Sister's Choice (34 page)

“Sledge, from Ben’s unit? From Fort Belvoir?”

“Lately of Fort Belvoir. I’ll be back there before long, I guess, unless they send me somewhere else next time. But I had something of an accident, so they sent me home to recover. Only I got tired of lying around, so I thought I’d come up here and bring you greetings from your husband.”

Grace descended the steps and held out her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you. But I’m sorry about the accident.”

“Oh, it wasn’t much. They have what they call an obstacle course over there. Real proud of it, too. A man has to finish before they’ll let him out of training. I did swell on part of it, but hauling myself over a stone wall wasn’t much of a success. I fell backward and broke a couple of vertebrae.” His hand—a hand large enough to swat an eagle into submission—went to his back.

“You poor man. I hurt just thinking about it.” She gestured to the house, because she knew instinctively that everything he’d told her was true. In his letters, as spare and short as those letters were, Ben had mentioned Sledge repeatedly. She imagined she would get another letter soon that told her about Sledge’s accident.

“Oh, it hurts a lot, but it’s already a little better,” Sledge said, as he slowly took the steps. “They’ve got me wearing a brace. It’s all going to heal up just fine, and I’m going to shoot anybody needs shooting in a month or two.”

“Well, that’s something to look forward to.”

They laughed at the same moment, his deep and uninhibited, and she understood why Ben had made friends with him.

“I’ve got fresh oatmeal cookies and hot coffee. Can I interest you in either? Or would you like me to make you some lunch?”

“Cookies and coffee sound perfect. I ate before I left.” He told her he lived farther south but still in the Valley, and that he and his family raised cattle and corn, although he also did carpentry to make ends meet.

She gave him the most comfortable chair at the kitchen table and unwrapped the cookies, setting the platter and a plate in front of him. She poured coffee, then made a fresh pot while he worked on the first cup.

“Did you tell Ben you were coming to see me?” she asked as she set the enamelware coffeepot on the stove and got a flame roaring beneath it.

“I didn’t get to see him before they sent me home. That husband of yours is making a stir, you know. He’ll move up the ranks as fast as a coon up a sycamore. He’s already squad leader, and that’s just for openers. He’s the kind of man they look for—smart, strong, knows when to talk and what to say.”

“That’s all well and good, but will it keep him safe?”

“Nothing much can do that. We’re an engineering unit, so we’ll be right in the middle, building bridges and roads, clearing minefields.”

“Minefields?”

“If he’s lucky, Ben’ll be sending others out to do it.”

Grace couldn’t imagine that. She might not know Ben as intimately as her title suggested, but she knew him well enough that she was sure he wouldn’t enjoy sending others to do dangerous jobs while he sat back and watched. Ben never shirked his duty.

Not even when it had come to marrying his wife’s sister to preserve the way of life he was about to lose anyway.

She switched the subject, because thinking about Ben in combat upset her. “Did Ben tell you about the orchard?”

“He really loves this place. Almost convinced me to put in fifty acres of apples myself, only once he mentioned all the problems, I figured corn and cows are enough of a headache.”

“Did he tell you he’s selling it?”

“No. You don’t mean it.”

“They drafted him before he could get the next crop. And he’s got too much tied up in it now.”

“Somebody’s got to pay for what’s been done to our lives.” Sledge sipped his coffee; then he hit the table with his palm. Everything jumped. “A man needs something to keep him safe, something to come home for. At least he’s got you and the boys.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. Clearly Sledge was not such a good friend that Ben had explained their situation.

“Ben loves his boys,” she said. “He’ll do anything to come home to Charlie and Adam. They should be up soon, so you can meet them.”

“I’ve seen their pictures. Right next to yours.”

And there was that picture again, a picture she hadn’t even known Ben had.

“I’m curious, which picture did he put up of me?”

“One from your wedding. You’ve got flowers in your hair, and you’re holding a bouquet and smiling.”

She remembered now. Sylvie had taken one of her alone with an old box camera. But Grace had never seen it, although she’d seen others taken that day. Sylvie had given them to Ben when she saw him in town a month after the wedding, and he had passed them on to her. Grace had just assumed the one of her alone hadn’t turned out. Had Ben intercepted the picture and kept it? She couldn’t think of another explanation, unless Sylvie had sent it to him in a letter during his training, not understanding that Ben really wouldn’t care if he had a snapshot of Grace or not.

Except that he must care, or why would he have it where Sledge had seen it in his barracks? Was it just so no one would ask why he didn’t have a picture of his wife? A way to avoid questions?

It hardly seemed worth that much effort.

“I was going to get married,” Sledge said. “But my girl wrote me a couple of weeks after I left and said she didn’t want to be married to a soldier. She’s going to marry some farmhand over in Page County who has a bum foot and won’t get drafted. Maybe it’s a good thing to lose a woman like that, but I envy your fellow. Having you home waiting for him, even if the orchard’s gone, well, that will get him through, if anything can.”

“Did Ben tell you how we got married?” she asked bluntly, because what other way was there to get to the heart of this?

“Not much. Just that you stepped up to help him when he really needed it after his first wife died, and he knew how lucky he was to have you.”

It wasn’t exactly a profession of undying love. But coming from Ben? A man who never talked about his feelings?

“A man’s lucky to find two women to love in one lifetime,” Sledge said. “I’ll be lucky to find one.”

She lifted the coffeepot off the stove and poured him another cup. She realized her hand wasn’t quite steady. “Well, Charlie and Adam needed a mother.”

“Ben says you’re the best mother he’s ever seen. That helps a man with children who’s got to leave them, you know. He can be sure they’re being taken care of the right way. It’s just too bad about this place and all. When he loves it so much. But those are the sacrifices a soldier has to make, I guess.”

“I wonder…”

“About what?”

She realized his cup was about to overflow, and the coffee she’d poured looked as pale as peppermint tea. “Look what I’ve done.”

She set the pot to heat some more and whisked away his cup. “I didn’t realize it wasn’t ready.”

“I guess you’re worrying about things. You have a right to.”

“The farmer that wants to buy this land? He’s a snake in the grass.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“He’s going to just about
steal
all those apples Ben worked so hard to raise this year and turn this beautiful old house into a pigsty.”

“I’m sorry for you both. The story gets worse and worse.”

“You know about all the jobs women have to do now that you men are going off to fight? Jobs in defense? Jobs in offices? You ever hear about women working in orchards? Right beside men?”

“I think a woman can do anything she sets her mind to.”

Grace thought about the trees beyond her windows growing heavy with fruit. A farmer’s wife had to learn to do everything. Surely other women were out clearing fields and planting crops, women who never had done so before. Somehow they were managing that and their regular chores, too, simply because they had to.

She didn’t know a lot about what happened next in the orchard, but why couldn’t she learn? Their hired man knew. And he knew something more important. He knew who needed a job. He was old and not up to managing much alone, but he had lived on this mountainside all his life. He knew everybody for miles, knew their life stories and their present circumstances. Ben had once joked about that.

Ben.

“Who’s taking care of
your
place while you’re gone, Sledge?” she asked.

“What family’s left and not in the service. They’re all trading around, doing what they have to. It won’t be the same when I get back, but it’ll still be there.”

“Nothing ever stays the same, does it?”

“You can say that again.”

“Nothing ever stays the same, does it?” She smiled, and he laughed at the repetition. And suddenly she was laughing, too, an easy, genuine laugh that was out of proportion to the little joke but flooded her worried heart with golden sunshine anyway.

“I sure didn’t stay the same,” she said when they sobered. “And you know what? I’m planning to change some more. Ben’s hardly going to know me the next time he sees me.”

“Don’t change too much, now. He’s mighty fond of you just the way you are.”

For the first time she let herself believe it might just be true. Maybe Ben really did feel more for her than he let on. At the least he felt gratitude; Sledge had made that clear. And couldn’t gratitude blossom into something better and more lasting? Couldn’t it blossom into love?

Now she only had to figure out if she wanted it to. It was time to search her own heart and see how she really felt about the man she had married, the father of the children that were hers in every important way.

“So, Sledge,” she said, with her most winning smile. “I want you to tell me every single thing Ben ever said about me. Just think of it as comforting a poor wife left behind to grieve. It’s almost your patriotic duty, wouldn’t you say?”

“I
can’t believe they’re so big!” Kendra couldn’t seem to help herself. On the way back to the orchard from what was now Jamie’s weekly appointment in Front Royal, she had hardly stopped talking. She hoped her sister—who seemed more tired than usual—could forgive just one more observation.

“They could be born right now, and they would make it. They could have been born a few weeks ago even. It finally feels real, Jamie.”

“It’s felt real to me since the first time I nearly tossed my cookies.”

Kendra felt younger, buoyant, able to leap tall buildings, as if all the good news at the obstetrician’s office had peeled away years. Heartbeats were perfect. Babies had grown. All was exactly as it should be.

“Before you know it I’m going to be taking care of twins.
Me.
”

“You really don’t have any intention of hiring help?”

“Nope. Isaac and I are going to do it ourselves. I don’t want to miss a minute.” Kendra considered something she’d been wanting to say and hadn’t known how. Then she decided just to go for it.

“You know, I realize childbirth’s not like having cancer or a heart attack, but there will be some recovery time involved for you. And if you have to have a cesarian—”

She glanced at Jamie, who looked as if Kendra had slapped her.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Kendra said. “I know the doctor doesn’t think you will. I just wanted you to know that if you do—”

“I won’t. They’re both pointed in the right direction, as unlikely as that’s supposed to be. And they’re squeezed pretty tight in there. They aren’t going anywhere.”

Kendra heard Jamie’s distress. “What I’m trying to say is that when you recover from your nice, normal delivery and feel like getting out and making the trip to Arlington, you’ll be very welcome to come and visit. We would appreciate your help and advice. I know the girls will still be in school here—”

“I thought we’d agreed we should put some space between us? You and Isaac will need to bond with the twins, and I’ll need to distance myself.”

“Every decision can be renegotiated, can’t it? For my part…” Kendra glanced again at Jamie, who still looked too pale. “Well, it’s just been easier than I expected, that’s all. We’ve had some tension along the way, but I feel so close to you. I don’t want you or the girls to miss time with the twins. I don’t want you to feel you have to stay away if you have a free weekend. We know whose children these are, but we also know who made that possible. When it comes down to it, isn’t that a huge head start on figuring out everything else?”

“I’m glad you want me.” Jamie didn’t continue.

Kendra wasn’t sure what that meant, but she had gone as far as she could. Now Jamie would have to decide if she was ready to be that intimate with her nephews, after carrying them inside her for nine long months. She might need time, and Kendra knew she had to respect that.

They were almost to the orchard when Jamie spoke again.

“Do you remember the red cocktail dress you bought me when Cash was taking me to the dinner dance?”

“The one you didn’t wear?”

“Well, I’m going to wear it tonight.”

“Come on! Where?”

“Cash is taking me somewhere for dinner.”

“Well, that’s a surprise.” In truth, it wasn’t, since Cash had enlisted Kendra’s help a few days ago, but Kendra was enjoying this particular white lie.

Cash, who was most likely her brother-in-law.

Kendra couldn’t help but smile. Once or twice she had wondered if Cash might
become
her brother-in-law by marrying her sister. She had never fathomed that he might already be her brother-in-law because he was really Isaac’s half brother.

She and Jamie had talked about this new revelation in the waiting room earlier, but now she put her smile into words. “You know, if you marry Cash, what will that make him? My double brother-in-law? Is there such a thing?”

“We’re going to dinner, not making a stop at the little brown church in the vale.”

“I’m just working out titles in my head, along with the fact that he and Isaac are brothers. And Manning is my father-in-law.”

“Manning’s a good guy. Even the fact that he stepped forward when he didn’t have to says a lot. And Cash said when Manning told Sandra, she was understanding.”

“Maybe she’d feel differently if they’d been married at the time, but it did happen a long time ago.”

“Slow down. You’ll miss the turnoff.”

Kendra realized she was so preoccupied thinking about her life and immediate future, she hadn’t paid attention. She slowed and only spoke again after the turn into the orchard had been safely made.

“It’s so strange. When I came out to the old cabin to live, I had a sister I hadn’t seen in years, a mother who pretends she never had children, and a husband I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay married to. I was pretty much alone in the world. Then you appeared, Isaac and I found each other again, you volunteered to carry a baby for us and threw in a bonus, and now Isaac has a father, a half brother and a very nice stepmother, not to mention Grace.” She laughed, because she was brimming with good feelings. “The world is a very funny place.”

“Fate has supple hands and an unpredictable sense of humor.”

Kendra realized it was time to move to another subject. Jamie was keeping up her end of the conversation, but even though her responses were appropriate, they were lackluster.

Kendra switched to something less demanding. “So you’re going to wear the red cocktail dress. What are you going to wear on your feet?”

“Whatever they can fit into.”

“My feet are bigger than yours.”

“Don’t look now, but you’re wearing suede boots, which aren’t necessarily the best accessory for red lace.”

“No, but having noticed how much your feet are swelling and how often I see you in bedroom slippers, I brought some shoes with me for you to try on. They’ll be more comfortable than what you’ve got, that’s for sure.”

“You’re so good to me.”

Kendra heard the catch in Jamie’s voice, and it disturbed her. Jamie seemed so fragile these days. As much as her sister proclaimed she was not having second thoughts about the surrogacy, Kendra still had to wonder. She glanced at Jamie and realized she was crying.

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said, wiping her eyes. “I cry about everything now. I always do when I’m pregnant. It’s natural. I’ve stopped watching television, because the commercials upset me.”

“Commercials upset
me,
too, because they interrupt whatever I’m watching.”

“You know the one about the dog who starts out as a puppy and ends up an old dog, barely trudging up the steps?” Jamie sniffed. “That’s the one that did it.”

“Sweetie, we have got to get you in shape for tonight. Cash deserves better than tears.”

“What do you suggest?”

“What do you need?”

“An emergency delivery. And new feet. Mine look awful.”

“I don’t think that first is an option. Will a pedicure help the second?”

“Put a medicine ball in your lap, then try to bend over to give yourself a pedicure.”

Kendra pulled up in front of Grace’s house and turned off the engine. She was trying not to laugh. “I will do that very thing someday, but for now, how about if I give you a pedicure? Not spa quality, but close. Deal?”

Jamie opened the door and hoisted herself out of the car. “Don’t you have a life? Somewhere you need to go?”

“I’m practicing taking care of people. I’m going to be doing a lot of it in the next, oh, say, twenty years.”

“Then shouldn’t you rest up?”

This time Kendra did laugh. She got out, too, and walked around the car. “Come on, sis. We’re going to make you beautiful for Cash. Of course, I don’t know why your feet need to be beautiful. I mean, I can’t imagine what the two of you would do where pretty feet will matter.”

“I’m hoping for a foot rub.”

“Be careful, the excitement might kill you.”

“I mean it, nothing more. My libido is gone with the twins.”

Kendra slung her arm over her sister’s shoulders and squeezed. “I hope there’s a little something left over. You’ve got to treat the guy well. Don’t forget, nowadays, Cash is family.”

Cash arrived for their date in his mother’s car. He wore a dark jacket and tie, with a pale yellow shirt, and his shoes were shined to such a high gloss all he had to do was glance down to see if he’d missed a spot shaving. The clothes were worn with the casual disregard of a man who was comfortable in anything, and Jamie found that particularly sexy.

According to Cash, she didn’t look so bad herself. His eyes gleamed at the sight of her in the red dress. Kendra had understated taste, tending toward classic designers such as Carolina Herrera or Ralph Lauren, but even so, Jamie felt like a pumpkin masquerading as a flamenco dancer. Even though the dress was a deep, dark red and there was no ornamentation other than the subtly patterned lace bodice, she knew the color and style only emphasized her pregnancy. Of course, jeans and a T-shirt would have done the same. Camouflage wasn’t an option in the final trimester, especially when you were carrying twins.

Now, out in the car, Jamie snapped her seat belt in place, chagrined that she was forced to stretch it as far as it would go. “I hope wherever we’re going, the doorway is wide enough for me to get through.”

Cash turned the car around and waved goodbye to Grace and the girls, who were shivering on the front porch. “I called ahead. They’ve promised to have a fire truck standing by in case you get stuck.”

“Good. I’ll be sure to tell the firefighters you got me in this condition, then refused to marry me.”

“Maybe I didn’t get you there, but those babies are my nephews.”

“How strange is that? They’re mine, too.”

He grinned at her. “Something else we have in common.”

“Make me a list. What else could possibly be on it?”

“That’s not
my
job. That’s a mutual exercise, but I’ll start.”

“Wait a minute, how long do we have before we get to wherever we’re going?”

“Maybe twenty minutes.”

“Then take your time. I’ll have to give this some thought.”

He glanced at her and grinned again, warming her with it. “We’re rescuers. Somebody or something needs us, and we’re off and running.”

“To a point.”

“Is that on your list?”

“No, it’s a clarification to yours. You rescue horses because they’re portable. They fit your need for freedom. I rescue people, but with the idea that when I’m done, they’ll go merrily on their way.”

“I didn’t know we were going to get all insightful here.”

“You can’t make a decent list without a little insight.”

“Then technically it’s still your turn, since that was just a qualifier.”

“Do you think I’m right?”

“I don’t have time to think about it. I’m busy with my list.”

She got busy with hers. “Okay, we both think my daughters are special.”

“So do most people who meet them.”

“You never said other people had to disagree.”

“Then it’s going to be a boring list, but I guess I’ll give you that one.”

She noted he was turning toward Woodstock. She wondered exactly where he might be taking her that this dress was appropriate. They might be heading toward the River’d Inn, at the edge of town, which was supposed to have an excellent dining room and romantic ambience. She wondered if she could bear an entire evening in a straight-back chair, arm’s length from the table, while courses were slowly revealed.

“We both like slow dancing,” he said. “With each other.”

“Neither of us wants to see the orchard turned into a trailer park.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. The county would never allow it.”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“Is that another item on your list? That we understand each other so well words don’t
exactly
matter?”

“If that’s true, you’re one behind.”

He was silent, and she watched scenery fly by. Before long they were nearly to Route 11, also known as the Old Valley Pike, and she was pretty sure she’d been right about where they were going. Then, as if he was reading her mind, he turned in the opposite direction.

“Two more things, then,” he said, once they were heading north toward Strasburg. “One, we’re attracted to each other.” He paused, as if waiting for her to object. When she didn’t, he continued. “Two, we’re both cautious about the opposite sex, due to our pasts.”

“Not fair that you get the easy ones.”

“You never said this had to be hard.”

She felt herself relaxing in a way she hadn’t since she had gotten her diagnosis. For the first time, she almost felt young again. Maybe tonight she could pretend that no one had said the word
cancer
in her presence, and that she had no decisions to make about it.

“Okay, I’m going to show you up,” she said. “Here’s a zinger. We both love the Valley, only both of us are afraid to admit we might want to put down roots and call it home once and for all.”

“You might want to stay around even after the babies are born?”

She tried to analyze his voice, but all she could tell was that he seemed politely surprised, as if her staying had never really occurred to him.

“I don’t know for sure. But after Detroit, it’s been so restful, so problem free—”

“Different problems,” he pointed out.

“Okay, every place has its problems. But I’m beginning to like the problems here. Too much open space. Too little crime. Simple pleasures.”

“There’s a whole lot of world out there.”

“I’d like to see it, too, only maybe that’s what vacations are for.”

Apparently she couldn’t pretend she was cancer free for long, because now she wondered if there would be enough years left in her life to take the girls to Europe, to introduce them to the pleasures of swimming off Hawaii’s black-sand beaches or skiing down Colorado’s slopes.

“I’m not sure that one counts, since I’ve never said I’m secretly pining to put down roots here,” Cash said. “I already have roots here. I’m not sure they’ve made me happy.”

She pulled herself back to the list. “Do you want to have the last word? Anything else?”