Trouble Don’t Last Always

by Francis Ray

  “You’re jealous,” Lilly said, the unbelievable thought taking root in her brain and sprouting like a dandelion after a hard spring rain. She laughed at the absurdity of it and the undeniable pleasure it gave her.

  “I’d be a fool to be jealous of you!”

  “You won’t get an argument from me,” Lilly said. “Those things you think so highly of don’t mean squat to Adam now, and although you may not be aware of it yet, he’s a better man for it. Surface means nothing to him, and that’s what worries you, isn’t it, Nicole? You’re all show.”

  “How dare you speak to me that way. Wait until I tell Eleanor and Adam.”

  “After you hurt Adam, do you think either of them will want to speak with you? You tried to paint me in a poor light, not once thinking of how it might make Adam feel. You might be beautiful and sophisticated, as you said, but you’re selfish and unsure of yourself with Adam.”

  “You—”

  “Instead of calling me names, Nicole, your time would be better served trying to think of a way to apologize to Adam and his mother for causing trouble. They’re nice enough to forgive you and think you acted out of love and concern for him.” Lilly’s tone cooled. “I know better. I’ve known someone just like you who gave everyone the impression of being kind and generous but who was actually mean and spiteful. I’ll tell Adam you called.” She hung up the phone, feeling proud of herself until she felt a presence behind her and turned.

  “Dr. Delacroix!” Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

  This time it wasn’t his build that intimidated her but the sharpness in his brown eyes. “What was that all about?”

  Nervously Lilly rubbed her hand against the side of her leg. She and Dr. Delacroix were on better terms now, but she was well aware she had no right to speak to Nicole that way. “Nicole and I had a difference of opinion.”

  His long legs carried him too quickly from the doorway to within a few feet of her. “What about?”

  “I think you should ask Eleanor.”

  “I would if she were here.”

  So that was the reason for Nicole’s repeated phone calls, Lilly thought. She hadn’t been able to reach Eleanor at the cottage, so she had called the main house. Lilly glanced at the back kitchen door. “She and Adam went to her cottage. They’re probably on their way back. You could take the path and meet them.”

  Instead of taking the hint, he said, “If Nicole did something to upset Adam or Eleanor, I want to know and I want to know now.”

  Lilly started to step back from him as he advanced purposefully toward her again; then she stopped. He wasn’t Myron. He wouldn’t abuse others to make himself feel important. She’d seen the tender way he stared at Eleanor, the love in his eyes for Adam.

  “All right, I’ll tell you. But I’ll do it while I marinate the roast for dinner.”

  “Whatever it takes.”

  In clear, concise words she related what had happened after Adam spoke with Nicole on the phone. Lilly ended by saying, “Instead of hurting me as she intended, she hurt Adam.”

  “You’re right about one thing,” Jonathan said from where he leaned negligently against the counter, his legs crossed at the ankles, his arms folded.

  Lilly glanced over her shoulder as she bent to place the marinated meat inside the refrigerator. “What?”

  “She’s jealous.”

  Lilly flushed and turned toward the refrigerator. “I–I didn’t mean it the way it probably sounded.” Closing the door, she went back to clean up the countertop and busily began putting away the spices for the marinade. For the first time in a long time, she wished that her hands weren’t callused and worn, her face so angular, her clothes faded.

  “Then you wouldn’t care that Adam and Nicole had a very close relationship before his blindness?”

  There was no mistaking his meaning. Her hands shook as she picked up the plastic wrap and placed it back in the cabinet. “I’m just the hired help.”

  Strong, gentle hands closed around her shoulders and turned her toward him. Jonathan stared deep into Lilly’s sad wide eyes. “Take some advice from a man who’s been there. Lying to yourself only makes it harder.”

  Her heart boomed in her chest, but not from fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Jonathan’s face filled with despair. “I’m afraid you do. Soon you’ll have to stop and admit it to yourself, and then, Lilly, you’ll learn what true heartache really is.”

  The door behind them slammed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jonathan glanced over his shoulder and saw Eleanor and Adam with two handled bags in his hands. The look of shock on Eleanor’s face caused Jonathan to drop his hands and quickly step away from Lilly. As soon as he’d moved, he realized his mistake. He’d acted as if he’d been caught in an indiscretion.

  Lilly, not sensing the undercurrents, went to them and took Adam’s arm. “Dr. Delacroix is here to see you and Eleanor, Adam.”

  “It must be Wednesday,” Adam said, allowing Lilly to lead him farther into the room.

  “Yes,” Jonathan said, his gaze going behind Adam to Eleanor, who remained unmoved. “I didn’t get a chance to take Lady Lost out last weekend; I thought I’d take her for a run on my day off.”

  “You have a horse?” Lilly asked.

  “A speedboat,” Adam said, wistfulness in his voice. “But she can’t beat mine.”

  Jonathan cut his eyes to him. “You’ll never let me forget that race. You want to come with me?”

  Adam shook his head. He might have climbed a hill or two. He wasn’t ready for a mountain. “Maybe another time.”

  “How about you, Eleanor?” Jonathan asked, his gaze going back to Eleanor. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

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  “I have to help Adam,” she said quietly.

  “Lilly can do that, Mother.” Adam held up the bags. “This will keep us busy for most of the day. Go on. You need to get out.”

  “Maybe Lilly would like to go in my place,” Eleanor said, aware of the brief spark of jealousy she had felt when she saw Jonathan staring down into Lilly’s eyes, his hands on her shoulders. She fought hard to dispel it.

  Lilly shook her head. “I’ve never been on a boat before. I’m not sure I’d like it.”

  “Looks like it’s you and me, Eleanor,” Jonathan said.

  Eleanor tried to tell herself she hadn’t heard the possessive note in Jonathan’s voice and, if she had, that she shouldn’t feel pleased. There was nothing between him and Lilly. Jonathan didn’t practice duplicity. He wouldn’t pay court to two women at the same time. The instant the thought materialized, Eleanor stiffened. She was teetering on the edge of that cliff again. “Perhaps some other time, Jonathan. I planned to go see Odette today.”

  “I’ll drive you,” Jonathan offered. “I called before I left. She was being discharged this morning.”

  Adam smiled. “I bet Dr. Brown is thrilled.”

  Jonathan had to smile with him. “I’ve never seen him so harried. Last night he was ready to pull out the few strands of hair left on his head.”

  “Odette is strong-willed,” Adam said.

  “Just like another woman I know,” Jonathan said, his gaze back on Eleanor.

  “Please give her my best,” Lilly said. “Eleanor, could you please take her some flowers from me? If it’s all right, I’ll repay you when you get back.”

  “That’s a marvelous idea, Lilly,” Adam said. “Pick up an arrangement from me, too.”

  Eleanor, who was trying to think of a gracious excuse to go in later by herself, felt trapped. From the pleased look on Jonathan’s face, he was well aware of her predicament. “Of course.”

  “We better get going.” Jonathan crossed the room and lightly took Eleanor’s arm. “It’ll take time for Eleanor to pick out the right flowers.”

  She arched a brow. “I am not that indecisive.”

  “Never said you were, but you have always known what you wanted and you’ve nev
er settled for less.”

  “I’ve never seen the sense in settling when you can have what you want,” she said with asperity.

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Eleanor felt her stomach roll as he stared down at her, felt the unexpected heat generated from their close proximity, the exciting feel of his hand on her bare forearm, the brief flare of the heat in his dark eyes.

  A woman wouldn’t have to settle with Jonathan.

  She quickly banished the unsettling thought from her mind. Jonathan was just a friend.

  Jonathan had seen the quick flare of interest in Eleanor’s eyes. He hid the knowledge in his heart. Walking beside her to her cottage through the quiet garden, he felt again the rightness of his love for this woman who loved so strongly. His patience was slowly being rewarded. He realized that he had to let her come to him.

  Walking up the steps, she opened the door to her cottage. “It won’t take but a moment to change.”

  Jonathan watched the nervous flutter of pulse in the base of her throat and wanted to press his lips against it to soothe her. Her eyes were wide, wary, watchful. She expected him to pounce. Now that he knew she was awakening to her feelings for him, he could wait.

  “I’ll just sit here on the porch. It isn’t often I get a chance to do that.”

  The relief in her eyes was instantaneous. “Of course.”

  Jonathan sat down and draped his arms on the back of the wooden bench, trying to calm the desire churning through his body. Soon, very soon, Eleanor would be his and he could give free rein to all the ways he wanted to love her.

  In thirty-nine years of wanting he’d had a lot of time to fantasize.

  Her back pressed against the door, Eleanor tried to calm her racing heart. Her palms were actually damp. Annoyed with herself, she pushed away from the door and went into her bedroom to change. She’d never been frazzled. There wasn’t a time in her life she hadn’t known what she wanted or how to get it. Reaching into the closet, she took out a white sheath and laid it on the bed. When Mary and Alfred Delouth’s only child chose to follow in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps into medicine, no one doubted she’d carry on the family tradition. She had the brains, the guts, and the drive. She finished high school at fifteen, with twenty-five acceptance letters to the most prestigious universities in the country and enough scholarship money for ten students.

  Then, in her second year in medical school, she’d looked up into the brownest eyes she’d ever seen and fallen head over heels in love with Randolph Wakefield, a senior medical student. Thankfully, he had felt the same way.

  Pulling off her blouse and skirt, she reached for the linen dress. Poor, sweet Randolph hadn’t known what hit him. She could have returned to medical school after Adam’s birth. But after she held him in her arms, looked into his bright eyes, she had realized that medicine was no longer where her heart lay. Her family was.

  She’d always known what she wanted and how to get it.

  Her lipstick poised, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and critically assessed herself. She wore her fifty-nine years well, thanks to a good metabolism and good genes. High cheekbones were still distinguishable; the skin on her face and beneath her neck was smooth and firm.

  Her eyebrows might be shaped professionally, but everything else was as God had given her. Proof of that was the faint streaks of gray hair at her temples, which she refused to dye. Her gaze dipped to her reasonably firm breasts, then lower to her waist. She frowned on seeing the faint rounded outline.

  And reality hit.

  Capping the lipstick with an irritated flick of her wrist, she picked up her bag. She wasn’t twenty, with legs as long as a gazelle’s and a figure that turned heads. It had been so long since she had paid any attention to how men viewed her that she had probably read too much into the way Jonathan had looked at her. Perhaps she should cut back on her estrogen dosage.

  He stood up when she stepped onto the porch. The sun shone over his broad shoulders, silhouetting him. Her breath snagged. There was no denying that Jonathan was a formidable man.

  “That didn’t take long.” His big hand lifted to rest on the small of her back as they went down the walk.

  His hand felt like a brand upon her skin. She said the first thing that came into her scattered mind: “Randolph hated to be kept waiting.”

  “But seeing you, I bet he didn’t mind,” Jonathan said easily, leading her past two giant stone urns of impatiens and moss roses.

  She flushed at the compliment and sucked in her stomach. “He said he didn’t.”

  “For the right woman, a man would wait a lifetime. I know I would.” Jonathan opened the door to the Mercedes.

  The words were spoken with such quiet passion that Eleanor felt them all the way to her soul. She and Randolph had shared passion and so very much love and happiness. She missed him, but she also realized how blessed they both had been. “I had my one great love, Jonathan. I pray you find yours.” She slid inside the car.

  Jonathan closed the door and slowly walked around to climb inside. He commended himself on not slamming either of their doors, then speaking in a normal tone when he asked Eleanor if she had a special florist shop in mind. He glanced over when she didn’t answer.

  “Eleanor?”

  She lifted her head and tears shimmered in her amber eyes. His gut clenched.

  “What is it?” he asked, afraid he knew the answer.

  She sniffed and reached for a tissue in the tiny black purse that couldn’t have held much else. “I just felt sad for a moment, that’s all.”

  “Randolph?” he asked, hating himself for the jealousy and unable to do anything about it.

  “I…no. I just felt sad.” She gave him a watery smile. “I should be tap-dancing on the ceiling. Adam is coming back to us.”

  The pad of his thumb, the only safe way of touching her, brushed the tears away from her smooth cheek. “The past weeks haven’t been easy. All the tension has finally caught up with you.”

  “I suppose.” She sniffed one last time and reached for her seat belt. “We better get going. If I tear up again you have permission to shake some sense into me.”

  “How about if I kiss some sense into you?”

  She jumped and whirled around to face him. “What?”

  There was such affront in her eyes that he had to laugh. The sound got tangled in his throat when her eyes strayed to his mouth with open specula-tion. He started the car. It was that or grab Eleanor and satisfy both of their curiosities. “I use a florist by my office. We’ll try there first.”

  Odette and Samuel Tucker had lived in their neat frame house since the first day of their marriage fifty years ago. They’d raised their seven sons, welcomed their wives, and doted on their fifteen grandchildren. In their opinion, God had blessed them.

  “Thank you, Eleanor and Dr. Delacroix. These flowers are beautiful,” Odette said, her eyes going once again to the two bouquets of roses and mixed cut flowers that sat in the living room amid family portraits and her collection of black angels.

  “We all wanted to wish you a speedy recovery.”

  “She will if she stops trying to tell the doctor what to do,” Samuel said from a straight-back chair pulled up to the couch on which Odette reclined.

  “He wants me to stay off work for six weeks. What kind of nonsense is that?” she asked, obviously incensed and with no intention of listening.

  “Considering your medical history. I think it’s a wise decision.” Jonathan eyed her distended ankle propped up on two pillows. “They won’t be able to put the cast on until the swelling goes down. Getting around Adam’s house on those hardwood floors and rugs might be unstable with a cast on. The stairs are certainly out.”

  “Told you.” Samuel nodded emphatically.

  Worry swept across Odette’s face. “I’m not used to idleness. Besides, I need to get back to work.”

  “Odette, if it’s your salary you’re concerned about, please don’t wo
rry. It’ll continue. And don’t worry about Adam. Thanks to your faith in him, he was in the kitchen this morning eating breakfast and laughing with Lilly,” Eleanor told her.

  Odette’s eyes brightened. “You don’t say?”

  “I do say.” Eleanor smiled. “You made him remember the wonderful doctor he was.”

  “Praise the Lord,” Odette said, with a nod of her turban-covered head. “Not that I don’t trust the Lord, but I was wondering why I had this accident. The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways. Dr. Wakefield helped me get the help I needed with my diabetes. My falling down helped him the same way.”

  “Odette, you mentioned last night you haven’t been able to spend much time with your grandson. After the cast is put on and you’re up and about, you could spend more time with him if you didn’t go back to work,” Jonathan suggested. It was no secret that Odette doted on her latest grandchild.

  “He’s such a honey. This morning he had a little bit of my biscuit and smacked his lips.”

  “If Dorothea sees you feeding Cameron solid food, she’ll have a fit.”

  Odette harrumphed and crossed her arms. “Won’t hurt him none. Just look at his daddy and uncles. You sure Lilly and Dr. Wakefield can get along by themselves?”

  “Positive,” Eleanor said, recalling their laughter.

  “Well, then, I guess I stay here and worry this old man.”

  “Old?” Samuel pushed to his feet with an agility that belied his seventy-one years. “I better go get your medicine before I become too feeble to move.”

  Odette just smiled.

  Eleanor watched the interaction between Odette and Samuel. Their love for each other showed clearly with every word, every gesture, every glance. They were among the lucky people who were blessed to find that one person in all the universe who made their life complete. Jonathan hadn’t been that fortunate. That was the reason she had cried, the thought that he might never find such happiness. He had so much love to offer.

  “Here you go,” Samuel said, handing Odette her medicine and holding the glass of water until she had put the pills in her mouth.