Faith Hope and Love (A Homespun Romance) (6 page)

Dr. Kenton's office was right on the outskirts of town.  A nurse bore Rachel away for tests a few minutes after they stepped in.  Then Dr. Kenton examined her.  By the time she got dressed again and went into his office, he and Luke were chatting pleasantly.

"Ms. Carstairs, the news isn't bad," the older man smiled reassuringly across the table.  With his white hair and tanned skin he looked more like a prosperous rancher than a doctor.  "It isn't too good either."

"What's wrong?"  She'd always taken her health for granted.

"Have you been ill recently?"

Rachel thought back.  "I had a bout with amoebic dysentery in the summer but I got over it really quickly."

Dr. Kenton frowned at the charts on his desk, "Well, apparently your body doesn't agree.  Your hemoglobin count is very low.  You're not well enough to go back to Bangladesh."

"Not well enough....."  Rachel stared at the elderly man in disbelief.  "There has to be some mistake." 

"I'm afraid not.  You need rest, relaxation and more rest.  I'm going to prescribe a vitamin and iron supplement.  If we find anything else out from the rest of your lab work we'll be in touch.  Otherwise I'd like you to take things real easy and report back here in a fortnight.  With your background I'm sure I don't have to go over iron rich foods with you.  Include plenty of them in your diet."

They were on the road back to the ranch before Rachel realized the direction they were headed in.  A sign for Mrs. Kelly's teas confirmed it.  She'd noticed it on the way out.

"Why are we going back to the ranch?"  If her memory served right the sign was some sort of halfway point.  Well, this was one time Luke Summers wouldn't get his own way.  He had to turn around even if it took him the rest of the day to get home.

He hadn't said much since they'd left the doctor's office.  Now he looked at her briefly, "You heard what the doctor said.  You need rest and relaxation."

"I can rest in L.A." 

The diagnosis had surprised her.  MRA always insisted on frequent, thorough
checkups.  With all that had been going on in Bangladesh the last couple of months Tim hadn't even mentioned the usual checkups but in September he had told her everything was normal.

"In a motel room?"  Luke's voice told her what he thought of those.  A vision of yellow cabbage roses on a brown and green background came to mind and Rachel knew she wasn't very keen on the idea herself.  "Your lungs need fresh air, not smog."

"MRA has a hostel I can stay in."

"Hannah wouldn't forgive me if I let you go in this condition."

"I can't impose on you any longer."

He didn't answer. 

Duty, thought Rachel.  He thinks it's his duty to take me back to the ranch. 

"Luke I have to get to L.A. today."  Getting away was imperative.

"Why?"  He asked reasonably.  "There's no way you can go back abroad right away.  The Diamond Bar is as good a place to convalesce as any."

"I can't go back." 

"You can."

He didn't know a thing.  This big man who seemed to think life came in orderly little packets marked simple and happy.

"No."

"Yes."

Rachel bit her lip and stared out of the window in frustration.  She couldn't afford to lose her temper with him now.  There was too much at stake here.  Rapidly her brain searched for the best approach to take.  Stubborn men had to be coaxed not prodded.  How on earth did one do that?

"Whatever you're scared of, has to be faced." Rachel couldn't believe she was hearing the words.  "It's the only way."

Inexplicable moisture seeped into her eyes.  He knew she was running away?  With the exception of Christina no one had ever been able to tell what was going on inside her mind.  No one had cared.

Luke Summers made life sound so easy.  Maybe he was right.  Maybe it was time to gather her courage for one more shot at happiness.

A part of Rachel's heart, covered for years with thick layers of rejection, sent out a frail shoot of hope.  She looked at the hills.  The mists had vanished.  Sunshine caressed the slopes like an omen.

CHAPTER
4

The next instant Rachel knew she couldn't let herself be fooled by kindness.  That's all she was being offered.  Translating hospitality and compassion into anything else was opening the door to trouble.

"Just for a day or two," ceded Rachel.  Sometimes one had to surrender a battle to win a war.

"Yes."

"I need a change of clothes."  The pink suit had been cleaned and pressed but she couldn't wear it indefinitely.

If they'd had this discussion sooner she could have bought a few things in town.  Now it was too late.

The jerk of Luke's head directed her to the back of the
pickup.  Rachel's eyes widened at the sight of two plastic bags there next to the brown grocery bags.  The name of a well-known department store leaped out at her.  He had gone shopping for her?  An inexplicable tremulous warmth flared in the pit of Rachel's stomach.

"I got you a few things."  There was nothing in his tone that implied it was anything more than just another detail he'd seen to.  "The rest you can order through catalogs. 
Hannah and Theresa have enough catalogs to paper the Empire State Building from top to bottom.  When you're better we'll go down to L.A., for a real shopping spree."

Rachel's breath got stuck halfway in her windpipe.  When you're better.  Real shopping spree.  His words insinuated more than she could handle.  Permanence, forever, always.  That was impossible.  She had to remember her stay at the Diamond Bar was a temporary thing, the whim of a stubborn man.  To imagine anything else would be weak and Rachel always stamped out all weaknesses before they germinated.  Life was less complicated that way. 

A few days at the Diamond Bar and then she would leave.

Hannah was overjoyed to have her back.  "We'll take good care of you," she promised, her smile making her eyes almost disappear.  "In no time you'll be as fit as a fiddle."

Smiling weakly Rachel refused an offer of tea and a Danish.  "If you don't mind, I'll go to my room for a while."  She needed to sort her thoughts out.

"Of course," Hannah said briskly.  "The drive has worn you out."

Luke took a step forward and Rachel moved back quickly, afraid he was going to carry her there. 

His eyes glinted as he read her expression correctly.  "Let me show you to your room."

"I know the way to my room."  Had the doctor told him something else about her that she didn't know?

"That's the guest room."  A warm hand cupped her elbow and steered her in the opposite direction.  "You'll be more comfortable in this one."

She couldn't remember walking down the hallway or entering the big, bright room.  All she was conscious of was heat pouring into her veins, the point of entry, her elbow.

"I'm perfectly fine where I am."

"Jason the ranch accountant and a friend, uses the guest room when I'm not here," Luke continued as if she hadn't spoken.  "Sometimes, if Hannah’s not well Angela spends the night with us.  This room has a telephone, your own TV and computer, an attached bathroom and a nicer view."

It also had closets the size of a jumbo jet.

"Thank you."

Luke nodded.  "Make yourself at home.  Ask Hannah for anything you need.  Someone or other goes into town every day.  All you have to do is give Hannah a list of what you want and it'll be here the same day."

"Thank you."  The chorus sounded monotonous even to her but there was nothing else she could say.  He was like a powerful current.  One she didn't have the strength to fight.

"Have a small nap before lunch," he suggested.  "Marie will bring you a tray here.  Another day in bed won't hurt."

He was gone before Rachel could open her mouth to let him know she was perfectly all right.

Her packages had already been placed there by Marie. 

The bags yielded six sets of underwear in pastel colors, three pairs of jeans, two wraparound skirts, four tops, two nightdresses, a robe, two sweaters and a warm jacket.  More clothes than she had bought herself at one time.  Ever.  Another bag she hadn't noticed earlier had a pair of sneakers, a pair of sandals and a pair of house slippers in it.  At the bottom of the bag she found one of the pair of house slippers Hannah had lent her.  The housekeeper had jokingly mentioned the only thing they seemed to have in common physically was the size of their feet. 

To have taken Hannah's slipper along, Luke had to have been very sure she was coming back.  And he had done the shopping even before she'd got
ten the test results from Dr. Kenton.  How could he possibly have known what the doctor was going to tell her?  Unless...?  Rachel shook her head.  No.  She wasn't that important to Luke, that he might try to trick her into staying on here.  And Dr. Kenton wouldn't falsify a report.

"Shall I hang up the things for you?"  Rachel looked up as Marie came in with a glass of juice. 

"No, thanks."  Horrified that Marie might think she expected to be waited on, Rachel said quickly, "I'll do it.  I have nothing else to do anyway."

Rachel's gaze lingered on the new pair of house slippers as Marie set the glass down on the Queen Anne nightstand and left the room.  Soft and pretty in red they matched the velour robe.  Her fingers traced the outlines of the pale blue flowers on them.  Luke hadn't just picked up anything he found.  He'd taken time to choose pretty, feminine things.  As if he knew deep down that these were the things she would enjoy wearing.  As if he knew she had never had these things before.

Blinking, Rachel looked around the room.  The wallpaper with its pink roses on a glimmering cream background, the satin and lace comforter on the bed, the elegant dark furniture, her new clothes had her more worried than ever before.  The owner of the Diamond Bar seemed to have made up his mind she was staying indefinitely. 

Grabbing her check book Rachel ran out of the room.  Paying Luke for her clothes right away was the
first step.  She had waited too long to assert her independence.

Luke answered the knock on his study door right away.

"Rachel, come in," he welcomed, when she pushed it open. 

Gordie looked up and cooed an echo of the greeting in baby talk.  Perched on his uncle's lap his smile reflected a cherub's innocence.  Pain twisted deep inside Rachel.  It was all she could do not to reach out and touch the baby. 

Keeping her eyes on Luke's face she said, "Thanks for the clothes.  If you'll let me know how much you spent, I'll write you a check."

The jeans and red sweater he had picked out for her, clung to her slim curves and she didn't look quite so thin.  The touch of white lace at the collar drew Luke's attention to her long neck.  A checkbook was clutched to her chest like a shield and there was that in her stance that made him smile.  She reminded him of a wary doe watching a predator.  One move and she would flee.

"Do they fit alright, Rae?"

Her breath snagged in her throat.  Ra
e?  The diminutive suggested a closeness she had to avoid at all costs.

"Perfectly." 

Where another woman might turn around, to model her new outfit she just ran the palm of one hand down her jeans. 

Luke knew if he waited for her to say anything more than the absolute necessary minimum, he'd wait all his life.  The nickname Rae suited her perfectly.  Someday soon he would tell her it meant doe and she reminded him of one. 

"Come in and see where I work."

She stepped into the bright room, her glance veering to a table by the window piled high w
ith equipment.  Luke's computers looked very sophisticated, unlike the little ones she had seen in the old magazines shipped to MRA personnel abroad.  Piles of paper rested on one end of his work area while on a smaller arm of the table, a printer was spewing out what looked like sheets of graphs.

The massive desk at the other end of the room had a leather chair behind it presently filled with Luke and baby.  Luke picked up a bottle of juice and gave it to Gordie.  The glow of tenderness as he watched Gordie drink brought a mist of tears to Rachel's eyes.  Swinging away to hide them she stared at the opposite wall.

It was covered with framed certificates.  Harvard.  Lucas Jasper Summers had got his masters in computer science there.  And another in business administration.  She couldn't even remember where her high school certificate was.  The wall opposite Luke held a single painting.  An Indian chief on a horse. 

"We used to come in here as children and sit on Grandpa Robert's knee," Luke said from behind her, "One day Rob looked at that painting and said, "Grandpa, I want that picture."

"`That belongs to the Diamond Bar son,' Grandpa Robert said, `and one day it will be yours.'  It was strange," Luke burped Gordie, wiped his mouth and then set him down on the carpet.  His nephew took off in a crablike crawl to a pile of toys in the corner of the room. "But even then it was Rob who wanted to run the Diamond Bar.  I could ride as well as him and learned everything there was to know about raising thoroughbreds, yet it was always math and computers for me."

"Did your parents mind?" 

"No.  They encouraged me as much as they did Rob.  I remember them spending hours with me at Math field days in local schools, even sending me to a Math camp one summer.  They were as interested in working math puzzles with me as they were talking about thoroughbreds with Rob.  If they ever thought more of Rob's choice than mine, I never knew it.  Even now Dad calls and the first thing he says is, `How's your work going, son?'  Then he talks of the ranch."

Rachel swallowed.  How lucky Luke was to have experienced so much love and understanding.  It made it easier to understand the choices he had made now.  There was no real deliberation or sacrifice in what he'd done.  Passing on what he had received came naturally.

"What made you decide on going into computer science?"

"It wasn'
t till high school that I got acquainted with computers.  I started using them for math but then it became a game to see what else I could do with one.  My parents bought me a computer and I was hooked forever.  It's a field with tremendous challenges and no limits to endeavor."

And, something told Rachel Luke Summers was a man who needed challenges.  "What did you do before the accident?" 

"The company I'm with, L.G and M Enterprises develops and sells its own software. In my former position, I travelled all over the country giving one day seminars on how to hone financial management skills using our software." 

"And now?"  He had all the right qualities for a good teacher:  patience, understanding, warmth, plus a dynamic personality. 

"Now I'm working on making changes in some of our software based on the feedback we have got from companies using them."

"Was it very hard to give up your former lifestyle and move back here?"  She had already heard Luke on this topic once before in court, but something compelled Rachel to ask him about it again.

"No," he said with conviction, his eyes swiveling to his nephew who had thrown the cow away and was trying to bite on a huge ring.  "I lived in L.A. because my work demanded it.  I had to travel so much, it was convenient to be just a few miles away from LAX.  As long as I can continue to do the work I want to, I would rather live at the Diamond Bar than anywhere in the world." 

He didn't mention how tiri
ng constant traveling had become, how impersonal hotel rooms isolated one in a well of loneliness, and business dinners every night became more of a chore than raking out a stall.

He wanted more out of life than that now.  A permanent home, a woman to share it with, Gordie, maybe some more children.

"Your lawyer said that you gave up a vice-presidency to be with Gordie.  Do you think that after a while that might begin to rankle?"  Rachel bit her lip.  She was beginning to sound like an interviewer on a talk show.

Luke steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair.  "I put thought into a decision before I make it, weigh all the pros and cons, thrash things through in my mind.  Once it's made, I never look back or indulge in what
ifs."

That he was strong she already knew.  That he didn't fit the picture of men she carried in her mind, Rachel was beginning to find out.  There was something else she had to say.  Best get it over with quickly.

"I..I'm sorry I took you to court over custody of Gordie."  Luke's head shot up.  Despite the pounding of her heart Rachel held his gaze steadily.  "You and the Diamond Bar are what are best for Gordie."

"Why did you do it, Rae?"

One shoulder rose in a slight shrug.  "I thought I would repay Chris for all her kindness and affection by bringing up her son."  She raised her chin.  "I also did it for myself." 

The tinge of defiance in her voice wasn't lost on Luke.  From where he sat the sheen of Rachel's tears turned her irises into islands.  Dark, mysterious, enchanting.

"For your....?" The telephone rang, cutting him off.

"Excuse me," he reached out to pick it up, irritated by the interruption.  It couldn't have come at a worse time. 

Rachel heard him talking to Juan as she slipped away and went to her room.  What had come over her?  For a minute there she had been about to tell him what she hadn't shared with anyone in her whole life.  Rachel put a hand up to her head.  The call had saved her from making a fool of herself.  Luke Summers didn't need to be dumped with her personal problems.  He had plenty of his own.