The Lakeside Inn, Leeanna Morgan [rosie project TXT] 📗

the lake. When his muscles were warm, he broke into a jog, steadily increasing his speed until he was running. After a few minutes of pushing himself hard, he slowed down, gasping for air. He hadn’t been running in months and it showed.

He looked along the shore of the lake, half expecting to see Charlie bounding toward him. He and his neighbors had a sixth sense when it came to the timing of their walks. It didn’t matter whether Wyatt left home earlier than usual or at the normal time, Charlie and Penny, and sometimes her other sisters, would meet him at some point along the trail.

This morning, he needed to be alone, to think through what was happening in his life. When he came to a fork in the trail, he veered left, going in a different direction than usual.

He started running again. Images of Anya flashed in front of his eyes. Before the accident, she’d asked him what he wanted her to do if he died. They’d only been married for a couple of years, and he’d jokingly asked if she was tired of him all ready.

She’d said she was serious, that she really wanted to know. He’d told her he expected her to move on with her life, find someone to love and have that love returned. Anya’s response was simple. She wanted the same for him. She wanted him to be happy, to live the life he’d always dreamed about.

Over the last few days, he’d replayed that conversation over and over, trying to relate it to how he felt about Penny. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his wife out of his mind. She had been his rock, his safe place to fall. And today, more than ever, he felt that loss like a dagger to his heart.

When he could breathe without gasping, he jogged again, only stopping when he couldn’t suck any more air into his lungs. For forty minutes, he kept running, willing his unfit body to believe he was actually enjoying himself.

By the time he arrived home, he was exhausted. Slowly, he stretched, easing the tension in his calf muscles and hoping he didn’t live to regret going so far.

After he’d finished, he walked onto his veranda and frowned. Attached to the door was a large piece of paper showing a picture of a gift-wrapped box. Inside was a message from Penny. It was her birthday. Her family was going to church and she wondered if he wanted to come over for lunch.

He looked across the yard at her house, at the roses that always seemed to be in bloom. Her family had enjoyed a wonderful life in Sapphire Bay. They’d lived, loved, and died with the knowledge that this was the place where they wanted to live.

And now, unexpectedly, he felt the same way.

Penny handed her mom a bowl of pasta salad. So far, lunch had been the usual boisterous affair it normally was when one of her sisters came home. But with all four daughters under one roof, their parents were in seventh heaven.

“I can’t believe my girls are all staying in Sapphire Bay for twelve months. Just wait, you’ll never want to leave.”

Katie’s mouth dropped open. “We only agreed to one year, Mom. Not a lifetime.”

Mabel waved her hand in the air. “I said the same thing to your father when we came back to Sapphire Bay. After spending two years in Denver, I wasn’t happy coming home. But, thirty-five years later, I’m still pleased we returned.”

Penny’s dad handed Wyatt a plate of barbecued steak. “What about you? Have you caught the Sapphire Bay bug yet?”

“Dad!” Penny said quickly. “You know Wyatt’s leaving in a couple of months.”

“A man can change his mind. Especially if he has the right incentive.”

While she was getting over the shock of her dad calling her an incentive, he wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.

“Don’t worry, Penny. Wyatt knows us well enough by now to know I’m joking. If he wants to leave God’s own paradise to live in a concrete jungle, that’s his decision.”

She didn’t dare look at Wyatt.

He helped himself to a piece of meat before holding the plate toward her. When he didn’t let go, she looked at him. He smiled and a blush heated her cheeks.

“I’ve enjoyed living in Sapphire Bay a lot more since your daughters moved into this house.”

Her dad, for whatever reason, seemed happy with Wyatt’s reply.

Seated on the other side of the table, Diana grinned. “We like having you as our neighbor, too. Don’t we, Penny?”

“We do.” Oh, no. Everyone was looking at her as if she should add something more. What did they want her to say? That Wyatt was the most amazing man she’d ever met and it would devastate her when he left? She wasn’t ready to admit that to anyone, let alone the man sitting beside her.

“I think it’s incredible that you found our great-grandmother’s dresser,” Katie said. “It must have been like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes adventure.”

Penny breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for Katie. Out of all of her sisters, she was usually the least likely to bail her out of an awkward situation. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she was usually dreaming about her next story.

Mabel added a buttery cob of corn to her lunch. “It’s a pity there was nothing inside.”

“We all thought it might have some information about our great-grandfather,” Barbara said. “I even went to the Polson Public Library and the Local Historical Society. But no one had any information about him—or none that I could find.”

Penny looked around the table at the people she loved. “Do you think we’ll ever know what really happened to him?”

“He disappeared many years ago,” Mabel said. “If your grandma couldn’t find any information about her father, it’s unlikely we will. Did you find anything that might help in your great-grandmother’s journal?”

“There was only a brief mention of someone thinking they’d seen him