“It is, isn’t it? Almost too neat and too clean, but that might just be my inner New Yorker bristling.”
Phillip chuckled. “We’re used to the quiet because we’ve always managed to head back to the countryside a couple times a month. Do you think we’ll get bored here after a week or two, without the hustle and bustle?” It could very well be that his cousin was wondering that very thing. They shared an apartment in New York City because they were both frugal by nature. It was a very nice apartment, to be sure, but there was always an aura of busyness in the city. There was the noise and the odors and sometimes trash and other things best not mentioned along the sidewalks. Compared to that, this picture-perfect town seemed like Shangri-La.
“No. You know me, I’ll keep busy. In fact, I have a bit of an idea. Some questions occurred to me as I was looking around the restaurant the other night.” Then he turned and gave Phillip a look he recognized.
It hadn’t happened often, but every once in a while, his best friend got an idea in his head and felt compelled to go on a crusade. Phillip knew J. Coop had an idea that he wanted to either prove or disprove. Phillip had no idea what it was and had the sense his cousin wouldn’t necessarily tell him if he asked, either. As close as they were, there was a very thin, but definite gulf between them. Phillip understood it was a distance that J. Coop needed. Maybe staying here will help him to finally get rid of it.
“Well, then, I guess we’ll both keep ourselves occupied. I plan on spending as much time as possible in that museum and meeting people.” Then he put a hand on his cousin’s shoulder, a brief touch. “I’ll visit the cemetery, too. I learned at the party that all of our great-grandparent’s sons left Lusty, some never to return.”
J. Coop nodded. “I heard the same thing. I’ll be sure to visit there as well.”
Breakfast with his aunt, uncle, and cousins was a slice of home. There was the usual banter and good spirits and, of course, really good food. Bailey, the woman Chance and Logan had married, was herself a native New Yorker. After the death of her mother, who’d been her only family, she decided to travel some. Apparently, she’d thrown a dart at a map of the country and had struck Texas.
At about the same time, Chance and Logan had been attending an accountants’ convention in Dallas and had decided to visit Grandma Kate.
“What are the odds, I wonder,” Phillip asked, “of the three of you traveling from New York to Lusty and finding each other here?”
“Grandma Kate says that things generally turn out as they’re meant to be,” Bailey said. Then she looked at her husbands. The men returned her smile, as well as the look of love she’d sent them.
I want that. I want that so badly it hurts.
“What time do you have to be at the airport by?” Uncle Chris asked.
Phillip looked at J. Coop and waited.
“We don’t. Grandma Kate offered us the use of a house and asked if we’d spend some time here—so we can get to know them, and they can get to know us.” Jason looked at his parents and then his siblings. “Since Phillip and I were discussing taking a break anyway before that conference in Boston, we thought we might as well have that break right here.”
Phillip wondered if his cousin and best friend saw the relief, not only in his mother’s eyes but his father’s as well. J. Coop thought he was very good at keeping his own counsel, and he was, but he often missed the very clear signals around him.
Phillip wondered what his best friend would think if he realized his parents were relieved that he was staying, at least for a time, in Lusty.
* * * *
Their conversation dropped off. Leesa strained to get in the last five minutes of her elliptical program, and beside her, Rachel was doing the same. There were differences in their programs, their level of fitness prior to their working out together, and of course, their ages.
As far as Leesa could see, there was no difference in their determination.
Leesa felt the burn and began to ease off, tapering down, getting ready to be finished. Beside her, Rachel was doing the same. They hadn’t started together, because they’d wanted to finish together. The plan was to go to the spa after their Monday morning workout and then on to the Roadhouse for lunch.
Leesa didn’t mind being her bff’s exercise partner only during the week. Rachel’s husbands—Brandon, a Marine assigned to Goodfellow AFB as an instructor, and Trace, a member of Lusty’s fire department—worked the traditional five-day week. The only difference of course was that, as a rule, Brandon stayed on base and came home only on the weekends.
Finally, they were done, and Leesa hung her head for just a moment. “Some days this machine takes a bigger bite out of my ass than others.”
“That’s every day I’m on it for me,” Rachel said.
Together they wiped down their equipment. Then they grabbed their towels and their water and collapsed onto one of the benches along the wall. The workout room was large enough that there could be twenty people working out at one time. There was a sound system, a fridge stocked with water and sports drinks, and towels—all available for the taking.
Before Leesa had begun her workout, she’d put a load of towels into the washer in the utility room. She’d move them to the dryer on her way to the showers, knowing the next person in would take them out of the dryer and put them away.
Everyone pitched in, and that was just one more thing she liked about her adopted town.
“So those
