Open Arms

by Traci DePree

  As she read, the words seemed to speak directly to her.

  You created my inmost being;

  you knit me together in my mother’s womb....

  She paused to pray for Mouse—that she would know in her heart that those words were true, that God was knitting her child together. God had a plan for her baby.

  Kate closed her eyes, allowing the passage to sink in. She’d been praying for Mouse and her child, but as she continued to pray, the image of Kim and Chad Lewis came unbidden. Then the two prayers melded as one. Kate’s eyes flew open.

  Was that what God had intended all along? Why hadn’t she seen it earlier?

  “MOUSE’S BABY COULD BE the answer to Kim and Chad’s prayers,” Kate told Paul when he came out of the bathroom.

  Paul turned to look at her. His eyes shone with love. “That’s an interesting idea, Katie. And I know you want to help this girl and the Lewises, but I’m not sure Chad and Kim are ready to have a baby...”

  He shook his head as he removed his slippers and climbed into bed. “I mean, they were considering separating not that long ago. They may need more healing in their marriage before exploring any ideas about adoption.”

  “But, if I could just tell them about Mouse...”

  “I’m not sure you should tell the Lewises about Mouse,” Paul said, shaking his head again.

  “Why not?”

  “You don’t even know who this girl is yet. You don’t know if she wants to keep her baby or place it for adoption. That’s not an easy thing for a mother to do.”

  Kate sat back. The very thought of giving one of her own children to another family told her Paul was right.

  “I know you care,” Paul said, touching her hand, “but God is going to have to work out the details, both for Mouse and in the Lewises’ marriage.”

  “So, you think it’s possible?”

  “All things are possible.” He gave her a lopsided grin.

  LORD, KATE PRAYED silently as she lay in bed with Paul asleep beside her, you know what’s best for everyone—the Lewises, Mouse, her baby. Work your will in their lives and help me to hold the future with an open hand. Help me rely on you, trusting that you love each of these people and will work things for their best.

  And yet she wished that things would work out somehow, that Kim and Chad could have a child to adore, that Mouse could find the answers to her problems while knowing that she’d done the right thing.

  But most of all, Kate prayed that this baby who was coming into the world would arrive knowing that he or she was loved and wanted, as all children should be.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kate’s hair appointment at Betty’s was set for three o’clock Tuesday afternoon. She sat on the padded vinyl bench by the front door and stared absently at the white and aqua checkerboard pattern of the floor tiles. The scent of perm solution was particularly strong, as three elderly women sat with tiny curlers in their gray hair, waiting the requisite time for the chemical to do its magic.

  Betty was chatting with one of the women, while Ronda was at the shampooing station in the back. Kate could just make her out as she moved in and out of view from behind the partition.

  A few minutes later, Ronda and a woman emerged. The woman’s hair was wet and tightly curled, further evidence of the perm solution that scented the air. Ronda asked her if she’d like her hair styled, which the woman declined, so they moved to the front to finish their business.

  Kate met Ronda’s bloodshot eyes. The circles under them attested to a deep need for sleep. Ronda took the woman’s check and tapped her pen on the appointment book while the woman looked through a little calendar she pulled from her purse.

  Ronda was a medium-sized girl, not too large, yet not petite either. Her brown hair had auburn highlights, and her eyes were more amber than brown.

  When the woman left, Ronda disappeared to the back for a few minutes. Kate assumed she was cleaning up before calling Kate over. Then she returned and waved Kate to an empty chair.

  “So, what did you have in mind today, Mrs. Hanlon?” Ronda said as she touched her hair and looked at her in the mirror.

  Kate caught Betty’s glance and hoped she wasn’t offended that she’d asked for the young stylist instead of her. She winked at Kate.

  “Just a trim please.”

  “You should change your style,” Betty said as Ronda brushed through Kate’s hair. “There’s nothing like a change in hairstyles to boost a person’s self-esteem.”

  Kate was all too aware of Betty’s makeover reputation. Sometimes the makeovers went well; sometimes they didn’t.

  “How about some highlights? You’d look great with a little honey color right by your face,” Betty suggested.

  Kate started to say no and then decided it wouldn’t hurt to try something new. Besides, it would give her more time to talk to Ronda.

  “Say,” Kate changed the subject, looking toward Betty, “did you ever figure out who sent the flowers?”

  Betty shook her head, pointing to the bouquet that was sitting on the counter at the front of the shop. While the flowers were beginning to wilt, the arrangement still held most of its charm.

  “Can I see the card again?” Kate asked, and Betty retrieved it from the daisies’ midst. Kate read the words again. “To a woman who inspires me. I’ve admired you for a long, long time.”

  “I think it has to be someone you know well,” Kate said. “Did you call the florist and ask who the sender was?”

  “Nope, didn’t even think of it. I’ll do that.” Betty turned her attention back to her customer.

  When Kate looked in the mirror at Ronda, she saw that the young woman had gone pale.

  “Are you okay?” Kate asked.

  “I’m fine.” Ronda waved it off. “I don’t react well to the smell of the perm solution, and today...” She waved her hand to indicate the customers who were to blame, though she didn’t say as much. “I’ll be okay in a minute.”

  She sat in one of the chairs under the hairdryers and placed her head in her hands. Kate watched her, wishing she could read the young woman’s mind. After a few long moments, Ronda stood and excused herself to mix up the dye for Kate’s color job.

  When she returned, she looked slightly improved.

  “So,” Kate began, wanting to get to the reason for her visit, other than the hair job. “Have you been feeling ill long?”

  Ronda looked at her in the mirror. “It comes and goes.”

  “You think it’s the perm solution?”

  “I don’t know what it is.” She glanced at her boss, who was engrossed in conversation with her client. “Betty thinks I’m nuts, that a person doesn’t just develop a sensitivity to perm solution after so much time.” She shrugged.

  Kate studied Ronda’s face in the mirror. She wore no makeup, save a little eyeliner on her top lid, and the auburn highlights in her brown hair seemed to match the hue of her eyes. Was she lying? The way she kept glancing at Betty seemed to indicate that she might be.

  “Oh, I forgot something,” Ronda said, excusing herself to go to the back again.

  When she didn’t return after a few minutes, Betty, who’d just brought her customer back from the shampooing sink, turned to Kate and began to talk.

  “So,” Betty said, “What have you been up to?”

  Kate paused to think of an answer. She couldn’t very well say, “I’ve been looking for a pregnant girl.” So she said, “Regular stuff—mostly the afterprom party, planning youth-group events now that Max Wilcox is gone, and some couples’ counseling. David Jones’s mother passed away yesterday, so I’ll be attending the funeral tomorrow.”

  “I’d heard about that. It’s so sad,” Betty said. She turned on a blow-dryer with a large diffuser attached to the end and fluffed her client’s gray hair with her fingers as she dried.

  Ronda returned and began to paint the foul-smelling dye mixture onto Kate’s hair, starting at the roots and moving toward the ends. She worked quietly. Kate
studied her weary-looking face in the mirror.

  “What kinds of things do you and Paul deal with in your couples’ counseling?” Betty asked, recapturing Kate’s attention from the neighboring station.

  Kate glanced at her, knowing that Betty was simply making small talk, yet Kate had wanted to talk to Ronda more.

  “Most everything you can imagine,” Kate said. “We’re talking to one young couple about some fertility issues...”

  She knew she couldn’t go into detail, but as soon as she’d mentioned fertility issues, she noticed that Betty had stopped working and was staring at her.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Kate said.

  Betty shook her head. “Oh no, not at all. But did you know that Bob and I had problems in that area?”

  Kate turned to her. “I had no idea.”

  Betty nodded gravely. “It about tore our marriage apart. The blame and guilt we felt. It was unbearable.”

  The pain of it could still be seen in her gray eyes as she spoke. “We first tried to have kids about two years after we got married.” She resumed styling her customer’s hair as she spoke, and the woman seemed intent on her story as well.

  “Two months later, I was pregnant—no problem. We were so happy, and I started decorating our second bedroom and buying baby furniture. Then about five months in, I had a miscarriage.”

  She paused again and met Kate’s eyes. “It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had, knowing that my baby wouldn’t live.” Her eyes clouded, and she fluttered a hand to her chest. “We tried again, but we had the same result every time. I had four miscarriages and it was more than I could bear. Bob felt like it was all his fault, and I thought it was mine.” She shook her head. “It’s a miracle our marriage survived it.”

  “But you have kids,” Kate said, and Betty’s face lit in a giant smile. Kate was amazed at how willing Betty was to talk about her own experience with infertility.

  “And that was another miracle,” Betty said, “a miracle called adoption. We adopted George first, and then somehow I was able to carry my next pregnancy to term. The boys are only ten months apart.”

  “I’ve never heard you talk about this,” Kate said, glancing at Ronda. Her head was down as if she were concentrating extra hard on her work, but Kate saw her eyes dart to Betty.

  “I guess it’s such a natural part of my life, I don’t think to mention it. With the boys living so far away now, people around here tend to forget. George has always known, of course, since he was little when he was adopted.”

  “What are their names?” the customer under her care asked.

  “George and John,” Betty said. “The lights of my life.”

  “How long did it take you to adopt?” Kate asked.

  “Your color just needs to set now,” Ronda interrupted. “Do you mind if I go out back for a little bit while it sets?”

  She was acting very jittery, and Kate studied her for a long moment as she busily cleaned up supplies. Finally Ronda said again, “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Of course not. Are you okay?” Kate said.

  “I’m fine,” she said, but her body language said she couldn’t get out of there soon enough. “I’ll be back as soon as you’re ready to rinse,” Ronda promised.

  “No problem.”

  Ronda disappeared into the back room.

  “That girl,” Betty said with a sigh. “You see what I mean?” She shook her head. “Now, what were we talking about?” She moved to the other side of her client, backcombing and hair-spraying as she talked.

  Kate wished she could follow Ronda to see if she could help, but with the solution on her hair and the shampoo cape around her and Betty still chatting, she wasn’t exactly mobile. And Kate hadn’t yet found an opening in the conversation to ask Ronda if she had a boyfriend. She’d have to find a way to steer the conversation in that direction when Ronda came back.

  Betty chewed her bottom lip for a moment, then said, “The adoption took a little over a year, I guess. Though I was a bit worried we could still lose him.”

  “There was a chance the birth mother could’ve taken him back, right?” Betty’s customer said.

  Betty nodded.

  “It happens,” Betty agreed. “And yet it was so worth the risk.”

  There was a light in Betty’s eyes as she spoke. It made her think of Kim Lewis and her sparkly personality. Though the timing might be difficult, the sense Kate had had the night before that God had a bigger plan in mind rang with a note of truth.

  It wasn’t until Betty had finished telling the story that Kate realized Ronda had been gone far too long. She glanced at her watch—she’d had the dye on her hair almost twice as long as she normally did.

  She looked up in panic and said, pointing to her watch, “Betty, where’s Ronda?”

  Betty gasped and ran toward the back of the salon, then Kate saw her dart to the front door. A few moments later, a sickly looking Ronda returned, hustling to Kate. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her cheeks were blotchy.

  “I’m so sorry,” she panted, motioning for Kate to head to the shampooing sink. “I wasn’t feeling well, and I lost track of the time.”

  She leaned Kate back into the sink and quickly rinsed her hair with warm water. Then Ronda lifted Kate upright and began to towel dry her locks.

  “Oh no,” Kate heard the stylist utter under her breath.

  “What is it?” Kate said, knowing full well that hair dye left on that long was bound to have an unpleasant effect.

  Ronda’s brow furrowed as she handed Kate a mirror. Kate gazed at her reflection, and what she saw wasn’t a middle-aged woman with medium strawberry blonde hair. Instead, she looked like a pale lion with a blazing sun for a mane. Her mouth dropped open in horror.

  “My hair is orange,” she gasped.

  Betty must have heard her despite the partition that separated the shampooing station from the rest of the salon, because suddenly she was right there.

  “Oh my,” she sputtered, turning to Ronda. “How could you have left her? You knew what would happen.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” Ronda looked mortified, and Kate felt horrible.

  “It’s okay,” Kate soothed, patting the girl’s hand.

  “I’ll redye if for you, Kate,” Betty insisted. “Can you stay longer? I’m sure I can make room in the schedule.”

  Kate glanced at her watch. It was already four thirty. She had an afterprom meeting scheduled for five o’clock, not nearly enough time to redye her hair.

  “I have a meeting, so I’ll leave it as it is,” Kate said.

  “You didn’t even get your hair cut yet,” Betty said.

  Kate shrugged, hating the idea of going out in public like that. In a town the size of Copper Mill, a flame-colored mane was bound to start rumors.

  “Well, tomorrow, then?” Betty said. “I just feel awful.”

  Kate rose and took off the cape that encompassed her, handing it and the mirror to Betty, then she reached for her handbag.

  “It’s all right. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

  “I’ll make this up to you, Kate,” Betty insisted.

  Kate patted Betty’s shoulder and gave Ronda a reassuring look. “Really, it’ll be okay.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  By the time Kate arrived at the afterprom meeting, she’d all but forgotten about her hair. The uncomfortable stares of the other committee members soon reminded her.

  “Kate”—it was Livvy Jenner—“what happened to your hair?”

  “Oh.” Kate touched her pumpkin-colored locks. “It’s a long story.”

  Livvy raised an eyebrow.

  “Ronda was a bit distracted,” she said.

  “So this is her doing?”

  “Mm-hmm,” Kate said. “She was nauseous most of the appointment.”

  “She was?”

  Kate thought of how Ronda had left in the middle of Betty’s story of infertility and adoption. Had the emotion of Betty’s story been too much
for the girl to bear? Kate had seen her red-rimmed eyes and the blotchy look of her skin.

  Ashley Williams came in just then. She looked much better than the last time Kate had seen her. Her cheeks had a rosy glow, and her green eyes shone with what looked like joy. Kate caught her eye, and she came over to join her and Livvy.

  “I’m glad you could make it, Ashley,” Kate said, extending a hug to the dark-haired girl.

  “Thanks for inviting me,” Ashley said as her eyes edged up to Kate’s head. She said nothing about the blaze of color.

  “You’ll have to let me know what you want to do. We have a car wash and party decor, and there’s always booth painting...,” Kate said, grateful that Ashley didn’t mention her new do.

  “I’m not too fussy.” Ashley shrugged. “I’ll do whatever you need.”

  Just then, Carl Wilson joined the other mingling committee members. Kate watched Ashley to see if she would notice him. When she did, her eyes widened, and her breathing seemed to quicken.

  “Carl,” Ashley whispered.

  Kate’s eyes met Livvy’s. Then she glanced at the tall, lean, blond man, then back at Ashley. The young woman’s gaze was intent on him, and Kate could sense that she longed to go speak to him.

  “Let’s go have a seat and get our meeting started,” Kate said.

  Ashley turned back to Kate and gave her a sweet smile as if she was glad for the change in topic.

  Angie Petzel and Anne Jackson showed up too. Angie was in her usual creative garb. This outfit was a pair of wild-printed bell-bottoms topped with a T-shirt that seemed too worn out to be called clothing and a long tunic that reached almost to the girl’s knees, accentuating her thin frame. She and Anne found James Jenner in the back and sat with him.

  Angie waved shyly as Kate moved to start the meeting. She pointed to her own hair, indicating Kate’s new look, and then gave her a thumbs-up. Kate blushed and smiled at her.

  “Let’s gather round,” Kate said, taking in the crowd from the front as people took their seats. When the chitchat died down, she added, “I’m so glad to see more youth groupers here tonight. I know that your valuable input will help us make a better afterprom party, and it will encourage your friends at school to join in the fun.”