Longing for Home (16 page)

Alex yanked open a drawer and a piece of pink paper drifted to the floor, as if it had been waiting for just the right moment.

He picked it up and scanned the contents.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”

Two things at the top of Alex’s list. To build on and to protect the Porter legacy.

So why didn’t they seem to be enough anymore?

There had been a time in Alex’s life when he had prayed, asked God for direction, but the answers hadn’t always come quickly enough to suit him. Or didn’t, if he were completely honest, line up with what
he
wanted.

When the county deputy had knocked on the door in the middle of the night, Alex had come to the conclusion that maybe God didn’t always listen. Or pay attention. So he had come to the conclusion that he should just take control of his life and not bother Him anymore.

Alex read the verse again, felt the words seep into cracks he had tried to patch himself over the years.

Are You trying to tell me something, Lord?

The question formed in Alex’s heart and took wing before he recognized it for what it was.

A prayer.

Chapter Seventeen

K
ate tiptoed past the bedroom where Tori and Logan were sleeping and made her way down to the kitchen.

Several of the guests had requested a continental breakfast delivered to their cabins, the others preferred to eat in the dining room before they checked out.

Fatigue tugged at Kate’s eyelids as she started the coffee brewing and pulled a bowl of fresh fruit out of the fridge.

Thanks to Alex, she’d tossed and turned most of the night.

He’d almost kissed her.

Kissed. Her.

Kate still wasn’t quite sure what had happened. One second they’d been caught up in a verbal sparring match and the next…

“It’s that smile,” she said under her breath.

It got to her every time.

And probably a whole lot of other women, too, Kate thought. Alex would have no trouble finding a date to watch paint dry. He was handsome, intelligent, sophisticated and totally out of her league.

She would avoid him, that’s what she would do. It shouldn’t be all that difficult. After the guests checked out and Matt’s mentoring group invaded the grounds, Alex would close himself up in his office and do what millionaire executives did all day.

She probably wouldn’t even see him…

“Cabin two requested an early checkout.”

Kate almost dropped Abby’s antique bowl and sent fresh berries scattering like marbles at the sound of Alex’s voice.

Keeping her back to him, she plucked a knife from the butcher block and began to cut up a bunch of bananas. “The Morrows. I’ll deliver their breakfast first.”

“They’ve got a family reunion in Ashland this afternoon.” Alex’s tone was brisk. Businesslike. As if he hadn’t shared a cup of coffee—and a glimpse of his heart—with her the night before.

Fine, she could do that, too.

She could turn around and face Alex without remembering the warm strength of his arms. The way she’d felt when for a few moments, his smile, and his arms, had held her captive…

Or maybe not.

Kate had always prided herself on being good with relationships. She was a loyal friend. A devoted daughter. A fair boss. An encouraging mentor.

But she had no frame of reference for
this
. No idea what to do with her conflicted feelings for Alex Porter.

“Help yourself to coffee,” she blurted out, still unable to look at him as she retrieved a muffin tin from the lower cabinet. “I’m serving breakfast in the dining room in an hour.”

“Did someone say the word breakfast?”

Kate could have cried with relief. “Matt! I wasn’t expecting you this early.”
Thank you, thank you, for showing up this early!

Her pastor sauntered into the kitchen, a clipboard tucked under one arm and a football under the other. “I have to set up a few things before the picnic.” He glanced at Alex. “I appreciate you letting the mentoring ministry use the grounds this afternoon.”

“Don’t thank me, thank my sister.”

Matt didn’t seem put off by the cool response. “The boys can get pretty rambunctious, but I promise we’ll try and leave things in one piece.”

“Coffee, Matt?”

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

Kate’s hands shook as she pulled an oversize coffee mug in the cupboard, grateful that God had provided a temporary six foot tall buffer, in the form of her pastor, between her and Alex.

She filled the cup and handed it to Matt. Steaming liquid sloshed over the rim and he looked at her in astonishment.

“I think that’s the first time in two years that I’ve seen you spill a drop of coffee,” Matt teased. “Something on your mind?”

“No. There’s no one…
nothing
…at all.” Kate felt the heat travel up her neck and light up every freckle on her nose.

Matt continued to study her. “Zoey told me a little about the situation with Tori and Logan. They’re welcome to join us in some of the activities today.”

Kate heard Alex’s foot tap against the ceramic tile. If they could only bore him a little longer…

“I was going to ask you if that would be all right. The picnic was all Jeremy and Cody could talk about yesterday. They got Logan excited about meeting Dev McGuire.”

A frown creased Matt’s forehead. “Unfortunately, McGuire canceled at the last minute.”

“Oh, no. Did he say why?”

“He left a voice mail saying that something came up and he can’t make it.” Some of Matt’s frustration leached into his voice. “I’m not sure what to do on such short notice. The Redstones are out of town today or I’m sure Daniel would give a presentation on Native American artifacts.”

Knowing how disappointed the boys would be, Kate tried to think of a replacement. “What about Ben Keller? He’s one of the best fishing guides in the county. I’m sure he’s got some great stories he could share with the boys.”

“Ben would have been great, but he had a mild stroke about a month ago.”

“I didn’t know that.” Kate made a mental note to add the man’s name to the list of people she prayed for. “I suppose you could read a chapter out of Abby’s book, ‘How to Survive and Thrive in the Woods’. I saw it on the nightstand in her room.”

Matt smiled. “I’m not worried. I know from experience that this kind of stuff never takes God by surprise. He has a plan.”

Kate believed that, too. But she had no idea how—or even if—the man sitting at the kitchen table fit into God’s plan for her.

But you want him to.

“Kate?” Matt was frowning at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex lean forward, as if he were waiting for the answer, too.

“Just a little preoccupied.” Kate began to fill the baskets on the counter with the speed of a seasoned assembly line worker. “I have to deliver these to the cabins but help yourselves to more coffee. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

As soon as the coast was clear and Alex was gone.

Before either of the men could protest—or heaven forbid, follow her—Kate dashed out the door.

The truth followed her. She could try and avoid Alex for the rest of the day, but it wouldn’t matter.

He’d already worked his way into her heart.

She wasn’t in danger of falling in love with Alex Porter. It had already happened.

Kate was up to her elbows in coleslaw when she heard someone tap on the screen door.

“Come on in.” Everyone else was. Between guests checking out and boys arriving for the mentoring picnic, the inn had been Grand Central Station all morning.

It hadn’t taken long for the adult mentors to coax Logan into joining the fun and the boys didn’t seem to mind that Tori tagged along, giving Kate an opportunity to get the fixings ready for the evening cookout.

“Hey, Kate.”

A large, Doug-shaped shadow fell over her workspace.

“Hi.” Kate returned the greeting cautiously. “What are you doing here? It’s Saturday.”

“I picked up some overtime.” The gold tooth flashed. “Making a delivery. Your wall is here.”

“My…wall?”

“Yup.”

“I didn’t order a wall, Doug.”

“Well, somebody did,” the truck driver said cheerfully.

“Where do you want it?”

The screen door opened and Jeremy charged in, Cody and Logan on his heels.

“It’s awesome, Kate!”

“When can we climb it?”

“Can I go first?”

Kate walked over to the window and looked outside. Strapped to the back of a flatbed truck were enormous slabs of what appeared to be gray rock.

A climbing wall.

Matt had come up with something guaranteed to rival Dev McGuire’s survival skills presentation.

She allowed the boys to herd her outside, prodded along by their excited chatter. Several of the adult mentors had hopped on the back of the truck and started to remove the pieces. Matt broke away from the group and jogged over when he saw them.

“Great idea,” Kate said.

Matt’s eyebrows shot up. “I was about to say the same thing to you.”

“I didn’t order this. I could never…” Afford to rent a climbing wall for the afternoon.

But Kate knew someone who could.

Alex finished a spot-check on the last cabin and headed back to the lodge. As he emerged from the trees, he saw the boys stampeding down to the lake.

Matt and some of the other adult volunteers took up the rear, waving their arms in the air to keep the stragglers moving.

Cody Lang slowed down as he passed Alex and pointed to the climbing wall. He gave him a thumbs-up sign.

Alex had told Doug that he preferred to be an anonymous benefactor; but, in hindsight, realized he probably should have said: “Don’t tell anyone I set this up.”

The wall had been a hit. For the majority of the afternoon, both the boys and their mentors had climbed it. The shouts of encouragement and cheers had been so boisterous that several fishermen had putted over to see what the ruckus was about.

“Okay, everyone listen up!” Matt said as the boys collapsed on the grass at the edge of the water. “We’re going to have a contest.”

Curious, Alex paused at the perimeter of the group to listen.

“Here are the rules.” Matt’s gaze swept over the group. “Each of you will have twenty minutes to build a sand castle with your mentor. One bucket per team. You can’t build your castle more than three feet from the water or you’ll be disqualified.”

Alex frowned. Talk about setting the kids up for failure. They’d be fighting a losing battle with the waves that lapped at the shoreline.

Not that it was his problem. The celebrity who’d complained about the dripping faucet in the presidential suite at Porter Grand was his problem.

Logan suddenly detached from the group and began to slink away, a dejected look on his face.

“Logan?” Alex caught up with the boy in two strides. “Aren’t you going to build a castle?”

“You have to have a partner.”

“What about Pastor Wilde?” Alex couldn’t imagine the guy turning Logan away just because he hadn’t been officially teamed up with one of the adults in the mentoring ministry.

“Cody asked him already.” The toe of Logan’s tennis shoe sliced through the grass. “I don’t care. It’s his picnic.”

Alex read between the lines. Cody belonged and he didn’t.

It looked as though the celebrity would have to wait.

“It’s been a long time, but I think I can build a sand castle,” he said slowly.

“Really?” The boy’s face lit up.

“Sure. Come on.” Time to mentally blow the dust off his bachelor’s degree.

“Okay!” Logan trotted down to the edge of the water, where Matt and Harold Davis were in the process of cordoning off a section of the beach with a bright orange towrope.

Alex got Matt’s attention. “Mind if we crash your contest?”

“The more the merrier.”

“You do realize the waves are going to reach your three-foot mark,” Alex said in a low voice.

“Yup,” Matt said cheerfully.

And here he’d thought the guy was normal. For a preacher.

“At least we’re straight on that,” Alex muttered.

Logan was issued a bucket and a flimsy plastic shovel. He would have started to fill it with sand if Alex hadn’t stopped him.

“The waves are going to wash it away unless we put something solid underneath it.”

“Like what?”

“Wood. Sticks. Anything like that.”

“I’ll find some.” Logan dashed off.

While the other teams got right down to the business of piling bucketfuls of sand in one place, Alex showed Logan how to create a raised platform out of the mismatched driftwood.

“We’re going to run out of time,” Logan fretted.

“We’ll be fine.”

Less than ten minutes later, Harold Davis blew his whistle.

“Time’s up and it’s time to eat!”

Sand sprayed the air as the boys made a mad dash to the picnic tables, the contest forgotten for the moment.

“Ours isn’t the biggest,” Logan muttered as he and Alex walked past the castles dotting the shoreline. “We’re not going to win.”

Alex winked at him.

“Trust me.”

Kate tracked her cell phone to the table on the deck and scooped it up right before it went to voice mail.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Kate.”

Grace.

Ordinarily, Kate would have been thrilled to hear from her friend. But because that friend was also Tori and Logan’s caseworker, a trickle of unease scrambled up her spine.

“Do you have a minute?”

Kate anchored the phone against her shoulder and bent down to pick up a piece of watermelon rind before it attracted every ant in the county. “Sure. Tori went down for a nap a few minutes ago.”

“She hasn’t been sleeping well at night?”