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"I'll definitely take one of the sparrows. I know my mom will like that one."
She smiled. "I love that one, too. That was the first piece I designed myself," she said.
"What inspired you?"
"I, I," she stuttered, stalling and looking stunned. "I was a teenager at the time, and uh, I guess with my confidence level at the time… I think I just saw some of myself in a sparrow. A little, plain, brown bird."
Owen's heart raced at her words. There was nothing plain about this woman. He wanted to reassure her of that, but surely she knew.
"You made this when you were a teenager?" he asked, focusing on the jewelry.
"Yeah, I designed it when I was twelve or thirteen, I think."
"I hope you don't see yourself as a sparrow now." Owen wondered if he should've said that, and he stared at the jewelry as he waited for her to respond.
"Maybe it's not so bad to be a sparrow," she said. "They're beautiful in their own way."
She had no idea how gorgeous she was, and it caused an ache in Owen's chest. "Yeah," he said vaguely.
He talked to the girl for another ten minutes.
He bought several pieces of jewelry for his mom, and by the time he left there, he knew he had to see her again. She was friendly to him, and he thought she might have agreed if he had asked her out, but he couldn’t work up the nerve.
Confidence was not something Owen lacked, so he was surprised by his own reluctance with this woman. At least he knew where to find her. He told himself he would go back to that store and buy more jewelry, and he might do it as soon as tomorrow.
Owen went directly from the jewelry store to the small barber shop a few blocks down. He would meet Paul there. The actors had access to a fishing and nature guide named Paul. He was available during their time off. Owen had come into Philipsburg with him. This was the closest town to their shooting location, and it was forty-five minutes away. Paul lived in Philipsburg and his wife owned the hair salon there. Paul had been in there for the last thirty minutes, waiting while Owen was out.
"Where'd you get that pretty little bag?" Paul asked in his deep lumberjack voice with a tone of disappointment.
Owen looked at the bag of jewelry and chuckled. He honestly hadn't even noticed the bag. He had been and still was completely preoccupied with…
"How well do you know that woman, Corey, from the jewelry store?" he asked.
He had been talking to Paul, but he noticed that his wife flinched when he said her name.
"She keeps to herself," Paul said. "She lives with the preacher. The old man who runs that tiny church, up past Hideaway Trail. He's a weird guy, he's probably a hundred years old. I think he's still in the pulpit, preaching for eight or ten old-timers every Sunday. It's way out there, past Gabe's property."
"Is that guy her grandfather or something?" Owen asked, feeling like he still wanted to know more.
"No, he's not," a lady said, chiming in from across the room.
There were only two salon chairs in this whole place, and only one of them was occupied. The stylist and customer were both facing away from Owen, but she shifted the chair, and now they could see him in the reflection of the mirror. He wasn't sure which one had spoken. They both regarded him.
"My business partner is married to a guy who works with John's brother," the stylist, Paul's wife, said.
"Is John the preacher?" Owen asked her.
"No, that's Stanley. She and her mom live with Stanley Boggs, the preacher. They haven't always lived here. Sandra Bowman was going to that church when that woman and her daughter first came. That was twenty years ago or more. The girl was just a little toddler back then."
"I don’t know anything about her," the customer said as a disclaimer.
"I know about her. I've heard a few things from people coming through here. Jennifer's husband knows John Coleman, and he's with them all the time. He's a fishing guide. He's got his own operation. He's the one who's going to take over caring for the women when Stanley dies."
"Is John Coleman with that Corey girl?" the customer asked, suddenly interested.
Paul's wife shrugged. "I think. John's too old for her, but I think he wants to marry her. He'll end up doing it. That's what Jennifer said. He's a nice guy, he's just like fifteen years older than her."
"He was all that in high school, but back then, she would have been a baby," the customer said.
