Be My Neat-Heart

by Baer, Judy

  “It seemed like she smiled a little more each time Ben came,” Geneva added.

  “And today, when Ben was about to leave and went to eat the candy bar, she opened her eyes and said, ‘No!’”

  “I walked in just about time this happened,” Ethan said, picking up the story. “And that’s when I called you and told you to get yourself over here.”

  Jared sagged in his chair. “And because it was so noisy in the background and I didn’t hear all you said, I thought something terrible had happened and she had died.”

  Ethan looked anguished at the thought. “I’m so sorry, buddy. Everyone was talking and running in and out. I never dreamed you didn’t hear all I said.”

  “Well, it turned out all right. Better I suffer a little than Molly.” He was still willing to take the pain for the people he loved.

  Ethan looked relieved.

  “Now what?” Jared asked. “Does she hop out of bed and everything goes back to normal?”

  “Hardly,” his mother said. “But if, as the doctors think, her mind is good, they’ll start her on physical therapy to help her get her strength back. They won’t give us any estimates on how long it might take, but they believe that we will have our Molly back.” And Geneva, relieved of the strain and fear that had been weighing on her, began to sob.

  It was after eight when Jared finally dropped me off at my place. We were both wrung out, having been dragged through a knothole on an emotional toothpick. But the world seemed brighter, the colors more vivid, the birds louder and our hearts were bursting with relief and gratitude.

  He brushed his index finger across my cheek. The movement seemed to cost him the last of his energy. “Shall I stop by for you tomorrow? Now that I know Molly is safe, I need to try to pick up the pieces of her business. She’ll have me fired if she knows how lax I’ve been.”

  “But with good reason,” I reminded him gently. “It’s time for you to stop overprotecting her and bailing her out, Jared. Molly’s a survivor, we all know that for sure now. If I know anything at all about your sister, it’s that she’ll come back from this charging straight ahead, tackling whatever comes in her way.”

  “I wish I were so brave,” he murmured.

  “You are. You’ve carried an impossible burden ever since you were eight years old, a misguided commission from your grandfather. You’ve been trying to do God’s work for Him where Molly is concerned. He just showed us He can handle her on His own.”

  “Touché,” he admitted. A slow smile spread across his handsome features. “But if Molly’s handled, what am I going to do with my time? Who will I take care of…and love?”

  I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll help you think of someone.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Once she began to emerge from the coma, Molly’s functionality increased and she progressed rapidly in therapy and her recovery. She insisted on going home as soon as possible.

  “Hiya, sis,” Jared greeted her as we walked into her living room. He bent to give her a kiss on the cheek before he spied her visitor. “You? Here again? Is there something we should know about the two of you?” The picture Aunt Gertie had taken was sitting on the bedside table. Ironically, Molly was the only one who’d recognized immediately what it was.

  “Is this guy giving you any trouble?” he asked his sister. “You want me to punch his lights out?”

  Molly grinned and grabbed Ben’s hand as if to protect him. “Mine,” she said firmly. “Leave him alone.”

  “Geneva had an appointment,” Ben explained. “I’m filling in.”

  “You seem to be here ‘filling in’ here all day long. What do we hire caregivers for, anyway?” Jared asked, grinning. “Don’t you have work to do?”

  Ben pointed to a bunch of dreary-looking books and ring binders. “I brought it with me.”

  It seems that Molly, in her semiconscious state, actually had been aware of much of the conversation around her in the hospital. For whatever reason, it was Ben’s voice that had come through most loud and clear.

  It still seemed to be the one getting her attention.

  When Ben and Jared disappeared into the kitchen to see what was in the refrigerator, I sat down beside Molly and took her hand in mine.

  “How are you doing today?”

  “Good. The doctor says I’m amazing.” Her words were slower and more studied now and she didn’t…couldn’t…waste time in idle chatter.

  “I’ve always said that.” I glanced over my shoulder toward the kitchen. “What’s going on here? Anything I should know about?”

  Her eyes glazed with tears. Her emotions are nearer the surface these days, as well. “I think I love him.”

  Of all the answers I’d been expecting, it hadn’t been that.

  “You haven’t known him very long.” And most of the time you were unconscious.

  “I know him. I heard him.”

  Ben’s voice is distinct and musical and to Molly he’d been a Pied Piper, luring her back to the land of the living.

  “Are you telling me that you and Ben are an item?”

  The weight she’d lost after the accident had left attractive hollows in her cheeks which highlighted her excellent bone structure. She beamed at me. “We’re in love.”

  “In love? You and Ben? How…what…?”

  “I already feel as if I know him quite well, Sammi. He talked to me for hours about his family, The Timer, quantum physics…”

  “And he knows you through your family and friends.” Put that way, it made sense.

  Jared sauntered into the living room looking relaxed and happy. That man is so handsome that it should be illegal.

  “Ben went to the grocery store,” he told Molly. “He says he knows exactly what you like.”

  Hmmm. If Ben already knows Molly’s likes and dislikes… “Jared, what are my favorite foods?”

  He looked at me blankly. “Is this a test?”

  “You could call it that. Ben knows Molly’s favorites, I thought you might know mine.” I struggled not to add “or else.”

  Abruptly I was sorry I’d started the conversation. What if he didn’t have a clue? I’d set myself up to be hurt and insulted.

  It took forever for him to answer. When he did, my shoulders sagged in relief.

  “Oreos, hot cocoa, chocolate bars, anything Godiva, Cocoa Puffs in chocolate milk, fudge cake, chocolate chip cookies and pretty much anything else that has chocolate in it. You have a sweet tooth the size of New York City, never gain a pound and women everywhere would give anything for your metabolism. You also like steak, lobster, clams, shrimp, pork chops, mashed potatoes, burgers and fries. In fact, you just love food except for rutabaga, smelly cheese, veal, lamb, wild game and tomato aspic. And you could put a man in the poor house with an appetite like yours.”

  He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Fortunately, I’m not just any man and I am definitely not poor.”

  Molly clapped as the color rose in my cheeks.

  Knowing he’d made big points with me, Jared continued as if we’d never had this little digression. “Now, what were you talking about when I walked into the room?”

  “Molly’s in love,” I blurted.

  He looked at her doubtfully. “When did you have time to fall in love? You’ve been unconscious.”

  “Not exactly,” I corrected. “Tell him, Molly.”

  And she did.

  When Ben returned with the groceries, Jared greeted him with a slap on the back that made Ben nearly dropped the food sacks. I rescued the groceries and announced that Jared and I would cook lunch while he sat with Molly.

  “Can you believe it’s true?” Jared puzzled as he cut fresh fruit onto a plate. “Ben and Molly, head over heels in love? Maybe there’s a medical explanation for what’s happened to her. She seems so sure….”

  “A medical explanation for love? Come on!”

  “I suppose I shouldn’t think I know what goes on in Molly’s mind now, e
ither,” he said with a sigh. “I had no clue before the accident, and now… Maybe Ben is the best thing that’s ever happened to my sister.”

  I started spreading butter on thick slabs of bread and piling them with turkey. “You heard what she said. Her disorganization doesn’t bother him a bit. He thinks it’s charming.”

  Jared shuddered. “Ben must have had a clunk on his head, too.”

  When we brought the food to them, they were holding hands and staring at each other with goofy grins on their faces.

  “So I hear you think Molly’s disorganization is charming, huh, Ben?” Jared said bluntly. “Do you really know what you’re getting into?”

  I tried to elbow him in the side and to quiet him but Jared dodged me with the agility of a wide receiver.

  “That’s right, Jared,” Molly said complacently. “You don’t have to worry about my messes anymore because you’re marrying Sammi, not me.”

  I tensed. How would Jared respond to that?

  “I am, am I?” His tone was carefully bland and noncommittal.

  “Jared,” Molly said patiently as she put her sandwich to her lips. “Don’t be an idiot and mess this up. I don’t want any sister-in-law at all if I can’t have Sammi.”

  Where’s a water tank to cool my flaming cheeks in when I really need it?

  I decided to keep my mouth shut as we drove away from Molly’s. Jared had grown quiet after her startling statement and it worried me. Had I been composing a fairy tale about us while he’d been inventing an entirely different ending to our story?

  I’d thrown my policy of “better safe than sorry” out the window and look where it had gotten me. In mortal danger of a broken heart.

  I was so busy beating myself up for being a fool that I didn’t realize at first that he’d driven to Minnehaha Falls rather than my house.

  I love the falls. There are shelters and picnic tables nearby and almost invariably, there is a wedding party or two having their pictures taken with the falls in the background.

  In fact, a bride and groom and their attendants were just piling into limousines when we arrived.

  Brides are much younger these days, I’ve noticed. This one looked as though she were barely pushing twelve years old. Or is that what happens when one reaches thirty? Anyone younger begins to look like a toddler playing dress-up.

  One of the groomsmen brushed by me on his way to the car and a question bubbled up inside me. I couldn’t help myself. It just came out.

  “Excuse me, but how old are the bride and groom?”

  He looked at me strangely but he answered politely enough. “They just graduated from college. They’re twenty-two and twenty-three.”

  “Oh. Thank you.”

  So they were of legal age. It was me who was getting toward the age when it shouldn’t be legal to be single.

  “What’s wrong? You look as if you just had bad news.” Jared looked down into my eyes, concerned. “Don’t you like it here?”

  “I love it. I’m having a minicrisis. Do you know how young that couple in the limo looks?”

  “They’re in their early twenties, I imagine.”

  So what does that make me? Grandma Moses?

  Wishing I’d had a walker or a cane to stagger to the falls with, I gloomily took Jared’s hand and followed him to the large stones where we could sit and look down on the water. I felt a spray of mist on my face as the wind shifted, and was transported back to all the times I’d visited here as a child…so long ago…in the dark ages…when dinosaurs roamed the earth…and I was young.

  “What on earth is bugging you, Sammi?” Jared put his finger beneath my chin and lifted it, forcing me to look at him.

  “It’s just dumb. Never mind.”

  “I’ve learned that nothing is ever ‘dumb’ with you. I’m willing to sit here all day until you’re ready to talk.”

  Sitting here all day didn’t sound like a bad idea, but I’m not built to remain quiet for long. Emotions and opinions don’t easily stay unspoken.

  “Molly and Ben—in love! And those children in the limousines—they should still have curfews! What’s happening to this world? It’s going so fast. My life is going so fast.”

  “Getting old quickly, are you?”

  That was not the question I wanted him to ask.

  “So are you,” I retorted. “And what are we going to do about it?”

  “There isn’t much we can ‘do’ about it.”

  “So you’re just going to sit placidly around getting old?”

  “I take it this isn’t exactly about age, is it?”

  I wish he’d quit smiling at me like I was some big form of entertainment for him. “Of course it is…not.”

  “And if we could do something about how quickly time flies, what would it be?”

  Oh great. Now he’s a philosopher.

  “I don’t know. Make it the best time. Not waste it.” Not sit around on rocks and wish for something to happen.

  “And how would that be?”

  I felt myself getting sucked in to his questions. “Have fun? Laugh? Worship? Eat chocolate?”

  “What else?”

  “I’d ski, I suppose. And travel. And surround myself with friends and family. My parents and brothers, of course. And Aunt Gertie and her husband, Arthur. Wendy, Ben and Molly.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Ideally, children, I suppose. And a husband. And more pets. A pot-bellied pig or a miniature goat.”

  Jared winced. “A husband and a miniature goat. I see. Where would you get the goat?”

  If he was trying to distract me, it was working.

  “The woman who runs the pet store I go to, Norah’s Ark, has connections. She probably knows of three or four goats right now that need good homes.”

  “So the goat is no problem?”

  “Not really. Other than I’d need a bigger lawn. Maybe I’d have to buy a bigger house.”

  “And what about the husband? Where do you go for one of those?”

  I snorted—not ladylike, but effective at showing distain. “I’d probably have to advertise in the newspaper.” Husband wanted to father children and care for goat.

  Suddenly Jared’s arm was close around me and I was tucked neatly into his chest and couldn’t squirm away. His breath warmed my cheek and I could see every fleck of violet in those blue eyes of his.

  “So where would I go to apply for the job? Of goat keeper and husband, I mean.”

  “Well, since I have a small yard, I don’t need a goat quite yet….”

  “And a husband?”

  My pulse was racing and the heat of his hand at my waist seared my skin.

  “I think I’d need him before I got the goat and the children.”

  “I see. Do you have an application form I could fill out? I don’t have any references since I’ve never been married, but maybe my mother and my sister could write up a little something about my sterling character.”

  “I don’t need references,” I murmured, the roar of the falls and of my heart pounding in my ears. “But the job requirements include being a good kisser. Are you up to that?”

  “May I audition right now?” His head tipped forward toward mine.

  “I have the time, I guess.”

  “Good,” he whispered, and gave the best audition of his life.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  After seeing each other for several months, Molly and Ben decided to follow us to the altar.

  My mother was a little confused at first. She couldn’t get it out of her mind that I should be marrying Ben instead of Jared.

  “But you’ve known Ben for five years, darling. You’ve known Jared for less than a year. That’s not like you. When did you start throwing caution to the wind?”

  It would have taken longer to explain that than it did for Jared and me to fall in love. Let’s face it, I’m not like me anymore. I’m better.

  God has worked absolute miracles in my life and in those of the rest of the weddi
ng party. Jared is free, for the first time in nearly thirty years, from feeling that he needs to protect Molly from herself. Molly is alive, which is miracle enough. And Ben has found a soul mate. I suppose this wasn’t one of God’s most complicated situations, but it was plenty complex for us. Only He could have sorted it out.

  Aunt Gertie and Arthur came to our wedding, of course. After the wedding, Aunt Gertie, a cheek pincher, grabbed Jared by the face and told him that if I wasn’t going to marry Ben, then he was definitely the next best choice. It’s interesting that the only two people who didn’t assume Ben and I would marry one day were Ben and I.

  Aunt Gertie forgave us both, I know. She brought us matching gifts, a wedding present for Jared and me, an engagement gift for Ben and Molly. Now Jared and I and Molly and Ben will each have a chair in the shape of a high-heeled shoe for our living rooms. Ours is pink and black while Ben and Molly’s is a garish red. Jared had a pretty horrified look on his face at the sight of it until I reminded him of how much Imelda loves shoes. She should have it eaten in no time.

  “Leaving so soon?” Ben asked. “The reception is just getting started.”

  It had actually been in full swing for some hours but Ben, obviously, was having a first-rate time. His new love hadn’t let him out of her sight for hours.

  “It’s nearly midnight,” Jared said. “We’re catching a flight to Hawaii at six a.m. You keep the party going. We’ve already said our goodbyes.” He clapped Ben on the back. “Take care of her for me, will you….” He paused as he caught my warning expression. “That’s right, no more assigning duties. May God take care of both of you. He can handle it.”

  Ben gathered me in his arms and gave me a bear hug. “It’s perfect, Sammi, soon we’ll be in-laws and you’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

  I squeezed back a tear. “Nor will I ever want to.”

  We arrived at the door to my house where Jared swept me off my feet and carried me across the threshold. Then he set me down and kissed me soundly until the tips of my toes started to tingle.

  “Here we are, Mrs. Hamilton. Home together at last.” He looked around. “It’s awfully quiet in here. What do you think they’re up to?”