by Lynn Bulock
“So, are you satisfied now?” Mike asked as they walked out of the feed store into crisp January air. “I thought you were going to drive me nuts until we gave that man back his keys.”
“I’m satisfied.” Lori’s voice was firm and her eyes sparkled. It reminded him again that she was a very attractive woman. “At least with that part. I hate owing people. Which is why I’m not satisfied with my current situation, Michael.”
“Oh, don’t call me that.” He grimaced. “Mike, please. Michael is what my mom uses when she’s unusually peeved at me. Which she will be if she thinks I’ve been letting you do too much already.”
“Not her problem.” Lori shrugged. She was one incredibly stubborn woman. “I still owe you and your mother far too much that you haven’t let me start paying back. Mikayla’s over three weeks old. The doctor has released me to drive and do anything I like. Why can’t I start that cleaning that you promised me?”
Hopeless. Arguing with Lori was becoming a daily event and Mike never felt like he won. “Anything else you’re good at that might be less taxing? Ever done data entry or other computer work? There’s always a raft of paperwork to catch up with at the office.”
“Which I’m sure you just love doing yourself.” She had him on that one. “As a matter of fact, I used to be pretty good at that kind of stuff. I’m sure the programs have changed since I’ve had a chance to learn them. Two or three years out of work in that business is like an eternity.”
“But you could catch up quickly. You’re a fast learner.”
Lori stopped on the sidewalk with a bemused smile that made her look tempting. She really needed a kiss on the nose, somehow. Mike put away the thought. “Thank you. I appreciate the compliment. But how did you figure that out about me?”
“Lots of things.” Where did he begin? With the fact that in less than a month she knew where everything in the house was, and what his mother would and wouldn’t get upset about Lori doing during the day while she and Mike were at work.
Or how about the way she’d adapted to the needs of two active kids when she had only had one weeks before? Perhaps the biggest one was that it had only taken her two or three tries to figure out that Mike wasn’t interested in talking about Jesus with her, no matter how often she brought the subject up. Now if he pointed that one out, he would only be Michael again so he took that answer out of the lineup.
“Hey, you’re resourceful,” he said, getting into the truck and unlocking her side door. “I mean, I’ve only seen you bring two little bags of clothes to the house, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear the same thing twice in one month.”
She looked away, but Mike could see a dimple on her left cheek deepen the way it did when she grinned. Another definitely kissable spot. “I didn’t think you would notice something like that. Most guys don’t.”
How could they fail to notice when presented with such an attractive package daily? Mike didn’t say that, knowing it would only get him in trouble. “Then I pity them. But seriously, I think we could use the office help a lot more than the heavy cleaning.”
“Let’s talk to your mom when we get home. If she feels the same way, then I could start going down there half days soon. I could get a lot done with Mikayla sleeping. She still takes more naps than she stays awake. And maybe we could get Tyler into morning preschool.”
She planned ahead. Mike wondered if she had been considering this before today. It was more than likely. The weeks that Lori had lived at the house, slowly moving more of her things next door all the time, had been a learning experience for him.
When she first came to them, all Mike saw was a fragile new mother alone. The desire to protect her and take care of her was overwhelming. But she didn’t let him give in to that desire. Slowly but surely, in a thousand small ways, Lori Harper had shown him that she was willing and able to look out for her little family and herself. Her financial resources might be small, but her determination was giant-size.
It was almost as large as the respect he’d grown to have for her. Or maybe the attraction, as well. No sense admitting either. He’d be Michael again for certain. Better just head the truck out to the house and talk to Mom about the office work. Maybe that would get his mind off the bounce in Lori’s step in slim blue jeans as she walked out of Hughes’s feed store, obviously feeling like a free woman.
Lori didn’t think they’d been gone long. Certainly no more than an hour, at most. Still, a welcoming committee marked their return to the Martin house as if they’d been to the North Pole and back.
Tyler was waiting at the door. “Good, Mom. You’re home. ’Kayla cried so hard, she throwed up. Miss Gloria can’t make her happy.”
Lori hurried through the kitchen and into the family room where she could hear her daughter wailing and Gloria pacing, even on the carpet. “Hush now. It’s all right. Mama will be back soon.” Gloria sounded near tears.
“Mom’s back. Tyler says she ‘throwed up.’ I hope it wasn’t anything major.”
Gloria gave her a look of sheer relief as she handed over the howling infant. Were her hands shaking? It didn’t fit the picture of the calm, confident woman Lori had seen over the last few weeks. “There certainly seemed to be a lot of it. I don’t think I was holding the bottle right. And she didn’t seem to like taking one, anyway.”
“Nursing babies don’t always like somebody else trying to feed them.” Lori put her unhappy daughter on her chest; the baby’s arching neck supported and her head looking over Lori’s shoulder while she firmly patted her back. “Right now I think she’s just more mad than anything.” As she talked, the baby’s crying subsided into more of a grumbling than anything, her mouth pressing against Lori’s shoulder and her own clenched fist.
“Good. I was afraid I’d done something wrong and she was sick.” Gloria sat down on the sofa, looking like she’d been through a train wreck. Lori surveyed the room. Signs of the struggle were everywhere. A receiving blanket lay draped over a chair, Tyler’s toys were strung about where they’d obviously been picked up in efforts to distract the baby, and tossed down when they didn’t work.
The bottle was on the rug near the heavy oak-and-leather Mission rocker, and Gloria’s pumps weren’t far from it. That this together lady had kicked off her shoes worried Lori as much as anything. She wasn’t the type to appear less than perfectly attired in front of people, even in her own home. “She’s not sick. You, however, look like you need a vacation.”
Gloria smiled weakly. “I don’t think little babies are my strong point. They never have been. I just don’t have the background.”
“I know. I felt that way the first time around with Tyler. I’d been an only child myself, and my family moved around so much, nobody hired me as a baby-sitter. I was always the new girl in town. Did you have any family nearby when Mike was a baby?”
“Not really. That was different,” Gloria said. “He was already…” She trailed off and shook her head, passing a hand over her eyes. “Already the perfect baby by the time he was this age,” she finished.
It wasn’t what Lori felt Gloria had planned to say. There was a suspicion growing in her that she couldn’t voice yet. If she had to finish that sentence the way she thought Gloria planned to, she would have said Mike was already out of this stage when he came to Gloria.
So many little things pointed to Mrs. Martin not being comfortable or even familiar with babies, even though she was Mike’s mother. If what Lori suspected was true, it was one of the best-kept secrets she’d ever seen. And if that was the case, Gloria had her reasons. It wasn’t Lori’s job to try and find out what those reasons were. Nor was it any of her business.
Right now she had a very evident and pressing job. Walking over to the spot on the rug where Mikayla’s blanket lay, she picked it up and settled her and her daughter into the rocker. Draping the blanket like a private tent over the baby made her frantic stirring slow, then stop. “That’s right, lunch is served,” she told her daughter softly. �
��Now maybe we can all get some peace around here.” Gloria, at least, looked like she could use several hours of peace.
Lori wasn’t sure that Gloria got peace, exactly. What she did get was relaxation in her own way. After a quick lunch she rounded up Tyler and went out to play with the goats. Lori was amused at the difference in the frazzled businesswoman once she put on her jeans and boots and headed out with Tyler right behind. Once they came in from their goat feeding-and-grooming trip, Mike’s mother looked more approachable again.
“You look better. More in your element.”
Gloria gave her a wry grin in return. “I guess I know more about goats than little babies. At least I have more daily contact with them these days. Sorry I was such a pill earlier.”
Lori waved off her concern. “Don’t worry about it. Taking care of somebody else’s new baby isn’t easy. Taking care of your own is no picnic, but at least you finally get to the point where you know what they’re trying to tell you. It’s a lot easier with the ones Tyler’s age, isn’t it?”
Gloria patted her windblown hair into place. “Definitely. I have to be honest and admit I’m more comfortable with the little guy than the baby. She’s beautiful, but I feel out of my league with her.” Gloria wrinkled her nose. “Oh, no, a sports analogy. I’ve been hanging around Mike too long.”
They both laughed over that. Lori had noticed that he used a lot of sports themes when he was trying to express himself. “Does Martin Properties have ball teams in the summer? If so, I know who the coach is.”
Gloria sat down with a bemused look on her face. “They haven’t in a couple of years. But that sure would be a great advertising thing, our name on the uniforms and such. And Mike would jump at the chance to play or coach.” She gave Lori a speculative look. “Any more good business ideas?”
Here was the opportunity she needed. Thanks, Lord, she breathed silently. “Well, to tell the truth, I do. One big idea, and I don’t know how you’ll take it.”
Gloria leaned back in her chair. “Try me. Mike says I’m a hard case to impress, but that’s because his ideas are kind of goofy sometimes. Business isn’t his strong suit. Something about you reminds me of myself when I was struggling to learn my husband’s business, back when it was just the two of us. I want to hear what you have to say.”
Lori felt incredibly blessed. Here was her chance to start truly providing for her family. And it had come about because Mikayla spit up on her surrogate grandmother. Yes, the Lord had a real sense of humor. She took a deep breath and started outlining her plan, sketchy as it was, to Gloria.
Now there were two formidable women. Mike walked into the kitchen where Gloria and Lori sat on opposite sides of the table. There were papers spread out between them in several arcs. A couple of his mom’s favorite yellow legal pads were thrown in for good measure and the manual to at least one software program. Why did this somehow feel like forces arrayed against him?
They were quite the forces, anyway. Lori talked in an animated fashion, one hand waving while the other held Mikayla up to her shoulder. She was so alive. Mike couldn’t imagine how she could face the world the way she did every day, blue eyes sparkling, ready to take on anything. In her circumstances he’d have a hard time getting out of bed.
Tyler sat at the end of the table away from the women, paying them little heed while he drew a complicated picture that seemed to require every marker in the house. He had a smudge of green on his nose.
“This could work. How do you feel about preschool?” Mike heard his mother ask. Oh, great, Lori had sprung her plan to work in the office. And his mother thought it was a good idea.
“Fine, if there’s a good one nearby. Are there any in Friedens near the office that one of the churches runs? I’d love for Tyler to be in a church preschool at least once before kindergarten next year. Living as far out as we were, there wasn’t much choice but to stay home with him. Especially when I found out…about Mikayla.”
They both looked at the contented baby on her shoulder and smiled. Mike had to admit the squirt was growing on him. He still felt awkward around her, like his hands were the size of catcher’s mitts or something, but she was a sweet baby most of the time, and even smiled once in a while now.
“Great,” Gloria said. “Then maybe we can start you out next week. Part days, definitely. And if you do this, there won’t be any of that cleaning. I can always get somebody to do that.”
Lori sighed. “Oh, all right. But I still think I should pitch in around here once in a while. I’m not pulling my weight.”
“Says who?” Mike challenged, entering the conversation whether they wanted him to or not.
The same look of amused tolerance seemed to pass over both the women’s faces. “Ah, your knight in shining armor,” Gloria chimed in. “Michael, did you know this young lady was better on the computer than you are? And you were going to let her scrub floors around here instead?”
How did this get to be about him? Mike felt like backing off. “It just came up today. And I told her to talk to you about it. I mean, you are still the boss around here, as far as business is concerned.”
“Not that I wouldn’t like to change that. And maybe bringing in another person into the office is just the way to start the process.”
Mike felt walls closing in on him somehow. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe with good help, somebody astute in the paperwork area, you’d be more comfortable with the rest of the business. I know it’s not what you’d rather be doing. But it’s the family business, and we’re it as far as family, if you haven’t noticed.” Her mouth quirked up in one corner. Mike felt a pang of guilt.
He’d never be the businessman his father was. Even at six he had recognized that his dad liked things about the wheeling and dealing of the business world that just bored him silly. Playing in the creek was more exciting. Training his first puppy kept his attention ten times longer than math at school. And those feelings hadn’t ever really changed.
“I know, Mom. And maybe you’re right.” Mike looked at the two of them at the table.
“So you don’t mind? I know it’s not what we agreed on originally, but I’d really like to try this.” Lori stood and shifted Mikayla higher on her shoulder. “I want to do everything I can to help out around here. And to get back on my feet as quickly as possible. I owe you so much.”
“No, I don’t mind. Not that I believe that you’d turn around and go back to your original plan if I did.”
Lori had a beautiful smile. That dimple in her left cheek got impossibly deep when she was happiest, making Mike want to touch that sweet spot. Or kiss it. Whoa, where was that coming from?
“You know me too well already, Mike. You’re right, I wouldn’t back down. But it is important that you approve. Especially if we’re going to be in the office together every day.”
Oh, this was going to be a challenge. Not only evenings now with Lori and Tyler sharing the kitchen table, and their lives. But now most of his day would be spent with the attractive young widow on the premises, as well. Mike could tell his answering smile was weak. “It will be great, like Mom said.” The funny part was, he believed it. He was a fool for putting himself in this tempting woman’s company for that many hours a day, but he couldn’t think of anyplace he’d rather be.
Chapter Ten
It had only taken one weekend to get Tyler registered for preschool at Faith Community Church just two blocks from the office. Lori envisioned walking the short distance to have lunch with him once the weather got a little better. Right now she was willing to stay in the warm office and keep Mikayla sheltered in her corner near the radiator. It was a cozy spot for both of them.
Tyler hadn’t fussed much this morning at being left at the preschool. Lori was all set for first-day jitters, or even some waterworks, but Tyler surprised her. He was friendly with his teacher, thrilled to see all the art supplies in the room and all the other kids. When he discovered the classroom also had guinea pigs, he cou
ld hardly conceal his readiness to get on with his day…without Lori as a distraction.
“I’ll be back before one,” Lori told him.
Tyler shifted from foot to foot, nearly dancing in impatience. “Okay. Have a good day,” he said, giving her a quick hug and taking off with his new friend Jake to meet the class pets.
“That took a long time,” she told his new teacher.
Emily was young and pretty, and she laughed. “Be glad he’s well-adjusted. Some of them don’t let go of their parents for days.”
“I guess. It would have been nice to be a little missed,” Lori said wistfully. She shifted Mikayla and the heavy infant seat. “At least he’ll be glad to see me by the time I get back.”
“I hope so.” Emily giggled again. It was a nice sound, and Lori felt good leaving Tyler here among the friendly people and the bright classrooms, with cutouts of Noah and all the animals marching around his room and the walls painted a sunny yellow. “But today is painting with chocolate pudding, so don’t be surprised if he’s not real anxious to go home.”
“Great. I get to take second place to pudding,” Lori said, trying not to sound dejected. “At least I’ve got this one to keep me company. Come on, Kayla, let’s go to work.”
Work. It was a fascinating concept. By the time she got to the office and stood contemplating the door, someone had gotten there ahead of her. The blinds were up, and when she stepped into the office she could hear coffee perking.
“I’m here. Sorry it took me a few minutes, but it is Tyler’s first day…” She looked around for familiar faces. Nobody was in the front room to greet her. Lori wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from the offices at Martin Properties. Maybe something grander than she got in the town’s small business district. It was pretty much an office like any other. Gloria used her finesse on things at home. Here, things were pretty standard.
Martin Properties took up the ground floor of a brick building that fronted Elm Street, four buildings down from the place where Elm intersected with Main. There was a large store window in front, plastered with several posters advertising church rummage sales and the high school basketball season, parts of the fabric of life in a small town. It made Lori feel at home to walk into the place.
