Read Online Finders Keepers by Catherine Palmer - Free Book Online Page B

eat what he wanted tonight and freeze the rest. It ought to keep real good. Phil’s in the car. Go by and say hello.”
    Elizabeth’s spirits sank as she took Nick’s hand and approached the idling automobile. “Hey, Phil,” she said through the window. “Nice night.”
    “You and Zachary Chalmers ever get your problems ironed out?”
    “Zachary is going to be my father,” Nick piped up.
    “Nikolai!”
    Phil laughed. “I hear the two of you nearly came to blows the other night. Well, I’ll tell you what, Liz. I like that young man. He’s a fine fellow. Got a good head on his shoulders. He’s volunteered to work with me on the plans for the town.”
    “What plans?”
    “Why, you know, making sure Ambleside goes in the right direction.”
    “Ambleside is fine just the way it is.”
    “Sure it is. One old man gets sick, and nobody can even buy a sack of groceries. The whole Corner Market shuts down, and we all have to troop over to Russellville just to keep from starving to death. I’ll tell you what, if that don’t beat all.”
    “Mom, are we starving to deaf?” Nick asked.
    “We’ll all manage just fine until Boompah gets better,” Elizabeth told her son. She tried to keep her voice even. “Ambleside doesn’t need another grocery store. The Corner Market carries everything a person could want.”
    “Unless it’s closed.” Phil smirked as he ran his fingers through his beard. “You’ve got to admit, Liz, this town is about as efficient as one of them old butter churns you sell. Looks pretty enough, if you like antiques, but it doesn’t function all that well.”
    Elizabeth felt sure he could see the steam rising from her ears. “I moved to Ambleside because I like antiques. My customers drive all the way here from the East Coast because they like antiques. If you and Zachary Chalmers change this town, I could be out of business, and so could half the stores on the square.”
    “Now, that’s plumb wrong—”
    “Good night, Phil. And tell Zachary Chalmers he can just rot.” Grabbing Nick’s hand, she pushed past the forsythia bush that grazed the side of the car. “Doesn’t function all that well,” she muttered. “This town is more than a hundred years old, and it’s functioning just fine. Ambleside ought to keep its character. Tear down the mansion, and then what’s next?”
    “I will talk to Zachary,” Nick said as they set off down the sidewalk toward the square. “I will tell him not to make you mad.”
    “You stay away from that man, Nick. He’s nothing but a bloodsucking leech taking advantage of the kindness and goodness of his aunt. He’s going to suck every bit of charm and beauty right out of this town.”
    As Elizabeth rounded the corner of the park, she stopped and gripped the crusted wrought-iron rail, as if she could somehow hold down the whole town against the winds of change. Why did she feel such a need to cling to the past? Why couldn’t she let in the new? What fears kept her bound to this town, to the fragile walls she had built around herself?
    Maybe Boompah was right. Maybe she hadn’t given the controls of her life to Christ any better than Zachary Chalmers had. The architect had labeled her selfish. If he was right, she had no choice but to admit her own sinful self-centeredness and submit to God’s leading. And that might mean letting go of her battle to save the mansion.

    Elizabeth flew across Walnut Street in hopes she hadn’t missed Pop’s daily mail collection from the blue box outside the courthouse. Pop Creighton was as faithful as the clock that chimed the hour in the cupola atop the courthouse, and if a person was a minute late in dropping off mail, well, too bad. It would just have to wait until tomorrow.
    Breathless, Elizabeth spotted the man himself striding down the sidewalk toward the box, a grin as wide as the Missouri River across his face. “Gonna beat you!” he threatened.
    She made a quick sprint to the box and stuffed in her