In the Heart's Shadow

by T. L. Haddix

  “She basically told him ‘good riddance.’”

  “About me?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, though, I guess he ripped her a new one.”

  Pushing her hair back off her face, Stacy shook her head. “I don’t know what to think about that. I thought Kathryn liked me.”

  “So did I. Can we forget about her? All I want to do right now is hold you.”

  Sliding under his arm, Stacy carefully wrapped herself around him, mindful of his wound. “Absolutely.”

  Over the next few weeks, things slowly returned to normal. Garrett stayed long enough to get them settled back into the condo. Where they were going to live permanently came up, almost before Stacy had time to blink.

  “I don’t think I can go back to that land and rebuild there,” she told Gordon.

  “Then why don’t we start looking for something? Find a place that’s ours.”

  Stacy had been placed on administrative leave again thanks to the kidnapping, so they had time to start looking at houses immediately. She called Sammy Bolen, one of Leroy’s best real estate agents.

  On the second day of looking, Stacy started to get discouraged. They were in Sammy’s SUV, going to look at one last house. Though they’d seen some nice places, none of the houses spoke to her. As they started into downtown, they passed a for-sale sign. Sammy surprised Stacy by pulling into the next driveway and turning around.

  “Humor me,” she said as she carefully guided the SUV between the somewhat-dilapidated lion statues guarding the entrance.

  “Oh, this is too much,” Stacy said as they pulled up to the large stone house. Situated on a bluff overlooking the town and the river below, the stately old Craftsman-style home was well beyond their price range.

  “Humor me,” Sammy repeated. “Come on.”

  Stacy didn’t even want to get out of the vehicle, but when Gordon held open her door, she didn’t have much choice.

  “I’m going to fall in love with this house. We don’t even need to go inside. It’s way more money than we agreed on.”

  Sammy overheard the remark and smiled. “It is out of your price range on paper, but it’s also been sitting empty for over a year. The owner is desperate to sell. Let’s go in. The house sits on over an acre. The yard’s fenced in, and there are views of the river from almost every room.”

  Stacy realized she was clenching Gordon’s hand much too tightly, and she forced herself to let go. Inside, a wide hall divided the house from front to back, and a grand staircase rose to the second floor. Plenty of light poured in through the windows.

  “The last owner put carpet down, but there are solid wood floors under all of it,” Sammy told them. “It’s had a few updates, but it’s going to need some TLC. Windows, paint, new kitchen, that sort of thing.”

  Stacy didn’t say much as they toured the house. Much as she’d feared, she wanted it with an almost physical longing. It was a good, solid house with elegant lines and strong bones, and it would be the perfect place to raise a family. She didn’t even want to see the upstairs, but when Gordon and Sammy went up without her, she followed grudgingly.

  “There’s no point to this. There’s no way the owner will come down to where we need them to,” she told Sammy as they stood in the master bedroom. Its tall ceilings, tall windows, and door that opened onto a deck that wrapped around the back side of the house were perfect.

  Gordon had gone across the hall to one of the smaller bedrooms, and when they joined him, he was startlingly pale.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Shaking his head, he moved further into the room.

  “Galen? You’re scaring me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I’m okay. I need a minute.”

  “I’ll give you two some space.” Sammy withdrew quietly. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

  As soon as Stacy heard her heels hit the staircase, she hurried to Gordon. “Talk to me.”

  “You’ll think I’m nuts.” Color was returning to his face, and his expression was indescribable. “But this is the nursery from my dream.”

  Stacy blinked up at him. “It’s the what?”

  He shook his head. “It’s the nursery. Dylan’s nursery. That’s where his crib was, and the rocking chair was here. It wasn’t this nasty pink, though.” He ran a hand over the Pepto Bismol-pink plaster.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Stacy whispered. “Galen—”

  He faced her with glittering eyes. “Do you like this house?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No buts. This is Dylan’s room. How would I know that?”

  “Galen, we can’t afford this house. It’s almost a hundred thousand over our budget.”

  “I know that.” He laughed. “Wherever Mallory is, she must be laughing herself silly at me right now.”

  “Because you’re in the position she was, once upon a time?”

  “Something like that. How can I walk away from this house, when this is our baby’s nursery?”

  Stacy wrapped her arms around him. “Our baby who doesn’t even exist, and you met in a dream.”

  “Who might never exist is what you’re saying,” he finished against her hair. “I know that. You’re right. I’m being silly.” He pulled back and kissed her.

  “We’ll still have children, even if we don’t have them here.” Even though she believed that, part of her was sad at the thought of not turning this house into their home. “Sale price aside, this place is still going to need a huge chunk of money dumped into it. As much as I’d love to live here, I don’t see how we could make it work, financially speaking. Not without dipping into the trust.”

  “I know.”

  “Now you see why I didn’t want to get out of the car?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go find Sammy.”

  In the kitchen, Sammy was finishing up a phone call. “No. I’ll let them know. Thanks, Mark.” She ended the call, frowning at her phone. “That was interesting. What do you think about the house?”

  Gordon gave her a tense smile. “It’s nice, but it’s not for us.”

  “What if it was less expensive? Would it be for you then?”

  Stacy sighed. “Sammy, it’s so far over our budget now. They’d have to cut the price in half. That’s not going to happen.”

  “If it did?”

  Sammy’s tone alerted Stacy, and she narrowed her gaze. “What do you know?”

  “What I can tell you is this. The couple who own the house are in the middle of a very contentious, very long, and drawn-out divorce. They have been for over two years. The judge is tired of arguing with them over this house, and they’ve been ordered to get rid of it pronto. If you want this house, and I know you do, make an offer. Any offer you’re comfortable with. This house won’t be on the market another week. The agent who has it listed is getting ready to update the MLS. He wouldn’t tell me what the price is going to be, but half the current price would be my guess. At that price, they’ll have several offers as soon as the update goes out.”

  Stacy was afraid to look at Gordon and almost afraid to breathe. “You’re serious?”

  Sammy nodded once. “Very.”

  “Then I think we need to write an offer.”

  Gordon nodded. “If it helps, we can pay cash.”

  When Stacy looked up at him, he shrugged.

  “We can pay the trust back, just like a regular bank. I don’t want to lose this house.”

  “If it means that much to you, then whatever we have to do to get it,” Stacy said. “Even if they won’t budge on price.” When relief washed over his face, she realized that he’d been trying to keep from stomping all over her the way Mallory had done with him, despite how much he obviously wanted the house.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, I am. You should have told me it meant that much to you.”

  “I didn’t want to pressure you.”

  In response, Stacy just clasped his hand tightly within
her own. “What do we need to do, Sammy?”

  Though he tried to hide it, Gordon was on pins and needles as they waited for the offer to come back. He didn’t think Stacy was fooled one bit, and her words confirmed it.

  “It’s a good offer. There’s no reason in the world they won’t take it,” she assured him as they sat on the couch, flipping through TV channels.

  “I still feel guilty, though. We went over budget. That was important to you and to me that we start out on equal footing.”

  She eased down into his lap, pushing Chloe aside. “I know. So what we’ll do is finance the remodeling instead of the cost of the house. Believe me, that’s going to be a chunk of change—updating the wiring, insulation, plumbing, doors, windows, et cetera. And it isn’t like I don’t want the house, too. I think we should just consider ourselves incredibly lucky that we were able to write that offer and not worry too much about the numbers behind it.”

  Sammy’s call telling them their offer had been accepted came late the next morning. They were in the library, and Gordon let out a whoop so loud that he thought they were going to be kicked out. As he lifted Stacy and swung her in a tight circle, he grinned at Stella.

  “We just bought a house.”

  Later that night, with Stacy snuggled into his arms, Gordon thought back over all the heartache, all the pain of losing Mallory and the baby, and all the months of indecision after he’d lost his job. Without having gone through all that loss, he didn’t know if he would have appreciated what he had gained as much as he did. When Stacy rolled over and looked up at him sleepily, he kissed her.

  “You look like you’re doing some heavy thinking,” she murmured.

  “No, just counting my blessings. I love you, you know.”

  She smiled. “I know. I love you back.”

  As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts echoed Stacy’s from a few weeks earlier. “I could do a lot worse than loving you and being loved by you,” he whispered, “but I don’t think I could do any better.”

  Far overhead, the stars smiled down, and one in particular gave an extra twinkle of light, as though in agreement.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  T.L. Haddix was born in Hazard, Kentucky, a small town in the center of the Appalachian coal fields. Taught to read by her grandmother, T.L. has had a life-long love affair with books, devouring whatever she could get her hands on. From childhood favorites such as the Trixie Belden series and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books, to her current favorites from authors like Tami Hoag, Alex Kava, J.A. Jance and Lisa Kleypas (among many others), T.L. still finds refuge in the written word.

  “Growing up, I wanted to be everything—astronaut, police officer, doctor, teacher, reporter, psychologist—there was no clear choice for me. I wanted to do it all. Becoming a writer has allowed me to do just that, because I can live vicariously through my characters.”

  A resident of southern Indiana, T.L. is hard at work on her next book, when she isn’t chasing after her three cat-children with her husband.