by Loree Lough
“Back in a jiff.”
“I’m countin’ on it.”
“The hot chocolate should take the chill off.”
He nodded, knowing full well it wasn’t the drink that would warm him.
Chapter Five
It was nearly ten o’clock when the pastor’s wife dropped Kasey’s mother off.
“Thanks for the ride, Rose.”
“Anytime, Patricia.”
Pat Delaney waved goodbye as the aging station wagon drove off, then climbed the porch steps. “So were there many trick-or-treaters?” she asked. “They didn’t soap our windows, I hope, or overturn our—” The moment she noticed Adam, sitting in the shadows of the big pine beside the house, she stopped talking.
“Everything’s fine, Mom. There weren’t as many kids as usual, but we managed to give away most of the candy.” Kasey turned her attention to Adam, who’d stood and pocketed his hands. “Pat Delaney, Dr. Thorne. He’s the man I told you about?”
Pat gave Adam a quick once-over. “Well, as I live and breathe, a flesh-and-blood hero, right here on my front porch.” She leaned against the white-picket railing. “I’m so glad to have a chance to thank you for taking such good care of my girl last night.”
“Mrs. Delaney. It’s nice to meet you.”
Kasey thought she detected a slight tremor when Adam extended his hand, but chalked it up to the chill breeze. It wasn’t so easy explaining the shudder in his voice. If she didn’t know better, Kasey would have said he was afraid of her mother, which was ridiculous: Pat Delaney was a lot of things, but intimidating? Never!
As if to prove her wrong, Pat gave her daughter a playful shove. “Kasey, what kind of hostess makes a handsome young guest sit outside in the cold? It can’t be thirty degrees!”
She started to defend herself, but Adam beat her to it. “I’m afraid this was my idea,” he said. “Before long, the winter will have us confined to quarters, like it or not, so I thought we may as well enjoy the fresh air while we can.”
“Frozen air you mean!” Pat said, laughing. “Now then…” She rubbed her hands together. “If I know my girl, there’s a teapot of hot water on the stove, just begging to be turned into cocoa.”
A silent second ticked by, then two.
When neither Kasey nor Adam made a move, she held open the door. “Well?”
“I—I really should get a move on,” Adam said. He faced Kasey. “Dinner was delicious. Thanks for inviting—”
“At least come in and let Kasey fix you a plate to take home.”
“Thanks, but I—”
Pat leaned toward Adam and, in a loud whisper, said, “You’ll be doing Aleesha and me a huge favor if you do. I’ve never known Kasey to make ‘just enough’ lasagna. If you don’t take some with you, we’ll be eating it for the next week!”
He held up a hand as if to defend himself. “Thanks,” he said again, “but I really ought to—”
“I might be known for a steady supply of tea water and a tendency to cook too much food,” Kasey interrupted, “but Patricia Delaney’s claim to fame is stubbornness.” She kissed her mother’s cheek. “Trust me, Adam. If you don’t do what you’re told, right now, you’ll still be standing here at midnight, going back and forth this way.”
Pat folded her hands and looked at the porch ceiling. “Arrgh! So this is what I get for having my only child at forty-six.”
A wood-paneled station wagon parked at the curb, commanding their attention. “Aleesha’s home,” Kasey told Adam. “I was hoping you’d get a chance to meet her.”
He only nodded, a thin-lipped smile on his face. He’d said earlier it would be nice to meet Aleesha. Kasey had believed him then. Now, she wasn’t so sure.
A lanky man assisted a chubby black girl from the front passenger seat. “Hi, Mom!” she called. “I had a great time. Pastor Hill put me in charge of all the li’l kids, again.”
“That’s only because you’re so good with them,” he said.
Kasey hurried down the walk to meet them halfway. “Thanks for picking her up and dropping her off, John. You’re a peach.”
The reverend gently knuckled the top of Aleesha’s head. “What a silly pair Mrs. Hill and I make—a peach married to a Rose.”
Kasey groaned. “I take it back. You’re a nut!”
Aleesha giggled. “Very punny, you two.”
“G’night, Kase,” he said, slamming the passenger door. “See you tomorrow, Leesh.” He waved toward the porch. “Rose got you home in one piece, eh, Pat?”
“Yes, and ten minutes ahead of schedule, to boot,” she called, as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Drive safely, John.” And to the rest of them she added, “The lot of you can stand out here blabbing in the cold if you want to, but I’m going inside where it’s warm!”
She did, too, and slammed the door behind her.
“Uh-oh,” Aleesha said. “Is Gramma in a bad mood?”
“No, sweetie. She’s just tired.” She slung an arm over the girl’s shoulders as they walked up the sidewalk. “I’ll bet you’re tired, too.”
Aleesha pointed. “Who’s that?”
Kasey looked up, saw Adam standing on the edge of the porch, shoulders hunched into the wind, hands deep in his pockets. “Gramma’s right, it’s cold out here. Let’s go inside, and I’ll make proper introductions.”
Aleesha aimed a suspicious glance at Adam as she headed inside. “He gonna be over here all the time like that crazy man from across the street?”
“Mr. Mauvais isn’t crazy,” Kasey whispered. She wished for a little more light, so she could see Adam’s reaction to Aleesha’s mention of Buddy. “And it isn’t nice to talk that way about grown-ups.”
While Kasey closed the front door, Aleesha hung her jacket on the hall tree and studied Adam more deliberately. “This the man who let you sleep on his couch last night?”
“Yes. Dr. Adam Thorne, this is my daughter, Aleesha.”
Adam held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Aleesha.”
The girl grasped it, gave it a quick shake. “What kind of doctor are you?”
“Cardiologist.”
She nodded. “So all your patients have bad hearts.” Another nod. “Interestin’.”
Adam chuckled. “It’s a living.”
She glanced at Kasey, then met Adam’s eyes. “She told you I’m adopted, right?”
“I believe her exact words were ‘My daughter’s name is Aleesha, and I love her like crazy.”’
“You said that? To a complete stranger?” Beaming, the girl wrapped her mother in an affectionate hug.
Chin resting on Aleesha’s head, Kasey looked at Adam. My hee-roe, she mouthed, grinning.
“I’ve made a big pot of hot chocolate,” Pat called from the kitchen. “Not that powdery stuff in envelopes, either, but real made-from-scratch cocoa.”
Aleesha broke free of Kasey’s hug. “I’ll be in the kitchen, Mom.” To Adam she said, “Gramma makes some of the best cocoa I ever drank, and I’m gettin’ some even if she is in a bad mood!” With that, she hurried down the hall.
“She’s right, you know.” Kasey rubbed her palms over her upper arms. “You owe it to yourself to have just one cup.”
He took a step closer. “You’re cold?”
“I’ll warm up, soon as I get some of Mom’s cocoa into my stomach. You’ll join us, right?”
He winced slightly, then glanced at the face of the grandfather clock.
“If you have early surgery or something—”
“Fact is, I’m off tomorrow.”
Kasey noted his smile didn’t quite make it to his eyes. “All right, then. One cup, and yer outta here, mister,” she said, aiming a thumb at the front door.
“Deal.”
The four of them sat around the kitchen table, listening to Pat and Aleesha describe their evenings. Half an hour later, Kasey’s mother decided to head upstairs, blaming creaking bones for her weariness. “Good meeting you, Dr. Thorne,” she said from the doorway
. “Hope to see you again soon.”
“Call me Adam, please,” he said. “And the pleasure was all mine.”
Something in the way he’d said it made Kasey believe he didn’t plan on seeing any of them soon…maybe at all….
“Aleesha,” Pat interjected, “you help your mother with those dishes before you go up to bed, you hear?” She shook an arthritic forefinger in the girl’s direction.
“I love you, too, Gramma.” Her dark eyes twinkled with mischief as she blew a kiss in the older woman’s direction.
“Oh, you’re such a caution!” Pat said. But she came back into the room for no purpose other than to kiss Aleesha’s coffee-colored forehead. “G’night, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“She say that when you were a girl?” Aleesha asked, once Pat was out of earshot.
“What? ‘Don’t let the bedbugs bite’?”
“No, that ‘caution’ thing.” The girl rolled her big eyes. “She’s been sayin’ it since I came here to live, but I ain’t figured out yet what it means!”
“It means she thinks you hung the moon,” Adam said as Aleesha stooped to unbuckle her leg braces.
“Oooh,” she sighed, “sure does feel good to get those things off.” She shot Adam a half grin. “So ‘you’re a caution’ and ‘you hung the moon’ means…?”
He chuckled. “‘You’re one terrific kid.”’
She seemed to like that. Smiling, she started collecting mugs and teaspoons.
But Kasey stopped her. “I’ll get those, sweetie. You run on up to bed. You have a big day tomorrow, don’t forget.”
Aleesha threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I’m singin’ a solo at the Sunday service,” she explained to Adam.
“You don’t say. Which tune?”
She giggled. “‘Amazing Grace.’ And it ain’t a tune, it’s a hymn.” She looked at the ceiling. “Old people say the strangest things.”
“Good night,” Kasey said. “I’ll be up soon to tuck you in.”
Again she rolled her eyes. “Hey, Dr. Thorne, you got a pill for mothers who treat their kids like babies forever?”
“’Fraid not, kiddo. Guess you’re just going to have to learn how to deal with a mom who loves you like crazy, huh?”
“I guess.” She hugged Kasey’s neck. “I love you like crazy, too.”
“That’s some kid,” Adam said when she’d left the room.
“Yeah. Some kid.”
“Why does she wear braces on her legs?”
“Malnourishment when she was an infant stunted her bone growth. That’s also why she’s not quite on a par with other kids her age—intellectually, I mean.” She sighed. “She handles it like a champ, though.”
“There’s a very good reason for that. She’s got you for a mother.”
She took a deep breath. “Honestly, Adam. You have to stop saying things like that.”
“Why?”
Sadness had turned down the corners of his eyes, reminding her of the way he’d looked over dinner, when the subject of her father’s death came up. “Because I don’t want to become one of those conceited, self-centered women who—”
“Not a chance.”
She did her best Bullwinkle impersonation. “Oh, you know me so well, do you?”
Evidently, her silly expression and goofy voice weren’t proof enough to him that she’d only been teasing, because the gloom in his eyes deepened.
“I know enough.”
He sat quietly for a moment or two, thumbnail absently picking at a nub on the tablecloth. Then, without warning, he stood so abruptly that his chair legs squealed across the polished tiles. “Let me help you with this mess,” he said, grabbing two mugs in each hand, “and then I’ll get out of your hair.”
She didn’t have the foggiest notion what had caused his sudden melancholy, but at the moment, it didn’t matter. What did matter was comforting him. “Adam,” she whispered, wrapping her fingers around his wrists, “I don’t want you out of my hair. Haven’t you figured that out by now?”
He blinked a few times before crossing the kitchen to put the mugs into the sink. Then, leaning both palms on the counter’s edge, he hung his head. “Kasey, there are things about me you should know….”
His voice, barely more than a broken growl, echoed the unhappiness she’d seen in his eyes.
“…things that, if you did know…” He blew a stream of air through his teeth.
Kasey went to him, gave him a sideways hug. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad,” she said, stroking his back. “Seriously, it isn’t like you killed a man or anything!”
But the instant the words were out, she felt his muscles tense under her palm. Surely he hadn’t killed anyone! If only she could get him to talk to her, so she could convince him that no matter what sin he believed he’d committed, he was loved. Something made her silently tack on loved by God, that is.
“You know, folks say I’m a pretty good listener.”
He looked at her then and, tucking in one corner of his mouth, shook his head. “Seems you’re pretty good at a lot of things.” Brown eyes blazing, lips trembling, he added, “Wonder how good you are at forgiveness.”
Forgiveness? What in the world could a man this good, this decent, have done to feel unworthy of forgiveness?
While she stood there trying to decipher his comment, Adam grasped her upper arms and squeezed his eyes shut. “How much do you know about me?” he demanded, his voice raspy and ragged. “How much do you know?”
Kasey had never seen a man look more tortured, more troubled. She felt helpless, inept, unable to put a stop to his misery. And so she did what she’d always done in times of trouble, and turned to God.
Lord, she prayed, guide me. Help me know what Adam needs to hear right now.
Ten seconds passed, twenty, yet no comforting message came to mind, no words of wisdom. The complete quiet, punctuated only by the ticking of the clock and Adam’s irregular breathing, enveloped them.
Slowly, Kasey realized what God was trying to tell her with His silence: Adam didn’t need words now, he needed the quiet assurance of friendship. And so she slid her arms around him, and simply held him.
Two days passed, and it had taken every ounce of strength Adam could muster to keep from picking up the phone and calling her. He’d almost blurted out the truth, standing there at her sink that night.
It had brought tears to his eyes when she’d wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his chest. Only the sob aching in his throat had kept him from confessing everything; shameful as it had been, his moment of weakness had saved him.
“I don’t want you out of my hair,” she’d said. “Haven’t you figured that out by now?”
Yeah, he supposed he had figured it out. Had figured it out when he’d blocked her fall into the hearth and they’d kissed.
Now, Adam forced himself to focus on the patient file open on his desk blotter. His patient, Mitchell Gardner, who was getting dressed after his examination, would be in to discuss the results of his most recent tests at any moment, and the elderly gentleman deserved Adam’s full attention. He took a swig of cold black coffee, frowning as he swished the bitter liquid around in his mouth.
The door opened, and Wade poked his head in. “Got a minute?”
Since he had a nagging suspicion that his partner intended to give him the third-degree about Kasey, Adam had been avoiding Wade since dinner at her place. “Yeah, but that’s about all.”
Closing the door, Wade looked at Adam. “So…?”
“So what?” He knew perfectly well what Wade was getting at, but maybe, if he stalled, Mr. Gardner would knock on the door and Adam wouldn’t have to go into it.
Wade sat in one of the chrome-and-tweed chairs in front of Adam’s desk and propped an ankle on his knee. “So, what gives with the Delaney girl?”
Frowning, Adam read and re-read Mr. Gardner’s home address. “I don’t know what you’re talking abou—”
“Don’t give me that. You’ve been dodging me for days to avoid talking about it.”
He met Wade’s hazel eyes. True, but he sure wasn’t about to admit it. “I’ve been busy,” Adam said. Equally true. But not so busy that he couldn’t have taken a moment to discuss Kasey with Wade.
Wade leaned forward. “We’re in this as deep as you are, pal.”
Yeah, right, Adam thought angrily. “We?”
“Luke and Travis and me…we wanna know what she knows.”
He aimed a hard stare at his lifelong friend. “The three of you have been discussing this? Behind my back?”
Wade leaped to his feet, began pacing back and forth in front of the door. He stopped at the corner of Adam’s desk, then said, “You bet your sweet sports car we’ve been discussing this. We have as much to lose as you do. Now lay it on the line, Adam. Are we gonna need to hire a lawyer? What’s she planning?”
“Nothing. At least, I don’t think so.”
Wade looked toward the ceiling, loosed a loud breath. “You don’t think so. You don’t think so….” He walked to the door and, one hand on the knob, said, “You’d better find out what she knows, pal. Pretty Miss Green Eyes could be setting us all up for—”
Adam got to his feet and tossed the file onto his desk, spilling the pages onto the floor. “That’s ridiculous. Kasey isn’t like that. She’s—”
“Oh, it’s ‘Kasey,’ is it?” Wade stomped back to Adam’s desk, flattened one palm on the blotter. “You want some advice?” he demanded.
“No,” Adam shot back, “but I have a feeling I’m gonna get some, anyway.”
“We were idiots that night. What we did was wrong. No gettin’ around that. But with the exception of Buddy, we’ve all made amends, we’ve all taken the straight and narrow ever since.” He straightened and, slapping a hand to the back of his neck, added, “I didn’t spend the past fifteen years keeping my nose clean so some curvy little gal could waltz in and—”
A soft knock interrupted his tirade.
“Dr. Thorne?” his nurse called. “Mr. Gardner is ready to see you.”
Adam jerked open the door. “Give me a minute,” he said, gesturing to the mess he’d made of the file. Grinning sheepishly, he added, “I seem to be all thumbs today.”
