WindSwept Narrows: #13 Charity, Faith & Hope

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “You need longer legs, kiddo,” Devon told her with a chuckle.

  “When it warms up, we’ll go running on the beach, Mina,” Hope promised, heading out the back door and pulling her gloves into place as she moved. She only cast one brief glance over her shoulder at the house she’d woven a story around in her mind, the gates open by the time she reached them.

  She didn’t stop and think about what he was going to explain to his hired help, she just closed down and ran. By the time she reached the house she was more or less stress free. She found her suitcases and filled them with her clothing and anything that was hers. A tote bag held all her things from the bathroom. She had her little four door car loaded in an hour, staring around the small room one last time. It’s hard to have stuff when you pay bills, she thought. Her computer was her most expensive thing…and she loaded that very carefully into the car.

  Hope left a note for her friends, telling them not to give her room away! She’d be back in two months. A break from them would be nice, she thought, inhaling the morning fog as she drove back toward the large house. She maneuvered the smaller car beneath the carport with a sigh, stretching and getting ready to unload when the door was opened.

  She was about to offer a protest when the strange man opened the door to her car and began taking things from the inside. Then she saw the smile on Jackie’s face as she gathered an armful of clothing and carried them inside.

  “I can do this…” Hope heard the weak voice and knew it was hers even as Devon came around the corner, Mina perched in one arm, wiggling until she was put on the ground. She ran to Hope, taking her hand.

  “I can help you,” she said with a bright smile. “Daddy has to work so we can play.”

  “I need to change clothes…but yes, we can play,” Hope agreed with a nod, letting the little girl lead her up the wide staircase.

  Half an hour later, Hope had changed and was arranging her closet, frowning. “You don’t go to play care? Or a daycare…no kids to play with?”

  “Sometimes we go to the park…if daddy’s not working too hard,” she said, looking up from the little farm she was building in the center of Hope’s bedroom floor.

  “Hmm…we need to go out and play,” Hope decided firmly. Dismissing the rest of the things for later. “Let’s go find a car seat, and your jacket, Mina,” she followed the running child into the other room, pulling a little jacket free.

  They ran down the stairs together, making a lot of noise and skidding to a stop on the hardwood floor just inside Devon’s study.

  “We need car keys,” Hope announced, reaching up and shoving some stray hair from her face.

  “Yeah, we need car keys,” Mina echoed.

  Devon looked up from the screen of his computer, one hand making notes over some paper. “Talk to Matt. The smaller car is in the garage and it has a kid seat in it,” he looked from one to the other, his hand on the desk to slide a piece of plastic toward her. “Take that. I called them and you’re on as authorized user, Hope.”

  “I…you didn’t…are you sure…”

  “I’m sure.”

  Mina walked up and took the slim plastic in her fingers, handing it to Hope. “We can shop,” she said with a smile.

  “I want to know where you learned that one, kiddo,” Devon said with a frown, crooking his finger at her and tapping his cheek as he bent lower. She giggled and kissed his cheek before going back with Hope. “Be careful,” he said firmly, looking at Hope. She nodded and went toward the kitchen.

  Hope looked around nervously, lifting Mina into her arms and really uncomfortable.

  “Mrs. Alexander…” The older man stood up from the table and held his palm out to her. “Matt Crossland…”

  “Please…call me Hope…Devon said I could get keys from you…for a smaller car with a child seat in it?” She wasn’t sure how to fit into this house. It wasn’t anything like she was used to.

  “Oh, of course,” he moved to the small board hanging on the wall near the door, lifting a set of keys from it and handing them to her. “Let me get the garage open for you.”

  He walked with her outside, entered the code on the side of the garage and nodded at the smaller black vehicle. Hope felt her head ache. This wasn’t a cheap or even mid priced import. She inhaled slowly and used the alarm to open the doors, figuring out the buckles and small tray for toys as she fit Mina into the seat. Hope pulled the small bag of kid things closer to Mina and closed the door.

  “Thank you,” she said, waving and guiding the expensive car into the sunlight.

  “Where we goin’?” Mina asked, little shoes swaying to the music Hope popped into the CD player.

  “I’m going to take you to meet some friends of mine,” Hope told her, glancing at her watch. She had about two hours before the admin area would shut down for the weekend.

  “Are we goin’ in there?” Came the little whisper when Hope opened the back door to release her from the seat.

  “We are…” Hope laughed and just let her run, a lot of the people leaving early with their kids in tow as she led Mina along the employee corridor. She watched the child press her face to the thick glass surrounding the outside of the child care area.

  “Can I go in there?” Mina asked excitedly, looking up expectantly.

  “As soon as I fill out these papers,” Hope said.

  “We can fix that…” Myra held up a little plastic coated bracelet. “Give me your arm, Mina…” She fastened it, adjusting it to her wrist before lifting the child over the gate and motioning to one of the girls inside. “Mina…add her to your group for a few hours, Carla…thanks…”

  “Thank you…she was so excited to go and play,” Hope continued filling out the forms, signing the bottom. She stopped, scratched out what she wrote and signed the name Devon had told her to use for awhile, swallowing hard as she read the signature. “I’ll be back in an hour. I have papers to fill out in Human Resources and Security, I think.”

  Hope decided she was as excited as Mina was, just in different sections of the resort. She knew she was faltering over some of the boxes, leaving them blank and hoping there weren’t questions. She had no idea what Devon’s cell number was…and she didn’t even know the address to the house she had moved into.

  “You can bring that in with you on Monday,” the woman behind the desk told her with a smile. “Mr. Matthews is lucky you were available on such short notice.”

  “Getting that office up and running is important to the employees,” Hope said with a nod, signing the bottom of the forms and sliding them back. She took a post it and made a note to herself, sliding it into her wallet.

  Hope left the admin area with a packet full of information and a security badge confirming her identity. She felt dreamy and light as she wandered along the corridor. She also found out she could live in an employee unit. So she didn’t have to go back to the crazy room mate situation, she thought happily. She leaned against the gate, watching Mina play with some other little girls at the miniature play kitchen, dolls set out and enjoying a fun looking tea.

  “Has she been okay?” Hope asked the woman at the desk. “I’m sorry…Mina…in the bright yellow top…she’s never been to a day care before. I was a little worried…”

  “Oh, she’s hooked up with some of our very social girls,” Myra said with a grin. “They’re also very talkative and intelligent. I think she’ll fit right in. Ready to join the Resort?”

  Hope held up her badge, flushing at the color she knew struck her cheeks. “Very ready…Monday morning.”

  “Will Mina be coming regularly?”

  “I…I’m not sure…would it be alright if she did?”

  “Of course. I’ll add her name to the group she’s playing with now. We can get her started on her letters and counting…all sorts of things,” Myra made some notes to the file with Mina’s name on it. “When you check her out, have your badge ready and sign here. Run the badge over this reader,” she showed her how it worked. “I’ll
go get her for you.”

  Hope watched the little girl wave excitedly at her new friends, arms sliding into the jacket held out for her.

  “Can I come play again?” She looked from one to the other, a sad look in her eyes when the plastic bracelet was taken off.

  “You wear this when you’re inside, Mina,” Myra told her, attaching it to the board. “Maybe I’ll see you on Monday when your mom comes to work, okay?”

  “Can I?” She asked excitedly, wide eyes pleading for Hope to say yes.

  “We have to talk to your daddy,” Hope said with a smile at Myra, leading Mina to the outside.

  “I could play here when daddy works,” Mina declared firmly, sounding for all the world like her father in Hope’s mind and making her chuckle.

  “I think that would be a really good idea,” Hope agreed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Devon knew he was being irrational. Over-protective. And yet his mind returned to the bump on his head and the events of the night before. Someone had tried kidnapping his daughter and now he’d let her go off with a virtual stranger. Where the hell had his head been? His head jerked up when the notification beeps sounded through the house that she had returned.

  Hope laughed with her as they came running into the house. She’d parked the car beneath the carport with the other two. She was several feet behind Mina as she went streaking into her father’s office, flinging herself into the arms of the man who dropped to his heels.

  “Daddy! I had the best time! I met new friends and we played and…”

  Devon let her ramble, his eyes on the woman at the door. “Do you have a cell phone?” He asked, his jaw clenched.

  Hope wasn’t sure what she’d done, but she knew she really didn’t like the look in his eyes.

  “Yes,” she answered quietly, pulling the small rectangle from her pocket.

  “The number?” came the ground out request.

  Hope told him the number, dropping to her heels when he set Mina down and she ran to her. She opened the jacket and slipped it down her arms before she went to the corner of the room where her toys were set up, busily chattering to her dolls and animals.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You’ve been gone for four hours,” he said angrily.

  “I didn’t know I had a time limit,” she returned honestly.

  “When you take my daughter out, I expect you to check in…” Devon stopped himself, turning from her and moving to stand at the multi-paned window, his hands up on the ledge.

  Hope felt the heat stinging behind her lashes, blinking and willing it to go away. Too many emotions crashed inside her at once. The rational side of her could feel his concern after what almost happened the night before. The irrational side of her dropped Mina’s jacket to the chair and left him standing there. She went up to her room and quickly changed clothes, going down the back stairs and out into the partly cloudy afternoon, not looking at the surprised woman in the kitchen watching her go.

  She ran. She ran until she couldn’t see anything but shadows on the ground and she stood with her hands on her knees, inhaling deeply. It hadn’t taken away the odd pain inside her, it had only added to it, she thought, opening the newly repaired back door and climbing the stairs to her room.

  Devon listened to the animated little girl tell him – again – all about her adventures with Hope as they worked through dinner.

  “Where’s Hope?” Mina asked over the top of her glass of milk.

  “She went running.”

  “She likes to run. She said it makes her head fly where no one can hurt her,” Mina shared with a thoughtful nod. “It would be fun to be a bird.”

  Devon had to laugh. “I’m sure it would.”

  Hope stepped into the new room and quietly closed the door behind her. She was sitting on the chair removing her shoes when the little body peeked around the edge of the connecting door.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Absolutely,” Hope swiped at the wayward tear on her cheek and smiled at the little girl. “What’s up?”

  “Wanna play?” She held a little container filled with ponies.

  “I think play would be good for me,” Hope admitted softly. “How about you wait here while I take a shower and get my pj’s on?”

  “Okay,” she grinned and climbed to sit in the middle of the bed, humming to herself and opening her container.

  Nothing can cheer you up more than play, Hope decided as she stepped from the shower, quickly drying off and slipping her pajamas on. The straps of the tank slid unnoticed down her shoulder caps, her hands up and briskly drying the dark hair with a towel as she walked into the room.

  “So what are we playing…” She stopped, frowning at the empty bed, her eyes peering through a mass of dark hair around the room. They landed on the man sitting quietly, hands hanging between his knees. She shoved the hair back, ignoring the man watching her as she draped the towel over the edge of the door to dry. “Where’s Mina?”

  “I told her you wanted privacy,” he answered.

  “I told her I would play with her,” Hope said, striding to the connecting door. “You don’t speak for me. And you never speak for me to her.”

  “She’s my daughter…” He moved quickly, grabbing her arm and stopping her.

  Hope pulled her arm free, glaring at him, carefully keeping her voice low.

  “Don’t touch me. And you’ve made it very clear that she is your daughter. I don’t know what you wanted to come from this, but it won’t work and I don’t care if they throw me in jail for lying to the police. I’m going in the morning and you can have your prison all to yourself again,” she went through the door before he could move, dropping to the floor and immersing herself in the play of ponies and little plastic people.

  Devon stood in the doorway, quietly watching. Both of them lay on their stomachs, knees bent and feet crossed as they swayed behind them, giggling and talking about what ponies do all day long.

  “Bedtime in an hour, Mina,” he said, setting the little clock on the wall and going out through her bedroom door, leaving it open and not looking back over his shoulder.

  Hope kept track of the time, playing and giggling and finally rolling around on the floor when the timer sounded, stuffed animals all around them. Both girls looked up when the decidedly male voice cleared his throat.

  “Looks like the zoo broke free,” he said casually, deliberately keeping his gaze on his daughter.

  Mina sighed. “It’s the tiger’s fault…she wanted cake…”

  “She did, huh?” Devon leaned against the door, arms crossed and waiting patiently as they collected toys.

  “But the bear wanted berry pie…” Mina looked up at him with a shake of her head. “It just got ugly after that.”

  Devon didn’t hide his laughter but he glimpsed Hope biting her lip. “You girls need some help?”

  “Nope…we made the mess…so we gotta clean up the mess,” Mina told him, handing toys to Hope before climbing into her bed with a big yawn. She held up the little arms when Hope bent over her for a hug. “G’night.”

  “We had a long day,” Hope whispered in her hug. “Get rested.”

  She stood up and went through the connecting door, leaving it ajar. Hope vaguely listened to the soft voice on the other side reading a story before the lights went out. She lay curled against a pillow, staring out the window and watching the rain sparkling against the street lights in the distance.

  “You really should learn to knock,” she said quietly, drawing in a slow breath.

  “I thought I had perfected stealth,” Devon stood at the connecting door. “May I come in? I’d like to talk to you,” he said, prepared to go if she refused. He wouldn’t blame her in the least. He was coming to the fast conclusion that thirty-seven did not grant you intelligence.

  “Sure,” one shoulder rose and fell negligently. “It’s your house. You can do as you please. I will be leaving in the morning. I can put my name on a waiting list
for a studio apartment at the resort…so I won’t have to put up with the room mates for very long.”

  “You don’t think that’s a little hasty?” He sat down, grinding his teeth and forcing his brain to work. She hadn’t moved from her position. “You think you could sit up and talk face to face, Hope?”

  “No. I’m not used to having talks in my bedroom…oh, wait, this isn’t my bedroom,” she said dryly. “It’s your room that I’m sleeping in…”

  “Okay, I can see this isn’t going to go well…”

  “I was careful, Devon. I lock the doors when I drive alone. I watched each and every car around us because I was scared. I don’t like the feeling, it makes my stomach hurt,” she told him, hating the little quake in her voice. “We left here, went straight to the resort, into the employee parking area and inside. She spent two hours playing with kids her age in a very well designed child care facility. Then we went to the employee cafeteria and had lunch. Then I brought her home. I didn’t think about checking in, and I couldn’t even if I had because I don’t have any phone numbers. You were there when we left this morning and did not offer phone numbers, nor did you tell me to check in. I am sorry you were worried,” she finished with a long breath.

  “I don’t want you to leave,” he said finally.

  “And you always get what you want,” she threw back, closing her eyes at the sound of her own voice coming out like a spoiled child. “I’m sorry.”

  “Believe me, I don’t always get what I want in this world or any other,” he replied, shaking his head. He’d researched her. Spoken to people he knew who knew her. “I’d like you to stay, Hope. It would be beneficial for us both,” he thought about the speech he’d worked on through the day, after he’d finally made the appointment to talk to a grief counselor.

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with this hotel thing, but I don’t fit into your world, Devon. I’ve never had a…a cook or driver in my life! Those are things from a storybook world or some…some place foreign…and to have to worry about someone coming after Mina…I have a quiet, boring life! No one cares about what goes on in it! I don’t have anything anyone would break and enter for and all of a sudden I’m afraid just driving down the street!”