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“Uncle Cade said we shouldn’t go past those blue flowers.” Brady pointed uphill to blooms that were at least three hundred feet above them. “You said that was the rule, didn’t you, Daddy?”
Olivia struggled to control her shivering. If only she had enough strength to drag herself back up the hill. But the truth was, she felt drained. Death had come too close.
But it had not taken another child…this time.
“Why did you disobey me and your uncle?” Reese demanded in a rasping voice.
“I don’t like rules,” Brett said as if that explained everything.
“Too bad. Everybody has to follow rules, Brett.” There was no give in Reese’s tone. “That’s the way life is. Rules help protect us from bad things.”
“They didn’t pro-teck my mom.” Brady mourned. “I heard Great Granny say my mom followed the rules when she stopped at the sign. But my mom got dead.” His bottom lip trembled as he glared at his father. “Dead means she’s gone, and she isn’t coming back ever again.”
Reese’s mouth worked, but he said nothing. So Olivia took over.
“Do you remember your mother, Brady?”
From her many conversations with Sara, Olivia knew Reese’s wife had died several years earlier. The twins would probably not remember her, but Olivia knew it would be helpful to encourage them to talk about her anyway. Maybe something today had triggered a sense of loss.
“Brady doesn’t remember nothing.”
“Do so. She had brown hair.” Brady glared at his brother. “Like choc-lat.”
“You saw that in a picture. You don’t remember it.” Brett’s voice wobbled. “I think I do sometimes, but—” He shrugged, his little face confused.
Olivia glanced at Reese, expecting him to soothe them. But he was still dealing with his own shock. His stare remained frozen on the children.
“Sweetheart, your mom is tucked inside here.” Olivia tapped Brett’s little chest. “She wouldn’t care if you remembered what she looked like. All she’d care about is that you remember that she loved you very much.”
Brett studied her for a few minutes.
“There’s only Daddy and us in our house. It’s not like the kids at day care. Most of them have daddies and mommies. I wish I had a mommy.”
“Why do you wish that, Brett?” Years of training and thousands of phone calls to a kids’ radio show Olivia had taken from a small New York station to national syndication had taught her that talking was often the best therapy.
“The other kids’ mommies send cookies on special days and push them on the swings and help say prayers at night.” Brady, not Brett, volunteered the information.
“But your dad does things with you, too, doesn’t he?”
Please don’t let me be wrong.
“Not cookies,” Brady corrected. “He does other things.”
“The minister at church said God made families with moms and dads.” Brett blinked at her through the hank of dark brown hair that flopped over one eye. “We don’t gots a mom.”
Implying God didn’t make his family?
Realizing Reese wasn’t capable of responding at that moment, Olivia hurried to reassure.
“God loves all kinds of families, Brett. He loves families with lots of kids and families with only one little boy or girl. He loves families with only a daddy or only a mommy, too. That part doesn’t matter to God. What matters is that families love each other. I know you love your daddy.”
“Yep,” Brett squealed, jumped up. “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too.” Reese’s voice emerged hoarse, choked as he swung his son into his arms and hugged him close. He smiled at Olivia, but it was a distracted courtesy. His attention returned to Brett.
“Why did you come here?” The question held a warning.
Brett’s bottom lip jutted out. “To fish.”
“What did Cade say?” Reese squatted with Brady resting on his knee. “What did I say, Brett?” His voice was stern, his gaze intense, but his hand, as he lifted it to drag through his hair, trembled. When the boy didn’t speak, Reese repeated, “What did I say?”
“Not to.”
“What did you promise? Both of you?”
“Not to come.” Brady looked at his brother. “I told him not to.”
“But you came along with him. After you’d both promised me.”
Olivia admired the way Reese forced them to admit their wrongdoing without raising his voice. Though his olive-tanned skin had sallowed and his rich blue eyes still looked haunted by the near disaster, he was trying to teach them.
“I make rules to protect you guys, so you won’t get hurt. I do that because I love you and because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” Reese inhaled to steady his voice. “Brett could have drowned. This water is dangerous. It’s not a place for kids to come by themselves. Cade told you and I told you, but you disobeyed anyway.”
“If I had swimming lessons I could—”
“Brett!”
The little boy gulped, raised his head and looked at his dad, shame washing over his face.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“Me, too,” Brady chirped right before he wrapped his chubby arms around Reese’s neck and squeezed.
Olivia’s heart tightened. If only she could feel Anika’s beloved arms once more. If only Trevor…Her heart wept as she sent a prayer for peace heavenward.
“I’m sorry, too.” Reese sat the boys back down, his tone firmer now. “But being sorry isn’t always enough. It wouldn’t do any good to be sorry if Brady didn’t have a brother anymore, would it, Brett?”
The twins stared at each other as if they’d never imagined such a thing.
“Obedience is important. The only way I can do my daddy job properly is to keep you two safe. That’s why you have to obey me.”
Fatherhood equaled safety? Olivia frowned.
Reese looked in control, but she saw signs that his emotions were still riding high. And little wonder.
“Do you understand?”
Two brown heads slowly nodded.
“Are we getting punished?”
“Yes, Brett, you are. After Auntie Sara’s party, when we’re at home. Right now I want you to put on your shoes, take your brother’s hand and get back up the hill. Your backpacks are in the house. You can change clothes. Emily will help you.” He pointed to the teenage girl who stood at the crest of the hill, watching. “Understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
They began gathering their belongings.
“Boys?”
They turned, studied Reese with question marks in their eyes.
“Do you have something to say to Olivia?”
“Thank you for helping my brother,” Brady said. He gave her a shy hug.
“Yeah. Thanks.” Brett offered his hand. Once she’d shaken it, he backed away. “I’m sorry you got wet and your dress got wrecked.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, Brett.”
“No more disobeying,” Reese ordered. “You either behave yourselves or we’ll go home right now.”
“And miss seeing the horsies?” Brady’s eyes swelled.
“And miss seeing them,” Reese confirmed.
“Come on, Brett.” Brady shoved his brother’s shoes at him, then nudged him upward. “We gotta be good.”
Olivia smiled as she watched the adorable pair scurry uphill. Then her attention returned to Reese.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be all right again,” he muttered half under his breath. Then he shook his head at her, smiled. “I’m fine. I lost about five years when I saw you dragging him out. He could have drowned.”
“But he didn’t. They’re all right, thank the Lord.”
“The Lord. Yeah.” Reese didn’t sound as if he was giving God any of the credit for the twins’ safety as he tracked their progress uphill.
“They really are all right,” Olivia whispered.
“Yeah. I know.” But he didn’t look away until the young girl, Emily, had them by the hand.
Olivia tried to hide the shiver that rippled over her, but Reese’s moody gaze had registered her discomfort.
“I’m sorry. I should have done this earlier.” He slid out of his tuxedo jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “Better?”
“Thanks.” She sighed as his warmth caressed her goose-pimpled skin.
“It’s I who should thank you. When I saw Brett floating on that water, I thought my heart would stop. I couldn’t have wished for a better rescuer.” His hands fisted at his sides, but when Reese noticed her glance he shoved them in his pockets. “You know your first aid.”
“I took a course—the basics, nothing extra. It came in handy.”
“Yeah.” A half smile lifted his lips. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She strove for levity to break the tension. “You didn’t step on my bouquet on your way down, did you?”
“Ha! Very funny.” His broad white-covered shoulders lifted with his sigh. “What a day.”
“A wedding here, a swim there.” Olivia shrugged. “Pretty ordinary.”
“I’d like to know what kind of life you lead.”
“A boring one,” she said quickly before he could ask more.
“You have a great rapport with my sons. Of course, Sara told me that when the boys were in that theater project of yours. I must have blocked it.”
“Ah.” Blocked it or didn’t notice?
“Life with those two—” he raked a hand through his hair before jerking a thumb over one shoulder “—doesn’t allow a lot of time for thinking. I’m always in protect or prevent mode. They’re so little and I couldn’t bear it if—”
“I understand.” Too well. Losing a child was the nightmare every parent feared most, the thing she’d never thought she’d live through.
Olivia’s admiration for Reese grew. Sara’s comments about her overprotective brother had painted a very different picture of the man who now looked shaken and disturbed by the incident that had just occurred.
Reese Woodward was actually quite charming.
“We should go.” He glanced at her feet. “Your feet must feel horrible. And you seem to have lost your shoes.”
“No. I kicked them off before I went in the water. There.” She pointed to the edge where her dyed satin slippers looked a lot worse for their trek downhill.
Reese walked over, picked them up and let them dangle from his fingers, chagrin tipping down his wide, generous mouth as he studied her.
“My kids are murder on your wardrobe.”
“Yes, but on the bright side,” she said after a glance at her bedraggled dress, “at least the wedding pictures have been taken. And it’s not like I’m going to wear these clothes again. They have served their purpose. We got Sara and Cade married.”
“Yes, we did.” He laughed. The sound of relief echoed down the riverbed, a deep-throated burst of pure relief. “Tough lady. I like that. Let’s go see if my sister has something you can wear.” He bent down, slid the slippers on her feet, then rose and held out a hand.
Olivia took it, allowing him to pull her upright. She held on, borrowing his strength as he helped her climb past the rougher spots, enjoying the sensation of being supported. It had been so long since she’d felt protected, cared for.
“We probably should have gotten to know each other better earlier, but I was trying to make sure a certain pair of ring bearers didn’t mess up the whole wedding.” He grimaced. “This is really bad timing, but I have been meaning to talk to you about something for the past week and never had the chance.”
“Oh?” A tiny coil of fear wound tight inside.
The past was always there, waiting to snag her back into that misery.
“You’re a child psychologist.”
“Yes, I am.” Relief washed through her at the simplicity of that. “But please don’t ask me to explain why they decided to go fishing today.” She hoped humor would ease his tension while redirecting his questions. “I don’t understand the lure of fishing at the best of times.”
