“Like what?”
“You know, the movie with Indiana Jones.”
It took him a minute, then he laughed. Without thinking he tipped her cap over her eyes. “I guess it was, a little.”
“You write good.”
“Thank you.”
They were standing on the sidewalk in front of her house. Jason glanced up, surprised. He hadn’t realized they’d come so far and found himself regretting he hadn’t slowed his pace a bit. “We have to do this report on Africa.” Clara wrinkled her nose. “It has to be five whole pages long. Miss Jenkins wants it in right after Christmas vacation.”
“How long have you had the assignment?” It hadn’t been that long since his school days.
Clara drew a circle in the snow at the edge of her lawn. “Couple of weeks.”
No, he realized with some pleasure, it hadn’t been so very long. “I guess you’ve started on it.”
“Well, sort of.” Then she turned that quick, beautiful smile on him. “You’ve been to Africa, haven’t you?”
“A couple of times.”
“I guess you know all kinds of things about climate and culture and stuff like that.”
He grinned down at her. “Enough.”
“Maybe you should stay for dinner tonight.” Without giving him a chance to answer, she took his hand and led him around to the shop.
When they walked in, Faith was boxing a doll. Her hair was pinned up in the back, and she wore a baggy sweatshirt over jeans. She was laughing at something her customer had said. “Lorna, you know you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Bah, humbug.” The woman put a hand on her enormous stomach and sighed. “I really wanted this baby to make an appearance before Christmas.”
“You still have four days.”
“Hi, Mom!”
Faith turned to smile at her daughter. As she spotted Jason the spool of ribbon in her hand spun in a red stream to the floor. “Clara, you didn’t wipe your feet,” she managed to say, but kept her eyes on Jason.
“Jason! Jason Law.” The woman rushed over and grabbed him by both arms. “It’s Lorna—Lorna McBee.”
He looked down into the pretty round face of his longtime neighbor. “Hello, Lorna.” His gaze drifted down, then back up. “Congratulations.”
With a hand on her stomach she laughed. “Thanks, but it’s my third.”
He thought of the scrawny, bad-tempered girl next door. “Three? You work fast.”
“So does Bill. You remember Bill Easterday, don’t you?”
“You married Bill?” He remembered a boy who had hung out in the town square looking for trouble. A few times Jason had helped him find it.
“I reformed him.” When she smiled, he believed it. “He runs the bank.” His expression had her giggling. “I’m serious, stop in sometime. Well, I’ve got to be moving along. This box has to go into a locked closet before my oldest girl sees it. Thanks, Faith, it’s just lovely.”
“I hope she likes it.”
To keep her hands busy, Faith began to rewind the spool of ribbon. A puff of cold air came in, then was cut off as Lorna breezed out.
“Was that the bride doll?” Clara wanted to know.
“Yes, it was.”
