by Floyd, Susan
As the clerk prepared the paperwork, Dana turned to Jean. “Do you want your ears pierced?”
Jean shook her head.
“I do!” Ollie said.
“Okay,” Dana lifted Ollie into her arms and indicated the array of studs. “Which ones do you want?”
Ollie squinched her eyes and then pointed to little pink crystal flowers.
“I like those.”
“Here you go,” the clerk said and put two forms in front of Dana. She filled them out and signed her name at the bottom. Then Karen got in the chair, and the clerk drew tiny dots on her ears. Dana and the clerk looked carefully to make sure the dots were centered. When they both agreed the marks were in the right place, the clerk leaned over Karen and pierced first her left ear, then her right.
“Did it hurt?” Ollie asked.
“Just for a little bit.”
“Do you still want your ears done?” Dana asked.
Ollie nodded.
“Okay. She wants the flowers.”
“Don’t cry,” Karen instructed Ollie. “It’s going to hurt but don’t cry.”
And tough little trouper that she was, Ollie had her ears pierced without as much as a squeak.
“Now what about you, Jean. We have to get you something.” Dana said as she put Ollie back in the cart. “What about a ring?” She lifted Jean into her arms and leaned over a case filled with birthstone rings. It was at that moment she realized that she had no idea when the girls’ birthdays were. For that matter, she didn’t know Brady’s.
“February,” whispered Karen. “Jean’s birthday is in February.”
Dana smiled and whispered back, “Thank you.” Clearing her throat, she asked, “Can we see the February ring?”
“That’s an amethyst,” the clerk told them. “Do you know what amethyst does?”
They all shook their heads.
“It protects its wearer from bad spirits.”
“Well, then, Miss Jean,” Dana said. “I think this ring is just perfect for you. It will protect you in your dreams.”
Jean took the ring that the clerk held out and put it on her finger. She looked at Dana in wonder. “It fits.”
“We’ll take that, too, along with the wedding band.”
“Done. Anything else?”
Dana laughed. “No, I think we’ve done quite enough damage already.”
As she paid, Karen sidled up next to her. “Don’t tell Uncle Brady about his ring. Let it be a surprise.”
CHAPTER NINE
BRADY HAD JUST FINISHED adding the final ingredients to his special hamburger surprise when the door burst open and the girls came in with their arms filled with packages.
“Uncle Brady!” Karen was the first one in the kitchen. “Look!” She angled her head to show him something.
“What?” He looked at her hair, but didn’t know what he was supposed to see.
“My ear,” she instructed him.
“I see your ear,” he teased her.
“What’s on the ear?” she asked.
“I see a little dolphin.”
“Miss Ritchie let me and Ollie get our ears pierced! And we got the prettiest dresses for your wedding. And Miss Ritchie bought a pretty dress, too, but you can’t see that until Friday.”
“She did, did she?” Brady murmured.
Dana, her face red, grabbed the packages and headed to her room.
“Are you going to show me?” Brady called to her retreating back.
She stopped, turned and gave him a smile that could only be called saucy, before disappearing into her bedroom.
“Look,” a small voice said to him.
Jean was tugging on his sleeve. Brady knelt down next to the little girl. “Did you get your ears pierced, too?”
Jean shook her head and held out her hand.
“Oh, you have a ring. It’s very pretty.”
“It’s her birthstone,” Karen informed him, looking into a spoon to catch the reflection of her ears.
“The clerk told us that the amethyst will protect Jean from bad spirits,” Dana said when she came back into the room. She looked at the stove. “That smells good. I could get used to this.”
“You’ve had quite a shopping trip.” He gestured at the girls who were in the living room, admiring their new jewelry.
Guiltily Dana put her hands behind her back. “It’s probably something we should have talked about. But yesterday Karen told me that her mom had promised she could get it done, because they had to move away from Hollister on the day she was supposed to have her ears pierced there. When we realized they did piercing at the store, I couldn’t resist. I did sign the parental consent form, though. Bad?”
“What did you say?”
“That I signed the consent form.”
Brady shook his head. “No, before that. You said something about Bev moving away from Hollister.”
“Karen said they moved away in a hurry. Is it important?”
“It might be. If we knew why she had to move so quickly, we might know why she’d want to hurt herself.”
“Money?”
“Probably.” In his experience, people did a lot of things for money. Many of them illegal. Carson was a case in point.
“Speaking of which, every penny you gave me is gone.” She leaned over the counter and plucked a mushroom off the cutting board and popped it into her mouth. “Is it terrible that I had the girls’ ears pierced?”
Brady had never wanted to kiss someone the way he wanted to kiss Dana right now. “No. Not bad at all. Look how happy they are. I’m surprised Jean didn’t get her ears pierced, too.”
“She knows her own mind,” Dana replied with true affection in her voice. “She knew from the very beginning she didn’t want it. I’m very proud of them all.”
The girls had stopped what they were doing when they heard Dana’s praise. And the change it made in them was notable. Brady had read studies that proved how important unconditional love was to a child. And here was living proof. He didn’t know how it had happened, but finally he was going to be able to do something he knew his mother would be proud of.
BRADY WAITED in front of the large oak desk in the judge’s chambers, surprisingly nervous. In his suit pocket, he fingered the simple gold band he’d purchased the day before at a local jewelry store after he’d taken the girls to see their mother. Looking at them now he realized how proud he was of them. They knew their mother had been driven by her pain to do some bad thing, but they forgave her, letting go of any anger they might have had. Moments ago Karen had whispered to him that Dana was going to come in by herself and that he had to be surprised. He assured her he would act very surprised and stood up straighter when the judge entered the chambers.
The door opened, and with big smiles the girls watched his expression as Dana came in. Teetering on high heels, she walked the short distance from the door to Brady, holding a small bunch of flowers that Jean and Ollie had picked that morning.
Brady discovered he didn’t have to act surprised. He was stunned.
“Isn’t she pretty, Uncle Brady?” Karen asked.
Pretty wasn’t the word for it. He now knew why she’d wrapped herself up in a trench coat for the drive to Hollister.
“It’s a bit excessive,” she confessed.
“You’re beautiful,” were the only words he could come up with. He tried to find a less trite remark, but he was distracted by her gorgeous legs. He held out his hand and she placed her shaky one in it.
The ceremony took hardly any time at all, once the witnesses—two clerks Brady had found taking a break outside—arrived. Her hand only trembled slightly when he pushed the ring onto her finger. He hadn’t expected her to have one for him, but found himself pleased by her thoughtfulness. After they signed their names on the marriage certificate, the judge reviewed the material for the temporary custody arrangement and granted it to them.
Once they were finally outside, Dana burst into nervous laughter.
“So what does this mean?” Karen asked.
“This means you three get to stay with us.”
“Forever?”
“As much of forever as we can control,” Brady said.
“Does that mean we have to call you Mom and Dad?” There was a quiver in Karen’s voice.
Dana bent down. “No. You have a mother and a father. And they’ll always be your mom and dad.”
Karen looked relieved. “So I can call you Miss Ritchie and Uncle Brady?”
“That’s fine.”
“Or you can call her Aunt Dana,” Brady suggested.
“Aunt Dana,” Karen tried it, then nodded. “We’ll call you Aunt Dana.”
“So what do we want to do now?” Brady asked.
“I’m starving,” Dana replied. “I’ve been so nervous, I haven’t been able to eat all day.”
“So where do we want to eat?” he said as he opened the car doors. When he helped Dana in, he found that she was still trembling.
“Thank you.” She ducked her head shyly.
“Where do we want to eat?” he repeated when he got into the car.
“McDonald’s!” Ollie said, clapping her little hands. “I like McDonald’s.”
Brady looked at Dana, who grinned. “If you go to the McDonald’s by the county bank, they have a Playland.”
THE GIRLS GOT LOUDER and louder once they saw the restaurant and couldn’t get out of the car fast enough. Dana caught Ollie’s hand to keep her from running across the parking lot. Not unhappy to be restrained, Ollie put her free hand in Brady’s, then swung both arms. It seemed utter confirmation of the connection Dana now had with Brady and his nieces.
Dana had hardly recognized Brady in his nicely made gray suit. His hair was combed back and he’d shaved, revealing the straight planes of his face. This was a different Brady and he unnerved her. Especially when she remembered how he’d looked at her when she walked into the judge’s chambers.
“What do you want?” Brady asked Dana, his voice close to her ear.
The fact that there was finally someone in her life who cared to know what she wanted made tears well up in Dana’s eyes, but she fought them. She would not cry in a fast food restaurant.
“A burger? Nuggets?”
She pressed her lips tightly together and said, “A burger is fine.”
“Fries?”
“A Happy Meal,” Ollie said. “Get a Happy Meal.”
Dana’s tears spilled over. “Okay.”
Brady glanced at Dana with concern. “Are you okay? Do you want to take this to go?”
She sniffled and clenched her hands into fists.
“Hey, you have quite a grip on that.” He tugged her purse from her hand and gave it to Ollie. “You don’t want to be accused of purse mangling on your wedding day.”
“I’m sorry.” The more she tried to hold back her tears, the worse the deluge became. She looked over her shoulder at the line forming behind her. Brady waved them past.
“Do you need a hankie?” he offered.
“You have a hankie?”
“No, but I’ve got a wad of toilet paper in my pocket.” His words were joking but his eyes were serious. He pressed a tissue into her hand. Dana took a deep breath and Brady nodded approvingly.
“Is your meltdown over?” he teased.
Sure enough, more tears came.
“So is this where I’m supposed to hold you?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
She closed her eyes as she felt his arms come around her with none of the reluctance that his tone suggested. She buried her face in his chest until she had no tears left.
“Make sure you use the toilet paper. This is my only clean shirt.”
She was trying to cry but she felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. “Don’t make me laugh.”
Even though she wanted to stay in his arms forever, she reluctantly pulled away. She blew her nose in the tissue, straightened her shoulders and looked up at the menu. “I’m sorry. I really am happy.”
“As you should be,” Brady teased. “It is our wedding day. So enough of the waterworks. What do you want?”
Dana smiled down at Ollie. “A Happy Meal.”
DANA WIPED the crumbs off the table in the booth she’d selected. She felt so much better now. Jean sat next to her and patted her leg.
“These are happy tears,” she told the little girl. Jean nodded and patted her leg some more. Brady walked toward them with the tray, and Karen and Ollie followed behind.
He put the tray on the table, and the girls scrambled into the booth, Karen scooting next to Dana. Brady passed out the Happy Meals, and the next few minutes were filled with chaos as the girls dug in the boxes for their toys.
Brady winked at her as he bit into his burger. Dana’s heart fluttered. He was even handsome chewing. She watched him carefully tear open a package of ketchup for Ollie, and then one for Jean. Her appetite was still gone, and for some reason she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
“Did you eat at McDonald’s with the little boy?” Karen asked suddenly.
“What?” Dana didn’t understand the question.
“I asked if you ate at McDonald’s with the little boy.”
“What little boy?” Suspicious of where this was going Dana couldn’t keep a slight edge from creeping into her voice.
Karen paled. “I’m sorry. I saw the pictures of you and a little boy.”
Dana swallowed as Adam’s face rose in front of her. Don’t forget me.
BRADY SAW DANA’S FACE go white. She didn’t answer Karen for a long time. Instead, she focused on the fry that she was swirling around in a blob of ketchup that had already begun to crust.
“Where did you see those pictures?” Her voice was calm.
“In our room.”
“Those pictures weren’t out.”
“I like photo albums.” There was an apologetic tone in Karen’s voice. “I saw them in the bookshelf and I started looking through them. I didn’t mean to be bad. But there are lots and lots of pictures of him. He looks very nice. Where is he?”
Brady stared at Dana with concern. He didn’t want to think about who this little boy was.
“What was his name?” Ollie asked.
“Dana, you don’t have to answer that,”
Brady intervened. “Ollie, that’s none of our business.”
Ollie looked down. Her bottom lip trembled and tears started to run down her face. “I’m sorry.”
“Adam,” Dana said, her voice so low that Brady could barely hear her.
“What?”
“Adam.” Dana spoke to Karen and Ollie. “The little boy in the pictures is, was, named Adam.”
“Was?” Brady asked.
“He died not long after those pictures were taken.”
“Died?” Karen asked quietly. “Was he your baby?”
Dana locked her eyes on Brady’s. “No. He was a student of mine. I took care of him for a summer while his mother was going through a tough time.”
Brady understood Dana’s inference. Tough times could mean drugs, violence or both. From the pain he saw on Dana’s face, he could only imagine what the little boy had suffered before he went into Dana’s care.
“How did he die?” Karen’s voice had lowered to a whisper.
“His mother— He was in an accident,” Dana amended. “Nothing could have saved him.”
Dana was saying one thing but her posture said something different. Knowing Dana, she’d tried to do all that she could and failed. More likely, the system had failed. Too late, he realized what caring for his nieces must have cost her.
“We can’t save everyone.” The words came out sounding much more stale than he intended.
Dana lifted her eyes to him.
“I wonder.” She contemplated his words, and with a resolve that startled him, Dana smiled.
“Hey, when we finish eating, why don’t we get ice cream, too. After all, we have to celebrate.”
MUCH LATER w
hen the girls were tucked into bed, Dana sat at the kitchen table while Brady watched television. She had a stack of homework to grade, but she couldn’t concentrate. She kept getting distracted by the thought of being married and wondering if she felt any different. She glanced over at Brady who had changed out of his suit into jeans and a T-shirt. His fingers tapped against the remote.
“Anything interesting on?”
Brady glanced up. “No.”
If she hadn’t known better, she would have said he was nervous.
Dana smiled. Today, they’d become a family. It’s not a real family, her rational mind tried to tell her. She shook it off. He’s my husband. They’re my girls. Despite all the warnings she’d given herself, she’d been repeating those phrases to herself and they sounded right.
“I’m not finding anything. Maybe you can,” Brady said, and held up the remote.
She got up and crossed over to the living room. She settled down beside him and began to channel surf. She was sitting on her own couch watching her own TV in her own house. Why did she feel so odd?
“You looked great, today,” Brady said after she started her second lap through the channels.
She stared at her fingers. “Thanks. The girls picked out the dress. I don’t think I would have chosen it. When I tried it on this morning, I was shocked by how short it was, hence the coat.”
“I’m glad you took off the coat. Not that you didn’t look good in the coat, but you looked better in the dress.”
“You didn’t look so bad yourself.”
“It may not have been a traditional wedding,” he replied thoughtfully, “but I think that any wedding, especially ours, deserves special attention.”
“Happy Meals?” she chuckled.
“Very special.”
Dana became very still, realizing that Brady was leaning closer to her. He put out a finger and traced her profile, starting with the top of her forehead. Every nerve in Dana’s body was jumping once he started to trace around her lips. After a few minutes he slid his hand behind her head and began to massage her neck. Tension evaporated, and she actually moaned.
He smiled and shifted to place his lips on hers. Dana closed her eyes, her lips seeking greater contact with his. She lifted her arms and he pulled her onto his lap, but then he stopped.
