Free Tomorrow's Promises (Bellingwood Book 7) by Diane Greenwood Muir

party?"
    "Trust me, he's not doing anything today," Nate said. "We're doing all the work."
    "What do you mean? What are you doing?"
    "Wanna see?" Nate asked.
    " Of course I do."
    Nate took out his phone and swiped it open and then handed it to her with the photo gallery open. The first picture she saw was Henry sitting in a chaise lounge with two blow-up palm trees behind him and a large umbrella over his head. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts and was drinking something pink with an umbrella in it."
    "This is hilarious," she said. "What's going on?"
    "Keep scrolling through the pictures. The story is all there."
    As she went through the pictures, she realized that they were at the library. "Today has a theme, doesn't it?"
    "Yep. Since you girls are raising money and buying books, it fell to us to do the dirty work. We're repainting the outside trim today. But keep going."
    Polly scrolled to another picture and realized that Henry's mother and another woman were in moo-moos and his sister was in a grass skirt. They were serving drinks to Henry from a homemade Tiki bar.
    "You chose to work rather than have a bachelor party?"
    "What else were we going to do on a Saturday morning? And the poor man is already married, so it's not like wants to get himself in trouble." Nate grinned and took his phone back. "A few of us have been talking about working at the library anyway. We thought it would be fun to make our favorite construction guy sit on his tail while the rest of us worked. His mom and sister got in on the planning and came up with the Hawaiian theme."
    "I wondered why they weren't here," Polly interrupted.
    "Yeah. They were worried you might be upset, but figured that once you knew what was going on, you'd laugh."
    "We should probably get going," Jeff said. "We promised to pick lunch up on the way."
    "Where's the phone number for Curt Locke's wife?" Polly asked.
    "Oh, right. Sorry." Jeff motioned for her to follow him into the office and he flipped through some papers on the desk that Sarah was using in the main office. "It's on the computer, but I'm not going to ask you to figure out the system today."
    "You know I'm not a tech moron," Polly complained. "I can learn that."
    "But you don't want to, so you're just as bad."
    "Whatever. Just give me the number."
    He handed her a printout of the room information they had for Curtis Locke. "Let me know if they're staying here. If I need to find another room, I can."
    "Thanks Jeff. What time are you all coming back?"
    "Most of the setup crews will be here by three."
    She watched them leave, and called the number on the sheet of paper in front of her.
    It rang a couple of times and a young man's voice answered. "Locke residence," he said.
    "Hello. Is Mrs. Locke available?" Polly asked.
    "She's outside. Who should I say is calling?"
    "Tell her this is Polly Giller in Iowa."
    "Just a minute."
    Polly heard silence then, "Mom! Some lady from Iowa is calling. Mom!"
    It took a few more moments before, "Hello, this is Kelly Locke, who is this?"
    "Mrs. Locke, this is Polly Giller from Bellingwood, Iowa. Your husband is staying with us here at Sycamore House ..."
    "Is something wrong? Is he okay? What's happened?"
    "Mrs. Locke, we think your husband has had a heart attack. He's on the way to the hospital in Boone. I'm so sorry to have to call you with this."
    "No!" the woman responded, her voice rising. "What am I supposed to do? I can't come out there. I don't have a place to stay and I have my son. Is it bad? Was he alive when they took him?"
    Polly waited as the woman sobbed on the other end of the call. "Your husband is in good hands. The doctors will take care of him. He was talking to me before they left in the ambulance."
    "Thank goodness." She held the phone away from her mouth and yelled. "Ethan, turn that music off. I need quiet to think. Your dad had a heart attack in Iowa. Please stop!"
    Then the call went dead. Polly looked at her phone. Yep, the call had