Emily had to cram two days’ work into one evening. At least she’d kept her laundry caught up at the bunkhouse, but there was so much more than just that, and she was tired, both physically and emotionally when bedtime finally came on Sunday night. She slept poorly, even though she was in her own king-size bed. When she awoke on Monday morning she couldn’t wait to get back to her routine. Unfortunately, the day turned out to be a Murphy’s Law day.
Dark clouds covered the sky when she went out to get in her car. Lightning split the sky and thunder rolled before she could get out of the driveway. By the time she reached the center, rain was coming down in sheets. She got her umbrella from the backseat and carefully opened it. Then she reached for her briefcase, and a hard gust of wind grabbed the umbrella, turned it wrong side out, and ripped it out of her hands. It got hung up in the naked limbs of one of the oak trees. By the time she reached the door, she felt like a drowned rat. She’d taken time to curl her hair that morning, but now it hung limp in her face. She quickly poked in the code to get inside, but the door wouldn’t open. She hit it twice more, with rain blowing in her face.
Finally, she removed her phone from her purse and called Nikki. “What’s the code? Did y’all change it while I was gone?”
“Nine, nine, one, one,” Nikki said. “I’m on my way to the lobby.”
“Grab a couple of towels as you come past the laundry.” Emily pressed the numbers as she talked. The little light above the keypad went from red to green, and she wasted no time dashing inside. The soles of her shoes were so wet that she stumbled on the edge of the rug and sprawled out on the floor. Her briefcase flew open and papers flew every which way, skittering under the sofa and touching the ceiling fan before they fell back to the floor like oversize confetti.
“Well, that’s a lovely way to start out the week, but it is Monday.” Nikki held out a hand toward her.
Emily took it and raised herself up to a sitting position. “Murphy’s Monday.”
“Don’t say that. So far my shift is going well.” Nikki laughed.
“Then I’m the only one with bad luck. God must hate me.”
“Are you hurt? Legs working all right? Arms okay? Did you hit your head?” Nikki asked.
“Only thing that’s hurt is my pride,” Emily answered.
Nikki handed her a couple of towels. “I’d loan you a set of my scrubs but…”
“As if I could wear a size four petite. Lord, girl, I was born in a bigger size than that. Thanks anyway but I’ve got a spare set in my locker. I’ll just slip in there and get changed, soon as I gather up all these papers. At least I didn’t slip and fall outside and get them all wet. They’re my financial reports for the week we were gone,” Emily said.
“I’ll pick them all up for you. Go on and change into dry clothes.” Nikki began to gather up all the papers.
“Thank you.” Emily picked up the small makeup bag she carried in her briefcase and hurried off toward the employees’ break room.
She toweled her hair dry, brushed it out, and pulled it up into a ponytail, but she still groaned when she looked in the mirror. She stripped out of the soaking-wet light blue scrubs and then her underpants and bra. Thank goodness she’d learned to keep a complete change of clothes in her locker, including underwear. She used the second towel to dry her body,which was every bit as wet as if she’d just stepped out of the shower. She had no intentions of taking the time to apply fresh makeup, and usually avoided looking at herself when she was naked, but she caught her reflection in a floor-length mirror. “What on earth does Justin see in me when he could have any woman in the state?”
She’d hoped to have a meeting with the supervisor and go over the reports for the last week, but she was on the clock to play bingo with the residents in ten minutes. So she rushed out of the room and headed that way, only to turn a corner to see Justin coming right at her.
“Well, hello.” He smiled.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Is that any way to treat a man who just helped pick up a bunch of papers that were strewn all over the lobby?” He pulled her behind a partition and kissed her. “I might live now. You’re on my mind all the time, Emily.”
“You are either a hopeless romantic or the biggest flirt in north Texas.”
“Maybe I’m both.” He grinned. “A short brunette told me about your fall and where you’d gone. I’m glad I found you and got a life-saving kiss. But I do need to see Larry. She said he’s on this wing.”
Emily pointed down a hall. “That way. Number one two seven four, but he’s probably in the activities room. We’re playing bingo this morning and his candy dish is empty in his kitchenette.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Justin asked.
“We give candy bars for winning. When he gets low he never misses a game. Just follow me,” she said. “I’m going that way.”
He fell in behind her. “Are any of them so poor that they can’t afford what they want?”
“Not by any means. The Fab Five are all richer than Midas and have no one to even leave it to or spend it on, but they’re tight with their money. They clip coupons and have contests about who can save the most money when they go shopping for snacks each week.” She slung open the door, and several people yelled out greetings.
The Fab Five squealed Justin’s name and left their spots to hurry across the floor. Gathering around him, they patted his arms and back as if he were a long-lost son they hadn’t seen in a decade. Emily felt a sudden flash of pure jealousy.
“Seems like y’all been gone from the ranch for a month instead of a day,” Justin told them. “But I was wonderin’ if I might have a word with Larry about construction.”
“Sure you can. Let’s go to the dinin’ room where it’s quiet,” Larry said.
Justin winked at Emily. “See you Sunday if not before.”
“So what’s your problem?” Larry led the way to a table in the corner and nodded for Justin to sit down across from him.
“I had no problem designing Levi and Claire’s place, but this is for me and I don’t know what I want.”
“It was easy because Claire and Levi knew exactly what they wanted. When me and Sally Ann, my precious wife, built our place, we made sure we both had everything we wanted. So you’re askin’ the wrong person, son. You need to ask Emily,” Larry said.
Justin thought for a minute that he’d choke to death before he could speak again. When he finally got past the coughing, he said, “Why would you say that?”
“She’d be able to give you a woman’s view on things.”
“What about Retta or Claire?”
Larry shrugged. “What if you do something in your house that Claire wishes you’d done in hers or makes Retta feel bad because she don’t have her own brand-new place? You really need an impartial woman’s opinion.”
“But what if she tells me she likes it all designed one way or blows me off and then pushes me away, and when I settle down, my new woman wants it another way?”
Another shrug. “It’ll give you a start and then between us, we’ll decide what to keep and what to toss out.”
“Well.” Justin rubbed his chin. “We’re having dinner after church on Sunday. I could ask her what she thinks, but what if she thinks I’m pushing for something more and…”
“More than what?” Larry asked.
“Nothing,” Justin said, quickly. “I’ll be thinking about the outside dimensions. I’m thinkin’ of something that could be added on to, like Claire and Levi’s place.”
“Smart idea. Hey, you want to come play bingo with us? You might win some candy and you could give it to Emily for Valentine’s Day.”
“Thanks for the invitation, but I’ll pass. I’ve got to go to the tractor supply store and then pick up a few things from Walmart for Retta,” Justin answered.
“Our Valentine’s party is at six o’clock. That’s after supper on Thursday. You should come join us. We make us some Valentine boxes to put cards in.” Larry stood up and started down the hall. “You think about it. Other people’s kids come. You could be our relative for the evenin’.”
“I’ll see what we’ve got going at the ranch.” Justin headed for the door.
“Try to make it. Everyone here makes a box, but you don’t have to bring a card for them. Just me.” Larry turned around and grinned.
Justin gave him a thumbs-up and left by the door off the dining area. The rain had stopped but the sun still wasn’t out. He should go to the party, he thought, because no one should be at an event and not even have a relative there. But would Emily think he was stalking her if he did?
He pondered over that the whole way to the tractor supply store and was still thinking about it at Walmart when he was picking up the few things that Retta needed from the grocery section. He was almost to the checkout counter when he passed a display of valentines. The kind that kids give each other at school parties. Was that the kind Larry was talking about or did they make fancy ones with glitter and glue? If he decided to go he needed to be prepared, but he had no idea what to buy.
Finally, he picked up a box and tossed it in the cart. There was simply no way he had time to make cards, and if he did, what on earth would he write in them? He checked out, went back to his truck, and tossed the box into the backseat.
When he got back to the ranch, he took Retta’s things in and put them on the cabinet. Then he went right to the barn, hefted sacks of feed onto his shoulders, and stacked them in one of the clean stalls. That done, he went back to the truck, got the box out, and took it to the tack room. The box contained twenty cards plus envelopes plus a special card with a red lollipop attached to it.
Justin’s mouth turned up slightly at the corners. Josie Mae Turner almost beat him up on the playground after their first grade party because he didn’t give her the card with the lollipop. She told him that she’d chased him all over the place at every recess for a week so he should know that she liked him. So why didn’t she get the special card? When he told her that he’d given it to his mother, she hit on him some more. He chose the one with the lollipop, picked up a pen and drew a heart with a simple J in the center of it. If he went to the party, he’d slip that one into Emily’s box when she wasn’t looking. Surely that wouldn’t be misconstrued as stalking. Then he sorted the rest of the cards into five stacks of four, put them into their little envelopes, and filled in the to and from lines on the front—Larry got the ones with bulldozers, tractors, and cars; Otis the ones with farm animals; and the ladies got all the cute kittens and dogs.
Now he was ready. He returned everything to the box and carried it outside to his truck. A lot could happen in three days, and if he didn’t go to the party at the center, he could always toss them into the trash. No one need ever know that he’d worried over which valentines to give to which of the Fab Five—or that Emily was supposed to get the special one.