Healing Autumn's Heart (Love Inspired)

by Andrews, Renee

  The folks in Claremont seemed even more captivated with watching the new doctor in town working on the scene in the window, and Hannah ended up with more visitors than ever before throughout the afternoon. Mr. Feazell was thrilled, believing he’d probably have a personal record for customers at First Friday.

  After they finished working on the display, they had dinner together, and Hannah was thrilled with how well the group got along. Autumn chatted nonstop with Maura, Bo, Matt and Hannah, all of them laughing and eating and spending time together. Occasionally Matt’s eyes found Hannah’s, and she could almost sense that he felt the same thing as she, that this was like a real family dinner.

  When they started gathering their things to leave for church, Hannah realized that they weren’t the only ones thoroughly enjoying the time together. Maura touched Hannah’s arm at the door.

  “I’d like to do this every week, if that’s okay for you. This is good for Autumn, times like this.” She smiled at her granddaughter. “It’s good for all of us, I think.”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” Matt said.

  “A home-cooked meal every week before going to church together,” Bo said. “Works for me.”

  Hannah grinned. Life was great, really great, and it only seemed to be getting better. “Definitely works for me, but only if you’ll let me bring something to help each week.”

  Maura put an arm around Hannah as the group walked toward their respective cars. “I’ll do better than that. Why don’t you come over when you get done working each Wednesday afternoon, and we can cook together?”

  Matt gave Maura a smile that said he thought there was more to this request, and Hannah figured he was probably right. Maura was trying to play matchmaker, get Hannah over at their place on a regular basis and while she was at it, show Matt that Hannah could cook too. Even Bo glanced at Hannah and grinned knowingly. In fact, he and Maura looked very pleased, very smug even, at the thought of getting Matt and Hannah together. Well, little did they know, Hannah and Matt had started working on that already, especially earlier today with that kiss.

  “So, what do you think? This could be a weekly thing then?” Maura asked again. “And maybe you could teach me how to make those dumplings that were so amazing.”

  “Sounds like a good idea to me,” Matt said, which was all the encouragement Hannah needed to agree.

  “Sure,” Hannah said, walking down the porch steps with Autumn by her side. “I’d love to.”

  “Wow, look at that view,” Bo said from behind them. They all followed his lead to gaze toward Lookout Mountain, where the sun was beginning to drop. Clouds hovered around the notable mountains, but in spite of those clouds, bright rays of that red-orange globe spread a gorgeous deep golden luminance across the sky. “A perfect view for a perfect day.”

  “Definitely,” Matt said. While Hannah had been looking at the sky, he’d moved to the step behind her and his words brushed against her ear.

  “It has been an amazing day,” Hannah agreed.

  Matt walked her to her car, opened the door and waited for her to climb inside. “We’ll be right behind you,” he said. “Autumn’s looking forward to class.”

  “I am, too.” She smiled as he closed the door then turned toward her purse when she heard her cell phone vibrating inside. She tried to keep her phone handy now at all times, since Jana was so close to labor, but she’d forgotten to take her purse in Matt’s house. “Oh, dear,” she said, grabbing the phone and seeing that she had a voice mail. Surely Jana would have called their father if she’d gone into labor, but Hannah couldn’t recall if she saw him with his phone inside the house either. She glanced up and saw that he was already backing out of Matt’s driveway, so she couldn’t ask him now. She would just have to listen to this voice mail message before leaving. If her sister was in labor, she’d need to get to the hospital. She tapped her horn and got Matt’s attention.

  He looked in the rearview mirror of his car, and Autumn twisted in her seat to look toward Hannah.

  Hannah held up the phone and one finger to let him know she needed to take a call first.

  Matt nodded, and Autumn waved, while Hannah entered her voice mail pass code and listened to the message.

  “Ms. Taylor, this is Chelsea, Dr. Patterson’s nurse. Dr. Patterson needed me to call you and ask if you can come in tomorrow. If you could be here at 9:00, he’d like to talk to you about your tests from last week. If another time is better, just give us a call, but he’d really like for you to come in tomorrow if possible. We’ll see you in the office tomorrow at 9:00. Have a good night.”

  Hannah disconnected, blinked a few times, then forced a smile at Autumn, still waving and smiling from the backseat. She then backed up her car and started driving toward the church, all the while noticing that brilliant sun and the way it pushed against those dark clouds.

  Chapter Ten

  “Autumn, why don’t you get the fishing poles ready for that game we played Sunday?” Hannah worked hard to keep her voice cheerful. “You’ll want to make sure the fish are separated and not clumped together. That’ll make it easier for all of you to fish for those apostles.”

  “Okay!” Grinning, Autumn moved to the blue bucket and started working on retrieving the poles. Since she and Hannah had arrived fifteen minutes early, Autumn was the only student in the classroom right now, and Hannah needed to occupy her attention for a while so she could cope with that telephone message.

  Sitting at the classroom table, Hannah attempted to get a grip on what she’d be doing tonight. This was the last lesson on Jesus making fishers of men. The kids had enjoyed the fishing game on Sunday, and they all knew how to play it now, so she’d let them spend a little time with that at the beginning of class. That’d give her longer to prepare for acting normal, as though life should continue business as usual, in spite of the fact that her cancer may have returned. And in spite of the fact that she hadn’t said anything about it to Matt when he walked with her into the church. How could she tell him what she feared, which would undoubtedly cause her to fall apart, and then teach these precious little boys and girls without them knowing that something was wrong with their teacher?

  She closed her eyes and thought about how happy she’d been just moments before she heard that voice mail. Typically after her screenings, the doctor’s office called with a brief message informing her that everything was clear. The only times they’d ever called her back into the office were when Dr. Patterson needed to talk to her in person, tell her the status of her cancer and then schedule treatment.

  God, I need You now. Help me to be strong.

  “I brought you something.”

  Hannah opened her eyes to see Nathan, his hands wrapped around a small painted clay pot filled with baby pink roses.

  “We were at the store, and I saw it. I told Mom that the pot reminded me of the ribbons that you and Miss Jana always wear, and she said we should buy one for both of you because this is the month for those ribbons.” He gave her a toothless grin.

  A pink breast cancer ribbon had been painted amid the colorful swirls on the outside of the pot, and the tiny roses were exactly the same shade as that ribbon. “That’s right,” Hannah said. “This is the month for our ribbons.” She gently touched her pin and swallowed past the thickness in her throat. October was National Breast Cancer Awareness month. What if she learned tomorrow that hers had returned?

  God, please, she repeated, keep me strong.

  “You like them? ’Cause you look like you’re gonna cry or something. Momma said you might cry.”

  “She did?”

  “Uh-huh, but she told me that was okay, since they would be happy tears.”

  Hannah nodded. Obviously, Jessica would think they would be happy tears because of her remission. “Well, it was very sweet of you.”

  “I gave Miss Jana hers in the lobby. She’s really big now, you know, not fat-big but baby-big.”

  Hannah loved this little boy, and she really loved the fact
that somehow, with everything on her mind right now, he made her laugh. “Yes, Nathan, I know.” She placed the pretty pot on the table and hugged Nathan. “Thank you.”

  He hugged her back, then pulled away and grinned. “You’re welcome.” He looked over toward Autumn, lining up the fishing poles on one of the class tables. She had the poles organized by color and all of the fishing strings stretched out so that the magnets on the end dangled in a row along the edge of the table. “Can I go help Autumn now?”

  “Sure.”

  The two of them worked together for a few minutes to get the game ready to go then Nathan asked, “Miss Hannah, can we start playing it now?”

  The twins, Matthew and Daniel, entered at that moment and didn’t miss a beat. “Can we play, too?” they asked, their voices blending with the excited question.

  “Of course.” Hannah smiled. “All of you can play, and your other friends can too when they get here, until I get ready to start the lesson.”

  “Cool,” Matthew said, heading toward the big blue bucket.

  Hannah glanced down at her lesson plan, but the words on the page blurred together, and she gave up. Her eyes were barely hanging on to her tears, and she sure didn’t want to set them free.

  Nathan left the fishing game and moved to stand by Hannah. “Are you sad, Miss Hannah?”

  Hannah wouldn’t lie to him. “Yes, Nathan.”

  “Did my flowers make you sad?”

  “No, sweetie.”

  “Well, when I’m sad, I pray. I ask God to make me happy again, and most of the time, he says yes.”

  “You know what, I think that’s the best advice I’ve had all day.”

  “Want me to? I can pray for you, if you want me to,” he offered.

  Hannah took his small hands in hers. “Nathan, I’d like that very much.”

  He gave her a single nod then bowed his head. “God, please help Miss Hannah to be happy again, because we all like it when she’s happy, and I don’t want her to be sad. You don’t want her sad either, do you, God? Oh, and God, if it’s okay with You, let me be the first one to catch all the fish. In Jesus’s name, amen.”

  Again, Hannah found herself laughing because of Nathan Martin.

  Thank you, God, for bringing this precious little boy into my life.

  Nathan grinned. “See, you’re laughing now.” He punched a small fist into the air. “God said yes!” Then he hurried back to the fishing game.

  Hannah actually did feel better after Nathan’s precious prayer. Thank You again, God.

  As promised, she let the kids play the game while she gathered her materials for tonight’s lesson. Hannah always tried to give them something to do while she talked about the Bible lesson. She found that it actually made them concentrate better if their hands were occupied while their minds soaked in the story. Tonight, she’d brought a bunch of fish pictures. There were photos of live fish, cartoon drawings of fish, some posters from Finding Nemo and several Christian fish symbols.

  When she was ready to start the Bible story, she called the kids over to the table. Nathan arrived first, holding four plastic fish in the air as he sat down. “God said yes,” he announced. “Again.”

  “He got lucky,” Matthew said, snarling.

  “Boys, let’s be nice,” Hannah said and decided she’d give a lesson on that another time. Tonight they were talking about fishing for men, and she wasn’t ready to venture off the theme quite yet. “Now, while I talk to you some more about Jesus’s four fishermen friends and how he wanted to teach them to be fishers of men, you can draw a fish on the paper in front of you.” She pointed to the construction paper she’d placed in the middle of the table. “Choose whatever color of paper you want, and then you can pick one of the fish pictures to draw. Or if you’d rather, you can cut out the picture and glue it on the page. Whatever is most appealing to you.”

  The twins, Matthew and Daniel, always seemed to select the messiest option, and they ran to grab glue sticks and then hurried back to the table. While Hannah told the story, Nathan selected a Finding Nemo poster and drew Marlin and Nemo. Autumn had been the last one to leave the fish game, so she sat at the far end of the table from Hannah, but Hannah noticed she picked a white piece of construction paper and a pink crayon to use for her picture.

  Hannah told the lesson as she had several times over the past few weeks. The good thing about repeating the story was that the theme was reinforced, and also, the kids began to feel a sense of accomplishment at knowing the characters and knowing their story. Tonight, Hannah would barely get three words out of her mouth before one of them—usually Nathan—finished her sentence with the next part of the story. Occasionally though, Autumn chimed in and gave him a run for his money.

  Hannah loved it, and she found herself smiling, really smiling, at the adorable children. After class, the parents came one by one to pick up their children, and Matt stayed behind with Autumn until all of the other children were gone.

  “Thought you might want a little help cleaning up again.” He grinned, stepped a little closer. “You know, I’m not sure if anyone’s ever told you this before, but when a guy spends the afternoon crawling around on the floor playing dollhouses with you and then spends the evening cleaning up messy glue sticks and crayons for you, it might mean something serious.”

  She smiled. “Oh, really.”

  He picked up a glue stick that looked like the end had been chewed off and grimaced. “Yep, really.”

  Matt continued teasing her, and Hannah relished the fun. She needed this, especially tonight, needed something to get her mind off tomorrow, even if only for a little while. Eventually, he looked toward Autumn, who’d remained at her seat and was turning her paper one way and then the other. She smiled, obviously pleased with her artwork.

  “She loves this class,” he said.

  “So do I. I’ve got to tell you, these kids are therapy for me, one of the best parts of my week.”

  “Miss Hannah, Daddy, look at this,” Autumn said, still admiring her coloring page.

  Hannah and Matt moved to the other end of the table. “What did you draw?” Hannah asked.

  Autumn had pulled the paper to her chest. “I almost picked the Finding Nemo one, since that’s my favorite movie, but then I saw that one and changed my mind.”

  They looked at the picture she indicated, one of the Christian fish symbols.

  Autumn smiled and placed the page on the table. The construction paper was bright white, and the fish in the middle was an almost exact replica of the one on the example page Hannah had provided, except the one on that page was in black marker, and Autumn’s was in pink crayon.

  “Very nice,” Matt said. “You did a great job.”

  “Yes, you did,” Hannah said, leaning down to give Autumn a hug. “I’m proud of how well you do in class.”

  “Thanks,” Autumn said, blushing a little. “But this is the neat part.” She had the fish on its side, like the one she was looking at, and she turned the page so it stood upright. “Now look, my Jesus fish is Mommy’s ribbon.” She pointed to Hannah’s pin. “And yours.”

  Hannah swallowed, breathed in, let it out. “Autumn, you’re exactly right.”

  “Yes, you are,” Matt added. “That’s beautiful, honey.”

  “Can we hang it up?”

  “Sure,” Hannah said, taking the paper. She had a bulletin board on one side of the class for displaying their artwork, and she placed Autumn’s fish—or ribbon—in the center.

  “Now every time we look at it, we can remember that Mommy is in Heaven, with Jesus. And we can thank God that you’re all better now.”

  Hannah managed to nod, but couldn’t control the tears that surfaced with Autumn’s words. Luckily, Autumn was so busy admiring her artwork that she didn’t notice. Matt, however, touched her cheek and brushed a tear away.

  “Hey, you all missed the entire ending of church. You must have had quite an eventful class time.” Maura’s voice broke through the silence in
the room and caused Autumn to hurry toward the doorway.

  “Come here, GiGi. I’ll show you what I did in class tonight.”

  Maura followed her granddaughter to the hanging pictures and marveled at Autumn’s talent, then Hannah heard the moment that the lady realized what Autumn had really drawn.

  “Like Mommy’s ribbon, and Miss Hannah’s, too,” Autumn said, and Maura’s hand moved to her throat.

  “Oh, Autumn, it’s beautiful,” Maura said.

  “Maura,” Matt said, while Hannah turned toward the opposite side of the classroom to get a tissue. She dabbed her eyes and hoped Autumn didn’t notice. “Why don’t you walk Autumn on out to the car. I want to talk to Hannah a second. We’ll be out soon.”

  Hannah didn’t turn around but heard Maura say, “Oh, yes, sure.” Her tone said that she also sensed something was wrong with Hannah.

  Autumn chatted with Maura as they left, so Hannah knew the moment she and Matt were alone. And when Matt’s arms gently wrapped around her, Hannah couldn’t hold it in anymore. A soft gasp escaped with her tears.

  “Hannah, talk to me. What happened after we left the house tonight?”

  She swallowed, brushed tears away, but couldn’t speak, couldn’t find the courage to tell him. Being a doctor, especially a doctor who had been one of the best research analysts in the nation for breast cancer, he would know what that call back meant. He would know, and when Hannah heard him say it, or saw it in his eyes, it would be official. She’d have no room to think there was any other reason that Dr. Patterson would call her back in tomorrow.