Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)(61)

Caroline came up behind him and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said and squeezed tighter.

“For what?” Wilbur asked.

She plopped down in the chair beside him. “For reminding me about Grandma.”

Wilbur looked at the papers in her hand and smiled. “So, is that a story about Ida?”

“It sure is.” Caroline straightened the pages and began reading aloud.

As Wilbur listened, a tear fell from his eye. He also felt Ida’s presence, but along with it came the heartache of longing for something forever lost. When Caroline finished reading, he said, “It’s beautiful. Your grandma would be so very proud.”

~

That afternoon after Caroline helped Rose with the lunch dishes, she climbed into her car and headed for town. When she pulled up in front of the store, Peter Pennington was not standing outside. He was also not standing behind the counter. Caroline waited a few minutes then called out, “Yoo-hoo! Mister Pennington?”

Seconds later he hurried from the back room wiping a smudge of mustard from his upper lip. “Please forgive me. I was not expecting you today.”

“No problem,” Caroline replied. “I wasn’t actually planning to be—”

Before she could finish her thought, Peter interrupted, “But I’m supposed to know what you are going to do before you do it.” His glasses slid down a bit, and he pushed them back into place. “This is highly irregular. Highly irregular.”

Caroline wrinkled her nose. “That’s silly. How could you possibly know what I’m going to do before I even decide to do it?”

“That’s the way it is. It’s the way it’s always been.”

Before she had time to question his answer, Peter peered over his constantly sliding down glasses and asked what she was there for. “I’ve nothing scheduled for you.”

“Oh, I haven’t ordered anything,” Caroline replied. “But it seems that Mister Washington has misplaced his pocket watch again. I was wondering if you possibly might have another replacement.”

“Oh, dear, another thing that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Well, of course it wasn’t supposed to happen,” Caroline said. “People don’t intentionally go around misplacing things. I’m sure it was an accident.”

Peter Pennington shook his head doubtfully. “Not an accident. Definitely not an accident.”

“How can you be certain?” Caroline asked. “Wilbur’s up in years, he might well have left the watch someplace and simply forgotten.”

“No.” Peter bunched his eyebrows together and shook his head again. “Not likely. If that were going to happen, I would have known about it.”

Caroline laughed. “Mister Pennington, I love you to pieces, but you’re simply not making any sense. Now about the pocket watch—”

The expression on Peter’s face grew considerably more solemn. “You don’t want another pocket watch. It would be asking for trouble.”

“Nonsense.” Caroline wanted to say that if price was the issue she’d be willing to pay more for the watch, but the look of seriousness stretched across Peter’s face stopped her. “Asking for trouble, why?”

Instead of answering her question, Peter took a gray cardboard box from beneath the counter and fished through it. He pulled a gold wristwatch from the box, held it in his hand for a few seconds, then dropped it back and pulled out a clunky-looking stainless steel watch with a heavy band. “This is what your Mister Washington needs,” he said and handed the watch to Caroline.

“This?” Caroline looked at the watch. It had an oversized face and glow-in-the-dark numbers. “This hardly seems like what Wilbur—”

“It may not be what he wants,” Peter said, “but it’s what he needs.”

Caroline looked at the watch again and frowned.

“Trust me,” Peter said. He reached across the counter and folded Caroline’s fingers over the watch. “Take it and give it to your Mister Washington. Tell him to put the watch on and never take it off.”

“Never?” Caroline asked. “What about when he takes a shower or bath?”

“The watch stays on.”

“Won’t it get ruined?”

Peter shook his head. “Waterproof.”

“Oh.” Caroline stood there with her eyes darting back and forth from the watch in her hand to the serious expression on Peter’s face. “Are you certain about this?”

“Very certain.”

“Okay.” Caroline gave a disappointed sigh. She had hoped to replace Wilbur’s pocket watch with one that was exactly the same or very similar. This was at best a poor substitute. She dropped the watch into her handbag and pulled out her wallet. “How much?”

“Nothing,” Peter answered. “It’s a gift.”

He smiled graciously, but behind the smile was a prayer that this watch would make amends for the way he so recklessly replaced Wilbur’s pocket watch. Some things were not meant to be, and it would have been far better for the first watch to remain lost. When Peter thought of the trouble that lay ahead, a weight of sadness settled in his heart. “Be careful and wary of strangers.”

Rose Hill was a small town, a settled-down place where neighbors knew one another, so such a warning made no sense to Caroline, but then this entire day made no sense. She turned to leave and halfway to the door she stopped and looked back. “I almost forgot. I wanted to ask you about the desk.”