Jingle Bell Blessings (4 page)

“We have to talk. Soon.” He met her eyes, his own making her shiver unexpectedly. “When we're alone.”

A
lone.
Evan waited through dinner, then coffee and cake in the parlor. Chloe had managed to keep someone within a foot of her the entire time. He wouldn't be surprised if she super-glued Jimmy to one of her hands.

And his head was throbbing. The meeting with the bank president had gone so poorly he didn't expect a follow-up visit would change a thing. Evan, like the rest of his family before him, had kept his business with the local bank. No connections to any of the large multinational banks. He couldn't blame his local banker. Loans, especially big commercial loans, still weren't the flavor of the day. And Mitchell Stone had been operating in the red for the last three years.

It hadn't helped that during the meeting, he couldn't forget his other immediate problem. Sending Chloe and Jimmy back to Milwaukee. The boy resembled Spencer too much, making him remember too much…about too many things.

A sudden image of Sean seared his thoughts. His son would be seven now, too. Sean should have been the one sitting in the cart beside him as they toured the quarry, learning as Evan had, from a young age to appreciate both the family business and the blessings of the earth, what it gave up to us.

Sean had wanted to learn—every waking moment of every
day. What kind of bird nested in the tall oak out front? Why did Grandpa's hair turn gray? How did the dew form on the grass? A million questions, he had thought at the time, hoping he wouldn't run out of answers. He had never dreamed it would be Sean who would run out of time.

And his beautiful Robin… The Lord had never made a sweeter woman. She had lived her life for her family, and ultimately died trying to save Sean. If only…. If only he hadn't chosen Hawaii to vacation. But Robin had always wanted to visit there and he had delighted at the surprise on her face when he had given her a dream vacation for her birthday. She and Sean had counted the days until they flew to the beautiful islands.

Evan would give anything to turn back the calendar, to change that one dreadful decision. He swallowed, knowing life didn't work that way.

“Son?” Gordon repeated.

Evan shook his head, then lifted his gaze. “Sorry, Dad.”

Gordon's eyes filled with empathy and understanding. “I'm going to teach Jimmy how to tie some flies. Thought we'd go fishing Saturday. How does that sound?”

Like another painful reminder.
“Whatever you want.”

Concern lingered in Gordon's eyes.

And Evan didn't want to worry his father. “Be good to go before winter sets in.” Thanksgiving was right around the corner; Christmas would descend in seeming days.

“That's what I was thinking. Chloe says her father used to go ice fishing up in Wisconsin. Makes my bones shiver to think about it.”

Evan glanced in her direction. “Doesn't your father ice fish anymore?”

“My dad died when I was in junior high school,” she explained. Although Chloe's voice was steady, he glimpsed a flash of pain in her eyes.

“Sorry.” Evan knew the words were inadequate. He had heard the phrase often enough in the past two years.

“It's been a long time.”

But never long enough.
Time heals all wounds. He had heard that one so much it made him sick. That and
the Lord never gives us more than we can bear.
But there had been no reason to take Robin and Sean. Again his throat swelled and Evan couldn't speak around the lump it caused.

Chloe glanced down, then patted Jimmy's knee. Clearly, she knew that the discussion could upset him, might have already done so.

Evan wondered how Wainwright had found this woman. Someone as pugnacious as a bulldog, yet obviously sensitive to a child's needs.

Gordon stood and clapped one hand on Jimmy's shoulder. “Let's go in the den. Those flies aren't going to tie themselves.”

They had barely begun walking from the room when Chloe rose. When she passed his chair, Evan snagged her arm.

Startled, Chloe pulled back, her hand immediately brushing the spot where he had touched her.

Funny, he felt a strange tingle at the touch himself. Ignoring it, Evan waited until Gordon and Jimmy were out of hearing. “We need to talk.”

“In here?” she asked weakly.

“No. Too many interruptions.” He stood, grabbing her hand. Again the feeling shot clear through his body. Again he ignored it. He led her through the kitchen, out the back door. The wide, wrap-around porch was lit by soft gas lights.

“The days are shorter,” Chloe commented, sounding nervous. “Gets dark so early.” She pointed toward the sky. “Good there's moonlight.”

“Are you a stargazer, Miss Reed?”

“Chloe,” she insisted. “Yes, I suppose I am. Not that I've had time to—”

“How
do
you spend your time? Convincing people to make bad decisions?”

Anger flashed in her sea-green eyes. She was right. The light from the moon aided the gas lights enough to read her expression. Chloe's mouth opened, then she firmed her lips into a resolute line as she pulled her shoulders back. “I work, if you must know.”

“That's what you call it?”

The anger in her face intensified. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

So, she had a temper. “Surely it's clear, even to you, that Wainwright's plan isn't going to work.”

“Why are you so negative? You act as though Jimmy has some sort of disease. He's a wonderful child!”

“I didn't say he isn't.” The boy seemed like a good kid. On the quiet side, but Evan didn't expect anything different after what Jimmy had been through.

“Then what is it?” Exasperation spilled into her voice.

“I told you my answer is
no.
”

Chloe paused, tilting her face so that the moonlight enhanced the beguiling heart shape of her face. “Your father seems to have a different opinion.”

Evan tried to ignore the unwanted feeling her proximity caused. “It's not going to work, regardless of what my father says. There's no room in my life for a child. I'm fighting to keep the business alive. I have twenty-seven employees who depend on me for their livelihood. Do you expect me to forget about them?”

“Of course not.” The exasperation had left her voice. Concern replaced it. “But that doesn't mean you can't do both. You have help—your father, Thelma and Ned.”

“What is it about
no
that you don't understand? This isn't
like a pet rescue. I can't turn Jimmy out in the yard with Bailey if I don't want him close to me. He needs parents, not a guardian.”

“But with time—”

“There isn't going to be any time.” Evan's constant anguish flared so fiercely it felt like a physical blow. The back door opened and Jimmy ran outside, followed more slowly by Gordon.

“Guess what?” Jimmy asked Chloe with a glimmer of excitement. “Tomorrow we're going to see the school.”

All four adults looked at one another. Chloe seemed uncertain. Gordon was determined. And Evan knew he had to stop this from happening. At all costs.

 

Chloe and Jimmy had disappeared upstairs. Evan made certain of it before he confronted his father. “What were you thinking? Telling the boy you'll show him our school?”

Gordon knocked the ashes from his pipe into an ashtray. “Why shouldn't he see it?”

“You know exactly why. Jimmy will think that means he'll be staying on for a while.”

“Son, he needs us.”

Evan snorted. “There are thousands of orphaned children who need homes. Are we going to take them in as well?”

Gordon packed cherry tobacco into the bowl of his worn pipe. “He's family.”

Evan felt his chest heave with pain. Family would never again mean the same thing for him. “Are you planning to take care of him?”

“We had that talk when Wainwright first called.”

Slumping into a deep leather chair, Evan sighed. “Why are you doing this to me, Dad?”

Gordon stopped tamping down the tobacco, which didn't really matter since he never lit the pipe. “It's not
to
you, son.
It's
for
you. When we first lost Robin and Sean, I knew it would take you a long time to accept that you still have a life. It's natural.”

“
Accept
it? I'll never accept it. There was no reason for them to die.”

“You did everything you could to—”

“But the Lord didn't!” Furious, he rose.

“We don't always understand—”

“I've heard it all before. And I don't want to hear it again.”

Gordon sighed. “This boy is another chance for you, son. The Lord knows of the hole in your heart.”

“A replacement?” Evan laughed bitterly. “A cosmic reparation? No. I lost the only son I'll ever have.”

“Evan, you—”

“If you persist in having them stay here, he's your responsibility.”

“Son, it doesn't do you any good to be angry at the Lord.”

Sadness and pain settled in Evan's heart. “I'm not angry at Him. I'm disappointed. And that won't ever change.”

 

“All the grades go together?” Jimmy asked in a hushed voice, tightening his grip on Chloe's hand as they stood in the main hall of Rosewood Community Church's school.

“Not in the same room,” Chloe explained, although she wasn't certain just how the school was organized.

Gordon nodded. “That's how it was when I was a boy.”

Jimmy looked at him in awe, as though the older man had said he had attended school with the dinosaurs. “
You
went to school here?”

Chloe and Gordon both chuckled.

“Yep. We'd invented fire by then.” Gordon clapped one
hand on Jimmy's shoulder, giving him a small hug while he exchanged an amused glance with Chloe.

Just then a pretty woman walked out of the office.

“Well, hello, Grace.”

“Gordon!” She smiled, a generous smile that lit up her blue-gray eyes. “I heard the hunting went very well.”

He turned to Chloe. “Ah, the bane of small towns. Can't get by with much that everybody doesn't know about.”

“Afraid that's true,” Grace agreed.

“I'm forgetting my manners. Grace, this is Chloe Reed and Jimmy Mitchell.”

“So good to meet you,” she said to Chloe, then extended her hand to Jimmy. “Always glad to meet another Mitchell man.”

Pleased, but shy, Jimmy grinned.

“I don't have a class this hour,” Grace continued. “Can I help you find anything?”

“Thought it'd be nice to show them around. You know, a little tour, before they meet the principal,” Gordon explained.

“I'd be glad to help. I teach part-time in the upper grades, but I know all the buildings.” She leaned down slightly toward Jimmy and confided, “The kids call me
old lady Brady.
”

Chloe couldn't restrain her laughter. “We're probably close in age. Didn't realize I was in that category yet.”

Grace laughed with her. “Came as quite a shock to me, too. Teaching is my second and best career. Didn't realize it would age me so!”

Gordon groaned. “You kids are killing me.”

“You are a sweetheart,” Grace declared as she turned to Chloe. “See why I love the Mitchell men?”

Chloe had seen plenty of reasons, even in Evan. Because for all his protests, she suspected he was covering a deep and grievous hurt.

Grace led them down the main hall. “We're in the administration building. Besides the office, the cafeteria, library and auditorium are in this building. There are separate buildings for elementary, junior high and senior high. Since it's a church school, we're not funded by the government but we have private donors. I imagine you'd like to see the elementary building.”

The cheerful building was filled with colorful banners and posters. “Kindergarten through fifth-grade classes,” Grace explained as they passed individual classrooms. “There's also a smaller, all-purpose room for the youngest grades. The plays and larger performances are held in the auditorium. More room for all the doting parents and grandparents.” Grace paused in front of one classroom. “This is a first-grade class.”

“Is there more than one?” Chloe asked, liking the positive energy in the school.

“That depends on enrollment. Our elementary teachers are certified to teach two or three grades. That way we can adjust to make sure class sizes aren't too large.”

“Sounds like you've thought of everything.”

“Are you a teacher, too?” Grace questioned.

“No. I'm a sec… I work for a legal firm out of Milwaukee.”

Gordon looked at her strangely, and Chloe fiddled with her purse handles, worrying about her near slip.

“A fellow big-city native! I'm from Houston.”

Chloe was immediately curious. “How do you like living here?”

“It's perfect,” she replied in a soft voice. “I love it.”

“Met her husband here,” Gordon added.

Grace blushed, a gentle pink. “Yes. You'll meet him at church. He's the choir director.”

“A musician?”

She smiled widely. “Actually, Noah's a plastic surgeon who happens to love music. Works out well because I do, too.”

“Do you teach music?”

“Actually, I teach English.” Grace laughed again. “You probably think you've wandered into the land of Oz where nothing is as it seems. A choir director who's a doctor and a musician who teaches English.”

Chloe liked Grace's infectious smile and laughter. “I'm enjoying Oz just fine.”

“Are we in Oz?” Jimmy asked in a confused tone.

Chloe met Grace's glance and broke into another round of laughter. Then she knelt down next to Jimmy. “Oz is a pretend place. It's very colorful and full of surprises.”