nine
Luke’s opinion didn’t mean much in this town, but he’d always thought it meant something to Hannah. He scanned the paper in front of him that outlined Hannah’s plans for renovation, including the controlled burn. He resisted the urge to wad it up and march out of the room. At least he’d chosen a seat by the door.
The wooden pews, brown Berber carpet, and stained-glass window all brought back memories from his younger years. It had been a while since he’d been in the church. Not as long as some of these guys, but still, long enough.
Lottie Shoemaker had been diligent about Sunday attendance and he’d always gone, hoping to be that son she’d wanted. Probably not the best motivation to seek God, but something during those years stuck. His gaze traveled to the end of the altar on the left. In eighth grade he’d knelt there, committing his life to God. He huffed. What had he known about life in the eighth grade?
Still, he couldn’t deny what a difference God had made. A peace. A home. Nate’s comment returned to his mind. What had he called it? His grace point. Maybe there was something to that.
He’d walked away in college. Not a run of defiance. Just a slow wander until he couldn’t remember why he’d wanted to go to church in the first place. He hadn’t remembered until now. He stared at the altar again. Maybe home wasn’t a house after all. He’d have to think on that.
The wooden pew creaked next to him as Nate sat down a few feet away. He didn’t seem any happier about being here.
Nate nodded at him. “You know what this is about?”
“Nope.” Luke shook his head. “But it got me to church.”
Nate settled back and stretched out his arms. “Not quite what I meant. But I’ll take it.”
“Hey.” Thomas slid in on his other side.
Luke did a double take. “What are you doing here? The notice said ‘all single men.’”
“Do you know what they have planned?” Thomas nodded to where Hannah, Olivia, and Janie stood talking to the left. “I’m offering support to anyone opposing it.”
That didn’t sound good. Luke scanned the crowd. About thirty-five guys in all, give or take. He turned to Thomas to ask more, but Hannah stepped up to the front with Janie and Olivia at her side. She scanned the crowd until her eyes collided with Luke’s. Her smile faltered. Maybe his mood showed on his face more than he’d meant it to.
“First, I want to thank you all for coming.” Hannah’s shaky voice rose above the crowd. “I know the signs, posters, and phone calls were a bit vague, but we wanted you to hear us out.”
“Well, since you were asking for all single guys,” Tony Evens shouted from the middle of the sanctuary, “we assume you three ladies are looking for dates.”
Hannah’s face reddened as a few whistles echoed in the room. “No.”
“Please. I’d take a date with any of you three,” a voice yelled from the crowd, and everyone laughed.
“Or all three,” another deep voice added.
Luke’s shoulders tensed. If he could tell who was talking, he’d give the guy a piece of his mind. Or a piece of something. Then again, the last thing he needed to do was start a fight in a church.
Nate’s hand clenched until his knuckles whitened. Was he bothered because he was a pastor, or because he was interested in one of those three women?
Thomas leaned over and said with a harsh voice, “Exactly why this is a bad idea. Those girls don’t know the guys they’re dealing with.”
Hannah ignored the comments. “Many of you have heard about the plans to restore the center of town. When it’s done, the Manor will be an icon of Heritage and the surrounding park a great place for us to gather. The problem is all of this costs money.”
“You want us to give you money?” That had to be Derek.
Hannah bit her lip, locking her eyes with Luke again. “No, we want to sell you off for money.”
Luke blinked. Come again?
Hannah held up her hands to quiet the murmurs. “We want to hold a bachelor auction on the Fourth of July on the steps of the Manor. It’ll be part of a larger bazaar to raise funds. The auction will be the main event.”
“You think there are enough women in this town who will spend money on us?” Doubt laced Ted’s voice.
“I knew no one would go for it.” Thomas lowered his voice as he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.
Janie stepped up to the mic. “We plan to promote this to the surrounding towns through social media and news media outlets. We hope to pull in tourists over the holiday weekend.”
Derek stood, quieting the crowd. “You want us to agree to onetime dates from desperate women who could be from anywhere and who we’ll probably never see again.”
“That’s not how I would put it, but . . .” Hannah swallowed, her hand gripping the paper tighter. “Yes.”
The room erupted in cheers and laughter. A few high fives. Luke shot a glance at Thomas and Nate. No high fives in this row. He leaned over and jerked his head toward the door. “I’m getting out of here.”
He’d just reached the back with Thomas and Nate when Hannah’s voice echoed in the room. “Wait!”
He paused with his hand on the door.
“I know that . . . some of you may have your doubts. But think about it, please.”
Luke pushed out of the room as Hannah said something about needing portraits. Awesome. More reasons for her to hang with every single guy in town.
He kicked a rock down the sidewalk. “If I’m frustrated with Hannah . . . and Thomas here is still trying to convince himself he doesn’t love Janie—”
“Hey—” Thomas sputtered.
“Whatever, dude. We both know it’s true.” He turned toward Nate with an eyebrow raised. “You’d better be in a bad mood about Olivia or there might be more of a problem than we realize.”
Nate eyed him back. He stood a little taller as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not interested in Hannah or Janie, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Good. We specialize in repressed emotions.” Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “Want to get out of here?”
“You play basketball?” Nate reached in his pocket and pulled out his keys.
“Yeah, but the only decent court around here is at my friend Jon’s house and he’s in Europe.” Luke searched his brain for something else close by.
Nate jingled the keys. “Unless you’re the new high school basketball coach.”
“Nice.” Thomas slapped Nate on the back. “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”
“Meet you there in fifteen.” Luke turned toward his truck. “Thomas, you want a ride?”
“Sure.” Thomas followed him to the truck and slid in. “I rode here with Hannah and I’m not waiting for her.”
The church faded in his rearview mirror, along with Hannah and one more of her crazy ideas.
Jimmy skipped down the sidewalk with a girl. Maybe it was Sarah. Luke honked and waved, laughing at the memory of their conversation as they shoveled snow. Watch out, kid, they’ll break your heart.
“Is that the Adamses’ foster kid?”
“Jimmy.”
“What do you think of adoption, Luke?”
Luke turned down Henderson Road. “I think I’m too old now, but thanks for the offer.”
“No, would you adopt?”
“It’d have to be the right situation, but if that’s what I felt was right, I wouldn’t hesitate.” He pulled the truck into his drive and cut the engine. “Why? You thinking about adopting?”
“Just thinking.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“How do you feel about adoption?”
Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. Would they feel like my kid? Or like I was just raising someone else’s kid?”
A familiar weight settled on Luke’s chest. That’s who he’d always been to Mrs. Shoemaker. Timmy had been her son. Luke had just been someone else’s kid. He pulled out the keys and flipped them in his hand. “Relationships are what you put into them. Mrs. Shoemaker never felt like my mom because she chose not to be my mom. But Chet always felt like an uncle, or what I guessed having an uncle would feel like. I wasn’t any more related to Chet than I was to Mrs. Shoemaker, but it felt different because Chet made it different.”
I hate it when you push me away. You push everyone away. Hannah’s face flashed in his head. But that was different. Wasn’t it?
Enough of this. Luke hopped out and slammed his door. It’d feel good to play ball.
How long was she expected to wait? Two weeks and Luke still hadn’t signed up.
A distant banging interrupted Hannah’s steps to the porch. She followed the sound around the back of the house to the treehouse. Their treehouse. Man, it had been a long time since she’d been up there.
“Luke.” She stared up the ladder and the banging stopped.
He stared at her from the trapdoor. “What?”
Direct had always been best with Luke. “I don’t have you signed up yet for the auction. I need—”
“I’m not doing it.” He disappeared again.
“What?” A few others had said no, but Luke had to sign up. It wasn’t just Olivia’s bet with Thomas. Luke always had her back.
The hammer started again.
The last time she’d been in that treehouse was in high school. The day they’d kissed. Their only kiss.
She kicked the base of the tree. “Luke!”
He paused his work but didn’t look at her again. “I’m not changing my mind.”
This wasn’t working. She dropped her bag by the trunk, shoved the papers she needed him to sign under her arm, and reached for the first rung of their homemade ladder. When no cracking wood followed, she climbed until she could reach the rope to pull herself inside.
The place was smaller than she remembered, and with Luke taking up two-thirds of the floor the only place for her to go was right next to him.
Afternoon light flooded the windows and illuminated the walls they’d decorated over the years. All the photos, drawings, and graphite still remained, but they were weathered and faded. She ran her fingers along the low ceiling that Luke had painted for her. Cobalt blue with stars dotted everywhere. He’d known she’d loved the stars, and after her mom left he’d painted it just to cheer her up.
“I’m not changing my mind.” Luke positioned a board into the corner that had been damaged in a storm a few years back.
Hannah dropped her hand from the ceiling. “Please, Luke.”
“No.” He grabbed a nail from a box, held it in place, and drove it in with three solid hits.
When he reached for another nail, she pulled the box out of his reach and shut it. “Why?”
Luke stared at the box, then shrugged, sat back, and reached for his Coke, taking a large gulp from the can.
Hannah dropped the box back on the floor, and the ring of shifting nails echoed in the confined space. “That isn’t good enough.”
He rolled the pop can back and forth in his hands. “Why does it matter, Hannah?”
“It just does.”
“You have plenty of guys signed up.” He downed the rest of the soda and set it aside. “Why do you care if I do?”
Why did she care? Her fingers picked at the weathered wood floor. “You’re a big part of this town.”
He let out a humorless laugh and reached for his hammer again. “Not really.”
“You are, and this town looks up to you. We need the money and you’re one of the . . . best-looking guys in town.” She turned away. She’d kept her tone casual enough, but one look at her flushed face and he’d see right through her.
“Not buying it.”
Was he serious? She pushed the papers toward him and pulled a pen from her pocket. “Well, it’s true, and I need you to sign up.”
He pushed them back toward her. “No, you don’t.”
“Please.”
“Give me one good reason.”
“I need to have someone to bid on!” Hannah had never wanted to suck a sentence back into her mouth more in her life. If only she could hide right about now. But where could she go? They were in a four-foot-by-four-foot box.
He stilled and leaned back, studying her with an unreadable expression. “You’re going to bid on me?”
She focused on the papers in her hand again. “I mean, if I bid on anyone else, it would start rumors.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then took the papers and started reading.
She stared at the ceiling again. That was a mistake. How could she keep her emotions in check? It was here under her starry sky that she’d fallen for him. Not the day he’d painted it, but one day at a time. And it was under her starry sky that he’d kissed her.
Hannah’s eyes flicked back to Luke. His eyes burned intensely, and something in his expression stole Hannah’s breath. But she had to remember the days that followed that kiss, when he’d given up on them, on her. Just like her mom.
She broke eye contact and handed him a pen.
Luke scrawled his name at the bottom. The air seemed to have grown thicker and warmer in the space of two minutes.
A photo pinned to the wall wiggled in the slight breeze. The corners curled in and age had yellowed it, but it was still one of her favorites. She reached up and pulled it off the wall for a closer look. It had been taken their junior year after a football game. She’d been smiling at the camera and Luke had been smiling at her.
This photo had given her hope for the first time that the humongous crush on Luke that she’d been nursing for years wasn’t as one-sided as she’d always thought.
He held the papers back out to her with a teasing grin. “Are you going to break out your mad cash to bid on me?”
She yanked the papers from his hand. “Don’t call it that. It’s emergency money, and you’ve got to be crazy to think I’d bid three hundred dollars on you. Besides, I never said I was planning to win the bid.”
“Wait, so you got me to sign before you told me I could end up with anyone?” Luke leaned back and started gathering his tools, dropping them in his toolbox.
“No backing out now.” Hannah gripped the rope and lowered herself down.
“Do you have a second? I want to show you something.”
“Sure.” Her voice wavered a little and she resisted the urge to kick the tree again.
They made their way to the porch without a word, and Luke disappeared through the door for only a moment before he reappeared with a folder in his hand.
“My birth certificate was in the box that we found in the wall.” He extended the file to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you see this.”
Hannah took the folder and opened it. “Don’t you have a copy already?”
“Yes, but the other day I remembered my mother’s name was Ann—I could swear. But the name on the certificate is Sarah, and I was trying to see if I could find anything on it. It didn’t work.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.
Hannah glanced at the information, pausing on the photo. “You were so cute.”
“Were? You just said I was one of the best-looking guys in town.”
“I should have never told you that.” She pulled out his birth certificate and read it over. “You know, if you hired—”
“No.” Luke pulled the file from her hand. “I can’t afford to hire anyone. And I won’t let you spend your money on it either. So don’t ask. Besides, I’m still deciding how much I want to invest in this search. My mother died when I was a kid, no matter what her name was. That’s the end of the story.”
Her smile faded as his hand tightened on the file. No matter how strong Luke was for her or tried to be for others, part of him was just a young boy who’d lost his parents, lost in a big, lonely world.
“That’s all. Thanks for listening.” He checked his watch and turned back toward the house. “I have to go get ready for work. I’ll see you around.”
Then he was gone before she could say she was sorry, ask questions, or even offer him a hug. Then again, the way her mind was going today, a hug might have been a bad idea.
Hannah pulled out her phone and tapped Janie’s name.
“Hello?”
“Luke’s on board. Tell Thomas you need Friday off.” Hannah fished in her bag for her keys but found a card instead.
“I don’t have a date, Hannah.”
“Thomas doesn’t need to know that.” She pulled the card out, flipped it around in her fingers, and studied it. Alfred Mathis, Private Investigator. “It’ll be good for him. He needs to know you’ve moved on.”
“You want me to lie to him?”
“No. You don’t have to tell him who you’re going out with. You simply tell him you want the night off to go out, and his imagination will do the rest.” Hannah slid into her car.
Hannah tapped the card against the steering wheel. “Sometimes those closest to you can’t see what’s best for them. Besides, you need a night off. You never said you were going on a date—Olivia did.”
“I . . . suppose.”
“Just think about it.” Hannah ended the call and lifted Al’s card again. Luke might not want to investigate his past, but she knew he’d never really be free of it until he did.
Besides, he only said that he didn’t want her to spend her money on an investigator. Al’s offer was free of charge. Like she’d told Janie, sometimes people can’t always see what’s best for them.
Janie’s date didn’t bother him. Not one bit. Thomas smacked the frying patties with his spatula a little harder than necessary, then pulled a basket of onion rings out of the fryer and hooked it to the grease drainer. Their savory scent traveled through the air. He forced his mind to Madison. They had a date later. Maybe they’d watch the latest Bond movie. See, he had good dates too.
It was Uncle Donny’s call earlier that was really bugging him, not Janie. His uncle said they wouldn’t be back until June, and now he was stuck in this town an extra month.
If Janie wanted to go out with every guy in town in that time, it wasn’t his business. He reached for a stack of plates and laid them out on the prep table, each clanging against the metal. He reached for the buns and worked on the twist tie. She could go out every night and it wouldn’t bother him as long as she was here to do her job when it was time. He was her boss, nothing more.
Why wasn’t this untying? He studied the wires. They were curled into knots. Maybe he’d twisted too far. He started to work it back but that didn’t help much. He grabbed the side of the plastic and pulled. Buns spilled out across the prep table. Awesome.
He separated the bottom buns, dropped them on the plates, and started adding the burgers.
Janie pushed through the door, hung up her apron, and washed her hands at the small sink. “I’m leaving in about ten minutes. It looks like it will be a slow night for you.”
“Actually, it’s busier than I expected it to be, so I think I need you to stay.” Okay, so maybe her date bothered him a little.
Janie’s brows rose as she eyed the five customers. “Noel is out there. Between the two of you, I think you’ve got it covered.”
“What if a crowd comes?” He waved his spatula in the air. “Did you think about that?”
“A crowd? In Heritage? At seven o’clock?” She reached for her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and pulled out her keys. “But if a big crowd does come, make sure you only let sixty-five in at a time. Any more than that and we’d be over fire code.”
The bell above the door chimed.
Janie’s eyes sprang wide. “That must be them now. The hordes arriving for your burgers and my pie.” She turned her back on him.
“Who is it?” Thomas blurted out the words before he could stop himself.
Her brow wrinkled as she peeked through the window in the door. “Mr. Fair, and he appears to be alone. You’re saved from the masses a little longer.” She put her hand on the swinging door. “Now, if you don’t mind, I—”
“No. Who’s your date with?” His voice cracked, and he cringed at how weak he sounded.
Janie stood motionless. Her back to him. After what seemed forever she turned and stared at him with a hardened expression. “Does it matter?”
His pulse thudded. It didn’t. Not really. He squeezed his eyes shut. But it did. He focused on her again. “I just asked who it was. You owe me that.”
Janie marched across the kitchen toward him, fire in her eyes. “I owe you what?”
Her words were whispered, but with the venom they were delivered with, she might as well have been screaming.
“Uh, I just mean—”
“No.” She jabbed a finger in his chest as she clenched her jaw. “I owe you nothing. Five years we dated. Five. Then you up and dump me with no more of a reason than ‘It’s the right thing to do, Janie.’ And then you’re engaged to Madison before I even return from Paris.”
“All I said—”
“No.” Tears welled in her eyes. “You broke my heart, Thomas. I owe you nothing. I can go out with every guy in this town if I want and I don’t have to tell you about any of it.” She turned and flew out of the kitchen.
He stared at the swinging door until Noel pushed her way back through. “Fire on the grill!”
Thomas whipped around. Flames licked across the grill, dangerously close to the wall. He’d let too much grease pile up. His pulse soared as he snatched the fire extinguisher from the wall and snuffed out the few threats. White foam covered the metal and carried to the prep table. He eyed the burgers and buns covered in fluff and shook his head. Maybe Janie’s dating bothered him more than a little.
Noel stood in the same spot, wide-eyed, mouth hanging open.
“Tell everyone that we’re sorry, but the grill will be closed tonight.” He eyed the time before running his fingers through his hair. Who knew what the health code required after spraying fire retardant on the cooking surfaces? “And make a sign for tomorrow too. I have a feeling it will take me all day tomorrow to fix this.”
But that was just it. He couldn’t fix this. The problem wasn’t the grill. The problem was Janie was dating again and he couldn’t do a thing to stop her.