RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Volume One: Blackberry SummerWoodrose MountainSweet Laurel Falls

by RaeAnne Thayne

  A huge weight for any seventeen-year-old to carry, even if he had earned it. She must be the bleeding heart Brodie seemed to think if she could feel this pang of sympathy for this defiant young man, even knowing his stupid decisions were to blame for the pain and loss that affected an entire town.

  “She’s not. A vegetable, I mean.”

  He frowned. “She’s in a wheelchair. She can’t talk. Brittni Jones, one of her stupid friends from the cheerleading squad, says she can’t even feed herself.”

  “She’s working on all those things.”

  It wasn’t exactly a lie, she told herself, even though right now Taryn didn’t seem to want to work on much of anything. A tiny niggle of an idea sprouted in Evie’s head, completely, fantastically inappropriate. She tried to dismiss it but it didn’t seem to want to wither away.

  “Before I came to Hope’s Crossing, I was a physical therapist. Right now I’m helping to set up a program of rehab exercises that will help Taryn continue to improve at home.” If the girl actually could be bothered to do them, but Evie decided not to mention that to Charlie.

  At least he was looking at her now and not the steep drop-off. “How is she?” He hesitated. “Is she making progress?”

  “It’s slow, certainly, but yes. She’s improving.”

  That germ of an idea refused to die. It was completely crazy but some of her best ideas were. “Why don’t you come visit her and see for yourself?”

  He gaped at her. “I couldn’t!”

  “Why not? I think Taryn would enjoy the company. She spends all day surrounded by therapists and nurses and home-health aides. I imagine she’s desperate for a little conversation that doesn’t revolve around exercises or medications.”

  “Her dad would never let me in the door. He’d string me up by my b—, um, arms if I tried it.”

  He was probably right about that. Brodie would be furious if he knew she was even suggesting it to the kid. Somehow this seemed just the way to take care of two problems at once—give Taryn someone else her own age to interact with besides Hannah and give Charlie something else to focus on besides that steep drop-off and the people below who now treated him like a pariah.

  “We’re going to String Fever this morning. If you wanted to see Taryn, you could come there. That way her father wouldn’t have to be involved.”

  It was a huge risk but somehow this felt right.

  “She wouldn’t want to see me.”

  “Maybe not. But we won’t know if you don’t try. Stop in for a minute and say hi. That’s all. I think it would mean a lot to Taryn to know you cared.”

  She paused, giving him a careful look. “You owe her that, at least, don’t you?”

  Charlie closed his eyes for an instant and inhaled sharply as if she’d just chucked a rock at his gut. His fingers dug into Jacques’s fur and he let out his breath slowly.

  “I don’t know.”

  “We’ll be there for about an hour this morning, around nine-thirty.” She whistled to Jacques. “Come on, boy.”

  The dog seemed reluctant to leave the boy but he finally bounded up to her.

  For an instant, she experienced a pang of misgiving. If the boy was really suicidal, wasn’t she taking a huge chance to leave him here in the mountains by himself? She wouldn’t be able to bear it if she found out later he had harmed himself and she might have prevented it by staying a little longer or walking with him down the hill or something.

  No. He was still looking down at the town below but she sensed something else in his posture now. Some of that desperate edge seemed to have seeped out of him and now he looked almost pensive.

  She couldn’t really have explained it, no more than she understood what impulse had led her to invite him to the bead store that morning, but her instincts were telling her any threat of suicide, real or imagined, had passed.

  She whistled to Jacques and the two of them headed down the trail, leaving the boy alone.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “NO. NO, NO, NO.”

  Taryn hadn’t quite resorted to splaying her arms out to keep Evie from pushing the wheelchair through the doorway of the van and down the ramp but it was a near thing. She had been chanting no ever since the moment Evie had pulled the van into a parking space behind the bead store.

  Evie ground her back teeth. “I promised Hannah I would help her with her mom’s earrings, Taryn. I gave my word. You said it would be okay.”

  “I…changed…my mind. Don’t want to now.”

  That was as many words as Taryn had strung together at one time in her presence. While she knew the girl’s growing verbal skills ought to please her, she had to fight down frustration. This frustration was all her fault. That’s what made it all the more aggravating.

  She’d been running late all morning. Those moments she had spent talking to Charlie on Woodrose Mountain had thrown off her entire schedule and she had barely made it to the house for the last few minutes of Brodie’s interview with the latest uninspiring candidate.

  It was all a ripple effect. Now they were late to the bead store as well. She only hoped Hannah wasn’t already waiting for them inside.

  “Why don’t you want to come here anymore? You used to love going into String Fever and playing around with bead designs.”

  “Not the same…now.”

  Evie knelt beside the wheelchair, her heart aching for Taryn and everything the girl had been forced to give up. What did her own schedule matter? The girl’s discomfort was the important issue here.

  “No. It’s not the same. But some things haven’t changed. I think you will still like making things. What girl doesn’t like jewelry, am I right?”

  Taryn cast her a sidelong look under her lashes and shrugged.

  “I promise, it’s going to be okay. It’s early and the store hasn’t even opened yet. Your grandmother is there and Claire Bradford and Hannah. That’s all. People who love you and want to help you.”

  She decided not to mention Charlie and her spontaneous invitation for him to join them that morning. What would be the point? He probably wouldn’t come anyway.

  “It will be fun, I promise,” she said. “And isn’t it nice to be somewhere beside your house for a change? I don’t know about you, but I was getting sick of Mrs. Olafson’s terrible cooking all the time. If I had to eat another dozen of those sugar cookies of hers, I just might have to be sick or something.”

  Taryn giggled, fully aware that Mrs. O. was a fantastic cook. Evie was going to gain ten pounds before she was done with this temporary job.

  “Look at you, out on the town. We’ll go into the store, help Hannah make a couple sets of earrings and be back home in an hour. While we’re there, you decide what kind of project you want to make. Maybe a simple charm necklace or a bracelet or something. Whatever you want and we’ll make it together.”

  Taryn lifted her hands. Though the function in the right hand was coming along nicely, the left one was still difficult for her to use. “I…can’t…bead.”

  “Sure you can. We’ll start slowly. Trust me, if the old ladies with arthritis who come to the Bead Babes class at the senior center can do it, you certainly can. I bet you can bead rings around those old biddies.”

  “Not rings. Just…a bracelet,” Taryn said slowly and Evie laughed and hugged her. Another joke! She loved when Taryn allowed her sense of humor to shine through her challenges. Those little moments gave her hope.

  Right now, Taryn’s biggest issue besides her attitude was the muscle tone that had been weakened by six weeks in a coma, but the fact that she was alive and here cracking jokes was nothing short of a miracle.

  “A bracelet it is. Are you ready, then?”

  Taryn sighed, apprehension still twisting her features, but she nodded. Overwhelmed by the girl’s courage, Evie bent down to unfasten the tie-downs lashing the wheelchair in place in the van and then rolled her down the ramp toward the back door.

  Their path took them through the gate and the sma
ll fenced garden, lush and fragrant from the madly blooming lavender and lemon balm. When she’d left String Fever an hour before, she had put Jacques outside in the garden so he could play with his best friend, Claire’s old basset hound, Chester. Apparently Claire was already there, because both dogs seemed to be waiting for them. They immediately headed over, Chester’s sturdy little body waddling and Jacques loping in his elegant stride.

  “Oh!” Taryn drew back a little in her chair.

  “Nothing to worry about, sweetheart. You know Chester, Claire’s dog, right? He’s been around the store forever. This other gorgeous dude is my Labradoodle, Jacques.”

  To Evie’s delight, Jacques padded to Taryn and rested his chin on her leg, gazing up into her eyes with that soulful look he had perfected.

  If this had been a cartoon version of life, a spangled flurry of pink, glittery hearts and flowers would have erupted between girl and dog as the two of them quite obviously fell hard for each other. Evie saw instant adoration in her dog’s eyes and a similar glint in Taryn’s.

  Evie held her breath as Taryn lifted her left hand, the one she tended to avoid using, and patted the dog’s curly woollike fur.

  “So cute,” she exclaimed.

  “Careful there.” Evie smiled, delighted and feeling almost a little weepy, for some ridiculous reason she couldn’t explain. “He’s very much a manly male and doesn’t like to be called cute.”

  Her reluctance to be at the bead store apparently forgotten in the excitement of new friends, Taryn giggled and petted the dog a little more, moving her arm more than she had through all the exercises combined the occupational therapist had tried on her.

  Though she was still aware Hannah might be inside waiting for them, Evie didn’t want to ruin the sweetness of the moment—or Taryn’s impromptu occupational therapy—so they stayed for a few moments in the little garden while birds chirped in the branches of the butterfly bush and red-osier dogwood against the fence, and the summer air drifted around them, sweet and cool.

  Finally she decided they should probably head inside. “If you’d like, Jacques can come inside and help us bead. He’s not so great at working with the pliers but he can be pretty good company.”

  Taryn giggled again, a genuine sound that sounded lovely and pure in the morning air.

  “He’ll behave,” Evie assured her. “If he doesn’t, Chester can keep him in line, right, buddy?”

  Claire’s dog gave his morose grin and waddled to the door. Evie was relieved to see all of Taryn’s unease seemed to have drifted away like seed puffs on the morning breeze. The girl was even smiling as Evie propped open the back door and pushed her through.

  “There you are,” Katherine exclaimed. “We were beginning to worry you wouldn’t come.”

  “Oh, yay! We’ve been waiting forever! ” Claire exclaimed. She was so genuinely sweet it was hard not to like Claire, though in her smaller moments Evie had to admit all that warmth and kindness sometimes exhausted Evie, who would definitely win any snarky contest between the two of them.

  “Sorry we’re late,” she said. “It’s been a crazy morning.”

  “No worries. You’re here now. Hi, Taryn.” Alex McKnight, Claire’s best friend since childhood, smiled at the girl and Evie hoped the addition of one more person to their little party wouldn’t throw Taryn for a curve.

  The girl maintained a hold on Jacques as if she didn’t dare release him. The dog remained motionless, apparently content. Evie blinked a little. Jacques was usually a calm creature but this was unusual serenity, even for him.

  “Roll up to the table here, darling,” Katherine said to her granddaughter. Evie pushed Taryn forward and was amused when Jacques trotted right along with her.

  “Hannah’s not here yet?”

  Claire shook her head. “It’s probably not that easy for her to get away from home. If she said she would be here, I’m sure she will show up.”

  Sometimes Evie wondered how Claire could have such unshakable faith in the goodness of everyone around her, especially when she had seen ample evidence to the contrary.

  “What are you three working on?” Evie asked.

  “Katherine has decided to teach another class on wire wrapping. We’re trying to come up with a pattern for her.”

  “Ooh. Fun. My favorite thing. While you’re busy with that and while we wait for Hannah, Taryn and I are going to work on a bracelet. I thought we should use some beads that aren’t too heavy but big enough for her to handle easily. I’m also thinking smooth and soft so they feel good when she wears them. Maybe polymer clay? What do you think?”

  Claire’s expression brightened. “I’ve got the perfect beads! They just came in yesterday and I haven’t even had time to unpack them.”

  She jumped up from the table and headed toward her office, where deliveries were sometimes stacked until they could be dealt with later.

  “While she’s looking for that, I’ll find some cord,” Evie said. “I’m thinking elastic to make it easier for you to put on and take off. Does that work for you?”

  “Yes,” Taryn said, enunciating carefully. “Thank…you.”

  Katherine’s mouth trembled a little and Evie was afraid she would cry. The older woman gazed at her granddaughter with a mix of love and pride. On her way to the rolls of cording, Evie pressed a hand to Katherine’s shoulder as she passed and her friend reached up to squeeze her fingers.

  “Thank you,” she murmured.

  She smiled. “Anybody else need anything while I’m up?”

  “How about something tall, dark and gorgeous?” Alex asked. Immediately, an image of Brodie flashed in Evie’s mind and that stunning kiss of the night before that she hadn’t been able to get out of her head. Her stomach fluttered and she could feel hot color crawl up her cheeks.

  “Can’t help you there, unless Claire got a delivery of those too yesterday.”

  “Why would I?” Claire called from the office. “Riley is all the tall, dark and gorgeous I can handle.”

  “Ew. Stop. Don’t want to hear about it,” Alex said, rolling her eyes at Taryn, who giggled.

  Evie smiled as she headed toward the rolled cord. Alex might protest that the idea of her best friend and her younger brother together was just too weird for her but Evie didn’t doubt for a minute that she was secretly thrilled for both of them.

  She quickly selected the right cord weight and was looking over spacers when the chimes on the door gave a slow peal, as if whoever was pushing the door open wasn’t quite sure whether to come in.

  A moment later, it opened farther and Charlie Beaumont stepped through. He had changed from his biking clothes into khaki shorts and a polo shirt and looked as if he’d rather be anywhere else on earth.

  Nerves fluttered in Evie’s stomach. Okay, this had been a really stupid idea. What had she been thinking? Right now she wished she could send him right back out the door but she had no idea how to go about doing that.

  “Hi,” she said calmly. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

  “I shouldn’t have. This is stupid.” He glanced at the front door again, then back at her. Though outwardly he looked defiant, his eyes looked haunted. She knew she had no business feeling that dratted compassion for him again but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  “I should go,” he muttered.

  “Running away is what’s stupid. But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”

  His mouth tightened—Charlie had been trying to escape a police pursuit when he’d spun out of control on a snow-slicked roadway—but he said nothing. Nor did he whirl around and head back out the door. She supposed that was an encouraging sign.

  “Taryn is back in the workroom. Come with me.”

  She had to give him credit for guts. He released a long breath but followed her toward the back of the store and the worktable.

  Oops. Perhaps she should have warned the others he was coming. Evie winced. Too late for that now. If she had thought of it, Charlie’s sudden appearance
in the workroom of String Fever might not have reverberated around the room as if she’d just sprayed everybody down with a fire hose.

  Claire was just coming out of her office, holding a package. Her mouth sagged open and she nearly stumbled. Alex knocked over a cup of seed beads she’d been working with, while Katherine just stared.

  “Look who’s here, everyone.” Evie tried for a cheery tone. “I ran into Charlie this morning on the Woodrose Mountain trail above town. He was asking about Taryn and I happened to mention we were coming to the bead store this morning. He wanted to stop by and say hello.”

  Alex’s green eyes sizzled with sudden anger and Katherine’s features were set in the same stony, hard look Evie was beginning to recognize in her son.

  Okay. This had been a monumentally crazy idea. Sometimes Evie let her compassion and good intentions override common sense. It was a fatal flaw, really, probably stemming from her innate desire to fix everything.

  She had always been that way, from the time she was a little girl always charged with watching over her sister, two years younger. Keep an eye on Elizabeth, Evaline. You’re the oldest. Don’t let her go too far out in the water. She’s your responsibility.

  In the end, she had failed. She hadn’t been around to watch out for Lizzie and hadn’t been able to do anything but watch helplessly from beside her sister’s hospital bed while Lizzie suffered excruciating pain from her second- and third-degree burns—nor could Evie hold back the infection that had eventually killed her sister.

  And Cassie. Despite all the love and care she had given her child, she hadn’t been able to save her either.

  Maybe someday she would finally learn the lesson to just stop trying.

  Now what, though? She had to muddle through this latest mess she had created somehow. She was trying to figure out how to smooth over the tension of the moment when help arrived from an unexpected source.

  “Char—lie. Hi.” Taryn spoke the words slowly but clearly. To Evie’s shock, Taryn raised her hand from Jacques’s fur and held it out for the boy. Her smile was wide, genuine.

  The teenager looked at Taryn’s hand and then back at Evie as if seeking direction. Not knowing what else to do, she gestured him forward. After an awkward pause, Charlie reached out for Taryn’s hand.