Dakota Love (15 page)

Soft fingers slid down his cheek, resting at his chin. Her thumb kneaded his cleft. “I’ll be waiting.”

Michelle stopped digging through her purse when Rodney slid behind the wheel of the pickup.

“I know you wanted to dress Jason down, but I don’t think that would have helped the situation.”

Here it comes
. Rodney backed out of the driveway and drove toward his house. He braced for Michelle’s harsh words, reminding him that had he interacted with his own family, he’d know how to act in these situations.

Instead Michelle reached over and squeezed Rodney’s forearm. “Rodney?”

“That boy needs a lecture on how to treat his mother.” Rodney spat out the words. “Caroline deserves his respect.”
So did your mom
. Rodney’s heart sank. He might not have yelled at his mother, but he’d mistreated her in other ways. Never visiting, not really being present when he did visit, and not caring about her day-to-day well-being.

“I know you care about Caroline, but you need to go easy on Jason. A lot has changed in that young man’s life in a very short time.”

Pursing his lips, Rodney nodded.

“Speaking of caring about Caroline, have you told her about your heart attack yet?”

Rodney pulled into his driveway and parked beside Michelle’s vehicle. “No.”

“This may not be the best timing, but you need to clear the air about that
today
.”

Although Michelle stressed the last word to emphasize the immediacy of the topic, there was a tenderness in her tone that touched Rodney deep in his soul.

She was right, and Rodney knew it. The protectiveness that surged through him earlier confirmed to him, and obviously to Michelle, too, that he’d passed the attraction stage and developed deeper feelings for Caroline. Judging by Caroline’s decision, the feeling was mutual.

Michelle removed her keys from her purse. “Promise me that you’ll tell her about your previous health issues?”

“I will.” Rodney ached to get back to Caroline. He just hoped in fifteen short minutes, she hadn’t changed her mind.

As soon as Michelle was safely in her vehicle, Rodney backed out of the driveway.

The short trip back to Caroline’s house seemed endless as he imagined the worst. Doubts tormenting her. Sobbing for her son. Regretting the choice she just made. No, the choice he’d forced her to make. He practically ran into the house.

“Caroline.”

“Down here.” Her voice held a pleasant lilt.

Rodney found her sitting in her chair, holding the mangled block from his quilt.

She smoothed it across her knees, then looked up at Rodney. Her eyes clear of tears, her features serene, she smiled.

Rodney knelt beside Caroline. “I don’t understand. I thought you’d be…” Rodney fumbled for a word. He wanted to choose wisely.

“Upset? Embarrassed? I am, but I’ve lived through worse, and as silly as this will sound, your Lily of the Field quilt brings me peace.” She traced the pattern in the block with her fingers. “Several phrases from the verse in Matthew pop into my head when I work on it. A reminder to me that if God will take care of a lily in a field, I need to stop worrying, because He’ll certainly take care of me. I’d sure like to know this quilt’s story, why the maker chose this block.”

“I’m working on it.”

“I know you are.”

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“No.” Caroline rose and laid the block on the worktable. She walked over to the coffee carafe and held it up in question to Rodney. “Shall I pour you one, too?”

“Sure.”

She added creamer to Rodney’s before she gave him the cup of steaming liquid and motioned for him to sit in the chair. She slipped onto the table with her legs dangling over the side like a child on a bleacher. She sipped her coffee.

“I knew Jason didn’t like the idea of me dating. He told me that about a month ago.” She laughed. “Before we’d even had a date. What bothers me is how angry he was that I set Ted’s pictures back out. I believe now that he’s in some stage of grieving. I’ll call Angela tomorrow to discuss it.”

“I’m sorry I put you on the spot and made you choose. I didn’t like Jason’s patronizing tone.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Caroline, I’d never want you to choose me over your son.”

“I know. And I didn’t really.” She laughed again. “I mean I did, but I didn’t.”

She picked him, but not really? What did that mean? Confused, Rodney frowned.

“Tell her.”
Michelle’s instructions echoed in his mind. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay, but I read the confused look on your face, so I want to explain. For a long time now, I’ve just been going through the motions at church. Not participating, not paying attention, threatening God that I’d stop going…but something, habit maybe, kept me attending worship, although I got very little out of it. Then on our date you asked what I thought of the sermon. Remember?”

“Yes. You said ‘interesting.’ ”

“Because it was a safe word. I had no idea what the pastor had spoken about that Sunday. After that day, I made a vow to pay attention. So ask me what I thought of today’s sermon.” Caroline took a drink of her coffee.

Rodney leaned back in the chair, stretched out his legs, and crossed them at the ankle. He played along. “What did you think about the sermon today?”

“Life-changing.”

“Seems to me it was the run-of-the-mill get-ready-for-the-Easter-season type of sermon. One I’m sure you’ve heard a hundred times before.” Rodney drained his cup. “When you were paying attention.” He winked.

“You’re right.” Caroline chuckled. “I’ve heard it a hundred times before, but I took it to heart today. The sermon was about new beginnings. I felt it was aimed at me. I started a new business. I’ve met a new person.” She grinned when she pointed at him. “And since Ted died, I’ll never have my old life back, so it’s time to make a change there, too. I didn’t choose you over Jason, Rodney. I chose you because it’s time for a new beginning for me.”

“That’s why you’re not angry or sad or worried over what happened here today?”

“Well, I am, but I’ve decided to not let it consume me.” Caroline set her mug on the table beside her and rubbed her palms up and down the legs of her jeans. “I’ve let life’s curves weigh me down too long. Now what did you want to tell me?”

Rodney had noticed the signs of worry showed less frequently. Full of himself, he thought he’d brought about her change in attitude. Her admission of the Lord’s working in her life humbled him. The Lord had squelched his arrogance once before by sending him a wake-up call in the form of a mild heart attack, which he needed to tell Caroline about.

He searched Caroline’s peaceful face. Her eyes full of trust. Her smile beaming, she radiated joy. It was the happiest he’d ever seen her. She raised her eyebrows in a gesture of encouragement.

Rodney knew he had to tell her about his health. But he couldn’t do it. Not today.

C
aroline’s caller ID flashed Rodney’s number as the phone rang. She laid her devotional Bible on the coffee table.

“Hello?” Caroline smiled and hoped it reflected in her voice. She wanted Rodney to know she was happy to hear from him.

“Hi. Mark just called, and my fabric came in today. Since it’s not snowing, I don’t have to work, so I wondered if you could spare an afternoon and go to Sioux Falls with me.”

Caroline mentally checked off which projects she had left to finish and their stages of completion. Taking an afternoon off wouldn’t put her far behind.

“That should work fine for me. I have another quilt of Mark’s to drop off and the agenda for the evening quilting class for him to review.”

“I’ll be right over.”

“Give me fifteen minutes?”

“Okay, but not one minute more.” Rodney chuckled as they said their good-byes.

True to his word, he knocked, then entered the side door in exactly fifteen minutes.

Caroline pushed in the final hairpin to hold her updo in place as she entered the kitchen. Since Rodney’s compliment on their first date, she’d begun to experiment with different updo styles. Today she’d twisted her hair into a bun at the nape of her neck.

“You’re getting better. You’re making it as far as the kitchen now.” She’d asked him several times to make himself at home and just walk into her house.

Rodney shrugged. “I don’t want to interrupt anything.”

“Like a customer’s car not in the driveway wouldn’t be a huge indication?” Caroline raised her brows to emphasize her point.

“Touché.” Rodney bowed his defeat.

She thought the possibility of another confrontation with Jason fueled Rodney’s apprehension about just walking into the house, even though the last one had been a month ago. She’d spoken with Angela often, but her conversations with Jason were still strained. However, they were still talking and she knew eventually they’d resolve their differences.

Rodney straightened. “You are the only woman I know who can look great on short notice.” Merriment twinkled in Rodney’s eyes, but the appreciation in the expression on his face deepened the warmth on her cheeks, making her glad she’d tried a different style with her hair.

Although they had a standing joke about his spontaneity in asking her out, Caroline welcomed his impromptu calls. They made life interesting. Since his standard of dress involved jeans and either a sweatshirt or flannel shirt (today it was the latter in red-and-black plaid), she started each day accessorizing her own jeans with a sweater or fleece top so she’d be ready for any spur-of-the-moment plans.

“Are you ready?” Rodney removed her white parka from the chair and held it up for her to slip into.

“I am.” She zipped her coat over her green fleece pullover. It hadn’t been snowing, but the early March temps hovered in the twenties.

Rodney picked up a shopping bag. “See, I know the drill. You never go to or leave Granny Bea’s empty-handed.” He stepped into the entryway.

Caroline grabbed her tote bag, double-checked that her wallet and class schedule were inside, and followed behind.

“My lady.” Rodney held the door and bowed as Caroline stepped into the brisk air.

Once they were settled in the pickup cab, Caroline asked, “Did you receive that picture of your quilt yet?”

Rodney shook his head. “She decided to take the picture in and have a reprint made. That way we wouldn’t have to send it back. Maybe it’ll be in today’s mail. Aunt Jenny thinks our great-grandmother made the quilt in the picture.”

“So it would be an heirloom quilt.”

“Yes.” Rodney glanced her way for a few seconds. “The picture is black-and-white. The quilt is folded over a couch like a throw in the picture. That’s why Aunt Jenny can’t tell. Her eyesight isn’t good enough to see detail in background objects, and her memory isn’t good enough to recall the quilt’s color.”

“The idea of it being an heirloom quilt would explain the tattered block.” Caroline pulled it out of her bag. She ran her fingertips over the grease marks as she looked across a barren soybean field to a fence line dotted with snow patches. “She’d have used a wringer washer for sure. I brought this along to make sure the fabric was a close match.”

“And that, my dear, is why you are the Queen of Quilts.”

Joy at hearing her nickname bubbled a giggle out of Caroline. “You know, I thought of that during the pastor’s sermon last Sunday.”

Rodney smiled. “When he referred to Proverbs 31? ‘She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.’ ”

“That was it.”

“I thought of it, too.”

That Bible verse referred to traits found in a noble wife. Occasionally Caroline had daydreamed about being Rodney’s wife. A few months ago she’d have worried if that was proper. Now she took it for what it was—a fleeting hope. Caroline traced a triangular shape in the quilt block with her finger, drawing in the peace that came over her when she worked on Rodney’s quilt. Was God talking to her through this covering? Crazy as it may seem, these lilies of the field were teaching her to stop toiling and spinning.

“May I share something with you?”

Rodney reached his hand over and wrapped his fingers around hers, his body language the only answer she needed.

“I talked to the pastor and asked if there was a place for me to start helping during service again.”

Although Rodney didn’t look at her, he smiled and his grip tightened. His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he spoke. “That is wonderful.”

“It’s thanks to you, you know.” She wiggled her fingers until his entwined with hers. “You believed in my business, and…” She stopped. She’d shared the calming effect his quilt had over her. Would he understand this quilt was teaching her more than restoration techniques?

“And?”

She couldn’t take the risk of Rodney not understanding the lessons this quilt, made many years ago, had been teaching her. It’d be her secret for a while longer. “And my abilities, and that gave me self-confidence,” she added in haste. “Not to mention all the help you’ve given me on my website.”

The change of subject was intentional. She’d been bursting to tell him her news anyway. “Without that I’d never have snagged the contract from that quilt boutique.”