A Fourth of July Proposal
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Kim Findlay
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CHAPTER ONE
NICE.
Nice nice nice nice nice.
Rachel Lowther had had nice up to her eyeteeth. The next time anyone mentioned how nice she was she was going to scream. Or swear. Or punch.
She stiffened when she heard someone enter the parsonage kitchen behind her. The church management team meeting was wrapping up, but Rachel didn’t want to talk to anyone. That was why she’d hidden herself in the dishwater.
A teacup was offered to her.
“You’re such a nice girl, Rachel. Now that Cupid’s Crossing is a Center for Romance, we’ll have to find you a nice boy!”
Rachel ground down on her teeth, hard enough to remove enamel, fists clenched to keep herself from doing any of those things she’d threatened as Mavis Grisham, who was about eight hundred years old and eighty pounds when soaking wet, patted her arm.
Cannot scream at Mavis. She gave me peppermints in church when I was a kid...
Rachel almost trembled from forcing the muscles of her face to smile as she grabbed the empty teacup from Mavis’s hands and placed it in the sink. Mavis shuffled her way out of the kitchen, having done her part to help out.
It was more than most of the committee members did.
Rachel was tempted to smash the cup. She could see it: the pink roses breaking into bits of china as the sound reverberated around the kitchen. Everyone would rush in to see what had happened as Rachel stood there, shaking with frustration.
Instead, she ran more soap and water as she considered just how wrong Mavis’s statement was. How did she count the ways?
Rachel wasn’t a girl. She was twenty-nine. That meant she’d be thirty on her next birthday.
Thirty!
And she might be nice, but she didn’t want to be.
Nice was dependable. Reliable. Nonthreatening. Noninteresting.
Nice was boring. And Rachel was so tired of being boring.
The town had recently changed its name from Carter’s Crossing to Cupid’s Crossing. Abigail Carter, who basically ran the town, had had to close the lumber mill. Now she was making the place into a Center for Romance, trying to keep the town economically viable. Rachel couldn’t complain about the name.
Even though she kind of wanted to mock it.
Her best friends had gotten engaged in the past few months, so apparently, Cupid was here.
But Cupid wasn’t interested in Rachel any more than any other man in town.
How long had it been since she’d been on a real date? The last one had been with Nelson Carter, local veterinarian and lifelong friend. They’d gone to a concert together, but driven in separate cars, and his grandmother had sat between them. They’d never been more than friends, backup dates for each other when they were in the lurch.
Not that she had her lurch date anymore. Nelson was engaged. To the event planner who was making this town into a Center for Romance. At least someone was finding love in Cupid’s Crossing.
Her friends Jaycee and Dave were getting married. They’d had their engagement party on Valentine’s Day, another Cupid’s Crossing romantic success story.
Not her. Nope.
Yes, she’d gone out on some dates. Real dates. But they’d been a long time ago and they’d been...nice. And boring. Even the kissing.
She was too nice to be a good kisser, apparently.
Rachel sighed in the now-empty kitchen. Her anger evaporated, and she sagged.
The best kiss Rachel had had in her life had been back in high school.
It was the most interesting event that had happened in her life, which was sad on so many levels she didn’t want to count anymore.
She’d been tutoring the baddest boy in school. And, of course, she’d had a crush on him. She was a walking cliché.
He’d kissed her, once. And that kiss had been so amazing that he’d never returned to tutoring. He’d dropped out of school, gotten into trouble and left town to sign up for the military.
For all that he’d had the failing grades, while Rachel had straight As, he’d been the smart one. He’d left Carter’s Crossing and found a life for himself.
Presumably. He’d never come back.
Rachel relaxed the hands that had come perilously close to crushing the pink roses on the teacup again. She drew a long breath.
“There you are, m’dear.” Rachel’s father, widower, minister and clueless as to how she really felt, patted her on the shoulder. His eyes were smiling behind his glasses. He ran his hand over his bald head and sighed happily. “Everyone’s finally gone. You’re such a help. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
Hands buried in soapy water, Rachel forced another smile. “It’s not a big deal.” Just part of being nice.
“I hope you don’t mind—I told Stanley you could represent us on this new committee.”
Rachel froze up, hands still wrapped around that stupid teacup.
“What committee?” She couldn’t make her voice sound happy. She was tired of being roped in to all-around drudgery. Tired of letting people do that to her. She already spent too much time taking care of Uncle Stanley.
“Now that things are underway with this Romance program, the town has a lot to do to get ready. You can represent the ecclesiastic and legal needs. Your uncle will help you with any legal issues, of course. Since you’re working for him, you’re already on top of most of those, and I can help you with anything related to the churches in town. It works out very well. Oh, here’s my cup.”
He set it on the counter beside her. He was proud of how helpful he was.
Rachel closed her eyes and counted to ten. Then twenty. She was at a hundred when she opened them again and by then her father was gone.
She placed the pink rosy teacup in the drying rack. She wiped off her hands on a tea towel. When she walked back into the living room, there were bits of paper and some hidden plates scattered around. None of the food was left over: she baked a mean cake.
No, she baked a nice cake.
She went through the motions of cleaning up, returning furniture to where it belonged, her father long gone to his study. He’d never think of offering further assistance. Her mother had always taken care of that, and Rachel had stepped into that role after she died.
When the cleanup was finally done, she headed upstairs. She’d slept in this same room her entire life. The same nice room.
Rachel sat on her nice bed.
And wrestled with some non-nice thoughts.
She needed to do something. And it would need to be big.
Despite what Mavis suggested, single men weren’t coming to the new Center of Romance.
The people coming to Cupid’s Crossing were couples. People already together, already in love or falling in love. People were coming for romantic weekends, to propose, to celebrate anniversaries.
Not to find nice girls.
No, if Rachel was going to find what she wanted from life, she needed to become less nice, less boring, and she was going to have to leave Cupid’s Crossing.
Sometime between washing the teacups and now, she’d made her decision. She was not going to stay here in Carter’s or Cupid’s Crossing. She wasn’t going to be nice. She was going to find a life for herself, instead of a life helping everyone else because she was nice.
Her father would be shocked. There would be fallout at the law office. But it was time to screw up some backbone before she found herself looking at sixty instead of thirty, still not having lived.
She paused as the thought settled in her mind.
She was going to have to leave.
It was a scary thought. She’d lived her whole life here. All her friends and family were here.
But if she didn’t leave, she was absolutely going to become the town spinster, helping everyone else, then going home to her cats.
She was going to become a cat lady. And she didn’t even like cats.
Her mind was grappling with those two conclusions. She had to become less boring, and she needed to leave.
That was a much bigger decision than anything the leadership team had come up with tonight.
MY NAME IS RYKER, and I’m an alcoholic.
It wasn’t the first time he’d said the words. Sure wouldn’t be the last. But they hadn’t felt this heavy since the first few times he’d forced the words out of his mouth.
Because this time he was back in his hometown. The place he’d escaped fourteen years ago. The place where he was the local screwup, the kid most likely to fail. That was what he’d been escaping from fourteen years ago.
But here he was, back in Carter’s Crossing. They’d been right, all those years ago.
The second A in AA was Anonymous, but in a town this size, there was no anonymity. He recognized most of the people sitting in the church basement with him. If they hadn’t placed him before, as soon as they heard his name, he’d seen the recognition on their faces.
Son of the town drunk, back and hitting up an AA meeting first thing. Last thing he’d done before leaving fourteen years ago was wrap a car around a tree while drunk.
Not much changed.
Ryker sat back and let the meeting do its work, focusing on what he had to do to get through the next day without drinking. One day at a time.
One of the familiar faces came to shake his hand after the meeting was over.
“Ryker. It’s nice to see you again.”
Ryker returned the handshake with a firm grip. “Mr. G.”
The name slipped back easily. Mr. G, or Mr. Gifford, had taught computer sciences at the local high school. It was one of the few classes Ryker didn’t skip.
Well, not as often as the others.
“Want to grab a coffee and catch up?” Mr. G was smiling at him, as if he was happy to see Ryker back.
If Ryker was honest, he’d have to say no, he didn’t want to catch up. But he hadn’t wanted to come back here to Carter’s Crossing in the first place. He couldn’t cut himself off, not if he was going to get through this without losing his sobriety. There was a lot he’d do to hang on to that two-years-sober pin.
He was going to accept help.
He nodded and followed his former teacher out of the church basement. He kept his head down, eyes on the ground in front of him. It was hard to be invisible when you were over six feet tall, wearing motorcycle leathers, but he’d do his best.
The diner was around the corner from the church. Same as it had been fourteen years ago. Walking in the door was like revisiting seventeen again.
Ryker didn’t want to be seventeen again. He didn’t want to revisit a youth he’d wasted. He was pretty sure his sponsor would tell him that meant he should.
Somehow, life had come down to doing all the things he didn’t want to. It had been easier in the air force. At least, at first.
He followed Mr. G into the diner, sliding into the seat opposite him in a booth at the back. He glanced around. It hadn’t changed from what he remembered. The vinyl was the same faded red, but since the seat wasn’t ripped, it must have been updated at some point. The pictures, the light fixtures, the counter and stools, all looked the same.
It even smelled the same.
A tired-looking woman brought them menus and a coffeepot.
“Hey, Brian.” She shot a curious look at Ryker. “Anything to eat?”
Mr. G, Brian, shook his head. “Just coffee, thanks.”
She set down the menus, flipped over the cups and filled them with practiced pours. Then she picked up the menus and walked away.
Mr. G and Ryker opened creamers and poured sugar into their cups. Ryker caught the smile on his teacher’s face before he shot another wary glance around the diner and focused his gaze down.
“I owe you an apology, Ryker.”
Ryker’s head shot up. “What?”
Mr. G sighed. “I wasn’t in a good place, back when you were in my classes. I’ve been sober for fourteen years now, but that’s not really a good excuse. I knew things were bad at home for you and your siblings, but I wasn’t paying attention.”
Ryker stared into the man’s eyes. They were serious.
“That wasn’t your job.” Ryker hadn’t expected help from the teachers at school. He hadn’t expected help from anyone.
Mr. G shook his head.
“This is a small town. Everyone knew what your dad was like. We should have done something—I should have done something.”
Ryker felt a lump in his throat. He wasn’t used to handling concern. Whatever he’d expected from this return to his roots, it hadn’t been this.
“I appreciate the thought, sir, but I’m not sure what anyone could have done.”
Mr. G grimaced. “I’m not sure, either, but it’s one of my many regrets. I wanted to get that off my chest. And to ask if there’s anything I can do to help now.”
For the past few years, since leaving the air force, Ryker had been living in a big city, a place where it was easy to be lost in the crowd. Not here, though. Everyone would soon know exactly why he was back.
Ryker didn’t want to ask for help. But trying to do everything on his own was what led him to needing AA. He’d had to ask for help then. And, with his sponsor miles away, he needed someone here and now.
Mr. G was offering, and he couldn’t afford to refuse.
“I went to the house. Thought I could stay there while I sorted things out. But I can’t.”
Mr. G didn’t have to ask what house, or what he was sorting out, or why he couldn’t stay there. The whole town would know that his father had fallen and been taken to a nursing home in an ambulance. They wouldn’t be shocked: he was the guy who’d been hurt operating machinery at the mill while drunk. He’d spent the rest of his life abusing Abigail Carter for firing him, his kids for being underfoot, and alcohol to deal with life. And now, Dad wasn’t going back to the family house. Not anymore.
The house was a flotsam of empty and full whiskey bottles, dirty dishes and garbage. He’d taken one step into the building and had to leave, immediately.
His father wasn’t taking his sobriety away from him.
“I booked a room at the motel in Oak Hill, but I need to find another place to stay.”
It was still hard to ask for help. But easier to ask someone from AA. They’d understand, in a way nonalcoholics couldn’t.
Mr. G had narrowed his eyes, an assessing look on his face.
“I might have a possibility. What exactly are your plans?”
Ryker took a long swallow of his coffee. His plans were fluid.
“Someone needs to get the house ready to sell. I’m the only one willing or able to do it. Not sure how long that will take, and I’m not sure what I’m doing after.”
Of his six siblings, he was the only one not in prison and also willing to return to Carter’s Crossing.
Mr. G nodded. “Are you good with your hands?”
Ryker stared at his fingers, wrapped around his coffee cup. His hands he was good with. It was always his brain that had been the problem.
He stretched the aforementioned hands out. “I can do some repairs. Not sure what all the place needs, but I hope it’s stuff I can handle.”
“Are you looking for work, too?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Depends on how long I’m here, how much the place needs.”
When he was drinking, he’d never had enough money. Now he mostly stayed in, and had some cash saved up. He also worked for himself, projects he could do anywhere he could plug his laptop into the internet.
He could do that here once he found a place to stay. Money wouldn’t be a problem, not for a while.
Mr. G tapped on his mug. “The mill closed down a few years ago, so those jobs are gone, but Abigail Carter has a new business she’s working on. There might be something for you, depending on what you can do.”
Ryker didn’t think Abigail Carter would want to hire him for much. Especially not the one thing he’d learned to do for himself.
“Computers.” Ryker was amused by the look of surprise on his former computer teacher’s face.
And then a smile. “You mean you learned something from my classes?”
“A bit. It was the most interesting class I had in school. I got to work on that while I was in the air force.”
“Hardware or software?”
“I know a bit about the hardware, but I mostly worked with programming.”
“I’m going to introduce you to Mariah. And then I’ll speak to Benny,” Mr. G said. “I think we can help each other out.”
RACHEL WAS THE first to arrive at the diner for the regular Tuesday night meeting with her friends Mariah and Jaycee. Which was normal. She wasn’t the one with a fiancé to distract her.
The three of them had started meeting like this in the winter when they were planning Jaycee and Dave’s engagement party. Jaycee had gone a little crazy over that party, but everything had worked out beautifully. Trust Mariah for that.
Since Tuesday nights were the guys’ nights to hang out at the Goat and Barley playing darts, the three of them kept meeting on Tuesdays. Mariah was a wedding and event planner who’d come to Carter’s Crossing last fall to set the town up as a romance center, and sometimes they’d talk about that. Mariah was a bottomless well when it came to ideas. Since the town mill had been closed, they were desperate for new revenue, and the Cupid’s Crossing idea showed a lot of promise.
Rachel and Jaycee had grown up in Carter’s Crossing together. So sometimes she and Jaycee amused Mariah by telling her stories of small-town life, especially if the stories embarrassed Nelson, Mariah’s fiancé. Nelson, Rachel’s former lurch date.
Rachel was taking her turn to talk to the two women tonight. She wanted to tell them about her need to leave.
They’d be surprised, but Mariah had come to Carter’s—no, Cupid’s Crossing from Richmond, Virginia, and had planned to move to New York City. She understood the allure of bigger places. Now that Mariah was engaged to Nelson, Rachel thought Mariah had changed her mind and was going to stay here, but Rachel wasn’t.
Maybe they could help her with her other plan to become less nice, less boring. They were both anything but boring. Jaycee had gone a bit overboard on the drama before the engagement party, and Mariah had grown up traveling the world on a sailboat.
Rachel had no intention of changing her basic self, but she needed to find new interests, new hobbies, new something. Jaycee had problems because her future mother-in-law didn’t like her. Rachel didn’t think anyone didn’t like her.
How bland must she be if she couldn’t offend anyone?
Her friends could help if she could convince them she meant it. Everyone thought they knew her, and then they overlooked her. They didn’t take her seriously. She was serious about this. Nervous, but serious.
Jaycee was the next to arrive. They hugged, and Jaycee pulled off her coat.
“Where’s Mariah? I’ve got news, and I’m going to need both of you.”
Rachel blinked, then sat down. Okay, her news could wait. She hadn’t made any kind of plan yet.
Their waitress brought over Jaycee’s coffee. Rachel had given their usual orders when she arrived.
“This is crazy. You know, sometimes life throws a curveball, just when you think you’ve got it all worked out. Crazy, right?”
Rachel nodded, but she didn’t know. Her life didn’t have curveballs. It didn’t have fastballs. It had soft lobs, and she missed those anyway.
The bell over the door tinkled as Mariah came in. Her cheeks were a little pink: Mariah had grown up in warm climates and still found the New York State weather cold.
“When does spring finally get here?” Mariah unwound her scarf. “Does this place ever warm up?”
Rachel grabbed Mariah’s coat as it slipped off her shoulders and folded it onto the empty chair.
“Stop complaining, girl. I have news!” Jaycee was bouncing in her seat.
Another cup of coffee arrived. Mariah poured cream in and took a sip. “Okay, what’s the big news?”
“I’m getting married!”
Rachel and Mariah exchanged a glance. Since Jaycee had received an engagement ring at Christmas and the town had hosted a party to celebrate her engagement on Valentine’s Day, this wasn’t really news.
Rachel had to wonder if Jaycee didn’t understand the definition of a curveball.
She grabbed Jaycee’s left hand. “Oooh, look, a ring!” she teased, showing it to Mariah.
Jaycee rolled her eyes. “No, I mean I’m getting married. This summer.”
“You’ve set a date?” Rachel’s mouth dropped open.
“That soon?” Mariah looked shocked.
Mariah had spent years as a wedding planner. Obviously, she was used to a longer time line for weddings. Yeah, it didn’t take forever to plan a wedding in Carter’s Crossing.
Jaycee nodded, and then shook her head, looking slightly confused.
“That soon, but we don’t have an exact date.”
“Explain!”
Jaycee took a breath. “Dave’s sister, Denise, is pregnant. With twins. She’s due this fall. His parents have decided to move to Florida to be near their grandbabies.”
Rachel didn’t ask why they weren’t staying here to wait for Dave and Jaycee’s future kids. Jaycee’s MIL-to-be wasn’t her biggest fan and had only stopped subtly putting Jaycee down when Dave threatened to cut her out of his life.
Jaycee sighed. “I know they’d talked about moving south, but I’m pretty sure Monster-in-Law will use this as an excuse to miss our wedding. And that will bother Dave. So we’re going to get married before they leave.
“That is, if you two can help. I know I’m asking a lot, but, Mariah, if anyone knows how to do this, it’s you. And you’re my best friend, Rach. I want you two to help me pull this off and to be my bridesmaids. Can you?”
The normally confident Jaycee had a worried look, one that only showed when she was dealing with Dave’s mother.
Rachel made a quick decision. She could wait to leave until after Jaycee’s wedding. She needed time to find a job and a place to stay. She could set the fall as her moving deadline.
She echoed Mariah’s “Absolutely.” She might be tired of being nice, but she would never be too self-absorbed to not be a good friend. And maybe she felt just a little relieved that she didn’t have to do anything yet.
RYKER PUT HIS FOOT down on the ground, letting the bike go silent. He looked at the two-story building.
Mr. G drove into the parking lot behind him.
Ryker lifted a leg over the bike to dismount, and then hauled the bike back on its kickstand. He pulled off his helmet and hung it on the bike handlebars.
Mr. G got out of his truck and came to stand by Ryker.
“This is it.”
The parking lot wasn’t large, maybe big enough for ten cars. The building was two stories, a work/business space on the main floor and possible housing overhead. It had signage over the door and front window. Gifford’s Repairs.
There was a garage to the side. One car was in the paved lot in front of the building. Ryker could remember, long ago, when the store had been a video rental outlet. Someone had tried to start a bakery after that. He had been caught shoplifting candy from it when it was a convenience store and he’d been a kid.
A hungry, troublemaking kid.
“My son, Benny, was in a car crash after you’d left.”
Ryker winced. It had been a miracle that he hadn’t hurt or killed someone when he’d crashed a car, drunk as a skunk.
Mr. G’s eyes widened. “This was bad weather, Ryker, not drink. Black ice. But Benny is in a wheelchair now. We helped him set this up so he’d have his own place. He’s always been good with his hands.
“There’s lots of things that need fixing, appliances, et cetera. Folks around here can’t afford to replace their stuff when it breaks. He’s been able to make his own living and has an apartment on the main floor along with the shop. All wheelchair accessible.
“Upstairs is empty. No one has been interested in renting it. It’s a place you could stay, if you want.
“Benny’s been trying to help people with computer problems, but that’s not his thing. I know a bit, but it’s all theory, and I’m retired now, and I’d like to not be working anymore. I thought maybe the two of you could work something out. You could help him with the computers people want fixed, and live upstairs.
“Don’t tell Benny, but I like the idea of someone being around. I worry.”
Ryker glanced at his former teacher. It wasn’t hard to see that he cared and worried about his son. Ryker remembered Benny as a troublemaker, not at Ryker’s level, but still his dad cared and worried about him.
Ryker had no idea what that was like.
Mr. G nodded at the door. “Wanna take a look?”
Ryker glanced up. There was a lot of space on the second floor—more than he’d need. This was on the bad side of town—everything this side of the train tracks to the mill had been the poorer, working-class section of Carter’s Crossing. This was where Ryker fit in. He didn’t need a lot of comfort or anything fancy.
It wasn’t far from his dad’s home. It would be cheap, and he could do some work on the side, make a bit of money. He wasn’t sure he’d be welcomed anywhere else in town.
He nodded and followed Mr. G into the shop.
RACHEL CHECKED THAT the coffeemaker was prepped for another pot of coffee. There were two carafes of the stuff already in the next room, but all the meetings at the church required a lot of coffee. People who were volunteering their time believed they were entitled to beverages in return. And cookies.
Taking care of the coffee and setting up wasn’t “officially” required of Rachel. But this meeting was in the hall of her dad’s church, so she had come to make sure everything was ready to go, just like she did for everything else that went on here. Tomorrow night she’d set up for AA and Al-Anon, which rotated among the local churches. Then Friday—was there another meeting Friday? They started to run together in her head.
At least, for this one event, it had been nice that Mariah had been here with her, helping get everything ready and thanking Rachel for her work. Mariah, at least, didn’t consider this to be Rachel’s default responsibility.
Mariah was obviously new in town.
With a quick glance, Rachel saw that it was five minutes after the hour so everyone should be here. She gave one last glare at the coffeemaker, since it was old and temperamental, and crossed the hall to the meeting room. Most of the seats were taken, and she didn’t need to look around to know who was there. Mariah gave her a nod and then stood up to get things started while Rachel slid to the back corner where she’d set out her own notepad.
A longtime veteran of meetings, she wanted to be at the back of the room, where no one would pay attention to her. She had a habit of doodling to pass the time and didn’t always want curious eyes watching what she drew.
Lately, her doodles had become less nice, which might have caused heart palpitations among longtime residents of Carter’s Crossing. Her brain had begun to generate caricatures of some of the more long-winded speakers being attacked by zombies. Or clowns. She ended up shredding a lot of notepaper, but it was a fair exchange for her sanity.
Mariah thanked everyone for coming.
“I appreciate that you’ve all given some of your time to help plan and execute the vision to make Cupid’s Crossing a Center for Romance. Our Valentine’s Day events were a success, because everyone in town pulled together to make them so.”
Mariah had a ring on the all-important finger of her left hand from one of those events, so she’d certainly rate them a success.
But to be fair, and Rachel usually was, Mariah had worked hard at planning all three events, and they’d been great.
Rachel scribbled out her doodle of a diamond ring and paid attention to Mariah again.
“We received excellent publicity. But now we need to build on that to make this town a destination people consider when they’re planning romantic events. We have the video and photos to show what we can do. We’ll soon have the first bed-and-breakfasts ready to go. The renovation of the mill is underway. I’ve drawn up a list of attractions and points of interest in the area and spoken to the people involved there.”
Rachel knew the places involved. She and Jaycee had helped Mariah create her list.
“We’re not totally up to speed, but we’re ready to bring in our first visitors. And to do so, we have to let the world know what we’ve got, and that we’re open for business. For that, we need an online presence.”
For most people in Carter’s Crossing, their only online presence was in the yellow pages. There was no website for Carter’s Crossing, and that had to change. Rachel knew Mariah had been speaking to people back in the city to work on a website for the town under the new name of Cupid’s Crossing.
“We’re very fortunate that I’ve found someone local to help with this, since the project is meant to promote local business. We have an excellent website developer in town, at least temporarily. Some of you may remember Ryker—”
Rachel’s head snapped up so quickly she almost heard it crack. She followed the turn of heads to see where everyone was staring and for the first time noticed the man in the opposite corner.
