“Dad?” Judy called out the minute the door closed behind them.
“He’s not here,” a voice called from the back.
Hannah rushed to the sound of the boy’s voice.
Judy set her purse on the counter and started toward the back room. “I have to use the bathroom.”
Abandoned at the counter, Karen looked around and noticed a few plaques behind the register. The local Boy Scouts thanked Sawyer Gardner for his donation to a kid’s eagle project, and another one was a framed newspaper clipping of news of the business expanding.
The bell behind her had Karen turning. “Can you get the top one, Nolan?”
Zach’s hands were full of boxes that kept him from seeing her standing there. Karen set her purse down and grabbed the surprisingly heavy box on the top of Zach’s pile.
“Got it,” she said as she relieved Zach of the extra weight.
His gaze caught hers. “Hey.” He blinked a few times, standing there holding boxes. “Wasn’t expecting you here.”
“We were at the hairdresser’s. Hannah ran me over here.” She shifted the box in her hand.
Zach’s eyes looked her hair over and his smile grew bigger. “I like it.”
Karen couldn’t help the blush in her cheeks. “Petra’s hard to say no to.”
“It suits you.”
“Thanks.”
With their hands full, they stood there staring at each other until Hannah stepped around them with a teenage boy at her side.
“Here, let me get that,” the boy said, taking the box from Karen’s hands.
Zach and the boy Karen assumed was Becky’s boyfriend, Nolan, walked to the back and out of sight.
“That’s Nolan. Cute, right?” Hannah asked.
Karen chuckled. “Little young for me.”
Hannah rolled her eyes with a laugh. “Not to mention you’re married. Becky’s lucky.”
Karen waved a finger in Hannah’s face. “It’s the boys that are lucky to find a nice girl.”
She didn’t look convinced. “I’d like to find my Nolan.”
Karen draped an arm around her. “You will. I think the boys are going to be terribly shy because you’re so beautiful.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.” Karen gave her a quick hug.
Judy ran down the aisle with her cell phone waving in the air. “Oh, my God, Hannah, we’re supposed to be over at the rec hall working on the float.”
“The float?” Karen questioned.
“More like a trailer that will be pulled by a truck, but it’s for Mike and we’re in charge of decorating it. I forgot all about it.” Judy grabbed her purse and pulled on Hannah’s hand.
“Wanna come?” Hannah asked before they made it to the door.
“I’m good. I know the way back to your parents’.”
“You sure? I feel like we’re abandoning you.”
She made shooing motions with her hands. “Go. You two are exhausting me,” she said with a wink.
Judy pulled her sister away. “C’mon, we’re thirty minutes late.”
Within a blink of an eye, the girls were running out and down the street.
There weren’t any customers in the store, and Zach and Nolan still hadn’t returned from what she assumed was the storage room. Karen picked up her purse and walked to the back of the store.
Before she saw them, she heard their conversation and paused.
“I can really use the hours, Zach. I keep telling your dad that he can work me full-time. It’s not like I’m in school anymore.”
“What does my dad say?”
“Says I should be in school. Not everyone is cut out for college,” Nolan told Zach. “Some of us don’t have the money to go to college anyway.”
Karen peeked around the corner and noticed the two of them talking over the boxes they had placed on the floor. Zach placed a hand on Nolan’s shoulder. “I’ll see what I can do.”
A look of relief swept over Nolan’s young face. “Thanks, Zach. I appreciate it. I really need the money.”
“Is everything OK?”
Nolan ran a hand through his too-long hair. “Yeah. My old man isn’t about to help with much is all. It’s time I figure out how to make it on my own.”
Zach folded his arms in front of his chest. “Have you ever considered working construction?”
Nolan’s face lit up. “Like building stuff?”
“Yeah. You know the store, but do you have any idea how any of the stuff in here works?”
Nolan nodded. “Yeah. A little anyway. But I can learn what I don’t know.”
“Let me talk to my dad. If he can’t work you in, maybe I can find something for you with me.”
Karen’s heart swelled. It was obvious that Nolan was struggling, and she had a pretty good idea as to why, and Zach had caught on to the intensity of his need as well and reacted with solutions. Nothing put a smile on her face faster than someone willing to help when they didn’t have to.
She cleared her throat and stepped into the room. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “The girls ran off and I was going to walk back to the house.”
Zach swung around. “I can take you. I was just dropping off a few things.”
“It’s not far.”
“It’s all right. I’m going by that way.”
There was a protest on her lips, but she let it die. It was hot outside and she felt as if she’d walked the entire town five times since she woke that morning.
Nolan smiled at her and Karen extended a hand. “You must be Nolan Parker.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Nolan, this is Karen Jones,” Zach introduced her. For the first time since she’d arrived someone didn’t introduce her as an extension of Michael. She smiled.
“I met Becky an hour or so ago.”
Nolan’s face lit up with the mention of her name. Yeah, he has it bad.
“She stopped by after she had her hair cut.” He glanced at Zach. “She only stayed a few minutes.”
Zach grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Nolan offered a cocky grin and reached for the boxes of inventory. “Nice meeting you.”
Karen followed Zach out of the store and waited as he opened the door of the truck for her.
He jumped in his side and turned over the engine.
“Nice kid,” Karen said.
“He is. Kind of surprised he didn’t leave town the day after graduation.” Zach switched the air conditioner on high.