Finding Promise (The Promise Series, A Small Town Romance) by Aneesa Price Page A

does anything around the house.
Frank’s a carpenter. He works down at the harbor, fixing boats.” She explained
to Caroline. “I guess it’s true what they say about the cobbler’s kids that
never had any shoes.”
     
    “Is that true for Luke too?” Caroline asked Laurel,
wondering what his place was like. She’d already been to Faith’s flat. It was a
cute little two bedroom above the pharmacy in Main Street. Bess and Ronald
rented it out to her, not needing the space.
     
    “Why, no! I can proudly say that my son’s place is lovely on
the outside. The inside is another matter. You’d swear that it was a college
student that lived there and not a grown man of thirty! But it’s neat and I
suppose it serves his needs. But then again, there’s hardly anything in it to
clean, so if it wasn’t neat then I’d have taken a broom to him already.” Laurel
grabbed a broom that Caroline had received amongst the welcome gifts and made
sweeping movements to illustrate what she meant. Caroline had a hard time
picturing his diminutive mother being able to do anything like with his six
foot frame. Broom placed in the correct cupboard in the mud room, Laurel
continued, “I’ve asked him why he doesn’t get himself some furniture and
knick-knacks to make it more homely and he just grunted back at me.”
     
    “Men and their grunting!” exclaimed Patsy. “You can’t have
the one without the other.”
     
    “Amen.” The other ladies chorused with such sombre faces,
Caroline grinned.
     
    Laurel was not to be deterred from her mission, which was to
give the two a push in the right direction. “Luke’s place is not far from you.
Just up the road, really. He did some work for vacation home owners a few years
back, right when he started and was desperate to build a name for himself. He
was hardly working for any money at all but the owners were ambitious and spent
more than there budget allowed. Luke agreed to finish the job and fund the
difference if they gave him a piece of the land. There were eleven acres of
land there and they agreed. You should go see his place. It’s a simple little
log cabin but its set in a strip of forest along the cliff, so the scenery is
just great. You should ask him to take you. You could walk from his place to
the cliff. It has a brilliant view of the sea from up there. You can even see
Chester Island from there!”
     
    “You’re match-making again, Laurel.” Interfered Patsy and
making Caroline blush. “Girl, you blush way too often for a woman that’s been
married. You need a good, virile man to help you get rid of that!”
     
    Not knowing how to respond to that, Caroline dutifully
returned her attention to the welcome offerings. There was a bag filled with
apples that looked like it came from a tree in someone’s back yard. The
attached note read, “Enjoy! From Shelly,” made sense. A garden center owner
would grow her own fruit. Her pantry, being still relatively empty, filled up
with jars of pickles and preserves.
     
    “Isn’t this sweet and handy too?!” Stella held up an
emergency kit from Bess. It held plasters, anti-septic cream, bandages as well
as over-the-counter anti-histamine and pain medication. “You never know when
there’ll be scrapes and cuts, especially with all this tinkering going on
here.” She sounded, to Caroline, like a mom that had seen her fair share.
     
    “Goodness knows mine came in handy when Luke and Nate were
kids. Those two were always getting themselves into scrapes.” Patsy agreed with
Stella.
     
    “I haven’t met Nate yet but I’ve seen him at Waves. Have
they been friends for long?”
     
    “They’ve been basically raised from the same crib. If you
wanted to know where one was, you’d look for the other. They were always
together. Still are close. But they’re good boys.” Caroline looked at Patsy’s
face, proudly beaming. It seemed that Patsy, for all her gruffness, had a huge
soft spot for the boys.
     
    “This is