Hard Love (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 3)

by Nancy Adams

  There were three steps up to the porch, and this house didn't have a ramp. In the back, there was a deck that was even higher, with five steps. Julie surprised Robbie when she just took hold of the handles on his chair, spun him around backwards, and pulled him up the steps onto the porch. Thump, thump, thump, and he was suddenly facing the front door. Aunt Kay stepped forward with the key and opened it, but then she stepped aside so that he could enter first.

  Robbie took a deep breath, then rolled over the threshold.

  The living room was exactly as he remembered it, the way it had been the day they had left. All of the furniture was the same, all of the same books were on the bookshelves; the same videos were on the rack under the television. About the only thing that wasn't the same was the atmosphere, because he could tell there was something missing as soon as he rolled inside. It took him a second to realize what he was feeling, but then he knew.

  The house was missing the presence of his parents. They just weren't there anymore, and that made the place different. It was like a wall had been moved, or all the furniture had been changed; it just made the place different, and there were no other words he could find to describe the feeling.

  He rolled into the dining room, but it was also bare of the presence he was looking for. He looked at the beautiful table, the China cabinet that held his mother's finest dishes and the antique hutch where she kept tablecloths and the special serving utensils. They were all as beautiful as ever, but somehow they no longer felt like something that was part of his home. It was like they had simply become items, like things on the shelves in a store. There was no longer anything personal about them.

  All of the rooms felt the same. As full as they were with furniture and things, there was an emptiness about them all. That emptiness was tugging at his heart, making him feel that if he just looked hard enough, or looked in the right places, he would find his parents. Knowing that it wasn't true didn't help make the feeling go away.

  He suddenly thought of Anna, and turned to look for her. He found her in the kitchen, holding Linda's hand and pointing at different things. “You used to keep cookies there,” she was saying, pointing at the cookie jar that looked like Mickey Mouse. Linda stared at it, with her eyes wide, but it was obvious that there was no recognition.

  Still, Anna tried, and Robbie understood that she had a need to do so. He felt the tears running down his face, but kept quiet. After a few moments, though, he saw the resignation that came over her, and when she turned and saw him, he saw her own tears. She walked over and climbed into his lap, and the two of them cried together quietly for a few moments.

  “Okay, okay,” Aunt Kay said. “We've got a lot to do, so let's get started. Robbie, let's start making notes of what needs to be sent to storage, what you might want to donate and what should be sold. Julie, you can take the girls to Anna's room and start gathering things up there, while Robbie and I work down here.”

  Julie agreed, and took Anna and Linda up the stairs. Robbie and his aunt spent the next few hours making lists of things that he wanted to keep, or that should be sold or donated. They made it through the living room, dining room and kitchen, and then went into his parents' bedroom.

  “This almost feels like I'm doing something wrong,” Robbie said. “It's like I expect my dad to catch me here, and I'll be in trouble for being in his room.”

  Aunt Kay nodded. “I understand,” she said. “I think for most kids, the parents’ room is sort of like the forbidden place, the place where you know you'll get in trouble if you go in there, but sometimes you just do it anyway.”

  Robbie smiled. “Yeah, I used to do that. I'd sneak in here when I knew no one was looking, just poke around. Sometimes I would pretend I was a spy or a secret agent, and try to find where I knew the bad guy had hidden the secret formula, or whatever. It was silly.”

  There were two closets in the room, one for his mother and one for his father. His mother's closet was only partially full, not nearly as full as he remembered it, but that was because Aunt Kay had come and gotten clothes for her when she'd been released from the hospital. The other one, however, was quite full. The only clothing that might have been missing would have been the things that he had packed to take on the trip, so that wouldn't have been much. Robbie looked through the closet, but none of his father's clothes would fit him, not for years, so he added those to the donation list.

  In the bottom of the closet, they found several boxes. Aunt Kay got them out and set them on the bed, and then she and Robbie began opening them and looking at the contents. Several of them held videotapes, old family videos that his dad had put away for safekeeping. That made Robbie smile, and he had that box added to the keeper list. The other boxes were filled with things like important papers, some books that his father had put away for one reason or another, most of them old mysteries, and they found one box that had an assortment of pocketknives.

  Robbie had never known that his father collected knives, and he found it surprising. Looking through them, he saw many different kinds and found several that were of the “Swiss Army” brand, with all the extra accessories that came with them. They had knife blades, but they also had scissors and saws, and one set even had a pair of pliers built into it. Just seeing this odd collection delighted Robbie.

  “I want these,” he said. “I mean, I want to take them back with us, okay?”

  Aunt Kay smiled. “Of course it's okay,” she said. “Robbie, everything you want to keep is going to be loaded up in a truck and brought to Maxwell, and we'll put it in a storage unit there. But if there's something you want to keep with you, that's perfectly fine.”

  They had brought a big roll of trash bags with them, and so they began putting the clothes that would be donated into the bags. Once the closet was empty, they began on the dressers. Opening his father's drawers brought back memories for Robbie, memories of when he played his spy game, sneaking into the room. He'd never quite had the nerve to actually dig into the things he found inside the drawers, but had only opened them and peeked inside.

  Now, he had to actually pull out the contents and look at them. Some of the socks he tossed onto the bed, because his father's feet weren't a whole lot bigger than his own, and he could use them. Everything else, like the underwear, T-shirts, pajamas and such, went into the bags.

  He was surprised when he opened the bottom drawer of the dresser, and found a couple of handguns. They were in boxes, and appeared to be brand-new, even though the boxes themselves showed age. He added them to the list of things he felt should be sold.

  6

  By the middle of the day, they'd gotten a lot done. Julie had packed up all of Anna's room, with help from the two girls, and had found a lot of her toys that had been scattered around the house. She had also gathered up the rest of Linda's clothing, to take back to Maxwell with them. Some of it, she would probably never wear again, but Aunt Kay was of the opinion that you just never knew what clothing you might need. While Linda would probably never wear her cocktail dresses again, there were some nice dresses that might be useful if the family went out for some special event. Everything got packed, and could be sorted once they got back home.

  They ordered pizza for lunch, and were sitting in the living room eating it when a knock was heard on the front door. Julie went to answer it, and came back a moment later with a couple of teenagers. Robbie saw Janine and his old friend Kenny following her in, and gave Julie the sign they had agreed on to turn on the act.

  “Hey, Baby,” she said, “look, some of your old friends stopped by.” She came and stood beside his chair, letting her hand snake around his neck and rest possessively on his shoulder. Aunt Kay had to stifle a laugh when she saw that Julie was making direct eye contact with Janine, as if challenging the girl. Oh, the stories that would be told around Cincinnati later that day.

  Kenny and Janine visited for a few minutes, and then decided that they had other things they needed to be doing. They waved goodbye, and Robbie waited unt
il they were out of earshot before he burst out laughing. “Oh, my goodness, that was priceless! Did you see the look on her face? And Kenny, I have never seen so much jealousy in his face in my whole life! Oh, Julie, that was so much fun!”

  Julie was laughing, too. “Yeah, it was,” she said. “I thought your ex was going to jump on me, for a minute there. Of course, I was sort of daring her to say anything.”

  “Well, it went perfect,” Robbie said. “I wouldn't have wanted you to get into a fight, but just the fact that she was glaring like that, that was beautiful!”

  “Oh, don't worry,” Julie said with a smile. “If she comes back, I can take her.” She bent down and kissed his cheek, then spun and walked away. Robbie stared after, grinning.

  Aunt Kay was looking at him, and he turned to her. “What?”

  “Look, Robbie,” she said hesitantly, “I'm not meaning to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong, and maybe I'm just being a little overprotective. The thing is, I mean, you do realize that Julie is quite a bit older than you, right? Like, she's a grown up, and you're not?”

  Robbie laughed. “Aunt Kay, relax,” he said. “We're just playing, having fun. I know she's too old for me, but hey, it's kind of fun to pretend there's more there than there is. We both like to joke about it, that's all.”

  Aunt Kay smiled and nodded. “Okay, kiddo,” she said. “I just don't want to see you get hurt.”

  The pizza was pretty well gone by then, so they went back to work. Some things got sticky notes attached to them, to indicate whether they were to be shipped to storage or not. Robbie decided that most of the furniture should be sold, except for their father's desk and their mother's make up table. He thought that Anna would like to have that, someday, and he wanted the antique, roll-top desk for himself.

  Since he had made that decision, Aunt Kay decided that it was time to call the furniture dealer. There was one that she'd found online at an excellent reputation. He was known for his expertise in determining the value of the furniture he was looking at, and his willingness to work with the seller to make sure they got the most out of the items they were selling. Depending on the seller's preference, he would either pay cash for the items or take them on consignment, taking a commission when the item got sold. She gave him a call, and he said that he wasn't busy, so he could be right over.

  His name was Charlie Mitchell, and he arrived less than 20 minutes later. He had brought along a young woman who was his assistant, who took numerous photos of the antiques that were being presented to them, as well as making copious notes. She wrote down everything he said about each item.

  “This coffee table, and the end tables that go with it, are Stickleys, and were made around 1910. They're mission style, and I'd pay about two grand for them. The dining room set is also Stickley, from about 1914, I'll go eight grand on those.” Kay and Robbie followed them through the house as he continued to catalog all of the furniture, setting prices he would be willing to pay. It suddenly dawned on Robbie, who knew that his father had bought most of this furniture through auctions and rummage sales and then refinished it himself, that his dad had made some shrewd investments. Robbie happened to know that his father paid only a hundred dollars for the dining room set, and bragged that he had only spent about another hundred in restoring it. If the value had gone up that much, then it struck Robbie that the old man had been on the right track.

  By five o'clock that evening, Charlie had made an offer of just under a hundred thousand dollars, and Aunt Kay had managed to haggle him up enough to make it an even hundred grand. He agreed to present her with a cashier’s check the following morning, made out to the trust that was set up for the children. He would also show up with enough help to get everything loaded into his trucks and hauled away, and volunteered to help them load anything they wanted to take back home to storage. Aunt Kay accepted, and then left Robbie, Julie and the girls at the house while she went to rent a trailer to haul those things back in.

  Julie had managed to get the girls down for a nap, so she and Robbie sat down in the living room. They made simple small talk for a few minutes, and then Robbie grinned over at her. “Would you believe,” he asked her, “that Aunt Kay was starting to think that you and I were really becoming an item? She actually reminded me a while ago that you're a grown up, and I'm not. Like I could forget that, right? I thought it was hilarious, that she'd think you could really be my girlfriend.”

  Julie looked at him for a minute, and then licked her lips. Robbie stared, thinking that that was one of the sexiest things he'd ever seen.

  “Robbie,” Julie said, “it's not that ridiculous. I mean, you really are a good-looking guy, I mean that. I may be 18, but that isn't so old that I don't remember what it was like to be your age, you know? If I said I didn't like you that way, I'd be lying, but there's just too big an age gap between us.” She winked at him. “But if you like teasing the way we do, and maybe stealing a kiss now and then, then I'm okay with that.”

  Robbie blushed, and smiled. “I—I could be okay with that, too,” he said. “Could I, maybe, get away with that now?”

  Julie grinned, and patted the seat of the couch beside where she was sitting. Robbie rolled over and shifted himself to the couch, and she slid over to sit next to him. Robbie sat there nervously, so she took hold of his hand and lifted it to pull his arm around her shoulders, then turned her face up to his and closed her eyes. When he didn't make a move for a couple of seconds, she reached up and put her hand on his face, turned it toward hers, and pulled him down so that their lips met.

  This time the kiss lasted a little longer, and he felt her lips part. He had kissed Janine that way, of course, so he knew that she was inviting him to speed things up a bit, and he happily accepted the invitation. His tongue gently entered her mouth, and a moment later he felt her own responding. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until she finally broke away to catch her breath.

  “Holy cow,” she said, “where on earth did you learn to kiss like that?”

  Robbie smiled and shrugged; he couldn’t help it. “Just comes naturally, I guess,” he said. “Did I overdo it?”

  She stared into his eyes, and shook her head. “No, not at all,” she said. “Baby, you can kiss me like that any time you want to!” Suddenly she pulled back a bit and looked hard into his face. “There's just—just one thing. I think—I think it would be best if we kept this a secret, is that okay with you? Because if that makes you feel uncomfortable at all, then we'd better stop now, okay?”

  Robbie smiled. “I think keeping it secret is a good idea, too,” he said. “I wouldn't want Aunt Kay to get the wrong idea.”

  Julie smiled back, then. “Yeah,” she said. “If she took it the wrong way, I could get in a lot of trouble. Remember, I told you that I was pretty wild for a while there, right? Well, I think she might be afraid that I would let something like this go, you know, too far. So maybe we better just let her keep thinking it's all kind of a game. Okay?”

  Robbie looked into her eyes, and it suddenly dawned on him that she was trembling. He smiled to reassure her. “Don't worry, Baby,” he said. “First off, I won't say anything. This is our secret, and it's safe with me. But second, don't worry about things going too far. I know what you mean, of course, I'm not stupid, but—well, that part of me doesn't work, at least right now. And if that makes you want to stop…”

  Julie grinned at him. “No, it just makes me a little more comfortable about it. It means this won't get too far out of hand.” She pulled him down and kissed him again, this time even more passionately, and when she felt his other hand come around and rest against her ribs, she moved her arm up higher to pull him a little closer. He seemed to tense, so she broke the kiss and pulled him down to whisper something in his ear, then went back to kissing him. A moment later, his hand found her breast, and she moaned into his mouth as they kissed, and he explored.

  That was as far as they went for a long time, though they went back there fairly often.
The night before Robbie's first surgery, since he didn't have to be at the hospital until early in the morning, she slipped into his room so that they could spend an hour kissing and touching. (A long time later, after he was back on his feet, she confessed to him that she almost let things go much further that night, and he whispered his own confession that he had always wished they had.)

  By then, everything had been sold, including the house itself, and everything that they had brought back ended up stored in Aunt Kay's garage and basement. They hadn't actually needed a storage unit, after all, since Robbie had chosen not to keep that much of their old lives. His motorcycle had come with them, and was safely stashed in the garage along with everything else that didn't need a climate-controlled environment, but the desk was in his bedroom and the makeup table was carefully wrapped in plastic, waiting in the basement for Anna to be old enough to appreciate it.

  Dr. Marshall, Robbie thought, was probably the best doctor that had ever lived. Just the fact that he would take the time to explain to Robbie, who was still a kid, not only what the surgery was supposed to do, but also the risks involved in it, gave him a saint-like presence as far as the kid was concerned. As frightening as the prospect of surgery was, and even though Dr. Marshall had explained that there was always some risk when you went under anesthesia, Robbie was more than willing to trust his life to the doctor's hands. The whole family went with him that morning, though Julie and Anna and Linda had to kiss his cheek and say goodbye from the waiting room, before they wheeled him into surgery. Only Aunt Kay was allowed to go on to the surgery floor, and to the surgical waiting room just outside the OR.

  The first surgery, they had been told, would actually require cutting four vertebrae, to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord. Bits of bone would then be grafted into those cuts, so that they would heal and grow back together in the right positions and at the right sizes to allow the spine to do its proper job. The cutting would be done by a small, powered saw, one that Dr. Marshall had used many times with great success. While there was a small chance that something could go wrong and that the salt could slip and cause him to be permanently paralyzed, it hadn't happened in more than 10 years and over 100 operations, so Robbie was confident that things would go the way they should.