Return to Lone Oak (Harlequin Heartwarming) (8 page)

“Call me Wendell, son. Let’s cut the formalities. We’ve got ourselves a deal and now we can be friendly.”

“You’ve got it.”

“We’ll plan on being out of here in three weeks. The twentieth, then. Assuming we can arrange the closing that morning.”

A clunk on the roof, above them, had them both looking upward.

“What on earth?” Wendell said.

“Your daughter, I believe. Katie? She was up there when I arrived.”

“That girl.” He closed his eyes as he spoke. When he opened them, Noah saw an eerily familiar look of complete fear. “She’s my wild one. Always has been.”

“I guessed as much when she showed up to have her stitches resewn.”

“The more upset she is, the crazier the stunts she pulls. When she’s not injured, that is.”

“Is that why she’s up there? She’s upset?” Noah asked, surprised and a little intrigued.

Wendell sighed and nodded. “She doesn’t want me to sell the house. If I thought my wife would allow it, I’d go up there right now and try to talk her down. I know she’s hurting.”

“How does she get up there?” Noah asked, not liking the idea that had just flitted into his mind.

“She climbs up the tree in the backyard, inches out on the big branch, then hops over to the back roof.”

Noah cringed at the thought. “Here I figured it was something simple, like crawling out an upstairs window.”

“Oh, you can go that way, too. But Katie prefers the other. I’m gonna see if she’ll listen to me from down here.”

“You could leave her there until she comes to her senses.”

Wendell sized him up. “I like the way you think, son. But if I ignored her and something happened to her...” The look in his eyes troubled Noah.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why is she upset you’re selling? She doesn’t actually live in Lone Oak, does she?”

Wendell shook his head. “She lives in St. Louis. Works for that extreme magazine. Wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when she told me she was majoring in journalism. She’s a real good writer, though.” He looked back at Noah as if he’d finally remembered the original question. “She still thinks of this as her mom’s house. Doesn’t want to let it go.”

Noah looked at him blankly.

“Her mom was killed in a drunk-driving accident fourteen years ago. Katie was thirteen. That was when she took the concept of daredevil to a new level, matter of fact.”

Noah’s head throbbed as he imagined what a mother’s death could do to a young girl. He knew too much about loss himself. Spent every day plotting how to avoid experiencing it again. He was a psychiatrist’s dream because of it and he was thirty-six years old, not twelve.

“I’m sorry to hear about that,” he said.

“We’ve adjusted by now. Mostly.” His eyes rose toward the ceiling. “I worry about her, though. She’d have a fit if she knew how much.”

“It seems like you worry with good reason.” He started toward the front door, then paused. “Would it help if I went up to talk to her?”

Wendell crossed his arms and studied him again. “I’d be mighty grateful, Noah. Maybe you could infuse some sense into that brain of hers.”

Not likely. Noah wasn’t sure what he could do, or what he was going to say to her. All he knew was that if he could do anything at all to alleviate this man’s concern right now, he would. Fear for those you loved was awful to live with.

“You’d prefer the window route?” Wendell asked.

“Please.” Noah never had been a tree climber, never mind the thought of trusting one single branch and then jumping the rest of the way.

Wendell led him upstairs to one of the back bedrooms. He opened the door and Noah followed him in, stepping over pieces of clothing strewn across the floor.

“She obviously got the message we were done showing the place and no longer had to keep it neat,” Wendell said.

“Katie?” Noah guessed.

Wendell nodded. “She really is a good girl. Just has a few bad habits.”

“Don’t we all?”

Wendell went to the window and hoisted it up. “Be careful. She makes it look easier than it is.”

Noah sat on the windowsill and wondered what on earth he was doing. Then he took another look at Wendell and swung his legs outside.

“What I wouldn’t give to see her face,” the older man said.

Noah climbed out nervously, gripping the roof and staying low. He looked around, hoping Katie was close by and he wouldn’t have to venture out too far.

No such luck.

She was apparently still up front. Noah would have to get himself to the peak of the roof in order to see her. Hopefully he could talk to her from there, because the thought of easing downward didn’t sit all that well with him.

He took it slowly, testing each step before he put his weight down fully. By the time he reached the peak, sweat covered his forehead.

The look she gave him when he said her name, though, made it worth the climb. Surprise, confusion and shock played upon her features.

“What are you doing?” she asked, scrambling up the other side toward him, as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Your dad wants you to come down.”

“Of course he does.” An exaggerated wide-eyed crazy look came over her face. “He thinks I’m out of control.”

“I’d have to agree.”

“Why are you sweating? It’s a gorgeous day out here, not even eighty degrees yet.”

He avoided looking down. “Climbing up on roofs isn’t something I normally do.”

“I feel so...special.” Then her expression changed. “Oh, wow. You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t call it afraid, really. I’m just not wild about being up this high with nothing to catch me if I slip.”

She stared at him as if he were nuts and he was beginning to think she might be right about that.

“Forgive me for asking, but why in the world are you up here then?”

Noah lifted one leg over the top of the roof, so that he was straddling it. That felt a little more secure. Then he took a long breath to steady himself. “I told you, your dad wants you to come down. I didn’t think it’d be good for him to climb up here. Also—” he looked into her expectant eyes “—he said you come up here when you’re upset about something.”

“What would I have to be upset about?” she asked flippantly, and if Wendell hadn’t already told Noah about Katie’s problem, he might’ve believed she actually was carefree and just there for a better view of the neighbors.

Katie walked along the top of the roof, hands out, using it like a balance beam. Just as he was about to ask her—nicely but firmly—to stop, she climbed onto the chimney, which rose another three feet.

Noah closed his eyes in abject terror as she lifted herself to a full standing position. She was truly out of her mind.

“Making you nervous?” she asked from above.

“Are you insane? Get down from there before you wind up dead.”

“Whoa!” she hollered, and he snapped his eyes open. “Gotcha.” She stood perfectly still, nicely balanced, watching him.

“Katie...” He wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if someday he read a news article about someone wringing her neck.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come down if it’ll make you feel better.”

He closed his eyes again, but listened to her as she got back to the main roof and made her way closer to him. His teeth were clenched so tightly he barely noticed the pounding in his head anymore.

She sat next to him and touched his hand. “You’re really white-knuckling it,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back down?”

He’d come up here for a reason, or so he’d told himself. What was that reason? He tried to erase the fear she’d just put him through with her chimney stunt, in order to remember. Ah, yes. Her own feelings, which she seemed to be so willing to deny.

Noah told himself to relax his body a notch or two and then sat up straighter. “Your dad said you didn’t want him to sell the house.”

Her expression changed, the taunting twinkle that had been in her eyes disappearing and giving way to a look of such intense sadness that he almost felt bad for bringing it up. Almost, but not quite.

“Yeah. So?”

So she wasn’t the type to pour out her heart and soul. He could relate well to that and he didn’t necessarily consider it a bad trait. Just something to prolong his time forty feet above the ground. Come to think of it, maybe it
was
a bad trait.

“He mentioned something about this being your mom’s house.”

She locked her gaze with his. “Why does it matter if I’m upset? Who cares why I climb trees and roofs?”

“Your dad, apparently.”

“He’s used to it.”

“Do you think anyone really ever gets used to someone they love taking insane risks?” His voice carried more anger than he intended.

She stared at him. “I’m still trying to figure out why you thought it would be okay to come up here and tell me everything that’s wrong with my life.”

He counted to ten, regretting his words. He’d meant what he said, but still... He barely knew her. “I’m sorry. I’ve messed this up.”

“Messed what up?”

“I have no idea.” He moved his left leg so he faced the backyard squarely now and, more importantly, the window that was his escape hatch. “I didn’t come up here to antagonize you. Let’s just pretend I shook your dad’s hand and walked out the door, straight to my SUV.”

Noah inched his way toward the dormer window below. When he was halfway down, Katie stood straight up and walked by, nearly making him lose his grip as she passed. When she got to the dormer, she turned toward him. She stood there watching his every slow move, unnerving him.

When he was a few feet from her, she stretched her good hand out to him. “Grab on.”

“I’m fine,” he said and tried to speed up his descent until he, too, could hold on to the dormer.

“Fine and stubborn,” she said, then crawled in through the window.

Closing his eyes, he climbed in after her. Once both feet were on solid hardwood, he let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He glanced at Katie, who was staring at him, and then started toward the door.

“Noah,” she said, taking a couple steps closer. “I’m sorry I was rude. I don’t like to talk about my mom, or the house, or any of that. And yes, I’m angry he sold it.”

“The rude, I can handle. It’s the stunts that age me ten years.”

“You really are uptight, aren’t you?”

“I like to call it sane.”

“It was kind of brave of you to chase after me on the roof. Especially being afraid of heights and all...”

He sighed, wishing he’d not followed whatever wild notion it was that had made him go on the roof in the first place. Who did he think he was? Some modern-day knight in shining armor? Even if he was, Katie did not need to be rescued. At least not from the roof. “I’ll never hear the end of it, will I?”

“Not likely.” She walked to the door of the bedroom and opened it for him. “Tell my dad I’m fine.”

“I think he’ll do better hearing it directly from you.”

“Bossy,” he heard her mutter as she turned and closed herself in her room.

CHAPTER SEVEN

N
OAH
PAUSED
BEFORE
opening the door to Katie’s examining room, bracing himself.

He was supposed to see her as a woman with stitches that needed to come out and nothing more. But what he noticed first when he looked at her was the bright orange-flowered sundress that hugged her body just so, the way her hair looked silky as it cascaded over her shoulders and the gleam of mischief in her eyes as she smiled at him.

“Good morning. Ready to get those stitches out...again?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. You can have the cast back, too, as far as I’m concerned.”

“You’re out of luck there. Just a few more weeks though.”

She looked at him as if to say,
Easy for you to say
.

He glanced over the instruments laid out, making sure his nurse had prepared the ones he needed, and scrubbed his hands.

Katie had been on his mind ever since he’d left her the day before, and that bothered him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the way she was still struggling with her mother’s death, so many years after it had happened. Would he still be battling Leah’s ghost fourteen years from now? He’d really hoped it would get easier.

He had concluded she didn’t need someone to rescue her from the roof, but he sensed she needed something. Her daredevil acts seemed to him to be a call for help, however subtle, possibly even subconscious. Her dad had said she did something wild whenever she was upset.

Noah wasn’t the one who could help her, by any means. But he could relate to the grief, the not knowing how to handle it. When he’d met her a week ago, he never would’ve guessed they might have anything in common, but now he thought he’d been wrong.

“Are you feeling any better about moving?” he asked cautiously, as he helped her lie back on the table.

“Nope.”

“Is there anything that would make it easier for you?” He regretted the fact that his actions were adding to her problems, even though he’d told himself repeatedly that it wasn’t his concern.

She looked at him without moving her head, since he was snipping the thread from her chin at the time. “Don’t buy it?”

“If I don’t, someone else will.”

Katie didn’t say anything, and Noah continued to snip and pull threads. The one remaining stitch was stubborn, didn’t want to come out. He leaned closer to her face and she closed her eyes.

“All done,” he said when he got the last bit out. He held his hand out to help her sit up and was surprised when she actually took it.

She ran the fingers of her left hand over the healing wound. “I know you’re right, but it’s hard. I’m sure everyone thinks I’m crazy because I’m throwing such a fit over the house.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. Not for that.” He met her gaze and realized he was still holding her hand. He let go of it, then, feeling awkward and unprofessional. “The roof antics, the kayaking and shark-swimming, yes. You’re way out there.”

She smiled halfheartedly, but the sadness in her eyes was a more powerful message, one she probably didn’t even intend.

“It’s healing well,” Noah said. “Scarring should be minimal. Not that scars seem to deter you much.”

Katie shrugged one shoulder. “All part of the deal.”

Her tone was nonchalant, matter of fact. Odd that she worried so much about a house, but not about her own body being harmed.

“Do you ever feel fear?” he asked her, pursuing some urge to understand her better.

She slid off the table to stand on the floor and studied him. Her eyes looked tired, as if she hadn’t been sleeping much. “All the time. But that’s the whole point. To conquer the fear.”

Her words made him uneasy. He busied himself jotting notes on her chart, but he couldn’t get the phrase of Katie’s out of his mind.
To conquer the fear
. Noah suspected he was living with too much fear these days. Fear that he wouldn’t have the first clue about vanquishing. Too bad it wasn’t as easy as Katie made it sound.

He pushed the thought away, because it was too uncomfortable.

“Take care of yourself. See if you can stay out of here until it’s time to check out your wrist.”

“Don’t miss me too much when I’m gone.” She attempted a light smile, but mostly failed and then walked out the door.

* * *

“H
AVE
YOU
NOTICED
anything strange going on with Savannah?” Katie asked Lindsey. They were kneeling outside Lindsey’s house, pulling weeds from the flower bed.

“Strange how?”

“With Michael. Like maybe they’re having problems.”

Lindsey turned and looked at Katie thoughtfully. “He’s been working a lot lately.”

“So she said.”

“Enough so that he’s missing many of our family things.”

“That’s convenient. He never used to seem to dislike spending time with us, did he?”

Lindsey shook her head. “He fit in just fine. What prompts all these questions?”

Katie moved closer and looked around to see if anyone could hear. Not only was she going to reveal one of Savannah’s secrets, but her own, as well. Zach was mowing the lawn, so the noise from the mower pretty much drowned out her voice anyway.

“I really hate to see Dad sell the house...” she began.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you about that. It’s impossible to get any privacy in this family anymore, but why are you having such a hard time with that?”

Katie sighed. She really did hate getting into it, because she knew it was pointless now. The damage was done and the house would soon be Noah’s. But she had brought it up knowing Lindsey might pursue the subject. “You probably won’t understand since you have a home and a family of your own. You know that feeling you get when you go home? The familiarity, the comfort of just walking in the door and inhaling the way the house smells. The furniture’s in the same place, the rugs are worn in the same patterns...”

“It’s your home.” Lindsey nodded. “I do know what you mean.”

“That house over there,” she motioned toward their dad’s next door, “that’s my home. My apartment in St. Louis is nice and it serves its purpose, but it’s not the same thing at all.”

“I still feel it when I walk in there,” Lindsey admitted. “Home and... This will sound strange, but Mom’s still there in that house.”

Katie looked at her in grateful surprise. “Did Dad tell you how I feel? About my embarrassing emotional rant?”

Lindsey shook her head.

“I’m so scared that losing that house will mean losing half my memories of Mom. I won’t be able to
see
her doing things she used to do, like tucking me in at night, painting my fingernails on her bathroom vanity, reading to me on the front steps.” Katie sat back with her knees pulled up, hugging them, forgetting the weeding. “Everything was good back then, when Mom was still alive. Those are my happiest memories, and so many of them are tied up in that house. Losing it—” she shook her head “—it’s messing with my head.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Lindsey crawled over to Katie and sat down next to her. “I’m so sorry. I do know what you’re saying.”

“You do? You’re the only one who doesn’t think I’m being a whiny baby.”

Lindsey grinned. “I know what you mean. I really do. It makes me sad to see the house go, too, but you know what I’ve figured out? We’ll still have the memories. Nothing can take those away from us. You’ll still remember Mom and all the good things.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

Lindsey put an arm around Katie, leaning her head on Katie’s shoulder but not saying anything else. Lindsey’s husband, Zach, came around the corner from the front yard at that moment.

“What’s going on? Am I the only one toiling away?” He walked up in front of them, hands on his hips, looking down with a smile. “What if I need a little TLC like that?”

Lindsey let go of Katie. “As nasty and sweaty as you are right now? Good luck.” Smirking she stood up. “Shower, and we’ll talk.”

“The sweat proves one of us, at least, has been working.”

Lindsey laughed and picked up a handful of the pulled weeds. She came up behind him and stuck the weeds down the back of his shirt.

“There’s your proof, tyrant. Now do the backyard. Try not to mow over the pink kidlets or the elderly woman and her caretaker back there.”

Zach shook his head as he emptied the weeds from his shirt. “You’ll pay later.” He disappeared into the garage.

“You two are annoyingly happy,” Katie said lightly.

Lindsey’s eyes lit up and her smile bordered on sappiness. She bent down over the flower bed.

It still blew Katie’s mind that Lindsey’s life had changed so much so quickly. She and Zach had adopted Owen, Zach’s seven-year-old nephew, when Owen’s alcoholic dad left town.

Before Owen’s paperwork was even done, they’d moved ahead on making Billy, also seven, a permanent part of their family. He’d been one of Lindsey’s charges as a social worker. She and Zach had fallen in love with him and had seen how much good Billy and Owen did for each other.

The last piece of their insta-family was Grandma Rundle, a woman Katie—and her sisters, too, for that matter—had once been scared of. They’d all gotten to know a different side of her as she grew older and mellower.

“So before we got off track on the whole house bit, you were talking about Savannah.”

Katie stood up to stretch her legs before moving next to the pile of weeds. “I asked her if she and Michael would consider buying Dad’s house. This was before Noah made the offer. She blew me off for as long as she could, then finally said it wasn’t a good time for them to make any big decisions.”

Lindsey rocked back to rest her hips on her heels. “She said that?”

Katie nodded. “Then she cut me off abruptly, in vintage Savannah style.”

“Wow. That’s saying a lot. I wonder what’s going on.”

“I don’t have any idea, but she wasn’t about to tell me more. It was obvious she regretted telling me that much. Maybe you could try to get it out of her?”

“That won’t work. Savannah’s not one to share her problems. The more personal they are, the more she’ll keep them in.”

“So what do we do?” The thought of Savannah dealing with marriage problems by herself worried Katie, even if the two of them had never been that close. She loved her sister and couldn’t imagine what she was going through, if indeed the problems were serious.

“I guess we’ll just be there for her, if and when she needs us. Look for an opening to ask her what’s going on, but don’t count on her telling. There’s not much else we can do.”

“We could take her out for a drink. See what she admits,” Katie said, grinning wickedly.

“A girls’ night out could be a good idea, actually. Let me see if I can make it work here.”

“Ball’s in your court, Linds. You’re the one who specializes in fixing things. I just wander around and count the days till I go back to my job, away from all this traumatic emotional family stuff.”

They both laughed. “If only I didn’t think you were actually serious. One of these days some guy’s going to knock you off your feet and change the way you think about everything.”

“Bite your tongue.”

* * *

“S
NEAKING
AWAY
INTO
the night, with your top-secret room measurements?”

Noah turned to see Katie watching him, half smiling, from the backyard of the house he was buying. She sat on the lawn next to a large rose bush with deep pink blossoms. He headed up the driveway toward her. He had to admit that he’d wondered where she was while he’d been measuring the walls of several rooms.

“Are you out here to avoid me?”

As he neared her, he noticed her smile was for show. She seemed mellow, a little melancholy, as she stood up, even though she was trying to put on a happy front. “If I was avoiding you, I’d go up on the roof.”

“You’d be pretty safe there. I’m trying to cut back, myself. So what are you up to out here in the grass all alone?”

Katie looked at the rosebush beside her. “Can I ask you a favor?”

“You can always ask.”

“Could you... Um, this is sort of dumb, actually.”

“Just say it.”

“This rosebush on the end was a gift to my mom from me and my sisters. Mother’s Day, I think. I wasn’t very old, maybe eight.”

“That’s an old rose. It looks like it’s doing well.”

“Yeah. I was wondering if you would keep it for me? I mean, not tear it out?”

The thought struck him that she wasn’t nearly as shallow as he’d guessed the first time he met her. He’d assumed she was the type who was always in search of a good time. Looking at her now, as she so earnestly asked him to keep her mother’s flowers alive, he realized he’d been off-base.

“I’ll take care of it for you.
If
you tell me what it needs. Gardening isn’t my strength.”

Katie looked at the plant uncertainly. “Mine, either. I think Claudia’s responsible for keeping it looking so healthy. We can ask her. I don’t believe it takes too much work, though. I was just searching for aphids on the leaves, but I can’t find any.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Good. Aphids eat the leaves.”

“It’s a beautiful rose,” he said, moving closer to her.

“It’s called an Elizabeth Taylor. We thought that was so cool. I have no idea why.”

She sat on the grass next to it, leaned forward and sniffed one of the blossoms. Noah sat down next to her, beginning to understand how comforting it must be for her to have something, some physical thing, to remind her of her mother.

When Leah had died, he’d gotten rid of everything that could remind him of her, finding it all much too painful. Now, he realized that might have been a mistake. Maybe clearing things out had slowed down his grieving.

“You can come by and see it anytime.”

Katie nodded slowly. “I’m not usually like this,” she said, still staring at the nearest rose.

“Like what?”

“Mopey. Sad. So pensive.”

“My guess is you’re usually out causing trouble, rather than staying home.” He was only partly kidding.

“I don’t cause trouble. But I do like to have fun. Don’t you?”