The Widow of Saunders Creek (5 page)

Prayer whispered from my lips.
Lord, keep her safe
.

The four-hour nap had done me more good than I’d originally believed. When I woke up earlier with the sun slashing my eyes, I thought I would be sick for a week. It had taken sleeping most of the morning to make me feel that maybe I wouldn’t die after all.

Still, I regretted my impulsive decision to go buy cushions the second I entered my house to get ready. But Eli had already been so nice, I hated to back out on him. Besides, I needed a few grocery items too. I probably should have driven myself, instead of imposing on poor Eli, but I felt pretty shaky still. I wasn’t sure how long the effects of alcohol stay in a person’s system and had no intention of tempting fate.

Eli opened the car door for me. He drove a nice Ford 4 × 4 with a backseat and a heavy-duty body. “Wow, you boys don’t play around with your trucks, do you?”

“Sort of like the guys in Texas?”

I smiled. I’m sure he was right, but I wasn’t really raised with the country side of Texas life. Mother had dinner parties and invited politicians and TV preachers. They drove luxury cars and got massages. She most definitely didn’t hang out with good ol’ boys who drove half-ton trucks.

As we started down the hill, he pointed toward the double cup holder in front of the radio. A stainless-steel travel mug occupied one, a
bottle of water the other. “I made coffee while you were getting ready,” he said. “Figured you could use some. And after last night, you’re probably pretty dehydrated. So the water seemed like a good idea.”

I couldn’t help but be touched by Eli’s thoughtfulness, although today he’d been nothing but thoughtful and kind. I found myself wondering why he was single. As a matter of fact, thinking back, I couldn’t recall one instance during any of our visits that I’d seen him with a woman. Over the past eight years, Eli and I had met a few times during family holidays, and of course my wedding, but we never really had too many conversations before we started talking about renovating the place.

Within a few minutes of calling Eli about the work, I knew he was the best choice for the job. I had no firsthand experience to tell me what a gem Eli was, but I could see why Jarrod had always said Eli was more than a cousin. He was like a brother and the best friend Jarrod would ever have. I knew that was why Jarrod felt comfortable having me work on the renovations. He knew Eli would look after me. Of course, it hadn’t worked out the way we’d planned, but here I was, and Eli was steady as a rock beside me.

Staring at the cup holders, I thanked Eli and made a grab for the water first. I drank down all twenty ounces in seconds. I set the empty bottle back in the holder, a little breathless. “I didn’t know how thirsty I was until I started drinking,” I said a bit sheepishly, then eyed the coffee and decided the caffeine might help the dull ache in my temples.

By the time we reached the town of Saunders Creek, I had downed half the coffee, and I needed to make a pit stop before we went any farther.

“Um, hey Eli. Has Jarrod ever mentioned to you that he didn’t let me have liquids while we were driving?”

He turned to me and shook his head, a frown piercing the space between his eyes. “No. Why?”

“Small bladder.”

I couldn’t see behind the dark sunglasses he’d loaned me earlier—which I was sure looked way better on his tanned, solid face—but I was pretty sure his eyes were smiling. At any rate, his mouth curved upward. He didn’t say anything but pulled immediately into a small shopping center—Saunders Creek’s version of a strip mall, I supposed. Five stores shared the L-shaped center. Eli parked the car in front of a quaint little shop with a window sign that read, The Nature of Things.

“This is my mom’s health-food store,” he said, opening his door. “You can go in there. Hey, she might have something natural for you to take for that hangover too.”

I gasped, and my jaw stayed dropped as he walked around and opened my door for me. “Eli, if you say one word to your mom about me getting drunk last night, I’ll punch your lights out.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry. I was just teasing.”

“Well, good Lord. Don’t give me a heart attack.” That’s all I’d need, starting a life in a town like this where everyone knows your name. I’d never live down being the town drunk.

He laughed again. “Honey, you’re in corn liquor country—not to mention that the meth capital of the world is just down the road. A night of overindulgence due to grief is nothing to most of the people around here.”

Eli opened the door for me. One thing about these boys—Jarrod
and Eli—they were gentlemen to the core. I hadn’t opened my own door in eight years as long as Jarrod was around.

When we stepped inside, the conflicting aromas of jasmine, sage, rosemary, thyme, and basil almost made me gag, given my still-precarious state. A sign across the back wall advertised organic meats, including buffalo roast and locally raised chickens.

Eli’s mom handed a customer a small cloth bag and smiled. Her eyes landed on Eli, and her already beautiful face glowed even more. “Have a good day,” she said to her customer, then slipped out from behind the register and headed toward us. I’d met Mrs. Murdock only once, but I knew she was the youngest sister on Jarrod’s dad’s side. Her eyes smiled the way Eli’s did, and he’d gotten her height. She towered over me, standing at least five foot ten, which to my five foot three seemed Amazonian.

“Eli, baby,” she said. “You didn’t tell me you were stopping by.” She turned her gaze to me and without asking reached out and pulled me close for a quick hug. “It’s good to see you again, Corrie. How you holding up, honey?”

My throat clogged at the kindness. “I’m making it,” I said. “Thank you for asking.”

“Well, I’m surprised to see you out and about after such a long drive yesterday. Of course just a trip to St. Louis tuckers me out these days. That’s the price of getting old.”

“Sure, Ma,” Eli said with an exaggerated drawl. “You’re real old.”

“Oh, what does he know?” she said, addressing me. “Now, honey, don’t you dare bury yourself out there at that old farm or I’ll come looking for you.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, reverting to my southern belle upbringing. I already regretted leaving the farm today, but I didn’t tell her that. Once I got some food for the house and some cushions for my swing, I probably wouldn’t force myself off the property again until I had no choice. For instance, if I ran out of shampoo or toilet paper or, even more tragically, coffee.

Eli nudged me and pointed to the sign in the back that said Restroom.

“Oh, that’s why you stopped in,” his mom said. “And here I thought you missed your mother.”

He rolled his eyes. “How could I? You don’t give me a chance to miss you.”

“Fine,” she said with mock hurt. “I’ll stop calling.”

“Sure you will. Anyway, we’re on our way to Springfield,” Eli explained as I made a beeline to the back. “Corrie has some things to pick up, and so do I.”

I closed the door behind me, and I heard the muffled conversation. I trusted Eli. He wouldn’t blab my business. But gee whiz, doesn’t a girl have a right to drink herself dizzy on her first night in the house she was supposed to share with her husband? Just the thought of Jarrod’s burial brought burning tears to my eyes. I tried to fight them back, knowing that Mother would be mortified to know her daughter was bawling in a tiny bathroom in a tiny hillbilly town.

The thought made me smile and helped me control the sudden rush of grief.

I finished my business and washed my hands in the tiny sink. Then I shoved my sunglasses back on my face before I went out. I knew it
would look a little funny—sunglasses inside—but better that than Eli’s mom noticing the tears and going all motherly on me. I’d be a blubbering pile of mush in the middle of the store, and we’d never make it to Springfield if I let that happen.

Thankfully, she was helping a customer anyway. I spotted Eli over by the shelves all the way across the store. You couldn’t really miss him. Tall as a basketball player, broad contractor shoulders, and a gorgeous tan already. If it had been Jarrod, I’d have accused him of popping into the tanning bed a few times after the gym, but I was pretty sure Eli wouldn’t even fit into a tanning bed.

He looked up from the supplements he was eyeing and smiled when he saw me. I moved toward him, and his expression changed from happy to dread. For a split second, I felt the weight of rejection land on my shoulders, then in my peripheral vision I saw I had company. I turned and my eyes widened. At first glance, the woman could have been Mrs. Murdock’s twin, with her blond hair and height and slender build. On second glance, however, her face definitely looked older, by at least twenty years. She stared wordlessly at me, and her eyes were the wildest shade of blue I’d ever seen. Something between sapphire and aqua. “Jarrod’s widow.” She said the words, not as a question, but as a statement of fact. “He misses you.”

An eerie sort of cold moved through my back and over my scalp. The feeling reminded me of the way I’d felt earlier in my bed. I shivered. Then Eli was at my side, and I felt the warmth return. “I-I miss him too.”

“Aunt Trudy,” Eli said, slipping an arm lightly around me until his palm touched the small of my back. I felt strength in that action, and
my mind began to run through the extended family members I had met the few times Jarrod brought me to his hometown. Then I remembered one Thanksgiving get-together five years ago, and Aunt Trudy’s face came to mind.

With a rush of relief, I reached out to shake her hand. “Of course, Aunt Trudy. I remember you.”

She smiled, and all I saw were gums. My stomach started to protest. “I remember you too. Jarrod’s pretty, delicate wife.”

Delicate?

Her gaze shifted to Eli, and something akin to hostility hardened her expression. “She’s not for you,” she said. “I love you, but don’t let your competition with Jarrod lead your heart down the wrong path.”

Eli’s face darkened a shade. “Aunt Trudy …” For a second I didn’t know what she meant, then in an awful moment of clarity, I realized she meant me. Of course I wasn’t for him. What did she mean?

Dismissing Eli with an upraised hand, she turned her attention back to me. A slow smile lifted one side of her mouth. “Jarrod isn’t lost to you. Death’s not the end.” She peered closer. “But you already know that, don’t you, honey? Where else would he have gone but back to the home place?”

My eyes went wide, and the hair on my neck stood up. I wanted to ask her about the swing moving and if that might have been Jarrod comforting me, and how did she know Jarrod was here with me, and how could she hear him speak? But I could tell Eli wasn’t happy with the encounter, though I wasn’t sure why. His mom finished with her customer and walked back to us. She slipped her arm around the old woman. “Aunt Trudy, I see you’ve met Corrie. She and Eli were just
headed into Springfield. We’d better let them go.” She gave Eli and me a conspiratorial wink behind Aunt Trudy’s head. “I need to close up anyway. Auntie, will you help me cover the bins? Then I’ll drive you home.”

Aunt Trudy nodded. “Of course I’ll help, but there’s no need to patronize me, Samantha,” she said in that blunt way that only old people can get away with. She looked at me again. “All you have to do is whisper, and he’ll present to you.”

“Okay,” Eli said. I sensed he was trying to protect me, but I wanted to shake him off and ask this woman the questions rushing through my mind.

She ignored him anyway and studied me, her eyes narrowed. “Do you know magic?”

The unexpected change in topic threw me. I shook my head. Beside me, Eli’s tension was palpable. Aunt Trudy’s eyes narrowed to mere slits.

I shivered at her words, but I had to admit that somehow she seemed to know I was wondering about my experiences in the house last night and today.

Growing up in the Bullock home, we had never discussed the possibility of ghosts. In fact, there was a cut-and-dried explanation that went something like this: mediums and witches are an abomination to God. Conjuring spirits is forbidden. It opens doors that almost always result in demons wreaking havoc on your life.

I knew what my mother believed, but I didn’t really have an opinion one way or another. And I had to admit the occurrences—or whatever they’d been—frightened me. I wasn’t much of a brave soul anyway.
But if there was a chance Jarrod wasn’t finished with me, if he wanted to help me through the transition of moving to his family home, I welcomed the chance to be in his presence again, however God allowed it. But given the tension I felt radiating from Eli, I instinctively knew this wasn’t the time to discuss the issue. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Aunt Trudy,” I said. “I’ll see you again soon.”

She gave me a slow nod and turned her back.

Eli’s mom smiled warmly. “If you need anything, honey, you just give me a call. Eli, give her my number so she has more contacts around here, okay?”

“Will do, Ma.” He kissed her cheek and kissed Aunt Trudy too. The old lady brightened and patted his face.

“Drive carefully,” she said, and the gesture made her seem almost normal and a little less spooky.