After All These Years

by Sally John

  Tears sprang to her eyes, and she went to him.

  He wrapped his arms around her. “I hope those are happy tears?”

  She nodded.

  He held her tightly and whispered in her ear, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  “I think I’m beginning to understand your convoluted reasoning.”

  “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  “Yeah, it is.” He brushed the tears from her cheeks.

  “Tony Ward, I’ve been missing you for years. Oh! I did not mean to say that out loud.”

  “And why not?” He locked his hands behind her waist.

  She leaned back to take in those deep-set eyes, the narrow nose, and that crooked grin. “It might give you ideas.”

  He blinked. “Izzy, you’re not teasing me, are you?”

  “Do you want some soup?”

  “Izzy!”

  She bit her lip. Oh, Lord! “No, I am not teasing.”

  “Okay. I do happen to have some ideas.”

  “How about some coffee?”

  He kissed her cheek. “I love you, Isabel Mendoza. I think I probably did before, but now… Can we start over? After all these years? I want to share everything with you. All my thoughts, my time, my work.” He paused. “Will you please reconsider moving to Mexico?”

  “Oh, Tony. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped loving you.” She took a deep breath. “I’m taking the job in Chicago. There’s no way I’m running away from you again.”

  His laughter filled the studio. He whooped, and then, meeting her eyes, he grew serious. “I won’t run away from you again either.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “Izzy, does this mean I didn’t have to risk my neck driving for hours through this crazy storm? We could have just talked on the phone later?”

  “Well, I don’t think that would have worked quite the same.” She slid her arms more snugly around his neck.

  When they kissed, Isabel felt a flickering of something new ignite between them. They were on the threshold of a different kind of love that didn’t resemble the past.

  She smiled as their kisses slowed. “And besides, I hadn’t decided which job I was going to take. Not until the moment I saw you standing outside the door.”

  Lia stuffed another sweater into a plastic grocery bag and tied the handles together. There. Plastic worked just as well as Samsonite. No reason to replace the smoke-scented luggage. She wasn’t taking a trip—probably would never ever be able to afford to take one again—she was just moving. Most of her and Chloe’s belongings were already stacked by the front door. They’d toss their grocery bags into the car trunk and be out of there right after dinner.

  If Chloe came home.

  Lord! Help him find her.

  How long had he been gone? Night had fallen already, the black clouds hurrying it.

  Lord, keep her safe.

  It was like sliding to the edge of a panicky abyss, peering over its edge, and then jumping back to cling to the hands she knew held them all. Then it would start all over again, the sliding and the jumping. Nervous energy drove her to this manic fit of packing. She would be finished when Chloe got home. If—

  The front door banged open. “We’re home, Aunt Lia!” two voices rang out, followed by laughter.

  Lia raced to the living room. “Oh, Chloe!” She caught the little girl in her arms and squeezed her. “Thank You, Lord.”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Lia.”

  “You’d better be! Thank you, Cal!”

  He was wiping little Soot’s paws on the mat just inside the door. “You’re welcome.”

  “Oh, Chloe! You’re soaking wet and freezing. Let’s get you out of that coat. Look at your boots!”

  “It’s raining cats and dogs!” She giggled, yanking off the muddy boots. “It was almost raining Soot, huh, Cal?”

  He roared with laughter. “Almost, Little China Doll.”

  Lia paused a moment, holding Chloe’s arm in midair, and then she finished pulling off the girl’s jacket. “You need a hot bath. Go!”

  “Aunt Lia!”

  “Now! You’ll get sick.”

  “We have things to discuss!”

  “You mean like how I’m going to ground you? Like how you’re going to lose every single privilege you’ve ever known in your short life? It can wait!”

  “Yeah, well, every little girl needs a daddy.”

  “What?”

  Chloe looked somewhere beyond Lia.

  Lia turned. Cal was pointing his thumb in the direction of the hall. She spun back to Chloe.

  The girl opened her mouth as if to say something but then turned and skipped away. Soot bounded noiselessly behind her.

  What was going on?

  “Cal.” She faced him again. He looked as if he’d been swimming. His wide-brimmed hat and leather jacket dripped. Raindrops clung to his beard and mud to his boots. His brown pants were a shade darker, soaked through. “Oh my goodness. Where did you find her? Never mind. You need a hot bath, too. Thank you for finding her.” She would have opened the door for him, but he was blocking it.

  “You going somewhere?” He nodded toward the piles of grocery bags. Clothes, shoes, and daily miscellany were clearly visible through the plastic.

  “I’m leaving. This was the last straw. Chloe and I don’t belong in Valley Oaks.”

  “Is that so? If you ask me, this is not the time to make a major decision.” His voice was even, the cop tone distinct.

  “I’m not asking for your opinion.”

  “You’re just reacting to a terrifying situation.”

  “I’ve been considering it for some time.”

  “Since when? Since Tammy lied to you?”

  She blinked. “That’s got nothing to do with it.”

  “Hogwash.” His tone remained on even keel, though his words stung. “You know, you think you’re so independent, but you’re just afraid of letting people care for you, specifically a man, more specifically m—”

  “That’s not true!”

  “It is. I know Miss Impressively Independent, and she would not run away.”

  “It’s exactly what she would do!”

  “I suggest you hold off on deciding about leaving. For goodness’ sake, Lia, you’re shaking like a leaf. I can see it from here.”

  “I don’t have to answer to—”

  The door behind Cal opened, and he moved aside. Isabel and Tony came through it, both grinning.

  Isabel said, “Cal! You look like a drowned rat! What’s going on?”

  He answered, “Long story, but Lia will have to tell it. Excuse me. Hey, Tony. You’re back again.”

  Tony reopened the door for him. “Yeah. Got a favor to ask. Mind if I sleep at your place tonight? Isabel won’t let me stay here.”

  “No problem. Coming now?”

  “One minute.” He turned to Isabel, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her. It took longer than a minute. “Okay. Let’s go, Cal.”

  Lia stared at a rosy-cheeked Isabel.

  She grinned back at her. “Long story.”

  Forty-Four

  While Chloe soaked in a hot bubble bath, Lia dug through the grocery bags piled near the front door, searching for the girl’s pajamas. Isabel suspected a diversion was in order and announced they were having an indoor picnic. She stacked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a plate of veggie slices on a tray, and then poured hot chocolate for herself and Chloe. For Lia she fixed a cup of a calming herbal tea. The woman was a mess—rightly so—though she hadn’t shed a tear yet. Her dark eyes were wide and she trembled. Once Chloe emerged from the bathroom she could scarcely stop hugging her, and her conversation was almost incoherent.

  Chloe helped Isabel carry the meal into the front room where they had pulled out the hide-a-bed. Isabel set drinks on the end tables and spread a tablecloth over the bed. They all sat cross-legged around it and said grace as the wind still howled outside.

  I
sabel grabbed a sandwich. It was late. The last she had eaten was long before Tony… She smiled inwardly. Tony… She tucked that thought away, but it left her feeling somewhat lightheaded. “Okay, Chloe, you go first. Tell us all about your adventure.”

  “Aunt Lia will kill me.”

  “I won’t, sweetpea.”

  “You yelled at me when Cal brought me home.”

  “That was just because I was so scared.”

  Isabel patted Chloe’s hand. “It’s what parents do when they’re upset.” 335

  “Cal didn’t.”

  Lia replied, “Cal’s not a parent.”

  “Well, he’s almost like my dad. He’s better than my dad. He said my dad’s pretty sick and will have to stay in the hospital for a long time.”

  That’s one way to put it, Isabel thought. She had heard about Mitch’s confession and Nelson being picked up right outside her door.

  Chloe was still talking. “Cal said we have a standing date for Sunday school. He’s picking me up tomorrow. What’s a standing date?”

  Isabel jumped in before Lia could sputter whatever was on the tip of her tongue. “It means it happens regularly. I’m glad I wasn’t here when you ran off. Otherwise your aunt and I both would have been yelling at you when you got home. Where did you run off to anyway?”

  “The tree behind Mandy’s house.” She told them about her favorite place, a climbing tree down in a meadow. “I wanted to come home. It was so cold! But Soot was being naughty. She kept climbing higher. Cal came and he climbed higher than she was, so he got her. Then we got down, except the water was so deep Cal had to carry me. I rode on his shoulders all the way to the hill.”

  Lia blanched. “Water? What water?”

  “Cal said it was from the creek, but it sure didn’t look like the creek. He said it always floods around the tree when it rains real hard, like today.”

  “How…deep was it?”

  She shrugged. “Cal said his gun didn’t get wet and that was a good thing. So it wasn’t that deep.”

  Not that deep only meant it didn’t come up to his waist. Isabel thought her own eyes must be as wide as Lia’s.

  “He had some blankets in his police car, and he wrapped me up in one. I got to sit next to him on the way home.”

  Isabel asked, “And he never yelled at you?”

  “Nope. But he said if I ever did anything like that again, he was going to wring my neck.” She giggled. “But he wouldn’t really do that.”

  Lia clutched her cup of tea. “I know you had a good reason to be mad. It’s okay to get mad, but please, please don’t run off the next time.”

  “Aunt Lia, did Cal hug you?”

  “What? When?”

  “I said you were really going to be mad, and he said oh, he would just hug you and then you’d be all right. Did he?”

  “He was wet and cold. He needed to go home so he wouldn’t get sick.”

  “He can hug you tomorrow then.”

  Isabel glanced at the stack of plastic grocery bags. Lia wasn’t going anywhere tonight, but she seemed determined to run off exactly the way Chloe had. She wouldn’t be sticking around for any hug.

  Lia tucked Chloe into her little bed in the spare room. She had hoped her niece would sleep with her on the hide-a-bed. Lia was having a difficult time letting her out of her sight, but evidently Chloe was not affected in the same way. Talk about impressively independent.

  She and Isabel tidied the kitchen.

  “Lia, was Nelson really arrested in my front yard?”

  “I think so. I wasn’t listening too closely when Cal was telling me. We were driving over from the pharmacy. I believe he and Benny waited inside your house. When they saw Nelson walk up to the front door, they got him.” She shivered.

  “Too much excitement for one day.”

  “That’s for sure. I don’t think I can go to sleep.”

  “But you need to. You’re exhausted.”

  “I am. However,” she smiled, “I’m awake enough to hear your long story, the one that led up to that kiss!”

  Isabel grinned. “Tony showed up at the station. He drove for hours through the storm so he could talk to me face-to-face and convince me not to move to Mexico.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because he loves me!” She laughed out loud. “Oh, Lia, it’s as if life is all brand new with him, with us. It would be totally unbelievable if I didn’t know God specializes in the totally unbelievable. And guess what else? The Chicago station sent me a letter. It was at the station. They offered me the job! They need to know by Tuesday.”

  “Let me guess. Mexico? Or Tony and Chicago? Rather obvious choice, I’d say.”

  “Well, I didn’t think so. I mean, I read the letter, but still, why go to be near him and not be a part of his life? I didn’t know he cared for me. From his article, I assumed he’s turning his life over to Christ, but I didn’t know he felt anything beyond a friendship based on some long-ago past. Oh, Lia. I never thought we could love each other again and in a grown-up way.”

  A knot of envy twisted in Lia. I’m sorry, Lord. “That’s wonderful, Isabel.”

  “Now, back to you. It sounds like things are pretty serious.” She winked. “Between Chloe and Cal. What do you think?”

  “I think he’s turned into a great surrogate father, but we are leaving here. I’m glad you’ll be in Chicago. We won’t be that far from you.”

  “Lia, Cal loves you.”

  “I don’t know about that, but I do know that I don’t love him.”

  “You did until the Tammy thing.”

  Lia shrugged. “I’m destined to be a single mother living near Chicago.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know why. That’s God’s area of expertise. I just know I can’t stay here.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Human nature. My experience says Cal will let me down. Tammy was just the wake-up call.”

  Lia felt something sandpapery trace lightly along her cheekbone. Fingertips? They must belong to Cal. His were rough like that. You didn’t nab bad guys and climb trees and keep your hands soft.

  She kept her eyes shut and snuggled more deeply into the pillow. “It’s too early to get up.”

  “It’s time for church.” It was Cal.

  “Mmm. But I was still awake when the sun came up.”

  “You fret too much, China Doll. Go back to sleep. I’m taking Chloe to Sunday school. We’ll see you later. Come over for lunch. Okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  Peppermint-scented lips grazed her temple.

  When Lia awoke she saw Isabel’s front room curtains. Although they were shut, she could tell that the sun was high in the sky. It must be late. She wore her watch to bed because there wasn’t a clock in the living room, but she didn’t pull her wrist out from the covers. She wasn’t ready yet to let go of the sensation.

  It was a peculiar sensation, a cross between a warm bubble bath and eating chocolate. It felt like Christmas morning. It felt a little like being five again and holding her dad’s hand as he walked her to school. It was a little like that dream a few months after Kathy died. In the dream she glimpsed her sister in a crowded room, laughing, calling, “Lia, I’m fine!” It was anticipation…fulfillment…security… and joy. All rolled into one sensation.

  What had she been dreaming?

  Cal. She dreamt Cal came while she slept, and he said he was taking Chloe to Sunday school.

  Cal.

  The sensation remained.

  Cal. Calhoun Huntington.

  “Lord, I’ve made up my mind!”

  Imagine having Cal beside her every time she woke up.

  Lia sat up. “Lord, don’t make me change my mind!”

  Something across the bed caught her eye. On the end table was a single red rose in a crystal bud vase.

  She groaned, threw back the covers, and climbed out. Where was Isabel? Lia glanced at her watch. They were very late for church. “Chloe! Is
abel!” She hurried down the hallway. The bedrooms were empty. “Chloe! Isabel!” She ran back out into the living room and pulled aside the curtains. Isabel’s car sat there. Cal’s truck was gone. Tony had driven over last night, but his car was gone.

  The sensation returned full force, this time with a tickle like floating gossamer brushing her from head to toe. Maybe it hadn’t been a dream.

  God changed her mind. Sunlight crystallized the new day, chasing away the fears of recent weeks as it did yesterday’s storm. Chloe was safe today because Cal loved the little girl. He had nurtured their friendship and become privy to secrets such as a favorite place she would run to when upset. And why had he spent all that time with Chloe? Because he had a special passion for children? Hardly. It was because he loved Lia. Pure and simple. To run from that was a slap in the face of her heavenly Father. Pure and simple.

  Shaky from the revelation, she tried on three different outfits, unsure what to wear to Cal’s for lunch. Jeans? Slacks? Skirt? She chose black slacks and a red turtleneck sweater.

  When she noticed his truck was parked again on the street, she decided to wait a bit for Isabel and Chloe to show up. Anxiety gnawed at that absorbing sensation of bubble baths and chocolate threatening to squish it. Maybe it had been a dream. The rose was for Isabel from Tony. Maybe Cal was just interested in Chloe’s welfare. Maybe he wasn’t interested in pursuing a serious relationship with her. Maybe…

  Thirty minutes went by. Chloe and Isabel didn’t show up.

  Lia grabbed a jacket, strode out the back door, across the yards, and up to his kitchen door. The crisp air, so clean and calm, bit at her, stealing her breath away. She knocked.

  He opened the door. “Come on in. I didn’t know if you’d remember my invitation. You were pretty sleepy. Lunch is almost ready.”

  She followed him into his kitchen that smelled of tomato sauce. A soft flannel shirt hung from his broad shoulders and was tucked into blue jeans. She asked, “Where’s Chloe?”

  He stood at the stove, stirring. “Tony and Isabel took her out to lunch.”

  “I just came for my hug.”

  He turned, his clear green eyes questioning.

  “Chloe said you had a hug for me last night. I didn’t collect it.”