Find Wonder In All Things by Karen M. Cox Read Free Book Online

to turn and face him. He pulled her close and looked at her. James wasn’t short by any stretch of the imagination, but he could almost look her square in the eye. He squeezed her hand and smiled.
    “Bye, Mountain Laurel.”
    She grinned and took off up the ramp.

Chapter 4
    “Hey there, you . . . son . . . boy . . . What’s his name again?” Phil the shift manger was annoyed with his memory lapse, but the summer staff came and went like yesterday’s burgers. How was he supposed to remember them all?
    “James,” Darlene the waitress said over her shoulder as she passed by with a coffeepot in her hand, cracking her gum.
    “James!” Phil didn’t shout in the restaurant — that would be rude — but his booming voice carried across the room to the busboy, standing idly in the doorway with a goofy look on his face. “Table 12 left five minutes ago. Clean it off already.”
    James jumped, embarrassed that he had been caught once again being inattentive. In truth, he was being very attentive, just not to his job. He hurried over to table 12 with his dish bin, casting surreptitious glances at Laurel as she moved between tables, smiling, taking orders, and generally being the light of the place. She winked at him, and he turned back to his task, grinning. After five days of giving Mrs. Elliot the full-court press, Laurel had convinced her mother to let him take her out on a real date. That night they would finally go somewhere besides the walking paths around the state park next door. Granted, it was just to a burger joint and a movie, but still it was ‘out.’
    After that first day, James was alone on the houseboat. Stuart spent all his time wooing Virginia at her university about an hour away. The official story was that Stuart stayed with friends, but James had a feeling those friends rarely saw him. In fact, James wouldn’t be surprised if Stuart bailed out on his parents’ trip to Europe.
    Unfortunately, when Stu left, so did his wheels, and that meant James had been confined to the marina for almost a week. Phil or Mr. Elliot would take him to the bank when he needed to go, but bank and store errands weren’t the same as going out for a night of fun. He couldn’t very well ask Mr. Elliot to drive him around on a date with his own daughter! So the day before, Laurel asked her dad to borrow his truck and vowed she would drive.
    She sidled up behind him, and he knew she was there without even turning around. She smelled like iced tea with a whiff of honeysuckle underneath. He breathed deeply and smiled.
    “Daddy gave me permission to stay out late,” she murmured as she dropped some silverware in his tub. “Till one o’clock.”
    “Even then, I don’t think we’ll have enough time for both a dinner and a movie.”
    “Well then, let’s skip the dinner and just hit the drive-in.”
    He raised his eyebrows at her. Didn’t she know what went on at drive-ins?
    “And don’t get any ideas, Marshall. I don’t know you that well.”
    He laughed. “Yes, ma’am.” He liked that forthright innocence she had about her — like she was naïve but still in charge of her own fate. “So, I’ll meet you up at your house about 10:30. I gotta take a shower first.”
    “No . . . I’ll come down. Just meet me here.”
    “Laurel, are you sure your father okayed this? I don’t want to have to look for another job tomorrow.”
    “Oh, absolutely. It’s fine with Daddy. It’s just Mama.”
    He frowned. “What did I do to get on her bad side?” Mrs. Elliot hadn’t shown up anywhere on the marina since he’d been there. Usually mothers waited to meet him before taking an active dislike.
    “That’s not it. She’s just not feeling well and won’t want any company up at the house.”
    “Nothing serious, I hope.”
    Laurel bit her lip. “Oh no, she’ll be fine.” Her voice indicated that she didn’t want to discuss it anymore, and she gave him a weak smile. He decided not to press the issue. Whatever was