“I HOPED I might see you today.” Parker walked toward Emma as she approached the boardwalk.
“You lured me here with that cryptic text, so now you owe me,” she said. “When do you plan to let me in on the secret?”
Was it his imagination or did her voice seem a little on the cool side? “I hope I didn’t overdo the buildup.” He’d sent a text to ask her to stop by when she had a chance and hinted at a new development. Now he had to hope she’d find it worth it. Parker gestured toward the building behind him. “That’s what I wanted to show you. I opened up that shed—it has some big windows and a long counter and bins. I’m moving our patient in there.”
“Into the old garden shed? Good spot—nice and roomy. I spent a lot of time in the shed helping Mike’s mom with her seedlings,” Emma said with a sigh. “I used to help her plant flowers around the cabins. Year after year, she turned this old place into a showpiece.”
There it was again. Nostalgia. Parker heard it every time someone talked about the old days. Whether it was swimming in the lake or scooping ice cream at the snack bar, it was always there. “You don’t have to convince me. I’ve seen the photos. Mike has a couple in his office from way back,” Parker said. “Come spring, we’ll do some planting around the office.”
She raised her eyebrows in expectation. “First things first. I want to see our owl.”
He led the way inside the office. The owl was still, but in a bigger cage and on a perch.
“The swelling around her eye is down some, isn’t it? She’s looking better, Parker. From the way she’s staring at me, I can pretend she recognizes me from the other day.” She pointed to the smaller covered cage. “Is there someone in there?”
“Another surprise. A cardinal with a tiny fracture—not serious. She probably got tangled up in something.”
“Where did you find her?”
“Out near one of the turnouts we’re building in the woods. With any luck she’ll be on her way next week.”
“Is that why you’re moving the cages? Because you’ve got two patients now?”
“That’s part of it. But they don’t do so well with a lot of people in and out.” He tilted his head toward the birds. “There’s a reason treatment areas in sanctuaries aren’t open to the general public. Not like the huge bird refuge sites where species migrate and breed. Those sites are often like giant parks.”
“I know you’re going to remind me the owl and the cardinal aren’t pets.” Emma lifted her hand as if to stop him from covering that ground.
“Psychic, are you?”
“I admit to feeling, oh, I don’t know what to call it, maybe a bond with this owl. For no good reason, other than feeling bad for her.” She paused. “Maybe it was the storm. It was a bad one, fierce and dangerous. I hadn’t thought about how vulnerable these birds are.”
Parker was taken aback by the intensity in Emma’s face. So much was going on inside her and she’d revealed so little. She could talk about Mike and Ruby and the resort in detail, but he knew nothing about how she spent her days. He knew nothing about her husband except his name. “Are you ready? I thought I’d move the birds now.”
Emma’s face brightened. “Let me get my camera out.”
“A real camera,” Parker teased.
“Absolutely.” Emma shrugged off her backpack and dug inside for her camera. “Phones are fine, but I like the real thing, too, especially since I’m creating my masterpiece slideshow for the open house Thanksgiving weekend.”
“You can wait here and I’ll get the cart. I can move them both together.”
The walk to the boardwalk gave him a chance to settle down—his thinking, anyway. His heart wasn’t listening to logic. Earlier, seeing Emma walking toward him in jeans and sturdy hiking boots, her dark hair almost hidden under a cap, he was happier to see her than made sense. Now he looked over his shoulder and spotted her in front of the office moving the camera in front of her as if assessing each view. She walked tentatively with her cane hooked over her arm.
If taking photos would keep her at the sanctuary that day, then let the pointing and shooting begin.
“I need the cart for a few minutes,” he called out to Will as he grabbed the handle. “I’ll bring it right back.”
“You need any help?” Will asked.
“Nah. We’ll be fine.” We. He liked that.
When he positioned the cart in front of the office, he went inside where Emma was taking photos of the owl.
“We don’t want to use too many of those in the slideshow,” he warned. “I need to focus on getting the community nature center part up and running. The boardwalk, displays, a membership drive.”
“I’m sure the board wouldn’t want you to ignore wounded birds that sort of drop in your lap,” Emma insisted. “What would they expect you to do with the owl? Tell Nicole to leave her alone and let her die?”
He agreed, noting the irony of the situation. Professional help for an injured owl or any bird was far away. They’d have to go to the state university to find an avian vet. There wasn’t even a zoo close to Bluestone River. “No, you’re right. I need visitors to view this work as part of the sanctuary’s future.”
“Showing this bird in various stages of healing could be valuable.” She gave him a long look. “I can’t be the only person who has a special feeling about owls.”
“And red-tailed hawks and eagles.”
“I’ll make a special section for it. We’ll call it a vision for the future.”
He grinned. “You make a good argument. And you are a donor, so I suppose I have to listen.”
Emma flashed a mock look of disapproval. But she waved her camera in his face and gestured to the birds. “I’m spending time, not money. How I feel about these birds has nothing to do with being a donor.”
“I’m sorry. I knew that.” Old habits really were hard to break.
She held the door open while he rolled the cart with the cages out the door. When the two cages were side by side on the cart, Emma lifted her camera and grinned. “I’m not sure we’ll want to use them, but I want them just for me.”
“Gotcha,” he said, returning her half-teasing grin. “Okay, my two avian buddies. Let’s go see your new temporary home.”
The owl was silent, but the cardinal exercised her vocal cords on the way to the shed. Other birds sitting in the trees called back.
“This must be traumatic,” Emma said. “She’s separated from her mate.”
“I know,” Parker said pulling the cart through the door. “It’s a hard part of this work. Still, except for doing nothing and letting them die, this is the only other choice.”
“I suppose.”
“Think of it this way, Emma.” He raised his head as he pointed toward the woods. “Birds have hazards all around them every day. They have natural prey coming for them. They get tangled in plastic bags or they bang into glass doors. We just don’t see what goes on, unless we’re paying attention and know what to look for. Even then we miss most of it.”
They walked to the garden shed in silence and Emma again held the door while Parker settled the cages in front of the windows that let in light. He’d cranked them open partway.
“Is this the new clinic, then?” Emma asked.
“Just for now. I’ve got another idea. I need an area for a larger cage and practical things like better drains. I’ll open an old cabin. We’ll need the extra room later on anyway.” Listening to himself, he sounded like a guy who intended to hang around for a while. “We’ll treat the ones I find or that others bring by. Some, like the owl, will need care for weeks, but some won’t ever be ready to go back home.” He stopped arranging the cages and grimaced. “I can’t save them all. Some will die.”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go down to the boardwalk. I want to show you the lookout we created at the marsh end. We can reach it from the beach.”
“You know, I could get there on my own. I mean, I don’t want to take up your day.”
“Please do,” Parker blurted. “Actually, I’m discovering how much I like showing the place off. Especially to you.”
They walked slowly down the slope to the pebbly beach, going single file along the narrow strip of stones and sand. The trees thinned as the marsh grasses thickened. The whirring and pounding sounds of construction grew louder as they got closer to the lookout.
“I can see the boardwalk snaking along through the trees,” Emma said, stopping to take a series of photos into the woods.
“Look at the sparrows hopscotching through the trees,” Parker said, pointing to the low branches where the small birds looked like they were chasing each other. “Most of those sparrows won’t go very far. Maybe down into Southern Illinois or maybe as far as Tennessee. They’ll be back.”
She lowered her camera and pointed to the patches of light and tried to catch the sense of movement. “What a sight. We used to see herons at the edge of the marsh. Maybe they’ll come back.”
He waited while she turned her back to the woods and shot some photos of the Abbot house across the lake. “Mike’s house looks so different now with a new coat of paint and the green trim. It had turned a muddy beige color with age.”
“I bet a lot of people will be drawn to that lookout point,” Parker said, leading the way up a narrow path to the raised half-circle platform, where Bill and Will came into view. “It’ll give visitors a good view of the geese—I’ve been told quite a few hang around all year round.”
“I don’t think any of us imagined a boardwalk that branches out and offers lookout points like this.” Emma made her way closer to the Riveras working in tandem, one on the platform, one on the ground to secure the supports. Both men stopped and waved.
“Pay no attention to me,” Emma hollered. “I’m doing the slideshow for the open house and I want you in it. You’re a big part of the relaunch.”
When Emma was done with her pictures, they retraced their steps and stopped at the pier.
“I know for sure I don’t need even one more photo from this pier, but I can’t resist.”
“I’ve been bringing my coffee down here in the morning so I can have a look when it’s barely light,” Parker said. “Funny, Nic was surprised at how beautiful it is around here. I think she expected all corn and soybean fields. Lakes and rivers and woods like these weren’t part of her image of Illinois. Needless to say, she’s impressed.”
“That’s great.” Emma smiled. “She looked gorgeous on Halloween in her blue dress. A real princess. Jason greeted her like an old pal.”
“She showed me photos of all of you.” His heart was thumping hard again, but this time with apprehension.
“We had fun with those. I think my ballerina costume impressed her a little.”
“What an understatement,” Parker said. “She was blown away by you in your dancer dress.”
“I’m glad I spent some time with Nic. She seemed a little sad at first, but perked up when she described her Halloweens as a kid.” She cocked her head. “You raised a lovely daughter.”
His face heated up. “Her mom, Jackie, gets most of the credit.”
“I see I’ve embarrassed you,” Emma teased. “Kind of you to give Jackie credit, but a good dad is worth a lot. She’s a kick, that girl of yours. She was telling me about the year she dressed up like a garden in bloom.”
Another one of Nic’s trips down memory lane. Sometimes remembering those special Halloween adventures hurt. Like now. “Nic and Jackie went all out for Halloween. I don’t know how she did it, but Jackie came up with all types of costumes. Nic was a cute little astronaut one year. It started with a silver snowsuit and took off from there.” He laughed. “Oops, bad pun.”
“Very bad,” Emma said, somberly.
Emma meant well, but all she did was make him feel bad about not showing up at that party, like Nicole wanted. He just couldn’t force himself to do it.
“You seemed so resistant to coming to the town party,” Emma said, “like it was kind of a waste of your time—”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” he interrupted.
“Well, that’s how it came off. Even to Nicole.”
“You’re crossing into territory you know nothing about, Emma.”
She stared at the lake where half a dozen geese were gathering at the shore. She lifted her camera, but lowered it again. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but Nicole was watching for you, like she thought you might change your mind.”
“How do you know that?” he challenged.
“Because I was there. She told me all about Halloween being bigger than Christmas in your family.”
Her voice rose with each word, in an intense, but not angry way.
“Look, Emma. Hear me out.” He gripped the railing. “I wish I’d gone to the town hall party, but it’s too late. When Nic came home, she was full of stories, but I saw her sadness. The truth is she probably missed Jackie. Halloween, all of it, was the best time of the year with her mom.”
Emma tapped her mouth with her fingertips. “This is so not my business, but I…”
“But you put it on the table. Truth is, it was my favorite holiday, too, probably because I caught Jackie’s enthusiasm when we were first married.” Seeing his knuckles turning white, he released his hands and leaned on his forearms. “I should have gone for Nic. I don’t miss Jackie, but I miss all the hoopla around the holiday.”
“Now that makes sense.” Emma turned to face him. “My nosiness aside, I think your daughter is wonderful…smart and funny. She sure works hard.”
“Yes, she does.” Parker shook his head. “I’m adjusting to living in a place that triggers so many memories for me. You, Mike, Ruby and others talk about the old days and it strikes a chord in me. You’re all so connected.”
She tilted her head toward him. “I’m sure we’ve worn you out with our stories about this place and especially Hidden Lake.”
“No, that’s not it. I had a life and connections. I liked it. But it all blew up. Something as trivial as the big deal over Halloween made me aware of what I’d lost.” He smiled sadly. “So, that’s my confession. For a little while I missed what I had.”
When it came to Nic, it was too difficult to explain that he didn’t miss her mom, but couldn’t help himself from mulling over some of his memories of their years raising Nic. Not to mention, on days like Halloween, he missed the little girl who called him Daddy. For years he joked it was his favorite word in any language.
Emma studied his face and gave him a fleeting smile. “I’m sorry for bringing it up, but I feel like I know you a little better now.”
“I’m glad,” he whispered in a voice more intimate than he’d intended. But he didn’t regret it.
“I better go.” She stuck her camera in her pack. “I can’t wait to get these on the computer and find the gems.”
“I can’t wait to see them,” he said.
“That reminds me. Why don’t you come over for dinner on Friday? I’ll have started working on the slideshow. But I have an ulterior motive, too. I need to ask a favor. Nothing big.”
Parker smiled as they left the pier, happy to know that she trusted him this much. “Big or small, Emma, doesn’t matter.”
“Thanks.” She added, “Asking that was easy. I look forward to seeing you Friday.”
He felt the same, although he didn’t seem to know the words to express how much.
* * *
“THE SMELL OF your pot roast is even stronger up here on the ladder,” Parker said, sniffing the air.
“Part of my master plan,” Emma said, “to keep you working hard for your reward of wine and dinner.”
“So you’re a schemer.” Parker tapped the nail to secure the picture hook. Then he lifted the frame out of Emma’s hands and slipped the wire over the hook. He stepped down off the ladder and stood back to check the spacing. “Looks good.”
“Perfect,” Emma said. “Two down, two to go.”
“You are one talented woman.”
She murmured a quick thank-you as Parker stared at the close-up shot of three monarch butterflies, so close together their wings appeared to form a single flower with yellow-and-black petals. It was one of her favorite photos. In the background, marigolds and blazing star were hazy, which made the butterflies pop out. The one first one they hung was a panoramic view of the whole butterfly garden. “Many talents.”
“I have fun with photography. That’s why I volunteered to do the slideshow.” And it gave her a reason to be part of the open house.
“Stacey pointed out that three of the six posters hanging at the reception were yours. You’re a pro,” he said, moving the stepladder a few inches along the wall in her office. “Many people think they can do nature photography, but it isn’t as easy as it looks. I’m sure you’ve discovered that.”
She shrugged. “In a college photo class, as a matter of fact. I got better with practice. I’ve got albums going years back. Quite a few from my trips with Ruby. After my fall, I had to put the hobby aside.”
“You must have missed it.”
“By the time the butterfly garden was created, I was mobile again.” She smiled. “Voila, the fruits of post rehab.”
Parker measured the space for the bottom two photos, and then got back on the ladder and tapped in the hook. Emma handed him the photo, a shot of a single monarch sitting on the corner of a bench. “The bench is brought to you by the amazing Rivera father-son enterprise.” Emma laughed. “They worked fast in the spring to get the flowers in. The garden attracted mostly monarchs.”
“And it’s on your land?”
“Makes it easy for me to walk over and see it.”
“You like to mix things up, don’t you?” Parker asked from his perch on the ladder. “I noticed on your living room shelves you have a photo of the butterfly garden next to one of Ruby on a walking trail in Italy. You’ve got Jason and Mike playing with Peach next to a shot of an old roadside vegetable stand. Extraordinary, really.”
“I like the idea of having a blend of sleek and modern with warm and vintage,” Emma said.
“You have the photographs of deer in curlicue frames. Seeing deer in the mist at dawn never gets old, does it? Are they yours?” he asked, pointing his chin toward the pictures.
She nodded. “From last spring. Mixing things up is—for some reason—my way of working with photos. I’ve been accused of being overly organized, maybe even a little rigid. My photos and art are my rebellion against order.” She laughed like she’d told a joke.
“You don’t seem rigid to me. And your house is warm and inviting. Not just from the scent of pot roast warmth, although that helps.” Parker looked around again. “I look around and see the parts of your life you value. Friends, Bluestone River…”
She looked into his eyes, which were filled with curiosity. “Very perceptive of you, Mr. Nature Lover. But I suppose you see detail in places where the rest of us don’t think to look.”
He looked restless, almost fidgety.
“Is something wrong, Parker?”
“A game of tug-of-war is going on inside me. Should I or shouldn’t I ask about your husband. You haven’t said much about Neil. What was he like?”
“True, I don’t talk about him much.”
Parker nervously cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I got nosy.”
“After the probing I’ve done, I’m the expert. You don’t get to take my title.” She grinned.
“It’s just that it must be hard to lose your husband at such a young age.” He turned to put the fourth hook in the wall.
“He deserved more years, Parker,” she said, giving him the last photo. “I’m not just saying that. I’ll always feel sad—and even a little guilty—that he didn’t get another chance. I don’t really mind talking about him, but there’s not much to say. About us, I mean.”
Parker didn’t look convinced. He hung the fourth photo, a picture of a hummingbird in flight over a bed of day lilies, and then got off the ladder. They stood side by side for a final check of even spacing and level corners.
“I’m glad you brought him up. I’m in the habit of not talking about him because he was so well known here. People thought a lot of him.” She moved away from Parker, rested her hip on her desk. “The other day you talked about envying the connections so many of us around here have that go way back. It stuck in my mind. I get it. I’m grateful every day for Ruby and Mike.”
He folded the ladder and stayed put as Emma lowered her gaze and rubbed her thumb across the palm of her other hand. “He was a good guy—for someone else. But Neil and I shouldn’t have been married at all. We had a little harmless teenage romance and mistook it for grown-up love. And we refused to end it when we should have.”
Parker started to say something, but closed his mouth.
“What? You were about to say something?”
Parker hesitated. “I admit I’m not the chattiest guy, but thought I should acknowledge what you said. But no words came to me. You took me by surprise.”
“It’s okay. It’s hard to explain why I’m sad for Neil, but never went through what you’d call typical grieving. No one knows this except Ruby, and now Mike, but we’d agreed to see a lawyer about a quick divorce. And before we could even make the first appointment, he died.”
When she lifted her eyes to meet his gaze, she saw kindness in his face.
“It’s not complicated. Neil and I refused to take no for an answer.” She mimicked a “go team” gesture. “We kept trying.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” he said sharply.
Without knowing why, she’d hit a nerve. “Maybe for some couples, but it was wrong for us.” She bit her lower lip and tried to find a way to explain what happened. “We weren’t trying to mend something workable. We were wrong for each other in the first place.”
Parker widened his stance and crossed his arms. “I want to ask you something, but if I’m being too personal, tell me to shut up. Okay?”
Emma answered in a dry tone. “Sure, now that I’ve said this much, it’s not likely to get too personal.”
“Did you and Neil ever try counseling?”
Emma sputtered her laughter.
“You surprised me again,” Parker said.
“The question was so easy. Yes, we tried it. Many times. We were real troupers.” She let her head drop as if worn out. “For a solid year we drove to Nelson Grove, a town more than halfway to the Mississippi River, to see a guy who was supposed to be a miracle worker.”
“Seriously?”
“Uh-huh. In our case, though? Not so much. We weren’t miracle material.”
“I’m sorry…but you get credit for hanging in and trying to make it work.”
She held up her hand. “No, don’t. We spent half our time in counseling learning how to communicate better, and the other half wishing we had something to say. We kept up a good front for our families—and everyone else.” She groaned. “It’s sad, because he was a good man. And that’s why I regret he died without getting a second chance. It’s also why no one in his family and his friends know we’d agreed to split before he died. It was deceptive to keep that to myself, but it was kinder.”
The room got very quiet. In a good way, Emma thought.
Finally, Parker said, “I asked Jackie—more than once—to try to fix what had gone wrong for us.”
“And she refused?”
“Flat out. As it turned out, instead of working on us, she had an affair and one day she left.”
An image of Nicole in her tiara and blue dress flashed in front of Emma. “And Nicole isn’t over it yet, is she?”
Parker shook his head. “No. Even worse, she thinks her mom isn’t doing so well. Nic expects her to pull into the sanctuary driveway one day. Unannounced. I think that’s why Nic can seem like a happy college girl one minute and a moping teenager the next.”
Emma’s stomach dropped with a thud. “You’re probably right.” Maybe Parker was just as torn as his daughter. She started out of the room. “Come on into the kitchen. I promised you a glass of wine. We can talk there.”
He followed her down the hall. “Oh, by the way, my mom is coming to visit in December.”
“Really? I guess we’ve never talked about your family. Is Nicole excited about seeing her grandma?”
“Oh, yeah. She’ll probably tell you about it the next time she sees you. Mom’s a high school counselor. She’s going to a conference not far from here, so she’ll add on two extra days to come to see us.”
“Very cool.” Emma got out glasses and held up a bottle of red wine.
He nodded. “Red is good. Nic pointed out that neither of us is set up for a houseguest, so we’ll make a reservation for her in one of the hotels out by the highway.”
Emma poured the wine and handed it to him. “I’ve got a better idea. I’ve got so much room. She could have Ruby’s room. It has its own everything. It’s a lovely room that’s empty all the time now. I can show it to you.”
He waved her off. “No, no. I take your word for it. But I don’t want to put you out.”
“You wouldn’t be. You’d be doing me a favor. It would be fun for me.”
He let out a hoot. “Come to think of it, my mom is gregarious and a lot of fun. I’m sure she’d find you very intriguing. Okay, I accept your offer.”
“We have a deal.” She held out her glass for a toast.
Smiling, he touched his glass to hers.
As Emma got their dinner on the table, she was lighter, freer. With the truth about her marriage out in the open, she had nothing to hide from Parker now.