Knowlton. Every time I’m with him, he says something sweet and goofy like that, and it is so hard to brush him off. My only strategy was to hold him at arm’s length until he found a girl of his dreams that reciprocated. Questions about his proposed bird sanctuary always distracted him.
“So now that Alanza is no longer in the picture, do you think the bird sanctuary has a better chance of going ahead?”
“I hadn’t thought about it.” Knowlton shifted his bag on his shoulder and the tips of his ears pinked as if the temperature had dropped by a good twenty degrees.
“You hadn’t thought about it? The guy who once told me he wanted to name his kids Chickadee, Oriole, and Tanager?” I surprised myself by taking an unprecedented step closer to him.
“Well, maybe I did have a passing thought that since the plans she hatched for the property weren’t going to go forward, the sanctuary might have a chance of happening. But Mother said the property will be going to a conservation land trust group.”
Tansey wasn’t one to gossip and what she did share was usually very accurate. If she went so far as to say something, it was almost guaranteed to be true. Quite possibly embellished and embroidered beyond the easily recognizable, but true at its core. If she mentioned a land trust, there was sure to be something to it. Especially since she and old Lewis Bett had been neighbors and friends of a sort for almost forty years.
“Did she say which land trust?”
“No. I didn’t really pay any attention to that. Once she said she thought the land was going to be protected, I just went back to thinking about the birds. Why do you care anyway? You never pay any attention to birds no matter how much I’ve tried to interest you.”
“It’s not that I don’t care about wildlife. I mean, I was the one who figured out what to do with that camel at church, now wasn’t I?” I had enough problems with the local Fish and Game official without it getting around that I didn’t like animals. And besides, I did like birds. Especially the kind slowly baked in a maple mustard glaze.
“I heard you let that camel get to first base.”
“I didn’t know you were a sports fan.”
“Generally, I’m not, but I’d be willing to play a few rounds of baseball with you, Dani.” His eyes got all moony and he closed the gap between us.
“They’re called innings, Knowlton, not rounds. Golf is rounds.” I stepped back so quickly I tripped and ended up on my backside, completely knocking the wind out of myself. He stood over me as I gasped, and that panicky feeling that comes from not being able to breathe filled my entire being. I scrambled to my feet and hurried away as fast as I could go. There was no way, if I was going to drop dead in the woods like my father, Knowlton was going to be the one to find my body. He’d stuff me for sure. I flew out of the woods, leaving Knowlton calling after me about ordering a cable sports channel when he made it home. I had gotten back to the sugarhouse before I realized I still didn’t know any more about the bird sanctuary than I had when I ran into Knowlton in the first place.
• • •
The back of the shop area houses a small office, and it was there that I spent a lot of my time since it was built the previous year. We always used to do the books in the main house den, but as the business has grown, I said I wanted to keep things separate for tax purposes but really it was so people would stop using up all the sticky notes. Besides, once something was on a sticky note, I wanted to be able to find it again, and in a shared office, peopled by family members, my notes kept getting stuck to the inside of a wastepaper basket more often than not. No one else liked the shop office as much as I did, and I was putting my own stamp on it.
I paused on the porch of the sugarhouse, looking carefully at the floorboards for any sign of a large cat. A bit of hair, a claw mark in the wood. Even a
“So now that Alanza is no longer in the picture, do you think the bird sanctuary has a better chance of going ahead?”
“I hadn’t thought about it.” Knowlton shifted his bag on his shoulder and the tips of his ears pinked as if the temperature had dropped by a good twenty degrees.
“You hadn’t thought about it? The guy who once told me he wanted to name his kids Chickadee, Oriole, and Tanager?” I surprised myself by taking an unprecedented step closer to him.
“Well, maybe I did have a passing thought that since the plans she hatched for the property weren’t going to go forward, the sanctuary might have a chance of happening. But Mother said the property will be going to a conservation land trust group.”
Tansey wasn’t one to gossip and what she did share was usually very accurate. If she went so far as to say something, it was almost guaranteed to be true. Quite possibly embellished and embroidered beyond the easily recognizable, but true at its core. If she mentioned a land trust, there was sure to be something to it. Especially since she and old Lewis Bett had been neighbors and friends of a sort for almost forty years.
“Did she say which land trust?”
“No. I didn’t really pay any attention to that. Once she said she thought the land was going to be protected, I just went back to thinking about the birds. Why do you care anyway? You never pay any attention to birds no matter how much I’ve tried to interest you.”
“It’s not that I don’t care about wildlife. I mean, I was the one who figured out what to do with that camel at church, now wasn’t I?” I had enough problems with the local Fish and Game official without it getting around that I didn’t like animals. And besides, I did like birds. Especially the kind slowly baked in a maple mustard glaze.
“I heard you let that camel get to first base.”
“I didn’t know you were a sports fan.”
“Generally, I’m not, but I’d be willing to play a few rounds of baseball with you, Dani.” His eyes got all moony and he closed the gap between us.
“They’re called innings, Knowlton, not rounds. Golf is rounds.” I stepped back so quickly I tripped and ended up on my backside, completely knocking the wind out of myself. He stood over me as I gasped, and that panicky feeling that comes from not being able to breathe filled my entire being. I scrambled to my feet and hurried away as fast as I could go. There was no way, if I was going to drop dead in the woods like my father, Knowlton was going to be the one to find my body. He’d stuff me for sure. I flew out of the woods, leaving Knowlton calling after me about ordering a cable sports channel when he made it home. I had gotten back to the sugarhouse before I realized I still didn’t know any more about the bird sanctuary than I had when I ran into Knowlton in the first place.
• • •
The back of the shop area houses a small office, and it was there that I spent a lot of my time since it was built the previous year. We always used to do the books in the main house den, but as the business has grown, I said I wanted to keep things separate for tax purposes but really it was so people would stop using up all the sticky notes. Besides, once something was on a sticky note, I wanted to be able to find it again, and in a shared office, peopled by family members, my notes kept getting stuck to the inside of a wastepaper basket more often than not. No one else liked the shop office as much as I did, and I was putting my own stamp on it.
I paused on the porch of the sugarhouse, looking carefully at the floorboards for any sign of a large cat. A bit of hair, a claw mark in the wood. Even a
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