Miko’s tears mingled with Petey’s as she held him close again and rained kisses on his head. “Oh, you poor thing.”
Petey pushed upright once again and slid over onto the bench. He held onto Miko’s hand and leaned his head against her side. “If you keep a- lovin’ on me, Miko, I’ll never get through this. This whole danged day is mixing up things inside here…” Petey pointed to his chest “… that ought not to be stirred. But I’ll tell it to the world I’m not the one who needs a hug and your tears, that’d be Ry. When my folks told him about his mama, he took off running down the road. Pop had to hit the floor with all cylinders pumping to catch him before he got to the wreck. He carried him back to our house. Mom called Granny to come watch the princess because her hands are about full to overflowing with handling Ry. He cried so much, he almost suffocated, but he finally went to sleep. I just couldn’t swallow any more of watching him, seeing him hurt so bad, so I hotfooted it over here.”
“Does your mother know you’re here?” Rock asked, rising from his crouched position.
Petey gave him a disgusted look. “Mom and Pop have plenty enough worries without me piling on more today. A’ course she knows I’m here. I always play the game square and today ain’t no eggception.”
Rock hunkered back down and placed a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry about your friend and his family, Petey. It’s a terrible loss for you all.”
“Thanks, Cap.” The boy jumped off the bench, barely able to contain his nervous energy.
“May I walk you home, Petey?” Rock asked, rising to his feet, then giving a hand to Miko as she stood.
“I’m not ready for home just yet. Mom is hovering over Ry and he’s sniffling and crying in his sleep. Granny is walking around with a hankie in one hand and the princess in the other, muttering about the bomb nations of war, whatever that means.”
“Abominations,” Rock supplied.
“Yep, that’s what she said. Anyway, Pop went back to the wreck and was going to go with the sheriff into town and make arrangements. There’s that word again. Ry’s aunt is on her way from her ranch, but won’t be here till tomorrow. I can’t go back to all the tears at our house. Not just yet. Can you put me to work pulling weeds or picking peas or even cleaning up after the three little pigs? Please? I’ll do anything.” Petey turned pleading blue eyes up to Miko, then Rock.
“Sure, pardner.” Rock ruffled the boy’s hair. “How about you stay with Miko while I run over to see if there’s anything I can do to help your folks?”
“That’d be swell, Cap.” Petey wrapped wiry, tanned little arms around Rock’s legs and squeezed, then looked up at him with a watery smile. “I knew you were a straight arrow.”
Rock grinned, bending down to hug the child. “I’m glad you think so.” As he straightened, he glimpsed Miko’s face. She brushed at her tears with the palms of her hands so he handed her his handkerchief. “Will you be okay for a little while?”
“Yes, of course.” Her low voice made something inside him thrum, but he ignored it. She fussed with the handkerchief, wiping her eyes and dabbing at her nose. “Please give them my condolences and find out if there’s anything we can do. I’d be happy to send over food or help with whatever they need.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Rock delivered a hasty kiss to her cheek, gave Petey an encouraging nod, and strode off through the pasture in the direction of the Phillips farm.
Petey watched him go with an open look of admiration. “I sure like him, Miko. Since you wouldn’t wait for me to grow up, I’m glad you married him.”
She smiled and settled a hand on the boy’s thin shoulder. “Me, too.” With a quick glance around, her gaze fell on the boys working in the garden. She recalled three more worked in the orchard. “Do you really want something to do, Petey?”
“You betcha. Point the way and I’m on the job.” The boy clicked his heels together and gave her a snappy salute.
Miko laughed softly. “In that case, would you run up to the orchard and tell the boys they may go home for the day as soon as they carry the boxes they’ve filled down to the produce stand. And when you finish with that, would you pop over to the garden and tell those boys the same? The girls in the produce stand will know to close things up on time.”
Barely had the last word left her lips before Petey took off at a dead run for the orchard. Miko hurried into the house to begin preparing a mountain of food to send over to the Phillips family.
Rock returned an hour later with his mouth set in a grim line. At Miko’s concerned glance, he shook his head and looked pointedly in Petey’s direction.
Miko nodded and suggested Petey might like to help Rock milk the cows. When the chores were finished, she called and spoke with Lucy Phillips. Ryatt continued to alternate between tears and sleep, so Lucy agreed it was fine for Petey to eat supper there.
After the three of them partook of the frankfurters on split buns, baked macaroni with cheese, and slices of tomatoes Miko served for dinner, Rock and Petey helped her box the food she’d prepared for the Phillips family.
“Gosh, Miko, do you think we’ll have an army camped at our house?” Petey asked as he carried a box with two pies out to the sedan Rock had parked near the back gate.
“No, but I expect you’ll have plenty of extra mouths to feed. Does Ryatt just have one aunt?”
Petey nodded his head and followed her back to the kitchen, where she handed him a tin full of chocolate cookies. Together, they returned outside. “Yep, but his Aunt Dee makes up for only having one. Talk about a real, royal, bee’s knees kind of girl, Ry’s Aunt Dee is it.” With care, he placed the tin on the green grass, then his small palms slid together with a smack to illustrate that “it” was indeed something special. The boy turned to Rock. “She’s almost as spiffy as Miko.” An endearing grin came from the freckled imp as he picked up the cookies and ran to the car.
Rock drove while Petey sat next to Miko on the front seat, leaning against her. They’d barely crossed the gravel of the driveway before the boy fell asleep.
“He’s completely exhausted,” Miko said quietly, feathering her fingers through the disheveled red hair.
A sudden, unbidden vision of her doing the same to a child with black hair and his own blue eyes hit Rock in the chest with the force of a hammer. The realization that he wanted a family, a family created by his love for Miko, left him contemplative as they made the drive up John and Lucy Phillips’s lane.
Miko carried Petey inside and handed him to his father while Lucy and her mother helped Rock pack in the food.
Lucy and Miko shared a reassuring embrace, then Rock and Miko returned to their farm.
By unspoken agreement, they sat on the front porch swing in the gathering darkness and watched the stars come out.
“That poor little boy,” Miko said, leaning her head back and realizing Rock had draped his arm along the top of the swing. Without giving a thought to her actions, she scooted closer to him, resting her head against the curve of his shoulder. After such an unsettling day, she needed the comfort of another human’s touch.
Rock drew her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I can’t even imagine what the Danvers boy is going through. To lose both parents in one day, it’s more than anyone should have to bear, especially one so young.”
Miko nodded against his chest. “What will Petey do? Lucy said Ryatt’s aunt plans to take him back to her ranch in eastern Oregon. Those two boys are inseparable. You’ve seen how they spend nearly every waking moment together.”
“Maybe we can find a few chores to help keep Petey occupied. School will start in another month or so, won’t it?”
“Yes, but I imagine that won’t be any easier. Those two boys were in the same class. Petey has other friends, but Ryatt is his best friend.” Miko wrapped her arms around Rock’s waist and gave it a tight squeeze. “Thank you for being so wonderful with him today. You’re very good with children.”
“I
haven’t been around them much, but I like them just fine.” Rock glanced down at her in the darkness. “I think it would be more than fine to have a few with you.”
Abruptly stiffening, she would have pulled away, but Rock held on, keeping her close. “Don’t run off just yet,” he whispered against the fragrant shadows of her hair. “Days like this make me wish wars didn’t exist. Good men shouldn’t have to die to stop those bent on destruction and terror.”
Filled with a sense that Rock’s need to be held was as strong as her own, Miko lingered. In silence, they listened to the symphony of crickets and frogs, of the breeze blowing through the trees, and breathed in the heady aroma of the moonflowers blooming in the flowerbeds.
At length, she kissed Rock’s cheek, then stood.
“What was that for?” he asked, rolling his head back to look at her with a lazy grin on his face.
She almost sat back down. Almost took his hand and pulled him inside the house with her. But she didn’t.
Instead, she took a step away from the temptation her husband presented. “For being such a good man, Rock Laroux.” The night closed behind her as she rushed around the house and disappeared on her way up to the secluded hilltop home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Steady streams of rain drizzled from a concrete-hued sky on the attendees of Carol Danvers’s funeral.
Next to Petey, Ryatt leaned against his aunt, Delaney, withdrawn as his mother’s body was laid to rest.
At the end of the service, Delaney Danvers thanked everyone for coming, then ushered Ryatt to the car that would take them to catch the afternoon train to Pendleton.
Petey followed, flinging his arms around his friend. “I’ll never, ever, ever forget you, Ry. You’ll always be my best friend. I’ll write all the time and I’ll think of you every day.”
Delaney bent over and hugged Petey. “Thank you for being such a good friend to Ryatt, Petey. You are always welcome to visit him at the ranch. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t.” Petey’s lower lip quivered as Delaney nudged Ryatt, numb and silent, into the car. Before the car pulled away, the traumatized boy lifted a hand and pressed it against the glass of the backseat window.
Petey buried his face against his mother’s skirts and cried, great wracking sobs, for the loss of his friend and for all his friend had lost.
Miko fought back her own tears, grateful when Rock took her elbow and escorted her to their car. It was the first time she’d been at a public gathering since May. At least her broad-brimmed black hat with the thick netting hid most of her face. Beneath the dark umbrella Rock held over their heads, no one had paid her any mind.
In the days that followed the funeral and Ryatt’s departure to his aunt’s eastern Oregon ranch, Petey spent a considerable amount of time at the Double J Farm, helping Miko and Rock. With their permission, he showed up one sunshiny morning with troops of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. The boys and their fathers loaded every piece of scrap metal from the open shed near the barn.
Miko brought out refreshments and watched as the boys loaded everything from wagon wheels to broken scythes.
Rock took the glass of lemonade she held out to him and drank deeply. “With the care your grandfather put into keeping everything neat and tidy on the farm, I don’t understand why the shed was full of rusted junk.”
Miko poured lemonade for the boys and passed out cookies. “None of that belonged to my family.”
At his baffled expression, she explained, “When my great-grandparents bought this property, the neighbors around here didn’t like having foreigners in their area. People treated them terribly. They’d bring all their garbage and dump it in my great-grandfather’s garden. Chickens were stolen. Cows were turned loose. Once, someone even took an ax to their wagon and hacked it into pieces only usable for firewood.”
“Why did your great-grandparents stay?” Rock asked, shocked by the horrid treatment they’d endured.
“Because this was their home. In time, the neighbors stopped seeing them as a foreign enemy and began to trust them as friends. Among the few people who were kind to them was John Phillips’s grandfather. He bought the ground and started his farm not long after my great-grandparents moved here. They worked together and helped one another.”
Rock smiled. “It’s nice to see the good traditions continue.” He inclined his head toward Petey as the boy gave his fellow scout members a tour of the vegetable garden and berry patch, then introduced them to the three pigs.
“I’m glad to see Petey showing a spark of life again.” Miko sipped her lemonade. She’d used a portion of her sugar ration to make it, but it was worth it. “I worried about him.”
Rock settled his arm around her shoulders and gave her a tender hug. “From what I’ve observed, children are resilient. John said Petey received a letter from Ryatt and that made all the difference in the world.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear Ryatt wrote to him. I feared that poor boy might never find his way back to the land of the living. He seemed so…” Miko struggled to find the right word.
“Lethargic?”
Miko nodded. “That’s a good description, but more than that. Almost like his spirit had wilted. I’m sure his aunt will have her hands full once Ryatt returns to normal.”
“She certainly will if Petey ever takes her up on the offer to visit.” Rock chuckled. “Can you see those two little ruffians running wild over a cattle and wheat ranch?”
“John and Lucy might never get Petey to return home if they let him go,” Miko mused, watching as the boys finished their snacks. The youngsters thanked her and Rock for helping the war effort and for the refreshments. The troop left in a flurry of waving hands and shouted goodbyes.
Once the trucks disappeared down the road, Rock helped Miko carry the dishes back inside the house, then she helped him load the car for his weekly trip to town.
Hurriedly, he changed into a pair of creased trousers and a shirt with a tie, carrying his suit coat over his arm as he returned to the kitchen. As he did each Tuesday, he planned to take the excess butter, cream, buttermilk, and eggs into town. After he left Mr. Ross’s store, he would visit Miko’s family, attend to other errands, then pick up groceries they needed on his way home.
“Did you get the yarn and embroidery thread for grandmother?” Miko asked, following him to the car he parked outside the back gate.
Rock grinned as he tossed his suit coat on the seat, then turned back to her. “I sure did. I have the letters you wrote them, the gloves for the men, and the magazines for your mother.”
She nodded, pleased he’d remembered everything she wanted to send to her family along with the produce, crackers, cheese, and cookies he always gave them. “It looks like you have everything,” she said, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.
“Do you want to come along? You could wear your hat and wait in the car while I see your folks.” Rock reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him. “I’d enjoy your company.”
“That’s sweet, Rock, but I better stay here. There’s plenty of work to keep me busy, and I don’t like to leave the place unattended too long. You know something strange always happens when we do.”
“I know, but I worry more about something happening to you.” He brushed his knuckles over the smooth skin of her cheek. The day of Mrs. Danvers funeral, they’d arrived home to find all the chickens loose. Another evening after that, they returned from a picnic supper in the hilltop garden to discover the cows grazing on the flowers around the house and several pumpkin plants pulled up by their roots.
He would have blamed Norman Ness for the trouble, but no one had seen him since the day Rock had bloodied his nose. Sheriff Bentley let them know Norman seemed to have left the area for good.
Concerned about leaving Miko alone, but knowing he needed to go, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Please be careful while I’m gone. I’m sure Lucy wouldn’t mind if you wanted to go over there fo
r a visit. Most likely, Petey will show up once he finishes with his scrap drive. From what John said, those boys have picked up every piece of metal that isn’t nailed down over at his place.”
“They probably grabbed a few that were, too.” Miko grinned and returned Rock’s embrace. It was getting harder and harder for her to fight her feelings for him, to subdue her desire for her beguiling husband.
The more time she spent with him, the deeper in love she fell until she couldn’t imagine a future without him in it. Rock was so much more than physically attractive. He embodied all the characteristics Miko admired most: kindness, loyalty, dedication, gentleness, and tenacity. He laughed easily, worked hard, and treated the teens that worked for them fairly and with patience.
Miko could spend a lifetime searching for someone she admired, respected and loved as much as Rock, but she had an idea she’d never find anyone who measured up to the standard he set.
With one final, tight hug, she stepped back and smiled at him. “Give everyone my love and tell them the plums should be ready next week.”
“I will, Kamiko,” Rock said in a husky tone, cupping her chin with his right hand. “Why don’t you spend the day reading or soaking up some sunshine? Do something fun for a change. You work far too hard.”
She tipped her head to the side with a masked expression. “I’ll consider the idea.”
Rock chuckled. “That means you’ll think about it long enough to say you considered it and then go on with whatever you already have planned.” His hand released her chin, but he surprised her when he slid it beneath the heavy weight of her ponytail and rested it on the back of her neck.
His lips brushed across hers in a light, tentative touch before he kissed her with a rising longing that made it hard for him to pull away. Much to his delight, her hands slid up his shoulders and she returned his kiss.
Garden of Her Heart (Hearts of the War Book 1) Page 24