Small-Town Mom (8 page)

“Mommy, you’re squishing me.”

Jamie’s face grew warmer. Maybe Eli would think her cheeks were perpetually rosy.

He placed his pizza on the paper plate Rose had slid over to him and bent his head.

“What are you doing?” Opal asked.

“Giving thanks.”

“We don’t do that anymore. Mommy said our food comes from the grocery store and not God.” The little girl shot a glance at Jamie. “But when we did, my favorite was ‘God is great. God is good. So we thank Him for our food. Amen.’”

Jamie braced herself for disapproval. But he looked sad rather than condemning.

“That grace has always been one of my favorites, too,” he said.

She nibbled her pizza slice. The prayer had been one of her favorites, at one time. She’d learned it as a child. Jamie placed her pizza on her plate. That she and her kids no longer said grace as a family was her call. But she wasn’t going to make an issue of it with Eli. Not in front of the kids. She glanced around the table to see all three of them absorbed in eating their dinner.

Eli caught her gaze, and the lull in conversation became deafening.

She searched her mind for words to fill the silence. Where was Opal’s constant chatter when she needed it? “I wanted to thank you for having Sara walk Opal back up the hill. I hated to impose on you and Drew to watch her while I took Rose to Urgent Care.”

Eli and Opal shared a silent exchange.

He cleared his throat. “I—”

“Mr. Payton didn’t ask Sara to bring me back. I asked her to.”

“Did you tell Mr. Payton you were going with Sara?”

Opal pushed her pizza crust around on her plate. “No.”

“We’ve talked about this before. Mr. Payton must have been looking for you.”

Eli gave Jamie a curt nod.

“He was probably worried about you.”

Opal looked past her to Eli.

“I was concerned and relieved when Drew told me Sara had brought you to your mother.”

“Sorry.” Opal’s gaze dropped back to her plate.

“Apology accepted.”

“If you’re done with your pizza, you and Rose should go upstairs and put on your pajamas. Then you can watch the movie.”

“Okay.” Opal and Rose slipped away.

“I hope Opal didn’t give you too much trouble this afternoon.”

“No, it was okay.”

“Even her pitch to take her to the school dinner-dance?”

“She told you about that?” The smile lines on either side of his mouth deepened.

“Yes. I’m a bit embarrassed,” Jamie admitted.

“Don’t be. She’s what, six? And I’m sure she misses her daddy.”

“Seven. Don’t let her hear you saying six.”
And I’m not sure she misses John as much as she simply misses having a daddy.

Eli moved his chair back, and a compulsion to make him stay, to not have an empty seat at the table, washed over Jamie.

“Where are my manners? Would you like a drink? We have milk and iced tea. I’m afraid Myles finished off the soda.”

Her son pulled his attention from his food. “There wasn’t that much left.”

“I know.” She didn’t want the good day and her good mood broken by an argument with Myles. “I could make coffee if you’d rather have something hot.”

“Milk is fine.”

Jamie rose and crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator.

“I’m going to work on my computer.” Myles tossed his paper plate in the trash and put his glass in the sink. “Talk to her about what you told me,” he said in a lower voice as he passed by Eli at the table.

“Something I need to know?” Jamie placed Eli’s milk in front of him and sat with her tea.

“Thanks.” Eli shifted in his seat, and she couldn’t get past the similarity of his demeanor and Myles’s when he and Tanner were cooking up something.

“I was talking to some of the guys in the youth group about the teen programs at the American Legion.”

Jamie tensed. So much for her pleasant day. “I see.”

“I told them I would talk with their parents and give them more information.”

“Good move. I won’t need any more information.”

Eli inclined his head. “I understand how, given the circumstances, you might not want Myles involved in an American Legion program.”

He had that right. She’d meant it when she’d told him the military had killed John. And she didn’t want Myles anywhere near anything or anyone who would encourage him to follow in his father’s footsteps. She couldn’t lose her son, too.

Eli hesitated as if remembering their last meeting and her displeasure at Myles going to the youth group meeting and Eli driving him home. “As I said, I was talking to the group, not just to Myles.”

Jamie was torn between anger at Eli for including Myles in his discussion when he obviously knew her feelings about her son participating in anything military-related, and appreciation of his ready acquiescence to her opposition.

“Sorry I was so short. I know you weren’t talking just to Myles.” She eyed his empty glass. “Do you want more milk?”

“No, thanks. I should be going.” Eli followed Myles’s lead and cleared his plate and glass from the table. “Got to be up early for church tomorrow. Speaking of which, I meant to tell you that I’m glad you’re letting Myles come to youth group.”

Was that a dig? She scanned his face.
No, it was just Eli.
She was so sensitive to everything lately. There were certainly a lot worse things Myles could be doing than going to youth group with Tanner. Her chest tightened. As long as Myles remembered what she’d told him when they’d stopped going to church, to not slip into the complacency of trusting in a higher power that wasn’t there. Myles had to learn that he was responsible for himself.

“Thanks, again, for the pizza.” He grabbed his coat from the coat pegs by the door and let himself out.

“So, Mom.” Myles bounded into the kitchen. He had to have been lurking around the corner in the living room. “Did he tell you?”

“Yes.”

“About the rifle class? He’s going to be teaching a rifle class.” Myles’s voice rose in excitement while her heart plummeted. “Did he give you the information and registration form? He had it in his coat pocket.”

“We didn’t get that far. I told him I didn’t need to know more.”

“Mo-om! I thought he could talk you into it. I guess it didn’t work.”

“Mr. Payton knew better than that.”

“You’re always against me. Now you have Mr. Payton against me. You’re at me all of the time to do something constructive. He wants me to get involved in group activities. I come up with something I want to do and you shoot it down.”

“I can’t let you.”

“Dad would have let me,” he spat back.

“Your dad…” Her voice cracked. “Is why I can’t.”

“Doesn’t matter. You know I’m going to blow this town and enlist as soon as I’m old enough.” He stormed from the room.

She let him go, but not without wishing Eli hadn’t gotten Myles going on the course, no matter how good his intentions might have been. Her life had become as up and down as a roller coaster ride since Eli had entered it. Things might have been better if she could have held on to her initial dislike of him. But the more she saw Eli, the more she liked Eli. To maintain any semblance of tranquility, her best plan might be to avoid him. Her heart tripped. Tranquility might not be all that it was cracked up to be.

Chapter Six

“T
GIF,” the birthing center office assistant said as she and Jamie left the center. “Autumn joining the midwife practice has taken some of the pressure off Kelly, but it’s upped my workload—at least this week.”

“You’ve got that right.” After a hectic week with an unusually high number of deliveries at the birthing center, Jamie was more than ready for one of her rare weekends when she wasn’t on call.

“Got plans?” the other woman asked.

“Bowling league tonight and nothing else for the rest of the weekend, except shopping with the girls Sunday afternoon. They’ve both outgrown the shoes they got for school back in August.”

The woman laughed as she opened her car door. “Good luck with that. I’m not a shopper and am so glad my daughter is old enough to shop on her own.”

Jamie waved goodbye. She was surprised at how much she was looking forward to bowling again. Soon after she’d first moved to Paradox Lake, Karen Hill had asked her at church one Sunday if she bowled. When Jamie admitted to being on her high school bowling team, Karen had talked her into joining the Friday Fun league she and her husband belonged to.

It had sounded like a good way to get a break from her single-parent role one night a week. She’d hired Neal Hazard’s daughter as her regular Friday night babysitter until Autumn had left Paradox Lake to pursue an advanced degree in nursing. Then, Myles had watched the girls for her until she’d found out he was breaking the house rules and having people over when she was out. She’d more or less dropped out of the league last year.

Jamie hummed as she let herself in the house. But now she was back bowling. A call to the bowling alley last week had verified that the league had openings in its winter-spring session that had started last week. And now that Autumn was back in town, she had offered to watch the girls.

She kicked off her nursing clogs and traded her scrubs for a soft pair of well-washed jeans and a turquoise cotton sweater. She hummed to herself as she tied her athletic shoes. For tonight, at least, she could forget her week. Forget the messages Leah had left offering Eli’s help in installing the heat valve she’d already installed herself. Forget the call from Leah that Opal had answered when Jamie was working one evening. Opal had explained her idea about Eli taking her and Rose to the dance. Leah had thought that was a great idea and had told Opal she would talk with Eli.

The girls’ delighted squeals of “Autumn!” let Jamie know her babysitter had arrived. She bounded down the stairs like one of the kids.

“Hi,” she said. “Thanks again for doing this.”

“No problem. I’ve missed these two. I’ll keep them busy. Don’t worry about a thing.”

More likely Opal and Rose would keep Autumn busy. Jamie hesitated. “Jack is coming over to pick up Myles. I hope that isn’t a problem. Myles has a part-time job at the garage, starting today.”

“It isn’t.” Autumn’s lips curved in a half smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “We’re still friends, more or less.” She chewed her lip. “You were great when he broke up with me before I left for grad school and I needed someone to talk to. Dad didn’t understand.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

“Enough of this old history rehash,” Autumn said. “He’s married and I’ve moved on. You don’t want to miss warm-up.”

“True, it’s been a while. I can use some practice throws before the games.” Jamie got her coat and bowling bag from the front closet and bundled up to face the frigid night.

She turned to her daughters. “You be good for Autumn.”

“We will.”

“They can stay up until nine. You can make them popcorn if you want.”

“Will do. Now, go.” Autumn waved her off. “It’s not like I haven’t done this before.”

“All right. I’m going.”

Jamie’s stomach flip-flopped most of the twenty-minute drive to Ticonderoga. She couldn’t figure out why she was nervous. She’d bowled with these people before. She dropped her hand to her stomach. She probably should have had eaten more than the protein bar she’d grabbed for supper when she’d gotten home. The kids had already demolished the mac and cheese she’d left for Myles to heat up for them, and it had been too late to make anything else.

The parking lot of the bowling alley was already half full when she pulled in. She got out and hauled her bowling bag from the passenger-side seat. The flutter started again.

“Jamie, we’re over here,” Karen called and waved when she got inside.

Several other people greeted her as she walked to lane ten.

“Good to see you back,” Tom Hill said. “Practice will start in a minute.”

Jamie sat and put her bowling shoes on. She placed her ball on the return rack. “Tom, I want to thank you again for giving Myles a job. He’s set his mind on buying back John’s Miata.”

“We can use the help, and he seems willing to learn. As for the car, Jack’s looking to sell it.” He shrugged and grinned. “You know, with the baby coming and all.”

“No, I didn’t know.”

“That’s right. You weren’t at church,” Karen said. “He and Suzy announced it last week.”

A pang of regret struck Jamie at Karen’s matter-of-fact statement, as if Jamie might have been at church, hadn’t stopped going months ago.

“Congratulations to everyone.”

“Thanks,” the expectant grandparents said.

Jamie stood. “I might as well give it a go.” She lifted her ball, sighted it with the head pin, took her four steps and let it rip.

The pins flew with a resounding crash, reminding her of how, after John’s death, she’d projected her anger at him, the war, God and the world at large onto the pins. It had helped, in a fashion.

The last pin standing wobbled and fell.
A strike.

Karen and Tom clapped.

“Nice ball.”

It couldn’t be.
Jamie spun around.

“Do you know Eli Payton?” Karen asked. “He’s our fourth.”

Jamie swallowed. “Yes, he’s Myles’s guidance counselor.”

“Then I don’t have to make introductions,” Karen said.

“No, no need,” Jamie said, wondering if her clipped words sounded as rude to her teammates as they did to her. But bowling was her getaway from life’s problems. And Eli Payton had every sign of proving to be a problem. “I need to get something to eat. Do any of you want me to order you something?”

Tom looked over at the line by the snack bar. “You’ll miss the rest of practice.”

“I have a feeling I won’t need it.”
All I’ll have to do is think of Eli and Myles and the rifle course at the American Legion that Myles is still bugging me about.

* * *

Eli watched Jamie weave her way across the bowling alley. She must not have asked who the fourth team member was. He hoped it wouldn’t matter. When Karen had told him Jamie was going to join their team, he’d thought it would be fun to spend some time with her socially rather than as Myles’s guidance counselor.