Changing Her Heart (10 page)

Eric stared blankly at the phone. If Randy had made a reference to a new fishing rod and reel, then Eric's interest would have been piqued. Electronic gadgetry didn't impress Eric, probably because he was usually too drunk to understand how anything high-tech worked, and he refused to read directions when he was sober.

“Uh, that's nice,” Eric said, “but what do you do when you just need to make a phone call?”

Lacey rested her hand on Randy's forearm. “I think maybe we should start getting ready to go. Do you have to help your friends pack up?”

Randy clipped the phone back onto his belt. “Not
this time. No one is using the building this afternoon, so we can go now.”

As Lacey turned around, Eric and Susan disappeared to collect their children, telling her without words that they expected her to travel back to their house with Randy, not with them, even though they'd arrived together.

Once at the house, Lacey automatically joined Susan in the kitchen, where they finished the last details of preparing their lunch.

When Lacey walked into the living room to call everyone to the table, Eric was sitting on the couch watching television, but Randy was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the living room floor, surrounded by colored plastic bricks.

Randy held up a black plane, flicked the plastic propeller with his finger, then swooshed the plane through the air, making the sound of a jet engine as the plane zoomed along its path.

Shawn stood behind Randy holding a second plane very similar to Randy's. Shawn made a higher-pitched version of the same jet engine noise with his propeller-type plane, circled the room once, then dove headfirst under the end table.

Lacey crossed her arms. “What are you doing?”

Randy looked up at her from his place on the floor. “We're building stuff.”

Lacey rested her fists on her hips. “Lunch is ready.”

Randy landed his plane, complete with all the appropriate noises, then taxied the plane to a large multicolored brick structure with a box on top that had squares drawn on it, which was probably supposed to be the airport terminal, then stood. Shawn simply set his plane down on the floor where he was, and ran to Randy.

Adoration glowed in Shawn's eyes as he looked up. “Are we going to make more after lunch?”

Randy mussed Shawn's hair. “I don't know. Us grown-ups have some stuff to talk about. If we don't build the hangar today, we'll do it next time I come over. Let's eat first, then we'll see.”

“Yay! Lunch! I bet it's pancakes!” Shawn squealed as he ran into the kitchen, with his sister hot on his heels. Eric leaned to the side, groping for the remote to turn off the television.

Lacey lowered her voice so only Randy could hear her. “What in the world are you doing playing with Shawn? Aren't you supposed to be talking with Eric?”

Randy lowered his voice and bent down toward her. “I couldn't with the kids in the room. Besides, did you see that bin of bricks? I kept mine from when I was a kid, but it's nothing like this.”

“Aren't you a little old for that?”

Randy's eyebrows arched, as if he couldn't understand why she was asking.

Lacey rolled her eyes. “Come on.”

She knew Eric and Susan didn't stop to say grace before every meal, but since it was Sunday, and since she was there, she knew they would today. The children politely bowed their heads and folded their hands on top of the table and waited.

Eric folded his hands, but instead of bowing his head, he turned toward his son. “Why don't you say the prayer today, Shawn?”

Shawn nodded. His words came out slowly and respectfully, and very solemn, as they did every Sunday when Lacey joined them for lunch. “Thanks, God, for this good lunch and for my family and for this beautiful day.” He paused, then sucked in a deep breath. “And-thanks-for-my-new-airport-terminal-and-don't-let-my-sister-break-it-amen,” he spewed out in rapid-fire succession.

Susan's head bobbed up. “Shawn!” she hissed.

Shawn didn't raise his head. “But I don't want Kaitlyn to wreck the new terminal I made with Randy.”

Susan turned to Randy. “I'm so sorry. He's not usually like this.”

Randy shrugged his shoulders. “It's okay. I'm actually kind of flattered that he thinks so much of our creation.” He turned to Shawn. “But really, Shawn, it doesn't matter if anyone breaks it, including your sister. If someone breaks it, then you get to build it again, and building it is most of the fun. In fact, if it
does get broken, then the next time you build it, it gets better.”

“Really?”

Randy nodded. “Really. When I was your age, me and my friend Bob used to build stuff all the time, but sometimes his brothers Gene or Tony would need a special piece. Their mother made us share, so we had to take it apart. But it wasn't so bad. Lots of times the new one was better than the first time.”

Lacey rested her hand on Randy's arm. “I saw Tony at the restaurant yesterday. It's good that you still remained friends with him, even though he destroyed your pet projects.”

Randy grinned. “You bet. It didn't do any good to get mad at him, although sometimes we still did.”

“You must have known your friend Bob for a long time, if you made childhood projects together.”

“Yup.”

Shawn tugged at Randy's shirt. “Do you still build airports with Bob?”

“No. We build grown-up things, now.” Randy smiled. “I learned how to build computers, and Bob learned how to build cars. Or rather, he rebuilds them.”

“Wow…” Shawn's voice trailed off.

Lacey studied Randy's face while Randy stared off into space, grinning at a memory he wasn't sharing.

Every time she'd seen Randy with Bob, as well as his friends Paul and Adrian, it was obvious that
they'd had many happy childhood memories together. Lacey didn't ever see any of her old childhood friends, because she hadn't had many. They'd had to move at a critical time because her mother couldn't make the house payments, and after that their family tended to stick together because they'd had to move into a much rougher neighborhood than they had been used to. It had been at that time in their lives when Susan had met Eric. Because Eric had been the best pick of available men, Lacey had chosen to simply spend her time alone.

Randy leaned down. “So sharing is good, even though it's not always fun at the time. I think it would be nice of you to take Kaitlyn after lunch and show her how to build something.”

“I don't wanna make stuff with Shawn,” Kaitlyn whined. “I wanna play with my puppies.”

Lacey turned to Randy. “She doesn't mean real puppies. She has a family of toy dogs that she's quite attached to.”

Susan smiled weakly. “We can't have a real dog right now. We might get one in a few years, after Kaitlyn is in grade two.”

Randy lost his smile. “I know what you mean, but if I can stick my nose in where it doesn't belong, please don't promise them a dog, and then not get one when you said you would. My parents told me the same thing. Except that when I finally did get old
enough, they came up with another reason. The reasons kept changing until I just gave up. I just wish they would have told me no, if they had no intention of keeping their promise. Of course I certainly understand why you don't want a dog now, and I certainly agree. I'm just saying, don't get their hopes up if you can't deliver.”

Eric nodded. “Don't worry. We mean it. One day we'll have a dog. Just not yet.”

They left the dishes, and Susan stayed in the kitchen to make coffee while everyone else moved to the living room to talk.

Lacey wished the conversation would have moved to something that could help Eric, but with the children playing at their feet, then Randy moving down to the floor to build more onto their ever-expanding airport complex, conversation topics were limited to what was acceptable for the children to hear. It didn't take long before Kaitlyn settled into Randy's lap, asking for help, which he gladly gave.

After the fleet had been expanded to include two more planes, Randy lifted Kaitlyn off his lap and set her onto the floor beside him.

“I hate to cut the afternoon short, but I have to start thinking about having an early supper. I have to be back at the church early to get ready for the evening service.”

Lacey stood, as well. “You're right. We should go.”

At her “we” reference, Randy hesitated. Now that they were back at Eric and Susan's house, she had her own car, so she could have stayed if she wanted to. It was just that she really didn't want to.

Susan and Eric escorted them to the door together. Randy very politely thanked Susan for the lunch, reminded Eric of their scheduled meeting for the next evening, then followed Lacey to her car instead of going to his own.

“I have an idea. Instead of going out to a restaurant, how would you like to do something else?”

“I guess. What do you have in mind?”

“I want to take you to the lagoon at the park.”

“The lagoon? Whatever for?”

“Summer is almost over, and I want to take advantage of the last of the good weather. They have great hot dogs at the concession, and I would really like to walk around the lagoon and feed the ducks.”

“I don't think ducks eat hot dogs.”

He smiled.

Something in Lacey's stomach went haywire, making her think that maybe she was starting to get hungry again.

“The hot dogs will be for us. I was going to stop off at a convenience store and buy bread for the ducks. I figure we can make it once around and still have plenty of time to get to church for the evening service.”

Lacey turned toward the street, although she didn't know why, because she couldn't see the park from where they were.

Randy was right. The children had all gone back to school, and already the temperatures were cooler. The leaves had already begun to change color. As far as she knew, the swans were gone, but the last of the ducks had not yet begun their migration south for the winter. Today was sunny and still warm, but even for tomorrow, the forecast was calling for cooler temperatures and rain.

Lacey inserted the key into the lock. “That sounds like a great idea. But what are we going to do about my car? It doesn't make sense to take both cars, but I don't want to leave it here.”

“We can go the long way and drop it off at the church, and take my car from there. If that's okay with you.” He lowered his voice. “Assuming that you want to come to the evening service with me.”

“Of course I do. Let's go.”

When they arrived at the park, true to his word, the first thing they did was buy hot dogs, and they immediately set out toward the lagoon.

Because it was Randy's idea to feed the ducks, he carried the loaf of bread in one hand while he ate his hot dog with the other.

Once they reached the circular path around the lagoon, they slowed their pace.

“Here. Go feed this to those ducks over there, and I'll take your picture.”

Lacey's feet froze on the spot. “Picture? What are you talking about?”

He pulled his cell phone off his belt. “I never go anywhere without my phone.”

In the back of her mind, she recalled Randy's skewed reference to the cell phone's abilities to take pictures when he was talking about his various gadgets to Eric.

“I don't like having my picture taken.”

“Why not? This isn't for a fashion magazine. It's a permanent record of a fun day. I hope we're going to have fun, anyway.”

“Okay, but only if you make sure you take the pictures of the ducks, not of me. I'll just throw the pieces and let them walk up to me as close as they dare, and you can take pictures of them at my feet.”

“I can live with that.”

As she said, Lacey crumbled up a slice of bread, dropped the pieces on the ground, then backed up so the ducks would come onto the shore and Randy could take their picture.

Lacey turned to look up at Randy just as a particularly large duck came within a few feet to check out what she'd dropped. Instead of taking the picture of the duck, the phone looked suspiciously like it was aimed at her, while she just happened to have her
mouth open, and not at the duck who was on the ground at her feet.

“Hey! You said you weren't going to take any pictures of me.”

“Sorry. I couldn't help myself. But don't worry, it's not a big deal. It's just for fun. No one will see it except me.”

Immediately, she felt churlish. “I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not used to having my picture taken.” More than that, no one had ever wanted to take her picture, except at Shawn and Kaitlyn's birthday parties, and then, most of the pictures were of the children, which was as it was supposed to be.

He lowered the phone, aimed it at the duck and pressed a button. “There. I got one of the duck, if that makes you happy. Want to see?” He pushed a few more buttons and turned the phone so she could see the picture that displayed in the small screen. First he showed her the picture of the duck, then the picture was of her, which actually did have the duck in it, except it was just the duck's head.

She couldn't help but smile. It wasn't a great picture, but it was good enough to recall the day together, which was the point of taking pictures in the first place.

After the duck ate the bread, they continued on their way. They hadn't gone far when Randy's hand slipped over her own, and his fingers intertwined with hers.

Part of her wanted to pull away, but part of her was actually enjoying his gentle touch, especially when they passed other couples who were also holding hands while they walked.

“Lacey, I was wondering—”

Suddenly Lacey stopped, pulling Randy to a halt, as well. She pointed to the water, where a bright-colored mallard and his brown-colored mate floated serenely in the water side by side. “Look! Aren't they beautiful?”