No River Too Wide (33 page)

“Jan,” Harmony called, “come meet Fletcher Bailey.”

Jan was startled, first as she always was when her daughter called her by her name, second because she had been singled out to appear front and center when there was a male stranger in the house. She took her time going into the living room, struggling to compose herself for the introduction.

Fletcher Bailey was tall, as tall as Nate, slender but broad-shouldered. His hair was nearly gray, but his face was youthful, dark eyebrows, gray eyes with laugh lines engraved around them. She judged him to be close to her own age, with barely repressed energy. He stuck out his hand when Harmony introduced her as Jan Seaton, and she, having no choice except to make a fool of herself, tentatively took it.

His palm was neither rough nor smooth, and his grip was strong but not so strong she felt captured. He held her hand just long enough to make sure she knew he had.

“I know I’m interrupting dinner,” he said in explanation, “and I promise I’m leaving. But Nate and I have been friends a long time, and he told me about the costumes you made, and he wanted me to see them. I couldn’t say no.”

Jan tried to make sense of a grown man interested in Halloween costumes. “Really? They’re nothing special.”

“Are you kidding?” Nate said. “Harmony showed me Lottie’s. It’s the cutest thing I ever saw, and she said the others were just as great.”

“I’ll see if the girls will let me show you,” Harmony said, disappearing down the hall to Maddie’s room.

“Fletcher’s both managing and artistic director at On Stage,” Nate said.

“That’s one of Asheville’s community theaters.” Fletcher smiled. “The best one. Nate helps build sets in his free time.”

Jan still wasn’t making sense of this. She knew something was required. “That sounds like fun,” she said, and knew she sounded silly.

“Fun is the perfect start.”

Before she could ask what he meant, the girls came in carrying their costumes. “Harmony said you want to see these. We have to wait until after dinner to change.” Maddie glared at her mother, who had obviously given that order.

Fletcher gave a low whistle and took Maddie’s costume to examine it. “Jan, you did all this?”

“I assembled it from bits and pieces. I got a dress at the Salvation Army and remade it. Same thing with Papa Bear’s pants.”

He looked at Edna’s costume, too. “You girls will be the hit of trick or treat,” he said. “These are amazing.”

The girls left, costumes in hand, Nate and Harmony disappeared into the kitchen with Taylor, and Jan was left there to make conversation with a stranger, the last place she wanted to be.

“You’re really gifted,” he said. “Did you study costume design?”

That struck her as funny, and despite her discomfort she laughed. “Only if you count watching television and trying to figure out how the actors’ clothes were made. I was bored a lot. Sewing was my outlet.”

“You’re not from here?”

She didn’t want to say too much, not sure what he knew about Harmony. “The Midwest.”

“So you’re new? Nobody else has had time to snap you up?”

“For what?”

“I very badly need a new costume manager. Mine just moved to Alaska.”

“Could she have gone much farther?” she asked without thinking. Fletcher’s enthusiasm was contagious. “Did you scare her away?”

“Him, and no, I didn’t, but not for lack of trying. He wasn’t very good, but I couldn’t very well fire him, because you don’t fire volunteers. You just find better things for them to do with their time and hope they agree.”

“You sound like a taskmaster.”

He smiled again, and she didn’t feel threatened. His gaze was warm and focused but not intrusive. She didn’t know how he managed that, but it interested her.

“Would you consider finding out?” he asked. “I’m told I’m easy to work with, and we do have fun, although it can get crazy right before we launch a show.”

She still wasn’t clear. “Find out what?”

“If I’m a taskmaster. Will you come and work on costumes for our next show? We’re doing
Camelot,
and we need somebody with talent and vision to dress our knights and ladies.”

She took a step back. “Oh, you don’t need me. I would have no idea in the world what to do.”

“It’s new, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t know what to do. You’d be working with a team, and most of them are experienced, although not a one of them wants to take any responsibility. They’ll bring you up to speed pretty fast. It’s fast-paced, but it’s also great fun. I promise you’ll enjoy yourself.”

She couldn’t let him get away with that. “That’s a pretty big promise. You don’t know me even a little.”

He smiled again, and his gaze warmed even more. “We can change that, if you say the word.”

Chapter 26

Taylor was glad that when she first began looking for studio space, her father had talked her out of a building closer to the river. The district owed much of its charm to the French Broad River, which flowed nearby, but the river was also easily enraged and prone to spilling over its banks. That morning, as she’d driven in circles to find a new way to reach the studio, she had glimpsed the building she hadn’t bought. She’d hoped the owners, stained-glass artists whose magnificent windows had recently been featured in
Southern Living
magazine, had moved all their work to the second floor—along with their tools, display cases, furniture—before the water moved in.

Now it was afternoon, and while the rain had stopped at least temporarily, the river was still creeping higher.

“I think we ought to sponsor a free evening at the café for all the artists and shop owners who’ve been flooded this week,” she told Dante, the café’s thirtysomething hipster chef. “Maybe next Friday night. Wine, heavy hors d’oeuvre, desserts. A little live jazz. Something to help people feel better. Maybe give them a chance to vent. You know.” She could only imagine how everyone who had been affected by the rising water was feeling today.

Dante, whose thrift-store clothing, long side-swept bangs and thickly rimmed glasses disguised an easily discouraged man, was making copious notes on the smart phone that was never far from his reach. He looked up. “You’re saying I’ll really get to cook for a change?”

She rested her hand on his buffalo-plaid shoulder. “I’m sorry things aren’t happening here as fast as we want. And these detours don’t help.”

“I’m losing my enthusiasm.”

“I’ve scheduled a bigger ad in the
Mountain Xpress
next week, and if we get the word out and get the locals in next Friday, maybe that will drum up new business. But the classes are filling up, and pretty soon the café will. Just as soon as people see how good your food is.”

He looked somewhat mollified. “How much do you want to spend?”

“How much should I?”

“I’ll work out some figures and get back to you.”

“Meanwhile don’t go overboard on lunches for the next week or so. Maybe one soup, one sandwich special? Enrollment is up but attendance is down. People aren’t sure how to get here anymore. I’m calling students and giving directions and updates, but as soon as I tell them to get here by one route, the police close another road.”

“I got here. You got here. What’s wrong with these people?” He headed for the kitchen, and Taylor envisioned him pulling out every pot and pan to decide how each would best serve the menu he was already planning in his head.

Dante was a find, and she didn’t want to lose him, which was at least part of the reason for the party. Cooking at Evolution was a part-time affair, and the rest of the day he created ironic sculptures out of scrap metal, so ironic that when she had toured his garage-studio she had been at a complete loss how to respond, in case she had entirely missed the point.

Adam had been with her for the tour. Sensing her dismay, he had asked Dante questions about what motivated him, what he hoped people took away from his work, and by the end of the tour the sculptor-chef had been beaming.

For an enigmatic guy, Adam was good at getting others to fill the void.

Adam, who had said something about stopping by this afternoon, but so far had not done so.

Taylor was reminded of high school. She really didn’t want to sink back through time to braces, calculus and rejection, so she headed for her office.

Adam was lounging in her doorway, waiting. Her heart thumped a little harder, but she only acknowledged his presence with a smile and nod, like a perky bobblehead doll. “I bet you’re here to tell me I need a trampoline for the studio, right? Or a trapeze? That’s why you finally showed up.”

“In case one of my students is waylaid by a circus performer?”

“To what do we really owe the honor?”

“Your delightful personality and kick-ass body?”

She considered. “I think we have to reserve ‘kick-ass’ for you. I’m not there yet, although I’ve heard my elbow strikes are feared in every corner of Buncombe County.”

“A woman no intelligent man would fool around with.”

“What’s your IQ?”

“Not that high when you’re on the scene.”

She melted. At least that was how it felt. Everything inside her was suddenly warm and gooey, and heat was pooling in parts of her body that seemed to have been reserved just for this moment.

“What’s the plan?” she asked, and she was surprised how husky her voice sounded.

“Dinner? Anywhere you want to go.”

“We could try something in West Asheville. Near your apartment.”

His dark eyes flashed, as if she’d ignited something inside him. “You want to see my apartment? It’s not much to look at.”

“Unless you have a better place to sightsee?”

His hand shot out, and he pulled her against him—of course, she went willingly. “You know all this teasing? You’re playing with fire.”

“I hope so.” She raised her face to his, and they kissed, nothing gentle or sweet, but filled with enormous promise.

“There’s always takeout,” he said after he moved away.

She was out of breath, and her cheeks felt hot. “I’ll be done here about five. Jan’s dropping off some papers after she picks up Maddie from school. I’ll see if she can watch her tonight.”

“You do that. I’m going to hang around and hope you can get away earlier. I’ll find a place to work out.”

She couldn’t help herself. “Don’t work off all your stamina.”

“I think you’ll be grateful if I work off some of it.” He left before she could respond, which was a good thing, since she was suddenly strangely tongue-tied.

What was she doing? She’d practically tossed the guy on his back and stripped him naked. She, whose sex life heretofore had included a fling on Jeremy’s rec room sofa, which hadn’t produced anything like pleasure—although it had produced a baby.

She was a dozen years older now, and she certainly wasn’t trying to prove anything to her parents. In the intervening years she’d been either uninterested in the men she met or so suspicious of even a flicker of attraction she’d squashed it like an annoying insect. She had been focused on caring for Maddie. But now?

Apparently now her firmly restrained libido was, like the river below them, spilling over its banks to seek a new level.

Of course, it was also quite possible that if Adam had shown up any time in the past decade, she might not have been quite so restrained.

She wondered about that. She could pretend this was all about sex, but she was smart enough to know it might be something more, as well. He fascinated her. For a powerful man he was gentle and insightful about the feelings of those around him. She had been deeply moved by the way he dealt with Harmony’s surprising explosion in class. He seemed to sense Jan’s hesitation to rejoin the human race, and he respected her fears, moving slowly, carefully, so as not to scare her away.

It was too soon in their relationship to think about love, but she did think maybe it wasn’t completely out of the question.

She realized she was smiling, and she was still smiling when Harmony walked through Evolution’s front door with Lottie balanced on one hip. Taylor went to take the baby before she gave her friend a one-armed hug.

“What’s up? I don’t usually see you here this time of day.”

“Lottie had a doctor’s appointment, and it took him forever to see us. I skipped lunch thinking I would eat afterward, and now I’m starving.”

“You’re here because you know the café’s not doing well, aren’t you?”

Harmony tried to look repentant. “Does that mean you won’t feed me?”

“You’re such a pal. Dante will be delighted to feed you. You can tell him it’s on me.”

“You’re kidding, right? Of course I’ll pay. I’m here so you won’t go broke.”

Taylor smoothed the baby’s hair away from her face. “Lottie’s okay?”

“She’s been tugging at her earlobe, but the doc thinks it’s probably just a new tooth coming in.”

Taylor started toward the café. “Did you have any trouble getting here?”

“Not after I made the third detour. There’s water everywhere. I thought we’d walk down after I eat and get a closer look.”

Taylor lowered her voice. “Your mom’s going to be here in a little while. She’s dropping off some papers I left at home after she picks Maddie up from school. Just so you know.”

“Do you get the feeling all this cloak-and-dagger stuff is unnecessary? My father’s vanished. For all I know, maybe after all those years he decided to run away from Mom. Nobody in Kansas has traced her here. It’s like nothing there changed one bit after she left. It makes you wonder if she’d left a long time ago, would anybody have noticed?”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’ve been away from home so long it gets foggy for me sometimes. My father’s a violent, hateful man—that part’s not foggy. He made lots of threats, sure, and I remember them. But I wonder if she’d just taken Buddy and me and walked out when we were little, if good old Rex would just have moved on with his life.”

“I’ve gotten to know your mom pretty well, and it’s hard to imagine she was wrong about something so important. She’s so relieved to be away from him. It’s like she’s just been released from prison, and I can’t believe she was a willing prisoner.”