Page 13 of Below the Far Horizon
Seven
Gita lifted her head. Was that a knock on her door? Who could be stopping in to visit at this time of morning?
She would have to answer the door herself, since she had given Grace the grocery list, and Grace was making a quick run to the store, while Jill and Stacy had left early that morning after breakfast.
Gita had promised Grace that she would not get up out of her chair the entire time she was gone. There was a grocery store down in Blueberry Beach, and it would be at least two hours until Grace got back.
But she couldn’t not open the door.
“I don’t think it’s locked. Come on in.” She used the loudest voice she could. Hopefully whoever had knocked had heard her and would let themselves in. Grace might have locked the door, but Gita never did. After all, it was Raspberry Ridge. Who was she locking the door against?
“Did you say to come in?” a gruff male voice said as the door squeaked. She assumed he must have pushed it open far enough for him to get his head in so he could ask.
“I did. I’m sorry I can’t get up. Well, I can, but I promised my daughter I wouldn’t.”
“It’s funny how the rules change as we get older, and the kids start calling the shots,” the man said as the door squeaked again. She assumed he was opening it and walking in.
“Yeah. But especially now since I just had a hip replacement and my daughters are taking care of me. Well, daughter, now that my other two girls left. Come on in,” she said again as she waited for a body to fill the doorway. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
Then, as the man appeared, she recognized him.
“Don. What are you doing here?” she asked, and then she realized it wasn’t a very welcoming statement. “I mean, come on in. Sit down. I’d offer you some refreshments or food, but like I said, I just had a hip replacement and I’m not allowed up.”
Gita didn’t know Don super well, but she saw him at church occasionally. He’d gone a lot more since his wife left, but sometimes she went to church down in Blueberry Beach so she could see Stacy, and other times she went to church with Jill, just so that they could see each other. So now she supposed that she was the one who seemed to be not faithful to the Lord’s house.
“I don’t have a lot of time, but I had something I wanted to run by you that is going to seem very…odd and perhaps outside of your comfort zone.”
“All right. I’m intrigued,” she said. Things that were outside of her comfort zone were right up her alley at this stage of her life.
He grinned at her, enjoying her sense of humor, she supposed, or else enjoying the thought of whatever it was that he wanted to run by her.
He finished coming into the room and sat down on the edge of the chair beside her so they could look at each other. He didn’t slide back, or look comfortable, but rather propped his forearms on his knees and steepled his hands together.
“I can’t believe I’m here, thinking about this. I think I’ve watched too many sappy movies since my wife left.”
“There are a lot of sappy movies on TV. But there’s other stuff on TV too. You could probably turn the channel.”
He grinned a bit. “Maybe I gave you the impression that I didn’t like sappy movies. That was incorrect.”
“Oh,” she said, realizing that he hadn’t been saying what she thought he’d been saying at all. She chuckled. “I like it. Go on.”
“I have to be fast. So I’m just going to jump into it. My son Trevor dated your daughter back in the day.”
“He was her one true love, I think. She ended up getting married to someone else, but I don’t think that person ever measured up to the standard that Trevor set.” Perhaps that wasn’t her info to share, but Don wasn’t the kind of man who got news then ran all over town with it.
“That’s interesting. I mentioned it because my son ran into your daughter yesterday, and he asked me about her. I didn’t realize she was back in town, and I couldn’t give him any information on her, which, in hindsight, is probably good. But I love my son, and I can tell that he’s still interested. I was wondering if you might be interested in playing matchmaker with me. That is if your daughter is available?”
“I found out yesterday she is divorced. It’s final, but it’s been over a year since the inciting incident, I guess you could call it. So, yes, that was a long, roundabout way of saying that yes, she is available.”
“Nice.”
“How would we play matchmaker?” She’d never even considered doing something like this before. Ever. But she wasn’t too old to try new things. The thought made a spark of excitement go through her.
“Well, here’s where things get a little dicey for you and me. I was thinking if you and I pretend to be interested in each other and start spending time together…or we could have a fake relationship. Or whatever it is. It happens all the time in sappy movies. Anyway, in the movies, two people play matchmaker by faking a relationship, then their kids are forced to spend time together and they end up falling in love.”
“I see. Maybe you have been watching too many of them. That’s probably the clue, when you start to think it will work in real life.” She chuckled. And then she said, “It appears that I’ve watched too many of the same movies, because I am totally on board with this. Let’s pretend to have a relationship so that our kids will have to spend time together. Because my daughter is here taking care of me, and she’s a captive audience.”
“And my son just informed me that he quit his job and he wanted to move in with me. So he is a captive audience as well.”
