Sister's Choice (22 page)

She turned to explain. “The room’s a little smaller than the other downstairs bedroom, but that one looks over the parking area.”

“If Jamie approves, then the girls can have the larger room and more space,” Grace said.

Jamie propped another pillow under her head so she could see them better. “I approve without seeing it. I approve of anything you want to do with us. I just can’t thank you enough for suggesting this. Hannah likes her new school, and she’s feeling at home here. And Alison loves preschool with Reese.”

“And I’ll love having the three of you for company,” Grace said. “This house is too large and too lonely. It needs a family in it.”

“But I’m not going to be able to lift a finger to do anything for a while, and that’s going to make so much work for you.”

“Oh, I’ll get the church to bring meals,” Sandra said. “And I’ll come up and help Mother clean and cook, plus your sister will be out to help whenever she can. We’ll all make sure it’s not too big a burden on Mother. Everybody likes to fuss when babies are on the way.”

“You’re both so kind. And together you can really get things done, can’t you?”

The two older women looked at each other; then they laughed.

Not all the countryside had cell-phone coverage. By the time Cash got the first message from his grandmother, Jamie was back home from Front Royal, setting up housekeeping downstairs in Granny Grace’s house. Grace put him through to her, and he’d chatted long enough to be sure she really was okay.

His stomach felt as if somebody had turned it inside out and sideways. No matter how hard he tried to tell himself Jamie and the girls were just a diversion, moments like this one kept cropping up to belie the story.

Jamie came with so much baggage attached, she shouldn’t even be able to move about freely. He didn’t need the mother of small children in his life, particularly children who were so easy to grow fond of. He certainly didn’t need a woman who was pregnant again, even if she wasn’t keeping the babies. And how about one who had worked so hard to prepare herself for a career that was not particularly portable and was likely to be short-lived? Jamie, for all her checkered past, for all her denials about needing a permanent relationship, was a forever kind of woman in search of roots.

He needed none of those things, but now, realizing how terrified she must have been, knowing that for a while it might not have been clear if her own health was in jeopardy as well as the babies’, he realized he was already in over his head. A man didn’t worry like this about a “diversion.” A man felt this way about a woman he was falling in love with.

And nobody could tell him this was just sexual attraction. Circumstances had made certain that sex was the least of it.

He had to do something to quiet his mind, so with Jamie asleep at his grandmother’s house, he drove over to the Taylor place to see if anyone there needed help packing her things. The Taylors’ SUV was parked up by the cabin when he arrived, so he parked beside it and went up on the porch to rap on the door.

Before he got the chance, Isaac came out, his arms filled with boxes. “Hey, you must have heard what’s going on.”

“Just a little while ago. I’m sorry I wasn’t around to get her to the doctor’s. What can I do?”

“If you’d like to help me take some of this stuff up to your grandmother’s, maybe you can lead the way, so we don’t get lost. Kendra and the girls are boxing up what they’ll need right away. There’s a pile in the living room, if you’re willing.”

“That’s why I came.”

Cash waited until Isaac passed; then he went inside. Alison and Hannah came running, and he squatted so he could see eye to eye with Alison. “I just talked to your mommy,” he said. “She’s doing fine. She’s taking a nap right now so she’ll be awake when you get there.”

“We’re going to Granny Grace’s!” Alison said, eyes shining. “For a long time.”

“I know. And I’ll be over every single day to see you and to find out if you need anything.”

“Will you eat with us?”

Cash could feel the noose tightening. “Sometimes. You bet.”

“Will you read us stories?”

“That, too.”

Alison threw herself at him and almost knocked him over. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close while he glanced up at Hannah. “Are you doing okay, Hannah Banana?”

“I will miss the playhouse.”

“Tell you what. On weekends, if I’m over here working on the new house, I’ll bring you two back with me so you can play in it. Sound good?”

“That might work.” She didn’t look sure.

He wondered what would worry him if he were Hannah, and he thought he might know. “Now that you’ll be living with Granny Grace, I’m sure she’ll be happy to let you bring your friends up to the orchard to play. I bet they’d like to meet Lucky.”

Her eyes lit up. “But that will be a lot of children, and Granny Grace is not young.”

“Not to worry. Granny Grace thinks the more children the better. She wants you to feel right at home while you’re there. I can absolutely promise that.”

“Lucky will be glad we’re nearby.”

“That’s true.”

“And I can keep Alison a little quiet, although she
is
young.”

He wanted to put his arms around her, too, but he thought she might consider that a sign of weakness. “Honey, you don’t have to keep anybody quiet, including yourself. It’s a big house, and Granny Grace raised three children there. And she has grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and she’ll be disappointed if there’s no noise. She’ll think something’s wrong.”

“Really?”

“I’m not kidding.”

Hannah smiled, looking in that moment exactly like her mother. He was glad he’d taken the time to make those dimples flash.

Alison bounded off to see what was happening with her toys, and Cash got to his feet. “Now pack up whatever you want to take with you. I don’t care how many trips we have to make. Bring anything you think you might need.”

“I would like the bunk beds.”

Cash was sorry he hadn’t exempted furniture. He chewed his lip. Hannah waited; then, when he nodded, trapped by his own generosity, she smiled her Jamie smile again.

“Not really,” she said. “Granny Grace has comfortable beds. I just wanted to see if you meant it. And you did.” Then she ran off to find her sister.

Cash filled the back of his pickup with Jamie’s things, and Isaac and Kendra loaded their SUV. They left together, Hannah with him, Alison riding with her aunt and uncle. After asking permission, Hannah turned on the radio and listened for a while.

“What is this song about?”

Brad Paisley was singing his old hit “All Because Two People Fell in Love” on one of the many country stations available in the Valley. Cash pondered the question.

“I guess it’s about all the ways love keeps going through the years and changes lives. People fall in love, they have children who can make the world a better place, that kind of thing.”

“Do you like it?”

In truth, he liked it a lot, but that wasn’t the kind of thing a real man wanted to admit. “It’s kind of sappy.”

“What is sappy?”

“Sentimental.” He wondered if she knew what that meant. “A song that’s meant to make you feel mushy inside, maybe bring a tear or two to your eyes. Like songs about pets who die, and angels watching over us, and people growing old together.”

She listened a bit longer; then she looked at him again. “How can hearts get connected? That would hurt.”

He supposed even an especially bright eight-year-old might have problems with a metaphor now and then. “He doesn’t mean connected that way, not by surgery or anything. He means when two people fall in love, their hearts—and hearts are where you’re supposed to feel things, even if that’s not exactly true—anyway, their hearts are connected, and they feel each other’s emotions.”

“I would rather not. That would mean if someone was crying, you would feel like crying, too. That’s twice as much crying, and that does not sound good.” She paused. “Do you think?”

He couldn’t believe he was talking about love with Jamie’s oldest daughter. “Yes, but it also means that if they were happy, you would feel that person’s joy. Wouldn’t that make up for the tears?”

“You would have to try to make sure they were happy all the time.” She wrinkled her nose. “That would be a lot of work.”

“They say love is a lot of work.”

“Don’t you know? Aren’t you old enough yet?”

“Love
is
a lot of work. There, is that better?”

“I love Alison, and she
is
a lot of work,” Hannah said. “Mommy is less so, although I suppose she will be more work now.”

He struggled not to laugh out loud. He imagined what a hoot it would be to watch this child grow up. She was completely unpredictable. Her little brain was a circus act.

And there he was, thinking about watching Hannah grow into adulthood. Wondering what it would be like to witness her first clumsy attempts to snare a boyfriend, to sit with her mother when Hannah gave the valedictorian speech at the local high school, to celebrate proudly when she cured cancer. Just like the song.

He reached over and switched to another station, but it was too late. The song was already in his head, and so were the sentiments that went with it.

By the time they arrived and Hannah was running up to the porch and into the house to see Jamie, he found himself whistling as he began to unload boxes and plastic bags from the back of his truck.

Isaac pulled up and got out, and he and Kendra began to unload. Suddenly the air was filled with whistling. Cash stopped and realized that Isaac had been whistling, too. And he was good. He had a clear, warbling whistle that sounded a lot like Cash’s own—something he was quietly proud of. And odder still? Isaac was whistling the same Brad Paisley tune.

“Guess you were listening to the same station we were,” Cash said.

Isaac grinned and whistled a few bars. In less time than it took to think about it, Cash was whistling harmony.

When they had finished the song, Kendra applauded. “A concert, right here at Cashel Orchard,” she said. “You two are great. You ought to go on the road. You’re a perfect match.”

“What do you think?” Isaac asked. “Want to give up your day job?”

Cash considered. “Let’s just file it away in case we’re both laid off.”

Isaac smiled, and together they began to carry Jamie’s things into Grace’s house.

T
he girls settled right into the bedroom just down the hall from Jamie’s. Grace gave them a pile of old quilts, then reported to Jamie that they had draped them over every surface, making a quilt city to play in before bedtime. Grace promised they could leave it in place while they slept, although she suggested a night-light, so if they woke up before dawn they could see what the strange shapes between dressers and night tables really were.

A dinner of fried chicken and biscuits with milk gravy was practically inhaled; Lucky was fed and walked through the fall twilight on a leash. Hannah and Alison finally came to say good-night smelling of toothpaste and lilac bath powder they had wheedled from Grace. Reassured by Jamie that she was fine and so were their unborn cousins, they were thrilled to be spending the night in the old farmhouse, with the promise of more to come.

The house grew quiet. Cash had set up a small TV with a remote in Jamie’s room, and Grace had brought her the baby quilt to finish, insisting that learning to piece by hand would simply increase her skills. According to Grace, with all this time to herself, Jamie should be able to make excellent headway. Sandra had returned home to select a pile of her favorite novels and came back an hour later with books, a portable CD player with an eclectic mix of CDs, the newest edition of every women’s magazine at the local Food Lion and a book of
New York Times
crossword puzzles. Jamie wasn’t going to be short on things to do.

Unfortunately, there was nothing on television that interested her. She was too tired to sew or do crossword puzzles, and although Sandra’s books looked worth diving into, the required concentration just wasn’t there. It was too early to go to sleep, and too late to begin something new.

A soft rapping on the door gave her hope, and when Grace poked her head in, Jamie smiled her welcome.

“The girls are sleeping. Alison is snoring away.”

“Good. Hannah will feel right at home. Are you on your way to bed?”

“Me? I’m a night owl. I’ll probably go upstairs in a little while and finish that Christmas stocking. You don’t look comfortable.”

“I’m more comfortable than I have a right to be. I mean, one minute I had a million plans, the next I was flat on my back.”

“Adjusting, I see. You’ll feel more resigned tomorrow.”

“Dr. Raille said I may only have to spend two weeks like this. Then I can extend my activities a little at a time until I’m back to normal, or as normal as it ever gets in a twin pregnancy.”

“Then I’ll make sure I relish every second with you here. Unless, of course, I can convince you to stay until the end of the school year. The girls love being in this house. I love having all of you. I’ll make an excellent babysitter when you go off with my grandson.”

“You’re the kindest woman I know, but let’s have that conversation in a couple of weeks, okay? You may be ready to boot us out by then.”

“At my age, dear, one knows one’s own mind.”

“At what age does that happen? The young Grace seemed awfully torn to me.”

“Torn? I suppose, as far as you’ve heard.” Grace stepped inside. “But at a certain point, I realized I’d made a commitment and had to make the best of it, no matter what I felt. Ben came to that slower.”

“I’d love to hear more. You could pretend it’s a bedtime story.” Jamie patted the mattress in invitation.

“I would hope it wouldn’t put you to sleep.”

“I can guarantee my eyes will stay wide open.”

Grace perched on the edge, then she leaned back against the headboard, lifting her legs to rest on the quilt. “Then ‘Once upon a time before the war…’”