Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania (32 page)

This statement was met with such a long silence that eventually Sadie had no choice but to look up. Jasper’s mouth was closed and he was looking off to the side, not even at her. She wondered if he’d just tuned out or if he’d really heard what she said.

“Well,” he finally spoke, slowly bringing his eyes around to hers, “if that’s the way you feel.”

She had contained her emotions reasonably well, but Jasper didn’t have the same luck. His eyes held a sheen of tears, and she could tell by the bitter twist of his mouth that what she had said had cut him deeper than she could have imagined. She had meant to let him go in such a way that he would feel no further obligation to them. She wondered if maybe she should have chosen a different method to say it.

No, she decided. It would be better for them all this way. He could start over in Colorado without worrying about them. He might hurt a little over this, but he could heal now, knowing that she would move on without him—just as she expected him to do without her.

She only hoped this mind-numbing ache in her stomach would ease with time.
Please, God, let it pass
. Because she didn’t see how she could function if she had to carry this with her all the time.

“We wish you all the best,” she filled the silence, hating how it sounded as though she were laying him off. The desk between them only served to enhance the feeling.

“Yeah.” He said it with only the faintest trace of bitterness; she had to give him that. He rose to his feet and stared at her for a minute, and she found herself unable to look away.

What if this was the last time she saw him? What if this was really their last good-bye? She had known him all her life—she’d never had another best friend. Could a person replace a best friend? Or did only one ever come around in a lifetime?

He turned to go, and a part of her inwardly fractured, feeling a momentary panic that it was over—all over—between them. But she couldn’t think of any good reason to stop him, never taking into consideration, in that moment, her life’s happiness or his or even Kylie’s.

He was reaching for the office door when it flew open and Kylie tumbled into the room. There had been an exclamation on her lips that dissolved at the sight of Jasper, replaced with a simple and absolutely satisfactory
“Oh!”
Her eyes darted from Sadie’s face to Jasper’s, back again and back once more.

And somehow she could tell, as children often can, that nothing had been mended and had perhaps been rent forever.

Disregarding Sadie’s admonitions not to speak to Jasper, Kylie cried out his name and threw herself at his legs, clinging there tenaciously. With tears still wetting his eyes, he grinned and worked to disentangle himself.

“Lift Kylie, lift!” she demanded, and he did. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his cheek.

Belva stepped inside, huffing slightly as she announced, “I declare, sugar, that child is the hardest thing to keep up with—oh.” She noticed Jasper still smothered in Kylie’s embrace.

“Hello there, darlin’. ”

“Hey, Belva,” he greeted.

Belva did her own glancing back and forth until she seemed fairly satisfied as to what had gone on moments before. Sadie couldn’t help but blush at the interested look Belva gave her.

Kylie pulled back to look at Jasper’s face. “Mommy said you were leaving for the collie rodeo, but I told her that was silly. It’s
horses
in the rodeo.”

He laughed softly and planted a kiss on her cheek. Sadie’s heart ached for them. This was exactly what she’d been afraid of when Jasper had pushed for more than friendship. Now look at the heartbreak it had caused her daughter. Jasper was leaving, and Kylie would be left behind.

Kylie grew serious then, placing one little hand on each of Jasper’s cheeks. “Tell Mommy she’s silly. Tell her Jasper’s not going.”

Jasper looked into her eyes for a moment. “I am going, Kylie,” he quietly answered.

Kylie looked back at him. “Is Jasper teasing?”

Sadie didn’t think she could take much more. Jasper looked like he couldn’t either. He slowly shook his head. Kylie’s lower lip began to tremble.

“But…but…
why
? Why’s Jasper leave?”

Jasper shifted a glance toward Sadie and quietly asked, “Would it be all right if I took Kylie for a walk?”

Sadie hesitated, wondering if enough damage had been done. But before she could answer, Belva stepped in, saying, “You go on, sugar. I need a break anyhow.”

Jasper nodded to Belva, but his eyes still sought Sadie’s. She let out a little breath. “Go ahead,” she finally allowed.

Jasper and Kylie left the room. Sadie busied herself with papers on the desk, mentally preparing for a salvo of questioning from Belva. But the older woman said nothing, eyed the paperwork with a sigh, and then sank into the seat Jasper had vacated.

Sadie was just about to exhale with relief when Belva launched into her second-least-favorite topic these days.

“Sugar, I’ve been hearin’ folks talking around here. The rumor is that your father’s moved back into town and you won’t have anything to do with him.”

Sadie slid a few documents into a file and slammed the drawer.

“That’s not exactly true. Yes, he’s back in town, and I’ve had him over for dinner a few times. He even came to Kylie’s birthday party awhile back.”

“And have you had him around lately?”

Sadie sighed and wished there was somewhere for her to escape. “No,” she admitted, “not in the last few weeks.”

“Not since you quit seein’ Jasper, is that what you mean?”

Sadie clenched a fist out of tension. Why did her life have to be the topic of public debate? “How much do you know about me and Jasper?”

Belva waved a hand airily. “I know all I need to know, darlin’. Now be a dear and answer my question.”

Sadie suppressed the urge to make a face. “That’s right, I haven’t seen him since Jasper and I…stopped…seeing each other.” She found it a very awkward phrase to speak. “But I wouldn’t worry about Mac. He’s been in and out of town many times during my lifetime—I’m sure he’ll be in and out several more.”

“Hmm,” was all the acknowledgment to this statement Belva would give. Sadie had the sinking suspicion she was working up to something.

Sadie always found it better to get right to it where Belva was concerned. “What do you mean by that?”

Belva glanced up from a critical study of her well-kept nails. She appeared completely oblivious—an act Sadie had witnessed many times before.

“What’s that, sugar? What were you sayin’?”

This time, Sadie didn’t restrain. She gave Belva a face that made things clear. “Out with it, Mama Belva. What do you want to tell me?”

Belva clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Sadie, sugar, you should
never
go makin’ faces like that. It’s hardly becoming.”

Sadie made a face to rival her first one, and Belva couldn’t help smiling.

“I always did admire your spunk, darlin’. ”

Sadie drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair and waited.

“Friends of yours about town are saying that your father is moving into Jasper’s house to take care of things while he’s away.”

This announcement rattled Sadie considerably. It represented a degree of permanence for the two most influential men in her life, which startled her. Mac’s decision to move into a house meant a presence of stability she had never known him to have. If he lived in a house, he couldn’t just pull up stakes and move on when the idea took hold of him. It meant he really was serious about staying near her this time.

But more disconcerting than that was what it meant for Jasper. If Mac was moving in, then Jasper was moving out. He really would move to Colorado. He really was going far beyond her reach.

Sadie suddenly felt the most desperate urge to cry.

“You know, sugar, I’d love to see your father again.”

Sadie swallowed, unable to think past the hollow ache accompanying her knowledge of the permanence of Jasper’s good-bye.

“I—I don’t know,” she stammered out, vaguely realizing it summed things up pretty well. She didn’t have a clue about anything right now.

Belva opened her mouth to comment further, but before she could say anything, a knock sounded on the office door.

It was Willow.

“Ms. Spencer, we’ve got a problem.”

Sadie thrilled momentarily at the possibility of a distraction.

“What is it, Willow?”

She chewed her lower lip and paused, seemingly searching for the exact words. Finally she just threw out the only ones that summed up the situation: “Jimmy chopped off the tip of his pinkie finger.”

“He
what
?”

“An ambulance is on the way.”

Sadie’s head began to throb. This really wasn’t the distraction she’d been looking for… .

“I’ll be right there,” she promised Willow. “In the meantime, make sure Jimmy stays in the back and see if the ambulance can come around
without
the sirens on.”

“Karl already saw to that, Ms. Spencer. He’s got a friend at the EMS.”

What would she do without Karl?

“All right. Is the…appendage…on ice?” She had the insane urge to giggle as she asked this question, but she kept her expression neutral.

Willow nodded. “Karl took care of that too. And he’s got Jimmy applying pressure to the wound.”

“How much food was contaminated? And what about utensils and such?”

“Nothing. He wasn’t even in the kitchen when he did it.”

Sadie frowned. “Well, how did it happen, then?” She had automatically assumed it had happened while he was chopping vegetables or something.

“He was on break, showing off with his pocketknife, when the blade snapped shut.”

Sadie winced. Way too much information there. She shook her head.

“Okay, thanks, Willow. Get back to the dining room, and I’ll go wait with Jimmy until the ambulance arrives.”

Willow nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

“Excuse me, Mama Belva—”

She waved another hand, completely nonplussed by such excitement. “You go ahead, sugar. I’ll just wait around in the dining room until Jasper brings Kylie back.”

Sadie exited the office, and Belva followed. She left her mother-inlaw in the main dining area and headed to the kitchen. Karl gestured her toward the back exit, where she found Jimmy leaning on the door-jamb, his face as pale as vanilla ice cream. A rag was tightly wrapped around the smallest digit of his right hand, not even so much as a drop of blood showing through.

Recognizing Karl’s deft forethought brought a relieved smile to Sadie’s face. Her own relief must have reassured Jimmy, because he regained a shade or two of color at the sight.

“Sorry, boss,” he mumbled, clearly feeling guilty over the incident.

Part of her wanted to smack him alongside the head and begin a ten-minute presentation on just how risky this sort of thing was for a restaurant—or for anybody, for that matter. But he obviously felt badly enough, and his hangdog expression wouldn’t allow her to reproach him further.

“You should be more careful next time,” she gently suggested, to which he nodded fervently.

“Absolutely. Yes, ma’am.”

She folded her arms across her torso as a breeze blew in through the open door. Summer was slowly winding down, and Sadie found herself looking ahead to fall, a season she had always loved. Some people thought spring was the time of renewal, but Sadie had always equated that feeling with autumn. It felt like a shedding of mistakes— falling leaves, crisp breezes. As if you could cast off an old skin to work on a new one. She always looked forward to fall: piles of leaves she and Jasper used to jump into as children, dressing up together for Halloween pageants, riding the roller coasters at Hersheypark in the Dark, corn mazes, hayrides, sharing candy apples, carving pumpkins to see who could make a scarier face… And then with Kylie, they had shared those traditions together with her. One happy family.

Sadie shivered.

“Are you cold, boss?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m all right.”

Jimmy stared at his finger, trying to see through the layers of bandaging to assess the damage. Sadie felt sorry for him.

“Look at it this way,” she offered, “it’s a great excuse for your girlfriend to give you some serious nursing. What’s a lost fingertip when you’re up for some TLC?”

Her teasing tone provoked a bashful smile from him. He seemed to be pleased at the thought. “Yeah, I guess so.”

The ambulance pulled up then, and Karl appeared to greet his EMS friend and hand over a container filled with ice and Jimmy’s pinkie tip. Sadie answered a few questions, reassured Jimmy and told him to call his girlfriend from the hospital, and then waved as they drove off.

Karl shook his head once they were out of sight. “That kid ain’t got the sense God gave a duck.”

Sadie wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Yeah, but he’s
our
little gosling.”

Karl snorted and hurried back inside to catch up on the incoming lunch orders. When Sadie at last made her way back to the dining room, she found Belva seated at the counter, her brow furrowed in concern.

She felt a pricking of irritation.

“Jasper hasn’t brought Kylie back yet?” she asked with an attempt at nonchalance.

Belva distractedly shook her head, but her vision remained fixed on a table in the corner. Sadie followed her gaze and noted two gentle- men seated in a booth with a pot of coffee resting between them.

“Mama Belva?” she questioned, disturbed by the other woman’s intensity.

She forced her eyes away from the two men and onto Sadie’s face.

“Sugar, who are those two?”

Sadie’s glance flickered back to the booth and was momentarily disconcerted to find the men in question staring at
her
. She swallowed.

“I don’t know; I’ve never seen them before. Why?”

Belva’s eyebrows remained knitted together as she looked back in their direction. They had returned to their coffee, each taking occasional sips from their mugs. They didn’t appear to be talking at all.

“Mama Belva? What’s wrong?”

Except for at Ned’s funeral, she had never seen Belva so disturbed. Her normally carefree face was lined with worry.