“Eli, I’m sure she heard you,” he said.
“She did!” he said happily. “Look, she’s waving! Hey, what’s that she’s working on?”
Gavin looked up to see her pulling on something to the left of the barn. “That’s the rabbit hutch. It holds the rabbits that we brought to Willow’s Haven yesterday,” he said, but he couldn’t tell what she was doing to it.
“Is that, like, their home? That’s where rabbits live?”
“It’s where those rabbits live,” Gavin answered. “But those are tame rabbits. Some rabbits live in the wild.”
“In the wild?” Eli asked. “What does that mean?”
“It means they don’t live in pens or cages. They live outdoors, in the woods.” He knew Haley could do a much better job explaining this and should have waited for Eli to ask the expert.
“Like, in trees?”
“In burrows. Kind of like tunnels in the ground where they make their home and stay safe from storms and other animals.”
Eli nodded and Gavin figured it wasn’t a bad description, given he wasn’t a vet and wasn’t a hundred percent certain whether rabbits didn’t live in trees, or at least in the hollow stump portion. He made a mental note to ask Haley about that later. And he made a second mental note to always direct Eli to the vet for his animal questions.
“Uh-oh,” Eli said, “I think she hurt herself!”
Gavin saw the same thing. Haley, pulling on a wire and then dropping it as she grabbed her right hand with her left, her face wincing in pain. He quickly parked the car and got out, Eli following closely at his heels. “What happened?”
“Are you okay, Miss Haley?” Eli asked from behind him.
“I—think I am, sweetie,” she said, but Gavin saw the trail of blood sliding across the top of her hand, her face draining of color. He prayed she didn’t pass out before he could get her bandaged. Or taken to Claremont Hospital for stitches, if necessary.
“How bad is it?” he asked quickly.
“I think it looks worse than it is, or I hope it does.” She looked like she was going to hurl. “I was tightening the wire where it’d gotten loose. I should’ve put on some gloves, or used pliers. But I thought I would be okay to pull it with my hands. It sliced the skin between my thumb and first finger.” Her breath came out in a whoosh and then she sucked in a gulp of air that made Gavin think she wouldn’t remain standing long. “Amazing how much a little cut like that will bleed, huh?”
Gavin took in every detail, but it was hard to tell how deep the cut was because of the blood. It dripped to the ground at her feet, and she looked toward the sky to keep from seeing it, which probably wasn’t a good idea, since she wobbled where she stood.
“Oh, no, Buddy, don’t do that!” Eli yelled, and Gavin saw the little puppy heading toward the bloody droplets.
“Eli, you get him while I tend to Miss Haley. You can take him over there in the grass to play, okay?”
“Yes, sir.” He carefully scooped up the wiggling puppy before Buddy made it to the red blob on the ground. “Is Miss Haley gonna be okay?”
“I’m going to be—fine,” she said, forcing the words out and wobbling again.
Gavin wrapped an arm around her to keep her steady. “Where’s your first-aid kit?” He tried to ignore the initial awareness that this was the first time he’d had his arm around a woman in two years. And that this was his first time to have his arm around Haley.
“Tack room.”
“Okay, let’s get you there.” He guided her into the barn and to the tack room.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she whispered while he grabbed a wooden chair and set her on it. “I’m around blood all the time with the animals at work, and I have no problem bandaging other people’s cuts and scrapes.”
“But it’s different when it’s your own?” He spotted the first-aid kit and grabbed it from a nearby shelf.
“Very different,” she said with a shaky grin.
He was thankful for that grin, and for the fact that the color was returning to her face. “All right, let’s see what we’ve got.”
She slid her left hand away and looked toward the open doorway, away from the blood that covered the majority of her right thumb and forefinger. “How bad is it?”
He took an antiseptic wipe and cleaned the blood away, then took another to clean the actual cut. “Amazing there was that much blood,” he said.
Squinting, she turned her head slowly to view the damage. And her laugh burst free. “That’s it? It—it’s not even a half inch.” She shook her head. “Okay, now I’m really embarrassed.”
Gavin took a small bandage, put a dab of antibiotic ointment in the center and then covered the cut. “Well, what it was lacking in size, it made up for in volume...of blood.” He tried to keep his tone serious. But then he looked up at her and saw those green eyes practically dancing.
“Go on,” she said, punching him with her free hand, “admit it. I’m pathetic.”
“Only when it comes to your own blood loss,” he clarified. “You know, though, in all seriousness, you shouldn’t work on things like that when you’re the only one here. What if the cut had been worse?”
“I’m pretty sure I would’ve toughened up and done something about it before I risked bleeding out.” Her laugh turned into a chuckle.
But Gavin wasn’t laughing. He took a couple pieces of white adhesive tape and secured the bandage in place, then looked up at his new friend. The one he hadn’t been able to completely get off his mind since she’d showed him a glimpse of her own pain yesterday. “Next time you’re wanting to work on something around the farm, I want you to call me. You shouldn’t be doing things like this alone.”
“How do you think I’ve gotten everything done so far?” She quirked one arched eyebrow along with one side of her mouth.
Gavin knew she wanted to be independent, and he admired her for it, but she also needed to be smart. And he didn’t like the thought of her here, alone, bleeding, or hurting, or anything that might involve discomfort. “I don’t doubt that you did everything here on your own, but there’s no reason to do that anymore,” he said gruffly. “So call me. Please.”
She blinked, finally understanding that he wasn’t joking around. In fact, she didn’t even want to think of how long her hand would’ve bled if he and Eli hadn’t arrived when they did. True, the cut was small, but she couldn’t tell that, and she was so queasy that she might have actually passed out before she’d gotten to the tack room.
“Okay,” she said softly, “I’ll call.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” He closed the lid on the kit then put it back in its place on the shelf.
He acknowledged that he didn’t feel awkward, being here with Haley, taking care of her, even having his arm around her. He liked being with her. But he knew their friendship would take careful handling, to keep their feelings from going down the wrong path.
Especially if he continued to get closer to her.
Which meant he probably shouldn’t try to get her to open up more about the conversation she’d started yesterday.
Yet he couldn’t resist.
“Haley, you said something about your vision for when you turned thirty.”
She stood from the chair and started toward the doorway leading out of the tack room. “And I also asked you to forget I said that,” she said over her shoulder.
“I want to be there for you.”
She stepped out of the tack room and smiled. “If you’re wanting to help me, I can tell you how. And maybe Eli might want to pitch in, as well.” She cupped her bandaged hand around her mouth and yelled, “Eli, would you like to help me paint my fence today?”
She ignored looking at Gavin, probably because she knew she’d see his disappointment at her dodging his question.
Eli scooped up Buddy and scrambled to hi
s feet. “Sure! Can Buddy help, too?”
“Buddy can hang out nearby, but we don’t want to let him around the paint. Okay? It would make him sick if he accidentally ate some of it.”
“Okay, Miss Haley!”
After a beat, she turned to Gavin and asked, “Will you help me, too?”
“Of course,” he said, but he planned to help her with more than painting a picket fence. He also planned to help her find her way back to happiness, and to hope...and to God.
* * *
“I’m not very good at painting,” Eli said, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth and his brow furrowed as he moved the brush up and down his current picket.
Haley hardly noticed the injuries to his hands anymore. She simply looked at him and saw Eli, the little boy who touched her heart. But she should have considered the difficulty he might face with the task. However, he had almost finished the section of fence he’d selected and he hadn’t complained at all.
“You’re doing a great job, Eli. And I’m so very happy that you’re helping me. Doesn’t this fence look better painted white instead of that plain old wood?”
“But I keep missing some spots, and it’s kind of tough to hold on to the brush for too long.” He wasn’t crying, but he looked like he could pretty easily.
She, Gavin and Eli were each working on their own section, and she noticed Gavin had stopped painting and was instead looking at the little boy working in the section between them. He visibly swallowed, and Haley took that as a sign that he didn’t know what to say, or was too affected by Eli’s dilemma to say anything at all.
Eli had lost his family, and so had Gavin. No wonder Gavin seemed to have such a personal relationship with the little boy. And no wonder he seemed to be having a difficult time figuring out what to say when Eli’s scarred hands served as a permanent reminder of everything he’d lost.
Haley wanted to hug both of them, but that wasn’t what Eli needed right now. He needed encouragement. So she scooted toward him and petted Buddy, who had moved alongside the boy as he’d worked his way down the section. “I miss spots, too,” she said quietly.
“You do?” Eli leaned back to take a better look at Haley’s pickets.
“Sure I do,” she said, “because it’s tough to see the areas you’ve missed until the paint dries out. But I tell you what—I’ll go behind you and get any spots I see that you missed, but you have to promise to get any spots that I miss when you see them, too.” She held out her hand. “What do you say? Deal?”
His face relaxed, mouth eased into a smile, and he shook her hand. “Deal.”
She petted Buddy again. “And you’re doing a great job watching Buddy, too. He hasn’t gotten near the paint.”
“He does good if I talk to him and tell him what I’m doing.”
Haley grinned. She and Gavin had been listening to him talk—even sing—to the puppy throughout the morning. “I think you’re right.” In fact, Buddy wagged his tail each time Eli spoke, whether he was talking to the puppy or not. “This little guy really likes you.”
“He loves me,” Eli corrected.
“Of course he does,” Gavin said, obviously pleased with the way Eli’s disposition had lightened. And, from the way he looked at Haley now, he was also pleased with the way she’d handled Eli’s frustrations.
He caught her gaze, mouthed, Good job, in the same manner she’d mouthed the same message to him with Ben this morning.
She smiled, happy to have bolstered the spirits of the boy they both cared so much about.
Bagel barked from the front porch, probably because she was still petting Buddy. Her pampered beagle had been watching and barking all afternoon, but hadn’t bothered venturing from his favorite spot to see what they were working on.
“He’s kind of lazy, isn’t he?” Eli asked, and Haley heard Gavin’s muffled laugh.
“This is Bagel’s day off,” she said.
Gavin released his laugh completely. “His day off? What does he do on his day on?”
“Hey, watch it. You’ll hurt his feelings,” she warned.
But Gavin kept laughing. And she joined in. Eli, too, giggling while he moved to the next picket and slapped the paint on the middle.
Haley also proceeded to the next picket in her path and purposely left a few spots uncoated. Then she waited a beat and said, “Eli, just let me know if you see any spots on mine, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He leaned back and peeked toward her section. “Miss Haley, I see a few.”
“Really?” she asked. “Can you fix them for me? And I’ll check yours for you.”
“Okay, I will.” He moved to her picket, and she swapped places with him to catch the missing areas on his.
Gavin had moved to another picket of his own, but he hadn’t missed the conversation, obviously, because he said, “Hey, Eli, when you finish checking Miss Haley’s, can you come look mine over for spots?”
“Yes, sir,” Eli said, still painting the small patches devoid of paint on Haley’s picket. Then he moved to Gavin’s and pointed to the middle. “I see one there, Mr. Gavin. Do you want me to fix yours, too?”
“Sure, Eli. That’d be great,” he said, moving on to another picket.
Haley had shifted to the next section, but glanced to the guy who, with each passing day, was meaning more and more to her. He grinned at her, and she noticed that he’d at some point wiped his cheek with white paint.
“You have a little paint,” she said, “right here.” She meant to touch her cheek with her finger, but she had a paintbrush in her hand, so she inadvertently slapped paint on her own cheek.
He laughed. “What do you know? You have paint right there, too.”
Eli looked at both of them, then took his own paintbrush to swipe at his cheek. “Now we’re all the same!”
“How about that, I guess we are.” She couldn’t control her smile, or the happiness at being there, with both of them, painting a picket fence and enjoying the day together. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had this much fun, or felt like life might actually be right.
She blinked, her throat tightening at the awareness that this, right here, right now, looked extremely similar to her dream.
A car horn sounded and they all turned to see a black pickup coming up the driveway.
“Hey, there’s Mr. Mark!” Eli yelled.
Mark pulled his truck parallel to the fence and scanned the scene before him, putting his hand to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun while he gazed at the house and the barn. “Wow, you’ve really changed things up out here, Dr. Calhoun. I remember when Zeb Shackelford had this place. It was pretty much an old shack, but you’ve got it looking brand-new.”
“Thanks.”
He looked at the three of them and tilted his head. “But it looks like y’all are getting as much paint on yourselves as the fence.”
Eli laughed. “We were painting ourselves so we would all look the same. ’Cause we like each other.”
Haley’s throat tightened even more. She had accidentally painted her cheek, and Gavin’s swipe at his had definitely been an accident. But Eli’s had been undeniably intentional.
Because he wanted to be like them.
Gavin cleared his throat and she suspected he’d been as touched as she was by the little boy’s statement.
“You definitely all look alike,” Mark said, grinning, “so mission accomplished.” He pointed to Eli. “But are you ready for your soccer game?”
“Is it four o’clock already?” Gavin withdrew his phone from his pocket and checked the time. “Oh, I see I missed your texts. Sorry about that. Let me clean up my stuff here, and we’ll be right there.”
Mark shook his head. “Savvy said she thought you and Eli were probably helping Doc Calhoun here, so she asked me to swing by and pick him up for the game. We’ve got
plenty of coaches, so you don’t need to worry about coming. You help finish this fence. And try to get some paint on the pickets while you’re at it.”
Gavin nodded. “Okay, then, and I will.”
“Can Buddy come watch me play, Miss Haley? I almost made a goal at the last game. Maybe he could see me score.”
“Probably need to leave him here this time, Eli, but I’ll try to bring him to another game, okay?”
“You’ll come see me play, too?” he asked excitedly.
“Yes, I would love to see you play.”
He was still on the ground near the last picket he’d painted and he crawled on his hands and knees, with Buddy toddling nearby, to Haley. Then he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “Thank you, Miss Haley.”
She nodded. That was all she could do without letting tears fall. This little boy was latching onto her heart, big time, and he didn’t even realize it.
Then he stood and told the puppy, “You stay here and be good for Miss Haley, okay?”
Haley blinked. “He will be. And you have fun at soccer.”
“I will!” He moved toward Gavin, already getting to his feet.
“Let’s get your soccer uniform from my car, so you can go with Mr. Mark,” he said, but his voice sounded thick, as though he had sensed the same kind of closeness between the three of them that she’d felt.
Very similar to how she suspected a family of her own would feel.
She swallowed past the dream of the past and watched Gavin and Eli walk toward the barn, where his vehicle was still parked, and was amazed at how they looked together, the tall man and the little boy beside him, chatting as they made their way to the car.
Haley grinned at the two of them.
“He’s a good guy,” Mark said from behind her, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.
She turned to see his arm resting on the open window. “Yes, he is.”
“If you ask me, the two of you would be good for each other.” He gave Eli a thumbs-up when he held up his soccer gear and started running back to them.
“Oh, no, it’s not like that. We’re just friends. Neither of us wants anything more than that, but I’m glad to be a friend for him.”
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