by Annie Jones
Sam held up both hands, thinking to tell his girls to take it down a notch, and realized too late it looked as if he might just be surrendering to them. He turned to Polly and shouted, “I understand if you don’t—”
“I’d love to say yes, but—” Polly called out at the same time.
She’d love to say yes. To come to his home. Sam glanced over his shoulder at his girls.
“I wouldn’t feel right leaving the dog home alone.” Polly gave the leash a waggle and the puppy did an excited dance at seeing the girls.
“Bring him with you,” the trio squealed in delight at Polly. Followed by three bright, expectant faces focusing on Sam and asking, “Why not?”
Polly in his home. With his girls. And that dog. It was everything that he had been trying to keep from happening. But when all those sets of eyes fixed on him that bright summer day, what could he do?
He was the guy who always moved forward, after all. And having Polly get to know the girls so she could help him guide Caroline wasn’t exactly a detriment. Sam sighed and threw his hands up, this time in actual surrender.
“Why not?” He turned toward Polly and shook his head. “We close the store at five-thirty, and dinner is served about an hour after that. We’d love to have you.”
Chapter Seven
Polly rang the doorbell of the large white-frame farmhouse shortly after six. Then, feeling anxious about the dog and the girls and the man she thought might answer the door any second now, she glanced around. Muffled footsteps thundered toward her from behind the door. Since it was too late to run, she bent, scooped up the dog and clutched him close and whispered, “It’s you and me, pal. Us against Sam’s rules.”
The dog squirmed but didn’t try to get down.
Hayley swung the door open wide. “Hey, Miss B!”
Juliette extended her arm toward the entryway and made a bow. “Please come in.”
Caroline peeked around the door, ending up nose to cold nose with a certain brown-eyed mutt. “Hi, Donut!”
Polly managed a nervous smile and crossed the threshold. A savory aroma drifted into the foyer from the direction of a well-lit doorway to a room clearly filled with laughter and the clatter of dishes. She surveyed the distressed wooden floors, the walls painted in historic hues of sunny-yellow and French-cottage-blue, like something from a magazine. Or a storybook. Or a dream.
The Goodacre girls pressed in close to pet the pup and vie for Polly’s attention. They made Polly’s heart light.
“Hey, girls, at least let Miss Bennett get inside the house before you swarm all over her.” Sam came striding down the hall in jeans, a plaid shirt, untucked, his hair damp as if he’d just cleaned up, wearing socks and with his boots in hand.
Kids. Dog. Laughter. Kitchen. Family. Home. Sam. This wasn’t just any dream. This was Polly’s dream, come true.
If for only the next few hours.
“Hi.” Sam reached her side and settled his empty boots on the floor just inside the doorway.
“Hi.” It wasn’t exactly sizzling conversation.
The girls giggled.
Polly felt self-conscious. Then she remembered the hostess gift she’d tucked in her bag. “Oh, I brought something for you all. Actual tupelo honey brought with me from the South.”
She shifted the dog in her arms to try to get to the heavy mason jar of the rich, sweet honey. The girls all stuck their hands up to try to help her.
Sam stepped in. “If it were winter, I guess I’d offer to take your coat, but seeing as it’s not…may I take your dog?”
Polly laughed and handed off the little guy into Sam’s strong, welcoming arms. The dog promptly slurped Sam’s face.
The girls exploded in another round of giggles.
Polly pressed her lips together to keep from joining them, uncertain if Sam would be irritated, what with his whole no-dog rule and all.
Sam burst out laughing.
The very air around them seemed to ease. Sam set the dog down in the kitchen and directed the girls to set up a bowl of water. Each one wanted to be the one to do it. Max called out a hello to Polly and splashed some olive oil into a pan of vegetables with such style that for a second Polly wondered if she should offer to introduce Sam’s younger brother to her twin sister, the chef.
But before she could do that, Gina came up, wiping her hands on a tea towel and, stealing a peek down at the dog lapping at the water, asked, “So, no response yet?”
Yeah, my first response is that I want to move in here and stay for, oh, just the rest of my life, Polly thought. What she said, though, was, “Huh?”
“To your lost-dog flyers? No responses?”
“Oh, the dog!” Polly laughed under her breath at her own scattered thought process, and shook her head. She reached into her purse and produced the jar of honey and offered it to Gina. “Nope, not a single call.”
Gina took the jar, said a soft thank-you and then showed it to Max.
“Deb Martin, who lives across the street from me, says she’s never seen him around the neighborhood.” Polly looked around the room to find Sam pulling out a chair at the table for her. She moved over and allowed him to scoot the seat in. His hand touched her shoulder as she did. A sweet shiver shimmied down her spine as she forced herself to stay relaxed and finish her thought. “No one seems to know where he came from or where he might belong.”
All three little girls drew in a breath like a choir about to launch into a robust refrain.
Sam gave them a look.
Max slid the lid onto a pot bubbling on the stove and announced dinner would be served soon.
“I can’t wait,” Polly said. “I didn’t realize you were both a carpenter and a chef.”
“Max? He’s a jack-of-all-trades, all right. And a first-class cook,” Sam muttered, going to the sink to wash up after handling the dog and directing the girls to do the same as he singled out Polly’s gaze in the bright, bustling setting. “If by first-class you mean he cooks like he’s had only one lesson.”
“Play nice.” Gina gave Sam’s shoulder a shove before joining Polly at the table. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Brothers! Do you have any?”
“One.” Polly held up one finger, then started to hold up a second to add that she also had one sister but before she could get it out, the girls scrambled, each trying to get a seat beside her.
“Oh, now! All three of you can’t sit next to Miss Bennett.” Gina jumped up to try to separate the triplets from trying to crawl all over each other and into one of the chairs on either side of Polly.
“There’s only room for two,” Sam warned, pulling back the chair to Polly’s left.
“And one of those two is me!” Max slipped deftly into the seat Sam had slid away from the table.
Sam glared at him, then glanced at Polly.
“I guess that means the other one has to be me.” And just like that, Sam took the seat on the other side of Polly. “To keep her safe from you.”
“Brothers!” Gina shook her head and everyone shared a laugh.
Dinner was a charming mix of chaos and calm. Pasta made from locally milled flour, eggs from their own chickens and a sauce brimming with Goodacre-grown tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and scallions in the mix. Gina pushed back from the table first, complimenting Max on the meal and accepting accolades for her contribution, a dessert of peach cobbler with homemade ice cream on top.
“It’s still light out. Can we show Miss Bennett around the farm now, Daddy?” Hayley tossed her napkin onto the table, practically spilling out of her chair.
“Maybe your dad should do those honors. We have dishes to clean up.” Gina stood, raising her own plate as an example of the work awaiting them.
“The farm is your baby, Gin
a. You’ve done so much with it in the last few years. You deserve to show it off.” Sam leaned back and patted his flat stomach, stretched, then gathered his silverware onto his place. “We guys will take care of the dishes tonight.”
“What guys? I cooked. Family rules for meals are ‘He who cooks it, books it.’” Max jerked his thumb over his shoulder. He stood, too, empty-handed, and offered his arm to Polly. “My work is done here. I’d be happy to escort you around the old farmstead, Miss Bennett.”
“First, that’s not a family rule. That’s a Max rule,” Gina picked up Polly’s plate and headed toward the sink. “And we all know…”
“Max doesn’t follow the rules,” Sam said in a low, rumbling voice, his gaze aimed at his brother.
“Why don’t we all pitch in?” Polly pushed her chair back and stood, avoiding Max’s still-offered arm as she reached over to pick up the nearly empty pasta platter on the table. “That way it will get done faster and we can all go take the tour of the farm.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Sam reached for the platter. Their hands brushed and their gazes met in the warmth of the kitchen lit by the fading sun of late summer. “You’re the guest.”
“Yes, I’m the guest.” On one hand she didn’t like being reminded, but on the other, it was probably a good idea. “I believe one of the real family rules around here is that guests get to choose what we do. I choose to help out.”
Faster than Polly could cross the kitchen floor, the girls hopped up and began carrying their own plates and silverware to the sink.
Gina turned on the water.
Sam helped the girls clear the table.
Max directed Polly to where she could find foil and plastic wrap and whatever they needed to pack up the leftovers. They worked with each other like a family.
And it struck her how unlike her own family they were. No racing to see who could finish first or who did the best.
Polly paused for a moment to watch them all and it warmed her heart. This was the kind of family she had always longed for, one that worked as a team, not in competition.
The girls did display a bit of one-upmanship when they started off on the short version of the grand tour a few minutes later.
Max had conceded that because he had already seen the farm, had work to do and didn’t believe he’d get a minute of Polly’s undivided attention, he would stay behind. And Gina decided she should hang around the house to keep the dog company, because they didn’t want to risk a bad interaction with any farm animals. Also she wanted to finish up some laundry so that when they returned, the girls could then get their baths and get to bed on schedule.
Of course, Polly saw right through their excuses and half expected Sam to protest the obvious attempt at setting them up. That he didn’t made Polly cherish this one special night all the more. She drank in the fresh country air and the quaint setting, enjoying it almost as much as the company. She could get used to this sense of peace and quiet.
She shouldn’t. But she could.
That quiet was broken when Hayley wanted the group to go see the chicken she had raised from a hatched egg for 4-H. Juliette wanted to use the open space to show off what she had just learned in ballet class, something called an arabesque. Caroline quietly murmured to Polly that she had named each animal they owned.
“Isn’t there a caution about not naming farm animals that might become meals?” Polly asked Sam out of earshot of the girls as they strolled through a wooden gate with the girls in the lead.
“We don’t eat any of our livestock. We use them for eggs, milk and cheese,” Sam explained. “No judgment on anyone who does. We all like a good burger here, after all.”
Sam moved ahead of the group and swung open a door in the side of a red barn with white trim that looked like a painting from a child’s picture book. “When we were kids, our folks used to raise hogs that ended up as ham and bacon. It’s just not part of what Gina is doing now. Things change. Change is good. I think it’s healthy, don’t you?”
Polly moved ahead of him through the open door.
“Watch me! Watch me! Watch me!” Juliette bounded into the wide pathway between large stalls on either side of the barn.
Polly tried to follow the action but just as she did, another triplet started up.
“My chicken has its own special nest. Over here, Miss Bennett.” Hayley leaped up and down, waving her hand. “Over here.”
Caroline looked around, seeming even more lost and uncertain of her place in the large space with her sisters vying for the spotlight.
“Well, yes, change can be good.” Polly’s chest tightened. How did she get this father to see what she saw? To consider that what worked for him was right for his girls? Who was Polly to talk to him about that, anyway? She glanced over at Caroline gazing off into the rafters while the other girls hurried here and there. She was that sister who didn’t quite fit in, that sometimes felt invisible to her parents, that’s who. “And I’d never tell you that moving on with things is a bad idea—”
“Great, I’m glad you feel the way I do about it.” Sam put his hand on Polly’s back and propelled her forward. “That’s going to make getting things going so much easier.”
“Getting…what…” Polly tried to look back at him even as her feet obeyed his urging her onward.
Straight ahead, Juliette extended one leg out straight. Her knee locked, she raised it high behind her and bent forward. “See, Miss Bennett? My teacher says my arabesque is the best in my class.”
Hayley ran for a large wire cage housing a fat black-and-white hen and started clucking at the bird. “This is my chicken. Also be careful where you walk because the barn cat is gonna have babies and she’s around here somewhere.”
“Daddy says we can’t name the kittens, though, because those have to find new homes.” Caroline seemed buffeted about in the shuffle of it all.
Polly knew just how that felt. She wanted to throw her hands up and ask everyone to just be still for a moment so she could think. Her head was virtually spinning.
Or maybe it wasn’t virtual.
Juliette did a turn.
Hayley moved in a circle around her chicken’s cage.
Sam snagged Polly by the elbow and turned her around to face him. “I need your help with Caroline.”
In that moment, his humble request, the caring in his voice and the sincerity in his eyes quieted the chaos around them. If she had taken the time to let her heart say a prayer about the situation earlier, it would have been for this, for Sam to invite her into his life and the lives of his girls in just this way.
“We have got to get Caroline involved in some things apart from her sisters. That’s where you come in.”
Where she came in and where she wanted to get off the merry-go-round. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that if she had prayed for anything it should have been for how best to do God’s will.
In the distance Gina’s voice called out that it was time for the girls to come in and take their baths.
Sam motioned for the girls to do as their aunt asked.
“Walk us up to the house, Miss Bennett.” Juliette and Hayley rushed up to Polly, each taking her hand and tugging her off to the door again.
Sam swept Caroline up easily in his strong arms and tagged along behind them.
“What were you and Miss Bennett talking about, Daddy?” Caroline asked loudly enough for Polly to hear although the other girls did not seem to notice.
“I was just letting her know that we have big plans for you this school year, sweetie. Right, Miss Bennett? You with me on that?”
With him? Polly’s heart pounded. All she wanted to do was run away right now. She needed some perspective, which she couldn’t get surrounded by these girls or that man carrying his dau
ghter on the pathway of their sweet farm home.
She put up her hand. “This is something we should talk about later, don’t you think?”
“I’ll look forward to it,” Sam said quietly but with a new energy in his step. Clearly the man thought he had formed an ally in pushing his child to fit the ideal he had formed for his family.
Polly’s heart sank and when she saw her little lost dog bouncing down the porch steps at the sight of her, she couldn’t help but wonder if he truly was her best and maybe only true friend in Baconburg.
Sam watched the girls make their way up the porch steps, each of them taking a moment to pet and coo over the animal Polly Bennett had brought with her for the evening. The dog lapped at their little hands, making them squeal with delight. Juliette tried to hug the dog around the neck. Hayley tried to pick him up around the middle. The excited pup whipped around and whapped Caroline in the legs with his tail. More squeals and laughter.
“Don’t… He’s too big for… Put the dog down…” Gina couldn’t finish a thought, and she couldn’t get her hands on any kids or the dog’s collar. It was as if his sister didn’t even know where to begin.
Polly did not have that problem. She dived in without hesitation and scooped up the dog in both arms, lifting him out of the girls’ grasping fingers but still holding him so that they could stroke his paws and ears. It was the perfect solution.
Sam leaned back against the porch rail to savor the image for a moment. He’d had his reservations about Polly coming to his home, but when he couldn’t avoid it, he didn’t dwell on the problems it presented. He pressed on and made the best of the situation. Now he had Polly on his side.
He looked at her and their eyes met. Polly on his side? The implications of having this dark-haired woman with the enormous heart anywhere near him made him pause. It went against everything he had worked so hard to create for his girls—a safe situation where they could continue to grow without having to suffer more loss and disappointment.
Polly felt anything but safe to him.
