by Holly Jacobs
She reached out and placed her hands gently on Aaron’s shoulder. “I know you’re confused, that you went away for a weekend and came home and found out everything changed. We both understand that. All I’m asking is you give Joe a chance.”
Aaron pulled free from her grasp. “I’m going to my room.”
Louisa stood up. “Okay.”
Aaron stalked down the hall and slammed his bedroom door.
“Well, that went great,” Joe muttered as he stood as well.
“Just give him time,” Louisa said. “He’s just a little boy. He doesn’t understand what’s happened. He just knows that things have changed, and he’s afraid.”
“It’s not change I’m afraid of,” Elmer said. “What I’m afraid of is that you’ll hurt my Louie again like you did before.”
“She left me,” Joe said quietly.
“Yes, she did, but only because—”
“Elmer,” Louisa warned.
“Far be it from me to butt in….”
If things hadn’t been so serious, Louisa would have laughed at that statement.
Butting in was what Elmer did best.
“But,” he continued, “I will say this, boy—you’re welcome to stay in my home for as long as you want or need to, but if you hurt Louisa or that little boy, you’ll answer to me. I might look like an old man, but I can still take the likes of you.”
“Elmer, enough,” Louisa said.
She laid her hand lightly on his shoulders. Elmer had been her best friend; he’d been the father her own had never been.
She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be fine. It’s Aaron I’m worried about.”
“Mr. Shiner—”
“Elmer,” he said gruffly.
“Elmer, I swear I’ll do my best not to hurt either one of them.”
Elmer stared at him a minute and then nodded. “See to it your best is enough. You had a treasure in your hand all those years ago, but you let it slip away. I hope you’re a bit wiser now.”
“I told Lou that the engagement was just for business,” Joe said, some of the anger and pain she knew he felt slipping into his voice.
But as much as his pain cut at her, it didn’t bother Elmer at all. He continued his offensive. “What kind of man would put his girlfriend in that kind of position? You kept her hidden away. You never took her to any of your family’s shindigs. She was just some dark secret to be hidden from sight. And you’re surprised that she left?”
“This is between me and Lou,” Joe said, his jaw clenched.
“You’re wrong.” Elmer took another step forward, placing himself next to Louisa. “I’m her family, and I won’t let you break her heart again.”
“She left me.”
Elmer wasn’t buying that argument. “But you pushed her away.”
Louisa had had enough. “Both of you, stop. I’m right here, and believe it or not, I can defend myself when and if I feel I need defending. Which I don’t. Elmer, I know what I’m doing.”
Elmer ignored her and stepped closer to Joe.
The older man only reached Joe’s shoulder and was more than forty years his senior, but that didn’t stop him from drawing himself up and repeating, “If you hurt her again, you’ll answer to me.”
“I don’t plan on hurting her.”
“You didn’t plan on it last time, but you did. I saw her pain when she came into town alone and pregnant with your baby.”
“A baby I never knew about,” Joe said.
“A baby you didn’t deserve.” Elmer held up a hand. “Enough. I just want to be sure we’re clear, very clear. Don’t hurt her, don’t hurt the boy.”
“Fine,” Joe said. “As long as we’re speaking clearly, let me say that while I appreciate everything you did for Aaron and Louisa, and I have no desire to interfere in your relationship with them, I won’t have you poisoning the relationships I’m trying to build. So I suggest we call a truce. You don’t have to like me, but you do have to allow me to build something here.”
“If you don’t hurt them, we’ll have no problem.” Elmer extended his hand.
Joe took it and they shook.
Men.
Strutting around like roosters in the barnyard one minute, then shaking hands like old friends the next.
Louisa didn’t understand the gender at all.
“Well, I’m glad the two of you have settled that. I mean, goodness knows this poor, helpless woman needs to have you men look out for me. Why, I wouldn’t have sense enough to come in out of the rain without some man telling me to.”
She glared at them. Neither had the grace to look the slightest bit chagrined.
She sighed. “Now that you’ve cleared the air, let me have a bit of a say. Elmer, I love you and I know that you feel you’re looking out for me, but I’m a big girl, and I know what I’m doing. The two of you will behave and will get along or I’ll…”
“You’ll?” Joe asked.
“Kick your butts. And don’t think I can’t. I refuse to have my son grow up in a testosterone, chest-thumping house. You each had your say, and enough’s enough. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to check on my son.”
She turned and stalked down the hall.
Men.
Joe watched Lou as she left and went into Aaron’s room.
He smiled.
She’d never stood up to him like that before, and despite the fact she was threatening a butt kicking, he kind of liked her ability to stand up for herself.
“Lou never used to be so…feisty,” he murmured.
“ Feisty. That’s a good word for her. I think you’ll find a lot of things have changed. She grew up quick—she had to. But then, she never did have much of a childhood, did she?”
“She talked to you about that?” he asked, surprised.
Louisa talked to him about her family, too, once upon a time, but never willingly. She used to say she preferred to concentrate on what she could change, rather than the things she couldn’t.
As a matter of fact, that seemed to be what she was doing now…concentrating on the present and what they could do to fix things.
“She’s talked to me about everything. And though she just warned me to stay out of her business, I’m going to say one more thing. That girl loved you.”
“She left me,” he said again.
He still didn’t understand how she could do that…how she could walk away from him and what they had, especially when she knew she carried his child.
“Ask yourself why?” Elmer said.
“Because of that stupid engagement story my parents cooked up.”
Elmer shook his head. “You gotta look deeper than that, young man. A lot deeper. I’m telling you, leaving was the hardest thing that girl ever did. And knowin’ how she grew up, you know that’s sayin’ something. If you want the whole story, you’ll have to dig deeper than that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will, if you look hard enough.”
The old man turned and walked toward the front door, then abruptly stopped and spun back around. “I meant what I said, don’t hurt her. When she first got here…well, I never saw a more heartsick child. That baby, he was all that kept her going. You have a second chance here. Don’t blow it.”
And with that, the old man—Joe’s new room-mate—left, closing the door behind him.
Joe stood in the middle of the living room, not sure where to go or what to do.
He wanted to check on his son but knew he needed to go slow, that the boy needed time.
He thought about what Elmer had said, but he couldn’t quite reconcile the picture of a heart-broken Louisa with the mental image he’d carried around all these years. He figured she’d simply brushed the dirt of Lyonsville, Georgia, off her heels and left for new places. Pretty much brushing him out of her heart at the same time.
Heartbroken?
No. He couldn’t make that image mesh with the simple fact that she’d left him.
But Elmer’s crack about hiding her
away from his family, that one hit home.
Louisa had always claimed she didn’t want to mix with his family, that she didn’t want to be included in social functions. But he should have insisted. Because he didn’t, it was easy for his parents to plan his mock engagement. It was easy for them not to take his relationship with “that girl” seriously.
That girl.
His mother always said the word with just the right hint of scorn and contempt.
That girl was going to ruin his life.
That girl was a gold digger, out to take whatever she could get.
That girl didn’t fit in, would never fit in.
That girl…
After Lou left, his mother had said good riddance, and “that girl” was the family secret that was never referred to again. But not referring to her didn’t keep Joe from thinking about her. Eight years had gone by, and yet, not a day went by that he didn’t think of her at odd moments.
He’d hear someone laughing with that hint of unbridled joy, and he’d turn, expecting to see her there. But she never was.
He’d see someone with auburn hair tied back in a ponytail and for a moment—just one split second—he would think maybe she’d come back, but she never had.
And now they had a son and Elmer was telling him that he’d broken her heart.
Joe felt as if his legs had been kicked out from under him and he would never get solid footing again. In just a few short days his world had changed. He wasn’t sure how to handle it.
He was still trying to puzzle it all out when Louisa came out of Aaron’s room.
“How is he?” Joe asked.
He might not understand everything going on between him and Louisa, but there was no question about what he wanted for himself and his son…he wanted a relationship. He wanted to make up for all the time they’d lost.
“He’s upset. Confused.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Give him a while to adjust, okay?”
Joe nodded. “Fine. Listen, it’s already six. I’m going to go to work early. I’ll be home around seven in the morning.”
“You don’t have to leave. Aaron needs to get used to you being here, that was the point of you moving in with Elmer.”
“Yes, he does. But not tonight.” He turned, needing to get away.
Needing to adjust himself.
Lou touched his arm. It was the first time she’d touched him. There was the familiar jolt of connection that he’d almost forgotten. And yet, he knew whatever connection they’d once shared had long since been severed.
“Joe,” she said softly. “I’ll talk to Aaron. I’ll try to make him see.”
“Good.” He turned to leave again.
“And, Joe?”
He turned back.
There were tears in her eyes.
Joe could stand almost anything but not her tears. Even after eight years he couldn’t bear them.
“Don’t,” he whispered as he reached out to gently brush them off her cheek, as if he had the right to touch her, to comfort her. The realization that he didn’t made him lower his hand, tears untouched.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“You could have blamed me, could have tried to make Aaron understand that this is all my fault.”
“It wasn’t all your fault. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still angry, still feel betrayed, but I know that some of that anger is directed toward myself. We both made mistakes that led us here, to this point in time. And now we both have to work together to do what’s best for our son.”
“Thank you, anyway.”
He just nodded, not wanting to talk right now about him and Louisa. He’d figure that all out later. Now his only concern was for his son. “I’ll be home at seven tomorrow morning.”
“We’ll be here.”
Louisa spent the night trying to comfort Aaron. He wasn’t asking questions. He didn’t even seem particularly happy or sad. He was just quiet, as if he was trying to readjust his reality in order to allow it to contain his father.
At bedtime she pulled out a Harry Potter book and he said, “Not tonight, Mom. Okay?”
She put the book back on the shelf and nodded.
“You know I love you, right?” she asked, needing to remind him. Needing him to know that even if the rest of his world had turned upside down, that one fact would never change.
He nodded. “I love you, too.”
She kissed his forehead and left the room.
She had a million and one chores she should do, but she couldn’t find the energy to face them.
Facing Joe took everything she had and then some.
So she went into her room, put on her pajamas and crawled into bed, knowing that sleep probably wasn’t in the cards.
Her mind was spinning, trying to adjust to everything that happened, trying to let the fact sink in that Joe Delacamp was back in her life.
She opened the drawer of her nightstand. She took out her journal and began writing.
Page after page.
Memories of the past, how she’d felt when she’d seen Joe and, most painful of all, she wrote about how she’d made a mistake leaving all those years ago.
She was older and maybe a little wiser. And somewhere in the past eight years she’d found some self-esteem.
No, if she could go back, knowing what she knew now, she’d have never left him. She’d have stayed and fought.
But she couldn’t go back and change the past.
All that was left to do was pick up the pieces and move on.
Somehow she’d make it up to Joe.
She dozed off at some point and woke up to her alarm with a start. Her journal was lying on the bed next to her, and the light was still on.
Tired, she went about her morning routine. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table just as the back door opened. Joe came in. He was wearing hospital scrubs and looked tired.
“Good morning,” she said.
“How is he?” Joe asked, the question coming so fast that she knew the worry had weighed on him all night.
“Quiet,” she answered. “I don’t know what he’s thinking or feeling. He’s just trying to work things out. All we can do is give him the time he needs and let him know we’re here when he’s ready to talk.”
Joe nodded. He took the seat across from her. “Where is he now?”
“Getting dressed. He moves slowly in the morning.” In this he was a chip off the old block. She smiled at the memory. “If I remember correctly, mornings weren’t your favorite time of day, either.”
Joe offered her a tentative smile in return. “And if I remember correctly, you were always obnoxiously chipper first thing in the morning.”
“Still am. Guess some things never change.”
Joe shot her a look that said, But some things do. But he didn’t say the words.
The brief moment they’d shared was gone.
“What time do you take him to school?” he asked.
“He’s got to be there by eight. I go straight from dropping him off to the store. Elmer normally picks him up at two-thirty and drops him off with me or takes him home.”
“We won’t change that this week, but soon I’d like to pick him up after school. I’ll go to bed right after you both leave, then get up around two.”
“Is that enough sleep for you?”
“More than enough. Residency teaches you how to get by on a lot less than six hours of sleep.”
“Okay. Not this week, but next.”
“Mom,” Aaron called as he came into the room. He spotted Joe and frowned. “Oh, you’re here.”
“Good morning to you, too,” Joe said. “And yes, I’m here. I’ll be here every morning and every day when you come home. That’s why I moved in with Elmer, so I could be here for you.”
“You weren’t here last night.” It was more of an accusation than a statement.
“I thought you might want some time
with your mom, time to talk things over. I know you don’t know me yet, but you can talk to me, too. I’ll try my best to answer you.”
“Do I have a grandma and grandpa?”
Louisa’s heart contracted as Aaron asked the question. There was so much vulnerability in his voice.
“Yes,” Joe answered slowly.
“Do they know about me?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
Louisa knew that for the lie it was. Helena Delacamp knew she had a grandchild. Louisa knew she should tell Joe that part of the story. She knew that she should be honest. But she couldn’t do it. It would serve no purpose.
Hearing what his mother had done would break his heart. He’d never been close to his parents, and whatever fragile relationship they’d formed, Louisa wasn’t going to damage it.
She knew that Helena would never say a word and neither would she. She’d keep this one last secret from Joe in order to spare him any more pain.
He was suffering enough without her adding to it.
“Are you going to tell them about me?” Aaron asked.
“Yes. They’re in Europe for a few more weeks, but when they come home, I’ll tell them.”
“Will they be happy?” he asked, so much a little boy. Because of his precociousness, it was sometimes easy to forget just how young he was.
“Aaron, anyone would be thrilled to find out you belonged to them.” Quietly he added, “I was.”
Aaron nodded.
Louisa stood. “Sit down and I’ll get you some cereal, honey.”
Aaron looked at the empty chair between her and Joe and continued to stand. “I think I’ll get breakfast at school today, if that’s okay.”
“Sure. It’s okay. Come on and we’ll get going. We’ll see you tonight, Joe.”
“I’ll be here.” He looked at his son, and Louisa could see all the love in his eyes as he repeated, “I’ll be here.”
Chapter Four
Joe stirred the sauce on the stove, waiting for Louisa and Aaron to come home.
He’d made spaghetti.
And after the first hour of smelling the sauce, he knew it was a mistake.
It kept reminding him of one glorious weekend he’d shared with Louisa. They’d slipped away to his parents’ cottage on the lake. He’d made spaghetti and they’d drunk a bottle of wine as they’d talked about the future.
