Free Wynn in the Willows by Robin Shope

up.
    “Are you all right?” Doug pulled a bandanna from his back pocket and handed it to her.
    She stared into his handsome face.
    “Are you all right?” he asked again as moisture dripped out of his hair.
    “Yes.” Wynn blinked the tears away, dabbed at her eyes and handed his bandanna back.
    Doug sat too close and stretched his legs out, making her slide down a few inches. He made eye contact and smiled. “It’s just that back there,” he said pointing over his shoulder, “you seemed upset and after cutting apart a few logs, I thought I should check on you. And here you are saying you are all right, but not acting it.”
    Wynn tried to find the words to tell him that she was just having a moment.
    “Pretty cards,” Doug said, looking in her shoebox.
    “Thank you. It’s been an emotional morning for me.”
    “Are they from your boyfriend?”
    “They’re from my mom. I miss her.” Wynn hated that her voice cracked.
    “You two are close, then?”
    “Not really. That’s the problem.”
    “Maybe she will send you another card and everything will be better.”
    “That would be nice. But…she doesn’t know I’m here on the island, and you see, there’s no mailbox.” She pointed to the top of the drive.
    “Huh, no mailbox. Imagine that.” He pulled a red straw from his back pocket and began gnawing on it.
    “Roxie picks up her mail from a post office box in town.”
    “Oh.”
    “Why do you chew on those things? I don’t think I’ve seen you without a straw in your mouth.”
    He pulled it from his mouth with a sheepish grin. “Oh, this. I gave up smoking a few months ago. Was up to a pack a day. Now I’m on straws. Down to two a day of these things.”
    Wynn laughed. “I’m sorry about earlier. I was pretty angry and took it out on you.”
    “No problem. Hope it made you feel better.” He gave an adorable smile.
    She fiddled with the cards and stole a look at him.
    Doug smiled as if inviting her to say more.
    “A week after my dad died, my mother and I left the island—the only home I had ever known. We moved across the lake to the outskirts of Egg Harbor where we lived together with my grammy and gramps. Mom met missionaries at church and soon her life was consumed by their overseas stories. She flirted with the idea of going herself—wanting to test the waters—and I could see it bringing her back to life. Just when I thought she was coming out of her grief, I woke up one morning to find her gone.”
    “And your only link to her is through the cards.” His voice had a consciously meaningful tone.
    She felt her world was made of quicksand and she was sinking down, down, down.
    He took her hand in his own calloused ones. ”It’s not hopeless. It’s important to keep hope tucked away right here.” He touched his chest.
    “Hope, huh?” Wynn drew a shaky breath but managed to keep her voice steady. “Mine ran out a long time ago. I need a fresh supply. Where would I get that?”
    “I get mine in prayer.”
    “Now you’re sounding like my aunt’s Bible study women.”
    “I suppose it’s because we all have the same source.” He watched her steadily with big gray eyes.
    “I never expected you to be the kind to read a Bible. But it’s kinda nice to learn that about you.”
    “Well, thank you, I think.”
    “These cards are all I have of my mom. I still don’t know why she left me.”
    “Maybe you answered your own question about why she left.”
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    He sat silently with her for a few more minutes before getting to his feet. “I am in the middle of cutting up Roxie’s dead tree.”
    “And I should let you get to it,” she remarked. She decided Roxie was wrong about Doug—she found him totally likeable.
    Doug walked towards the truck, and then turned around. “There’s a coniferous bog on the north side of the forest preserve that you may find interesting.”
    “I’ll check it out. Thanks.”
    “Take the last road into the