A Soldier's Journey

“Hell, no,” Nate said. “The town would drive us out on a rail. But we have other great cooks in town. We start out using home talent. Mrs. Byars, for instance, could provide brownies for each room, and Ethel Jones is a great cook. She’s widowed and could use money. We could hire a young person to help her while getting training.”

“I like it,” Josh said. “The whole idea is to bring jobs to the town.”

“I’ll talk to Mrs. Jones,” Nate said. “I have better diplomatic skills than Josh.”

“I resent that,” Josh said. “Eve says I’m one hundred percent improved.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “One hundred percent of zero is still zero.”

Susan laughed. “I think I’m going to like this job.” She looked down at the dog sitting next to Josh. “I take it the inn will be animal friendly.”

“Yep,” Josh said.

“Take a hard look throughout the property, Susan,” Nate said. “See if there’s anything we missed or that we need. We used every wholesale and going-out-of-business company in the country. Call me or Josh anytime with a problem. I’ll take the easy ones, and he, as president of this budding firm, will take the hard ones.”

“When do we open?”

“We have an informal opening in seven weeks. We’ve invited a number of travel agents and tourist information people. We have about eight couples who have accepted. I would like to open to the public shortly after that. As soon as you think we’re ready, we’ll put out news releases saying we’re open.”

“I have contacts with travel magazines and websites,” Susan said. “I’ll get in touch.” She hesitated, then said, “You don’t have the sign yet.”

“No.”

“You might want to think about the name. Something chic and catchy.”

“The Covenant Falls Inn isn’t chic and catchy?” Nate asked.

“Truthfully?” Susan answered.

“We’ll think about it,” Josh said. “We haven’t confirmed the design yet with the sign company.” Josh stood, ending the meeting. “We’re really happy to have you,” Josh said to Susan.

“Not nearly as happy as I am to be here. We’ll make it work,” she replied.

Nate and Josh walked out together. “She might just do that,” Josh said.

“I like your enthusiasm,” Nate replied drily.

“I hear you’re coming to dinner tonight.”

“All Eve has to say is ‘steaks.’”

“I also hear Eve conned you into meeting our new arrival.”

“Yep.”

“That tells me a lot,” Josh said.

“She’s like most of us when we got back. There’s a lot of pain there.”

“You liked her.”

“She’s nice enough. Obviously hurting. But don’t you or Eve even think of matchmaking. She’s certainly not ready, and neither am I.”

“I would never harbor the thought,” Josh said. “A confirmed bachelor is a confirmed bachelor.” He smirked.

“I mean it,” Nate said.

“I know you’ve been avoiding every woman in town and something bad went down. You don’t talk much about personal things, my friend.”

“Not just bad. I was an idiot. I fell for a pair of blue eyes and a sad story. I thought I could fix things. I discovered I’m not worth a damn in fixing broken things. I married for the wrong reason and to do the right thing, and it exploded on me. My ex-wife had totally different motives, including another guy. I ended up losing my career as well as everything I had saved.”

Josh knew the results. Nate had returned to Covenant Falls two years ago. He’d worked at every construction job he could find. It was how they’d met—Josh had needed help installing a new floor and hired Nate. He found a talented craftsman with three years toward an architecture degree in addition to eight years in the army.

Nate had shared stories about his time in Iraq but not the years afterward. Josh had never asked and never would, but he knew Nate carried a load of hurt. He’d just had a glimpse of how heavy it was.

Josh gave him a searching look, then nodded. “Eve is going to ask you to pick her up tonight. She and I will be cooking, and Andy doesn’t know Clint or Stephanie. Do that, and I’ll tell—ah, ask—her to refrain from asking anything else. Okay?”

Nate nodded. “Deal.”

They separated, Nate going to his truck and Josh, Amos at his side, to his Jeep.

* * *

ANDY WAS RESTLESS. She’d finished the last few issues of the bound newspapers. She had scrawled a couple of notes of dates and events she thought might be important.

She wanted to know more about the Monroe family. If she was going to talk to the man, or even try to, she needed as much information as she could find. She decided to drive to the community center, return the volume she had and look at more recent newspapers.

She drove the Bucket, since she had the newspapers with her. Bill Evans wasn’t there, but a Mrs. Wilson was.

“Bill told me you might be showing up. I’m real glad to meet you. My husband is Calvin Wilson. He and my son run the hardware store. You need anything—a replacement lightbulb, anything at all—you call them. They would be real proud to help.”

The real proud reminded Andy of home. It sounded like her mother. It also reminded her she needed to call her mother, make sure everything was all right and let her know where she was. She had made duty calls once a week, but she knew they had been more worrying than comforting. She had repeatedly refused to go home to heal. She didn’t want to add another burden to a family that already had more than they should have to handle.

“You need anything, you just call me,” Mrs. Wilson said. “There’s usually coffee in the club room.”

“Thank you. I might try that.” After Mrs. Wilson left, Andy looked through the stacks of bound newspapers and picked up one that covered the years 2005 through this year. Someone, probably Bill Evans, had conscientiously added each newspaper.

After flipping through them, she understood exactly what Bill Evans had meant when he’d dismissed The Covenant Falls Herald as a serious newspaper. The editions were little more than a collection of gossip, dry recounts of city council meetings and legal ads. She flipped through them until she came to a headline—Councilman Monroe Resigns After Arrest of Nephew.

She read the article. Al Monroe, chairman of the city council, had resigned when his nephew was arrested for kidnapping. Her interest boiled over when she read that the victim had been the mayor’s son, who was rescued by the mayor’s current husband and her husband’s dog, Amos.

Maybe Covenant Falls wasn’t quite as tranquil as she’d thought, and now she understood, at least in part, why the mayor indicated she wasn’t exactly the councilman’s favorite person. And maybe, just maybe, why she wanted an outsider to write—attempt to write—the history of the town.

Strangely enough, it deepened her interest. She had been intrigued before, but now her thoughts were going at warp speed.

She turned to the next week’s news. Nothing much of interest.

The nephew was being held for trial. Al Monroe disappeared from the papers.