by Lois Richer
“I have to,” he said, his jaw clenched. “She’s a wonderful person. It’s not fair that she should—”
“When did we get a promise of fairness in this life?” Shay’s smile eased the sting of her words. “I know I have problems, Nick. But don’t spend all your time trying to help me. Help yourself, too.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” He couldn’t look at her.
“I mean that you don’t have to prove that you’re not your dad. I doubt there’s a single soul in town who thinks you’d abandon those who count on you.” Shay cupped his cheek in her palm. “The only one who doesn’t seem to believe in you is you.”
She was right, and he knew it.
“The job in Seattle—you don’t really want to take it, do you, Nick?” The intensity of Shay’s gaze and the wistfulness of her words prevented him from lying.
“No.” A wave of relief washed over him as he finally admitted the truth. “It’s not the work,” he assured her as another blaze exploded above them. “I could enjoy helping the guys reach their potential. It’s just that with Georgia gone—” Why did it still hurt so much?
“You’re worried about your mom and Maggie,” she finished, her fingers squeezing his.
“My mother puts up a good front, but being responsible for Maggie is wearing her out.”
“So stay here in Hope.”
“Shay, we’ve been through this.” Frustrated, Nick raked his hand through his hair. “How can I stay in Hope and still support my family?”
“I don’t know, Nick. I don’t have all the answers. But I know who does. Why don’t you try asking Him what His will for you is?”
A wry smile lifted his lips. How could he tell her he didn’t have enough faith to do that? How could he admit that he’d been so deeply disappointed by the loss of his career, so shattered by Georgia’s death, so angry God hadn’t answered his prayer about his father that he now was afraid of God, afraid He’d dole out another sucker punch and that it would completely destroy the threadbare remnants of faith Nick now clung to? Nick was so scared of what God would do that he was afraid to even consider that the growing feelings he had for Shay could ever be realized.
“You’re just like me, Nick.” Shay’s whisper was all the more emphatic in the silence of the evening. “Neither of us trusts God enough. And we must. It’s time you and I began trusting God with our futures.”
As they sat silently together in the darkness of the desert, watching heaven unfold its mysteries, lost in their own thoughts, Nick glanced at Shay. Her attention was riveted on the flashing spectacle above. Her lips moved in what he thought was a prayer.
Nick claimed he was a Christian. He professed to believe in God’s love. Maybe Shay was right. Maybe it was time to prove it.
Moments, maybe hours later—he wasn’t sure how much time had passed—the last flash blinked into nothingness and the world finally returned to normal. Shay rose. Her face glowed with radiance only a transformational inner experience could have given.
She said nothing as they walked back to her house, and Nick was content with that. But he was surprised when she wrapped her fingers around his as he walked her to her front porch.
“Would you like to come inside?” she murmured.
That surprised him even more. Shay looked and sounded different. Not exactly serene, but not filled with the panic he’d glimpsed earlier. Clearly the meteor shower and their talk had affected her. He wanted desperately to go inside, to talk some more, to be near her.
To stay.
But what he wanted wasn’t possible.
“It’s late. I’d better get home.”
“Okay.” Her lovely smile flashed white in the gloom as she stared at him. “I want to thank you for such a wonderful evening, Nick. Now, whenever I go into the desert, I’m going to think of this meteor shower and remember that God’s love is like a cloak of meteors showering down all around me, protecting me.”
He debated about the best way to say what was on his mind but in the end decided it would be wrong to keep this from her any longer. Besides, something about the change in her tonight made him believe that she could deal with what he had to say, and he so wanted her to be able to get rid of the past.
“Shay?”
“Yes?” Her innocent green eyes held his.
“I’ve been in contact with the New York Police Department.”
“Wha—why?” she stammered. He could almost feel her anxiety building like static in the air around them.
“I wanted to know if they’d ever caught your stalker.” He waited but she said nothing. “They haven’t.” Her reaction, the way she seemed to freeze up, told him he should have waited. But he couldn’t stop now. Nick struggled to find the best way to say it, but there was no way to put a good spin on this. “For over a year they’ve been chasing a guy who’s stalking other women.”
“I’m sorry.” Her face froze into an ivory mask.
“The thing is, Shay, he has almost the same M.O. as your stalker. If it is the same guy, he’s become much more adept at hiding his identity. His victims are terrified.”
Her posture grew increasingly rigid until finally she burst out, “What do you want from me, Nick?”
“I was hoping you’d agree to talk to the police, review your experience to see if there are any clues that could stop this creep and save other women the harm you’ve suffered.” His heart ached for the rush of emotions that cracked her mask of calm.
Shay seemed frozen to the spot. Though not a muscle moved, he knew her panic battled for control. Then she lifted her head and looked straight at him. Her lips lifted in a mirthless smile.
“So it’s time to put my money where my mouth is,” she said. “Time to prove that I will trust God.”
“Shay, I didn’t mean—” One look from those green eyes silenced him.
Her shoulders went back, her spine straightened and her chin thrust out.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll talk to the police in the morning.” She seemed somehow frailer, somehow diminished, but her tone was resolute. “I will not be a coward anymore.”
“You could never be a coward.”
Nick couldn’t help himself—he drew her into his arms, pressed her head to his shoulder and breathed in the soft lemon scent of her hair. “You’re the strongest, most amazing, most caring and most compassionate woman I know.” He cupped her face in his palms and drew back to look into her eyes. “I’ll be with you, Shay. I’ll be right by your side. We’ll do it together.”
“Together.” A spark of gold flared in her green eyes. “Can you arrange a conference call for eight a.m. tomorrow?”
He nodded.
“Okay then.” She exhaled then eased away. “You really know how to show a girl a good time, Nick.”
The right words wouldn’t come to him, the words he needed to tell her how much he admired her, how she was the most special woman he’d ever met. So Nick did the only thing he could think of. He drew her close and kissed her on the lips, pouring the kaleidoscope of his feelings into that embrace.
When he released her, Shay’s glazed look made him want to do it again. But he couldn’t.
Nick said good-night and strode to his truck.
Shay said his mom had taught her about trusting God. Maybe it was time he sought some parental advice for himself. Nick knew nothing would change between him and Shay—no matter how much he wanted things to be different, he was still responsible for his family.
But maybe he could do something about the gulf between him and God.
Chapter Ten
“So you’ve got another machine? How many is that now?”
“I don’t know.” Maggie frowned as she pushed her foot against Shay’s hand. “There’s my roly-poly, my Tiger and the giggle machine.”
“The giggle machine? What is that?” Shay glanced at Nick standing nearby in the physical therapy room and blushed, remembering his kiss after the meteor show. It had been two weeks and she still couldn’t
stop thinking about that kiss, or the way he’d held her hand through every conference call they’d had with the NYPD.
“Uncle Nick calls it a giggle machine because it makes me laugh when I use it.” Maggie puffed with exertion.
“Think of a weird version of a treadmill,” Nick said to Shay. His brown eyes twinkled when she lifted one eyebrow. “Really weird.”
“It is weird,” Maggie agreed, brown eyes widening. “Because sometimes when I walk on it, nothing happens. And then all of a sudden, something does. Once a balloon blew up right in front of me!”
Shay smiled as she urged Maggie to push a little harder.
“If you came to Grandma’s, I could show you,” Maggie hinted.
Shay had deliberately stayed away from the Green home because of Nick. Or, more accurately, because of his kiss. It set odd feelings alight inside her, and that made her nervous. She was coming to rely on him too much. So she’d buried herself in helping Jaclyn with restorations on their old church. And slowly, solace began to replace fear as Scripture seeped into her heart.
The hours of discussion with the police tested Shay’s baby steps of faith, leaving her feeling wobbly, her fragile sense of security shaken. Reliving the terror of those days when she’d been so vulnerable to her stalker had challenged her determination to trust God. Some days it felt as if she was hanging on by a mere thread, but Shay did hang on, refusing to give in to the fear.
Nick, with his unswerving comfort and support, had now become such an integral part of her world that Shay wasn’t sure how she would fare when he left. But she was only too aware that her time with him was running out. And then she’d be alone.
Again.
But that’s the way it had to be because she couldn’t love or be loved…until she’d defeated the panic for good.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…
“Shay?” Maggie touched her arm. “When will you come to see my giggle machine?”
“I’ll stop by as soon as I can,” Shay promised before leading Maggie through the rest of her exercises. “You’re doing much better,” she said, surprised by the child’s progress in the past week. “Uncle Nick’s machines are really helping you, huh?”
“Or maybe it’s her excellent therapist,” Nick chimed in from the end of the bars.
“Well, naturally that’s a given,” she joked. “But if you polled the folks in Hope, I’m guessing Nick Green would be the one they’d nominate as most valuable citizen.” She tossed him a grin. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone who doesn’t think you deserve the town’s top award, maybe even a crown.”
“It’s a distinct possibility Heddy Grange might crown me with something, but I doubt it would be gold or jewels,” Nick said in a droll tone. “I didn’t exactly fix that fountain of hers. In fact, she said I broke it.”
Shay looked at Maggie. They tried to keep straight faces but a second later they burst into laughter.
“When she plugged it in,” Maggie spluttered, “the water came out of the swan’s mouth and hit Uncle Nick in the face!”
“Go ahead and laugh,” Nick said, his pique evident in the spots of bright red dotting his cheekbones. “I told you, Shay, I am not a handyman. But I could easily come up with a list of things I’d like to do with that swan.” His gorgeous eyes glinted. “And most of them involve a hammer.”
His malevolent glare only made Shay laugh harder. She caught Maggie’s eye and winked.
“At least your debacle didn’t make it into the paper,” she said. “Heddy loves to get her name on the front page, you know.”
The words had no sooner left her lips than an idea dawned. “Maggie, what would you think about showing off what you and the others have achieved these past months? You can invite your grandma and anyone else you’d like. Uncle Nick can come, too.”
“Like a demonstration?” Maggie breathed with shining eyes. “Ted, too?”
“Yep, for all of my kids. Saturday afternoon. I want you to bring your giggle machine and your Tiger machine, Maggie. Nick, you bring that new gizmo you’ve been working on for the seniors’ fitness class you started.”
Shay thought if she could show Nick the difference he and his machines had made in people’s lives, if he realized that he was needed here—maybe then he’d reconsider staying. Shay wanted Nick to be happy. Wouldn’t he be happier in Hope, with his mother and Maggie, than in Seattle?
Of course she wanted Nick to stay for her, too. Shay wanted him to stay because she was sure he was as affected by that kiss as she was, because she wanted to spend more time with him, because…
Wait! This is about Nick’s happiness. Not my…feelings.
Shay made a mental note to phone the newspaper to suggest a human-interest story. The whole town was talking about Nick—surely it wouldn’t be hard to steer a reporter toward a profile of Nick’s work. And once her buddy recognized the difference he made here in Hope, he’d change his mind about leaving.
“So, uh, anything else?” Nick asked.
“Oh, sorry.” She helped Maggie put her braces back on. “Pretty soon you won’t need these,” she whispered in the child’s ear.
“Really?” The brown eyes expanded. “When can I walk all by myself?”
“If you keep working hard, pretty soon.” Shay’s heart warmed at Maggie’s whoop of joy.
“I am going to beat Ted,” she said, a fierce determination filling her face.
“Don’t think about that,” Nick said, scooping her into his arms. His gaze rested on Shay, as if he were trying to transmit a secret message. “Forget everyone and everything. Keep your eye on the goal.”
That was good advice—for Maggie and for her.
Because at this moment, the goal was to get Nick to see that he was needed here. Shay couldn’t imagine life in Hope without Nick.
Actually, she couldn’t imagine life without Nick. Period.
*
“So what’s your role in this?” Ben Marks demanded as he snapped several shots of Shay’s kids.
“Me? I’m just the fix-it guy. And a cheerleader.” Nick deliberately downplayed his contribution to the local reporter because he wanted all the focus to be on Shay and the wonderful things she’d done for these children. Fierce pride filled him as he watched her instill confidence in each of her clients. “She’s a miracle worker, that’s for sure.”
The reporter moved in for another shot and Nick headed for his seat. Maggie was onstage next and he didn’t want to miss a second. As he sat down beside his mom, he heard her gasp and glanced up. What he saw made his own heart skip a beat.
Maggie stepped free of her braces and walked three steps in a halting, jerky gait.
But she walked.
A lump the size of Gibraltar lodged in Nick’s throat. He couldn’t say anything. He could only stare as his niece, triumphant, stood grinning as Shay put her braces back on.
When her last clients finished their display, Shay introduced each one again, beaming with joy and satisfaction. The kids took a final bow then hurried over to their loved ones, eager to crow about their achievements. Maggie was no different and moved quickly toward them with her Tiger machine.
“I beat Ted!” she blurted, her joy boundless.
“So that’s what you and Shay have been doing the past few days.” Nick hugged her tightly, thanking God for the gift of healing He’d given this precious child. “That’s quite a secret you’ve been keeping, Maggie-mine. I’m surprised you didn’t burst with it.”
His mother, tears flowing down her cheeks, couldn’t say anything. All she could do was wrap her granddaughter in a hug until finally Maggie squealed.
“Too tight, Grandma,” Maggie protested and eased herself free. “Shay’s got doughnuts and cookies with pictures on them and fruit punch!” She waved at Ted and rushed toward him.
“I give thanks every day for that woman,” his mother murmured as she dabbed at her eyes. “Shay Parker is a w
alking, talking blessing.”
Yes, she is. Nick stood in the background, as proud as any parent, watching as Shay spoke with the families of her clients. How Nick wished he could stay in Hope and watch her break free of the fear that had kept her imprisoned for so long.
How he wished he could help her finish that part of her journey.
Shay posed for pictures with her kids. When Ben would have moved on, she asked him to take some with Nick and his inventions.
“He’s a big part of the reason these kids have made such astounding progress,” she bragged.
“This is your moment, Shay,” Nick protested to no avail.
“It’s a moment that wouldn’t have happened at all without you, Nick. His work is amazing,” she said to the photographer. “He has a gift for seeing what the kids need and creating exactly what will help them achieve their goals.”
Nick’s cell phone buzzed to let him know he had a text. He took out his phone as Shay and the photographer began setting up the shot. NYPD was trying to reach Shay, who had apparently turned off her phone. So they’d called him.
Why today? Nick could hardly bear the thought of extinguishing her joy, but it probably had to do with the stalker, and if it did he would be there for Shay.
He couldn’t do anything about his burgeoning feelings for her. But he could stick by her side and be a true friend, regardless of the fact that his heart wanted more.
Nick got through the photos and waited until the last person had left to tell her. As he worked beside Shay to restore the room to its rightful appearance, he said, “Shay?”
“Yes?” She led him out of the room then locked the door. When he didn’t immediately speak, she frowned. A guarded look filled her eyes—he hated being the cause of it. “What’s wrong?”
“New York texted me,” he told her quietly. “Our guy has been active again. They’d like to review what you told them and see if they can find something new.”
She didn’t protest, didn’t argue that she’d told them all she knew. Shay Parker wasn’t that kind of woman. Instead she inhaled, pushed back her shoulders and nodded. But the clouds in her eyes told him she was battling hard to retain her calm. “I’ll go call them now.” She turned.
