In His Eyes (3 page)

Connor listened to the sounds above him, longing for life to have taken a different turn. Would his life have been different if he’d controlled himself with Melanie? Could he have resolved the problem with Ellene and gotten back together?

Though he’d tried, Connor couldn’t remember how he and Ellene had become friends, but they had. They had been raised differently. She’d been born into a family he’d never experienced. Her parents lived well, enjoying their Italian heritage. He could picture the lovely home surrounded by flowers and trees. Her mother, always neatly dressed, wore jewelry and perfume. She attended social functions and volunteered at one of the charity foundations, while her father ran the family business. They had money and luxuries. Their family gatherings were loud and full of food and love.

His own family struggled to make ends meet. His mom worked behind the counter at a dollar store, and his dad worked in a small factory, coming home with grime beneath his fingernails and smelling of cigarette smoke.

Another noise from above caused Connor to turn and look up. Enough of wondering what was happening with Caitlin and Ellene. He strode across the room and up the staircase.

The second story reminded him why Ellene had come to the cabin. The upper floor held two small rooms with limited closet space, hardly a place for a young girl to feel at home. Caitlin had the larger room, but the smaller one had become a storage area with boxes and unused furniture that needed to be tossed out. Connor longed to make one lovely room for Caitlin with space to spare.

He strode past the smaller room and stood outside Caitlin’s door. “So how’s it going?” he asked as he stepped inside.

Ellene was sitting on the corner of the bed while Caitlin stood in the middle of the room, pointing toward the closet.

“Are you telling Ellene what you want up here?”

“I don’t want anything. I told you.” Her piercing voice was followed by the sweep of her hand across a night table. The contents clattered to the floor. “You never listen to me. I’m telling her what the other girl wants.”

“What other girl?” he asked.

The child’s face darkened to crimson as she shook her finger at him. “The girl Ellene said who’ll live in this house.”

“That’s enough, Caitlin.” Connor struggled to
keep his voice calm. He stepped forward, catching her by the arm and drawing her to his side. “I’m sorry. I forgot, but you can’t be rude like this.”

Ellene rose from the bed and edged toward the door, looking uneasy. “I’ll be downstairs.”

He returned his attention to Caitlin, embarrassed that Ellene had to see his daughter’s worst behavior. He closed his eyes a minute to gather his thoughts. “I can’t let you treat an adult this way, Caitlin. If I were mean to you then I might deserve this, but I love you, and I only want the best for you.”

Her belligerent look faded as tears pooled in her eyes and she reached up for him to lift her into his arms. She tilted her head forward and rested her chin on his shoulder, tears flowing onto his shirt. His chest heaved with sadness as he cuddled his daughter. Lately she’d changed from a shy, quiet child to a withdrawn, angry one.

Connor held Caitlin in his arms, smelling the lemony scent of her shampoo mingled with the chocolate aroma on her breath. After she quieted he settled her on the bed and stood beside her, caressing her hair while his vision blurred from the moisture in his own eyes.

What could he do? He wanted to invest in a new business—his own business—and he couldn’t do that without more financing. His house in the Detroit suburbs would bring a good price and help start his business and still pay for renovations on the cottage.
He’d do anything to make Caitlin content, but he didn’t think the house or cabin had anything to do with it. Caitlin needed attention. She needed love, and he couldn’t seem to give her enough of either.

“I want you to stay here until you feel like being more friendly. Ellene is here on business, and I have to talk with her.”

Caitlin didn’t respond. He shook his head and turned to the stairs.

“What kind of business?”

Her soft voice surprised him, and he turned toward her. “She’s a building contractor.”

“What’s that?” She rolled over to face him.

Connor’s chest tightened seeing her confused face. “She’s a person who helps remodel a business or a house. She helps people decide which rooms to add or how to change them.”

Caitlin frowned. “But she seems like your friend.”

“I’ve known her and her father for many years.”

“She has a daddy, too?”

“Yes. Mr. Bordini.”

“And a mommy?”

A lump caught in Connor’s throat. “Yes.”

“I thought so.”

Fighting a lump in his throat, Connor could only nod.

Caitlin rolled back to face the wall.

“I’ll talk to you later, sweetheart,” he said, heading once again for the staircase.

“I know. You got business,” she mumbled.

Business. Yes, he had business with Ellene, but the word seemed so incompatible with the deeper relationship they’d once had. Seeing her now brought back those old unpleasant feelings. No surprise, really. Their parting had been shocking to him. He wondered if she’d ever realized how devastated he’d been. It hadn’t been what he’d wanted, but pride and stubbornness had stopped him from begging her to take back the ring. He’d walked away.

Things happen for a reason, and later he’d realized the breakup had probably been for the best. Since Connor hadn’t been a strong Christian then, he’d feared he could never meet her parents’ expectations or make Ellene happy. Their relationship, he worried, would have brought heartache for everyone.

At the bottom of the stairs, Connor drew in a lengthy breath, then stepped into the room.

Ellene stood by the doorway, looking through the window into the porch.

“Today isn’t a good day for Caitlin.”

When he spoke, she turned to face him. “It’s probably because I’m here.” She lifted a finger and drew it around a lock of hair.

“It’s not that.” He wanted to explain, but he didn’t have the answer himself. It was so many things.

She seemed to wait, and when he didn’t add to his comment, she glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late. I should finish up here and get on my way.”

His pulse skipped as she stepped closer to him. “By the time we finish, it’ll be getting dark. How about staying for dinner?”

She hesitated, then stiffened. “No, Connor, but thanks. Let’s get started. I would really like to finish before dark. It’s a long drive home.”

Connor feared he’d pushed too hard, and he knew Ellene too well. When she meant business, that was it.

A sarcastic tone edged his words. “Okay, let’s get this finished.”

A
fter an hour of talking about the cabin, Ellene settled onto one of Connor’s dining-room chairs and lifted the lid on her laptop. She opened her software program and began pulling together the renovation details they’d discussed.

Connor had finally left her alone while he worked at the kitchen counter, probably preparing their evening meal. She glanced at him occasionally, seeing him stare into the refrigerator and study the inside of the pantry. She forced herself to concentrate. She needed to input the figures and ideas they’d discussed, then get on the road. The trip home would take over an hour even without the weekday traffic, and the longer she stayed the more confused she became. For so many years, she’d dragged around her negative attitude about Connor, yet today he’d even made her laugh.

She studied the yellow legal pad as a garbled
notation hopped from the page. “You’re willing to lose four feet of the great room to expand the bathroom and bedroom downstairs. Is that what we agreed? I can’t read my notes.”

“Right. If we make the porch a year-round room, I can spread the sitting area out even more, and we’ll leave the far end of the porch as it is.” He glanced her way. “Is that right?”

“The last twelve feet will remain a screened-in porch. Correct.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and she only noticed Caitlin when her shadow fell over her scribbled notes.

The girl leaned over her shoulder and looked at the screen. “What are you doing?”

“I’m typing information.”

“Can I type?”

“I’m working right now, Caitlin, but I know computers are fun. They have all kinds of information and even programs for kids.”

Caitlin drew back. “I know.”

Ellene chuckled at her blunt retort.

The little girl touched the edge of the keyboard. “We have computers at my school.”

“Computers are the backbone of communication.”

Caitlin’s face screwed into a disbelieving look. “Computers don’t have backbone. People do.”

Ellene laughed and glanced at Connor who sent her a wry smile. “I mean, it’s very important in business. We can talk with people all over the world.”

Caitlin lifted her eyebrows. “Talk?”

“Not talk, but write to people or read information from other countries.”

“On e-mail,” Caitlin said.

The child’s simple response made Ellene grimace at her lack of experience talking with children.

Caitlin faced Connor. “Daddy, we should get a computer for home, too.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Maybe we should, but Caitlin, right now, you shouldn’t bother Ellene.”

“It’s okay,” But was it? Ellene felt her heartstrings tangling around the little girl. She needed to remain uninvolved before she got hurt again.

Caitlin leaned closer to the monitor. “Do you have games on your computer?”

“A few.” Ellene paused a moment to shoo her away, then thought better of it and hit the minimize button. “This is the desktop. See this right here.” She cringed suspecting Caitlin knew about the desktop.

Caitlin nodded as Ellene clicked an icon. A noise hummed and clicked as a machine came onto the screen while Caitlin giggled.

“What’s that?” the child asked, pressing her finger against the monitor.

“It’s pinball. You’re too young for this game, but adults like it.”

Caitlin leaned closer, watching Ellene shoot the ball. “We don’t have games like that at school.”

The sound pulled Connor from the kitchen area,
and he wandered to her side and leaned over, viewing the screen. “I’ve never played computer games.”

“You’re kidding,” Ellene said. “What world do you live in?” Silence hung between them for a moment.

“The world of a single dad.”

Her stomach knotted, getting his message.

“Look,” she said, hoping to ease the uncomfortable moment. “Here are the keys to use the flippers and bumpers, and you use the space bar to shoot the ball.”

Caitlin giggled as Ellene’s ball skittered across the screen, bouncing into a worm hole and rattling against the bumpers. She gave the ball another whack, and it rebounded, sending her score upward.

“My turn!” Connor said, then chuckled at himself. “Could I try?”

She grinned at the childlike way he’d requested a chance to play, and she rose, allowing him to slip into the chair. He tested the keys, getting used to the flippers, before he began his turn. When he shot the first ball, he missed, and it vanished down the chute. No score.

He gave her a silly grin while his knee tapped as he pushed the space key that triggered the ball into the playing field.

Ellene forgot herself, watching him play the game and delighting in Caitlin’s amazement. But, noticing the clock hands, she realized too much time had slipped away. She’d let down her guard and had gotten caught up in Connor’s company. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

She touched Connor’s shoulder, aware of the muscles that rolled beneath her palm. “I need to get going, Connor. I have to break up your fun.”

He halted and dropped his hand from the keyboard. “Sorry. I got carried away.”

Caitlin slipped her arm around his shoulder. “Get us one, daddy,” she pleaded in his ear. “We can play games.”

“It keeps them busy,” Ellene said, seeing the excitement on Caitlin’s face.

Caitlin pressed her palms on Connor’s cheeks and turned his face to hers. “It keeps kids busy, Daddy.”

Ellene hid her grin.

Connor rose, and Ellene slipped back into the chair without comment.

Caitlin continued to watch her as she input the data. Ellene longed to get out of there and finish the job back in the office, but she feared she couldn’t read what she’d scribbled.

The aroma of ground meat drifted around her, and her stomach gnawed silently. She wished he’d let her leave before preparing their meal, but glancing at the time, she realized he had every right to get their dinner ready.

One notation confused her, and she stopped and reread the note. “Connor, we need to double check the porch.” She rose and headed for the doorway.

When she looked back, Connor had lowered the burner on the stove and turned to follow her. They
stepped into the icy surroundings. Snowmobiles flew across the frozen channel, drawing her memory back to the large hunks of ice jamming against each other in the water as she crossed Lake St. Clair from the mainland.

She shivered, and Connor drew nearer, his arms rising, then lowering again as if he wanted to put them around her. “It’s too cold to be out here without a coat,” he said.

“It’ll only take a minute.” She hurried to the far side of the enclosure and pointed. “We want to begin the screened porch here.”

“Right.”

She handed him the end of the tape measure and backed up to the far wall. “Sixteen feet for the room’s length, then. I know it’s eleven and a half wide.” She drew in the tape as she returned to him. “What about this window over the sink? What did you decide?”

“You suggested leaving it as a window to pass food out for a picnic, and then you said you could block it with shelving on the inside.” He rubbed his temple as if the action would clear his memory. “I think that was it.”

“Which do you prefer? I like the opening.”

“Me, too, but what I’d really like is to get you inside.” He stepped behind her and grasped her arms, then shifted her around to face the doorway into the house. The heat from his nearness swept up her arms into her chest, and she felt his warm breath against her cheek.

Ellene longed to jerk from his grasp, but the feeling was too pleasant. Fighting her own longing, she eased away with her one-word reminder. “Business.”

Connor’s gaze lowered, and his smile faded. “It’s easy to forget.”

“Well, don’t, or you’ll have to find another contractor to handle this.” She winced. Once again, she could see her father’s face as he reprimanded her for not letting the past go and not handling the job like a professional.

Connor pushed open the outside door, and when they stepped in, Caitlin was sitting in the chair, staring at the computer.

Connor sucked in a gasp. “You didn’t touch anything, did you sweetheart?”

The child looked at him with a frown. “No.”

“Good,” he said, ignoring the look. He moved toward the fireplace and tossed a log onto the kindling, then struck a match.

Ellene watched mesmerized as the kindling burst into flames and licked upward toward the bark. The flicker lent a homey look to the large room.

When she turned, Caitlin scooted off the chair and let Ellene sit again to finish her work. She glanced at her watch. “I’m just about done.” She scrolled the document, then hit Save and closed the program.

The aroma from Connor’s dinner preparations blanketed her. This time her stomach gave a soft growl.

Caitlin tittered at the sound, then stepped back to let Ellene rise. “Are you going home?”

“I sure am. It’s late.”

Connor looked over his shoulder. “Why won’t you eat with us, Ellene? It’s almost ready. Goulash. Not gourmet but filling.”

“Eat with us,” Caitlin said, a whole different child than Ellene had met when she arrived.

“Sorry. I really must go.”

She closed the computer and snapped the lock, but as she reached for the handle, the side doorbell chimed. Before Connor answered it, the door swung open. An elderly woman in a navy pea jacket slipped inside, wearing boots that looked big enough to fit Connor. When she turned, Ellene recognized Connor’s aunt.

“Aunt Phyllis,” Connor said, stepping over to give her a hug. “Come in. You remember Ellene.”

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. “The mind isn’t what it used to be, but I could never forget Ellene.” She grasped Ellene’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “How are you dear? It’s so good to see you.”

“I’m fine, and nice to see you,” Ellene said, surprised at the woman’s warm greeting.

Aunt Phyllis dragged snow across the room as she sought Caitlin and pulled her into an embrace.

“You’re too cold,” Caitlin said drawing back.

“It’s colder than the Arctic out there, and it’s starting to snow heavily again.”

Connor shifted to the fireplace, tossing on a smaller branch, then poked at the wood, sending sparks skittering up the flue.

Snow. Ellene had seen enough snow the past year to keep her happy for many white Christmases. “Then I’d better—”

“Did you just drop by for a visit?” Connor’s aunt asked.

“Not really. My father owns Bordini Construction, and I’m working up an estimate for a renovation project.”

Connor gave her a disappointed look, and Ellene realized he hadn’t shared the information with his aunt.

“Sorry,” she mouthed, trying to block the view from Aunt Phyllis. “He’s just thinking about it,” Ellene added, hoping to smooth her faux pas.

“I wanted to surprise you, Aunt Phyllis, once I knew it was a go. I know how disappointed you get when—”

“God be praised,” the woman said. “I’d have my prayers answered if you were thinking of moving here, Connor. I don’t like being alone on the island when things happen.”

When things happen.
The words sounded ominous, but Ellene wasn’t going to ask what things. Not knowing seemed the lesser of evils.

Aunt Phyllis pulled off her jacket and lapped it over the back of a chair. “Last year we were without
electricity for nearly a week when the lines froze. It’s not uncommon here on the island.”

Connor sputtered a laugh. “Aunt Phyllis if you’re trying to encourage me to move to the island, that won’t help my enthusiasm.”

“Let the Lord be in charge, Connor.”

Ellene felt her brows lift, wondering what she meant.

Aunt Phyllis must have noticed her arched eyebrows and Connor’s gaping mouth. “Proverbs sixteen,” she said. “A man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Ellene hid her grin as she watched Connor sort through the words. Her gaze shifted to the blaze dancing in the fireplace while glowing embers sprinkled from the grate onto the hearth.

“You can plan all you want, Connor,” his aunt said, “but if the good Lord wants you living on the island, that’s where you’ll be.”

Connor scooted past her and whispered in Ellene’s ear as he headed for the stove. “If the good Lord or Aunt Phyllis wants it. That’s why I was keeping mum…until I was positive.”

“Sorry, Ellene said. But she couldn’t help but grin, hearing the woman putting Connor in his place. “I suppose I’d better—”

“Something smells good.” Phyllis turned toward the stove and leaned around Connor’s back to look into the pan. “Goulash. I haven’t had that in a long time.”

“You’re welcome to join us.”

“I wouldn’t be in the way?” She looked at Ellene as if asking her.

“You’re not in the way,” Connor said. “You’re always welcome to eat with us when we’re here.”

“I wasn’t worried about you,” Phyllis said. “I was asking Ellene.”

Ellene pressed her hand against her chest. “Me?”

Phyllis nodded. “You’re the guest here.”

“But I’m leaving. I was just getting my things together.”

Phyllis tilted her head to the side, a wry look on her face. “Leaving?”

“I’m heading home,” Ellene said again.

Phyllis broke into a chuckle. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m not?”

“That’s what I came over to tell you. The ice is jammed tighter than a jar of pickles. You’re not getting off this island tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow from what I hear.”