Page 70 of The Night the Lights Went Out
Merilee spotted Wade’s truck coming up the drive as she walked down the steps and found herself trying to remember if she’d put on lipstick. She even considered opening up the passenger door, where she’d already put her purse on the seat, to sneak a swipe of color. Luckily for her self-respect, he drove quickly and was pulling up beside her before she could even open the door.
“Hey, Merilee.”
She almost did a double take to make sure it was Wade and not some businessman in a suit who’d stolen his truck.
Seeing her glance, he tugged self-consciously on his tie. “I know—weird, huh? I’m headed to a zoning meeting. They probably expect me to appear wearing a hard hat and towing a bulldozer, but I hate to be stereotyped.”
“Well, if you want them to take you seriously, I think you’ve got it covered.”
“Thanks,” he said, flashing that smile that wouldn’t look out of place on a magazine cover.
“I’m heading out for the long weekend—is there anything you need?”
“Actually, I brought you something.” He reached through his truck’s window and pulled out a brown-paper-wrapped package. “I was stuck at the light at the Crabapple intersection in front of that antiques store on the corner. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a sign in the front window that advertises old maps. I had a little time to kill between appointments, so I parked and went in.”
“What did you find?” she asked, feeling pleased he’d thought of her, and also excited to see what was under the wrapping.
“Check it out,” he said, pulling off the paper and wadding it in one of his hands.
Her eyes widened. “Wow. I think I’ve seen this before. Well, part of it, anyway.” The old map was framed in simple pine, the glass covering it sporting a small crack in the top right corner. She used her finger to trace the edge of the small lake at the front of the property and the road that skirted around it.
“You have?”
Merilee nodded. “Sugar has the other half. It was a wedding present from her father. That half shows the farmhouse and the land where this house was built and the surrounding acres. Pretty much leaves off where this one starts.”
“They might have been connected at some point—I think they might have been surveyors’ maps back in the day, showing property lines and such.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” She frowned, noticing the other half of the clearing in the middle of the woods she’d noticed on Sugar’s map. “What do you think this is?”
He studied it for a moment, then pulled back. “I have no idea. Considering how old the map is, it’s probably been covered over by now. I bet Sugar knows. There’s nothing about those woods she’s not aware of.”
“I bet.” She smiled. “Thank you for this. The other one used to hang in the bedroom hallway of this house but Sugar took it down, so she’s still got it. I’ll ask her if I can hang them together.”
“Or maybe I should. It’s hard for her to tell me no.” He took the frame from her. “And I’d be happy to have them put in matching frames, if you’d like.”
“Only if you let me pay for it.”
“If you insist.” He returned the map and the wrapping paper to his truck. “I was going to ask you if I could work on the swing this weekend. I guess if you’re not going to be here, it won’t bother you if I set up shop in your yard.”
“No, you won’t bother me. But Sugar...”
“I know. She told me about Tom and the swing. But she thinks you and the children would enjoy it.” He started to say something else, then stopped, a slight flush coloring his cheeks.
“What?” she asked, curious. “What else did she say?”
He met her gaze. “She also said that you and I might enjoy some ‘canoodling’—yes, she used that exact word—on the swing, especially as the nights get colder.”
It was her turn to blush. “Well, I’ve always wanted to hear how that word could be used in a sentence, and I guess now I know.”
“Yeah, now we both do.” He grinned again. “So, where are you headed?”
“Tybee.” Even just the name filled her with a mix of joy and sadness and trepidation. She’d been there to visit her grandparents many times after David’s death, never to kayak or swim in the ocean, and always without her parents. Once her grandparents had died, both while she was in college, she hadn’t been back. Her parents still owned the house, but she had no idea if they ever visited. She never asked.
“You staying at your parents’ place?”
She realized that Sugar must have told him about her connection there, and probably about David. She was glad she didn’t have to explain the whole story to Wade and thought that maybe that had been the reason Sugar had told him. She’d never pictured Sugar as a gossip; Sugar had even asked Merilee to find a way to block the Entertainment Television channel because it was all unsubstantiated gossip.
“Actually, no. They’ve recently put it up for sale.” She swallowed the lump that seemed to creep into her throat whenever she thought about the house being sold. “I’m staying with Heather at their home there. Just the two of us for a girls’ weekend.”
