Free The Ride of Her Life by Lorna Seilstad

one of the Yacht Club’s windows. Good-natured Carter had kissed his wife and said he’d replace the window by nightfall.
    “How about we play Poison? You can sit out the first game, but whoever wins gets to hold Katie while you play in the second.” Lilly fished a nickel from her pocket for the coin toss.
    “If I have to.” Emily sank onto the park bench and propped Kate on her shoulder.
    From the wooden box containing the equipment, Lilly selected a red-striped ball, and Marguerite, a blue one. Lilly passed Emily the coin. Marguerite won the toss and placed her ball midway between the stake and the first wicket. She gave it a soft strike with the mallet, and the ball landed inches short of the wicket.
    “Well, Lilly, I’m ready.” Emily patted Katie’s back, a telling smile on her face.
    “Ready for what?” Marguerite looked up from her disappointing shot and scowled. “Did I miss something?”
    “No, you didn’t miss a thing except Emily’s overactive imagination.” Lilly nudged Marguerite to the side and set her own ball on the ground. Her swing sent the ball through the first wicket. “I believe the first point goes to me.”
    “Well done!” Emily adjusted the blanket around Katie. “And now you can tell us why Levi suddenly prefers Nick Perrin’s company over sailing and how that same gentleman came to escort you home the other night.”
    “At night? You have been keeping secrets.” Marguerite’s ball tapped Lilly’s after going through the wicket. She held up two fingers, indicating the points she received for the shot.
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” Lilly sighed. “If you two magpies promise not to make this more than it is, I’ll tell you what happened.”
    As she and Marguerite took turns throughout the course, she explained how Nick had taken an interest in Levi. Doing her best to downplay any significance, she told them matter-of-factly how he and Levi had become so engrossed in the snake-cage construction that they’d missed dinner. “Since I had to heat a plate for Levi, I figured I might as well make one for Mr. Perrin as well. After all, he’d been kind to Levi.”
    “So how did he come to carry Levi back to the cottage?” Emily asked, her green eyes alight with a twinkle.
    Lilly crouched to get a good look at the post at the end of the course. If she hit it, her ball would be poison, and hitting Marguerite’s ball would mean eliminating her friend from the competition. “Levi fell asleep while Nick and I were washing the dishes.”
    “Nick?” Marguerite tented her eyebrows.
    “He washed dishes?” Emily giggled. “My, my, my.”
    “You two are as bad as Emily’s meddling aunts. The whole thing meant nothing.” Lilly whacked her ball hard, and it sailed beyond the striped post at the end of the course. “See, you made me miss my shot.”
    “Oh.” Marguerite grinned. “I think you’ve still got a shot, but you simply refuse to admit it.”

9
    Spring was measured in flowers. It might not be manly, but Nick knew it was the truth. First the crocuses and hyacinths bloomed, then the daffodils, a flower to which he was particularly partial because his mother had loved them. Now the bright blooms of tulips lifted their faces to the sky, and soon the air would be filled with the scent of lilacs. He smiled at the thought as he made his way to Thorton’s Lunch Counter.
    Nick glanced at one of the Lake Manawa gardeners carefully sprinkling seeds from a packet into one of the Midway’s large, round flower planters. If Iowa didn’t get a late snow as he’d been told sometimes happens, those seeds should be in bloom by June. By then, folks would be enjoying both his roller coaster and a planter filled with marigolds.
    Sean had once pointed out that the Lord used a lot of references to sowing and reaping when he taught. Nick found it was Jesus as a carpenter’s son, however, that he thought of most often. The sweet smell of sawdust, the grain of wood, and the feel of a