The Soldier's Sweetheart. Deb Kastner
What he could do was pull his weight around here. He could shoulder some of the burden the grocery created. And he could get the B&B cabins into working condition and help the elder Howells realize their dreams.
“I’ll get moved into the cabin tonight, and then I’m ready to start work first thing in the morning,” he told Samantha.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Tomorrow? Tomorrow is Sunday.”
“Right,” he agreed. “So?”
“So...the grocery isn’t open on Sundays.”
“Not at all?”
“Nope. The whole town rolls up at about six o’clock every night and all day on Sundays. You won’t find much of anything open around here during the evenings and half of the weekend. Serendipity is an old-fashioned town with old-fashioned ways.”
Will whistled through his teeth. “What do people do if they forget an ingredient for Sunday dinner?”
Samantha laughed. “Borrow from their neighbors or make do with what they have on hand. You’ll get used to it after a while.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Will muttered under his breath. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with, now he was living in a town that not only looked like a throwback to the late 1800s but acted like it, as well.
“You’re welcome to come to church with us tomorrow morning,” Samantha offered. “It’s a community congregation. You’ll have the opportunity to meet a lot of the townspeople.”
“No thanks,” he said abruptly, and then realized how bad that sounded. These people had been gracious to him. He cleared his throat. “That is to say, I’m not really much of a churchgoing man. I appreciate the offer, though.”
Samantha looked stunned and a little wounded, which surprised him.
“I’ll be meeting most of the town folks here at the grocery, won’t I?” he asked, in what he hoped was a more positive tone of voice.
“Certainly. Of course. You can meet people here at the store.” Samantha smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
He hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, but surely he wasn’t the only man in town who didn’t believe in a feel-good deity who handed out free favors, or worse yet, an angry God who zapped people with bolts of lightning when He didn’t like what they were doing.
If he was going to believe in one of those, it would surely be the latter. His life hadn’t been graced with many favors.
But then again, if there was a God who punished people for their sins, he would have been deep-fried a long time ago.
Somehow, he thought there was probably more to Samantha’s request to join them at church tomorrow than just meeting folks from town. But now that he’d turned her down, he would never know.
Chapter Two
Sunday was Samantha’s only real day off. As she’d informed Will, Sam’s Grocery, like every other shop in town, was closed on Sundays. After she spent the morning playing the organ for the church and sharing a nice family dinner with her parents, Sunday afternoon was her time to kick back and relax, maybe read a romance novel or watch some television.
But today was a sunny day, and Samantha decided she didn’t want to stay indoors. Problems were plaguing her and she desperately needed some fresh air to clear her head.
Her first inclination was to go find her friends. She was certain that Mary and Alexis had plenty to say about Will. They’d probably already started making plans for landing him a wife here in Serendipity, possibly even tossing a coin as to which one of them would have the honor.
But Samantha didn’t really want to talk about Will. She didn’t even want to think about him, though unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to get him out of her head. She was still mildly resentful of the fact that he’d had been thrust into her life with no notice.
Still, thinking about Will was preferable to thinking about her other issue—the letter from Stay-n-Shop. She still had no idea how she was going to handle that matter.
She sighed. One problem at a time.
Since Will was on her mind anyway, maybe she could do something nice for him and Genevieve. Take them to the park, maybe?
She raised her head and smiled, making a conscious decision to put her fears aside for the day and concentrate on her faith. This was Sunday, after all.
Despite her reservations about her new employee, she didn’t have a heart of stone, and the guy had his plate full trying to take care of his little girl on his own. She had the impression he was determined to do his best despite the reticence she thought she sensed in him.
And Genevieve—the poor sweetheart, losing her mother at such a tender young age. Samantha had had a wonderful childhood with two parents who loved her and each other, and paternal grandparents who’d been married, well, forever, until her grandmother had passed away at age seventy-five last year. She couldn’t imagine what losing a mother must feel like—especially for a four-year-old.
Samantha didn’t know the specifics of how Genevieve’s mother had died, but she knew enough to know that the little girl was both frightened and confused by her new surroundings, and by suddenly having to live with a father she hardly knew.
Yesterday at the shop, Genevieve hadn’t smiled—not even when she was enticed with candy. Not even when her father picked her up in his arms. She’d barely spoken more than a word, though Samantha had encouraged her every way she knew how.
Did the child have some disability, or had recent circumstances and emotional issues just caused her to hide in her shell? She supposed only time would tell.
It didn’t help that Will wasn’t sure of himself as a father. Despite how strong he appeared upon first observation, she’d glimpsed the buck-in-the-headlights look when his eyes alighted on his daughter. That he loved her was evident. That he wasn’t sure what to do with her was equally evident. Samantha didn’t think he was as hopeless as he believed himself to be, but again, only time would tell on that count.
God had laid a lot on her plate in the past day. Will was here to stay, and somehow, she had to find a way to integrate him into her daily life. Like that was going to be easy. There was plenty of work to be done, and in truth Samantha was intrigued by the idea of having help, but not from the large, handsome ex-soldier.
She suspected he would be more of a hindrance than a help. Really, how could he not be? His size alone would be a hindrance—he’d be bumping into things all over the place. Besides, the store could only be described as slow and steady and the work was repetitive, with little beyond the daily routine to break up the monotony. He’d be bored one day into the job, and in her experience, bored men meant trouble.
Like her brother, for example, who couldn’t keep an inventory straight to save his life, not because he couldn’t count, but because he got sidetracked by every pretty girl who entered the store.
She sighed and reminded herself again that this was not a day for problems. She didn’t have the slightest idea what she was going to do with Will, but at least she had some idea of what to do with his daughter.
She walked up to the cottage door where Will and Genevieve were staying and paused a moment to collect herself. It wouldn’t do for Will to see that she was still struggling with her own feelings of frustration and resentment. Those were her issues, not his.
She knew that God would want her to be generous and charitable—but knowing the truth and feeling it were two different things entirely. Sometimes a woman just had to live by faith and wait for her heart to catch up to her.
She took a deep breath and knocked.
No one answered, so after a moment, she knocked again, harder this time.
“Hello,”