Woodlands (4 page)

“What’s the name on the package?” Leah asked.

“I think its Jamison or Jameson.”

“Oh, sure, the Jamelsons’. I know right where that is. It would be easier for me to show you than to tell you. Why don’t you follow me?” Leah volunteered.

“You sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble?” Seth’s deep blue eyes expressed his appreciation.

“No trouble at all.” Leah turned the key in the ignition, but nothing happened. She checked to make sure the key was in all the way and tried again. Still no spark. “That’s odd.”

“Want me to look under the hood?” Seth asked.

“Sure.” Leah popped the catch on the hood. She got out, and the two of them stood next to each other, both checking the engine. Leah was aware again of how small she felt next to this man. She concentrated on the equipment under the hood, her eyes running through all the familiar connections in the engine.

“Looks okay from what I can see,” he said. “Do you think it might be the battery?”

“Not likely,” Leah said. “I replaced it two months ago.” She decided not to mention that she had literally been the one to replace it with only the aid of the car manual.

Would he be put off if he knew I’m mechanically inclined?

“We could try to jump-start it,” Seth suggested. “I might have cables in the truck.”

“I have some,” Leah said, going to the back of her car and reaching for the cables, which were next to her tool chest. She returned and connected them quickly and easily.

“I’ll pull the van closer,” Seth offered. When he did, he popped open the hood and Leah connected the cables to the battery, then she returned to her car and tried to start it up.

Nothing happened. The key turned, but the engine didn’t respond. Seth got out of the delivery van and disengaged the cables.

“Could be the starter,” they said in unison when Leah climbed out of her car. They both laughed.

“Can I give you a ride somewhere?” Seth offered.

“Why don’t I go with you to show you how to get to the Jamelsons’. Then, if you don’t mind bringing me back here, I can call for a tow truck.”

“That would be great,” Seth said, checking his watch. “I’m supposed to have these next two deliveries made before five o’clock, but I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

Leah grabbed her cell phone and her backpack. “Let’s go,” she said. As a last attempt to figure out what was wrong with the car, Leah tried her keypad to see if the automatic lock would respond. It didn’t.

“This is really strange,” she muttered, jogging to the passenger side of the delivery truck. She hopped up into the seat and moved a portable CD player. She wondered what kind of music he listened to. Settling the CD player onto the floor, she allowed herself to feel a fresh sense of delight at the adventure of all this. Maybe she was glad her car didn’t start.

“Which way do I go?” Seth asked, maneuvering around Leah’s stalled vehicle and rolling down Fourth Street.

“Turn right at the corner, then right again on Madison,” she said.

“Have you lived here long?” Seth asked.

“All my life,” Leah said.

He glanced over at her and smiled. She couldn’t help but smile back.

“I’m Seth Edwards, by the way,” he said.

“I’m—”

Before she could answer, he finished for her. “Leah. Leah Hudson. Right?”

Leah looked at him more carefully. “How did you know that?”

“I asked Kyle last night.”

She nodded slowly, squinting her gray eyes when he
glanced at her again. “And what else did Kyle tell you about me?”

“Enough,” Seth said with a tease in his voice. He came to a four-way stop and said, “This is where I turned left last time.”

“You need to keep going straight,” Leah told him. “We’ll go about four more blocks. You’re going to take a left and then another left. It’s a new housing development, and I don’t think it’s on the maps yet.”

“That would explain it,” Seth said.

“How long have you been in Glenbrooke?” Leah asked. She had no way of knowing how many details of her life Kyle had divulged to Seth. It seemed only fair that Seth volunteer some information about himself.

“This is my fourth day in Glenbrooke,” he said. “I started working for PDS on Monday. You can see why I still can’t find my way around town.”

“Don’t worry,” Leah said. “It’s pretty small; you’ll have it figured out in no time. This is where you want to turn. Right here.”

He rounded the corner and then turned right again when they came to Medford Court.

“It’s the beige house at the end of the court,” Leah said.

“You can sure tell this is a new neighborhood,” Seth said. “It seems bare without all the trees and flowers the last street we were on had.”

“I don’t care for the way all these houses look alike,” Leah said. “On the street where I live every house is different. Some are big with gorgeous landscaping. Then there’s my little cottage. I think the maple tree in the front yard is bigger than my house.”

“I’d like to see it sometime,” Seth said before parking the van and jumping out. He went around to the back. A moment later he wheeled a large box up the Jamelsons’ driveway on a dolly.

Leah leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms, watching Seth carry the large box up to the front door.
What’s going on here? Why is this guy so attentive to me? He asked Kyle about me. Why? What did he mean when he said he’d like to see “it” sometime? Did he mean the maple tree or my house? Why would he want to see either of them? Who is this guy?

Seth returned and showed Leah the next address on his clipboard. “This is the last one. The
Glenbrooke Gazette
on Main. I know how to get there. Would you like me to drop you off first, or do you have enough time to drive around with me?”

Leah was loving this. Of course she wanted to ride around with him some more. But all her suspicions had risen to the surface, and first she felt compelled to explore them. “I have the time,” Leah said slowly.

“Good,” Seth said.

“But I have to ask,” Leah added. “Why are you doing this? I mean, first helping me at the Snack Shack last night and now this.”

Seth smiled and reached for his sunglasses as they turned left and headed into the early evening sun. “I guess this isn’t exactly fair to you. You see, I’m related to one of your biggest fans.”

“My biggest fan? I didn’t know I had any fans.”

“How about Franklin Madison?” Seth flashed her a grin.

Franklin Madison and his late wife had been close friends of Leah’s grandparents and lived three doors down from them. As a child, Leah took bouquets of tulips to the Madisons’ every year on May Day. She used to leave the flowers in a water-filled mayonnaise jar on their front doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run and hide behind the neighbor’s lilac bush.

At ninety-two, Franklin was the last living relative of Cameron Madison, who had founded Glenbrooke in the 1870s.

“You’re related to Franklin Madison?” Leah scanned Seth’s profile for a resemblance. He certainly didn’t have Franklin’s long nose and narrow chin. Seth’s chin was rounded and more masculine than Franklin’s was. Seth’s nose was broad, but not too broad. It fit his face and was a good balance to his deep-set, dark blue eyes, which were hidden behind his sunglasses.

“Franklin is my great-uncle.” Seth grinned. “Last week was the first time I’ve seen him in ten years. Maybe even longer. Twenty years, maybe.” Seth stopped at a red light and put on his turn signal, prepared to turn onto Main Street without any direction from Leah.

“You know what?” Leah said, studying Seth’s profile another moment. “I’ve seen your picture. Franklin has your high school graduation picture on his mantle.”

“Yes, he does. I saw it there the other day,” Seth said.

“And I remember Franklin talking about you, too. You’re the one who went to Europe instead of going to college, aren’t you?”

“I went to college,” Seth said defensively. “True, I took some time off and traveled through Europe, but I returned home to Boulder; that’s where I grew up. I went to the University of Colorado there. Took me five years, but I graduated.”

Leah had heard so many stories about Franklin’s twenty-four grandchildren and great-nephews and -nieces that she wasn’t sure which of the stories were about Seth. “He may have told me that. I don’t remember.”

“Did he tell you I’ve been in Costa Rica for the past four years?”

Leah laughed aloud as she made the connection. “So you’re the one! Yes, he told me all about you. He calls you the hippie boy in the rain forest.”

Seth glanced at Leah and grinned slowly. “Yep, that’s me. Not exactly at the top of Franklin’s list of favorite people. You
are, though, you know. You’re right at the top of his list.”

Leah ignored the comment and asked, “So what are you doing in Glenbrooke?”

Seth parked the van on Main Street in front of the
Glenbrooke Gazette
. He pulled off his sunglasses, and raising his eyebrows, he said to Leah with a sly grin, “I’m here to obtain the favor of Uncle Franklin so that when he dies he’ll leave all his riches to me.” With that he hopped out of the delivery van and hurried across Main Street with a large manila mailer in his hand.

Leah sat still, her eyebrows furrowed.
Was he serious? He couldn’t be serious. Franklin doesn’t have any riches. He lives in that old house and eats spaghetti and canned green beans. Seth had to be joking
.

Leah leaned back in the front seat of the delivery van and tried to remember what else Franklin had told her about this “hippie boy.” She knew Franklin had mentioned Seth over the years because he was the only one of the clan who had done much traveling. She remembered three postcards Franklin had kept on his coffee table for several years. One was of the Austrian Alps, one of the Seine River in Paris, and one was of Venice. That was Leah’s favorite. The postcard pictured a gondola docked by a red-and-white-striped pole. The gondolier, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat with its blue ribbon hanging down the back, stood on the dock. He leaned casually against the pole and indicated with his hand that his gondola was available for the next rider.

Seth had sent those postcards.

Every time Leah had visited Franklin, she would study the cards, especially the one from Venice. And if Franklin wasn’t watching, Leah would whisper to the gondolier, “Wait for me. One day I really will come ride in your gondola.”

She hadn’t yet made good on that promise. For years she
had dreamed of exotic travel adventures but could never pursue any such whims because of her obligation to her ailing parents.

A wash of insecurities came over Leah. If Franklin considered Seth the hippie in the rain forest, then how had Franklin spoken of her to Seth? Did Franklin consider her the matronly nurse, destined to make house calls offering charity to all the old people of Glenbrooke until she herself was too old to leave her rocking chair?

Just as she was beginning to feel overwhelmed with self-doubts, Seth returned with a grin on his face. “Kenton says hi,” he said.

Leah looked out the van’s windshield. She couldn’t see into the front window of the newspaper office, but she could guess that Kenton Buchanan, the owner and editor of the paper was in there, watching her in the PDS van with Seth. Leah smiled and waved at the window, which, due to the sun’s angle, only reflected the image of the delivery van.

“I suppose you figured out that Kenton and Kyle are brothers,” Leah said. “The Buchanan boys.”

“So he just told me. News travels fast around this burg, doesn’t it?” Seth started the engine but kept his foot on the brake. “I asked Kyle about his dog last night, and he told me he has three puppies at home. I’m going there now to pick one. By any chance would you like to come with me?”

Leah nodded. “Sure.” As long as the whole town knew she was spending her Thursday evening driving around with the new boy in town, she might as well show up at Kyle and Jessica’s with him. After all, Seth had admitted he had asked Kyle about her. Why not give her friends something to speculate about? Especially since she was the one who was starting to speculate the most.

A
fter Seth dropped off the delivery van at the PDS main terminal, he and Leah climbed into his rusted Subaru station wagon and headed for Kyle and Jessica’s Victorian mansion on the top of Madison Hill. Leah had lots of questions for Seth but couldn’t ask them because Seth kept talking. He told her about how he had found a place to live in Edgefield, twenty miles away, and had moved in last week. He was hired for his job with PDS after answering an ad in the paper, and the car had been sitting on a used car lot a mile from his apartment, just waiting for him.

Leah still couldn’t understand why he had left Costa Rica for this. She was sure that if she ever got away from Glenbrooke, Oregon, she would stay wherever she was as long as she could. Especially if it was some place as exotically romantic as Costa Rica.

“What did you do while you were in Costa Rica?”

“I worked for Real Planet Adventures. Have you ever heard of them?”

Leah shook her head.

“They run tours for young people’s groups. We usually worked with high school students.”