“Oh, it’s gone now. It was green pea salad, with chunks of ham and cheddar and sweet onion, and with just a bit of sour cream mixed in the mayonnaise dressing—just the way Nolie’s mama used to make it.” With an appreciative smile, Gloria smacked her lips as if she could taste it even then.
Leaning forward, Sophy looked at the spot on the table where the salads sat. The bowl from which Nolie had served herself was gone—and, when she spotted Nolie sharing a quilt some distance away, she could see the generous portion Nolie had served herself was gone, too.
Straightening again, she turned a reproachful and suspicious gaze on the other guardian. “Heavenly stars, Gloria, what have you done?”
SIX O’CLOCK CAME AND WENT WITH NO SIGN OF Nolie and Micahlyn. So did seven. And eight. Chase told himself it was no big deal. She’d probably gone back to the store after the picnic, then gone out with someone. She’d done it before, on the day of the store’s reopening. Hadn’t gotten home until nine-thirty, and never had told him who she’d been with.
But things had changed between them since then. If she’d had plans, she would have told him . . . but if she’d made the plans at the picnic, the only way to do that was to drive out and tell him in person. Maybe keeping him informed so he wouldn’t worry wasn’t that important to her. Not that he was worried. He was just . . . just . . .
Hell, yes, he was worried. For the second time in a day—a record for his months in Bethlehem—he got in his truck and headed into town. On the way, he pulled into the feed store parking lot. Her station wagon was parked there, but the CLOSED sign was on the door and only a couple of low-wattage lights burned inside. Though he knew it was pointless, he drove past City Park, thinking just maybe she and her new friends had decided to make a full day of it.
The park was empty.
The uneasy feeling in his gut began growing, tightening. He drove back up the hill, parking in front of her cabin. Maybe she’d had car trouble and she and Micahlyn had come home by way of the trail through the woods.
Though the usual lights were on, the house was locked up. Besides, even if she’d walked home, he would have known. She would have come over, if for no other reason than to invite him over.
In less than five minutes, he was back in the feed store lot, banging on the door, shouting her name, then Micahlyn’s. He wasn’t going to panic, he counseled himself. She wasn’t hurt or dying somewhere. She was just being inconsiderate—having a good time, celebrating with new friends, forgetting about him. If anything, he should be pissed, not anxious. He should put her out of his mind and go home, and she would come wandering in when she was ready. Just like the day the store opened.
The counseling session didn’t work. As he turned away from the store, apprehension knotted his stomach. Something was wrong. He was sure of it. He just didn’t know—
Leaning against the front fender of his truck, Sophy offered a tight smile. “Looking for Nolie?”
“Where is she?”
She chewed her lower lip, then said, “I can’t tell you.”
“I thought you knew everything.”
“I do, but I can’t tell everything. You’ll have to find out for yourself.”
Scowling, he jerked the SUV door open. “And how the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“Who are the go-to people in Bethlehem for information?”
In the city it would be the police, politicians, or the media. What they didn’t know, they could find out. In Bethlehem it was simpler—the Winchester sisters.
As he climbed into the truck, Sophy stepped away and onto the sidewalk in front of the store. “When you see her, tell her Gloria’s really sorry,” she called.
With a nod, he slammed the door and backed up with a spray of gravel. As he waited to pull onto the highway, he glanced in the mirror at the storefront behind him. There was no sign of Sophy. This time he wasn’t even surprised.
The first pay phone he came to was outside a gas station on the edge of town. He found Corinna Winchester Humphries in the phone book, dropped in some coins, and punched the numbers.
She answered on the third ring, her calm cool voice immediately transporting him back to sixth grade, when it had taken no more than that voice to keep a class of girly girls and rowdy boys in line.
“Miss Corinna, this is— I’m Nolie Harper’s neighbor. She—” What if he was overreacting and about to make a fool of himself?
And what if he wasn’t?
“Nolie’s really late getting home, and I was wondering—”
For the first time in his memory, Miss Corinna interrupted. “Oh, dear, you must not have heard. They had to rush her to the hospital after the picnic today. I don’t know exactly what was wrong—”
He didn’t wait to hear the rest, dropping the receiver. He got into his truck and drove on autopilot into town, turning onto one quiet street after another until he reached the hospital. Feeling oddly calm—tense as hell, but calm— he parked in the first empty space he came to and climbed out. He didn’t hesitate at opening the door, didn’t give more than a brief thought to running away and hiding. Though it was the hardest thing he’d done since coming back, he crossed the parking lot and went in through the emergency room’s walk-in entrance and straight to the desk.
The woman behind the desk looked vaguely familiar, but he made no effort to place her face with a name. “I’m looking for Nolie Harper. I understand—”
“Chase?”
The voice came from the waiting room behind him and was soft, feminine, and heavily shaded with emotion—surprise, maybe, or disbelief. It was familiar, too, but it wasn’t Nolie, who was the only person he was interested in in this entire building.
Still, he turned around and noticed for the first time that the waiting room was filled with people, and right in their middle was the one who’d spoken. The one who’d recognized him.
His sister, Leanne.
WHEN MICAHLYN BEGAN STRUGGLING, LEANNE slowly let her slide to the floor, then watched as the child raced across the lobby to Chase. She launched herself toward him, and he crouched to scoop her up, then stood again, holding her possessively, as if he had every right to.
Leanne took a few halting steps toward them. She’d thought she would see icicles in July before she would see her brother again, and in Bethlehem, no less. He’d left swearing he would never return, and he’d made good on that vow for sixteen years. And now there he was, standing a dozen feet in front of her, looking older and handsome and so dear . . . and trapped. He hadn’t wanted to run into her, hadn’t wanted her to know he was back, and that cut more deeply than she could say.
She forced back the impulse to throw her arms around him and welcome him home, unsure he would welcome her embrace. Instead, she folded her arms tightly across her middle. “My God, Chase. I can’t believe . . .” Couldn’t believe he’d come back. Couldn’t believe he’d been back a while, apparently, else how would he know Nolie and Micahlyn?
Micahlyn cupped her small hands to his cheeks, demanding his attention. “My mama got sick at the picnic and Leanne had to bring her to the hop-hospital, and the doctor said the food poisoned her and she says she’s never gonna eat again. I was scared. Mama’s never sick, but she just about turned green.”
“She’ll be all right,” he said automatically, patting her back. Then he looked at Leanne. “Won’t she?”
He was asking for reassurance for himself as well as Micahlyn, Leanne realized—a fact that puzzled her all the more. “She’ll be fine. She apparently ate something at the picnic that didn’t agree with her.” Brusquely she changed the subject. “My God, what are you doing here? How long have you been back, and why didn’t you let me know?”
He delayed by setting Micahlyn on the floor. “Mica, can you go over there for a minute?”
She looked up, her eyes magnified to twice their size by her glasses, her full bottom lip showing the faintest quiver. “You won’t forget me, will you?”
“No, of course not.”
<
br /> Now there was an image Leanne couldn’t have dreamed up—Nolie Harper’s fatherless little girl looking at Chase Wilson as if he was the only security in her suddenly shaken world.
They both watched as Micahlyn skipped off to join Danny on the floor with his crayons and coloring books. After a moment, Leanne turned back to Chase. “You want to take the questions one at a time? When did you get back?”
“A few months ago.”
“A few—” The hurt that answer sent spearing through her was enough to make her breath catch. She wanted to cry. To turn around and walk away from him and never look back. Hell, she wanted to smack him. Hard.
She settled for doing it verbally. “You’ve been in Bethlehem a few months and you never let anyone know?”
“Who was I supposed to let know? Mom and Dad? As if they would have cared?”
“I would have cared! My God, Chase, do you have any idea how many times I’ve tried to call you? How many letters I’ve written? Do you know how much I’ve missed you?”
His mouth thinned, and his eyes turned a few degrees colder. “Yeah. So much that you couldn’t even be bothered to show up at my wedding.”
That was a low blow. He was her only brother, her protector, and, yes, on occasion, her tormentor. But she’d always loved him dearly and had always believed he felt the same about her. But how could he get married without her? “Your wed— You’re married?”
“Not anymore.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What’d you want? An engraved invitation?” He smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm. “No, wait, we sent you one.”
“I never got it.”
“Oh, come on, Leanne. I addressed them myself. One to you, one to our parents.”
She didn’t want to think what she was thinking—hated it almost as much as she hated that she’d missed her only brother’s wedding . . . and divorce. She didn’t want to believe that either of her parents could be so heartless or so deceptive, but she had to know. “Both to the same address?”
After all these years, she was still able to read the suspicion forming in his mind. He stared at her a moment, his eyes dark with pain, then they suddenly went blank and his jaw tightened. “Yeah. The last I’d heard, you still lived at home. Even if you didn’t, I figured Mom would make sure you got it.”
“She didn’t. Or Dad made sure she didn’t. Who knows?” Her brother’s relationship with their parents, particularly their father, had never been an easy one. Earl had pushed, and Chase had pushed back. Earl had set limits, and Chase had exceeded them. Earl had been overly critical, so Chase had given him plenty to be critical of. By the time he was sixteen, he’d been unable to spend five minutes in the same room with Earl without tempers flaring and exchanging ugly words.
Her sigh was heavy with years of regret. “I’m sorry, Chase. I wouldn’t have missed your wedding for anything.”
Then, surprising herself almost as much as him, she smacked his arm hard. “You’ve got a hell of a nerve. Why didn’t you call me? How could you just assume that I’d chosen them over you? You knew me better than that!”
“I thought I did. That was why . . .”
Trailing off, he shrugged and avoided her gaze. That was okay. She knew him well enough to know what he’d chosen not to finish. Why it had hurt so bad. The biggest day in his life—at least, to that time—had arrived, and the only family he’d always been able to count on, hadn’t. She was so sorry for his disappointment and wanted to sweep him into her arms and make it all better, the way she did with Danny. But Chase wasn’t four years old, and his hurts didn’t heal as easily as Danny’s.
He shrugged again. “You lived with them. They supported you. You were the favored child. And you’d been so worried about them finding out you’d gone to my graduation from law school. I just thought . . .”
“You just thought wrong. Don’t think I’m over being pissed, because I’m not,” she warned, “but . . . can I hug you?”
When he shrugged a third time, she wrapped her arms around him tightly. After a moment, he hesitantly slid his arms around her. It felt . . . amazing.
When she finally drew back, her eyes were damp and she sniffled a time or two. “I’ve got so much to tell you— and apparently, you’ve got even more to tell me, starting with your wedding and ending with Nolie. But first, come over here. There’s someone I want you to meet. Danny.”
Clutching a red crayon in his left hand, Danny joined them. Leanne lifted him to her hip, then turned him toward Chase. “This is Daniel David Wilson, my son. Danny, this is your Uncle Chase. Remember, I’ve shown you pictures of him and told you he lived in Boston?”
Danny nodded vigorously. “He’s the one that made you lose your front teeth when you were little, ain’t he?”
Chase scowled at Leanne. “You couldn’t tell him about the time I beat up the new kid for picking on you, or the time I carried you home when you hurt your foot, or all the years I tutored you in math, could you? No, you pick the time I accidentally made you fall.”
“You tripped me.”
“I was a growing boy. I didn’t realize my feet had gotten so big. One of them just sort of got in your way.”
Danny tilted his head to one side and studied Chase with eyes very much like his own. “How come you’re my uncle?”
“Because your mom’s my sister.”
“How come you don’t have the same mama and daddy?”
“We do, hon,” Leanne answered.
“Huh-uh. I asked Grandpa once, and he said he didn’t have a son. Just a princess.” Danny giggled. “That’s what he calls Mama. Did Grandpa lie?”
Leanne would have given an awful lot to say no. Or to have introduced her son to his only uncle right after his birth. Or to have seen Chase more than twice in the past sixteen years. Or to have a normal family where everyone loved one another and usually even liked one another. But not the Wilson family. Oh, no, words like normal and love and like didn’t even belong in the same sentence with them. She might as well be wishing for the moon.
“Yes, hon, he lied, and I will have a talk with him about it tomorrow.”
“Boy, is he gonna be in trouble. Can I go color with Micahlyn some more?”
“Sure.” She swung him to the floor, then watched him go. After a moment, her gaze shifted a few yards past him, where Cole was reading a magazine between looks at them. When she caught his gaze, she smiled just a little. He didn’t smile back, but she felt the warmth of his gaze clear across the room.
“What happened with Nolie?”
Chase’s question made her swivel back to face him. “She went back to work after the picnic, then called and said she was sick. She just wanted a ride home, but she looked so awful, we brought her here instead.” She studied him a long moment, then said, “I assume she didn’t call you because . . . you don’t have a phone?”
He shook his head.
“And I assume you know her because you’re living in that other cabin out there.”
This time he nodded.
A nurse came to the waiting room to call a patient back just as a new patient came in the door. Taking Chase’s arm, Leanne drew him off to a relatively quiet spot against one wall. “Why did you come back if you didn’t intend to let anyone know you were here?”
“Nolie says I had unfinished business here.”
“Damn right you do.” She started to punch him again, thought she probably should have outgrown that behavior by now, then did it anyway. “And what do you say?”
“I thought it was the only option left to me.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Maybe she was right.”
Before she could pursue that line of thought, Nola Matthews came through the doorway separating the treatment area from the waiting room, glanced around, then headed toward them. “Leanne. You brought Nolie Harper in, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.” Leanne barely got the words out before Chase demanded—er, asked, “How is sh
e?”
When the doctor turned a speculative gaze on him, Leanne said, “Dr. Nola Matthews, my brother, Chase Wilson. He and Nolie are . . .” Lacking the insight to complete the sentence, she shrugged.
“She’s had a rough night,” Nola said briskly. “The vomiting, chills, nausea, etcetera, are pretty much gone, and we’ve pumped a couple liters of fluids into her to keep her from getting dehydrated. We’ve been watching her back there for the last couple hours, and she seems to be over the worst of it. Too bad—her first big event in Bethlehem, and she gets food poisoning from it.”
“Has anyone else been sick?” Leanne asked.
“No one I’ve heard of. Weird, isn’t it? Half the town ate all the same foods—well, almost all. She mentioned a green pea salad that I didn’t see there—luckily, because I would have pigged out on it if I had, and then I could have shared an emesis basin with her.”
“Can she go home tonight?” Chase asked.
“Yeah, we’re not going to admit her. She’s getting dressed now. Poor kid’s exhausted, so hopefully, with all the meds in her system, she’ll sleep well tonight and life will be worth living again tomorrow.” Nola stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Chase. Leanne, see you around.”
After Nola disappeared through the double doors again, Leanne leaned against the cool tile wall. “I thought you might want to finish that sentence for me, about what’s between you and Nolie.”
He leaned back, too, where he could scan the faces in the waiting room. “She’s not from here, is she? The doctor, I mean.”
“I know their names are similar, but I think it was pretty clear I said Nolie, not Nola.” Then Leanne relented. “No, she moved here a few years ago.”
Moment after moment slipped past while he said nothing and refused to even look at her. Probably afraid she would see too much. Well, she was pretty good at waiting games herself.
As long as no one interrupted. This time it was Nolie. Her hair had come out of its braid and hung limp, and somehow she managed to look even paler than usual. There were shadows under her eyes and her smile and whole demeanor was shaky, but at least she was no longer green, groaning, or throwing up.
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