And he wondered how in the hell he was going to put her out of his head.
Chapter Eight
At 2:00 a.m., when Leigh checked the clock for at least the twentieth time, she knew falling asleep was hopeless. Pushing herself up and sliding her feet over the side of the bed, she went to her closet and reached for the string on the light inside. When she yanked it, she blinked against the glare. It was about time she admitted to herself that her feelings for Adam Bartlett had never faded.
Pulling a small step stool from the corner of the closet, she wedged it between her shoes, then stepped onto it so she could reach the back of the top shelf. It seemed everything was stacked on that shelf—from tax returns to a cosmetics case for traveling to a straw hat she wore at the beach. She remembered exactly where the box was that she was looking for. It was in the back left corner, hidden by the teddy bear that had sat in the middle of her bed when she was a little girl. The box was blue, deceiving in its sturdiness. It looked as if it could have held school reports, research notes or stationery of some kind. But it didn’t hold any of those things.
With care, she slid it forward, pushing off the stack of magazines on top of it, lifted it from the shelf and took it over to her bed. After she turned on the bedside lamp, she opened it as if it held the secrets to the universe. Actually, it didn’t hold any secrets, just memories.
The first memento she saw was a paper napkin from the fast-food restaurant she and Adam had enjoyed most. On it was a note he had written to her and left in her locker. “Leigh—Meet me under the bleachers after school. A.”
Just like the supply closet in the school, the space under those bleachers had allowed them to have some privacy, a place to hold each other, a place to kiss.
Beside the note Leigh found three pressed red rosebuds. Adam had given her those the night of their graduation. In addition, within an envelope, she pulled out a photo taken in one of the machines in the mall as well as movie ticket stubs. She’d scrawled on each the name of the movie they’d seen.
Finally she spotted what she’d really been looking for. It was a leather bracelet with her name and Adam’s branded into the rawhide. They’d gone to a street fair together and there had been lots of tables with crafts. An old man had made the bracelet and then personalized it while they waited. After Adam had bought the bracelet for her, he’d snapped it on to her wrist, and she had known exactly what that had meant. He was claiming her. He didn’t want her to date anyone else and she hadn’t. She hadn’t even thought about dating anyone else.
Curious to see if the bracelet still fit, Leigh snapped it on to her wrist. Tracing her finger over Adam’s name, she felt tears come to her eyes. She’d kept these mementos for one very good reason. She’d never forgotten Adam Bartlett.
But she might have to forget him now.
As Adam drove north on Route 30 on Friday evening, he recalled again the e-mail he’d received from Mark when he’d awakened and Shawna had told him the news. He’d typed Yes with five exclamation points and written, I knew we’d match. Will you come to see me before they start chemo?
Adam had read the message inside the message. Mark was exuberant that he could have the transplant…but he was also scared. From the quiver in Danielle’s voice when she’d phoned to tell him Mark had been admitted to the hospital around noon yesterday, Adam knew she was scared, too.
Adam tried to blank his mind to all of it as the countryside sped by. The drive to the farm outside of Warren took about thirty-five minutes. As Adam’s tires crunched down the gravel lane, he thought about how well John had handled the farm and its upkeep. He kept up the paint on the barn as well as maintaining the house and the other buildings in good repair. Before he’d been hired on, Adam had had one of the out buildings renovated into a small utilitarian cabin, and that’s where John lived. Now he’d be moving into the main house.
As Adam mounted the porch steps, he wasn’t looking forward to this confrontation—he was sure that’s what it would be. He and Sharon were like oil and water. Glancing to the side of the house, he saw her sedan was parked in front of the detached garage. His mom had wanted this to be a surprise, but if Sharon felt cornered, she’d resent him being there even more.
When Adam opened the wooden screen door, he looked toward the barn and caught a glimpse of John pitching hay into a stall.
It would no longer be the Bartlett farm. It would be the Pavlichek farm. He felt no stirring of regret at the difference.
After Adam knocked on the door, his mother opened it with a worried frown. Her short black hair was streaked with gray, but she wore makeup which was unusual for her. “Sharon saw you drive up.”
“And?”
“She went up to her bedroom and shut the door.” His mother fidgeted with the lapel of her housedress. “I really need you to talk to her, Adam. I’ve tried. John’s tried. Even Rena tried by phone. But we just can’t get through to her.”
“If she keeps me locked out, there’s not much I can do except talk through the door.”
When his mother looked even more distressed, Adam added, “But I’ll see what I can do.”
The steps were steep, somewhat narrow, and Adam remembered all the times he’d run up and down them as a boy. The same floorboards still squeaked as he crossed the hall to Sharon’s room and knocked.
“Sharon? It’s Adam. Can we talk?”
When she opened the door, he realized he hadn’t seen her since last summer. Since then she’d gotten her dyed blond hair cut shorter and gained some weight, maybe ten pounds. Still wearing her work clothes—navy slacks and a red and navy paisley blouse—she looked him over as if he were a door-to-door salesman. He’d left his suitcoat and tie in the car. He could tell she was assessing the clothes he wore and the probable cost. That was Sharon.
“Mom asked me to talk to you. Would you like to stay up here or go downstairs?”
“I don’t want to talk anywhere. What could you have to say to me that would matter?”
Adam had always tried to maintain a politeness between them but too much was going on in his own life and he was tired of trying to be civil when she didn’t put out any effort. “Your attitude belongs on a rebellious teenager, not on a grown woman. So why don’t you act like an adult for a change and come down to the living room.”
Surprised by his bluntness, it only took her a moment to find a quick comeback. “You think you’re so smart. You’ve always thought you’re so smart.”
“Sharon, my being smart or not has nothing to do with this conversation. Why don’t you want Mom to marry John?”
Apparently startled at his continued directness, she blurted out, “I don’t want any man moving in here and taking Dad’s place.”
Before Adam had a chance to respond, she went on, “But you wouldn’t know anything about how that feels because you hated Dad.”
“I didn’t—” He stopped short at the automatic protest. If he was going to get anywhere with Sharon, he had to be honest with her. “All right. Yes, I did hate him at times. He had a mean streak you didn’t see. He showed it to me and he showed it to the livestock. You know as well as I do he only adopted me to have someone to work this farm for him. And after Delia died—”
Regretfully, Adam shook his head. “That’s in the past now. If I hated him once, I don’t anymore. He’s gone and no matter what he was or wasn’t, Mom deserves to be happy.”
Sharon’s expression lost some of its defiance. “I don’t understand why Mom can’t be happy the way things are. She and John—” Sharon stopped and her cheeks got red.
If his mother had been involved with John for a while, she obviously wanted to make it legal now. “Mom wants to be married and that’s her right. Maybe if you can’t accept it, if you can’t accept John in this house, you should move off the farm and find your own life.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” she muttered.
“Why?”
“Because you have more money than you know what to do with.”<
br />
“I didn’t have any money when I left for college.”
“You had a scholarship.”
“Yes, and it paid my tuition. I worked in pizza joints for the rest. You do what you have to do to find your life, Sharon. You have a decent job. You can certainly afford an apartment. What’s keeping you here?”
“Mom’s keeping me here. After Dad died, she needed me here.”
“Maybe she did, but now maybe you both need something else. Think about it.”
Silence that had always seemed unbridgeable between them still seemed that way. Finally Sharon asked, “Are you coming to the wedding?”
“I don’t know. If Mom asks, I guess I’ll try to be there.”
“She’s not even going to have a real wedding. They’re just going to a justice of the peace.”
“Anytime two people decide to spend the rest of their lives together and make promises to do that, I think it’s a real wedding.”
“You know what, Adam? Just because you own your own company doesn’t mean you know everything.”
Lord, did he know that! He almost smiled. “I’ve never claimed to know everything, Sharon, but I do know if you don’t support Mom in this marriage, it’ll drive a wedge between the two of you.”
Suspecting Sharon wouldn’t listen to anything else he had to say, he left her at her bedroom door and returned to the downstairs. She was one frustrating female he would never understand.
Adam’s mother was putting a meat loaf in the oven when he entered the kitchen. After she closed the oven door, she asked, “Can you stay for supper?”
Glancing at the ceramic teapot clock hanging on the wall, he shook his head. “I have to get back to town.”
Peggy Bartlett sighed. “Did you make any progress with Sharon?”
“I don’t know. I think she feels as if she’s being disloyal to…Dad…if she accepts John into your life.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“That’s how she feels.”
His mother studied him for a moment. “Are you sure you have to get back?”
“I have to go to the hospital. There’s a young boy I want to see there.”
“You hate hospitals. You have ever since—”
They’d never talked about that day. “Yes, I do. But I’m going to have to change the way I’ve always thought about them.”
She looked puzzled. “Why?”
“Because my biological father found me. His son needs a bone marrow transplant and I’m a perfect match.”
It was obvious his mom was astonished by the news. “Your real father found you? My goodness, Adam.”
“He has a family. I’ve got two half brothers and a half sister. Not only that, but—” he paused a moment “—did you know I had a twin?”
“A twin? No! We told you we didn’t know anything much about your family. Just your mother’s first name and that she was young and had died. That was all the information they’d give us.”
“My father found my sister first. She lives on a vineyard about two hours south of Portland. Apparently we’re twins.”
“Have you met her yet?”
“She was married recently and just returned from her honeymoon yesterday. I’m going to try to get hold of her.”
“When did all this happen?”
“About a week and a half ago. Why?”
“A man called here, and he wanted to know if we had adopted a child from The Children’s Connection Adoption Agency twenty-seven years ago. I told him we had. He went on to explain something about a fire and wanting to update records now. He asked where he could find you. I told him you had an unlisted phone number and I couldn’t give that out, but when he pressed, I did say you were the boss of Novel Programs, Unlimited.”
“So that’s how he found me. He was a private investigator working for my father.”
“If I had known he was a private investigator, I probably wouldn’t have told him anything.”
“Then I’m glad he didn’t tell you. Mark’s a great kid and I want to help him if I can.”
“I hope everything turns out all right.”
“So do I,” Adam said in a low voice, and then he moved toward the doorway. “I’d better get going.”
His mother followed him into the foyer. “Thanks for coming out here to talk to Sharon. I know she’s not easy to deal with. I know…I know she and Rena weren’t the best sisters.”
When he was silent, she went on, “I know Owen and I weren’t the best parents. Not to you, anyway. I felt I always had to do what Owen said, felt I had to stick by him. I didn’t really want to care for another child, but he wanted a boy. We didn’t adopt you for the right reasons and it showed. I’m glad your real father found you. Maybe you can find with him and his family what you never had with us. Maybe your twin can be the sister that Sharon and Rena never were.”
Suddenly she clasped his arm. “I want you to know something, Adam. I’m proud of what you’ve done and who you’ve become. I’m not just saying that because of all the help you’ve given me. I think you’ve become a fine man.”
His mother had never said anything like that to him before. He wondered if this new marriage she was going to enter into had changed her outlook on life…if she decided she deserved to live life instead of just letting it pass her by.
“Will you come to my wedding to John?” she asked.
“If you let me know where and when, I’ll be there.”
“Will you let me know when you go into the hospital? You will have to do that, won’t you, to give bone marrow?”
“I’ll let you know.”
Then the woman who had always seemed a bit removed, who never seemed to know exactly what to say or do or how to act with him, gave him a hug.
Adam’s heart felt lighter than it had felt in a long time as he drove to the hospital.
Since Mark’s family was keeping him company, Adam didn’t stay long. The eight-year-old had been subjected to tests all day, and Adam could easily see he was worn out. He’d simply wanted to stop in so Mark would know he was thinking about him.
After his visit, Danielle came outside the room with Adam, telling the others she was going to get something to drink. But as they walked partway down the hall, she turned to Adam. “They’re going to start Mark’s chemo on Monday. He doesn’t know that yet.”
“Do you know when they’ll be ready for me?”
She shook her head. “It depends on how everything goes with Mark. Dr. Mason will contact you. Are you getting anxious about it?”
Anxious wasn’t the word. He just wanted it all to be over and Mark to be okay. “Not really.”
Danielle stuffed her hands into the pockets of her slacks. “We’re going to go ahead with Shawna’s party tomorrow night. We talked to Mark about it and he’s okay with it. Chad’s going to hook up one of those video phones so Mark can see what’s going on.”
“The party will help the weekend go faster,” Adam offered.
Danielle nodded. “That’s what we thought. Did Shawna tell you you’re welcome to bring a guest?”
“She told me, but I’ll probably come alone.”
“We appreciate how you’re keeping in touch with Mark, especially by e-mail. It’s keeping his spirits up.”
“Good. That’s what I intended.”
“Adam, Jared doesn’t say much, but he appreciates everything you’re doing, too.”
Adam had learned a long time ago not to try to please a father figure. He really didn’t care what Jared thought of him. Everything he did was aimed to help Mark. “I’m glad I got a chance to meet Chad tonight.”
“So am I.”
But as he left Danielle, Adam knew he’d had enough of family for the night and it was time to go back to the ranch and get his head together.
When Adam returned to the ranch, he took Thunder out on a short night ride. The temperature was in the fifties, and a warmer spell was predicted for next week.
After their ride, Adam walked Thunder t
o cool him down, then spent time grooming him, talking to him, going over the transplant procedure in his head.
It was ten o’clock when he got back to the house. Switching on the computer, he let his home page boot up while he checked the answering machine. At the same time, he flicked on the small television resting on the bookshelf to catch the local nightly news. He was getting deeply involved in research about cheetahs to design a new game for kids when he heard the sound of fire sirens coming from the TV.
Glancing up at the picture, he saw the local news anchor at the perimeter of a fire scene, motioning toward the firemen and a building.
Adam went instantly on alert and took a second, more careful look at the building. That was Leigh’s apartment house, wasn’t it?
Turning up the volume, he heard the anchor say, “The fire at Turndale Apartment Complex began around 8:00 p.m. Mr. Benson in apartment 2C apparently removed bacon from a grease-filled pan and forgot to turn off the burner. Then he fell asleep in his recliner. Fortunately he awakened when a neighbor who smelled the smoke banged on his door. The fire had already enveloped his kitchen by then. Once the alarm was pulled, everyone evacuated the building. Only two apartments were seriously damaged, but several families are trying to find shelter for the night.”
Adam shot up out of the chair and headed for his car. Were Leigh and her mother one of those families? Were they okay? Had they been taken to the hospital? Smoke inhalation could be serious.
Adam’s foot was heavy on the accelerator as he drove into Portland and headed for Leigh’s apartment complex. Of course he couldn’t get anywhere near it. The street was blocked. After he parked, he jogged to the cordoned-off area. Smoke filled the air as firemen still hosed the roof.
Approaching one of the policemen who was holding a walkie-talkie in his hand, Adam asked, “Where are the families who got out? I want to make sure someone is safe.”
Take A Chance On Me (Logan's Legacy) Page 11