“Jackson, sit down,” Emma ordered.
“I’m fine, Ma,” Jackson said, even as he wavered on his feet.
“Jesse, plant your brother’s butt in a chair. James, get him some coffee. Jared, see if you can find a sweet roll or candy bar.” She moved over to where Jesse was pushing Jackson into a seat.
“How many more times did you have to defibrillate him?” Emma’s tone left no doubt that Jackson had better tell her the truth.
Jackson sighed and let his head fall back against the seat. He shut his eyes, but she saw the brimming tears. “Three, but he’s stable now. They have him sedated and hooked up to everything possible to keep him going until they can find out what’s wrong. How did I not know my own father was sick? I’m a doctor for God’s sake.”
“Nobody knew,” Jesse said. “I’ve been reading online that sometimes there isn’t any way possible to know. What we have to focus on is from this point forward. So if you take another dive into the dark abyss of guilt I will take you back to that creek I tried to drown you in no matter what the temperature is outside.”
“And I’ll let him,” Emma added.
“Ma!” Jackson snapped his eyes open, shocked.
James and Jared walked up bearing gifts of coffee and a candy bar. “Did you hear that, Jared? After thirty some years Ma just gave her blessing on creek dunking.”
Emma shook her head. “I swear, talking to you boys is like talking to your father. He could twist things around to his way faster than the devil can tempt a sinner.”
All four boys laughed.
“You married him anyway,” James said softly.
Emma smiled. “Yes I did. There was one thing he did better than anything anybody ever thought of doing. He could kiss the ever loving daylights out of me.”
“Ma!”
All four boys winced as if they didn’t want to think about their parents having sex.
“Don’t ‘Ma’, me. Bet you boys haven’t fallen far from the oak tree. Should I ask around?” Wincing turned to shock, and Emma swore every one of them blushed. Hmmph. She could teach Jesse a thing or two about easing the tension amid her rug rats, even Jackson’s color had returned to normal.
Things were okay for the moment. John was where he could be helped. Her boys were together and helping. And all of them were in God’s hands, including her heart.
Chapter Four
Present Day
“John, I love you,” Emma whispered to her husband as she slid her hand over his. He didn’t respond to her touch because they had him sedated. And his skin was almost frighteningly cool, making her want to cry out with the need to warm him. Both the sedation and keeping his body temperature low for the first twenty-four hours were to minimize any possible organ or tissue damage as his body recovered.
Machines beeped, IV’s dripped, and her heart beat in double-time at seeing him brought so low. He had always been so strong, such a pillar of strength throughout their life together that seeing him helpless didn’t seem real. Both the wonder and the trouble with him was that he’d always had more brave brawn than sense. He thought himself practically invincible against any foe and usually proved that to be true. Not this time though.
“When I get you back home, you and me are going to have a come to Jesus meeting about the farm, John Weldon. I want you around for a good time longer, and I’m not losing you to some cows and beans.” She was only allowed to visit for a short time every hour, and her time was almost up. Jesse, Jackson, and Jared had been into see him before they left, heading back to the farm where Alexi, Nan, her grandsons and Rocky waited.
“Don’t tell me, you’re going to start an ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ campaign,” James said as he entered the room.
“If it will get your father to take it easy, I just might,” Emma said.
James winced. “Well, I’m afraid to say that I bought you a hamburger at the snack bar.”
“I guess I can delay my protest a day or two.”
James joined her, setting his hand on her shoulder. He’d gone to the snack bar to bring them back food, though she didn’t think she could eat a bite. He was staying with her until Jared returned later. The boys had set up an around the clock schedule to be at the hospital with she and John. She’d already declared she wasn’t going anywhere until John opened his crystal blue eyes, and she knew he was out of the danger zone.
“You okay?” James asked.
“There have been better days,” she said, forcing a smile. “But being able to finally see him helps.”
“Yeah, it does some.” James adjusted the cooling blanket they had covering John much the way John used to cover the boys up every night at bedtime by tugging the bottom of the blanket down first then tucking the top under the neck.
Her heart swelled and squeezed with pain at the same time. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but out of all four of you boys, you’re the one who is most like your father when he was younger.”
James arched his brows in surprise. “I thought that would be Jesse, since they both joined the Marines.”
The nurse cracked open the door. “I’m sorry Mrs. Weldon, but you both will have to step out until the next visitation time. They’ve a few more test the techs will be coming to do otherwise I’d bend the rules a bit.”
“I understand. You’ll let me know if there is any change in his condition?”
“Yes, ma’am, I promise.”
Drawing a deep breath to force a calmness she didn’t feel, Emma leaned down and kissed her husband’s cool cheek. At his bedside, her world at least felt as if it were on somewhat steady ground. The waiting room was nothing but quicksand. James led her out of the room and sat her down at the table where he’d placed their food.
“I have to give you fair warning. I’m to report to Jackson on how much you eat. He said to tell you that if you don’t eat, he’ll personally kidnap you from the hospital until you do. Jesse said to ditto that for him.”
Emma frowned. “Just what is this world coming to? You’re actually not only cooperating with your older brothers’ demands but you’re aiding and abetting their cause?”
James shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything, I guess. We’re all four in agreement. You can’t help Dad if you get sick yourself, which means you’ll eat. And more than just a bite or two, okay?”
“We’ll see.”
James lit into his food, and she started messing around with hers.
“So what makes me more like dad?” he asked after a few minutes.
“Your expressions. The way you do things. And sometimes the look in your eyes. You are so like he was when I first met him. Tell me something, did you and Jared have a falling out? There’s a strain between you that’s never been before.”
James shrugged, ate a few of his fries then sighed. “I think he’s moving too fast. He only knew Rocky a week before he pretty much decided she was the one and refused to listen to a word anyone said about slowing down.”
“Is there something about Rocky that worries you?”
“No. From what I’ve seen, she’s, competent, giving, and beautiful. It’s just that I know Jared, and it’s completely out of character for him to make a snap decision about a lifetime commitment. And he’s always at least considered my advice about something instead of telling me to butt out. How can you take one look at a person and instantly fall in love?”
Emma hesitated a moment, unsure she was ready to open this door. “I did,” she confessed. “Though I didn’t know it until later.”
James’ brows shot up. “But I thought you knew Dad longer before you fell in love. He rescued you and then you two got together after you both returned home?”
“Yes, but there’s a little more to the story than that. You see, my parents met and married within just a few months, and it was a horrible disaster. So, I never really shared the timeline of when I met your father and fell in love with him.”
Frowning, James leaned back in his chair and folded his arms,
looking like John when demanding an explanation. “You’ve never said much about your parents. I just know that they died before we were born.”
“I don’t say much because it isn’t a pretty story. My Dad went to jail for domestic abuse, and my uncle killed him when Dad came back to kill my mom. Mom then drank herself into a grave ten years later.”
James sat forward fast and caught her hand. “Shi-um, damn, Mom. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
“There isn’t anything to say. Other than to ask you to let me tell your brothers about it when I see the time is right. The point in telling you now was to explain why I left out a few details about your father and me. Meeting someone and marrying before you can really say that you know them doesn’t always work out well. But then sometimes it does.”
“So you’re telling me that you fell in love with Dad in just one look?”
Emma smiled. “At first I thought it was just because he got under my skin, but in reality he’d slid right into my heart.”
“How long did it take you to realize how you felt? How did you know he was the right man after living through what happened between your mother and father?”
“I met your father in Saigon at a Christmas party. We spoke for a few minutes. I didn’t see him again until the next day. Within thirty minutes he managed to get me fired from job, kiss me as if the world was about to end, and then walked away back to his post. A few days later, I realized he’d taken my heart with him.”
“You saw him again then?”
Emma smiled as the memories rushed back as if it had been days rather than decades.
Vietnam
December 1971
“Emma! There’s a man downstairs, asking for you. He’s dreamy, too.” Ginny Carlton, their ballerina Donut Dolly, twirled across the floor.
Emma had just sat down to write a third letter to John Weldon. It had been three days since he’d kissed her and left. She frowned even as her heart thumped with excitement. She only knew one dreamy man. John must have come back to Saigon. Rushing to her room, she brushed on some lipstick, patted her hair and hurried downstairs.
Her gaze darted from one person to the next who sat in the cheery reception room. The holiday time had the room crowded. Still, she didn’t see John.
“Emma Rollins. It is you! I can’t believe it. I thought I saw you at the hospital today, but it wasn’t until one of the nurses spoke of you that I realized I was right.”
Blinking with surprise, Emma swung around to find Craig Mason. The high school football quarterback who’d taken her to the Homecoming Dance her senior year then made the mistake of inviting her to Sunday dinner with his family. Whoever decreed that the sins of a father would be visited upon a man’s children, had to have grown up in a small town. Her father’s drunken rages and her uncle killing him was infamous in the little town where they lived. The Masons with their old money, ancestral home, and prestige did not mingle with the riff-raff of the town or their offspring. The meal had been a strained affair, and Craig never called her again.
Emma felt like cringing. She wanted to leave her past behind her, but people and emotions kept showing up whether she was ready to face them or not. Craig had grown more handsome over the years. Broad shouldered, tall, and trim, with soft brown hair and green eyes, he carried himself with confidence that had easily won him the class presidency every year. “Craig! What are you doing here?”
“I work for Senator Brand. President Nixon sent us here for an important meeting on the situation with the Paris Peace Talks.”
“I hear those did not go well.”
“It was expected.”
“How so?”
Craig shook his head. “Some things I can’t talk about. But in general, peace requires reason in order to make it work, and I haven’t met a reasonable communist yet.” He chuckled at his joke. “Any way, I’m only here tonight. We fly to Paris tomorrow.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“Never a dull moment. Listen, I’m sorry I never called you back in high school. I—”
“You don’t have to explain or apologize,” Emma told him.
He smiled. “I do, because I want you to have dinner with me tonight. We can catch up. and you can tell me how things are back home.”
Emma shook her head. “I’m sorry. We’re not allowed to go out alone with-”
“Ah. By all means, bring a chaperone. Surely, that is permitted?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then I’ll have a car pick up you and a guest in one hour. Dress up. The Senator is dining at the same restaurant tonight. He’s grooming me for a top position. I think it’s a position on his future presidential campaign, if you can believe it. Every impression counts when the world is looking.” He brushed his finger down her cheek and she pulled back in surprise and irritation. He acted as if she’d given him the right to touch her. “You’re more beautiful than ever. You should be in Washington helping with the morale there by attending officer events. Not out here in this foreign sty. You should come to Paris with me and the Senator.”
“I don’t think you understand. I have a job and a mission here. You act as if I’m on a vacation.”
Craig shook his head. “Knowing you, you’re here trying to save the un-savable. I’ll see you in an hour.” He swung around and swaggered out the door.
Emma was speechless. While she’d found John Weldon’s demand for her to go home for her safety irritating, it wasn’t as offensive as Craig Mason’s dismissal and belittling of the men in Nam or her commitment to them. She marched up stairs, wavering between refusing to dine with the man and planning exactly how to give him a piece of her mind.
“Who put a bee in your bonnet?” Maggie asked the moment Emma walked into the room.
Emma explained and Maggie shook her head. “It’s how the world goes around, Em. First off, most men don’t think women have real jobs. The man is a product of his environment. The boys in Washington make the decision to go to war. Do you think they can do that if they considered every soldier to be of utmost importance? There’s a hierarchy of worth, grunts are more expendable than officers. Your guy thought he was paying you a compliment.”
“It’s wrong. Every man is important. And he’s not my guy. I shudder at the memory that he ever kissed me. It wasn’t much of a kiss, not compared to J—” Emma snapped her mouth shut, but it was too late.
Maggie’s eyes grew to saucers. “I knew it,” she whispered. Rushing to the door, Maggie peered into the hallway then shut the door. She came back with a determined glare, but still whispering. “Spill the beans, right now. When did this wondrous moment occur?”
“After the Dragon Lady fired us and before we got our jobs back.” Emma explained what happened and John’s unabashed reasoning.
“A man after my own heart,” Maggie said, clutching her breast and pretending to swoon onto the bed. “So, his kiss was amazing?”
Emma sighed and sat on the bed. “It was more than amazing. I can’t get John—or his kiss—out of my head.”
“That is probably why Craig’s comments made you so mad because he demeaned your man John.”
About to deny it, Emma shut her mouth. Though she would have been upset over anyone disregarding the troops in Vietnam, she had to admit that she was especially incensed on John’s behalf. It wasn’t rational but it was real.
Maggie sat up, grinning from ear to ear. “See, I’m right. Emma Rollins, you’re in love.”
Emma gasped. “I’m attracted to John, but that’s all.”
“It’s a lot more than that.”
“Well, I’m worried about him and I have empathy for his pain. But I feel that way about all of the soldiers we meet.”
Maggie pointed to the letter Emma had started to write. “You’ve written him every night.”
“I had to tell him about us getting our job back. Then about meeting his friend in the hospital. And tonight…well…I just…he needs somebody.”
“We all do. Every m
an you’ve met since we got here does. But John’s the first one you’ve written more than just a short note to. It’s funny how our hearts choose our mates even before our minds can comprehend the idea of it.”
“Mate?” Emma sputtered. “Now I know you’ve lost your mind. I don’t even know the man. How could I love him?”
“The heart knows only love, not logic, especially in times like these.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Just because my country is at war, it doesn’t give me an excuse to abandon reason and common sense. Act in haste and live a lifetime of regret.”
Maggie frowned. “You don’t think when facing life or death one’s spirit and heart can connect instantly to another’s? I do. When you strip your souls bare of all pretense and expose your raw emotions to each other, the usual rules and barriers that keep people apart disappear. You made the first step at the party, and he barreled through any sense of propriety the next day.
“He did do that.”
Maggie stood looking too smug for Emma’s peace of mind. “We’d better hurry and dress.”
“I’m not going to dinner.”
“Yes we are. The only way to fix the wrong in Washington is to go there.”
“Maggie Shay! How could you even suggest I’d do that?”
“Not you, Em. Me. When we get done with our Donut Dolly service in June, I’m going to Washington. Somebody has to keep those men in line.”
Emma shook her head then smiled, really looking forward to introducing Maggie to Craig. Mr. Mason had no idea what he’d just set in motion. Maggie Shay had a mission, and Emma had no doubt her friend could turn Washington upside down.
Present Day
John was so cold that he was sure death had come and taken all the warmth from his body. He was in a dark prison and couldn’t move as if he was back in that tiny cage in the jungle waiting for his turn to be tortured to death. Surely not.
He’d escaped that hell, hadn’t he?
His life, meeting and marrying Emma, hadn’t been a dream. It had all been real. He hadn’t just imagined it all. Then why couldn’t he move? Why did he feel as if he were buried underground?
A Weldon Family Christmas: A Southern Steam Novella (Weldon Brothers) Page 4
