“NEVER WOULD HAVE guessed that there was something one of the mighty Kingfishers couldn’t do as natural as breathing, but climbing is not a talent of yours,” Leanne said from her spot next to the ladder. “Get down. Let me give it a shot.”
Winter stepped down slowly, grateful to take a deep breath as soon as she had both feet planted on the floor. Leanne made a good point. The fact that Winter hadn’t known how much she hated ladders until she started working at Sweetwater Souvenir was something to consider. There had been other frames to hang. Had someone else always done the climbing for her?
“I don’t do cameras. You’re afraid of heights.” Leanne shrugged as she trotted to stand on the top step, the one that left no gripping room on the side of the ladder. Every muscle in Winter’s body tensed, as if she was prepared to catch Leanne when the ladder tilted. “That imperfection makes me like you more.”
Winter rolled her eyes. “Everyone I know seems to have a running tab of things I don’t do well. Someone with a shaky opinion of themselves would have a difficult time around this town.” She clutched the sides of the ladder, determined to save Leanne from a fall.
Although, now that she looked, the ladder’s legs were much more solidly planted than they had been when she’d been frozen in fear.
Life was that much more solid when she was on firm ground, apparently.
“I have the reverse problem. Town seems to be shocked I can do anything right.” Leanne paused, then she straightened her shoulders. “But we’re changing that. I’m making a difference in my own life.” She gripped the painting and carefully eased it off the hook. No white knuckles required.
Winter tried not to take that personally.
When she caught movement outside on the sidewalk from the corner of her eye, Winter turned, hoping Caleb Callaway had come to his senses and was ready to grovel. She would hesitate for a split second and then she would kiss him. More than once.
Missing him for a week had been difficult.
Seeing him standing up in front of all those reporters, flannel and denim and charming Callaway smile and his stepfather’s affection and his brother’s admiration… Well, they weren’t done. She knew Caleb Callaway all the way down to his soul. Did she know his favorite color? No, but she knew the kind of man he was and she wasn’t done with him yet. He had some making up to do, but she’d show him the way.
“That’s the fourth or fifth time I’ve caught you studying the street.” Leanne stepped down one rung and leaned back against the ladder, the bunny painting Winter had claimed but forgotten to buy clutched in her hands. Was she comfortable up there? Impossible. “Who are you watching for?” Leanne blinked innocently, as if she was prepared for Winter to lie so that she might pretend she believed her.
“I’m just curious about the crowd on the street,” Winter grumbled and stepped away from the ladder. The problem with having actual friends instead of acquaintances was that they knew too much.
And the friends she had couldn’t let a single thing go.
“Oh, I expected you were hoping to catch sight of Caleb Callaway.” Leanne waggled her eyebrows. “Anything exciting about to happen?”
“After the way he accused me of leaking a story to hurt his family?” Winter shrugged. “I’d be a fool to give him another chance, wouldn’t I?” She didn’t want to be obvious but she valued Leanne’s opinion.
“I heard of a man who fell in love with his ex-wife’s best friend, a woman close enough to be called a sister. And since he was one of those paragons of virtue, it was completely out of character, but somehow, the man, his ex and her best friend had formed a family for the two kids they all loved.” Leanne hopped down the steps and leaned the painting against the wall next to the large piece she’d named Disappearing Sweetwater.
Leanne was always ready to talk about Parker and Riley, her kids, but she didn’t mention Brett and Christina’s relationship often. “Situation like that would be hard to get through, I’d guess.”
Instead of staring holes in the drywall or watching her hammer trick, Leanne met Winter’s gaze. “It has its moments, I can’t lie about that, especially when I wonder what life might be like if I hadn’t made the choices I did.” Then she smiled. “But those days, thankfully, they fade. Now my time is filled with happy kids and friends and the knowledge that life falls apart sometimes, but it also goes on.” She rested an elbow on the ladder. “If you were to ask any one of those people if a woman could fall for her ex-fiancé’s brother and expect the world to go on spinning, they’d all say yes.”
Winter took the hammer Leanne offered her, questions tumbling around in her head.
Leanne moved the ladder. “And that’s all that’s between you, right? History and your broken engagement?”
Winter wanted to trust Leanne with everything. She wanted advice.
And she wanted a friend she could tell the not-so-great things she’d done and know that person wouldn’t leave. “I was the one who leaked the report and stopped the lodge. Caleb took the heat to help save Ash’s job.” Winter ran a hand through her hair. “And he kissed me. Twice.” She grimaced. “One and half times.” Technically, she’d kissed him the second time, but he’d responded so well, he deserved part of the credit.
Leanne frowned as she studied the ladder. “What is a half kiss? Never mind.” She patted Winter’s shoulder. “Explain that at girls’ night out. I’m certain I’m not the only one who needs the answer to that.” Then she held Winter’s hands. “So, what are you doing here? The Winter Kingfisher I knew and sort of resented wouldn’t be waiting on a man to make up his mind. Forget what people will say. What do you want?”
Easy. She wanted Caleb to come through for them without having to tell him a single thing.
Was she being silly? What man could read minds?
“You’ll be okay if I take the rest of the afternoon off?” Winter asked, determined to pretend to be her old self even if she was still wobbly. Wasting time like this made no sense. She and Caleb could be making progress, but not if she waited until he realized the next step. She was the one with the plans. It had always been that way.
Leanne pointed at the window. “Almost done for the day, anyway.” The sun was setting behind the mountains, so a gray shadow had fallen over the street. “I’m going to make a few phone calls, notify our buyers that next week they can pick up the paintings they purchased. Janet has the new software system installation finished, so all the commissions and…stuff will be easy to track.” She sighed. “It’s hard to believe something I made actually sold.”
“Almost every piece we put out sold,” Winter said drily. “Pretty soon you’re going to have to get over the ‘unassuming artist’ persona.”
Leanne frowned. “So now we’re going for plain talk, are we? Playing hardball.” She nodded. “Fine. You have an excellent excuse to find Caleb. He bought those paintings. The one you loved from the beginning and the one you wanted to own. It’s almost like you have the same taste.” She winked. “Or he was buying the things you love because you love them. Maybe you could negotiate some kind of resell on the rabbit painting.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Otherwise, you’ll have to go to his house to visit it whenever you want to see it.” She made a sad face. “The hardship, right?”
Winter laughed. She recalled Caleb standing in the middle of the room, staring as if lost at all the artwork.
Until she’d mentioned how much she loved the two paintings that he then quickly bought. What did that mean?
“I don’t know where he lives.” She sniffed. How hard would it be to find out?
“I heard an interesting tidbit about Caleb Callaway the other day while Janet was talking to Regina on the phone.” Leanne pursed her lips and shoved a shoulder under the ladder to move it away from the wall.
Her curiosity was impossible to tamp down. The jingling bells next door put the conversation on hold. “Be right back,” Leanne said.
“Mrs. Kingfisher, what brings you in today?” Leanne said loudly enough to carry into the gallery.
And possibly out on the sidewalk. Did she mean it as a warning?
Curious, Winter walked over to investigate.
“Janet and I have a business meeting—” her mother pulled up the voluminous knit thing she always wore as a winter coat and looked at her watch “—in ten minutes. I’m early.” Her happy shimmy sent fringe dancing.
“You didn’t tell me you were doing business, Mom.” Winter stepped closer to study the large cardboard box her mother had placed on the cluttered counter. “What’s inside?” She tried to lift one of the flaps but her mother smacked her hand.
“Kingfisher Apothecary. That’s what’s inside. And we aren’t doing business yet, but we will.” Her mother smoothed wisps of curls that had escaped her blond topknot. Seeing her mom that way, with the tamed hair and the flashing watch that she’d actually checked, reminded Winter of kissing her mother’s cheek before she marched out the door to go to work. “Some people prefer all-natural products, shampoos and lotions that don’t destroy the environment.” She smiled benignly at Winter. “I’ve included my new shampoo, the one I made for you. Even you can’t argue with the results. I’m going to call you my spokesmodel.”
Her mother was right. Once she’d started tinkering with her formula, the gray goop had worked better and smelled nicer, and fighting over shampoo had become a thing of the past. Being the spokesmodel for Kingfisher Apothecary would be easy enough.
The bottle she pulled out was beautiful. There was no other way to describe it. Amber glass with a silver cap and a large tag tied around the neck with twine. Winter studied the logo on the tag, a finely drawn bird with hand lettering. The back listed ingredients.
“Glass bottles seemed my best bet, but I’ve concentrated the formula so a drop is all you need and this bottle could last months. I got the labels printed at the old-time print shop in Pigeon Forge. They use plant dies and recycled materials. This is something I’m proud to put the Kingfisher name on.”
Her mother straightened her shoulders and faced off against Winter as if she was prepared for Winter to do her worst.
“I wasn’t listening,” Winter said slowly. “I’m sorry. I thought this was a hobby, like Dad’s baskets—not a…passion or a calling.” She blinked slowly. “Why wasn’t I paying attention?”
Her mother shrugged a shoulder as if it wasn’t important. “I don’t give up easily.”
She didn’t. She never had.
“Based on the spokesmodel,” Janet said as she entered, “I bet we can work a deal. I do love meetings that start on time, and the results are impossible to argue with.” She checked the tag and saw the price. “Whoa.”
“It’s that good.” Her mother’s shrewd stare transitioned into a smile. “First bottle is free, then we discuss the pricing. How does that work?” She waited for Janet to dig through the box and sniff some lotion.
When Janet nodded and offered her hand for a shake, static popped between them.
“I have something that can help with that.” Donna Kingfisher reached into her box of apothecary items, snagged a bottle and waved it like a television spokesperson. “Antistatic spray. Works for your clothes and hair, and it will leave you smelling like sunshine.”
She squirted her own clothes to demonstrate, spreading spring sweetness through the shop. Janet inhaled deeply. “Got any potpourri like that? That could do a big business…” Winter’s mother reached into her box again and pulled out several jars. “Ladies, we’re busy. We’ve got some negotiating to do.”
Winter and Leanne were chuckling when they returned to the large storage room.
“Your mom is a character, too. I should have guessed every single Kingfisher had talent,” Leanne said with a shake of her head as she waved a hand at the stack of her father’s baskets. Had it grown since the last time Winter was in here? Her mother had claimed they multiplied when no one was watching. “Artists, inventors… Dinnertime around your table must be epic.” Leanne turned away before Winter could figure out what she meant. Epic good or epic bad?
“You might not know this with one look, but Donna Kingfisher has high expectations of all Kingfishers. Nothing we do is epic. It’s expected.” That’s what made struggling to figure out her next step so frustrating. Now that she was employed and preparing to run Whit’s campaign again, she could face her mother.
And do it without coming across as a brat.
“Guess she’s as careful to encourage you when you need it, then.” Leanne paused. “Being a mother is hard, no matter how good you are at it.”
Since she and her mother had always been the ones to argue loud and long, Winter knew every one of her mother’s failings.
Just like her mother could list her own.
“She ran away from home before her last semester of college, escaped New England for a summer spent at the reserve waiting tables in the campground diner. She and my father met and got married at Yanu Falls. Kingfishers have been here for generations, but my mother is the one who taught us to work for what we loved.” She owed her a lot.
“And you’re a lot alike. Riley and I can argue for ten minutes before realizing we actually agree.” Leanne tangled her fingers in front of her and nodded her head knowingly until Winter took the hint. “That’s how family goes, or so I’ve been told. Kingfishers wouldn’t be immune.”
“We work for what we love, and fight when we have to, don’t we, Winter?” Her mother was standing in the doorway. “Do you need help loading the paintings?”
“I don’t have a delivery address.” Feeble. Weak. So weak. Every woman in the room was speaking volumes without saying a word. “But I could.”
“I was going to tell you where he lived, offer to do the dumb drive-by that Christina and I used to do in high school. Every cute boy with a bad attitude was on our Friday-night tour.” Her teasing grin faded. “But you’re past that.”
Janet tapped her chin. “It’s a delivery. There’s no conflict in giving you the address to the house he offered to purchase at a nice price. Full price.” Her smile was smug. “Why did I wait so long to try this real-estate thing? I’m a natural.” She scribbled the address on a piece of paper. “You and your mama load up. Me and Leanne are going to go choose our next batch of paintings.” She wrapped her arm around Leanne’s shoulder, but paused. “Winter, you are coming in next week, aren’t you? Or is Knoxville calling? Big-time politics gonna fit in small-town Sweetwater?”
Leanne met her mother’s stare. “Sweetwater’s home. I’m not sure I’m ready to buy yet, but if you have other places in mind, make a list.”
Janet pursed her lips. “Hmm, rentals are hard to come by.” She raised an eyebrow. “Regina and I’ll put our heads together.”
“Rent shouldn’t be an issue. I have my fingers crossed for a solid commission check.” She blinked innocently at Janet. “I have one coming, right?”
Janet nodded. “You are gonna be one happy salesperson, my girl.” Then she turned to Leanne. “Think Christina would be interested in renting her cabin? I mean, it’s down the hill from the ranger station, but it’s real close to Caleb’s new house. The one he’s buying here, in Sweetwater, instead of renting. It’s almost like the kid is content here and planning to make this home. I did not see that one coming.” She winked at Winter over her shoulder before she and Leanne disappeared into the storage room. Their giggles drifted out on the air.
Winter and her mother exchanged a glance. “I’ll grab the big one, you get the other one and the door.” Her mother marched across the room and handed Winter the beautiful rabbit painting. “That Leanne has real talent.”
Winter agreed as she pushed on the door. “I wanted to buy this one.”
“Maybe it’s a gift. For you. Caleb had to stare at every painting to decide whether this was the rabbit he wanted.” Her mother shrugged as she waited for Winter to open the back of the station wagon. “Doesn’t seem like his style.” She motioned with her chin at the large painting of mist. “This one is more like it, that view of the valley.”
Winter considered that as they carefully arranged the paintings. Her mother was right, but how did she know that? She hadn’t seen his face while they’d gazed out at Buckeye Cove.
Her mother stared down the quiet street. “You know, most everyone forgets that I didn’t grow up here, surrounded by Otter Lake and all this.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I found it, too. Sort of like Caleb has. Like Whit should have if he could have gotten his act together.” Her disapproval was easy to hear.
“How did you find it?” Winter asked. East Tennessee seemed a strange place to take a summer vacation as a college student. Beaches. Those were the places to go.
“Had a boyfriend. He wanted to hike and fish and camp.” She covered her heart with both hands. “And I was in love.” She batted her eyelashes. “Or I thought I was.”
Since she’d met Winter’s father here that summer, things had changed. And quickly.
They’d changed so much that after graduation, Donna Kingfisher had come back to Tennessee and gotten married at the top of Yanu Falls.
“Twists and turns, Winter. Life is all about them. When you settle in, it’s an adventure instead of a detour.” She patted Winter’s shoulder. “And it can take you some exciting places.”
Since her mother had been Whit Callaway’s number one critic, Winter had been afraid to ask her opinion of taking the job.
“Whit’s a man you vote for and trust that you won’t regret it. That, I’m sure of.” Winter would guarantee it.
Her mother nodded. “I guess I see that. Now that you aren’t engaged, I like him better. When he showed up at the house, I didn’t even want to yell at him to get off my lawn. It was always you that I was worried about, not the job. I didn’t want you to give up the best for…Whit.” She smiled. “Working for him? Much easier.”
“No skeeves, then?” Winter asked.
“Nope.” Her mother held her arms out at her sides. “Skeeve-free and happy.”
“Even if another Callaway shows up at the dinner table unexpected.”
“As long as he eats like my boy Caleb, I’m in.” Her mother frowned. “That’s who we’re talking about, right? There’s not another brother hidden away somewhere.”
Winter laughed. “Not that I know of.”
“Wouldn’t put it past them, although Senior Callaway is a man in love. I like that.” Her mother pointed at the driver’s side. “You gonna keep stalling until it’s full dark? We should get moving.” The door creaked as she pulled it open. “Set him straight, then get on with life. That’s the only way to do this, Winter. Men? Even the best ones need help sometimes. They will talk themselves out of every good thing if you let them go too long. When your father gets like that, I hit him with a kiss. Works like magic. Key to happy marriages, I’m certain.”
Winter was grinning as she started the station wagon. “All right. Tell him how this is going to work out and if he starts losing his way, hit him with a kiss. Good advice, Mom.”
She sniffed. “Your grandmother passed it along to me and I’ve never regretted following it.” She leaned in and wrapped her arm around Winter’s neck. “I’m proud of you, baby. You made it through something hard and you’re better for it. You deserve the best. It’s for you to say if that’s Caleb Callaway or not, but he’s got something.”
Winter hugged her mother and nodded. Her mom was right.
Her mother stepped back. “And from now on, you’re going to listen to your mother.” She was waving slowly as Winter pulled out of the parking spot. The older she got, the smarter her mother was. How did that happen?
Winter tightened her grip on the steering wheel. The sun had disappeared behind the ridge of mountains, so there was no doubt where Caleb would be. Construction would be done for the day. She was about to make her case on Caleb’s home turf, the place he was actually buying and planning to call home.
That seemed right. She was ready.