Taken With You (11 page)

The mail yielded a few bills, several new issues for the periodical shelves, and a packet of photos she’d sent off for developing. When they did events with the older kids, she often scattered disposable cameras around the area, encouraging them to take candid shots of each other. It was an expense she bore, rather than having the library pay, but it was worth it.

She sifted through the photos from the costume party game they’d played two weeks before. The kids dressed up as literary characters and all of the costumes had to be made from things they could scrounge up at home. No store bought costumes. Then the other kids had to guess who they were and then race to find the correct book.

There had been a slight issue when one of the girls showed up with her hair in a braid and her father’s compound bow, but during the kids’ mad rush to get to the bookshelves, Hailey was able to stow the weapon without incident.

The photos were all fun and she picked a half dozen of the best ones to put on the bulletin board. The rest would go in a basket so everybody could look at them. That reminded her she had pictures on her phone from the OHRV safety class, so she pulled those up.

After printing four of them, she deleted them from her phone. Except for one. The photo she’d taken of Matt to text to Tori, she kept. He did look exceptionally hot in his uniform, she had to admit.

She smiled, remembering the way he’d practically fled into his house when he thought she was flirting with him last night. He’d tried to cover it with a fib about work, but she wasn’t stupid. Maybe she should be offended, but she had to admit he hadn’t really seen her at her best.

When a patron walked in, she hit the home button on her phone and set it on the desk so quickly she almost dropped it. Then she felt like an idiot. She wasn’t a teenage girl to be mooning over a guy’s picture on her phone.

But even later, when she was alone again, she didn’t delete it.

* * *

S
HORTLY
BEFORE
NOON
on Tuesday, Matt loaded his ATV into the back of his truck and followed the directions he’d scrawled on the back of an envelope to the Northern Star Lodge.

It was a huge New Englander, with white siding, dark green shutters and a deep farmer’s porch that beckoned him to sit and talk for a while. There was a big addition and he shuddered at the thought of how long it must take to clean the place.

At least it was lucrative again, from what he’d heard. The Kowalski family had all thrown in together and turned it around when Josh had broken his leg and finally admitted he needed help. Figuring out a way to bring the ATV business in and turning the Northern Star from a snowmobiling lodge into four-season lodging had been a brilliant idea not only for the family, but for all of Whitford.

And the trails were opening on Saturday, so he was going to go out with Josh and Andy Miller, the police chief’s dad, for a tour. They needed to make sure the trails were in good condition and that none of the signs had been stolen by kids with nothing better to do.

He walked up the steps and knocked on the front door, admiring the quality of the woodwork while he waited. It was only a minute before Josh opened the door.

“You found the place okay?”

“Followed the signs for the Northern Star Lodge.”

Josh laughed and stepped back to let him in. “I keep forgetting we put those up. Come on in.”

Matt followed him into the kitchen, where an older couple was standing at the counter. The guy was trying to reach for cookies on a cooling rack and the woman was slapping his hand.

“We have company,” Josh announced, and they both turned. “This is Matt Barnett. We’ve gotten a lot of support from the warden service but, most importantly, we’ve got somebody covering this area now. Matt, this is Rose Davis, who’ll tell you she’s the housekeeper, but she’s mostly responsible for raising us. And this is Andy Miller, our trail administrator.”

Matt shook hands with Andy, then leaned in to kiss Rose’s cheek. “I’ve heard a lot about you, ma’am.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, too,” she said, and her look made it clear what she’d heard had nothing to do with his new role in town. “And it’s Rose or Rosie, not ma’am. I hope you’re hungry, because I made lunch.”

“I deliberately skipped breakfast this morning.”

Her smile was broad and warm. “Oh, you are a charmer. I’m going to like you. Sit.”

The problem with the best meat loaf sandwiches he’d ever eaten in his life was that he ate two of them, along with a second helping of macaroni salad, which made him want a nap.

Josh groaned, his hand to his stomach. “I told you we should ride first and then eat, Rosie. Now I don’t want to move.”

“Nobody made you eat seconds.”

“There’s not a man born who could have resisted, Rose,” Matt said, rubbing his own belly.

She gave him a smile that made him feel like a chosen child. “I can see why certain women in this town want to see you sweep Hailey off her feet.”

Luckily, he’d been prepared for this and he smiled. “Hailey seems to like her feet firmly on the ground.”

Her eyes narrowed a little, as if he’d issued a challenge. “She’s been waiting for the right man to come along.”

“Speaking of waiting,” he turned to face Josh. “I stopped at the general store to grab some snacks for today’s ride and, when I mentioned I was on my way here, the woman—Fran, right?—offered me five dollars off my next purchase of twenty dollars or more if I could get a wedding date out of you.”

They all laughed, while Josh shook his head. “That’s up to Katie and she can’t decide if she wants a summer wedding or a winter wedding. She wants to get married here and then she wants to go to some tropical island and get married on a cruise ship. As soon as she figures out what she wants, I’ll have her call you. Wouldn’t want you to miss out on five bucks.”

“You boys want dessert?” Rose asked, standing to clear plates.

Matt stood, too, and picked up his plate. “If I eat another bite, I’m going to have to rent a room from you and lay down for a while. Maybe until tomorrow.”

“It’s homemade banana cream pie.”

He looked at Josh, and then Andy. “How important is it we hit the trails
today
?”

“Trust me, son, I know how you feel,” Andy said. “We’ll go do a run now, then have some pie when we get back. How about that?”

“It’ll be too close to supper,” Rose protested, taking Matt’s plate from him.

“I’m so full, a slice of banana cream pie will
be
supper,” he told her.

“You stop by here any time you need a good meal.” She patted his face as though he were a boy.

“Thank you, Rose. Between you and Hailey, I certainly won’t go hungry.”

She turned a laser-sharp gaze on him. “Hailey’s feeding you?”

He had to get better at this small-town thing. “She made me a shepherd’s pie, to welcome me to the neighborhood. It was a huge pan and I’ve been enjoying the leftovers.”

“Hmm.” She searched his face, as if looking for any sign a welcome to the neighborhood dish was a euphemism for something a lot more gossip-worthy. “She makes the best shepherd’s pie in town. Refuses to give me the recipe.”

“I told her it was better than my mother’s and she told me it was the seasonings.”

“Well, that could mean almost anything. And never, ever admit out loud a woman’s cooking is better than your mama’s.”

“Yes, ma’am. Rose.”

“Let’s get out of here before I have to put on my wading boots.” Josh kissed Rose’s cheek. “Thanks for lunch.”

Figuring this was a woman whose good graces he wanted to be in, Matt stepped up and did the same. “It was delicious.”

“Ride hard. Burn those sandwiches off so you can have some pie.”

He walked back out to his truck while the other two guys went to one of the barns where, he assumed, their machines were stored. He undid his tie-down straps, then dragged out the ramps that were shoved beside the ATV. After fastening the safety straps to the hitch of his truck, he climbed onto the tailgate with a groan. Those meatloaf sandwiches were going to stay with him a while.

After firing up his machine, he backed it down the ramps and parked it off to the side. He didn’t bother stowing the ramps, since he’d drive right back up them when they were done and he wasn’t blocking any parking spaces.

By the time he’d put the bag of snacks and his water bottle in the cargo box and grabbed his helmet and gloves, the other two guys were ready to go. Josh drove over and handed him a folded map.

“You wanted a copy of this?”

Matt took the map and unfolded it. It was fairly rough, but he didn’t have much trouble finding the lodge. He had a couple of permanent markers in his pocket, and he fired up the GPS unit mounted on the handlebar. He not only wanted to get his bearings, but he wanted to see how good a job the Northern Star ATV club had done on their trail map.

He knew they’d had some help from the state in the early stages of making trails and a lot of people had looked over their shoulders in different official capacities to make sure wetlands were avoided, bridges were built where necessary, that trail head parking was available and that all of their road crossings were safe, but this section of the state was his primary responsibility now and he wasn’t relying on anybody else’s work.

“Thanks. I’m going to want to stop at each intersection, but they’ll be quick stops.” When Josh didn’t say anything, Matt looked up from the map to find him watching him. “What?”

“We’ve done GPS tracks for this trail system so many times I can probably quote the coordinates in my sleep.”

“That’s good and makes my job that much easier.” He folded the map and tucked it into his tank bag for easy access. “Look. We want the same thing here—people coming to ride these trails while dumping some money into our economy and having a good enough time so they come back and tell all their friends. But there might be times you and I are at odds because you represent the ATV club, your town and your guests, and I represent the state of Maine.”

“I don’t foresee us having too many problems.”

“I just want to get it out there now, while it’s just us. I respect what you’ve done here and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure both visitors to the trails and the citizens of Whitford are safe and happy while laws are abided. But if I have to give out some tickets and you try to make them go away because your guests are pissed or it’s your girlfriend’s second cousin’s son, we’re going to have a problem.”

“I’ve asked around about you and so has Drew Miller. We’ve heard you’re fair, so I don’t have a problem with that. Sometimes we get people acting like assholes, running wild, and the landowners get upset and talk about closing their land to four-wheelers. If that happens, all of this work was for nothing, so I don’t care if it’s my girlfriend’s second cousin’s son
and
he’s staying at the lodge. If he does something wrong, nail him. But if I think you’re just throwing your weight around to be big man on the trails, I’ll start making phone calls.”

Matt nodded and stuck out his hand. “Fair enough.”

They shook hands and then strapped on their helmets. Josh led the way around the lodge and into the break in the tree line, with Andy riding behind Matt. The afternoon passed quickly as they covered the miles. At every intersection, Matt checked the map against his GPS and he was impressed. This club knew what they were doing.

They’d done a good job with the trails, too. They were wide enough to account for the bigger side-by-side machines, though there would be places they’d have to squeeze by each other. The terrain was a nice mix. Some easier trails and others a little more rugged. A few were marked on the map as recommended for advanced riders and they had a pretty good time playing on those.

While they didn’t cover every trail, Matt felt as if he got a solid feel for the trail system and he could explore on his own both at his leisure and officially. When they got back to the lodge, he drove his ATV up into the bed of his truck, then stowed the ramps and strapped it down.

“I’m impressed,” he told Josh and Andy when he was done. “It’s a nice system.”

“Thanks,” Josh said. “We hope to grow it some more over time, but we connect to two other clubs’ trails now and we want to make sure this goes smoothly before we invest in too many more miles.”

“You think that’s impressive,” Andy added, “come get a taste of my Rose’s banana cream pie.”

Mitch groaned and rubbed his stomach. “I think I’m still full. But I bet there’s room for pie.”

EIGHT

A
FTER
WORK
ON
Wednesday, Hailey changed into yard clothes—which consisted of an old T-shirt and older jeans—and pulled her lawn mower out of the storage shed. She had an electric mower, even though the cord was often a nuisance, because it was quieter and easier for her to handle. Less noise pollution and no pollution in the form of gas usage or exhaust appealed to her, and she didn’t worry about bothering the neighbors.

She was about halfway through mowing her backyard, when the sound of Bear barking registered above the song being piped through her earbuds. She pulled them out and looked next door just in time to see the dog run up onto the back deck and a big riding lawn mower turn the far corner of Matt’s house.

He was shirtless again. That was the first thing she noticed, because his chest was hard to miss. Sometimes the temptation to sneak a picture of him without a shirt to go with the photo of him in uniform saved on her phone was very strong.

Since they’d shared her shepherd’s pie, things had been quiet between them. They were both busy and, other than the occasional wave when eye contact was made because it would have been rude not to, they hadn’t really interacted. Even though she didn’t mind seeing him at a distance, it was probably for the best.

As she watched, he steered the lawn mower around one of the shade trees in his backyard so fast, she was surprised he didn’t tip over. Then he proceeded to drag race up and down the yard, making a whole lot of racket to cut not a huge amount of grass.