Return to Lone Oak (Harlequin Heartwarming) (14 page)

Katie smiled up at him. “I’m glad you came here. I figured you’d decided to blow off my challenge.”

“I won’t lie. I thought about it.”

“What made you change your mind?”

“That’s something we can discuss at a later time. Right now, you need to go babysit your big sister.”

Katie chuckled. “She’s in rare form.” Her expression grew serious. “When you talked to Michael, did he seem upset?”

“He seemed...apathetic, really. Not at all upset she was gone.”

“That’s even worse.” She chewed on her lower lip. “I have a very bad feeling about the two of them. He’s hardly been home since I started staying there. Drags in after dinner. And Savannah’s sleeping on the couch.”

Noah frowned. “I hope they can work it out.” He kissed her forehead. “Go have fun.”

“Thanks for interrupting.”

“My pleasure.” He walked her to the door and kissed her again quickly. Katie was already contemplating the next time she could see him.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

K
ATIE
HERDED
L
OGAN
and Allie through the back door after a trip to the city pool the following day. Normally Savannah took them swimming, but she was paying for her night out in more ways than one. Not only did she admit to a raging headache, but Katie doubted she’d gotten much sleep. She’d heard Savannah arguing with Michael for a good half hour after they’d gotten home.

Not knowing what else to do, Katie had offered to take the kids to lunch and then swimming. They’d been gone for several hours and she hoped that Savannah had grabbed a nap.

But clearly, Savannah hadn’t. And clearly she didn’t feel better.

Katie was the first through the doorway connecting the kitchen to the living room. Her sister was slouched on the most uncomfortable chair in the room, her eyes red and full of tears.

Katie’s stomach dropped. “What’s wrong?” she asked, then quickly held up her index finger and turned to Logan and Allie. “Kids, get your swimsuits off and then head out to the backyard. You can play outside until dinner.”

They were too revved up to pay attention to their mother and bounced through the hallway to their rooms. But Katie had a premonition of disaster.

“Savannah, what’s going on?”

“He left.”

Katie kneeled on the floor in front of her sister. “He left,” she repeated, confused. “Michael? Where’d he go?”

Savannah shrugged. “I don’t know. He left me.”

Understanding dawned. “
Left you
left you? Oh, Van. What happened?”

For the first time in her life, she watched Savannah break into quiet sobs. Katie grasped her hand and rubbed her forearm, her heart aching for her sister.

“Don’t...wanna...talk,” Savannah said between gasps.

Katie soothed her for a long time. When the kids emerged from their rooms, she made sure they went straight outside, blocking Savannah from their sight as best she could. One thing at a time. If Michael had left, the kids would need to know. But not this second.

“Are you sure he’s not coming back?” she asked once the door had slammed. “Maybe he was just mad.”

“He wasn’t mad. He was calm. So horribly calm about walking out the door...with all his clothes in suitcases.” Savannah sniffled loudly, then blew her nose. She sat up straighter. “No more crying.”

“Cry all you want to. Get it out.”

“I’ve been crying for the past two hours. Lot of good it’s done.” Her voice was stronger, as if she was now determined to stay in control. That was more the Savannah Katie knew.

“Did you guys have a fight or what?”

Savannah shook her head, dazed. “I messed it up.”

“Messed what up?”

“My entire freaking marriage.”

“No. You didn’t, Savannah. It takes two.”

Savannah shook her head more emphatically. “Nope. This was all my doing. And now he doesn’t love me anymore.”

“I don’t believe that.” Katie’s response was automatic, but when she thought of the interaction between her sister and Michael lately, she wasn’t so sure she was right. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”

Savannah stood, making a frustrated, angry grunt. She paced across the room and back. “A couple months ago, Michael told me he didn’t love me anymore. It came out of nowhere.”

“I don’t get it. Is he involved with someone else?”

“Not that I know of.” She pulled her long hair up with both hands, sighed deeply and then let it fall again. “He said he can’t stand the way I control every bit of our lives. I’m a control freak.”

“You’ve been a control freak since you were born. He knew that going into your marriage.”

“Yeah, well, apparently at some point he decided he couldn’t live with it.”

“Why now?”

Savannah tried to laugh, but the sound came out bleak and defeated. “He’s grown to resent me so much that he couldn’t stand to stick around any longer. Not even for the kids.”

“Oh, Van.” Katie wanted to hug her sister, but Savannah’s stance told her she wouldn’t be receptive to any kind of contact right now.

“When he first told me all this, I convinced him to stay. We tried counseling a couple of times. But it didn’t work out. The counselor basically said that we had too much to overcome and Michael didn’t have the will to try. He really hates me.”

“Why didn’t he bring this up five years ago, so you wouldn’t end up like this?”

“Oh, he may have tried. He’s told me I’m too controlling before.”

“And?”

“And nothing. I just didn’t realize it was really a matter of, ‘You’re a control freak and you need to change or I’ll come to hate you.’ I know, I’m an idiot.”

“You are not. He should’ve tried harder to make you understand.”

“I should’ve backed off.” Savannah sprawled on the couch. “I thought I was doing it right. He didn’t want me to work until the kids were older. So I made this house my job. Our lives.”

“You’ve been super wife,” Katie admitted. “Look at this place. You do everything, coordinate everything, schedule, cook, clean, plan. Savannah, all he had to do was come home from work and be a part of the family. Was that so horrible?”

Savannah nodded and leaned forward, running her hands through her hair again. Her head was bowed, her face hidden. Katie wondered if she was crying again. Then Savannah pushed back her hair and stood in one quick motion. She strode to the doorway. “I’m so stupid!” As she said the words, she punched the doorjamb with the side of a fist. Hard enough to make Katie flinch and wonder if she’d damaged the wood.

“You’re not stupid, Savannah. If you say that again, I’m going to kick you.”

Savannah slowly turned around to face her, breaking into a semihysterical laugh. “No, you’re not. Because I’m a control freak and you will not touch me!”

Katie wasn’t so good at handling hysteria. “Why don’t we call Lindsey and have her come over?”

“Why? So she can ask me twenty questions? I’m pretty much talked out.”

“Have you spoken to a lawyer at all?”

“Yeah. That was my secret errand in Topeka.”

“You could’ve just told me, you know.”

Savannah’s head drooped and she leaned against the door frame. She held up her hand and was clearly in pain. It was as if she’d just now noticed how much it hurt.

“Your wrist’s already swelling. That’s not good,” Katie said.

Savannah shrugged.

“Go sit down or lie down. Put some ice on it. I’m going to make sure the kids are okay, then we’ll figure out what to do next.”

Katie nearly fell over in shock when Savannah actually did as she’d been told. She hurried to the back door and looked outside. Allie was in the sandbox making a sand castle, and Logan was swinging upside-down on the old metal play set, hollering at his sister, who was ignoring him. All was right in their world. At least for now.

Not so in Katie’s, however. She needed to be the strong one for Savannah. But—the thought of losing Michael from their family, of Savannah losing her husband, of Logan and Allie losing their father...

She leaned against the kitchen wall for support. She hated thinking about all the changes there were likely to be in everyone’s future. Closing her eyes, she forced that line of thought away for now. This wasn’t a good time to lose it.

Straightening, Katie picked up the phone and carried it around the corner, onto the top landing of the basement stairs. She dialed Lindsey and, speaking in a rushed whisper, asked her to come over, telling her only that Michael had walked out.

When she returned to the living room, Savannah was sitting on the edge of the couch, her injured wrist resting in her lap and her attention obviously elsewhere.

“Savannah, we have to have that checked out. Your wrist is already twice its normal size.”

Savannah glanced down at it and shrugged. “What am I going to say to the kids?”

Good question.
“We’ll figure that out. Lindsey’s on her way over, and she’s good at that kind of thing. But first we need to take you to the doctor.”

“You’re just looking for an excuse to see Noah. He’ll love that bikini top.”

Katie laughed in disbelief while realizing she did need to put on some clothes. “I don’t need an excuse. I do, however, have a little experience with injured wrists and I’m thinking that yours could be broken. We’ll take you in.”

“It’s Sunday. They’re not open.”

“I’ll call Noah.”

“I need to talk to the kids.”

“We’ll tell them when we get back. Go wash your face and get a drink.”

“Oh, that’ll solve all my problems.” But Savannah got up and walked tiredly to her bedroom.

“I’m going to change clothes. We’ll leave when Lindsey gets here.”

Katie went downstairs and put on a halter and some shorts, ran a brush through her hair and then headed back upstairs. She heard Lindsey come in the back door.

“Hey,” she said in a hushed voice, trying to catch Lindsey before she got to Savannah. “Thank goodness you’re here.”

“What in the world is going on?” Lindsey asked.

Katie filled her in on the few details she had to work with. “I’m taking her in to have her wrist checked out. Maybe wait till we get back to question her? She’s...not exactly in a talkative mood.”

“I can just imagine. Do the kids know anything yet?”

Katie shook her head no. “I don’t have the first clue about what to say.”

“We’ll take care of that later. Go get her wrist examined.”

The clinic was deserted and Katie was pretty sure that coming in on a Sunday for a minor emergency wasn’t the norm. But when she’d called Noah, he told her to meet him there in fifteen minutes.

“Hello, ladies,” he said, and the private look he gave Katie melted her insides. “What can I do for you?” He led them back to one of the exam rooms.

Katie pointed to Savannah’s wrist. “She punched the doorjamb. Hard.”

“I’m going to throw up.” Savannah bolted out of the room.

“Her husband left her today,” Katie told Noah, when Savannah was out of earshot.

“Your suspicions were right, then.”

“Not even close. I had no idea it was
this
bad.”

“Sounds like she’s taking it hard.”

“That’d be an understatement. Savannah has a huge amount of pride. I expect that’s hurting her as much as suddenly being alone, a single parent. A divorcée-to-be. I don’t think those things have even hit her yet.”

“How are you holding up?” His voice was so gentle and caring, she shivered.

“I’m okay. Well, a little messed up, but I’ll be okay.”

“Messed up?”

Katie stood and stuck her head out the door to see if she could spot Savannah. “They’ve been together forever. Michael’s always been like an older brother to me. Especially when I was still living at home.” She stuck her hands in the back pockets of her shorts. “If
they
can’t make it work...” She shook her head, not wanting to voice the thought that maybe no one could.

Noah could see that this was weighing on Katie more than she admitted. He couldn’t relate to what she was going through, being an only child and having had no experience with divorce, but just from spending time with her family on her birthday, he knew Savannah’s failed marriage would affect every single one of the Salingers.

His main concern was Katie, though. And Savannah’s wrist, of course. But Noah hated to see Katie so sad and so involved in her sister’s problems.

He was just about to move closer and give her a hug, when Savannah burst back into the room.

“Let’s get this over with. I need to get out of here,” she said, climbing up on the table and holding out her arm.

* * *

K
ATIE
WAS
DRAINED
. She, Lindsey and Savannah had just tried to explain to Logan and Allie what was happening, and it had been even more difficult than they’d expected it to be. Logan was still wailing and Allie had lapsed into an eerie silence. Katie held the little boy and let him sob against her shoulder, her heart aching. The agony of losing a parent had come rushing back to her. It didn’t seem to matter much that Michael wasn’t dead and that he could still have contact with the kids. Logan and Allie’s world would never be quite the same again.

Savannah looked as if she were about to collapse. Noah had given her some pain pills and a temporary wrap, and he’d suggested she keep ice on her wrist to reduce the swelling. The X-ray hadn’t shown any break, however, so she was lucky in that regard.

“Why don’t you go lie down?” Katie said to her. “Those pills will make you drowsy and you look about ready to fall over.”

Savannah nodded, her eyes glazed. She came over and took Logan from Katie’s arms and carried him into the living room, away from the others. Katie heard her talking quietly to her son and eventually he stopped crying enough to listen.

Savannah was a good mother, more so than Katie had ever expected her to be. Growing up, she’d been the least nurturing, the least caring, of the three sisters. She still sometimes came across that way to outsiders, but her children were the be-all and end-all of her existence and she would do anything for them. Katie just hoped they would come through this okay. Maybe coddling her kids would help Savannah to cope, as well.

Someone knocked on the front door and Katie jumped. “I’ll get it,” she called, not wanting anything to disturb Logan’s time with Savannah.

Noah stood on the front porch. “Hello,” he said.

“Hey.” Katie came all the way outside, closing the door gently behind her.

“How’s the war scene?”

“Kind of ugly. We told the kids not too long ago.”

“You look worn out. I’m guessing you’ve had a long day.”

She smiled slightly at the understatement. “You could say that.”

“Have you eaten yet?”

Katie shook her head.

“Is Lindsey still here?”

“Yep, she’s with Allie right now, who’s giving us all the silent treatment.”

Noah frowned. “She’s at an age where it’ll be especially tough.”

“What age isn’t tough to have your parents break up?”

“That’s a good point.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Why don’t you come with me? Get away from things for a while. We’ll grab some dinner.”