Lowering his expectations, he accepted the job maintaining the boats in the marina. The work was hard, unyielding, usually enhausting.
He wouldn’t complain. The old Sheldon would do nothing but complain, but this was a new world and he needed to adjust to it.
He prayed again that there was a little of Jason in him as he scraped the brush against the hull.
CHAPTER FIVE
SEVEN LONG AND very wide steps led to the porch of the big white house at the Kendall. Kelly stood as stiff as a statue next to one of the columns watching Jace stop his rental car in the circular driveway. She couldn’t believe he was disrupting her entire life after only a few hours. Behind her stood his duffel bag. She was throwing him out.
He got out of the car, looking up at her.
“Where’s Ari?” he asked. He probably thought her expression had something to do with his son.
“He’s fine. He’s taking a nap,” she answered.
“Nap? Ari doesn’t take naps.”
Her brows rose. “Apparently, he does.”
“What’s wrong then?” He came around the car and looked up at her.
“As if you didn’t know.” She spoke through clenched teeth.
“I clearly don’t understand.”
Kelly knew he was lying. Color crept up his cheeks turning his face to a beautiful shade of crimson. Picking up the duffel bag, she tossed it down the steps. Instinctively his hands came out and he caught the bag.
“What’s this?” He dropped it at his feet.
“You’re fired, Mr. Kendall.”
“Fired?”
“Yes, fired. I offered you room and board and to take your son in until you could get on your feet, and you repay me by going to the bank and trying to swindle me?”
She expected he’d drop his gaze, but he looked directly at her. While his eyes remained steady, she could see he was surprised that she knew about his trip to see Kurt Mallard.
“This is a small town, Mr. Kendall. Didn’t you think word would get back to me about your adventures?”
“Actually—”
“Actually, you didn’t,” she finished for him. “So don’t go behind my back and try and usurp my right to be here. You are the one who’s trespassing.”
“I know that’s how it looks.”
“That’s how it is.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, raising his hands in defeat. “I could tell you I’m just surprised to find things so changed.”
“What did you expect? That the world would stop until you returned here to set it in motion again?”
“For the Kendall, that’s how it’s been for a century.” He paused and looked at the house behind her. “My father and my brother kept things the same. Tell me, when you took over this place, you didn’t have to upgrade and restore everything?”
Kelly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. That’s exactly what she had to do. She’d spent a fortune bringing the house up to code. A lot of which she’d had to learn and then qualify to do herself, since she couldn’t afford to hire professionals.
She’d put up with the dust and general mess of renovation by using the rooms not being worked on, until it was their turn, and she’d switch to living in the finished ones. It was a long, arduous process.
“Almost everything. And all right, most of what you said is true. But whether it is or isn’t, you still have no claim here, and no business trying to undermine me. And what possible hold could this place have for you when you were treated with contempt by both your father and brother?”
Kelly watched him force himself to relax. “I see you know more about me than I thought.”
“People talk,” she said. “It’s still a small county.”
Jace moved up the steps and sat on the top one. He glanced at Kelly. After a moment she sat a discreet distance from him. She was angry, a body singing anger, yet she could feel the vibes that seemed to bounce off Jace.
“I never thought this place would or could hold anything for me,” he began. He spoke softly as if he was talking to himself and not to an audience of one. “Then I got Ari.”
“Got Ari?”
“He’s adopted.”
“You told me,” Kelly said. “But you made it sound as if he was left on your doorstep.”
“Close,” he said. “His mother threw him to me. Ari is four. I’ve had him for three years.”
“He wasn’t an orphan?” Kelly asked.
“Not at first. He had a mom. I didn’t know her. I only learned about her after she died. I knew nothing about the cocaine factory where she worked.” He stopped. “You’re probably thinking a factory is a building. It’s not. It’s a hole in the ground, protected by guys with guns. I was working on a water pipeline through one of the jungles and the cocaine factory was nearby. There were rumors about it, so I knew it was there and our crews steered clear of it. But then it was raided. People were screaming and running in all directions when it exploded.”
Kelly’s heart went out to the small child sleeping in the bed upstairs.
“When we heard the bang, I ran toward it, grabbing and pulling people out of the wreckage. Ari’s mother crawled out, dragging the child with her. She pushed him at me just as a second explosion rocked the ground. Both Ari and I went down, but I fell on my back instinctively keeping him safe. He’s been with me ever since.”
This, Kelly knew, was designed to gain her sympathy. It did, but she was determined not to show it. “And Ari is the reason for the return?”
“In part. Ari needed better doctors. I mentioned his asthma.”
“You have health insurance?”
“I have to check on my options. I’m not sure anymore.”
“What happens then?”
“I hope to have a job by then.”
“I’d like to suggest that you put your efforts into finding employment with insurance instead of trying to get a bank loan to buy the Kendall. It’s not for sale.”
“I suppose that’s fair. In the morning, I’ll look for another place for us to stay.”
“Dad?” The door to the Kendall had been ajar and Ari pushed it fully open and stepped onto the porch, his fist wiping sleep from his eyes.
Jace automatically opened his arms and the small child walked into them. He settled the still-sleepy boy on his legs.
Kelly’s heart softened. She hadn’t known Ari twenty-four hours, yet she felt protective of him. She loved how father and son cared for each other.
“For the sake of Ari,” she began. “The job is still open. It has medical insurance. You’ll be covered as soon as you sign the papers.”
“I accept,” Jace said without hesitation.
“However,” Kelly stopped him. “If I even think you’re trying to undermine me in any way, I’ll throw you off the property and you can fend for yourself.”
She refused to include Ari in that threat.
Though Kelly’s anger had abated, she was still unnerved. It had been a while since she was intrigued by a man the way she was with Jace, even as he stood wet and lost in her foyer the night before.
To send him packing might have been the right thing to do, but she wanted to explore these other feelings. Even though getting the Kendall to be self-sustaining was number one on her priority list, she felt he could help her and she could work out the chemistry that was obvious between them.
“Wanna go for a walk, Ari?” Jace spoke.
“Wow! Yeah,” he said, raising his head from Jace’s shoulder.
The two got up and moved down the steps.
“Kelly, wanna come?” Ari asked.
She looked at the child, then at Jace. “I have a lot to do,” she said. “Why don’t you and your dad spend some time together?”
Jace nodded and he and Ari headed out. She watched them go, Jace holding securely on to Ari’s hand.
They were a pair, Kelly thought. She couldn’t imagine them separated, couldn’t think of them ever being anything except father and son. She wo
ndered if Jace was giving Ari the childhood he’d wanted. That this was the real reason he’d returned to the Kendall. She didn’t doubt that the child probably needed to see a specialist. But she thought that could be the secondary reason he was at this farm. He wanted Ari to know the love and support of a father that Jace had wanted and never received. He wanted Ari to be on the land where he’d grown up and know that he could always call it home. That this was his heritage and that love and understanding were his.
Kelly shook her head, trying to clear away the confusion she felt at the man and boy and their dependence on one another. Their love was obvious. She couldn’t fault them for their feelings. It was her own feelings that bothered her. She owned the Kendall. And she was not giving it up. It wasn’t her duty to solve Jace’s problems. She couldn’t go back in time and fix all the things his father had done or not done to him.
The Kendall was hers. And as she told him, it wasn’t for sale.
* * *
ARI LET GO of Jace’s hand and started running across the grass. His short little legs carried him toward the far fence where Kelly used to sit and watch the horses. Jace didn’t take any notice of her back then. Usually he was riding to try to get the hurt out of his system. All he could remember was her red hair, which even on a dark and cloudy day was still noticeable. Ari seemed to go straight for that area. Jace followed him.
The fence had been replaced and painted a bright white. It would reflect off car lights in the dark and act like a beacon leading to the house.
Jace shook it, checking its sturdiness. Kelly said she’d done a lot of the labor, but he couldn’t imagine her digging fence posts and resetting the miles of fencing that surrounded the farm. The fence, however, was solidly set. He lifted Ari and placed him on the top rung. With his arm around the boy, he looked over the grass toward the eastern slope of the property’s pasture.
Jace had some savings. He could make a down payment on a small house and support Ari, but he needed to be available for engineering jobs that might take him away from the boy, whereas Ari needed stability. And Jace didn’t want to relinquish his stake at the farm, although he’d never really had one. Somehow he was going to have to get Kelly to let him buy it back.
“Do you think we could get a horse, dad?” Ari asked.
“Can you ride?” Jace raised his eyebrows as if he was surprised at the question.
Ari smiled and looked embarrassed. “I bet Kelly knows how to ride. She could teach me. Can I ask her?”
“May I ask her?” Jace corrected.
“May I ask her?” he repeated.
“We don’t have any horses now, Ari, but when we get some, I’ll be sure to teach you to ride.”
“Wow!”
Jace wondered it Ari liked it here or if he missed his home country. The child had never known anything except the small village he’d been born in.
“Ari, are you enjoying it here?”
“Yeah. Did you see my room?”
Jace nodded. “I mean do you miss home?”
“You said this was gonna be our home.” His voice sounded frightened, as if he’d been promised something and someone was about to take it away from him.
“You had a lot of friends there. Here there’s no one. At least, not yet.”
Ari’s eyes filled with tears. “Are we going back?”
Jace put his arms around him and lifted him off the fence. He cradled him close as the child sniffed. “We’re not going back.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Small arms circled Jace’s neck. He didn’t know what it was about the Kendall that had gotten to Ari, but it had happened quickly. The only thing Jace could think of that had gotten to him was a person...not a thing. And that same person was the current owner of the Kendall.
* * *
SATURDAY NIGHT, SHELDON THOUGHT. He didn’t work weekends since the owners of the boats usually took them out on Saturdays and Sundays. He enjoyed the rest. He read at night since he had no television, radio or phone. They were luxuries he’d discovered were unnecessary. And there was no one to call even if he had a phone.
He spent most of his free time at the library. At least he had a library card and he never returned books late. The librarian always smiled at him, although he knew she pitied him. His taste in books was eclectic. Sheldon wanted not only to be entertained with the fiction he read, but he wanted to learn, to study subjects that interested him and on those he thought he needed to know.
He’d taken many books out about boats and the creatures that attacked them, the sea tides, the North Carolina coastal region, cook books and electrical wiring. He didn’t know why he took the electrical wiring book out. The bungalow was dimly lit, its electrical panel decades old.
Tonight Sheldon was reading an engrossing novel about a female clock maker. He heard the soft lap of the water not far from his front door. Sheldon loved the water. He’d lived with horses all his life and never knew how soothing the water could be. He went back to his book, pulling it closer to his face so he could see the print.
A knock on the door startled him. No one had knocked on his door since he rented the bundalow. Who could that be?
Sheldon untangled his long legs and stood. The knock came again. Slowly he made his way over and peered through the window. Christian stood there.
“What are you doing here?” Sheldon asked as he yanked the door open. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was dangerous for the boy to be alone.
“My grandma sent me to invite you to eat with us.”
“What?”
“We want you to eat with us.”
“Oh.”
“You should come. We’re having meatloaf.” Christian frowned at that. “I’d rather have a hamburger, but Grandma says we can’t eat hamburgers every day.”
“Did you know meatloaf is hamburger? It’s just presented differently. I bet if you put yours on a hamburger bun, it would taste the same.”
“Do you think so?” His smile was wide and his eyes open in anticipation.
“I’m sure of it, but—” He stopped, raising a finger and making sure he had the child’s attention. “You’ll have to eat all your vegetables.” Sheldon felt slightly foolish giving a child advice about what he should eat since his own diet consisted of whatever was cheapest.
“So, are you coming?”
Sheldon hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in years. His stomach reacted to the thought of some delicious meatloaf. He wanted to go, but he also wanted to be presentable and he had nothing that would make him look like the man he used to be.
“Give me a minute to clean up,” he said. “You wait there.”
Sheldon quickly washed his face and brushed his teeth. He pulled a clean, though unironed shirt from his closet and slipped into it. His shorts and deck shoes would have to do. Soon he joined Christian on the sand and they walked the short distance to the house that the boy and his grandmother occupied.
“Good evening,” he said formally. “Thank you for inviting me.” He stood stiffly and uncomfortably. He was unsure what to do or say and where to put his hands. He had nothing to bring her, no wine, no flowers, no candy.
“Come in. The food is hot and ready.”
Christian jumped right into his seat. Sheldon looked confused as to which chair he should take. Christian pointed at one of the chairs and Sheldon took it, assuming the other one was his grandmother’s. Audrey slid in front of the final place setting.
“Grandma, Sheldon said if I put my meat on a bun, it would be a hamburger. Can I do that?”
“May I do that,” she corrected in what must have been her best schoolteacher voice. “And if you want a bun, you can have it.”
“But I’ll have to eat the vegetables, too.” He presented it as a statement, but it was really a question.
“Yes, young man.” She made him a plate and set it in front of him with meatloaf, mashed potatoes and summer squash. Then she got up and a moment later set a hamburger bun in f
ront of him. The boy smiled and took it, proceeding to lift the slice of meatloaf and put it on the bread.
“Would you like a bun, too?” she asked Sheldon.
“No, thank you.”
She took her seat again. The smell of the food was making his mouth water. Sheldon hadn’t seen so much food in one place in a long time. And it was simple food. Not pheasant, coq au vin or arroz con pollo. Yet it looked like a feast to him.
She piled his plate with large portions. Instead of a bun, she added biscuits and checked with him to see if he wanted gravy on his potatoes. Sheldon nodded. When she passed the plate and they bowed their heads in prayer, he was truly thankful.
He wondered if she pitied him, too, if his thin body had triggered this invitation. Sheldon didn’t bother to analyze it too closely. He was hungry and he was going to eat as if he appreciated every single mouthful.
And he did. He’d never appreciated food as much as he did tonight.
* * *
A COUPLE OF days later the heat and humidity had given way to comfortable weather. Sheldon walked into town. He was low on supplies and needed to replenish his stash of canned goods. After having dinner with Audrey and Christian, he longed for better food, but he couldn’t afford it. He carried a basket so he wouldn’t make the mistake of buying more than he could comfortably carry. It was a mile back to the marina and only once had he barely made it with the bags he was carrying.
Picking up some fresh carrots and broccoli, he knew he could eat them raw or with a little salad dressing. He stood in front of the bottles of dressing debating whether or not he should spend the money on one. He didn’t really need it. Deciding against it, he turned. Audrey stood at the end of the aisle and was now coming toward him.
“Hello,” she said, her voice both surprised and happy.
“I was just doing a little shopping,” Sheldon said.
She glanced at the basket in his hand. He was glad to have chosen the fresh vegetables.
Summer on Kendall Farm Page 6