Chapter 11. The Club
On Sunday Morning, Jake came by and picked Julia up, and they walked to church together. She was glad they had gotten there early, because there seemed to be quite a crowd. Jake took the end of the row and Julia sat next to him. Just before the service started, Allie came in and went to sit with her friends. When she saw Julia, Allie gave her and Jake a little wave.
The message that morning was excellent. Joseph was so humble and had a sweet way of adding in some funny stories, that made his message relatable. Joseph sat in a wheelchair, pulled up at the front of the church, and spoke about forgiveness. "We should forgive because Christ forgave us." Joseph shared about his own life, and challenges he faced to forgive. "Of course, this is easier said than done. But, forgiveness is not for those who have done wrong, forgiveness is for us who have been wronged. It is a gift we give ourselves. In forgiving, we let go of our pain and our bitterness. Take time today, to look around you at the new life springing forth. Spring is very beautiful in Hope Valley, and we have only to look around to be reminded of the renewing of the season. In the same way, let us take time to examine our own lives and see if there is someone we need to forgive. Let us let go of the pain and bitterness, and forgive. This will make room for the new thing that God is doing in each of our lives. The old passes away, so that new life can come forth."
After the service, everyone filed outside. As Julia came out to the top of the stairs with Jake, she saw red on her far left side, and glanced up to see Nathan talking to Lee. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, Allie came up to her and Jake.
"Good morning, Miss Matthews, Mr. Matthews. How are you both doing today?" Allie asked, smiling, remembering the stories and fun from last night.
"Doing very well, thank you." Jake answered. "Did you think of any more funny stories to tell us, Allie?" Jake asked, joking.
"No, but I'll think on it and I'll let you know." Allie replied. "I don't think our lives were exciting as yours."
Julia said, "nonsense. I'm sure you will think of some more, and you know where to find me, if you do."
Suddenly a strong, authoritative voice behind her said, "Coercion is a crime in Alberta, Miss Matthews." Julia laughed as she turned around to face Nathan. He continued, his voice soft now, "And, Allie, don't let her talk you into telling her anymore of our stories. I can't believe how fast you give me up!"
Allie laughed too, and said, "Oops. Sorry, Dad."
Julia laughed and said, "Sorry, Constable."
"But, Jake, if you have some more stories for us, please feel free." Julia's mouth fell open at Nathan's teasing. "Allie and I are all ears." Julia closed her mouth into a laugh, and raised a finger at Jake.
"Don't you dare, Jake!" she warned, and they all laughed. Julia fixed her gaze on Nathan and conceded, with her two hands in the air, "You got me, Constable. I'll behave now. Promise." Nathan couldn't help but smile at her surrender.
Nathan had come into Church that morning almost skipping. Last night had been so refreshing and fun, he felt so light today. He couldn't remember when he had laughed so much, and it was all because of Julia. In fact, he was pretty sure she was responsible for almost all of his smiles and laughter, in the last 3 weeks.
Nathan spotted her the moment he came into the church. She was in the third row seated next to Jake, though he had only seen the side of her face as they chatted. He was on duty, so stayed in the back, and the message had gone straight to his heart. He knew there was more forgiveness to be done, but wasn't sure about how to go about it. He was starting to feel ready to move on, but wanted to do everything right this time.
Once outside, when Julia had come down the stairs, Nathan couldn't take his eyes off her. She was wearing a pale blue dress with white ruffles at the neckline. It hugged her thin frame just right. Her hair was pulled back on the sides and fell in soft curls that shimmered in the sunlight. He wanted to go over and steal her away for another horse riding lesson, but knew that more time alone would have to wait. And, he wasn't sure it was even a good idea at the moment. He was still trying to work through his feelings and had been trying to slow things down as much as possible. He wished his head would catch up with his heart, already.
On his evening rounds, Nathan rode Newton hard, trying to clear his head. He tried to forget all his questions, second-guessing, and caution, where his heart was concerned, and just ride.
As he came back to the livery, Nathan felt much better. On his walk home he tried to reconcile the caution that he felt. His hesitancy wasn't related to Julia at all. Around her, he had never been tongue-tied or quiet, he had just been himself. It was Elizabeth that he had been so wrong about, that made it hard to trust his own judgment. It was this poor track record that made him second-guess everything.
On Monday, Julia knocked on the door of the Valley Voice.
"Come in", came the sing-song voice from inside. Julia entered and walked over and hugged Rosemary, in greeting.
"Good morning, Julia, so nice to see you. How is your brother's visit going?" Rosemary inquired. The office was empty except for Rosemary, and her myriad of papers laying out the next edition, strewn all across the huge table.
"Very well, I think he's enjoying himself. He keeps saying he doesn't know how he's gonna get on that stage coach on Thursday." Julia smiled at the thought of him staying longer, though quite sure he probably couldn't.
"Well, Hope Valley has a way of doing that to people." Rosemary stated. "Even if he can't stay longer, I'm sure he'll come back again."
"I hope so. He's met just about everybody in town. We had such a fun time with Nathan and Allie on Saturday night. We all just happened to be headed to the café, and ended up sitting together. Jake started telling stories from our childhood. I have to say, I haven't laughed like that in a really long time. My sides were still sore yesterday." Julia stated.
"I'm so glad. I would have loved to have heard some of those stories. Maybe I'll have to ask Jake about them on Tuesday night." Rosemary mused. "Nathan and Allie are some of my favorite people in town. I just admire him so much, for taking on Allie and doing such a wonderful job with her. And, he was so steadfast, even in the face of recent troubles. I wish it had been different," Rosemary realized she had just said too much, and paused to figure out how to backtrack, "but that's not my story to tell. Let's take a look at your article, shall we?"
They spent the next hour poured over the table, talking about placement and layout. When they were finished, Rosemary was smiling, sure it would be a hit. As Julia left, she wondered what Rosemary had been about to say, before stopping herself. She quickly reminded herself that Nathan's story was none of her business, and she was currently trying to keep him in the friend zone.
Monday evening, Julia bathed and got ready for a night of fun. She couldn't believe she had been in Hope Valley for only 3 weeks, and had already been invited to a social evening among friends. She esteemed them all so highly already, and felt blessed to be counted among them, even as a newcomer. Tonight, she had taken a little more time to dry, curl, and style her hair. She added a little more make up, lip gloss, and perfume. She had taken care and chosen a wine colored dress with cream accents, one that Clara said was made for her coloring.
When she walked over to the Saloon, Julia was excited to see everyone. She knew a certain Mountie would be there, but that fact actually made her nervous. As she opened the door, however, her nerves were stilled when Fiona came right to her and hooked her arm through Julia's. She led her over to the group being assembled. Jake was already there talking to Faith, Mike was sitting at the table with Jesse and Clara. And, Nathan has his back to her, pulling darts out of the dartboard.
"Good evening, everyone." At the sound of Fiona's voice, Nathan turned. When he saw Julia, he stopped in his tracks. He was sure she noticed how he froze at the sight of her. She was stunning in the wine colored dress. She had applied a little more color and dark accent to her eyes, which brought them out even more. They were so blue, and deep. Her cheeks had a little more blush, and her hair was half pulled up, leaving long sandy waves flowing down her back. He finally managed his half smile at her, suddenly feeling very nervous.
Everyone exchanged their hellos and pleasantries, and got their beverages from the bar. Nathan looked nervously over at Julia again, and she smiled nervously back at him. Finally, Fiona continued, "I'm so excited about this evening. Thank you all for coming to the first ever meeting of the Hope Valley Social Club. I thought it would be fun to have a little dart tournament." Everyone looked around at each other in agreement.
"Great idea, Fiona, that will be really fun. How should we do the teams?" Jesse asked.
Fiona explained, "Well, Mike and I thought we should make teams of one guy-one girl, to keep it fair. So, I have written down the girls' names on the papers in this hat. Each of you fellas needs to draw one, to find out who your lady partner will be." She held up the hat and shook the names. Everyone was in agreement, so one by one, each of the guys pulled a name, and read it out loud.
Jesse drew first, opened his paper and called out, "Yes!…Clara!"
Excitedly she said, "Really?" and came over and hugged him, happy they could play together.
Next Nathan drew, made a drum roll sound, and opened his paper, "Faith!". She came over smiling, happy to play with him.
Jake drew next, and called out, "Julia!" She ran over and gave him a side hug, smiling and excited to be his partner.
Mike opened the last paper, and said, "Fiona!" he smiled, "Guess you are stuck with me." Fiona smiled and honestly, wouldn't have it any other way.
There were two dartboards. So Fiona called out, with a voice like she had heard once on the radio in San Fransisco, "On dartboard one, Faith and Nathan will face Mike and Fiona!" she paused, "And on dartboard two, Julia and Jake will face Jesse and Clara!" They got into position, passed out the darts, and started warming up.
The first match was fun, and getting to talk and get to know Jesse and Clara a bit better was the highlight. She and Jake won easily, having played a lot growing up, though they hadn't mentioned that to anyone. Jake had given her a wink at the beginning to keep that little fact under wraps and to themselves.
Nathan and Faith won their match against Mike and Fiona. So for the "championship", as Fiona had called it, Nathan and Faith were to play Jake and Julia. They all took a short break, refreshed their drinks, and then the two teams began warming up.
When everyone was ready, they passed out the darts and took turns to see which team would go first. Julia knew that Jake didn't like to go first, so she was sure he had thrown that one wide on purpose. So the order would be: Nathan would throw first, then Julia, then Faith, and then Jake. The other four friends present were standing close, watching as spectators, which brought another level of nerves to the four players.
Nathan threw his 3 and then marked his score, and went to retrieve them. As he walked back, as Julia was trying to concentrate, he passed her a little too close and on purpose, obviously to make her nervous. Her first dart went completely wide and off the dartboard. Jake looked at her, the unspoken message passing between them, calm down, Jules. She shook it off and took aim, and threw the second dart. It was also not good, but at least it hit the dartboard. Finally, Julia closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center herself. When she opened them, she calmly breathed in, held it, and took aim. Bullseye. The group erupted then in whoops and hollers, and Jake came up and gave her a high five. Julia looked over her shoulder at Nathan, who was shaking his head at her in disbelief, arms folded across his chest. She gave him a little grin, and shrugged. Julia went to retrieve her darts and mark her score. Then, she walked back to join the group of spectators, who all gave her high fives. Julia stood among them, watching as Faith threw next, and did pretty good. Jake brought up the rear with a good score as well.
And, so it went. The game was neck-and-neck with lots of whoops and applause every time there was a particularly good shot. There was also some friendly razing and even some light flirting between Faith and Jake. Julia even ventured to walk a little bit close to Nathan once, as he was trying to aim, just as he had done to her. The scent of her perfume sent his concentration out of whack completely, and the shot went wide. He gave her a look that said he knew exactly what she was doing. She held her confident smile back at him, seeming to say two can play this game.
Now, they had just one turn left, and each had to make it count. Jake looked at Julia and nodded. Nathan thought he had caught wind of their ease at the dartboard, but when he noticed the nod, he was sure of it.
As Nathan prepared to take his final turn, Julia decided slowly sneak up a little bit closer to him to watch over his shoulder, an attempt to make him miss. But, when she was easing up so very close behind him, he turned around suddenly and she nearly ran into his chest. He looked down at her and said, "Can I help you, Jules?" She turned crimson red, and they both burst out laughing. The whole group was laughing then, seeing them messing up with each other.
Julia finally stepped back and decided to behave. Nathan shot three decent shots, marked his score, and retrieved his darts. Now it was her turn. As she came forward to shoot, he passed her, smiling right at her. Julia came to the line, breathed deep and held it, took aim, and shot. Not bad. She threw the second. Almost. And then she inhaled, closed one eye, and shot the third. Bullseye. The small crowd of spectators erupted again, in cheers and applause. Jake grabbed Julia at the waist, lifter her up, spun her around, and set her down. Nathan just looked at her, shaking his head yet again. Faith gave her a high five, and said, "nice shot!"
Julia walked to the board, marked her score, and retrieved her darts. As she walked back to the group, they all gave her high fives. When she turned to face the dartboard, she was standing in between the group and Nathan. He took a side step toward her, to close some of the space between them.
She looked sideways at him then and said in a low voice, "You keep shaking your head at me."
Nathan returned her sideways glance and answered quietly, "You keep impressing me."
"Oh, I'm sorry." she flirted. "I can try to stop."
He smiled at her, unashamedly, and whispered back, "I don't think that's possible." Julia blushed yet again, and turned her head to watch Faith.
He followed her gaze, and realized his partner was doing quite well. At the end of her turn, she had scored higher than he did on his last turn. Faith came over to the both of them, and Nathan gave her a high five. Julia gave her one too, and said, "Nice turn, Faith!"
Faith just laughed and quietly told the two of them, "Well, if you didn't have my partner so distracted…" waving her upturned hand in Nathan's direction.
Julia tried to cover her mouth fast enough to stifle a laugh, but it half came out anyway. She looked up at Nathan, who looked terribly uncomfortable, but finally managed to laugh. Nathan looked away, but Julia didn't. She wanted to see if there was any indication of truth to what Faith had just said, and could see, by the way he was avoiding her gaze, there must be.
Jake suddenly whistled over at Julia, to get her attention. "Sis, are you watching the game or…being distracted?" he called out.
Julia's face turned crimson red, though she managed to keep a straight face and reply to her brother, "No, I'm watching you, Jake, I'm watching."
She could hear the huge eruption of laughter beside her, Faith and Nathan were in stitches, especially since Jake had used the exact same word, distracted. With the two hyenas laughing hysterically beside her, she had to put her hand to her mouth to stifle her own, and avoiding to laugh was proving quite a task. No way was she making eye contact with either of them.
Jake made a fair shot on his first throw. The second was so close, he went forward to look and verify, it missed by less than a millimeter. But on the third shot, Jake had a bullseye. The crowd went wild. He went forward marking his score, and Julia met him on his way back for a huge double high five. He then high-fived the rest of the group. When he got to Nathan, Jake put out his hand instead and they shook, and talked between themselves. Julia watched them and wondered what they were saying, but decided to go over and talk to Faith.
"Thanks for a good game, Faith. And, you are really good. Have you played before?" Julia asked.
"Well, in med school in Chicago, to pass the time on call, we played quite often in one of the doctor's lounges." Faith explained. "I actually played a lot, I was missing Hope Valley so much, and Carson," she looked down at something on the floor at the memory, "It kept my mind occupied." she confessed.
Nathan and Jake walked up and joined them. Nathan looked at Julia and said, "That was obviously not your first time playing, you two." speaking to Jake and Julia.
"I have to confess, my dad liked Darts, and we had a dartboard at home. We all got pretty good. We used to decide who got stuck with the dishes or cleaning or cooking, by who missed the bullseye." Julia shared. "But, please keep it to yourselves."
Nathan replied, smiling at Julia, "Oh, I'm not sharing that information with anyone. You are going to be my secret weapon, and you can count on me picking your name out the next time." He paused and looked at Faith, "No complaints about your performance, however, Faith."
Julia wasn't sure she would do very good hiding her feelings if she was partnered up with Nathan, but the idea of playing with him did make her smile. It was true he was very distracting tonight. He was dressed in a burgundy red shirt with a white undershirt, both with the top buttons open, and a dark gray vest and matching slacks. The burgundy was a really good color on him, bringing out his eyes and accenting his dark hair. He was distracting indeed.
Fiona had finally finished tallying up the score, and stood to make an announcement. "The winners of tonight's, first Social Club Dart Tournament, are…" Mike made a drum roll on the table, "Jake and Julia!" Cheers went up and Jake gave Julia a hug.
Julia and Jake came over to shake hands with Faith and Nathan, to say "good match". When Nathan took her hand, Julia felt her stomach turn over. Nathan just gazed at her as he shook her hand, and she was sure she saw him swallow nervously.
The rest of the evening, Nathan and Julia managed to steer clear of each other. Julia thoroughly enjoyed speaking and getting to know Clara and Jesse, as well as Mike. She noticed her brother was talking an awful lot with Faith, but then, he had always had an easy way with the ladies. He was polite and courteous and chivalrous, on top of being handsome, and they rarely turned him away. It seemed to do Faith good to have some kind attention from a guy like Jake.
Finally, the evening was winding down. It was getting late and people were starting to head home. Jesse and Clara had already gone. Jake and Nathan were seated at the table, finishing their drinks and talking with Mike. So, Faith and Fiona decided to walk home together, and Julia decided to join them. They said their good-byes to the fellas, and walked out into the cool night air.
On the walk home, Faith was quiet. Julia could see that Faith was conflicted to speak with her, about whatever was on her mind. Julia assumed it must be related to Jake. But, Julia didn't take offense, she had full confidence in Fiona, to handle it. At the infirmary corner, Julia hugged both Faith and Fiona, said her good-byes, and turned off to her apartment.
Julia knew that Fiona would give Faith sound advice. But more than anything, Julia hoped whatever was going on between Faith and Jake, wouldn't affect her and Faith's sweet friendship. And, she would certainly speak to Jake about it, to make sure.