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His mom was sweet as could be, but she’d never taken much interest in getting to know the rest of the town. As a teen, Charity assumed it was because her husband was the town pediatrician, and he wanted to keep a professional distance from his patients. But looking back on it as an adult, she wasn’t so sure about that.
“My mom likes her privacy,” he said. “She gets a little skittish about people knowing her personal business.”
Charity struggled to formulate a question to go with what she was thinking. It didn’t matter anyway. Before she could get a word out, the group had come to a stop while Pastor Murphy spoke to a woman walking her dog.
But Nic’s words continued to swish around in her head as they approached the door of the first house. Maybe that was where he got his aversion to living in a small town. He’d been raised by a mom who had to go out of her way to avoid shopping and hanging out in the town where she lived.
No wonder he wanted to settle down in a bigger city somewhere that would give him the privacy he wanted. And privacy was important to Nic Winters, just as it was to his mom. She just couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to piece it all together.
Yes, he was definitely done with this town. She just needed to accept it and move on, as hard as it would be.
16
Charity was in her element. It was clear to see that from the way she lit up every time they sang to a new household.
For Nic, the entire experience was surreal. At house after house, he saw people he played next to in Little League, sat behind in algebra, and worked alongside at the auto repair shop once he’d been old enough to drive. These people were parents now—all grown up.
He deliberately stayed away from social media, which meant he avoided sneaking peeks at what people looked like now. This was like going blindly into a high school reunion. Only it wasn’t just his class. It was kids who’d been several years younger than him and some who’d been several years older. All had families of their own now.
“Everyone’s married with kids,” he commented to Charity as they started the climb toward the bigger houses.
“Those are just the ones who stuck around,” she said. “Plus, we’re deliberately visiting houses of church members.”
He frowned. “Why would that matter?”
“Most of these people either met at church before graduation or they got together afterward.”
“So the church is kind of like the town matchmaker.”
That brought a laugh from her. He loved her laugh. He’d always loved it, even when they’d just been friends. It was one of those things that made him miss Misty Mountain. Not the town itself, but the young person he’d been growing up here, when life had felt so full of possibilities.
“I assume in Lexington, people stay single for a long time,” she said.
He almost laughed out loud at that. “Lexington is hardly a big city, but yeah, a lot of my friends are putting off marriage. My ex-wife and I had couple friends, but not many were married. Two lived together and one had just started dating.”
Again, they walked in silence for a while. The only sound was the conversation up ahead of them and the sound of their footfalls on the concrete sidewalk.
“There’s not much of a single life here in Misty Mountain,” she said. “I have to admit, it gets lonely sometimes. I have my parents, of course, and my friends, but Noelle lives in Knoxville. Now that she’s dating Enzo—”
“Wait a second. Noelle and Enzo are dating? How did I miss that?”
“It’s new news,” she said. “And don’t say a word. She didn’t tell me to keep it a secret, but I probably shouldn’t have let it slip.”
“You know you can trust me.”
That was followed by another silence. More than anything right now, he wished he could read her thoughts. She remembered how many times they’d shared secrets, knowing the other wouldn’t tell a soul. Was she still thinking about Enzo and Noelle and what their coupling up might mean for their friendship?
“Remember this house?” she asked.
The sudden change in topic made it clear Charity wasn’t thinking about their conversation at all. She’d been staring straight ahead for most of that silence, and he didn’t have to follow her line of vision to know what she meant.
Up ahead was the gigantic house that belonged to the woman they’d nicknamed “Penny Pincher.” Legend had it, she’d married a super wealthy guy who’d died, and now she lived in this house all alone.
But they’d given her the nickname because every Halloween, she gave each kid one penny taped to a candy cane. Since candy canes were traditionally Christmas treats, they always assumed she was passing out ten-month-old candy, bought in the bargain bin at the after-Christmas sales.
But the way the house looked threw Nic off. Penny Pincher never decorated for Christmas. They always knocked on her door when they caroled, and she never answered. The joke was that she probably worried they expected her to pay them.
“Penny Pincher died,” Charity said in an appropriately somber voice. “Her family tried to get her to go to a place, but she didn’t want to pay for it. Her neighbors kept an eye on her, though, and they called her kids when they knew it was getting close.”
