The Best of Us (Sullivan's Crossing #4)(52)

Sully played with Elizabeth for a little while, but when Maggie took Elizabeth upstairs for her nap, he cornered Cal.

“Cal, I need a favor,” he said.

“Anything, Sully,” Cal said.

“I need one of those fancy phones. The new ones that do everything under the sun, including taking pictures, making movies and let you see the person’s face when you’re talking to them. I have that old flip phone Frank gave me years ago but I don’t even know where I put it.”

“Well, now,” Cal said. “This is quite a transition. What brought this on?”

“I have a lady friend and she likes to travel. And she likes to text. And she likes to stay in touch.”

“Helen?” Cal asked. “Helen is a lady friend?”

“What else would you call it?” Sully asked, a little cranky.

Cal cleared his throat. “You want to come with me to buy this fancy phone?”

“How long does something like that take?”

“It’s very efficient and boring, but we’re going to have to go to Aurora. Or maybe Breckenridge. I can do that with you right away. Just let me find out where there’s a good phone store and the hours of operation. Want to do that Monday morning? While Enid and Frank can mind the store?”

“Let’s get this done as soon as possible,” Sully said. “I missed three calls from her already on account of I have to be near the phone in the store or house in order to get the call. I want one of those phones.”

“Absolutely,” Cal said.

“Thank you,” Sully said. “Tell Maggie I’ll see her later.”







There are only two mistakes one can make
along the road to truth:
Not going all the way, and not starting.

—Gautama Buddha



11


LEIGH HAD HIGH hopes that once Rob came home from Maia’s surgery in Denver, they would spend a great deal of time together. But there was graduation and his in-laws visiting and Rob was very busy. For a moment or two, Leigh worried that he’d rethought their relationship because he seemed busier than usual. Then he introduced her to his wife’s family and she sighed her relief—it was okay.

Even though Rob didn’t make a big fuss over graduation, at Finn’s request, his late wife’s parents wouldn’t miss it. And of course Finn’s aunt Sid and Dakota joined the celebration, such as it was. Leigh, of course, didn’t attend the graduation ceremony, but at least Rob included her in the dinner and introduced her as the woman he was dating. She met Grandma and Grandpa Speers.

She was learning to accept the fact that as long as he had sons living with him, there would not be any long, slow nights together. Their grandparents tried to convince the boys to make a Florida visit, but they were beyond that now. Finn wouldn’t dream of leaving Maia and Sean wouldn’t dream of leaving his baseball buddies.

But even without any luxurious nights together, they managed a little time here and there. Lovely time.

Then came Memorial Day weekend and the town seemed to fill up with people, which of course meant that Rob’s pub was busy. Sully was kind enough to include her with his family plans and she went to the Crossing on Monday and hung around on Sully’s porch. The entire Jones contingent was there together—Cal, Maggie, Sierra, Connie, Dakota, Sid and the little ones. Leigh looked at Sierra and said, “It’s a good thing there are a couple of doctors here.”

“I know,” Sierra said. “It’s getting to the point I can hardly lift Sam.”

“Because he’s a little bruiser,” Connie said.

The men of the family took turns in the store since the campground was pretty busy. Not only were they selling lots of things, the shelves had to be continually restocked. But Sully sat like a king on his dais—the porch—while Leigh tried to show him all the tricks of his new iPhone.

“I wasted a lot of swearing on this damn thing, but now I’m coming to see it’s kind of slick. Too bad I don’t have anyone to call except Helen.”

“Hey, I’m taking calls,” Maggie said.

“I answer when called,” Sierra said.

“If you need me now you can find me,” Cal said.

But it was kind of obvious that Sully wasn’t all that interested in calling them. And Leigh was finally catching on. This might be slightly more than a friendship between her aunt and Mr. Sullivan. But surely only slightly more.

They had traditional picnic food together, family-style on Sully’s porch. Leigh helped the other women in the kitchen. And Leigh took note that Sully called Helen several times and laughed with her on the phone. Oh my goodness, he was completely smitten!

Was Helen? she wondered. Where had her head been?

Oh, yeah. That was easy. On Rob.

After their Memorial Day picnic, Connie Boyle shot off some fireworks over the lake, then everyone dispersed.

Leigh really wanted to see Rob. The boys were with him, working in the pub. They needed the money and he needed the help, but by this time Monday night, things were dwindling. She jumped up on a bar stool. He came over straightaway.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said. “How was your picnic at the Crossing?”

“Lovely. I’m a little slow sometimes. I knew Sully and Aunt Helen were friends. I think they’re much more. They were FaceTiming on their phones today—Sully has himself an iPhone just so he can keep up with Helen. More than friends, I guess. How much more, I don’t even want to ponder.”