A Big Life in a Small Town (Bellingwood #2) (15 page)

"Do you
want
something to do?"

"That's not it. It just feels strange."

"I promise. If I need you, I'll let you know."

"Thanks." Polly dropped the card on her desk and looked out the front window of her office. Jimmy and Sam were installing the ramp today and had gotten an early start. Henry's truck wasn't in the lot, but she saw Andy pulling in. Polly turned to head back to her desk, but stopped when she saw Lydia Merritt's familiar blue Jeep park beside Andy and both Lydia and Beryl got out. She smiled as she watched the three women greet each other with quick hugs and walk toward the building. They stopped for a moment to chat with the boys building the ramp, then waved at Polly through the inside window after they walked in through the front door. She went out to meet them.

"What are you all doing here this morning?" she asked.

"They thought I spent too much time alone so they made me come do something productive," Beryl grumped. "And at this hideous hour of the morning." She sighed an immense, dramatic sigh and with a waver in her voice, said, "No one understands the needs of a poor artist." She lifted the back of her hand to the brow of her forehead as she spoke the last two words.

"Oh, stop it," Lydia chided. "If you were still in the middle of a project, I would have left you alone, but you said you were finished with the set for the Cedar Rapids gallery." Lydia pushed her lower lip out and said, "And I missed you. So there."

Beryl's whole body laughed as she hugged her friend. "I missed you too." She looked at Polly. "What's up today?"

"I have no idea. No one tells me anything," she said.

"Well, we heard you had muffins and coffee with Dr. Hottie. Do you still have muffins upstairs?" Beryl gave Polly a little push in the shoulders.

"How in the world did you hear that?" Polly asked, then sighed, "Come on up. The apartment is very clean and there are muffins and coffee. He didn't drink any of that. He doesn't like it."

She started up the steps and Beryl said, "We stopped by his office this morning with my Miss Kitty before coming here. She's getting her teeth cleaned and it's better if she and I don't see each other for twenty-four hours when that happens."

Lydia interjected, "Marnie was on the phone with him when we got there. She thought it was cute."

Polly shook her head and opened the door to her apartment. "There is nothing secret in this town, is there!"

"Not if we can help it," Lydia said. "It keeps everyone in line. So stay in line, okay?"

Polly pried the lid off the container of muffins and set it in the middle of the dining room table. She pulled four mugs out of the cupboard and began handing them to Lydia, followed by plates and forks and napkins.

"Do I need to warm them up?" she asked.

Andy felt the bottom of the container and said, "I think they're still pretty warm. They'll be fine and they smell wonderful!"

"You had Mr. Hottie all to yourself this morning? How'd that go?" Beryl asked.

"Well ..." Polly began.

"It must have gone well; she can't even start the sentence," Beryl interrupted and put a muffin on her plate before passing the container around.

"He was only here for a few minutes to check Leia and Obiwan. He had to get to someone's farm. I asked him to stay, but he was in a hurry." Polly rushed through the information.

Lydia smiled. "Did he ask you for a date?"

"Not really," Polly said.

"What do you mean, not really?" Andy's brow wrinkled. "What is not really a date?"

"He invited himself here for dinner tonight and said he was going to teach me how to dance."

Beryl sat back in her chair, "Wow! That boy is on it! I'm impressed! What are you making for dinner?"

Polly slumped forward at the table, "Stuffed Chicken Marsala."

"Of course you are! You little wild woman. You're trying to impress him."

"Well, it's a great recipe and I already have the chicken and wine."

"I suppose you're going to make a chocolate cake and homemade ice cream, too."

"Well, maybe the chocolate cake, but I already have good ice cream in the freezer."

"You're becoming quite the celebrity with the boys around town. First it's dead bodies and now you're going to start consuming all the single young men."

"Stop it!" Polly's voice rose in pitch and decibel level and she was sure the look on her face was one of pure shock.

Lydia patted her arm. "It's fine, Polly. Beryl didn't mean anything. She's just jealous because it seems like you are taking her place as the town's most desired single woman."

"I'm not jealous at all. Those boys are much too young for me. They don't have nearly the experience I expect in a man. So, Polly, you get them all trained up and when they become a little more suave and debonair, I'll step in and take over. Will that work?"

"I'm speechless," Polly announced. "Would you like more coffee?"

The three women laughed at her. "We'll change the subject, but you must know we're all going to be here again tomorrow morning for details."

"Great," Polly lamented. "Sylvie will be here all day tomorrow as well. I might as well invite you to come to dinner tonight."

"We'd love to! Thanks!" Beryl said. "I'll bring the wine. Lydia, why don't you bring the ..."

"Hush," Lydia said. "We're changing the subject." She turned to Polly, "Don't you think Henry is going to be a little jealous when you start dating Mark Ogden?"

"Thanks for the change of subject," Polly said. "But, maybe I need to clear a few things up. First ..." and she lifted her index finger. "This is not a date. He's going to show me how to dance so I don't make a fool of myself. I also owe him dinner for coming over to check out my animals."

"No. Stop!" she said as she watched Beryl about to take a breath. "Second ..." and two fingers went up on her right hand. "Henry and I are not in a relationship ..."

Beryl muttered, "Whatever."

"I said stop," Polly said, glaring at the woman, who chose to affect a dramatic, apologetic face. "Third, if Henry is going to be jealous at this point in our ..." she paused, "non-relationship, he's going to have a tough time ahead. I don't do well with people boxing me in and there's probably no one in Bellingwood who knows that better than Henry. He and I have a great time doing things together, but remember: we're not in a relationship."

Polly flashed a look at Beryl, who held up her hands in defense. "Fine," Beryl said, "You're not in a relationship and this is not a date." She picked up her coffee. "
And this is caffeine free?"

"No, it's the real thing," Polly laughed and managed to snort at the same time.

"Do you have any more thoughts on the mystery of Madeline Black's note?" she asked.

Lydia sighed and pursed her lips. "No. Laurence has managed to swoop in and kick everyone out of the house. He says he's going to lock it up and deal with it later. Amy flies back to California today with her family. She said she would keep in touch, though. I just hope there's not someone out there who is in trouble because we don't know about them."

"Leave it to you Lydia. You have to take care of someone, even if they don't exist. Maybe the old lady was talking about her dead husband's false teeth. Did you find those in the house?" Beryl laughed.

"No false teeth," Lydia said and rolled her eyes. "My intuition is trying to tell me something, but I don't know what yet." She looked over her glasses at Beryl, "And don't you start with me."

"Wow," Beryl declared. "I come out of my studio only to be told off by my friends. It's rough out here!"

"Another muffin?" Polly asked.

"Thank you, I will," Beryl said and passed the container around again. Andy passed it on without taking another and so did Lydia. "Well, I'll be. You two must not be planning to work as hard as I am today. All of this sweet stuff will be taken care of with a few trips around that auditorium downstairs. Shall we go get busy?"

They nodded and Beryl took a napkin to wrap around her muffin. As everyone headed down the steps, Lydia held back and said to Polly, "Just be sure of what you are doing with your heart, Poll
y. I'd hate for you to break it."

"I'm fine, Lydia. This is not a date. He's adorable and I think I'll enjoy the evening, but that's all it is, okay?"

"Okay. Please take care of yourself."

Oven on warm – check. Table set - check. Wine - check. Dessert - check. Polly ran into the bathroom to look at her hair and makeup. She fluffed her hair at the top of her head one more time, ran her tongue across her lips to moisten them, then rubbed her palms down the sides of her pants in order to dry them off. She was not going to be nervous about this.

She had tried on three different blouses. One was a pretty color, but what in the heck had she been thinking when she bought a blouse with ruffles around the buttons. That wasn't her style at all. She stuck it in the back of her closet. The second blouse was also attractive, but the shoulders didn’t fit her well. If she was going to dance with someone tonight, she wanted plenty of freedom to move around. Especially if she sent them both to the floor when she tripped him. Polly had finally settled on a hot pink blouse with a low neck and small ties bringing it together at the neck. She did a couple of squats to make sure her jeans were as comfortable as she thought they were and everything seemed fine. She lit a candle for ambience and turned out the overhead light in the bathroom.

Polly found the cats sleeping together in between the pillows at the top of her bed. Just about the time she was ready to go to bed, they found a million reasons to be up and playing, but now they were sound asleep. She was fine with that.

One more check of the time. Six twenty-five. Would he be late or early or right on time? She went out into the living room and glanced at Obiwan. They'd spent thirty minutes walking this evening while the chicken baked. He was curled into a ball at the end of the sofa, watching her with one eye as she paced around the room. Another glance at the food in the oven. Yep, it was still fine. Polly opened the fridge. Everything was still in the same place it had been when she put it there.

Then, Obiwan's ears perked up and he looked at the door.

"Thank you," she said. "You're a better alarm system than anything I could install." She forced herself to stay in the kitchen. She didn’t want to startle Mark again by opening the door before he knocked. The doorbell softly chimed and she paced herself as she walked over and opened the door.

"Hi there," she said.

"Hi yourself." He handed her a bouquet of colorful daisies and a bottle of white wine, which she took from him as she stepped back to allow him to enter. Obiwan jumped off the sofa and dashed to say hello and Mark knelt down to rub his shoulders and neck.

Mark looked up at her. "He didn't let you know I was coming up the steps?"

She giggled. "He did. I didn't want to startle you again like I did this morning!"

He stood up and began to shrug out of his jacket. Polly's breath caught. The man was gorgeous. He was the type of boy she had idolized from afar in high school, knowing he would never be interested in her. He was the center for the basketball team, or the quarterback on the football team. He was comfortable with every teacher and all of the students. Elected prom king, homecoming king, winter ball king ... you name it. That was the guy standing in front of her in her apartment.

"Where can I put my coat?" he asked.

"Through there ..." she nodded toward the bedroom door. "The cats are on the bed, but there's a chair inside the door. I'll get these into a vase."

She knew it was silly, but she loved these crazy daisies. They were dyed all sorts of improbable colors and she loved nothing more than scattering vases of them around her apartment. It had been several weeks since her last splurge of color had died, and she was surprised he'd known to bring these. Maybe it was only a coincidence.

"Thank you for the flowers," she said. "These are my favorites. I love all the color!"

He smiled. "Good. They seemed like something you might enjoy. I hope you like chardonnay," he said, pointing at the wine.

"I do. I'm not a huge fan of red wine, and since we're having chicken tonight, this will be perfect." She slipped her bottle of wine back beside the refrigerator and dropped his into the bucket. It seemed like it was already a good temperature, so she grabbed a corkscrew and walked over to the table with it. "Would you like to do the honors?" she asked.

"Sure. My mama taught me a few things about wine." He took the corkscrew from her and set to work unwrapping the top.

"Are you ready to eat? I can serve any time."

"I'm here to spend an evening eating and dancing. You're in charge of the timing," he smiled and
there was a thwop as the cork was pulled from the bottle.

"You pour and I'll bring out the food."

Polly transferred the Chicken Marsala and wild rice into a serving dish and placed it on the table. A few more trips and a salad, carafe of iced water and a basket of beautiful rye and white rolls were on the table. She pulled a hot baking dish of cheesy asparagus out of the oven and set it on a trivet between them, looked the table over, scrutinized it for color and decided it was fine. The salad was filled with red tomatoes and colorful peppers, carrots and shades of green. Yes, she was happy with it.

"This looks great, Polly. Do you cook like this all the time?" he asked as he held her seat for her when she was finally ready to sit down. Mark sat at the end of the table, where she had put the other place setting.

"I enjoy cooking, but I probably don't as often as I should. I'm a sucker for a frozen pizza or a bologna sandwich if I'm all by myself."

"I love bologna, tomatoes, mayonnaise and potato chips in my sandwich," he laughed.

"I do too!" she said. "My mother taught me to put potato chips in sandwiches to make them more fun. Wow, that's a memory I'd lost."

He held his glass of wine up and said, "To old and new memories. May they fill our lives with laughter."

She tilted her glass into his and said, "Cheers."

"Oh!" he said, "I should have said something when I walked in, but Obiwan distracted me. Is there any reason you have someone watching your place?"

Polly set her glass down with a thud, "What?"

"Like your guest or an employee or anything? Maybe it’s nothing and they're gone by now."

"Where? What?" Polly tried to breathe. "What?"

"There was a car sitting over in the swimming pool parking lot with a couple of people sitting in it. Maybe they were trying to get their bearings, but they're not from around here."

Polly got up and started to run over to the kitchen window, then thought better of it and walked quietly. She turned the water on nonchalantly and glanced out the window across the parking lot and the road. There was a car in the lot for the swimming pool, but she didn't see any exhaust coming out of it. The evening was cold and whoever was in that car had to be freezing without the car running.

"You're sure there is someone in that car?" she asked.

Mark joined her at the window. "Pretty sure. I suppose I could have ... No, I'm sure."

"And you don't recognize the vehicle from town? It's not a couple looking for a place to go parking?"

"On a county highway? In town? Sheesh, Polly, I thought you grew up around here," he laughed.

"I didn't mean that!" she protested, then said, "Okay, I probably did mean that."

"Come on, let's eat dinner and have a nice evening. If they're still there when I leave tonight, we'll call someone to check on them. How about that?"

"You're right. It's probably nothing. And I did make dinner." She laughed and said, “Thanks for telling me so I can be aware and thanks for telling me not to worry so I can enjoy the evening."

They went back to the table and sat down to eat.

"Okay," Polly said as she poured dressing on her salad. "Tell me how in the world a veterinarian is also a dancer. Where in the world did that come from?"

"It's not that strange, is it?" he laughed.

"It's maybe a little odd," she said.

"My mom was a dancer. She loved dancing and when I was a kid, she started teaching in an Arthur Murray Dance studio in Minneapolis. Then, she and Dad decided that it would be good for them if they bought the studio. He was an accountant and managed the business while she did what she loved.

"She had five boys and we all learned how to dance and we all ended up teaching dance classes at her studio. My sister has more classical training and danced some in Chicago, but when she met her husband and decided to have children, she realized that her passion was also teaching.

"In fact, she moved to Bellingwood after I settled here and opened the studio downtown. It's nice having her around. I get to spend time with great kids and leave them with her when I go home."

"Then, what brought you to Bellingwood?" Polly asked.

"I came down to Iowa State for vet school and spent time here interning. Doc Blades was pretty close to retirement and I spent a couple of years with him after graduation. Dad helped me set up the business plan and I bought the practice. Ralph was pretty much done last spring and I think he and Freida left for Arizona in their camper in November and may never return."

"Marnie says you've brought on another vet?"

"Seth Jackson. Yeah. He interned with me and had gotten a job in Waterloo. He was tired of living in the city."

Mark laughed and said, "He's good with animals and he gets it about living in a small town. I think he grew up down in southeast Iowa somewhere. I couldn't believe he thought Waterloo was a big city, though."

Polly nodded. "At least he figured it out pretty quickly. It took me fourteen years to realize I missed the small town and rural life."

"I didn't know anything about small towns until college, but I soon realized how much I loved the quiet."

"That had to be strange for you, coming from the city."

"My family certainly enjoys living in the city. Mom loved taking us to everything she could. Dad bought two season tickets to the symphony, opera and ballet every year and she would dress one of us up and make us go with her. When Lisa showed an interest in ballet, they just bought a third ticket so she could attend everything."

Polly smiled, "That sounds nice."

"I suppose it was. But, do you know how difficult it was to be cool and want to be a basketball player when your mom was only interested in taking you to the ballet?"

"What about your Dad?"

"He was so smitten with that woman, she talked him into anything. My oldest brother, Jack, though, played football in high school and when I started playing basketball, he sat Mom down and told her that she had to start going to my games. He made sure she knew she couldn't expect us to all follow in her footsteps."

"Did you play basketball in college?"

"I sure did! In fact, I got a partial scholarship to play."

"Do any of your brothers still dance?"

"Robbie is still in Minneapolis. He likes helping Mom out at the studio, and teaches with her every week."

"Does he work for her?"

"I suppose she pays him, she always did. It was nice to make extra money, but no, he's a portrait and wedding photographer."

"What about your other brothers?"

"Jack lives in Rochester. He is in IT at the Mayo Clinics. Evan lives up in Duluth. He writes for the News Tribune and Devin, who is his twin, lives in Austin. He and his wife, Ellen, own an interior design firm."

"You all have very diverse occupations!" Polly said.

"I suppose. We were lucky. Mom and Dad told us to pursue our dreams. We watched Dad completely support Mom in hers and knew that if we went after something, it could be real."

"And you all dance," she commented.

"We all dance," he agreed.

"Does your Dad dance, too?"

"He's actually pretty good, but he and Mom have been dancing since they met. He had to have learned a few things over the years."

"Did they ever compete?"

Mark laughed out loud. "We all competed at some point. She wrangled him into a citywide ballroom dance competition one year. I'd never seen him as miserable as he was during that period of time. He kept telling her that the reason he was an accountant was so that he could sit in a room and add up small numbers, not glide across a dance floor in front of judges. He did it because he adored her, but she realized that it nearly killed him. After that, Robbie or Jack danced with her."