Hummingbird Lake Page 0,32
twenty minutes or so. You’ll wait, won’t you? We need to catch up. It’s been too long since we had a chance to talk.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Tell you what. My paperwork can wait, and I don’t have an appointment for another hour. Let’s go up to the house and have a cup of coffee. I have some of Sarah’s oatmeal cookies in my cookie jar.”
“Best offer I’ve had all week.”
She slipped on her jacket and stepped outside, pausing to flip a sign beside a buzzer to read Ring the house, then she led him along a path recently cleared of snow to her back door. They hung their coats in the mudroom, and Nic introduced him to a brindle boxer with a crooked tail who came to greet them. “That’s Clarence. He’s Gabe’s dog.”
“Hey, boy. Aren’t you a goofy-looking dog?”
Nic grinned. “He’s so ugly he’s adorable. Now, have a seat at my kitchen table and talk to me, Mountain Boy. Tell me about the trouble you’re in at work.”
While Nic made coffee, he opened up about the frustrations of his job. Talking about it to Nic helped solidify his thoughts, and he ended with, “I don’t know, Nic. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just spinning my wheels at the CSB. I thought when I took that job that my work would help prevent accidents. So far, not a lot is changing.”
“Then you’ll figure out a way to make it happen.” She set a mug of hot coffee in front of him. “That’s what you do.”
Colt wrapped his cold hands around the warm mug. He’d like to think Nic was right, but he definitely had his doubts.
“I do have an observation, though,” she continued. “Would your frustration level be lower if you spent part of your summers in Eternity Springs? Maybe when you go back, you should negotiate for mental health trips to Colorado.”
“You have a point.” He sipped the coffee and mulled over his answer. “That’s partially my own fault. I let the job take precedence over everything.”
Nic placed a plate of cookies on the table, then took a seat across from him. “All work and no play makes Colt a grumpy boy.”
He snorted and reached for a cookie. Nic said, “Seriously, though, we miss you, Colt.”
“I miss you, too,” he replied, meaning it. He took a bite of the sweet and added, “I miss Sarah’s baking. I should have married her when Mrs. Roosevelt demanded it.”
Colt referred to events that occurred after Sarah had publicly claimed that a summer guy had gotten her pregnant, but she’d refused to give his name and the guy had never stepped up. Pauline Roosevelt concluded that Colt was the evildoer, and nothing could convince her otherwise. She’d called Colt on the carpet one night in front of his whole family at Mountain Miniature Golf.
Nic smirked. “Sarah is still mortified by that. I don’t think she’s played miniature golf since.”
Colt grinned and shook his head at the memory. “There is nothing quite like the righteousness of the innocent. Now, that’s enough about me. Tell me all the news that is the news in Eternity Springs.”
Nic snared a cookie for herself, then gave him the rundown on recent town events, ending with, “Things are so much better here economically than they were two years ago. The latest saying in town is ‘Celeste certainly is.’ ”
“A Blessing,” he said, making the connection. “I’m glad to hear such positive news. I will say I was surprised by the number of people on the streets.”
“It’s a beautiful, warm winter day.”
“Warm? Nicole, it’s twenty-nine degrees.”
“And your point is?”
Colt laughed, and his gaze returned to a small painting Nic had hanging beside her phone. “That’s an interesting picture you have on your wall.”
“It’s a rainbow. Sage painted it for us as a wedding gift.”
He had wondered if it might be Sage’s work, except that it seemed more genuine than the commercial stuff he’d seen from her. For one thing, the painting wasn’t identifiable as a rainbow. It had the colors but not the shape. What she’d done with color and shadow and light made her rainbow moody, romantic, and, well, triumphant. “That doesn’t look like her stuff. I don’t see a single fairy or butterfly.”
“Hey, Rafferty, don’t be snotty. Those butterflies and fairies have made her quite the success.”
“Whatever. They’re just not my thing, I guess. This painting shows emotion. An emotion besides cheerful, anyway.”
“I think what we have here is a case of one artist being jealous of another