Finding Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

chip today. He said to enjoy them for dessert.” She grinned, her brown eyes twinkling. “Looks like you two have made a new friend.”
    “More like a peace offering.” Nevertheless, Cindy had to admit it was a nice gesture. “We had a little...run-in with him last week.”
    “With Scott?” Lindsey raised an eyebrow as she rang up and bagged Cindy’s purchases. “I’ve only heard good things about him.”
    The bell over the door jingled, and Lindsey leaned sideways to check out the new arrival. A tall, mid-thirties, sandy-haired man dressed in a National Park Service uniform entered. “Hi, Clint. That garden edger you ordered is in. Give me a minute to finish up here and I’ll get it from the back.”
    “No hurry. I need a few other things anyway.” The man brushed the dust off his slacks as he strolled over to the counter, exchanging a greeting with Cindy and Jarrod as he inspected the dome. “Save me a couple of cookies, okay?”
    “No problem.” Lindsey bagged Cindy’s purchases and eyed Clint. “Where’ve you been anyway? A dustbowl?”
    The man grimaced. “A construction site. I stopped by The Point a few minutes ago with the contractor who’s going to develop the interpretive trail in the public-use area Mattson set aside. It’s a mess out there. But I have to say Mattson’s people are being accommodating. I ran into Scott Walsh, the foreman. Very cooperative. Seems like a good guy. He even offered us additional resources if we need them.” Still brushing himself off, he snagged a cookie and headed into the store.
    Cindy watched him go. Interesting. Clint Nolan had been in town for a couple of years, and he generally kept to himself, living alone on the first floor of the two-family home he’d bought a mile out of town. He’d gotten involved in the Save The Point campaign Lindsey had spearheaded but in a quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of way, and he rarely offered opinions unless asked.
    Yet he’d been forthcoming in his appraisal of Scott.
    The man must have impressed him.
    Lindsey had obviously come to the same conclusion. She nodded in the direction Clint had disappeared. “See what I mean? And Scott’s always been pleasant in our encounters. An excellent neighbor, too. He happened to be passing by last week while I was out in the lot debating what to do about a flat tire. He pulled in and changed it even though I told him not to bother.”
    “I might have just met him on a bad day.”
    “That’s possible.” Lindsey handed Cindy the receipt. “We all have those.” A shadow flitted over the other woman’s eyes, reminding Cindy that lots of people had problems far more serious than hers.
    “But there are also happy endings.”
    “Yeah. There are.” The tension in Lindsey’s features relaxed. “You keep that in mind, too.”
    The bell jingled again to admit another customer, and as Lindsey turned to greet him, Cindy gathered up her bags. After handing one to Jarrod to tote, she pushed through the door and crossed the gravel lot to her Honda.
    As she loaded the groceries in the trunk, Jarrod extracted the white bag containing the cookies and peeked inside, his expression puzzled. “How come he did this, Mom?”
    “I guess he was trying to be nice.”
    “He wasn’t nice to us last week.”
    “You don’t have to eat his cookies if you don’t want to.” Stifling a smile, she closed the trunk as he pondered that. Fat chance her son would pass up homemade cookies—no matter the source.
    “I don’t want to throw them away.” He crimped the top of the bag in his fingers and maintained a firm grip on it.
    “Guess you’ll have to eat them then.”
    “Yeah.” He followed her around the car and climbed in. “So do you still think that guy is mean?”
    “Do you?”
    “I dunno. He was nicer tonight.” He snapped his seat belt in place. “But I guess it doesn’t matter. We probably won’t see him much anyway.”
    That was true. Scott had been on the job site since the