Coming Home: (Contemporary Christian Romance Boxed Set): Three Stories of Love, Faith, Struggle & Hope

by Debra Ullrick

  “Oh. I had a muffin earlier.”

  “A muffin.” He lifted his chin skeptically. “Well, that’s one plus in your favor. Helga got canned because she ate too much.”

  Maggie swallowed at the implication. “Helga?”

  “She was the nanny… what? A year. Year and a half ago. Something like that.”

  If he was trying to make her feel better, it wasn’t working. “So, they go through a lot of nannies. Huh?”

  Keith shrugged as he finished off his Cheerios. “About one every couple months or so.”

  “Oh.” It was all she could get out.

  “Well, I’m off to the races.” He stood and grabbed his hat from the table. When it was on his head, Maggie had to force herself to think. Then he smiled and all the remaining thoughts scattered along with their counterparts. “Or to get ‘em ready for the races anyway. Y’all have a good day.”

  “’Bye, Keef,” Isabella said through her mouthful of food.

  “”Bye, baby doll.” Keith bent and kissed her forehead. “See ya, slugger.” He waved at Peter, and with that he strode out of the kitchen.

  The air she hadn’t realized she wasn’t breathing escaped in a rush. He had to quit doing that. He was going to kill her before they had a chance to fire her.

  Keith felt bad about mentioning the nanny situation, but it was only fair to warn her. More to the point, every time he saw her, he had to remind himself that this couldn’t last. She would be gone by the end of the month if she lasted that long. He had a life. His own life. And it did not include Maggie Montgomery.

  “So, you decided to grace us with your presence this morning?” Ike asked when Keith stalked into the barn.

  “I’m early.”

  “And happy about it, I see.” Ike was busy loading the horse equipment into the trailer. When he hopped from the trailer’s running board, his cowboy boots kicked up a puff of dust. “You see Maggie this morning?”

  He didn’t want to answer that question. It did funny things to his heart. “Yeah. She was at breakfast.”

  The trainer’s motion slowed to a stop, and he exhaled hard. “Listen, Keith. This is none of my business.”

  Keith looked up at him and steeled himself. There was a challenge in his eyes and his voice. “But…?”

  Ike shook his head slowly. “Look, I don’t have to tell you the score. You know it better than I do. But a spring fling with someone who will almost surely be gone before anyone knows she’s here is not worth risking what you have with Dallas. As good as it looks, as easy as it looks, it’s not worth it.”

  Anger and embarrassment cracked into Keith. “Come on, Ike. I’m not that stupid. Besides, you know that’s not my style anymore. Maggie’s a friend, and not even that.”

  “Yeah, well.” Ike stopped toe-to-toe with Keith, his faded gray eyes as serious as Keith had ever seen them. “Keep it that way, okay?”

  “Dallas! Hey. How’s it going?” Keith put his elbow over the soft tan couch cushion as he sat back that night. He was safe and secure, locked in his own bedroom, far across the mansion from the kids’ wing.

  “Ugh. I’m about two seconds from cracking somebody’s skull against a wall,” Dallas said in typical, Dallas fashion.

  “Oh, why’s that?”

  “What’s it always? Studying as usual.” Her voice softened. “It’s good to hear your voice though. I need some sanity.”

  “Now I’m sanity?” He laughed. “That’s scary.”

  “Tell me about it. I’m so ready to get out of here, I could scream.”

  “Two weeks you’ll be back here, with me. No books. No studying.” He closed his eyes and could almost catch the feeling of her being right there with him.

  “Can I come now?”

  His laugh was a breath. “’Fraid not. But I’ll tell you what. You buckle down and stick with it, and when you get here, we’ll throw you a big party.”

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

  “What? You having second thoughts?”

  “No.” The sigh was soft, barely there. “But the planning and the parties and the crowds? Can’t we just elope?”

  “Oh, your dad would love that.”

  “Don’t remind me. Mom called today. They’re coming up for a visit. Well, it’s actually for a fundraiser, but that’s as close as I get to a real visit these days.”

  “The junior senator from Texas has higher ambitions?” Keith asked, amused.

  “Always. Him. Me. It runs in the family.”

  “Well, I can’t speak for him, but I’m very proud of you.”

  “Thanks. I needed to hear that.” She sighed, and he felt it run him through. “I’m so ready to see you.”

  “Me too.” Then he stopped himself. “I mean I can’t wait to see you. I see myself every morning.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Yeah, about you.”

  They talked awhile longer, and when he hung up, Keith felt better. Ike was right. Being around Maggie was playing with fire, and he didn’t need that in his life. He’d done that enough and had been burned, repeatedly. No. In four days his parents would be back, she would probably be gone for reasons he still didn’t know. What he did know was that at some point things would go back to normal, and normal did not include Maggie Montgomery. Hanging onto that thought, he dug himself in the pillows and forced himself to stay there.

  By the next morning Keith had come up with a solid plan. He wouldn’t go anywhere near her unless absolutely necessary. For breakfast he grabbed a Dr. Pepper out of Ike’s stash in the barn. If all went well, he would have lunch at his place and call to let Inez know he was going to be late for dinner tonight. He could show up after they had gone to bed. It was a great plan.

  The fact that Keith hadn’t been around didn’t stop Maggie’s heart from jumping every time there was a noise at a door. She had never felt so scattered or so flighty. The kids were great as usual. Through the soccer lesson and lunch, they were angels. For that Maggie was grateful because she was having a really hard time concentrating on anything other than when he might show up again.

  Trying to come up with anything that might stave off insanity, she had a thought after lunch. “Hey, you two. What do you say we make smoothies and take them out to the playhouse?”

  “What’s a smoothie?” Peter asked.

  “Come on. I’ll show you.” She took them both to the kitchen, knowing Inez had gone into town to do errands and Patty Ann wasn’t due back until at least four. Careful to anchor her, Maggie set Isabella on the counter. With only two cabinet openings, she found the blender. From his spot on the floor, Peter watched her. “Here.” She stood him up on the chair. “You watch your sister.”

  Obediently Peter put his hands on Isabella. Maggie went to the refrigerator and got out a few things. They wouldn’t be the most elaborate smoothies in the world, but she didn’t think the kids would care anyway. “This is going to be fun.”

  She plugged the blender in and put several ingredients in—the strawberry yogurt, the bananas, the raspberries, and the ice. “Oh, milk.” In five steps, the refrigerator door was open in her hand. It was then that she heard the scream.

  “Izzy! No!”

  On one whirl she was around, and her own scream joined Peter’s. “Izzy, no!”

  The growl of the blender was cacophonous—like a jackhammer on concrete. Crushing, crunching, screeching—the blender flung the pink concoction in every conceivable direction. Who was screaming what, Maggie had no idea. All she knew was that by the time she got the blender shut off, there were pink splotches all over the kids, all over her, and most distressingly all over the kitchen. Pink was dripping down the white glass cabinets, off the white and navy curtains, and all over the grouted, gray tile floor. “Oh, my… No.” She put her head back to keep from crying. “No. No. No. No.”

  Pulling patience to her with all her strength, she looked at the two children. Isabella was in the throes of an all out panic attack, and Peter was cowering away from her lik
e he was about to be beaten.

  She fought back her own distress and took a breath to try to calm herself. Carefully, gently, Maggie took Isabella into her arms and sat down on the chair next to Peter, oblivious to the pink squish underneath her. “It’s okay, baby. I shouldn’t have let you that close.” In her arms, Maggie rocked the inconsolable child slowly until her wails became whimpers. “My fault. That was all my fault.”

  Peter’s sniff behind her brought her attention to him, and with tears crowding her own eyes, Maggie reached back for him. “It’s okay, Peter. It’s okay.” Her tenderness wrenched sobs of fear and guilt free from the little boy, and his wails replaced Isabella’s. “I shouldn’t have left you there like that. I shouldn’t have. It was stupid, but it was my stupid not yours. That wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t.”

  Peter looked around the kitchen and shrank into the slats of the chair. “Inez will be mad.”

  It was true. Maggie knew it in her bones as she looked around the yogurt-splattered kitchen. This could well come at the cost of her job. “Well, you let me worry about Inez.”

  “What? Did the Pepto-Bismol explode?”

  Maggie spun so fast, she nearly sent all three of them crashing off the chair. He stood in the kitchen doorway, hands on hips, surveying the mess.

  “Keith.”

  He’d only been by to talk to Jeffrey about the yard for the engagement party. He hadn’t even intended to stop in and say hi, but when screams erupt and you’re the one in charge, you come running. Behind him, he heard Jeffrey’s hard, disgusted sigh. However, whether she was thinking when she did it or not didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that all three of them looked like they were about to be thrown out permanently, and they knew it. They shrunk backward away from his presence. He stepped farther into the kitchen, toward the counter and shook his head in consternation. “What happened?”

  “It was my fault.” Maggie stood shakily, placing herself between him and the children. “We were going to make smoothies. I left them over here, and the blender got turned on. It’s my fault. I should’ve been watching them closer.”

  Smoothie-splatters streaked down her blue blouse, across her hair, and down her face. In fact, it was everywhere.

  Things happened. Keith knew that as well as anybody. However, he also knew there were people on this place who wouldn’t take that for a reason. “Okay. Why don’t you take the kids upstairs? Hose them off. Get them into clean clothes. Whatever it takes. Jeffrey and I will get this mess cleaned up.”

  He heard Jeffrey’s grunt of disapproval, but with one glance backward, he silenced any protest.

  Twisting, Maggie picked Isabella up even as she kept her gaze on Keith. “Are you sure? I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

  “Let me worry about that. You take care of them.”

  A wary nod, and Maggie herded the children out and up the stairs. Keith turned to Jeffrey who looked positively mortified. “Come on. We’d better get this place cleaned up before the she-wolves get back.”

  Upstairs Maggie did her best to calm the children down. Isabella was the easiest. With a quick slide through the bathtub, clean clothes, and her bed coupled with the intense crying of earlier, the little girl was asleep in no time. Peter, on the other hand, was a different story. He watched her carefully. Every move she made, he seemed to cringe back from her in fear.

  In the bath when she went to put the soap on him, he backed away a full inch before she caught hold of him. “Hey, hey, Peter-boy. Where’re you going? It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. See, we’re just going to wash all this icky old yogurt off so you’re all nice and clean.” She kept talking in that singsong voice that kids melted into. It didn’t help him, but it sure helped her.

  When Peter made it out of the tub and dressed, Maggie took him in the rocking chair, wondering about what was going on downstairs. However, as deadly to her job as that sounded, she had to trust that they would do the best they could. Whatever happened after that would happen.

  “What in the wide world?” Inez stopped cold in the doorway to the kitchen.

  Keith held up his hand that sported the little rope around his wrist as he stood on the chair, wiping yogurt from the ceiling. “I can explain.”

  Inez swung the bags onto the counter. “Well, somebody better. Look at this mess.”

  He surveyed his options, took a breath, and plunged ahead. “I didn’t have lunch. I was just going to grab something quick. I didn’t realize the blender was on when I plugged it in.” He felt Jeffrey’s gaze on him, but he kept going. “We were hoping to have it cleaned up before you got here.”

  She didn’t look at all pleased. “Well, that worked.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it.”

  It was clear she wanted to yell at him, but the hierarchy of the situation dawned on her, and she backed off. “Fine. But this mess had better be clean before dinner.”

  “It will be. No problem.”

  Maggie was still rocking Peter in the chair an hour later. Her cheek rested on his head, and she knew he was asleep. Poor kid. She’d about scared him to death. The soft creak of the door brought her thoughts up from the sleeping child. Keith stuck his head in, and she gasped softly.

  “Keith, how’s…?”

  He put his finger to his lips, glanced back out into the hallway, and then stepped in before closing the door quietly behind him. Making no noise at all, he tiptoed over to where she sat. She surveyed him seriously. “How’s downstairs?”

  “Clean. Finally. We’ve got the curtains in the wash right now. Everything else is done.”

  She sighed in relief, and the chair started rocking again. But he didn’t leave. Instead, he sat on his heel next to the rocking chair and brushed his thumb under his nose. “Listen. Inez came home and about had a conniption.”

  Maggie’s eyes widened in fear and then closed as she shook her head. “I’m dead.”

  “No. No. That’s what I came up here to tell you. I took the rap for you.”

  Her gaze smashed into his as she tried to understand what he was telling her. “You what? Why?”

  Gentle and compassionate, he gazed at her, his deep brown eyes setting her spirit on solid ground. “She can be a little harsh if things aren’t just right, so I told her I did it. So as long as you don’t say anything, she’ll never know.”

  Gratefulness for his chivalry traced through her, but still he’d put himself out there to get yell at… or worse. “But why? Why would you do that? It was my fault.”

  “Hey, things happen.” He shrugged, then reached over and ran his hand over Peter’s head. “Besides these two need you more than I need my skin.” With a tight smile, he stood, and her gaze followed him up.

  “Will you be back for dinner tonight?”

  He nodded ever-so-slightly. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Chapter Five

  “Is she asleep?” Keith stepped up behind Maggie as she closed Isabella’s door.

  In the first second Maggie jumped. In the second she nodded, feeling the security his presence brought her all the way to her core. “Too much excitement today.”

  “I hear you there.” He followed her across the hall, and she felt his every move. “You going to tuck Peter in?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Mind if I come along?” He was leaning against the wall, shoulder to wrist. The hat and bandana were gone again, which wasn’t helping her breathing any.

  “If you want.” She pushed the door to Peter’s room open and without waiting for him to follow, she walked over to the bed. However, when she got there, the first thing she noticed was the tears on the little face, and concern poured over her. “Peter-boy, what’s wrong?”

  Sad, heart-wrenching eyes gazed up at her. “You’re not leaving are you?”

  “Leaving?” She knelt down next to the bed and took his hand in hers, forgetting anyone else was in the room with them. “Why would I be leaving?”

  “Because of what we did.
” His little lip quivered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Isabella was going to touch that button.”

  “Oh, baby.” Compassion for him slid through her. “Baby, baby. Come here.”

  He sat up and fell into her arms, hugging her like she’d never been hugged before. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “Hey. Hey.” She stroked his head as his desperation pulled her closer to him. “Shh. It’s okay. It’s not your fault, remember?”

  “But I don’t want you to leave.”

  “Hey, slugger.” Keith knelt down on the other side of the bed, and Maggie looked at him through the darkness. He reached across the bed and ran his hand over Peter’s back. “Maggie’s not going anywhere. I’m going to make sure of that.”

  How he could sound so sure, she didn’t know. But Peter sniffed and backed up from her. Still leaning on her, he looked at Keith. “Really?”

  “Really. Now you get on to sleep. Tomorrow’s another day, and maybe we’ll go horseback riding again if you want.”

  A breath of excitement punched through the sadness. “Really?”

  “Yeah, but only if you get some sleep now.”

  Peter scooted back down under the covers, and Maggie helped him pull them up around him. However, when he was settled, she wasn’t sure what to do next.

  “You want to say it?” Keith asked her when she didn’t start immediately.

  Although it was more than her brain could handle, she nodded. She reached down and took Peter’s hand in hers and then from across the bed, Keith offered her his. Her heart slammed into her chest as she looked at it for one second and then forced herself to remember his generosity earlier in the afternoon. She laid her hand in his. Rough but strong just like him, it supported hers effortlessly. Trying not to think about it, she bent her head.

  “Dear Lord, we thank You tonight for all the good things You did for us today. We ask You to send Your saints and angels to be with us tonight. Keep us safe, hold us in Your love, and be with us always. Amen.”