Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (46 page)

“W
hat happened
?” Maggie asked the question before I got it out.

“Like a fool
,
I touched a hot
doorknob. What about this storm
?”
A relieved
smile took the edge off his expression.

I bit the inside of my cheek
.
“Getting the leather pouch?” He didn
’t need to answer
.
“You could’ve been hurt if the gas lines had
blown.” I inhaled deeper than normal
and
forced away
the
horrible visions
of what could’ve happened
.

“You
r shops are nearer the center
and didn’t sustain as much damage
as the o
nes on this end. Where are
the
dogs
?”

“At my house. Not sure
how
Wolf
would
react to this
.”

“You won’t
be allowed in
to the shops
until tomorrow. G
o
to your house
and r
elax. I’m heading home to catch a few hours
’
sleep.” He gave Maggie a quick hug and pulled me into his arms. He looked into my face. “I love you.”

My emotions overflowed
.
I laid my head agains
t his chest
,
unable to speak
.
I was surprised when
Maggie turn
ed
away.
Did she still worry
I would ultimately hurt
Logan
?
I hope
d
her fears
would never come to fruition
.

Chapter
Thirty-nine

In response to a
gut impulse,
I
flipped the truck around
and made the trek
to
Mariner Bay
Hospital. S
everal others
were
in the wait
ing room, i
ncluding
Alec
and Ted
.

“Any news?
”
I nabbed
a seat near
Alec
.

Alec
grasped his thighs with his h
ands. “Vitals aren’t good. B
lood pressure keeps dropping.”

Brandon
’s wife
, Rachel,
came in to the
sitting area
.
“I appreciate you guys being here. He surprised the doctors and regained conscious
ness. He’s in survival mode, and
I’m right there w
ith him. Keep praying. All of you
go home and sleep—
you’ve bee
n up all night.” Other than the darkness around her eyes
, she looked the same as she had
in high school. W
hen she strolled down the halls, the guys
made
sly turn
s
to watch the blond beauty
walk away. She
’d only known
one young man
existed—
Brandon
.

Ted
nodded at
Alec
. “Catch a ride with
Logan
. I’m
stay
ing
.” Ted
and
Brandon
had been
tight
since childhood.

Alec
clamped
his hand
on
Ted’s shoulder. “Need
me here
?”

He shook his head.
“Like Rachel
asked.” He
sc
rubbed a hand across his face.
“Keep praying.
I’m going to sit with the fam
ily. Pastor Jim is with them
now
.”

Alec
and
I
left the hospital. When we
hit the stretch between the tw
o towns,
around the halfway point
,
w
e stopped at a tiny
cafe
for caffeine
.
An hour later
,
we passed the Serenity Cove city limits sign.

Back at the
station
,
we
check
ed
for an
update on the fire
. The
danger of an
other fla
r
e
-
up had passed. High fiv
es circulated through the room
.
I nodded
bye
to
Alec
, but
before
I made it out the door,
Nicole caught up with me.

“We have the culprits that started the blaze.”

“Let’s talk.” I waved her
into my office. “Shoot.”

“The Thompson boys found
left
o
ver fireworks in their
family’s
garage
,
evidently decided th
e vacant field behind the shops
was a good place to play with them
.
”

“
Awfully young. W
here are they
?”

“Only t
en
and
eleven
. We took their statements,
and
then
released them to the
parents
for now.”

“I’ll talk with
Judge Don
aldson, see what he thinks. The
fire
wasn’t intentional
—but they need to understand the consequences of their actions.”

“I understand, sir. For now
,
their parents have a
greed to total restriction. The
boys will be kept inside until further notice.”

I let out a heavy breath. “Good
job
. Okay, I’m out of here.”

Finally home,
I dropped into bed and succumbed to the world of sleep.

Several hours later,
Dorthea’s sq
ueaky voice interrupted my slumber
marathon. She
wore a
headset attached to her
iPod
and sang as she cleaned—giving the term
sa
ng
a new definition
. She hit unheard
of notes, a
nd I wouldn’t have any other way—Dorthea
was a jewel
. I roamed into
the
kitchen in search of coffee
,
took a mug and
the
pot
out to the deck.

I
check
ed
my messages. According to
Alec
, t
he owners
had been allowed
back
into their shops. More important,
Brandon
had
been upgraded to satisfactory condition
. I stared out at the s
ea wi
th waves breaking over the rocks
,
sending up sprays of white foam.
I had to give
John
one more shot.

A while
later
,
I
roared into
John
’s driveway,
waited
fo
r him to come out
before climbing
out of the truck.

“I want
you off my property
.” He stood
,
holding on
to the screen.
The redness on
his neck crept up to his face.

“
John
,
we need to talk.” I stepped on his
porch
and chose a chair near where
I knew
he liked to sit.

He s
lumped into the rocker. “Doesn’t t
his
border on
police brutality?”

“I’m not in unif
orm and I’m not here on police
business.
John
,
Samantha
is your granddaughter. Den
ying it doesn’t change the fact
.”

“That choice was
made
long
ago—why can’t you let it
be?”
Frustration filled his voice.

“
John
, your DNA
flows in her veins—she’s
Anne
’s daughter. If I understand correctly,
she’s the only family you and Elizabeth have.”

“She may have my genes
—
but they’ve
b
een tainted by a worthless
…”

“
John
,
you don’t believe that. She’s
amazing
.” I ru
bbed my sweaty palms on my pants.

“You can’t
breed a thoroughbred with a plain old
horse—or the offspring can’t be cal
led a thoroughbred.
Anne
disgraced
this family.”

“
Anne
didn’t shame your family. She
loved and wanted her daughte
r.” I fought back the urge to raise my voice to match his.

“I tried to keep the town
from knowin
g what
she did
t
o kee
p the shame
from
destroying our
family
.
”

“Elizabeth wants to see
Samantha
.”

“Liz
is a sick
woman.
I have to look out for her.
” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and
mopped his forehead
.
“
W
e t
alked. Now
I want you to leave
.”

The flush on his
face
concerned me.
“
John
, are you a praying man?”

“I believe in God
.
I read scriptures to Liz
.”

“Will you ag
ree to pray about seeing
Samantha
?
”

He
pushed up out of his chair and
went back inside
.
T
he lock clicked
into place
.
I
noticed the drape move—h
ad
E
lizabeth been listening?

“Father, we haven’t been on the best of terms and I’m sorry. Please soften
John
’s heart so he can embrace his granddaughter.
Samantha
can’t move forward while being shunned by her
own
family. Thank you, Father.”
I stood there
, unsure what had come
over me—this was not something I was accustomed to doing.

I heard the
screech as
the screen door open
ed
.
John
held it
and stepped back on the porch. “How do you explain my daughter
’
s betrayal? I spent my
entire
life workin
g
this land
and
she
stole it.”

He’d thrown m
e a curve
.
“She stole it?”

“
When her mom had her stroke,
Anne
said
we needed to put
the property in her name
. S
he
gave it away.
”

I didn’t mo
ve. I wanted to hear what he had to say
.

The weight of his body dropped
back onto
the rocker.
“
O
nce
Anne
bought the bookshop and
moved out of this house
,
sh
e moved out of our lives.”
He sat quietly for a moment
.
“
I loved my daughter.
Elizabeth and I had saved money so
Anne
could go to college
—she wanted to be a writer
. I thought adopti
on would give her back her life. I was wrong, b
ut I can’t go back—I can’t
undo the past
. And I
don’t want Liz hurt again when this
so
-
called
granddaughter decides she doesn’t want anything to do with us
,
either. It would break Liz’s heart.” He paused an
d slid his hand across his eyes
.