Her Hopes and Dreams (Ardent Springs Book 4)

by Terri Osburn

  Offering what Lorelei had given to her, Carrie said, “You can stay with me. Then, when Safe Haven is up and running, we’ll move you over there. At least until you find another place to stay. What’s your name?”

  “Roberta. Roberta Hawkins.”

  Carrie squeezed Roberta’s hand. “Your husband works, right?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “He does maintenance at a school in White House.”

  “Good. Hide some money, pack a bag, and then pick a day you know he’ll be home late. Do you understand?”

  Hands shaking, Roberta brushed the curls off her forehead. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “Roberta!” boomed a voice from the end of the aisle. “What’s taking so long?”

  “I’m sorry,” Carrie said, flashing her most innocent smile. “I’m trying to decide what detergent to switch to, and I’m afraid I begged your wife to help me pick.” Adding a detail she knew would appease the monster, she said, “My husband doesn’t like the smell of the one I’m using now, so I need to find one he’ll like better. We have to keep our men happy, don’t we?”

  “Tell her what you use,” he snapped at his wife.

  “The blue one,” Roberta answered, again pointing to the second shelf down.

  “Then that’s the one I’ll buy,” Carrie said, nearly choking with the need to grab Roberta and run.

  “Let’s go,” the brute grunted, jerking his wife by the arm without giving Carrie a second look. The scared woman glanced back before being dragged out of view.

  As her adrenaline ebbed, Carrie began to shake, dropping her basket to the floor as she fought to catch her breath. She had just invited a stranger into her home. A woman she knew nothing about. Except that she was in danger and suffering and in need of a way out. Carrie could give her that way. And when the shelter opened, they would have their first resident. That is, if the woman even called at all.

  Taking that step would require a great deal of courage. Something Carrie had never found for herself, but she had the power now to be courageous for someone else. Hopefully, she’d get the chance.

  Chapter 22

  “Hey, Noah,” Jordan said, sticking his head into the room where Noah was mudding the walls. “You’re gonna want to come down here.”

  “Why?” he asked, smoothing the mud into a seam.

  “Carrie’s here.”

  Noah lifted the trowel off the wall. “Does she have Meredith with her?”

  Jordan shook his head. “Nope. She’s by herself, but she isn’t empty-handed.”

  “Payday isn’t until Friday. What’s she have?”

  Scratching beneath his hard hat, the younger man said, “Paintbrushes.”

  No way he heard that right. “Come again.”

  “She says she’s here to help. She’s got rollers and tape and everything.”

  For the last week, every conversation had turned into a battle over why the shelter couldn’t open sooner than the mid-December date. And in every debate, Noah had ticked off a list of perfectly rational reasons that Carrie seemed determined not to hear.

  “Well, hell.” Dropping the trowel in the hand bucket, he set both on a sawhorse and followed Jordan down the hall to find Carrie wearing faded jeans, one of his stained T-shirts tied in a knot at her waist, and her hair swinging in a ponytail on the back of her head. And damn if he didn’t find painter Carrie hot as hell. “I’ve got this, Jordan.”

  “Right, boss.”

  Once the kid shuffled out the door, Carrie said, “Did he just call you boss?”

  “Babe, what are you doing here?”

  “I’m painting,” she said, as if this were an everyday thing. “I know the paint was delivered this morning because I got a delivery notice in my email. So I figured I’d get started.”

  Digging deep for patience, Noah said, “We have professionals lined up to do that next week.”

  “But the paint is here,” she pointed out. “There’s no reason to wait until next week.”

  “There is if I don’t want guys tripping over each other.”

  “I’m a crew of one, and I’ll only paint in the rooms where no work is being done.” Pushing two rolls of blue tape onto her arm, she picked up a long-handled roller off the floor. “Now where did you guys put the paint?”

  “Honey. You’re driving me nuts.”

  “Get me the paint, and I’ll be out of your hair.”

  “It isn’t that simple.” Noah rubbed his hands over his face. “This is a construction site. We have safety guidelines we have to follow. You doing the painting breaks about eight of them.”

  “I’m an employee of Lowry Construction,” she argued before knocking on the yellow thing on her head. “I have a hard hat. I’m not using any power tools. I’m not swinging a hammer. And I have safety goggles even though I won’t need them to paint. There is absolutely no reason I can’t be here.”

  “Yes, there is,” he snapped. “Because I said so.”

  Dammit. He did not want to lose his temper, but there was no way he could concentrate on anything knowing that Carrie was somewhere on-site doing who knows what and possibly getting hurt.

  “Noah, come on,” she pleaded. “What’s the big deal? It’s a little paint.”

  “Carrie, go back to the office. I get that you want to help, but the best way to do that is to let us do our jobs. Okay? Please.”

  Leaning the roller against the wall, she let the tape rolls drop to the ground.

  “We need this shelter open earlier.”

  “Why?” he asked. “Why can’t this wait four more weeks?”

  She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Eyes darting around the room, she finally said, “It just can’t.”

  “It’s going to have to, hon. And as soon as it’s done, I’ll hand you the keys and you’ll be all set to save all the people you can.”

  Storming past him, she mumbled, “It might be too late by then.”

  He couldn’t fault her for wanting so desperately to help people, but there was only so much Noah could do at this point. At least on the shelter project. But maybe there was something he could do to move the house along. The distraction of setting up a new home might help the next month fly by a little quicker. Pulling his phone from his pocket, Noah fired off a text on his way back down the hall.

  Carrie checked her phone twice on the way to Lorelei’s house. She’d made sure to keep her battery charged and jumped every time the thing rang. It had been over a week with no word. Sick with worry, Carrie even attempted to search the Internet for any information on a Roberta Hawkins in Ardent Springs. Nothing came up. Which didn’t surprise her.

  Men like Roberta’s husband controlled every aspect of their spouse’s life. Limited their contact with friends, if they let them have any at all. Kept them at home so they couldn’t possibly make any money of their own. No autonomy. No independence. And above all, no freedom. All while appearing for all the world like a perfectly normal married couple.

  There was nothing normal about punching your wife. And every day Roberta didn’t call, Carrie feared it would be too late. That one night she’d sit down to dinner and the lead story on the news would be accompanied by a tiny insert image of Roberta’s beaten and battered face.

  “Are you sure the pink and purple is what you want?” Lorelei asked, pointing to a picture in the magazine in front of them. “The red-and-purple one is cute, too.”

  “I trust you,” Carrie said, too distracted to deal with frosting colors. “Whichever one you like is fine.”

  “What is going on with you?”

  Carrie met concerned blue eyes. “Nothing. There’s nothing going on with me.”

  Lorelei flipped the magazine shut. “Honey, we’re talking about your daughter’s first birthday cake and you just said whichever is fine.”

  “We need a clean diaper over here,” Rosie called from the couch. “And a whole pack of wipes from the smell of things.”

  “I’ll do it,” Carrie said, but Lor
elei shoved her back into her seat and carried the diaper bag to her grandmother. When she returned, they picked up where they’d left off. “You’ve been distracted since you got here, have checked your phone every two minutes, and you haven’t touched a single cookie. There’s definitely something going on.”

  Pushing Roberta to the back of her mind, Carrie used the day before as her excuse. “Noah and I had a disagreement yesterday. I guess it’s still bothering me.”

  “Trouble in paradise, huh? Tell Auntie Lorelei all about it.”

  She toyed with the corner of the magazine. “I went to the shelter with the intention of painting some walls, but Noah wouldn’t let me stay.”

  “Doesn’t Mike hire a crew for that?”

  “He does,” she confessed. “But I thought if I pitched in that we could open the shelter sooner. I don’t understand why no one is in a hurry on this. There are women out there who need a place to go.”

  Patting her hand, Lorelei said, “There will always be women who need a place to go. And in a few weeks, they’ll have one.”

  “Four,” Carrie corrected. “Four weeks. Do you know what can happen to a woman in a month’s time? What a man can do to her?”

  “I prefer not to think about it,” her friend admitted. “But I’m sure that the guys are doing their best to get it done. Noah knows it’s important to you, and he knows why, right?”

  Carrie nodded. “He knows.”

  “And things are good between the two of you other than this shelter thing?”

  “They’ll be better when we can move into the house for good, but yeah. We’re okay.”

  Lorelei leaned back in her chair. “You’re moving into his house?”

  Confused, Carrie replied, “I assumed Snow would have told you.”

  “Told me what?”

  “That Noah bought furniture.”

  “You’re going to have to elaborate on that.”

  Flashing back to the week before, Carrie smiled at the memory. “Noah’s bedroom contained a bed and nothing else. Not even curtains. So he went to Snow’s store and bought a dresser and some nightstands. Plus new bedding. And Haleigh sent some curtains with Cooper, who helped him get it all in when I wasn’t around. He surprised me with it.”

  Trying to follow along, she said, “So Noah bought himself bedroom furniture.”

  “No,” Carrie corrected. “Noah bought me bedroom furniture and put it in his room.”

  Still bewildered, the blonde tilted her head, contemplating the last statement. The moment she solved the mystery, Lorelei shot out of her chair.

  “He asked you to marry him.”

  “Without saying a word.” Carrie nodded, unable to keep the grin off her face. “It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

  “Did you hear that, Granny? Carrie is getting married.”

  Losing control of the situation, she jumped to her feet. “No, I’m not.”

  Lorelei grabbed her by the arms. “You said no?”

  “No. I mean, I said yes. But we aren’t getting married. Well, someday we’ll get married. But not right now.”

  Rosie carried Molly into the kitchen. “She isn’t marrying anyone until I meet him.”

  “You have met him, Granny,” Lorelei said, pulling a yellow notepad from a drawer in the kitchen island. “He’s the guy she brought to my wedding.”

  “I barely got a hello out of that man.”

  “Noah is shy,” Carrie defended.

  “He likes my cookies, and he makes Carrie happy. You can get to know him later.” Returning to her stool, Lorelei looked up with a pen poised over the notepad. “Summer or winter? Oh, or fall. Fall weddings are wonderful.”

  Rosie snorted. “She says, completely unbiased.”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead.” Molly dove into her mother’s arms, tucking her head against Carrie’s neck. “She’s tired. We better get home.”

  “But there are a million more questions.”

  “Lorelei, let the girl be. She just told you they aren’t getting married for a while.” Wagging a finger beneath Carrie’s nose, Rosie added, “And I haven’t given my approval yet.”

  Carrie attempted to appease the older woman. “I really love him, Rosie. And Molly adores him.”

  “Well. That’s a good sign. Kids can spot a bad penny from twenty paces.” Propping her hands on her hips, she said, “Does he really make you happy, sweetie?”

  “Very.”

  “All right then. He’s approved. But if he ever hurts you, he’ll have a lot of people ready to pounce on his ass.”

  “Granny!” Lorelei exclaimed. “You’d smack me for saying that.”

  The protective grandmother put her arm around mother and child. “When it comes to taking care of our own, we don’t mess around.”

  The heartfelt words brought a tear to Carrie’s eye. “Thank you, Rosie. You’ll never know how much that means to me.”

  The older woman placed a soft kiss on Molly’s cheek. “You’re family, honey. Don’t ever doubt it.”

  “Anyone home?” Noah called as he stepped into the workshop. Despite the cold air, two days of rain had given way to a bright November Saturday, and his eyes struggled to adjust to the change in light levels.

  “I’m here,” called a voice from his left. “How you doing, man?” Spencer asked, joining Noah near the entrance.

  “I’m good. I’m hoping you can help me solve a problem.”

  “Come on back.” He led the way to a slanted work desk on the back wall. “You said something on the phone about building gates. Are we talking fence gates?”

  Noah shook his head. “No, I need something that will block Molly from getting up the steps at the house, as well as something at the top to keep her from falling down.”

  Sliding his hands into his pockets, the carpenter said, “They make baby gates. Why don’t you just buy a couple?”

  “The farmhouse is about a hundred years old. Those gates aren’t wide enough for what I need. And even if they were,” Noah added, “I don’t trust them. These things have to be sturdy and taller than the standard size so she can’t climb over them.”

  “That’s a point in your favor.” Spencer took a seat on the stool in front of the desk.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Noah asked, unaware that he was being scored.

  “I don’t know you, but I know of you,” he said. “Back in the day, you had a rep for being an arrogant asshole. Add the fact that you were friends with the guy who beat the shit out of Carrie, and that isn’t a great first impression.”

  “Forget I bothered you.” Noah headed out the way he’d come.

  “But,” Spencer said, speaking loudly enough to be heard across the room, “people change. I’ve seen it firsthand, and according to Lorelei, you really care about my ex-wife. That you take Molly’s safety so seriously is another check in your favor, and I respect your service to this country. So if you still want my help, I’m happy to give it.”

  Appreciating the honesty, Noah ambled back to the desk. “Is that really the rep I had back then?”

  “Does it sound like an accurate description?”

  Scratching his beard, Noah took a hard look at his teenage self. “Yeah. That’s about right.”

  “You still want my help?” Spencer asked.

  Knowing that Spencer cared about Molly’s safety as much as he did, Noah nodded.

  “All righty then. Let’s design some custom baby gates.”

  Half an hour later, Noah held a drawing of exactly what he’d imagined, only turning the design into reality required a few measurements he hadn’t taken. Easy enough to fix once he got home. Before he returned to his truck, Spencer offered a tour of the workshop, which continued into another room that Noah hadn’t realized was there. In the middle of the much larger space sat a table that must have been nine feet long.

  “Where is that thing going?” Noah asked.

  “Cooper’s backyard. He’s notorious for his cookouts
, and every year there seems to be more people. So I’m building this picnic table to hold everyone.”

  Noah bent down to see the beautiful plane work. “This is nice, man.”

  “Thanks. I’ve been working on it for a few months between other jobs. There’s no hurry since he won’t need it until the spring.”

  Getting an idea, he said, “I could use a new table in the farmhouse.” Even though nothing had happened between him and Kyra, the current kitchen table still carried a bad feeling for Carrie. On the few occasions they’d eaten at his place, she always insisted they sit in the living room. “You willing to build me something custom? I’d pay, of course.”

  “I’d be glad to do that. You know what you’d want? Oak? Cherry?”

  “I’ve got some reclaimed wood in the barn. Could you use that?”

  Spencer rubbed his hands together. “No idea, but I definitely want to see it.”

  Looking ahead to the coming week, he’d be working late at the shelter for the first half due to the holiday, and then Thanksgiving dinner at his mom’s on Thursday. “If you’re free next Friday, hit me up and you can come check it out.”

  “That’ll work.”

  The men finished the tour, and Noah hit the road. He debated whether or not to tell Carrie about the table, and then he considered that she might want a say in what the thing should look like since she’d be stuck with it in her kitchen for a good long while. The thought put a smile on his face. If he played his cards right, they could be in the farmhouse full-time before Christmas.

  Chapter 23

  Carrie got the call just before noon on Saturday. Thankfully, Noah was away from the house, because she had no idea how to tell him what she was about to do. When she’d made the rash offer in the grocery store, all Carrie had been thinking about was getting Roberta to safety. Lorelei had done the same for her, opening her home, and now Carrie would pay it forward. It wasn’t as if this were a permanent solution. Once the shelter opened, Roberta would be their first client.

  Fully aware that something could go wrong, Carrie had called Lorelei to babysit, using the excuse of wanting to go birthday shopping without Molly along. Acting normal while dropping her off had been difficult, but not nearly as nerve-racking as when she’d reached the address Roberta had given her. By some miracle, the abuser had gone hunting for the whole weekend, secure in the fact that his well-trained wife would never think of leaving him. On the ride home, Carrie had learned that her new friend had been married less than two years and, much like her own experience, had witnessed no signs of violence prior to tying the knot.