Restorations (Book One Oregon In Love) (8 page)

Sara found the suggestion eminently
reasonable, but was reluctant to readily agree with anything the
man said. She rose from the couch and shrugged. “I’m going to get
started now.” Without waiting for a response, she went into her
bedroom and shut the door with more force than necessary.

Sara quickly changed into old faded jeans
and a faded T-shirt. In the bathroom, she once more checked her
appearance. Seeing the high color in her cheeks, she sniffed and
reminded herself not to lower her defenses to the man in the next
room.

She remembered her thoughts during the drive
from the airport. Okay, so Brian kept popping up and putting his
nose into her business, but she found nothing truly lover-like in
his actions. From experience, she knew if he intended to woo her,
he wouldn’t be so oblique about it. When they first met, he'd
pursued her with zeal. Now he acted like nothing more than a
friendly shadow.

Sara scowled, catching her reflection in the
mirror. All her old feelings of unworthiness rushed back. Someone
like her had no hope of attracting the handsome, charming Brian
Farris. Last time must’ve been a fluke. She lowered her eyes,
feeling suddenly weary. All this time she thought she'd been
holding him at arm’s length. But if Brian wanted her, he wouldn’t
let a bit of coolness stop him. How foolish to assume he might
still be interested. Besides, she didn’t want him to be interested.
He was a womanizing philanderer.

Wasn’t he?

Pursing her lips, Sara remembered her desire
to avoid another disastrous relationship. With a bleak little sigh,
she turned and went back into the living room.

Chapter Seven

Sara found Brian once again standing next to
the window, gazing down to the street. He looked up when she
entered the room.

“I put in the order. You still like
Szechuan, I hope.”

Sara stopped in her tracks. A memory blew
into her mind. On their third date he’d taken her to a Chinese
restaurant specializing in Szechuan. He kissed her for the first
time that night, and they’d laughed about their spicy breath
afterwards.

She sent him a searching look. Surely he
didn’t refer to that date. Brian returned her gaze, his face a
polite mask. She shook away the memory. “That’s fine.”

While they waited for the food to arrive,
Sara dug through closets for boxes to begin packing.

The door buzzer sounded and Brian went
downstairs to the main door to pick up the order. Sara got out
plastic utensils and paper plates. As she set the small wood table
in the kitchen, she tried to rein in her tumbling thoughts. As
usual, spending any amount of time with Brian muddled her
thinking.

He walked into the kitchen with their order,
filling up the small room with his height and presence. She quickly
plopped down onto a chair and folded her hands in her lap.

As Brian served her from the cartons, she
was aware he'd ordered her favorites. After a few minutes, he
picked up a shrimp drenched in spicy sauce and teased her to take a
bite. To her horror, she did. The next thing she knew, she was
feeding him from her plate, all the while giggling like an
idiot.

Brian leaned over and kissed her on the
mouth. Sara reached out to him like a drowning woman, returning the
kiss with all the pent up fervor in her heart. Abruptly, he pushed
her away. “I can’t be with someone who’s not a Christian,” he said
flatly.

Sara gasped and opened her eyes. Lurching to
a sitting position, she frantically looked around, struggling to
get her bearings. It took a moment to figure out she lay in her
bed, in the dark, and alone. Sagging with relief, she collapsed
back against the pillows.

A dream
. A stupid, shocking dream. Musing over the images, Sara
wondered which was worse. The fact that she kissed Brian in such a
starved way or that he ultimately rejected her. She snuggled back
down into the blankets and waited for her pounding heart to slow.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she willed herself to go back to sleep,
ignoring the way her lips tingled as if she’d just been
kissed.

As she drifted toward
slumber, a soft sound ricocheted through her brain. Her eyes
snapped open. Sara held her breath, her ears straining as she lay
motionless in the dark. When she heard the unmistakable sound of a
creak, she wrestled with the blankets and scrambled out of bed.
What to do next? The only ‘weapon’ handy was a hairbrush. Where was
Brian when she really needed him?
Some
protector
.

Silently, Sara crept across
the floor. The sound of her heart thudded in her ears. She peeked
around her bedroom door and heard a …snore. As her eyes adjusted to
the darkness, she made out a darker shape on her couch. Sara
groaned inwardly.
He
wouldn’t
. Quietly, in case she was
mistaken, she approached the couch. Her suspicions were quickly
confirmed. Brian lay sprawled awkwardly out on the cushions, fully
clothed, with only his jacket for a blanket.
He would
.

What was he thinking, staying in her
apartment when she made herself very clear about her feelings on
the subject? Sara ignored the notion Brian was sweet for being so
protective. He needed to be up and out this minute. “Brian! Wake
up!”

He stirred but only continued to snore more
loudly. She gave his shoulder a rough shake. His eyes slowly opened
and when they focused on her, he sat up with a jerk. A distinctly
guilty look briefly crossed his features.

Any normal person would’ve apologized at
that point, but as she waited for him to speak, he didn’t surprise
her when he smiled without shame.

“I was just dreaming about you, Sara.”

With her arms crossed, she lifted a brow.
She’d heard that before. “I’m waiting to hear why you’re in my
apartment without my permission.” He said nothing, only giving her
a limpid look. Sara made a noise of disgust. “What must Mrs.
Hogarth think of me?”

Brian stretched like a cat and relaxed
against the back of the couch, kicking his legs to the floor. “When
I was getting the room next door, she mentioned there’d been
problems around here lately. Robbery was committed against a woman
in the neighborhood and...worse.”

Sara felt the blood drain from her face as
the meaning of his words sank in. “Oh, no.”

“Your landlady was very understanding when I
explained I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

Collapsing onto the couch next to him, all
the fight drained out of her. “I suppose you want to be here for
the next night as well.”

“I would prefer to. But if you really don’t
want me to, I won’t.”

Sara jumped up and took several steps away
from him. She rubbed her arms and wondered if she could survive
having Brian fill every moment of her life. The harder she tried to
distance herself, the closer he got. She glanced at the clock on
the wall and turned to him.

“It’s just after five now. I think you
should go back to your own room.”

Brian stood and shrugged into his jacket. He
smiled in that heart-stopping way of his before reaching for the
door. “Go back to bed and get some sleep.”

When she closed the door and locked it
behind him, she released a shaky breath. Sara lugged her body into
her room and crawled into bed, asleep as soon as her head hit the
pillow.

***

Morning came too quickly, and Sara barely
managed to clamber into her clothing before Brian knocked on the
door. He brought with him a tray of fresh gooey cinnamon rolls,
saying Mrs. Hogarth had recommended a bakery nearby.

While she tried to eat one without smearing
herself with icing, she remembered how she used to make them for
him, knowing they were one of his favorite foods. Sara gave Brian a
sharp look. He licked icing from his fingers and seemed oblivious
to her questioning stare. Was he trying to dredge up feelings of
nostalgia? But why bother?

Later that morning, Sara went alone to the
library where she had worked, to pack up her desk and say her
goodbyes. Brian wanted to accompany her but she remained
adamant—she'd do it alone. The last thing she needed was to have
him in tow and endure the speculative looks of her co-workers.

When Sara entered the library and went to
her desk, she expected to feel some sadness at the thought of
leaving. However by the time she walked out with her box, she felt
a lightening of spirit. She didn’t have much in the way of
possessions to bring home, but a few of the employees gave her
farewell cards and small gifts. Sadly, as kind as her co-workers
were, she never became overly close with any of them.

Sara had a few friends at
church she would call and say goodbye to as well. She’d miss them,
but it didn’t cause her any grief to part with them. The more she
thought about it, the more she fretted about her lack of close
ties.
Am I really such a cold fish? Maybe
that Italian guy on the plane was right. I'm an ice
queen.

Growing up in an assortment of towns made it
difficult to maintain friendships. Maybe that was the reason she
kept to herself so much. Developing close bonds meant pain when
having to make the inevitable farewells.

Sara arrived in the parking lot just as
Brian pulled up to the curb, right on time from his trip to the
market for packing boxes. They made the drive back to her apartment
in silence, Brian seeming to understand her need for privacy.

They spent the remainder of the morning
packing, stopping occasionally when some people from church stopped
by to wish her well. Sara introduced Brian, but downplayed the
nature of their relationship, hoping no one thought she was leaving
because of him. If Brian thought anything about it, he didn’t let
on, but continued to move furniture and stack heavy boxes with his
usual good nature. When they broke for lunch, they ate deli
sandwiches. No troubling double meaning there.

In the afternoon, Sara
worked on packing up her bedroom. She filled a suitcase with things
she needed easy access to, putting all the rest in boxes. Cleaning
out a desk drawer, she found a packet of letters deep in the back.
Sara brought them out into the light. Her heart lurched in her
chest. She recognized them as love letters and notes from Brian she
could’ve sworn she got rid of a long time ago. Brian, out making
arrangements to hire a moving trailer, didn’t witness her
discovery.
Thank the Lord for small
favors.

Unable to resist a peek, she sank down onto
the edge of a chair, the only remaining piece of furniture in her
room, and opened the first envelope. The paper shook as she read
words from a poem by Robert Burns.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Until a’ the seas gang
dry
.

She read through several more letters,
smiling through a haze of tears, amazed the poems written in
Brian's own words sounded as flowery as the poetry he chose for
her. Sara was transported back to the days when she and Brian had
something special, something that would never end.

Or so she thought.

She pressed a hand to her hot cheek. Had he
ever truly felt this way about her? Or had it been a clever way to
compromise her? A wave of sadness washed over her, leaving her
trembling.

The sound of the phone ringing made her
jump.

Clutching the letters to her chest, she
stumbled into the living room and grabbed the phone. “Hello?”

“Sara! You’re finally home!”

“Daryl. Hi.” She perched on the edge of the
couch and looked longingly at the letters in her lap.

“Where have you been? Are you all
right?”

“I’m so sorry I forgot to tell you, Daryl,
but there’s been a death in my family and everything went out of my
head. I went back for the funeral and stayed for a couple of weeks.
I feel horrible that I didn’t call.”

“No explanation needed. My condolences.”

“Thank you.”

Sara felt guilty that she forgot about him.
Daryl had seemed very interested in her, but in the few months
she’d known him, she couldn’t muster reciprocal feelings. With
brown hair and blue eyes and a tall, athletic figure, she found
nothing unpleasant in his appearance, but she always wondered at
the insincere note in his manner.

“So,” she asked after an awkward moment,
“What have you been up to?”

“Missing you.”

She cleared her throat. “Seriously.”

“Well, I have missed you and would like to
see you again,” he said. “Are you busy today?”

Sara became aware of an ache in the back of
her neck. She hated this kind of situation, but only blamed herself
for having encouraged him in the first place. She decided to be
blunt and get it over with. “Um, the thing is Daryl, I’m packing
today to move to Oregon.”

“What! Why? For good?”

Seeing the farmhouse in her mind’s eye, Sara
took a breath. “While I was staying with my aunt after my
grandfather’s funeral, I...came upon a new opportunity. Not to
mention the fact that I lost my job at the library. It seems like a
good time to make a change.”

“I heard about the job. Sorry, that was a
tough break. What kind of opportunity are you talking about?”

She heard a knock at the door. “Daryl, I
don’t want to cut you off, but there’s someone at my door. Can I
call you back later?”

“No need. I’ll just pop over in a bit to say
goodbye—”

Sara cringed as Brian began to hammer on the
door and yell her name.

“Uh, I’ll talk to you
later. Bye.” She hung up the phone, exasperated. “It’s
open!
”

The door swung wide and Brian strode in with
a frown. “I told you to keep it locked while I was gone.”