Finding Home (30 page)

“You should be in a wheelchair, Red.” He crossed the room, pulled her into a gentle hug and was surprised when she burrowed close, resting her head on his chest.

“That’s what the nurse said, but I didn’t want to wait around for her to bring one.”

“Sit down. I’ll get one.”

“Don’t. It’s been a long night, and I just want to go home.” Her voice was raspy and worn, and he didn’t bother arguing. Just wrapped an arm around her waist and led her out to the parking lot.

He didn’t release his hold as he unlocked the car door, didn’t want to let her go. Didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t heard her scream.

Would he have walked outside in the morning and found her lying dead on the lawn?

His arm tightened around her waist, and she looked up into his face, pressed a palm to his cheek. “Don’t look so grim, Levi. I’m fine.”

“If Lily Samuels had had her way, you wouldn’t be.” He helped her into the passenger seat of the car, brushing his knuckles down her cheek. Her skin was warm and silky, life pulsing through it, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever been more thankful for anything in his life.

“Richard came into triage while the doctor was waiting for X-ray results. He said the police have been looking for her all day.”

“They knew she was after you?” If they had and had let the woman slip through their fingers—

“No. She was wanted for something else. He couldn’t tell me what, just that they have enough evidence to put her away for a long time.”

“Is she talking?”

“All she’s said is that I told her something during parent-teacher conferences that worried her. She wanted to make sure I didn’t spread it around.”

“So she thought she’d terrorize and kill you?”

“She’s insisting she wasn’t trying to kill me. She just wanted a drawing Nicolas made. I showed it to her during the conference, and she wanted to take it home. Since they were part of his class portfolio, I told her she’d have to wait until the end of the year.”

“What could a kid possibly draw that would make his mother stalk and attack another person?” It had to be something life altering—something that could have caused her serious trouble.

“Richard wouldn’t say, but I think I know.”

“Yeah?” He walked around the car and got into the
driver’s seat.

“The kids drew self-portraits for an art project. They all wrote their names at the top. Nicolas didn’t. He wrote ‘Eli.’”

“Eli?”

“Yes. And he refused to change it. He kept saying it was his real name. The one his father gave him. I told his mother that at the conference, and she laughed, but now...” Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged.

“You wonder if he was telling the truth.”

“I don’t wonder. I know.”

“Did she kidnap him, then?”

“I asked Richard that, and he wouldn’t comment.”

“Eventually, he’ll have to.” Levi pulled up in front of Shauna’s house and turned to face her.

“Eventually. For now, I’m just happy that Nicolas is in safe hands, and that I’m alive. Thanks to you. This is the second time you’ve saved my life.” She lifted his hand, pressed a kiss to his knuckles, the heat of her lips stealing his breath.

“I’d do it a million more times if I had to. You know that, right?”

“Let’s hope you don’t have to.” She opened the car door. “I’d better get inside. It’s late and both of us start our days early.”

“You’re planning to work tomorrow?” he asked as he cupped her elbow and helped her up the porch stairs.

“A couple of bruises aren’t enough to keep me from my students.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Because you really do know me. Even after all these years.” She smiled, and Levi’s heart leaped.

“Does that mean you might be willing to have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

“It does.”

“And the night after that?”

“Probably.”

“Since you’re feeling so generous, maybe I can convince you to have dinner with me every night for the next fifty years.” He pressed a hand to her back, urging her close.

“You know, I don’t think it’ll take all that much convincing. I’ve been thinking that God had a reason for bringing us back together.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“To show us both that it doesn’t matter how big or small our dreams are as long as we’re dreaming them together,” she responded, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled his head down and offered a kiss that required absolutely no convincing at all.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt of
The Promise of Home
by Kathryn Springer!

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Chapter One

“P
lease follow the highlighted route—”

Jenna Gardner tapped the tiny screen on the GPS and silenced the voice of her invisible navigator once and for all. Not only because the high-tech gadget seemed to be as confused as she was by the tangled skein of roads winding around Mirror Lake, but because Jenna was tempted to take its advice.

She wanted to follow the highlighted route right back to her condo in the Twin Cities.

“You passed it, Aunt Jenna!”

A panicked cry reminded her that going home wasn’t an option. Not for awhile, anyway.

Jenna glanced in the rearview mirror. Once again, she experienced a jolt at the sight of the two children in the backseat.

Silver blond hair. Delicate features. Wide blue eyes.

Jenna had met Logan and Tori for the first time only three days ago. The children were practically strangers.

Strangers who were the mirror image of her younger sister, Shelly, as a child.

For a split second, Tori met Jenna’s gaze. Then she buried her face in the tattered scrap of pink flannel that doubled as a blanket.

Jenna pressed her lips together to prevent a sigh from escaping.

One step forward, two steps back,
she reminded herself. The five-year-old girl was adjusting to the idea of having an aunt the same way Jenna was getting used to the idea of having a niece and nephew.

“You have to turn around,” Logan insisted.

“Are you sure?” Jenna tipped her Ray-Bans down and tried to peer through the hedge of wild sumac that bordered the road. “I don’t see anything.”

“Uh-huh. It’s back there.” Logan, the self-appointed spokesman for the two siblings, nodded vigorously.

Under the circumstances, Jenna was willing to give the boy the benefit of the doubt. She put the car in reverse and began to inch backwards.

In Minneapolis, a dozen horns would have instantly chastised her for the move. But here in the north woods of Wisconsin, the only complaint Jenna heard came from a squirrel perched on a branch near the side of the road. More than likely voicing its opinion on her presence rather than her driving skills.

She spotted a wide dirt path that could have been—if a person possessed a vivid imagination—a driveway.

Pulling in a deep breath, Jenna gave the steering wheel a comforting pat as she turned off the road. Her back teeth rattled in time with the suspension as the vehicle bumped its way through the potholes.

Logan leaned forward and pointed to something up ahead. “There it is.”

Well, that explained why Jenna had driven right past it.

She’d been looking for a
house.

The weathered structure crouched in the shadow of a stately white pine looked more like a shed. Jenna’s gaze shifted from the rusty skeleton of an old lawn mower to the faded sheets tacked up in the windows.

Oh, Shelly.

Why hadn’t her younger sister admitted that she needed help? Why hadn’t she accepted Jenna’s offer to move in with her after Logan was born?

Throughout her pregnancy, Shelly had claimed that she and her musician boyfriend, Vance, planned to marry before the baby arrived. But when Jenna had visited her eighteen-year-old sister in the maternity wing of a Madison hospital, there hadn’t been a ring on Shelly’s finger. Not only that, she’d been alone. Faced with a choice, Vance had decided that a gig at a club in Dubuque was more important than being present for the birth of his child.

Shelly had made excuses for him—the same way their mother had made excuses for their father every time he’d walked out the door.

While Jenna was pleading with Shelly to return to Minneapolis with her, Vance had sauntered into the room. The guy might have been a mediocre guitar player, but his acting skills were nothing short of amazing. He’d apologized to Shelly for not being there and promised that she and the baby could travel with the band as their “good luck charms.”

When Jenna had asked her sister if she was willing to sentence her child to the nomadic lifestyle they’d experienced while growing up, Vance had turned on her. Accused her of being a troublemaker. He’d convinced Shelly that Jenna was jealous of their relationship and didn’t want them to be happy.