Keeping Caroline

by Vickie Taylor

Deciding silence was the better part of valor in this case, Matt threw Jeb over his shoulder and carried him to shore.

  Half an hour later Caroline had just put Hailey down for a nap when the doorbell rang. She hurried out of the nursery to get downstairs before the bell rang again at the same moment that Matt swung out of the guest bath in the hallway, ostensibly for the same purpose. She collided with him and nearly took a tumble, thrown off balance by the sudden sight of an impressive expanse of chest dusted with damp, tawny hair. He caught her and pushed her back a step to set her on her feet. Lucky for her, he didn’t let go right away, because her knees didn’t seem to be functioning. Neither did her brain. “Excuse me,” was suddenly beyond her readily available vocabulary.

  But there was nothing wrong with her memory. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she remembered every sensation of Matt’s kiss down by the pond, Hailey tugging on one breast, him on the other. She’d leaked milk all over him, for heaven’s sake, but he didn’t seem to mind. He’d seemed mystified by the whole event. Mystified and aroused.

  As she had been.

  My Lord, what had they been thinking, with Jeb only a few yards away. But then, they didn’t exactly have to worry about Jeb getting an eyeful. That didn’t excuse their behavior, though. Getting carried away like that had been immature. Reckless. Downright irresponsible.

  And oh, so irresistible.

  Matt shifted from bare foot to bare foot. His jeans rode low on his hips and his hair, damp and uncombed after his post-pond-rescue shower, almost curtained his placid eyes. Almost. “You, uh, want me to get the door?”

  “Huh?” she said. Brilliant. The old brain was really in gear now.

  “The door.”

  “Oh.” He’d shaved, too. And used that aftershave she liked so much. She was glad he hadn’t shaved before the kiss. She lived in a world of smooth baby bottoms and soft little hands. It had been a long time since she had felt the rough scrape of a man’s whiskers. Might be a long time before she felt it again.

  “Caroline?”

  She shook her head to clear the fog. A step backward took her out of Matt’s reach and brought her back against a wall. Which was a good thing, because she needed the support.

  “Never mind. I’ll get it,” Matt said. She could swear he was laughing at her, with his eyes, if not out loud.

  The door. Right.

  Jeb beat them both to the front of the house. He pulled on the big brass knob and danced in the entry hall wearing nothing but one of Matt’s T-shirts like a full-length gown. “Hi, Momma. I fell in the pond!” He hopped from foot to foot like a little boy who needed to pee.

  Or a little boy who couldn’t wait to rat on his baby-sitters.

  Matt and Caroline both started down the stairs quickly. Savannah stepped inside and attempted to wrap up the squirming Jeb in a hug. “You fell in the pond? How did that happen?”

  Jeb wriggled away from her. “I was chasing my ball and I falled in deep!”

  Savannah made a scary “Oou-uuu” sound. “Did you swim like you learned last summer at day camp?”

  “No. Mr. Matt came and saved me.”

  “Mr. Matt did?” Savannah tossed Caroline and Matt a playful glance as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Well, where were Mr. Matt and Miss Caroline when you were falling in?”

  “They was sleeping!”

  Savannah looked at the two of them quizzically. “Sleeping, huh?”

  “We were just stretched out on a blanket on the bank,” Caroline piped in before her friend got the wrong idea. Or the right idea.

  “Just a few feet away,” Matt added.

  Savannah took one look at them—their guilty faces, most likely—and arched one fine brow. Caroline’s already-warm cheeks burst into flame. Matt folded his arms across his chest and found something fascinating to stare at in the silk rhododendron by the door.

  “Uh-huh,” Savannah said cheekily, and turned back to Jeb. “Why don’t we find your clothes, son, and go and get some ice cream.”

  Jeb’s face brightened. “Ice cream? Yippee! Ice cream!” He thundered off to the playroom.

  Caroline cleared her throat. “His things were full of pond scum. I had to wash them. They’re in the dryer, but they should be ready by now.”

  “I’ll get them,” Matt said, and made a strategic exit.

  Caroline avoided her friend’s gaze. “Caroline? Is there something going on here I should know about?”

  “No.”

  “Even better.” She smiled. “Then there must be something going on here that I should not know about. I’ll just collect Jeb and leave you and that hunky husband of yours to your privacy.”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Well, it might be what you think. But—” Caroline frowned. “What are you doing here so early, anyway?”

  Savannah laughed, and thankfully, let Caroline off the hook. “A very nice deputy came by today and told me Thomas is not and has not been anywhere near Sweet Gum. I thought I’d take the rest of the day off, get Jeb and take him out for a treat.”

  “Celebrating?”

  “Sort of.” Savannah cast a look over Caroline’s shoulder, making sure Jeb wasn’t within earshot, Caroline was sure. “I’ve been practically holding the child prisoner in his own home. We haven’t been out much lately.”

  Caroline drew Savannah into a hug and clapped her on the back. “I’m so happy to know you’re safe.”

  “Me, too.” Savannah pulled back, misty-eyed. “Now all we have to do is find Gem, and maybe things can get back to the way they were around here.”

  At that moment Matt walked around the corner, Jeb dressed and in tow. Savannah took him in, top to bottom and then winked at Caroline. “Then again, maybe we don’t want things exactly the way they were.”

  Savannah was gone, and Jeb with her, before Caroline could put together a pithy reply.

  “What was that about?” Matt asked.

  She grimaced. “That’s what I’d like to know.” She pinned Matt down with a stare that could hold a teacup in place through a tornado.

  “Don’t look at me,” he said. “You were the one who was talking to her.”

  “I don’t mean Savannah.”

  “Oh.” He did the barefoot shuffle again. “The pond?”

  “Good guess,” she said dryly.

  He thought seriously, and for a moment she thought she might get a real answer out of him. That moment didn’t last. “Why don’t we just say it was for old times’ sake,” he finally said. “And leave it at that.”

  His eyes faded from green to gray. They looked almost mercurial—able to run from hot to cold. Right now he was at lukewarm and dropping fast.

  Trying to not let the disappointment she felt take root, she turned to go up the stairs.

  “Wait,” he called.

  She stopped, her back to him.

  “I came to the pond because I wanted to ask you something.”

  Slowly she turned, afraid to let herself hope that, after the intimacy they’d shared, she might get more from him than a simple question. “What?”

  He stared at her a long time, as if he could see inside her, read her thoughts, her mood. After fifteen years of marriage, he probably could.

  “I have to go to Port Kingston this weekend,” he finally said, enunciating as if he was still thinking about what he wanted to say as he spoke.

  “Paige’s wedding. I haven’t forgotten.”

  He nodded. “I want you to come with me. You and Hailey both.”

  Chapter 9

  Caroline hadn’t been this scared since she’d been seven years old and stuck on top of the giant Ferris wheel at the state fair in Dallas. Her nerves chattered like monkeys. Her knees wanted to buckle. “Did you tell them we were coming?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But you didn’t tell them about…”

  “No.” He sounded as apprehensive as she felt.

  He shouldn’t. Telling Ma
tt’s sister and grandfather about Hailey was her job. But the bond of kinship ran strong in the Burkett clan. What would they think of her for keeping their niece and granddaughter a secret so long?

  Matt’s parents had died years ago, but his dad’s father, Paul, had been a bastion of strength for the Burkett family as long as Caroline could remember. He’d become her bastion, too, during the dark days of Brad’s illness. And Paige had once been like a sister to Caroline. They’d shopped for Caroline’s wedding dress together. Hung teddy bear wallpaper in Brad’s nursery together. Cried in each other’s arms at his funeral. The Burketts had made Caroline one of their own, and she had betrayed them. Now it was time to confess her sins.

  Toting Hailey in the car carrier slung over her elbow, Caroline stopped in front of Paul Burkett’s sturdy flagstone home on Port Kingston’s rural north side. Out back, a dozen top-of-the-line German shepherds barked and carried on. Metal clanked on metal as one, at least, jumped on the side of its chain-link kennel. Matt and his sister came by their affinity for dogs honestly. Paul Burkett had been raising and training shepherds since World War II, when he’d schooled some of the world’s first military dogs for the army. Which army wasn’t mentioned in polite company. Paul hadn’t immigrated to the U.S. until the mid 1950s.

  They reached the front door. Matt rested his hand lightly on the small of her back. “Ready?”

  No. “Sure,” she said anyway, although the word carried little conviction.

  “You want me to go first. Talk to them?”

  “No,” she said, and moistened her parched lips with the tip of her tongue. She’d made her choices. She would deal with the consequences. “I’ll do it.”

  He assessed her in the harsh light of the midmorning sun. From inside the house, a rousing chorus of laughter rumbled forth. Voices jumbled together, lifted over one another and settled into a steady stream of conversation, unintelligible through the stone walls, but noticeably full of good humor. Paige was getting married this afternoon. Since the wedding would be outdoors and mostly informal, she’d decided to forego the traditional rehearsal dinner the night before. Instead, her grandfather had arranged a wedding-day brunch for family and a few close friends.

  Talk about a party crasher…

  She couldn’t walk in there with a baby they knew nothing about and join the revelry as if she belonged. As if, a year ago, she hadn’t ripped their tight family unit apart.

  She couldn’t spoil this day for Paige.

  Panic clawed at her good intentions. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea. Let Paige and her groom have their day. You can go to the wedding without me and then tomorrow you and I can talk to—”

  She took a step back as she talked, but Matt blocked her path with his big body. She was prepared for condemnation. She was prepared for reproach. She was even prepared for anger.

  But she wasn’t prepared for Matt to take her hand, link his fingers with hers and squeeze reassuringly.

  “We’ll do it together,” he said, and reached around her to press the bell with his other hand, then turned the knob and walked in without waiting for answer, as family will.

  Caroline took an apprehensive step into the foyer. The smell of linseed wood polish and German sausage titillated her senses. Grandpa Paul loved antiques and spicy meat. Last she’d heard, his doctor didn’t let him indulge often—in the sausage, that is—but she supposed this was a special occasion. His only granddaughter was getting married.

  The kitchen table in Grandpa’s house lay straight down the hall from the foyer, in a little nook lit by floor-to-ceiling paned windows and garnished with potted ferns hanging in the sunshine. At Caroline’s entry, all conversation stopped. Heads turned. Chairs scraped back so that those sitting with their backs to the door could see.

  As the door closed behind her, she stood in the foyer like a soldier in front of a firing squad. The eyes before her were all ready and aimed, but no one yelled, “Fire.” Time passed in utter silence. Even the dogs had stopped barking.

  Matt finally broke the quiet, clearing his throat. “Uh, everyone… Caroline and I have something—”

  Paige leaped out of her chair and pounded down the hallway, her blond ponytail bouncing and her Port Kingston P.D. T-shirt flapping, as if she was chasing a wanted felon. She skidded to a stop on one knee before Caroline, eyes wide and gaze fixed on the carrier. Gently, she peeled back Hailey’s blanket.

  “It’s a baby,” she said, looking first up at Matt and Caroline, then back to the table where everyone else sat. A huge smile broke on her bright, young face. “Oh, my God, everybody. It’s a baby!”

  The stampede began with those words and ended with Caroline sitting at the head of the kitchen table, in Grandpa Paul’s spot, being hugged and fed and introduced to those she didn’t know—some friends of Paige’s groom, Marco Angelosi, from Oklahoma—while Hailey was passed from person to person. The men held her over their heads and made funny faces. The women cradled her and cooed. The laughter climbed back to a dull roar and within minutes the celebration was in full swing again.

  Caroline watched it all, her eyes misty, from a seat of honor she didn’t deserve. She’d almost managed to melt down the lump of gratitude in her throat to a size she could swallow past when Paige pulled up a chair. Though she’d already hugged Caroline twice, she hugged her again, then sat back. Her eyes weren’t any dryer than Caroline’s.

  “I’m so happy to see you,” Paige said. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.” Caroline had missed Paige fiercely, and worried about her friend, especially when she saw news reports of her recent abduction. “I wanted to come when you went missing a couple of months ago, to be here for Grandpa Paul, but—”

  Paige glanced toward Hailey, who was dangling beneath the arm of a Native American man named Toby, if Caroline remembered the introductions right. “But you were a little busy,” Paige said without recrimination.

  Caroline nodded.

  “It’s all right.” The natural color in Paige’s cheeks heightened a shade. “Everything worked out okay.”

  Caroline guessed it had, since Marco was the man who had kidnapped her. For her own good, of course.

  Caroline smiled. “So where is this renegade of yours, anyway?”

  “Oh, he’s a stickler for that groom-doesn’t-see-the-bride-the-day-of-the-wedding-before-she-walks-down-the-aisle mumbo jumbo. Personally, I think he just wanted to sleep late. Some of the guys from the department took him out last night.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “That’s what I said.” Paige fiddled with a place mat. “I wish he was here, though. At least then I’d be sure this wedding was really going to happen.”

  “Afraid he’s going to get cold feet?”

  “No. I’m afraid I am.”

  “Ah,” Caroline said sagely, remembering those wedding day bugaboos. “But you already know that when Marco is around, there is no escape.”

  A wicked gleam lit Paige’s eyes. “Believe me, when Marco is around, I don’t want to escape.”

  They were still laughing when Hailey squealed and squished up her face. All those adults who had been so anxious to hold her suddenly couldn’t pass her to her mother fast enough.

  She’d just settled Hailey in her lap and gotten the tears dry when Paul Burkett appeared behind her chair. His hands, spotted with age, came to rest on her shoulders. She tipped her head back to see him better. His face was weather-beaten from too many days in the Texas sun and his hair had lightened to the same shade of steely gray as his eyes, but his rough countenance radiated an acceptance she had no right to expect.

  His voice rose above the din, thick and guttural with the German accent that always seemed stronger in emotional moments. As he spoke, the room hushed.

  “Today, we had planned to celebrate a new union. The making of a new family.” Paul’s loving gaze landed briefly on Paige before he continued. “Now, thanks to Caroline, we have two blessed events to celebrate today. The making of
new family, and the rejoining of an old.”

  Caroline’s arms tightened subtly around Hailey.

  Grandpa Paul lifted a glass of orange juice in salute. “To Paige and Marco.”

  A dozen hands grabbed for anything drinkable within range. “Paige and Marco, for starting their new life together.”

  Grandpa took a drink, then lifted his glass again. His other hand, still on Caroline’s shoulder, patted affectionately.

  Her stomach tightening, Caroline found Matt’s gaze and pleaded with him silently, but he stood in mute denial, looking as shocked as she felt. Paul had the wrong idea about them, but he sounded so happy, so earnest in his thanks, that neither she nor Matt had the heart to stop him.

  “And to Matt and Caroline,” Grandpa said. “A family again.”

  The room toasted.

  And Caroline’s stomach sank.

  Held outdoors, in the gardens of the Port Kingston Arboretum, the wedding couldn’t have been more beautiful if it had come straight from the pages of a fairy tale. The minister stood before a wall of climbing bougainvillea and hedgerows of blooming azaleas framed the guest seating area. Honeysuckle perfumed the air and a flock of starlings watching the proceedings from a pecan grove nearby provided their own harmony to the organ music as Paige walked down the grassy aisle.

  She looked like a fairy queen, her white lace and satin pearlescent in the bright sunshine, and Marco was handsome as the devil, tall and lean in a fitted black tux.

  The ceremony was simple and elegant, with only two attendants. A man with the burnished skin of a Native American stood solemnly beside Marco. Carly Swope, Paige’s friend since high school days, played maid of honor, alternately beaming and wiping away tears with a dainty white hanky.

  Caroline hardly heard the vows, surprised at the emotion budding inside her. Her own wedding seemed like yesterday. And like a lifetime ago.

  Matt hadn’t looked much different than he did today—strong and certain. She’d been proud to stand at his side. And here she was at his side again, listening to Paige and Marco recite their vows, but hearing her own voice and Matt’s.