by Loree Lough
Luke removed a pair of running shoes from the seat cushion of an easy chair. “Yeah. What do you call this style?” he asked Wade. “Early Locker Room?”
“Good a guess as any. Only thing missing is the stink of sweaty socks.” He elbowed Adam in the ribs.
Masculine laughter filled the room as the lifelong friends made themselves comfortable.
Only Adam remained standing. “You guys want a soda? I could put on a pot of coffee….” May as well be hospitable, he thought, since it appeared the guys would be here a while.
“Maybe later,” Wade answered. “Have a seat, Adam.” He gestured to the well-worn recliner. “Make yourself at home.”
Perched on the edge of the chair, Adam rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands in the space between. He was almost afraid to ask “So what’s up?”
Luke spoke first. “Wade here tells us you’ve been seeing a lot of Kasey Delaney. We’re just lookin’ for assurances that she’s not out to even any old scores.”
“Yeah,” Travis put in. “There’s nothing to stop her from filing a civil action, not if she’s figured out who we are. There’s no statute of limitations on a thing like that, y’know.”
“Like I said in the office the other day,” Wade added, “we’ve all got a lot to lose. If there’s a lawsuit in the works, we gotta protect ourselves, and to do that, we oughta be considering legal—”
“Look,” Adam interrupted, none too politely, “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—Kasey isn’t that kind of woman. But just to satisfy what appears to be contagious paranoia, let me amend that.” He met each man’s eyes in turn. “Far as I can tell, she doesn’t have a clue who we are, or that any of us were involved in her father’s death.”
Was it his imagination, or had his friends simultaneously winced at the mention of the word death?
“I’ve sunk everything I have into our medical practice,” Wade added.
Luke spoke up. “Yeah, and the Howard County fire marshal is retiring next spring. I’m on the shortlist of replacements.”
“I’d high-five you,” Adam said, grinning, “if I wasn’t too lazy to come over there.”
Travis cleared his throat. “And I’m going to make a run for police chief.”
“Congrats, Travis,” Adam said. He focused on Luke. “And good for you, man. The county needs guys like you at the helm.” He stared at the floor, clenching and unclenching his jaw muscles. “The three of you know me better than anyone, so you know I wouldn’t feed you a line of bunk. Kasey’s an okay gal. I’d stake my life on this. Even if she knew—” he shrugged one shoulder “—about that, she’s not the type to file a lawsuit.”
Wade rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Okay, pal, if you say so.”
“I say so.”
The moment of companionable silence was interrupted by the doorbell.
Luke headed for the door. “Pizza, anybody?”
“Count me in,” Travis said.
Wade hollered, “It’s on me.” Then he hooked an arm around Adam’s neck and playfully smacked his head. “I hope you ordered extra large, ’cause it looks like our conversation gave the boys an appetite.”
“Only extra-large thing around here,” Adam retorted, laughing as he reversed the hold on Wade, “is your big yap.”
“Hey, Wade, you said the pizza’s on you, right?”
Wade uttered a muffled “Mmm-hmm.”
“Then, you owe me $17.57.” Luke plopped the pizza box on the coffee table. “Adam, where d’you keep the paper plates?”
“Kitchen,” he growled, snickering as he struggled to maintain the half-nelson, “cupboard beside the sink.”
Travis shook his head, feigned a weary, disgusted look as he took in his friends, wrestling on the family room carpet like a couple of rowdy pups. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?”
How true, Adam thought, releasing Wade.
Wade had already taken a bite of pizza before Luke returned with the paper plates.
The more things change, he repeated mentally.
But was that a curse…or a blessing?
Kasey sat beside her mother, third row from the altar and on the center aisle, to assure herself a clear view when Aleesha got up to sing her choir solo. Heart pounding with maternal pride, she double-checked the camera. Yes, the flash was working, and no, she hadn’t forgotten to load the film.
Pat leaned closer and whispered, “Easy, Kasey. She’s going to do fine, just fine.”
“I know, Mom,” Kasey said, slinging an arm around the older woman’s shoulders.
“You’re not surprised by all this, are you?”
“Not really.” Aleesha had done such a beautiful rendition of “Amazing Grace” that it would have surprised her more if Pastor Hill hadn’t asked the girl to sing another solo.
“Is there room for one more in this row?” asked a familiar voice.
Kasey looked up, unable to believe her eyes. “Adam,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“Aleesha called yesterday, asked me to come hear what she called her ‘very unique version’ of ‘I Believe.”’ He smiled. “Couldn’t very well refuse an invitation like that, now could I?”
Her gaze went directly to the altar, where Aleesha sat, waving. Waving at Adam, Kasey realized, a fact that made her smile.
“Scoot in a bit, Kasey,” Pat instructed, sliding left on the wooden bench, “so Dr. Thorne can sit down.”
“Adam,” he gently corrected.
Pat returned his smile. “All right, then, Adam.” She patted the empty space beside her. “We’d love it if you’d join us.”
Gingerly, he stepped over Kasey’s high-heeled shoes and took his place between mother and daughter.
“You look positively dashing in that tie,” Pat said.
Kasey could almost feel the heat of his blush, though he’d made sure to leave a good six inches between her left thigh and his right one. She had to agree with her mother, though: Adam did look handsome in that slate-gray suit. But then, he’d looked gorgeous in sweats, in blue jeans…
“So, how have you been?” she asked him.
“Fine.” He nodded emphatically. “Real good.”
“Working too hard, though, I’ll bet.”
He leaned forward, just enough to look into her face. “What makes you say that?”
She’d noticed right away that he looked haggard, especially around the eyes. “Just a hunch.”
“Adam,” Pat said, tapping his shoulder, then pointing at the altar, “Aleesha is waving at you.”
Smiling like a proud papa, he sent the girl a snappy salute.
“It was so nice of you to come all the way across town, just to hear her sing,” Kasey’s mother said. “I’m sure you have better things to do with your Sunday morning.”
“It’s only a ten-minute drive. Besides, I can’t think of anyplace I’d rather be.”
Either he’d meant it, or Hollywood was missing out on the greatest acting talent since Clark Gable, Kasey thought.
Just then, Edna O’Shea, seated on Pat’s other side, said in what she believed to be a whisper, “Who’s that man? Kasey’s new boyfriend?”
Pat held her hands out in an “I’m not sure” gesture.
Edna patted her cotton-white hair. “The dude is a hunk.”
Old Mrs. Madsen, who always arrived early enough to secure a seat in the front row, turned around and scowled at Pat and Edna. “Hush, you two.” She clucked her tongue. “‘Dude’ and ‘hunk’, indeed! Ladies, act your age, why don’t you!”
The instant Mrs. Madsen faced front again, Pat and Edna snickered. Kasey sat forward and, reaching around Adam, lay a hand on her mother’s knee. “Do I have to take you girls outside and give you a good talking-to?” she said around a smile.
The women sat up straight and folded their hands.
“No, dear,” Pat said.
And Edna added, “We’ll behave.”
Then the pair burst into anoth
er fit of girlish giggles.
Kasey looked at Adam, who expelled what she supposed he’d intended as a stern, fatherly sigh. She rolled her eyes, as if to say, What am I going to do with her!
Kasey looked so adorable that he didn’t resist the impulse to reach out and take her hand. Its satiny warmth surprised him, made the breath catch in his throat.
For an instant, their eyes met and locked. Like an invisible current of electricity, the moment sizzled and popped, awakening a longing inside him like none he’d ever known. If only he’d mustered some courage that night fifteen years ago…!
Thankfully, strains of “Onward Christian Soldiers” throbbed from the church’s ancient organ bellows. The quiet rustle of fabric and the soft creak of wood harmonized with the instrument’s resonant notes, as congregants got to their feet.
All around him, paper crinkled as parishioners searched for the correct page in the hymnals. Throats cleared. A cough echoed from the tall stained-glass windows. Someone sneezed, and a whispered “Bless you” was punctuated by a quiet “Thanks!”
As the organist held onto a wailing C-chord—her signal that the first verse was about to begin—Adam regretfully let go of Kasey’s hand.
If he’d known how hard it would be, seeing her again, he’d never have agreed to come here. Being this near her was downright painful, and frankly, he hadn’t expected that. He’d spent a total of, what, twelve hours in her presence, so how much sense did these feelings make?
His memory did a quick rewind of Aleesha’s request. Almost immediately, his mind started whirling with possible excuses and semi-believable reasons to decline her invitation. Trouble was, he genuinely liked the kid. Liked her mother, too, more than he cared to admit, and way more than was healthy…or smart. And so he’d mumbled an agreeable yeah, okay, sure, love to come to church, hear the song.
Adam ground his molars together, realizing he’d been born with one major character flaw: the inability to say no. If he’d had the guts to say it that Halloween night, long ago, there’d be no regrets about saying yes to listening to Aleesha’s song.
And maybe he’d even have a chance at a future with the angelic beauty who stood beside him now, putting everything she had into her own off-key singing.
“So what did you think, Dr. Thorne?”
Kasey watched in quiet amazement as Adam tugged gently on one of Aleesha’s thick braids.
“Y’done good, kiddo. Real good.” He pulled her into a hug.
Seemed a shame, Kasey thought, for a man like that not to be a father; he had such a natural, easy way with children. She’d seen enough on Halloween night to know that was true.
“Thanks,” Aleesha said, beaming. “I practiced for hours.”
“And it shows.” Adam took what appeared to be a regretful step back. “So how’s the report coming?”
“Finished. It’s due tomorrow.” She looked up at him, blinking expectantly. “Would you take a look at it? Make sure I got everything right?”
Adam winced, then ran a hand through his hair. “I, uh, well, I’m not sure.” He held out his hands, palms up, in a helpless, awkward gesture. “I have patients at the hospital to check on, see, and paperwork that’s piling up at the office….”
Kasey didn’t get it. What had turned him from a calm, confident man into a bumbling, fidgeting wreck?
But Adam’s ineffectual faltering didn’t seem to have come across to Aleesha as rejection. Grinning, she grabbed his hand and changed the subject. “It’s only a week-and-a-half until Thanksgiving!”
Adam shook his head. “I didn’t realize the holiday was that close.”
Did he realize how fatherly he looked, Kasey wondered, standing there with the girl’s hands sandwiched between his own?
“Where you havin’ turkey dinner?”
He shrugged. “Hadn’t given it much thought.”
“Don’t you have any family in town?”
“I’m afraid not. Lost my father when I was a boy, and my mom is on a European cruise with her best friend.”
“A European cruise!” Pat clasped her hands at her bosom. “What a wonderful treat.”
“Treat?” Aleesha said.
“You paid for the trip, didn’t you, Adam? What was the occasion? Mother’s Day? Birthday?”
Blushing, he nodded. “Birthday. How’d you guess?”
“You just seem the type who’d give a gift as generous as that.”
Generous.
The word reverberated in Kasey’s head like a Chinese gong. He’d been so giving, so welcoming when she showed up at his cabin, dripping like a rusty faucet. He’d fixed her soup and a sandwich, fetched warm clothes for her, tried to give up his own bed so she’d be comfortable. After the lasagna dinner, he was the only one who’d insisted on staying to help with the dishes, and he’d stayed on even after that, mostly to keep her company as she doled out candy to the trick-or-treaters.
And what about the gentlemanly way he’d treated her before Buddy showed up at Mi Casa, like walking beside the curb to protect her from traffic, pulling out her chair, suggesting she get something more substantial than salad for lunch. She thought of all the trouble he’d gone to, helping Aleesha with her term paper, his chosen career….
This was the kind of man who might deliver envelopes of money in the dead of night—though she had yet to figure out why anyone would do such a thing for fifteen years—because everything about Adam shouted “hero”!
So what had made her think Buddy had been the Delaneys’ benefactor?
It might have been as long as ten years ago when she’d asked Buddy, straight out, what he knew about the money deliveries. He’d been her only suspect back then, because from the time he was in junior high, he’d taunted the Delaneys as much or more than any family on Old Fence Court. Maybe a case of “guilty conscience,” she’d thought, or pity upon learning about her father’s death, had inspired the charitable donations. But in typical Buddy style, he’d neatly sidestepped the question, neither confirming nor denying.
She had another suspect now….
Get real, Kasey, she scolded herself. She hadn’t known Adam back then, so even if, like Buddy, he, too, had been a juvenile delinquent, Adam would have had neighbors of his own to harass.
She looked at him, handsome and gentlemanly as he politely chatted with Pat and Aleesha. The very idea that he could ever have been anything but what he was now seemed comical!
“Kasey, you look like the cat that’s swallowed the canary,” Pat said. “What’re you smiling about?”
Blinking, she snapped to attention. “Oh, just remembering Aleesha’s beautiful song, I guess.” Nice save, Kase, she told herself.
“So you’re sure?” Adam asked. “You don’t want me to bring anything?”
She swallowed. “Um, bring? To what?” Kasey felt a silly grin broadening her lips as a dim recollection surfaced in her mind. She’d nodded, hadn’t she, in response to something Pat and Aleesha and Adam had been discussing, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what, specifically.
Aleesha gave a teen-typical groan. “M-o-m,” she said. “Thanksgiving dinner? You said he could come, just a second ago….”
Ah, so that was it! She’d agreed to include Adam in the Delaney Thanksgiving celebration, and he, in turn, must have offered to provide a pie, or rolls, or…something.
“Just bring yourself,” she said, grinning to mask her embarrassment.
He looked as confused as she felt.
“Okay,” Adam said, “if you’re sure.”
“Positively sure. Dinner is at three.”
“But we like to start gathering by two,” Pat added. “Kasey won’t allow anyone to eat until they’ve thought of at least one reason to be thankful.”
“First time I ate with them, before I became a real Delaney,” Aleesha said, giggling, “I almost got a headache tryin’ to think of something!” Turning her smiling face toward Kasey, she added, “It’s easy to come up with stuff now.” She reached for
Kasey’s hand. “Thanks to Mom.”
Kasey’s heart beat harder, partly in response to Aleesha’s unabashed love, partly in response to the look of admiration shining in Adam’s eyes.
They descended the church steps, single file. “So how many will there be this year, honey?” Pat asked.
“Let’s see,” Aleesha said in Kasey’s stead. “There’s the Pastor and Mrs. Hill and their two kids, Mr. Weiss next door and his grandson, Uncle Chuck and his family, my friends Susie and Noah—they go to my school—” that was her aside to Adam “—Gramma, Mom, me and Dr. Thorne. How many is that?”
“Eighteen,” Pat said. “I think we need to round up two more mouths to feed, make it an even twenty!”
Adam whistled. “Wow. I’ve never eaten with that many people, except in restaurants.”
The reverent tone in his voice revealed more than that he wasn’t accustomed to big family get-togethers. It told Kasey that his life had been all but devoid of relatives, that he hungered for more than the food prepared for holiday gatherings.
“Kasey loves it,” Pat explained. “‘The more the merrier,’ she always says.”
Adam’s look of admiration deepened. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
And it sounded to Kasey as if he meant it.
Between now and then, she decided, she’d find out what his favorite dessert was, so he’d feel welcome, so he’d feel special. Kasey sensed he hadn’t experienced much of that in his lifetime.
Without knowing it, he’d awakened all sorts of womanly emotions in her, like the need to pamper and take care of him, and despite the fact that he was a big strong guy, able to fend off foes, she wanted to protect him, too, to comfort him from all the world’s woes.
If she had anything to say about it, “special” would become a routine feeling for Adam, starting this Thanksgiving.
And if it was in the Lord’s plan for her life—and Kasey prayed that it was—Adam would be one of the things she would thank God for next year.
Chapter Seven
Adam thrust out his chin, hoping the knick he’d given himself shaving earlier wouldn’t show when he peeled off the tiny wad of toilet paper. He ran a comb through his hair, adjusted his collar, examined his teeth.
