On the Doorstep

by Dana Corbit

  At least one of them would get some shut-eye because he probably couldn’t, at least until he knew his suspect was going to be all right. Only a few minutes after Pilar lowered her eyelids, her breathing steadied in sleep. Her long lashes were still and her facial muscles calmed.

  Even as she snuggled deeper into his shoulder, Zach continued watching her sleep. She probably would have frowned if she’d seen herself in the mirror with her skin wiped free of cosmetics and her braid rumpled from resting her head on the back of the uncomfortable waiting room chair. But he couldn’t remember a time when she’d looked more beautiful.

  All day she had stayed there waiting with him, praying with him and consuming unimaginable amounts of liquid-tar coffee with him. She’d been strong for him on a day when he’d felt helpless. She’d stayed silent when he needed her to, talked with him when he was ready and simply let him know that she was there and she intended to stay put.

  If he hadn’t already fallen in love with Pilar, after today, he would have taken a swan dive of his own free will. What had he ever done to deserve such an amazing gift from God? She was everything he’d never known he wanted and everything only the Father could have known he needed. She made him believe in himself and believe that loving her was worth the risk of hurt.

  Pilar shifted again in her sleep before settling against his shoulder once more. After her breathing steadied again, Zach rested his head against hers. For the first time all day, he finally could relax, even if sleep was out of the question. No matter how dark the day had been, he had the sense now that everything was going to be all right.

  Voices all around her caused Pilar to awaken with a start that sent her crashing into something hard. Rubbing the side of her throbbing head, she turned to see Zach doing the same thing. He shook his head, a pained expression on his face.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead,” Rachel called from across the waiting room where she stood with her fiancé, Eli Cavanaugh.

  Pilar glanced at Zach and back at Rachel, feeling her cheeks grow warm, but her friend didn’t seem to notice.

  “Come on, guys,” Eli called to them. “It’s good news.”

  Rachel pointed down the hall to where a woman with short blond hair and a man with tan skin and dark hair stood talking to Dr. Rebecca Niles, the E.R. doctor who’d been treating Ashley. The woman that Pilar assumed to be Helene Harcourt threw herself into her husband’s arms and sobbed.

  “Good news?” Zach asked as he scrambled out of his seat and rushed down the hall.

  Pilar followed close behind him. When he reached the couple, Zach shot out his hand.

  “Are you the Harcourts? I’m Detective Zach Fletcher.”

  “Then you’re the man who saved our daughter’s life.” Helene turned and hugged Zach, another sob escaping her.

  Zach eyes were wide when he glanced sidelong at Pilar.

  After several seconds, Neal gently pulled his wife away but wrapped a securing arm around her shoulder.

  Zach looked back and forth between the couple and the doctor. “What are you saying?”

  Dr. Niles answered for all of them. “Ashley’s no longer hypotensive, meaning her blood pressure is returning to the normal range. Her fever is starting to come down, as is her elevated white blood cell count. All of these signs are encouraging.”

  “The good doctor’s saying our baby girl’s going to be okay.” Neal didn’t even fight them as twin tears trailed down his cheeks.

  “Thank God for that,” Helene said quietly.

  The woman looked up and shared a private exchange with her husband. Tears glistened in Helene’s eyes again.

  Rachel looked at the couple with a quizzical expression. “Something’s changed, hasn’t it?”

  “We had a long flight back from London and an awful lot of talking to do,” Neal explained.

  “We’ve messed things up so badly. We’ve been this close to divorce for the last five years.” Helene indicated an inch with her forefinger and thumb. “Our daughter Samantha’s been in and out of treatment for anorexia for years.”

  “And now Ashley. When we think about what we could have lost today because our daughter couldn’t come to us…” Neal finished for his wife but let his words trail off, too choked up to continue.

  Helene picked up the story. “We figured it was time—way past time—for us to turn our lives over to the only one who can make them right. We want to become the family we should have been all along. We have a marriage, two daughters and now a grandson to protect.”

  Again, the couple exchanged a private glance.

  “Oh, I’m so glad.”

  At the sound of the voice behind them, those in the room turned to see Beatrice Noble rush through the doorway. She headed straight to her friends and hugged them both at the same time.

  “Our Lord can make it right. You believe that, okay?” Beatrice gave each of them an extra squeeze before she released them.

  Helene took her friend’s hand. “We’re going to do whatever we can to help Ashley and her baby. Whatever she needs.”

  “You let us know if you need anything, too, okay?” Beatrice said.

  Neal reached over and messed up Beatrice’s spiky hair. “You already did a lot by slipping that tract about salvation into my wife’s carry-on.”

  Beatrice only raised an eyebrow. “Who, me?” Then she winked. “I knew it would come in handy one day.”

  Rachel moved closer to her mother then and put an arm around her shoulder. “Sounds as if great things are happening to several of our friends lately.” She looked pointedly at Zach and Pilar. Zach coughed into his hand and turned away, likely feeling as awkward at Pilar did.

  Her friend probably would have said more, but a nurse came out of the door that led to the ICU and approached the doctor. They spoke to each other in hushed tones.

  When Dr. Niles turned back to the Harcourts, she was grinning. “Ashley is awake now. She’s asking to speak to the both of you.”

  Zach stepped forward. “I’ll also need to take a statement from her as soon as possible.”

  The doctor held up a hand but nodded at the same time. “Of course, Detective. But first I think our patient needs some time with her parents.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Just as before, Zach and Pilar were suddenly alone in the waiting room as the Harcourts attended to their daughter and the doctor and their other friends returned to their duties and lives. They even returned to the same chairs, where Zach had let Pilar rest with her head on his shoulder.

  But other than location, nothing about the situation was the same.

  “How do family relationships like that ever get so far gone?” Pilar pondered aloud as she stretched her arms above her head.

  “I’m probably not the best person to ask that question.”

  “Probably not,” she agreed. “That’s great that both of them made their professions of faith.”

  He nodded. “A lot of great things happened today. I can’t believe she’s going to be all right.”

  “Did you ever doubt it?”

  He only rolled his eyes. “You know, I covet you your faith sometimes.”

  “Doesn’t coveting fall under those Ten Commandments we always read about? You’re not supposed to covet your neighbor’s house or butler or his ox or anything. I think that includes his faith.”

  He shook his head, but he couldn’t keep from smiling. “Okay then. Can I just be amazed by you?”

  She opened her mouth, probably to spout a funny comeback, but then she clicked her teeth shut. She bit her lower lip and stared at the ground.

  “I am, you know,” he continued. “You see the good in people even when it’s not all that easy to see without a microscope. You trust people. You’d do anything for anybody without ever thinking about yourself.”

  Pilar licked her lips. “You do things for people, too. Just look at the lengths you went to in order to find Gabriel’s mother.”

  “I love those things about you,” he continued,
not letting her change the subject.

  She glanced up at him and flashed an embarrassed smile before looking at her toes again.

  “You came here for me. You stayed. You wanted to make things easier on me even though none of it—about the baby—could be easy for you right now.”

  She shrugged. “I’m okay. Really. I just wanted to help because I could only guess what memories were going through your mind—”

  “I thought she was going to die, but you never questioned whether she would be okay. You stuck around and gave me hope when I didn’t have any.”

  She held her hands wide. “That’s what friends are for. You did the same for me right after the surgery—”

  He put up his hand to interrupt her. She was pushing the conversation away from things he wanted to say. Things he had to say now before he lost his courage.

  “I love you, Pilar.”

  For several seconds, she sat still. Too still. He held his breath. Even after all they’d been through together he worried that she would rebuff his declaration. That she would tell him she’d only reached out to him because she sensed he needed a friend. But then slowly she looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes.

  “Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to say those words?”

  She wasn’t making any sense. His profession had come at breakneck speed as far as he was concerned. “What do you mean?”

  Pilar smiled. “From probably the first time I met you, I saw all of these wonderful qualities in you. I wanted you to see me, but you didn’t.”

  He shook his head and clasped her hand in his. Somehow, he had to make her understand. “No, that’s not it. I didn’t want to see you. I didn’t want to let anybody in.”

  “Are you sorry you did?”

  Was he? He tilted his head, considering. But every misgiving fled on a surge of confidence. “Never.” Then because the words, once spoken, clamored to be repeated, he said it once more. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Though medical professionals in blue scrubs passed in and out of the room and buzzers and beeps of medical equipment serenaded them, it felt as if the two of them were the only ones in the hospital.

  Zach lifted her hand and studied it, tracing his fingers along the curves of her palm. Her hand curled over his, and soon their fingers had laced in a connection that bespoke a permanence that he was only beginning to recognize he’d always wanted.

  With his other hand, he tilted her chin and brushed his lips across hers. It was a kiss of commitment. His heart was there for her to take. He held nothing back this time. He’d wasted so much energy in his life running from people who cared about him, and now all he wanted to do was stick where he was and to focus all that energy on loving Pilar.

  Zach knocked and waited outside the semi-private room where Ashley Harcourt had been moved a half hour before.

  “Yes,” a small voice called from inside.

  He pushed open the door. A young woman who looked nothing like the girl he’d found lying in her bathroom sat propped in a railed hospital bed. Her hair wasn’t sweaty and matted but had been combed until it shone and carefully plaited on both sides to just below her collarbones. Probably her mother’s work. She looked very much the little girl he suspected she still was in many ways.

  “Ashley, I’m Detective Fletcher.”

  “I know who you are. I remember your voice. You told me it was going to be okay.” She paused for several seconds, studying him. “You were right.”

  He coughed into his hand, surprised at the emotions wound up by her words.

  “It was good that we found you when we did.” He refused to let himself shudder at the thought of them arriving even one day later.

  “Thanks. You saved my life.”

  “A lot of people were involved.”

  “Thank them, too, will you?”

  He nodded. “I have to ask you some questions about the events of September the first.”

  Immediately, her eyes glazed with tears. “The day I abandoned my baby. The day I’ll regret as long as I live.”

  Zach took the seat next to her bed and rested his hand on hers. “I know this is painful, but I need to know what really happened, and you’re the only one who can tell me.”

  But Ashley didn’t seem to be listening. She stared out the window at the gray fall day, a sad smile pulling on her lips.

  “He was so sweet, just resting there in his little basket, trusting me to do the right thing. I was his mommy. I had to do what was best for him.

  “It couldn’t matter that it hurt me so much I nearly forgot how to breathe the minute I left him on that porch. I watched for five minutes from down the street until Pilar came to work—early like usual.”

  Zach took notes as Ashley told her story, not nearly as clear-cut as it would have appeared from the initial report. Personal tragedies like that never were. What had begun as a teenager acting out after the mysterious death of the grandfather she adored had led to a situation that had spiraled out of control.

  Jasmine had probably felt the same way after her first mistake had led to another, and then another to cover that one. If only someone had been there to listen to his sister’s story, to offer compassion. That was the past, he reminded himself, and there wasn’t anything he could do to change it. But he could play a role here, and he wanted to play it the best he could.

  “I love my baby, Detective. I just knew my parents would never accept him.” She shook her head, tears she’d been holding back finally spilling from her eyes.

  “Look at me. I’m still a kid. I knew without my parents’ support, I’d never be able to give Gabriel a good home. The kind of home he deserves.”

  He nodded. If only there were more parents—young or old—who put their children’s needs before their own.

  “Do you know the identity of the baby’s father?” He made a point of looking at his notes after asking the necessary but very personal question.

  “Yes, but I won’t tell since I never want any contact from him. He’s from Richmond, so no one knows him here.” She met his gaze squarely when he looked up at her. “No one would want to.”

  The interview flowed easily after that, though the answers still fell in that void between the law and the actions of a desperate young woman. There was no clear black and white, only more shades of gray than anyone dared enumerate. His own job didn’t leave any room for those varying shades, so he could only hope that someone with more authority than he had could step in and help make things right.

  “You have a guest,” Kelly said as she passed Pilar’s desk on the way to her office Tuesday afternoon.

  Because Kelly hadn’t bothered to hide her grin, Pilar didn’t have to wonder who was waiting for her in Tiny Blessings’ reception area. As she stood up from her desk, her pulse tripped at just the thought of seeing Zach again. He loved her. He’d said it twice. For the next thirty years, he could say it twice a day, and she would never tire of hearing it.

  “Hi, there.” Zach hadn’t even bothered to sit in one of the reception area chairs, but was standing and waiting for her.

  “Hi, yourself.”

  He looked wonderful in a honey-brown polo shirt and tan trousers, an upgrade from his usual rumpled look, but that would have been fine, too. She’d been missing him from the moment he dropped her off at her apartment four hours before.

  Without hesitating, Zach crossed the reception area and rested his hands on her shoulders, lowering his head to kiss her hello. He hadn’t even bothered to check first to see if anyone else was nearby. Just as he pulled away, Anne scurried from the room, looking embarrassed. Far from contrite, Zach grinned.

  “I’ll be outside if you need me,” Pilar called after her, unable to contain her nervous titter.

  They descended the building’s back steps and followed the walk to the courtyard, sitting on the edge of the granite fountain that had been turned off for the season. Though gold-and-red leaves dotted the small lawn, enclosed
by ivy-wrapped wrought iron, Pilar couldn’t remember the grounds ever looking more beautiful. Even the sky appeared bluer now that he was there with her.

  Zach was still grinning as he took her hand.

  “Well, you’re in a wonderful mood today. Is there more good news on Ashley’s recovery?”

  “The best.”

  When he didn’t elaborate immediately, she pressed, “What’s the news?”

  “She’s out of the ICU, and she might even get to go home tomorrow.”

  “Praise God for that. Ashley’s got a long road ahead of her, though, as she and her parents rebuild their relationship. They’ll need to work on finding a good counselor right away.”

  “They’ll also need to get the nursery decorated.”

  Pilar withdrew her hand and shook her head, certain she hadn’t heard him right. “Excuse me?”

  He glanced at his empty hand for a second before he met her gaze again. “That’s the other great news. Ashley wants to keep Gabriel, and her parents are supporting her decision.”

  If he’d smacked her with a baseball bat to the calves, her knees wouldn’t have buckled more quickly. “What—” She’d spoken louder than she’d planned, so she started again in a lower tone. “What are you talking about?”

  He beamed as if he’d just given her the best news ever. “I finally got in to interview her about an hour ago. We talked about a lot of things, not just the investigation.”

  He paused for so long that Pilar was convinced she would implode if he didn’t tell her everything that instant.

  Zach nodded, looking as if he was in agreement with whatever thought had just passed through his mind. “There will be court hearings and ultimately a judge’s decision, but Ashley wants to be a mother to her son.”

  She came so quickly to her feet that her head swam. “Are you kidding?”

  He drew his eyebrows together as he looked up at her. “Why would I kid about that?”

  “What about the criminal charges Ashley’s facing for abandoning her son?”

  She couldn’t help putting extra emphasis on “abandoning” because Zach seemed to have forgotten that the girl had done anything more severe than to show up late to pick up her baby from the babysitter.