Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
LUKE
Was it possible to actually die of mortification? If so, I was enjoying my final moments, because holy shoot. In my whole life, I’d never felt as awkward and back-footed as I did with Webb Sunday.
I was used to being the person who took care of things—of my mom, of myself. I was used to being the authority figure in a room full of kids. But when Webb was in the vicinity, I seemed to morph into a bumbling fool, and I had only my own stupid, inconvenient attraction to blame.
“No, Mom! Of course not. I just… fell in a snowbank and got wet. Wow, you would not believe this weather we are having here—”
My mother would not be distracted. “You weren’t doing anything dangerous, were you?”
“Me? Dangerous? Pfft.” I forced a laugh and shot a hard glance at Webb, a warning to keep his mouth shut. “Webb and I were just… playing in the snow.”
He lifted an eyebrow, and I blushed even harder than I’d already been blushing.
“Awww. That’s so sweet! Thank you so much for taking care of my boy, Webb,” she called. “You and your family have been so kind to adopt my Lukey!”
“Adopt?” Webb repeated in a voice too low for her to hear.
Mother trucker. I couldn’t make myself look at Webb. “Mom, please—”
“Hush, Lukey, let me talk to Webb. I worry, you know, Webb?” she said breathlessly.
“It’s so wonderful that he won his beautiful house and all that land, but I worried that he might not be happy.
Luke’s always been shy except, as I’m sure you can imagine, when he’s around kids—” She sucked in an unsteady breath.
“Mom, seriously. Webb gets it. You don’t need to—”
“What I’m trying to say,” she continued doggedly, “is that as soon as Luke explained to me that your family would be right next door, helping him whenever he needed it, it set my mind at ease. It really…” She broke off in a coughing spasm. “It really has.”
“Mom,” I cut in desperately. “Where’s Aunt Sue? Is it time for one of your breathing treatments?”
“Sue’s out for groceries, but I’m fine for now. Promise. I’m better and stronger every day, now that I don’t have to worry about you, sweetheart.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed and forced myself to give Webb a pleading look, begging him to go along with my lie. “Mom, I—”
“Honey, just show me around your fairy-tale castle. You know I won’t judge if it’s not perfect! I fully expect that you’ve got dishes all over your sink and hideous wallpaper in the downstairs powder room.”
“Actually, I, ah—”
“I know how you are, Sunshine,” she said firmly. “You have no secrets from your mama.”
“No, ma’am,” I whispered miserably. “It’s just that—”
“It’s just that we’re at my, uh… my camper,” Webb blurted, snagging the phone back from my hand. “Sorry, Ms. Williams. I’ve been letting Luke use my camper as, you know, a… a workshop. For doing his… crochet?”
I scowled. Who ever heard of a crochet camper?
Webb widened his eyes significantly. Like you had a better idea?
“Ohhhhh, of course! Good Lord, Lukey, why didn’t you say so?” she chided. “And here I am, rattling on like a ninny—”
“Not at all,” Webb assured her. “You sound like a mother who loves her son very much. And it’s pretty clear he loves you, too.”
Over Webb’s shoulder, I saw my mom beam. “You were right about him, Luke!” she croaked. “Webb Sunday is really the sweetest man—”
Aaaaand that was the moment when I melted right into a puddle of embarrassment, right there on the floor of the trailer. The End.
“I don’t know if I said that, precisely,” I protested… utterly unconvincingly, since that had been exactly what I’d said.
My mom ignored me. “Webb, honey, tell me—are you single?”
Would you look at that? Turned out I wasn’t dead, because the universe had more mortification in store for me. Yay.
“Uh. Yes? I have a son, Aiden, who’s in Luke’s class—”
“Oh, that’s right! The one with the drawings who’s such a brilliant scientist. Did he ever lose his other front tooth? I know he was worried about it.”
Webb gave me a look I didn’t know how to interpret. “Yeah,” he said softly. “A couple weeks back.”
“Good, good.” She lowered her voice. “Aiden’s Luke’s favorite student, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Oookay.” I snatched the phone back. “That’s enough of that. You know I don’t have favorites,” I said reprovingly. Not officially anyway.
She grinned, unrepentant, and a wave of homesickness crashed over me. Gosh, it was good to see her grin. And with so much color in her cheeks.
“You’re looking really good. Aunt Sue taking good care of you?”
“Of course. You look wonderful, too, sweetheart. Maybe a little tired, though. Are you drinking enough?”
“Oh, plenty,” I assured her, and Webb snorted. I knew without a doubt he was thinking of Rusty Spikes.
“Lukey, you’re such a handsome boy, honey. With those freckles and those pretty eyes—”
“God, stop.” My cheeks were on fire, and I could tell by her mischievous smile that she knew exactly what she was doing.
She tucked her tongue into her cheek, and her eyes danced. “Tell him, Webb! Doesn’t he have the prettiest eyes?”
“Well, actually—”
“Don’t you dare answer,” I told him quickly. “Gotta go, Mom. I’ll call you again soon.”
She sighed. “Send me pictures of the sheep, or I’m gonna come up there and see them for myself. Love you, Lukey.”
I assured her that I loved her, too, before we hung up… though I couldn’t remember why at that moment.
“Wow.” I cleared my throat and set the phone on the counter. “That was intensely mortifying.”
“It’s sweet,” Webb corrected. “My mom died when I was seven, but I like to think she’d’ve been like yours. You love her a lot.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “Yeah.” My throat went tight. “I do.”
“And she’s… sick?”
“Her lungs, yeah. It was touch and go there for a minute. She’s doing better now, but I still worry.” I shrugged.
Webb nodded. He didn’t ask me why I’d lied about my situation up here. He didn’t assure me that she’d be fine or remind me to think positively. He just watched me silently. Patiently.
It was shockingly intimate, having someone study me that closely. And even though he wasn’t saying a word and hadn’t moved his behind from the bench seat the whole time he’d been in here, I couldn’t help but feel… surrounded by him.
It was wonderful. Terrifyingly wonderful.
“So, the fairy tale?”
“Right.” I dusted my hands on my sweatpants casually, trying to hide the way my heart was pounding. I sat on the bed while Webb leaned over to grab another spoon out of the dish drainer. He handed it to me along with the remainder of the ice cream.
“You want the long version of the fairy tale or the short?” I asked.
“The whole version.” He twisted in his seat to face me. “The real version.”
“Okay, then.” I cleared my throat and stabbed at the ice cream. “Once upon a time, an overworked, underpaid elementary school teacher’s mother encouraged him to enter an essay contest she’d found in the back of her fiber arts magazine—”
“Fiber arts magazine?”
“Yup.” I licked my spoon. “The Wool Gatherer Quarterly. I only ever read it for the articles, but my mom reads it cover to cover—”
His lips twitched. “You? Read the Wool Gatherer Quarterly?”
“Not only read, I sometimes create patterns for them,” I said, lifting my chin proudly. “Crochet, usually. I also knit, and spin, and weave… when I have a loom.”
“Ah. That’s cool.” He fingered the blanket again.
“I think so. It’s a creative outlet, and I get to enjoy the finished product. Teaching is awesome, but when you’re dealing with kids, there’s no immediate gratification—”
Webb nodded. “Like parenting.”
He ran his big hand over the soft blanket once more. It did funny things to my stomach, and I filled my mouth with a huge spoonful of ice cream so I wouldn’t be tempted to do something stupid, like beg him to touch me that way.
He is straight, Luke. And he’s not meant for you.
“Anyway, as I was saying. The ad said something like, ‘Craft a better life! What would you do with forty idyllic acres of rural, partially forested land, complete with enclosed pastures and an elegant farmhouse, nestled in the heart of New England? Tell us your fairy tale, and this castle could be yours in perpetuity!’”
“Sounds too good to be true.”
I laughed. “So many people told me that. But, I dunno. My mom was so excited, and I wanted to believe it could be real, so… I did it. I poured out the dream of my heart.”
“Which was…?” Webb prompted when I paused.
I took a deep breath. Was I really going to share this with him?
“To find a place with an accepting community and friendly neighbors, as well as enough land to build a fiber arts studio where people from all over the world could come to learn the skills my mom tried to teach me over the years. I wanted her love and legacy to live on, even if lung disease stole her from me.” I stared down at my hands. “Hokey, right?”
Webb stared at me for a long moment, then shook his head solemnly. “Not at all.”
For some reason, his acceptance hit me harder than his earlier judgment had. Hot tears pricked my eyes.
Webb levered himself off the bench, and a second later, he sat beside me so he could bump his shoulder with mine.
“I live my great-grandfathers’ legacy every day, remember? I work hard so I can pass that on to Aiden.”
I lifted my gaze to his. “Oh.” I hadn’t thought of it that way.
“You said your mom’s doing better?”
“Yeah. She had surgery and pretty intense pulmonary therapy, and it hasn’t been easy, but she’s a fighter.
And when she learned I won the contest, she lost her mind with excitement.
It was all gonna be a fairy tale, she said.
An adventure. And she wanted me to live it for both of us. So…” I shrugged.
Webb nodded again, and I thought maybe he understood.