“I think he mentioned that,” Katie added, smiling as she tucked a tendril of hair back from Callie’s face. “It was a brave thing you did, going in for Luke’s mama and his kittens. And then Ben.”
“Very brave.” Joseph’s voice came out low and choked with emotion.
She smoothed a hand over the fresh, clean dress she’d donned after Katie had insisted she pull herself from Ben long enough to bathe and tend her wounds. “Aaron? How’s he doing?”
“Just a few minor cuts and burns, but he’ll be fine,” Katie assured.
“Did he get some kind of medical attention for them?” Even though there’d been a kind of mutual appreciation after the incident, Callie grew immediately concerned that Aaron might forgo treatment just to stay clear of her.
“He said he did,” Joseph remarked.
“And what about Mrs. Ortmeier?”
“She’s very grateful to you.” Katie grasped Callie’s hand in hers. “She feels like she’s been given a second chance to make things right. Isn’t that wonderful?”
She nodded. Hot tears welled in her stinging eyes.
Anger, deep and grating, had thundered through her veins when she’d realized the woman was drunk. But to know that that same woman now saw this circumstance as a second chance somehow dispelled the anger. Mrs. Ortmeier had hope.
A second chance was all Callie wanted. Was it too much to ask for?
“Miss Callie?” Luke whispered as he peeked around the door. “Think I could come in there?”
“Of course, Luke.” She motioned him over, noticing the way he snatched a tentative, worried glance at Ben. “Come on in here.”
Luke inched into the room on his toes. When he reached the bed, he snuck a trembling hand out, fingering the quilt with an awkward kind of hesitance. “He gonna be all right?”
“I think he’ll be fine.” Sympathy pricked at Callie.
Ben had been everything to that boy. He’d been a mentor, a friend and a father. Luke’s fragile world would likely cave without him.
Callie shuddered. Her world would likely cave, too, without Ben in it. She’d felt so horribly vulnerable after the fire that she’d almost been unable to calm her quaking hands as she’d stitched his head. She’d had to summon every single ounce of her concentration to do right by him.
Her own scrapes and cuts and aftereffects of inhaling so much smoke were the least of her worries after they’d gotten Ben back here.
“Think I could pray for ’im? I seen Ben do that for his patients lots of times…” He slid Callie a watery gaze. “I seen ’im do it fer you, Miss Callie.”
Just knowing that Ben had beseeched God on her behalf made Callie’s heart swell with indescribable hope. Like some lifeline lowered down inside a deep, dark pit.
But the idea that he’d prayed for her even as she’d eyed him with such suspicion, assuming him to be just like Max, sent shame slipping through her.
“I’m sure Ben would want you to pray for him.” She felt the lifeline jerked out of her reach. She just didn’t know—didn’t trust that God would welcome her the way she knew He’d welcome Luke or Ben…or anyone else in this room.
Luke pulled in a long breath. “God…I’m prolly not real good at this,” he began, his voice quavering, his blond hair hanging in his tightly squeezed eyes. “But Ben, he makes it look real easy, praying. He says it’s jest like talkin’ to a friend. Anyways, I guess what I’m askin’ is that You’d take care of Ben.” On a long pause, he sniffled, swiping his sleeve over his nose as Joseph settled a hand on the boy’s back. “He’s been a real good friend to me, God. Like a pa, even. And I know—well, I know You prolly like ’im, too, but maybe You could let ’im stay here longer. A lot longer.”
Callie fought to gain some control over her ragged emotions. She watched as Luke reached out and touched his fingertips to the bandage covering Ben’s head.
“That was very nice, Luke,” Katie whispered.
“I think he’s going to be fine,” Joseph assured the boy. “He just needs to rest.”
Luke suddenly turned and faced Callie, his earnest gaze a mix of childlike hope and adult caution. “Ma said she’s gonna change, Miss Callie.” He kept his voice low. “Said she’s gonna start being a real good ma fer me after she gets better.”
Callie slid her hand around his. “I’m so glad for you, Luke. You deserve that. She’ll be so proud of you.”
When she spotted Libby standing over by the doorway, peering at her with that hesitant gaze that cut Callie to the quick, sorrow pricked through her heart.
Maybe Ben was right. Maybe she was fooling herself to believe that she could make it on her own while raising a daughter. She didn’t want to rely on others. She never again wanted to place herself in such a vulnerable, helpless position.
She had her fiery will. Stubbornness. She was a survivor.
But there was one element she felt sorely lacking deep in her heart…peace. Peace she could trust in. Rely upon. Rest in when her journey took her over rough spots. She could stand on her own two feet, insisting on carving out a new future, but the fact that Mr. Whiteside lurked a day away somehow sealed her bleak fate. As much as she wanted to believe in second chances, she had to wonder if there would ever be hope for her.
Luke stepped over toward Libby and took her by the hand. “I told yer girl here that yer a hero.”
Callie’s breath caught as Luke maneuvered Libby closer.
“You’re right, Luke,” Katie whispered. “Miss Callie is a hero.”
“Yep.” Nodding, he stood behind Libby, his hands perched protectively on her shoulders. “And then she went and asked me what a hero was, so I told ’er. ’Member what I said?” He craned his neck around to look at Libby, eye to eye.
Libby slowly nodded, her sweet innocent gaze flitting to the ceiling as if searching for Luke’s definition there. With a determined nod, she fixed her enthusiastic gaze on Luke. “It’s someone who’s brave and cares ’nough about others that they do something big.”
“And…” he prompted, twirling his finger in a wagon-wheel motion.
“And brave.” Libby’s long-lashed gaze rose to meet Callie’s.
“Don’t be shy, silly.” Luke gave the girl a tender nudge. “She’s yer ma.”
Libby took another step closer. Then, as if breaching some wide, yawning gap in time, made a giant leap into Callie’s lap. She wrapped her little arms around Callie’s neck for a wonderful moment as Callie did the same, struggling to hold back a deep cry.
She barely worked a swallow past the thick lump in her throat. She hadn’t allowed herself to feel for years, and in the past few weeks she’d fought to stay one step ahead of the emotions nipping at her heels. The fear, the sorrow, the anger and even the joy all made her feel horribly vulnerable, prey to anyone who’d choose to use it for their own gain.
Her eyes burned with the lingering effects of smoke and heat and unshed tears. Still, she risked crying in front of all of these people she’d come to care so much about, and pulled Libby close, pressing a gentle kiss on her silky, auburn hair. The emptiness that had filled her arms and heart for the past six years seemed to lessen some.
She stroked a trembling hand down her daughter’s petite frame, closing her eyes and breathing in the fresh, little girl scent she’d been deprived of for so long.
What would happen tomorrow, when Lyle Whiteside returned for his money?
Libby pulled back, peering intently at Callie. “You’re brave, Mama.” She carefully settled her hands at Callie’s cheeks. “Luke thinks so. And I think so.”
“And I think so…” came Ben’s smoke-rasped voice.
Callie whipped her focus over to see him, his searching gaze locked on hers. The unmistakable love she’d seen in his eyes that night at the dance was there again, and sent a tremor shimmying all the way up her spine.
His mouth drew up in that heart-stopping half grin of his. “You were very brave, you know,” he rasped with a lazy wink. Then he gave his hea
d a long, slow shake. “But don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“I—I… You’d gone in—” She shifted in her chair to face him, drinking in his easy smile, the way his eyes sparkled, the way a faint shadow already hinted at his strong, masculine jaw. “I couldn’t leave you there.”
“Thank you.” His quietly uttered words whispered over her like the gentle way he trailed his fingertips down her cheek.
It was useless to try and tame the wild beat of her heart.
“How are you feeling?” Joseph stepped closer to the bed.
“Are you havin’ pain?” Luke edged his watchful gaze from Ben’s head to his quilt-covered toes.
“Not enough to be stuck in this bed.” Ben threw back the covers.
Callie yanked her focus to the sturdy pine headboard. “What are you doing?” She craved a small peek at his bare chest, but instead, pinned him to the feather-down mattress with a wide-eyed stare, settled directly on his face. “You need to stay in bed. At least for the time being.”
With a sigh, he conceded, lying back as Luke rustled the covers over him and smoothed them back into place again. The creased brow and innocent look Ben flicked to her couldn’t have been more than puddle-deep. “Look at what happens…I’m out of commission for a few hours and you’ve gone from just Callie to Doctor Callie?”
“Apparently you can give orders better than you can take them,” Katie retorted, sidling down to the end of the bed and nudging his foot.
“Yes, and believe me,” Joseph added. “With the instructions you mumbled to Callie as she patched you up, you ought to be glad she knew enough on her own about what she was doing.”
The slightest of winces wafted over his face as he held his arms out, surveying the thick, gauze wraps. “I must not have been very coherent. Huh?”
Callie grinned wide. “Umm…not exactly.”
“I taught you everything you know. Right?” He gave Callie a pulse-quickening wink then reached out to touch a fingertip to Libby’s nose. “How are you, sweetie?”
“Jest fine.” Libby scurried to sit on the bed, perching quietly next to Ben, her dainty fingers edging over the bandage wrapped around his head. “Are you gonna be good again?”
“Thanks to your mama and uncle Aaron, I’m going to be fine. I’ll probably be up and going before the day’s out.”
Luke frowned at Ben. “But I thought you said…”
“Yes, what was it that Ben said?” Callie put in, raising her brows and encouraging Luke to continue.
As soon as Luke caught on, he gave his head a single nod then looked down at Ben with eager dedication. “You said that when a body’s sick they gotta rest. So they don’ get worse. That’s what you say all the time. I heard it with my own ears,” he added, plucking his ears for effect.
“Luke’s right,” Joseph added, chuckling.
Ben huffed. “But I—”
“You got a banged up head, Ben.” With great conviction, Luke folded his arms at his chest. “I heard the crash all the way from outside. Scairt me half t’death.”
“You’ve been through quite a lot today,” Katie added.
Callie breathed a sigh of relief at that uniquely Ben kind of warm, comforting light that had settled into his gray-blue eyes.
“Why don’t I take Libby and Luke home with me?” Katie smoothed a hand over Callie’s back as she leaned close. “We’ll take care of the kittens and then bake some cookies.”
“The kittens are all right, then?” Callie pulled her head around, noticing that Katie’s eyes pooled with tears. “They’re all healthy?”
“They seem fit to me.” Joseph settled his hat back on his head. “Though, as little as they are, they probably wouldn’t have made it much longer had you not gotten them out when you did.”
Relief washed over her. “I’m so glad they’re doing all right.”
“Thanks for savin’ my kittens, Miss Callie.” Luke wrapped her in one huge hug. “Mr. Joseph found me another box to put ’em in, and after Miss Katie warmed up some milk and gave ’em some food they went right t’sleep.”
“They did.” Libby nodded her vigorous agreement. “They’re sleeping now.”
“No wakin’ ’em this time, Libby.” Luke angled a squinty-eyed look at her. “Like Ben says, when ya been through somethin’ bad, ya need yer sleep. And the kittens went through somethin’ real bad this mornin’. Fact, they’re prolly the only kittens who survived a fire like that, I’d think.”
With a solemn shake of her head, Libby threaded her little hands together beneath her chin. “Promise. I won’t even touch the box.”
After Katie and Joseph ushered the children out of the room, Callie was left alone with Ben.
She should be overjoyed right now. Luke’s mama had her sights set on the right path, the kittens were safe, Ben was alive and things with her daughter had just taken a miraculous turn for the better.
Deep inside, though, she felt strangely empty. She craved peace as much as she did her next breath. But it seemed so elusive.
Without being able to reconcile her past, the painful history that followed her like some stealthy predator, she’d never fully enjoy the bright outlook of each new day.
But no matter how much Ben would protest and insist otherwise, she’d never leave Boulder without Libby. And she couldn’t—wouldn’t ask Ben for money to pay off the rest of the debt. He’d already given her so much. As wily as Thomas Blanchard was, Ben had to have paid a generous sum to bring Libby home with him. Scoundrels like Blanchard didn’t make gestures like that out of the goodness of their hearts.
Likely, the man didn’t even have a heart.
Trapped once again by the decision she faced, she pulled in a long, slow breath. She raised her head to find Ben’s crystalline gaze settled on her, the effect penetrating all the way to her core.
“Thank you again, Callie. You did something today that most people wouldn’t have considered.”
“I’m just glad you’re all right,” she breathed, slumping in the chair and cradling her head in her hands. Thoughts of how horribly different circumstances could’ve been rushed through her head, scavenging almost all of the emotional reserve she had left. “I wasn’t sure we were going to make it out.”
When she felt his hand settle like some warm claim at her back, she fumbled about for control. But as she turned and saw the way his eyes shone with care and unmistakable love, she barely bit off a small cry.
“You came after me. All alone, didn’t you?”
Callie threaded her hands together in her lap. “You risked your life, Ben. For me,” she breathed, gulping down the sense of shame she felt as her gaze inched from his bandaged hands, to his arms, to his head. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you.” She shuddered at the thought that he could’ve died trying to save her. How could he risk his life, ransom his own fulfilling life to the flames like that? Just for Callie.
Chapter Nineteen
“And I don’t know what I would do if you’d been hurt. Or killed,” he said, his voice low and choked.
Regret at the caustic words Ben had said to her last night filled his mind. How could he have been so callous? How could he have so easily allowed his frustration to rule his words?
He’d so much as called her a harlot.
Just seeing the vulnerability that weighed her down, the suspicions didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Whatever her past, whatever her present, it just didn’t matter.
He needed her.
He wanted her.
He loved her.
And if she had some things to overcome, then so be it. Didn’t everyone have some kind of secret that loomed too difficult to face?
He’d seen the way God had been softening her heart. The three times she’d been to church with him, and when she’d sat and listened with rapt attention while he’d read to Libby from the Bible, his heart had swelled at the hunger he’d seen in her eyes. As though she wanted so badly to reach out and part
ake of God’s goodness and mercy and unconditional love.
But something always held her at bay.
“I felt so helpless when I called and you didn’t answer, and when I couldn’t see to find you through the smoke.” His breath hitched at the awful memory as he moved a hand to the side of his head where bandages hid a deep, long gash. He blinked against the stinging moisture crowding his eyes. “When I felt the beam hit me, I thought for sure you and I were as good as dead.”
Slamming his eyes shut, the same old, haunting regret shook the chains that had held him hostage for so long. He’d failed those dearest to him. He couldn’t seem to rescue those he loved the most. What he did, the grand efforts he made, just weren’t enough.
“What, Ben? What’s wrong?” Callie leaned over him, her hand resting against his cheek. Her light breath whispered feather-light over his face.
He grasped her hand. “In those seconds before I lost consciousness, it was you that I thought of, Callie. And how I wished I could go back and do things differently.”
She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “You don’t need to do anything differently. You’ve been good to me, Ben. It’s time you let others take care of you for a change.”
The way she touched him with such tenderness, and the way she looked at him, as if pleading with him to rescue her from her silent pain, sent his heart into a shuddering frenzy inside his chest.
He’d often pondered that she was much like the strays he’d rescued. Had God really meant all along for him to rescue her? Not just from the here and now with a job and a warm home, but from the pain of her past?
It would be just like God to defy all of Ben’s thoughts and plans and assumptions. It would be just like God to bring a woman whose history intertwined his with such delicate force that it would be an undeniable connection. A forever and always bond marked by providential design.
Rocky Mountain Redemption Page 21
