All That Remains

by Janice Kay Johnson

  He couldn’t imagine, but nodded agreeably to hide his dismay. Was he actually thinking that he would ask Wren to stay? It was crazy. She’d say no. She wanted to go to Florida to see her friend. His house was an involuntary way station for her, nothing more.

  What if she said yes? Alec quit breathing.

  God, he wanted her. He closed his eyes momentarily. He’d hurt her or himself or both of them if he let himself have her. And what about Abby? She almost scared him more.

  Thankfully, Wren was taking something out of the freezer and hadn’t noticed the shock that must have frozen his face. He eased from the kitchen before she had a chance.

  Half an hour later, she’d settled in one of the bedrooms to look through more useless crap. Feeling restless, Alec wandered around appraising the general state of the house. Eventually, he even made himself care.

  The wallpaper had to go throughout the house. He had a bad feeling that getting it off without damaging the plaster beneath was going to be an unpleasant job. He could peel off strips here and there, but most of it was stuck fast. He was dismayed when he did peel off a long strip in his bedroom only to see a different paper beneath.

  Wren summoned him a couple of times to look at something. He’d managed to put a padlock on his unwelcome feelings and could stand close to her with no more than the inevitable stirring of his body. In between, he went online and read about how to steam wallpaper. What kind of shape would the walls beneath be in?

  If he was going to go to the trouble to do all that work, then he’d need to do something about the moldings, as well. In keeping with the era of the house, they were stained a dark brown that added to the gloom. He imagined the walls a crisp white in some rooms and the tall trim along the floor and around windows freshly refinished in a warm chestnut or maple-brown.

  Of course, the floors could stand to be stripped and refinished, too….

  He swore out loud. Was he seriously thinking about remodeling the whole damn house? And why? For sale? Real estate prices in rural Arkansas lagged behind the rest of the country. Unless he did the work himself—which he didn’t have time to do even if he wanted to—he’d be better off financially to sell the house as is.

  Was he thinking about keeping it? Turning it into someplace he’d actually like to live?

  Someplace Wren would like to live?

  Even the question closed his throat. Forget that—what about someplace he could have the girls? The idea of having them for an entire summer in Great-Aunt Pearl’s oppressive house had seemed ludicrous. Cruel, even. He had hated most of his time here, and so would they.

  There were other things, of course, stopping him from calling Carlene and insisting she ship Autumn and India to him the minute the girls’ private school let out in June. The fact that he had to work, for example. Could he really ask Sally to take them on every day, all day, all summer? And he’d started thinking they might be scared. India especially was shy with him when he called. How much were they forgetting him? Would they want to come?

  He was relieved when he heard Wren calling for him again. Was he really considering putting pressure on Carlene to live up to her end of the divorce bargain?

  It’s only December. I’ve got time to decide.

  He found Wren in the bathroom changing Abby’s diaper rather than sitting cross-legged by the boxes he’d piled in one of the spare bedrooms.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to drag you away from whatever you were doing. I wanted you to know I’m finished up here for now. Once I feed Abby I’ll start baking some pies before I put dinner on.” Wren smiled at him over her shoulder, then tickled Abby’s belly. The legs were about all he could see, but they pedaled happily in response to the touch. He found his gaze riveted to those tiny, plump feet.

  “Let me know if you want help,” he muttered. “I can cook, you know. Or I can help wash up while you’re cooking.”

  As if talking to her daughter, she said, “Detective Harper is an excellent dishwasher, isn’t he? What do you say? Should we let him help?”

  He snorted and retreated from the doorway, but discovered as he headed downstairs that he was smiling.

  “WELL, DAMN. This place looks different. Doesn’t it, pumpkin?” A typically dopey grin on his face, Randy swung his middle child so she hung upside down, her hair brushing the floor.

  Amanda shrieked, but happily.

  Alec followed his brother-in-law’s gaze around the living room. “Yeah, I decided it was time to clear it out,” he muttered.

  “Wren helping you?”

  “She seems to enjoy that kind of thing.”

  Randy made a typically male sound: not quite a grunt, not quite a sound of agreement. “Place could use some work,” he observed as he swung Amanda upright then set her on her feet.

  “I’ve been giving that some thought,” Alec admitted. “Maybe come spring. Right now, anyone who can do construction is going to be busy.”

  “Uh-huh.” Randy looked at his daughter. “Pumpkin, why don’t you go find your mama?”

  “Okay, Daddy.” She beamed and trotted away.

  “I hear the mill may not open until April or later,” Alec said.

  Randy took a deep breath. “Yeah, I hear that, too.”

  “Don’t suppose you’ve been looking for a new job.”

  Randy faced him. “I’ve been working my butt off helping friends get back on their feet. You’re a newcomer. Maybe you don’t know what it’s like here, but that’s what we do. We help each other.”

  “I understand that, but I happen to believe your family should come first.”

  The other man’s meaty hands curled into fists. There was no sign of a smile on his face. “You know, this crap gets old. You don’t know me, you don’t want to know me. What do you got against me, Harper? What did I do that was so bad you’ve never even been polite?”

  “I’ve got eyes.” Less than two feet separated them as they glared at each other. Alec kept his voice low, but he didn’t even try to tamp down the aggression in it. “I see my sister living in a dump when you’re adding on to some buddy’s house. I call and she’s alone with three children while you’re down at the Blue Grouse having a pitcher with the guys. Never mind she was home alone all day with them already. I stop by and she’s hauling wheelbarrows full of manure out to her garden while you’re God knows where. And you think I should be thrilled that you’re married to my sister?”

  Bristling, Randy snapped, “You ever call on Monday or Wednesday evening?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “No, you don’t, because you know Monday night is Bible study and Wednesday is Sally’s quilt group. First Thursday of the month is garden club. Bet you know better than to call that evening, either. Because you might have to catch me, home with my kids. Sally goes out as much as I do. More, some weeks. There’s plenty of nights we’re both home, too.” He rocked back on his heels. “Why am I bothering to argue? You decided a long time ago I’m not good enough for your precious sister, and you’re never going to hear any different.”

  Angry but mixed up, too, Alec looked past his brother-in-law’s shoulder and saw Wren standing in the arched doorway to the living room, her eyes wide and shocked. Before he could react, she disappeared.

  “Shit,” he said under his breath.

  “Maybe it’d be better if I don’t stay.” Randy started toward the now empty doorway. “Sally dug in her heels and insisted I come. You’d think she’d have given up, but she’s a stubborn woman.”

  “Don’t go.” The surprise and disappointment in Wren’s eyes had made Alec feel like scum. He had to clear some hoarseness from his voice. “You’re right. Maybe I haven’t been fair.”

  “What?” Still with his back to Alec, Randy stopped. It was a minute before he turned. “What do you mean, you’re right?”

  From between gritted teeth, Alec said, “I mean, I may not have always been fair.”

  “That about killed you to say.”

  Alec glared at him. “You are
n’t what I had in mind for Sally.”

  His brother-in-law gave a rough laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me. What did you think, you could arrange a marriage for her? Maybe set her up with some nice doctor? Or—wait. No, it would have almost had to be with a cop, wouldn’t it?”

  “Not a cop.” That response burst out before he could stop it. “We’re not good marriage prospects.”

  He didn’t like the way Randy looked at him with something that might have been pity.

  “Do you know any doctors you could have set her up with?”

  Alec’s chest felt tight. “I should have been here to meet anyone she dated. Talk her out of being impulsive.”

  Randy met his eyes. “She loves me. I love her. That hasn’t changed. It won’t change.”

  Isn’t that what I would have wanted most for Sally? The thought crept into Alec’s head. What Mom and Dad had?

  “I hope it doesn’t,” he said, in a voice that didn’t sound like his.

  “Why would it? Sally is…” Randy’s shoulders moved. “She’s beautiful and funny and always thinks she’s right.”

  A choked laugh escaped Alec. “She’d tell you she is always right.”

  They exchanged grins. The moment of camaraderie was…unexpected.

  A frown tugged at Alec’s forehead. He felt as if he’d laid down his gun and stepped away from it. He knew he’d done it because of Wren. Because she’d looked at him as if he was the son of a bitch here, not Randy.

  He didn’t like wondering if she was right.

  “Have you ever considered going into business?”

  Randy looked at him, startled. “What do you mean?”

  “As a contractor? From what I hear, you know what you’re doing.”

  “Well, sure I do. I worked construction summers while I was in high school, and then for a couple of years after. But things got slow and I kept getting laid off. I married Sally and the mill seemed steadier.”

  “It’s not so steady now. And my guess is you’d have more business than you knew what to do with.”

  Randy was already shaking his head. “I’d have to have a stake to start out. I’d need tools, equipment, someone to do the bookwork for me, enough in the bank to pay a couple of other guys to work for me.”

  “Don’t you have money from Mom?”

  “We swore we’d save that for the kids. If we have to use any, it’ll be for a new roof.”

  “Maybe starting you in a new direction is more important right now.” Alec hesitated then, although he didn’t know what the hell was getting into him, said, “I could loan you some. Or hire you now to work on this place. If you think you could do what needs to be done.”

  His brother-in-law was flat-out gaping now. “You’re serious.”

  Alec was in shock himself. Had he meant any of this? “I’m serious.” He realized he was. Wren had given him a push, but it was one in the right direction.

  From the kitchen came a call. “Time for dinner.”

  The two men ignored it.

  “Because you don’t think I take good enough care of Sally and this is your way of trying to fix that?”

  Alec shook his head. “Because this is a good idea.” He shrugged. He’d tried. The Randy he’d thought he knew would be too lazy to act on the suggestion. “Think about it. Talk to Sally.”

  “Wow.” Randy scrubbed a hand through his shaggy hair. “Yeah. Okay.”

  Maribeth came into the living room. “Mommy says did you hear her?”

  Her dad grinned at her. “We heard.”

  “Then how come you didn’t come?”

  “We were talking, munchkin.”

  Her serious blue eyes moved from one face to the other. “But you and Uncle Alec don’t like to talk.”

  Randy gave a crack of laughter. “You said it, munchkin, but I’ll bet your mom would scrub your mouth out with soap if she heard you.”

  She looked confounded. “I didn’t say any bad words.”

  Even Alec was chuckling now. “Your dad is teasing you. All you did was sound like your mother. How could she be mad about that?”

  Her face relaxed. “She’d never.”

  “There you go. Let’s go eat.”

  Wren had set the table in the never-used dining room. When the two men walked in, both women scrutinized them with the same suspicion they might have employed for a pair of boys trying to sneak to the table without washing first. For once, Alec was amused by Randy’s broad who-me? grin. Alec probably had one on his own face.

  “Looks good,” he told Wren, whose cheeks flushed with pleasure.

  “Thank you,” she said primly.

  He found himself smiling easily at the interplay of kids and adults throughout dinner. The situation felt surreal, as though he’d stepped back in time. It had been so long since he’d been able to enjoy the family he had left. Tonight, this felt like family.

  Because of Wren.

  She’d baked a ham and scalloped potatoes that were simple enough to be acceptable to Maribeth, Amanda and Evan. The whole thing felt like a holiday meal, and finished with hot apple pie topped with big scoops of vanilla ice cream. They all ate until even Randy groaned. Sally happily bounced Abby for half the meal, after which Wren took over.

  Now that they’d broken ground, the two men talked about reconstruction in town and rumors of who was planning what. Alec was amused by the suspicious way Sally’s narrowed gaze moved from his face to her husband’s.

  At one point, seemingly at random, Randy said, “I wonder how safe the wiring in this place is.”

  Wren’s eyes widened, but Sally said, “When Mom moved in with Aunt Pearl, she had it updated. And a new roof put on. You remember, Alec?”

  He nodded. “They didn’t do anything to the plumbing, though, did they? The pipes groan. The bathrooms need all new fixtures, too.”

  “Huh,” Randy said.

  The women stared.

  “I don’t know about the kitchen, but maybe.”

  “Huh,” he said again.

  Sally’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times. Alec enjoyed the sight more than he should have.

  Probably nothing would come of any of this. Randy would continue in his shiftless ways and Alec would end up selling the damned house exactly the way it was. But he was surprised to realize he felt good about his suggestion, even if he’d had to be shamed into it.

  Sally wanted to stay to clean up, but the kids were obviously wearing down, so Alec insisted she get them home.

  “Wren and I have a deal. She cooks, I clean.”

  Their eyes met and held; both of them were smiling. Alec was vaguely aware of Sally’s raised eyebrows, but any conclusions she leaped to would die a natural death when Wren and Abby left.

  A picture of him staying a stiff goodbye to Wren at the airport, watching her and Abby get swallowed by the lines at security, wiped the smile from his face.

  What if he did ask her to stay?

  But he had to be sure what he wanted, and he wasn’t. A few weeks ago, he’d have sworn on a bible that he would never seriously get involved again.

  By the time he came in from seeing his sister’s family off, his mood had taken a nosedive.

  Wren was already starting to clear the table, even though Abby, placed in her bassinet, was getting fussy.

  “What are you doing?” Alec took the pile of dirty plates from her. “I meant what I said. Go take care of your baby.”

  He had a feeling she wouldn’t have surrendered if not for Abby’s escalating cry.

  “You don’t have to do it all,” she said stubbornly.

  Pretty soon he would be doing it all, cooking and cleaning. Because he’d be alone again. Thinking anything else was premature.

  “Yes, I do,” he said, and as if nothing was wrong began rinsing plates.

  WREN DIDN’T HAVE A CLUE why Alec had gone from friendly to grumpy the minute Sally and the others had left. Had he been putting on some kind of act for their benefit? His face had suddenly looked
so bleak, then closed into that expressionless mask that confounded her. It made her wonder if she’d done or said something.

  The flutter of panic in her chest was all too familiar. The minute she recognized it, she squared her jaw. No way was she taking responsibility for Alec’s moods. If he wanted to be sullen, she’d let him.

  The living room seemed awfully lonely, though, and the minute she started nursing Abby she realized the drapes at the front window were open. She reassured herself that nobody would be able to see her sitting here unless they were standing on the front porch, but still… Feeling uncomfortably exposed, she hunched a little and adjusted her shirt to better cover her breast.

  Where was James? Was he in Florida wondering why she hadn’t showed up yet? In the Bay Area watching her mother’s house?

  He’d know she had no one else to whom she could go for refuge. So if he wasn’t in Florida or California, he was here. Either looking for her, or waiting. Until she went out? Or because he knew she was scared, and liked the idea of letting her sweat for a while?

  That didn’t ring true. James had never been very patient.

  So where was he?

  Once she’d put Abby down for the night, she thought about going to bed herself, but she wasn’t really sleepy yet. Besides, she should at least check that Alec didn’t need any help. And she wanted to see him. She wanted to know why he’d gone from angry to sociable and laughing to full-guard-in-place all in one evening. If he was still all closed off and it was obvious he wanted to be alone, she’d go read or something.

  She found the kitchen spotlessly clean and the dishwasher running. Alec was leaning against the counter, apparently waiting for water to boil.

  “Hi,” she said hesitantly.

  He looked up, his expression neutral. “Abby asleep?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want tea?”

  Would he rather be alone? She searched his face and couldn’t tell. “Um, sure.”