14. Ward
14
Ward
W ard couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such a great Saturday. Or such a great day, period. His father had insisted on taking any repair calls that came in, so Ward had turned off his ringer for the first time in months.
He and Penny spent more than an hour out on the water, returning to shore wet and windblown, but almost euphoric. Had he known the woman had yearned for years to ride on a jet ski, he might have tried making amends with the offer of a ride, instead of buying her a cup of coffee, one that she still didn’t know was from him. One day, he might tell her.
Penny had opted not to learn to drive the thing herself. “I just want to relax and enjoy this,” she told him. “I don’t want to be responsible in any way for what goes on out on the water, other than keeping myself from falling off.”
He’d been happy to oblige her, and he’d gotten a jolt of endorphins every time she let out an exhilarated shriek from behind him. He didn’t even mind when she let them out a little too close to his ears; he knew the day would come when the thrill of the first ride would wear off, and he wanted her to remember this day, to remember that she’d experienced this with him.
He wanted her to remember him, no matter what the future held for them.
As he walked her up the path to the guesthouse, Ward started second-guessing himself. She’d already told him that she had a few things to do that afternoon, and the way she’d said it made it seem like they were things she wanted to do on her own. Did that mean she was ready for the day to end, altogether, though?
There was only one way to find out; he had to ask.
“So.” Penny spoke before he did. She unlocked the front door but didn’t open it. Instead, she turned around and leaned against it so she could look up at him. “I know I said I was busy this afternoon, and I am.” She said it like she was trying to convince both of them that it was true. “But I was wondering if you’d like to come over for supper again tonight.” She lifted her shoulders, reminding him of a little turtle on the verge of tucking her head inside her shell. “Of course, your parents are welcome to join us, too.”
Ward nudged the tip of her shoe with his own. “Would you be upset if it was only me?”
“No.” She was blushing. He could tell, even though her cheeks already glowed from the sun and wind. “If they can’t come, that’s fine. It’s short notice. Again. I seem to do that to you a lot, don’t I?”
“Well, what’s on the menu?” he asked, teasing her the way he had last time, too.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you decide to bring, Big Man. Maybe this Little Lady here is too tired to cook.”
“Oh, I see how it is.” Ward crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. “How about this? What if neither of us cooks? I could take you out to dinner somewhere.”
Penny stiffened ever so slightly, but it was enough for him to notice. “Um, I don’t know,” she began. There went those shoulders again.
“You can say no, Penny. Remember?” He dipped his head so he could look her in the eye. “I don’t want to do something that’s going to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“Right. Of course. I—I know that.” Once again, she sounded like she didn’t quite believe the words coming out of her mouth. “I’m kind of a homebody, Ward. I like people well enough, but this whole thing that I do each summer? It’s…” She broke off and pursed her lips as if worried he might not understand. Finally, she said, “This is my Psalm 23 time. It’s about being by still waters.” She gestured one arm in a wide circle. “About restoring my soul. My spirit. Does that make sense?”
Ward was nodding before she asked. “And Saturday night out on the town—even one the size of Autumn Lake—doesn’t quite fit the bill, does it?”
Penny let out a short, dry laugh. “Even the size of Autumn Lake.”
Ward thought there might be a little more to it than that, but he didn’t want to press her for details that she might not be ready to share with him. “I understand. Really, I do. So here’s another option, one I think will work for both of us. What if I pick us up pizza? I’ll make sure to bring plenty for Hazel, too, even if she doesn’t show until later.”
Penny’s delighted smile made his pulse pick up, and he stepped back, almost like he’d been pushed. Gently, of course, but pushed, nonetheless. He lifted a hand to his chest and pressed the heel of his palm over his heart. When he saw her watching the gesture, he acted like there was something on his shirt, and he swept his hand over his shoulder, his fingers brushing against his sleeve. He hoped she hadn’t seen right through the ruse.
“I can’t think of anything better,” Penny declared. “Although, I am going to go inside right now and make myself a piece of toast with tomato jam. Would you—would you like some, too?” She reached for the doorknob.
But Ward could tell the invitation hadn’t come easy, so he put out a hand to stay her. “I’m wet. I’m going to head home, shower, and change my clothes, then I need to make a few phone calls.” He grimaced reflexively. Just saying the words out loud was like summoning a dark cloud. But his conversation with Johnny the night before had revealed to him that in his prolonged absence, he’d let more than just his relationship with Rochelle get sidelined. He knew if he didn’t take the bull by the horns and draw some lines in the sand, there was a possibility that he might be looking at a mutiny of sorts. From what he could tell, Blue Waters seemed to be operating just fine without him, and Johnny's casual goodbye had made it sound like Ward's delayed return wasn't a concern at all. “You go and enjoy your tomato jam sandwich. I’ll tell Mom you’re a fan. Maybe she’ll throw another jar in with your bride price. You know, along with the lemonade from last night.”
“The lemonade!” Penny exclaimed, reaching out to rest a hand on his forearm. “I totally forgot about that. We’ll have it with our pizza tonight, okay?”
“Works for me.”
When he climbed back on the jet ski, Ward paused, a little off balance, before he realized that he missed the feel of her on the seat behind him, the pressure of her arms around his waist, the length of her body against his back. “Go home, man. Take a cold shower,” he muttered, then started up the engine and swung the craft wide as he motored across the inlet to his own dock.
Inside the house, his mother was resting, and he found his father working on a jigsaw puzzle in front of the television. The thousand-piece barnyard scene was almost complete. “Hey, Dad. What are you watching?”
“Oh, you know. One of those Hallmark movies your mom loves so much.” He glanced up at Ward with an unabashed expression, then over at the television just as the attractive woman on the screen sat down on a park bench and began to weep quietly. Ted pointed at her. “The man she’s falling for left on tour with his band, and she just saw a picture on some social media site of him with his arms around another girl.”
“Really? Doesn’t sound like someone worth crying over,” Ward said, trying not to crack a smile. His dad was kinda into it, from what he could tell.
“Oh, it’s all a misunderstanding. It always is. The girl in the picture is going to turn out to be his cousin, or maybe his long-lost sister. But she won’t believe him because she’s been hurt before by a boyfriend who cheated on her, or her dad cheated on her mom, and then the hero will have to do some grand gesture to convince her that he loves her. He’s a musician, so he’ll probably find some public setting and play the song her wrote for her in front of all the people who are important to her.” He cocked his head and studied the scene playing out. “In fact, see that little bandstand in the park behind her? I’ll bet it happens right there. Probably during a strawberry festival or a summer music festival, or something like that.”
Ward’s brows rose; he couldn’t help it. “Huh. Are you sure you’re not watching this because you like it, too? Not just Mom?”
“Oh, I love these movies. I’m not ashamed to say so, either. They’re predictable, sure, but they’re comfortable that way. I always know that things are going to be okay, even when things feel hopeless.” He paused, cleared his throat, and said, “Your mother and I started watching them together last year while she was sick.”
Ward nodded, a band of emotion squeezing his chest.
“You should watch one with me,” his father suggested. “They’re all about people making mistakes and then fixing those mistakes. I learn a lot from them, Ward. Particularly about women.”
“Hopefully, one woman in particular,” Ward teased, flipping the words around.
His father picked up a puzzle piece and held it out to Ward. “Here. Find where this goes.”
Ward stepped closer to take it. It was a corner piece, and there was only one still missing. “You’re giving me the hard ones,” he said with a curious smile. Was his father trying to make a point?
“It’s not the piece that’s easy or hard. It’s finding where it goes that can be tough. But when you stop focusing on just the individual pieces and look at the bigger picture, it’s a whole lot easier to see where things fit. And where they don’t,” he added.
Well. If there wasn’t a deeper meaning in that, Ward would eat his shirt. But was his father referring to Ward’s situation or his own?
Ted waited until Ward had pressed the piece into its spot before he spoke again. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned above all else from these shows, it’s that people need to communicate better.” He chuckled and patted his heart. “But that’s the condition of the human heart, isn’t it? If we’re not acting out of love, we’re acting out of fear. Fear that we’re not good enough to be loved. Fear that we’re not ‘the one’ in another person’s life.” He made air quotes around the words, ‘the one’. “Fear of rejection. Of embarrassment. Of being found out.”
“You learned all of that from the Hallmark Channel, Dad?” Ward teased, trying to lighten the mood. Things were getting heavy, and Ward wasn’t sure he wanted to go there right now.
“You may mock me, son, but let me tell you something. No man—or woman, for that matter—should ever stop learning about love. I’ll take the Hallmark Channel over laser guns and torpedoes, any day.”
“Even over football?” Ward asked, frowning in feigned shock.
Ted chuckled. “That’s a tossup, I admit.” He pointed at the empty chair across the card table from him. Mom must have been helping him with the puzzle earlier. “Sit. Enjoy the life lesson with me. Or we can turn it off, and you can tell me how your time with that lovely Miss Penny went today.”
Ward shook his head. “Sorry, Dad. I’m soaked through. Besides, I’ve got a phone call or two to make back ho—” He broke off, the word ‘home’ catching on the way out. “To California,” he amended, grimacing over the unsettled sensation in his gut that had started up last night when he couldn’t reach Rochelle. He needed to deal with whatever was going on with the woman. He didn’t like that she continued to be a presence at Blue Waters, even while he was away. Especially while he was away. It wasn’t sitting well with him, and now with the afternoon free ahead of him, he couldn’t just let it go unaddressed.
His father studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Sounds like a plan. We’re having chili for supper tonight. Making it an earlier night so we can be up in plenty of time for church in the morning.”
Ted left the statement there, but Ward heard the unasked question. Will you be joining us? He also knew his father was asking about both supper and church.
“Don’t wait dinner for me. I’m having pizza with Penny… and Hazel over there tonight.” Why he’d added Hazel’s name like that, he couldn’t quite understand. Maybe it was because of the way his father’s face lit up when he said Penny’s name. Ward didn’t quite understand that, either. Why would his parents—or Hazel, for that matter—be so keen on him dating Penny? They all knew that he no longer called Autumn Lake home. And Penny never had.
Maybe that was why it bothered him so much. His parents knew he wasn’t planning to stay. They knew he had his own life somewhere else. They knew he had a business that he’d built from the ground up, something he was immensely proud of. And yet, they all acted like it was expendable. Hazel included. Even his friends here in town, now that he thought about it. They all seemed to think he could just walk away from it all, move on back home to the lake, and pick up where his good old dad left off.
At least Lysha Austin had offered him a real job with a real future.
“It’ll probably be a late night, too, so don’t count on me for church in the morning, either.” It was the most brutal thing he could think of to say in that moment. His words hit their mark, too, as his father’s shoulders drooped, almost like he’d gotten a puncture wound and all the air was slowly leaking out.
He worried the back of his neck, wishing he could take the flippant words back. Not just because of the effect they’d had on his father, either. If he knew Hazel, and he did, she’d be at church sitting only a few rows behind his parents. If he knew Penny, and he thought he was starting to, she’d be sitting right next to Hazel.
And he’d be home alone with his principles, stewing in regret.
T he pizza place was packed when Ward pushed his way inside to place his order. He hadn’t bothered calling it in, not on a Saturday night. He’d be lucky if they even picked up the phone during the dinner hour.
“Yo, Ward!” Alex sat against the wall near the pool tables, watching a match being played by a couple of guys Ward had seen around town. He didn’t remember their names, but then again, other than trips back for the holidays, he’d been gone for more than a decade. Just because he was local by birth didn’t mean he knew everyone in Autumn Lake. Not anymore.
Ward hesitated for just a moment, then added a drink to his order and headed over to join Alex while he waited for his pizza.
“What’s up?” Alex said, lifting his bottle to clink it against Ward’s glass of tea.
“Picking up an order to go.”
“Oh yeah? Heard you spent some time out on the lake with that shiny Penny today. Pizza for two?” Alex wiggled his brows at him, then took another long pull off his bottle. Ward was relieved to see that it was an off-brand soda and not alcohol.
“For three,” he corrected, even though as far as he knew, Hazel wasn’t home yet. He hadn’t seen her big old boat parked behind the house when he drove by on his way here. But he felt compelled to protect Penny, or maybe to protect himself, from the hazards of small town gossip, and by keeping Hazel in the mix, folks would have less fodder to chew on. “Six, if you count Hazel’s dogs,” he added, trying to make light of his defensive tone.
“Dude. You should see your face. You’ve been hit, man.” Alex set his bottle aside and leaned forward over the small table, resting his weight on his forearms. “So what’s keeping you from going for it with Miss Penny?”
“Going for it?” Ward scoffed, evading the real question his friend was asking. “How old are we, again, Alex?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter, bro. You gonna have yourself a summer romance, or what?” Alex amended with a capricious grin. “I saw the way you two were eyeing each other. Maybe she’ll give you a reason to come back to the lake more often.”
“You, too?” Ward asked dryly. “I’m not here for romance, okay? I’m here to help my parents, and then I’m going home. Back to California,” he clarified, more for his benefit, it seemed, than for Alex’s. Why was it starting to feel this way calling California home? He’d been here too long.
“I know, I know. You keep saying so.” Alex held up his hands as if to deflect Ward’s response. “Hey, I’m heading up a crew for Founder’s Day. You in? I’m in charge of putting together the stage on the boardwalk.”
Every October, Autumn Lake held its annual Founder’s Day Festival, and although preparation for the event didn’t start in earnest until September, Labor Day essentially kicked off the holiday spirit that would carry the town through until after the New Year. The Labor Day celebration was a bit like a teaser to the Founder’s Day parade, but the townies never turned down an opportunity to gather as a community.
“When do you start the build?” Ward was certain he’d be back in California long before Founder’s Day, but he’d be happy to pitch in on the prep while he was in town.
“We start pulling stuff out of storage the weekend after Labor Day. Once everything’s on sight, it usually goes up pretty quickly if we have enough hands on deck. Usually takes us about two weeks.”
The stage was set up every year at the beach end of the boardwalk. Although several of the downtown streets were blocked off with vendors and food trucks, the stage stayed busy all day with school plays, variety shows, cutest baby competitions, and more. The Founder’s Day celebration culminated on the beach with live music on stage and fireworks out over the lake.
“If I’m still here, you can count on me.”
Alex nodded confidently. “You’ll be here, dude.”