by Diana Palmer
“I thought we’d be planning her funeral when we came in here,” Sassy said, still shell-shocked.
He touched her soft cheek gently. “I can understand that.”
“How did you know where we were?” she asked suddenly.
“I went into the feed store with a list and found Buck holding down the fort,” he said. “He said you were up here.”
“And you came right away,” she said, amazed.
He put both big hands on her small waist and held her in front of him. His blue eyes were solemn. “I never planned to get mixed up with you,” he told her honestly. “Or your family. But I seem to be part of it.”
She smiled. “Yes. You are a part of our family.”
His hands contracted. “I just want to make the point that my interest isn’t brotherly,” he added.
The look in his eyes made her heartbeat accelerate. “Really?”
He smiled. “Really.”
She felt as if she could fly. The expression on her face made him wish that they were in a more private place. He looked down to her full mouth and contemplated something shocking and potentially embarrassing.
Before he could act on what was certainly a crazy impulse, the doctor who’d admitted Mrs. Peale came walking up to them with a taller, darker man. He introduced himself and his companion.
“Miss Peale, this is Dr. Barton Crowley,” he told Sassy. “He’s going to operate on your mother first thing in the morning.”
Sassy shook his hand warmly. “I’m so glad to meet you. We’re just overwhelmed. We thought we’d brought Mama up here to die. It’s a miracle! We never even knew there were grants for surgery!”
John shot a warning look at the doctor and the surgeon, who nodded curtly. The hospital administrator had already told them about the financial arrangements.
“We can always find a way to handle critical situations here,” the doctor said with a smile. He nodded toward Dr. Crowley. “He’s been teaching us new surgical techniques. It really was a miracle that he was here when you arrived. He works at Johns Hopkins, you see,” he added.
Sassy didn’t know what that meant.
John leaned down. “It’s one of the more famous hospitals back East,” he told her.
She laughed nervously. “Sorry,” she told Dr. Crowley, who smiled. “I don’t get out much.”
“She works at our local feed store,” John told them, beaming down at her. “She’s the family’s only support. She takes care of her mother and their six-year-old ward as well. She’s quite a girl.”
“Stop that,” Sassy muttered shyly. “I’m not some paragon of virtue. I love my family.”
His eyebrows arched and his eyes twinkled. “All of it?” he asked amusedly.
She flushed when she recalled naming him part of the family. She forced her attention back to the surgeon. “You really think you can help Mama? Our local doctor said the cancer was very advanced.”
“It is, but preliminary tests indicate that it’s confined to one lobe of her lung. If we can excise it, then follow up with chemotherapy and radiation, there’s a good chance that we can at least prolong her life. We might save it altogether.”
“Please do whatever you can,” Sassy pleaded gently. “She means so much to us.”
“She was very excited when I spoke with her,” Dr. Crowley said with a smile. “She was concerned about her daughters, she told me, much more than with her own condition. A most unique lady.”
“Yes, she is,” Sassy agreed. “She’s always putting other people’s needs in front of her own. She raised me with hardly any help at all, and it was rough.”
“From what I see, young woman,” the surgeon replied, “she did a very good job.”
“Thanks,” she said, a little embarrassed.
“Well, we’ll get her into surgery first thing. When we see the extent of the cancerous tissue, we’ll speak again. Try to get some rest.”
“We will.”
He and the doctor shook hands with John and walked back down the hall.
“I wish I’d packed a blanket or something,” Sassy mused, eyeing the straight, lightly padded chairs in the distant waiting room. “I can sleep sitting up, but it gets cold in hospitals.”
“Sitting up?” He didn’t understand.
“Listen, you know how we’re fixed,” she said. “We can’t afford a motel room. I always sleep in the waiting room when Mama’s in the hospital.” She nodded toward Selene, who was now asleep in the corner. “We both do it. Except Selene fits in these chairs a little better, because she’s so small.”
He was shocked. It was a firsthand look at how the rest of the world had to live. He hadn’t realized that Sassy would have to stay at the hospital.
“Don’t look like that,” she said. “You make me uncomfortable. I don’t mind being poor. I’ve got so many blessings that it’s hard to count them.”
“Blessings.” He frowned, as if he wondered what they could possibly be.
“I have a mother who sacrificed to raise me, who loves me with her whole heart. I have a little sort-of sister who thinks I’m Joan of Arc. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and, thanks to you, a really good job with no harassment tied to it. I even have a vehicle that gets me to and from work most of the time.”
“I wouldn’t call that vehicle a blessing,” he observed.
“Neither would I, if I could afford that fancy truck you drive,” she chided, grinning. “The point is, I have things that a lot of other people don’t. I’m happy,” she added, curious about his expression.
She had nothing. Literally nothing. But she could count her blessings as if they made her richer than a princess. He had everything, but his life was empty. All the wealth and power he commanded hadn’t made him happy. He was alone. He had Gil and his family, and his parents. But in a very personal sense, he was by himself.
“You’re thinking that you don’t really have a family of your own,” Sassy guessed from his glum expression. “But you do. You have me, and Mama, and Selene. We’re your family.” She hesitated, because he looked hunted. She flushed. “I know we’re not much to brag about…”
His arm shot out and pulled her to him. “Don’t run yourself down. I’ve never counted my friends by their bank books. Character is far more important.”
She relaxed. But only a little. He was very close, and her heart was racing.
“You suit me just the way you are,” he said gently. He bent and kissed her, tenderly, before he let her go and walked toward Selene.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed when he lifted the sleeping child in his arms and started toward the exit.
“I’m taking baby sister here to a modest guest room for the night. You can come, too.”
She blinked. “John, I can’t afford—”
“If I hear that one more time,” he interrupted, “I’m going to say bad words. You don’t want me to say bad words in front of the child. Do you?”
She was asleep and wouldn’t hear them, but he was making a point and being noble. She gave in, smiling. “Okay. But you have to dock my wages for it or I’ll stay here and Selene can just hear you spout bad words.”
He smiled over Selene’s head on his chest. “Okay, honey.”
The word brought a soft blush into Sassy’s cheeks and he chuckled softly. He led the way out the door to his truck.
John’s idea of a modest guest room was horrifying to Sassy when he stopped by the desk of Billings’s best hotel to check in Sassy and Selene.
The child stirred sleepily in John’s strong arms. She opened her eyes, yawning. “Mama?” she exclaimed, worried.
“She’s fine,” John assured her. “Go back to sleep, baby. Curl up in this chair until I get the formalities done, okay?” He placed her gently into a big, cushy armchair near the desk.
“Okay, John,” Selene said, smiling as she closed her eyes and nodded off again.
“You’d better stay with her while I do this,” John told Sassy, not wanting her to
hear the clerk when he gave her his real name to pay for the room.
“Okay, John,” she echoed her little sister, with a grin.
He winked at her and went back to the desk. The smile faded as he spoke to the male clerk.
“Their mother is in the hospital, about to have cancer surgery. They were going to sleep in the waiting room. I want a room for them, near mine, if it’s possible.”
The clerk, a kindly young man, smiled sympathetically. “There’s one adjoining yours, Mr. Callister,” he said politely. “It’s a double. Would that do?”
“Yes.”
The clerk made the arrangements, took John’s credit card, processed the transaction, handed back the card, and then went to program the card-key for the new guests. He was back in no time, very efficient.
“I hope their mother does all right,” he told John.
“So do I. But she’s in very good hands.”
He went back to Selene, lifted her gently, and motioned to Sassy, who was examining the glass coffee table beside the chairs.
She paused at a pillar as they walked into the elevator. “Gosh, this looks like real marble,” she murmured, and then had to run to make it before the elevator doors closed. “John, this place looks expensive…”
“I’ll make sure to tell Buck to dock your salary over several months, okay?” he asked gently, and he smiled.
She was apprehensive. It was going to be a big chunk of her income. But he’d already been so nice that she felt guilty for even making a fuss. “Sure, that’s fine.”
He led them down the hall and gave Sassy the card-key to insert in the lock. She stared at it.
“Why are you giving me a credit card?” she asked in all honesty.
He gaped at her. “It’s the door key.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Right.” She looked up at him as if she expected men with white nets to appear.
He laughed when he realized she hadn’t a clue about modern technology. “Give it here.”
He balanced Selene on one lifted knee, inserted the card, jerked it back out so the green light on the lock blinked, and then opened the door.
Sassy’s jaw dropped.
“It’s a card-key,” he repeated, leading the way in.
Sassy closed the door behind them, turning on the lights as she went. The room was a revelation. There was a huge new double bed—two of them, in fact. There were paintings on the wall. There was a round table with two chairs. There was a telephone. There was a huge glass window, curtained, that looked out over Billings. There was even a huge television.
“This is a palace,” Sassy murmured, spellbound as she looked around. She peered into the bathroom and actually gasped. “There’s a hair dryer right here in the room!” she exclaimed.
John had put Selene down gently on one of the double beds. He felt two inches high. Sassy’s life had been spent in a small rural town in abject poverty. She knew nothing of high living. Even this hotel, nice but not the five-star accommodation he’d frequented in his travels both in this country and overseas, was opulent to her. Considering where, and how, she and her family lived, this must have seemed like kingly extravagance.
He walked back to the bathroom and leaned against the door facing while she explored tiny wrapped packets of soap and little bottles of shampoo and soap.
“Wow,” she whispered.
She touched the thick white towels, so plush that she wanted to wrap up in one. She compared them to her thin, tatty, worn towels at home and was shocked at the contrast. She glanced at John shyly.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m not used to this sort of place.”
“It’s just a hotel, Sassy,” he said softly. “If you’ve never stayed in one, I imagine it’s surprising at first.”
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Know what?”
“That I’d never stayed in a hotel?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, it shows. Sort of.”
She flushed. “You mean, I’m acting like an idiot.”
“I mean nothing of the sort.” He shouldered away from the door facing, caught her by the waist, pulled her close, and bent to kiss the breath out of her.
She held on tight, relieved about her mother, but worried about the surgery, and grateful for John’s intervention.
“You’ve made miracles for us,” she said when he let her go.
He searched her shimmering green eyes. “You’ve made one for me,” he replied, and he wasn’t kidding.
“I have? How?”
His hands contracted on her small waist. “Let’s just say, you’ve taught me about the value of small blessings. I tend to take things for granted, I guess.” His eyes narrowed. “You appreciate the most basic things in life. You’re so…optimistic, Sassy,” he added. “You make me feel humble.”
“Oh, that’s rich,” she chuckled. “A backwoods hick like me making a sophisticated gentleman like you feel humble.”
“I’m not kidding,” he replied. “You don’t have a lot of material things. But you’re happy without them.” He shrugged. “I’ve got a lot more than you have, and I’m…” He searched for the word, frowning. “I’m…empty,” he said finally, meeting her quiet eyes.
“But you’re the kindest man I’ve ever known,” she argued. “You do things for people without even thinking twice what problems you may cause yourself in the process. You’re a good person.”
Her wide-eyed fascination made him tingle inside. In recent years, women had wanted him because he was rich and powerful. Here was one who wanted him because he was kind. It was an eye-opener.
“You look strange,” she remarked.
“I was thinking,” he said.
“About what?”
“About how late it is, and how much you’re going to need some sleep. We’ll get an early start tomorrow,” he told her.
The horror came back, full force. The joy drained out of her face, to be replaced with fear and uncertainty.
He drew her close and rocked her in his arms, bending his head over hers. “That surgeon is rather famous,” he said conversationally. “He’s one of the best oncologists in the country, and it’s a blessing that he ended up here just when your mother needed him. You have to believe that she’s going to be all right.”
“I’m trying to,” she said. “It’s just hard. We’ve had so many trips to the hospital,” she confessed, and sounded weary.
John had never had to go through this with his family. Well, there was Gil’s first wife who died in a riding accident. That had been traumatic. But since then, John had never worried about losing a relative to disease. He had, he decided, been very lucky.
“I’ll be right there with you,” he promised her. “All the time.”
She drew back and looked up at him with fascinated eyes. “You will? You mean it? Won’t you get in trouble with your boss?”
“I won’t,” he said. “But it wouldn’t matter if I did. I’m not leaving you. Not for anything.”
She colored and smiled at him.
“After all,” he teased, “I’m a member of the family.”
She smiled even more.
“Kissing kin,” he added, and bent to brush a whisper of a kiss over her soft mouth. He forced himself to step away from her. “Go to bed.”
“Okay. Thanks, John. Thanks for everything.”
He didn’t answer her. He just winked.
The surgery took several hours. Sassy bit her fingernails off into the quick. Selene sat very close to her, holding her hand.
“I don’t want Mama to die,” she said.
Sassy pulled her close. “She won’t die,” she promised. “She’s going to get better. I promise.” She prayed it wasn’t going to be a lie.
John had gone to check with the surgical desk. He came back grinning.
“Tell me!” Sassy exclaimed.
“They were able to get all the cancerous tissue,” he said. “It was confined to a lobe of her lung, as he suspected. They’re caut
iously optimistic that your mother will recover and begin to lead a full life again.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Sassy exclaimed, hugging Selene close. “She’ll get better!”
Selene hugged her back. “I’m so happy!”
“So am I.”
Sassy let her go, got up, and went to hug John close, laying her cheek against his broad, warm chest. He enveloped her in his arms. She felt right at home there.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“For what?”
She looked up at him. “For everything.”
He smiled at her, his eyes crinkling.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“Your mother recovers enough to go home, then we bring her back up here for the treatments. Dr. Crowley said that would take a few weeks, but except for some nausea and weakness, she should manage it very well.”
“You’ll come with us?” she asked, amazed.
He glowered at her. “Of course I will,” he said indignantly. “I’m part of the family. You said so.”
She drew in a long, contented breath. She was tired and worried but she felt newborn. “You’re the nicest man I’ve ever known,” she said.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Nicer than the Army guy?”
She smiled. “Even nicer than Caleb.”
He looked over her head and glowered even more. “Speak of the devil!”
A tall, dark-haired man in an Army uniform was striding down the hall toward them.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SASSY turned and, sure enough, Caleb was walking toward them in his Army uniform, complete with combat boots and beret. He looked very handsome.
“Caleb,” Sassy said warmly, going to meet him. “How did you know we were here?”
He hugged her gently. “I have a cousin who works here. She remembered that I’d been down to see you in Hollister, and that your last name was Peale. How is your mother?”
“She just came out of surgery. Her prognosis is good. John found us a grant to pay for it all, isn’t that incredible? I didn’t know they had programs like that!”