Secretly Smitten (19 page)

Tess balked. “We’re not stirring up trouble. We’re trying to solve a mystery. If David didn’t die in the war, how did his dog tags get in our grandma’s attic?”

“He lived through the war,” Arnold stated. “My nephew confirmed it. In fact, James told me he got a Christmas card from him last year.”

“A Christmas card!” Tess squealed. “So he’s still alive now?”

Arnold shrugged. “He’s not that old. Seventy-eight or so.”

“Is he married?”

“How would I know if he’s married?”

“Where did the Christmas card come from?” Tess probed. “What did the postmark say?”

“Tess,” Zoe said calmly. “Arnold doesn’t know where the card came from. His nephew got the card.”

“This year? Or last year?”

“Tess!”

“All right, but, Mr. Warner, you’ll find out for me, won’t you? You’ll ask your nephew? Or you can give me James’s number. I could call him.”

It was so like Tess to ignore that which she didn’t want to hear.

“Tess, Arnold came to look at the electrical for me.” Zoe talked through her teeth. “Maybe we could bring this up later?”

Tess frowned. “Okay. Clare’s coming to bring Arnold home in a little while. I’ve got to get going.” She raised her voice. “Bye, Arnold!”

He grunted as he held on to the walker with one hand and ran his other along the wire at eye level. “You’re renting this place, right?” he asked.

“I am, but it’s owned by Miss Draper, and she specifically told me she had no money for upgrades. If I wanted to rent it, I had to take it as is.”

“I’ll bet she said that.”

Ellie Draper was nobody’s fool. She ran the chocolate shop in town, and though she was very sweet, when it came to business she was ruthless. Compared to the rest of Smitten, at least. Not that Zoe regretted it. The spot on Main Street was worth the effort. She simply had to make it work until her stream of income was constant.

Arnold looked up toward the ceiling, and Zoe held her palms up behind him, worried that he’d lose his balance and topple over. “Here’s your problem.” He turned his walker around so that the padded seat faced him, then settled into the ready-made chair. Her shoulders relaxed with him safely seated as he pointed toward the wall.

“You’d be grandfathered into code with this old copper wiring, and it looks like it’s in good condition. You can’t go wrong with copper. Not in electrical, not in plumbing. So that’s no trouble. The only thing I see is that this junction box needs to be covered.” He pointed a shaky finger toward the metal box on the old wooden wall. “You can go buy a cover for it, screw it in, and you’re ready to go.”

“That’s it?” The tightness in her jaw returned. “The new city manager made it sound like I had major work to do before I open. He said I couldn’t cook in here.”

“You’re cooking in here?” Arnold’s fuzzy brows lifted.

“Remember? So I don’t have to go back to the cabin when I’m working.”

“Roll me back there,” Arnold said. “Your problem must be in the kitchen if this guy threatened to shut you down.”

She did as she was told and took Arnold near the stove. He rose, wobbled for a moment, then braced himself against the wooden island until he hobbled to the stove area and positioned himself behind the appliance where the wall ended. He groaned. “Oh. Uh-huh.” Another grunt. “No, that won’t do.” He gazed at her. “Do you have a flashlight?”

“Right here.” She handed him one. He lit it and manipulated the beam of light behind the stove. He clicked his tongue a few times and moaned again. There were a few disappointed groans, and Zoe knew there was more to her electrical problem than an easy fix.

“The new city manager is right. You’re running too many circuits on this panel. It’s not really a danger, but it is against the new code, and you won’t be grandfathered in for that. These appliances suck a lot of electricity, so you’re going to need a new panel if you want to cook. If you unplug the stove, you’re fine, but it’s still only temporary. I’d cover those wires if I were you. They’re legal for now, but they’re not ideal.”

“How much will a new panel cost?”

“Probably be about five hundred dollars.”

“Five hundred! Zoe, you can’t afford that.” Clare’s voice of doom preceded her into the room. She was wearing her work overalls with her leather gardening gloves hanging out of the pocket.

“Relax, Clare. I’ll think of something. I can cook at Mom’s house until I get it fixed. I only need a few cents to get the place open for Friday’s grand opening. I’ll tackle this like I’d eat a side of ribs at Zak’s place. One bite at a time.”

“I think I did a good job with the hanging plants. How many flower arrangements did you want for Friday?” Clare said.

“I’ll take whatever you can spare. Honestly, Clare, you have the greenest thumb. It seems like you can grow flowers just by dreaming about them.”

“I’ll need a number.”

“Of course you will.” Zoe looked back at Arnold, who was tinkering with the stove. “Arnold, sit down for a minute. I have to check something in the front.”

He ignored her and kept right on tinkering.

“I don’t think he heard you,” Clare said as they went through the doorway to the brighter part of the storefront that faced Main Street.

“He heard me. Arnold hears what he wants to hear.”

“I heard that!” Arnold shouted.

“Told you.”

“I sure hope this isn’t a mistake,” Clare said as she pulled a spray bottle from her overall leg pocket and sprayed the plants she’d stationed around the room. “I don’t understand where you got your romantic sensibilities from. It’s one thing to be a romantic, but to put your life savings on the line for it?” Clare shook her head. “In Smitten of all places!”

“In Smitten more than any place. We’re the romance capital now, remember?” Zoe walked to the front table where she’d displayed a myriad of trinkets and antiques that brought to mind romance. “On Friday, I’d like to have a bouquet of red roses with baby’s breath here on the antique lace. Between the chandelier and the candelabra.” She felt giddy just picturing the end product. “Hey, thanks for dropping off my bike last night.”

“I didn’t drop off your bike.”

“Yes, you did. It’s right there.”

“I didn’t drop off your bike.”

“So what do you think of bouquets in Victorian vases?” Zoe continued. “I’m sure Aunt Petunia has some vases lying around.”

“Maybe you could set them in an old teapot. That way you wouldn’t need as many roses. It would be cheaper and still look just as romantic.”

“Sometimes I can’t believe we were raised in the same household. You have a scarcity mentality, Clare. God can make more good things, I promise you.”

Clare spritzed her with water. “Aren’t you worried? You should be worried.”

“Why should I be? You’re doing all the worrying for me. I worried my bike wouldn’t be here and look, there it is.” She was worried, but telling Clare wouldn’t help. Zoe walked to the table on the opposite side of the room. “I’m thinking yellow roses here. That way I’ll know who is really interested in love and who wants friendship.”

“By the roses we put out?”

“I’ll bet you the men will congregate to the yellow side and the women, the red.”

“You really think people are going to show up?”

“I know
you
are going to show up. I’ve got this great guy for you to meet again. Remember Josh Campbell?”

Clare’s face scrunched up. “He played chess in high school. That Josh Campbell?”

“You can’t judge someone by high school. Think about the fashion statements we made.”

Clare peered down at her frumpy overalls, cuffed at the ankles. “Your point?”

“My point is, you’re my sister and you’ll be here.”

“Are you inviting the new city manager? I really liked him, and so did Mom.”

She wondered if Clare could see the redness in her cheeks. “Absolutely not. If William Singer had his way, he’d find a law on the books from 1837 and shut me down like I’m running a brothel.”

“Oh, Zoe. Must you be so crude? I thought William seemed very nice, and he seemed so interested in all you had to say last night while you just thumbed your nose at him. You were actually embarrassing. Mom and Aunt Violet even said something when you left.”

Zoe’s first thought was that she was glad that Mom and Aunt Violet weren’t in the car with them on the way out to the lake. “I didn’t do any such thing. You all arranged for him to drive me home without asking me if that would be all right. We don’t even know him. He could have been an ax murderer.”

Instead, he was worse. He was a world-champion kisser who made her feel alive and full of sunlight and buttercups.

“You know how we feel about you living outside of town.”

“Well, showing a perfect stranger where I live and that I live by myself isn’t exactly protection, is it? You know, everyone always says about the serial killer, ‘He was just so quiet and polite.’”

Arnold shuffled out of the back room, got to the doorway between the rooms, then rested on his walker. “Zoe, I’m tired and ready to go home.”

She nodded. “No problem, Arnold. Clare’s going to take you. She was just leaving.” Zoe kissed her sister’s cheek. “Arnold, thanks for letting me know what needs to happen. Now I won’t have some electrician from out of town rip me off.”

“Before you go,” Clare said to him, “Tess asked me to give you this. It’s a copy of all the research she’s done on David Hutchins, and she wants you to call if your nephew knows any more about him. He can call her directly.”

“Wouldn’t it be great to bring them together again after all these years?” Zoe said. “I’ll bet I could get the story on national television and everything. That would help business around here.”

“If you’d let outsiders in, you mean,” Clare quipped.

Zoe had every intention of letting outsiders into her dating club. Just not William Singer. She wanted to believe it was because he was an interloper and an outsider, but a tiny twinge of jealously told her otherwise. She reasoned that she was only helping the women of Smitten. William was a heartbreaker, she could see it in his eyes, and she had a certain responsibility to see that he broke no hearts before he left his temporary position.

“Clare, be honest. Do you think William has any intention of staying in our little town?”

Clare shrugged. “Why not? Smitten is a lovely place to live. Do you think that will go unnoticed by him?” She fiddled with the clip on her overalls. “Besides, I think William isn’t so much interested in Cupid’s Arrow as he is in its owner.”

“I’m sure if there is any interest it’s only because I told him no. Something tells me William is used to getting his way.”

She really hadn’t been able to get William off her mind, so the more she vehemently denied that he had any effect on her, the better. Maybe she’d come to believe it. The truth was, she’d been scanning the door hoping for him to make an appearance, even if it was to bring her a citation.

Clare put her hands on her hips. “Maybe whatever happened between them is best left in the past.”

“Between whom? William and someone?”

“Zoe, pay attention. Not William,
David
Hutchins
. Maybe they were really bad for one another in some way. Would Grandma’s life have been different if she’d known he was alive? Or maybe he met someone else and didn’t have the courage to tell her.”

“Clare, you always take the path of least resistance. Nothing worth having is easily won.” She turned to her old friend. “Is it, Arnold? What’s worth risk more than love?”

“You girls have more energy for love than those of my generation do.” Arnold’s head drooped and his eyes fluttered. “You put too much thought into this. Just ask your grandmother what happened. Honestly, sixty years of being married, and I never will understand women.”

Zoe heard the fatigue in Arnold’s voice. He wasn’t protesting love nearly so much as he was desiring a seat. “We need to get you home. I wish you had let me bring your wheelchair.”

“This is a dating service, right? What if the woman of my dreams was here, and I’m sitting like an old codger in a wheelchair when I meet her?” He winked at Clare.

“Grandma had her great love.” Clare sprayed a plant with vigor as if she could squeeze risk from life. “Clearly it wasn’t meant to be, or she would have married him and not Grandpa. What kind of man doesn’t tell his ex that he’s alive?”

The question hung in the air like a toxic fume. As much as Zoe loved the truth, no one wanted to believe Grandpa wasn’t Grandma Rose’s true love. Maybe the past was best left in the past.

Zoe looked up to see William standing on the sidewalk outside her building beside Fire Captain Brand. She felt her legs weaken beneath her. The two men were conferring right in front of her storefront, and she felt betrayal to her toes. Was this how her grandmother felt when David Hutchins was gone?

As the two men parted, heading in separate directions, she scrambled to the window and pressed her fingertips against the glass. Her lungs emptied as William walked away in his crisp suit without a glance. Cupid’s Arrow suddenly felt like a very lonely place.