Read Online Woodlands by Robin Jones Gunn - Free Book Online Page A

before placing his coffee cup on a coaster on top of the suitcase. “Now there’s a place I’d like to go someday.”
    “Me, too,” Leah said.
    “Where else would you like to go?”
    “Anywhere.”
    “Tell me why you never took off with your Amelia spirit and left Glenbrooke behind.”
    Briefly, Leah told him about being the youngest of six daughters and how she ended up being the one to stay home and care for her parents.
    “How did you finish college?” Seth asked.
    “It took me seven years. All part-time. Driving back and forth to Edgefield. But that’s the only place I went. Edgefield. Not Paris. Not … what is that one?” she said, tilting her head and reading the stickers. “Roma.”
    “Your parents have been gone a year, right?”
    Leah nodded and sipped her coffee.
    “Why don’t you go to Rome now?”
    “I don’t know,” she said after a pause. “I might go. Later. Not right away. I bought this house, and I have all kinds of commitments and obligations here. I don’t think it’s my turn to leave Glenbrooke.”
    “Or do you mean it’s not your turn to leave Bedford Falls?”
    Leah gave him a quizzical look. “Bedford Falls?”
    “You know, in
It’s a Wonderful Life
. Jimmy Stewart. Donna Reed. You sound to me like the female version of George Bailey.”
    It took Leah a moment to make the connection. When she did, she laughed. “You think I sound like George Bailey?”
    “A little.”
    Leah shook her head. “I’m not that discouraged about my life in this small town. Just don’t try telling me you’re really my guardian angel, and I’m your ticket to a pair of wings.”
    Seth laughed. “I don’t hear any bells ringing, do you?”
    Leah laughed with him and felt captivated by the man sitting on her couch. Did he have any idea that
he
was the reason she wanted to stick around Glenbrooke?
    Seth reached for his coffee cup and said, “I have a question for you.”
    “Yes?” Leah felt open and unguarded.
    “Tell me about the Glenbrooke Zorro.”

Chapter Eight

    T he Glenbrooke Zorro?’ ” Leah repeated. “What about the Glenbrooke Zorro? I mean, what have you heard?”
    “I’ve heard someone in town loves to give. And that someone is generous and random and—” he leaned forward for emphasis—“has managed to keep his or her identity a secret for many years.”
    “That’s what I’ve heard, too,” Leah said, pulling her coffee cup to her lips. She downed the last sip and stood up. “Is there more coffee?”
    “Let me get it for you,” Seth offered. “Would you like me to fix it the same as the first cup?”
    “Yes,” Leah said, fidgeting in her chair. All her happy, secure feelings had flown.
    What is this man doing in my house? What does he want? It’s one thing for me to entertain the thought of an innocent little crush on him. But it’s something else for him to pry into my personal life
.
    Leah couldn’t sit still. Hopping up, she joined Seth in thekitchen. “I feel funny having you serve me. Why don’t I get that?”
    Seth was pouring the thick, dark brew into her cup. “Is it hard for you to let other people serve you?” he asked without looking at her.
    “No,” she answered immediately. “It’s just that you’re my guest. I should be serving you.”
    “All done,” he said, holding a mug in each hand and heading back into the other room. “Come on.”
    “Would you like to watch a movie?” Leah asked, trying to sound casual.
    “I’d rather talk. I want to hear your take on the Glenbrooke Zorro.”
    Leah sat down on the loveseat this time, thinking Seth would take the recliner. Instead he sat on the loveseat with her. She didn’t know how she could feel so at ease with Seth one minute and so uncomfortable the next.
    Sipping the fragrant brew and drawing up her courage, Leah decided she had no reason to be nervous. This was her house, her couch, her good coffee beans. This was her life he had stepped into, uninvited. She didn’t have to