five hundred dollars a week. She needed the money badly. But staying in Riverbend, even a couple of weeks, wasn’t part of her new life plan. A plan as carefully worked out as she could make it. Nothing left to chance. No impulsive decisions. No acting on her instincts, which had proved so wrong, ever again. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t possibly.”
“Sure you could. What department did you work in at your old job? Paint and wallpaper?”
“I was the assistant manager,” she said a little sharply. “And I was the head of plumbing and electrical before that.”
“Sorry, sexist remark,” Mitch said with a grin guaranteed to melt a harder heart than hers. “I ought to know better. My grandmother and mother both knew more about the hardware business than I ever will. What do you say? It would help us both out. The son of a friend of mine, Mel Holloway, is getting out of the army just before Thanksgiving. I promised to give him an interview if the job’s still open. I’d like to help the kid out. We need new blood in town. But until then I’m strapped. What do you say? It’d give you a little nest egg for your baby. And get me out of a bind.”
“I don’t have a place to stay.”
“You can stay right here in the boathouse. The place is winterized. It’s small, but it’s got everything you need.” She was tempted. Oh, so tempted. A few more weeks of independence, of not having to disrupt her sister Callie’s household and routines. Of not being beholden to anyone. She was in danger of acting on impulse again. She’d heeded just such an overwhelming urge when she followed Brian to California. And look where that had gotten her.
“I can’t. I have to get to my sister’s. I have to find an obstetrician. I have to establish residence.” So she could go on welfare. The words hung there unspoken between them. She felt her face grow warm. “It just wouldn’t work out.”
“Dad!” Sam’s shout from the driveway cut through the tension in the little room. “It’s time to go.”
“I have to leave.” Mitch came a little closer. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want. But promise me you won’t go before the fog lifts.”
“I promise.”
“Drive safely, Tessa.”
He held out his hand. For a wild moment she hoped he would try again to talk her into staying and taking the job in his store. But he didn’t say anything more. He just stood there waiting, with his hand out.
She took it. “Thank you for everything, Mitch. Goodbye.”
CHAPTER FOUR
FOR THE PAST HALF HOUR Harvey Medford had been debating the pros and cons of buying a new lawn mower now, while Mitch had them at rock-bottom prices, or waiting until spring, when he really needed one.
“My old one probably has a good couple of Saturday afternoons left in her,” he said, taking off his green John Deere cap to scratch his bald head. “It’s already coming on to the middle of October. Supposed to get a hard frost end of the week. Probably won’t have to mow again at all this year.”
“Might not,” Mitch agreed, laying both hands on the big lawn tractor, leaning his full weight on the sturdy housing, a gesture not lost on his potential customer. “Then again, it might stay warm for another couple weeks. You never can tell about the weather this time of year. Grass will grow some with this rain we’re getting.”
“You’re right there.” Harvey continued to ruminate, running gnarled fingers over the two-day stubble on his chin. He moved his cud of chewing tobacco from one cheek to the other, and Mitch couldn’t help but think how much the old man looked like one of his prize milk cows.
“You got nearly two acres all told to mow, Harvey. You won’t get this good a deal on next year’s model in the spring.” Mitch didn’t let the slightest hint of impatience show in his voice or on his face. Dickering a little was part of the ritual of buying from the hometown merchants. If Harvey had wanted to plunk down cash for a lawn tractor without any conversation to go with it, he’d have gone to one of the big chain stores.
“I’ll tell you what, Harvey. It’s worth another twenty-five dollars to me not to have to store this baby over the winter. I’ll give you as good a deal as you’ll get anywhere on the snowplow attachment. And if it does up and freeze next week, you can run her over the yard and chop up the leaves so they blow over onto Roger Nickels’s place.”
Harvey’s rheumy blue eyes shone with a wicked light. He and his neighbor hadn’t spoken a civil word to each other since Mitch was in grade school. No one in town remembered what had caused the falling-out. Maybe not even Roger and Harvey. No one knew or cared anymore. But they respected the old codgers’ right to carry on their feud. “You got a deal,” Harvey said, then held out his hand. “Darned if you don’t drive near as hard a bargain as your granddad.”
“Who do you think taught him what he knows?” Caleb said, coming up to them. “I’ll write up the bill for Harvey’s mower, Mitch. There’s someone wants to talk to you in the office.”
“Thanks, Granddad.” Probably another salesman, although Mitch didn’t remember having any on his appointment schedule for this morning. He really had to get some more help. Too many things like this were falling through the cracks since Larry had quit.
His office was in the oldest part of the building. It was situated at the top of a flight of stairs, open to a view of the sales area below. The walls were bare brick, the ceiling beaten tin in a wheat-and-sheaves pattern that was worth its weight in gold these days. It was still up there on the ceiling, but not because his granddad or his father, or even Mitch himself, had known there was going to be a revival of such things. It was there because when times were bad, remodeling the office was the last place to spend scarce capital. And when business was good, like now, there wasn’t time.
Mitch took the stairs two at a time and looked over the half wall, expecting to see a copper-tubing salesman or the guy who sold the new brand of tools. Both were due to call in the next week or so. Mitch figured they’d just gotten into town ahead of schedule.
But the figure seated in the chair beside his desk wasn’t a salesman. It wasn’t a man at all. It was a woman. A pregnant woman.
Tessa Masterson rose to greet him. “Hi,” she said with that smile of hers, half shy little girl, half siren. The image had stuck in his mind like a burr since yesterday.
“I thought you’d be halfway to Ohio by now.” He didn’t smile back. He’d spent the last three hours attempting to forget he’d ever seen that smile or the woman who wore it.
He’d taken Sam to school the long way around when the fog lifted. He’d been determined to eat lunch at the Sunnyside Café and not go home to let the dog out, in case she was still there. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t set foot in the boathouse until her scent had dissipated and the imprint of her head on the pillow was gone.
Her smile faded as she regarded him. She tugged nervously at the hem of the fuzzy sweater she wore over her denim jumper. Today her blouse was lime green. A bright cheerful color, he supposed. But somehow it only served to underscore the paleness of her skin and the dark bruiselike smudges of fatigue that shadowed her blue eyes.
“I came to see if the offer of a job is still open,” she said.
“I
