Unexpected Father

by Carolyne Aarsen

  “So that’s this one,” Denny said with a grunt as he tossed the last of the weeds onto the growing pile beside the flower bed. He straightened, placing his hand in the small of his back and flashing Evangeline a smile that created a flutter of joy.

  “Now that you’ve taken the rock edging away, what are you putting in its place?” Evangeline caught Ella’s hand before she stuck another handful of dirt in her mouth.

  “I don’t know, what do you think?”

  Evangeline gave him a grateful smile. He wanted her input. As if she was a partner in the project.

  It is your father’s ranch, she reminded herself.

  But at the same time, this was the first time she’d been asked her opinion on anything to do with the house or the ranch.

  “Brick would be nice,” she said. “You can get some nice large bricks at the Hartley Creek nursery on the edge of town. The new owner is a bit of a grump, but he knows his stuff.”

  “We could go have a look later this afternoon, if that’s okay with you?” Denny arched a questioning brow and Evangeline nodded, anticipation singing through her.

  “Maybe we could get some new perennials?” Evangeline asked.

  “If he still has them. It is getting late in the season to put them in. Fall might be a better time.”

  “How do you know so much about plants?”

  Denny pulled out a hankie and wiped the sweat dripping down his face. “I helped my mother in the garden whenever I had time. She loved flowers, too. Working in the garden gave us time to talk. Share stuff.” He shoved the hankie into his pocket, his face taking on a melancholy look as he glanced at Ella, who was pulling at Evangeline’s hand, babbling away in her toddler jargon. “She was a good mother. She would have loved Ella.”

  Evangeline caught the note of longing in his voice, feeling a moment of kinship. Neither of them had a mother.

  “I’m sure she would have,” Evangeline murmured, swinging Ella up into her arms. “She’s a sweetheart.”

  “Don’t carry that little grublet,” Denny warned, reaching out to take her away. “She’s getting your fancy shirt dirty.”

  “Too late for that,” Evangeline said, looking down at the smudges on her top. She gave him a quick grin. “So, is it time to take a lunch break?”

  Denny glanced up at the sky, as if getting a reading from the sun. “I’m guessing it’s about twelve-thirty.”

  “Your clock is slow,” Evangeline teased, hefting Ella onto her hip as she glanced at the gold bracelet watch circling her wrist. “It’s twelve thirty-six.”

  Denny laughed then reached over and gently wiped something off her cheek. “You had some dirt there,” he said, but his fingers lingered, then flitted down her face, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder.

  Evangeline leaned in, gave him a quick kiss, then grinning at his surprise, she turned and led the way into the house, unable to keep the smile off her face.

  In a matter of minutes Ella was washed up and sitting in her high chair, gobbling up the pieces of bread Evangeline had buttered and cut up for her.

  She set a plate of sandwiches out and a pitcher of lemonade with a set of mismatched glasses.

  “Looks good,” Denny said appreciatively as she sat. As natural as can be, he reached out for her hand and Ella’s and bent his head to pray.

  Evangeline followed suit, her heart warming.

  “Thank You, Lord, for our food, for the hands that prepared it,” Denny prayed. “For this beautiful day and Your creation that You bless us with. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Evangeline breathed, pulling in a deep breath of satisfaction. She looked at Denny, his hair still damp from the water he’d splashed over his head, his face shining from washing up, his eyes holding a glimmer of satisfaction.

  Stubble shaded his jaw and his hair could use a cut. His shirt was ragged at the collar and the cuffs were worn. And none of that mattered.

  He really was a handsome man, Evangeline thought.

  Could this be happening? Could she possibly be ready to give her heart to him? He was so different from what she had long considered her ideal.

  He looked up and gave her a warm smile that created a fan of crinkles around deep brown eyes framed by shaggy hair.

  And she realized how her “ideal” had changed.

  “So, I think we can finish up the other side after lunch,” Denny said, picking up a piece of bread Ella had tossed on the floor. “After that’s done, I thought we could head into town to get what we need to edge the beds. If that’s okay with you?”

  “More than okay. Ella won’t need a nap for a while, so that should work.”

  “When we get back I’d like to rototill the garden.”

  “I don’t think the tiller works.” Evangeline gave Ella a piece of fruit. “I don’t think anyone’s used it since...since my father and I left.”

  “I had it running a couple of nights ago,” Denny said, wiping some crumbs off his mouth. “Needed a new spark plug, new filters and a good grease job, but that was it.”

  She shook her head. “You constantly amaze me,” she said.

  “I like the sound of that. I haven’t amazed too many people in my life of late.”

  The edge in his voice made her wonder if he was talking about his ex-wife. She took another bite of her sandwich, thinking about what she and Mia had talked about the other night. She had been waiting for the right time. Maybe it was now.

  “I take it you mean Lila?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Her least of all.”

  The harsh tone in his voice almost made her change her mind, but if she and Denny were moving in the direction she thought, she needed to know about his past relationship.

  “Was your marriage very difficult?”

  Denny shot her a frown. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I’m curious. Just trying to find out more about you.”

  Denny gave Ella a piece of cut-up banana Evangeline had put in a bowl for her. Then he sighed. “Lila is a part of my past I prefer not to talk about.”

  “But she’s Ella’s mother.” Evangeline kept her voice quiet. Nonthreatening. Denny’s jaw grew tight and for a moment she regretted bringing up the subject.

  “How did you meet her?” she prompted.

  Denny blew out a sigh and then leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed, his fingers beating out an irregular rhythm on his arm. “We met in a bar. I was in a bad place in my life and not living the way I should.” He stopped there, as if hoping Evangeline would give him an out, but she simply waited. Thankfully Ella was engrossed in trying to smear bananas into her mouth rather than eat them and wasn’t paying attention to either of them.

  “My parents had been dead a few years,” Denny continued, his eyes taking on a far-off look, as if delving into the past he didn’t want to discuss. “I was working myself to the bone trying to keep the ranch going, my sisters and Nate out of trouble and my uncle happy. Wasn’t doing great at any of it, but I knew I couldn’t quit. I would take off in the evenings and weekends to get away from the demands. That’s when I met Lila. She was pretty. She was interested in me. She laughed at my stupid jokes and made me feel important. Special.” He released a harsh laugh. “As if that isn’t the biggest cliché ever.” He stopped there, but Evangeline only gave Ella another piece of banana.

  “Anyhow, we...we got together.” This was followed by another sigh and Evangeline guessed what he meant by his vague phrasing. “Like I said, not a good time in my life. I was not exactly on speaking terms with God.”

  “Because of losing your parents,” she said quietly.

  He nodded. “About three months after we started dating, she told me she was pregnant. So I stepped up to my responsibilities. I married her and moved her out to the ranch. Found out she wasn’t pregnant. She’d o
nly wanted to get married. Thought I was some rich rancher and could provide all the things she wanted. Didn’t take her long to figure out that wasn’t true. She wanted out, but I thought we should keep trying. We tried for five years.”

  He stopped there, his fingers quiet as his eyes took on a dull, sad look. “But she insisted she wanted a divorce. I tried to talk her out of it. I had returned to my faith and had made promises I had to keep. Toward the end we spent a couple of weeks...together. I’m sure that’s when she got pregnant with Ella. Then she left and next thing I knew I was being served with divorce papers. Trouble was, because we’d been married five years she was entitled to a fair amount of support. We agreed to a lump sum but I had to sell the ranch to satisfy the terms of the divorce.”

  Evangeline felt dread shiver through her. “I’m so sorry, Denny. I didn’t know.”

  “How could you?” He released another humorless laugh and put his hand on Ella’s little shoulder. Then he bent over and kissed her golden curls. “But I got Ella out of the deal. So maybe, in the end, God had it all worked out.”

  He gave her a quick look, then away. “So, now that you know the details of my sordid and chaotic past—”

  She was about to reassure him that she didn’t see it as sordid or chaotic at all. In fact she found his devotion to the promises he made touching. Heroic.

  But a loud knocking on the door broke into the moment. The door flew open and she didn’t have an opportunity to formulate her thoughts as the sound of laughter and voices filled the porch.

  “Honey, we’re home!” one of the voices shouted from the porch.

  Female and young, Evangeline thought.

  Ella twisted in her high chair to see who was disturbing her lunch.

  “Olivia? Trista?” Denny called out, getting up from his seat as the door from the porch flew open and two girls burst into the room.

  “Hey, big brother,” the shorter girl greeted, her grin blindingly white against her tanned skin as she dropped her backpack on the floor. She wore khaki shorts, a loose gray shirt over a camo tank top and leather sandals.

  She ran over to him, her long brown hair flying behind her as she threw her arms around him. “Missed you.” She gave him a tight hug and pulled back, brushing his hair back from his face. “And you need a haircut, don’t you think, Trista?”

  The second girl, Trista, was taller, with short blond hair that stuck up in spikes of gelled hair. She was dressed identically except for a T-shirt with a picture of a yellow baby chick on a sandy beach, the words proclaiming that she was one hot chick.

  “Olivia, stop hogging Denny,” Trista said, elbowing her sister aside and planting a noisy kiss on Denny’s cheek, framing his face with her hands. “There. We’re back.”

  “I see that. So when—”

  “So this is the little munchkin,” Olivia interrupted, bending over Ella. Then, as she lifted the little girl out of the high chair, she shot Evangeline a puzzled glance. “And you are?”

  Evangeline suppressed her annoyance at Denny’s sister’s question. As if she was a stranger here when, in fact, it was her father’s house they had just invaded.

  But her manners kicked in and she stood, reaching out a hand in greeting. “I’m Evangeline Arsenau.”

  “Olivia,” the young girl said, holding out one hand, bouncing Ella in her other arm as she started to fuss. “Hey, baby. I’m your auntie,” Olivia said, looking down at the little girl with a huge grin. “And you are perfectly adorable. Don’t you think she looks exactly like Adrianna when she was a baby?” Olivia turned Ella to Trista as if showing off some prize.

  “Oh, man. Yeah.” Trista wrinkled her nose at Ella. “Hey, baby girl. Say hi to your auntie Trista.”

  Evangeline looked from the girls who had taken over the house to Denny, who stood to one side, his hands on his hips, one corner of his mouth tucked between his teeth. He took in a long breath, his shoulders lifting then lowering as he blew out a sigh. “Sorry about this,” he murmured to Evangeline. “I had given up on Olivia.”

  “Oh, never give up on me, big brother,” Olivia protested, looking up from tickling Ella under the chin. “I may be slow but I’m sure.”

  Denny didn’t say anything to that. Instead he shoved one hand through his hair and looked from Olivia to Trista. “Are you girls hungry? Do you need some lunch?”

  “That would be awesome,” Olivia said, plopping down at the table, still holding Ella, who didn’t seem to mind the sudden invasion in her life.

  “Sandwich okay?” Denny asked as he walked over to the kitchen counter.

  Trista nodded then sat beside her sister as Denny tugged the twist tie off the loaf of bread.

  “I can take care of that,” Evangeline said, taking the bag from him, surprised his sisters didn’t offer to help.

  “I don’t mind,” he said. “I’m used to it.”

  She glanced back at the girls then gently took the jar of mayonnaise out of his hand, nudging him with her elbow. “Go visit with your sisters. I’ll make some sandwiches.”

  He hesitated and she was about to nudge him again when he finally stepped back.

  “Trista doesn’t like mayo on her sandwich and Olivia doesn’t like mustard,” he murmured as Evangeline twisted the top off the jar.

  “Duly noted,” she said, giving him a quick grin.

  His lopsided smile created a gentle warmth in her heart. “Thanks, Evangeline. I’m sorry about the deluge. If I had known they were both coming...” He let the sentence drift off as if he wasn’t entirely sure what he would have done in that case.

  Evangeline shot a quick look over her shoulder at the two girls cooing over Ella, laughing as they bounced her up and down. “They seem to be fun-loving girls.”

  “That they are. Again, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Go visit.”

  His hand briefly lingered on her shoulder then he did as she told him, walked back to the table and dropped down in a chair by the girls.

  As Evangeline worked, her attention was drawn by the animated conversation going on behind her. She smiled as she heard them laugh as Olivia and Trista shared stories with their brother about their adventures.

  They talked about Adrianna, their other sister, about friends from back home that Olivia and Trista had run into. With each conversation and shared joke and laugh she felt increasingly edged out.

  When Evangeline set the plate of sandwiches on the table and laid the napkins beside them she got a murmured thank-you from the girls and another apologetic look from Denny as the girls returned to their storytelling.

  She put the bread away, cleaned up the ham and cheese and condiments, then wiped the counter, feeling rather out of place as she finished, not sure what she was supposed to do.

  “Hey, Evangeline, if you want to get back to your own work in town, I’m here now,” Olivia put in as Evangeline rinsed the cloth out and hung it over the sink divider to dry.

  “We were heading to the garden center,” Denny put in as Evangeline returned to the table. “To get some plants to put in the flower bed in the front of the house.”

  Olivia waved his comment off. “She doesn’t look like she’s dressed for that kind of work,” she said, looking at Evangeline’s outfit. “I’m sure you roped her into helping like you always did with us.”

  Olivia turned to Evangeline with a bright smile. “I know I was supposed to come sooner but Trista and I got a week of overtime work and now we’re done for the year. So you don’t need to work here anymore.”

  Though Evangeline was sure Denny had told Olivia this before things had changed between them, she couldn’t stop the flick of hurt Olivia’s words gave her.

  However, to act differently would be to arouse suspicion.

  And Evangeline wasn’t ready to let Denny’s siste
rs wonder what was happening between her and Denny. She wanted to guard her changing feelings. To hold them close. She felt as if bringing them out for other’s scrutiny would diminish them.

  “Then I’ll head back to town,” she said, avoiding Denny’s disappointed look.

  “You don’t have to leave,” he protested.

  “I’ve got a bunch to do, so this works out fine,” she said. She wasn’t lying about that. She had been neglecting some of the more mundane chores in the store of late because she had been spending so much time with Denny and Ella.

  “Will I see you on Sunday?” he asked.

  His question sent expectation coursing through her.

  Her eyes met his. She nodded. “I’ll be in church” was all she would say.

  She turned her attention back to his sisters. “It was lovely meeting you. I hope you have a nice visit with your brother.” She flashed them a quick smile, then hurried out the door before they could ask more questions.

  But as she drove away she felt as if the situation had shifted and she knew Denny’s priorities would change. That was the way it should be, but for a moment she wished his sisters had waited longer before coming.

  * * *

  Denny shoved the spade into the flower bed then held the dirt aside as his sister set the lily root into the ground. After Evangeline had left, Trista had stayed behind to watch Ella while he and Olivia went to the nursery. Though he had been waiting for his sister to come to help, he was unhappy with Olivia’s timing.

  Things were shifting, changing between him and Evangeline, and he wanted to take the time to see where it would go. He didn’t want to rush things.

  His sisters’ presence would definitely put a damper on that particular plan.

  “And that’s the last of them,” Olivia said, resting back on her heels, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the newly planted flower beds. Then she glanced up at Denny as she got to her feet. “This place is looking good already. You look like you’re putting down some of your own roots for a change.”

  “Just trying to take care of the place,” Denny said as he tamped the dirt around the base of the plant.