by Delia Latham
“I want you to.”
“Good.” He lowered his head and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “We should go. Now.” His husky voice said more to Lexi than did his words.
****
When Mitch opened the car door for Lexi, she seemed momentarily confused. Had no one ever shown her that courtesy before? A brief flare of white-hot anger whipped through him. Life had dealt this woman far too few of the good things.
But just as quickly, he offered a silent prayer of gratitude. Todd Carlisle’s final act of callousness had opened the door for Mitch. If Lexi would let him, he intended to give her everything Todd had failed to deliver.
Their conversation on the way to Rosewood revolved mostly around Lexi’s mother. With a few well-chosen questions, he learned a great deal about their relationship and about Lexi’s past. Thank God she’d had the special kind of mother hers had been, because he couldn’t find much else about her life, after childhood, to deem a blessing.
As the miles faded away behind them, Lexi became more quiet and tense. By the time Mitch pulled into a parking slot and turned off the engine, both of her hands were tight little knots in her lap. Mitch could almost hear the clenching of her teeth.
Without the soft purr of the engine, a weighty silence descended inside the vehicle. He picked up one of her clenched fists and eased it open so he could weave his fingers with hers.
“Sweetheart, it’ll be…” He paused. Why say things that might well prove untrue? This day would be hard on Lexi, without a doubt. “Let’s pray.”
Without bothering to see her reaction, he bowed his head, aware that her cold hand trembled in his. “Father, You know the situation Lexi is facing today. Thank You for allowing me the joy of being here for her. But as much as I’d love to make everything OK, I don’t have the ability to do that. Only You can make this Mother’s Day a memory to treasure.” Hesitating for a few seconds, he squeezed the small hand he held. “Lord, You know how desperately she wants to share her heart with her mother. Your Word tells us that You are love. More than either of us, You understand how important it is for a mother to know her daughter loves and appreciates her. If it’s in Your will, would You open that window of opportunity for Lexi before”—He broke off, cleared his throat—”Before time runs out. Given this dear mother’s age and physical condition, we are aware that time is of the essence. We place the matter in Your hands and pray Your will be done. Go with us now, and be very real to Lexi—and to Mrs. Martin—throughout this day. We ask these things in Your name. Amen.”
He opened his eyes to find Lexi brushing tears from her cheeks. Without a word, he retrieved a box of tissue from the backseat and set it between them. She shot him a grateful, weepy smile and dried her eyes.
“Thank you. That was beautiful. I think I can do this now. I’m—” She stopped, lowered her eyelashes, then stiffened her shoulders and raised them again. “I’m glad you’re with me.”
Mitch couldn’t help himself. He took her face between his hands and lowered his lips to hers. She tensed, but only for a second or two. Then, with a soft, indecipherable sound, she returned his kiss, her lips moving against his in sweet response.
At last, he pulled away and looked into her wide eyes. He tried to speak and had to clear his throat yet again before he could force out a few husky words. “I’m glad I’m with you, too. Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go see your mom.”
****
Lexi took a deep breath as Mitch pulled his keys from the ignition, where they’d swung throughout the entire drive, but Lexi hadn’t paid much attention until now. Her breath caught in her throat.
“What is it?” Mitch asked. “My keys?”
She touched the half heart hanging from the ring. “This. What—where did you get it?”
He chuckled. “Funny you should ask. I found it on my car seat one day when I came out of Rosewood. A little purple ribbon was tied around it.” He shook his head and produced the narrow-eyed gaze Lexi was becoming so familiar with. “Come to think of it, I think it was that first day you and I met here. I don’t know who left it, or how they got inside my locked car.”
He shrugged. “I’m not even sure why I kept it. I think it’s missing a piece. This is supposed to be a Bible verse—I recognize it from somewhere in Psalms. But only part of it is here.” Turning the heart toward Lexi, he touched a finger to an inscription on the back, which he read aloud. “…the one who trusts in the Lord.”
She managed a stiff nod. Then, without looking away from Mitch’s key ring, she gave the chain around her neck a little tug, producing the pendant that had arrived on her doorstep—a special delivery by an insanely beautiful woman she didn’t even know.
Hadn’t that also happened the day she found Mitch reading to her mother at Rosewood?
She unfastened the chain and slid her own wing-shaped pendant close to the one he held, already knowing what would happen. And she was right. The two delicately curved pieces fit perfectly together to make a complete, gracefully shaped heart.
Mitch murmured the words aloud. “…steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.” He looked at Lexi. “What’s on the other side of yours?”
Lexi handed him her chain and pendant, and watched, fascinated, while lips that had just kissed her silly formed the words on her pendant.
“He will give His angels charge over thee.”
Blue-gray eyes peered at her from beneath lashes that were surely the envy of many women.
“Another scripture. I love that promise.”
She nodded. “Me too. What about yours? The other side?”
Mitch handed her the key ring with enough hesitance to make her nervous. Maybe she shouldn’t read his inscription. But she had asked about it. She couldn’t very well hand it back and say she wasn’t interested.
That wouldn’t be true anyway. She was interested.
Tucking her bottom lip between her teeth, she bent her head to read.
You’ll find your joy where angels walk.
Puzzled, she shook her head. “What does it mean?”
He shrugged and gave her the heart stopping crooked smile she loved. “It’s a long story, but I promise to tell you all about it. Later.” Touching a finger to the tip of her nose, he pointed his chin toward Rosewood. “Right now, we should go inside. It’s Mother’s Day. Let’s not keep yours waiting.”
8
She clung to Mitch’s arm as they crossed through the lobby area where several elderly patients sat. None carried on meaningful conversations, but several made odd, barely human sounds. Normally Lexi would stop to chat with a couple of them but not today.
This visit was all about Mama.
Neither of them spoke as they maneuvered around the wheelchairs and shuffling patients who wandered the long halls. Mitch seemed to read her mood and didn’t attempt conversation. Which was a good thing, since she could not have managed a sensible word. Every cell in her body warred with itself, dreading and anticipating that moment when she would arrive at her mother’s room and face its mostly silent, withdrawn occupant.
Lexi forced long, slow breaths, determined not to hyperventilate.
A few steps shy of room seven, Mitch stopped. Lexi raised a frantic gaze to his. Having come this far with her, surely he wouldn’t leave her now? Didn’t he know she needed him?
One long finger grazed her cheek before curling under her chin and giving it a lift. “Relax, sweetheart. You’re just going to see your mother. Try not to think of this day as different from any other.”
She forced her stiff lips into a tiny smile. “But it is different. It’s Mother’s Day, and mine won’t know me.”
“Ahhh, Lexi.” He slid both hands behind her back and pulled her close. “I wish I could make it all right for you.”
“You help make things easier.” She closed her eyes and breathed a silent prayer for peace before opening them again, only to find her breath trapped in her throat by Mitch’s caressing gaze.
“You’re so
beautiful,” he whispered, for her ears only.
Lexi lowered her eyelashes, despising the warmth that flooded her cheeks. A woman her age should know how to take a compliment—not that her husband had given enough of them to practice on.
Was she supposed to say something? What…? “Thank you.”
Brilliant, Alexa. Nice going.
Mitch gave no indication that she’d mishandled the situation in any way. “You’re welcome.” He left one arm around her waist and started walking again, gently guiding her, supporting her the remaining few steps to her mother’s door. “You ready for this?”
“No.”
They stepped through the wide doorway together.
Lexi gasped. Mitch tightened his arm around her, and she sensed a new tenseness in his body. So what she saw wasn’t wishful thinking on her part. Mitch saw it, too.
“Mama?”
****
“Lexi!” Mama sat in her usual chair with a bright afghan over her lap, but her blue eyes sparkled with life and genuine recognition. “Come in, darling. I’m so ready for a nice visit.” Her gaze lifted to Mitch’s face with a flash of obvious surprise. “Mitch, how nice to see you.”
As if awakening from a deep sleep, Lexi blinked once, and then again. With a joyful cry, she rushed across the room and fell to her knees in front of her mother’s chair. Taking both lined hands in her own, she kissed first one, and then the other. “Mama! You know me!”
“Well, of course I know you, darling.” Mama squeezed Lexi’s hands. A touch of sadness shadowed the faded eyes, but she made an obvious, valiant effort to tuck it out of sight. “I take it I’ve been a bit out of it?”
Lexi released one of her mother’s hands to brush at the flood of tears on her face, even as nervous, excited laughter burst from her lips. “A bit, yes.”
“Well, at this moment, I am with it! Get yourself comfortable and talk to me, child. Tell me everything you’ve been up to.”
“I will, but first…Happy Mother’s Day, Mama.”
A bright peal of merriment bubbled from her mother’s lips. “Is it Mother’s Day? Well, what a beautiful gift God has given us this year.”
Lexi nodded. “Amen.”
From just behind her, Mitch’s quiet voice reminded her that she and her mother were not alone.
“I’m feeling the need for hot coffee, and I happen to know the cafeteria here serves a quite tolerable cup. Can I bring some back for you ladies?”
Lexi smiled. Mitch’s unobtrusive way of giving her private time with her mother was simply one of the many ways he continually proved himself to her.
“I’d love a cup, thank you. Bring lots of sugar and creamer.”
“I can do that. Ma’am?” He turned his attention to her mother.
“For me, as well, Mitch. Thank you.”
He strode to the door, made a quick left, and disappeared down the hall.
“Now, Lexi dear, tell me…what are you doing with Mitch Gaynor?”
Lexi laughed, loving how it made her feel. “I will, Mom. After you tell me how you know who he is.”
“Don’t be silly, Alexa. He’s a famous writer. Everyone who’s lived any time at all in Angel Falls knows who Mitch Gaynor is. Did you know this used to be his father’s room?” She stopped, and when Lexi pinned her under a narrow-eyed stare, a mischievous smile lit her face, rendering her lined visage at least a decade younger. “You want to know it all, don’t you? You always were a curious little thing, Lexi dear.”
They both laughed, and Lexi’s mother patted her hand. “I know Mitch because he reads to me. I’m not sure how often.” A lost expression shadowed her face, but only for an instant. “I, uh…I seem to be unsure of a lot of things these days.”
And then she was smiling again.
Lexi squeezed her mother’s hands. “He comes once a week. And that’s how I met him. I came to see you one day and there he sat, with those long legs stretched out half a mile in front of him, reading my mother a—” She broke off and grinned at the older woman. “A romance novel. Can you believe that?”
Soft laughter further warmed Lexi’s overjoyed heart. “Actually, yes. I do. I might even remember the book. Something about…” She huffed out a sigh that sounded a bit tired and plaintive. “Oh, um…yes. Angels.” Her sweet face brightened, and she shot Lexi a triumphant grin. “That’s what it was. An angel named Solomon.”
Lexi shook her head. Mama had been unresponsive that day. How could she remember anything at all about Mitch or the book he’d read? Not that her mother was comatose or catatonic, but still, she hadn’t been in a state of awareness either.
She hoped her smile was as bright as she tried to make it. “Well, see? Your memory’s not as leaky as you thought.” She touched a cool, soft cheek with her fingertips, then settled more comfortably onto the floor and rested her head on her mother’s lap.
“Yes, it is, Lexi dear. You don’t have to pretend with me. I know how ‘leaky’ my memory is. But I haven’t forgotten quite everything.” The fingers of one shaky hand wound themselves into Lexi’s hair, and she absently stroked it as she talked. “I remember how much I’ve always loved you.”
And now Lexi’s tears refused to be stayed. “Oh, Mama, I love you too, more than anything in this world. I’ve wanted to say that for so long.” She sniffed, grabbed a tissue, and kept talking. “I don’t think I would have survived that awful marriage without you. You were all that kept me wanting to live another day, and I never told you how much it meant to me…how much you mean to me.” Her teary gaze traveled her mother’s sweet face, drank in her gentle smile, committing them to memory in the deepest part of her heart. “I want you to know that I appreciate you—and how…very…much I love you.” Plumbing the depths of emotion she had heretofore guarded at all costs, she poured it now into every word. Her mother must be able to comprehend how deeply she was loved.
“But I do know. I’ve always known.” Mama’s lovely smile touched the darkest corner of Lexi’s soul and shone a love light there. “That sweet young woman told me you were fretting over it, and I want you to stop. No more of that.”
Lexi’s breath hitched and caught in her throat. She cleared it in a hurry and raised her head to search her mother’s face. “What young woman? Mama, who are you talking about?”
But she already knew, and her mother’s next words only made the knowing more wondrous.
“Why, that lovely lady, darling, the one with long, dark hair and those beautiful golden eyes. You know her, Lexi.” She paused, and once again a shadow skittered across her face and was gone. “She said you’d know who she was.”
“I do.” Lexi squeezed her mother’s hand. Her lips curved into a reassuring smile, despite the pounding of her heart. “What else? Did my friend say anything more?”
“As a matter of fact, she did.”
Now her mother’s eyes twinkled with a teasing light that Lexi remembered well. She’d been so sure she’d never see that sparkle again, and she mustn’t let her sadness spoil the moment. Not a single second of this day should be wasted. Who knew how brief these moments of clarity might be?
“Well?” Her pretend frown probably wouldn’t fool anyone, but she gave it a shot anyway. “What did the two of you talk about?”
Her mother surprised her then by tittering like a teenager. But just as abruptly, she sobered, and reached out to touch her fingers to Lexi’s cheek. “The pretty lady—I don’t…think I got her name.” A crease knit the already lined brow, and faded blue eyes filled with a terrible knowing. For a moment, Lexi thought her mother would cry.
Instead, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Silly me. I’m so forgetful. Anyway, we talked a great deal about you, Lexi dear.”
“Yes?” Lexi dragged the word into a couple of syllables, deliberately downplaying the depth of her curiosity.
“Yes.” Her mother mimicked the exaggerated pronunciation. “She told me, daughter, that I could rest easy, because God had sent someone to take care of you and ma
ke you happy.”
Lexi gasped and widened her eyes, but still attempted to keep the conversation unfettered by her own concerns. “She did, did she?”
A somewhat regal dipping of her mother’s chin communicated her agreement. “And…” She paused, studying Lexi’s face. “She said this ‘someone’s’ gentleness and love would help heal the wounds in your heart.”
Lexi’s lungs seemed to have suffered a sudden puncture. She scrabbled for breath then sputtered the very words she didn’t intend to say. “But how can I know he won’t be like Todd? I can’t even think about facing that kind of life again.”
“Lexi, Lexi!” Mama shook her head and placed a hand on each of Lexi’s cheeks, holding her gaze in an unrelenting visual vice. “One can never really know these things, daughter. We can only trust and believe.” She patted Lexi’s face and smoothed a strand of hair off her forehead. “Love is never without risk, that’s part of what makes it so precious. But you, my darling, are stronger than you think you are.” Her hand stilled, and her eyes no longer held any distance or lack of focus. They locked onto Lexi’s own and held it captive. “You deserve love, sweet girl. You deserve to be happy. But you will never know those things until you open your heart and allow them in.”
Lexi gave up on staying strong for her mother, let go of the effort to keep this longed-for visit free of any kind of strain. “But Mama, I’m terrified. I don’t want to fall in love. I can’t…lose control.”
Her mother was silent for a long time, but her expression was a familiar one. She was putting her words together with great care. “Lexi, listen to me, darling. I don’t believe people fall ‘helplessly’ in love. Love is always a choice. God Himself is love, and He is the ultimate gentleman.”
Lexi gasped, her mother’s words bringing vividly to mind her visit from Mr. Hart. God kept reinforcing His messages to her.