Gail Martin - In His Eyes

She shivered, and Connor drew nearer, his arms rising, then lowering again as if he wanted to put them around her. “It’s too cold to be out here without a coat,” he said.

“It’ll only take a minute.” She hurried to the far side of the enclosure and pointed. “We want to begin the screened porch here.”

“Right.”

She handed him the end of the tape measure and backed up to the far wall. “Sixteen feet for the room’s length, then. I know it’s eleven and a half wide.” She drew in the tape as she returned to him. “What about this window over the sink? What did you decide?”

“You suggested leaving it as a window to pass food out for a picnic, and then you said you could block it with shelving on the inside.” He rubbed his temple as if the action would clear his memory. “I think that was it.”

“Which do you prefer? I like the opening.”

“Me, too, but what I’d really like is to get you inside.” He stepped behind her and grasped her arms, then shifted her around to face the doorway into the house. The heat from his nearness swept up her arms into her chest, and she felt his warm breath against her cheek.

Ellene longed to jerk from his grasp, but the feeling was too pleasant. Fighting her own longing, she eased away with her one-word reminder. “Business.”

Connor’s gaze lowered, and his smile faded. “It’s easy to forget.”

“Well, don’t, or you’ll have to find another contractor to handle this.” She winced. Once again, she could see her father’s face as he reprimanded her for not letting the past go and not handling the job like a professional.

Connor pushed open the outside door, and when they stepped in, Caitlin was sitting in the chair, staring at the computer.

Connor sucked in a gasp. “You didn’t touch anything, did you sweetheart?”

The child looked at him with a frown. “No.”

“Good,” he said, ignoring the look. He moved toward the fireplace and tossed a log onto the kindling, then struck a match.

Ellene watched mesmerized as the kindling burst into flames and licked upward toward the bark. The flicker lent a homey look to the large room.

When she turned, Caitlin scooted off the chair and let Ellene sit again to finish her work. She glanced at her watch. “I’m just about done.” She scrolled the document, then hit Save and closed the program.

The aroma from Connor’s dinner preparations blanketed her. This time her stomach gave a soft growl.

Caitlin tittered at the sound, then stepped back to let Ellene rise. “Are you going home?”

“I sure am. It’s late.”

Connor looked over his shoulder. “Why won’t you eat with us, Ellene? It’s almost ready. Goulash. Not gourmet but filling.”

“Eat with us,” Caitlin said, a whole different child than Ellene had met when she arrived.

“Sorry. I really must go.”

She closed the computer and snapped the lock, but as she reached for the handle, the side doorbell chimed. Before Connor answered it, the door swung open. An elderly woman in a navy pea jacket slipped inside, wearing boots that looked big enough to fit Connor. When she turned, Ellene recognized Connor’s aunt.

“Aunt Phyllis,” Connor said, stepping over to give her a hug. “Come in. You remember Ellene.”

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. “The mind isn’t what it used to be, but I could never forget Ellene.” She grasped Ellene’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “How are you dear? It’s so good to see you.”

“I’m fine, and nice to see you,” Ellene said, surprised at the woman’s warm greeting.

Aunt Phyllis dragged snow across the room as she sought Caitlin and pulled her into an embrace.

“You’re too cold,” Caitlin said drawing back.

“It’s colder than the Arctic out there, and it’s starting to snow heavily again.”

Connor shifted to the fireplace, tossing on a smaller branch, then poked at the wood, sending sparks skittering up the flue.

Snow. Ellene had seen enough snow the past year to keep her happy for many white Christmases. “Then I’d better—”

“Did you just drop by for a visit?” Connor’s aunt asked.

“Not really. My father owns Bordini Construction, and I’m working up an estimate for a renovation project.”

Connor gave her a disappointed look, and Ellene realized he hadn’t shared the information with his aunt.

“Sorry,” she mouthed, trying to block the view from Aunt Phyllis. “He’s just thinking about it,” Ellene added, hoping to smooth her faux pas.

“I wanted to surprise you, Aunt Phyllis, once I knew it was a go. I know how disappointed you get when—”

“God be praised,” the woman said. “I’d have my prayers answered if you were thinking of moving here, Connor. I don’t like being alone on the island when things happen.”

When things happen. The words sounded ominous, but Ellene wasn’t going to ask what things. Not knowing seemed the lesser of evils.

Aunt Phyllis pulled off her jacket and lapped it over the back of a chair. “Last year we were without electricity for nearly a week when the lines froze. It’s not uncommon here on the island.”

Connor sputtered a laugh. “Aunt Phyllis if you’re trying to encourage me to move to the island, that won’t help my enthusiasm.”

“Let the Lord be in charge, Connor.”

Ellene felt her brows lift, wondering what she meant.

Aunt Phyllis must have noticed her arched eyebrows and Connor’s gaping mouth. “Proverbs sixteen,” she said. “A man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Ellene hid her grin as she watched Connor sort through the words. Her gaze shifted to the blaze dancing in the fireplace while glowing embers sprinkled from the grate onto the hearth.

“You can plan all you want, Connor,” his aunt said, “but if the good Lord wants you living on the island, that’s where you’ll be.”

Connor scooted past her and whispered in Ellene’s ear as he headed for the stove. “If the good Lord or Aunt Phyllis wants it. That’s why I was keeping mum…until I was positive.”

“Sorry, Ellene said. But she couldn’t help but grin, hearing the woman putting Connor in his place. “I suppose I’d better—”

“Something smells good.” Phyllis turned toward the stove and leaned around Connor’s back to look into the pan. “Goulash. I haven’t had that in a long time.”

“You’re welcome to join us.”

“I wouldn’t be in the way?” She looked at Ellene as if asking her.

“You’re not in the way,” Connor said. “You’re always welcome to eat with us when we’re here.”

“I wasn’t worried about you,” Phyllis said. “I was asking Ellene.”

Ellene pressed her hand against her chest. “Me?”

Phyllis nodded. “You’re the guest here.”

“But I’m leaving. I was just getting my things together.”

Phyllis tilted her head to the side, a wry look on her face. “Leaving?”

“I’m heading home,” Ellene said again.

Phyllis broke into a chuckle. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m not?”

“That’s what I came over to tell you. The ice is jammed tighter than a jar of pickles. You’re not getting off this island tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow from what I hear.”

Connor watched Ellene’s expression droop. “It happens in winter, Ellene.”

“It happens? You mean you live here with all these unexpected events—no ferry service, no electricity, no… I can’t imagine wanting—”

“It’s an adventure,” Connor said, trying to stop her before Caitlin joined in the cry of not wanting to live on the island, either.

“You call this an adventure?” Ellene asked.

Connor drew Caitlin closer to his side. “We like adventures, don’t we? We’ve had times we just climbed into the car and drove off. No destination. Just looking for adventure. Then we’d end up—”

“At the cider mill,” Caitlin said, “and one time the fair. I like surprises.”

Ellene’s eyelids lowered as if she realized what she’d almost done. “Surprises are fun,” she said, as if finally understanding Connor’s concern. “But I really need to get home. That’s not the surprise I was hoping for. Isn’t there something they do to keep the ice from freezing at the ferry landing?”

Connor realized she was trying to sound upbeat, but he saw the look in her eyes. “Of course, they try, but nature is nature.”

“They must do something?”

Aunt Phyllis chuckled. “The coast guard brings in the Bramble to see what she can do.”

“Coast guard?” Ellene gave a fleeting look toward Connor, then turned her attention to Aunt Phyllis. “What’s the Bramble?”

“The coast guard cutter,” Connor said.

She looked befuddled. “Are you kidding?”

“No. The Bramble breaks up the ice, but once the thaw begins they have a big job keeping the ice from packing against the shoreline. The ice jam not only halts the ferry service, but it stops the freighters’ access through the channel into the lake.”

“They can’t expect people to be stranded here forever.”

Aunt Phyllis moved closer and patted Ellene’s shoulder. “Not forever, dear. Only heaven is forever. It lasts a few hours or a few days.” She gave Ellene’s shoulder another pat. “Sometimes two or three weeks at the most.”

Ellene’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”

“No, she’s not,” Connor said. “If it lasts too long, the coast guard flies in emergency helicopters to give those in need access to the mainland for food or illness. We couldn’t live on the island without the coast guard.”

Ellene lifted her computer case from the table. “I need to get home, so I’ll have to take my chances, I guess. I’ll drive down there and wait.”

Aunt Phyllis shook her head. “It could be a long wait. Why not wait here? Connor can call the ferry and check.”

“Thanks, but I’d rather see for myself.”

Pulling her cheek away from a chair back where she’d been listening, Caitlin rose and moved closer. “We could play games.”

Ellene faced her with a sympathetic grin. “I’d love to play games, but not tonight.”

Caitlin’s expectant look fell. She plopped into a chair and lowered her head as if she’d been personally rejected.

Connor opened his mouth to say more, but he gave up. Ellene had always been one of the most obstinate women he’d ever met. Today was proof. “If it’s hopeless, come back, will you?”

She slipped her arms into her jacket, flipped her dark hair over the collar and buttoned it. “I have confidence in the coast guard.”

His shoulders sagged with her ridiculous comment. Stubborn. Stubborn. Stubborn. “Fine. Let me know when you have some plans ready, okay?”

“Sure,” she said, grasping her laptop handle. “So nice to see you, Aunt Phyllis,” she said, giving the woman a hug. “And Caitlin, I really enjoyed meeting you.”

Caitlin lifted her gaze and shrugged her shoulder.

“I’ll be in touch,” she said, turning the doorknob and stepping outside.

The cold wind whipped through the open door, then vanished as she closed it.

Connor stared at the door a moment, waiting for it to reopen and Ellene to come back, but she didn’t. When he turned around, his aunt Phyllis was shaking her head.

“Bullheaded, isn’t she?

Connor couldn’t help but smile. “She has her moments, but she’s a wonderful woman on good days.”

“Why wouldn’t she stay, Daddy?” Caitlin whined from her slouched pose on the chair, her arms folded across her chest.