It did not look much like an old hunting cabin that had been standing empty for years.
As Emily got out of the van, several of Vidalia’s daughters came out the front door, laughing and chattering, all wearing sweaters and hats in deference to the chill of the morning. They spotted her and looked even more cheerful, if that was possible, and they all headed for the van.
“Oh thank goodness you’re here!” Maya said. “You might have better luck making Joey stay still than we’ve had.”
“His brothers just went out for a load of firewood, and the minute they left, he started trying to work!” Kara added.
“Doesn’t know the meaning of ‘no strenuous activity,’” Mel said.
“He did seem to understand when you said stay down or you’d knock him down, though,” Edie put in.
Mel shrugged and laughed. Angel-haired Selene remained quiet, reaching out to help Tilda unbuckle, then scooping her up. “I have an early present for you, Miss Tilda Louise.”
“A present?”
“Um-hm.” She handed her a little box with a ribbon on top.
Emily watched as Tilda opened the box. Her eyes rounded as she pulled on a green ribbon out of the box, and saw a large crystal prism dangling from the end. “It’s a treasure!”
Selene smiled. “If you hang it in your bedroom window, it will make rainbows on your walls whenever the sunshine hits it. And I put some magic in it, too.”
“You did?” Tilda asked, looking up wide eyed.
“Mm-hm. Guaranteed to keep away nightmares and anything nasty.”
“Wow. Thank you….”
“Aunt Selene,” Selene filled in.
Tilda’s smile was huge, and she draped the ribbon around her neck. Not exactly its intended use, but still.
“What a beautiful gift,” Emily said. “Thank you, Selene.”
“You bet.” She took Tilda’s hand. “Let’s go inside and show your dad.” She glanced Emily’s way. “That okay?”
“Sure.” They really had taken to Tilda, this family.
As soon as Tilda was out of earshot, Maya put a hand on Emily’s arm, and said, “We’re really sorry Mom did this to you.”
“She’s so transparent it’s not even funny,” Mel said. “Sticking the three of you out here together.”
“She should teach a class.” Edie glanced toward the cabin with an eye roll. “Vidalia Brand McIntyre’s Meddling 101.”
“So…you’re saying she’s trying to….”
“She thinks you’ll fall madly in love if you just spend some time alone together,” Kara said, hauling a couple of suitcases out of the back of the van.
“Selene’s no help,” Maya put in. “Keeps saying it’s fate.” She glanced at Emily. “She’s a Wiccan, you know.”
“Joey mentioned it.”
“You can change your mind about staying here and head right back to Ida Mae’s. No one would blame you,” Edie told her.
They all seemed to go silent then, looking at her, waiting. She shrugged. “I think Tilda is going to love being with both of her parents for Christmas. I just…I don’t want her to get her hopes up that this will be… you know…”
“Permanent,” Edie said, sighing.
Maya nodded. “I tried to tell Mom that. None of us want Tilda to be hurt. None of us.”
“She’s why the entire Texas branch of the family is coming up for Christmas, you know,” Kara said. “It’s all about your little girl. They want to help.”
“That’s…kind of amazing.” Emily’s voice had gone whispery.
“It’s what our family’s about. Always has been,” Mel said.
“Tilda’s impossible not to love. Mom sent pics, told them about her…condition.” Maya was smiling, despite the topic. “They called a family meeting, dropped all their holiday plans and started packing.”
“You have to love our family,” Kara said, grabbing the last bag from the back of the van, then heading into the cabin.
“Yeah,” Emily whispered, watching her go. “Yeah, you kind of do.”
#
Joey had arrived to a damp, chilly, empty cabin with a slightly musty aroma to it. But four hours later, it had been completely transformed. The main section of the place was an open floor plan with the kitchen on one side, taking up a little less than half the space, and a living room on the other side, taking up the rest. A countertop island marked the border between the two. There were two bedrooms, kitty-corner from each other with a bathroom in between.
By the time the women of his family had finished “doing their thing,” the place had been transformed into a cozy country cabin with checkered curtains in the kitchen windows and frilly green ones everywhere else. A love seat, rocking chair, and coffee table were positioned on a big throw rug in the living room, facing a TV set. No cable or dish, but there was a DVD player and a stack of holiday movies donated by Maya. The beds were old, but the mattresses, pillows and bedding were brand new. His father had money and he wasn’t shy about spending it. The kitchen was fully stocked. The old fridge had been cleaned until it sparkled, and then filled with groceries. Ditto the cupboards. There was at least a face cord of firewood stacked outside, just to the left of the front door, and a huge supply of it had been carried in to fill the log holder beside the fireplace, which was snapping and crackling like crazy.
At long last, everyone had left. There was a casserole warming in the oven, alongside cinnamon rolls that filled the place with their delicious aroma. A pot full of coffee was calling his name.
Emily sat on the love seat, Tilda snuggled up in her lap. Joey was tending to dinner because no one had let him do much of anything else all day, and he was done with that. Emily had worked like a trooper and was probably exhausted. Her head was tilted to one side, her eyes closed. Tilda’s head rested on her shoulder, and her eyes were closed, too.
Silently, he tugged his phone out of his pocket, lifted it, and took a picture of them. A pair of exhausted angels, getting some well-deserved rest after a busy day.
The shutter click sound effect served no other purpose than to wake them up. He pocketed the phone and said, “Dinner is served.”
“Smells delicious. But you should’ve let me,” Emily said.
“It wasn’t the least bit strenuous. And thanks to my family, it was the first productive thing I’ve been allowed to do today. My ego needed it.”
She smiled. “They’re something, your family.”
“Hate to break it to you, Em, but they’re your family, too. As Tilda’s mommy, you’re in.”
She grinned. “That’s gonna take some getting used to for an only child with no family at all.”
“You um…” He lowered his eyes, straightened some silverware on the table that wasn’t crooked. “You planning to stick around long enough to do that? Get used to it?”
She held his eyes for a second, then looked away. “Tilda, you want to eat some dinner?”
“I wanna get a Christmas tree.”
“It’s been a long day, honey. Maybe we can get the tree tomorrow.”
Her face twisted up the way it did when she was about to start crying. Her bottom lip thrust out, and her eyes teared up. “But I want a Christmas tree!”
“Okay, okay, cool, we’ve got this,” Joey said quickly. “Let’s eat dinner, and then we’ll get a tree. All right? The place in town is open for another…” he looked at his phone, and saw the picture he’d snapped of the two of them. His heart turned to mush.
“You can’t say yes to everything she asks for Joey,” Emily said. “Just because she cries….”
“Aw, come on,” he said. “I want a Christmas tree, too.” He pointed to the big picture window along the front of the living room. “I had them leave that spot empty just so we could fit our tree there. And Gramma V left us a tree stand and a box full of decorations. What do you think, Tilda? Good spot?”
“Perfect,” Tilda replied.
Emily looked from one of them to the other, then shrugged and
said, “I’m not gonna stand a chance against the two of you, am I?”
Joey looked at Tilda and winked. Tilda’s giggle was as evil as a three-year-old angel could manage.
Chapter Twelve
They chose a tree from the pre-cut ones at the lot in the village. It was across from the big circular park that split Main Street like a boulder splits a river. Many of Big Falls’ most popular businesses were situated on one side of that split or the other, and every year, a local tree farmer set up his Christmas tree stand in the same spot.
Joey would’ve preferred to take Tilda out to a cut-your-own place, but Emily said this was better. Faster, easier, and less…strenuous. If he heard that word one more time….
Still, Tilda picked the fattest evergreen on the lot, and the proprietor had his son load it for them, because everyone in town knew Joey was supposed to be taking it easy.
An hour later, they were back at the cabin.
“It’s beautiful,” Tilda said, standing back and admiring it. Then she gasped and raced into the bedroom where all her stuff had been unpacked, and came back with the shoe ornament she’d made out at Holiday Ranch. Carefully, reverently, she placed it on a branch.
Joey got tears in his eyes. “That’s perfect, sweetie,” he said.
“We need lights.” Tilda said. But she smiled at her treasure, pushing it so it swung back and forth on its branch, and then she yawned.
“I think there are some in the box of decorations from Grandma V,” Emily said.
“And if there aren’t enough,” Joey added, “then we’ll go Christmas shopping tomorrow and get as many lights as you want.”
“Okay.” Then she turned to him and held up her arms. “It’s bedtime now. Will you tell me a story?”
He picked her up. “You bet I will. But first, you’ve gotta put on your jammies and brush those pearly whites.” He sent Emily a look, and she nodded her approval. Yes, he was getting this right. And it looked like she was going to let him have this bedtime routine all to himself.
“Okay, Daddy,” Tilda said, and he carried her into the bedroom where Emily had put her things.
While he was tucking her in, Emily came in for a few minutes to say goodnight to Tilda. She gave her a big loving hug and kissed her all over her beautiful little face, and then she left them alone again. She was willingly giving him some space to be a daddy, and he was grateful.
There were approximately a dozen story books to choose from. Tilda said she had lots more at home, but had brought only her very favorites.
He read Dr. Seuss’s Terrible Tongue Twisters to her, and she laughed at him every time he messed up. They tried to say the silly rhymes together, and after a while, her eyes started falling closed despite her best efforts to keep them open.
He read a little more, but slower, softer, pausing in between pages for long deep breaths. And within a few minutes, Tilda was sound asleep.
Joey closed the book and set it on the rustic nightstand that was made from birch logs, just like the beds and dressers in both bedrooms. And then he sat there looking at her for a long moment as she lay sound asleep on the bed.
It was kind of amazing, how thoroughly his life had changed in just a matter of days. He was in love again. He was only just realizing he'd never quite fallen out of love with Emily. And now that love was multiplied by infinity, because Tilda was a part of it too.
He’d talked to his cousin Sophie at length while she’d been stitching up his head at the clinic. She said she should have the rest of the test results within another day or two, but she hadn’t sounded all that optimistic about finding a match. All of the Texas Brands would be getting tested, too. Sophie was opening the clinic to make room for them all to come in for blood draws, despite it being a holiday weekend.
Day after tomorrow was Christmas Eve, he realized. And with all that had happened, he hadn’t yet finished his shopping. He needed a gift for Emily. He had something in mind, but he’d have to get it from his mother in Texas before the big day. He’d purchased approximately a pickup truckload of presents for Tilda, including the most realistic baby doll to be found, and a firetruck pedal car. Wade Armstrong, Edie’s husband, had that at his shop and was installing a siren. Realistic but quieter, he’d said.
Joe tucked the covers carefully around his little girl and then rose and walked softly out of the bedroom. Emily was by the fireplace, adding another log. She dropped it carefully, and a shower of sparks hissed and flew up the chimney. Then she replaced the screen and stood there staring at the flames, her back to him, strawberry blond curls hanging down her clingy green sweater.
“This was a good idea,” he said.
She looked back at him. “You think?”
“I do.” He pulled the bedroom door partly closed.
“I do, too. I think it’s good…for Tilda.”
He nodded. “And maybe for us, too.”
She closed her eyes. “Frankly, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out why you don’t hate me after all I’ve done to you.”
“I could never hate you. I’ve been angry, yeah. But I’ve never hated you, Emily. I’ve pretty much been stupid in love with you since the day we first met.”
“We were barely out of diapers the day we first met,” she said.
“And it was over for me.” He pressed a hand to his chest, where his heart was pounding pretty solidly. “I’ve been bleeding since you left me, Em. And that’s nothing but the truth.” He moved up behind her, slid a hand over her shoulder.
She tipped her head sideways, brushed her cheek across his hand. “We haven’t even been in the same state for years, Joey. We’re different people—”
“I know that. And I know there’s no guarantee we’re still…”
“Compatible?” She tipped her head back against his chest.
“I don’t even know what that means. I don’t think it’s even a real thing. We’re humans, not machines. We’re…pliable.”
“Mutable.” She turned then, looked up at him. “We can choose to make it work, is that what you mean?”
“That’s what my sister Selene would say. Did say, matter of fact.”
“You…discussed me with her?”
He nodded. “She knows things. I can’t explain it.”
“And what does she know about us?” she asked. She was looking up at him with those big blue eyes wide open and sparkling like ocean water over a white sand bottom.
“She says it’s destiny. She says we came together so early in life because we just plain couldn’t wait. That we’re soulmates. And that there’s no use fighting it.”
Emily blinked rapidly.
“She and her um…group…did a healing ritual for Tilda the other night. She asked permission and I gave it. I hope that’s okay with you.”
She nodded. “Vidalia’s prayer group has been doing something similar. I haven’t believed in anything for a long time, but I guess it’s good to cover all the bases.” A little smile, a little hope in her eyes.
“We should be together, Emily. We should choose to make it work for our daughter.” For whatever time we have with her, he thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t have to.
She looked at his lips, and then into his eyes. “You’re still the best kisser in existence,” she whispered.
He was smiling when he kissed her, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up onto her toes against his chest. She nibbled on his lower lip, and he stumbled them toward the second bedroom and through its door. They fell onto the bed together, a tangle of limbs and lips and hands eagerly trying to remove clothing. Their own, each other’s. And somehow in the chaos, they wound up naked, and she was pressed against him, every inch of them touching. His chest pressed against her breasts, and her hands rand up and down his back. His hairy calfs moved slow against her smooth ones, and she shivered when he caressed her neck with his bristly cheek. She threw a pillow at the door to push it closed without even breaking their kiss.
He pau
sed for a second, right there, and lifted his head a little so he could look at her. And he thought what a gift it was that she’d come back to him and about how he’d never felt for any other girl the way he’d felt for Emily. Not from day one, and not even since she’d run away.
She bit his lip a little harder than before to get his attention, and then smiling, she clutched his hips, and pulled him to her. And Joey McIntyre’s thoughts came to a grinding halt, because he went to heaven for a little while.
#
Emily was asleep, all wrapped up in Joey’s arms, her head on his chest, when she heard Tilda coughing.
She came awake immediately, as only moms can do, and was on her feet and dressed in about three seconds.
The bed rustled as she opened the door, and Joey muttered “Whuz-wrong?”
“She’s coughing.” Emily hurried past the Christmas tree, and noticed the whole house smelled of pine as she headed into Tilda’s room. She had kicked off all her covers and was curled up and hugging herself as if she were freezing. “Okay Tilda baby, it’s okay. Mamma’s here.” Emily got onto the bed and gathered her close, holding her, touching her face. “She’s burning up,” she said, looking back.
Joey was in the doorway pulling a shirt on. He already had his cellphone in his hand. “I’m calling Sophie.”
Emily met his eyes and saw a mirror of everything she was feeling. Dread. Horror. Fear.
“Come on, baby, come on.” Emily gathered Tilda up and carried her into the bathroom.
Joey was right behind her. “Sophie? Yeah, sorry to wake you. Tilda’s coughing and has a high fever.
“Turn on the tub, Joey. Make the water cool,” Emily said.
He leaned over, depressed the stopper, cranked the taps, and held one hand under the flow. “Sophie just said the same thing.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and hit the speaker button. Then he set it on the edge of the sink and returned to the tub. “How cool?”
“Not too cold,” Sophie said through the phone. “We don’t want to shock her, just bring her temperature down. The water should be cool to the touch, but not cold. Comfortable swimming temperature.”
Oklahoma Starshine Page 16
