Whispers of the Heart (5 page)

“Good night,” he murmured again.

“Good night,” Autumn returned as she slowly snapped the door closed.

The phone rang insistently as Autumn closed the door behind her. Her sister, she knew. She didn't have to guess.

“Where were you?” Spring sounded breathless with concern and curiosity.

“Out to dinner,” Autumn answered with pride. “With Brent Hyatt, the man I told you about. Remember, we met him the same day we first looked at this apartment?”

“Oh…him. Well, what's he like?”

“Nice,” Autumn said without elaboration and changed the subject. She had no intention of indulging Spring's perpetual curiosity or raising her speculations over someone who merely fit into the category of an acquaintance.

That she found Brent more attractive every time they met had nothing to do with it, or that he appealed to her on more than one level. She didn't think he was the kind of man who normally lacked female company, or, for that matter, any companionship at all. What would he need her for? She'd seldom seen him completely alone. The few glimpses she had of him from across the street, he'd been in company with other men in business suits or Timmy, and once, with that real estate person.

He'd mentioned the other woman, Laureen Shore, as a business associate during his dinner conversation. Autumn suspected Laureen occupied a big chunk of Brent's attention and wondered about their friendship. She even recalled how Laureen had wrapped her arm through Brent's rather intimately that first time they all met. In her mind, the action seemed far more personal than casual.

Did Laureen mean more to Brent than mere business? Why hadn't he phoned her when he wanted company for dinner?

Maybe he had. Just maybe the other woman hadn't been available tonight.

Giving it up, Autumn ended her conversation with her sister. After changing into a sleep shirt, she stood beside her south window studying the dark city skyline. She wouldn't admit to being lonely.

But even if she was, just the tiniest bit, she could do something about it. Inviting company to visit didn't frighten her. She'd call her friend Kim and invite her for lunch. It wasn't too late to reach her.

She picked up the phone.

On Friday, just before noon, Autumn waited for Kim outside her building, feeling very brave as she strolled the street. Telling herself she needed the exercise, she couldn't admit to feeling so excited to have a friend to visit in her new home that she could hardly wait for her arrival.

She turned around at the corner to retrace her steps. A familiar woman drove past her and parked in front of Brent's building.

“Oh, hello,” the blond woman said, flashing Autumn a curious glance as she exited her car. “We've run into each other again. I'm Laureen Shore, remember?”

“Ah, yes, I do remember.” Autumn let herself be drawn into the exchange. They stood on the sidewalk across from the law offices. “You were with Brent the day we viewed my building.”

“I see you really took that apartment,” Laureen said, her mouth pursed. “It was fated to sell quickly, but I wasn't sure you were serious.”

“Why, yes, why wouldn't I be?”

“Oh, I don't know.” Laureen shrugged, eyeing Autumn as though she didn't quite fit the usual description of a female. “A woman alone down here… Too quiet, I'd guess, especially at night. I'd think there wouldn't be enough action for the younger singles crowd.”

“I don't mind that. I don't really run with a—a crowd. I prefer quiet, actually.” Autumn spotted her friend's car and swiftly excused herself, meeting Kim in the side parking lot.

A second later, she noticed Laureen talking with Brent in his doorway. What had Laureen said of her? She knew the other woman had made some remark because Brent suddenly glanced her way in a curious manner.

The distance was too far, she couldn't see what speculation might lie in his gaze. Shrugging it aside, she led Kim into her building.

But she did wonder.

A
thud sounded against her door late on a Saturday afternoon. Busy preparing a new sheet of paper, she raised her gaze but didn't immediately respond.

What was it, just another oddity of the old building? She'd seen no one all week and had grown less startled at every little sound she couldn't identify over the past month. But another knock convinced her someone really stood at her door.

She left her worktable and picked up an old towel to wipe her hands, calling, “Who's there?”

“Me. Timmy.”

She peeked through the peephole to assure it was Brent and Timmy.

“Well, hello there.” She glanced at the boy before raising her gaze to the father. They hadn't spoken since he took her to dinner over a week ago. She'd avoided him.

Now she wondered why she had, she was that glad to see him.

Actually, she'd avoided going out at all for days. It felt lonely, out and about on her own. She hadn't seen another living soul she knew from her old circle since Kim had come to lunch.

She told herself that learning to live alone was good for her. It built character, surely, and she'd never let herself complain to Spring, or her sister would rush home to make sure she wasn't dying of anything.

Smiling over that, she just knew her sister was having the time of her life in New York. Spring loved a lot of hustle and bustle.

Autumn filled her days with quiet painting and her evenings with music and books. And if she was lonely, she turned on the radio, listening to whatever talk show she could find.

A whimper brought her gaze back to the child's earnest face, then caught her attention with what he held in his arms. A very small puppy. Silver and dark hair curled close along its tiny body, its stumpy tail wagged a joyful greeting while soulful dark eyes shone at her and floppy ears came forward.

“It's for you.” Timmy thrust the wiggling animal forward. Instinctively, she held out her hands.

She blinked rapidly, her uncertainty shielding her from the need to return Brent's too steady gaze. “I beg your pardon?”

“I have her brother,” Timmy said. “She's a girl dog.”

“But…” Timmy withdrew his hands from the dog. She had no choice but to accept the creature into her own cupped ones. It nestled against her skin
and immediately licked her arm, its tongue warm and gently textured.

“Daddy said you need a puppy.”

“He did?” At that, she tackled Brent's gaze with her own, shyness forgotten. “You think I need a dog?”

Brent raised a brow along with the beginning of a smile. But before he could answer, Timmy continued to explain.

“You don't have one, do you? This was the last one and Grammy said the lady didn't want it. It's a mix-up.”

“A mixed breed,” Brent supplied. “Maltese and terrier.

“Uh-huh. Daddy says it needs a home and we can't keep two 'cause Grammy is already sneezing, so we thought you could love it for us. Then Samson won't be sad. See, Samson likes playing with her, but he likes playing with me, too. Now he won't worry or be sad if he can see her sometimes. And Daddy says you can take her for walks and stuff.”

“Well, I don't know much about dogs….” She'd never owned a pet. Uncle William hadn't cared for animals. Until this moment, she'd never thought about having one; she and Spring had always been enough company for each other.

Timmy's light-brown eyes stared hopefully while Brent's remained observant. She had the notion he wanted her to take the dog for more reasons than to simply give it a home.

She lifted the little thing higher, staring at her. The puppy gave her a lick on the underside of her chin and wiggled all over.

Her heart was hooked. “But I suppose I can learn. Please come in and tell me how. What do puppies eat?”

Brent let out a long, slow breath as he and Timmy stepped through. He hadn't been at all sure if Autumn would accept the gift. But since their dinner date, he'd kept a close eye on the comings and goings from her building. He caught a delivery truck parked in front a time or two, but he couldn't tell if the deliveries were for her or other tenants in the building.

But something Curtis had said led him to think she had few friends, and, without her twin around, she rarely went anywhere. In fact, he thought she seldom left her apartment at all.

Like Tim, she was at the right time, the right stage in her life to handle the care for another living being and a puppy seemed like a good choice.

He hoped it would bring her outside, at the very least. Force her out of her apartment. She'd have to walk the dog, wouldn't she? Take it for exercise?

“Hang on to her for a bit,” he cautioned. “She's just learning how to behave.”

“Oh, isn't she, um, housebroken?” Autumn held the animal gingerly away from her, looking her over with both skepticism and wonder. “What's its name?”

“It's a she,” Timmy said. “Not an it. And we didn't name her yet.”

“Oh, I, um, I'm sorry,” she replied, a corner of her mouth curving.

“I think she's paper trained,” Brent said. “Though I wouldn't trust to that totally. It's a safe
bet you'll need to take her out a couple of times a day.”

“Oh? Well maybe I shouldn't—”

Brent interrupted her doubtful murmur with a hasty aside. “The breeder was going to let this one go to the animal shelter if we didn't take it. She breeds purebred Maltese show dogs and she was extremely upset that this mixed breed litter happened.” He shook his head in a sad comment. “And to add insult, this one is the runt of the litter.”

“The pound?” Autumn's eyes grew rounder as he told the story.

“Yep. The pound.” Brent didn't mind building on his success. If Autumn had a heart as tender as his son's, she couldn't bring herself to refuse the dog no matter what the practicalities were. “Timmy was terrified for the little thing when the woman mentioned the pound.”

He reached out to lay a gentle hand on the puppy's head, rubbing a small ear, while the back of his fingers brushed against Autumn's inner arm; she lifted her gaze to his, her mouth softening in compassion as he continued to speak. “I couldn't let Timmy down by not taking both.”

“Yes, I—I can understand that.”

“But this is my problem. My mom is allergic to dogs and cats. She visits us quite a lot. It's enough to ask for her to deal with one little dog in our house. So to take two…”

He shook his head again and withdrew his hand, shoving it into his pocket as though to imply he'd done all he could.

“Oh.”

He let her think about it, turning to see what Timmy was doing. The boy stood with his chin against her worktable, looking at a sheet of paper half covered with flashes of color.

“Tim, don't touch,” he reminded the boy.

“Okay.”

The puppy wiggled and yelped at the sound of Timmy's voice. Autumn gazed at the tiny body, wonder still lurking in her eyes. “I think she wants you, Timmy.”

“She does?”

“Perhaps you could give her a saucer of milk,” Brent suggested, by way of sidetracking Autumn's thought. He didn't want her to think the dog couldn't live without Timmy or adjust to her.

“Oh, dear. I'm out of milk.”

“How about a bowl of water, then?”

“I can manage that.” She went to her cupboard and one-handedly lifted out a cereal bowl, turning on her sink tap to fill it. The puppy almost jumped out of her arm in excitement, making her laugh.

Brent had never heard her uninhibited laugh until now. It sounded all through him like a bell that reverberated against his bones. Or his heart.

“Do you have any newspapers?” Brent asked, strolling toward her at her kitchen counter.

“No, but I don't care about this old rug.” She set the bowl down on the rag rug she kept in front of her kitchen sink, then folded herself down alongside it and gently placed the puppy nearby. The dog eagerly lapped a few swallows, then began sniffing and investigating her new terrain.

“Tim, don't get into anything over there,” Brent
reminded again, strolling over to the studio area. He glanced at some of the work she had stacked around.

More still lifes in watercolor, but some were cityscapes, scenes taken from her windows. Shadows played differently against some of the same views, reflecting they were painted at different times of day. But among the smaller sheets against the bookcase, an image of a small boy holding a doughnut, his face smeared with chocolate icing, captured Brent's attention.

He recalled that morning clearly. Autumn had, too. She'd caught the very essence of a boy's pleasure in a simple treat.

“This is really nice,” he said, nodding toward the painting. Autumn glanced up, then rose to join him as Timmy lay down on the rug to play with the puppy. He picked up the sheet and studied the composition. “You have an excellent eye for faces. You must sell it to me, please. I wonder…”

“Oh, I couldn't sell that one,” she said casually, although the pink staining her cheeks told Brent she didn't exactly feel casual about the work. Or the compliment? “You may have it, though. In exchange for the puppy.”

She didn't look at him as she shuffled some of her dry, unfinished sheets into a portfolio. She swished a brush in a can of water, and replaced tubes of paint into a compartmentalized case. Behind her, a stepladder, painted with trailing vines, leaned against the bookshelves, additional evidence of what she'd been doing.

“Thank you, I accept,” he said quietly. “My mother will be delighted with it.”

“A fair exchange.” She remained quiet a moment, then asked, “What do you wonder?”

“Hmm…?” He'd been looking at the portrait of his son, his gaze tracing the way she'd captured the very shape of his eyes. He glanced up.

“Oh. I have a new project I'm very excited about. A church building. It's a hundred-plus-year-old inner-city location that a young minister hopes to revitalize and bring back to life. I don't know where his financing came from, but he seems to have a free hand and he has big plans for it.”

“That sounds nice. What has it to do with me?”

“I think…I think you should come see it.”

“Oh? Why?”

“I'd rather show you. Why don't we take a run over there and I'll tell you about it.”

“Tell me about it now.”

“All right,” he said, letting out a sigh. He wished she'd just trust him a little more. “David—Reverend Collier—and I have had several long talks about the restoration of the building and grounds. Though there isn't much left to the grounds. And the building was put up in three stages, so what we really have are three buildings connected. There's a long connecting hall, a corridor, really, one side almost all glass windows. The blank wall is crying out for a mural—”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head, a firm set to her chin. “I don't think I want to tackle anything of that size.”

“You can't say no out of hand. You haven't heard my suggestion.”

“Why can't I? And I can guess at what you won
dered, and the answer is no. I don't want to take on that much outside work. I don't like crowds.”

“But Autumn, this is a very special project. I think you'll be interested once you see it. It's not your usual request, you have to admit. And what have crowds to do with it?”

She turned to face him, her back against the table. Only her fingers showed a tightness, curved around the table edge. “Churches have crowds. They're made for bunches of people. Mobs of 'em. Their intention, their very purpose is to draw humanity together.” She pursed her mouth. “Uh-uh. I don't think so.”

“Autumn…” He leaned a hip against the table at her side, watching her fold her hands tightly in front of her. Her objection struck him as nonsense, but he kept his irritation wrapped tightly and hidden from view by lowering his voice to a persuasive tone.

She couldn't possibly be serious. Surely she exaggerated her antipathy toward crowds simply as an excuse to say no.

However, he was practiced in dealing with opposite views and stubborn people, having earned that hard-won skill during many a civic meeting. One of his strengths lay in presenting any given scenario or argument in a positive light.

“Don't say no just yet, please. You haven't even seen it. This church hasn't yet regained its crowds, even though that's what the new minister is hoping to find.

“And you wouldn't be doing the work during the worship hours, now would you? The church is empty ninety percent of the time except for the building
crew, who won't even be in that part of the building. And David, of course, and a part-time secretary.

“The section you'd be working in was built sometime in the sixties and its structure is fine, so you wouldn't likely run into the labor crew. But it does need something to make it attractive and David and I discussed using that long hall for a Biblical mural of some kind.”

“I don't know much about the Bible.”

“Well, that shouldn't stop you from researching it. And I'm sure David will consult with you.”

He paused long enough to take a breath and deepen his plea. “Autumn, if you could capture Timmy from memory like you did, I know you'd be perfect to do this hall. Why don't you at least come see what I'm talking about?”

“Well…”

“If not now, then one morning later this week?”

A long moment of silence fell between them before she said, very tentatively, “Early? Before there's likely to be a lot of people about?”

“As early as you want. At first light, even.”

“All right. I'll come see the site, but I'm making no promises.”

“It's a deal,” Brent said, offering his hand. He liked shaking hands on a deal. He felt the old-fashioned way of doing business, the way his grandfather had conducted his own, held a code of honor that covered more than sometimes appeared in mere printed contracts.