Cabin by the Lake (7 page)

It had been a perfect fall day, and the night was chilly. “Let’s fill this house with children,” she said as she snuggled into his shoulder and pulled the blankets around them.

“I’m not sure we can afford children now,” he teased.

“Just three or four will do. But we’ve got room for at least ten here.”

“True,” he said, seeming to think about it. “How about we get started on that project now?” He kissed her lips and she tasted the sweetness of the wine that would forever remind her of that night.

She looked at his handsome face etched in the firelight. She smiled and stretched her long frame, cat-like, against his muscular body, and they made love in the glow of the fire, her long curly hair tangled in his big hands.

But their lives had not worked out exactly as planned. There were no children. She had been devastated as month after month went by and the home pregnancy tests all came back with that hateful minus sign in the little window on the pee stick, as he called it.

When they finally consulted a doctor, the news was crushing and life-altering. It took a while to absorb the truth. By then, her little sister, Katie, was pregnant with Brittany which resulted in a quickie shotgun wedding. She tried not to be bitter, but it was a tough pill to swallow.
They
were the ones prepared for a baby, not irresponsible Katie who got pregnant, apparently, in the back seat of her boyfriend Kip’s Camaro.

Eventually they began to talk about adoption. One of the girls at the women’s shelter where Vivian volunteered was a rape victim, pregnant at the age of sixteen. She didn’t want a baby; she wanted to go to the prom and finish high school and go on to college, like she had planned. She agreed to let Vivian and Todd adopt her baby, and they spent a lot of time and money helping her through her pregnancy. They decorated the bedroom next to theirs in pink—it was a girl—and were ready to take the baby home from the hospital. Then the teenager changed her mind.

Again, it was a blow from which she could hardly recover.

By then another year had passed and Katie had two daughters, Brittany and Lydia, and they visited often. Katie and the girls moved in with them for a while after Kip left Katie, and Vivian grew very attached to her nieces, especially Lydia, the little one. Katie seemed to favor Brittany, and Vivian was drawn to Lydia who was always getting in trouble with her mother. She felt that Katie picked on her younger daughter.

“If I hadn’t gotten pregnant with Lydia, Kip would probably still be here,” Katie declared one night, at her wit’s end with Lydia. Brittany had fallen asleep like an angel, and Lydia finally cried herself to sleep after Katie spanked her for getting out of bed for the third time.

“You’re better off without Kip,” Vivian said. “And his leaving had nothing to do with that sweet baby.”

“Sweet baby, that’s a laugh! She’s Satan’s spawn,” Katie said. “I wish I’d never had her.”

“Katie!” Vivian said, shocked. “Don’t say things like that! Just give her to me if you don’t want her.”

“Oh, you know I didn’t mean it,” Katie said with a laugh that Vivian didn’t believe. After that, Vivian became ever more protective of Lydia, keeping her occupied and out from under Katie’s feet as much as she could. When Katie married her second husband and moved out with the girls, it left a hole in Vivian’s heart that she struggled to fill. She often wished that Lydia was her own daughter, and she fought against the feelings of jealousy she felt towards her sister.

Todd was, once again, her rock. “Let it go,” he said one night when she asked if he regretted his decision to marry her. “Don’t you know you’re the best thing that ever happened to me? What we have together is so much more than most people have. If we’re meant to have kids, we’ll have them. Meanwhile, let’s just be thankful for each other and the blessings we have.”

Todd began coaching a Little League team that spring, which meant lots of kids around the house at swim parties and cookouts at the lake. She threw herself into social work, and they began hosting church fundraisers and community events. Little by little, the pain in her heart subsided, at least to a bearable level, and she became more stoic and accepting of things beyond her control. Their lives were full and active and, until Todd got sick, she thought they were blessed beyond belief.

Now, thinking of Dugger, a tear slid down her cheek and her vision blurred. One minute she had been walking along, light-hearted, feeling giddy and almost young again, hearing laughter and screams coming from her back yard; the next, she stepped off the wooded path and saw the look of surprise on Lydia and Mike’s faces. She’d let go of Dugger’s hand as if it burned and self-consciously shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling as though she’d been caught doing something bad.

Guilt tore at her heart. She loved Todd, even after two years of being without him. She talked to him daily—sometimes she didn’t even know she was doing it—and always felt that he was nearby, watching over her. The idea of finding someone else to spend time with had never occurred to her. That was fine for other people, but she’d never met anyone who brought those kinds of thoughts to mind.

Until today. 

Somehow, along that path beside the lake, something flipped in her heart. Reconnecting with Dugger, the memories they shared, their common interests, somehow took a turn she was not expecting. Why did she feel such guilt? She’d been faithful to Todd, but now he was gone. And it wasn’t like she was jumping into a real relationship or anything. She had simply enjoyed a walk with an old friend.

An old friend with whom she was holding hands!

Lydia had looked down-right embarrassed when she and Dugger approached. She wasn’t sure if the awkwardness came from her niece observing her old aunt holding hands with the mailman, or the fact that they themselves were caught in what looked like a private moment. Lydia and Mike had obviously been having fun, and she was glad. Lydia deserved some fun. Vivian knew more about Mike than she let on, and she liked him. She thought Lydia could use a man like him, whether she knew it or not.

Dugger had seemed unaware of any awkwardness, cheerfully introducing himself to Lydia and Mike. He glanced at his watch and announced he had to go, adding, “Good thing you’re the last person on my route.” He turned to leave and then swung back. “Oh, I almost forgot, the annual Spring Fling is Saturday night. Wanna go? There’ll be an oldies band and plenty of food. It’ll be like old times. How ’bout it, Vi?”

She cocked her head at her old friend. “I don’t know, Dugger. Let’s talk later in the week. We’ll see.”

Now she blotted her wet cheek with the palm of her hand. A date? The world was turning too fast for her. Less than a week ago she’d been arguing with Katie about letting Lydia come to live with her. She hadn’t been sure she was fit company for anyone. Then, like falling dominos, Mike arrived with the dog, and now Dugger Vines showed up to complicate things.

She buried her face in her hands and whispered, “Oh, Todd, why did you leave me? I’m sorry; I can’t believe my behavior, holding hands like that. I feel like I’m getting in over my head on so many levels. Life was much easier when you were here.”

Suddenly she felt silly. Dugger probably wasn’t thinking of this as a date. He just wanted some company, comfortable fun with an old friend. Sure, that was it. She felt relieved at the thought—which, in turn, made her inexplicably sad. Her emotions felt like they were on a rollercoaster, up down, up down.

She was just going to have to tell him no. She couldn’t take the craziness of all these sudden emotions. She had felt nothing but sadness for so long, that anything else felt wrong. Especially that brief—and unexpected—feeling of happiness she experienced this afternoon. Didn’t she deserve to be happy, though?

“Oh forget it,” she said as she got up and wiped her eyes. She had a roast to serve, and a conversation due with Lydia about that no-good Ace Colbert.

Mike spent the morning tinkering at the cabin. He’d turned the water on and the plumbing seemed to be working okay. The hot water heater needed a new coil, which he’d picked up in town and installed after lunch. He was pleased with his progress as he stepped out of the shower. A little repair work here and there and this place could be brought back to livable.

He and Vivian agreed that he would fix up the cabin in return for his room and board. He hadn’t planned on staying more than one night, but this little cabin was just begging for some TLC. He could use the rest, so he decided to play it by ear and work on the cabin until he was ready to move on. It felt good to be using his hands again.

Also, there was Lydia Steadman. There was something very intriguing about that woman. Aside from the fact that she might just be the prettiest woman he’d ever seen, she had a down-to-earth quality that made him believe that real women did exist. He was sick to death of the plasticized women who nipped and tucked and Botoxed themselves constantly in a never-ending quest for perfection. They were all beautiful, yes, but dull and boring; their lives spent shopping and grooming themselves to be trophy wives.

But Lydia, he couldn’t figure her out. He was ashamed to admit that he’d Googled her, but had found nothing. Not a Twitter account, Linked-In, Facebook, nothing. She didn’t even carry a cell phone, checking texts constantly. It was as if he’d stepped back in time and found a girl who was not caught up in the fast-paced instant gratification of today’s life. Not that there was anything wrong with that, except that he couldn’t get a handle on who she was, and that was frustrating. He was a quick judge of character, and he found he couldn’t easily pigeon-hole her.

Vivian hadn’t said much, but she hinted that Lydia had been through something that led her to seek a new life. She had not been forthcoming with any relevant facts, but Mike read between the lines. For the life of him, he couldn’t think what could possibly lead someone like Lydia to need a fresh start.

The girls he knew couldn’t stop talking about themselves. She had made it clear that her past life was none of his business. Ex-boyfriend, maybe? Money problems? Yes, maybe an ex; that sounded the most probable. She seemed so vulnerable and closed off. Yet while they were bathing the dog, he saw what he thought was the real Lydia. She had dropped the tough-girl façade and become a funny, uninhibited woman, almost child-like in her
joie de vivre.

He shouldn’t have teased her about that slimy lawyer, but he hadn’t been able to resist. He saw how uncomfortable she’d been when she was man-handled in the restaurant. It was all he could do to keep from coming out of that booth and smashing in his cocky face.

Wait, where had that thought come from? He wasn’t a hothead. In fact, he thought he’d just about walked off all his temper. The man just rubbed him the wrong way. And really, he couldn’t afford any trouble. It wasn’t his business, anyway. He wondered about Lydia’s judgment in men, but she was free to hang out with whomever she pleased. She was a grown woman.

But he couldn’t help thinking about how she’d felt in his arms when they fell together in the yard. When he realized they were falling, he’d instinctively grabbed her and cushioned the landing. They came to rest with their faces just inches from each other, their laughter suddenly stilled. His world seemed to stop for a moment. The dog was still running circles around them, barking its fool head off, but Mike didn’t hear a thing. The moment was broken when Lydia caught sight of her aunt and pushed him away with a strength that surprised him.

That was good timing, too. He wasn’t looking to hook up. He’d cut ties with most of his relationships and shed a ton of people he thought were his friends but had proved otherwise. Alone and unencumbered was how he wanted it now. You couldn’t get hurt or disappointed in people if you didn’t let them in, and he had no intention of letting Lydia Steadman in.

Not that she was knocking down his door. She seemed as determined to keep him at arm’s length as he was her. But he sensed that she was attracted to him. Sparks seemed to fly between them when they were together. But sparks didn’t always mean that a fire should be ignited.

With new resolve, he headed out of the cabin. That pot roast should be done by now, he decided, and he was suddenly starving.

With Mike on his way to the house, Lydia joined Vivian in the kitchen and noted that there seemed to be tension hanging in the air. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” said Vivian. “Sit down and put this salad together. I want to talk to you.” Maybe she could handle this conversation with a little more finesse than she had handled things in the past.

Lydia sat and began to tear lettuce into pieces, prepared to give her aunt a pep talk. She assumed that the postman would be the topic of conversation, but she was wrong.

“So,” Vivian began, “you had a date with Ace Colbert?”

“No!” she exclaimed. “It wasn’t a date at all! He was just being nice, taking me to lunch on my first day of work.”

Vivian nodded, choosing her words carefully. “You know, Ace—as young as he is—is already a very successful man. He’s quite handsome, too.”

Here it comes
. “Yes, it would appear so,” she agreed, her face stiff.

“The Colberts are an important family in these parts.”

“I’m sure.”

“Big Jim Colbert is in politics and people jump when he hollers,” Vivian said, opening the oven to check on the rolls.

She could see where this was heading. Rich, important, just the sort of man she should be looking for.

“I taught Deuce and Emily in Sunday school when they were kids. I always liked them.” She began setting out plates and silverware.

Lydia tossed the salad and set it in the middle of the table. “Yes, they seem like a nice couple.”
Point
taken; I should jump at the chance to land someone like Ace
.

Vivian wiped her hands on her apron and looked at her niece. “I know you’re a grown woman, honey, and I don’t want you to think I’m butting in, but I know for a fact that Ace Colbert has already broken a few hearts, in a bad way.”

“So, you’re saying he’s a heartbreaker.” She was confused trying to follow her aunt’s train of thought.

“Yes, and I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

Lydia went still and placed her hands flat on the table. “Are you saying that you don’t think I’m good enough to land someone as eligible as Ace Colbert?” she asked carefully.

“No, no!” Vivian said, waving her hand in the air as if to dispel that thought. “I’m saying that he’s a no-good snake-in-the-grass and you should run as fast as you can in the other direction. He’s the apple of his father’s eye and he’s spoiled rotten. I just want you to think twice before getting involved with someone like Ace.”

Lydia began to laugh, more in relief than anything else. “I forgot how much I love you, Aunt Vi. But don’t you worry. I’m not the least bit interested in Ace Colbert. In fact, he makes my skin crawl.”

Vivian put her hands on her hips and rocked back on her heels. “Well, seems like you’ve developed some taste in men since I last saw you.”

“I sincerely hope so,” she agreed. “Once I dated this guy who was very computer-savvy, smart, and he talked about getting married and moving to Silicon Valley. I was on the verge of falling in love with him until I discovered he actually lived in his mother’s basement and played video games every night till dawn. Then recently I dated this doctor for a few months, and I found out just before I moved here that he wasn’t a doctor at all. He turned out to be a pizza delivery guy with delusions of grandeur after taking a CPR class. My track record goes on, and the list doesn’t get any better.”

“Keep looking. You know,” Vivian said, leaning over the table, “sometimes you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

She smiled. “That’s not what you told me before.”

Vivian set the roast on the table. “Yeah, well, I’ve been known to mess up a cliché a time or two.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Mike said, coming through the kitchen door.

“You’re just in time,” said Vivian.

“I could get used to this home cooking,” he said, and Vivian looked so pleased at the compliment.

Lydia hoped that whatever Mike was hiding, it didn’t have anything to do with her aunt. She didn’t want to see her get hurt. She was still suspicious, but it was becoming harder and harder to picture him in the role of predator.

“It was nice meeting Dugger,” she said as they began to eat. “You’ve known him a long time, I take it?”

“Yes, we went to school together,” said Vivian. “Pass the tea, please.”

“He seems nice,” Lydia probed, glancing at Mike.

“Yes,” he agreed, reluctantly joining the impending interrogation. “You two seemed to, um, be enjoying yourselves.”

Vivian put down her fork. “Yes, I wanted to explain that,” she said, obviously uncomfortable.

Lydia held up her hand. “No explanation necessary, Aunt Vi. I think it’s wonderful that you’re moving on.”

“Moving on?” Vivian looked shocked. “Who said anything about moving on? I just… we… let’s change the subject,” she finished firmly. “How are things at the cabin?” she asked, turning to Mike.

“Good,” he replied, clearly relieved to move to a more neutral subject. “That cabin is a gem. I was thinking, why don’t you do a complete remodel and rent it out? Someone would love to live there.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” she said, clearly intrigued with the notion. “Todd and I occasionally used it as a guest house. But since we never had any children, and this house was so large, the cabin was almost never used. The last time was that family reunion about fifteen years ago, Lydia, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember,” she said, her face lighting up. “All the cousins stayed in the cabin and we had a ball. No parental supervision, skinny dipping at midnight, bonfires by the lake.”

“Skinny dipping?” Mike said with a humorous lift of his brows.

She laughed. “Truthfully, we thought swimming in our underwear counted as skinny dipping and we thought we were being pretty dadgum adventurous, I can tell you!” She pushed back her plate, looking dreamily at the ceiling. “Those were the good old days, right, Aunt Vi?”

“They sure were.”

“We took your old albums over there and blasted The Beach Boys day and night. I haven’t been in that cabin since. I’d love to see it again.”

Mike shoved the last bite in his mouth and abruptly scooted back his chair. “Then let’s go!” He held out his elbow as if to escort her.

That’s so goofy,
she thought, but she liked it. She grabbed his arm and they practically ran out the door, Lydia babbling on about the old days and Mike loving every minute of it.

The cabin was small with a porch that ran around the perimeter. The main room consisted of an open kitchen to the left and a spacious living area with a fireplace to the right. A staircase tucked into the left corner led upstairs to the second floor. A master bedroom took up one end of the upstairs with a large bunk room on the other, and a tiny bathroom sat in the middle. Beside the bathroom was a door that opened out onto a small upper deck. Simple, rugged, and much like she remembered it, only it seemed smaller now that she saw it through adult eyes. She and Mike stood on the deck overlooking the lake.

“I had forgotten how beautiful this place is,” she said. “This is a little piece of heaven right here.”

“I agree. And whoever built this did quality work. This is mid-century craftsmanship. I’ve been studying it, and I don’t think it would take much to bring this up to code.”

She loved the animation in Mike’s face as he talked about what needed to be done to the cabin. He seemed to know what he was talking about and his enthusiasm was catching. She noticed that his light brown eyes took on a golden tint when he was excited. She liked the deep crinkles that formed around his eyes when he smiled. She admired the way his hands gripped the railing on their way back downstairs, how he seemed to be testing its strength and feeling for the life left in the wood.

In fact, she found that she liked just about everything about him. Sure, he was scruffy—in a good way. Her mother would say he needed a haircut, but she rather enjoyed the way his hair fell in messy locks across his forehead. She kind of wanted to run her fingers through it.

No, no, no! Mike had secrets. He was obviously an unemployed drifter, catching odd jobs when he needed money. She hadn’t seen any unacceptable behavior in him, anything that would bode ill for Aunt Vi. So far. She hadn’t seen any signs of drug use. She hadn’t seen him smoke. She hadn’t heard him curse once. She couldn’t find one single thing wrong with him. And that, in itself, was suspicious. Nobody was that perfect!

She forced herself to tune in to what he was saying about the mantel.

“Solid oak, hand hewn, it’s really a work of art.”

She ran her hand across the surface. “And what do you think about the river rock surround? A little dated, maybe?”

“I think we should keep it,” he replied.

We
?

“We don’t want to mess with the integrity of the style. It’s rustic and true to the era, and really, some things just need to be left alone.”

“What about the kitchen?”