Country Bride

by Debbie Macomber

  As big a mistake as allowing this dangerous tenderness for Evie Blanchard to filter through him even though he knew damn well it would never go anywhere.

  * * *

  Had she ever so monumentally misjudged a person?

  Though she knew she needed to return to Taryn and Charlie on the deck, Evie paused for a moment to watch Brodie slide into his luxury SUV out front. She had always prided herself on her natural instincts when it came to figuring most people out, but she had been completely off the mark when it came to Brodie Thorne.

  The man she had come to know these last few weeks was a vastly different creature from the cold, humorless man she’d believed him to be when she’d first arrived in Hope’s Crossing. She had despised him from the very first, had wondered how Katherine—warm, generous, loving—could have produced a man so disagreeable.

  The man she mistakenly had believed he was would never have backed down from this particular fight. He would have railed and blustered, demanding his way and threatening anything in his path.

  Brodie had certainly been furious, as he had every right to be. He could easily have forbidden Charlie to continue coming to the house and sent Evie packing at the same time. As far as she knew, he was right. He might even have been able to bring in the authorities—though she seriously doubted Riley McKnight would have moved forward with trespassing charges against the kid when she had allowed him to continue coming.

  Despite Brodie’s anger at the deception, he hadn’t forbidden Charlie from coming again. He had been willing to swallow his own wishes for the sake of what she considered best for Taryn, and Evie didn’t know quite what to think about that.

  Nor did she know why she had followed through on that insane impulse to give him a hug. She was still reeling from the sheer intimacy, the soft, gentle tenderness, of those few moments as he had wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly.

  She sighed. Better not to think about it. She would be leaving in a short time and her path probably wouldn’t cross with either of the Thornes much after that.

  When she walked back out to the deck, Charlie gazed at her, his eyes solemn. “I should go,” he said.

  “You don’t have to,” she assured him.

  “I do, actually. I’ve got a meeting I can’t miss with my attorneys.”

  Despite the remarkably graceful way Brodie had handled Charlie’s presence, she could only be grateful he wasn’t here to hear that particular announcement. She was quite certain Brodie wouldn’t want to hear anything about Charlie’s defense team.

  “Thanks. You were a big help today.”

  “You’re welcome.” His voice sounded funny and she searched his features. He was looking at Taryn, not at Evie, and she saw guilt and regret in his eyes.

  “I’ll see you later, T.”

  “See...you.” She lifted her hand and waved at him.

  Jacques followed him to the side gate leading to the circular drive out front and waited there as if making sure the boy got on his way safely.

  “My dad was mad.”

  “Yes.” She slid into the chair where Charlie had been sitting. “He had reason to be. We should have told him Charlie has been coming to visit. I was too much of a coward. Why didn’t you ever mention it to him?”

  Taryn shrugged. “He doesn’t like Charlie. He never did. Can he come back?”

  “For now.”

  “Whew!”

  Evie was compelled to be honest with the girl, as she should have been with her father from the beginning. “You need to prepare yourself that Charlie might not be able to come around much longer, Taryn. I know it’s been fun to work with him but I can’t promise it will continue. After I go back to work at the bead store next week, the new therapist might have different ideas, or your father might change his mind and decide he doesn’t want Charlie around anymore.”

  “That’s so dumb.”

  “It’s not dumb for your father to be upset about what happened to you. He loves you. All parents feel responsible for making sure their children are safe. Your dad feels like he failed you—and he blames Charlie for that.”

  “I keep telling you, it wasn’t... Charlie’s fault.”

  They had already talked about this and Evie wasn’t in the mood to travel this particular road again. She opted to divert attention away. “Hey, here’s an idea. Since it’s your grandmother’s birthday, why don’t we go clean up and drive into town to surprise her for lunch?”

  “To String Fever?”

  “We’ll stop there and see where Katherine wants to have lunch. How does that sound?”

  “Okay, I guess.”

  To Evie’s relief, Taryn allowed her attention to be sidetracked. Evie couldn’t understand this dogged insistence that none of them blame Charlie for what had happened. Taryn had a definite blind spot when it came to the boy.

  She wanted to warn the girl to be careful and guard her heart well but for some reason she didn’t care to identify yet, the advice seemed hypocritical coming from her. Instead, she helped Taryn find the gift she’d carefully made for her grandmother and wrapped during her last session with the occupational therapist, then ushered her out the door.

  * * *

  Taryn was quiet throughout the complicated process of Evie helping her into the accessible bathroom before they left, washing her face and hands, fixing her hair and makeup.

  The home-health aides were only coming twice daily now, once in the morning to help her shower and dress for the day and again in the evening to deliver meds and help her to bed. Now that she could transfer herself from her wheelchair to the commode and to other chairs around the house, Taryn was almost to the point where she was able to handle most of her needs by herself, which was huge progress in only the few months since she’d been in a coma.

  Finally they were on their way. Their route took them past the high school and, as they went by, Evie glanced in the rearview mirror and found Taryn gazing out the window, her mouth tight and her eyes upset.

  She had lost so much. They were all so focused on the big picture, on Taryn regaining her skills, they sometimes forgot all the little things she’d lost, like back-to-school excitement in the fall, football games on crisp autumn evenings, bonfires in the canyon with friends as fall began to brush vibrant color on the leaves.

  Hope’s Crossing High School planned to send a series of tutors to help Taryn try to catch up from what she’d missed the previous year. Perhaps Evie ought to talk to Brodie about the possibility of Taryn attending an hour or two of regular school, just for the interaction with her peers.

  Evie could certainly do that but in another few days, none of this would be her concern. Her replacement would be starting the day after Labor Day, less than a week away, and Evie would be out of their lives not long after that.

  The thought should have cheered her. She wanted things to return to normal, wanted to be able to put this brief return to her therapy roots to rest once and for all. She thought about no longer making that drive in the morning up the hill toward Aspen Ridge and Brodie’s house, no longer having Taryn greet her every day with a mock groan and her regular “You’re here again?” refrain, no more of Mrs. O.’s delicious food and her occasional dour but amusing company.

  Evie should have been anticipating the idea of her life returning to normal. But all she could see right now was how empty her days would seem.

  Oh, this was not right. She loved working at String Fever. Interacting with customers, talking to Claire, taking the chaos of a hundred disparate beads and jumbling them together to create beauty and order.

  But she also loved this, helping Taryn. Every day posed a new challenge, another surprise, and she would miss it terribly. She might tell herself she needed to distance herself from her chosen career as a physical therapist but some part of her still found immense satisfa
ction in it.

  She was still mulling the shock of that realization as she circled the block, trying to find a parking space near the bead store with enough room on the right to allow her to lower the wheelchair ramp. A handicapped parking spot finally opened up behind the store on her second trip around the block and Evie grabbed it.

  “Grandma will be surprised,” Taryn said when Evie turned off the van.

  She managed a smile at the girl, despite the tumult of her emotions. Taryn’s returning verbal skills far outpaced her physical abilities. If nothing else, Evie was deeply grateful for that. The ability to communicate wants and needs could take a person much farther in life than being able to toss a ball to a dog.

  “She might already have made lunch plans, or be too busy to get away from the store this afternoon,” she warned. “We probably should have called her.”

  “What’s the fun...of that?” Taryn’s still-lopsided smile was bright and a little mischievous.

  Evie had to sigh. Who was she kidding? She was already crazy about Taryn.

  They let Jacques into the back gate and found Chester already there as if he’d known they were coming. He waddled to her bigger dog and sniffed him with that enthusiastic way dogs acted, as if they were being reunited after months apart.

  “Smells pretty back here,” Taryn said.

  “That’s the lavender and the phlox and the lemon balm.”

  “Do you...take care of the flowers?”

  “I water and weed and plant a few here and there. Your grandma started the garden when she owned the store, then Claire added to it.”

  “It’s nice here.”

  “I love coming out in the morning and watching the sun come up. You should smell the flowers then,” Evie said. “You ought to plant a garden next spring. I’m sure your dad would let you take over a patch of ground at your house.”

  In her experience, gardening could be fabulous therapy, both mental and physical. Maybe she would talk to Brodie about letting Taryn use the warm, south-facing window in her room for an indoor container garden. She could see tarragon and rosemary, perhaps a tomato plant or two.

  She caught herself. In a few days, Taryn’s therapy would be none of her business. She needed to get that straight in her head once and for all. The new therapist would be making those sorts of decisions and that was just the way she wanted it, right?

  They enjoyed the peaceful garden for a few moments more, then Evie pushed the wheelchair toward the door. Inside, they found Katherine and Claire both seated at the worktable while a customer browsed through the chain selection.

  Katherine looked delighted. “Hello, you two! What a lovely surprise,” she exclaimed.

  “Hi, Grandma. Happy birthday.”

  “Why, thank you! It’s been a lovely day so far.”

  “Can you...have lunch?” Taryn asked.

  Regret flashed in Katherine’s eyes and she opened her mouth to answer but Claire cut her off. “Of course she can.”

  “But you were planning to leave early,” Katherine protested.

  “Don’t worry about that for a minute. I’ve got plenty of time. The kids are with Jeff and Holly, busy cooing over their new baby sister, who is adorable, I have to admit.”

  Again, Evie wanted to roll her eyes at her friend. She knew very few women who would be enthusiastic about their ex-husband’s new child with another woman. But that was Claire.

  “Riley has to run to Denver to track down some information on a case he’s working and I’m driving in with him to do some wedding shopping, but we’re not leaving until later. I’ve got all the time in the world. It’s your birthday and I can’t think of a better way for you to celebrate than lunch with Taryn.”

  “Good,” Taryn said happily.

  “Shall we go to the café?” Katherine asked.

  Evie hesitated. Taryn still grew nervous when people watched her eat, as it could be an awkward, messy process. She’d been thinking more along the lines of grabbing something and coming back to the store to eat in the garden or grabbing a picnic table over at Miners’ Park, but she decided to leave it up to Katherine’s granddaughter.

  “Taryn?”

  The teen briefly looked indecisive, but finally nodded. “Okay.”

  “Give me a minute to touch up my lipstick and grab my purse,” Katherine said.

  After she walked to the back room, Taryn indicated she wanted to look at a new bead magazine that had just come in. While she was leafing through it, Evie pulled Claire aside to talk about the outdoor arts-and-crafts festival she was attending over the weekend and the local beaders who had left projects on consignment for the show.

  “Everybody has really appreciated your hard work this summer. It’s not easy going by yourself to these shows. Setting up, sitting there the whole time, dealing with all the looky-loos.”

  “I’ve enjoyed it,” Evie answered truthfully.

  “How is everything going with Taryn?” Claire asked after checking to be sure the girl was busy with the magazine and not paying them any attention.

  “Wrong question to ask me this afternoon,” she said.

  “What’s happening?”

  She sighed. “I screwed up. You remember that day Charlie came to the store and helped Taryn make a bracelet?”

  Claire huffed. “How could I not remember it? I had to take about four ibuprofen and half a bottle of Tums that afternoon.”

  “I’m sorry,” Evie said with a quick hug, guilty again that she’d put her friend through that ordeal. “The thing is, Taryn really thrived during that visit so, um, Charlie’s been coming to the house to help with her therapy several times a week. I decided not to tell Brodie about it—yes, I was too chicken—but he unexpectedly came home for something this morning and found him there.”

  “Uh-oh. Busted.” Claire looked sympathetic and horrified at the same time.

  She sighed glumly. “Yeah, it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. But Taryn loved having him there and she worked so hard whenever Charlie helped out. I figured Brodie, of all people, would agree that the ends justified the means, you know?”

  “Is he still talking to you?”

  She thought of the sweetness of that spontaneous embrace in the kitchen, how after that first awkward moment of surprise, he had wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly for a long time.

  “He said Charlie can continue to come as long as we schedule his visits for times when Brodie isn’t home. For all I know, this might be a moot point anyway. Tuesday is my last day with Taryn and it will be up to the new therapist to decide if peers ought to be incorporated in her treatment plan. I’ll do my best to encourage it and explain how helpful they have been with Taryn but it will really be up to her.”

  “Evie, if you need more time, you know you’ve got it.”

  “More time for what?” Katherine asked, emerging from the back room looking as elegant as ever. Evie hoped she could age half as well as Brodie’s mother.

  “More time to figure out how you possibly can be celebrating another birthday yet look younger and more beautiful every day,” she said promptly.

  Katherine rolled her eyes, but before she could respond the chimes on the door sang softly and a couple walked into the store.

  Evie almost laughed as all three of them gave a low, collective groan, just as if they’d practiced it.

  “Good afternoon, Genevieve,” Claire greeted the female half of the couple. Tall and slender with artfully streaked blond hair and always-perfect makeup, Charlie’s older sister smiled vaguely at all of them.

  The Beaumonts were among the wealthiest year-round residents in Hope’s Crossing and Genevieve had no problem flaunting her family’s affluence.

  For the last nine months, she’d been Bridezilla on steroids—bossy, self-absorbed and unreasonab
ly demanding. Claire, unfortunately for her, had been sucked into the gravitational pull of the Beaumont/Danforth wedding when she’d agreed to design custom beadwork on the bodice of Gen’s wedding dress.

  This was actually her second time around doing the work, as Gen’s first dress had been cut to shreds during the robbery of String Fever that had preceded the violent car accident four months earlier.

  Despite everything, Evie actually liked Genevieve. She had picked up the impression more than once that the young woman was more than a little nervous about her upcoming wedding and she found that rather endearing despite all of Genevieve’s sometimes unreasonable demands.

  Those nerves were nowhere in evidence now as Gen swept into String Fever, towing along an extraordinarily striking young man in his late twenties with dark curly hair and laughing blue eyes.

  “I know you told me the dress wouldn’t be ready for a few more weeks, but Sawyer is in town for a few days and I would love for him to see it.”

  “That’s bad luck,” Taryn said, enunciating more clearly than she had all day.

  Genevieve twisted around to look at the magazine corner where Taryn was seated in her wheelchair. When she recognized the girl, Gen’s gaze flicked between Taryn and her fiancé uneasily.

  It wasn’t tough for Evie to interpret the look. To Genevieve, Taryn must appear a blatant reminder of the scandal she would likely prefer to forget. Gen’s fiancé, Sawyer Danforth, was the son of a powerful Colorado politician who was reputedly grooming his son to follow in his footsteps.

  Rumors around town had it that Gen was worried the Danforths no longer considered her good enough for their precious son, now that Gen’s younger brother was facing serious charges in the robberies and the death of Layla Parker in the car accident.

  “I don’t believe in those silly superstitions,” Gen said after an awkward pause. “Neither does Sawyer. Do you, darling?”

  Her fiancé held up his hands. “Don’t drag me into this. You’re the one who wants me to see the dress. I told you I think you’d be perfectly lovely if we got married with you wearing what you have on right now.”