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The grin spread. “So some lucky guy caught you. I’m not surprised. Do you remember me? If you don’t, it’s okay. There were lots of guys after you that summer.”
And she’d agreed to go out with a couple of them. But that was before Daniel became the best part of her stay at Birch Shore. The rest of her summer had been just Daniel.
“We were at the Birch Shore Resort together. I was going into my junior year of college at OSU and you were going to Wittenberg, I think, as a freshman.”
She never made it to Wittenberg. Instead, she enrolled in art history classes as Alexis Pope at the University of Chicago, where Teddy took her to live.
“I seem to recall having to talk you into joining the revue that summer,” Daniel continued. “It was the best way I could think of to get to know you better.”
And it worked. Daniel was unlike any of the boys she’d gone out with in high school. He was experienced in ways they weren’t. And he was nice. From the first day she’d met him, he’d treated her as if she was truly someone special.
Alex drew a long breath. She could hardly confess to not remembering the boy who’d... But then again, she couldn’t admit what they’d meant to each other that summer. Daniel might have forgotten her once he was back at school, once she told him she’d moved on.
“Oh, right,” she said. “I do remember you, though I don’t recall too much about that summer...” If lying was a sin, she was doomed.
His eyes narrowed with a flash of doubt. “You don’t remember spending time together, just you and me?”
“Well, yes, some,” she said. “But there were other kids around most of the time.”
He seemed to accept her answer. “It was a great summer, living in dorms, eating in the cafeteria, wearing those goofy uniforms.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Funny I’ve never run into you before now,” he said. “You still live in Fox Creek?”
At least she didn’t have to lie about that. “No. After I married, I went to live in Chicago. I’m just here visiting my father.”
“I hope you’ll be around long enough for Lizzie to have her chance on stage.”
“Yes, we plan to stay awhile.”
“Great. She’s a minor, right? So Glen will have to get your signature on some papers, but we’ll treat her with kid gloves.”
“How involved are you, Daniel? Will you have an acting part in the play?”
“Nothing as glamorous as that. While I’m on hiatus from my real job, I’m helping with the sets. And since I’ve had some acting experience, I may try my hand at coaching some of the newer players. It’s just a diversion for me really, and I’ve known Glen for a long time.”
He was being modest. He had been the star of the resort revue. Audiences had loved his singing and dancing. All the girls had confessed to having crushes on him. The resort guests asked for him personally when they needed a favor during the day. That summer he had cleaned up on tips, stashing away every cent to pay for college.
“So this has your stamp of approval for Lizzie, Alex?” he asked. “I hope so. She’s a natural.”
“Sure. Whatever she wants.”
He stood and called toward the stage. “Come on down, Lizzie. Your mom is on board.”
Lizzie bounded down to the main floor. She scurried up to her mother and Daniel. “It’s okay with you, Mom? I can drive myself whenever you don’t want to bring me. You won’t have to operate a taxi the whole summer.”
“Yes, honey, I think it’s a great idea.”
Lizzie gave her a hug.
“It’s settled, then,” Daniel said. “Take a copy of the script home and start learning the lines. We’ll have to get your dress size and shoe size so we can alert the costume designer that we have our Zaneeta. This was the last major role we had to fill.”
Having heard the exchange, Glen joined the others. “I’d say this calls for a celebration, not just because we have our Zaneeta, but because old friends have met in this theater today. We need to catch up with each other. What do you say, Alex? All of us, dinner on me at the Jug and Boar?”
Alex ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair. “I don’t know, Glen. I have obligations...”
“You can bring your husband,” Daniel said. “And Lizzie can bring a friend...”
“I don’t have friends here,” Lizzie said. “And my father died...”
Alex felt the cold rush of guilt creep into her cheeks. There had been no reason for her to tell Daniel she was a widow, and yet she somehow felt as if she’d withheld that information from him.
Daniel stepped back. “I’m so sorry. How long ago?”
“It was January,” Alex said. “We’re still adjusting.”
“Of course you are. Wow, that’s tough. If there’s anything I can do...”
“There isn’t. I’m with my family.”
“Okay, but if you think of something...”
Glen covered the awkward silence. “I think that dinner is even more important now,” he said. “What do you say, Alex? Is tomorrow night good for you?”
Alex stood and maneuvered her way to the aisle. “I couldn’t. You understand. Lizzie and I have to go now.”
“Sure,” Glen said. “We start rehearsals on Wednesday, kid. We’ll see you at nine o’clock.”
“I’ll be here.”
Alex and Lizzie walked to the exit, and only when she’d opened the door did Alex take a normal breath. She’d felt Daniel’s gaze on her the entire way up the aisle and now had to convince her knees to quit trembling.
“Why didn’t you want to go to dinner, Mom?” Lizzie asked. “Those guys are so nice. I wanted to go.”
“Maybe some other time, honey. We’ve just arrived here. Grandpa wants time with you.”
“Okay, but if they ask again, say yes.”
Alex nodded. You got away with this, she told herself. No harm done. Surely she could manage a short summer season without Daniel Chandler knowing the truth about his daughter.
* * *
“HEY, WE’VE STILL got a bridge to build. Can we get some work done today?”
Daniel hadn’t realized he’d been staring at a closed door until Richie Parker’s voice echoed off the theater walls. Beside him, Glen chuckled. “Guess Richie doesn’t realize we got something important done today that didn’t include the bridge.”
“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “Hiring Lizzie was a stroke of luck.”
Both men turned and headed toward the stage, where construction of the romantic bridge had halted. “I don’t know about luck,” Glen said. “I remember Alex having a good bit of talent that summer at the resort. Maybe it runs in the family. At any rate, you and Alex made my job as choreographer run smoothly.”
Daniel had thought of Alex Foster many times in the past few years. Because of her, that summer was the best he’d ever spent at Birch Shore. He had noticed her right away. In fact, he clearly recalled rushing up to the SUV her father drove and offering to transport Alex’s bags into the dormitory. And it hadn’t been ten minutes after her dad left that Daniel had invited her to go with him to the cafeteria for supper. And so began a relationship that seemed to have been built on days of grinding rehearsals, subpar meals and, what made it all worthwhile, moonlit walks on the beach that led to his eventually making love to Alex.
Oh, yeah, he’d had it bad for Alex that summer. Unfortunately, she seemed to have developed something equally as bad for another guy as soon as the season ended. The resort closed, the kids left, and except for a few phone calls, Daniel never made contact with her again. He’d searched his brain for reasons to explain her sudden surprising behavior. When logical explanations didn’t come to him, he tried to forget her, to move on with other girls. But he’d ended the best summer of his life with a broken heart.
Eighteen years earlier
DANIEL RETURNED TO Ohio State believing that he’d met the girl of his dreams, the one who would make all his hard work and sacrifice worth it. Someday I’m going to marry Alex Foster, he’d told his friends at Ohio State.
The first phone calls had been exciting, fun, sprinkled with sweet words, and them sharing their dreams. They planned when they would get together again. And then, the last time she spoke to him, everything changed.
“You shouldn’t call me anymore, Daniel,” she said.
“Why? What’s wrong? Are you ill?” If there was something wrong with Alex, Daniel made up his mind to leave campus and go to her immediately.
“No, I’m fine. But I’m moving on.”
“Moving on? What does that mean?”
“I never meant to hurt you,” she said. “But I’ve met someone else. Actually, he’s a man I’ve known for quite some time, and we’ve just discovered we’re in love.”
“I don’t believe you, Alex. Something’s wrong. We don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving. I’ll come to Wittenberg to see you. I can leave tonight.”
“No, I don’t want you to do that.” She paused for torturously long moments. “I won’t be at Wittenberg. I’m getting married.”
“So it’s over, just like that? We’re through?” He hated the petulant tone of his voice, but it was so difficult to get the words out.
“I’m sorry. Really, I am.” Her voice hitched. He wanted to reach out and grab her, shake her, find out what was wrong. “I have to go now.”
The line went dead, and he held on to the phone even after her voice had faded. It took a long time for him to accept what had happened. That the girl he’d fallen so hard for had joined the insular world of the married, while he became part of the blur of a summer soon forgotten. But Daniel didn’t forget. His grades suffered. His friendships became almost meaningless. No, Daniel hadn’t forgotten.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Glen said.
His friend’s voice brought Daniel back from a heartache he’d carried for a long time.
“Something wrong?”
Daniel shook his head. “No. I was just thinking...it’s a shame that Alex is a widow at such a young age. Must have been hard.”
“I’m sure it was, but maybe not all that surprising.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“I heard that she married someone her father’s age, another doctor. That would make him even older than I am.” Glen smoothed a few strands of thinning blond hair from his forehead. “If you can imagine that.”
Daniel halted, stared at Glen. “Wow, I almost can’t.” Truly, he couldn’t put the young, sweet Alex Foster with a man her father’s age. “Why would she do that?” he asked.
“Love works in mysterious ways, my friend,” Glen said. “I’m just sayin’...the guy could have died from old age.”
Daniel didn’t believe that, but still, it was strange. “Incredible,” he said under his breath.
“Maybe she’ll get another chance with someone her own age,” Glen said, echoing Daniel’s thoughts. “In the meantime, our pal Richie up there is getting grumpier by the minute. Hope you’ve got some time left in your busy day, Senator.”
“I do. I told my dad I’d be at the hardware store by 3:00. That gives me five hours, minus a few minutes to eat the lunch you’re going to treat me to.”
Glen laughed, slapped a hand on Daniel’s back. “You got it. Isn’t it nice to have a hiatus from the state capital, Danny? You have all this time to sit around and contemplate the meaning of life.”
“Right. Between working for you and my father, I haven’t had time to contemplate the headlines in the Greenfield Gazette.”
Only now he found himself contemplating relationships, especially one from his past.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_0bd0fe2e-bbd8-5559-9b16-ab3c0bc7fe16)
WEDNESDAY MORNING JUDE breezed in the back door of the house, followed by an energetic Mutt. She grabbed a piece of toast from the platter left from breakfast, poured a cup of coffee and sat in the nearest chair. “Hi, sis. I talked to Dad before he left for the office, and he says you’re going into Greenfield today.”
Jude moved so fast and with such an economy of effort that Alex’s head was about to spin. “I am, just as soon as I take Lizzie to the Red Barn Theater. Rehearsals start today.”
Jude munched on the dry toast, alternating taking a bite for herself and offering bits to Mutt. “She excited?”
“She is. I think this activity is going to be great for her.” Minus the fact that she might be working with her biological father. “And just exactly why are you interested in my trip to Greenfield? I need a few things at the drugstore, so I shouldn’t be long.”
Dusting crumbs from her hands onto the table, Jude reached into her back jeans pocket. “I thought maybe you could pick up some stuff for me at the hardware store.”
No way. The only hardware store close by was Chandler’s, owned for years by Daniel’s father, Gus. Alex intended to steer clear of that location. Not that the junior state senator would be there, but why take the chance?
“I don’t know anything about hardware, Jude,” Alex said. “I live in a maintained condo in the middle of Chicago. I’ve never fixed so much as a loose lightbulb.”
“You don’t have to know in order to buy,” Jude said. “Just show the list to Gus, and he’ll gather everything. Anyway, it’s just a slide bolt for the hay bin, some pegs for the board in the tack room, a galvanized bucket...”
“Whoa. This sounds confusing.”
“No, it doesn’t. Why are you acting like stopping at Chandler’s is such a big deal?”
Jude’s ability to see through any ploy had often been irritating, but never more so than this morning. Jude had a sixth sense for sniffing out the truth, and she was right. Going to a hardware store shouldn’t be a big deal. Unless a woman’s old boyfriend, one who barely remembered her and was the key to a life-altering secret, might happen to be there.
Alex couldn’t think of a reason to avoid Jude’s errand. Besides, rehearsals started this morning. Daniel had said he wanted to coach, so if he was anywhere close, he’d be at the theater. And even if he wasn’t, what were the chances he’d be at the store? Didn’t he have civic duties to perform?
“Fine. Give me your list,” she said.
“You’ll be back by 2:30, won’t you?”
“Sure, but why?”
“I have to pick Wesley up at the bus stop, and I want to be at the barn when you come by. Thought you might like to see some of the improvements I’ve made to the property.”
“I would. Lizzie enjoyed her tour yesterday, and she’s even less of a horse person than I am.”
Jude stood suddenly. “Gotta go. Got a dozen goats waiting for breakfast.” She left by the back door, trailed by a tail-wagging Mutt, and hollered over her shoulder. “Thanks, Allie-belle!”
