“Troubling me,” she said indignantly. “Of course not. I was just wondering if he’d taken sick after helping to fight the flood. I feel responsible for involving him in all that.”
“It was his decision, Anna Louise. You should know him well enough by now to realize that he never does anything that doesn’t suit him. Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. It would take more than a few hours of hard labor to tire him out.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “He hasn’t left, has he? I know how much you wanted him to stay through the holidays at least.”
If Maisey felt like laughing at the blatant probing, she displayed admirable restraint. Her voice was perfectly even when she said, “He hasn’t left, not for good, anyway. He went to Washington for a couple of days to talk to his editor at the paper.”
The explanation wasn’t as reassuring as it might have been. Anna Louise’s heart seemed to skid to a halt. “Is he there to discuss his next assignment?”
“He didn’t really say. I suppose that could be it. To be honest, he hasn’t seemed all that anxious to leave lately. I wonder why that is?” she taunted.
Anna Louise didn’t care to offer her personal interpretation of Richard’s actions. It was probably just wishful thinking on her part, anyway. “I’m sure I don’t know,” she said stiffly. “You must be glad that he’s not about to run off again, though.”
“Oh, I expect I’m not the only one,” Maisey said dryly. “Quite a few people seem to have taken to him. He’s been getting several calls from Penelope King. They used to date in high school, you know. She’s been living over in Jasper Junction since her divorce. She found out from Orville that Richard was back and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.”
“Do you suppose that’s why he’s staying on?” Anna Louise asked, trying not to allow any hint of jealousy or dismay to creep into her voice. Given Maisey’s sharp ears, she doubted she was successful. Besides, Maisey had obviously made the comment in the first place just to taunt Anna Louise.
“He hasn’t seen her yet, so far as I know. Of course, if I had to make a guess, I’d say he’s beginning to feel at home here again. After what he’s been through, a visit to Kiley was just what he needed.”
“But he won’t be satisfied around here for long,” Anna Louise said, sounding defeated. “We must seem pretty dull compared to the life he usually leads.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Seems to me there’s plenty to do around here. It’s just a matter of having somebody point it out.”
When Anna Louise got off the phone, she thought about what it would mean to Maisey to have Richard stay on in Kiley. She purposely did not examine what it might mean to her. If she’d stopped to consider the danger to her heart, she would have done anything in her power to get him to go, not stay.
“If it’s a matter of keeping the man busy, then I can certainly do that,” she said out loud with an air of grim determination. “Richard Walton won’t have a spare minute from now until next summer if I have anything to say about it.”
* * *
During his two days in Washington, Richard had had a lot of time to think about his decision to continue his leave of absence from the paper through the holidays. His boss was frankly astounded that he hadn’t already freaked out from total boredom.
“I can’t hold this position for you forever,” foreign news editor Jim Curran had told him.
“Who are you kidding? The powers that be will probably be delighted to have me off the payroll for a few more months. They’ll be able to save a few bucks.”
“But if that slot stays empty long enough, they just might decide they can get along without you or anybody else filling it,” he said, pointing out one of the hard realities about the journalism business. Even the best papers and networks were tightening up, cutting staff. “You’re putting me in a tight spot. I can’t afford to be losing positions. It’ll jeopardize our ability to provide decent coverage from overseas. Besides, you’re the best man I have. I want you on the front lines, not wasting your talent in some hick town.”
The flattery had missed its mark. “I know how good I am,” Richard had told him without so much as a hint of humility. “And the best things in life are worth waiting for. I believe I read that somewhere.”
Jim Curran regarded him grumpily. “You aren’t sitting over there in the mountains turning philosophical on me, are you? I don’t want you back if you’re going to be turning in political essays, instead of hard news.”
“Not a chance,” he’d retorted, but in retrospect he wasn’t so sure about that.
Anna Louise had him thinking about a lot of things in a different way. Mostly she had him thinking about her, about the way her hair glistened like fire in the sunlight, about her strength of purpose, about the way her lips had molded themselves to his, about her old-fashioned scent that reminded him of a summer garden. Damn, the woman was beginning to get under his skin. And to be perfectly truthful, she even had him wondering whether he wanted to go back overseas again. He didn’t dare mention that to his boss. Not yet, anyway.
What amazed him the most, especially after some of the other opinionated, strong-willed women he’d known, was that Anna Louise knew when to be quiet. She had a way of letting the silence steal over them and work its magic. He’d discovered there was a certain comfort to be found in that.
He realized when he returned to Kiley that unfortunately Anna Louise also knew when to badger. He couldn’t imagine what had come over her in
