The Widow of Saunders Creek (20 page)

“Then I suppose that’s your decision.”

“But what about you? Do you resent that I got the place? Your mom told me that you spent most of your weekends and practically all summers here with your grandparents while you were growing up.”

“I did grow up here and would have loved if it had passed to me.” I nodded as memories raced back, creating that familiar sense of nostalgia. “But it was Granny’s choice to make. And Granny inherited the land from my Pop. Land that had been in his family for years. She was the ‘you’ in that era.”

“With the notable difference that your grandfather didn’t die young and childless, so his brothers and sisters didn’t consider your granny an interloper.”

“That’s true, but it doesn’t change anything. Keep the land or don’t, but not because of pressure or guilt. Do what’s in your heart. It’s yours, and you deserve to keep it if you want.”

She smiled, and before I could react, she slipped her arms around my waist and pressed her head against my chest. “Thank you, Eli.” She pulled back, still wrapped around me. “You’re a good friend.”

An adorable dimple flashed in her cheek, and I couldn’t help but
smile. But that was all of her arms I could stand without being forced to try to convince my heart we were only friends. I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead and disengaged. A crease flashed between her eyes, and then smoothed out. “Was that hug out of line? I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

If only she knew how my feelings were growing, she’d probably turn and run the other way. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable.”

Her eyes still held concern, but she turned and motioned with her head toward the other side of the bridge. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go see that campground of yours.”

I felt like an artist showing off a new work as I opened the gate and she walked through—nervous, excited, hopeful. I wanted her to see the potential here, even without me having to share step by step how I planned to get it all fixed up by camp time.

“You don’t lock the gate?”

“Your land adjoins mine. You planning on breaking in and trashing my cabins?” I laughed at the notion.

“Well, I don’t know,” she said, continuing the banter. “They look pretty nice, and if my house doesn’t get finished soon, I might be looking for some new digs.”

I sobered at her comment, though I knew it wasn’t directed at me or my workers. “I promise it’ll be done by fall.”

“I know. I was only teasing. You’re all doing a great job, and I appreciate it.” She tilted her head and caught my gaze. “It’s actually shaping up really nicely. My bedroom floor is beautiful.”

I could tell by the gentleness in her eyes that she was sincere, but I wanted to reassure her just the same. “The camps will all be over by the
end of July, and I’ll have time to come back and oversee things. With three of us working, we’ll have it finished in no time.”

“That’ll be nice.” She gave me a nudge. “But I’m really not being impatient.”

“Sure you’re not.”

A shrug lifted her shoulders. “Maybe a little.”

We entered the boys’ cabin area. There were four cabins that would hold six boys each, two on either side of the path. “We hold six camps during the summer, starting in mid-June.”

“So you have two weeks?”

“Give or take a couple of days.”

Tension hit my stomach. I wasn’t sure I’d even be ready. As I looked around, I made a quick decision that I would definitely set aside the remaining repairs to my house and spend a little more time here, beginning first thing tomorrow. Brush and debris removal had to be first on the list. The tornado hadn’t done a lot of damage, but there was enough that I’d need to start there. I also needed to finish the rock-climbing wall and clean and paint the cabins.

“What needs to be done to the cabins themselves?” Corrie asked, as though reading my mind. We walked into the first cabin. “Definitely sweeping, and cleaning the windows.”

“Definitely.” I glanced around, almost overwhelmed at the idea that each cabin would need the same overhaul this one obviously needed. In truth, that part of the preparation had been the last thing on my mind. I needed to do a few minor repairs to some of the buildings, and that concerned me most, but I also had to get rid of the growth since last year and tackle a few other projects I’d planned. “I haven’t focused much on what needs to be done cosmetically.”

“Like cleaning and painting?”

“Definitely cleaning, but painting too if we have time.”

“Well, you know, I’m pretty handy with a paintbrush.”

“Are you offering your services?”

Her eyes lit up. “I’d love to help.”

“You would?”

“Of course. I work for your mom until two, but I’d be happy to come over afterward.”

“What about your sister?”

She shrugged. “She ditched me for a guy tonight, and she has a date tomorrow. She’ll spend all afternoon primping. Trust me, Lola isn’t going to care if I come here after work and do some painting.”

I loved the thought of spending the afternoon with her, working side by side. “Sounds like a great plan, then. Don’t plan dinner at your house. I owe you one.”

“You owe me more than one, if I recall. I made you my world-famous omelet.”

“So you did.” I brushed a cobweb from her hair. “Then I guess I owe you two.”

“Don’t think I won’t take you up on it.” We headed for the door. “Eating is one of my all-time favorite pastimes.”

“Eating is a pastime?” I closed and locked the door behind us, and we moved down the path.

“Eating can be a lot of things.” She tossed me a grin. “Before Jarrod, I dated a guy who worked his way through art school as a competitive eater.”

I narrowed my gaze at her. “I don’t believe you.”

“No, really. And guess what?”

“What?” I chuckled.

“I could outeat him when we had meals together.”

“You should have joined the competition. You could be famous right now.”

“Mock me all you want, but I’ll have the last laugh.” Her eyes smiled, teasing me. “You’re the one feeding me.”

“On that fine note”—I motioned to a white building in front of us, the largest one on the property—“this is the chow hall.”

We walked inside the long wooden hall. I really loved this building. Every morning we had a devotional before breakfast, and then the place came alive with laughter, fun, even the occasional food fight, which I allowed as long as it didn’t get out of hand and the kids cleaned up their mess.

“What kind of camp is this?” she asked. Her feet shuffled along the concrete floor. “Bible?”

“Not really a Bible camp like you’d find sponsored by a church or Christian organization. We want the kids to come and learn teambuilding skills, burn off some steam, that sort of thing. If they feel God while they’re here, so much the better.”

She nodded. “I see.”

“We do have a chapel. Before breakfast we have a quick devotional, usually led by a camper, and we pray before our meals.”

“Sounds like a Bible camp to me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Let’s just say we are open about my position as an ordained minister, and the co-leader, Major Machaelson, is a chaplain in the army. But we don’t have church services, except on Sundays between camps. Our
chapels consist of a short skit, followed by an object lesson and a Bible reading. They last thirty minutes at the longest.” I followed her into the kitchen. It was dark, so I reached around to the wall and flipped on the light. “Other than that, the days are filled with ball games, horseback riding, and rope swings. And I’m building a rock-climbing wall.”

She shuddered. “I’m scared of heights.”

“Well then you probably wouldn’t want to rappel off the thirty-foot deck either.” I grinned at her. “But some of the kids really learn to face their fears on that.”

“I don’t have any fears.”

“Other than heights.”

“Exactly.”

I laughed. “At night we have bonfires and late-night swims in the pool. Sometimes it gets pretty loud, so you might hear us every now and then. Will that be a problem?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll try not to call the cops.”

“I’d appreciate it.” I leaned against the counter, staring at all the unopened boxes of canned goods that still had to be put away. “Hey, do you want some coffee?”

She shook her head. “Coffee’ll keep me up all night.”

“I have a bottle of wine tucked away.”

Again she shook her head. “I haven’t touched alcohol since the night I got here. The thought of it makes me want to hurl.”

“Water?”

She smiled. “That I might take.”

I walked around the counter and grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator.

She clucked her tongue. “These are horrible for the environment.”

“Would you rather have tap? I keep these for when we’re working away from the kitchen.”

“Nah, I’ll lower my standards this once.”

“That’s big of you.” I handed her one of the bottles.

“It’s the least I can do for a friend.” She laughed. “Why didn’t you ever tell us about this place? All this crazy physical stuff would have been right up Jarrod’s alley.”

I sipped my water and nodded. I didn’t want to lie and pretend I’d never asked Jarrod to be part of the camps, but I didn’t want to snitch on a guy who had died for his country either. What was the point of that?

“Never play poker.” Corrie tilted the water bottle, keeping her eyes on me, while she swallowed a mouthful of water and set the bottle on the stainless-steel counter.

“Hmm?” I raised my eyebrows, trying to look innocent.

“Oh, please.” She shook her head. “You look as guilty as a puppy that wet on the floor.”

“Okay, fine, Sherlock Holmes.” I leaned across the counter on my forearms, facing her. “After I got approval to do the camp, I invited Jarrod—and you—to join me in the venture. I thought he might enjoy taking on the horseback riding or even the rappelling.”

“I’m surprised he turned you down without at least discussing it with me.” She frowned. “It really does sound like the kind of program he’d want to contribute to. Maybe not for all six camps—he did have duties at the fort—but one or two.” She shrugged, but I could see the information confused her.

“It’s old news, Corrie,” I said. “You can’t hold it against the guy when he isn’t here to explain himself.”

“It’s not old news to me, but I suppose he had his reasons. I’m just surprised he never told me about it.”

Silence filled the air between us, and I was sorry I told her about it. I had to wonder what my motives were in the first place. Was I trying to vilify my cousin to her, somehow show her he wasn’t everything she believed him to be? I cringed at my own pettiness. I didn’t want to win Corrie’s heart by default. I wanted her heart to heal from Jarrod’s death, the way the living always heal and move on after a loved one dies. And then if I was a lucky, lucky man, she might turn her eyes to me.

But first I needed to try to undo the damage I had done. “Hey,” I said. “You know Jarrod would have told you if he’d thought it mattered. He probably just knew there wasn’t time.”

“Probably.” We drank our water and watched the sky grow darker and darker. She glanced up at me. “I guess you’ll have to use the four-wheeler to take me home.”

“I’ll take that as a hint that you’re ready?”

“It’s too dark to see the rest of the camp, isn’t it?”

I grinned and shook my head. “Hold on.” I walked into the utility closet and flipped the lever at the back. Outside, the camp lit up.

“When I was a kid going to summer camp, we had to use flashlights to see at night. Those are nice. But I wonder …”

My stomach tightened. Was there something about my favorite project that she didn’t like?

“What?” I asked, holding my breath. I cared a lot more than I should have about her opinion.

“Well, I just wonder how the kids are supposed to sneak out and go skinny-dipping in the river with all these lights.”

Relief flooded my suddenly fragile ego, and I gave her a light punch on the arm. “Remind me not to let you near those impressionable teenagers.”

“And I was going to volunteer to be a counselor.”

I wanted to ask her if she was serious, because I could really use another helper out here, but I didn’t want to put her on the spot.

As we walked back through the dining area, I pointed to a bare wall at the back of the long, rectangular room. “Eventually I’d like to see a mural up there.”

“What sort of mural?”

I shrugged. “Ideally, something that can give the kids comfort in knowing that, even though one or more of their parents is deployed, God sees them all. I don’t know. Got any ideas?”

She shook her head. “Not really. My art is more abstract.”

“Oh, subject to interpretation. Modern stuff.”

“Something like that.”

The sun had completely set by the time we mounted the four-wheeler and headed back to Corrie’s house. She wrapped her arms loosely around me, and I couldn’t help but wish the distance between my camp and her house was longer. The ten-minute ride went by way too fast as far as I was concerned.

Joe’s car sat in front of the house. “Looks like Lola invited Joe inside,” I said. “They must be hitting it off.”

“Yeah. Lola’s the queen of vacation romances. No pressure to commit.” We walked around to the back deck.

“She’s met her match in Joe,” I said. “He’s the most confirmed bachelor I know.”

She laughed. “Oh, please. He’s got nothing on you, Eli.”

I frowned and opened the door. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think you can figure it out.”

“Oh, you think I’m a confirmed bachelor. Afraid of commitment?”

“Aren’t you?”

“No.” I grinned. It wasn’t about commitment. “I just haven’t found the right woman.”

“Classic line for anyone with commitment issues.”

“Touché.” I laughed.

We walked through the mud room into the hallway. Joe and Lola sat in the kitchen, eating the leftover lobster tails.

Lola waved. “These are fantastic, Corrie. You did great. Why’d you cook them all, though?”

“So you could have a midnight snack, obviously.” Corrie rolled her eyes and motioned me to a seat as she headed for the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of tea. “How was the concert?”