by Irene Hannon
“So you’re taking charge of a little girl, I hear,” Henry remarked as he led the way toward the rose garden.
“That’s right.”
“Mighty nice thing to do.”
“Josef, her father, is like a brother to me. Considering the situation over there and the loss of his wife, it’s the least I can do.”
“Pretty bad in some of those places, from what I see on the news.”
“I can’t even imagine living like that,” Zach remarked, shaking his head.
They paused on the edge of the rose garden. “I’ve got thirty-two bushes,” Henry said proudly, nodding toward the bed. “Quite a sight in the summer when they’re in full bloom.”
“Must be impressive,” Zach concurred. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen thirty-two bushes all in one place, except at Shaw’s Garden.”
Henry beamed with pride at the comparison to St. Louis’s well-known botanical garden. “Sam was surprised when I told her how many I had, too,” he recalled with a chuckle. “Sam’s my daughter-in-law. Married to my son, Brad. They just had a little girl.”
“So I hear. Which makes you a proud grandpa now, I guess.”
He nodded vigorously, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “Cutest little thing you ever saw. Big blue eyes and a fuzz of the softest reddish hair. Gonna be a carrottop, like Sam, I suspect.”
“They sound like a nice family.”
“They are,” he confirmed. “Course, I never thought it would happen. Brad was married before, you know. First wife died years ago. A real tragedy,” he reflected, shaking his head. “I didn’t figure he’d remarry. You ever been married, Zach?”
Henry didn’t waste any time, Zach thought in amusement, suppressing a chuckle. “No. Never found the time. Or the right woman.”
“Hmm,” Henry ruminated. “Seems to me like you have to make time for some things. Course, you can’t be too careful. You sure don’t want to make a mistake, pick the wrong partner. That’s what I always tell Rebecca. Not that she seems to be looking, anyway. Always been kinda prickly around men.”
“I noticed,” Zach admitted. “I wonder why?”
“Can’t say,” Henry replied, shaking his head. “Always wondered about that myself. She’s a fine woman. Make someone a good wife. But seems like she needs special handling. Sort of like a skittish colt. Gotta approach her gentle-like, let her get comfortable around you. No sudden moves to spook her, you know what I mean?”
Zach stifled a smile, not at all sure Rebecca would appreciate being compared to a horse. But he got the drift of Henry’s comment. And it confirmed the conclusion he’d already come to. “I think you’re right. Reminds me of that old saying—good things come to those who wait.”
Henry turned and looked up at Zach, placing a hand on the younger man’s shoulder as he gazed at him appraisingly. “I know waiting can be hard sometimes,” he acknowledged. “I was young once myself. But some things are worth it.” He dropped his hand and nodded back to the porch. “Looks like Rebecca’s done with that jacket. Let’s head on back.”
As they waved goodbye to Henry a few minutes later and climbed into the van for the trip home, Rebecca turned to Zach curiously. “What did you two talk about, out there in the garden?”
He chuckled. “Let’s just say your dad missed his calling. He’d have made a great investigative reporter.”
Rebecca bit her lip and frowned. That’s what she’d been afraid of.
Chapter Seven
Rebecca scanned the crowd emerging from the plane’s exit ramp, her heart pounding in her chest, her palms clammy. What on earth had she gotten herself into? she wondered in silent panic. When she’d offered to help Zach with Isabel, her heart had certainly been in the right place. But what did she know about taking care of a child? Especially a child who was not only grieving, but had just been sent to live with strangers in an unfamiliar land! She could be in way over her head here. Suddenly, without even consciously realizing what she was doing, Rebecca reached for Zach’s hand, seeking courage in the strength and comfort of his touch.
He looked down at her in surprise, hesitating for only the briefest second before willingly enfolding her seeking hand in his warm clasp. “This is pretty scary, isn’t it?” he empathized, as if reading her mind.
She looked up at him with a worried frown. “Honestly? Yes.”
He gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m just as nervous as you are,” he admitted.
“Zach—I just thought of something!” Rebecca exclaimed in sudden alarm. “Does Isabel speak English?”
He smiled reassuringly. “Yes. That’s one problem we won’t have to deal with. Josef is fluent, and he made sure Isabel was bilingual.”
Relief flooded her eyes. “Thank goodness! I don’t know why I didn’t think about that before!”
“You’ve had a few other things on your mind. Like running a restaurant and decorating a little girl’s room. Quite charmingly, I might add,” he said with a smile.
Rebecca smiled as she thought about the way she’d transformed the bare, sterile bedroom in Zach’s apartment, hanging frilly lace curtains at the window to complement the pale pink eyelet bedspread, decorating the walls with colorful posters from popular animated children’s movies, and attaching fanciful mobiles to the ceiling. She’d even brought along her favorite music box from childhood, a statue of Cinderella that played “Someday My Prince Will Come,” to decorate the top of the dresser. “I just hope she likes it.”
“I can’t imagine any little girl who wouldn’t.”
As the last of the passengers disembarked, a stewardess appeared in the doorway holding the hand of a petite dark-haired child who was clutching a very raggedy Raggedy Ann doll. Zach drew a deep breath and gave Rebecca’s hand another encouraging squeeze. “We’re on,” he said.
In the brief seconds it took to reach the pair, Rebecca studied Isabel. She wore a pink sweater and a pink and beige striped skirt, and her white ankle socks were edged with lace. Rebecca had a feeling that Josef had dressed his daughter in her “Sunday best” for the trip. Her hair was parted in the middle, pulled up and back on each side, and secured with a pink ribbon that had probably started out crisp but now lay limp and bedraggled. She was smaller than Rebecca expected, pale and thin and delicately boned, and she looked bleary-eyed from fatigue, which wasn’t surprising, given the length of her trip and the emotional trauma she had endured.
Isabel watched them approach with large, solemn eyes, looking very much like a little girl who was frightened but trying mightily to be brave, and Rebecca’s heart ached for her. As soon as she reached her side, Rebecca dropped to one knee while Zach talked with the stewardess.
“Hello, Isabel,” she said softly, giving the waiflike little girl a warm smile. “I’m Rebecca. Zach and I are so glad you came to visit us. Is this Raggedy Ann?” She reached over and touched the obviously much-loved doll.
Isabel nodded. “She’s tired now.”
“I’m sure she is,” Rebecca sympathized with a nod. “It was a long trip, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. My papa’s far away now, isn’t he?” A tremor ran through her voice and her eyes filled with tears.
Rebecca’s throat contracted, and she reached over to gently smooth some wayward strands of hair back from the wan little face. “Not if you keep him in your heart,” she replied gently.
“That’s what he said about my mama, too.”
Rebecca swallowed with difficulty. “He’s right. The people we love are always with us in our hearts.”
Zach knelt down beside Rebecca then, and he smiled at Isabel. “I guess you don’t remember me, do you, Isabel?”
Silently she shook her head. “I was just a baby when I saw you the last time,” she pointed out matter-of-factly. “But my papa told me all about you. He and my mama talked about you a lot. And I liked the presents you sent me for my birthdays.”
“Well, it seems you like that one especially,” he noted, reaching out
to touch the Raggedy Ann doll he’d sent her two years ago.
She nodded. “I do.” She tilted her head and looked at him quizzically. “Are you really my uncle?” she asked suddenly.
“Is that what your papa told you?”
She frowned. “He tried to explain it to me. He said you were his friend, but really more like a brother, so that made you my uncle.”
Zach cleared his throat, and when he spoke there was an odd catch in his voice. “That’s right.”
“So should I call you Uncle Zach?”
“That would be fine.”
Isabel turned to Rebecca with a puzzled frown. “But you’re not my aunt, are you?”
“No. I’d like to be your friend, though.”
“Can I call you Rebecca, then?”
“I think that would be just right.”
“Well, why don’t we collect your luggage, and then we can all go home?” Zach suggested, standing up.
Rebecca rose, as well, then reached down and took Isabel’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “That’s a good idea. Raggedy Ann is tired,” she told Zach with a wink. “It’s past her bedtime.”
By the time they collected Isabel’s two suitcases, made their way to the car and buckled the little girl into the back seat, she was fading fast. Her eyes kept drifting shut, though she was trying hard to stay awake.
As Zach slid behind the wheel he glanced back at his new charge. “Are you hungry, Isabel?” he asked.
“No.”
He looked at Rebecca, raising an eyebrow quizzically.
“How about a hamburger?” Rebecca suggested, with sudden inspiration.
“A hamburger?” Isabel echoed, her interest piqued. “My papa told me about American hamburgers. He said they were good.”
“Well, why don’t we let you decide for yourself?” Zach replied.
Fifteen minutes later, as Isabel polished off the hamburger and fries from the drive-through fast-food restaurant, Zach grinned at Rebecca. “Good idea,” he complimented her in a low voice.
“Sheer luck,” she said with a small smile. “I figured she needed to eat. But actually—” she glanced toward the back seat, in time to catch Isabel yawning hugely “—I think she’s more exhausted than anything else. Talk about a day of emotional overload! She just needs to go to bed.”
“I appreciate your offer to keep her overnight tonight,” Zach said. “I wish I had one more day before school started, but that’s just not how things worked out.”
“I don’t mind,” Rebecca assured him. “I’m off, and it will give us a chance to become acquainted. I’ll get her unpacked and settled in at your place, too, if you like.”
He sent her a grateful look. “That would be great! I’ll give you my spare key before I leave tonight.”
Rebecca glanced out the window, trying to work up the courage to ask her next question. She’d been thinking about it ever since they decided she would keep Isabel the first night. “Um, Zach, I was wondering…since you’ll probably be tired after your first day at school, and not in the mood to cook…well, Isabel does need to have balanced meals, you know, so I…I wondered if you might want to come over for dinner tomorrow night.”
He turned to look at her, but she kept her face averted and he couldn’t discern her expression in the darkness. To say he was surprised at the invitation was an understatement. But he was also immensely pleased—and touched. “That would be wonderful, Rebecca,” he replied, his voice tinged with that husky timbre she found so appealing. “But I feel like I’ve imposed too much already. Besides, the last thing you need to do on your day off is cook.”
“I don’t mind, really,” she assured him quickly. “And it would probably be good for Isabel to sit down to a nice meal with us her first night in town. It would make her feel more at home and welcome than if you two just grab a bite on the run.”
Was concern for Isabel Rebecca’s only motivation for the invitation? Zach suddenly wondered with a frown. He tried to read her expression, but again the darkness was her ally. Whatever her motivation, however, she’d made the offer, and he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
“Okay. And thank you. For everything.”
Rebecca felt a tingle run down her spine at the intimate tone in his voice. If he was willing to come for dinner, he must not be holding her bizarre behavior the night of their date against her, she thought in relief, saying a silent prayer of thanks. And a “family” type dinner would be good for Isabel. But Rebecca was honest enough to admit that her motives weren’t entirely altruistic. Deep in her heart she thought the dinner would be good for her, too. It would give her a chance to be with Zach in a safe, comfortable environment, with Isabel acting almost like a chaperone. And maybe, if she got accustomed to being with him in that kind of setting, without all the pressures incumbent on “dating,” she might eventually feel comfortable enough to give a romantic relationship one more try.
If he was willing to take a second shot at it. And that, of course, was a big if, she knew. He said he still liked her. But like and attraction were two different things, she realized. She just hoped she hadn’t killed the latter by her performance the other night. But only time would tell.
When Rebecca opened the door in answer to Zach’s ring the next night, her eyes widened in surprise at the bouquet of pink tulips, daffodils and baby’s breath that he held out to her.
“I thought you might like these,” he said with a disarming grin. “You mentioned once that you enjoyed gardening, so I figured you must like flowers.”
She reached for the bouquet, smiling in pleasure even as she protested. “Oh, Zach, this is too extravagant!”
“Hardly. Consider it a thank-you for dinner—and for everything you’re doing to help with Isabel.”
“Well…thank you,” she said, a delicate flush tinting her cheeks. “Come on in. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Can I do anything to help?” he asked as he followed her inside.
“No, thanks. Isabel and I took care of everything, didn’t we, sweetie?”
Isabel looked up from the table, which she was setting with great precision and care. “Yes. We’re having spaghetti,” she informed Zach.
“Mmm. That sounds good.”
“I haven’t had spaghetti before, but Rebecca says I’ll like it,” she informed him.
“I think Rebecca is right.”
Half an hour later, after watching her demolish a salad, a hearty helping of spaghetti and four pieces of garlic bread, Zach turned to her with a chuckle. “So what did you think?”
She considered the matter seriously. “I think Rebecca cooks real good.”
Zach smiled. “I’ll second that.”
Rebecca’s face flushed at the compliments, and she stood up to clear the table. “Well, I’d say it’s time for some brownies,” she remarked. “Isabel helped me make them,” she informed Zach over her shoulder as she headed toward the kitchen to put on the coffee.
“I didn’t know you knew how to cook, Isabel,” Zach said in mock surprise, turning to the little girl.
“I’m not very good yet,” she replied seriously. “But Rebecca said she’d teach me. She has a restaurant, you know.”
“Yes, I know.”
“She’s also very nice,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper, leaning close.
“I know that, too,” he replied, also lowering his voice. “And I know something else. See that bag over there by the door? I think there’s something in it for you.”
She looked at him wide-eyed. “For me?”
“Uh-huh. Why don’t you go over and take a look?”
She jumped up and scampered toward the door, peeking into the bag eagerly, her eyes lighting up as she withdrew a video of a popular animated children’s film. “Is this really for me?”
“It sure is.”
She hugged it to her chest, her eyes awed. “Oh, thank you, Uncle Zach
. Can I watch it now?”
Zach sent a quizzical look to Rebecca, who was depositing the plate of brownies on the table.
“Well, if your Uncle Zach says it’s okay, I guess you can take your brownie into the living room just this once.”
“Can I, Uncle Zach?”
“I don’t see why not,” he agreed. “I’ll get it started for you.”
By the time he returned to the table, Rebecca had poured their coffee and was sipping hers leisurely. “That was a nice thing to do.”
He glanced at the small figure, already enthralled with the video. “I just feel so sorry for her,” he admitted helplessly. “I know you shouldn’t spoil children, but she’s had such a tough time I didn’t figure a few indulgences would hurt.”
“I agree.”
“So how did it go today?”
“That was going to be my next question for you,” she replied with a smile.
“You first.”
“She slept like a log last night, which I expected. We had pancakes for breakfast, went over and met Ben, stopped for burgers at lunch, then went to your place and got her settled in.”
“I bet she liked the room.”
Rebecca smiled, a flush of pleasure stealing over her cheeks. “Yes, she did. In fact, she asked me if I could come over tonight and tuck her in. I…I didn’t think you’d mind, this first night,” she said, her eyes anxious and uncertain as they met his.
He reached over and covered her hand with his, his eyes tinged with an intimate warmth that made her tingle all over as they locked on hers. “Rebecca, you are always welcome at our place.”
She blushed and looked down, toying with her spoon as she surreptitiously looked at his tanned, lean-fingered hand covering hers. She liked his touch—a lot—in this no-risk setting. Maybe she could eventually learn to enjoy it when they were alone, as well. But in the meantime it was better to move on to safer subjects. “So tell me about your day,” she prompted.
He removed his hand, and she missed his touch immediately. “It was good. But a bit overwhelming,” he admitted. “The academic world is very different from what I’m used to. I’m glad Phil Carr filled me in a little. And I picked up quite a bit in the teachers’ lounge, too. Everyone was very nice and went out of their way to be helpful.”
