The Promise

by Robyn Carr

  “I’ve thought about that. Will wants to know if he can move down there.”

  “Are you going to let him?”

  “Eventually, I guess. I think it might lose some of its charm once he’s allowed down there all the time. How are you? How’s everyone?”

  She sighed. “I’m exhausted, but not from Adele and the baby—they’re easy. My brother-in-law Lucas is around so much these days. He runs between home and the restaurant. He accepts his family’s offerings, but only he cooks for his wife and for me. And his family—typical big Basque family—are here every day. Some of them drive for hours to stay a little while because Lucas and Adele have a pretty small flat in the city, and I have the baby’s room right now. They’re looking for a house, but they want to stay near the restaurant because his hours are crazy. When they find a bigger place and his entire family can come and stay over, I will be sure not to be here. They’re lovely people, but seriously—how much extended family can one person take?”

  “Will your parents come?” he asked.

  “Ah, they can’t. The pears have been harvested, and the potatoes are coming in. It’s such a busy farm during the harvest. And this year they’re going to cut Christmas trees.”

  “Christmas trees?” he asked.

  “Part of the farm is a tree farm. Papa started them a long time ago, and they’re finally reaching the height needed to bring the best price. And get this—rather than selling them to a distributor or retailer, he’s going to hire flatbeds and send my brother Matt and some crew to sell them where they’ll have the best chance of succeeding, like Las Vegas or Phoenix.” She laughed. “I’m dying to see if Papa goes with them to manage them. He can’t keep his nose out of anything.”

  “Christmas trees,” Scott said. “That farm does it all.”

  “They try. Adele will take the baby to the farm before it gets too cold up there, but I don’t know if Lucas can stay sane through much more time off. He’s starting to twitch. How’s the clinic doing?”

  “It’s limping along. The doctor misses you, but I miss you most when the clinic is closed.”

  “Ah, you are so brave, going it alone,” she said.

  “I wasn’t going to ask this,” he said. “Have you heard from Ted?”

  “Not a word. But then, his number is blocked, remember? And he doesn’t know I’m in San Francisco unless you told him.”

  “Me? Believe me, Ted isn’t going to check in with me!”

  “I talk to you at least twice a day, and you never ask me when I’m coming back.”

  “I have no backbone,” he said. “I’m afraid of the answer.”

  “You have no backbone?” she asked with a laugh. “You, who took two preschoolers on a hunt for a perfect small town in which to be the only doctor? You, who hired a young woman who had just escaped from a cult to manage your office? You, who will go out to a bus accident when they’re not your patients and you’re not on call just to see if you can help?”

  “Me, who wants you to be sure this is what you want before you come back,” he said.

  “I owe you a month,” she said. “I made a commitment.”

  “That’s off the table. I’d rather have you in the best possible place than here for another month out of obligation. It’s so important you have no regrets, Peyton. But I do miss you and want you, enough to crawl through the phone. Seriously, I’d give up my life savings for one hour with you.”

  “Oh, Scott, that’s so lovely....”

  “My life savings will probably buy you a slice of Stu’s pie. You should stay away from the meat loaf. No one is sure what’s in it.”

  She laughed at him. “I miss you so much. And there’s no one I’d rather have a slice of pie with than you. Do you have a lot of patients tomorrow?”

  “A few in the morning, then I’m in Bandon in the afternoon, on call tomorrow night. The week looks busy. I’m glad of that—I want the time to pass quickly right now. When are you going to Seattle? To see that clinic?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure I will.”

  “You shouldn’t wonder if it was the right thing,” he said.

  “Right now all I can handle is a sister and newborn. But you’re right—I should make a decision if I’m going to visit, talk to the surgeon there.... You know what, Scott? When I hold the baby, she curves right to me, and I have a hard time thinking about more practical things. I just pick up a book, and I can read for hours with her warm against me, and I don’t give her up until she wants food. I feel so guilty—I shouldn’t leave a spoiled baby when I go. I’ll never hear the end of it if I do. But Mama always said you can’t hold a new baby too much. She used to tie each new baby to her in a sling. So, it’s been hard to think about things like practices in Seattle—that’s so far away.”

  “Don’t leave doubts about whether you’ve done the right thing, Peyton. Be sure. Maybe you want to check around San Francisco, close to Adele.”

  “Yes, we agreed, didn’t we?” she said somewhat sadly. “My next move should be the right one for both our sakes....”

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in limbo forever.”

  “Of course you don’t. I bet you need to get the kids in bed.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I might just crawl back under the table again.”

  “Those are the things they’re going to remember,” she said. “Camping on the beach, sleeping under the table...”

  * * *

  Gina had an evening completely to herself and decided to drop in on her mother. She laughed to herself as she pulled up to the little house where she’d lived her entire life and saw that Rawley’s cherry-red restored pickup truck was parked in front. And here she’d been so worried that Carrie would be lonely when she’d married and moved out six months ago.

  Ordinarily she would have walked right in but no more. It was a surprise enough that Carrie was keeping company with Rawley. Who knew what else might be going on behind closed doors? She knocked.

  “Well, Gina,” Carrie said, opening the front door. “You’re knocking?”

  “I didn’t want to interrupt anything. I think in the future, I’ll call to make sure you’re receiving.”

  “You’re such a goose. But what are you doing here? Alone? You seem to have more and more people trailing you every time I see you!”

  “I know. I married a large family. They all went to Eugene to watch the Ducks play, just in case the coach puts Landon in. The van was full, Cooper and Sarah were following, and I’m more than happy to just hear about it later.”

  “Tea? Coffee? Glass of wine?”

  Rawley was sitting on Carrie’s sofa, apparently watching football, his cup of coffee beside him on the sofa table.

  “Hi, Rawley,” Gina said. He lifted a hand in her direction and mumbled something back. “I’d love a beer if you have one. For old time’s sake. Remember all those times Mac used to come over with two beers, one for me and one for him, and we’d sit on the front porch in the dark?”

  “I’m afraid it’ll have to be Merlot,” Carrie said. “Have you eaten?”

  “I have, thank you. I nuked some leftovers, ate them by myself in an empty house, fed the dogs and took a long, leisurely bath. Then I thought, I hardly ever have an evening to myself, and decided to drop in on my lonely old mother.”

  Carrie handed her a glass of wine and said, “I’m certainly not that old,” she said, ignoring the comment about being lonely.

  “What are you doing here, Rawley?” Gina asked.

  He looked over at her and said, “Helping your mother.”

  “Oh? What are you helping with?”

  He lifted a bowl. “This here popcorn.”

  “We were just watching football. Come in the living room, sweetheart.”

  “But, Rawley, who’s minding the bar?”

  He turned the volume down and gave her his attention, looking a little animated. “Ain’t you heard? We got us a part-timer. Kid by name of Troy. School teacher by da
y, bartender and sweeper-upper by night four nights a week. Cooper can manage those three nights Troy isn’t around. Troy Headly is the kid’s name.”

  “I hadn’t heard that. When did that happen?”

  “About the time that baby kept Cooper and Sarah up half the night a couple weeks running, he got serious and hired himself some help. He can’t do without help around there. Besides, if Cooper’s honest with himself, he likes putting up those houses. It’s not like he does a lot of the physical labor, but he can’t be accused of letting the builder do it without plenty of advice.” He had some popcorn and said, “I prefer the mornings. I ain’t never been interested in taking care of all those people, but I’ll serve a little in the mornings, do the supply runs and keep it cleaned up, now that Landon’s quit.”

  “It turns out Rawley enjoys cooking. And since he’s promised not to share my best recipes, I’ll accept his participation,” Carrie said.

  “Had me sign a document,” Rawley said. “Confidential agreement.”

  Carrie laughed. “I didn’t.”

  “In blood,” Rawley said.

  My God, Gina thought. They’re made for each other! And no two people could be any more different. Her domestic, all-business, independent mother who dealt with people all day and this old soldier who didn’t like people. Did they talk about things? Snuggle? Kiss? She coughed suddenly. “So, you two have been dating a couple of months or so now....”

  They looked at each other with nonplussed expressions. “Dating?” Carrie said. She shook her head. “This sure isn’t the way I remember dating!”

  “I can’t remember it at all,” Rawley said.

  “We cook, watch TV, eat. Rawley helps around here or the deli if there’s something that needs to be done. If I ever go out to eat, I’m normally with Ray Anne and Lou—Rawley has very little interest in public places.”

  “I go to the stores,” he said. “I get all the supplies for Cooper and Carrie. I ain’t called upon to be real friendly at the stores.”

  Gina shook her head. “And I bet they just love to see you coming.”

  “I reckon they do love it. I bring ’em plenty of money, buying up supplies for two businesses now.”

  “Gina, Ashley said Mac got his promotion,” Carrie said.

  “He did. He’ll be supervising a couple of units or squads of deputies, and his office will now be in Coquille—not a bad commute. And since he lives here, I suppose they’ll take advantage of him when they need help around here. But his schedule will change, and he’ll be working nights. Two to midnight.”

  “Should we throw him a party?” Carrie asked. “It’s such an achievement.”

  “I never thought about it, but maybe we should. We can have a backyard thing on a Sunday afternoon right before he leaves his Thunder Point office.”

  “Oh, let’s,” Carrie said. She reached for her handy notebook. “Picnic-style barbecue or something else?”

  “Barbecue chicken, crab and pasta salad, spinach and cheese stuffed French loaves...” Gina said.

  “Stuffed mushrooms, braised red potatoes, vegetables cooked on the grill. Broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots?” Carrie asked, writing down the possibilities.

  “Oh, this sounds wonderful! I wish I’d thought of it. Maybe we should ask Mac what he’d like, since it’s his party.”

  “Don’t be silly—I know what Mac likes as well as you do,” Carrie said.

  “If we do it in a couple of weeks, it’ll still be warm enough. And the new guy will be here. The new guy is Seth Sileski, by the way.”

  “That’ll make his mother so happy,” Carrie said. “We’ll invite the Sileski family! And while we’re turning the chicken, we can upend Norm and pull that bug out of his ass.”

  Gina burst into laughter. “Perfect!”

  Sixteen

  Peyton folded her freshly laundered clothes on the bed while Adele sat in the rocker, nursing the baby. “I have to admit, I’m going to miss the city,” she said.

  “You’ll have to come back on a weekend,” Adele said. “Bring Scott and his kids. Except...”

  “Don’t worry,” she said with a laugh. “We’ll get a hotel room. We should show the kids the pier, cable cars, the sea lions.... Wait till you meet them. The kids were so excited at the farm, they were speechless. Papa was feeding them from his plate, talking the whole time, telling his lies and spinning his tales. Then he had little Will dancing with the men.”

  “A little different from the time Ted and his kids visited?”

  “Oh, just a little! That didn’t work out the way I thought it might, but I have to let go of it. It’s time to move on.”

  “You’re sure this time?”

  “It’s everything I ever wanted. Scott is everything I’ve ever wanted, though I have to figure out what’s bothering him so much right now. He’s so glum, so unlike him. It’s probably just the fact that he misses me, and no matter what I say, he worries that I’ll leave Thunder Point and we’ll never see each other again.”

  “Did you talk to that doctor in Seattle?”

  “I called her this morning. It’s kind of too bad I’m not going to get to know her better, she’s a remarkable woman. We talked for almost an hour, and I learned things about her that I didn’t know, that had I known before I met Scott I would have run to her practice. She spends six weeks a year on a hospital ship doing surgery on infants and children for a nonprofit. When I told her what I was going to be doing, she didn’t even argue her case. She thinks it’s wonderful. Her specialty doesn’t lend itself to a small-town clinic—she has to make herself more widely available. But they take on a number of needy patients every year, and they’re very proud of their work.”

  “Ted did that, too, didn’t he?”

  “Of course, though not a lot. But that’s how I fell in love with Ted—the way he works with patients. I might have noticed his good looks first, but I actually fell in love with his brilliance and his bedside manner. He could charm the doorknob off a door.” She laughed at herself. “Or charm the most stubborn patient into the right medical protocol to change their lives and make them better. It just took me a bit too long to realize all that ended when he left the office. If he cared half as much about his kids...”

  “Or his girlfriend!” Adele said.

  “He doesn’t get it, Adele.”

  “Does Scott?” Adele asked.

  “Yes, I think so. I hope so. There are a few things for us to sort through when I get back. The day you called about the baby was the same day Ted came to Thunder Point and begged me to come back to him and help him get out of his messes. Without thinking, I asked Scott about his wife in a careless way that made it sound like I was afraid he’d use me as a PA and nanny. I apologized, but I think he might be having a hard time getting past it.”

  “Oh, Peyton...”

  “It was an honest mistake, Adele. Even though Scott has never treated me the way Ted did, I was emotionally distraught after Ted’s visit, and I popped off. I think once I get back and we start to live normal lives again, it’ll fall into place. I can tell he’s a little unsure of me, even now. Afraid I can be talked into giving Ted another chance just because he’s got a real strong presentation—rich, handsome guy with a lot of nice stuff. Ted’s intimidating, you know....”

  “Oh, I know,” she said. “We all know!”

  “Poor Ted. He’s so clueless.”

  “I don’t think I can go the poor Ted route,” Adele said. “He could be a real man if he knew what a real man was.” She stood. “I’m going to change the baby,” she said, and she left the bedroom.

  Peyton folded the rest of her clean clothes, ready to start packing to leave early in the morning. Her cell phone rang, and she frowned as she saw it was a cell phone with a Portland area code. Had Ted gotten himself a new number just so he could get through to her? If so, she’d have to call Devon and ask her how to block another number. “Hello?”

  “Please,” came a small, tearful voice. “Please, help me
.”

  “Hello? Who is this?”

  “Peyton, please,” the voice said. “They’re going to make me get an abortion!”

  Peyton sank on to the bed. “Krissy?”

  “It’s me. No one will help me. Please,” she said in a whisper and a sob. “Please, help me.”

  “How do you think I’m going to help you, Krissy?”

  “I don’t know. Please, come and get me!”

  “You don’t even like me, Krissy. You didn’t like my rules. You didn’t like having me in your house.”

  “I know. I was a bitch, I know. But I don’t have anyone, and this is very bad. They made an appointment!”

  “Who did?”

  “My mom and my dad.”

  “Krissy, I know of no doctor who will give you an abortion without your consent.”

  “Are you sure? Because my parents think they can get this done. And if they do this to me, I don’t even want to live!”

  Peyton gasped. Krissy could be melodramatic and demanding and threatening, but she hadn’t ever played the suicide card that Peyton could remember. “What about the baby’s father? Can he help you? Can his parents help?”

  “There is no father. It’s just me.”

  “Of course there is, Krissy. Just tell him what’s going on and—”

  “I don’t know who the father is, okay? There’s no one. I don’t have anyone!”

  Did this girl’s parents even begin to realize how much help she needed? “Krissy, I’m not in Portland....”

  “I know. You’re in some little town somewhere down the coast, but that’s okay. I have money. I can take a bus or something. I just need somewhere to go.”

  “No, honey, I’m in San Francisco with my sister. I drove here. I’m a good twelve hours away from you by car.”

  She started sobbing. “Oh, no! Can I come there? I have to go somewhere! I have to do something!”

  “Krissy,” she said, but the girl kept crying. “Krissy, you have to stop crying and listen to me. Can you do that?”

  “Okay...okay...”

  “All right, calm down. I can’t talk to you unless you can stay calm.”