“Go ahead. Laugh. I know you want to.” Noah sat next to her, water lapping at his chest. “My three-hundred-dollar shoes are probably ruined.”
She sobered. “Three hundred dollars! Oh, my, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have changed after cleaning out the kids’ house.”
“I had to go by the Children’s Protective Services office before picking up Adam. The way I looked would have made them reconsider their decision to let me have them.”
Rusty, Timothy and Lindsay kept looking back at them as they walked toward the spa. Their giggles sprinkled the air.
“I always like to be the entertainment,” Noah grumbled. “I knew there was a reason I never had pets.”
“You’ve never had a pet, ever?”
“No, I work long hours and didn’t think it was fair if I was never here.”
“You didn’t while you were a child?”
“My dad wouldn’t let me. They cost money he wanted to spend on liquor.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was fine without having one.”
She slanted a glance toward him, trying to read the emotion behind the nonchalant response. A bland expression greeted her. “Were you?”
He pinned her with a penetrating gaze. “It took all my energy to protect my sister from my father. He would have used the pet against me.”
She touched his arm. The picture he painted of his childhood broke Cara’s heart. Her parents might have been overprotective, but she’d always known they loved her.
Noah peered down at her hand, then jerked to his feet and sloshed out of the pool, crossing to the house. “I don’t want your pity.” The door slamming reverberated through the air.
It hadn’t been pity, but compassion. Still she wasn’t sure Noah had had much of that in his life.
Cara gave the kids ten more minutes then said, “Time to get out. I need to prepare dinner.”
“Can’t we stay in, Mom?”
“I can’t fix the food and watch you all, too.”
“Adam can.” Rusty popped up over the ledge of the spa.
Cara waved her hand toward the teen whose eyes were closed as he lounged in the chair. “I don’t think so. He’s in a cast. Besides, I want your homework done before dinner, so out. Now.”
Grumbles followed her command, but first Lindsay, and then the boys exited the spa. Rusty and Lindsay headed for the deck. Timothy waited for her.
Cara walked by Adam and started to wake him up but decided to let him sleep until she had changed. Strolling next to her son, she made her way to the cottage.
At the door Timothy looked up at her. “I like Rusty.”
“That’s good.”
“Can we play video games after dinner?”
“Only if your homework is totally finished.”
“Great. I don’t have much.” Her son raced toward his bedroom, a huge grin on his face.
She scanned the living area, feeling content with the direction her life was going for the first time in years. Her attachment to Lindsay, Rusty and Adam growing, she didn’t want them to go to a new foster home.
Was there any way she could take the children in and be their foster mother? The answer that came to mind wasn’t the one she wanted to hear. She was having trouble taking care of herself and Timothy so how could she take on three more.
She trudged to the bathroom and quickly showered and dressed. “Timothy, we need to go up to the main house.”
“Be there in a sec.”
Her son’s idea of a second usually meant ten minutes. She started for his room when a pounding at the front door drew her around. She hurried toward it.
When she opened it, Rusty was shifting from one foot to the other. “Come quick. Molly is acting strange.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What’s wrong with Molly?” Lindsay cried.
Noah stroked the puppy that trembled and drooled. “I think she’s having a seizure or something like that. Has she ever done this?”
The little girl shook her head, tears streaking down her cheeks.
Noah looked around. “Where did Rusty go?”
“He went to get Cara,” Lindsay said.
“Why?” Noah asked.
“She’s had several dogs as pets.”
And I haven’t. His lack of experience with pets hadn’t bothered him until now. He didn’t know what to do.
The puppy stirred, the quivering subsiding. Lindsay rubbed her hand over Molly.
“Maybe she drank too much chlorinated water,” Noah said.
The fear in Lindsay’s eyes scared him. They’d had too much change in the past few days.
God, if You’re listening, please don’t let anything happen to Molly. Not for me, but for Lindsay. She loves the puppy.
The French doors opened, and Cara ran into the great room. Kneeling next to him, she asked, “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Noah moved back a little to allow Cara more room. “I came downstairs and found her like this. She’s been shaking and drooling for the past ten minutes at least.”
“Did she get into anything?” Cara looked around, her gaze stopping. She rose and walked toward the kitchen. “I think I know what it was.” She turned around a plate with a chocolate cake on it.
The dessert was missing several large chunks from one side.
“I’ll call Roman and see what he thinks we should do.” Noah headed for the phone.
“I had a dog get into some chocolate candy once, eating wrapper and all. I had to take mine to the vet. She’s having muscle spasms.”
With round eyes, Lindsay paled. “Will she die?”
“Hopefully Molly will be fine, but we’ll need to watch her carefully from now on and make sure she doesn’t get hold of any more chocolate. It’s not good for pets.” Returning to the puppy, Cara ran her hand along her flank. “You’ll be okay, Molly.”
Lindsay took what Cara said and murmured it over and over to her pet.
Roman answered on the third ring, and Noah explained what happened. When he hung up, he announced, “The vet Roman works for can see Molly right now. Rusty, go get Adam. He’ll watch y’all while Cara and I take her to the doctor.” He looked toward Cara. “Will you drive while I carry her and hold her?”
“Yeah, I’ll go get my purse and keys then pull my car around front.”
Adam hobbled into the room with Rusty trailing him. “What’s going on?” the teen asked, his voice groggy as if he wasn’t totally awake.
“I need to take Molly to the vet. Will you watch the children while we’re gone?” Noah asked, squatting again next to the puppy.
Quickly covering his concern, Adam struggled to the coach and sat, laying his crutches down next to him. “Sure.”
“I want to go, Noah. Please.” Lindsay’s eyes teared up, her lower lip sticking out.
“Fine. Roman said we might have to leave Molly overnight at the vet.”
“I want to go,” Rusty chimed in.
“Me, too.” Timothy walked over to Rusty.
“Hey, you two. I don’t want to stay home by myself. I thought we could play a video game.” Adam picked up his crutches and began to rise. “Molly doesn’t need all you guys tagging along.”
“Okay,” Rusty mumbled and scuffled toward the game room.
Timothy held one of Adam’s crutches while the teen used the other to help him stand. Then Cara’s son raced after Rusty.
Adam slowly made his way, pausing near Noah. “I figured you didn’t need two more asking a zillion questions.”
Probably not a bad idea since he wasn’t too sure of the answers if it had to do with pets. Noah lifted the fifty-pound puppy into his arms. “Lindsay, will you open the front door?” Feeling Molly still quivering against him, he added, “We better get going.”
As Lindsay walked toward the foyer, Adam paused at the entrance into the game room. “Hey, Lindy. Noah will take care of everything. Molly is in good hands.”
The teen’s words both alarme
d and pleased Noah. By the time he finished struggling to get the puppy into the car, however, his overriding thought was what would he do if something did happen to Molly and he let Lindsay down.
* * *
Two hours later Noah held the French doors open so Cara, Lindsay and Molly could go inside. He trudged in after them, exhausted from the brief exertion of emotional energy with Molly. The incident with the cake only reinforced the reason he didn’t have a pet. What if she had died? He shook that thought from his mind and walked toward the kitchen.
In the great room Lindsay threw her arms around Molly and kissed her. “I’m so glad you’re here and you didn’t have to stay at the vet.” As Adam entered, she rushed up to him and hugged him. “We’re all together now.”
Cara strode to the counter where the ruined cake still sat and dumped it into the trash. “Dinner in twenty minutes.”
“Dinner? I thought you had to cook it.” Noah got a whiff of something cooking and remembered he had smelled that earlier, right before Lindsay screamed because Molly was shaking so bad.
Cara stuck a foil-wrapped object into the oven. “I slaved away before the kids came home from school.” She gestured toward the counter. “I have stew cooking in the Crock-Pot. We’ll have that and French bread. I don’t usually have dessert, but I baked the cake this morning as a welcome home surprise for Adam. I still have some ice cream, but that’s all in the way of a sweet. I wanted to make this first dinner special.”
Noah peered toward the teen interacting with his siblings. “Somehow I don’t think that will matter.”
Cara looked where he had. “Yeah, they’re just happy to be together.”
“You know on the ride here Adam asked my forgiveness for stealing from me. I told him he had it, but he was fired.”
“Fired?”
“I run a business. How long do you think I would be in business if people thought it was okay to steal from me?”
“You can’t give him a second chance?”
“No. I want Adam to devote his time to his studies. I found out from the school the last few months his grades have been going down. He doesn’t have to work while he is staying with me.” Noah lifted the top of the pot and drew in a deep breath of the wonderful aroma of meat, onions, carrots and potatoes, spiced with different herbs. His stomach rumbled. “I’m hungry.”
She took the lid and replaced it. “And you will have to wait until it is ready. Go make yourself useful and set the table in the dining room.”
He frowned. “I thought I was the employer.”
Cara withdrew the plates from the cabinet and thrust the stack into his hands. “That doesn’t mean you can’t pitch in.”
Noah quickly set the table while Cara made the kids go wash up, then she dished the food into a large bowl. The aroma continued to tease his hunger pangs. By the time he sat and served himself, he could hardly wait to dig into the food.
He picked up his fork and started to use it when Cara said, “Timothy, do you want to say the prayer?”
The eight-year-old bowed his head and folded his hands together in front of him. The others followed suit. Noah’s gaze swept from one to the other. He reluctantly put his fork down and stared at his plate. This reminded him of the time he lived with Alice and Paul. Memories, not tainted with hatred, flooded him with a pleasant feeling.
“Lord, thank you for making Molly better. Please bless this food. Amen.”
Amen, Noah repeated in his mind, especially for Molly.
When he looked up, he caught sight of Cara watching him. She was a lot like Alice. That in itself made him wary. He had to keep his distance. She was dangerous to the way he saw his life. If he needed no one, then no one would disappoint him and hurt him. And in return, he wouldn’t disappoint and hurt that person. So far there had been nothing to change his mind from the course he had chosen for himself as a teenager.
* * *
“I’m glad you could come.” Noah grasped the handle and opened the door. “This is new territory for me.”
“So you were never in trouble while in school?” Cara walked past Noah into Rusty’s classroom.
“I could say I was a model student, but we both know that would be a lie. I never thought I would take part in a parent conference.”
His casual touch at the small of her back focused Cara’s attention on the man beside her, not the older woman sitting at the teacher’s desk. She didn’t think she would ever get over her reaction to his nearness. She’d been his housekeeper for almost two weeks and she knew every time he entered a room even when she hadn’t heard or seen him come in. When he was home, the place came alive, everyone but Rusty responding to his electrifying presence as though he charged the air with his energy. Even Adam wasn’t too upset about being fired, because he was able to study more and bring his grades up.
Cara slowed her pace, finally taking in Rusty’s teacher, her face sculpted in a frown, her body rigid. “I don’t think she’s too happy.”
“She definitely didn’t call this meeting to tell us how great Rusty was adjusting to his new school.” His gaze swept the area. “Where is he? I know I’m new at this, but shouldn’t he be here?”
“It might be a good thing he isn’t until we hear what she has to say.”
“Okay, let’s get this over with.” Noah quickened his step, propelling her forward with him.
Mrs. Brown rose and offered her hand to both Cara and Noah. “I’m glad you could come on such short notice.” She indicated the student desks in front of hers.
Cara nearly laughed watching Noah squeeze into the small chair and quickly averted her gaze, encountering Mrs. Brown’s stern one. She fidgeted in her seat as if she was back in the classroom and nine years old.
“I know that Russell has only been with us two weeks and that there’s always a period of adjustment, but today was the last straw.” The teacher’s voice mirrored her expression.
“What did Rusty do?” Noah straightened as best he could in the confining desk.
“He tried to extort a classmate’s lunch money.”
“What happened?”
The steel thread woven through Noah’s voice chilled Cara. She folded her arms across her chest.
“When the child wouldn’t give him the money, Russell started a fight on the playground. I caught him before any real harm was done.”
“Where is he?” His hands curled into fists.
“He’s in the principal’s office, waiting to go home. He’s been suspended the rest of this day and Monday and Tuesday of next week.” Mrs. Brown opened a drawer and withdrew a sheet of paper. “Look at this picture he did yesterday. He’s an angry young man.”
Noah stared at the drawing then passed it to Cara. Bold slashing lines sliced through the family of four standing in front of a house that surprisingly looked like the one the boy had been living in until recently.
“The class was making a picture of the story we’d just finished reading. I’d even commented to him right before he did that about how good the drawing was. When I walked to the next table, Russell did that. I think he needs counseling.”
Noah wiggled his way out of the student desk and stood. “He’ll get it. I’ll see to it.”
Cara hurried after Noah, who strode from the classroom. In the hallway he halted, his arms stiff at his sides. She laid a hand on his back, and he wheeled around.
“I thought things were going okay. He’s been good since those first few days.” He unfurled his fists and rolled his shoulders.
“Maybe too good. With all that’s happened to him lately, he should be showing more anger.”
“I thought, once Adam got there, he felt his family was complete. He settled down then.” Noah plunged his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what to do, Cara. Have you had this kind of problem with Timothy? No, forget I even asked that. Timothy is a good kid.”
“Believe me, that wasn’t always the case. Right after his dad died, he was mad at me, at the world. He acted out a
lot for several months.”
“What did you do?”
“Loved him and I had him talk with our minister, who was also a counselor. Slowly Timothy was able to open up to him and not keep everything inside.”
“That was important?”
“Yes. If I hadn’t had Laura when Tim died, I don’t know what I would have done. Everybody at one time or another needs to share their burdens. Otherwise they fester and grow until they do more damage.”
A mask fell over his features as if he was retreating into a shell. “So we get him counseling, then what?”
“Love him and let him know that we’re here for him.” As she spoke, the rightness of the words emphasized how close she had grown to the children in just two weeks. She felt as though she and Noah were a team and that scared her. This whole situation was only temporary. It could end at any time—just as soon as the state found a foster family to take in all three children. Yet the estate felt like home to her and—even worse—to her son.
“I’ll talk to Laura and Peter and see who they can recommend. I want the best for Rusty.”
Cara stepped back, needing some physical distance from Noah. “In the meantime I want to get them involved at church. They enjoyed going last Sunday. I think Adam will benefit from the youth group and there are some activities for the younger children they should enjoy.”
“I don’t want them to feel forced into going to church.”
“Did you feel like that?”
Any relaxation in his body disappeared. He nodded once, then spun on his heel and strode toward the principal’s office at the end of the corridor.
What had happened to Noah? Again she wondered if this was why she was drawn to him—to help him find his way to the Lord. His wounds ran deep and had never healed—even though she suspected he thought they had. Father, I need Your help on this one. I feel in over my head.
Outside the principal’s office Noah and Rusty waited for her. She hurried down the hall. Both of them had blank expressions, the high wall around their emotions firmly in place.
Family Ever After Page 9