Heart and Home by Jennifer Melzer

with big volunteer projects and stuff.” She pinched
off a piece of brownie and tossed it into her mouth. “He’s always got a smile
for everyone, and all that, but I haven’t seen him with anyone for years.”
    “Oh,” I nodded. “That’s too
bad.” I thought of him standing above me and tending to me with such gentleness
after I fainted, and for a moment I felt incredibly sad knowing someone so
gentle was alone. On the other hand there was a sense of excitement inside of
me when I realized if I ever considered sticking around, I might actually take
a chance on someone like Troy.
    “Yeah,” she agreed. “He’s
been a bit of a loner, I guess.”
    “You mean since his father
died?”
    “Yeah, and no,” she shook
her head. “He did come home for the funeral, and he helped get some things in
order. He actually hired some guys from out of town to take care of the farm,
but his mom had an accident and all I know is she nearly died. That was when he
came back permanently, and I think that was when he really just sort of took to
himself.”
    Guilt tingled inside as I
revisited earlier thoughts I’d entertained about my dad. He was still young,
yes, but the work he did was painstaking, and my mother took good care of him
for over thirty years. What if something happened to him? Sure, he could tell
me things would be all right, he’d get on fine, but how could he know that for
sure?
    “Janice?” Becky turned her
head to look into my face. “Are you okay?”
    I shook my head, not sure if
anything would ever be okay again. “I was just thinking about something my dad
said yesterday.”
    She allowed me silence, and
didn’t pry, but after a few moments curiosity seemed to get the best of her.
“So, what made you ask about Troy?”
    “I don’t know,” I shrugged.
“I’ve run into him a few times since I’ve been back. I was just a little
curious.”
    “You’d be crazy not to be
curious,” she grinned. “I mean, he was cute when we were in high school, but
now…” She didn’t need to finish her sentence. I knew exactly what she meant.
There was something incredibly sexy about Troy Kepner, and the more I thought
about him, the harder it was to keep from wanting to get to bottom of that
mysterious appeal.
    As the chewy fudge flavor of
brownie melted in my mouth, I remembered having read somewhere about chocolate
releasing the same kind of chemical into the brain that was released when a
person experienced the sensations that came with falling in love. For a moment,
the chocolate made thoughts of Troy even more exciting, but I kept that to
myself.
    “Well, there is no denying
it. He is attractive.” I admitted. “But I am not in a place right now where I
could even allow myself to get close to anyone, especially someone who lived so
far away from me.”
    She was quiet a moment, as
if lamenting. “So when are you planning on going back to the city?”
    “Probably Sunday morning. My
boss is already hammering the voodoo doll for me calling in my vacation time
this week.”
    “Well, we should get
together again before you go back,” she straightened up in her seat. “Maybe you
could go out for drinks with us tomorrow night.”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” the
thought of a night out on the town with a bunch of people I hardly knew felt
like lead in my stomach. “I have a lot to do.”
    “Come on, Janice. It’ll be
fun. There are four of us from my scrapbooking group that meet up every Tuesday
night for drinks over at the Classic Cat’s Café just outside of town.”
    I started to protest again,
but I was learning firsthand what marriage and family had done to shy little
Becky Kaufman’s personality. “I don’t really know anyone around here anymore.”
    “What better way to
reacquaint yourself than getting out?”
    “I’d feel weird.”
    “No, you won’t! I promise
you will have a great time. Come on.” There was a touch of hope in her
insistent plea, and I could tell that no amount of