She closed the small gap between them. Using her few inches of height difference, she placed her hands on her hips in an apparent attempt to be intimidating. “And you had the nerve to call me exasperating?”
Annoyance flashed through her green eyes and puckered her mouth. She’d never looked more beautiful to Walt. He pushed his arms through the open space her arms created and pulled her to him. Her startled gasp lowered her chin just enough that Walt’s lips found hers.
She tasted of coffee and Danish and love.
Lil pushed her hands against his chest but he didn’t stop. Instead he drew her closer, deepening his kiss.
A soft moan vibrated from Lil, humming through the kiss, as her hands slid up until she wrapped her arms around his neck. Walt’s insides trembled. In Lil’s arms he felt eighteen again, young and carefree.
He ended the kiss but held her tight. “Oh Lil,” he said, his love-rasped voice barely audible. Never had his feelings been this strong, not even with Nancy. Maybe it was because he and Lil shared the same outlook on life. He knew she’d never turn on him.
She nodded her head, her soft curls silky on his cheek, letting him know her heart agreed with his.
He cleared his throat and loosened his grip. He wanted to look into those vivacious green eyes when he declared his love. It seemed too soon after only four weeks, but life changed quickly and love didn’t knock on your door every day.
Cupping Lil’s flushed cheeks in his hands, he drank in the emotion pouring from her eyes. It fortified his determination. Her plump lips parted as her eyes roamed his face, like she might be thinking the same thing—It’s love.
He put a finger to her warm lips. Call it manly pride, but he wanted to say it first.
“Lil.”
“Don’t say it.” Mist formed over her eyes, dimming her love. She’d slightly pulled her head away, giving it small shakes.
“Why not?” This really wasn’t going as he’d planned. But why did that surprise him? Lil wasn’t like other women, something he’d started thanking God for daily. The thought broadened his grin.
She closed her eyes, drawing her brows together, her years of living emphasized by the lines on her forehead. “Because…” She stopped pursing her lips and opened her eyes. “I don’t deserve it, Walt. I don’t deserve your love.”
Walt’s smile widened. “Well, I think you do. I love you, Lil.”
Her bottom lip trembled.
“You don’t have to say it back,” he whispered. “Although I’d love to hear it from your lips, your eyes and kiss tell me everything I need to know. You can tell me when you’re ready. I can wait.”
His words didn’t soothe or remove the tortured look from her features. He guessed her heart had been broken once. Her distant looks, the secret she couldn’t share, how she found it difficult to voice her feelings—that all added up to a broken heart.
“Walt, I want to tell you something.”
A crack of thunder shook the house, rattling the windows. A chorus of pings hit the roof and windows.
“Is that hail?” Lil’s voice was back and in full volume.
“Worse.” Walt released Lil and walked to the window.
Lil joined him. “I’m glad the folks got on the road when they did.”
“Me, too. With these temperatures, this is not good.”
Walt moved to the living room window, Lil trailing behind. A thin sheen already glistened on the blacktop in front of the hotel.
Walt stated the obvious. “Ice storm.”
“Maybe it won’t last long.”
The ice storm lasted thirty-six hours. The governor declared an emergency and closed all the South Dakota interstate exits north and south between the Iowa and North Dakota borders and east and west from Minnesota to central South Dakota.
“What a mess.” Lil cracked the door and squeezed through the narrow space, but frigid air seeped into Walt’s kitchen anyway.
Walt paced back and forth like a mountain lion on the prowl. “You shouldn’t be out in that mess. I should.”
“Well, you can’t.” Lil stomped her boots on the rug, then held the heel of one boot with the toe of the other so she could slide her foot out. She repeated the process with the second boot, soaking the toe of her heavy woolen sock.
A two-inch layer of ice covered the ground. After the first hour of the storm, Lil started the vigil of keeping her camper door free of ice. Thanks to Walt’s buying ice melt in bulk, she’d managed to keep his sidewalk and a narrow path to her camper a melted slushy mess by reapplying the solvent about every two hours, but at least it provided some traction.
When Walt paced close to her, he gently pulled an icicle from her curls that escaped the cover of her coat hood. “You shouldn’t have to do this.”
Lil pushed the hood of her parka back and slipped out of her coat, hanging it over the back of a kitchen chair to dry. She finger combed her curls. “Don’t you think I know you’d help me if you could?”
“Yes,” Walt conceded before returning to the other end of his pacing track, stopping to look out of windows frosted with ice, obscuring an outside view. He looped his thumbs around the straps of his light blue pin-striped overalls that topped a thermal long-underwear shirt.
“Do you still have electricity out there? I have trouble with that box and thought for sure it’d act up during the storm.”
“It’s working. My furnace is keeping it nice and toasty, which will help the door not to freeze shut.”
“The doctor’s office rescheduled for next Tuesday.” Walt spoke to the frozen window as he bent, trying to find a sliver of uncovered window to look through.
“Well, hopefully the roads will be clear by then. The sand truck went by. The blacktop’s covered in patchy ice. If the sun peeked out it would help, although I’m not so certain that will help the ground cover melt. You might be stuck with that until spring.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time. By the way, I ran plain water through the coffeepot. I thought you might want a cup of hot chocolate to warm up.” Lil rolled her eyes as Walt kept bending and stretching to try to find some sort of clear spot on the window to see through.
“Did you get any more petal pieces adhered to the fabric?”
“Yeah, they’re on the table ready for you”—Walt turned his attention from the window to Lil—“my Rose of Sharon.”
Since her back was to him, she allowed herself to grin as a shiver of happiness warmed her soul more than the hot chocolate ever could. He’d been calling her that for the last few days.
She savored the giddy feeling of knowing Walt returned her love. Many times without warning that same giddiness would leap from her heart and holler, “Surprise!” exciting a giggle or laugh, but then the truth would tug at her heart, reminding her not to get used to the feeling.
“Thanks to you”—Lil carried two steaming mugs of cocoa to the table—“I’m getting my winter project finished in record time.”
Slipping into the chair across from the sewing machine, Walt put his elbow on the table and rested his head in his palm. “I’d like to see what it looks like all sewn together.” He started arranging blocks side by side.
“I’ve got to appliqué all the blocks before I can sew the top together. And if you get a good report on Tuesday, you’ll no longer need a full-time nurse.”
“What?” Walt’s palm slapped against the table, the cups and Lil’s sewing scissors rattling their protest against the Formica top.
Lil had internally repeated that mantra so many times over the last few days whenever guilt tightened its grip on her heart that she didn’t realize she’d actually said it out loud.
She lifted her eyes from her quilt block. “You knew that day was coming. That you’d be healed and no longer need someone here while you recovered.”
By the set of Walt’s jaw and sour frown, Lil knew he didn’t like or agree with her reasoning.
“You know once the doctor releases you to a cane and six-week follow-up, he
’ll report it and then your insurance won’t cover the cost of the nursing service.”
Walt’s glare stung more than the pellets of ice the wind had been whipping in her face for the past three days.
“I can pay out of pocket.” Walt raised his brows and shrugged, as if the matter was settled.
“Doesn’t work that way. There is a shortage of nurses, and my contract with the nursing service says I can’t work as an independent contractor.” Lil meant the firm nod of her head as the period to end this conversation.
Walt had other ideas. “I thought you were going to Texas as soon as you were done with this nursing assignment. That means you’re contract has expired or is on hold or something.” He sputtered the last few words and waved a hand in the air.
Lil sighed. So much for pulling the wool over Walt’s eyes. “I have a reservation at an RV park in Texas.”
“Cancel it. I love you, Lil. I know you love me even if you are too stubborn or scared to say it back. I want you to stay here with me.”
She closed her eyes. He wanted her to stay now, but when he found out the truth…She shook her head. Then it’d be a different story. It had crushed her when Larry rejected her years ago, and her feelings for him weren’t nearly as strong as her love for Walt. She was being sensible not stubborn, but he was right about one thing. She was scared.
Lil opened her eyes. “I told you before I can’t stay.”
Walt crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. “Can’t stay or won’t stay?”
Chapter 10
Lil never answered Walt’s question, but he surmised that “won’t stay” won out. After their short standoff, Lil spent more time in her camper, using excuses like having to clean it or check for leaks or ice damage.
Loneliness screamed through his house when she wasn’t there. It was hard to imagine that he’d been counting the days for her to leave just five short weeks ago.
What could he do to cut through her fears? He couldn’t imagine any mistake worse than the one he’d made in Nam. He saw her inner turmoil expressed outward—one minute happy love radiating from her face, the next sorrow curtaining her pretty green eyes.
He stood at the window, staring across the gravel driveway at Lil’s camper. Thankfully, between the sunshine and his furnace, the ice melted from his windows. Watching her shadow cross by the camper windows gave Walt comfort, yet he knew that landscape may change with today’s doctor’s report.
Maybe the X-ray would find a glitch in his healing, something that’d keep Walt using the walker.
A beep, then a static buzz cut through his thoughts.
“You ready to go?”
Walt walked over and picked up the walkie-talkie.
“Yes.” He started back to the window and noticed he’d left the walker sitting where he’d stood moments earlier. He hadn’t had pain in a couple of weeks and no longer needed to remind himself to walk normally.
Face it, old boy, you don’t need a nurse. But he did need a nurse—just not for her professional abilities.
“I think we should take my pickup today, just in case we encounter some ice on the roads.”
“Probably a good idea, Speedy, because you’ll hit it going too fast and put us in the ditch.” Walt’s voice was light, teasing, and he’d have winked if Lil had been standing by him instead of avoiding him.
Lil looked out her camper window and wagged a finger his way. Why didn’t she just come over to the house?
“Get your coat on and I’ll pull my truck as close as I can to the door. The sidewalk is clear, but I’m not taking any chances.”
The roar of the pickup’s motor and the crunch of its tires seeped into the quiet kitchen. Walt opened the door to bright sunshine, deceiving in its promise of warmth as frigid air cooled his face and tickled his nose.
Lil drove the pickup through the yard and parked two feet from his door. With the passenger door centered over the dry sidewalk, all he had to do was take two steps and climb into the cab.
She waited by the open passenger door. “Didn’t figure this would hurt your lawn.”
The ice cover over the still-green grass was broken and jagged where the pickup tires cut through the smooth glaze. “The ground might not be as frozen as you think.” Walt pointed to the tires. “But this won’t hurt the lawn at all.”
Grasping the built-in handle above the passenger door, Walt, using his good leg, stepped up on a surprisingly ice-free running board. Lil’s sturdy hands warmed him through the thick layer of his coat as she held his waist to help him into the vehicle.
Once he found the seat, it was easy to pull himself into a sitting position and get straightened in the seat with both legs together.
“That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” Walt pulled the seat belt across his chest as Lil snapped the walker to its folded position.
After closing his door, she rounded the front of the pickup, stashed the walker in the backseat, and readied herself for takeoff.
“I have a good feeling about your appointment today.” She smiled at Walt as she pulled the pickup into gear.
His heart plummeted to his stomach and it had nothing to do with Lil’s driving ability. It was because his gut knew that he was healing, Lil would soon be gone, and his life would return to his normal routines. But that wasn’t good enough anymore.
“Shall we go tell Mark and Sarah the good news?”
Walt didn’t miss the forced happiness in Lil’s voice.
“I suppose so. It’s Tuesday and Caroline should be there, too. I want to talk to her about making a Rose of Sharon quilt for a wedding gift for Mark and Sarah. Unless”—Walt stole a glance Lil’s way—“you’ve reconsidered leaving and will help me make them one.”
The long sigh and pursed lips created a thick tension in the pickup cab that lingered the rest of the way to Granny Bea’s.
Lil pulled into the handicapped parking space right in front of Mark’s store. She slipped the placard over her rearview mirror as the click of the passenger door announced its opening.
“Hold it a minute. The asphalt looks dry but there could be a thin layer of ice over it. You don’t want to fall and ruin the good news.”
“I don’t want to use the walker anymore.” Although he’d use it forever if that meant Lil would stay.
As if she didn’t hear him, Lil slipped from the vehicle, opened the cab’s back door, and shut it. He’d opened his door and turned in the seat before he saw what she had in her hand.
“Where’d you get that?”
Lil frowned. “It’s yours. Don’t you recognize it?”
Of course he did. The quad cane had been his partner for many years. He’d like to change that partner to the hand of his beloved Rose of Sharon.
“I meant when did you get it?” Walt used the passenger door and Lil’s shoulder to steady himself as he slid out of the pickup.
“Yesterday while you were napping, I took it out of the closet and put in my pickup. I just knew you’d get a good report.” Lil smiled at Walt.
His hand wrapped around the worn handle of the cane and he stopped Lil with his free hand. “I can close my own car door now.” With little effort the door snapped shut.
“After you.” Lil raised her hand toward the sloped area of the sidewalk.
“Not anymore. We’re walking together.” Walt snatched Lil’s gloved hand in his. He expected, after the tense ride to the quilt store, that she’d try to pull her hand free. Instead her smile widened and her fingers linked with his to create a tight bond, just like their hearts had done over the last few weeks.
Sarah met them at the door. “Look at you.” Her eyes dropped to Walt’s and Lil’s hands. Walt grinned, knowing she wasn’t talking about his walking with a cane.
“I got a good report at the doctor.”
“I can see that.” Sarah eyes now rested on Walt’s cane as she opened her arms to embrace him.
Walt took his hand off of his cane to wrap her in a one-armed hug, ev
en as Lil tried to wiggle her hand free of his grasp.
“Mark’s in the back room with Caroline. Let’s go tell him.” Sarah kissed Walt’s cheek before releasing him and leading the way to the classroom area of the store.
“Look who’s here!” Sarah announced their arrival in the workroom like Walt had just come home from a trip overseas.
Mark and Caroline looked up from a worktable where quilts were strewn.
“Uncle Walt.” Mark walked toward him, holding his hand out.
Shaking Mark’s hand would’ve required Walt to break his grasp on Lil’s fingers, so he lifted his hand from his cane and squeezed Mark’s extended hand. A sly grin crossed Mark’s face as he patted Walt on the shoulder.
“How long before you get rid of that?” Mark jerked his head toward the cane.
“A couple of weeks. The doc said I only need it when I’m outside or in a crowded place. I can walk around the house without it.”
“As he’s been doing quite frequently without the doctor’s or nurse’s permission.” Lil chuckled.
“Caroline…” Walt nodded his greeting just before the tall redhead wrapped him in a hug, her corkscrew curls not quite as soft as Lil’s as they grazed his cheek.
“You look great. I’m so glad you finally had that surgery.” She held him at arm’s length. As with Lil, he had to look up to meet her eyes.
“I’d like you to meet Lil Hayes. She’s my nurse and—”
“Provided the history behind my Lily of the Field quilt.” Caroline shook Lil’s hand. “It’s so nice to know the original story behind the quilt. I never considered making a quilt that was themed around a name. What a clever idea your grandmother had!”
“It’s nice to meet you, too. The love of your work shows in your eyes.”
Caroline laughed. “I’ve been told that before. But quilts are so special and made with so much love that I believe the love rubs off on anyone who touches them.”
“You did a splendid job of restoring that old quilt. By the pictures it looks practically new. My sister, Lily, cried over the phone when she saw the pictures on your website.”
Dakota Love Page 42
