Welcome to Bluestone 1 - Bluestone homecoming (7 page)

Her mother considered her a moment longer.
“Maybe they would. Lily’s mom was one of the organizers. Not sure
who else. Lily would know.”

“Would you mind if I go to talk to her after
dinner?”

“Why such a hurry? This is something you just
started thinking about. Maybe you should wait to see if it’s
something you want to get involved in.”

“I’m sure I do. And I want to jump in while
I’m excited about it. Besides, if we want to do it for the summer,
we need to get started soon, right?”

***

Being a dad was hard enough, but once Max was
in bed, Leo didn’t know how to settle down. His parents were in
front of the television, but Leo was too restless.

“I think I’ll go down to Quinn’s for a beer,”
he heard himself saying, not knowing just where to go. Was Quinn’s
the only place in town?

“There’s beer in the fridge,” his father
said, twisting in his arm chair to point in the direction of the
kitchen.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m not ready just yet to
call it a night.”

“Max and I are going fishing at dawn,” his
father said. “You want to go?”

“You bet,” he said automatically, though he’d
never enjoyed the activity. But Max did, and he wanted to be with
Max.

“Then don’t be out too late.”

“And don’t drink and drive,” his mother
chimed in.

He wasn’t a big drinker, but if his mother
was concerned, he’d appease her. “I’ll walk, if that will make you
feel better.”

“It will.”

He bounced his keys in his palm, then tucked
them into his pocket. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

“That late?” his mother asked.

He tried to mask his sigh. His parents were
usually in bed by ten, and it was almost nine now. He tried for
patience—he hadn’t lived at home since high school, hadn’t worried
about a curfew and he wasn’t going to start now. “Probably. Good
night.”

“I’ll leave the light on for you,” she said
grudgingly.

“Thanks.” He headed out the door, sucking in
the freedom on the crisp air. If he stayed, he and Max needed to
find their own place, soon, or he’d lose his mind. But that would
hurt his mother’s feelings, and he wouldn’t be able to leave Max
sleeping to go out for a beer.

He found a few cars parked in Quinn’s lot,
and the music pouring through the open door gave the feeling that
the place was packed, but when he walked in, only about fifteen
people were there. One was Lily, and one was Trinity, and they had
their heads together over something. He approached Quinn mid-bar
and ordered a beer.

“You work all day?” he asked the other
man.

“Cheaper that way. I have a few people I can
call on if I need a day on the lake, though.” Quinn placed the
bottle on the glossy bar in front of him.

Leo folded his hand around the bottle. “A big
fisherman?”

“That’s why I came here. My buddy and I used
to come out once a month, spend the weekend. Loved this place.
Bought this before we shipped out.” He swept his arm to indicate
the bar. “I came back, he didn’t.”

“I saw the tat on your arm.” Leo motioned
with the hand holding the beer. “The boots, rifle and helmet? For
him?”

Quinn nodded, his focus on wiping the bar in
front of him, his jaw tight. “More his dream than mine. I’d just as
soon be shed of it.”

“You sure you want to leave Bluestone
behind?” Leo inclined his head toward Lily. “She’s as much a part
of Bluestone as anything.”

Quinn tossed the bar rag in the sink behind
him with a follow-through worthy of LeBron. “Don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

But Leo could have sworn he saw a hint of a
smile quirk the other man’s lips. Leo took his beer and headed
toward Lily and Trinity, unable to help himself, telling himself
that he didn’t really know anyone else here. And he had an
insatiable curiosity, which made him a good reporter.

“You two ladies look busy down here,” he
said, looking past Lily’s shoulder to the scribbled notes on the
legal pad in front of him. “What are you working on on a Friday
night?”

“Remember those social nights back when we
were kids? The movies, the softball games, the block parties?” Lily
asked. “We’re trying to see if we can manage to do that again, to
kind of boost community morale while we’re working on this concert
series.”

“Because you don’t have enough to do with
running your business and working with kids?” he asked, addressing
each of them.

Lily shifted her legs toward him, her eyes
bright, which always meant bad news for him. “You, on the other
hand, have plenty of time on your hands.”

“I’ll have you know I’m organizing the slogan
campaign down at the newspaper office. Part time, while Max is in
school.”

Lily popped off the stool and flung her arms
around him. “You’re staying?”

He extricated himself from her arms, aware of
Quinn watching them. He hadn’t talked to his editor yet, but he’d
decided to stay through the end of the school year. “For a few
weeks anyway. I don’t want to push another change on Max just
now.”

Lily sat back on the stool, grinning. “Sit
down, have another drink. Quinn! Three beers.”

Leo glanced at Trinity’s glass, surprised to
see it was filled with a golden beer. She didn’t seem the beer
type, but he didn’t say so. Instead he took the empty barstool
beside her. Lily lifted her eyebrows at his choice of seat. He
ignored her.

“Are we celebrating?” Quinn approached,
balancing two glasses and Leo’s choice in a bottle in one palm.

“Leo’s decided to stay for a while. Maybe we
can get him to work on our new project.”

Quinn looked less than thrilled by the idea
of Leo staying, but he rolled his eyes when Lily mentioned the
project. “Run away now, man. Lily knows how to get people to work
like no woman I’ve ever known.”

“You don’t know that many women, that’s why.”
Lily lifted her glass toward him.

He gave her a half-grin before he turned to
his other customers.

“So what is it the two of you are cooking
up?” Leo asked Trinity, who hadn’t had a reaction to his
announcement. Did she care or not? And did he care if she did?

“We want to start Friday night movie nights
once it gets warmer. We tried to remember what we used for a
screen.”

“We used the side of Boysen’s, when it was
painted white. We’d put our blankets and stuff on the lawn by the
landing and face the building. I remember sometimes the breeze off
the lake was kind of cold.”

“All the better for snuggling.”

“I thought you intended to increase the
populations of Bluestone by getting people to move here, not by
getting everyone pregnant.”

“Funny. But good that you remember that. Now
we just need to see if we can rent a giant film projector and a
place that rents good movies. We may have to charge something like
a dollar a person to pay for it, but I think people will come, just
to have something different to do.”

“Maybe we could do themes,” Trinity said.
“One week do Fifties Night, dress up like the Fifties and show a
Doris Day movie or something. Another night we could do a horror
movie—not so scary the kids can’t come—and dress up in costume.
Halloween in May, maybe. What do you think?”

“Sounds fun,” Lily said, while Leo dragged
his thoughts away from picturing Trinity in a poodle skirt, or a
sexy Halloween costume.

“So you can call around tomorrow, looking for
a place that has projectors?” Lily asked Leo, as if he’d
volunteered.

Leo exchanged a glance with Quinn, who was
standing close enough to hear.

“Sure,” Leo agreed. “I hate to be a wet
blanket, but isn’t this putting off your concert series idea?”

“We’re trying to figure out who is going to
try to contact Maddox Bradley. Most of the people who knew him when
he came in the summers have moved away, and we thought it should be
someone who knew him,” Trinity said.

“Beth!” Lily called to the waitress walking
by. “Didn’t you live here when Maddox Bradley did?”

Beth bobbled the loaded tray, and Quinn
swore. But she got it under control, then turned to face them. “I
knew Maddox. Why?”

“Were you at the town hall meeting the other
day? We want him to headline a concert series. We thought he’d do
it because he spent a lot of time here, but we wanted to approach
him with a personal touch.”

The girl blushed. “He won’t remember me. He’s
a star now.”

“Even stars remember childhood
vacations.”

“I wouldn’t,” Beth said with a toss of her
dark braid.

“Is there anyone else in town who might know
him? Who might know how

to get in touch with him?”

“No one I can think of.”

Lily frowned. “I guess we have to go about it
the usual way, then, go through his p.r. department.”

“I suppose you want me to do that, too,” Leo
muttered.

“Would you?” Lily asked with a pretty tilt to
her head, and Trinity laughed.

Leo refused to believe he’d been manipulated.
He preferred to think he’d made the choice. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

She reached over and tapped her glass to his
bottle. “You’re the best.”

***

Trinity watched the easy byplay between Lily
and Leo and wished she could think of something to draw his
attention. Lily was such a force of nature, no way could Trinity
compete.

Not that she was sure competition was such a
good idea. He was damaged, widowed, distant and had more important
things to worry about than a lonely spinster who longed for a
family of her own.

“I’m going to play some songs on the
jukebox.” Lily hopped to her feet and dragged a handful of change
from her front pocket. “Maybe someone will dance with me.” She
nudged Leo playfully with her shoulder as she passed.

Trinity exchanged glances with Quinn who
hadn’t missed a bit of the interaction. She widened her eyes at him
in a plea. He nodded, then walked around the bar to intercept Lily
on her way to the jukebox.

“Do you mind, Lil? I need some help with my
computer.”

“Right now?” She frowned, and looked over her
shoulder at Trinity and Leo.

“Yeah, while I’m thinking about it, while I’m
not that busy. Beth!” He called to the waitress. “Can you watch the
bar?”

Without waiting for an answer, he led the way
to his office.

“Is she really that clueless, or is she
playing hard to get?” Leo asked.

“You know, I’m not really sure,” Trinity
said. “She doesn’t talk about him as anything other than a friend.
Maybe because she knows he’s dying to get out of her and she won’t
leave. But they’re inseparable. If she’s not here, he’s hanging
around the marina.”

“I get the feeling she’s using me to make him
nuts. I just hope Quinn gets it, too, or he’s going to chop my
hands off.”

Trinity smiled, but held in the sigh of
relief. At least he didn’t seem to return Lily’s flirtation. “He
might.”

“So why doesn’t he make a move?”

“Same reason she doesn’t, I suppose. He’s not
sticking around.”

“So it’s more than just lust, or he wouldn’t
care. Most guys don’t.”

She laughed.

He picked up his glass. “I guess I shouldn’t
be talking to a preacher’s sister like that.”

“And a preacher’s daughter.” She saluted him
with her own glass.

“And here you are in a bar.”

Her smile widened. “Methodist, not
Baptist.”

“So you can dance, right?” He shifted to the
edge of the stool.

“Um.” She glanced from his feet to the
jukebox. “Sure.”

He held a hand out and she placed hers in
his. A thrill ran though her at the feel of his callused palm
beneath her fingers.

How long since a man has touched her, given
her that smile with a glint in his eyes that relayed his interest?
So maybe this was a bad idea, letting herself get excited about
being in the arms of this man, a parent at her school, a man she
knew too much about. But her body wouldn’t let her resist the
desire.

He turned her into his arms as they reached
the corner of the room that served as a dance floor. They were the
only couple on it, and he held her a respectable distance, though
she could feel the heat of his body, the strength of his shoulder
under her palm.

“It’s been a long time since I danced,” he
said by way of apology.

She wanted to pursue the statement but didn’t
want to get into a discussion about his wife. “Me, either.”

“So the men around here are blind?”

“Preacher’s sister, preacher’s daughter.
Pretty intimidating for most.”

“Cowards.” He smoothed his hand down to the
small of her back, pulling her close enough to spin her around.

“And you aren’t afraid of anything, right? I
mean, you’ve been to Afghanistan and Iraq, in the thick of the
fighting. How can anything scare you after that?”

He lowered his head. “Scared to death right
now.” But he spun her again, belying his words. She held on to his
arms and let her head fall back.

When she lifted her head and looked at him,
he was holding her closer, his breath warm on her lips, his eyes—no
man had looked at her like that in so long. She lifted her hand
from his shoulder and let it hover, for a moment, near his jaw,
then let it fall back to his arm. God, she wanted to kiss him. What
a mistake that would be. What a wonderful, wonderful mistake.

She couldn’t take her gaze from his lips,
even though she was aware of the message she was sending.

The song ended, and no more music was
forthcoming. Leo released her and guided her back to the bar, now
under Quinn’s control. He ordered two more beers, but Trinity waved
hers away.

“I’m driving. In fact.” She reached for her
purse looped over the back of her chair. “I had a really early
start, so I’m going to head out. Thanks, Leo, for agreeing to make
those calls. And for the dance.” She’d never used his name before,
and it felt a bit awkward.