Mending the Widow's Heart

by Mia Ross

  Even though she’d vowed to remain friends with her aunt’s handsome contractor, she couldn’t help feeling that in doing that, she’d be missing out on the best part of what he had to offer. Pushing the wistful thought aside, she focused on the view outside the windshield.

  “It’s so peaceful and lovely out here,” she commented. “I can almost imagine the original settlers finding this spot and deciding there was no way they could do any better. You must’ve loved growing up here.”

  “Yeah, it was nice. We grew up a few houses away from the bakery, so the three of us pretty much had free run of the place. When Gran was experimenting with new recipes, we were her guinea pigs.”

  “Do they still live here?”

  “Emma does, but Brian’s a couple hours away, and my parents moved to Waterford about five years ago.”

  “I’m guessing you’re the oldest.”

  He slid a glance her way. “How’d you know?”

  “You act like it, taking care of people the way you do. What are they like?”

  Sam chuckled. “Like younger siblings always are. Brian is a pain, and baby sister Emma is the princess.”

  “I’m sure she loves you calling her ‘baby.’”

  “Not really. That’s why we do it.”

  Holly clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Boys can be so mean. I’m glad I have sisters.”

  “Daphne has a photo of the three of you on the mantel in the parlor. Your dad must’ve had his hands full keeping the boys away from you girls during high school.”

  “He’s a traditional Georgia country boy, so his technique was to be cleaning a shotgun or rifle when our dates showed up,” she recalled, laughing at the memory.

  Sam grinned over at her. “When you talk about home, your accent really kicks in.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No need to apologize. It’s pretty.”

  Holly had never met a man as forthright—or as mystifying—as Sam Calhoun. Was he a staid New Englander who told it like it was? Or was he a wounded soldier struggling to move beyond his painful history and get on with his life?

  While she was mulling that over, he slowed and pulled over to the side of an open meadow. With no buildings in sight, the wispy grass was waist high, and she caught a flash of white as two deer bounded toward a nearby stand of trees. A lone hawk circled overhead, doing lazy loops while he hunted for his lunch. Quiet and unspoiled, it was as near to idyllic as any place she’d ever seen.

  “There’s some acreage here we might be able to use,” Sam explained. “Wanna check it out?”

  “Definitely.” She moved to open her door, then stopped. Sam had made it clear that he liked doing the gentleman thing, and after years of fending for herself, she wasn’t too proud to admit that she enjoyed the attention.

  They waded through the field, weaving around saplings that had sprung up here and there. Sam kicked the ground as they went. “It’s pretty flat for the most part. Once we bush hog it down a bit, we can bring a commercial mower in here to neaten it up. After that, a good rolling should even things out well enough.”

  “You sound pretty confident that the owner will let us use this,” she pointed out as they sat on a section of tree limb that had fallen nearby. “Don’t you need to ask first?”

  “Nah. He’s a pretty good guy.”

  That rare twinkle appeared in his eyes, and she laughed. “You own this land, don’t you?”

  “Granddad left it to me in his will, along with the house in town. He wanted me to have something to come back to when I left the service. It’s ten acres with a stream and a nice woodlot out back. I never knew what to do with it, so it’s just been sitting here since he died. When we were kids, we used to run our dirt bikes out here.”

  The flash of humor vanished as if it had never appeared. His voice trailed off into something barely above a whisper, and he was frowning at something she couldn’t see. Then she understood why. “Does ‘we’ include a friend of yours?”

  “Yeah,” he answered absently, not looking at her. “My best friend, Nate Henderson. We were stationed together, but—” Grimacing, he shrugged his broad shoulders in a helpless gesture. After a moment, Sam glanced around their peaceful surroundings and quietly added, “He really loved it out here.”

  She understood all too well how that felt, to be in the middle of a pleasant moment and have a dark memory pop up from nowhere to ambush you. “Sam, are you okay?”

  “Mostly,” he answered somberly. When his eyes met hers, she saw a glint of determination in them that told her he was being as honest as anyone could be. Her heart went out to this brave man who was trying so valiantly to gather up the pieces of his life and meld them into something he could live with. Heaving a sigh, he said, “Sorry about that. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever get past what happened over there.”

  “One day you will, when you’re ready.”

  “You sound pretty sure about that.”

  “I am,” she assured him. “It took me a while, but eventually I learned to accept Brady’s suicide as a part of my life. Now that Chase and I are here, it’s obvious that leaving Boston was the first step in moving toward what’s coming next.”

  “Which is?”

  “I don’t know,” she confided honestly. “But I’ll figure it out, and you will, too. You’ve made a good start with your contracting business. And I know a little boy who thinks you’re a hero. The everyday kind that stops what he’s doing to play ball or watch cartoons.”

  “Chase is a great kid.” Pausing, Sam added a wry grin. “I’m still not sure how he talked me into helping out with his team, though.”

  She laughed. “Easy. He gave you those big, begging eyes and asked, and you couldn’t say no. He’s a little ham, just like his auntie D.”

  To her relief, Sam chuckled. “Yeah, she’s tough to refuse. That’s how I ended up buying four different bathtubs for the master bathroom.”

  “That’s our diva. Gotta love her.”

  They both laughed, and then Sam got serious again. “Thanks for listening, Holly.”

  “Anytime.”

  * * *

  The following afternoon, Sam glanced up when Holly appeared on the back porch, cordless phone in hand.

  “That was Auntie D,” Holly said with an amused look on her face. “She’s going bonkers at the hospital, so Chase and I are going to visit her.”

  “Didn’t you just go yesterday?”

  “Yes, but she’s bored so we’re going again. She’s going to be there two more days, and I asked if I could bring her anything from home. She said to bring you, the granite and backsplash samples for the kitchen, and something called lava cookies.”

  “One of Gran’s inventions,” he explained with a chuckle. “They’re kinda like thumbprint cookies, but she makes ’em with marmalade so she can pile it on and let it spill over the sides. Can’t imagine why Daphne wants to see me, though. The samples are small, so you could take them in yourself.”

  “She wants an update, in person. You know how she is,” Holly went on, wiggling the phone and smiling. “Even a phone call is too impersonal for her. When she first retired, she complained about missing her friends. I offered to show her how to video chat with people anywhere in the world, but she hates computers.”

  Actually, Sam agreed with his eccentric client on that one, but since Holly and Chase seemed to like the baffling contraptions, he kept his opinion to himself. Instead, he wiped his grimy hands on his jeans and realized that wasn’t going to cut it. “Well, I’m fine with going along if that’ll make her happy. I’ll get cleaned up and we can stop by the bakery on our way to the hospital. How does fifteen minutes sound?”

  “Like ten minutes more than we need,” she replied in a lofty tone, swiveling to head back inside and holler for Chase.

/>   Holly’s breezy manner made him grin as he strolled across the yard and through a break in the hedge to his own front door. Now that he thought about it, ever since she’d dropped into the bakery on that rainy afternoon, he’d been smiling more than he could recall doing in a long time. People had been trying to lift his mood for months without much success. Somehow, the plucky Southern belle had done it in just a few days.

  Crazy, but true. The face staring back at him from the bathroom mirror looked younger than it had lately, more optimistic. It was as if Holly’s determination to move on with her life had started rubbing off on him, showing him a path forward from the gloomy pit where he’d been stalled for so long.

  His former shrink would have a field day with that one, Sam mused as he pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial for his grandmother’s number. She answered on the first ring, and he could hear the whir of a mixer in the background.

  “This is a nice surprise. How’s my boy doing today?”

  Ellie Calhoun was five feet tall and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds, but she still called every one of her twelve grandsons boy in an affectionate tone that Sam found comforting. She had a way of making him feel that no matter what happened to him, she’d always be there for him with a patient ear and his favorite snack.

  “I’m good. Sounds like you’re busy.”

  “Never too busy for you, Sam. What did you need?”

  “Do you have any lava cookies?”

  Once he explained who they were for, she laughed. “I’ve got the cookies but they need lava. Daphne likes the raspberry best, so I’ll whip up a couple dozen for her and have them ready when you get here. Anything else?”

  “No, that’ll do it. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She air-kissed the phone in her usual goodbye, and he ended the call as he trotted down the porch steps and met the Andrewses by the shiny blue pickup parked in his driveway. “Ready?”

  “Auntie D and cookies?” Chase said. “I’m always ready for them.”

  “I don’t know where you put all that food you eat,” his mother chided, shaking her head as he climbed into the cab’s center seat. “At this rate, you’ll be six feet tall when you start third grade in the fall.”

  “That’d make you the star of the basketball team,” Sam commented as he pulled out onto the street.

  “Cool,” Chase said, looking around the roomy cab with a child’s curiosity. “This is bigger than the truck you had yesterday. Did you get a new one?”

  “Just a different one. My work truck’s filthy and full of lumber, so I figured it was better to take this instead.”

  When Chase’s eyes fell on the hardware dangling from the rearview mirror, they widened with interest. “Is that an Army medal?”

  Sam berated himself for not thinking to remove it before they got in. But he seldom had passengers, and the few who rode anywhere with him knew his painful history all too well and would never even consider asking him about it. “Yeah, it is.”

  “My dad had one kinda like that,” Chase said quietly, clearly understanding the significance. “We keep it on a shelf in the living room. What did you get yours for?”

  Sam hesitated. He could have given the expected answer, because he had a similar award tucked away in his top dresser drawer. But he’d quickly grown to like the inquisitive boy, and while tempting, the idea of deceiving him just didn’t feel right.

  So Sam took a quiet breath and tried to keep his answer simple. “It belonged to Nate, a good friend of mine. This was his truck, too. I always admired it, and he told me that if he didn’t make it home from where we were, he wanted me to have it.”

  Sam felt the weight of those words crushing him, and he tried desperately to shake off the sensation that had plagued him for so long. Sometimes it felt as if he’d been lugging it around forever. He recognized that he had a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, and he consciously forced his muscles to ease up.

  “Did Nate like the Red Sox, too?” Chase asked.

  “Chase,” his mother cautioned him. “I don’t think Sam wants to talk about this.”

  Usually, he didn’t, but for some reason the innocent question made him chuckle. “Actually, he was a Yankees fan.”

  “And you were friends?” Holly teased with a light laugh. “Is that allowed?”

  “It was tough when they were playing each other, especially in the postseason. But we made it work. He was a good guy,” Sam added, grinning down at Chase. “I was the catcher on our high school team, and he was our best pitcher. Had a mean screwball no one in the league could even come close to hitting. You would’ve liked him.”

  Nate’s faded Yankees cap was still folded up in the glove box, right where he’d left it. Sam almost mentioned that, then thought better of it. Most folks would think that was odd, or even slightly insane, and he didn’t want Daphne’s guests to worry that he was nuts. Why that mattered to him, he couldn’t say. But it did, and he decided that it was best to listen to his gut.

  If only he’d done that on the fateful day that had changed everything, he lamented. But he hadn’t, and now he had to live with the consequences.

  * * *

  Ellie Calhoun was nothing like Holly had expected.

  The way Sam had described his grandmother, she was a combination of Julia Child and Attila the Hun. Instead, she was a petite woman with sparkling blue eyes and a smile that could probably repel even the most determined set of clouds.

  “It’s so nice to meet you both!” she exclaimed, embracing Holly and then Chase, beaming at them as if they were two of her favorite people in the world. “Daphne just goes on and on about you two, so it’s wonderful to see you in person.”

  Interesting, Holly mused. Aside from pictures and a general description of the area, Daphne hadn’t offered up many details about the place where she’d chosen to spend her retirement. And the people? Nothing. It was as if Liberty Creek was some kind of secret she was keeping to herself, and Holly couldn’t help wondering why.

  For now, though, she focused on returning the warm greeting. “It’s great to meet you, too. We appreciate you rushing a batch of cookies for Auntie D.”

  Ellie waved off the thank you. “It’s nothing at all. I’ve always got cookies stacked up in the freezer, just waiting for folks who want them. Don’t I, Sam?”

  She slid a look his way, and Holly followed the motion in time to see him chewing something that he’d obviously popped in his mouth while they’d been chatting. A quick glance at Chase showed her that he’d done the same, and she laughed. “Really, guys? You could’ve asked.”

  Sam swallowed quickly. “We didn’t wanna interrupt you ladies while you were talking. That’d be rude.”

  “Yeah, Mom. Besides, sneaking them is more fun.”

  Hard to argue with that, she thought with a smile. She’d been so worried about uprooting Chase that it was heartening to see him quickly fitting into their new surroundings. Slipping back into mom mode, she prodded, “What do you say to Mrs. Calhoun?”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “You’re very welcome,” she replied, ruffling his hair in a practiced gesture. “There’s plenty more where those came from, so no harm done.”

  She added an understanding smile for Holly, and she relaxed a little. She was so accustomed to keeping a tight rein on her son in Boston that it might take her a while to adjust to the more laid-back attitude here in rural New Hampshire.

  “Now, these are for Daphne,” Ellie continued, setting a covered plastic cookie tray on the counter. Then she stacked another one on top. “And this assorted tray is for the nurses. I’ve no doubt she’s a horrible patient, and I’m sure they’ve had their hands full taking care of her.”

  “And then some,” Holly agreed with a laugh. She reached out to take
the cookies, but Sam beat her to it.

  When she opened her mouth to protest, he gave her that boyish half grin that erased some of the years from his weathered features. “Just go with it, Peaches.”

  “That was my childhood nickname,” Holly clarified, not wanting Ellie to think that she allowed men she barely knew to give her cute nicknames. Then she glared up at Sam. “Only Auntie uses it anymore.”

  “Got it.” The grin deepened just a bit, and she caught a glimpse of a playful twinkle in his eyes that mimicked the sparkle she’d noticed in his grandmother’s. It suggested to her that somewhere under all those scars was a boy who could still see the good things going on around him. It gave her hope that Sam could dig his way out from under the unspoken tragedy he’d suffered and have a happy life.

  Of course, she wouldn’t be there to see the changes, she reminded herself. It was just nice to believe they were possible.

  Walking ahead of them to open the door, Ellie said, “Give my best to Daphne, now, and tell her we’re all dying to see her when she’s feeling better.”

  “We’ll definitely do that,” Holly promised. “Thanks again.”

  Leaning in, Sam kissed Ellie’s temple on his way by. She caught his cheek and drew his ear in to whisper something that made him smile. A real one, Holly noticed curiously, not the self-conscious kind she’d seen up until now. And despite her determination to keep him at a distance, she couldn’t help wondering what Ellie had told him to get that kind of reaction.

  Once they were back in his truck, he pulled away from the curb and headed for the highway. “She said she was proud of me.”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  “Very loudly,” he responded in a light tone that sounded almost like teasing.

  “What’s she proud of you for?” Chase asked in that abrupt way young boys did.

  “For doing a good job on your aunt’s house.” Sliding a glance at Holly, he added, “But mostly for being her boy. I’m thinking your mom understands what that means.”