“If you say so.”
“I do.” Yes, in the past Bienville had been important to her—a tie to her family, a place where she and Brady could put down roots. She shifted away from Cody before he read something in her expression she didn’t want him to see. He was perceptive, which was probably why he was so good at his job. But she didn’t need to be psychoanalyzed. She’d gotten over being abandoned by her mother a long time ago. “I’d better get moving, or Kim will wonder where I went. My quick errand to get the cake has turned into a marathon trip.” She chuckled. “But that shouldn’t surprise my cousin.”
“See you later.”
At the bottom of the third-floor steps she looked up at him. “Don’t tell anyone about the elevator incident. My family thinks I’ve overcome my fear.”
“If they find out, it has to come from you.”
She continued her trip down to the first floor, resisting the urge to look at him again. She felt his gaze on her until she disappeared from his view. Goose bumps prickled her skin from head to toe.
When Maggie arrived at her car, she sighed. The cake icing had not melted. Maybe the reception would be a success, after all. She wanted it to be. Uncle Keith, Kim and Kim’s ten-year-old daughter, Anna, were more family than her father and younger brother were. She hadn’t seen either one in years.
Ten minutes later, she pulled into the drive that led to Bienville. The renovations due to the hurricane were almost complete. The outside looked good—better than it had before the hurricane. The only remnants of the storm’s damage were evident in parts of the downstairs, still being remodeled. Soon Uncle Keith and Ruth would move into the master bedroom on the first floor, leaving the upstairs for Maggie and Brady. Almost like it had been before the hurricane, except that Kim and Anna had lived upstairs with them then. But now that her cousin had married Zane Davidson, Kim and her daughter lived at his place outside of town. She missed having Kim, who was like a younger sister to her, living at Bienville, but they did see each other a lot. That was one of the reasons she loved living in Hope. She didn’t have to go far to run into a friend or a member of her extended family.
Carefully grasping the tray the three-tiered cake sat on, Maggie started up the rear steps. When she was nearly at the top that led to the gallery of the antebellum house, the door to the game room slammed open then closed. She peered around the cake a few seconds before her son, his head down, nearly collided into her. Swinging the cake out over the railing, she avoided a catastrophe as he breezed by her on the steps.
“Hey, Brady. Stop. Where are you going?” Maggie brought the cake back toward her chest, steadying the plate. She’d had visions of the three tiers tumbling to the ground below.
He halted at the bottom and rotated toward her. “Out.”
“The party is in an hour.”
“Kinda hard not to know that when everyone is running around.”
The exasperation in her son’s voice needled her. Nothing pleased him of late. “Have you helped?”
“Sure. What’s the big deal anyway? It’s just a party.”
“It’s a time for us to celebrate your uncle getting married.”
Brady frowned, his mouth pinched together.
“C’mon. I’m sure we can use your help with last-minute preparations.”
“I am helping. Kim asked me to go get Anna at her friend’s house next door.” He turned on his heel and hurried away.
Even from several yards away, Maggie felt the frost of her son’s words. He was nearly thirteen, and although he loved Uncle Keith, she doubted he was thrilled with coming to a party with mostly adults. This was just a phase he was going through. In a few years he would grow out of it and—
Who was she kidding? He wasn’t even a full-fledged teenager, and he was already moody and difficult to be around.
Maggie opened the back door. Inside, the blast of air-conditioning cooled off her hot cheeks and sweat-coated forehead.
Entering the game room, she spied Kim and Zane finishing up last-minute preparations to the buffet table. “I’ve got the cake,” Maggie announced when her cousin looked up.
“I was beginning to worry about you.” Kim patted the white tablecloth where she wanted Maggie to set the cake.
“I told her you didn’t skip town and leave her to finish up all by herself.” Zane started for the door out to the upstairs landing.
“I’d never do that.” Maggie put down the tray on the table. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving the rest to you two. I was just filling in for you until you showed up. I’m all thumbs when it comes to decorating.”
“That’s no excuse to leave us shorthanded.” Kim balled her hand and settled it on her hip.
As Zane left the room, Uncle Keith came into it. “I can help if you need a hand.”
Kim waved him off. “Shoo. This is supposed to be a surprise. I thought you and Ruth were resting. You are not to come in here until seven-thirty. Not one minute before. We went to a lot of trouble to keep this a secret.”
“Not too much. Half the town has mentioned this ‘surprise reception.’”
Maggie watched the loving exchange between Kim and her father, and Maggie’s heart cracked a little bit. Brady would never have that. His father died before he was born, and no matter how many stories she told her son about Robbie, it wasn’t the same thing. Being estranged from her own father made that clear to her. And now more than ever, her son could use a father to help him through the minefield of the teen years.
* * *
Later that evening at Bienville, the sun hid behind the tall pines and live oaks, cooling off June’s muggy heat. Cody stood on the second-floor gallery staring at Keith’s beautiful backyard, such a change from five months ago when he was introduced to the Sommerfield family. At that time this place had looked like a war zone, and he supposed having a hurricane plow through the area was like being in the middle of a war.
Behind him he could hear the sounds of laughter and talking. The reception for Keith and Ruth was going full swing. The house was crammed with people celebrating their union. But as usual, he found he needed to escape for a while. He didn’t often have to go to parties and that was fine by him. As a counselor he felt as though he had to be an extrovert, but deep inside he was the opposite. He cherished his alone time.
A vision of a very rattled Maggie Sommerfield caged in the elevator with him popped into his mind. A smile curved his mouth. For a moment he thought he smelled her scent of lavender—not a strong aroma but teasingly subtle. He’d kept smelling it long after she had left City Hall earlier this evening.
He’d actually grabbed his cell and rushed home to change and had shown up at Bienville precisely at seven-thirty. He never was one of the first to arrive at a party, but often he was one of the first to leave. The whole time he’d been here he couldn’t get Maggie’s look of vulnerability out of his mind. Being on the stalled elevator had really scared her. What if he hadn’t been there? Who would have talked to her and calmed her?
The setting sun cast a rosy-orange color through the blue sky. The tranquility of the backyard in contrast to the noise coming from the party beckoned him. After descending the steps, he walked toward the garden behind the antebellum house, pulling out his cell to reread Hannah’s text. Aaron left me. Call.
He’d tried earlier before he’d arrived at the reception. Although behind the text he’d heard his younger sister’s urgency, he wasn’t surprised she wasn’t home. Most likely her boyfriend got angry and went off to cool down. Everything was a crisis in Hannah’s life. He’d learned to tone down her responses by half. It was never as bad as she thought.
One thing was for sure. She’d text back—eventually.
Releasing a long sigh, he finally saw the array of flowers and foliage before him. Jasmine, honeysuckle, red, yellow, orange hibiscus bushes, a section of roses of various colors and big pink azaleas stretched before him. Their scents vied with the salty tang of the sea not far from Bien
ville. Seeing the beauty immediately eased his anxiety over Hannah and her latest “problem.”
For this evening he would put Hannah’s latest crisis on hold and enjoy one of his successes. Keith Sommerfield was a new man, full of hope and life after going through post-traumatic stress disorder following Hurricane Naomi. After the hours spent today counseling a suicidal client, he needed to see the good his work brought to others. This was what the Lord had called him to do. He would stay here a while longer, then move on to another disaster area.
He spied Maggie sitting on a wooden bench among the flowers. Her long brown hair caught the sunlight slanting through the leaves of a century-old live oak with Spanish moss draped on its branches. The rays tinted her hair a fiery hue, catching the red in it. She lifted her dark eyes and connected with his across the expanse of the garden. A smile slowly erased her troubled expression.
From what he had seen and heard when he’d arrived an hour ago, the reception was a success and the cake was intact on the center table. So why the frown? He moved toward her. He was used to helping others with their problems.
“It’s nice to see you again,” he said, pausing by a gardenia bush. Their aroma, a little too sweet for him, drove him farther into the garden. A birdbath invited several cardinals to drink, and they did even though Maggie sat on a bench only yards away.
“They’re used to me. I usually come out here at this time of day. Right before the sun goes down. Old habits die hard.”
“I doubt anyone will miss us. The place is packed. Ruth and Keith have a lot of friends.”
“They’ve lived here all their lives.”
“I wouldn’t know what that means.” Long ago he’d reconciled himself to the fact he wouldn’t put down roots anywhere. He rarely stayed more than a year, usually only six or eight months. And as usual, his time would soon come to an end in Hope, too.
“I know your job takes you from one crisis to another, but did you also move a lot as a child?” Maggie scooted over to allow him to sit next to her.
“Yes. But Hope feels as close to a hometown as I’ve had. My father was assigned to the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi for two years when I was a kid. That was one of our longer stays in a town.”
“So, you’re used to traveling and living in temporary places?”
“I don’t know much else. How about you?”
“I’ve been here all my life. This is all I know. I can’t imagine not being here.”
There had been parts of always moving that he’d had to adjust to—like never really feeling a part of a place—but the rewards he received when he helped someone made up for that. He looked around at the colorful blossoms. “The hurricane had to affect this garden.”
“It destroyed it.”
“Who did this garden then?”
“Me, with some help from Kim’s daughter, and Zane donated the plants.”
Kim’s new husband was as close to a friend as Cody allowed himself when he came to a new town to work. But always temporarily. He kept that in the back of his mind, especially after his failed attempt to keep a long-distance relationship going with Beth. He’d yearned for something more. He’d thought he could finally persuade Beth to change her life and follow him. He’d just started his mission when he’d met her and couldn’t turn his back on it, but she didn’t understand that. In the end they had parted. It had hurt deeply, only reinforcing his need to keep himself emotionally at a distance from others.
Shaking the past from his thoughts, Cody scanned the beauty around him. “That would have been about all I could do. Donate the plants.” He held up his thumb. “Definitely not green.”
“That’s what I love about Bienville. It gives me a place to experiment and try different things. And Zane has been generous in letting me do that with these.” Maggie spread her arm wide to indicate the plants. “I love seeing the beauty created by my efforts, especially from year to year.”
He looked at the garden and had to agree at how rewarding something like this could be. But it wasn’t for him. “Now that Kim and Zane are back from their honeymoon, he’ll be starting the plans for the housing program he proposed to the Christian Assistance Coalition. I’ve been asked to work with him so it can be ready by late summer when hurricane season is in full swing.”
“That’s great. I’m sure y’all will do a wonderful job.”
“Mostly Zane. I know nothing about building a house. I’m only the liaison between him and the organization for the time being. I think this will be a great benefit we can give financially strapped people who have lost their homes—a chance to rebuild with little or no cost to them.”
“Like Zane has done in Hope.”
“Yes, I know many of my clients have benefited from his generosity.”
“Mom,” Brady called from the second-floor gallery. “Uncle Keith and Aunt Ruth are getting ready to cut the cake.”
“That’s my cue to play hostess.” Maggie rose. “If you’ve never had a piece of Mrs. Abare’s cake, you’re in for a treat.”
“So, I’ve heard.” Cody pushed to his feet, hating to leave the tranquility of the garden, but loving celebrating his moment of triumph—Keith Sommerfield marrying and moving on with his life.
As they strolled toward the back steps, he slanted a look at Maggie. The last golden rays of the sun bathed her face in radiance. Her warm brown eyes captured his, and for a few seconds he paused, enthralled by the woman he’d known casually for the past few months. She seemed so open, but he suspected there were many layers beneath the surface she didn’t reveal to others. He did know one thing: she was grounded in her life in Hope while he’d purposefully stayed back as much as he could, preferring to be an observer rather than a participant.
At the steps he said, “After you,” then followed her up to the back door that led into the game room. “When will Zane and his crew be finished with this house?”
“By the end of July. We may be family now, but there are so many people in worse need in Hope. He’s hiring another crew so he can meet the demands. He seems to be doing that every few months.”
“And I thought I worked long hours.”
At the door she turned toward him. “You do. What were you doing at your office at six o’clock on Saturday?”
He laughed. “Catching up on work.”
“See, what did I tell you? My job is just that. Work. I have too many other things I want to do with my life.” She opened the door and entered the crowded room.
“Like what?”
“Being the best mom I can to Brady. That garden out there doesn’t just happen, and I love to knit and read.”
As Keith Sommerfield welcomed everyone to his home, Cody leaned close to Maggie and whispered, “I’ve heard about your prayer shawls.”
“It’s a great way to knit and help someone at the same time. When I get through with the needs in this town, I’ll move on to the surrounding ones. I want everyone to be wrapped in God’s love when they put on one of my shawls. They are given to people who need comfort and prayer.” She weaved her way through the throng of people to get her camera for the cake cutting.
He liked how she thought. Why hadn’t he noticed before? Because this assignment was temporary like all his others. It was better not to get emotional or notice someone he could be attracted to. That only made it harder to leave in the end, and he was afraid if he got too involved in Maggie’s life, she would make him want to stay. Not good in the long run. Not after what he’d gone through with Beth.
As guests surged forward for a taste of the cake, Zane approached him. “What are you doing back here in the corner? Don’t tell me you’re going to escape before the party really gets going.”
With an attempted suicide of one of his patients, it had been a long week. Cody was looking forward to doing nothing tomorrow except go to church then crash afterward. “Parties aren’t my thing.”
Zane’s eyes widened. “I’m surprised you say that. You’re always so at ease with people.”<
br />
At a cost to himself. “I have to be, or no one would tell me their worries.”
“Personally, I’m glad they do. What you did for Keith was great. We actually have a relationship. Something I never thought would happen.”
“The way you feel about Kim, I’m sure you would have found a way.”
“Before you skip out, let’s set up a meeting early next week to discuss the housing project.”
“How about Wednesday?”
“The Fourth of July? You aren’t working, are you?”
“I forgot that’s next week. I don’t have my calendar with me, but I’m sure I didn’t plan anything for the Fourth.”
A slow grin spread across Zane’s face. “I’ve found someone who works as much as I do. Tell you what, we’ll talk on the Fourth while we’re on my boat. I’m taking the family out to Eagle Island. We’ll be back in time to see the fireworks off the Point.”
“I don’t want to intrude.” He particularly kept his distance with families. Sometimes he wished...
“Nonsense. You’ve been around enough to know we don’t stand on ceremony. We’ll be leaving bright and early. I’m not taking no for an answer. On the boat you’ll actually be able to relax, and you of all people know how important relaxation is for a person’s mental health.”
“You’re playing dirty.” Cody laughed. “Okay. What can I bring?”
“Nothing. You’re a guest. We’ll even have towels if you decide to go swimming at the island.”
“Fine—” The ping of Cody’s cell phone interrupted the rest of his sentence. He withdrew it from his pocket and saw another text from his kid sister. Where are you? He looked at his friend. “I’ve got to take this.”
“Everything all right?”
“Just my sister.” Cody headed for the back door to step outside onto the gallery where it was quiet. His sister only texted him when she was having problems. The last one was her way of asking him to call her. Now.
Shelter of Hope (New Beginnings Book 8) Page 2