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After all, there was no sin in coloring.
“I suppose I’ve resisted a few books in my day,” Peyton said with a small smile.
“Oh, we’re not asking you to compromise your values in any way. In fact, this is actually something you can do and feel good about, because you’ll be helping someone else,” Charlene said.
“It really makes you feel good when you help people,” Teresa added to the conversation.
She usually only sounded authentic when she was sure that what she was saying was exactly true, with no other way to interpret it.
Charlene could respect that. Some people were born with that black-and-white type of personality and never saw any shades of gray.
To her, the whole world was a shade of gray for the most part.
Peyton nodded, looking relaxed and sanguine.
Charlene looked around at the rest of the ladies, then took a deep breath, and dove in. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been north of town and seen the old Shaker mansion?”
“I haven’t. Maybe this summer, I’ll get out a little more than I did last. With moving here and getting everything settled, I just never took time to explore the area.”
Charlene wanted to add it didn’t help that Peyton was such a homebody, but she didn’t. “It would be good for Owen to get out and see the countryside. There are lots of interesting things to check out.”
Charlene shouldn’t have mentioned Owen, because it reminded Peyton about her son and that he should be somewhere around. Sometimes he slept in, and if it wasn’t a school day, Peyton would allow him to.
Hurrying to head Peyton off from looking for Owen, Charlene said, “I saw him put his jacket on and step outside for a bit.”
Peyton’s eyes went from roaming the store to meeting Charlene’s before she nodded and smiled. “I know he’s twelve, and Sweet Water is a small town. Nothing’s going to happen to him, and he’s responsible enough to get on the bus when it stops, but...I still remember when he was little and needed me all the time.”
“Being a mom of small children is a hard habit to break,” Kathy said, patting Peyton’s hand.
Charlene nodded, giving a second or two of space before she completely changed the subject. “Just about the time you moved in last year, Bryce Shaker moved into the Shaker mansion. He’s single, living alone.”
Charlene didn’t give any more details. Not about the accident, not about the scars, not about Bryce being bitter and angry and having a very public exodus from social media after retiring from baseball in the middle of the season where he had once been the highest-paid athlete. After the accident had left him broken and scarred, his career had sunk into the toilet.
Yeah. It might be best for Peyton to find all that out on her own.
Chapter 2
