Free A Change in Altitude by Cindy Myers

he said. “I could get take-out.”
    â€œI like to cook. Besides, it’s expensive to eat out all the time.”
    â€œYou’re right. I just don’t want to make more work for you.”
    â€œYou’re going to be my husband. I don’t mind cooking for you.”
    â€œThat’s great. I just don’t want you to think you have to cook for me.” He picked up his fork. “What is it?”
    â€œThai noodles. I got the recipe from Barb.”
    â€œBarb cooks?” He eyed the plate warily.
    â€œAll right, she got it from her caterer, but it’s good. Try it.”
    He shoveled in a forkful of the noodles in a spicy peanut sauce and nodded. “It is good.” He chewed, swallowed, and seemed to relax a little. “What did you do today? Anything interesting going on at the paper?”
    â€œCassie Wynock is on a tear about the town park.”
    â€œWhat? Are people not picking up after their dogs again? Does she not like the flowers the garden club planted?”
    â€œBetter than that—she wants the town to change the name from Town Park to Ernestine Wynock Park.”
    â€œWho is Ernestine Wynock?”
    â€œHer grandmother.”
    â€œThe one in the play?”
    â€œNo, that was Emmaline, her great-grandmother. Ernestine was Emmaline’s daughter-in-law, I think.”
    â€œWhat’s so special about her that she should have a park named after her?”
    â€œErnestine Wynock was on the board of the women’s club that established the park and planted the first flowers there. And apparently a lot of other flowers around town, including the lilacs in front of the library. Cassie came by the office today, demanding that Rick write an article promoting the idea of renaming the park.” She grinned, remembering the newspaper editor’s reaction to Cassie’s badgering.
    â€œI’ll bet that went over really well,” Jameso said.
    â€œOh, yes. Rick went on a rant about the free press and no one telling him what to print in his paper.”
    â€œWhat did Cassie do?”
    â€œI thought at first she was going to hit him with her purse. But then she pulled herself together. She sat down at an empty desk and wrote out a letter to the editor on the subject.” As much as Cassie annoyed Maggie, she admired how the librarian never let obstacles defeat her. Maybe she got that from her pioneer ancestors.
    â€œIs Rick going to print it?”
    â€œOh, yes. It’s sure to start people talking, and there’s nothing Rick likes better.”
    â€œShould be interesting to see how it plays out,” Jameso said.
    â€œYes.” She toyed with the noodles on her plate. “What did you do today?”
    â€œI finished the wallpaper at the B and B this afternoon.”
    â€œAnd you’re still sane. That’s something.” Really, the man deserved a medal for putting up with Barb’s constant “supervising” and interfering. Maggie adored her best friend, but the Houston socialite was used to ordering around the men in her life, and she treated Jameso the same way she treated her husband and son. Funny thing was, none of the guys ever seemed to really resent it.
    â€œBarb was giving me the silent treatment.”
    â€œOh?” She fixed her gaze on him, watching a flush rise from his neck, up past his beard to his cheeks.
    He put down his fork and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the name change,” he said. “I just . . .”
    â€œI know. You don’t like to talk about the past.” She’d been okay with that, mostly. What mattered most was right now, and the future she and Jameso would have together. But maybe he needed to talk about this. “I know you didn’t have a happy childhood. Taking a new name is a good way to make a fresh start.”
    â€œMy father was a bastard and my mom refused to admit that anything he did was