“He’s spent ten summers here, but no one asked him what he did before he retired.”
“So who...? Ah,” Frank said. “This guy Nate asked?”
“He did. I swear that in the week Nate Taggert has been here he’s learned more about the residents than I know after a lifetime here.”
“I can believe that,” Frank said. “But then, it was always Leslie who was the social one. She—” He stopped at the look Brody gave him. “Sorry. The forbidden subject. It’s just that she made friends. You and Terri are clones in being workhorses. So this guy helps around here and you said he’s stealing our Terri’s heart? What’s the problem? He’s old and ugly?”
“There he is, so what do you think?” Brody nodded toward the dock.
A big, good-looking young man put his hands on the waist of a heavy-set woman and easily swung her out of the boat onto the dock. She was smiling up at him like he was a rescuing knight.
“He’s built like Billy,” Frank said under his breath, then turned to Brody. “What’s the problem?”
“Nate’s engaged to Lew Hartman’s daughter.”
“Wonder why Della didn’t tell me that? But Stacy is a nice girl. She—”
Brody gave him a hard look, then walked away, Frank right behind him.
“This isn’t good, is it?” Frank said when they were inside Brody’s office. “How many boyfriends has our Terri had since she dumped Billy?”
“None that we know of. But then, any boy she looks at, you run through the system to see if he’s ever had so much as a parking ticket.”
“Give me the stats on this guy so I can find out about him.”
Brody gave a snort. “Since he worked for Kit Montgomery, you’d have to have the security clearance of the Secretary of Defense to find out about him.”
When Frank heard a laugh that he’d been hearing since Terri was a toddler, he went to the window to look out. He’d never been married and had no children, so Terri was as close as he was going to get to his own child. In his eyes, she was beautiful and smart and deserving of all the good in the world. Just his unbiased opinion.
She was sta
nding beside the big guy and watching the kids play soccer. They weren’t touching but were as close as two people could be without contact. Every once in a while, she glanced up at him with sparkling eyes full of laughter.
From what Frank could see, Terri was wearing her feelings in the open—and that made him frown. She was usually cautious around men. Over the years, he and Brody had shared laughter when they saw the young men come on to Terri. They tried every line ever created. They tried to impress her with tricks on water skis, on motorboats, with the size of Daddy’s cruiser.
None of them had succeeded. Frank and Brody had watched as Terri dumped pails of bait over their heads. She’d pushed four Enders off a dock. Mostly, she just froze them with a look and walked away.
But this guy... Frank had only seen Terri look at a boy like this once before—and that had been a long time ago.
Brody was standing beside him.
“You said they’re living together?” Frank asked softly.
“Yeah, but Terri says nothing is happening.”
“If circumstances were different, I’d wish she’d go after him. Put on a red dress and high heels and give cute little Stacy Hartman a run. May the best girl win the prize.”
“And what happens if she wins him?” Brody asked as he went back to his desk. “People add the breakup to my daughter’s résumé? The Hartman family is well liked in Summer Hill. Stacy is practically the town’s princess, while Terri is...is...” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I know.” Frank was still looking out the window. In the few minutes he’d been watching, Nate had never so much as glanced at Terri. He was beginning to think her interest was one-sided.
But just as Frank was about to look away, he saw Terri turn toward the kids, and Nate gazed down at her. Frank could see the caring in the man’s eyes. Caring, lust, even a kind of hunger was there. The man’s expression was so intense that it made him draw in his breath. “How long have they known each other?”
“Just over a week,” Brody said. “Sometimes, that’s all it takes.”
Neither of them said so, but they knew that six hours after Brody met Leslie, he’d said he’d found the woman he was going to marry.
“And how bad is it from his side?” Frank was hoping that he was wrong about what he’d seen.