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“I heard you were in town,” she said quietly.
Rarely in his memories of her did she speak. Instead, her image was like a series of snapshots of her in various poses, most of them under him.
Now, her voice flowed over him, intoxicating.
He nodded toward the gazebo behind her. “Now that’s a familiar place.”
She glanced over her shoulder and blushed. If he didn’t know better, he’d think that she’d been thinking about him, about them, when he’d walked up.
He hadn’t planned to stop; he’d merely been walking by—as he’d had on several prior occasions—when he’d spotted her standing there like a ghost from the past.
Penelope moved through the yard toward the back door of the house and he watched her go, the material of her dress hugging her in all the right places.
He’d known running into her at some point was inevitable. While he’d visited his hometown a couple of times in recent weeks, he was now living here. At least for the foreseeable future. Which meant facing a great number of people from his past.
“This isn’t a good time, Palmer,” she said quietly.
He squinted at her through the waning light. “I would have called, but …”
A sad attempt at humor that fell flat on its face, where it belonged.
He cleared his throat. “I hadn’t meant to stop. I was walking back from Main on my way to Foss’s bed-and-breakfast …”
She nodded. “I guessed as much.”
She looked at him in a way that made him feel she was sizing him up and that he came up short.
“You look good, Palmer,” she said simply.
“So do you.”
Her smile was self-conscious. “I don’t mean … physically.” She made a small sound. “It looks like you’ve done well for yourself.”
And he had, hadn’t he? He’d accomplished everything that he’d hoped to when he left Earnest for Boston. More.
Why was it, then, that he suddenly sensed he’d achieved nothing?
“Hello?” a man’s voice called from inside the house.
Penelope looked in that direction, apparently surprised.
Palmer grimaced. While he hadn’t asked for the information, many townspeople that he’d encountered seemed to deem it important to fill him in on Penelope and her actions. He’d learned that she was still single. That she owned a small shop down on Main, one of the few that had managed to stay open in the struggling town of four thousand. He’d walked by it a few times after closing and had stood staring inside at the colorful tapestries on the walls and displayed on easels.
In all the conversations he’d had, not a one of them had mentioned a man being in the picture.
But of course there would be. Why would he even think differently?
“Have you visited your father yet?” she asked, speaking to him rather than the man seeking her out.
He suspected she knew the answer to that. Just as he knew many secondhand details about her, she’d probably plucked the details of his movements since he’d been back from the same grapevine. Not that it was a state secret, but he was pretty sure that everyone knew he had yet to see his old man.
The back door opened and a familiar guy walked out. A guy who towered over him by several inches and had made it his business to stop by the industrial trailer that currently served as his offices. Sheriff Barnaby Jones had let him know in no uncertain terms that he intended to keep an eye on what was going on.
At the time, Palmer couldn’t help sensing that there was a certain trace of animosity in the sheriff’s attention.
Now he knew why.
Penelope hurried toward the man. “Barney! Hi.”
The sheriff’s gaze seemed a little too intimate for Palmer’s liking as he took in Penelope and complimented her on her dress. Then his attention fell on Palmer where he stood just inside the side garden gate. His expression changed.
“Barnaby, I’d like to introduce you to … an old family friend,” Penelope said. “Palmer DeVoe, this is Barnaby Jones.”
Palmer crossed to shake the other man’s hand. “I believe we’ve already met.”
“Yes, we have.” The sheriff seemed to say it in warning.
Penelope appeared to pick up on the undercurrents passing between them and stepped in.
“Barney and I are attending the fair in Lewisville,” she said, and then looked confused, as if she couldn’t understand why she’d shared that. “It was … nice to see you, Palmer. I hope you enjoy your visit. You haven’t been home for a while and I know everyone is happy to see you.”
Palmer squared his shoulders under the scrutiny of the sheriff and turned a full-wattage grin on Penelope. “Visit? I’m not visiting, Penelope. I’m back.”
2
THE INACCURATE COMMENT had earned exactly the response Palmer was looking for. But that meant little when Penelope had walked inside the house with Barnaby, leaving him alone to see himself back out the garden gate.
“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”
The quote from Confucius that his mother had liked to parrot trailed through his mind as he walked toward the B and B. He slid his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants, considering the words of the other woman he had loved and lost. But this time to death.
Janice DeVoe had been so sweet that his father had once remarked that a body didn’t need sugar in his coffee when she was in the room. Of course, that had been long before things had turned sour. And before she’d gotten sick with an illness that she’d denied until it was too late.
She’d been fond of telling stories about her only child, the unchallenged sunshine of her life, of how he proclaimed nearly from the instant he could speak that he was going to be someone important, the richest man in the world and, if he could fit it in, president. And she’d encouraged him in whatever direction he wanted to go.
Until she lay near death, considering the son she’d loved so dearly … and the father that had initially been amused by the special mother-and-son bond, and then increasingly jealous of it.
That’s when Janice had spoken the quote one last time, calling on both of the men in her life to reconcile their differences and come together. Told them they would need each other now.
Then she was gone and he and his father had stared at each other, virtual strangers.
Shortly thereafter, Palmer had left. And aside from brief phone calls around the holidays and on birthdays, they’d barely spoken since.
Now, Palmer neared the corner of Maple and Elm streets and he stopped before crossing. Not because of traffic. There was none at this time on a Friday night. But because instead of walking straight toward the B and B he could turn right and within three blocks be on the street on which he’d grown up and had not been back to since he was nineteen.
“I’ll be in the area next week,” he’d said to his father during a recent phone call.
Thomas had made a sound. “I’ll alert the media.”
There had been no invitation to visit. No indication that he’d like to see him. Just a sarcastic remark that Palmer had left hanging in the air between them.
Before he knew that’s what he was going to do, he made that right and took the route he had taken so very many times before. Within minutes he stood in front of the house his mother had taken such pride in. A place he might not have recognized if not for the tilting, rusty mailbox at the unpaved curb that bore the family name.
The simple, one-story clapboard house had at one time been painted a brilliant white with powder-blue shutters. The flower beds had been full of color, the shrubs neatly trimmed, the grass mown. Now everything looked abandoned, as if the only owner had been his mother and no one had lived there since.
Palmer opened the gate that hung half off its hinges and stepped slowly up the weed-choked gravel path. The shrubs had grown unevenly to nearly halfway up the front windows and a newspaper sat on the cracked concrete front steps. He picked it up, verifying that it was today’s, and then leaned forward to knock. The screen door was so grimy that he hadn’t noticed the front door was actually open until he heard his old man’s gravelly voice as clearly as if he were standing next to him.
“What the hell do you want?” he called. “If you’re selling something, I ain’t buying.”
More words followed but they were said quietly and apparently not meant for whatever visitor stood outside the door.
How easy it would be just to turn away. To leave and pretend he’d never visited.
Palmer reached for the door handle only to find it was locked.
“I asked what in the hell you want.”
The old man stood directly on the other side of the screen door now, staring out at him.
Thomas DeVoe didn’t recognize him.
And Palmer wouldn’t have recognized him if not for the fact that he knew he was at the right house.
While his father had been tall, he seemed to have shrunk a few inches. Or maybe it was the way his shoulders curved forward as if unable to hold himself completely upright anymore. The three-day stubble on his face made it look even more haggard than it probably was, and his graying hair spoke of the fact that he was at least a month late for a visit to the barber’s. He wore a tank T-shirt that was more gray than white and his slacks would have fallen from his thin hips if not for the belt pulled tightly around them.
Palmer lifted the paper to wave at him. “Hi, Pops.”
Thomas squinted at him, the stench of liquor seeming to emanate from his every pore.
“I only have one son and you’re not him,” he said, and then reached to close the door.
No matter where you go, there you are …
“ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” Barnaby asked Penelope for the third time in an hour.
Penelope slid her hand into the crook of his arm as they walked the fair paths, the scent of corn dogs and cotton candy filling the air along with the happy shrieks of children enjoying the carnival rides.
“I’m fine,” she assured him.
Which was a bald-faced lie. She wasn’t fine. Her mind was still on the scene in the backyard before her date had arrived. And her body still hummed as if Palmer had touched her with more than his gaze.
She suspected the dream she’d had before encountering him hadn’t helped. But it was more than that. Putting together the Palmer of her past with the man of the present hadn’t been nearly as difficult as she’d thought it might be.
So many people she’d attended high school with had changed dramatically. Facial features had broadened or narrowed, grown fuller or thinner, some so much so that she often didn’t recognize them. Not Palmer. She could have picked him out instantly. Even in a crowd like tonight’s, her gaze would have immediately homed in on the man who was even more attractive now than he had been then.
Damn him.
“Would you like an elephant ear?” Barnaby asked.
Penelope squinted at him. “Pardon me?”
He pointed to a nearby food booth.
She laughed quietly in understanding, then looked down at where she absently rubbed her abdomen. She already felt as if she had a real elephant ear in her stomach and it was furiously trying to flap its way out.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Penelope faltered. “I’m sorry,” she said with genuine affection. “But I guess I’m not. I must have eaten something earlier that didn’t agree with me …”
“The corn dog?”
“I don’t think so. This goes to before we got here.”
Began the instant she looked into Palmer’s eyes.
“I really hate to ask, but do you think you can take me home?”
He searched her face, but if there was any answer to be had there, apparently he didn’t find it. “That bad?”
She nodded. “I really hate to ruin the night, but all I can think about is going home and lying down.”
And flipping through the scrapbook of her memories.
Of course, she didn’t tell him that. Would never admit that Palmer’s appearance had had such an unexpected impact on her. Not to Barnaby. Not to anyone.
So much of what had transpired between her and Palmer had been unbearably private. There had really been no one to talk to back then. Or now.
Should she take it into her head to mention the visit to her grandmother, she could just imagine the reaction. The frowns. The head-shaking. The questions.
“Would you like one to go?” Barnaby asked. She smiled. “Yes, yes. That would be nice. Thank you.”
PENELOPE STOOD ON THE FRONT PORCH, a wrapped elephant ear in her hands as she faced Barnaby.
“Would you like me to come in?” he asked.
She looked down. Well, that was a first. Usually Barnaby was comfortable allowing her to set the tone. She shook her head. “No. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be very good company.”
Night had fallen, day little more than a purple smear against the western sky. She’d left the porch light on and it threw Barnaby’s handsome features into soft relief.
“Thank you for taking me to the fair. And for this.” She lifted the sweet.
“You’re welcome, Penelope.”
He moved up the last step. She knew he was preparing to kiss her and she mentally scrambled for a way to avoid the awkward meeting.
“Goodnight, Barnaby,” she said and turned. “I really must take something for this upset stomach.”
“A soda always works wonders for me,” he said.
