Page 21 of The Pink House

“Like a hunting cabin?” One of the men—Hannah thought his name was Rex—asked.

“There aren’t any in those woods,” another said.

“Did you see a hunting cabin in the woods?” Hannah kept her voice as casual and offhand as Charlie’s as she settled her gaze on Rex.

“Nope.” He shrugged. “But that’s the only structure I can imagine seeing there.”

Hannah kept a smile on her face and nodded. She wasn’t about to bring up the pink house when it was obvious none of these men had seen it. There was no point.

Rex settled his gaze on Charlie. “If you’re thinking of building a house there, don’t. I work at city hall, and no one is going to give you a permit to build anything in those woods. If you do build without a permit, and they find out, you’ll have to tear it down.”

“No worries. I’ve got enough to keep me busy around here.” Charlie swept out a hand in the direction of the table. “Get yourself something to eat. There is plenty there.”

After a chorus of “Nice to meet you, Hannah,” the men ambled across the lawn toward the food. The topic of a house in the woods had been discarded in favor of arguing over a potential foul in the last match of horseshoes.

“I could have asked the question,” Hannah told Charlie.

“Tag team,” was all he said before bending over to pick up two horseshoes and handing them to her. Then he reached down and grabbed two for himself.

The heavy metal felt strange in her hands. “Do you want me to put these away somewhere?”

“No.” He laughed. “I want you to pitch them one at a time toward that stake. I’ve discovered there’s nothing like a rousing game of horseshoes to work off a bag of Cheetos.”

CHAPTERSIX

“I beat him two out of three games.” Hannah smiled at the woman in the chair next to her.

Saturday morning, Hannah had still been in bed when Mackenna had texted to ask if she wanted to meet and get a pedicure. Hannah had jumped at the opportunity to spend time with her friend.

Mackenna laughed. “I can’t visualize you playing horseshoes.”

“I couldn’t either.” Hannah sipped water from the bottle she’d brought with her. “But I appear to have a talent for the sport. Who knew?”

Hannah let herself relax as the chair massaged her back. Yesterday’s clambake had been enjoyable. She’d met new neighbors and reconnected with ones she’d known before.

There had been only one bad moment. That had occurred when she’d been speaking with Simon Winters. Simon lived around the corner and had a talent for party conversation. She hadn’t needed to ask what he did for a living. Within three minutes, he’d told her he ran an executive search firm specializing in the recruitment of top-level sales professionals.

Simon’s face had lit up, and excitement had filled his voice as he’d spoken about the importance of a company building a high-performance sales force. Hannah had nodded and smiled and thought how much Brian would have enjoyed speaking with him. No doubt, they would have debated the various methods for securing the best talent.

For a second, just one second, she’d been tempted to warn Simon—who’d seemed every bit as career-driven as Brian had been—to be careful to not let the job consume him. She’d wanted to urge him to take time to…what? Smell the roses?

What had stopped her was knowing that Simon wouldn’t likely have listened to her, any more than Brian had.

Hannah expelled a sigh.

“What’s that about?”

When Hannah shifted her gaze, she found Mackenna’s keen eyes firmly fixed on her.

“What do you mean?”

“You. You’re chuckling one second and sighing the next.”

“I was just thinking how I wish Brian could have been at the clambake with me.”

“Did you two ever consider moving back to GraceTown?”

“Not seriously.” Hannah had brought it up a couple of times, just in passing. Her father was getting older, and at the time, he’d been alone. “Brian loved his job in Greensboro and our life there.”

---