Love Reunited

Within minutes, Casey inhaled the rest of Landon’s meal while Nadia chatted about how much she enjoyed her job at the photography studio.

“Carter Photography?” Landon asked, remembering Mia and Mandy Carter. Mia had been a year behind Landon in school and in the same grade as John. Mandy had been several years younger. And Landon recalled John’s e-mail about the tragedy in their family last year. “Who owns it now that Mia passed away?”

“Mandy is running it now,” John said. “I don’t guess I ever told you, but she married Daniel Brantley, and they’ve adopted Mia and Jacob’s son, Kaden.”

“You don’t say.” Landon was amazed at how much things had changed. Then again, he’d seen the ultimate change this afternoon in Georgie. He knew it was a long shot, but he had to find out if Casey knew more about her return home than John. “I rode over to the Sanders farm today. Georgiana was there.”

Casey’s dark brows lifted. “Wow, I’d nearly forgotten about her, it’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone over there but Mrs. Sanders. Seems like forever since Georgiana used to come spend time at the farm with you guys, but I remember her. She had long red hair and rode her horse over about every day.”

Landon should have realized that Casey wouldn’t know anything about Georgiana’s return. Casey had only been ten when she left Claremont. He probably remembered a pretty older girl who came out to the farm to visit, nothing more, nothing less.

“Ms. Mandy took her little girl’s picture yesterday,” Nadia said.

“Georgiana’s little girl?” Landon hadn’t expected to get any information from Nadia.

She nodded, shiny black hair bobbing with the action. “Yes, her name is Abi, isn’t it?”

“It is. You said she was at the photography studio?”

“Mrs. Sanders brought her in to have her picture made for her piano recital. Mrs. Camp likes to make a program with all of the performers’ pictures, you know. She did that when I took piano lessons from her too. Abi’s a really pretty little girl, with all of those red curls and freckles, isn’t she?”

Landon recalled how much she looked like Georgiana. “Yes, she is.”

“She’s been coming to church with Mrs. Sanders the past couple of weeks.”

“Abi has?” Landon asked.

Nadia nodded. “I’ve seen them there on Sunday mornings.”

“But not Georgiana?” Landon asked. Georgie had attended church every time the doors were open when she was growing up.

“No, I haven’t met Abi’s mother yet.”

Landon was baffled. What had happened to Georgie while he’d been gone?

“You done?” John asked, tossing his napkin on the table. “We could go check out the square, not that all that much has changed since you’ve been gone.”

“It’d still be nice to see everything again.” And in the back of his mind, Landon wondered if he’d see Georgiana too. Her mother and daughter had mentioned shopping tonight at the square.

Casey snagged a fry from Nadia’s plate, popped it in his mouth and swallowed. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Okay for you?” he asked Nadia, who smiled and nodded.

They paid for their meal and then headed out to the town square. Landon studied everything as they started down the sidewalk. Night had settled in, so the tiny lights bordering each building’s eaves cast the streets in a yellow tint. Children laughed around the splashing fountain, and several elderly couples sat on park benches tossing bread to the noisy geese. A family exited the Sweet Stop as Landon passed the doorway and a gust of sugary air hit him full force. He remembered Abi saying that she was going to the candy store and glanced in to see if Georgie was inside.

She wasn’t.

“Casey and I went there earlier for some of the divinity. And they were making peanut brittle,” Nadia said.

“I told Nadia we’d go back later and get that for dessert,” Casey said, grinning. “Figured the divinity was an appetizer to our dinner.”

“And since you ate your dinner and a bit of everyone else’s,” John said, “you definitely will need dessert.”

“Yep, I will,” Casey agreed, laughing.

Landon loved this, spending time with family. He’d missed it more than he realized. And he wondered what kind of family life Georgiana had now. Her father had passed away over a decade ago. Her mother had primarily been in Claremont, visiting Tampa occasionally, but not seeing her daughter a whole lot from what John had said. And Georgiana had been in Tampa with Pete and Abi...blind.

What had she been limited to because of her loss of sight? Had Pete helped her adjust to her blindness? Had he been the type of loving, supportive husband he should have been? Landon recalled the Pete he knew in high school, always wanting the best and not wanting anything that was less than perfect. He’d always said Georgiana Sanders was “absolutely perfect.” Landon had thought so too, but now he wondered if Pete still saw her in that light.

“There’s Mr. Brantley and his friends,” Nadia said, indicating a group of guys standing on the sidewalk outside of Carter Photography. She waved, and Chad Martin tossed up his hand with a smile, then his brows lifted, his smile broadened and he yelled, “Landon! Had no idea you were home, buddy. Is this it? You home for good?”

“Home for good.” Landon closed the distance between them and gladly accepted several hugs and pats on the back from his old friends.

“Man, it’s been a long time,” Daniel said.

“Too long,” Landon agreed.

They visited, and he couldn’t help but notice that he felt a little lost in local happenings and with life in general. He knew that often happened to guys that were in the service, but he’d never really thought about the possibilities of what might happen in eight years. Many of his friends had not only married, but also started having kids. Georgiana had as well, and she’d lost her sight. The pain and shock of that just wouldn’t go away.

The group caught up on everything that had happened over the past few years, but Landon’s mind hovered on Georgie. He tried to maintain a polite interest in the conversation but also kept a keen eye tuned around the square for the sight of that gorgeous redhead.

Within minutes, he saw the striking red hair, even if on a smaller beauty.

“Hey, Miss Mandy!” Abi yelled. Her curly strawberry pigtails bounced wildly against her shoulders as she sprinted toward the group and directed her question to Mandy Brantley. “Are my pictures ready yet?”

“Abi, it’s great to see you again.” Mandy touched one of the little girl’s pigtails. “You just had your pictures made yesterday. Remember how I said it’d take a few days?”

“Yes, I remember, but I asked Grandma if I could come check, and she said yes. And I wanted to ask you about helping us tonight anyway. ’Cause we brought Mommy tonight for the first time for her to come to this town, and she needs some new shoes to go with the new dress we got her to wear to my piano recital, but Grandma doesn’t know a whole bunch about cute shoes. And I told her how you had on cute shoes when you took my pictures. And you have cute shoes now too.” She pointed to Mandy’s colorful sandals.

“Thank you,” Mandy said.

“So do you want to help us find Mommy some cute shoes while we’re in town? We’ve been looking, but I can’t decide. And neither can Grandma.” Then, as though she just noticed the other people standing around with Mandy, she explained, “Grandma and I help Mommy pick stuff out so she can have the right colors and match it and all. Mommy says that’s my important job, helping her pick the colors out. I know my colors, but I don’t know kinds of shoes that good yet.” She scanned the faces in the group, then stopped, hazel eyes popping when she got to Landon. “Hey, Mr. Landon! I didn’t know you were coming to town too. Did you ride your horse?”

The whole group laughed, while Landon grinned. “Not tonight, Abi.” He glanced behind her to find Georgiana and Eden, but a group of brawny teens wearing Claremont football jerseys hid his view. “So where are your Grandma and Mommy now?”

The football team moved toward and then past the group, and sure enough, Eden and Georgiana were right behind them.

“There they are!” Abi said, grinning and pointing.

Georgiana, now wearing a yellow floral sundress, green sweater and sandals, looked even prettier than she did back in high school. Her hair was no longer pulled up like it had been earlier, and it toppled in beautiful long swirls to reach her waist. He wanted to see her eyes, but she wore sunglasses in spite of the fact that it’d been dark for at least an hour.

“Hey, Mommy, I asked Miss Mandy if she’ll help us find cute shoes to go with the red dress.” She looked back to Mandy. “Are you gonna help us?”

Mandy laughed. “I’d love to.”

She talked about Abi’s photo shoot, but Landon barely heard their conversation. He was too busy examining Georgiana’s face and disposition. Her fingers were wrapped snugly around her mother’s forearm, he assumed to let Eden subtly lead her through the square. But then he noticed the tension in her forehead and the way her mouth seemed drawn and tight. And he noticed Eden did all of the talking, with Georgiana attempting to slide her mouth into a smile when appropriate. She looked anything but comfortable. In fact, Landon would say she looked miserable.

Then he realized Eden was helping her out by working the names of those present into her conversation. She didn’t announce the fact that Georgiana was blind, but subtly told her daughter the members of the group.

“It’s so good to see all of you together again,” Eden said. “Seems like forever ago since all of you hung around in high school. Daniel, Mandy, Mitch, Chad...and Landon.”