Longing for Home (11 page)

“And bunk beds.”

“No,” Alex said flatly. “This isn’t going to work.”

The boys’ faces fell, leaving Kate in charge of damage control. Frustration surged through her. Did Alex have to be so cold and matter-of-fact about everything? Didn’t he know that the rest of the human race—including adolescent boys—had feelings?

“Wait until Abby and Quinn get back. Or better yet, Alex can call them to verify that you have permission.” Kate wrapped a comforting arm around Jeremy’s thin shoulders and glared at Alex for good measure.

He didn’t notice because he was looking at Jeremy’s blueprint again.

“I mean the
plan
won’t work,” he murmured. “In this type of design, you’re going to want to use the two trees on this side, not the center one, as weight-bearing walls. Then it doesn’t matter if the woodpeckers turned this tree into an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

Jeremy and Cody crowded closer and the younger boy’s face lit up. “He’s right.”

“And if you put the suspension bridge here…” Alex traced the tip of his index finger along the drawing. “You can have a balcony on this side. That should give you a pretty good view of the lake.”

Kate blinked. She’d thought the suspension bridge sounded questionable and Alex was actually suggesting they add a balcony?

“Sweet!” the boys grinned at each other.

“You’ll have to put rails around it, though.”

Two blond heads nodded vigorously. “We will.”

“So, you’re saying it’s all right with you if they build the fort?” Kate had to be missing something here.

“Yes—” Alex waited until the whoops died down. “But there are going to be rules.”

Of course. Kate almost breathed a sigh of relief. This was the Alex Porter she knew and loved.

Whoa.
Not loved. The Alex Porter she knew and…
knew
.

“First, you have to check in with me whenever you’re going to work out here. And it has to be during the day.” Alex ignored the disappointed look that passed between the two boys. “I want a daily progress report and if you have any more design problems, you’ll come and talk to me before you keep going. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“And if you get hungry or thirsty, come to the kitchen for a glass of lemonade and cookies.” Kate had her own set of rules.

“Mom packed us lunches today, but she said you’d probably have dessert.” Jeremy grinned.

Emma knew her too well…

“Lunch!”
Kate choked out. “What time is it?”

Jeremy consulted his cell phone. “Eleven thirty.”

“I have to get back to the café.” Grady was going to wonder what on earth happened had happened to her.

Kate had promised to be back in time to serve the lunch crowd, but between the Gibsons’ early arrival and helping the boys tote lumber to the site of their fort, she had totally lost track of the time. “I’ll stop back later and see how you’re coming along.”

“Thanks, Kate.” The boys waved but she could see their attention was focused once again on the notebook.

To her surprise, Alex fell into step beside her, his stride comfortable and fluid, as if he were navigating a city sidewalk instead of trekking through the forest.

“Thanks for letting them build the fort,” Kate finally ventured. “It means a lot to the boys, especially Cody. He doesn’t have much of a home life, so this will be good for him.”

“Abby and Quinn were the ones who gave them permission,” Alex said curtly. “I’m still not convinced it’s a good idea.”

“They’re very responsible, and I’m sure Jake will be here to help when he’s not on duty.”

“I’ll talk to him. They’re going to need help when it’s time to make that bridge.” The sudden glint of humor in Alex’s eyes gave Kate the courage to ask the question that had been nagging her for the past ten minutes.

“How do you know so much about tree forts?”

He pulled ahead of her, forcing Kate to vault over a fallen log to keep up.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she gasped. “Is that classified information?”

Alex gave in and smiled.

“I got my undergrad in architecture.”

Chapter Twelve

“A
rchitecture?”

Alex ducked his head to avoid being strangled by a skein of wild grapevine that Kate skipped right under. “You sound surprised.”

“I assumed your degree would be in business. Or hotel management.”

It might have been. If Alex’s original plan had been to follow in his father’s footsteps.

He shrugged. “Building is building, whether it’s a high-rise apartment complex or a reputation for being the best.”

At least that’s what he’d told himself when he took control of his parents’ hotels after their death.

Kate was silent for a moment, and then, “But being an architect was your dream.”

The quiet statement felt like the thrust of a knife between his ribs. Alex didn’t want to talk about his dreams. Or the past.

“What about you?” In the interest of self-preservation, he turned the tables on her. “Was it your
dream
to own a café in Mirror Lake?”

“From the time I was six years old and made my first piecrust from scratch.” Kate’s lips curved in a smile. “My parents would take me to work with them and let me mess around in the kitchen. In high school, I went in early to help with the breakfast shift and worked weekends, doing everything from waiting tables to bookkeeping.”

Kate had learned the family business from the ground up while Alex had had it dropped into his lap. He didn’t resent having to change direction after his parents died, but he’d been determined to chart his own course from that moment on. Maintaining tight boundaries, personally and professionally, he had reduced the number of outside variables.

And pain.

Alex shifted the conversation to safer ground. “Where is your dad now?”

“He lives in Arizona. After I graduated, Dad started talking about moving to a warmer climate. He has asthma and the winters were getting harder on him. He tried to get me to apply to colleges out there, but I realized that I wanted to be
here
.

“He finally agreed to let me take over the café on a one-year trial basis so I would know for sure if it was what I wanted.”

Alex didn’t have to ask what Kate’s decision had been. But he couldn’t believe she was still content with it.

“Grady helped and I use a lot of the recipes Mom handed down.”

“You’ve never taken cooking classes?”

“No.” Kate slanted a look at him, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “But I teach them during the winter. The Art of Making a Piecrust from Scratch and Meat loaf 101.”

“You could be doing more,” Alex said bluntly.

“More?” From the puzzled expression on Kate’s face, she had no idea what he meant. Alex felt obligated to clarify.

“You could be doing more than serving people blueberry pie and coffee.”

For a moment, the only sound was the muffled tread of their footsteps on the forest floor.

“It sounds like you think I’m settling.”

“Aren’t you?”

Kate stopped walking and whirled around to face him, hands parked on her slender hips. “I settled
down
. In a place that I love. And I’m doing what I love. Can you say the same thing?”

Held captive by her gaze, Alex felt something shift inside him.

Could he?

Over the past few months he’d been feeling…restless. Not the kind of restlessness that in the past had prompted Alex to research places to build a new hotel or invest in stock guaranteed to turn a healthy profit.

This, Alex sensed, went deeper. To places he was reluctant to explore.

Maybe he should blame his sister. He’d been so sure he could convince Abby to return to Chicago. Sure that he knew what was best for her. But the summer before when he’d visited Mirror Lake, determined to make Abby see that being an innkeeper wasn’t a good fit for her, Alex had been surprised to find she had changed.

The sister he’d tried so hard to shelter had claimed she was living in the shelter of God’s wings, and Mirror Lake was where she was supposed to be.

Alex hadn’t been able to dismiss the peace in Abby’s eyes as easily as he had dismissed the words. He’d returned to Chicago alone. Nothing had changed, but something felt…different.

Empty.

At first he thought he was adjusting to Abby’s absence, but they talked more often now than they ever did. Not only were the hotels doing well, but a few weeks ago, a real estate agent had hinted that Alex might be interested in a prime piece of property going up for sale on a lake just minutes from the city.

Ordinarily, Alex, who thrived on a challenge, would have looked into purchasing the land immediately. Instead, he’d offered to stay in Mirror Lake for two weeks.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose himself or his very soul?

And the challenge had taken the form of a question Alex was no longer sure he knew the answer to.

“Never mind.” Kate started walking again.

Why had she expected him to understand?

Alex Porter had everything on the world’s checklist for success. Money. Looks. Influence. Reputation.

Cars with engines that worked.

But he doesn’t have peace
.

Ohh. Kate didn’t want to hear that still, small voice again. The one that reminded her Alex was a human being. A human being that God loved and was reaching out to—the way He loved her and had drawn her to Himself when she was a child.

Kate’s hands curled at her sides.

Sometimes she had the strangest feeling that holding on to her anger was the only thing that prevented her from reaching out to Alex.

But that would be a mistake on so many levels, Kate couldn’t even begin to count them.

The silence between them was shattered by the sound of Alex’s cell phone.

“Porter.”

Kate increased her pace. This was good timing. While Alex took the call, she could sprint to her bicycle…

“It’s for you.”

“Me?” Kate squeaked.

“At least I don’t have to take a message this time.” Alex handed her his cell.

This time?

“Hello?” Kate stammered, aware that Alex was tuned into every word.

“Thank goodness, Kate!” Mrs. Kadinsky’s voice crackled in her ear. “My grandchildren are driving up for the day and the café is completely out of your caramel apple pie. You know it’s the twins’ favorite.”

“I’m sorry.” Kate understood the seriousness of the woman’s predicament. Mrs. Kadinsky doted on her grandchildren. “Why don’t you call Grady at the café and ask if we have one or two in the freezer?”

“I already did and the only thing he could find was blueberry.” A sigh rolled out. “They’ll be sooo disappointed.”

Kate silently scrolled through the rest of her day. She had a few hours between the lunch shift and the time she had to report back to the inn.

“I can whip up a few.”

“Really, Kate? You are a lifesaver. That would be wonderful!”

“No problem, Mrs. K. I’ll drop them off at your house later this afternoon.” Kate handed the phone back to Alex, saw his scowl—which did nothing to detract from his looks—and started the countdown.

Three. Two. One…

“Unbelievable.” Alex practically growled the word. “You have to work at the café this afternoon and then come back here to make breakfast for the Gibsons tomorrow. Tomorrow night there’s a makeover party tomorrow at nine—bring your killer brownies, by the way—and now you’re offering to bake pies for sweet little old ladies.”

Obviously, Alex had never met Mrs. Kadinsky, a retired parole officer from Milwaukee. The woman was six feet tall and had won the log-throwing contest during the Reflection Day celebration four years in a row…

Wait a second.
The rest of what Alex had said suddenly sank in.

Makeover party? Kate had almost forgotten about that.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. “You looked in my planner!”

“No, I’ve been taking your phone messages,” Alex retorted.

“You don’t carry your cell, so Missy called me instead—”

The smile that worked its way to the surface died a quick death as Alex continued.

“—You do too much.”

Kate stumbled to a halt again and stared at Alex in disbelief. “Two minutes ago, you said that I should be doing more!”

“I meant more for
yourself,
not for the town.”

Kate thought of all the people who had invested so much in her life after she’d lost her mother. Women like Esther Redstone and Liz Decker, who had prayed, not just with her but
for
her. Two of the many women whose advice Kate treasured. Women who had talked her out of dyeing her hair black and helped her choose a dress for the senior prom.

Not to mention the faithful customers who had cheered for her when she’d taken over the café at the tender age of twenty.

“It’s the same thing.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

That’s because they weren’t speaking the same language, Kate thought—once again acutely aware of the differences between them.

“The people who live in Mirror Lake are like an extended family to me,” she explained, asking God for an extra measure of patience. “They aren’t
taking
anything.”

Not anything that she didn’t freely give, anyway. Yes, she was busy. God had blessed her with energy and creativity to do His work. When Kate felt depleted, she rested in His presence and drew from His strength.

“Really? Because from where I stand, it looks like they’re taking advantage of you.”

“Then maybe you need to get closer.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. The trouble is, you get
too
close. If you were one of my managers, the first thing you’d learn is how to keep a professional distance from the people you come into contact with.”

“You’re offering me a job?” Kate asked tartly.

“What if I am?”

“I’d say no!”

Wouldn’t she?

For a split second, Kate’s traitorous imagination conjured up an image of seeing Alex every day. And instead of picturing herself running for cover, something warm lit within her.

Something that had the potential to burn out of control, leaving behind wounds that could take years to heal.

If they healed at all.

She mentally shook herself, knowing Alex hadn’t been serious.

“Look at me.” Kate laughed. “I wouldn’t fit in.”

She hadn’t meant for him to take the words literally. But his gaze swept over her, from the Little Orphan Annie curls to the scuffed canvas tennis shoes on her feet.

“No,” he said softly. “You wouldn’t.”

Of course,
now
he agreed with her.

Kate opened her mouth to make a snappy comeback, but something in his expression stopped her.

Because she had the strangest feeling that Alex had just paid her a compliment.

“I’m looking out my window at the Eiffel Tower. What are you looking at?”

Alex yanked his gaze away from the petite figure gamboling down the shoreline, backlit by the moon.

“Trees,” he said truthfully.

“I miss trees.” Abby sighed.

“They’ll be here when you get back.” Alex stepped back and let the curtain fall into place, blocking Kate from view.

“How are you and Kate getting along?” Abby’s innocent question brought out a rueful smile. It seemed there was no escaping Kate, after all.

“It’s only been twenty-four hours.”

“I repeat—” Laughter rippled below the surface of the words.

“She helped the Gibsons make a campfire tonight.” Even though it wasn’t part of her job description. “Tomorrow evening she plans to teach them how to paddle a canoe.”

Again, not in her job description.

“Sometimes I wish I could bottle Kate’s energy. She practically runs the entire town.”

Alex didn’t want to talk about Kate. Because it only made him
think
about Kate.

He leaned a hip into the side of the desk and studied an amateur watercolor centered on the wall. “So how is Paris?”

“It’s better when you’re with someone you love,” Abby said in a dreamy voice.

“You could look up Millicent Carstairs while you’re there. She’s the designer I hired last month and she has a portfolio of her work for the ballroom renovations—”

“I’m on my honeymoon, Alex.”

“So take Quinn with you. I’m sure Ms. Carstairs wouldn’t mind another opinion.”

“Goodbye, Alex!”

“Let me know if you change your—” He was talking to dead air. His baby sister had hung up on him.

Laughing, Alex heard the door close as Kate left.

He tried not to let it bother him that she hadn’t come in to tell him that she was leaving. After all, he’d avoided her all evening, closing himself in the office to do paperwork while she worked in the kitchen.