When I Fall in Love by Wendy Lindstrom

Author:Wendy Lindstrom
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939263223
Publisher: Rustic Studio Publishing

Chapter 18

Hal went to the mill the next day with a spring in his step and a renewed hope for the future. Despite losing several hours of work time, his heart felt a lot lighter after his afternoon with Nancy. Telling her about his father and their troubles had helped him more than he’d realized, and though he regretted casting a shadow over their day, his confession had seemed to bring them closer.

She’d shared a bit of her childhood with him as well and he appreciated getting to know her better, although he still felt there was something she wasn’t telling him.

After they’d returned from the gorge, they had spent a pleasant evening together, eating dinner in the kitchen and taking a short walk in the orchard as the sun was setting. Later Nancy played the woefully-out-of-tune pianoforte and joked that the badly tuned strings added new element to her songs. Hal found her music beautiful and the discordant notes a bit haunting. Still, he could easily see that Nancy enjoyed playing and that music had been a big part of her life. He wished he could get the pianoforte tuned for her, but it was an expense he could ill afford and a difficult task to find someone skilled enough to tune it.

And so went his thoughts as he wrangled an oak timber onto the saw table, slabbed and squared the long sawn planks. He carried the heavy lengths of lumber a piece at a time and loaded them into wagon. He would finish sawing this order for Burton’s Tannery tomorrow and deliver it after he dropped off the kitchen cabinet, which he planned to finish tonight, at Addison’s store.

The morning at the mill went quickly and before Hal realized it, he was watching the clock, awaiting lunchtime when he knew Nancy would be arriving. His gaze kept darting to the road, and when he finally saw her cross into the mill yard, his heartbeat accelerated. With a light stride, she crossed the yard in her pretty green dress with a basket hooked over her arm and a stylish bonnet framing her beautiful face and wide smile. Hal shut off the mill and left the lean-to wiping his dirty hands on a soiled rag.

With feigned nonchalance, he leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Nancy’s cheek as if he’d done so every day for several years.

But his act didn’t fool Nancy. She laughed and said, “Are you angling for food, Mr. Grayson?”

“I’m willing to beg for whatever you’ve stashed in that basket. I’m famished.” Hal lifted the edge of a lap quilt she’d use to cover their food and attempted to peek into the basket.

Nancy playfully tapped his knuckles. “Let me set out our lunch beneath the maple. It’s dreadfully hot today and I need to sit in the shade.”

Hal took the basket from her and escorted her to a grassy corner of the yard shaded by sprawling branches of a large, leafy maple. With each step, he

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