“Hi, Lily. I’m going to walk around and check things out if that’s okay,” I said to Brett’s wife as I walked through the kitchen toward the back door.
“Sure thing, Colton. I’ll holler for you when dinner’s ready if you’re not back before then. Make sure to go to the farthest part of the yard. I know Brett is waiting for you. Just past the tree line.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Chisolm.” She shook her head at my response. I knew she hated when I called her by that name. That Mrs. Chisolm was her mother-in-law was always her response. But the manners remained.
I strode through the back door and onto the porch that filled the expanse of the back of the house. Last year, Brett had installed a fire pit in the center surrounded by built-in benches. It was a place for him and Lily to relax with their grandkids. He’d sent me the mock-ups in a text a year prior as a surprise for his wife.
Stepping off the deck, I crossed the large backyard. A new swing set sat in the same place as the older one that I remembered from a video call with them a few years ago. Seems they sprung for another gift for their grandchildren. Next, I expected they’d have a pool.
Brett and Lily were suckers for their grandkids.
If I ever had a family, I wished my kids would have relatives like those two. Instead, they would be stuck with me and whatever family their mother had. The closest thing I had beside the Chisolms, the foster mom that taught me hockey, had passed away when I was in high school at sixteen. I may not have lived with her any longer, but I tried to contact her as much as I was allowed.
Or I’d remain single the rest of my life, just like Nina had threatened. Apparently, my heart was as cold as the ice I skated on. Lily said differently when I retold them the story over the phone, but the mental and emotional damage had been done. I had a fairly hefty ego, but it was fragile just the same.
I continued my trek through the meticulously cut lawn, piles of leaves surrounding the parameter under the tree line. The smell of fall was in the air. Sometimes it just smelled like cold and wood. And the season was approaching fast.
Finally, I came to the part of Brett’s lawn that Lily had mentioned. Beyond the farthest corner, about twenty yards through the forest, there was an opening where an old pond sat. I knew it wasn’t forgotten as a brand-new deck jutted out into the water with a tackle box and fishing pole resting on the slats.
“Figured you’d make it out here soon,” Brett’s deep voice called out from my right. He sat on a bench with a beer in his hand and a cooler at his feet.
It was colder in this part of his property, most of the treetops shading the land below, and the sun rarely shone through. But enough of the lingering day lit up the water on the pond.
“She made it no secret that I would enjoy this area.” It surprised me he had never mentioned the quiet spot before.
“I just had her restocked, too. For your visit.”
I shuffled over to the bench to sit by my friend and the closest thing I had to a father figure. The denim of my pants felt cool against my thigh as I sat down.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Like I said earlier,” Brett began, as he reached down into the bright red cooler with the white top and handed me a beer. “You’re just the excuse to get some of the manly things updated around here. If it were just for me, Lily would have nixed it immediately. But for you, I got the go ahead.”
“Go figure,” I mumbled as I took my first sip of the chilled beverage. The heavy wheat beer tasted thick on my tongue, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
“Have a few tosses while the sun is still shining. Once it goes down, it gets mighty dark back here. I still need to install a light across the way for some night fishing.”
Nodding, I collected my beer and headed toward the dock where I baited my hook and tossed out the line like it was second nature. Muscle memory is what Brett used to call it. We stayed silent, me throwing out my line every couple of minutes and Brett watching. Occasionally I’d snag a fish and he’d take a picture with his phone before I lobbed it back into the water.
We stayed out in the woods for about an hour before Brett’s phone rang.
“The missus says dinner is ready if we could head on back.”
“Sure. Let me just get this all put away,” I said of the tackle box and the pole.
“We can take it back in the UTV. Much easier on my knees than walking all the way out here. You can use it too if I’m at work.”
“What’s a UTV?” I asked as I gathered everything and met him at the bench.
“It’s like a two-seater all-terrain vehicle. Follow me,” he explained as he led me to an opening on the other side of the field where a black and blue vehicle sat.
He placed the cooler in the back area, then grabbed the tackle box and fishing pole from me, doing the same.
Together we rode back to the house, our bodies rocking back and forth with the jerky terrain, as I tried to come up with a way to ask them about the property I saw earlier in the day. I didn’t want them to get their hopes up in me staying in the town permanently. But I saw the house as a nice investment property if I could get it up to livable standards. I could rent it or sell it when I was finished. Or keep it as a vacation home for myself.
Now that was an idea.
Once we returned to the house, Lily immediately directed us to the sink to wash up before we could eat dinner. Not that I needed to be told. I had no desire to eat with my hands smelling of fish.
When we were seated, she served the homemade lasagna and my mouth watered at the sight over the heaping plate. I couldn’t recall the last time I had a home-cooked meal like this one.
Unless it could be cooked in the microwave, I was hopeless. Which baffled me that a cooking channel wanted me to be the face of a new show. But I was willing to learn. And I had high hopes that Lily could teach me a few things while I was here.
The room was quiet as we all ate. Brett and Lily chatted about the market that morning to fill some of the silence, but I was more than content to listen to their conversation.
“Did you see much of the town when you drove through today?”
This was it. This was the segway I needed. A clang sounded in the dining room as I set my fork on the plate. Lily went all out with the good china for the meal.
“Actually, what do you know about the house up on the hill about ten minutes from here?”
Chapter Six – Autumn
The theater was more crowded than I anticipated as I turned in my seat and watched another group of people stroll in. It took some digging, but we’d learned that the sheriff was holding the house auction in the town theater to make sure there was ample space. Our courthouse was too small for the function.
The place was something straight out of Architectural Digest. It opened in 1929 and was a staple in our town, supported and funded by our community. There was even a local theater troupe that hosted two plays every year.
It was one of our town’s pride and joys. I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.
