I think Jerry might be right. That sounds like something my mom might enjoy doing. Let me call her and see.”
“Now?” Chase couldn’t help but be surprised at how quickly Dakota had decided on that. He’d thought it’d be a few days at least.
“Sure, why not?” Dakota asked.
“Sure,” Chase hesitated. “Um, a couple of things.”
Dakota glanced over at Chase and waited.
“Sarah’s a good child but, well, she hasn’t adjusted well since…you know, um…”
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He didn’t want to discuss this.
Dakota didn’t say anything, simply waited.
“I think she’s doing better here,” Chase added into the silence.
Dakota nodded. When Chase didn’t continue, he pulled out his cell and dialed a number.
Chase watched.
Looking across the street, he could tell when the other end picked up. Dakota smiled. “Hi, Mom. Yes, it’s me again.”
He paused and stretched his legs out in front of him.
“No, nothing is wrong.”
A hand went up to his hair and he ran it through the short dark strands. “Oh, I’m glad to hear she’s adjusting. Yeah. Okay.”
Straightening, he motioned to a man walking down the street and then got to the point. “Chase is looking for someone to watch his eleven-year-old daughter after school for a few hours each day. Jerry suggested you.”
Dakota listened. He nodded. “Yeah…” then paused.
“No, I don’t see a problem.”
Dakota glanced at Chase and rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’ll tell him to stop by.” He watched the man crossing the street. “Listen, Mom, my appointment is here. I have to let you go. I’ll be home for supper.”
He listened again and then added, “Love you too, Mom. Bye.”
He closed the phone and dropped it in his pocket. Turning, he said, “I’m around if you want to chat more about things. In the meantime, my mom sounded intrigued at the thought of having a young lady in the house again.”
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Chase thought of yesterday’s guest. “Er,” he started, not sure how to approach the subject of the second thing he wanted to ask. “About yesterday…?”
Dakota nodded. Noting the other man was still out of hearing range, he whispered, “Do you remember Meghan O’Halleran?”
Chase shook his head.
“A friend from grade school. Anyway, seems she has come to visit. She needs a place to stay and will be living out back in the garage apartment.”
“Is having Sarah there going to be a problem?”
Chase asked, low, as the older man approached.
Dakota grinned. “Nah. My mom will handle it. Listen, she wants you to come by and chat, get a schedule down for Sarah and all of that. So, go by sometime today and see her, okay?”
Dakota turned to wave at the man.
Chase stood, too relieved for words that his after-school-care problem was being taken care of. “Thanks, Dakota.”
Dakota shrugged. “Any way I can help. That’s what brothers are for.”
Chase knew he meant those words in the Christian sense. It was certainly nice to find someone who believed that and practiced it. He nodded and thought he just might go to church this weekend after all.
Dakota turned to the Realtor. “Hey, Bobby. Ready to show me the building?”
“I sure am.” The man nodded to Chase and then turned his attention fully on Dakota as they started across the street.
“Chase?”
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Chase heard Jerry calling his name and turned to see his new boss coming down the street, a frown on his face. He reached up to his shoulder and murmured something into the mic that was anchored there as he walked.
Chase started toward Jerry. “What’s up?”
Jerry sighed. Slowly he shook his head. “That was dispatch lookin’ for you. Seems the school called…”
Chase’s stomach fell.
“Is it Sarah? Is she okay?”
Jerry frowned. “I think physically she’s fine. The principal said somethin’ about words and a fight and needin’ to talk to you.”
The fear turned to acid in his stomach.
Fighting?
He thought he’d left that behind in Fort Worth. All of it.
What had his daughter gotten into now?
With an apologetic look, Chase said, “Since we’re done with the tour, you mind if I go? I’ll report in tomorrow as scheduled.”
Jerry nodded and then reseated his hat. “Go take care of the problem, son. We’ll see you at work in the mornin’.”
Chase nodded and, with a sigh of resignation, he went to find out just what had happened that sent the principal to the phone to track him down.
And he prayed it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
Chapter Six
“Am I interrupting?”
Carolyne turned from hanging up the phone and smiled at her guest. “Of course not. That was Dakota calling about having me watch a child after school.”
Meghan was dressed in an old pair of Carolyne’s scrubs, some she’d kept from ages ago when she’d worked at the nursing home in the cafeteria for that short time. Though they were still too big on Meghan’s petite frame, at least they were clean and in one piece.
Meghan’s blond hair was wet and curled in tight permed ringlets around her face. Self-consciously she pushed it back behind her ear, while the other arm held her waist.
“Was Cody worried about, um…?” Her eyes cut away. She hesitated, her voice dropping, “Having someone like me around a child?”
“Oh heavens!” Carolyne shook her head. Then she chuckled. “You are something else, Meghan.”
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into the dining room. “Why don’t you join me,” she offered, not looking back, hoping that playing it light was the right tack to take with this woman.
She’d offered compassion and now she was going to get down to finding out about Meghan and maybe finding a way to help her.
She heard the hesitation and then Meghan came forward. Curiously, she listened to the way Meghan walked and wondered what had happened to her left leg to make her partially drag it.
Serving up some of the fruit and cottage cheese on the table, she bowed her head and said a soft prayer.
When she was done, Meghan was seated across from her. She dipped up her own food and then self-consciously put her napkin in her lap.
“A friend of Dakota’s has recently moved back to town and has an eleven-year-old daughter. He needs someone to watch her for a couple of hours every day after school. I told Dakota to send the girl’s dad by and we’d set up a schedule. I love being around people and think it’d be delightful to have her here.”
Meghan shifted.
“And I don’t want you worrying about the situation.
Chase was here yesterday and helped Dakota.” Carolyne didn’t elaborate. “He knows you’re living here. So, since he seems okay with it, I see no reason to worry.
Do you?”
Though Meghan didn’t say yes, Carolyne could see it in her eyes.
She smiled sweetly at the woman.
Lifting her spoon, she took a bite of peach.
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“I feel I owe you an explanation,” Meghan said, push-ing her food around but not meeting Carolyne’s eyes.
Carolyne wanted to hug the woman, but kept herself seated. Softly, she replied, “You don’t owe me anything, honey, but it might help for you to talk.”
Meghan didn’t lift her head. The first sign that Meghan might be crying was a tear that dropped onto the tablecloth. She watched the young woman shudder and then fix her shoulders firmly. With strength of will borne out of some inner power, she cut off the flow of tears and then slowly forced her gaze up
to meet Carolyne’s.
“I have multiple sclerosis.”
Carolyne waited to hear more but nothing more came. When it didn’t, she asked, “Is that what happened to your leg?”
Meghan blinked, nonplussed. “I remember my…but you don’t understand…don’t you know what that disease does to you?”
Agitated, she dropped the fork and her hands disappeared into her lap. Carolyne could tell by the way Meghan’s muscles bunched in her arms that she was gripping her fingers together tightly.
“Your grandmother had it, didn’t she?” Carolyne remembered a bitter old woman in a wheelchair, the woman who, Carolyne felt, had most likely broken up Meghan’s parents, but that was all speculation.
“You do remember!” Meghan gasped. Carolyne watched as Meghan forced the words out through clenched teeth. “I don’t want to be like that. I can’t be like that!” She broke on the last word and her eyes filled with tears again, though they didn’t fall. Meghan blinked over and over until they dried up.
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Carolyne silently prayed, not sure how to answer her. What could she say? She didn’t know enough about the disease to help her. She didn’t know enough about Meghan’s family situation to advise her. But she could see the woman was hurting. She would simply deal with what she could see. And what she could see was someone who needed to know that people cared for her and she wasn’t alone.
She got up and came around the table. Putting her arm around Meghan, she squeezed her tight. “You have to remember that God is in control, sweetheart, and He won’t put more on us than we can bear. It’s our choice to choose how we react.”
Meghan shuddered, then stiffened again as if to hold back tears. Then she whispered, achingly empty, “God?
What does He have to do with this? He obviously has deserted my family.”
“Oh, Meghan.” Carolyne’s heart throbbed painfully for the young woman. “Why do you say that?”
Meghan shook her head. With her eyes downcast, she twisted her fingers in her lap. Her breath trembled in and then out with a rush. “Because of my grandmother, for one reason. And my father left us for another. Now God gives me a disease that’s going to turn me into a hateful monster like my grandmother. I’d say that pretty well sums up how God feels about me.”
Carolyne rubbed Meghan’s shoulder in sympathy as revulsion swept through Meghan. When Meghan’s shudders eased, Carolyne spoke. “You know, the Bible tells us that the trials we suffer are for the perfecting of our faith. In other words, sometimes God allows us to go through things to draw us closer to Him. Other times Cheryl Wolverton
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it is for His glory that we go through trials. And still other times, these things aren’t for any reason but an attack of the enemy. We don’t necessarily know when it’s an attack or simply a trial allowed by God, but we do know that we have to trust God. Tell me, Meghan, are you a Christian?”
Meghan shrugged. “I went to church once or twice when I was a kid. That’s probably why God is punish-ing me.” A fresh shudder ran through her body.
Instead of addressing her erroneous assumption, Carolyne said, instead, “Christianity is about a relationship, not about going to church. If you want to find peace, that relationship is the first place you’re going to have to look.”
“What do you mean?” Meghan asked. “How can you expect me to make peace with a disease like this?”
Carolyne smiled gently. “Because God loves you. Do you know He loves you so much that He knew, before the foundations of the world, that you were going to be born, you were going to break fellowship with Him through sin, and that you were going to need a re-deemer. Just as He knew I would, Dakota would, and every single one of us would. He sent His Son, Jesus, as the price for your sin and for my sin. And He would have done it if you were the only one who had sinned, or if I was the only one who had sinned. That’s how much God loves us. Jesus never sinned—He was perfect—and He died for you, to reconcile you to the One who loves you—not One who would punish you for missing church.”
“I don’t know.” Meghan studied Carolyne, skeptical.
“How does that have anything to do with my MS?”
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“Well,” Carolyne began, “first things first. You need hope and that’s the only place I can think of where you can find hope.” She squeezed her shoulder again. “I have a book about the very subject I’d like you to read.”
She grinned. “It’s called a Bible. I have verses under-lined and a list of Bible verses I want to give you. You read those and tell me if that helps your pain. And while you are doing that, I’ll look up some information on MS.”
“I know all about it.” Meghan’s voice filled with bitterness. “I grew up with an abusive old biddy who used to like to hit me with a stick whenever I was around.”
“That was over twenty years ago, Meghan. Things change.”
Meghan collapsed against Carolyne at that statement. “I only wish they could.”
“Well, we’ve set out on a plan. You read, I research, and tomorrow we discuss. How does that sound?”
Meghan sighed. “I don’t know. I mean…I was aim-less when I came here, so I suppose anything is better than simply sitting and thinking about it. But maybe I should do the research?”
“You read those verses first. They’ll help you more than sitting at a computer. Besides, you still need rest and when you’re feeling better, we’ll get you online, okay?”
Meghan hesitated and then nodded, visibly relaxing.
“Will you be okay staying out in the upstairs apartment?” Carolyne asked gently.
“I think I can manage the stairs.”
“Are there any other symptoms you’ve been experiencing that we need to know about? Any medications?”
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Meghan shook her head. “I get tired a lot and fall asleep sometimes just sitting there. I think I may be forgetting more than normal but that could be the alcohol.”
She bit her lip to stop the trembling.
“You know, it’s okay if you cry, Meghan.” Carolyne crooned the words softly, thinking back to how many times after her husband’s death she’d sat down and cried. “Sometimes it’s good to mourn a loss, a change to your way of life.”
“I’m afraid if I let go, I won’t come back.”
Carolyne hugged her close. Carolyne felt they had talked enough about the subject. Now might be a good time for a change. “So, what do you think we should do next?” she asked Meghan. “I mean, obviously you don’t want breakfast.”
Meghan blushed. “I do need to go lie down, but maybe we could talk some more later?”
Carolyne laughed and stood. “I’ll be waiting. The electricity is already on and I’ve put toiletries up there.”
“Thank you.” Meghan smiled. Turning, she left and went out the back door.
The yard was turning brown as everything went to sleep for the coming winter. The garden was dying, but still had a beauty about it. She looked around the yard trying to remember.
So intent was she on studying it, she didn’t hear the car drive up or the car door close. The first indication anyone was near was his voice. “What are you thinking about?”
Startled, she glanced around. Dakota stood there, looking handsome and so in charge. She forced her gaze away, back to the yard. “I was thinking even 76
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though it’s been more than twenty years, things haven’t really changed much. There are still tall plants that aren’t quite as tall now, and the latticework is new, but other than that, your place still looks the same.”
Dakota walked forward and glanced around the yard.
“You’re the second person in as many days who has pointed out that despite the years things around here haven’t changed.”
“You see it all the time.” Meghan kept her gaze averted. “You probably haven’t noticed.”
“On the contrary. I’m so rarely at home that I’ve never noticed.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that.
The sound of the wind blowing through the trees whistled above. She wondered what the man next to her was thinking.
“It’s been a long time,” he finally answered her question by saying.
She nodded. “I am sorry.”
He touched her arm, a fleeting touch from behind and then his hand was gone. “Don’t be.”
They stood that way for a while, neither saying anything. Meghan watched a blue jay fly into a tree and then a squirrel run up the tree, scaring the blue jay into flight. She felt much like that blue jay and the MS the squirrel. It has sent her running.
“I remember that promise,” Dakota finally said.
That brought Meghan around, and staring into those deep beautiful eyes. “You’re kidding.”
A small smile tilted his clean-shaven cheeks into a pleasant look. “No. If I remember right, you were going to make me eat a mud pie.”
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She groaned. “Oh no.”
He chuckled softly. “My thoughts exactly. And I’ll have you know, I was grounded for a week after that pie fell into my lap.”
The mood was broken as he glanced at his watch.
“I’m keeping you from something,” she said.
“I’m running really behind, but I forgot some papers for my briefcase. I had to stop back by.”
She stepped back. He stepped forward. “I want to talk more. Those were good days, back then, slower days.”
“Yes, they were.”
He glanced at his watch again.
She bit her lip in worry.
“Don’t feel out of place, Meghan.”
How had he known what she was feeling?
“Accept the hospitality and stay with us. It’s a time to renew our acquaintance, for you to recover. We’re here for you.”
In embarrassment her gaze slid away. “I have to go upstairs.” She pointed behind to the garage apartment.
“And I have to go.”
“Well…” She rubbed her legs and turned to go.
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