A Love Worth Waiting For (Nearlake #1)

1

SADIE WOODS UNLOCKED the front door of her family’s antique store, Get and Gather, and stepped inside. The sound of the little bell attached to the top of the door rang through the quiet. The scent of oak, wood cleaner, and a hint of dust filled her nose. She took a deep breath in and smiled.

Her friends teased her that dust wasn’t exactly a desired scent for most people, but to Sadie it represented history and family. Hers, as well as the stories each item in the shop had to tell. Large chairs that had sat in front of family room fireplaces with a grandparent reading to a grandchild. Or a dining table that held countless tales of meals shared—laughter and love sinking into the wood over time. The antique store had been in her family for years, her grandparents owning and running it first, then her aunt, and now it was Sadie’s turn to operate it.

She’d lived in Nearlake , Idaho, all her life, and the store was her second home. Small-town life suited her, as did being a part of the store. Not everyone felt that way, like her mother who’d left when Sadie was young, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that her Aunt JoJo had taken her in, loved her, and raised her in the town they both called home.

She dropped her keys into the purse slung over her shoulder and ran a hand over the top of a dresser under the front window just inside the door. Made of mahogany, it was solid. Handmade. Dated back to the 930’s. In her opinion, the phrase “they just don’t make them like they used to” was accurate.

Although her job could be considered monotonous by some, it wasn’t to Sadie.

Each item had a history but also a future. One of her favorite parts of working in the store was seeing a customer’s eyes light up when they found what they were looking for, the smile on their face as they took a lamp or an old typewriter or picture frame home. It was as if Sadie was helping that item find its next place in history.

Fall décor graced the shop; pumpkins of all sizes were scattered around, along with corn stalks, scarecrows, and vases filled with fall foliage. Sadie had a smile on her face from October through January. How could she not? The red, orange, and yellow leaves on the trees, the air turning crisp and cool. Summer had its charms, but nothing could beat the fall. Contemplative by nature, Sadie also appreciated that it was a time of year to look back and see all the good that God had provided throughout the year.

She crossed her arms and leaned against the dresser, her smile fading. This year it seemed much harder to find the good, and she had looked, that was for sure. Aunt JoJo’s cancer had turned life upside down. Between running the store and taking care of her aunt, Sadie was exhausted.

Her mind drifted to the letter inside her purse and her heart sank. A few days ago, she’d received notice that the landlord was raising the rent. By a lot. She was praying about all of it, but her hope was fading. She hadn’t told Aunt JoJo anything. The last thing she needed right now was something that huge to worry about.

She moved away from the dresser and hitched her purse up higher on her shoulder. It wasn’t time to wallow in worries. She had a shop to run. Lots to do. And she could do it. She could .

Making her way to the small office in the back, her spirits lifted. Yes. She could do this. She could nurse her aunt back to health, keep the store running, and find a way to pay all the bills. Piece of cake.

Her sneakers squeaked on the polished wood floor as she stopped short, her heart pounding in her chest. Standing a few feet from the back door of the shop, she saw shards of glass on the ground.

Her eyes moved from the glass to the door. The top half of the door had once been a decorative piece of stained glass, but it looked as if someone had punched a hole dead center, the mosaic of colors now a mass of sharp and angry shards.

“What…?”

Fear, anger, anxiety all rushed through her system as tears threatened to form in Sadie’s eyes. She blinked them away.

Frozen where she stood her mind raced. She looked around. There didn’t seem to be any signs of disruption. The area near the back door was as clean as when she’d locked up and left last night.

Grabbing her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, she called the police. A woman answered after one ring and said they’d send someone immediately. She hung up then took a few photos on her phone of the door, the floor around it, and the surrounding area. She still hadn’t moved her feet. She’d read enough books and watched enough shows to know that touching anything or moving things was not a good idea.

It didn’t take long before she heard a car pull up in front of the store. The bell dinged and she turned to see the local Deputy Sheriff standing in the doorway.

Not just the Deputy Sheriff. James Larsen to be exact. The James Larsen. The one she’d gone to high school with. The one who was a football star, not just then, but through college and then the NFL. The guy she’d had a crush on all four years but her being the shy, nose-in-a-book-wallflower-with-glasses-whose-name-he-didn’t-know girl, they didn’t exactly hang out.

“Sadie? Are you okay?”

Okay. Well, he knew her name apparently.

“I’m fine. But the back door is smashed and I think someone broke in but I can’t really tell.”

“Are you hurt?” He closed the door behind him and moved toward her.

“No. I’m fine.”

“Good. You seem sort of…frozen in place though. You sure you’re okay?”

He stood beside her. His six-foot-four frame had taken up the doorway, and now towered over her, his blue eyes searching hers for answers. She blinked, thrown off balance by his presence and his cologne, which smelled like a mixture of pine and oak.

It didn’t matter that it had been over twenty years since high school, any time she’d seen James around town the shy girl she’d once been showed up. He still looked a lot like he had as a teenager, but now with a dusting of gray around his temples. His eyes didn’t sparkle quite like they used to, dimmed by grief, and bracketed by lines that said he carried pain. Sadie had heard about his wife’s death but didn’t know much.

“Sadie?”

Snap out of it, Woods.

She blinked. “Yes. Yes.” Turning her attention to the back door, she said, “I didn’t want to touch anything or move anything in case I compromised an investigation.”

When she turned back to him, holding up her phone to show him the photos she’d taken, she noticed his lips pressed together as if to suppress a smile, although one side of his mouth was lifted in what looked like a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just the way you said, ‘compromised an investigation.’ Sounds like you know what you’re talking about.”

With one hand still holding her phone out, the other now propped on her hip she said, “You’re making fun of me.”

Now he did smile. A full-on grin that did all kinds of crazy things to her insides. “No ma’am. I’m guessing you read a lot of mysteries or enjoy cop shows.”

“And what if I do?”

Not saying anything in return, he smiled down at her, his eyes twinkling in a way that gave her a glimpse of the boy she used to know, and it made her knees weak.

She shook her head. “I took photos in case they could be helpful.”

“Thank you. That is helpful.” He stepped past her toward the door. “Is it okay if I take a look around?”

“Of course.”

He looked at her standing in the same spot as when he’d arrived. “You can move now, Sadie. You won’t compromise anything.”

That quirk of his mouth happened again, causing part of her to want to stand there longer out of spite, but she decided against it. The desire to look around won out.

As he crouched near the broken glass by the back door, Sadie set her purse down and moved around the store taking more photos. She wanted to have them to go through later and get a better idea if anything had been damaged or stolen. Her emotions were playing tilt-a-whirl with her mind at the moment, the close proximity of James Larsen not helping.

With each click sound of the camera on her phone, her anger rose. Who would want to break into her shop? She couldn’t think of anyone that would want to hurt her personally and although Nearlake wasn’t a tiny village, it was small enough for people to pay attention, crime not being a particular problem.

James stood and walked through the shop, his eyes wandering over floors and surfaces. “Is the window the only thing broken? Are you aware of anything missing?”

He stopped and put his hands on his hips as he faced her. By the way his uniform stretched across his chest, it was clear he worked to keep up his football-player physique.

Sadie shook her head, if only to get her thoughts straight. “No. Nothing looks out of place or gone.”

James rubbed his chin with one hand and looked at the back door. “It’s odd that the window is broken but the door is still locked. No sign of someone reaching in to open it.”

Sadie frowned and walked to the back door. James joined her.

“I didn’t notice that,” she said as she looked closer at the knob. “I came in through the front, saw the broken glass and called you…well, the police, right away.”

“And then literally didn’t move until I got here.”

She looked at him. “You’re teasing me again.”

He shrugged and held up his thumb and forefinger with a small space between. “Just a little bit.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as she placed her hands on her hips.

He held up both hands in a sign of surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry. No more teasing.”

With a heavy sigh, she looked back at the broken window, her shoulders sagging as she dropped her hands to her sides. The cost of a new window was the last thing she needed right now. With medical bills stacking up, and the rent letter in her purse that haunted her thoughts, the weight of it all pulled her down a bit more each passing moment.

She was praying, she was trusting, she was doing all she could to stay positive, but more often than not, none of that felt like enough.

James put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tease so much. You were really smart to call right away and be careful not to touch or move anything.”

“It’s not that,” Sadie said with a shake of her head.

He moved his hand away, the warmth of his comfort gone, leaving Sadie to feel once again it was her against the world.

“What is it then?” His eyes searched her for answers, his attentiveness making her want to cry her eyes out while wrapped in his arms.

She blinked the image away and shifted her shoulders back, swallowing any emotions that might cause tears. Getting lost in the feelings of a high school crush was not what she needed right now. No, right now she needed to take a deep breath, which she did, and focus on the shop. And her aunt. And keeping her world in order.

“It’s nothing. Well, it’s this!” she said as she used both hands to gesture toward the back door. “It makes no sense and now I have to get this window repaired and it was one that Mr. Wall gave to my aunt as a gift specifically for the shop.

“Gary Wall from the cabinet and glass shop?” James asked.

“Yes. He makes stained glass and… ugh” Sadie’s shoulders dropped again. Gary was such a nice man. She hated having to tell him the beautiful window he’d made was destroyed. He’d also had a thing for her aunt for years, asking her out and never getting past a close friendship. When Sadie questioned JoJo about why she wouldn’t date the guy, her aunt would simply say that he was nice but not her type. Since JoJo had never married, Sadie wasn’t sure what kind of man was her aunt’s type, but she had to respect Gary’s persistence. And it must have been love because he never married, either, accepting friendship from JoJo as enough.

James put a hand on Sadie’s arm. “Hey. It’s all going to be okay. Let me talk to Gary. I can explain what happened and he’ll understand.”

“You would do that?”

“Absolutely. You focus on getting this covered as soon as possible.” He turned and looked around the shop. “If it’s okay, I want to look around some more but then I’ll help you get cleaned up so you can open the shop for the day.”

Sadie stared at him. “You don’t need to do all that. I’m sure you have more important things to do.”

He smiled at her. “Sadie, I want to help.”

She nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

After grabbing her purse, she went into the office. She plopped down in her desk chair and blew out a breath as she tossed her phone down on the desktop. Fumbling through her bag, she found the letter from her landlord and shoved it into the top desk drawer. Her aunt didn’t have the strength to come into the store anymore so keeping it there meant a better chance of JoJo not finding it and therefore worrying about it.

She stowed her purse in the bottom desk drawer then leaned her elbows on the desk, her head in her hands in a vain attempt to hold together the emotions and thoughts that now swirled through her mind. No stranger to life changing on a dime, Sadie had experience in adjusting quickly, but the past year had so many twists and turns she found herself praying she could park on the side of the road for a while.

“I just need to catch my breath, Lord,” she whispered.

The sound of the bell above the front door drew her from her thoughts. Her friend and employee, Moira, had arrived, the murmur of her voice mixing with James as he explained what had happened.

Sadie came out of the office to join them, and Moira raced to her, pulling her into a hug. “Are you okay? This is so awful. And so scary.”

“I’m fine, Moira. A little shaken, but I’m fine.”

Moira pulled back from the embrace and looked at Sadie. A close friend to JoJo and about the same age, Moira had worked at Get and Gather for years. “I’m so glad. The Deputy Sheriff was just telling me what happened.”

They turned to look at James who stood near the back door, broken glass by his feet.

“I’ll go get what we need to clean that up,” Moira offered.

Before Sadie could protest, Moira whisked by her to the storage closet where they kept cleaning supplies.

Sadie faced James, “Thank you again.”

“Of course.” He nodded then looked at the ground. “I think I found something that might explain what happened.”

“You did?” Sadie stepped toward him as he opened his hand to reveal a baseball.

“My guess is that some kids were playing in the alley and hit the ball through your window. That would explain why the door was still locked and nothing touched inside.”

Sadie stared at the ball in his hand. Relief flowed through her system that it wasn’t an attempted burglary, followed by irritation that the kids who had broken the window hadn’t owned up to their actions.

He put the ball in his jacket pocket. “Although it still isn’t fun to have to deal with the window, I think it’s safe to say no one is after your store or any of its contents.”

Sadie nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right. And I’m glad you found the ball.”

He looked at the ground covered in glass then back to Sadie. “I really am happy to help clean up.”

“No, no. Moira and I can handle it.”

“Okay. I’ll contact Gary about the window.” He moved through the store to the front door, Sadie following to walk him out. He turned as he opened the door, pulling a card out of his pocket. “That’s my cell number. You call me anytime if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” she managed as he walked out and went to his squad car.

“Looks like you have your own personal knight in shining armor.”

Moira’s voice behind Sadie made her jump.

“Moira!” She turned and shook her head. “I do not.”

Moira and Sadie looked out the front window to where James lifted a hand in a wave as he drove away.

“Whatever you say, Sadie girl, but by the gleam in that man’s eye when he looks at you, I beg to differ.”

Sadie chuckled and shook her head. She turned the Closed sign in the window to Open and went to help Moira finish cleaning.

Her To-Do list was a mile long and one thing that she absolutely could not fit on it was time to daydream about James Larsen. He was local law enforcement who came to help her, that was all. There was nothing between her and James and she had no reason to believe there ever could be.