One Perfect Honeymoon (Bellingwood) (8 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Easing the cookie sheet out of the oven, Polly listened as Rebecca and Andrew came flying up the back steps.

"Polly!" Andrew yelled from Henry's office. "When did you get home?"

She waited for the two kids to come in to the media room and said, "We got back late this morning. How was your day?"

"Are you tired? Did you have fun? Did you guys really drive all night long?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes."

Andrew looked at her, his forehead creased in confusion. "What?"

"I answered your questions. Yes, I'm still tired. Yes, we had a great time and yes, we really drove all night long. Except for a couple of hours when we took a nap in a rest area."

Rebecca had come running into the room with Andrew, but dropped back while he barreled forward with questions.

"Andrew, could you take Obiwan outside for me?" Polly asked.

He looked around, wanting to ask a lot more questions, but his training had been perfected by a master. When an adult asked him to do something, he just did it.

"There will be warm cookies and milk when you get back," Polly promised. "And I have a surprise for you."

That was all it took. "Come on, Obiwan. Let's go!"

The dog followed him back outside and Polly said, "Take off your coat and come help me with the cookies, Rebecca."

The little girl dropped her coat on the sofa and slowly walked to the kitchen. Rather than hugging her, Polly handed her a spatula and put the cookie sheet on a towel she'd spread on the counter beside a cooling rack. She knew that Rebecca was doing her best to contain her emotions and wanted to respect that. Their moment would come.

They worked in silence for a few moments. "What's the surprise?" Rebecca finally asked.

"You'll have to wait and see when Andrew comes back."

"Oh. Okay." Rebecca lifted a cookie to the rack and pushed it into place. Polly recognized a child with a hint of OCD when she saw one. Rebecca lined each cookie up into perfect rows and columns. One of these days she was going to offer Rebecca a bag of M&Ms. Polly had a lifetime of experience separating them into colors and then arranging them in different orders.

"I missed you," Polly said after another moment of silence. "I'm sorry I wasn't here when your mom got sick. I know there were plenty of people taking care of you, but I wish I'd been here."

Rebecca took a deep breath and slid the spatula out from under another cookie, then dropped both the spatula and the hot pad she'd been holding and turned around into Polly's body. "I was scared," she said, her voice shaking.

"I know."

She lifted her tear-streaked face up to look at Polly. "I'm still scared. No one talks to me like you do. They're afraid that they'll hurt my feelings if they tell me the truth about Mom. But I already know she's really sick."

"Oh honey, I know. I called the hospital just before you got home and she's still pretty sick. I don't think she's coming home for a while. This one was bad. But we'll go down this afternoon and then we'll see her again tomorrow and Sunday and every day until they release her."

"Do you really think she's coming back here? She can't die in the hospital. She doesn't want to die that way."

"Rebecca, you are the reason your mom is working so hard to stay alive. She's not ready to die just yet. I promise you that she's doing everything she can to get better so that she can come back. You have to trust her. Neither one of us are going to lie to you about this. I promise."

Polly felt Rebecca relax against her as she wrapped her arms around Polly's waist. That was what she needed - someone to just give her the truth. Polly set her cheek on the top of Rebecca's head and it occurred to her that the girl was growing up. She wondered how tall Rebecca's father was.

They were still holding on to each other when Andrew and Obiwan came back up the steps. He took one look at them and rather than rushing into the kitchen with the dog, sat down on the sofa, and then turned on the television.

"It's okay, Andrew," Polly said. "I think we're done. We were just missing each other."

"Did you miss me too?" he asked, a silly grin crossing his face.

"Of course I did."

"I bet."

"No. Really. I told Henry that I missed being here during the day when you two showed up. I love spending time with you."

He popped back to his feet. "So what's the surprise and where's Henry?"

"Henry went over to the shop. He'll be back later. Now, are you sure you want to see this surprise?" Even though she had released Rebecca, they were still holding hands.

Rebecca squeezed Polly's hand and said, "You're teasing us."

"Why yes, yes I am. What I'm about to show you is very special and you have to be very gentle. Got that? No loud noises, no squealing, no jumping around."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You didn't bring back a baby, did you? Because I know that Jessie's pregnant, but you weren't, were you?"

"No. I wasn't pregnant. Trust me on that."

"So, it's not a baby?"

"Well, not quite. Follow me." Polly kept hold of Rebecca's hand and the three of them crossed the living room to her bedroom door. "Be very quiet," she said and pushed the door open.

It was all Rebecca could do to keep herself together when she saw the four puppies. She dropped to her knees on the floor, followed closely by Andrew, who sat down as close to Padme as possible.

"Where did you get these?" he asked.

"It's a long story," Polly replied, shutting the door behind her to keep Obiwan and the cats out of the room.

"Where's their mom?"

"She died, so I guess I'm their mom right now."

Rebecca giggled as Khan tried to crawl up into her lap. "Are you keeping them?"

"Henry and I are planning to keep one of them." Polly knelt down beside Rebecca to scoop Han into her arms. "This one. I named him Han."

"For Han Solo? That's funny," Andrew said. "Who's this?"

"That's the only little girl. We named her Padme. The one Rebecca is holding is named Khan and the little brat trying to chew on my shoe is named Kirk." Neither of the kids responded to the last two names and Polly realized she hadn't spent enough time indoctrinating them into all things Star Trek yet. At least Andrew recognized Han Solo's name.

"What are you going to do with the other puppies?" Andrew asked.

"I don't know yet. But I have time. I want them to grow up a little more before we separate them."

"I wish Mom would let us have a dog. But she said we couldn't until we got into a house." He ran his hand along Padme's back. "I think she likes me. I'd be a really good dog owner." His shoulders slumped. "But we have to move out of that apartment first."

Polly just nodded. Apparently, Sylvie hadn't said anything to her boys about the house search. "We'll see what happens."

"Eliseo said he wanted a dog," Andrew said helpfully. "I'll bet he'd take one of these. How big are they going to get? Do you think Doug and Billy would take another dog over there?" He turned to Rebecca. "We could give one to Mrs. Hastings. She's always talking about how much she likes animals. And maybe we could talk to some of our friends at school. Maybe Jessie would like to have one, too. You know, for when she moves out."

Polly reached over and put her hand on his knee. "I think I've got it. There are only four puppies and I'm keeping one of them here."

"Can I hold Han?" Rebecca asked. She put Khan into Andrew's lap and waited while Polly handed the little pup to her. Once he was in her arms, she brought him up to her chest and kissed his neck.  "He's so soft." The puppy squirmed and wiggled until Rebecca put him on the floor. As soon as he found his feet, he tried to crawl back into her lap. "He's wiggly, too."

"They all are," Polly said. "Since their mama died, we're going to have to do all the work to take care of them."

"Do we have to feed them with a bottle?"

"Well yes, but they're old enough to start moving to regular dog food. Now that I'm home, we have a lot of training to do and you two will have to help me."

Han settled down in front of Rebecca and put his head on her ankle, promptly falling asleep. "Look what he did," Rebecca whispered. "Do you think he likes me?"

"I'm sure he does, sweetie."

"I can't move," she said, giggling.

"Nope, you're going to have to sit like that all afternoon. You don't want to disturb a puppy while it's sleeping," Polly said.

Rebecca looked up at her with big eyes. "Really?"

"Of course not, silly girl." Polly scooted closer to Rebecca and put an arm around her. "Puppies fall asleep all the time. When you're ready to move, just do it."

"Whew." Rebecca bent over and scratched behind his ears. "Your life is so great, Polly. You always have all of these animals around. They love you no matter what."

Andrew reached over and tapped Rebecca's arm. "You get to live here. That means yours is great, too."

A tear leaked out of Rebecca's eye and Polly put the pups back on the floor and stood up. "I'm going to finish baking cookies. The two of you can stay in here as long as you want. Just keep the door closed. I don't want Obiwan and the cats to come in unless either Henry or I are with them.

"You could move the puppies into my room," Rebecca said hopefully.

"I suppose I could, but then you'd never get any sleep and little girls need lots of sleep. But maybe Obiwan could stay in your room for a couple of nights."

"Really?"

"Sure. Where has he been sleeping while we were gone?"

"With Jessie. The cats slept with me."

"We'll see about reassigning their sleeping locations now that I'm home."

Rebecca slowly slipped her leg out from under Han's head, making sure that her hands cradled it until she could place it gently on the floor. When she was free of him, she jumped up and hugged Polly. "Thank you."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Sweet, wonderful wife of mine," Henry said, bumping Polly's hip as he walked past her with dishes in his hands. "This has been a perfect morning. I can't believe you managed to work it out for us."

"That's what I was texting about the other night. If you wanted a lazy morning, you deserved a lazy morning. Sylvie should be here in a little bit with the kids and I told Doug he could bring Obiwan back any time after two o'clock. Jessie thought it would be cool to sleep at the hotel with a few of her friends."

"I'm just glad she's making friends in town. I'd like to not have to worry about her leaving with more losers."

"Since she's pregnant, I also don't worry about her drinking and partying. She said they were going to Ames for dinner and then come back and have a slumber party or something. I don't know what, but I'm just glad she was okay with leaving her room."

He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. "Thank you for doing all of that. This was just what I wanted. And look, I didn't even have to be five hundred miles from home. Think we can get away with it tomorrow morning?"

Polly flicked some suds at his head. "Don't push it. We're going to have to get back to normal sometime."

"Give me the wash rag," he said. After she rinsed it and squeezed it out, he started wiping the counter tops. "I didn't tell you ..." he started.

"Tell me what?"

"I think Sylvie decided on a house."

"Really? Which one?"

"She asked if I could go with her today after she drops off the kids. She still doesn't want them to know. Just in case things don't work out."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which one?"

"It's the old two-story on Jefferson. Actually, not too far from Mom and Dad's house. You know the one with the round opening on the second story balcony?"

"That's a beautiful old house!"

"I think it's in good shape. I told her that I'd walk through it with her before the whole process starts. Just to reassure her that it's what she wants."

Polly pulled the plug from the sink and listened as the water drained. "You know, I kind of hoped that she and Eliseo would get together and they'd end up moving out to his place."

"You just can't be happy until everyone is all hooked up, can you?" Henry tossed the wet cloth at her forehead.

"Shaddup, you." Polly tossed it back, completely missing him. The cloth landed on the floor.

"You're really bad at that."

She spun around and headed out of the kitchen.

"Hey! You're just going to leave the mess?"

"I cleaned up the mess. It's one rag. I think you can manage that."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him dart around the peninsula and she took off for the living room, running as fast as she dared. The cats both jumped to one of the sofas as Henry chased Polly with the cold, wet cloth in his right hand.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, coming to a stop on the opposite side of the living room.

"I thought I might teach you a lesson about flinging things at me."

Polly feinted to the left and then to the right, waiting for Henry to make a commitment to the chase. He took off and she ran again, around the sofas. "You're a crazy man!"

He cackled as he continued to chase her. "Yes I am and don't you forget it."

They ran around the room another time and Henry stopped behind a chair, laughing. Polly stopped for a second and then started running again, toward him. Before he realized what he was doing, Henry was running from her. They chased each other until Polly caught him. She pushed him over the back of the sofa and landed on top of him, then straddled his waist and tried to catch his arms. He brought the wet cloth up to wipe her face. She caught it and then looked up to see Eliseo, Jason, Andrew and Rebecca standing inside the front door.

"He was trying to wash my face with a dirty rag," Polly said, jumping to the floor.

Henry laughed and sat up, then pulled Polly down to sit beside him. "What's up with you guys today? Come on in and sit down."

Eliseo tried not to laugh. Andrew and Rebecca were still in shock and Jason just shook his head, but they all came in and sat down.

"The kids tell me you have something fun up here," Eliseo said. "I wondered if you wanted any help with it."

"Oh Jason, they're so cute," Rebecca said with a smile. Polly watched her eyes follow Jason wherever he went. Good heavens, she had a little crush on him! "Can we show them?" she asked.

"You sit here, Eliseo," Polly said. "We'll bring them out. Come on, help me with the puppies."

The two youngest followed her. She handed Padme to Andrew to hold and Han to Rebecca, then carried Khan and Kirk out. "I don't think they'll get very big. Their mother had some Labrador in her, but she probably only weighed about twenty-five or thirty pounds."

Eliseo stood up to meet her and she handed Khan to him and Kirk off to Jason.

"Have they all found homes yet?" Eliseo asked her.

She shook her head. "Not yet. I have some ideas, but I'm going to wait and see."

"I'd be interested in at least one of them. I wanted to get a dog and this seems like a good opportunity."

"What about two of them?" she asked softly. "I think that Khan and Kirk might enjoy it out at your house.

He looked sideways at her. "Khan and Kirk? From Star Trek?"

"Maybe?" she giggled. "You don't have to keep those names. They've only had them for a week. If you want the two of them, just come up with new names and we'll start using them."

Eliseo sat back down, holding the pup close to his face. Khan leaned forward and licked Eliseo's cheek and the man's eyes twinkled. "I think Khan and Kirk will be just fine.

Henry stood up, then leaned over and kissed Polly's forehead. "I need to leave for a while."

Eliseo put Khan into Jason's lap and stood up. "I'll walk out with you. Jason, come on down to the barn whenever you're ready."

"I can come down now if you think I should."

"No. Play with the pups and come down in a half hour or so."

~~~

Andrew had ridden down to Boone with Polly and Rebecca. They'd made a quick stop at the book store after spending time with Sarah. She was still quite weak and had difficulty breathing without oxygen. This had been a rough season for Rebecca's mother, but she insisted that she'd be home before Thanksgiving. She had more tenacity than Polly could believe, but it made her feel good to see the woman giving everything she had in order to have a life with her daughter.

Polly's phone buzzed with a text as she pulled out of the parking space in front of the book store. She saw that it was a message from Sylvie and went around the corner and pulled into another space to read it.

"I'm buying the house! Henry saw it and said that it was fine. There are some things we need to work on, but he offered to help. Eliseo is going to bring Jason over to see it. Can you bring Andrew? I can't wait for you to see the inside."

"We're just leaving Boone right now. We'll be there in about twenty minutes. I won't tell Andrew anything. I promise."

"I can't wait to see you! I'm so excited!"

Polly smiled and put her phone back on the console beside her.

"Who was that?" Rebecca asked.

"Oh, it was nothing."

"You were smiling."

Polly turned around and grinned at her. "Let's just say it's another surprise and we need to get back to Bellingwood in a hurry."

Fortunately the kids had new books to capture their attention and were quiet during the ride back to Bellingwood. Polly smiled at the new decoration hanging from her rear view mirror. She was going to have to take it inside, she couldn't bear things hanging there, but it was pretty wonderful. Henry hadn't said anything more about what he'd purchased at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post and she'd forgotten about it. But this afternoon, when she came out with Andrew and Rebecca, she had discovered a crystal cactus hanging in her truck. He didn't often buy her romantic gifts, but this was perfect.

When Polly turned north off of the highway instead of into her driveway, Andrew looked up.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see in just a minute," she said and continued down the street. She turned east on Jefferson and then stopped in front of a beautifully painted green home with burgundy trim. Sylvie, Jason and Eliseo were standing on the porch that wrapped around the front to the side of the house.

"What's this place?" Andrew asked. "Why is mom here?"

"Why don't you get out and ask her yourself," Polly said.

Andrew opened the back door of the truck and climbed down, then walked up the sidewalk to the porch.

"We'd better hurry," Polly said to Rebecca. "We don't want to miss this."

"Is this his new house?" Rebecca asked.

"I think it's going to be. Let's go."

They hurried out of the truck and got to the porch just as Andrew started jumping up and down. He ran back down the steps and grabbed Polly's hand. "This is going to be our house! Mom, Polly has puppies. Can we have one of them? You said we could when we got a house. Can we go inside? Which one is my room?"

He let go of Polly's hand and ran back down the steps to grab Rebecca's. "Come on. Let's go inside. I wonder if there are secret rooms in here. We have to explore the whole place."

Eliseo held the front door open as Andrew pulled Rebecca through and into the large front room.

"Go on in," Jason said. "We've already been through it."

"What do you think?" Polly asked him.

"It's a cool house. There's a garage for two cars and a big back yard. The fence goes all the way around, too. They built a fire pit in the back yard. That will be really awesome."

Sylvie and Polly stood in the front room as Jason led Andrew and Rebecca on a tour, through the main level and into the upstairs.

"I know this is probably too big for just the three of us," Sylvie said. "There are four bedrooms upstairs and even a room for a study or bedroom down here."

"It's perfect," Polly said. "The floors are beautiful and all of this wood work is gorgeous."

"Come on in to the kitchen. They left the appliances because they're mostly built in." Sylvie took the lead and Polly followed through what was probably the dining room into a spacious kitchen centered around a large island. Windows looked out into the back yard, a pleasant space with a few trees and a raised garden space.

"They really loved this home," Polly said.

"I know. And I think I could love it for a lot of years." Sylvie twirled on her toes. "I'm going to finally have a house all my own!"

They heard the rumbling of feet running down the stairs and Andrew and Rebecca came flying into the kitchen. "This is awesome!" Andrew exclaimed. "Jason showed me which room was yours and he said I could pick any of the other rooms. He let me pick first!"

"Which one did you choose?" Sylvie asked.

"I want the one that looks out on the back yard. There's a big tree right there and I think it would be cool to write stories in front of that window."

Jason had come into the kitchen and gave Polly a wry grin, then shook his head.

"Is that okay with you, Jason?" Sylvie asked, crossing the room to put her arm around his shoulder.

He shrugged. "It's fine. He'll be here longer than me, so he should have the room he wants. And besides, I think I'd like to be able to look out on the street. See what's going on."

"You're a good kid," Polly said. "Andrew, do you want to see what the back yard looks like?"

"I already saw it from my room. It's fine," he responded. "When do we get to move in, mom?"

"Well, it will take time for the paperwork, but sometime in the next month. You two are going to need to start packing your room."

"Yeah! Padme will be ready to go to her new house and we'll have a yard all ready for her."