by Bree Cariad
“Dora’s off gallivanting,” she said with a large smile. “I miss her like crazy.”
“Me too,” her husband said, nodding.
“But her husband travels a lot and she’s with him.”
“Anyone want some wine?” Marcus walked out with a bottle in his hand.
“I’d love a glass,” Chris said, nodding. “Stephie?”
“Not tonight.”
As Marcus handed Chris his glass, his eyes landed on Vanna. “Celie, I’m sorry. Let me grab her.”
“She’s fine. Very asleep.”
Chuckling, he nodded and put his own glass aside. “Let me put her to bed.” He gently picked her up and carried her inside.
“Had any gentlemen callers yet?” Stephanie teased with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Is that what you call them here?” Celie asked with a grin.
“Oh, they’re called all sorts of things,” she said with a distinct giggle. “If you like them? Suitors. If you don’t like them? Dorks, jerks, and several more nicknames I won’t mention here.”
Spluttering a laugh, Celia filled her cup with some more punch and leaned back. “Nice guys, but nobody special yet. Much to Nana’s dismay.”
“Yeah, I’ve kind of heard she was difficult about Jaylee’s choice as well. She means well,” Stephanie said. “But the older generation has different ideals.”
When Marcus came back, he held a baby monitor. “She isn’t used to the new house. I don’t want her to be scared,” he explained as he put it down.
“She’s a lovely girl,” Stephanie said in the pause that followed. “You’ve done a great job with her.”
“Thank you. She’s a delight. Very much like her mother, actually.”
Chris cleared his throat and his next words were quiet, in the kind of tone that invited more information, but clearly stated his friend did not have to answer. “What happened with Stacy?”
Taking a deep drink of his wine, Marcus grimaced. “We always knew she had health problems. She had an enlarged heart. Even in high school, we knew our time together was not going to be a lifetime. But she never let us get down over the fact. Stacy would always say, ‘Let’s just enjoy the time we’re given, Mark. Don’t think about tomorrow.’ In college, her name was down for a heart transplant, but finding one is not easy. Plus, the time comes when the possibility of success begins to diminish. Our senior year in college, she finally had enough of the doctors’ visits and their naysaying. We wanted a baby. We’d talked about adoption several times but her health issues made it almost impossible.
“It took her two years to convince me. See, we knew that her reaching her thirtieth birthday would most likely not happen. Time was short and if she got pregnant, it would be even shorter. In fact, the probabilities of her dying while pregnant were high. But she still wanted us to have a baby. It took those two years for me to come too…” He paused as if trying to figure out his words. “…For me to accept that I would be losing those few years, but gaining something far more amazing. Of course, until Cavanaugh was born, I had no idea just how amazing she would be. I just knew she would be a part of my wife and I would love her forever.
“Thankfully, Stacy was able to love her for the nine months of pregnancy and for six months afterward before her body finally couldn’t carry on any longer. We were lucky as well in that there was no suffering, no months in the hospital, no agonizing. One night, she held little Vanna close and said something I couldn’t hear. She put her in her crib, said good night to me, and went to bed. By the time I joined her thirty minutes later, she was gone.”
Soft sobbing bobbed through the air and Chris pulled Stephanie close where she cried. Celie could understand. Tears dripped softly down her cheeks. Vanna was right. Stacy was an angel. How could any woman compare with that?
“It was rough letting Stacy go, but mourning her memory and staying in the past would have been worse,” he said after a few minutes. “She loved us and wanted us both to live. She loved me enough to give me someone I will love for the rest of my life. Leaving the pain behind is one of the reasons I’ve moved Vanna around as much as I have. But finally I knew I needed to create a life for my daughter that her mommy would be proud of. A friend of mine from veterinary school was from Hyacinth and told me about it. I knew he idealized it, but if the town could be a tenth of how wonderful he made it sound, I thought it would be a perfect place for her to grow up.”
“This is a great area,” Chris said, stroking his wife’s back as she lay against him. “Both Dora and Steph grew up here. It’s a step out of time with the rest of the world, but it’s nice as well.”
“When will she start kindergarten?” Celie asked quietly.
“Not for a year. I was lucky to find a daycare not far from my new office. I asked around and it has a very good reputation, plus I’m close if she needs me.”
They talked for another hour before they helped him clean up and then left. The ride home was practically silent. When they reached her grandparents’ house, she thanked Chris and Stephanie for the ride and went inside. All the lights were out except for one, letting her know her grandparents were in bed and she turned it out before climbing the stairs.
As she prepared for bed, her mind went over everything she had learned tonight about Marcus and Vanna Hotham. Her heart went out to the poor man. Losing his wife had to be difficult, but he seemed to have come to terms with it at some point. And his little girl was a total sweetheart. Sliding between the sheets, she wondered if he would ever be open to a new wife.
And if there was any possibility it would be soon.
Chapter 6
Celia kept herself pretty busy. In between cooking, helping out at the shelter, and her hiking, the next week flew by. She was so busy, she hadn’t even noticed there had been no suitors until coming back from a long hike the next Friday. It was just one in the afternoon when she pulled into her grandparents’ drive and got out of the car.
The door opened before she had even arrived and she stumbled in surprise.
“Hurry,” Jude said, glancing over her mud-spattered t-shirt and skinned knees. “Go take a shower. We need to get dinner ready.”
“What’s the rush?” Celia asked, walking briskly toward the stairs.
“Leyton says you have a caller tonight.”
Dashing up the stairs, Celie took a quick shower before bandaging both of her knees. After throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, she came downstairs. “Who is it?” she asked, spotting the counters which were filled with ingredients. Obviously her grandmother had a recipe in mind.
“I don’t know,” Nana admitted. “Your grandfather didn’t tell me. But he said to make this good. So, I looked through the freezer and the pantry. We have the ingredients for a casserole, lasagna, meatloaf, or spaghetti. Which would you like to make?”
“I’ve never made spaghetti before. Let’s try that.” It didn’t trouble Celie at all to try her cooking skills out on unsuspecting men. So far none of them were guys she truly considered dating material so if they weren’t thrilled, what did it matter?
“All right. I wrote down the instructions on the pad to your left. I’ll put away everything we don’t need for it. And then we can figure out dessert.”
“This seems like a lot of food,” Celie commented as she browned the ground beef which filled one of her grandmother’s larger fry pans.
“I don’t really get it, but we’re getting two people tonight. Two,” her grandmother said, shaking her head. “I’ve never heard of two callers coming to dinner on the same night. Well,” she said, her expression brightening. “Maybe it’s the Callier twins. They’re twenty-nine and are probably courting.”
“Courted by twins? That’s weird,” Celia snickered. “Do they plan to share their woman?”
“Celia!” Nana gasped in shock before bursting into giggles. “Let’s not go there.”
An hour later, the sauce was simmering and the scent in the air made Celie’s stomach rumble.
&
nbsp; “All right. Well, while that cooks, you need to make dessert.”
“What are the possibilities?”
“Well, you can make a cake, a pecan pie,” Nana mused, looking through the pantry, “a coffee cake—oh, now that might be nice, custard, oh!” She flipped around. “How about homemade ice cream?”
Excitement touched her and Celie had a slight memory of churning the large ice cream maker when she was a kid. “Oh, that sounds fun. What do we do?” While originally more involved than she had expected—who knew it started with a custard?—there was fun in the creation.
“What flavor do you want to make it? We’ve got bananas, chocolate, strawberries…and we can always run to the store and buy anything else.”
“Do we have peaches?” Celie had fond memories of peach ice cream.
“We have frozen, but fresh is always better. You start on the custard and I’ll go get some peaches.”
After Jude returned with five ripe peaches, Celie found out that in the years she had been gone, her grandparents had replaced the crank ice cream maker with an automatic one. That was slightly disappointing. However, by the time they poured the mixture into the ice cream maker, she was actually glad they wouldn’t have to crank it for the next hour. There was a plus to an automated version.
When the ice cream was thick, they poured it into a container and put it in the freezer while Celie started the water for the pasta. She wondered who was coming tonight. Would they be interesting? Boring? Someone she might like to date? They would, unfortunately, be compared to Marcus, but she was coming to terms with the fact that Marcus was probably not ready to date and that she should at least give tonight’s bachelors a try.
When the doorbell rang, she was in a nice dress and was just setting out the last place setting on the table. As the front door was on the other side of the wall separating the kitchen from the living room, she heard their voices.
“Hello,” Pappa said in a calm, friendly voice. “Please come in. Celia’s been cooking up a storm today. Do you like spaghetti?” It seemed a strange thing to ask someone until she heard the response.
“Yes, Mr. Compton. I do.”
Celie’s head snapped up and her jaw gaped at Vanna’s polite reply.
“She loves pasta,” Marcus said in a smooth voice and Celia looked at her grandmother who actually shrugged and then smiled before walking out to the living room.
“Good evening, Dr. Hotham,” Jude said in a polite voice.
“Please call me Marcus,” he said smoothly. “Dr. Hotham sounds so formal.”
“Of course. And it’s nice to see you again, Vanna.”
“Thanks.” Vanna’s shy voice made Celie smile and unable not to, she walked out to the living room where the four of them were standing. “Celie!” Vanna cried, darting out from behind her father’s legs and running into Celia, wrapping her little arms around Celie’s legs. Looking up, she grinned. “Hi!”
“Hi,” she said back, smiling. “Are you ready for pasta?”
“Yep! Guess what?” The girl’s eyes were shining.
“What?”
“We got a doggie”
“Wonderful,” she exclaimed. “A golden?”
The little girl shook her head. “A Chihuahua.”
“One of those puppies was still around and it yipped every time it saw my daughter. It became apparent he was meant for us as nobody else saw him,” Marcus said smiling. “Vanna, tell Celia what we named her.”
Vanna’s grin grew wider. “Little Mississippi.”
Amused, Celie looked up. “Little Mississippi?”
“That’s what she wanted to name her. I figured I could call her Little Miss,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Well, why don’t we head into the dining room?” Nana suggested and Vanna slipped one hand into Celie’s and the other hand into her father’s as they turned.
Including the fact that Vanna got sauce all over her with her excitement while she ate, the dinner was a success. She talked, chatting as she waved her fork around. Marcus kept grabbing it to try and lessen the mess somewhat, but his daughter was so sweet and so cute, Celie didn’t think anyone at the table truly minded. Even her grandmother was gazing at the little girl with a loving look on her face by the time dinner was through. When Celie stood up to take the dishes into the kitchen and get dessert, Marcus spoke up.
“Might we use your bathroom to clean up a little?”
Pappa showed him where it was while Nana helped her with the dishes. “Well?” she asked softly as they piled the plates in the sink.
“Well, what?” Celia whispered back.
“Am I right in thinking we finally got a suitor you like?” she asked with a wry smile.
“Yes, but I thought you weren’t fond of the idea.”
“I wasn’t. But your grandfather helped me to see I was being a bit jaded. Plus, you look so happy, honey. If he’s who you want, then I’ll be supportive.”
“Thanks, Nana.”
By the time they brought the ice cream bowls into the dining room, Marcus and Vanna were back in their chairs. “Ice cream?” Vanna asked, her eyes growing wide. “I love ice cream.”
“It’s homemade, too,” Celia said with a grin. “Peach.”
“Yummm.” Vanna was so busy eating ice cream that she didn’t chatter as much during dessert which gave the adults a little chance to talk.
“Settling in?” Pappa asked.
“Definitely. Living in a rental, you just never feel settled. But now that we’re in our own house, it feels real,” Marcus admitted. “With Vanna’s room set up and our little mongrel, it feels like a home.” Turning to Celie, he asked, “Have you decided what you would like to do?”
“For a career?”
He nodded.
“I’d like to work with animals. I just don’t know in what context. The animals are great at the shelter but they are only there for a short while and then they’re gone. I get attached far too easily.”
“Come over,” Vanna piped in. “You can see Little Miss.”
“I’d love to,” Celie said with a grin. “But mostly to see you and your father. Little Miss is just the icing on the cake.”
Her little head cocked to the side. “Cake?”
“Not tonight,” Marcus said with a smile. “I think between the pasta and ice cream, you’ve had enough.” Giggling, Vanna licked her spoon and finished off her dessert.
For the first time, dinner ended too soon and once it was over, Marcus and Vanna said good night and left. Celie hoped there would be a second dinner as she cleaned up the first.
As it turned out, courting dinners when they were with a guy you really liked, were the best thing on the planet. Marcus and Vanna came every Friday during July and as the first Friday in August made its appearance, Celie put away the recipe book, deciding to make something different. With it being so hot outside, she didn’t want something that would just warm them up from the inside out. Thus, Friday morning found her at the local farmer’s market gathering fruits of every shape and size.
All afternoon, she peeled, cut up, and prepared the fruit, as well as whipped up some cream. It was a combined dinner/dessert idea that would taste good and be sweet and filling at the same time. When the doorbell rang, she was just setting the table. Hearing another voice besides the ones she had become accustomed to, Celie peeked around the corner, spotting the tall man she’d met at the picnic, the head of the Covington family. He had the look of a rancher with his weathered skin and lanky build.
“Celie,” Pappa said with a pleased look on his face as Vanna spotted her and trotted over to her side, putting her arms around Celia’s hips. “Do you remember Alex Covington? He’s the head of the council. He has something to say.”
Taking Vanna’s hand, she walked further into the room, catching Marcus’s eye with a small smile. Something was going on, though she had no idea what. From the tears brimming in her grandmother’s eyes, she wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing.<
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Alex lifted a piece of paper and begun to read. “Miss Celia May Compton, we the undersigned have given our permission for you to be courted by Dr. Marcus Nathaniel Hotham for the period of one year, starting on this date and ending no later than one year from today. As a courted female, you are never to be in the presence of another male without either Dr. Hotham or Mr. Compton present or a female trusted by one of the aforementioned gentlemen. Your rights from Dr. Hotham are as follows...”
Her breathing sped up as Celia realized this was actually happening. Marcus wished to court her. This was big. As the stages of courtship were read off, she realized just how big. Discipline. By their third month, he could discipline her. In their fourth month, Marcus could spank her. Fighting a natural inclination to cover her rear end, thus protecting it, her eyes met his and the rest of the stages melted into the background.
“If this agreement is entered into willingly, then we the undersigned give our seal of approval.” Alex cleared his voice, gaining her attention back, and read off the names, including his, the other men from the town council, and her own grandfather. Turning toward her, he placed the document on the coffee table along with a pen. “Miss Compton, if you would like to enter this courting, please sign next to the X.”
Celia looked down at the contract and then her eyes slid around the room. Her beaming grandparents, an expectant Alex Covington, the warm eyes of Marcus and the hopeful ones of the girl clinging to her hand. “Do you know what this means?” she asked Vanna softly.
The little girl nodded. “Means you and Daddy are gonna date and that maybe one day you’ll be my mommy.”
“Are you okay with that?”
Grinning, Vanna nodded. “Mommy brought you to us.”
Tears sprang into Celia’s eyes and after hugging the little girl roughly, she let go long enough to sign her name to the contract before pulling her in for a tighter hug. When she let go, Marcus took her hand and separated her from his daughter for a moment. His warm eyes made her smile and as his soft lips touched hers, she felt as though she had found home.