Bark to the Future (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 5) Read online

  “Beth, I’m fine. I can walk, you know. Just not very far or for very long.”

  “If you get hungry, you can heat up the leftovers.”

  “You’re dawdling Beth. Go.”

  Reluctantly, Beth left the house and got into the Explorer. She drove out of town and down the highway to the Enchanted Moose. Because the high school drew students from the entire county, the reunion was located at “The Moose,” which was more centrally located than any place in the town of Alpine Grove itself. It was an older motel and convention center that also had an associated RV park.

  There was a mediocre restaurant on-site, which Beth hoped wasn’t catering anything for the reunion. Objectively speaking, the Moose was sort of a dump. No one was going to confuse their high-school reunion with a formal opulent affair. Beth considered her mother’s comments about the reunion committee budget. Maybe the daffodils would help. At least they were colorful.

  She parked out front, walked to the entrance, and yanked at the glass door to enter the old building. An elderly woman was sitting behind the long wooden check-in counter. She was wearing a calico-print dress and appeared to be fast asleep, the gray bun on her head nodding up and down as she snored quietly. Was it considered rude to wake someone up in a situation like this? Beth clutched at her necklace for a moment. What was she supposed to do? She straightened her shoulders. This was stupid. Time to be a grown-up. What if she were a high-powered executive checking in? The woman would have to help her.

  Beth stood in front of the counter and leaned toward the woman. “Excuse me.”

  The woman snorted, but didn’t wake up. Beth tried arching her body over the counter as far as she could, and said more loudly, “Excuse me!”

  Starting awake, the woman waved her arms in circles and fell off the chair and onto the floor with an indelicate thud. Beth ran around the end of the counter and tried to help her up. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”

  The woman stood up, pushed Beth away, and brushed at her knobby knees. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Beth Connolly. I need to drop off some stuff for the high-school reunion tomorrow. Maybe someone told you? The flowers? I just wanted to know where I should take them.”

  “Oh, you reunion people.” She waved toward the back of the building. “You need to go around the side. There’s a service entrance. It gets you to all the meeting areas. Those people are all back there chattering away, doing who knows what.”

  “Okay.” Why did she feel like she’d just been given a dressing-down by her grandmother?

  After driving around the Enchanted Moose parking lot a few times, Beth finally found the service entrance. She opened the door and walked into a hallway. One of the meeting rooms had a table out front next to a sign that said, “Welcome Cedar County High School Class of 1985.” Beth tried not to cringe. Somehow seeing it in print made the whole idea of attending the event tomorrow all the more dreadful.

  She peeked into the room, which was filled with women setting up something on a partially assembled stage. A couple of chunky men were attempting to hang lights while other men stood around holding beers in their hands. Beth recognized Glenn Eisenhower as one of the onlookers. He certainly had not aged well. Kat was right. Karma could be a bummer.

  A woman with short red hair bustled by her and Beth said, “Excuse me. I’m looking for Vanessa. Is she here?”

  The woman stopped and turned around. “Beth, hi! It’s me.”

  “Vanessa?” The Vanessa she knew was not a svelte redhead.

  “Yup. It’s me. In the flesh.”

  “You look…in…incredible.”

  “You can say it Beth. I lost 35 pounds and I dyed my hair. You know my hair isn’t really this color. I got into aerobics in college. I still teach classes for fun, and I’m going to start training for a marathon this summer.”

  “That’s wonderful, Vanessa.” Beth jammed her trembling hands in her coat pockets so no one could see them. Did everyone except her have their life together?

  “So did you bring your mom’s daffodils?” Vanessa waved toward the room. “We need all the help we can get. I mean, let’s face it. This is The Moose. There’s only so much we can do.”

  Beth turned her head and looked around the room. “Yes, it looks the same, doesn’t it? My mother gave me twenty-five pots of daffodils. Do you think you could recruit some people to help me bring them inside?”

  “Twenty-five? Wow, that’s fantastic! You betcha. Let’s get those losers off their butts.” Vanessa stopped, put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. She pointed at the beer drinkers. “You guys, over there. Time to help unload. There are plants in the car. Be careful with them. One plant on each table. Got it?”

  They nodded mutely and scattered to set down their beers. Beth turned to Vanessa. “I wish I’d had you at some of my meetings at work.”

  “Teaching aerobics not only helps get you in shape—you also learn to shout and motivate people who may or may not want to be motivated.”

  “I suppose that’s true. I’ve never been very good at that type of thing.”

  Vanessa supervised the unloading and placement of the daffodils, which actually did brighten up the space. Each daffodil was like a festive little glimpse of spring.

  As Beth was preparing to leave, Danielle, the cheerleader she’d met at bookstore, ran up to her and grabbed her arm. “Please say thank you to your mom. All of us on the committee were so upset that we couldn’t afford flowers!”

  “I’ll be sure to tell her. She loves daffodils, and every year she forces more bulbs than she knows what to do with. She’ll be happy they’ll be appreciated.”

  “See you tomorrow night. It’s going to be so much fun!”

  Beth smiled weakly. “Can’t wait.”

  After another long day of sorting books at the bookstore, Beth returned to her mother’s house. She could no longer put off the looming and formidable question that had plagued her all day. What was she going to wear to the reunion?

  She went into the house, hung up her coat, and walked into the living room. Margaret was not curled up in her nest of afghans on the sofa. Should she be up so soon? Beth walked into the kitchen. “I can do that if you want.”

  “Hi Beth. I’m starting to get a little squirrelly just lying around.” She pointed at an eight-quart stockpot on the stove. “I made a batch of soup.”

  Beth peered into the pot. “It looks good. Wasn’t all that standing hard on your back?”

  “I paced myself. I hope it’s good, because I got out of hand with the chopping and used the rest of that bag of potatoes. There’s enough here to feed an army. Maybe I’ll freeze some and save it.”

  “Good idea. Just be sure to mark the containers this time.”

  Margaret stirred the soup. “Are you getting excited about the reunion tonight?”

  “No. I still can’t believe I agreed to this. And all day I have been in a quandary about what to wear.”

  “Did you look in the closet? You never bring enough warm clothing when you visit, so I’m afraid to give anything away. I think there are some pretty dresses. I know there’s a nice green one.”

  “That is my prom dress. And, before you say anything, no. Absolutely not.”

  “Okay. Let’s look through my closet too. Maybe we can come up with a combination that will work.”

  Beth put her arm around Margaret’s shoulders. “Thanks. That would be great.”

  Later, after many involved wardrobe debates with her mother, Beth finally was dressed acceptably in a pretty floral skirt of her mother’s that matched one of the blouses she’d brought from Tucson. At last, she was ready to leave. Standing in the entryway, she hugged her mother. “Even though I vetoed the dress, I feel like I’m going to the prom again.”

  “Well the young man you went with was very nice. What was his name?”

  “Drew.”

  “Maybe you’ll see him tonight.”

  “Please don’t say that! He’s the last person I want
to see. This is going to be bad enough as it is.”

  “Didn’t you date him for a while?”

  “I don’t want to discuss that right now. I’ve got to go, but I’m sure I’ll be home early.”

  “All right, dear.” Margaret patted her shoulder and turned to return to the living room. “I’ll see you later.”

  As Beth drove out to the Enchanted Moose, she thought about where Drew Emery might be now. After high school, he probably relocated to North Carolina, since his family was all out East. The odds of him attending the reunion had to be low. It was too far. There was no way he would even consider showing up. He only attended Cedar County High for the last half of senior year, anyway. He wasn’t like the rest of them, who had been stuck with each other since first grade.

  Seeing Drew again would be onerous for multiple reasons. Best not to think about it. She’d just say hello to anyone she actually recognized, suffer through some small talk without mentioning her little unemployment problem, and then leave early. Her obligation to attend would be fulfilled and she could forget this whole thing ever happened.

  She parked the Explorer and went back to the meeting rooms. True to her word, Danielle was sitting at a table that was covered with name tags. Beth was surprised at the quantity. Her graduating class had been about 150 people and this looked to be a respectable number of them—perhaps 25 to 50 percent of the graduates. The committee must have engaged in a serious reunion-recruitment campaign.

  Danielle waved eagerly at Beth and then handed her a name tag. “Here you go!”

  Beth looked down at her gruesome senior picture and tried not to grimace. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll see you inside! My shift is almost up.”

  Beth squinted at the little black-and-white photo on Danielle’s name tag. Her face had looked completely different then. Different nose, eyes, lips and chin. Danielle had certainly had a lot of work done. And in high school, everyone had called her Dani. No wonder she didn’t recognize the woman. Everything made more sense now. Beth attached the name tag to her blouse and turned toward the door. “See you later.”

  As she moved, suddenly everything became blurry. Beth blinked quickly and stepped back away from the table and over to a corner near the doorway. Not now! She touched her left eye with her finger, trying to move her contact lens back into position. At least it hadn’t popped out. The last thing she needed was a contact lens debacle in the middle of the reunion. She blinked a few more times and could see again. Okay. One disaster averted. Time to get this over with. At least Danielle had witnessed her arrival, and she’d undoubtedly report to everyone that Beth had fulfilled her promise.

  Turning, she entered the large meeting area. The lighting had been dimmed, probably to disguise some of the less attractive elements of the Enchanted Moose decor. Tiny white lights glimmered everywhere. Someone must have found a post-Christmas lighting closeout at the KMart down the road. The little twinkly lights were everywhere, giving the room a festive, sparkly feel. Each daffodil was surrounded by evergreen boughs and a circle of lights that lit up the citron-colored blooms, making them seem even more bright and cheerful.

  Beth smiled as she looked around the room. The decorating committee had done a remarkable job, given what they had to work with. People were bustling around the room and Beth realized that she recognized many of them, which was astounding. Memories came rushing back. Not all of them were good, but it was remarkable how many people she saw that she had forgotten about entirely.

  Of course, the typical high-school social stereotypes were represented—cheerleaders like Danielle and jocks like Glenn. But there were also people Beth had actually liked. Some she’d eaten lunch with a few times when she hadn’t opted to hide out in the school library. The girl she’d done that extra-credit project with in AP English was standing near the stage. What was her name?

  Beth waved at Vanessa, who grinned at her in reply. As she walked toward the side of the room where the refreshments were, she felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe this evening wouldn’t be as horrible as she’d feared. She paused again near the wall to remove her coat and smiled at a tall, smartly dressed woman who looked vaguely familiar. The woman was also removing her long coat. Looking at Beth, she flashed a smile in return, revealing perfect, straight teeth. “Beth! How are you?”

  “I’m fine.” This woman must have had an amazing orthodontist. No one had teeth that flawless. Who was she? This was absurd. Did she remember no one in her class at all? It was going to be a long evening if she had to ask everyone she met who they were.

  The woman moved closer to Beth and waved both hands up and down. She grinned. “Wow, look at you! You look fantastic, Beth. Your mom told me that you live in Tucson now.”

  Beth could feel the heat on her cheeks. Why wasn’t this person wearing her name tag? Wait. There was a family resemblance—this woman had to be Carl’s sister. But his sister wasn’t in their class. “I’m sorry. I’m having trouble placing you. Are you related to Carl Johnson?”

  The woman looked down at herself. “No. I am Carl. Or I was. Now I’m Carla. I guess your mom didn’t mention seeing me at the bookstore the other day.”

  “No…no she didn’t. Wow. I love your outfit. That blue looks great on you.”

  Carla looked down and ran her palm along the front of the sapphire-blue sheath dress. “I know. It was a fabulous deal too. I got it at The Broadway and I just adore the feel of the fabric.” She looked back up at Beth. “It feels sort of funny talking to you about dresses after all those tutoring sessions at the end of senior year.”

  “At least you passed English and didn’t lose your football scholarship.” Carl had been Mr. Popularity. And now Carla was even more gorgeous than he’d been in high school.

  Carla put her hand on Beth’s arm. “I’m really grateful for your help.”

  “It didn’t seem like it at the time.”

  “I know. I was a jerk.”

  Beth looked up. “Well…yes. I didn’t think you knew that. It was a long time ago. I like to think I’ve changed a bit too.”

  Carla readjusted her coat in her arms. “I love your mom’s store. And she’s exactly the same—always excited about reading some new novel.”

  “Yes, Mom loves her books. I guess you changed your mind about reading for pleasure. It’s not just a thing boring losers do.”

  “I changed my mind about a lot of things. I shouldn’t have called you that.”

  “It’s okay. People said worse.” Beth knew her cheeks had to be twelve shades of red by now. Thank goodness for the dim lighting. Could she possibly be any more pathetic at small talk? How did people do this? “So…uh…what do you do for a living?”

  Carla put her hand on her hip. “Oh come on, Beth. I know what you really want to ask. I’ve been Carla for about five years. After I trashed out my knee in college, that killed any chance of going pro. It felt like my life was over. I spent some time in therapy…lots of self-reflection.” She waved her hands. “Oh, never mind. Sorry. Too much information. Anyway, I work at a management consulting firm in Austin.”

  Beth smiled. “That’s great, Carla. You seem really happy.”

  “Oh, I am! It’s been great to see you, Beth. I should go talk to the guys on the team. I’ve been mentally preparing myself for this moment for a long time, since most of them don’t know what I’ve been up to lately. I need to go get that over with. Please give your mom my regards.”

  “I will.” Beth waved slightly. The members of the 1985 Alpine Grove football team were about to get a big, big surprise.

  Beth walked toward the refreshment area. She had actually managed to talk to another classmate without stuttering too much or sounding like a complete idiot. It was a miracle. Maybe she could get through this evening without making a fool of herself, after all. She ladled some punch into a plastic cup and felt someone come up behind her.

  A voice whispered in her ear, “Hey there, Bethie. It’s been a while.”

  She put the cup
down, turned and looked into Drew Emery’s soft blue-gray eyes. There were little laugh lines at the corners now, but otherwise his eyes looked the same as they did in her dreams.

  “Drew! I didn’t expect to see you. You’re…you are here. And you cut your hair.” Was that was the best she could do? After a decade. Really? Beth wanted to crawl under the table and die.

  He grinned and said in his laconic North Carolina drawl, “After ten years, if I hadn’t ever cut my hair, I’d look like a troll doll by now.”

  Beth laughed and gripped her necklace, twisting it in her fingers. “I suppose.” Drew still had light brown hair with sun-tinted highlights, but it was cut short, so it wasn’t curling wildly around his collar anymore. And even in February, he hadn’t lost his perpetual tan. Because he had filled out, he seemed more solid somehow, with less of a surfer-boy look. Although he was casually dressed, he looked like he could head up an executive board meeting. She’d always thought he was attractive, but the grown-up Drew was more than a bit disarming. Wow.

  He reached around her and picked up a plastic cup. “How are you?”

  “I am doing extremely well, thank you. I live in Tucson and everything is just perfect.”

  “Perfect?” He gave her a sidelong glance as he ladled some punch into the cup. “Really? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone say that before.” Beth knew the look in his eyes all too well. He could always tell when she was lying.

  Beth shrugged and clutched her necklace more tightly. “Well, perhaps perfect isn’t the ideal term.”

  “If you keep doing that, you’re gonna strangle yourself, Beth.” He put down the cup, reached over, and gently pulled her hand down from her necklace. “You still have that silver heart pendant, huh?”

  Beth nodded and looked down at her hand in his. Her hand was trembling visibly between them. This was so embarrassing. But he wasn’t letting go—he had an amazing knack for understanding when she was really scared. The simple contact was so comforting, and the racing of her heart slowed slightly.