Love Inspired January 2014(14)

                “Yeah, but I’m gonna make points when she finds out about this. So I guess that means I’m still the wayward child, since I’m really doing this for myself. Does that make you feel any better about letting me swing away?”

                “Much better. I’d hate for you to actually admit that you’re doing it because you’re a nice guy.” And he might be, even if he was a little nosy. But that didn’t stop her from being wary...not so much of him, but of the way she reacted to him.

                “Me, a nice guy.” He looked skeptical, and that grin played across his face. “I don’t know about that.”

                The man’s personality sparkled and drew her like his eyes and his smile, stunning her once again.

                Had she truly thought she was going to go the rest of her life not finding a man attractive?

                Of course not.

                That her neighbor just happened to have qualities that, regrettably, reminded her that she was still a woman, meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

                * * *

                She was still telling herself that when Ruby Ann McDermott, Rowdy’s grandmother, showed up at her house midmorning bearing welcome-to-Dew-Drop gifts: a basket loaded with homemade fig and strawberry preserves and green tomato relish, along with several small loaves of banana-nut bread to freeze and take out as needed, she informed Lucy.

                Ruby Ann had long silver hair pulled back in a ponytail and strong features like Rowdy, along with those deep blue eyes the color of a twilight sky. She held her tall frame ramrod straight, with an elegance about the way she moved.

                Two friends came along with her. The first of them, Ms. Jo, owned the Spotted Cow Café in town. Lucy had met her the day she’d first arrived. She’d had supper at the cute café after spending the day unpacking. Ms. Jo’s piercing hazel eyes seemed to take everything in from behind her wire-rimmed glasses. She wore her slate-gray hair in a soft cap of curls. Lucy felt a kindred spirit, not just from the fact that they were close to the same height. She liked the older lady’s spunk and hoped her own personality would be similar when she was nearing seventy.

                Ms. Jo brought along a coconut pie that looked so mouthwateringly delicious Lucy could barely keep from diving in the instant Ms. Jo placed it in her hands.

                Mabel Tilsbee, the other member of the welcoming committee, owned the Dew Drop Inn. The towering, large-boned woman with shoulder-length black hair spiced with just a few strands of gray handed over a tray of cookies that were clearly overdone. “There’s no need in me even pretending to be the best in the kitchen when the county’s best are both standing here beside me. I gave it a whirl, though.” She winked. “I got distracted and baked these a little too long. But, if you like coffee, they’re real good dunkers.”

                Lucy laughed and felt instantly at home with these ladies. “Thank you all so much for coming by,” she said, leading them into the kitchen. They eyed where a wall had obviously just been knocked out.

                Ruby Ann’s hand fluttered at the construction area. “Rowdy told me at breakfast this morning that he helped you do this. And that he and some of the boys will be helping you out for a little while.”

                “Yes, ma’am, he did.” It was all Lucy could do not to smile at the thought of Rowdy’s brownie points. She decided to help him out. “He’s doing a great job. I worked almost two days knocking a wall out of the hayloft and half the morning just getting this wall to budge. He had it down within an hour. It was quite humiliating.”

                That got a chuckle from everyone.