Idle Hours (3 page)

“Don’t need ‘em,” he said as he inched forward. “All Mama’s got to do is click that beeper of hers and those doors’ll slide right open.” Another step then another.
 
He could almost reach her. Just another couple of steps. “Cara, is that you over there on the porch?”

“Yes, it’s me, Ben.”

He could tell from her shaky voice that Will’s wife was about at the end of her rope. “Well then, you think you could hit that clicker on your keychain and open the door so Samantha and I can go get Mrs. Bunny?”

The woman at her side jumped into motion, disappearing inside to come right back out with the keys. From where he stood he could see her fumble with the key chain then, an eternity later, the van chirped.

“All right now, let’s go get Mrs. Bunny.” Another step toward her and this time he dared to reach out to try and grab the snake. To his horror, the girl clutched the squirming snake to her chest, its pink tongue a perfect match for the flowers on her dress.
 

In the desperation of the moment, a voice, Mitch’s voice, floated across his mind. “God’s waiting. Just call.”

Please, Lord. Right now I want to believe You’re hearing me.
 

 
“Look, honey,” he somehow managed, “that little ole snake is getting’ lonesome for his mama. And I bet Mrs. Bunny’s getting’ lonesome for you. How about we go see about her?”

Samantha seemed to consider the question a moment as she held the snake out at arm’s length. Meanwhile, the snake looked poised to strike.
 

She leaned down to pick a flower just as the creature jabbed toward her an attempted to strike. “
Not
a snake. It a
wibbon
.”
 

“All right, honey,” he somehow managed. “It’s a ribbon.”

Please, come down here and fix this.
An eerie calm came over him
. Show Yourself. Please, God I’m asking. No, I’m begging. If You’re listening and You’re of a mind to help, please come on down here and show Yourself like Mitch said you would.

Ben paused to watch the snake, which had turned its attention on him. swaying slowly, the pink tongue pointed his direction. The thing seemed to be challenging him, daring him to do something.

He was about to make a grab for the critter when the strangest sensation came over him. Like a wave off one of those jet skis, something washed over him. While he couldn’t say for sure, it felt like he wasn’t alone out there with Samantha Bryan. It was as if…

No, it couldn’t be.

Ben looked around then stared back into the beady eyes of that copperhead.
I believe, Lord
, he added.
I really believe.

To Ben’s surprise, the snake went slack in Samantha’s hand and she tossed it aside to race toward the van. Before Ben could form a coherent thought, the toddler had the purple stuffed rabbit in her hand.

“Me beep the van door,” she called to her mother.

Ben landed on his knees, barely missing the copperhead. It took him a full minute before he realized the creature was stone cold dead.

* * *

Lia swayed twice before she fell against the rail. The man, whoever he was, disappeared beneath the cover of thick grass. So, it seemed, did the snake.

Cara said something in a voice that begged immediate action. The words were lost among the pounding of Lia’s heart and the urgent need to run.

Somehow she sailed off the porch and crossed the rutted driveway to reach the tall grass on the western slope. Pinpoints of light appeared at the corners of her vision. She ignored them to sail over a downed fence post. Landing hard on one knee, she righted herself and kept running toward the place where she last saw the stranger.

“Ben,” she heard Cara call.
 

“Ben?” Lia echoed as she nearly stumbled over the still-kneeling sandy-haired man.
 

He rose on unsteady legs to shake off his jeans then thrust his hand in her direction. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” he said in a slow-as-molasses Texas drawl.

Lia shook his hand, noting the firm grip despite the fact the man seemed to sway a bit. “Are you all right?” She quickly studied his hands then the tanned skin of his arms. “Did the snake bite you?”

“Well, it’s the strangest thing.” He pointed to a spot beside his feet. “Looks like that ole snake never knew what hit him.”

She glanced down to watch him pick up the lifeless creature and nearly fainted dead away. Though her heart had been declared nearly useless, it certainly seemed to be pumping with vigor at the moment.

“Please put that down,” she said through teeth that were determined to chatter. “I appreciate that you killed it but I really-”

“Well now, that’s what’s odd about all this.” He gave the offending creature a toss, landing it squarely in the dented silver can beside the garden shed. “See, I didn’t do a thing. Never touched it.”

Lia shook her head. “But, it’s dead. Are you telling me Samantha killed the snake?”

The stranger looked down at her from his superior height and grinned. My but he did have the prettiest eyes. The color of the Texas sky they were, framed in lashes that belonged on a woman.

Stop it. What is wrong with you? These are not the appropriate thoughts of a woman who’s just seen a dead snake tossed about in the presence of a toddler.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cara tuck the baby into his car seat then gather Samantha into her arms. While her friend was in tears, little Samantha seemed more worried about her stuffed rabbit than her crying mother.
 

“I don’t rightly understand it either,” he said, oblivious to the direction her thoughts had turned, “but I’m here to tell you I believe I might know Who is responsible.”

“Who?”

A look crossed his face. “Never mind. It’s dead and that’s all that matters.”

Lia clutched her throat as a wave of lightheadedness gripped her. “Yes,” she said, “that is what matters. I don’t suppose you might know someone who could rid me of this tall grass and whatever inhabitants it has.”

“Ma’am,” he said as his face began to swim before her, “I believe we ought to talk about this later. Looks like you’re about to. . .”
 

She swayed then sank. The lights went out then blinked on again. A haze of swirling colors formed into a man’s face. He wore a worried look.

A moment later, or so it seemed, Cara knelt down to grasp her hand. “When I couldn’t get Doc Warren on the phone, I called your mother to get your New York doctor’s name. I’m on hold.”

Lia reached for the phone and punched the button ending the call. “I’m fine.” She rose and dusted off the back of her jeans. “I just got a little light headed.” She paused to look past Cara to focus on the man still staring at her.
 

“You don’t look so good,” he said.

“Must be the grass in my hair.” She shook her head and watched bits of greenery litter her clothing. “I promise I clean up just fine.”
 

A realization hit her hard. Lia leveled a stare at her friend. “Cara, you called my
mother
?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Cara turned three shades of pink then studied her nails. “I guess I panicked.” She met Lia’s gaze. “I just thought, well. . .” She cast an embarrassed glance at Ben then swung her attention back to Lia. “. . .you
know
.”

The lone male of the trio seemed more preoccupied than concerned. He stared past her to where the lake shimmered beyond the trees. A lone boat with a fisherman casting a line seemed the object of his attention.
Typical man.
 

“Mama, baby’s stinky,” Samantha called from the van.

Cara gave Lia one more imploring look, eyes narrowed. “You call him back, you hear?”

“Right after I call my mother to tell her that your over active imagination got the better of you.” She paused. “And I am
fine
, you hear?”

“Mama! Baby yukky!”

“Coming, sweetheart,” she called. “Ben, would you see that she gets back to the house and gets something cold to drink? It wouldn’t hurt if you put that casserole in the oven for her, too. Just turn the oven to-”

“Oh, come on,” Lia said. “I love you, Cara, but you are treating me like one of your children.”

“You fainted.”

“I was just a little light headed. It wasn’t an official faint.” She paused. “Nothing like…well…
that
. Really, I would tell you.”

For a moment she thought Cara might protest. Rather, her friend gathered her in an embrace then whispered, “You’re not alone in this, Lia.”

“I know and I am so grateful,” Lia said softly. She held her friend at arm’s length and smiled. “I am, really, and I honestly would tell you if I needed more than a good friend and a great casserole and pie.” Pausing, she added, “I promise.”

Her friend’s relief was visible. “All right, then,” she said. “But put the casserole in, light the candle, and relax until your supper’s ready.”

“Sure,” she said as her friend sauntered toward the van.
 

Relax? She had a list that grew by the minute and, in light of the snake incident, she would be shifting priorities in order to get this field cleared of high grass and objectionable inhabitants.

Lia had already turned to head to the house when she realized her visitor still stood in the knee-high grass, his gaze still affixed to the lake and the bobbing boat.
What an odd man.
 

By the time she reached the porch, she’d begun to wonder if
he
might need a doctor. She decided to do as Cara asked and put the casserole in the oven. If the fellow was still knee deep in her field when the timer went off, she’d just ask him inside for dinner.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to. When she walked back out onto the porch after slipping the casserole in the still-warming oven, the man was gone.

“Strange,” she said as she stepped back inside. “He never said why he was here.”

* * *

I never even said why I went there.

A jingle for the local used car lot played on the radio as Ben pulled his truck over to the side of the road and yanked down the visor. A slip of paper fluttered onto the seat beside him.
 

Worst part of getting old was the reminders he had posted everywhere. Without them he’d forget his own name.
 

Picking up the folded paper, he studied the note he’d written to himself then set it aside. He had something else on his mind besides asking the new owner of the cottage if he could use her boat dock for this year’s fishing tournament pictures.
 

In fact, the tournament was the least of Ben’s worries. He had half a mind not to bother with the overblown event anyway. Sure, it brought in a good amount of money to fund scholarships for a couple of deserving Green’s Point High students, but he was just plumb tired of the fuss.
 

Maybe he ought to suggest to the town council that they hold a bake sale and a couple of car washes instead. He’d be the first one to buy a cake or get his truck cleaned, for sure.

The car commercial on the radio gave way to a tune by the Bluegrass Boys. Any other day, he would have turned up the volume and tapped the steering wheel in time with the music. Today, however, the familiar banjo and fiddle sound jarred at his frazzled nerves and jangled his addled brain. What he needed to think on, he had to do in silence.

And what he needed to ponder had nothing to do with fishing and everything to do with a God who for some reason seemed to be listening when he called. Any other time he’d ask Mitch or one of the others who were in the know about the Lord.

This time, though, a prize lure was on the line.
 

“Lord, if You’re up there, would you show Yourself just once more? I’m sorry to be so dense, but I just need to know for sure.”

* * *

The truck pulled to a stop beside Lia’s SUV, and a man dressed in jeans and a green t-shirt jumped out. A fringe of sandy hair showed at the back of his feed store ball cap.
 

Lia quickly recognized him as the man who killed the snake in her field. What was his name? Cara told her he ran the bait shop, the one on the pretty calendar that she hadn’t managed to part with. Ah, yes. Ben. As in Ben’s Bait and Tackle.

She’d driven past the shop on her way to Cara’s home just yesterday and noted its prime location on the lake. Papa, ever on the look out for a spot to open a new restaurant until the Lord took him hone, would have claimed that place as perfect for another fancy Stephanos eating establishment.
 

Lia, on the other hand, could easily see a casual but elegant place for locals and visitors to the area to dine on the fresh seafood and bountiful vegetables. She even had a name for her first ever foray into the restaurant business. It would be called Idle Hours, after her favorite William Merritt Chase painting of Victorian ladies lounging on the shore.
 

What a pity a bait shop stood where tourists ought to be enjoying the view. And how odd that the bait store owner had come to put up her mail box. Still, it was three o’clock, the time Will said he would be sending the fellow.
 

“Hello there,” Ben said as he bounded up the steps. “I’m Ben Corbin.”

“Yes.” Lia shook his outstretched hand. “Lia Stephanos. I remember you. You’re the snake killer.”

He looked as if he were about to contradict her. Finally he smiled. “I suppose you could say I had a hand in the critter’s demise.”

She studied him a second longer then nodded. “Yes, well, if you’ll just hang on a second I’ll go get it.”

“It?” she thought she heard as she slipped into the spare bedroom to retrieve the mailbox.

“Yes.” Lia stepped onto the porch with the mailbox. “Will said you’d be here at three but he didn’t tell me whether I would need to provide any tools or supplies.”

Ben accepted the mailbox and seemed to consider her statement a minute. “No, I believe I’m set.”

When he lifted his attention to her, Lia smiled. “Good. So, do you need any help with this?”

CHAPTER SIX