Shannon often picked it up, pointing to it and telling Robbie, “That’s Mommy. That’s Daddy. They are in heaven.”
Kari also ordered a swing set and had it delivered and set up. At the same time, she had a chain link fence erected to surround it, the house, and the newly laid sod.
“That creek is too enticing for a toddler,” she told Ilsa.
The kids loved it all. She played outside with them, pushing them on the swings, waiting at the bottom of the slide, showing Shannon how to hold onto the monkey bars and swing across, one hand at a time.
—
KARI TOOK ILSA AND THE CHILDREN SHOPPING for groceries and other necessities. Ilsa directed her through RiverBend to the freeway.
“We only shop at the neighborhood grocery in town when we run out of something,” Ilsa explained. “He doesn’t have much selection. The best thing is to make the forty-mile trip to the nearest town and use the Shop and Save.”
“That’s a hike! I’ll have to train myself to shop no more than once a week.”
Kari bought enough food to keep them for a month, if necessary. Afterwards they went to a large department store and selected cake decorations and party favors for Robbie’s party. While there, Kari wandered into the baby section.
“Looking for anything in particular?” Ilsa asked.
“I need a highchair for Mister Messy. Left his in New Orleans.”
“Great idea. And since you’re so all-fired filthy rich, why don’t you get two and keep one at our place?”
“Great idea!”
“I just said that.”
—
LULLED BY THE LONG DRIVE HOME, the kids fell asleep in their car seats. And Ilsa asked the questions Kari had been anticipating.
“So, Kari, do you think you’ll stay long in RiverBend?”
“That’s the plan for now. Shannon will start kindergarten in the fall. Say, where is the school? Where do I register her and when?”
“The school is on the outskirts of town. You register there. Max takes the bus; Shannon can ride with him”
“Wow. That’s unsettling—Shannon riding a school bus by herself?”
“But she won’t be by herself.”
“All right.” Did Kari detect something defensive under Ilsa’s remark?
“I’m sorry. I was a little sharp there.”
“Um, it’s okay. Are you worried about something?”
Ilsa sighed. “A little, I guess. You coming back here. It’s sort of upset the applecart. Not that it was a happy applecart before you came back, mind you, but it was a stable cart. Content, after a fashion. You know, all the apples, um, not wondering if they were going to be dumped . . . out.”
“Or just dumped?”
“Yeah. Maybe that.”
“You want to know if my intentions are honorable?”
“Come to think of it, yes.”
“Well, I’ll let you in on a secret, Ilsa. I came here husband shopping.”
“Ah. Did you, now?”
“Yes, but I’m shopping for a father, too. And a big brother.”
“Well, I know a boy who would be relieved to know that.”
“What about the prospective husband/father?”
“All’s quiet on that front.”
“Yeah. I thought so.”
—
ROBBIE’S PARTY WAS A ROUSING SUCCESS. He decided he liked being the center of attention. He sat, enthroned in one of his two new highchairs, tearing into gifts like a pro.
Kari gave him puzzles. Ilsa (and Søren by default) gave him bath toys. Max, though, from his own pocket, bought Robbie a big yellow dump truck.
“Truck!” Robbie loved it. He ran the wheels over his highchair tray and then wanted down.
“Max, that was the sweetest thing,” Kari told him. “Your gift is the big hit.”
“Can I take him outside to play with it in the dirt?”
Kari nodded slowly. “Yes, if you’d like. You’re a wonderful cousin, Max.”
“Yeah.”
There it was again. That sort of sad expression that flickered across his face.
Kari said nothing. She thought she understood what was going on in Max’s head. In his heart.
Lord, we need you.
Kari washed cake from Robbie’s hands and face. She helped him down the back steps with his new truck and Max took him by the hand.
When she came back into the kitchen, Shannon stood on a chair helping Ilsa wash the dishes. Kari took a rag and began wiping chocolate frosting off the highchair. Then she saw Søren, hands in his pockets, watching her.
“Guess we never saw this coming, did we?” Kari murmured.
“Not in a million years. I had imagined this scene, yes, but it was a whole lot different.”
“Guess God really threw us a curve ball, huh?”
“Us?” Søren studied Kari with pain in his eyes. “What is it you want from me, Kari?”
She flushed and kept cleaning, too hurt to answer him.
Ilsa, on the other hand, turned around and hissed, “Do you mind?” She tipped her head toward Shannon. The little girl’s expression was a mix of curious and wary.
“Sorry.” Kari put the washrag in the sink and hurried outside.
Søren did not follow her.
—
SHE FOUND MAX AND ROBBIE IN THE YARD playing under the pump. Max had made some roads in the moist dirt and they had a little hand shovel that Robbie was using laboriously to fill the truck.
“That’s good, Rob. Now drive it over and dump it.”
Robbie, his entire being engrossed in the process, got up and leaned on the yellow truck. He rolled it ahead of him to a spot where Max had drawn an ‘X.’ Once he got it there, he looked to Max.
“Hep. Hep, Max.”
“Sure thing, buddy.” Max made a show of lifting up the truck’s bed, complete with sound effects. Robbie danced about, squealing in delight as the dirt poured out.
“’Gain! ’Gain, Max!”
“Having fun, Robbie?”
“Fun,” Robbie repeated. “’Gain, Max!”
“I think it’s time to go home, Robbie.” Kari hated it. Hated tearing Robbie away, but the atmosphere in the house was too charged.
Robbie, as though she had not spoken, pushed the truck back to the pump and started digging. Max looked up at her and then Robbie. He got to his feet and walked up to her. “Kari, can I ask you something?”
Kari nodded, wondering at the hurt on Max’s face.
“Do . . . do you remember when you and Papa and me talked about obstacles and stuff?”
“Yes. Of course.”
She looked closely. Max was nervous. Afraid? “What is it, Max?”
“Well, you said . . . you said you loved my dad and wanted to marry him. Said you wanted to be my mom.”
“I did, Max. I still do.”
He looked a little relieved—but not completely.
“And you said you had to live in New Orleans. But now you live here, right?”
Kari nodded, watching for what was truly bothering him.
“’Cept now you have Shannon and Robbie. Are they new obstacles? Or . . .”
“Or what, Max?”
“Or am I an obstacle? ’Cause you have them now? Maybe you don’t need more kids, now that you have them.”
Kari felt like she’d been punched. “You, an obstacle? You could never be ‘an obstacle’ to me, Max. I love you. I will always love you.”
He blinked. Something was still there.
“But do you love me like-like a-a cousin? Not like you love Shannon and Robbie? Not like a-a son?”
There it was. Kari closed her eyes for a moment against Max’s pain.
She reached for him and hugged him with a fierceness that only grew stronger when he sobbed against her breasts.
“Max! Max, I love you in the same way I love Shannon and Robbie. As my own child. As my son. I have room in my heart for all three of you. Forever. If God allows me to marry your papa,
it will make me your mom for real—but you are already as dear as a son to me right this minute.”
“Really? Truly?”
“Really and truly.”
“Will you tell Papa? Tell him you’re ready to get married?”
Kari closed her eyes again. “I can’t tell him, Max. Not yet anyway.”
“Why not?”
Kari fumbled, trying to say it in the best way. “You know how you wanted to be sure that I would love you like a mom?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, your dad has barely met Shannon and Robbie. He doesn’t know them very well yet, and they don’t know him, either. Before I tell him I’m ready to get married, I have to be sure that he can love them as a dad. I-I wouldn’t want him to marry me and then realize he couldn’t feel the same about them as he feels about you. I can’t do that to Shannon and Robbie. Do you understand?”
“Oh.” It was a revelation to Max, a different way of looking at the problem. But he got it.
“Well, he will. He’ll love them. I know he will. Why wouldn’t he? They’re the best kids ever!”
Kari thought her heart would burst. Max could not have expressed his acceptance of Shannon and Robbie better.
“Then we’ll be patient, all right? Until your papa falls in love with them. In the meantime,” she planted a kiss on his forehead, “I love you to the moon and back, Maximillian Thoresen, and—Oh! Robbie!”
Robbie looked up, all innocence, but his face was caked in mud.
And he was chewing.
—
THE NEXT MORNING, KARI DRESSED THE CHILDREN for church. She had skipped church the first two Sundays they had been in RiverBend, figuring that Shannon and Robbie didn’t need to meet another group of strangers quite yet.
The late May morning spoke of warmth to come as the day lengthened. She put the children in the car and drove the now-familiar road toward RiverBend’s small community church.
She saw Lars and Dalia Thoresen and their active brood visiting with other church members on the grass. She directed the children to where they were standing.
“Hi, Dalia. Lars.”
“Hello, Kari.” Dalia smiled and bent toward Robbie and Shannon. “And who are these precious children?”
“These are my niece and nephew, Shannon and Robbie.”
Dalia was clearly confused. “But I thought—”
“They are mine now,” Kari murmured.
“Yours?”
Kari nodded. “We can speak of the details another time.”
“Well, it’s good to see you. I see you’re staying in your new house. Are you planning to be here long?”
“Actually, we’ve decided to put down roots here.”
Lars stepped in, kept Dalia from asking more questions.
“Service is about to start.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other often,” Kari said as she moved toward the church.
—
RELUCTANT TO PUSH HERSELF ONTO SØREN AND ILSA, Kari picked her own place to sit in the church—and not knowing how the children would behave, she chose seats on the back row.
She saw when Søren, Ilsa, and Max entered the building—particularly Max. He was searching for Kari, neck craning, eyes darting around the church.
That boy will crimp a knot in his neck, Kari laughed to herself. She waggled her fingers at him and he relaxed, a giant grin stretched across his face.
After church, Ilsa found them, too.
“Please come to Sunday dinner,” she begged. “I know you were at our place yesterday, but Sunday dinner is for family.”
“Is it all right with Søren?”
Ilsa bristled. “Well, of course it is.”
“All right. We’d love to. We’ll go home first so I can change the children into play clothes.”
Dinner would have been a relaxed, pleasant affair—except that Robbie was more interested in skipping lunch and playing outside with his truck. He bounced in his highchair. He fidgeted. He refused to eat. He kicked the chair’s legs. If the chair hadn’t restrained him, he would have been long gone.
In other words, dinner was a battle.
“No, Robbie. Not until dinner is over,” Kari warned him for the fourth time.
She sighed. “Is this the Terrible Twos?”
“Want down! Down!” he yelled. He began kicking the highchair nonstop.
“Doooowwwwn!”
“ROBBIE!”
Søren’s voice boomed in the kitchen, bringing all activity to a halt. Robbie stared at Søren with wide, startled eyes.
“Robbie, stop kicking and eat your lunch,” Søren instructed in a bit softer voice.
Robbie turned his head to Kari. Kari shook her head and shrugged.
“Robbie, look at me,” Søren demanded. “You will behave at the table. Now, finish your chicken.”
Robbie’s chin trembled, but he picked up the chicken leg on his tray.
Dinner resumed and, five minutes later, Robbie held out the chewed drumstick to Soren. “All gone, Sor.”
“You are a good boy, Robbie.”
“Down?”
“Down, please.”
He nodded vigorously. “Down peas.”
“Robbie,” Ilsa interrupted. “Do you want cake first?”
He dropped the drumstick onto the tray and clapped his hands. “CAKE!”
—
WHEN DINNER WAS OVER, Shannon, Robbie, and Max went outside to play. Kari and Ilsa did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Søren took a cup of coffee into the living room.
Soon after, Søren wandered into the kitchen again, ostensibly to refresh his coffee.
“Thank you for your help with Robbie at lunch,” Kari offered.
He cleared his throat. “They seem to be adjusting. Getting used to being here.”
“Yes. I’m glad I can give them a fairly stable routine.”
Ilsa spoke up. “Speaking of routine, you mentioned you will travel to New Orleans once a month. When do you go next?”
“That’s a good question. Probably next Sunday. Travel Sunday, work Monday and Tuesday, back on Wednesday.”
Søren frowned. “And you’ll take the kids with you? That’s a lot of disruption for them.”
“I don’t see another way around it. We will have to roll with it. Work it out.”
“And while you’re at the office?”
“Mrs. Birch took a permanent position elsewhere. Azalea has recommended another nanny to watch them for me.”
Ilsa huffed. “Well, why can’t they stay with us?”
Søren shot her a cautioning glance, but she ignored him.
“They know us now.” Under her breath she muttered, “They don’t need yet another stranger in their lives.”
The back door flew open and a whirlwind of three wild children blew in.
“Aunt Ilsa, we want cookies!” Shannon shouted it the way a highway robber demands all valuables.
“Tookie! Tookie!” Robbie echoed.
“Shannon and Robbie! Walk when you come into the house—and no shouting. If you want a cookie, you must ask. Politely,” Kari told them.
“May I have a cookie, please, Aunt Ilsa?”
Robbie walked over to Ilsa and stared straight up at her face. “Tookie peas Ilza.”
Kari heard Søren snort a laugh and grinned with him. “Ilsa has volunteered for four days of this next week. Are you all right with it?”
He looked down and then met Kari’s eyes. “I’ll adjust.”
It wasn’t the most enthusiastic reply, but Kari would take it anyway.
“Shannon, I have to go to work next week. You can come with me on the plane or you can stay here. Would you like to stay here with Ilsa?”
Shannon, holding a cookie in each hand, looked from Kari to Ilsa and back. “No.”
She pointed a cookie at Max. “Max.”
Max let out a whoop. “Ha! She chose me! She chose me!”
She pulled on his shirt. “Max. I wanna play with the baby goats.�
�
Robbie grinned. “Goats! Goats!”
“Okay, buddy, but first you need t’ wipe your mouth.” Max grimaced in Kari’s direction. “Gosh, Kari. This kid slobbers worse’n our old mama cat.”
Kari laughed. “He’s teething, Max. Molars.”
“Ugh.” Max pulled a disreputable kerchief from his back pocket and proceeded to wipe Robbie’s mouth and chin. “There ya go, Rob. Come on, then.”
He held the children by the hand and led them down the back porch steps toward the barn.
~~**~~
Chapter 36
KARI FELT HORRIBLE WHEN SHE LEFT THE CHILDREN in Søren and Ilsa’s kitchen early the following Sunday morning.
They are such a part of me now. I will miss them. Terribly.
Apparently, the kids would not miss her as much as she would miss them.
They ran to Max. Robbie tried to climb up his leg.
“Shannon and Robbie, Max has chores to do. Let him go,” Ilsa scolded them. “Kari, would you like to put their things in the spare room upstairs?”
Kari did so, hanging their church clothes in the closet and laying out their pajamas. When she came back, Shannon and Robbie had disappeared.
“Where did they go?”
Ilsa pointed out the window. Kari looked and what she saw caused a lump to form in her throat.
Striding toward the barn were Max and Søren. Shannon skipped and bounced but clung to Max’s hand. Robbie sat on Søren’s shoulders. Robbie waved his hands in the air. Even through the window, Kari could hear Robbie’s screaming laughter.
Kari put a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob.
Ilsa said nothing.
—
WHEN KARI ENTERED HER HOUSE ON MARLOW AVENUE that evening, it felt like another world—a world devoid of life. Azalea had left her a simple meal in the fridge. Kari heated it up and took it to her office.
As she ate, she wondered how this life so barren of little children had ever appealed to her.
It hadn’t. Not really. Oh, I was content doing what God required of me—but only until Shannon and Robbie needed me.
“The truth is,” she whispered into the air, “I will go into the office tomorrow and enjoy the work I need to do. But I will be counting the minutes until I go home again. Home to my little family.”
All God's Promises (A Prairie Heritage Book 7) Page 39