The carousel.

She didn’t just climb on board and sit down on one of the horses this time; instead she really studied the merry-go-round that had been such a big part of so many lives at Emerald Lake.

The red-and-white striped awning all around the top was matched by the red paint all along the trim. The carousel animals were graceful, realistic. The carvers had obviously paid enormous attention to anatomical detail, the painters’ renderings of every nuance of the animals’ coloration were exquisite. The three-row machine carried twenty-nine horses and a chariot behind a matched pair. There were also giraffes, goats, deer, and a lion and a tiger.

Walking around the carousel, Andi ran her fingers over the horses, stopping behind the chariot where her grandmother had her first kiss with Carlos. She wanted so badly to find something important, some sort of sign or secret message that Evelyn’s first love had left for her before he disappeared.

But if there had ever been a message there, it was now covered in decades of paint.

Thinking how lovely it would have been to find something from Carlos, Andi waited for the disappointment to settle down over her. But the image that appeared before her instead was one of her grandmother and grandfather holding hands out on the porch in the years before he passed away.

Evelyn didn’t need a secret message from her lost love to be happy. She’d made her peace with the past, knew that everything that had happened had only made her stronger.

Andi was looking into the rusted mirror, the image of the blue lake shining out from behind her, when an epiphany slammed into her so hard that she had to sit down on the chariot: not only were there no secret messages, no symbols or signs engraved in the paint…but just as her grandmother didn’t need them, Andi didn’t need them, either.

With Nate’s love, through spending time with knitters at Lake Yarns, by observing her mother and her grandmother and finally talking to them the way she always should have, she had finally learned just how much strength and fortitude it took to be the one that stayed, to be the one who kept the home fires burning. Future answers would come from everything she’d learned about her small hometown, about her mother and grandmother, about the man she loved. And especially, her own heart.

All her life she’d given her all for whatever goal she was shooting for. Now she realized all that hard work had been practice, training her for the ultimate goal, for the ultimate achievement.

For love.

She wanted Emerald Lake. She wanted Lake Yarns. She wanted to be near her family.

And Nate.

She wanted Nate.

Andi was climbing off the carousel when Madison’s words from Wednesday night suddenly came back to her.
“Nate, if Andi gets rid of the merry-go-round, can we put it in our backyard?”

Andi’s hand was still on a cold metal pole, and with one of the horses looking up at her with something that looked like a smile, just like that, Andi knew exactly what she had to do.

And this time she was going to follow her own heart all the way there.

F
or the next four days, Andi was either on the phone, sending an e-mail, knocking on a door, or demanding answers and papers and official stamps from government offices. Her mother and grandmother helped with her plan where they could, but mostly it was a matter of digging into old papers at the library, at the courthouse, or on the Internet. She hadn’t yet given John Klein his answer, but that could wait.

Absolutely exhausted by Monday morning, she was glad to spend a few hours surrounded by the busload of women that had come by as part of their annual Knit into Fall yarn crawl.

Andi was warmed by the knowledge that she was finally in the right place. After all these years of searching, she had managed to find it right where she’d started. Her family, her friends, they were all a part of Lake Yarns. They always had been; she’d just been too blind to see it until now.

She and Jenny were beginning to set up the store for the Monday night knitting group when the UPS truck parked outside the store. A minute later Andi held the certified letter she had been waiting for in her hands. Hands that were shaking.

Jenny told her, “I can handle the rest of this.”

Andi looked up at her friend. “I’ve never been this nervous before.” Maybe because nothing had ever been this important.

She never would have admitted her nerves to anyone before. Not when she’d been too afraid to admit her fears even to herself.

Jenny gave her a hug. “For courage. Now go.”

For the past four days, Nate had spent more time with his ax in the forest behind his house than he had in the past four years. He and Madison now had a pile of firewood to last them into the next decade at least.

It was times like this when he wished he was a drinker. But that was exactly what his father had done—and when trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol hadn’t worked, he’d opted for a bullet instead.

After a weekend of too much hard physical labor and not enough sleep, Nate felt worse than he had in years. Not since that weekend when he’d lost everything but his sister. He even felt guilty for walking into Betsy’s house Thursday night, for giving the nice woman any hope at all that he was ever going to come around. She’d poured him a glass of wine, but he hadn’t stayed to drink it. Instead he’d grabbed his sister and gotten out of there as quickly as he could.

Madison walked into his office without knocking. “Hey Mads, don’t you have after-school art today?”

“It was canceled.” Madison sat down on the couch against the far wall and started playing with her shoelaces. “Mrs. Riggs threw up.”

A pang of guilt hit Nate as he realized his sister was upset about something. He’d been so wrapped up in his own misery that he hadn’t paid enough attention to her lately.

“Everything okay?”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

Uh-oh. He knew that shrug. Knew that
sure
. Working like hell to pull it together for his sister, he got up out of his chair and walked over to the couch, all the while trying to figure out what she might be upset about.

It hit him right as he sat down.

“Did you give Jaden the scarf you made for him?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not going to give it to him.”

“Why?”

“He’s not going to stick around. If I really let myself like him, I’ll just feel bad when he goes back to California. I was thinking it would be better if I just kept it or whatever.”

Suddenly Nate knew why he’d been chopping wood until his palms started to bleed, why he’d been unable to sleep.

And it wasn’t because Andi had hurt him by not having the guts to claim him as hers during the town hall meeting. She’d asked him to forgive her afterward. She had explained her momentary panic from standing in front of her client. And she’d begged for a chance to do it over and get it right this time.

No, damn it, her behavior wasn’t the reason he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror in the morning.

The reason he couldn’t live with himself was because he’d screwed up again.

Andi had made one little mistake, and he’d lost his mind, then come up with a hundred ways to justify it.

Just like he had ten years ago.

“Jaden might be leaving next fall, Mads, but he’s here now. Do you like him?”

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool.”

“Then give him the scarf. Because you know what I had to learn the hard way?”

She blinked up at him, her green eyes so big and innocent. “What?”

“There’s a chance you might regret listening to your heart now, but you’ll definitely 100 percent regret it later if you don’t.”

“Hi Cat.”

Catherine was clearly surprised to see Andi entering Nate’s domain. Concern was only a beat behind.

“How are you doing? I’ve been so worried about you. I would have been over to the store before now, but I left town right after the meeting on Thursday and only got back a couple of hours ago.”

“It means so much to me to know you care,” Andi said softly, meaning every word, more glad than she could ever say that their friendship had managed to survive the years after all. “And I promise I’ll talk your ears off about everything soon, but right now I really need to see Nate.”

Cat nodded. “He needs to see you, too, Andi. Madison’s in with him.”

Andi took a deep breath and gripped her slim package tighter in one hand as she turned Nate’s doorknob with the other.

Nate and Madison were sitting on the couch together, but as soon as he saw her, he stood up.

“Andi?”

She drank in the beautiful sight of him, the way his hair was sticking up on one side like he hadn’t remembered to comb it, the dark stubble growing along the bottom half of his face.

The urge to apologize all over again for screwing everything up—and to beg for another chance—hit her so hard her knees almost buckled from the force of it.

Swallowing hard, she made herself take a step toward him and then another. She held out the slim package, waited for him to take it from her shaking hand.

“It’s yours now.”

He looked down at the express envelope, then back up at her. “What is this?” But he was already reaching into the envelope and pulling out the official notarized sheet.

“The carousel?” He looked down at the paper again, then back at her. “You’re giving the town the deed to the carousel?”

Madison grabbed the page from him as Andi explained, “When I was doing my research for the Klein Group, I learned that the carousel wasn’t already owned by the town like I’d always assumed. A company in Rochester owned it, Nate. Along with the land around it. I knew if they ever realized they still owned a patch of prime Adirondack waterfront, they’d put it on the market. Something Madison said to you one of the nights we all drove to the hospital made me realize that I couldn’t live with the risk of someone coming in and buying it.”

“Andi, where did you get the money for this?”

“It isn’t important.”

And it wasn’t. He didn’t need to know that she’d emptied out her bank account for the carousel.

“All that matters is that the carousel—and the land it’s sitting on—is safe now.”

She knew she should leave before she did something stupid like crying or pleading for him to take her back, knew she couldn’t possibly expect Nate to still love her after all the chances she’d already had, knew even giving the carousel to the town wasn’t a big enough gesture to win him back…but it was so hard to go. Not without saying just one more thing to him while she knew he was listening.

And even though Madison was in the room with them, this time Andi didn’t use his sister as an excuse to hold anything back.

“Over the years we were apart, I went back to eighteen all the time, Nate. And I always swore if I had the chance to love you again, I’d love you right.” She couldn’t stop her tears from falling, wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to again. “You’ll never know how sorry I am that I didn’t.”

Running had never been the answer; she knew that now. But when Nate didn’t say anything, when he simply stood and stared at her as if he was seeing her for the very first time, there wasn’t a single other thing she could do but turn.

And run one last time.