Family Tree

by Carol Grace

  Brandon pulled him into the house, lifted the boy’s head and looked at his face. His eyes were closed and he was breathing unevenly. “Dylan,” he said, cradling his head with his hands. “Are you okay?”

  Dylan moaned. “Dad?” he said.

  Brandon’s heart contracted. “No, it’s me, Brandon.”

  “Where’s my dad?” he mumbled.

  How was he supposed to answer that one? How was he supposed to tell him once again his dad wasn’t coming back.

  Brandon pulled Dylan’s wet shirt off his back and took his own off, too. Then he held the boy tight against him, warming him with his body, talking to him, telling him everything was going to be all right. That the men were diverting the stream, saving the ranch and in the morning everything would be okay. Back to normal. He didn’t say it, but that didn’t include the return of his father.

  Brandon reached for his cell phone and called the bed-and-breakfast. His battery was almost dead, her voice was faint, but when Laura answered he told her Dylan was safe in the tree house with him. He thought she heard him, but he wasn’t sure. He shifted so Dylan’s head was resting on his shoulder and they both drifted into an uneasy sleep.

  When the sun rose over the mountains, everything was far from normal. There was water standing everywhere. But it was only a few feet deep now. Debris carried from the mountains studded the landscape. From their perch Brandon surveyed the disaster. The house was still there. He could see water lapping at the front steps and he heard a voice in the distance. A very familiar voice. A worried voice.

  “Dylan,” he said, gently shaking the boy. “Wake up. I think your mom is here.”

  Dylan opened his eyes and looked at Brandon.

  “You came and got me,” he said, his eyes wide. “You saved me. I knew you would.”

  Brandon’s heart sank. The boy was confused. He thought he was his father.

  “It’s me, Brandon,” he said.

  “I know. We spent the night in the tree house. I always wanted to do that. You know what? I dreamed you were my dad. That’s funny, isn’t it?” He grinned at Brandon as if they’d planned the whole thing as a lark. An overnight in the tree house. As if there hadn’t been a storm, as if he hadn’t almost been swept away by rising water. Ah, the resilience of youth.

  Dylan looked around, one eye bloodshot, the other swollen. “Hey, you finished the tree house.”

  Brandon nodded. “Do you like it?”

  Dylan ran his hand over the smooth boards. “Cool,” he said. And Brandon knew he was going to be just fine.

  LAURA WADED through the water to the tree house, her heart pounding. If Brandon hadn’t called her, she would have been there last night, hell or high water. But he said they were okay. At least that’s what she thought he said. Maybe it was interference. Or wishful thinking. In any case she’d notified the crew not to take any more risks.

  “Dylan,” she shouted.

  When he leaned over the edge, his face was grimy and one eye was swollen half-shut. But he grinned at her and she was faint with relief.

  “Hi, Mom. I spent the night in my tree house.”

  “Yes,” she said weakly. “How was it?”

  “Next time we’re gonna bring our sleeping bags, aren’t we, Brandon?”

  Oh, no, she thought. This time he’d transferred his allegiance from his dad to Brandon. An almost equally unattainable father figure. Now she’d have to start all over again. You can’t go to the ranch. Except when you’re invited. We’ll have to move the tree house to… Where would they move it? Well, for now her son was safe, and so was Brandon. They looked awful, wet and dirty, cuts and bruises everywhere. When they descended from the tree house, she opened her arms.

  She hugged Dylan so fiercely and tightly, he begged for mercy.

  “Let go, Mom.”

  She loosened her grip on him, but continued to hold on to his arms while he answered her questions.

  “I came on my bike. Left it in the field out there.” He waved in the direction of the rugged range land. “It was rainin’ pretty bad.”

  She stared at him. He had no idea how worried she’d been. She still didn’t know why he’d left town and gone there in the first place. That could wait. She didn’t have the heart to scold him. Finally he wriggled out of her grasp and ran off to survey the damage to the ranch.

  Brandon was waiting. She hugged him tightly and he, unlike Dylan, seemed willing to stay in her arms forever. He held her tight, her breasts pressed against his chest as if she were the one who’d been out in the storm all night. As if she’d been in danger instead of him. He tried to tell her about the dam and the reservoir and the men who’d saved the house, but first she wanted to hear how he’d found Dylan and how they’d survived the night.

  When he’d finished talking, he pulled back and looked at her. “Hey, I’ve got to go in and change. I’m getting you wet.”

  She looked down at the damp shirt that clung to her breasts. “I deserve it after what I’ve done to you. Sprayed you with water, invaded your privacy, disrupted your life. I’ll get Dylan and take him home. I’ve got my aunt’s car.”

  He took her arm and they waded their way to the house. They stood there looking at the graceful eaves, the huge picture windows streaked with mud and at the front steps still under water.

  “Thank God it wasn’t washed away,” she said. “I was afraid—”

  “So was I. In fact, I made a deal with God last night. If he spared the house I’d ask you to move back.”

  Her mouth fell open in surprise. “Move back? I can’t afford to move back. It’s your house. I’ve already spent the money you paid me for it.”

  “Move in with me, both of you. The house is too big for me. You need a place to live. I need—I want you to live with me.”

  She gave a ragged sigh. She’d never been so tempted in her life. To come back home. To live with a man she loved. Yes, she admitted it. She’d fallen in love with the one man who’d never love her back. But that was her secret. It had to remain her secret.

  He stood there looking so dirty and so beat and so absolutely awful, and she loved him so terribly. She knew if she moved back, Dylan would have a home and a tree house and a substitute dad. It was an incredibly generous offer and it made perfect sense, but…

  “I can’t do that,” she said.

  “Why not?” he asked, incredulous.

  “Because I—you…I appreciate the offer. I really do, but it just wouldn’t work. Us living together.”

  His mouth tightened. He regarded her with a mixture of sadness and resignation and disbelief.

  “Okay,” he said. “Have it your way. I thought it would work.” He turned and walked up the sagging steps to the house without looking back at her. She’d hurt him. She knew that. But she didn’t know how else to say it. She couldn’t tell him that she couldn’t live with him because she loved him. It wouldn’t make sense to him.

  She found Dylan floating a board in the standing water in front of the barn and took him home. He didn’t want to go. She never dreamed it would be almost as hard to leave the ranch for good this time as it was the first time when they drove away in their truck. But it was. She kept her eyes resolutely on the road ahead instead of on the rearview mirror of her aunt’s car.

  She listened to Dylan talk about Brandon the way he’d once talked about his father. He finally explained why he’d gone back to the ranch. To save the note he’d left for his dad from getting wet and dissolving in the rain. Then he turned the paper over and read the other side out loud.

  “‘If I had a son I’d want him to be just like you.”’

  Laura didn’t speak. Neither did Dylan. For a long time.

  “Does that mean he’d want me to be his son?” he asked, twisting the scrap of paper in his hands.

  “He means he likes you. He thinks you’re a wonderful boy. The kind anyone would want for a son. I’m sure glad you’re my son.”

  “I’d like Brandon for a dad,” he said casually
as if it didn’t really matter. But glancing at his face, she knew it did matter. A lot.

  She took a deep breath. She didn’t know what to say. Her heart hurt like someone had shot an arrow through it. They rode in silence back to their rented apartment.

  BRANDON SPENT the next several days overseeing the cleanup and repairs to the house, the reservoir and the dam. There were workmen there from dawn till dusk every day. He worked alongside them. He needed something to do. Something that didn’t require any thought. Something that was so strenuous, he didn’t have the energy to think about Laura and her refusal to move in with him. Despite the crews that came to work on the ranch every day, he’d never felt more alone. It reminded him of the lesson he’d tried to teach Dylan about the difference between alone and lonely.

  He couldn’t understand why she didn’t think moving back to the ranch wasn’t a great plan. The idea of living with her seemed so right, he had convinced himself she’d agree. But she didn’t. Obviously she didn’t care about him the way he cared for her. She didn’t love him the way he loved her. With every passing day he was more and more certain it was true.

  He didn’t know how or when it started. Maybe it was the first day he’d seen her in her truck with her forehead pressed against the steering wheel. Maybe it was during the fireworks or afterward when he knew that every night would be the Fourth of July if he spent it with her.

  One night after the workers had gone home, and the chill in the air suggested that autumn was in full swing, he took a cardboard box from the closet, opened it and reached for the picture in a gold frame at the bottom of the box.

  There they were. He and Jeanne and their baby, looking so happy, he could hardly stand to look at the photo. He brushed his thumb over the glass.

  “I love you, Jeanne,” he murmured. “You and the baby. I’ll always love you. You know that. For a long time I wished I’d died with you in the crash. I didn’t want to live without you. But now I want to live. Now I have a chance at happiness. One chance. I know I told you I’d never love anyone but you. If you’d lived, I never would have. But I’m in love with a wonderful woman. I don’t think she loves me. Not yet, but I’m hoping. I’m going to ask her to marry me. I think you’d like her. I know you’d want me to be happy. That’s the kind of person you were.”

  He turned the photo over and put it back in the box, then he closed the closet door. And felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  SCOTTY CALLED HIM from the garage a few days after that and said that Laura’s truck was ready to be picked up. Brandon told him to send him the bill and to call Laura and tell her it was fixed.

  After work she drove to the ranch in the truck. He was happy to hear how the motor hummed and how silent the muffler was. When she jumped out of the truck, her eyes blazing and her cheeks on fire, he met her in the driveway.

  “How’re the brakes working?” he asked.

  “Fine. Just fine. Scotty says you’re paying the bill for the truck. I told you I don’t accept charity. How much do I owe you?” She riffled through her handbag looking for her checkbook, he supposed.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” he said.

  She stopped riffling and narrowed her eyes. “What kind of a deal?”

  “You let me buy you a new truck for a wedding present.”

  “A what? I’m not getting married,” she said, looking at him like he’d just escaped from the loony bin.

  “Let’s say you did get married. Would you accept a new truck then?”

  “This is ridiculous,” she said. “Who would I marry?”

  “Me.”

  “You?” Her eyes widened.

  “Who else?” he asked. “We could have the wedding here.” He gestured to the newly laid grass, the hydrangeas and the graceful ferns that lined the walkway. “I told the gardeners it had to be done by next week. But if that’s not soon enough…” Suddenly he didn’t think he could go through with it. She was still standing there staring at him as if in shock. As if she had no idea what he was talking about, and if she did, she wanted no part of it.

  “Never mind,” he said. “I thought if I planned it all out, if I didn’t give you time to think up objections, maybe you’d fall for it. What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m in love with you. And I want to marry you. I don’t expect you to love me. Not yet. Not yet. As you said, you hardly know me, but that’s one way of getting to know someone.”

  “Yes, I guess it is,” she said.

  “You might think I’m doing this to get a ready-made family,” he said. “I confess that’s entered my mind. You know how much I’ve missed Dylan and how much I like him. But I’ve thought it over and I’d take you anyway, even on your own.”

  “Well, that’s—that’s good of you,” she stammered. “But what about your wife, the love of your life, the one woman, the only woman for you?”

  “I know. I said all that. And it was true at one time. But not anymore. I know if I’d been killed in the crash I’d want her to go on with her life and love again. I think she’d feel the same about me.”

  He paused. Why didn’t she say something? Why didn’t she smile or cry or laugh or something? Anything but stand there with her arms folded across her waist looking like she didn’t know whether to run away or run into his arms. He feared the former and he wasn’t betting on the latter.

  “Well,” he said, “I shouldn’t have sprung it on you this way. Obviously you’re going to need some time to think this over. I’ve been waiting days to ask you. It seems like weeks…months. So I guess I can wait five minutes more.” But no longer. Not a second longer. Because if she said no, he didn’t know what he’d do. Life didn’t offer many chances like this. What if he’d said the wrong thing, what if he’d completely misread her.

  After an eternity, she smiled. A beautiful smile that transformed her face. A smile that made his heart rate accelerate. That gave him reason to hope.

  “Could we back up a minute?” Laura asked. Her mind was spinning. She’d heard the words but they hadn’t sunk in. Or maybe she’d just imagined them because she wanted to hear them so very much.

  “Whatever you want. We can back up a minute or a month, just tell me what you want to hear.”

  “That part about…did you say something about being in love with me?” Her face flushed. What if he hadn’t? What if it was just a dream?

  He nodded. His gaze met hers, sure and steady. “It’s true. I don’t know when it happened or how. But it did.” He reached for her then and pulled her close, so close she could feel his heart beating in time to hers. “I can understand if you don’t feel the same,” he said, his lips brushing her ear. “As you know, I’m not the easiest person in the world to get along with. But I’m learning. You and Dylan, you’ve taught me a lot about patience…”

  She turned her head and stopped him with a kiss. She couldn’t believe it. He loved her. He wanted to marry her.

  He put his arms around her and after a deep, profound kiss that sent waves of ecstasy through her body, he pulled back and gave her a slow, sexy smile.

  “Is that a yes?” he asked.

  “Yes, oh, yes.” She flung herself into his arms and he swung her around. “Wait till Dylan hears he’s getting a dad and a tree house.”

  “Wait a minute,” he said, setting her down on the ground. “Are you doing this for Dylan?”

  “I’m doing it for me. And you. And Dylan, yes,” she said. “Are you?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Yes, yes and yes.”

  She kissed him again. “I love you, Brandon. I’m getting you and my house, the tree house and my herb garden.”

  “That’s nothing,” Brandon said. “I’m getting a family and a family tree that goes back four generations. Your great-grandfather found silver here, but I found love. You and Dylan are my treasure.”

  Epilogue

  The whole town came to the wedding. On a brilliant fall day with cool breezes and warm sunshine, Aunt Emily gave the bride away. E
veryone agreed Laura made a beautiful bride in her vintage gown that came from the historical society’s collection of classic dresses. For something new, the bride wore her brilliant diamond wedding ring. Something borrowed was Willa Mae’s garter. Willa Mae had been saving it for her own nuptials which hadn’t yet occurred, but she was working on it. The something blue was—a sprig of lavender from the herb garden, which Laura tucked into her bodice.

  The reception was in the house and on the lawn. Laura basked in the autumn sunshine and in the love she felt surrounding her. From friends, relatives and her new husband.

  “I told you, didn’t I?” Willa Mae said, drawing Laura aside on the veranda. “He was the best-looking man to hit this town. And I’ll tell you something else. I made that whole thing up about my sister and the Fourth of July. I don’t know where you stayed or what you did. I’m not going to ask you.

  But I said to myself, ‘Give them a chance and see what happens.”’

  Laura laughed. “Well, you see what happened.” She opened her arms wide to symbolically embrace the ranch, the guests and life in general.

  “Yes, I knew it. I just knew you two were destined for each other. You just needed a little help.”

  “Thank you for the help, Willa Mae. We sure miss you around here. Tell me, is Reno everything you thought it would be?”

  “It’s pretty exciting, but I don’t know. I miss my friends here. But what would I do if I came back?”

  “I don’t know. If you want to work, they still haven’t found anyone to take my place on the delivery route.”

  “Hmmm, sounds like a good way to meet people. Drop by to leave them their special deliveries. Yes, I might think about that. Well, I won’t keep you. Here’s your wedding present. Careful, it’s fragile.”

  Laura set the beautifully wrapped package, which looked suspiciously like a bottle of apricot brandy, on the gift table, then she went to seek out her groom.

  When she found him, he was sitting in the tree house with Dylan, two pairs of legs dangling over the edge.