Forty-One
Brady whirled Gina around the bright yellow kitchen and hummed what he considered “their” song. Where does your journey lead from here? Crazy as it sounded, he did want them to travel the rest of life’s journey together.
She pushed him away and answered his unspoken question, “Probably looking for an elephant to take care of. Now move that box and let me get back to work.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He set a heavy box of dishes atop the counter and headed back outside to help the other guys carry in his cousin’s enormous rolltop oak desk.
He and a group of friends were at Aaron and Lauren’s house, delivering pickup truckloads of household goods gathered from the couples’ apartments and parents’ homes. Brady had joined the party at 1:00. Gina had been standoffish since 1:02, right after she flashed him her Miss America smile.
Not that he blamed her.
“Yo, Olafsson! Heads up!” Cal Huntington climbed the porch steps, desk chair in his arms.
Brady moved aside and held open the screen door.
“You done mooning yet?”
“Huh?”
Cal grinned. “Kind of sweet on that pretty California gal, aren’t you, bud?” He carried the chair into the house, then came back outside. Without the brown deputy sheriff’s uniform draping his broad shoulders, he appeared larger than usual in jeans and a white T-shirt. “Got your basketball?”
“Never leave home without it.”
“Bet you could use a game between that,” he tilted his head toward the house, “and your Zoning Committee.”
“You know, you should go into law enforcement, Huntington. You’d be good at detective work.”
“Ha, ha. How about some one-on-one? Even you and I can’t move that desk until the others get back.”
They sauntered over to Brady’s truck and retrieved the ball. “Think the Johnsons will mind if we use their hoop?” A freestanding hoop faced the paved cul-de-sac.
“Nah,” Cal replied. “Neighborhood’s quiet this afternoon. Perfect 72 degrees and too hot for the kids.”
“Talk to me, Calhoun. What’ve you heard?”
“Oh, I guess the general consensus is she’s sweet on you, too.”
Brady punched the ball at him. “Check. I meant about the zoning situation.”
“You don’t have the votes.”
They played, their conversation punctuated by huffing silences, grunts, and the rattling of the backboard when the ball hit it.
“What’s your opinion, Officer?”
“It’s a shame. All that history out there. Besides the fact that you live in a private park. Got enough developments going up. Town’s probably evenly divided. Whatever you guys decide will work out. Course the school board’ll be on your case for the next century or so.”
“No kidding.”
“What’ll you do? Move out to California?”
Brady’s shot nicked the edge of the backboard. He chased after the ball. Move to California? That was one option he hadn’t considered. Wouldn’t ever consider. He liked living in Valley Oaks. He liked everything about living in Valley Oaks. Well, everything except for the fact that Gina Philips would be leaving it next week.
Six days left to win her over. And he had probably scared her off Saturday night, letting her know just how serious he was about her. Or confused her by working last evening instead of taking her out for dinner. Lord, give me some middle ground here. Something between cool and aloof and mooning like a lovesick teenager.
Maybe he could talk her into staying longer. It wasn’t like she had a job to go back to.
Gina splashed cool water on her face and studied her reflection in Lauren’s new bathroom mirror. It had been hot work unloading cartons of kitchenware. A banana clip held back her disheveled hair, but it still needed shampoo. Raccoon eyes…now brimming with tears.
She was tired and her leg ached. She didn’t want to join the others for a trip into Rockville for catfish. She really didn’t want to intrude any longer. This was a Valley Oaks thing and she was an outsider.
Brady and that big guy, Cal, typified the character of the group. From the kitchen window she had watched these two grown men as they left behind heaps of unfinished work and strolled across the street to play basketball. She had watched them laugh and grimace and pant. She had watched them drink from the hose in the yard and then squirt down their heads and red faces like a couple of kids. That and today’s entire scene oozed good-natured wholesomeness. Homespun.
She didn’t fit.
She leaned over and splashed more cold water on her face. Lauren’s comments of yesterday haunted her. “Nicole never spent the night…Aaron and I are waiting…”
Gina buried her face in a new thick towel. It didn’t matter. Seattle had called that morning. Aunt Lottie had given the zoo’s head of personnel Lauren’s number and he had reached her there. He offered her the job.
The wait was over. God had answered her prayer. She was back on track.
Rejoining the group downstairs, she begged off going to dinner. Brady approached just as Isabel was offering her a ride home.
“Gina, you’re not going?”
She shook her head, trying to avoid eye contact. “I’m bushed.”
He touched her elbow. “Want to have pizza with me in town?”
By now Isabel was talking with someone else. Gina studied the floor.
“Sweetheart, shall I get you some ibuprofen?”
How did he know? Her head felt as if she were on a carousel ride. “I just took some. Thanks.”
“Ah, then you’ll need some pizza in your stomach to go along with it. Let’s go.”
She took the arm he offered and leaned against him. The room stopped spinning. “You didn’t wink, Brady. You know how I am about getting into your truck.”
With a tilt of his head, he came into view and winked in that familiar, oh-so-mellow way of his.
How was she going to tell him?
They sat in a booth with high wooden backs at the restaurant, pizza remains on a platter between them. It was a crowded place with oldies playing just loud enough to mask neighboring conversations. Brady reached across the table and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Feeling better?”
“Colored sugar water always helps.”
“Pop,” he corrected.
“Soda.”
“You say toe-may-toe—”
“I say toe-mah-toe.”
He grinned. “I suppose that’s the crux of things, eh?”
“Brady—”
“Look, Gina, I’m sorry for confusing you. One night I practically say ‘move in with me’ and the next we talk a total of two minutes on the telephone. The fact is, I don’t know how to express myself.”
“Brady—”
“All right, I’ll just say it. I’m falling in love with you. No, not falling. I already did that. I love you, Angelina.”
“But we’ve only just met!”
“I know.”
“We live thousands of miles apart!”
“I know that, too. Tell me something I don’t know. Like what do you think about spending more time in Valley Oaks?”
She tore her eyes away from his turquoise gaze. She hadn’t told him yet about Seattle.
“Oops,” Brady said, “that might be too much of a leap.” He shoved aside the dishes and reached for both of her hands. “Maybe the, uh, interest isn’t anywhere near mutual?”
She looked at his slender, workingman fingers wrapped around hers. They felt rough. She had seen them covered in black oil while he worked under the hood of a tractor. She imagined them on a keyboard, tapping out beautiful words that changed her life. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Oh, Brady. I can’t trust my feelings right now.”
“Too irrational and illogical?”
“Yes, and logically speaking, I don’t fit here with you and your friends.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Too Midwestern for you? Too beneath your—”
“No! Exactly the opposite. I’m beneath your standards. You must know that. Until now I didn’t know anyone who waited for marriage. Including myself.” She watched his face register surprise. Oh, the guy was definitely leaps and bounds out of her league. Mr. Homespun… “Please, Brady! Don’t keep making me out to be someone I’m not!”
He raised one of her hands to his lips and kissed it. “You’re a new woman in Christ.”
“But there is baggage.”
“We all have baggage of some sort. I love you, Gina.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “The Seattle zoo called. They offered the job. Starting the first of August. I have to go home next week and move myself up there.”
His hands tightened over hers, and he gave her a genuine smile. “Congratulations.” He blew out a breath. “And here I thought I had things figured out. I should know whenever that happens, God’s going to surprise me. Ready to go? I have mowing to do.”
She had given him a way out, and he had grasped hold of it like a drowning man thrown a rope. It was for the best for both of them, but somewhere deep inside herself Gina ached.
Outside they walked silently to his truck. He held the door open for her, shut it, and leaned in through the open window. “You’ll join me, won’t you?”
“When? For what?
“Now. Mowing.”
“Mowing?”
“Sure. You know it’s true love in the Midwest when she rides on the tractor with him.”
He had done it again, poured a warm, soothing balm on the hurt. She touched his forearm. “Change it to you know they’re the very best of friends when she rides on the tractor with him. Then I’ll say yes.”
Brady’s eyes narrowed as he studied her face. “How about if I just stop talking about it?”
“Excellent idea, Mr. Olafsson.”