Hidden Summit

front porch. And if neighbors happened to walk by, she gave them a wave, sometimes they even stopped to chat for a while. Mrs. Hutchkins was an energetic walker; Mrs. Clemens was slow but earnest.
    Nora walked over with her kids, and while Berry played on the grass with her little talking box that made all the animal sounds, Nora sat in the chair beside Leslie to give Fay her bottle.
    “Let me,” Leslie said, reaching for the baby.
    “Sure. She’s a cuddle bug, that one is.” Then she gave Berry a little nod. “And that one is so independent, sometimes it worries me.”
    “Why?” Leslie asked. “She seems happy.”
    “I think she is, at least most of the time. I had such a completely dysfunctional relationship with her father, I wonder if she’s scarred for life. Emotionally. At least he wasn’t around all that much, but still… I’m working through some of that now. Pastor Kincaid is a wonderful counselor.”
    “Is he?”
    “Truly,” Nora said. “I’m not a religious person at all, and when Mel Sheridan suggested I talk to him, I was very reluctant. I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to unburden my sorry soul to a minister.” Then she laughed a little. “One of the first things I learned about him is that he was a counselor before he was a minister.”
    “Do you mind if I ask? How old are you, Nora?”
    “Twenty-three. Only twenty-three. Going on forty.”
    “Sounds like you’ve lived a lot.”
    “Fast,” she said. “You look pretty comfortable with that baby,” she said with a smile.
    “I wanted children,” Leslie confided. “I was married for eight years, divorced at thirty-one, and I wanted children. But my husband wasn’t interested in having kids and I let it go.” She shook her head and frowned. “I let a lot of things I wanted go. Now I’m trying to figure out why I’d do that.”
    “What we do for men, huh?” Nora asked.
    “Are you divorced, Nora?”
    “Never married,” she said with a shake of her head. “I met this handsome, badass baseball player when I was nineteen and got pregnant not once but twice. He brought me up here and dumped me—Fay was only a few weeks old when he left. He had this idea he was going to get into the marijuana business, but he was too unreliable for even that and he took off. He left me right before this whole town was buried in the biggest snowstorm and the wind was blowing under my door! He took everything—the truck, even the refrigerator. I was scared to death and had no idea what I was going to do, and now? Now I feel like I should write him a thank-you note or something! Got my girls in a nice little town where I don’t have to be afraid of all the things I was afraid of before.”
    “My God, how did you get by?”
    “On the generosity of new friends who didn’t owe me a thing. Your boss sent someone over to my house to seal the doors and windows against the cold. Preacher’s wife brought over clothes and blankets and even an ice cooler for me to keep my milk and stuff. Adie told Pastor she thought I could use a Christmas food basket. It just spiraled from there. When the snow started to melt, Mel Sheridan gave me a part-time job in the clinic—she said I could bring my kids as long as I could manage them—that’s what she had to do when hers came along.” She reached over and gave her baby’s fat foot a squeeze. “I owe everything to the people in this town. I really don’t know what I would have done!”
    “Where are you from?” Leslie asked.
    “Berkeley. I lived there from the time I was ten—left three years ago when I was pregnant with Berry. Where are you from?” she asked.
    “Grants Pass, Oregon. My boss, Paul Haggerty, worked there with his father and brothers for years, then came down here to open another arm of their construction company. I came down to work for him. Mainly to get away from my ex-husband.”
    “He’s abusive?”
    Leslie’s brows shot up. “Not at all!” she said too quickly. Then she realized why Nora might have made that assumption. “Let me rephrase that. No, Greg is not abusive in the usual sense of the word. He’s self-centered and egotistical and manipulative, but in the nicest possible way. He wants us to be best friends—even though he remarried right away and his new wife is pregnant. I just want him to go away!” She pulled the sweet little bundle closer. “I take it yours was…abusive?”
    “He’s an addict. He was a minor league ballplayer when I met him. He had