Escaping the Past (Wester Farms) (13 page)

She yawned and nodded. “I’m ready when you are.”

They walked side by side out of the barn. Lou stopped and sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”

“What? The hay?” Brody could smell the clean scent of damp earth after a heavy rain. He watched her sniff for another scent she couldn’t recognize.

“No. It’s something else.” She sniffed again. “It’s probably nothing.” She shook her head to clear it as they walked to the house.

Neither of them recognized the smell of cherry cigar that was carried off by the breeze.

Chapter Eleven

Brody and Lou walked through the backdoor into a dark house. The power was still off. Jeb, Sadie
,
and John all sat around the kitchen table playing cards by candlelight. John had one leg resting on a pillow in a chair across from him. They all looked up as the door opened.

“Well, look who found their way home!” Sadie exclaimed.

Lou asked, “Is everything okay? Where’s Sarah?”

“Soon as the thunder stopped, she crawled on our bed and fell asleep,” Sadie replied. “Poor thing was tuckered out.”

John looked up and grinned
.
“What happened to y’all?”

“We got caught out in the rain getting in the last bed of hay. It was raining too hard to run back to the house, so we stayed put. We put the tarps over it just before the bottom dropped out of the sky, and then drove the truck into the south barn to keep it dry.”

Lou coughed loudly. “We drove the truck into the barn?” She smiled broadly.

Brody pretended to mumble, his head hung low in false dejection. “Ok, Lou drove the truck into the barn…” He patted her on the shoulder. “And did a good job with it, too,” he added for good measure.

Brody went to the pantry and took out a loaf of bread, mustard
,
and a jar of pickles. Then he went to the fridge and grabbed ham and cheese. Lou’s stomach growled as she realized they had missed dinner. Brody heard it and laughed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make one for you, too,” he chided.

Jeb rubbed his eyes. “I sure am glad we got all that hay up before the rain.”

“You told me this morning it would rain today and I didn’t believe you,” Brody replied, shaking his head.

“When you get to be as old as me, boy, you’ll be able to predict the rain, too,” was his only response.

“I don’t think I’ve worked that hard in years, Jeb
.
” Brody sighed as he pulled two of Sadie’s prized dill pickles out of a jar and placed them on the plates beside the sandwiches.

“Speaking of working hard, those two fellas that helped with the hay did a real good job. We had two stable hands out with the flu so I asked them to stay on for another week. They will both be back on Monday and’ll work ‘til Friday,” Jeb said.

“Just so you know, the next time I see John turn around to look at a pretty lady, I’m going to deck him. So, you guys be forewarned,” Brody said with a venomous look in John’s direction.

“Brody, if you had seen her…” John began.

“Save it, John,” Brody chuckled. Then he asked, “Sadie, is Mom
okay
with the power out?”

“I just checked on her. Lola is sleeping in there tonight and all her machines are on battery power. She should be just fine. You could go and see her
,
but she would just sleep right through it.”

“I won’t bother her, then.”

“Guys, I hate to do it, but I think I’m going to get Sarah to bed and eat my sandwich upstairs. I’m tired,” Lou said as she stretched slowly. “I’ll carry her up and then I’ll come back for it.”

Brody asked, “You said she’s a deep sleeper. Will she stay asleep if I go and pick her up? If so, I’ll carry her while you carry the food and a couple of flashlights.”

Lou smiled her thanks and shrugged her aching shoulders. “If you don’t mind, that would be great. She always feels heavier when she’s asleep.”

Lou followed Brody to Jeb and Sadie’s room, guided by a flashlight, and pulled the covers back. Sarah stirred but didn
’
t wake. Brody picked her up gently and held her against his chest. Her legs automatically wrapped around his waist as her arms encircled his neck. “She hangs on like a leech, huh?” he asked, slightly uncomfortable.

“If it’s too much trouble, I’ll carry her myself,” Lou stated, her hands on her hips.

“Don’t go getting your back up, Lou.” He grunted as he shifted her. “I got her.”

Lou brushed the dark hair from Sarah’s eyes and Sarah snuggled deeper into Brody’s chest. Brody followed Lou and the light back down the hallway. When they got to the kitchen, Lou grabbed two bottles of water, the two plates
,
and another flashlight.

“Night, guys,” she called over her shoulder, as they started at the stairs.

“Night,” three voices chimed back.

Lou followed Brody up the stairs, shining the flashlight in his path. “Don’t drop my baby,” she requested.

“If you’ll keep that light on the stairs, I won’t,” he grunted.

Lou perfected her aim and Brody sighed his thanks.

She opened the door to her bedroom, laid the plates on her desk
,
and led him through the bathroom to the adjoining nursery. The room had been converted to a little girl’s dream room when Sarah was four and was “too big for baby stuff.” The room was now full of pink frills, princesses
,
and lace. It was beautiful even though it was shrouded in shadows. Ballet tutus had been sewn by Sadie and served as valances on the windows. A bookshelf donned one wall with its lower shelves full of books and the upper shelves filled with fragile trinkets Sarah loved.

Lou pulled back the covers and sheets and Brody gently laid Sarah down. She never moved but sighed loudly as he moved away. Lou pulled just the sheets up to her chin because it was a warm night and kissed her on the forehead. She placed an extra flashlight on the nightstand by the bed. She left it on just in case Sarah woke and was confused.

They walked back into Lou’s room and Brody picked up his plate and bottle of water. Lou said, “Thanks for bringing her up. She’s heavier than she looks.”

“Tell me about it,” Brody pretended to flex his back.

“You stop,” Lou teased as she touched his arm.

Brody gestured to her plate that still lay on the desk. “Come out on the porch and eat with me?”

“Sure…why not?”
S
he followed him through the door and onto the porch. They sat, side by side, in the rocking chairs. Lou dove into her sandwich with relish. Brody laughed at her antics and did the same.

“Where did you learn to be such a good mother?” he asked out of the blue, his mouth full of sandwich.

“I didn’t know I was one,” Lou replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I just do the best I can. It’s hard for her, sometimes, not having a dad. But, most of the time, she has enough family to make up for it. I didn’t know squat when she and I first came here. Sadie had to teach me a lot.”

“You learned from the best, then.”

“Absolutely.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes.

“How long do you plan to stay, Brody? I mean…afterward.”

“Not long. I have a life and work to get back to. I love it here and wish I could stay longer, but all I have ever wanted to be is a doctor. Back home, I get to be a doctor while I never could be one here.”

“Why couldn’t you be one here?”

“My dad wouldn
’
t allow it. No son of his was going to waste his time doctoring when there was real work to be done. So, he took away my choice. He said I could either be his son or I could be a doctor. I couldn’t let him take my choice away
,
so I let him take my family instead.”

“Was it worth it?” she asked gently.

“I have always thought so but, being back here, I’m not so sure. I do know though that I still won’t let anyone take my choices away from me.”

“Having Sarah wasn’t a choice I would have made for myself, either. Just so you know.” She looked almost guilty as she said it. “Those first few days, I wasn’t sure if I could make it. I was tired, irritable and overwhelmed. But it was all worth it. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m glad that’s one choice I didn’t have. It seemed like it was just thrust into my lap. Second best thing that ever happened to me was finding this family.”

She munched on her pickle after the sandwich disappeared from her plate. She looked over at his plate. “You going to eat that pickle?”

“I was planning on it,” he replied.

“Sure?”
S
he ogled it some more.

“Oh, here! Good grief!” He passed it over. “Who could resist you with those sad
,
little puppy dog eyes?”
H
e paused briefly. Then his tone changed. “You do have beautiful eyes, you know.”

She stopped in mid-bite. “My eyes are ordinary. They’re brown—plain, ol
’
, ordinary brown. When I was young, I wanted blue eyes or glasses
,
anything that would make me stand out.”

He appraised her from head to toe. “You stand out pretty well, already, Lou.”

“Stop. I mean it. I’m ordinary.”

He grabbed her chin lightly with his hand and tipped her face toward the moonlight. “In this light, they are the color of mahogany. That deep and dark wood has a ton of strength and can withstand almost anything you throw at it. That’s what you remind me of.”

Lou snorted. “My mother always said I had eyes the color of a beer bottle.”

Brody laughed loudly. “A beer bottle? Boy, was she imaginative! That’s about as flattering as comparing them to an A-1
S
teak
S
auce bottle, huh?” His look became more serious. “She wasn’t thinking clearly. It is really what’s behind the eyes that matter.”

His steely gray eyes met hers. Lou looked away nervously. Brody lightened the mood by leaning back in his rocker and singing out the lyrics to Brown Eyed Girl.

Lou grinned wildly. “God, I love that song! I always thought it was written just for me.”

He stopped singing momentarily. “Did a lot of laughing and running, skipping and jumping, huh? Or was it hearts a-thumping?” he joked.

“Laughing and running. I never did a lot of hearts a-thumping.”
Not ‘til recently
, she thought.

“I bet you danced to that song at every school dance,” he teased.

“Nope. Never danced to it even once,” she responded.

He got up from his chair and extended a hand to her. “We’ll just have to change that, won’t we?”

“Oh, no. Absolutely not!”
S
he laughed nervously.

“Come on…I can tell you want to.” He took her hand and gently pulled her from the chair. She rose cautiously and regarded him from beneath lowered lashes.

Brody started to sing quietly as he pulled her close to him. He held one hand in his and put the other on his shoulder. He pulled her close, but not close enough that their bodies touched. He swayed with her to the tune in his head.

Lou, slightly embarrassed, looked down at her feet. He touched her chin with one hand and brought her eyes back up to meet his. He smiled softly.

He saw resolution return to her face as her voice tentatively met his on the chorus.

“Now, you’re getting the hang of it,” he said, laughing gently as they swayed as softly and slowly as the breeze.

He stopped singing, stopped dancing. He pulled her a little closer to him and raised her hand, still held in his palm, to his shoulder.
Then b
oth of his larger hands circled her waist. “This is that awkward moment when you can’t figure out whether or not to let the girl go.”