Pages of the Past (Bellingwood Book 9) Read online

  "Has she started looking for an apartment?"

  "Not that I know of." Polly gave her head a quick shake. "I shouldn't be like this. I told her that she had a home as long as she needed it and that we'd be there for her when she had the baby. And I've been through all the childbirth classes with her." She rolled her eyes. "I know that you want babies in your life, but after that, nothing at all makes me want to be pregnant and give birth."

  Joss laughed out loud. "Hey, I'm fine with someone else bearing my children. I was never one of those girls who thought that the whole pregnancy thing was a glorious experience."

  "Jessie is really digging it."

  "That's fabulous. If you're going to be pregnant, I think you should enjoy every minute of it."

  "She keeps telling me that she's never felt better in all her life. Because she's been so focused on the baby, she eats really healthy and doesn't drink anything that's bad for her. She's been doing yoga and meditation to keep calm. The baby turned her into a different person."

  "Wait until that child shows up, live and in person. That will turn her into crazy bat-shit lady in a hurry."

  Polly laughed at her friend. "You're hilarious. You aren't that bad. I haven't seen much bat-shit crazy stuff from you in the last few months."

  "Uh huh. You might want to get her out of your house sooner rather than later, or you're going to see her crazy side show up when she doesn't get enough sleep and the baby wants one more thing or starts crying even after she's met its needs."

  "You're complaining."

  Joss sighed. "I am, aren't I. Sorry about that. See. Not enough sleep."

  "Because I know how much you love those two."

  "More than anything else." Joss glanced at the stairway leading down to Nate and the twins. "It's not that bad and I wouldn't trade my life now for anything."

  "But, Jessie needs to make her own life. You're right. We'll see what happens."

  "Joss?" Nate's voice came from downstairs. She jumped off the sofa and ran for the top of the steps.

  "What do you need?"

  "Has Polly asked you about tonight? Henry's on the phone."

  Joss turned and looked at Polly. "What's up for tonight?"

  "Those boys don't even give a girl a minute. I was going to ask if you wanted to come over this evening. Rebecca and Andrew would love to play with the babies and I'd like to spend time with you. Henry thought maybe he and Nate could work on their cars."

  "Why don't you bring your kids over here? That way I can put the babies to bed. I'll cook dinner."

  "We'll bring pizza."

  "No, I'll cook. Nate and Henry can eat with us and then go out to the garage."

  "Joss?" Nate asked.

  "We're working out the details, but yes."

  "Cool."

  Joss came back into the living room and sat down again. "That will motivate me to get moving."

  "You'll be cooking for a lot of us. Are you sure?"

  "Absolutely. I'll make a lasagna."

  "Then let me bring bread and salad. Rebecca and I can work on that this afternoon."

  "How's her mom?"

  "Okay for now. She told Rebecca that she wants to go to the Valentine's Day dinner, so we're on the hunt for a new dress."

  "She won't be able to wear it very often, am I right?"

  Polly shook her head. "I guess if she only wears it once and that creates a memory for Rebecca, that's enough."

  "You're right. That wasn't very nice of me."

  "No, it's fine. It's the truth. Sarah won't like the idea, she'll think it's wasteful, but Rebecca wants to raise the money on her own and pay for the dress."

  "I'll pay her and Andrew to keep an eye on the kids tonight."

  "You don't have to do that."

  "We'll be right here. They can play with them and pay attention to them and make a little money. It would be a start."

  "Thank you," Polly said and then gave her friend a grin. "Rebecca wants to buy that yellow dress in Osborn's window downtown."

  "That flimsy thing with no shoulders?" Joss chuckled. "Poor Sarah. What are you going to do?"

  "I have no idea, but we have to fix this for Sarah." Polly stood up. "I should probably get back to Beryl's."

  "Thanks for coming over." Joss stood and bent over to pick toys up from the floor.

  "I felt a little guilty about dropping in."

  "You should. The place is a mess."

  Polly looked around. The toys and blankets that were in the living room were part of a home with active children. There was no mess. "If I didn't have three other people who were relatively clean and neat living in my house, I'd never let anyone come in. This is pristine in comparison to how I lived before Henry married me. Stop worrying."

  "It will be better when you come over tonight."

  Polly gave her friend a hug and ran back out to her truck. She hoped she hadn't been inside long enough for it to completely cool down. It felt like it was getting colder as the day went on. She was really tired of winter.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Rebecca was standing next to Polly in the kitchen, drying dishes after Sunday breakfast. "Can I ask a question?"

  "Of course, sweetie. What's up?" Polly rinsed another plate and put it in the drying rack.

  "Well, I have a friend at school..."

  Polly's heart jumped into her throat. This was a first. It was an exciting first. She tried desperately hard not to react and plunged her hands back into the suds.

  "Can she come home with me tomorrow afternoon?"

  "Sure?" Polly had so many questions, she didn't know where to start.

  Rebecca stopped and turned to face Polly. "She always goes to the library to wait for her sister to pick her up and they aren't open on Mondays anymore."

  That decision had nearly destroyed Joss. But the city had cut back funding and though she was fine with spending more time at home with her babies, she hated its impact on the community. Tomorrow was the first Monday they'd be closed.

  "Sure, she can come here. What's her name?"

  "Kayla. She's really nice."

  Polly remembered Rebecca mentioning that name. "How long have you two been friends?"

  "For a while. She's my table partner."

  Polly smiled inside. Mrs. Hastings had done her very best to seat Rebecca next to someone who would befriend the girl. It looked like her plan had finally worked.

  "I'd be glad to host your friend tomorrow. Maybe we should call her family today so they know where she's going to be. You wouldn't want her sister to go to the library and not find her there."

  Rebecca looked at the floor. "We kinda talked about it on Friday and I told Kayla you wouldn't mind."

  "You were absolutely right. I don't mind. But I still think that I should talk to her mother."

  "She doesn't have a mother. Just a sister."

  Polly wrinkled her brow. "Just a sister? No father either?"

  "No, something happened to them, so it's just Kayla and Stephanie."

  "Do you have Stephanie's phone number? I would like to just talk to her so that I'm sure she knows Kayla will be safe here."

  Jessie came into the room from doing laundry. "Stephanie Armstrong? She has a sister named Kayla."

  "You know Stephanie?" Rebecca asked.

  "Sure. She works at the convenience store. I haven't talked to her in a while, though. Not since I left there."

  "Do you have Kayla's phone number, Rebecca?" Polly asked again.

  "No. Can't we do it tomorrow and then you can meet Stephanie when she picks Kayla up tomorrow night? Please?"

  "That will be fine. Of course."

  "Can I show her the donkeys?"

  "You know who has to answer that," Polly said.

  "I know. Eliseo. But he'll say yes, won't he? And Jason will be down there, so he can show us around."

  "We'll see how the day goes tomorrow. If Kayla isn't dressed to go down to the barn, we'd hate to mess up her clothes."

  "We won't get dirt
y. We'll just look."

  Polly patted Rebecca's back and turned back to the sink. "Let's wait and see."

  Rebecca put another dried plate onto the stack. "Why don't we ever use the dishwasher?"

  "Because I like hanging out with you," Polly said, laughing. "Honestly, once I got started today, I couldn't quit."

  "That was my question too," Henry said, coming around the corner. "You hand wash a lot of dishes, Polly."

  "I never got used to a dishwasher. We didn't have one while I was growing up and my apartment in Boston didn't have one." She shrugged. "I just wash dishes, I guess."

  Henry took the towel out of Rebecca's hand. "You go play. I'll deal with the tyrant."

  Rebecca smiled and ran out of the kitchen. "Jessie! You wanna play a game?"

  "She has a little friend," Polly whispered to Henry.

  "Yeah. I know, she looks ready to pop. What do we have, another month?"

  "Not Jessie, you dope. Rebecca. She's bringing a friend over after school tomorrow."

  He stepped back. "No kidding. Imagine that. And you didn't have to get involved or anything."

  Polly flicked suds at him. "Leave me alone. I'm just happy she has someone other than Andrew. He's a wonderful boy, but she needs more friends. So does he, for that matter."

  "I spoke too soon. You're about to get involved, I can tell."

  "Joss has to close the library on Mondays now. I was thinking that since kids probably went there until their parents picked them up, we should use the classroom and computer room for Monday afternoon homework sessions."

  "Yep. I knew it."

  Polly elbowed him. "It's a great idea!"

  "Talk to Jeff before you do anything rash, will you?" He opened the cupboard doors and put stacks of plates and glasses where they belonged.

  "So you didn't say last night. How are things going with those cars? What are they? Woodies?"

  "Yes. Woodies. And you already know that. You pay attention to everything."

  "Whatever. Anyway, how far are you?"

  He put his hand on the counter and looked at her, puzzled. "You do know that this is going to be a very long project, don't you? They aren't going to be ready for you to drive this summer."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long are they going to take?"

  "It could be a year or more. We have a lot of work to do. The engines are a mess, there's no upholstery, and the bodies were completely rusted out."

  "I get it. I'm sorry I asked."

  "No, that's not it. I just don't want you getting excited. This kind of restoration is labor intensive and since we don't get to spend a lot of hours doing it, well..."

  She scowled. "Am I supposed to feel guilty about not letting you work over there?"

  "That works for me. But no, neither of us has a lot of time. It's just something fun to do."

  "Okay. Just checking."

  He kissed her cheek. "And thanks for acting interested."

  "At least you aren't carousing at the bars every other night."

  "Who has time for that?"

  "I know!"

  They walked into the living room to find Rebecca standing behind Jessie, brushing and braiding her hair, the older girl sprawled out on the sofa. She looked terribly uncomfortable. A pile of folded laundry sat on the table in front of her.

  "I'll put it away in a minute. This just feels so good," Jessie said. Obiwan was stretched out beside her and Han had curled up on her chest, his head resting on her belly as she stroked him.

  "You know I don't care. It looks as if you have the full-on doggie spa thing going on."

  Henry went on into their bedroom and pushed the door closed. She heard the television come on. Football. It was his Sunday afternoon escape. He didn't want to go to anyone's house to watch it, he didn't even particularly care to watch it on the big screen in the media room. He just liked to sit in the big, comfy chair with his feet up. More often than not, one of the cats or Han was in his lap, but he preferred being alone.

  Polly had taken to napping on Sunday afternoons. She'd discovered that if she relaxed her body, she could consider the sounds of the game as white noise. Henry had tried to talk to her about the teams that were playing, but when both of them discovered that first of all, she didn't care, and secondly, he didn't really want to chat during the games, they gave up and let the other do their thing.

  She went in and waited while the two cats darted in the open door. Without saying anything to Henry, who was already seated and watching the television intently, she crossed to her side of the bed, pulled her shoes off and stretched out, nestling her head into the pillow.

  ~~~

  "I'll see you all later," Polly said as she went down the back steps. She and her friends rarely missed a Sunday evening at Pizzazz downtown. Henry was still watching football, while Rebecca and Jessie were making spaghetti for dinner to take down to eat with Sarah and Evelyn Morrow.

  She opened the back door by the garage and waited while Sal Kahane pulled in. She'd texted Polly earlier that she would pick her up. Polly usually walked to the pizza place, it was only a few blocks, but the temperatures were low enough that the wind chill was quite bitter.

  Polly darted to Sal's car and jumped in. "Thanks for picking me up."

  "Nobody should be walking in this. It's awful."

  "No worse than what we dealt with in Boston."

  "I know. You're right. I keep thinking that maybe I should move to Hawaii or southern Florida or somewhere warm. I don't know that I'm cut out to be a Canuck."

  "We don't live in Canada."

  "There is only one state between us."

  "A long state! Stop complaining."

  Sal laughed. "I'm going to bet you a pizza that before the end of this winter, you're going to tell me at least once that you hate winter. You always complained when we were living together."

  "I don't complain anymore. I love living in Iowa." Polly wasn't about to admit that she'd silently been complaining for days.

  "Uh huh. We'll see." Sal pulled into a parking space across the street from Pizzazz. There were plenty of spaces in front of the pizza place and she'd gone around the block to get the right angle.

  "What are we doing on this side of the street?" Polly asked.

  "I want you to look at the empty building right in front of us."

  "Okay. Very nice empty building."

  "Take a good look at it. Look closely."

  Polly rolled her eyes to the side. "It's a building. What about it?"

  "Have you taken a good look?"

  "As much as possible."

  "Fine. We'll talk about it at dinner."

  "Tell me." Polly glanced at her friend and saw a wicked gleam in her eyes.

  "Nope. You have to wait until everyone is there."

  "You're just mean."

  Sal backed into the street, then did a sharp turn and pulled into a space directly in front of the restaurant. "I love small towns," she said. "You can do this kind of stuff and everyone expects it. The first time someone turned in front of me to grab a spot on the other side of the street, I nearly collapsed. You'd never get away with that out east. But here, it's just what you do."

  "It seems like you've perfected the move."

  "Only if there are no cars for three blocks in either direction."

  Sylvie pulled in beside them and as they were getting out, Joss pulled in on the other side of her.

  "Things are really quiet here tonight," Sal commented.

  "Wonder what's up?" Polly asked.

  They went inside and saw only two other tables with customers. "This is eerie," Joss said.

  As they made their way to their regular table, Bri put drinks down in the center and smiled at them. By the time they'd chosen a seat and grabbed their drinks, she put two baskets of cheese bread down.

  "Your pizza is in. It should be out in a few minutes," she said.

  "Thanks. You're awesome," Sylvie responded.

  They'd tried several different pizzas over the la
st few months, but each time came back to their regular order - a Pizzazz Classic with everything on it. Bri perfectly timed the pizza's arrival as the first basket of cheese bread was emptied.

  "Why is it so quiet tonight?" Sal asked their waitress.

  "Dylan thinks it's because of the cold. But we've had colder days than this and the place is full." Bri shrugged. "I got nuttin'."

  Polly made a show of drumming her fingers on the table in front of Sal.

  "What?" Sal asked.

  "You know what. Why did you want me to see that building across the street?"

  "I'm going to buy it."

  "You're what?" All three of them looked at Sal and then turned to look out the window.

  "You're buying a building?" Sylvie asked. "To do what?"

  "That's why I want to talk to you three. I need a place to write."

  Polly burst out with a laugh. "You can't write at home?"

  "Yes, I can write at home. But it's so quiet. Sometimes it's deadly quiet. I do my best work in hustle and bustle."

  "I doubt that you'll ever find hustle and bustle in Bellingwood," Joss said. "Even downtown, you're doing well to have a little hust ... never any l-e." She spelled the last two letters out.

  Sal nodded. "On any given day in any city in the country, creative types make their way to coffee shops, where caffeine and sugar stir their imaginations. They're inspired by everyone else who sits at a table working away at their computers or in their notebooks. It's like a perfect competition. You see other people working and can't help but imagine their projects and it brings out the best in you. I need my coffee shop."

  "So, you're going to build a coffee shop?"

  "That's what I want to do. I'm meeting Henry tomorrow afternoon to talk about remodeling the place and then..."

  Polly frowned. "You're meeting Henry? He didn't say a word."

  "That's because I made him promise to keep quiet. I wanted to be the one to tell you. I just found out Friday afternoon that the sale was really going to happen."

  "I can't believe he didn't tell me." Polly growled at Sylvie. "And he didn't tell me when you bought your house, either. That man is going to be in serious trouble one of these days for not letting me in on his secrets."