by Holly Jacobs
That wasn’t what he’d expected her to say. He expected some snide comment about saving the world, or feeding into his ego, or something. “You don’t think it would bother you?”
“I think I’ve more than proven to myself and to everyone else that I’m quite capable of standing on my own two feet. To be honest, I’ve never been interested in a relationship where time together felt obligatory. If I’m ever in a serious relationship, I’d want to spend time with someone because I genuinely enjoy his company. But I’d also be okay on my own if he was busy. It’s not like doing emergency surgery is exactly frivolous. What I guess I’m saying is that the women who pitched you over because you’ve got a demanding career were idiots. You’re better off without them.” She patted his hand, as if to comfort him.
“Aren’t you the one that keeps harping on me about not spending enough time with the kids because of my job?” He noticed her hand was still on his. As if she’d forgotten.
As if it felt at home there.
“I definitely harp about you spending time with the kids. That’s different. Kids need your time. They can’t be rational. They don’t have the ability to wait until their needs are convenient. Kids need to feel they’re the most important thing in your life. Adults are different. We—”
Whatever Mattie was going to say was lost in the cacophony of noise that started as the kids burst into the house. “Aunt Mattie, Aunt Mattie,” Abbey cried.
She pulled her hand away from his. The kids tore through the house, sounding more like a herd of elephants than three young children.
Mattie pushed her project out of the way and twisted in her seat, just in time for Abbey to fling herself into Mattie’s lap. “I caught a fish, Aunt Mattie. It was giant, but your dad, he helped me, and then we took a picture, and then your dad took it off the hook, and then he put it back in the water. I wanted ta keep it for a pet, but he said it was a wild fish, and wild fish, they want to be wild in the water. But we could get me a not wild one, and I could keep it in a bowl and name it Bubbles. So, can I, Aunt Mattie?”
“If she gets a fish, I get a dog,” Mickey insisted. “I want a dog who will sleep in my bed and—”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what we need. Abbey smelling like fish, and Mickey smelling worse than usual ’cause he sleeps with a dog,” Zoe scoffed. She turned to Finn as if noticing his presence for the first time. “What are you doing here again?”
“Your uncle wants to spend the weekend with you.” Mattie’s voice was filled with enthusiasm, as if his coming to see the kids was everything she could have wished for.
“He’s up to something,” Zoe told Mattie.
“He cares about you,” Mattie retorted.
Finn wasn’t accustomed to being talked about as if he wasn’t present. “We’ve had a new partner join our practice, so I’ll have more weekends off and would like to spend them with you guys.”
Zoe laughed. “What? Are we secret millionaires? Like some novel. We have hidden riches and you’re the evil uncle who is hoping to make us come live with you so you can have control over our money. I’ve read books where kids are taken advantage of for their money.”
“Zoe, I guarantee that you guys aren’t millionaires, secret or otherwise,” Mattie said sternly.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. If I had a million bucks, I wouldn’t have to work for a cell phone.”
“Even if you had a million bucks, you’d still have to work for it,” Mattie assured her. “Everyone should have to work for what they want, and if you’re really lucky, you get to work at a job you love.”
“Oh, right. So, what you’re saying is, you like pouring coffee for a living?”
Mattie didn’t defend herself. She simply took Zoe’s rudeness as if it were par for the course. But Finn felt angry on her behalf. “Zoe, you apologize to Mattie right now. Her job isn’t a cakewalk. I worked at a fast-food joint when I was in school, and it’s really demanding.”
“Yeah, I bet. Will that be small, medium or large?” Zoe mimicked. “Well, when I grow up, I want to work at something better than pouring coffee.”
“I guess you should buckle down in school then,” Mattie said quietly. “Your grades have slipped the past few weeks and if you want to go to college, those grades will matter.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not my mother,” Zoe screeched and stormed out of the kitchen.
Mickey and Abbey stood still, looking as if they weren’t sure what to do.
“Why don’t you two go change into some old clothes and come help me paint,” Mattie said. When they took off up the stairs, she said, “I should go check on Zoe.”
“Can I try?” Finn asked.
Mattie sighed. “Yeah, if you’re planning on having custody of the kids, you probably need to know how to handle prepubescent tantrums. Just remember, she didn’t mean it. Her brain isn’t quite connected to her mouth, but her feelings are. She’s in pain, so she lashes out. The kids are all hurting. Sometimes they seem so normal that it’s easy to forget, but they’re all still suffering. Even though we know that was Zoe’s pain talking, we can’t let her get away with it. Still, it didn’t come from malice. She doesn’t know how to handle her grief.”
Mattie’s words cooled Finn’s temper a bit as he walked up the stairs toward Zoe’s room. The door was closed, so he knocked. “Zoe, may I come in?”
“Go away,” she hollered.
“I’m not going away. I’ll stand out here and wait until you’re ready to talk.”
Silence was her response.
He opened the door. His eldest niece sat on her bed, a pillow cradled to her chest.
“Zoe, I know that everything feels out of control, but here’s something you need to remember...you are loved.”
“By you, right?”
“Right.”
She shook her head, but didn’t meet his eyes.
Finn didn’t know how to reach her, this young, angry niece of his. “I know I should have been here more. I know your mom made excuses for me. She shouldn’t have had to. I can’t change the past, but I’m trying to change the present.”
“Why?” she asked, finally looking up at him. “I don’t get why now?”
Her face was tear-streaked, and everything in Finn wanted to pick her up, as if she were Abbey’s age, and cuddle her, but she didn’t need to be cuddled, she needed answers. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to explain it to her because he had a hard time understanding it himself. “Maybe because you kids are all I have left, and I’m—”
“You’re not all we have. We have Aunt Mattie. She’s not a real aunt, I know, but she’s been here all the time.”
“I know,” he admitted. “And right now, she’s downstairs trying to paint wine bottle coolers by herself, while your brother and sister hound her for fish and puppies. I bet she could use some help.”
“You don’t like her,” Zoe said matter-of-factly. “So why help her?”
“Maybe you don’t know as much about me as you think.”
“Maybe you haven’t been around enough for me to know more,” came Zoe’s quick, snippy response.
“Maybe I’m trying to change that,” he said softly.
“Maybe...” She stood up and flung the pillow back onto the bed. “I give up already. Let’s go paint some stuff with Aunt Mattie.”
“Great.”
“But don’t think you won,” she warned him. “A couple weekends here doesn’t make me like you.”
Zoe stomped down the stairs ahead of him. Mattie had already set up the two younger kids with paints and a piece of stoneware. “Could you use a couple extra helpers?” he asked.
Mattie smiled at them both and nodded. “There’s always room for more help.”
She had them painting within minutes.
Zoe scanned the paper, and carefully copied Mattie’s design. The five of them worked together, the two younger kids keeping up a steady stream of conversation.
And as they worked, Finn experienced a déjà vu moment. He remembered sitting around a table in this room making punch-tin Christmas ornaments out of frozen orange juice lids with his mom and Bridget. When his Dad got home from work, he’d rolled up his sleeves and joined in. Even with Zoe, still in her funk, there was an element of sameness.
A family moment.
Mattie looked up and her eyes met his. And without a word she seemed to say, I understand.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUNDAY MORNING WAS a departure from their new normal. Rather than heading to dinner at her mom’s after church, Mattie took the kids home to change and they all went to Colton’s farm.
Including Finn.
She purposefully stared out the side window as he drove. She hoped that everyone thought that she was simply engrossed by the beautiful scenery.
And it was beautiful.
Western New York in April was bursting with new life. Brilliant green trees. Red tulips, yellow daffodils, crocuses in a variety of colors. The sky was blue, the lake in the distance was shimmering.
Yes, no one, not even Dr. Finn Wallace, would find it suspicious that Mattie’s eyes were glued to the passing scenery.
She should be reveling in it.
Instead, she was pondering why things felt different with Finn today.
Why she kept thinking about the way he’d acted last night, pitching in with Zoe and with the painting. Sitting with Finn and the kids, well, they felt like a family.
Now feeling like a family with the kids was one thing—a good thing. But feeling that way about Finn?
She almost breathed a sigh of relief as they drove down Colton’s long, gravel driveway and parked between the house and barn.
Colton came out of the barn almost immediately. “Here’s my newest employee! Ready to work?”
“You never said what we were doing,” Zoe replied.
Colton took off his hat and thwacked it against his leg, then resettled it on his head. “I can’t tell you until we’re on the tractor.”
“What he’s saying,” Sophie called as she walked toward them from the house, Lily at her heels, “is he’s taking you up to the field—”
“Sophie’s Field,” he corrected.
“Yes, he’s taking you up to a field that’s named after me, but I’m not allowed to know what’s going on in it. Now, how is that fair?”
Colton winked at all of them as he informed them, “My future wife does not like being surprised.”
“No, I do not,” Sophie agreed.
Colton leaned down and kissed her. “But it just so happens, I like surprising her, so what’s a man to do?”
“Let me come up to the field and see what you’re doing, Colton McCray,” Sophie wheedled. She reached Colton and gave him a mock slug on the arm, much to the kids’ delight.
“Now, Miss Johnston,” he quipped. “Is that any way to treat your future husband?”
Sophie heaved a gigantic sigh. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“No. And I’m sure I can swear Zoe here to secrecy, since she’s staff now.”
“I won’t tell no matter how much Sophie threatens me.”
Colton laughed.
“Can we come help, too?” Mickey asked.
“Yeah, me, too?” Abbey added.
“I supposed I could come along,” Finn offered, “and keep the younger two out of your hair.”
“We won’t be in anyone’s hair,” Abbey informed him. “We’ll be in Sophie’s Field. I wish someone would name a field after me.”
Mattie knelt down by Abbey. “Well, you do have a bedroom named after you. I think Abbey’s Bedroom has a lovely ring. You could make a sign for it when we get home.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea, Aunt Mattie.” Abbey flung her arms around Mattie’s neck and hugged her with abandon. “You got the best ideas ever.”
“I don’t know about that, but I do manage to get one right every now and again.”
“So, can we come?” Mickey, not to be deterred, asked.
“Sure,” Colton said. “This is definitely a more-the-merrier project. And if your uncle Finn’s coming, I’ll need your help keeping an eye on him. He might be a whiz in the operating room, but he’s always been all thumbs on the farm.”
“Don’t listen to Colton, kids,” Finn informed them. “He always hated it when I showed him up.”
Sophie leaned into Colton and said something too softly for Mattie to hear, then she smiled at him in a way that made Mattie almost ache.
“They’re really something, aren’t they?” Lily commented.
Mattie didn’t even attempt a response because she knew it would sound girlie, so she settled for nodding.
“Well, what are you all waiting for?” Colton bellowed. “Everyone in the wagon. I’ve got our supplies already loaded.” He turned to Sophie and grinned. “They’re well hidden under a tarp, so it won’t do you any good at all to try to catch a glimpse.”
“You are a mean man to torture me like this, Colton,” Sophie jokingly whined.
“No, I’m a man who loves you and wants to see you get a kick out of the surprise when you see it for the first time.”
“And when will that be?” she asked.
“On our wedding day, sugar.”
He had a wagon hitched to his John Deere tractor, and after loading Finn and the kids in the back, he climbed into the seat and started it. There was a mighty roar as the tractor pulled the wagon north.
Sophie continued to stand in the same spot, watching the tractor wind its way up the hill.
To Lily, Mattie said, “After you’ve seen Sophie and Colton together, you know what real love should look like, so it sort of gives you something to measure future relationships against.”
Lily laughed. That was something about Lily that Mattie had come to count on—her unflagging good humor. She wore optimistic happiness like Colton wore that cowboy hat. It hovered over her and shaded everything she did.
“I don’t plan to need something to measure against anytime soon...or forever, to be honest. I’m a window-shopper when it comes to love,” Lily said primly. “I like to look, but I’m not planning on buying.”
“Oh, come on,” Mattie insisted. There was the same kind of meant-for-a-happily-ever-after aura that glowed around both her friends. “You and Sophie are the kind of women who were meant for that kind of romantic love.”
“No,” Lily argued. “I’m like an art critic. I know it when I see it, but that doesn’t mean I can reproduce it. When I was in Buffalo, I dated a lot. Simple, casual relationships.”
“Art critic and window-shopper?” Mattie asked.
“That about sums it up,” Lily assured her.
“I haven’t seen you go out with anyone since you came to Valley Ridge.”
&nbs
p; “What are we talking about?” Sophie asked as she joined them.
“Lily’s dating life...or lack thereof,” Mattie answered.
“That’s sort of the pot calling the kettle black,” Lily groused.
“Why don’t we take this up to the house? I set out some iced tea on the back deck.”
In typical Sophie fashion, iced tea wasn’t only iced tea—it was also a plate of home-baked cookies and brownies, as well.
“So, catch me up on Lily’s dating life,” Sophie prompted as she filled their glasses.
“That’s easy...I don’t have one,” Lily said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like dating. I like having someone to see a movie with, or try out a new winery. And I’ve been asked out, but here’s the thing—Valley Ridge is not Buffalo. It’s hard to date someone casually here. The minute your name is linked to someone else’s, you’re practically married. And that’s not what I want, so I’m stepping back from dating for a while. It really wasn’t hard. When I first came to town, I was busy with...”
“You can say her name. Bridget. You were busy taking care of Bridget. It doesn’t hurt to talk about her as much as it did. I find myself able to remember some of the happier moments,” Mattie told them.
“Like?” Sophie asked.
“Zoe’s wanting a cell phone. Every time she starts telling me how mean I am to make her work for it, and how deprived she is by not having it, I can’t help but remember when Bridget and I were sure we’d never be truly happy if we didn’t get Cabbage Patch dolls. I don’t even know how old we were, but we were younger than Zoe, yet definitely as sure that we needed those dolls. Not just any dolls, but redheaded ones. I have no idea why the red hair part was so important, but it was. It was the height of the craze, and it was next to impossible to get ahold of one. My mom waited at a couple stores that were supposed to be getting them in, but each time, they were sold out before she got to them.”
“So you never got your doll?” Lily asked.
“Actually, we did. Dad knew a man who worked at a department store, and when an order arrived, he grabbed two redheaded dolls. Mine was Spring Alyce, and Bridget’s was Karleen Elinore. And don’t even ask me why I remember their names.”
