Indomitable Spirit (13 page)

“The drain pipe on the side of the building came apart again. I’ll stop by and fix it for you. Make sure nothing leaked behind the cooler,” he said as he shut the door behind him.

They climbed into his truck. Kym balanced the vase on her lap. John started the truck, with some hesitation from the engine, and backed out of the lot.

She was being quiet. Too quiet. What did Heather tell her? She wasn’t in there long enough for her to have completely turned Kym against him. But would she really do that to him? Yes, she just might.

The hospital was only another three minutes away. If there was any salvation in living in a small town it was that that awkward silence between two people in a car didn’t have to last for long.

John pulled up to the hospital and parked. The hum of the engine died when he turned off the truck. Now it was too silent.

“I’ll help you out,” he said and she reached for him.

“Tell me who she is.”

John gnawed on his lip. There was nothing to hide. He wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed. It just hurt.

“Heather?” He asked and Kym nodded. “Abigail’s sister.”

Kym’s eyes softened. “I assumed she was a relative. Pictures of the kids are hanging by the register.”

“I didn’t know she had those.” He decided he’d take a new set of school pictures with him when he went back to fix the drain pipe.

“Why the hesitation?” She asked as she pulled her hand back and touched one of the gentle petals of the tulips Heather had arranged for Wil.

John rubbed the back of his neck which was hot with sweat even sitting in the cab of the old truck which was growing very cold.

“Abigail wanted three kids.” He rubbed at his eyes which had begun to sting. “I wanted four.”

Kym was silent. This was that voodoo wasn’t it? He’d be spilling his guts in 5-4-3-2…

“I begged her for another baby until she gave in and it killed her.”

Kym reached for him again. His reaction was to pull away, but he fought that too.

“Heather and her mother blame me for her death. She’d still be here if I hadn’t needed that last child. If I’d just been happy with life the way it was Abigail would be here.”

“Do you feel that way?” she asked and her voice was soft.

He sucked in a breath of cold air. “Yes.”

Kym’s face tensed, though he was sure she wasn’t aware of it. “Cody wasn’t a mistake.”

“I know.”

“He’s a joyous little boy who needs his family.”

“I know that,” he snapped.

Her hand still rested on his arm and she gave him a squeeze. “Then make peace with it.”

“Peace with what? That I caused her to die because I wanted him?”

“Unless you did something to cause her to die then it was the way it was supposed to be.”

He turned forcing her to remove her hand. “The way it was supposed to be? One life for another? I loved my wife. The reason to have more kids was to have a full house. Full of the love we had. Not to have this existence where my kids lost her.”

“I just think you’re wrong to blame yourself.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I’m not the only one who blames me. The kids have an aunt and a grandmother who don’t like me either. How is that harmony?”

“John…”

“Well now you know. I
am
an S-O-B and that’s the way of it.” He opened the door and it creaked in protest.

Kym sat still, paralyzed in her seat. She had only wanted to get Wil flowers, but now she’d caused a whole scene. But how was she to know?

John pulled open her door and reached for the vase. “C’mon. They’ll be home with the baby before we get in there.”

He held out his hand to help her down and she climbed out of the truck.

John held on to her as she limped through the snow in the parking lot and though the doors of the hospital. Then he let her walk on her own.

Her knee throbbed and her heart hurt. There was no possible way that this little relationship they were forming was going to work out when he could easily get so upset over his wife. And she didn’t blame him, but she wanted to.

Wil was asleep when they got to the room, but a very quiet Christopher sat in the corner rocking their baby.

“Come in,” he whispered.

Kym limped in with John just a few steps behind her. She set the vase on the dresser. “These are for Malory.”

“She loves tulips.”

“Heather mentioned it,” she said and then noticed the men exchanged uneasy glances at each other. The moment only made her feel smaller. She should have just gone to the grocery store.

“Oh, hey,” a groggy Malory said as she forced her eyes open and sat up in bed.

Malory looked tired, and who would blame her?

“Congratulations,” Kym whispered as if that were the only way to communicate around a sleeping infant. “I brought you some tulips.”

“My favorite.” She smiled, her head still rested against the pillow.

“You look good, Wil,” John said in a full voice, but the baby didn’t stir. Kym realized he’d have known she wouldn’t.

“Thanks, John.” She smiled at him.

Kym felt very out of place with the situation. These people had been friends since childhood. She assumed they were there to help John through his darkest times when he lost Abigail. She was an intruder into their circle.

“Kym, would you like to hold her?” Christopher said standing with the baby in his arms.

“Oh, I don’t…”

“Of course she does,” John answered for her. “You should have seen her with Cade and Olivia’s little guy.”

Christopher laughed. “That one will be a linebacker I’ll betcha.”

While they bantered about the baby of other childhood friends, John was guiding her to the chair. She sat down and Christopher handed her his daughter.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Yeah. Looks just like her mother,” Chris said softly.

That tugged at Kym’s heart. John sat on the arm of the chair and leaned over them.

“You’re getting better at holding these little guys.”

She looked up at him and the anger which had clouded his eyes was now gone. He was used to dealing with the pain of losing his wife. But it didn’t ease Kym’s hurt feelings.

“Kym, why were you limping?” Malory asked.

She looked up. “I sprained my knee yesterday.”

“That reminds me,” John said as he stood up from the chair and walked out of the room.

He was a mystery. Who was this man and why did she care so much about him?

Christopher sat on the edge of Malory’s bed and made small talk with Kym until John returned with a man following close behind wearing a doctor’s coat over blue scrubs.

“Kym, this is Greg Meyers. He’s going to look at your knee.”

“Oh, thank you, but…”

“He owes me.” John smiled.

“Yeah, he fixed the roof last week saving me thousands in damage. He’s just that kind of guy.”

Kym looked up at John who didn’t like the compliments she was finding. But he was this gracious man rolled into a hard, crusty exterior. And she was falling in love with him harder as he tried to shrug away the compliments.

“Here, I’ll take her,” John said taking the baby from her arms.

Greg went about lifting Kym’s pant leg and looking at her knee. He then came back and wrapped it so that it was tight and protected. He gave her instruction on taking care of it and within fifteen minutes he was on his way to treat someone else and he’d done it all as a favor for the man who unselfishly fixed his roof—for free—because his family needed it.

This little town embraced this broken man. But was she the woman who could even fill that void? She was an outsider in a circle where everyone grew up together and knew everything about the other. No one knew Kym O’Bryne. Sometimes she wondered if she even knew herself.

Chapter Twelve

There was an ease in her step now that Greg had fixed Kym up. John was glad it had been Greg who had been on duty when he’d walked out to find one of the two doctors on call. The other doctor, who was as old as the town John figured, wasn’t as easy to convince about giving favors.

John opened the door for her and Kym climbed into the truck.

“Does your knee feel better?”

“Much. Thank you.”

“He used to play doctor with Kelley when we were little. And I don’t mean it in the terms adults use. I mean he had her bandaged up all the time.” He laughed at the memory. “I knew he’d take care of you.”

Kym reached for him and touched his cheek. “You had taken good care of me.”

John swallowed hard. He backed away and shut the door.

He thought about the past few days as he steadied himself against his truck to keep from falling on the ice. The day he’d run into Kym O’Bryne in the grocery store he hadn’t expected to have his life change. In fact, he’d hoped to have never had to have crossed paths with her again—but here he was.

The door creaked as he pulled it open and climbed inside the truck, which was bitter cold.

Kym was looking at her phone and sending a text as he started up the engine. He looked at her before he began backing out of the lot.

“You look perplexed. Is everything okay?” he asked.

She turned her head and plastered on an obviously forced smile. “Yes. I just got a text from my brother. He’s flying in on Monday to collect my grandfather for Thanksgiving. It looks as though he’ll be flying to Ireland with him.”

Her voice had shaken as she told him about the plans her family had made.

“You weren’t expecting that?”

“No.” She tucked her phone back into her coat pocket. “My grandfather is ninety years old. That’s quite a journey for a man his age.”

“Yes,” John said as he turned down Main Street. “But he doesn’t seem ailing at all.”

She nodded. “I know. It’s just…” She bit down on her lip and then looked out the window. “I hadn’t thought much about Thanksgiving, but without my grandfather here it means I’ll be alone.” She quickly turned to him and held up a hand. “And I don’t mind that.”

Her gesture stung. Perhaps she anticipated him inviting her over and she didn’t want to. That was fine. Just because the woman was occupying his every thought didn’t mean he had to drag her further into his life. Thanksgiving dinner was a big commitment.

“It’ll be nice to see my brother,” she continued. “But you do understand what this really means don’t you?”

John shook his head as he drove back toward her school.

“It means that when my grandfather leaves here and goes back to Ireland with my mother I’ll probably never see him again.”

He noticed the first tear roll down her cheek and she turned from him and quickly wiped it away.

What did John know about being alone? Even when his wife died he was anything but alone. He had four children to take care of. His mother had been at his house every day and his mother-in-law stuck her nose in there too. His father took over at the store until he’d had another heart attack and his sister did everything she could to make sure he had some ounce of sanity left. Chris took him hunting, upon protest, but it had been good to get away. But he’d never been alone.

Then it hit him. Maybe she didn’t want to stay in his little town. What if she wanted to go with her grandfather? The entire conversation replayed in his head.

John’s hands twitched on the steering wheel. He pursed his lips and planned out his next sentence so that it wouldn’t sound as if he were worried. “Do you want to go back to Ireland?”

“No.”

Her answer was quick and solid. That gave him a bit of peace.

“How about where your brothers live?”

Kym shifted toward him as he pulled up in front of her school. “If I didn’t know better I would think you wanted me to leave Aspen Creek.”

“No.” His answer was equally as quick and solid. “I just feel bad that you’ll be all alone.”

“Well, I’m ready to start my life without my family hovering. I’ve always had someone looking out for me as if I couldn’t do things on my own. I was surprised when they bought this school and wanted me to run it. But I wasn’t really surprised that Grandfather came with the deal.” The sadness in her eyes had lifted and now there was a fire. “I was the only daughter. I have fought harder than those two numb-skull brothers of mine. Trust me, in this industry a woman can be faster, stronger, and better than any man—but she’s still at the bottom of the pile.”

She’d intertwined her fingers in her lap.

“Always, either my father was there to
supervise
me or one of my brothers was. This is my chance to make this school whatever I want it to be. And right now I think it’s doing just that. It’s providing a service to the community. And I have ideas—lots of ideas on how to incorporate the town into more than just martial arts. There is so much more.”

Her voice had lifted in an anger infused excitement that made him smile. Oh, he could pick them. The strong opinionated ones. Kym was no different.

“So you’ll be staying in Aspen Creek?”

She let out a grand sigh and laughed. “Yes.”

“Good. Because I think Jacob has a long way to go with his training.”

“Is that so?”

“Mason told him about all the boards you broke. I don’t think there is a piece of furniture in my house that is safe now.”

“I guess I’d better let him try then.” She looked out the window at the school. “I suppose I’d better get ready for classes this afternoon.”

“Yeah. I’d better go fix that drain at the flower shop.”

“You still take care of Abigail’s sister, even though she’s not nice to you?”

“It’s not her fault. Abigail was all she had. She deserves to feel ripped off.”

“Is that how you feel? Ripped off?”

“Damn straight.” It didn’t feel right telling her that, but she didn’t seem upset by the thought.

“You’re grumpy on the outside, but you’re a softy on the inside.”

“Don’t tell anyone. I have a rep to uphold.”

She smiled again. “Your secret is safe with me John Larson.”

He nodded and then opened his door, jumped out, and walked around to let her out of the truck.

She took his hand and gently slid out and carefully balanced on her stable foot before setting the other on the ground. “It really does feel better,” she said balancing her weight on both feet.