Hidden Falls (79 page)

Ethan and Nicole drifted slowly toward the elevators themselves.

“Let’s not do what Quinn did,” Ethan said, pausing and turning toward Nicole.

She raised her eyebrows in question.

“Once I move back here,” Ethan said, “I’ll only be two hours from St. Louis. We can see each other frequently and figure things out.” Ten years ago Ethan had let circumstances make decisions for him. He’d had more of his father’s passivity in him than he thought, he realized now. Despite his ambition, he hadn’t known how to get past his own fearful inertia when it came to Nicole. This time Ethan wasn’t going to hesitate about what he wanted.

He wanted Nicole.

“I won’t be in St. Louis,” Nicole said. “I’ve made other plans.”

Ethan’s stomach burned.

“While you were chasing after Quinn yesterday,” Nicole said, “I was chasing down the truth at the paper in St. Louis. I was ready to resign, but they offered a separation package, and I took it.”

“Did you get an offer from another newspaper already?”

“Well, I suppose Marvin Stanford would always take me back at the
Dispatch
.”

Ethan let out his breath. “You’re going to be in Hidden Falls?”

“I’ll pick up some freelance projects. Mostly I’ve decided to go into the home rehab business. A particular house I know needs a lot of work, but it might someday be a decent place to live again.”

“I know the place.” Ethan smiled. “I hear the neighbor over the back fence is an extraordinary guy.”

“The people next door might not be so bad either,” Nicole said. “They have an eligible bachelor son. A hotshot brain surgeon.”

Ethan put his arms on Nicole’s elbows to steady her. He intended to kiss her hard.

6:17 p.m.

Sylvia leaned over the open oven door, pulled back a corner of foil, and stuck a fork into the tray of lasagna. The escaping steam encouraged her.

“It shouldn’t be too much longer,” she said.

“I wish you’d let me help.” Sitting in a chair in the corner of the church kitchen, Lauren pouted.

“You will sit right there until instructed to do otherwise.”

Sylvia calculated—again—how many servings of lasagna now occupied the church ovens. Gavin had assembled ingredients at Fall Shadows Café with speed Sylvia had not thought possible and delivered the trays to the church. It looked like the food would be hot enough to serve before too much longer. The challenge was estimating how many people were coming. Sylvia would wait until she saw how much of the town’s population caught wind of the impromptu event and how many potluck salads and bread baskets showed up before deciding whether she would reduce the recommended portion size of lasagna in order to feed everyone. Someone from Eat Right Here was supposed to bring over assorted dessert trays at any minute.

“I could at least go sit out in the fellowship hall,” Lauren said.

Sylvia hesitated. She’d parked Lauren where she could see her for a reason, but the work in the kitchen was under control, and Sylvia herself would need to go out into the fellowship hall soon to make sure setting up was progressing satisfactorily.

“Well, all right,” Sylvia said, “but I’m going to put Cooper in charge of you, and you know he’s a stickler for the rules.”

Together they left the kitchen and went into the main hall. Sylvia delivered Lauren into Cooper’s willing custody and found Scott Wilson sitting in a folding chair against a side wall. Already Quinn was surrounded by people who had come to help set up.

“You okay?” Sylvia asked.

“I can’t tell you how often I wondered about stuff like this,” Scott said. “Where my brother was. Whether he had people who loved him. Whether he was happy after our whole lives changed in a split second.”

A lump threatened to fill Sylvia’s throat. “He is loved. Well loved.”

“I can see that for myself now,” Scott said. “After years—decades—of imagining what his life might be like, now I feel like I’m looking in from the outside.”

Sylvia hoped Scott was as well loved as his brother. The last few hours hadn’t allowed much opportunity to find out about Scott. Or maybe she should be thinking of him as Andrew. She could tell Quinn was making an effort to call his brother Scott, and Scott referred to Quinn as Ted, but she could also see the remembrance in both of them of when they were Adam and Andrew Kreske. Their safety all these years had come at a high price.

“I look forward to lots of visits back and forth between here and Oklahoma,” Sylvia said.

Scott smiled. “I’m glad he has you. And I always wanted a sister.”

Henry and Patricia Healy paced across the old tile floor. “Tell us what to do,” Patricia said after Sylvia made the introductions.

Sylvia inventoried her mental list. “How about setting up the portable sound system?”

“I can do that,” Henry said.

Scott stood up. “I’ll help.”

“Can you make sure the coffee urns are heating?” Sylvia said to Patricia. “Then we need tablecloths and dishes and silverware.”

“Are we setting the tables?” Patricia said.

That would take a small brigade and more time than they had available.

“We’ll just set up the long serving tables,” Sylvia said decisively. “But let’s use the real dishes, not the Styrofoam stuff.”

Quinn would fuss about causing extra work, but Sylvia didn’t care. She wanted the evening to be something solid even if it was last minute. Sylvia would stay all night in the church kitchen washing dishes, if she had to. While Patricia went off to check on the four large coffee urns Sylvia had set up forty-five minutes ago, Sylvia opened a cupboard and was relieved to find ample clean, folded tablecloths in various colors. She took two stacks out and set them on a nearby table. When she looked up, Sylvia saw Sammie Dunavant enter with Emma on her arm. She walked over to greet them.

“Thank you, Sammie,” Sylvia said. She’d wanted to give her mother the option to attend, but if she’d gone herself to pick up Emma, preparations would have been substantially behind their current status.

“No problem,” Sammie said. “As soon as I heard about this, I wanted to come anyway.”

“How are you, Mom?” Sylvia looked for clues in Emma’s face for how lucid she was.

“I don’t usually like to go out at night,” Emma said, “but I had to see for myself that the rumor is true that Quinn is here.”

Sylvia was relieved to see the twinkle in her mother’s eye.

“He’s come home, Mom.”

Sammie drew in a rapid breath. “Is that what I think it is on your finger?”

Sylvia nodded. There would be plenty of time for that story later. She’d like to tell it where her mother had fewer distractions to filter out than in the large church hall where each moment brought more activity.

“I’ll be so glad to put Quinn back on my cleaning schedule,” Sammie said. “Come on, Emma, let’s go say hello to Quinn.”

“He’ll be happy to see you,” Sylvia said. So far Quinn had been pleased to greet dozens of people today, but Sylvia had no doubt that he could greet five hundred more with the same untarnished warmth.

The number
five hundred
had popped into her head randomly. Neither the table space nor the lasagna would stretch that far, but Sylvia decided not to worry. Whatever the evening lacked in logistics, joy and delight would cap it off.

Sylvia was glad to see Nicole and Ethan enter next.

“It’s coming together.” Nicole smiled widely. “It’ll be a great night.”

“I hope so.” Sylvia touched Ethan’s arm. “We could use some help getting more chairs out. I have a feeling we should squeeze in ten to a table rather than eight.”

“I’m on it,” Ethan said.

Sylvia was delighted to see that Ethan still remembered right where the closet was that held the chairs the church used for overflowing events.

“Do you want to sit with Lauren?” Sylvia asked Nicole.

They both looked across the hall, where Cooper and Lauren tilted their heads toward each other from their chairs.

Nicole chuckled. “She looks well cared for, don’t you think?”

Sylvia smiled in agreement.

“I want to help.” Nicole crutched toward the stack of tablecloths. “I may not be the speediest assistant around, but I think I can manage this task.”

“Thank you.” Sylvia would send someone over to help as soon as she could politely interrupt a cluster of conversation. For now, she laid four folded tablecloths over one of Nicole’s shoulders and spread a fifth over a table while Nicole balanced on her crutches and moved to a nearby table.

“There’s Dani and Liam.” Nicole flapped open a tablecloth.

Behind Dani and Liam were Eva Parker and Zeke Plainfield.

“We brought something to help with decorations,” Eva said.

Zeke unfurled a banner. Sylvia recognized it immediately. T
HANK YOU,
Q
UINN,
it said. The planning committee had it made for the banquet ten days ago. She’d last seen it still on the wall of the dinner hall and amid the consuming events since that night had not wondered what became of it. As she was about to ask how the two teenagers gained possession of it, Sylvia remembered Zeke had been one of the servers for the event.

“Can we hang it?” Eva looked at Sylvia with wide, pleading eyes.

“Of course,” Sylvia said. “Do you know where the ladder is, Zeke?”

“Yep.”

“Have at it. Just don’t put any new holes in the wall.” Sylvia glanced at Dani.

“We’ll make sure it’s done right,” Dani said, pulling on Liam’s arm.

Sylvia couldn’t think of a time in recent history that Liam had been inside the church building—or Dani. But here they were. Zeke and Eva would know where everything was, and Dani and Liam would keep them from doing anything careless.

The doors were opening and closing at a steady pace now as people brought in salads, breads, and vegetable dishes. They set the contributions on four long serving tables arranged end to end, where Patricia Healy made sure there was some organization to the fare and Scott transferred stacks of dishes from a rolling cart. Sylvia nodded in satisfaction as she saw Patricia was planning to serve from both sides of the tables. As soon as they relieved themselves of their food dishes, most visitors beelined for Quinn. He shook hands and kissed cheeks and dispensed hugs and grinned. He was as much himself as Sylvia had ever seen him.

Already it was clear they would have a good crowd. Sylvia had reckoned correctly that phones would be ringing all over Hidden Falls with the informal invitation to anyone who could come on short notice. They wouldn’t have all the out-of-town guests who had held tickets to the original occasion, but the room would fill, and every person there would be glad to see that Quinn was home safe.

Sylvia watched Quinn, in gray cotton trousers and his signature plaid shirt, this one with a touch of yellow running through the pattern. He didn’t need a tux to look dashing. He never had.

Quinn lifted his eyes out of the swelling huddle and found Sylvia’s gaze. She moved slowly toward him, no longer mindful of the preparations and people. Quinn was all she wanted to see. He patted a few shoulders and emerged from the mingling to take her elbow in his gentle touch. Everything around her fell away.

“You did all this, didn’t you?” he said.

“I had some coconspirators.” Sylvia remembered his touch that morning when he’d wrapped his fingers around her hand after giving her the ring. His skin had been cool and smooth, and Sylvia would never forget the soft pressure and his reluctance to let go.

“How much time would you need to plan the wedding you’d like?” Quinn looked into Sylvia’s eyes, unblinking.

Sylvia smiled. “I don’t imagine it would take too long.”

“I want it to be everything you want,” he said.

“You’ll be there,” she said. “What else do I need?” Thirty years ago, Sylvia probably would have worn a puffy dress and mailed dozens of invitations. Her mother would have pressed for a stylish reception, arguing that Sylvia would only marry once. The flowers and the cake would have brought a minor economic boon to Hidden Falls. Now Sylvia wanted a simple ceremony, an intimate gathering of the man she had loved so long and the people closest to them.

“You pick the time and place and I’ll be there.” Quinn kissed Sylvia’s cheek. “Now what am I supposed to do tonight?”

“Nothing you haven’t already been doing. Enjoy your friends. Be glad you’re home. Eat some good food.”

Cooper approached them. “Sorry to interrupt, but the word from the kitchen is that everything is ready.”

Sylvia glanced toward the kitchen and saw Patricia sticking her head out the door. Lizzie, Sylvia’s assistant from the shop, and Marianne, her assistant from her office, were there, too, all of them with cockeyed grins on their faces.

“Is the sound system ready?” Sylvia asked.

“Henry says it is,” Cooper answered.

“Then let’s do this.”

Quinn cleared his throat. “I don’t have to stand on an X, do I?”

Sylvia laughed. “I am not taking the risk of putting a curtain between the two of us this time. Cooper, don’t let him out of your sight.”

She strode to the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Please find your seats while we cover the preliminaries.”

The buzz of conversation subsided in exchange for the shuffling of chairs.

“This time,” Sylvia said, “we don’t have fancy menus and name tags and programs. We’re not even going to have flowery speeches. But we have what matters most. We have friendship. We have hearts full of gratitude. We have the pride in Hidden Falls that binds us together. We have an abundance of food to share and an abundance of love that gathers us around these tables tonight. And we have Quinn, whose life of service has touched all of us at some time or another.”

Sylvia swept one arm wide toward Quinn. “Before we begin the meal, let’s welcome the guest of honor.”

Applause thundered as every person in the room stood. Palpable joy rose from hands and faces. Nicole leaned on Ethan. Cooper had an arm around Lauren’s shoulder. Dani and Liam gave each other playful punches. Jack and Gianna Parker smiled at their daughters. Even Colin was there. Emma. Henry and Patricia. The Gallaghers with their wiggly little girls. Gavin. Sammie. Benita. Pastor Matt. Lizzie. Marianne. And so many more—hundreds more. Sylvia knew the name of every person in the room and was certain Quinn did also. Stories crisscrossed through decades and neighborhoods and joys and sorrows.