Escaping the Past (Wester Farms) (36 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lou stood by the pond at the park, watching Sarah as she played. Her mind was so full of problems she couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down. She was definitely her mother’s daughter. She was pregnant and alone. Brody didn’t want her enough to stay or even to ask her to go with him.

Lou squared her shoulders, though, and sat up straight. “I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again,” she whispered quietly against the wind.

Then Lou heard a male voice behind her, breaking into her thoughts.

“Lou?” Brody said.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at her watch. “I thought you had a plane to catch?”

“I do. I did.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But, when you ran away, I realized I needed to explain a few things to you before I go.”

Lou’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you need to explain?”

“I wasn’t leaving you,” he said slowly.

“But you had a plane to catch,” Lou said, bewildered.

“I did. It was supposed to be a surprise. But I am afraid I might have waited too long.”

“Would you stop talking in riddles?” she said, growing cross.

“I was going to go home, pack up my apartment and rent a U-Haul to bring it all back here. I quit my job. I have a new job at the hospital here in town.”

“You do?” she asked quietly.

He sighed. “Do you remember that day we went to the jewelry store and I had the big box and the little box?”

“Yeah,” she said cautiously.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small box. He flipped it open and held it out for her to see. “I took it to have it cleaned.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, still not understanding.

He dropped to one knee. A tear rolled down her cheek and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I took it to be cleaned so I could give it to you…” he said shyly. “When I ask you to marry me.”

“Why do you want to marry me?” she asked, taking the box from his outstretched hand.

He stood up and drew her close to him. He kissed her forehead.

“Because I want you,” he said.

Her face fell.

He kissed her nose.

“Because I need you.”

She frowned.

He lifted her chin and kissed her lips. He looked into her eyes and said, “Because I love you and can’t live without you.”

She immediately threw both arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, tears rolling down both cheeks.

He peeled her off of him and said, “Can I take it that this reaction means you feel the same way about me?”

“Oh, Brody! I love you, love you, love you.” She rained kisses across his cheeks, chin and nose. Her lips finally met his tenderly. “I always have.” She paused. “I feel a little guilty, though,” she said as he slipped the engagement ring onto his finger.

“Why?” he asked.

She said quietly against his ear, “I think I may be pregnant.”

He clutched her closer.

“You think or you know?”
H
e smiled against her neck.

“I think I know,” she said. “I was afraid to tell you because I didn’t want to take your choice away. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to stay. Or like I trapped you.”

“Woman,” he said, swatting her bottom. “You had me trapped from the first time I saw you.”

“In a good way?” Lou asked.

“In a wonderful way,” Brody replied.

Brody felt a small tug on his pants leg. He looked down to see Sarah standing there with John beside her, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Brody dropped to a crouch and picked Sarah up with his one good arm. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked.

“Are you in love with my mommy?” Sarah asked directly.

“Absolutely,” Brody replied.

“Are you in love with Brody, Mommy?” she asked, gazing at Lou.

“All the way,” she replied, smiling fondly at her daughter. Then she added. “Brody just asked me to marry him. What do you think of that?”

John took his hat off and flung it in the air, whooping loudly.

Sarah laughed out loud. “Sounds good to me,” she said, kissing Brody on the cheek. She whispered in his ear. “Now we’ll all be a family?”

“You better believe it.” Brody said.

****

The four of them left the park and headed for home. Sarah rode with John while Lou and Brody took the Jeep. Their hands were clutched together on the console, his fingers toying with hers. He flipped the engagement ring around on her finger and said, “You sure you want to marry me?”

“A better question would be, are you sure you want an instant family? There will be Sarah and me, and baby makes three.” She fondly placed his hand on her flat stomach.

“I sure hope so,” he said, his eyes meeting hers.

“Really?” she asked. He nodded. “There’s a pregnancy test under the seat,” she informed him shyly.

“You don’t say,” he replied, suddenly swerving into the parking lot at a gas station. Lou grabbed the dash and shrieked.

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

He reached beneath the seat and pulled out the brown paper bag. “We’re going to take a test,” he said.

“Here?” she questioned.

“Here,” he said, opening her door and ushering her out.

Lou giggled and followed him to the restroom. He pressed the brown bag into her hand and whispered in her ear, “Need some help?”

She blushed and went through the bathroom door.

Inside the stall, Lou’s heart raced as though she had run a four-minute mile. She capped the test and slid it back into the bag without looking at the results.

She washed her hands and ran her fingers through her hair in front of the mirror.

Brody knocked insistently on the door. “You had better get your cute little fanny out here,”
he said
.

She blew the hair from her eyes as she walked back out. Her eyes met his, her cheeks rosy and her heart still fluttering.

“Well?” he asked.

“Well, what?” she toyed with him.

“Are we?” he asked.

She held the bag out to him. “I don’t know. I’m afraid to look.”

He snatched the bag from her hand and opened it. He read the side of the stick. His face fell. “I’m sorry, Lou.”

“We’re not?” she asked, her hand over her heart.

He grinned wildly. “Oh
,
no! We are!” He picked her up with his one good arm and swung her around as she clutched his shoulders, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Then why are you sorry?” she scolded, slapping his shoulder.

He dropped low in front of her and kissed her belly. “’Cause now, you’re stuck with me forever.” He stood back up and kissed her lips. “You would have been stuck with me anyway. This just makes it better. Let’s go home.”

Lou and Brody drove up to the house and saw Jeb, Sadie, Sarah and John sitting on the porch. They got out of the truck slowly and wa
l
ked up the steps to join them. Lou held out her left hand to show it to Sadie.

“I just heard the good news,” Sadie said, clutching Lou to her in an embrace.

Jeb held out his hand to Brody. “Congratulations, son.”

“Thanks, Jeb,” Brody said
.

Lou shaded her eyes with her hand as a cloud of dust
rumbled
up the driveway. “Who could that be?” she asked.

The dark sedan stopped in front of the house and
Wes
stepped from the car. “I hope you guys can stand one more surprise,” he yelled as he walked over and opened the passenger door.

They all held their breath. Lou watched as one beaded shoe hit the ground and then the other. Then she gasped out loud to see a woman stand up and look over the tinted glass of the open door.

Lou stood still for just a moment and then said, “Mom?”

The woman nodded and started to run toward Lou. Lou met her halfway and grabbed her in a tight hug. Everyone on the porch was silent.

Lou stepped back and grabbed her mother’s hands in her own. Barely able to talk past the lump in her throat, she asked, “How did you…
?
”

Wes
answered for her. “Witness protection program. We were watching her the whole time. We let Jerry think they had killed her by reporting to the newspapers that a woman’s body was found inside after the fire. In fact, I got her out through the back door as the fire started.”

Lou felt a tug on her shirt and looked down to find Sarah’s brown eyes, so like her own, staring back up at her. “Who is that lady?” she asked in a whisper, one hand cupped around her mouth.

Lou’s mother dropped down to kneel before Sarah. “You must be Sarah,” she said, taking in the girl’s dark hair and eyes. She ran her hands up the child’s arm, as though checking to ensure she was real. “I’m…”

“Mom, wait,” Lou interrupted, suddenly nervous. Brody’s arm slid around her shoulders, offering moral support.

Her mother held up one finger and placed it to her lips, saying, “Shh.” She looked at Lou. “It’s okay,” she added softly.

She looked at Sarah again and said, “I have not seen you since you were a little bitty thing. But,” her eyes met Lou’s as she ended, “I am your Grandma, your mother’s mother.”

Sarah took her Grandma’s hand in her own and said pleasantly, “My mommy is getting married.”

“She is?” Lou’s mother said with wonder, tears falling from her eyes. She walked along with Sarah as she pulled her over to the swing set, talking non-stop.

Brody pull
ed
her closer. He kissed her softly.

“Does it get any better than this?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a smile. “It only gets better from here,” he said as they turned to go inside.

Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next book in the Wester Farms trilogy, A SOFT PLACE TO FALL.

A Soft Place to Fall

Prologue

Olivia Barrett rolled over in the hospital bed and clutched the pillow to her middle, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.  The door to her room open
ed
with a click and she held her breath.  She glanced over her shoulder and visibly relaxed when her doctor, dressed in baby blue scrubs, entered the room holding a small plastic cup in his hand.

Dr. Stone passed the cup to her.  “This will help with the pain,” he said gently.  Olivia took the cup and dumped the pills into her mouth, washing them down with water.   She slowly looked up at the man beside the bed.

“
Anything else I can get you
?” he asked quietly.  Olivia refused to meet his eyes as he took in the bruises on her face and forearms.  He sighed long and loud before he reached for her wrist so he could take her pulse.  “I have been your doctor for six years, Olivia.  I had my suspicions, but I never expected anything like this to happen.  You’ve lost something precious –,” he started.

But she cut him off.  “Stop! I don’t want to talk about it,” she cried. “I will not discuss it right now.”

“You do know that he could kill you next time?  Right?” Peter asked as he pulled a chair closer to the bedside.  He flipped through the chart in front of him and then sat back and crossed his legs, one foot over his knee.  “If you’re not going to talk to me, you have to talk to someone,” he said, blandly.

“What’s to talk about?” Olivia asked, rolling over onto her back.  “You had better go.  He’ll be back any minute.  He just went for coffee.”  She glanced anxiously toward the door.

“I’m not afraid of him,” the doctor said, shrugging his broad shoulders.  “But I’m afraid
for you
,” he said, his tone completely different from that of the even-tempered, thirty-something doctor that she’d seen through the years.

“I’ll be fine,” Olivia grunted, wincing as she adjusted her body in the bed.  “It was just an accident.”

Peter flipped anxiously through her charts.  “There’s no reason for a healthy young woman to fall down a staircase three times in four years.”  He flipped again.  “No one is unlucky enough break their forearm on two different occasions, all because of stupid mistakes.”

“I’m just very accident prone,” Olivia said, avoiding his gaze.

“Why haven’t you ever reported him to the police?” the doctor asked solemnly.

“He
is
the police,” Olivia groaned helplessly as she rubbed her eyes with her fists.

“I guess you can go home,” the doctor sighed.  “I don’t want to send you back there, but until you’re willing to talk to me…”

“I want to go home,” she said quietly.

The doctor reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card.   “Next time you even get a hint of it – that he’s about to get violent –
call this number.” He hastily scribbled his personal contact information on the card and held it out to her.

“He promises that he won’t ever do it again,” Olivia said, pushing the card back at him.

“How many times has he told you that before?” he asked.

“He just gets really stressed out at work,” she started.

“That’s not an excuse,” he said, cutting her off.

She startled as her husband entered the room carrying a dozen roses.  The cloying scent of his heavy cologne reached Olivia long before he did.  She hated the way he smelled.  It reminded her of a rest-stop bathroom smell.

“You ‘bout ready to go home, babe?” he asked as he bent to kiss Olivia on the cheek.  She flinched.

“Yeah, Richard,” she tried to recover and smiled slowly back at him.  “All ready to go.” She sat up slowly in the bed and realized that the doctor could see the faded bruises that shadowed her back through the opening in her gown.  She reached back to close it.  She couldn’t help but notice doctor gritting is teeth as he watched her walk gingerly into the bathroom.

He was gone when she came out of the bathroom, but a discharge nurse had taken his place.  She gave Olivia a bottle of pain pills, discharge notes, grief pamphlets and she added Peter’s business card to the top of the stack.  Olivia took them all and tucked them in her purse.

“The doctor said for you to call him if you need him for anything.”  Olivia fought the urge to cry as the nurse’s eyes met hers.  They all knew.  They knew about her shame.  And what had happened to her.  “He said to call him for anything, even small concerns.”

“I understand,” Olivia said slowly, hissing through her teeth as she slid her swollen foot into her sandals.

****

Olivia spent the next few days in relative comfort.  She stayed in bed for two days, per the doctor’s orders and then cooked and cleaned and did all the things that she normally did and Richard was calm and comfortable, patronizing even.  But those days usually didn’t last very long and Olivia knew it.

It lasted for about a week before she started to see the signs again.

They sat at the dinner table, eating their meal when Richard suddenly spat his food across the room.

Olivia jumped up and grabbed a napkin from the table to clean the mess off the floor.  She bent to clean the carpet and heard him say, “You can’t even get a simple dinner right, can you?”  She hung her head and took a deep breath.

Olivia knew better than to respond.  She walked into the kitchen and threw the food in the trash and turned to wash her hands in the sink.  They trembled as she soaped and rinsed them.  It was happening again.

She looked longingly at the wedding photo that hung on the wall in the den.  Where had that man gone?  Where was the man that she had fallen in love with?  Where was the man who loved her back?

Run!
  Her inner voice screamed.

“Can you get me a beer before you come back?” he bellowed at her.

“Yes, Richard.  I’ll be right there,” she replied.  She reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer, opening it and watching the steam rise from the mouth.  As she stared into it, she noticed her purse hanging on the back of the informal dining chair in the kitchen.  Dr. Stone’s phone number was on that card. She unzipped it and reached in, retrieving the card and the bottle of pills that the nurse had given her at the hospital.

Just a few minutes.  Just a few minutes was all she needed to get away.

She jumped as she heard him bellow again.  “Olivia!”  She pinched the skin on the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and took a deep breath before turning the cap of the medicine bottle with the flat of her hand and shaking the pills into her palm.  How many?  There were ten in the bottle.

Two would probably make him tired.  She took two spoons and put two pills between the fronts and back of the spoon and ground them into powder.   She shook the powder into the beer.  But two more would make him sleep.  She ground two more.  Unable to remember how many she’d already added to the beer, she ground two more and dumped them in for good measure.  She tucked the bottle into the pocket of her jeans.

She jumped as she heard him step up behind her.  “Did you get lost, bitch?” he asked, snatching the beer from her hand.

He lifted the beer to his lips and took a sip.  “You just better be glad it’s still cold,” he said as he sat back in his recliner and put his feet up.  He lifted the beer to his lips again and took a long draw.  She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.  He drained the bottle dry.  Anticipating his needs, she pulled another from the fridge and held it out to him, taking the empty one.

She cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher.  There was nothing that Richard hated more than a messy home.  She watched from under hooded lashes as he turned on ESPN and settled deeper into his chair, watching him as his lids grew heavier and heavier.  She frantically searched her pocket for the business card.  Richard didn’t like for her to be able to make calls when he was at work, so there was no phone in the home.

She tiptoed quietly over to his side and saw that his cell phone was still in its place on his belt.  She slowly reached and touched it.  She jumped as he flinched in the chair and stood quietly to see if he would settle back down.

She gingerly tugged the phone and twisted it to remove it from the cradle at his belt.  She turned and walked quickly with it down the hallway to the bedroom, closing the door behind her and pressing her back to it.  Her breath rushed in and out as she flipped the phone open.  She glanced at the slip of paper that was held between her thumb and forefinger and dialled the phone.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

“Hello?” a male voice said.

“H-hi.  M-my name is Olivia.  Can I please speak to Dr. Stone?”

“Hi, Olivia.  This is Peter.  What’s up?”

“Y-you said that I could call you if I ever needed help,” she stammered.

There was a pause for a second. “Do you need help?” he asked.

“I think so,” Olivia replied.

“Where is he?” Peter asked.

“Sleeping,” Olivia whispered, tears escaping from beneath her eyelids as she the clenched them tightly.

“Tell me where you are.”

She gave him her address.

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.  Pack what you want to take with you.  We’ll provide the rest.”

“Who’s we?” she asked quietly.

“Friends,” he replied and she could hear the smile in his voice.  “I’m on the way.  Meet me outside.”

Olivia took a sport’s bag from the closet and filled it full of her clothes.  She turned and swept the jewellery from the top of the dresser into the bag.  Then she walked around to her husband’s nightstand and bent to open the drawer.  It was, of course, locked.  She tiptoed into the office and lifted a letter opener from the top of the desk.  She had contemplated this scenario in her head hundreds of times but was always afraid to break the lock.  She inserted the tip of the letter opener into the flimsy lock and twisted with all her might.  Olivia felt the lock break and she slid the drawer open.

She rummaged through the drawer until she found a small, locked rectangular box.  She placed it on the bed and turned to open the lock, not entirely sure what she was taking.  Then lights shot across the window from the headlights of a car.  She threw the metal lock box into the bag and walked back down the hall.   Olivia grabbed her purse and threw it over her shoulder.

Richard still sat in the same position in the chair.  She looked longingly at the wedding photo.  That man no longer existed.  And neither did that girl.  She pulled her wedding ring from her finger and dropped it on the coffee table, watching it roll until it settled with a clank.

She opened Richard’s phone again and called 911. When the operator picked up, she simply said, “I think my husband has tried to commit suicide.  He won’t wake up.”  She gave the address and clicked the phone closed.   She put the phone on the coffee table beside her wedding ring.

As she opened the front door and slipped outside, she saw the door of the car open as it was pushed from the inside. She bent and looked into the car, meeting the smiling eyes of Dr. Peter Stone.

“Ready?” he asked as she slid into the seat.

“As I’ll ever be,” she replied as she closed the car door and sat back, drawing in a deep breath.  She met his eyes when he turned to look at her.

“Why do you care?” she asked quietly.

“I had a sister, once,” he replied.

“Once?” she asked.  “What happened to her?”

“She died,” he answered, cracking his window and lighting a cigarette.  “Do you mind?” he asked as he flicked his Bic.

“No,” she shrugged.  “Go ahead.  Nasty habit, though,” she couldn’t help adding.  “What happened to your sister?” she whispered.

“Same thing that was happening to you,” he said, blowing a stream of smoke toward the crack in the window.  “He would have finally killed you.  Or beaten you down to the point where you wanted to die.”  He looked at her.

“I would rather die than live like that for one more day,” she said with conviction in her voice.  “I’m just sorry that it took too long for me to realize it.”

“Good. I have good things in store for you.”

“What?” she asked.

“First, we’re going to get you to a safe place.  You can stay with my wife and I for a few days.”

“Then what?”

“Then you get a brand new start.  You’ll be self-sufficient, responsible only to yourself,” he said.  “What skills do you have?”

“None,” Olivia said blandly.

“He’s told you that for way too long,” Peter replied and tapped her nose playfully.  “What’s the thing that you enjoyed most as a child?”

Olivia thought long and hard.  “Horses,” she stated.

“Horses?” he laughed.  “Never heard that one before,” he said, throwing his cigarette butt out the window.  “But horses it is.  You afraid to get dirty?”

She laughed.  “Why?”

“I think I have the perfect place for you,” Peter stated, tapping his forehead.  “One of the doctors at the hospital inherited a horse farm.  Name is Dr. Broden Wester.  Place is in the middle of nowhere.  Might be the perfect place to get a new start.”