Waiting on the Rain by Claudia Connor

11

“Sorry for staring,” Blake said to the waitress.

Ava could hear the smile and fun in his voice.

“I just had an eye transplant, so I’m seeing everything for the first time.”

He told almost everyone they met. She got it. Of course it was exciting. Of course he was staring at everything new. Oh, my God, Ava, you should see the skyline tonight. You should see the river. I wish you could see…

Didn’t matter what. It was everything.

It had made her smile at first. Eight months later it was getting… tiresome. And more and more Blake sounded agitated when she didn’t respond with the same level of awe.

You just can’t understand how beautiful it is, he’d say, giving up his description. It’s not at all like I’d pictured. The people, the buildings.

And on and on it went. He wanted to go to movies and art galleries and she was more than happy to go. But he almost seemed disappointed in her somehow.

“Oh, wow,” the waitress exclaimed. She had a young sultry kind of voice that Ava imagined went with an attractive face. “That’s amazing. Then you’ve got someone else’s eyes?”

“Well, they’re mine now,” he said, and Ava suddenly hated the waitress because she knew Blake and she knew he struggled with that aspect of the surgery. The fact that the only reason he could see was because someone else had died.

“You have really interesting hair,” Blake went on, not sounding bothered by the waitress’s comment at all. From there her husband and the amazed waitress with the interesting hair talked on and Blake’s tone gradually changed from innocent to something else.

Twisting in the sheets, Ava came awake in her childhood bed. A dream. But a very real one. She checked the time on her phone. Too early to get up so she turned over, wiling herself to go back to sleep. It wasn’t happening.

She replayed that scene with Blake again. And the part before the waitress had come over. When Blake had quietly admonished her for touching her steak. “Babe. Don’t.” It was something they always did, a double check to make sure they didn’t fork up something they’d want to spit in their napkin.

That’s why it was so easy to be with Blake. But not anymore. Now she was an embarrassment.

She tried to go to sleep, but the scene with Luke in the barn came to mind. She wouldn’t have minded kissing Luke. Lord he’d smelled good and she hadn’t forgotten those shoulders from their dance the reception. It was funny really, a funny miscommunication. Unfortunate she couldn’t work up a laugh.

* * *

First on Luke’slist for the day, after coffee, was to walk the wooded route that Hannah was thinking to use as the campers’ path to and from the barn and the cabins. He wanted to get a feel for the distance and the terrain. He’d come back with an odometer later. After he bought one.

He made his way through the wooded area, bypassing the back pastures. It didn’t add much distance if any and it was shaded which would be important in the summer. To the left and up the hill was Hannah’s house and to the right and down a little way was the front of the barn. If she decided on this route, it’d save some work since they’d be using a portion of Hannah’s gravel drive. But then maybe having kids anywhere near a road used by cars wasn’t a good idea.

Maybe he’d just go tell Hannah what he thought now. And if he happened to score some breakfast, that’d be a bonus. He made the left turn that would take him up the shaded gravel drive. Tall pines interspersed with dogwood and maple lined either side keeping it in perpetual shade.

He climbed the porch steps, rapped his hand on the door once then walked in. And was nearly blinded.

“Shit!” His hand flew up to cover his face but not fast enough to save him from seeing his sister straddling the kitchen chair her husband was currently sitting in.

“Jeez,” Hannah said. “Knock much?”

“I did knock! And I’m leaving now.” With his hand still firmly over his eyes, he turned to find his way back out the way he’d come, had a flash of Ava trying to find her way, and heard his sister laughing behind him.

“Oh, good grief. It’s not like we’re naked.”

“Well, we almost were,” Stephen grumbled.

Luke heard a chair scrape on the floor and lowered his hand to take a peek. His brother-in-law was leaning back against the counter, scowling, a mug of coffee in his hand.

“Sorry,” Hannah said, walking to the sink. “We’ve both told you you’re welcome anytime. And you are.”

“Any time is a stretch.”

Hannah shot her husband a look. “Want coffee?” Hannah offered, walking over and giving her husband a hip bump out of the way.

“It’s the least you could do.”

“What brings you by unannounced and uninvited?” Stephen asked.

“Behave yourself,” Hannah said, and handed Luke a mug.

“I don’t even remember. I’m wiping out the last ten minutes. My eyes are burned.”

Hannah rolled her eyes and laid pieces of bacon in a pan. “You do know how you got your nephew right?”

For the first time he noticed his nephew sitting in a high chair poking in Cheerios. “You sure you should be doing that in front of the kid?”

Hannah smiled and took a swig of coffee. “You take the moments when you can. You’ll understand one day.”

“Bite your tongue,” Luke told her.

“You two watch the bacon while I get myself dressed.” She pressed a kiss to her husband’s lips and left the men to tend to breakfast.

They stood a few seconds not speaking. Stephen at the counter flipping the sizzling bacon. Him sipping his coffee. Mitchell eating Cheerios like it was the last food on earth. It reminded him he’d wanted breakfast. “Put in a few extra pieces, will ya?”

Stephen grumbled about him being a mooch but did it.

“Hey, I’m the one doing all the building that I was supposed to be helping you with.”

“True. And I appreciate it. Things have gotten busy at work. I’m closing on houses as fast as Matt can flip them.”

“Toast?” Luke asked, as he dropped in a piece for himself.

“Sure. Hannah mentioned she interrupted something the other day.” He turned, with what was his standard grin. “Between you and one of her riders?”

He’d been half trying to forget it and half trying to figure out what to do about it. “What did she think she was interrupting?”

“She didn’t know but she also said Ava—that’s her name right? — Well that she didn’t look happy and you looked like you’d just been kicked in the teeth. Not her exact words.”

“Excuse me!” Hannah came in, narrowed her eyes at her husband. “I told you that in confidence.”

Stephen lifted a shoulder. “Just making conversation, babe. Being friendly.”

“Right.”

Now it was Luke’s turn to grin. He picked up an egg from a black wire basket on the counter and held it out. “Blue eggs? What kind of chickens lay blue eggs?”

“Different kinds that lay brown or white eggs, I suppose,” Hannah said and strode to the counter, topped off her coffee. “I got them from a lady who sells them at a little farmer’s market stand. Her property actually backs up to ours.”

“Huh.” Luke turned it in his hand and put it back.

“I told her about the camp and all. She didn’t seem too happy about it.”

Luke opened a drawer for a butter knife, found spatulas and whisked and moved on to another. “Maybe she’s old, doesn’t like kids.”

“No, not old. But I did get that feeling on the kids. Whatever. I’m still hoping to work out something with her for fresh fruit and vegetables for camp.” Hannah opened a drawer, handed her brother a knife. “Have you remembered what you came here for?”

“It’s coming back to me. I walked the route from the cabins to the barn, taking a cut through the woods.”

“Okay. What’d you think?”

“I think it had possibilities. And I won’t know for sure until I get an exact measurement, but I don’t think it’ll be that much more expensive. It’d give nice side cover in the summer, add some natural walk interest.”

“I love that.”

Luke grabbed his toast and went to the fridge for butter. “I need to walk it with an odometer.”

“I can get my hands on that,” Stephen said. “I’ll drop it by later today.”

“That works. As soon as I know I can work up some materials prices for you.”

“You know,” Hannah said. “Speaking of prices, I got a generous check in the mail from the man who donated Newman.”

Luke took a swallow of coffee. “Nice.”

“It was. And interestingly enough, that check came wrapped in a sheet of paper with a note.” Hannah eyed him over the rim of her mug and he didn’t miss the gleam in her eye.

After taking a long slow drink of her coffee, she turned, opened a drawer and pulled out a sheet of pale pink paper. She held it up to read.

“For Luke— in swirly handwriting. And there’s a phone number.” She sniffed the paper, clearly enjoying herself then held it out to him. “You know if her father and I hadn’t been there, I think she might have jumped you right in the barn. She was cute.”

“Cute my ass. More like a tiger and she looked at me like I was a piece of meat.” He looked at the paper and thought of the horse donor’s daughter. She looked to be in her twenties, sharply dressed in a white blouse tucked into tight, dark jeans and little brown boots with mile high heels. She was a looker for sure and no doubt she knew it.

“Not interested?” Hannah asked. “Wouldn’t hurt you to go out on a date.”

“No, thanks. Not my type.”

“Oh? What is your type? Could it be blonde? Blue eyed, maybe?”

“I’m leaving now. I don’t know why I even help you.”

He strode to the door, taking his toast and bacon with him. And possibly a grin on his face.