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Meg rose and turned her back. “C’mon, girls.” She hung an arm around each of the older girls’ shoulders as she steered them toward a late-model brown compact car. “Lissa, I think you’d look fabulous in something green to match your eyes.”
Lissa looked back at him as though to ask, Is it okay to leave Heather? He nodded her on.
Meg captured the exchange, then turned a quizzical gaze his way. The expression smote his conscience; he guessed he did ask too much of his oldest girl. She’d been stuck taking care of Heather for most of the summer.
Meg resumed her escort. “And, Aimee, you’d look darling in one of those denim outfits. The boys, now—What’ll we get the boys?”
Meg tossed her hair and looked at him over her shoulder with a conspiratorial smile. “See you whenever, Kels Don’t expect us early.”
“Bye, Dad,” Lissa barely remembered to say. Aimee didn’t bother to look back at all.
“No-o-o…” Heather cried. “Lissa…don’t leave me.” Heather launched herself forward.
Lissa stopped and turned just in time to catch her little sister. “Dad?”
Her gaze entreated him to do something. Kelsey thrust out his chin in guilt. He’d really been careless to let too much responsibility land on Lissa’s shoulders. She was losing her childhood altogether too soon. “Don’t worry, Lissa. Heather can go with me.”
“I wanna go with Lissa,” Heather protested.
“Does that mean you want to go shopping with us?” Meg asked, emphasizing us so the child would understand who was in charge of the outing.
“Uh-huh.”
“All right. We’d love for you to join us.” Meg tipped her head, engaging the child’s full attention. “But, Heather, this is a grown-up girls day. We’re going to have lots of fun, but not the kind of fun that babies like. So what do you think?”
Heather considered her for a long moment. “I’m not a baby!”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. You had me worried there for a minute. I really didn’t want to leave you behind. Shall we go now?”
The girls scrambled to get into the brown compact Meg gave him a last wave. And a wink.
She’d handled his daughter very well—certainly better than he did sometimes. Linda Burroughs would have advocated a spanking with tight-lipped disapproval.
“Okay, I reckon that’s settled,” Kelsey said, hoping his relief was well hidden. Somehow, though, he expected Meg knew all about it. Her smile was too angelic.
Chapter Three (#ulink_ad067a0d-59fc-5f88-9947-c7311270ff08)
“Where are we going, Aunt Meg?” Lissa asked from the adjoining front seat as they left the outskirts of Sedalia. Heather had been remarkably quiet next to Aimee in the back.
“Well, I hear there’s an outlet mall near Odessa now. Ever been there?”
“Uh-uh,” Lissa replied.
“Let’s check it out, then. Okay?”
“Whoopee,” squealed Aimee. “Sydney Burroughs thinks she’s so cool ‘cause she’s been there three times this year.”
The Burroughs family again. Meg wondered just how close Linda and Kelsey had grown. But if they were, why hadn’t Linda taken Lissa and Aimee along with her sometime?
“Some people like shopping a lot more than others,” Meg commented. “It’s like a hobby. And with only two people in the family, they probably have more time for it. Perhaps Sydney and her mom shop because they haven’t much else to do. Did you ever think that maybe Sydney is really lonely without her Dad? I’m sure her mother is.”
“Yeah, but that’s no excuse for Sydney to act so dorky. We lost our mom…” Lissa’s voice held a well of sadness. “That’s just as bad.”
Meg felt her throat clog, and she reached out to pat Lissa’s hand. “Yes…yes, it is. But Sydney has only herself and her mother. The five of you children are so lucky, so blessed—you have each other. And your dad is super special.”
“D’you really think Dad’s special, Aunt Meg?”
Meg glanced at Lissa. Lissa’s bright gaze held hope and a subdued excitement, wiping out the sadness Meg’d heard in her voice a moment before.
“I certainly do.” Meg was so used to hiding behind a friend-ship-only facade where Kelsey was concerned that the words came naturally. “Why, we’ve been friends for eons, and I missed both your parents a whole bunch when I moved abroad.”
That was the unvarnished truth Meg had missed both Dee Dee and Kelsey like crazy, yet she’d missed Kelsey more. Much, much more. But she’d never confessed her deepest feelings to anyone but God, trusting Him to help her through her heartbreak, and in those first months alone in a foreign country she’d done so regularly. Slowly, she’d felt better knowing she’d made the right choice in leaving her hometown. Leaving behind a love she could never see fulfilled.
Yet even while content that she’d done what she must, the idea of never seeing Kelsey again, even as a friend, had left a hole in her the size of the Grand Canyon. She’d filled that hole with long hours of study and hard work. Her business success had been very rewarding. Still, it had taken her a long time not to yearn after Kelsey daily.
After all this time she felt as though she might be suffering a setback. A huge one. She was in the strange position of comforting Kelsey’s children, and she found the exercise satisfying. Very happily satisfying.
“Anyway, I suspect your friend Sydney is very lonely being an only child,” she told the girls.
“Yeah, and Sydney was really jealous last Christmas when we got your package from England, Aunt Meg,” Aimee said with a touch of glee
Meg cleared her throat of the laughter that threatened. “Aimee, I don’t think we’re aiming to put Sydney’s nose out of joint, are we?”
“I guess not. It’s just that I get tired of Sydney being a pest about how much she gets to do,” Aimee said with a sigh. “Shopping, movies, doing stuff in Kansas City. The lake, too. Her uncle owns a place and invites them down all the time.”
“Well, after today, you can tell her you’ve been to the shopping mall, as well,” Meg remarked by way of consolation.
“What’s a nose out of—that word—what do you mean?” Heather asked, at last indicating she didn’t plan to sulk all day. Thank goodness, Meg thought.
“Oh, it’s just an old expression my grandmother used to use.” Meg glanced into the rearview mirror at the back seat, but all she could see was the top of the child’s curly hair. “Heather, did you know your mom and I had the same grandmother?”
“You did?”
“Yep. Grandma Hicks. She and Grandpa had a farm, too, when I was little. Dee Dee and I loved visiting her. She always made us laugh.”
During the rest of the drive, Meg told the girls stories about Dee Dee and herself at their age, painting pictures of their mother and other family members long gone. They shopped until very late before driving home, happily tired.
A field of black walnut trees came almost to the edge of the long gravel drive to the farmhouse. Meg recalled that Kelsey had planted them the year Lissa was born, claiming they’d help to pay for college one day. Soybeans occupied the opposite field.
They passed the once-white weathered barn before they reached the old cottage-style house in a small, grassy clearing. Separate garages lined up in the rear, having been built at different times and connected by a roofed enclosure which held the lawn tractor and other tools.
Two dogs ran up barking, as Meg shut off the engine.
“Hush, Charlie Brown,” Lissa instructed what appeared to be a mixed breed as she got out of the car, scolding and pushing the brown nose away. The small golden spaniel investigated Meg’s door.
At the commotion, Thad and Phillip spilled out of the house with Kelsey right behind them.
“Daddy,” Heather called. “See my new sneakers? And I got Sunday shoes, too.”
“Phillip. Thad. Wait till you see what we brought you,” Aimee crowed. “Royal’s shirts and caps. Aunt Meg spent a fortune.”
Lissa gathered two big shopping bags from the back seat. “I’ll take these in and be right back, Aunt Meg.”
“All right, hon.”
Following Aimee into the house, Lissa called, “Heather, come on and put your stuff away right now and change out your new things. I don’t want to see them all stained.”
“Meg, tell me you didn’t!” Kelsey both laughed and protested as he hung an arm over the half-opened driver’s door. “You’ll spoil them for sure.”
“Occasional spoiling won’t hurt them, Kels. Besides, I think the girls were long overdue for a little shopping spree.” She didn’t mention how awed Lissa and Aimee had been at her letting them pick out a whole outfit apiece, including shoes and under things, or that she’d bought Lissa a few cosmetics.
“Well, I hope you didn’t deplete your savings.”
“Hardly.” She smiled into his green eyes and wanted to melt. “And I loved every minute of it.”
“Generous as always.” He straightened, bringing the door completely open, and dropped into a falsely aggrieved tone. “Get out and come in, ma’am. We fellahs cooked up a mess of beans and hot dogs out in the backyard while you girls have been rompin’ through the stores. We’re hot and starved, waitin’ for our women folk to wander on home.”
Meg climbed out, laughing, and matched his tone. “You mean you men folk’ve been slavin’ all day while we was out galavantin’?”
“You got the picture, lady,” he said, in a mock growl. “You’ll stay, won’t you?”
“Please, Aunt Meg,” Lissa urged, returning to the car for the last shopping bag. Then in a near whisper, she said, “I need to talk to you, anyway.”
Kelsey raised a brow at his oldest daughter. “Seems to me you girls have had Meg to yourselves all day. Aren’t you all talked out?”
“But, Dad, that’s different. I wanted. oh, never mind.”
As Lissa turned away, Meg noted the shy mixture of emotions shining from her lowered eyes, her lashes blinking as though to keep sudden tears at bay.
“What is it, Lissa?”
“I just wanted a chance to talk to you alone, Aunt Meg. You know, girl talk. Not kid talk.”
Hadn’t there been anyone at all for the child to share her feelings with? A woman with whom she felt comfortable? Meg remembered all too well her own emotional roller-coaster adolescence and imagined Lissa was facing the usual uncertainties. Without a mother
Meg glanced at Kelsey and caught an expression of arrested curiosity, a glimmer of pain and guilt. And a touch of helplessness.
It was a different side of Kelsey, she’d never seen him helpless before. He glanced her way, drew a deep breath and held it, his lips pursed, before saying low, “Stay…please.”
Meg’s heartstrings definitely felt a tug. More than one, actually, and more like sharp little jerks. “I think we can manage that. Let me call Mom and Kathy and see how things are at home, all right?”
“Super. I’ll be back in a sec, okay, Aunt Meg?”
“Sure, honey. Take your time.”
Kelsey watched Lissa walk away, his eyes thoughtful. “Are you sure you want to, Meg? Get more involved, I mean. My youngsters are a demanding lot.”
“Girl talk is a favorite indulgence for the females of the species, don’t you remember, Kels?” she said, making light of the situation. “I don’t mind.”
“All right. At least you’ve been warned. Now come on round back.”
Meg had been to the small farmhouse many times, but it seemed a lifetime ago now—when Dee Dee had been a part of it all. The old house had taken on a personality of its own, she decided, and lost some of Dee Dee’s precise touch Children’s clutter decorated the tiny front porch and straggly ivy and begonias peeked from a huge overgrown pot on the step. Beyond the screen door, she spotted the edge of a TV set crowding the opened living room door.
Kelsey, however, guided her to the backyard. An old charcoal grill smoked gently near the weathered picnic table under the oak tree, the smell of wieners and beans permeated the air.
The back screen opened and all five kids ran out.
“Dad, Thad’s hogging the last of the dill pickles,” Aimee complained “Make him share ”
“I called ‘em the other day.” Thad hugged a jar close against his chest.
“That’s enough, Thad. Put the pickles on the table and get the cordless phone for Meg.”
“Dad, that’s not fair. I called—”
“No arguments tonight, and do as I asked. We have a guest,” Kelsey reminded.
Thad opened his mouth to protest; at his Dad’s expression, he changed his mind. But not before he sent Meg a silent glance of resentment. It hurt just a little. Meg wondered what she’d done to trouble the boy. But how could he be upset with her when they barely knew each other?
Maybe that was it; she’d made a fuss over the girls but not the boys. Something she’d have to remedy
Meg made her call and relaxed when Kathy told her that Audrey had a couple of friends visiting and assured her she wasn’t needed at home Audrey, though a little petulant, accepted her explanation, and Meg promised to look in on her mother before retiring
The children urged her to the barn to see the 4-H projects.
Meg oohed over the boys’ bull, Fred, and listened to all his finer points and did the same for the girls’ sheep, Betsy Ross, dutifully patting and admiring.
“I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about farm animals,” Meg said for Kelsey’s ears only as they trooped back to the house.
Kelsey chuckled. “And you actually admit to such shame after growing up in America’s heartland?”
“Well, I have only a cat. Besides, I’m a town girl. I didn’t grow up with farm animals if you recall.”
Meg’s father had been an unassuming man content to be a small-town lawyer, never expanding his practice beyond himself and one clerk But when he died just after she’d graduated college, he surprisingly left her mother well enough provided for, and she and her brother Jack each had a small nest egg for their futures.
“What of those visits to your grandparents’ farm you and Dee Dee used to talk about? They had animals, surely. And all those state fairs you attended with Dee Dee and me, visiting the animal exhibits? I seem to remember you loved the fair.”
“Oh, I did. It was one of summer’s highlights. But then, it would be, in a small town, wouldn’t it?”
“Big-city girl now, huh? Only a cat?”
“Umm-hmm. Jasper. The only four-legged animal in my life.”
“Well, back then, you sure made the rounds of the animal pens and sat through endless hours of judging as if you knew a thing or two.”
“Fooled you, didn’t we?”
“We?”
