Page 30 of Summer Weddings

She was far too tired; she wasn’t thinking clearly. Bethany closed her eyes and pounded the pillow, trying to force herself to relax.

But even with her eyes shut, all she saw was Mitch Harris’s face.

She hadn’t come to Hard Luck to fall in love, she told herself sternly.

Rolling onto her other side, she cradled the pillow in her arms. It didn’t help. Drat. She could deny it till doomsday, but it wouldn’t make any difference. There was just something about Chrissie’s father… .

* * *

“Ms. Ross?”

Bethany looked up from the back of her classroom. Chrissie and Susan stood by the doorway, their faces beaming with eagerness.

“Hello, girls.”

“Um, we’re here to be your helpers,” Chrissie said. “Dad told us we’d better make sure we are helpers and not nuisances.”

“I’m sure you’ll be wonderful helpers,” Bethany said.

The two girls instantly broke into huge grins and rushed inside the room. Bethany put them to work sorting textbooks. This was the first time she’d taught more than one grade, and the fact that she’d now be handling kindergarten through six intimidated her.

“Everyone’s looking forward to school,” Chrissie announced, “especially my dad.”

Bethany chuckled. Mitch wasn’t so different from other parents.

The girls had been working for perhaps twenty minutes when Chrissie suddenly asked, “You’re not married or anything, are you, Ms. Ross?”

A smile trembled on her mouth. “No.”

“Why not?”

Leave it to a seven-year-old to ask that kind of question. “I haven’t met the right man,” she explained as simply as she could.

“Have you ever been in love?” Susan probed.

Bethany noticed that both girls had stopped sorting through the textbooks and were giving her their full attention. “Yes,” she told them with some hesitation.

“How old are you?”

“Chrissie.” Susan jabbed her elbow into her friend’s ribs. “You’re not supposed to ask that,” she said in a loud whisper. “It’s against the human-rights law. We could get charged with snooping.”

“I’m twenty-five,” Bethany answered, pretending she hadn’t heard Susan.

The girls exchanged looks, then started using their fingers to count.

“Seven,” Chrissie breathed, as if it were a magic number.

“Seven?” Bethany asked curiously. What game were the girls playing?

“If a man’s seven years older than you, is that too old?” Susan asked, her eyes wide and inquisitive.

“Too old,” Bethany repeated thoughtfully. She perched on the edge of a desk and crossed her arms. “That depends.”

“On what?” Chrissie moved closer.

“On age, I suppose. If I was fourteen and wanted to date a man who was twenty-one, my parents would never have allowed it. But if I was twenty-one and he was twenty-eight, it would probably be okay.”

Both girls seemed pleased with her answer, grinning and nudging each other.

Bethany responded to their odd behavior with a joke. “You girls aren’t thinking about dating fourteen-year-old boys, are you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in pretend disapproval.

Chrissie covered her mouth and giggled.

Susan rolled her eyes. “Get real, Ms. Ross. I don’t even know what the big attraction is with boys.” Then, as if to explain her words, she said, “I have an older brother.”

“Would you tell us about the man you were in love with?” This came from Chrissie. Her expression had grown so serious Bethany decided to answer, despite her initial impulse to change the subject.

“The man I was in love with,” she began, “was a guy I dated while I was in college. We went out for about a year.”

“What was his name?”

“Randy.”

“Randy,” Chrissie repeated with disgust, turning to look at her friend.

“Did he do you wrong?”

Bethany laughed at the country-and-western phrasing, although she was uncomfortable with these questions.

“No, he didn’t do me wrong.” If anyone was to blame for their breakup, it had been Bethany herself.

She wasn’t sure she’d ever really loved him, which she supposed was an answer in itself.

They’d been friends, and that had developed into something more—at least on Randy’s part.

He’d started talking marriage and children, and at first she’d agreed. Then she’d realized she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. Not when she had two full years of school left. Not when she’d barely begun to experience life.

They’d argued and broken off their unofficial engagement. The breakup had troubled Bethany for months afterward. But now she understood that what she’d really regretted was the loss of their friendship.

“Do you still see him?” Chrissie asked.

Bethany nodded.

“You do? ” Susan sounded as if this was a tragedy.

“Sometimes.”

“Is he married?”

“No.” Bethany grew a little sad, thinking about her longtime friend. She did miss Randy, even now, five years after their breakup.

Both Chrissie and Susan seemed deflated at the news of Bethany’s lost love.

“Would it be all right if we left now?” Chrissie asked abruptly.

“That’s fine,” Bethany told them. “Thanks for your help.”

The two disappeared so quickly all that was missing was the puff of smoke.

If nothing else, the girls certainly were entertaining, Bethany thought. She returned to the task of cutting large letters out of colored paper.

The sun blazed in through the classroom windows, and she tugged her shirt loose, unfastened the last few buttons and tied the ends at her midriff. Then she pulled her hair away from her face and used an elastic to secure it in a ponytail.

Half an hour later, most of the letters, all capitals, for the word September were pinned in an arch across the bulletin board at the back of the room.

She stood on a chair and had just pinned the third E when she felt someone’s presence behind her.

Twisting around, she saw Mitch standing in the open door.

“Hi,” she said cheerfully, undeniably pleased to see him. He was dressed in the khaki uniform worn by Department of the Interior staff. His face revealed none of his emotions, yet Bethany had the feeling he’d rather not be there.

“I’m looking for Chrissie.”

Bethany pinned the R in place and then stepped down from the chair. “Sorry, but as you can see she isn’t here.”

Mitch frowned. “Louise Gold told me this was where she’d be.”

Bethany remembered that Louise Gold was the woman who watched Chrissie while Mitch was at work. She’d briefly met her the day before. In addition to her other duties, Louise served on the school board.

“Chrissie was here earlier with Susan.”

“I hope they behaved themselves.”

Bethany recalled their probing questions and smiled to herself. Pushing back the chair, she said, “They were fine. I asked Chrissie for her help, remember?”

Mitch remained as far away from her as possible. Bethany suspected he’d rather track a cantankerous bear than stay in the same room with her. It was not a familiar feeling, or a pleasant one.

“She must be over at Susan’s, then,” he said.

“She didn’t say where she was headed.”

He lingered a moment. “I don’t want Chrissie to become a nuisance.”

“She isn’t, and neither is Susan. They’re both great kids, so don’t worry, okay?”

Still he hesitated. “They didn’t, by any chance, ask you a lot of personal questions, did they?”

“Uh…some.”

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and an expression of weariness crossed his face. He sighed. “I’ll look for Chrissie over at Susan’s. Thanks for your trouble.”

His gaze held hers. By the time he turned away, Bethany felt a little breathless. She was sure of one thing. If it was up to Mitch Harris, she would never have left San Francisco.

Well, that was unfortunate for Mitch. Because Bethany had come to Hard Luck with a plan, and she wasn’t leaving until it was accomplished.