NECESSARY MEASURES

by Alexander, Hannah

  “You know,” someone said from behind Beau, “twins also run in the McCaffrey family.”

  He turned to find Lauren’s pretty blond-haired mom bearing down on him with a tray of deli meats and crackers. Her eyes were haunted by shadows, the same way Lauren’s were.

  She held the tray out to them. “I bet you’re hungry. Have some. My sister had twins and my grandmother was a twin. Can’t you imagine having another set of little Sheldons running around the house, what with you two in high school?”

  Beau did a mental hustle to keep up with her abrupt change of subject then nearly dropped a cracker on the floor when he realized what she meant.

  Brooke giggled.

  “Mama,” Sarah chided.

  “I wouldn’t mind,” Beau said. “I like kids.”

  “Me too,” Brooke said.

  Mother McCaffrey’s eyebrows rose. “Well—”

  “Brooke!” Jason called across the room. “It’s your turn and your team’s losing!”

  Brooke excused herself and battled the crowd again. After one more hug from Sarah, Beau let himself be drafted to help with the food.

  ***

  For the fifth time in her life, Lauren realized why families banded together when they suffered a death. There was such a spiritual bond that held them, that healed them, that helped them grow. They all needed that healing tonight.

  Strange that she never thought about it much at other times. The connection felt so precious to her now. She wondered at the wisdom of the distance she had put between herself and her family when she moved to Dogwood Springs.

  Tomorrow evening the funeral home would be packed with a crowd of townsfolk showing their respect. There would be a line of mourners all the way out to the street and they would take an extra hour to file through to hug the weary family, cry and shake their heads at the casket and exclaim over all the pretty flowers.

  Lauren entered the fray of the living room at last and eavesdropped on nearby conversations.

  “Remember when Hardy played the lead in the school play and ripped the heroine’s wig from her head?”

  “Remember when Hardy pitched an egg instead of a softball during the tournament three years ago?”

  “That ornery Hardy and his practical jokes! Remember when Aunt Geneva burned the turkey for Thanksgiving and he—”

  “Lauren McCaffrey, they said you’d be here but I didn’t think you’d be able to get off work what with the nursing shortage.” The booming voice reached Lauren seconds before a beefy arm fell across her shoulders and swung her around.

  She looked up into the handsome features of lovable giant, Clarence Knight. His dark hair was sprinkled with a lot of salt and his coffee colored eyes held a little extra moisture tonight. A gentle generous spirit shone from those eyes. But something was missing.

  She gasped when she reached up and gave his solid shoulders a tight hug—she was able to get her arms all the way around him. “Clarence, you’ve lost more weight!” At least a hundred pounds since she’d seen him last. Had it been that long?

  His laughter rumbled. He picked her up and swung her around in a circle, obviously proud of this new ability. At one point he could barely walk because of his overwhelming weight, which had been over five hundred pounds.

  “You look wonderful,” Lauren said.

  He patted his belly. “You’d never be able to guess how good it feels to have all that lard off.”

  “He weighed two hundred and fifty-three and a half pounds when he stepped on the scales this morning,” came a sweet voice from behind him.

  A young lady of twelve poked him in the side with her elbow as she stepped around him. Her dark eyes were framed by the glasses she’d started wearing last winter. She appeared to have grown at least four inches since then.

  “Tedi Zimmerman, I can’t believe how grown-up you look!”

  The young lady’s face beamed. “It’s Bower now.” Tedi had dark hair just like her mother and she was filling out in all the places that once held a tiny amount of baby fat. “Lukas legally adopted me three months ago. That’s what Dad would have wanted.” She gave Lauren a hug, the top of her head even with Lauren’s eyebrows. She looked as if she might grow taller than her mother’s five feet eight inches. “I’m sorry about Hardy.”

  “Thanks, sweetie. I can’t believe this has happened.”

  “He talked Clarence into going to nursing school, did you know that? So now Clarence is dating nursing students.”

  “Tedi.” Clarence glared down at her. “You weren’t supposed to tell.”

  “Dating? Nursing school?” Lauren asked.

  He leaned closer to Lauren. “Seemed like I kind of had a knack for stuff like that when I started helping out Arthur and Alma Collins at the Crosslines clinic. Hardy told this little vixen’s grandmother I should get some training in the medical field. And don’t worry, I’m not robbing the cradle. Some of the other students waited a few years to get started, too.”

  “Yeah,” Tedi said eagerly, “and you know how bossy Grandma is. She convinced a bunch of her rich friends in Knolls to give Clarence a scholarship, so now he’s all buried in homework. He stays in Springfield during the week and he’s trying to graduate early so he can come back home and get to work but he sure stays busy with homework and girlfriends.”

  “And Tedi talks too much,” Clarence said.

  “But he’s getting straight A’s,” Tedi said. “And did you know his sister, Darlene, got married last month to my old fifth-grade teacher? Grandma Ivy may get married to Dr. Heagerty.”

  Lauren couldn’t believe so much had changed in such a short time.

  “Lauren, when are you coming back home to stay?” Clarence’s bass voice boomed throughout the house.

  The roar of conversation dropped to a whisper. In her peripheral vision Lauren saw Brooke and Beau turn toward her.

  She gave Clarence another hug. “What makes you think I’m coming back to Knolls?”

  “That empty spot you left in this town when you moved? It’s still here.”

  “I miss you too, my friend, but I’ve got a mortgage to pay and a job to do.”

  Still in the edge of her vision, Beau and Brooke returned their attention to Lauren’s younger cousins.

  “Lauren, do you have a boyfriend?” Tedi asked.

  “Not me.”

  “Oh really?” Clarence asked. “Funny, I heard different.”

  “You know how rumors fly.” Lauren would have to be deaf as a fishing pole not to have caught the drift of conversation tonight.

  When she’d agreed to let Beau and Brooke bring her tonight she’d considered the possibility that her family might use it for ammunition. Her instincts had been correct. She also realized that the twins retained an interest in her plans for the future. The thought stirred mingled emotions of tenderness and alarm. She had grown to care a great deal for Grant’s children. A very great deal.

  “Lauren?”

  She looked up and saw the kind, bespectacled blue eyes of Dr. Lukas Bower. Beside him stood his wife, Dr. Mercy. Together they engulfed her in hugs. For the first time, she didn’t feel awkward about hugging Lukas in front of Mercy. There had been a time before their marriage when Lauren’s crush on him had been obvious to everyone in Knolls and humiliating to her.

  “He didn’t suffer, Lauren.” Lukas gave her a gentle pat on the back. “They brought him to the ER as soon as the accident happened.”

  She felt the sting of moisture in her eyes. “I’m so glad it was you.”

  “Hardy was gone before his body reached us. From all evidence, it was instantaneous.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mercy handed her a tissue then engulfed her in another tight, consoling embrace, her long dark hair drifting over her shoulders. “I know you two were close.”

  “I’ll be fine. I can’t help second-guessing my move this summer, though. Now it seems selfish.”

  Mercy gently guided her away from the crowded room into the vestibule where
a younger Hardy smiled at them from the framed picture on the wall.

  “No reason for guilt.” Mercy kept her voice low.

  “I can’t help wondering if I’ve made a mistake,” Lauren said. “Maybe I should never have moved away.” Mercy had the foundation of maturity and wisdom that came from suffering. Her empathy and compassion were well known. Her family practice was booming because of it.

  “What makes you say that?” Mercy asked. “You had a good reason to move, Lauren. You’re a grown woman and frankly, your dear mother tends to smother you.”

  “But this has been my home forever. It’s still home. Why did I leave? Now it won’t be so easy to check on Sandi and the girls. I’ve got friends and family here who need me.”

  Mercy raised an inquisitive brow. “Sandi and the girls have lots of friends and they have their church, your parents, Sandi’s parents and brothers and sisters...need I continue the list? Sandi won’t lack for help in the community. What would bring your mother great joy—what would bring all of us joy—would be to see you happy and settled.”

  “If you mean I’m supposed to get married—”

  “Did I mention marriage?” There was a hint of a smile in Mercy’s eyes. “I believe if your parents knew for sure you were fulfilled in your life, they wouldn’t be so anxious to see you married.” She turned and gestured toward Lukas, who stood talking with Clarence and Tedi. Her gaze grew tender. “I never dreamed I would remarry but when Lukas proposed I knew it was right.”

  “He and Tedi have such a wonderful relationship.”

  Mercy turned back to her. “Exactly. And you obviously have a good relationship with Grant’s children or they wouldn’t have been so eager to come here with you.”

  Lauren glanced toward the twins. They had, indeed, made themselves at home. Brooke flirted with Jason. Two other second cousins—female—hovered near Beau. Lauren had learned to see past the partially paralyzed features of his handsome face to the emotions that played behind those wire-framed glasses. He looked comfortable in spite of the gravity of the circumstances—possibly even because of the circumstances, since he, too, had such a compassionate heart.

  “I’m happy single,” Lauren said at last.

  “So was I once upon a time,” Mercy said. “Much happier single than with Theodore, believe me. But our lives change. What we’ve settled for at one time in our life might change just as soon as we get good and comfortable.”

  Tedi strolled back to her mother’s side and hugged her. Lauren couldn’t miss the expression of contentment in Tedi’s eyes now compared to a year ago. The child obviously knew how cherished she was by her mother and adoptive father. Her dark eyes no longer looked haunted by fear. She had once been terrified of her alcoholic father.

  Mercy gave Lauren another hug. “I’m not trying to tell you what choices to make, and I’m glad you’ve learned to be content living alone, but don’t become so content that you miss the next step God intends for you to take.”

  Chapter 16

  Beau strolled through the darkness toward the car, taking point between Brooke and Lauren since he had been given responsibility for Dad McCaffrey’s big fluorescent flashlight. The front porch light didn’t chase away enough of the shadows this far out.

  Lauren’s father reminded Beau of Dad. His voice still seemed to echo, saying, “You all be careful, now, and don’t try to race home. You ride those brakes on the curves, you hear?”

  Had Lauren heard the catch in her father’s voice? The special reminder that he’d already lost one child this week and that he couldn’t bear to see anything happen to the others?

  “Lauren, how far is the city of Columbia from here?” Brooke asked.

  “I’d say it’s about a four-hour drive. Why do you want to know about Columbia?”

  “It’s where Jason’s attending university next year,” Beau answered for his sister. “A month ago he wanted to major in agriculture. Now he wants to be a heart surgeon so he’s taking pre-med.”

  “So what’s wrong with that?” Brooke asked. “You want to be an ER doc. It wouldn’t hurt you to check out Columbia.”

  Something skittered in the brush beside the car. Beau jerked around, nearly dropping the light.

  “Beau, would you relax?” Brooke said. “It’s probably just a squirrel or a rabbit. Since when have you been scared of the dark?”

  He looked across the roof of the car at her. Since the wreck last week. He was so busy worrying he didn’t even have a chance to enjoy the fact that Brooke no longer complained about the uncool Volvo.

  He ducked beneath the branches of sassafras and opened the passenger door for Lauren. She thanked him and gave him a smile that didn’t spread past her lips. She was grieving hard.

  Beau had been emotionally numb for weeks after the wreck that killed Mom. He’d continued to be so despondent that when the surgeries were scheduled to begin on his face, one surgeon had wanted to delay the procedure for fear that the depression would threaten the outcome. He could have been right. The outcome hadn’t been so good.

  On impulse, Beau took Lauren’s elbow in a gesture of helpfulness as she slid into her seat. He knew she didn’t need the help but she needed to know she wasn’t alone. He remembered needing the comfort of others even though he’d hated seeing the initial shock in the eyes of visitors when they saw him swathed in bandages. He’d hated it even worse when he was left alone in his hospital room. His memories of the wreck still caused him more pain than the fact of Mom’s death and that reality was bad enough.

  He circled the car and slid into the driver’s seat. Brooke was still chattering from the backseat about Jason’s school plans. She loved sitting where she could comfortably keep up a conversation with everyone in the car while watching the road and telling Beau how to drive.

  When Brooke paused to take a breath, Lauren looked over at Beau. “Thank you for bringing me tonight.”

  “You’re welcome.” He checked his rearview mirror and studied the dirt road in both directions before pulling out of the drive. A guy would have to be pretty good at dodging bullets and bad guys on computer games to be able to miss all the potholes on this road.

  Brooke was silent for a full two minutes before she spoke again. “Lauren?” Her voice was meek—even tentative. Uncharacteristic.

  It caught Beau’s attention. He looked at his sister’s dark silhouette in the mirror, hit a rut, winced.

  “Yes?”

  “Did you mean that when you said you weren’t moving back to Knolls?”

  Silence loomed in the car when there should have been quick reassurances. Beau looked over at Lauren. Her face was mostly in shadow except for a bright sheen in her eyes.

  “Hardy’s family might need some help for a while.”

  “But they already have help. They’ve got people all around them. Why should you quit your job and move all the way back here from Dogwood Springs?”

  “Because I’m single. It would be easier for me to find time—”

  “But what about us?” The outburst was so sudden and filled with disappointment that if Beau hadn’t already known how Brooke felt about Lauren he would have no doubts now. Half the town of Knolls would have no doubts.

  He pulled from the dirt road onto the paved county road and stole a look at Lauren. Her complexion was washed to white in the glow from the illuminated console.

  “I haven’t decided for sure, Brooke,” she said.

  “But I don’t get it. I thought you liked us.”

  “Honey, you know I care a great deal about you.”

  “And I thought you liked Dad. You two could be more than just friends, you know.”

  “More than friendship?” Lauren asked. She turned within the confines of her seat belt to look over the seat at Brooke. “That’s the most important thing in a relationship.”

  “Oh come on, I know it takes more than that for marriage. Dad’s a great-looking man—lots of people say so. Even Jade Myers has a thing for him.”

  “
The mayor?”

  Beau had caught the switch Brooke made from relationship to marriage. He wondered if Lauren had caught it.

  “She knows a good thing when she sees it,” Brooke said. “She thinks he’s hot.”

  “I know I’m not exactly experienced when it comes to marriage but I’m pretty sure it takes more than high temperature to make it work.”

  “Dad has what it takes,” Beau said.

  Lauren turned her attention to him. He continued to watch the road.

  “Did you ever consider the possibility that your father might enjoy a dinner out with Jade?” she asked them.

  Brooke gasped. “No! Oh please, if you care about us at all don’t say anything to him about her or to her about him.”

  Lauren chuckled. “Don’t you like Jade?”

  “I like her as mayor but can you imagine what she’d be like to live with? Have you ever actually met her? She never stops talking!”

  Beau snorted.

  “Shut up, Beau. It’s why she makes such a good mayor—she talks so much nobody else ever gets a chance to say anything. Norville Webster’s been out to dinner with her a couple of times and Evan says he thinks she not only orders her own meal, she orders Norville’s.”

  “Tell Evan it isn’t nice to make up stories about people,” Lauren said. “Norville’s been out with her?”

  “That’s what Evan told me. But really, can you imagine her and Dad getting together? Talk about a nightmare.”

  A chuckle escaped Beau’s throat before he could stop it.

  Lauren’s laughter echoed his.

  “What’s funny?” Brooke demanded.

  “Jade sounds a lot like you,” Beau said.

  There was a sigh of impatience from the backseat and finally a peaceful silence settled on the interior of the car. Beau had learned to enjoy the break while it lasted. Brooke seldom pouted for long.

  ***

  Grant gripped the receiver of the phone, feeling like a traitor as he told his sister about their mother’s latest difficulties. There was a silence over the line after he told her about the burned dinner and fire alarm.

  “Rita? It’s worse than I imagined when I first got here. Have you spoken to her lately?”