“Thank you again,” she said, delving into the sack of groceries and neatly placing the items in her carefully arranged cupboard. Space was at a premium in the cabinets.
“When I moved here, I didn’t like the idea of an apartment, but didn’t want the responsibility of a house,” she explained, putting eggs in the grooved tray of the refrigerator. “This condo community was the answer. The house payment covers the maintenance of the yard. And I like having close neighbors.”
The house was U-shaped around a central courtyard. As he jiggled Sarah in his arms, Chad peered out into the courtyard through a wide picture window over the sink. “Your patio is nice. The landscaping’s pretty.”
She laughed. “As you know, grass and trees aren’t exactly in abundance in Midland, and I found that barrenness depressing. I had to create my own garden spot. Of course, nothing’s blooming now, but in the spring it’s nice to have flowering plants. My water bills this summer were horrendous.”
“You’re not a native west Texan?”
“I’m an Air Force brat. My father was a career man, and his last post was in Big Spring. That was before the air base there was closed. When he retired, he and Mother decided to stay. By that time, I was away at college. Greg and I lived in El Paso.”
“Your husband?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.” Her hands paused in their busy activities. It had been over a year now. All the books said that the first year of widowhood was the hardest to survive. She had been through the first Christmas, the birthdays, their anniversary. The bad times, the arguments over his work, had been replaced by happier memories.
“You said he was a narcotics agent,” Chad recalled thoughtfully. “Did his work bother you?”
She didn’t find Chad’s question a prying one because of the way he asked it. He seemed genuinely interested in her answer. “I hated it. Greg and I were happy together. Our only conflict was his work. I had begged him to give it up, but…” She hastily closed the cupboard door and reached into another for place settings. “What about you? Are you still working as a mechanic?”
“Mechanic?”
“You said you were working on an airplane engine. I thought you must be a mechanic.”
“Oh, yeah, well, I do work on engines sometimes. I putter around on different things.” He looked away self-consciously and she didn’t press him to provide her with more information. Maybe he didn’t have a steady job and took work when and where he could find it. He had apparently bought the clothes he was wearing during a more lucrative period. His conservative attire was obviously of high quality and fit him to perfection.
The table was set and the food ready to serve. Chad had brought Sarah’s swing into the kitchen so he could slice the canned ham for Leigh. The baby was consigned to the swing while they ate their meal.
“Do you work, Leigh?” Chad asked, biting into a buttered hunk of French bread.
“Yes, but it’s rather hard to explain,” she smiled. “I decorate shopping malls.”
/> He stared at her with utter bemusement and Leigh laughed. “Come again?” he said when he had swallowed the mouthful of bread.
“I decorate shopping malls. Haven’t you ever wondered who hung all those baskets of spring bouquets? Or who replaced the potted plants around the fountains? Or set up Santa’s North Pole house—which, incidentally, I’m doing now.”
Chad laid his fork on his plate and quirked an eyebrow at her. “I must be dense, but no, I’ve never given it a thought.”
“Few people do, but they’d certainly notice if they weren’t there.”
“You work for the mall?”
“Not exclusively. I work for them on a retainer basis. I do a few office buildings, too. They usually want only Christmas decorations. Sometimes Easter. I tell them what to buy within their budget, they buy it, and I set it up.”
“Fascinating.”
She laughed. “Hardly, but it’s a terrific job for a single parent. I work at my own pace, within deadlines, of course. I pay students to do all the heavy work for me, except at the mall. Their own engineers help me there. The decorations in the mall only have to be changed about five times a year. In between, I’m planning what I’m going to do next.”
“How does one go about finding a job like that?”
“Actually it found me. I had a friend who did this sort of thing for banks in El Paso. I was her unofficial assistant. She was offered this job by the developers of the mall here. She declined it, but sold them on me. Of course, they didn’t know I was pregnant when I first went to work, but no one said anything even when it became obvious.”
“Of course not. I’m sure they were pleased with your work, and who would fire a pregnant widow from a job in this enlightened day and age?”
She laughed. “You’re probably right. In any case, I’m glad they didn’t. I couldn’t beat the working conditions.”
They finished their meal and ate ice cream with fudge sauce for dessert.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any coffee to go with this, would you?” he asked.