by Lynne Gentry
A thoughtful smile spread across her perfect lips. “Yeah, it does.”
“I remember how you used to light up when you got to treat a scrape or bruise at camp.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Our calling never leaves us.” He went back to chopping. “Now, no more distractions. I’m creating a masterpiece.” He tossed another handful of onions in the skillet.
“Hey, go easy on the onions, mister. Your stomach is still tender.”
“You can’t expect a man to live on broth forever, doc.” He looked over his shoulder. “It’s time I introduce Isabella to my secret sauce sloppy joes.”
“Do toddlers like tomatoes?”
“She’ll have to learn to eat what I cook. I’m not spoiling my daughter.”
She shrugged. “Daddy spoiled me. And look how good I turned out.”
“That settles it.” He shoved sizzling onions around with a spatula. “No more late night chocolate milks for Isabella. I’m not raising a princess.”
“Too late.” Maddie picked up one of the drying paintbrushes and swatted his back pocket. “You just gave her the perfect princess room.”
“Hey!” Parker wheeled, spatula raised. “I love these jeans.”
“Obviously. They still have the paint swat I gave you thirteen years ago.”
“I remember not being too happy about that low-down move either.”
“And I seem to remember that you deserved that smack.” They stood there, watery paint and hot onions dripping on his old boots, as memories sharp as the smell of fresh paint and sizzling onions swirled around them. “Don’t be such a baby, Parker. I’ll buy you a new pair,” Maddie teased.
“Don’t want new jeans.” He hung a thumb on one of the empty belt loops and acted like the spatula was a pistol he was whipping out of a holster and aiming at her. “These are my lucky Levis, lady.”
“Lucky?”
“If I hadn’t been wearing them when my friends threw me in the back of that truck and drove me to the hospital, I might have died.”
“It wasn’t the jeans that kept you alive.”
“Sure it was.” He took a step toward her, backing her up against the counter. “Made you come runnin’. If that’s not lucky, I don’t know what is.”
Her eyes grew wide in disbelief and her perfect lips curved in fake protest. “Those jeans had nothing to do with me saving your sorry butt.”
“Admit it. You’ve always loved how my butt looks in these Levis—”
The smile dropped from her lips and the curtain this easy banter had parted swooshed shut, cutting him off with blinding speed. He knew better than to venture beyond the boundaries she’d set for their friendship.
“Don’t, Parker.” She shook her head and pressed her hand against his chest. “Please.”
He raised his spatula in surrender, blinking at the unexpected sting of tears. “Danged onions.” Failing again to bridge the divide between them had left his emotions as vulnerable as typhoid had left his gut.
“Onions make my eyes tear up, too.” And for the first time since that night they’d said goodbye, he saw tears in her eyes.
“You don’t cook onions,” he whispered gently.
“I cry when other people cook them. So there.”
“Maa-d.” Isabella came into the kitchen dragging a small blanket and rubbing her eyes. She lifted her hands indicating she wanted Maddie to pick her up.
To his surprise Maddie didn’t hesitate. She zipped past him, swooped Isabella to her hip, and placed a kiss on her sleepy forehead. “You really need to get this girl a mother, Parker Kemp.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
From the blanket Parker had spread under a gnarled mesquite, Maddie was enjoying their impromptu picnic and the peaceful view of his horse paddock. She pulled a blade of dried grass from Isabella’s hair and laughed as the little girl devoured another bite of ground beef swimming in sweet tomato sauce. “I think she likes your cooking.”
Parker offered his daughter a piece of fruit. “Controlling carb intake is key to ensuring a child’s good health.”
Maddie twirled the blade of grass between her fingers. “Is that what the books say?”
“According to my research—” he nodded in the direction of four horses grazing an overgrown paddock. “—raising kids is a lot like raising those beautiful creatures.” Isabella grabbed a handful of meat sauce and smeared it on her bare belly. He sighed, grabbed the roll of paper towels and wiped away as much red as he could. He wadded the messy napkin and looked at Maddie. The gold flecks in his dark eyes sparkled like old times. “Go ahead, you can say it again.”
“You’ve got your work cut out for you, buddy.” She held the blade of grass up to the wind and let it go. “But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Promise me you’ll take it slow.”
“Which part?”
“All of it, but especially the part where you try to become the perfect father overnight.”
Isabella scrambled to her feet, toddled off the blanket, and picked up speed as she began circling the picnic spread.
“I’m afraid this one has only one gear...high.” Parker held out his arms. “Come to Paki, Sugar Bean.”
Isabella cut across the blanket, tipped over Maddie’s soda, and launched herself toward him.
“Oh, no.” Parker caught Isabella with one hand and snatched up the draining can. “Tell Maddie you’re sorry you ruined her fancy jeans, Sugar Bean.”
Maddie burst out laughing at the chaos. “She is her father’s daughter.” She pointed at the paint splotches on her knees. “Maybe you and I will start a new paint-splattered, wet-jean trend.” She hopped up from the blanket, wiped her hands on her ruined pants, and started gathering the dirty plates.
“Leave ’em,” Parker clambered to his feet and grabbed her hand. “Let’s all take a walk.”
Warmth zipped up her arm. “Walk?”
“That way the food can fall to our feet and we’ll have more room for dessert.”
He’d said these same words to her the Thanksgiving after her father’s death. She’d helped Momma fill the parsonage with friends but she’d still felt so alone. So lost. Parker found her washing the dishes. He grabbed a dishtowel and stood beside her, telling her jokes and making her feel like she was a better person than she was.
Here he was doing it again. “I can’t believe you’re still touting that silly, old wives tale.”
“These size thirteens are all the proof I need.” He raised a scuffed, paint-splattered boot then danced a little jig. His feet got tangled up in the blanket and he landed on his rear with a thud. “Since the rest of me is light as a feather that didn’t even hurt.”
Maddie hadn’t laughed this much since that Thanksgiving. “Those clumsy boats are the very reason I allow my food plenty of time to digest.”
“Come on.” He waved her to him and she hauled him to his feet. “I think it’s time my daughter learned to ride a horse.”
“She’s only eighteen months old.”
“And none of us are getting any younger.”
“Hooses.” Isabella took out cross the lawn.
“Whoa, little missy.” He chased after his daughter, scooped her up, swung her around, then set her back on the ground. “Come on,” he shouted to Maddie. “Let’s introduce this girl to some of God’s four-legged friends.”
This realm fit him as comfortably as his scuffed boots and those silly worn-out jeans he refused to part with. To stay here was to risk falling under the spell of his easy, laid-back way of life. But she wasn’t ready to leave the one person who loved her enough to tell her the truth, even when he knew it hurt. The woman she’d become looked nothing like the girl she once was.
“Wait for me.” She ran after them.
His sly smile told her he knew she was finally running after that girl. “Hoof it, Maddie.”
She caught up. “I haven’t been on a horse since...”
“Since the day of your Momma’s wedding.” He wasn’t
the only one who thought about that night down by the lake. How they’d stood there under the stars and decided different fates.
“Maa-d.” Isabella offered her hand for the walk across the yard.
Maddie glanced over Isabella’s head. Parker grinned and began to belt out a rich baritone version of Old MacDonald had a farm. Hand in hand, the three of them strode toward the paddock, Maddie harmonizing with the proper animal sounds.
Parker cut his long-legged stride to match his daughter’s tiny steps. Patience had always been one of this giant man’s most attractive qualities. At every new blade of grass, weed, or bug they encountered, he stopped the song, bent, and gave his child the scientific name of her discovery.
Listening to this man talk about nature was like listening to someone who believed the world would be a better place if everyone would take the time to enjoy God’s creation. From the adoration on Isabella’s face, this child grasped the wonder of his message.
The ding of Maddie’s text alert broke the spell.
Parker swung Isabella to his shoulders. “We can wait if you need to check that.”
“Could be the hospital calling about Etta May. I’m trying to talk her into having surgery, but she’s not having it. You two go on. I’ll catch up.”
As Parker and Isabella eased up to the paddock fence, Maddie pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. The message was from the head of the epidemiology department she’d interviewed with at the CDC.
The job is yours. We’re partnering with WHO to shut down a Cholera outbreak in Yemen. You’re needed on site immediately. Grab your passport. You leave DFW in 24 hrs. Welcome to saving the world.
Shock turned into a tiny thrill. She’d done it. She’d reached her goal. Her hard work had finally paid off.
“Parker!” Maddie waved her phone as she tore toward the paddock. “Parker!”
Parker hoisted Isabella to the top rung of the fence. Holding firmly to his daughter, he turned toward the sound of Maddie’s shrieking.
At the sight of his contented face, Maddie’s excitement sank like a stone. She’d just reconnected with her friend, had even endeared herself to his child, and now she was leaving. Walking away before...before what? These two had totally captured her heart? Too late.
“Maa-d!” Isabella clapped excitedly. “Hooses.”
“I see.” She stuffed the phone into her back pocket.
“Good news?” Parker reached up and took hold of the tiny hands getting a little too close to a horse’s curious mouth.
“Yes...and no.”
Parker studied her for a moment, Isabella’s bare feet beating against the fence slat. Pride swept his face. “You got the job, didn’t you?”
“How do you do that?”
“Know what you’re going to say before you say it?”
“Yes, that.”
A grin the size of Texas spread across his lips. “Your face is easier to read than the Farmer’s Almanac.”
“You lost me on that one, cowboy.”
“I hope not.” His face was dead serious. He lifted Isabella off the fence and set her down in front of a bucket of oats and handed her the metal grain scoop. “Dig for treasure, Sugar Bean, while I talk to...Maa-d.” He turned and put two big hands on Maddie’s shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. “You’re risk-adverse...which is crazy since you seldom fail. But staying safe doesn’t mean you won’t ever get hurt. ”
She wanted to bristle, but she was melting into the warmth of his accepting gaze. “You make me sound like a big chicken.”
He inched closer, lowering his head toward hers. The familiar scent of Aqua Velva filled Maddie’s nostrils and his gentle squeeze pumped her with courage. “You’re the bravest person I know, Madison Harper. You knew what you wanted years ago. No matter what anyone said, you wanted to go to med school and you went. You moved half-way across the country and learned to navigate those big cities...all by yourself. You flew to a third-world country rife with disease to pull a friend from the jungle. Anyone who knows you knows you can do just about anything you set your mind to.”
“Not everyone.” The stone had risen to her throat, forcing her response into a whisper.
His brows knit. “Your mother knows your capabilities better than anybody.”
Arguing the finer points of Momma’s opinion of her would take away from what she really wanted to say. Had finally found the courage to utter. A burden she’d come home to relieve herself of once and for all. “I can’t do everything, Parker.”
“Name one thing you can’t you do.”
She couldn’t tell if she was misreading the situation, but something was pushing her to abandon her plan and take a foolish, crazy, irresponsible risk. “I can’t love you, Parker Kemp, but I do. I always have.” The truth sprang from her heart like a scared jack rabbit. It quivered in front of his growing smile. Before she could snatch it back, his fingers laced her hair and drew her lips to his.
His kiss was not the awkward peck of the love-struck boy who’d kissed her after their bike wreck. Nor was it the kiss of the dopey-eyed guy with a head injury she’d kissed after his truck plowed into a snowdrift.
Their lips pressed with uncanny accuracy. Alive with an urgency to reclaim the years they’d lost. His hands slid from her shoulders. Drifting purposely down her arms, his calloused palms found hers. As their fingers twined, Maddie felt the threads of their frayed relationship slowly knit together. His kiss deepened. His thumb turned in little circles in the soft skin between her thumb and forefinger, coaxing her beyond her wall of fear. She hadn’t felt this safe in a long time.
The text alert sounded in her pocket. Probably more travel info. One more minute of bliss. One more minute in the arms of the man she loved before the ugly truth pushed itself between them: Mt. Hope didn’t need an infectious disease specialist.
How could she hurt him again?
Her breath hitched, and she pulled away. “Don’t fall in love with me, Parker.”
“Too late.” His lips brushed hers. “I fell in love with you the moment you waltzed into my Sunday school class.” Parker’s next kiss blew away the anxiety and filled her with the first deep breath she’d had in years.
Maddie’s phone vibrated in her pocket. Someone was desperate to talk to her. Unwilling to face the heartbreak her decision would bring to Parker, she ignored the sound. They could work this out. Somehow. Some way. Surely.
Parker was the one who gently broke their bond. He eased back and Maddie inhaled sharply as if she’d forgotten how to breathe on her own. The corner of his mouth turned up at the sight of her wide eyes. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered against her lips.
The phone vibrated again. Hopefully it was Momma. She was the only person who kept dialing until Maddie eventually picked up.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Could be important.”
“Somebody better be bleeding.” She released him, kissed the end of his nose, pulled out her phone, and scowled at the caller ID. “It’s David.”
At first, the rush of words her brother shouted from his end didn’t make sense. Then suddenly they did. Every ounce of her training flew out of her head. And everything she’d never let herself imagine crashed in on her. “I’m on my way.” She clicked off, her hands shaking, terror strangling her ability to say the impossible.
“Maddie?” Parker caught her as her knees gave out.
“Momma’s car was totaled by a cattle semi. Charlie’s transporting her to Mt. Hope Memorial.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dust billowed behind Parker’s old truck as they flew toward town. Maddie, sat on the console, wedged between him and Isabella’s car seat. She’d been on the phone since they left the ranch. She was all business on the outside, but on the inside she was in no condition to drive and sort medical details. To his surprise, she’d agreed to his assessment and allowed him to load both of his girls into the truck.
His girls.
Parker let his hand slide fro
m the wheel and squeeze Maddie’s knee. She was real. The kiss they’d shared was real. The love he had for her was so real it hurt.
She laid her hand on top of his, but her mind was focused on the conversation with Dr. Boyer.
Parker turned his concentration away from planning their future together and back to navigating the road.
Maddie listened, shaking her head. “I’ll be there in approximately two minutes Dr. Boyer, and that life flight better be on its way.” She hung up, not happy with what she’d heard. “She’s alive. Critical, but alive.” She stared at the horizon, her face pale with shock. “Maybe I shouldn’t have pressed the life flight?”
“Better safe than...you’ll feel better once you’ve had a chance to assess her yourself.”
“I’m not an ER doc. I...I...” She squeezed his hand. “Parker, what am I going to do if Momma dies?”
It was all he could do not to stop the truck and pull her into his arms. As much as Maddie had always tried to appear strong and independent, something in her wanted her mother’s approval...even more than she wanted to be a doctor. If she lost another person she loved, she might never risk loving again.
“Start praying,” he shouted over the ping of gravel hitting the undercarriage of his truck.
“I don’t remember how.”
“It’s like riding a bike. You don’t forget how, you’re just a little wobbly when you first get back on.”
“This coming from the guy who nearly killed me on a bike.”
“The kiss was worth it.” He glanced at her. “If you can’t do it, let me.”
She blinked back tears and nodded.
His silent pleas rushed to the throne while his truck raced to the hospital.
The truck squealed under the emergency room portico. “Go!” He jumped from the driver’s seat and offered Maddie his hand. “I’ll park then find you.”
“Maa-d!” Isabella cried as Maddie shimmied out of the truck.
Maddie turned and hesitated.
“Go!” Parker shouted. “We’ll catch up.”
He parked the truck, freed Isabella from her car seat, and sprinted across the parking lot with his daughter in his arms.
