A Big Life in a Small Town (Bellingwood #2) Read online

  "What happened?" she asked.

  Elise looked up sheepishly. "It's my fault," she said. "Are you okay?"

  She pulled her leg out from under Billy's ankle, then stood up, reaching down to give him a hand. "I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going and when they came in the front door, I got startled, tripped him with my foot and crashed into him." She nodded to Billy first, then to Doug.

  Both Doug and Billy were still in shock. Billy looked down at his pants. "I give up!" he said. "Hot coffee is not my friend in this place."

  Polly couldn't help it. Laughter erupted as she reached down to give Doug a hand. When he was standing, she picked up the broken plate and began collecting the spilled food. Andy helped her, then, took everything from Polly's hands and went back to the kitchen.

  "Doug Randall and Billy Endicott meet Elise Myers. She is my first guest at Sycamore House," Polly said. "Is everyone okay?"

  The boys moved their shoulders around, Doug shook out his arms and Billy shook the leg which had been soaked in coffee. "We're good," Doug said. "Are you okay, Miss Myers?" he asked.

  "I'm fine," she stammered. "I, I, I'm so sorry!"

  "Don't worry. This isn't the first time we've fallen into the building," Billy laughed. "And it isn't the first time someone has spilled coffee on my pants. I should be used to it by now." He rolled his eyes in Polly's direction.

  "Hey!" she said. "That was your fault, not mine."

  Henry had come up the steps and saw the chaos in the entryway. "Was there a party and I wasn't invited?" he asked.

  Elise took one look at him and bolted up the steps.

  "What did I say?" he asked.

  "I think she had too many people in her face at one time," Polly said. "Don't worry, I've got it. You clean this up and, Oh no!" she exclaimed. "The pizza! There will be hot breakfast pizza out in a minute." She took off for the kitchen only to meet Andy who was on her way out with another plate filled with food.

  "I made another plate for Elise," Andy said. "Where did she go?"

  "Come on back to the kitchen," Polly replied. "I'll tell you in there." Andy followed her back into the kitchen. Polly pulled two more breakfast pizzas out of the oven and slid them onto cutting boards. She ran the pizza cutter across the pizzas, then set them on the counter.

  "I think she terrified herself, so she took off upstairs. Let me get another cup of coffee and I'll take these up to her. Thank you!" she said to Andy. "I'll be right back. Help yourself."

  Polly took the food and coffee and moving past the boys who were gathering their things, went upstairs. She knocked on the door to Elise's room and heard, "Just a minute."

  She waited and the door opened. Elise's face was bright red as if she'd been crying.

  "I brought you a plate of food," Polly said. "Are you hurt?"

  "I'm fine," Elise responded. "Just terribly embarrassed. I don't do well around a lot of people and I don't do well at all around a lot of men. They terrify me. I'm sorry to be such a bother."

  Polly put the food and coffee on an antique study carrel she had found. "Don't worry about those boys or Henry. They will not bother you and probably feel as badly as you do about the crash. They're all good guys and if they thought you were uncomfortable around them, would probably hide rather than let you see them."

  Elise slumped down in the chair. "I'm awful with people. That's why this was the perfect place. No one knows me here and no one will try to get me to go out and do things."

  "Do you want to do things or be with people?" Polly asked.

  "Not really, but," Elise looked up at her. "I don't know what I want. Sometimes I want to be normal and have friends and go to the movies and hang out at bars, but then I realize that I don't want that at all. I just think I do. I'm so confused." She put her head in her hands. "I don't know. Back at the University, they ignore me and I can do my research and nobody bothers me. But, sometimes I watch everything happening around me and wonder why I don't fit in."

  She shook her head, "I've always been on the outside."

  "I'm sorry, Elise. If there's anything I can do, I will," Polly said.

  "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I don’t usually talk about it with anyone." Her look of confusion made Polly smile. "Not even my mom. She thinks this is all a choice I've made. She loves me and has always given me space to do whatever I wanted, but she never pushed me out of the house or forced me to make friends."

  Elise sighed, "Well, this isn't going to get any work done. Thank you for bringing food to me. I'm sorry I broke your plate and I'm sorry if I hurt those boys."

  "The boys are pretty hardy," Polly chuckled. "And plates aren't worth worrying about. Here," Polly said and picked up a pen and a pad of paper. "This is my cell phone. You can call or text me any time you need anything if you are too freaked out to come downstairs. I'm not going to make you be friends with anyone but me. However, you are going to be friends with me. That's already established. Got it?"

  Elise didn't say anything, simply looked at the paper Polly had handed to her. "Elise? Do you understand? You're my friend now. That means I'd like to see your face every once in a while. And when you're not working and need a break, you and I might hang out over in my apartment and watch a movie or television with my animals. How does that sound?"

  "It sounds heavenly," Elise said. "Thank you. Can I text you any time?"

  "Any time. Even if you only need me to run upstairs and bring you an apple."

  Elise stood up again and seemed a little uncomfortable, but reached out to hug Polly. "Thank you," she said again. "No one has ever made me be their friend before."

  "Well, I guess you've never met my friends," Polly said. "When you're ready, I've got a crazy group of them here and they'll love you!"

  The girl shuddered and said, "I don't think I'm ready for that yet."

  "Then, don't worry about it. Now, I'm going back downstairs to get some work done. I have to rescue my little girl kitty cat from the veterinarian in a little bit. She had surgery yesterday and I can't wait to get her back home. Leave the empty plate on the table outside your door and I'll deal with it later."

  "Thank you, Polly," Elise said.

  As Polly walked back downstairs, she chuckled to herself, "Lydia would be so proud of me," she murmured. "I'm turning into her clone!"

  By the time she got back to the kitchen, there was quite a crowd gathered around eating breakfast and drinking coffee.

  "I hope we didn't freak her out," Doug said. "But, she ran into us!"

  "It's fine," Polly replied. “I think she freaked herself out. She's a lot more comfortable with books and numbers than she is with people. So, your job ..." and she looked at everyone around her, "is to avoid her when you see her. Don't try to make her talk to you. Just smile and be your nice, normal, polite selves and then move on. Got it?" She looked at them each in the eye once more to make sure they understood her. They all nodded.

  Andy combined the rest of the pizza onto one pan and took the others to a sink. Soon, the kitchen was empty as everyone went to work.

  Polly was putting plates into the dishwasher as Jeff walked in and said, "Is there breakfast this morning?"

  "You're just in time!" Andy exclaimed and pulled a plate back out of the cupboard. She set it down in front of him.

  "I swear, Polly. I've already gained 3 pounds since I started working here," he complained.

  "Not my fault!" she said. "And if you want to start running Obiwan around the property every day, I'm fine with that. Otherwise," she turned and waggled her index finger at him, "choices and consequences, bud, choices and consequences."

  "Whatever," he said and taking a cup of coffee with his plate, left for his office.

  Polly wiped down the counter and prep area, started the dishwasher and set some napkins beside the leftover pizza, checked the coffee pot and then said to Andy, "Thank you for your help. I didn't expect that this morning."

  "I suspect you didn't expect a catastrophe at the f
ront steps either. Sometimes we have to go with the flow."

  "Well, thank you anyway. I kept you away from what you were planning to do, though."

  "I'll go in and get started. I can't wait to dig into that database."

  "Why don't I send Doug and Billy in to set up a table for you," Polly said.

  "That would make it easier," Andy said. "Thanks."

  Andy went into the auditorium and Polly walked over to the classrooms to ask the boys to handle the table setup for Andy. Without any hesitation, other than to look at Jerry for permission to leave their work, they trotted over to help out. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when they were no longer around. While Jerry had them out on other jobs, they'd spent quite a bit of time at Sycamore House and were beginning to feel like family. Polly felt a little sad at the thought of these projects closing down and having everyone gone. She walked into her office and woke her computer up.

  Before she could start feeling too sorry for herself, Jeff peeked around the corner. "Got a minute?" he asked.

  "Sure," she said. "Come on in."

  "What has you looking so sad," he asked. "Did something happen?"

  “I was thinking about how much I'm going to miss having all this activity around here. These people are like my family now and pretty soon, they'll finish all of this and be gone!"

  "Umm. Well. I don't know what to say about that. Nothing lasts forever?" He looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

  Polly picked up a piece of paper, wadded it and threw it at him. It landed well short of its target.

  "What did you want?" she asked.

  "Henry has the wood ordered for the barn. I’ve set a date. What do you think?"

  "As long as the weather holds out and Sylvie thinks she can pull it off, I think it is great!" Polly replied.

  "Then I'm going to start advertising and Henry is lining up workers. I'm talking to a couple of bands to see who is available that night for the dance."

  "Dance? Wait. What? There's going to be a dance?" Polly cried out.

  "What did you think we would do at a hoe-down?" Jeff asked.

  "I thought there would be a lot of food and maybe some entertainment or something, but a dance?"

  "Do you have a problem with dancing?"

  "It might be the same problem you have with riding horses. I fall down!" Polly said.

  "We're going to have a dance and you can either dance or hide, I don't care."

  "Surely I can say no," Polly said. "I still have some rights as the boss around here, don't I?"

  "Nope. You can't tell me no because you're scared of something. You can only tell me no because you think it is a bad idea."

  "Then I think it's a bad idea. The owner of Sycamore House should never be seen with her bottom on the floor and her feet straight up in the air. It's embarrassing!"

  Jeff didn't say another word, just rose up out of his chair and left the office.

  "Hey!" she called out. "Hey!" Polly followed him into his office.

  "It's not going to work," he said as he sat down at his desk. "You can't be so scared of dancing that you will stop me from doing this."

  "Fine," she said. "Fine. I'm going to head over to Dr. Hottie's office to pick Leia up. I'll be back after a while."

  "A dance," Polly muttered as she went back to her office and grabbed the truck keys. "A dance. It's not fair."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Tapping her fingers on the exam table, Polly stood in a small room waiting for Leia to be returned to her. The door opened and Mark Ogden walked in, followed by Marnie Evans, who was holding Leia on top of her blanket.

  "Good morning, Polly!" he said, shaking her hand. "Everything went fine yesterday and she's ready to go home." Marnie placed the cat bundle onto the exam table and kept her hand on Leia while Mark Ogden pulled a sheet of paper out of the folder he was holding. "Here are recommendations for the next few days. I know the boys in her life are going to want to play with her. You might want to think about separating them."

  He unconsciously brushed a lock of curls away from his forehead and Polly tried not to stare. She suddenly realized he was still talking to her and she hadn't heard anything, so she nodded and smiled.

  "So, Marnie here will take care of setting that up, then," she heard him say and snapped back into consciousness. She was supposed to respond now and looked desperately at Marnie who shook her head and grinned.

  He reached down and rubbed the top of Leia's head and said, "You did well, little Leia. We'll see you next week." He put his hand out to take Polly's again and she nodded at him as he left.

  Marnie laughed out loud, "You're not the only one who has that reaction to him, but I'd have to say you have it worse than most!"

  "Oh no," Polly gasped. "Was I that obvious?"

  "Not to him. That man is completely oblivious. All the girls working here have a terrible crush on him. Heck, even I do and I'm happily married. It doesn't occur to him that nearly all of our walk-in customers are female. Fortunately, he's generally out of here pretty early to work out on farms. Have you met his partner? He's not quite as adorable, but he's single too!"

  "His partner? I had no idea!" Polly said.

  "He came into the practice a few months ago. Doc Ogden needed someone to concentrate more on small animals so he could do what he really loves."

  "What's that?" Polly asked.

  "He's a horse man from way back. Those animals have his heart and soul, it seems. He likes being outside too. You know, you're one of the lucky few he decided needed his personal attention in the office."

  Polly blushed. "Whatever," she said.

  "No, really!" Marnie insisted. "He has cut back his small animal clientele to a scant few. You're one of them."

  Polly grinned and couldn't help it, her insides skipped up and down. But, this was crazy. She had a date with Henry on Friday and for Pete's sake, she didn't need more men complicating her life. She reached over and grabbed Leia and the blanket into her arms and went out to the front counter with Marnie following. As Marnie scooted around her to get behind the counter, she said, "Will next week work to bring her back in to remove the stitches?"

  "Sure," Polly said and pulled a credit card out of her back pocket to pay her bill. "Sure, that will be fine."

  "Here's a card with the date and time on it. Put it in your calendar, will you? You don't seem to be thinking on all cylinders right now," Marnie laughed and completed the transaction.

  Polly shook herself and kissed the top of Leia's head. "I'm fine. Thanks and I'll see you next week."

  As soon as she got into her truck, she put Leia on the seat beside her. "Did you hear that, little girl? He kept me as a client! I'm swooning a little on the inside."

  She pulled out of the parking lot and drove back to Sycamore House. Lydia's Jeep was sitting in the parking lot, and she pulled in beside it. She jumped down out of the truck, gathered Leia and the blanket into her arms and went inside to her office. Until she figured out how to keep her animals separate, the kitten might as well hang out down here. She'd bring down an extra litter box and some food and Little Girl would be fine for a while.

  Polly got Leia settled in behind her desk and left her office, pulling the door shut behind her. The kitten looked up and snuggled back into the blanket, promptly falling asleep. Polly stuck her head in the classrooms and waved at Henry, who was installing bookshelves, then walked to the auditorium. She found Lydia and Andy sitting on the edge of the stage with a crate of items between them. They looked up as she approached.

  "There you are," Lydia said. "How's your cat?"

  "She's good. I have to keep her away from the boys, so I might have to build a nest for her in my office. What are you doing here this morning?"

  "I just came from Madeline Black's house. You know I had to meet the company that would clean up the area where she died, right?"

  "Sure. How was it?" Polly asked.

  "I was just telling Andy. Once the body was gone, it wasn't quite as awful,
but they'll be there for a while. I called her son again this morning. He's not a nice guy." She paused and thought. "And it doesn't make any sense. Madeline was such a sweetheart. I don't know what happened to him. He told me that he was talking to the funeral home and if I wanted to know more about the particulars, I could call them." She shook her head. "I wish I knew how to reach out to him, but I don't think he wants that from me."

  "Did you ask about the note she was writing when she died?" Polly pulled a chair out from the table and sat down in front of the two ladies.

  "I did and he didn't have any idea what she might have been talking about. I did manage to get his sister's telephone number from him, though. I'll call her this evening to ask if she'd like us to help with anything. Maybe she has more information."

  "Neither of those kids stayed around here after graduation, did they?" Andy asked.

  “Laurence is down in Creston and Amy lives out in the San Francisco area. Her husband works for some software company." Lydia took in a deep breath and said, "Laurence informed me that since they had both spent Christmas day with their mother, he wasn't recommending they do anything other than lock the house up and leave it until they had more time."

  Polly nodded her head slowly, "So no one is going to worry about what Madeline meant in her note?"

  "He's not," Lydia huffed. "I am, though. I'm not sure how, but I'm going to make sure her last request isn't tossed aside."

  Polly turned around when she heard footsteps on the floor. Sylvie walked in and over to the three of them.

  "Hi there!" she said. "I bought books today from Amazon. They'll be here on Friday. Did you know I was going to college?" She giggled and pulled another chair up.

  "What a wonderful surprise!" Lydia laughed with her. "We're proud of you, Sylvie."

  "Thanks. What are you doing today? I drove by and saw your cars, so I thought there might be something fun going on. I'm a free woman until the boys are done with school."

  Polly checked the time on her phone. "We should go out to lunch!" She jumped up, then sat back down. "Wait. I have a cat who just came home from the doctor. I don't want to leave her in my office all alone, and I should take Obiwan out for a run before I do anything."