Hearts Rekindled

by Patty Smith Hall

  This man had no idea what she could handle. Merrilee stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean by that, Robert. The children have behaved beautifully, considering what they’ve been through today.”

  Adams opened his mouth to respond, but John cut him off. “We should move this discussion into the dining room.” He nodded toward the parlor doorway. “Little ears.”

  “Why? It’s not like they understand what we’re talking about.”

  A stark second passed before John grabbed Adams by the arm and pulled him toward the door, his medical bag dangling from one hand while he clutched his hat in the other. “We’ve taken up enough of your time today, Dr. Adams. Just send me a bill and I’ll settle up Ms. Aurora’s accounts.”

  “She needs to be seen in my office at the first of next week.”

  Merrilee followed behind them, enjoying the sight of the doctor being manhandled out the door too much to sit back and let John have all the fun. “I’m sure we can find another physician to check her out.”

  At the door, John let go of the man’s arm. Adams straightened, slamming his hat down on his head. “Are you firing me?”

  John opened the door. “It looks that way.”

  Adams’s face scrunched up into an angry ball. “You can’t fire me.”

  “Sounds like he just did,” Merrilee said, trying to give him as sweet a smile as she could muster. “Don’t let us keep you.”

  The screen door slapped shut behind the doctor, his mumbled jangle of words growing fainter until finally stopping at the sound of his car door slamming shut.

  Merrilee closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Someone needs to wash that man’s mouth out with soap.”

  John leaned back against the doorjamb. “I understand why you’re not a fan.”

  She glanced toward the parlor, relieved to find the arched entranceway empty. “Remember, little ears.”

  He nodded toward an open room across the hall, the crooked smile he gave her sending her pulse thrumming through her veins. She told herself that it was just the thrill of firing Dr. Adams that made her heart pound, not the man walking in front of her. The situation called for her to be serious, not silly.

  She followed him into the room, then stopped just inside the door, lifting her nose a fraction of an inch. “What is that smell?”

  John continued on to the table where five medium-size bowls sat, thick syrupy lines crisscrossing between each place setting, converging at a half-filled mason jar. “Looks like they had a little oatmeal with their honey this morning.”

  She tried to lift her foot, but the sole of her shoe clung to the wooden surface as if magnetized. “The floor got a helping of the sticky stuff, too.”

  “Here, let me help.” She expected a wet towel to clean off the bottom of her shoe, not the firm arm around her waist bracing her against his side or the work-calloused hand he held out to her. “I’m sorry about this.”

  “Poor things. The oatmeal probably burned while Billy took care of Aurora and he didn’t know how to fix anything else.” She lifted her foot, then stopped.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t want to track honey all over this floor.”

  He glanced down at the ground, his lips twitching slightly. “I don’t think that’s an issue.”

  Of course, it wasn’t an issue to him. He’d probably never had to clean the sticky concoction after it had hardened. “I’m already going to have to get down on my hands and knees to mop this mess. If we let it set, it’ll take your hammer and a chisel to get it up. The less territory I have to clean, the better my chances of taking care of it all before the situation becomes that bad.”

  “The voice of experience?”

  She gave him a wry smile. “Claire was a very active toddler.”

  “I wished I’d seen that,” he answered, a wistfulness in his voice.

  She had wanted him there, too, more than anyone knew. Her prayers had been full of John; praying God would watch over him, would help her understand what had caused him to stop loving her. Instead, she’d endured years of silence, on earth and from above. Then Claire had fallen ill, and she’d focused her prayers on her daughter. But God’s silence continued.

  “Can we at least talk first?”

  A few more minutes wasn’t going to matter one way or the other. “I suppose.”

  Before her soiled foot could touch the ground, her legs were pushed from underneath her and she found herself being lifted into John’s arms. Merrilee wriggled, but his limbs tightened around her, pulling her high on his chest. “What are you doing?”

  His blue eyes stared at her with such innocence, she wondered if maybe she had missed something. “You didn’t want to track honey all over the floor so I thought I’d help you to a chair.”

  “You didn’t have to take me so seriously.” She pushed against his shoulder, the muscles bunching and flexing beneath her palm, shooting sparks of awareness up her. She snatched it back. “Put me down!”

  “That chair looks unscathed.” Nodding to a high back across the room, he tightened his hold on her.

  With a resigned sigh, Merrilee gave in to the need to steady herself and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. But there was nothing remotely safe in the way her insides sizzled like beads of oil on a hot frying pan or the heat that ran up her arm as her fingertips grazed the soft hairs at the nape of his neck. She balled up her fist to keep from repeating the movement.

  John toed the chair out from under the table with his foot, then gently sat her down. A shiver ran up the length of her back at the loss of his warmth. These reactions to him wouldn’t do, not when John already had one foot out the door. She admired the fact that he’d come back to do right by Claire, and yes, she still found him terribly attractive, but whatever they’d had between them had died years ago.

  Hadn’t it?

  * * *

  John pulled out the chair next to Merrilee, hoping that his heart rate would soon slow to normal after the delight of holding her in his arms. He scooted the chair back a few more inches, then sat down. “Now that I’ve fired Adams, you want to tell me what he did to cross you?”

  She glanced at him for a brief second, then dropped her gaze to her lap, her fingers tightly knotted, rubbing the pad of her thumb over the top of the other. He recognized it as a habit she had whenever she was frustrated. “He was Claire’s doctor.”

  “Was being the operative word here?”

  That coaxed a slight smile out of her. “He doesn’t think Claire has a chance of getting the use of her leg back.”

  “So? He’s not the authority on the subject, is he?”

  “No, but if you didn’t notice, he’s a prideful man.” The gaze that met his was hard and unforgiving. “He’s of the mind-set that if he can’t fix someone, then they can’t be fixed, so the only solution is to get them out of everyone’s sight.”

  White-hot anger flashed through him, his fingers itching with the need to grasp that so-called physician by the neck. After that, he wasn’t sure what he’d do, but it wouldn’t be pleasant. “He wanted Claire to go to a sanitarium.”

  “Said I was letting her condition ruin my life, that it was time I accepted it and moved on.” Strands of sunlight dancing through the window crowned her with a gold-red coronet around her head. “As if I could just abandon her.”

  John bunched his fists together, then loosened them, Aurora’s words barreling through the red haze that had fogged his thoughts. Always turn the other cheek. Needing something to do with his hands, he leaned over and covered Merrilee’s fingers with his. “Of course you couldn’t.”

  Merrilee glanced up at him, her lovely green eyes holding him captive, the heartache he saw reflected back at him causing a knot to twist in his stomach. “How could he suggest such a thing? Doesn’t Adams know that would br
eak Claire’s heart?”

  “Probably not.” John hadn’t noticed this ribbon of steel laced through her when they were married. Or maybe he hadn’t given her the chance to ever display it. It wasn’t just admirable, it was rare, made stronger by her love for their child. It must be something to be loved like that, protected against the Adamses of this world.

  Was he any better than the doctor, showing up at Merrilee’s doorstep, wanting to claim Claire as his child only to slink out of town when his hearing before the naval commission came up? He wanted time with his daughter, but would Merrilee give him that if she knew the truth?

  Best he take what time he had left with Claire and put it to good use. “We need a plan to make this work.”

  Merrilee sat back in her chair, relaxing just a bit. “I agree.”

  Suspicion shot through him at her instant affirmation. “I wasn’t expecting that answer.”

  Her perfectly shaped brows lifted slightly. “Why not?”

  “Wasn’t it you who always said God laughs when we make plans?”

  “Maybe He does, but I’ve learned over the years that having a plan isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” She slipped her hand from beneath his. “Just don’t plan everything down to the last detail, okay?”

  That very quality of his was what had drawn the attention of the navy when they searched for men to train the new branch of Seabees. “My attention to detail helped us in Guam.”

  But Merrilee didn’t seem impressed. She picked at the crumbs dusting the table, then brushed them into a bowl. “We’re talking kids here, John. They’re a lot tougher crowd.”

  John hesitated. Was that experience talking again? Maybe. “Anything else?”

  “No, just as long as we agree to keep each other informed about what’s going on with the children and with Ms. Aurora so if any decisions need to be made, we can offer advice to each other.”

  “Do those decisions include Claire?”

  Merrilee mashed her lips into a tight line, then gave an affirmative jerk of her head. “For right now, at least.”

  A small concession, but enough for John at the moment. “Then I agree.”

  “Really?”

  The surprise in her question should have irked him but it didn’t. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t know.” Her shoulder rose in a slight shrug. “I guess I figured you’d want more say where Claire is concerned.”

  Maybe one day soon, but not yet—not until he was cleared of the charges against him. And, John admitted to himself, when he’d regained his former wife’s trust on the matter. “I’d never shove my opinions on you, Merrilee.”

  Her mouth relaxed into a slight smile. “I guess I just expected...”

  She didn’t have to complete her thought for John to understand. Jacob Daniels hadn’t listened much to anyone except his crew of good ole boys who had agreed with everything the old man said. He’d certainly raised his daughter not to argue with his decrees or question his point of view. If he’d been able to prove to her that her daddy liked to interfere in their lives, John might still be married to the woman sitting beside him. Instead, it had always been clear to him that Merrilee believed her daddy could do no wrong. Only in the past two days had he noticed Merrilee questioning her father. “Well, this is a partnership. We’ll listen to each other and try to make the best decision for all of us.”

  Merrilee seemed to consider that for a moment, then nodded. “Agreed. And even if we don’t reach an understanding all the time, we present a united front to the kids.”

  “Sounds like that war slogan—united we stand, divided we fall.”

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “Because kids can detect weakness and they’ll pick it apart until they get what they want.”

  “Another lesson learned from Claire?”

  Merrilee chuckled. “Sometimes, but mainly I got it from the kids I teach in Sunday school. If those parents knew some of the stories those kids told on them, they’d cringe.”

  “Okay, then, united we stand.”

  They talked for the next half hour, going over everything they could think of from what each should expect from the other to the children’s routine, even settling on a new doctor for Aurora—one from Crawford Long Hospital that Merrilee had been impressed with from her visits with Claire.

  John pushed back his chair and stood. “So when do you think you and Claire can be ready?”

  Merrilee glanced up at him. “For what?”

  A tide of apprehension rose up inside him. “To move in here.”

  She hesitated for a brief moment. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Claire and I could go home every night after the children have had their baths and we’ve gotten them into bed.”

  “I was serious about the truck, Merri. Just the thought of you and Claire getting caught out in the dead of night in the middle of nowhere in that thing...” John ground his teeth together, his stomach turning at the idea of his family deserted on a lonely stretch of highway. “Besides, you heard Ms. Aurora. This is a twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job.”

  “You’re going to be here, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I’ll be here. It’s just...” What could he say? That the idea of having his family under one roof had been growing on him since they’d left Aurora’s room? No, this was about the kids. Merrilee’s comings and goings would only cause more confusion in their lives. “The kids need to have a woman around all the time, especially the girls. And I’m not sure what kind of arrangements to make for Ms. Aurora’s care....” Heat raced up his neck. “You know what I mean.”

  She chuckled, a warm throaty sound that made his breath catch in his windpipe. “You’re such a man, you know that? But you’ve got a point.” The laughter tittered off. “What about Claire? How are we going to handle the whole situation with her? There’s a good chance she’ll find out who you really are.”

  “Would that be so bad?”

  A tiny line formed between her brows. “I know you plan on leaving again.”

  John blinked. How had the woman figured that out? “It’s only for a little while.”

  He could tell by her closed-off expression she didn’t believe him. “Don’t you think Claire has enough going on in her life without the added worry of when her father, who she’s only just met, will walk back out that door?”

  Blasted woman! “I’m coming back.”

  “How do I know that?”

  If it calmed her fears, maybe it was time she knew about the plans he’d made, even though he’d not intended to tell her yet. “I bought the farm next door.”

  She gave him a look of utter disbelief. “Ms. Aurora bought that property.”

  John shook his head. “She made the payment for me, with my money. After I got Claire’s letter, I contacted Ms. Aurora. She mentioned Mr. Todd was on the decline and that he’d offered to sell her his farm. He quoted a fair price, but she wasn’t in the market for another farm. I figure it’s close by if Ms. Aurora needs me, and I thought Claire might like coming out to visit sometimes.”

  “You bought a farm, just like you bought the homestead.” She shook her head, the area around her eyes crinkled in confusion. “How did you manage it?”

  “How did I manage it?” John mimicked. What did she think he’d done, robbed a bank? No, he’d worked from sunrise to dark, lived on barely anything, put away every dime he’d earned for a life he’d never found time to live. He’d bought the Daniels’s property simply to right a wrong, to give Merrilee the home her father had never intended to leave her in his will. Beating Jacob Daniels at his own game was just icing on the cake.

  “Forget it. It’s none of my business.”

  But it seemed important for her to know how he’d raised the money. “After I bought the homestead and deeded it over to you, I starte
d an account for Ms. Aurora, just in case she needed something for herself or the kids. I didn’t have many expenses and figured she could use the extra cash. Only she didn’t use it. She saved every penny I ever deposited in the bank. Guess she figured I’d need it one day.”

  “That was smart of her, and kind of you. Thank you.” Gratitude filled her voice, but also...shame? Why would she feel that way? What could she possibly be ashamed of?

  Unless she was embarrassed by him, needing to save every penny just so he could buy the type of property she’d been born to.

  Was that the real reason she didn’t want Claire to know the truth, because having a poor dirt farmer as a father didn’t exactly reach the high standards of the upper-class Danielses?

  John turned and paced, his boots echoing against the four walls. If she thought so badly of him, what would Merrilee do if she learned the truth, that by helping another child, he’d gotten himself brought up on charges that might ruin his chances of staying around to get to know his daughter?

  “But you’re still planning to leave?”

  Not planning to, being forced to. Big difference. “Yes, but like I said, I’ll be back.”

  “How long will you be gone this time?”

  He’d never lied to her, but would Merrilee give him a chance to explain with Claire’s heart on the line? He couldn’t risk it. “I don’t know.”

  She gave a slight nod, as if his answer had provided the resolution she needed. “Then maybe it’s best if we wait until you come back before telling her. That way...”

  “That way, if I don’t come back, Claire will never know,” he finished for her.

  Merrilee dropped her chin to her chest, her eyes closed, her delicate shoulders slightly rounded as if defeated. “I’m just trying to protect her, John. That’s all.” A loud cry from the direction of the parlor drew her attention to the door. “We’ve left the kids alone too long as it is. Why don’t you go upstairs and check on Ms. Aurora, okay?”

  John watched her walk to the arched doorway, then hesitate before slipping first one shoe off and then the other. The boards in the hall floor barely creaked as she crept out of sight.