Annie Jones - Somebody's Baby p.03

“Dada.”
“Yeah. Dada is going to be there right alongside you and me at the family
barbecue. And for the first time ever I am going to be part of a family.”
Her whole life she’d wanted this. She’d dreamed of it. She’d prayed for it. Now,
if only for a few sunny hours, she would know what that felt like.
“A family. I know I’ve always told you how everyone in this town, all the
members of our church and all my customers who so kindly keep us in their
prayers are our family, but it’s not the same.”
“Ya-ya-ya.”
“And who knows? Maybe after the Burdetts see the community the way I do, they
will see that the Crumble and the Crumble Pattie are a part of our family as
well. And together we can…” Josie raised her head half expecting to hear
fife-and-drum music playing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” or some such
patriotic and inspiring tune to accompany her homage to the power of people all
working for a common good. Instead she saw her baby happily making spit bubbles
and motor noises.
She sighed.
“It could happen. Especially with Adam back in town and you here to stay. Those
both seem like reasons enough to make it work.”
“Ya-ya-ya.”
“And then with everyone working again, my business will pick up and I’ll have
enough money to finish up the adoption once and for all. All being me—” she
poked him in the tummy to make him giggle “—you. Our own little family.”
“Dada.”
“And Dad, too, but not exactly…that is…” Josie considered not saying anymore
about it.
Nathan didn’t understand, after all, and she had started the day out in such a
great frame of mind. Why muddy things up trying to wade through the complexities
of their family dynamic?
One day Nathan would be old enough to understand and she needed to have
practiced this speech often enough that she did not botch it up when it counted
the most. “Okay, here’s the deal, sweetheart. I have no idea what the deal is.”
Nathan laughed.
Josie exhaled, her shoulders slumping forward. If she were Nathan’s birth
mother, if she were Ophelia, it would be different. Not easier, she realized,
thinking back to the day before and her newfound empathy for her sister’s
situation. If she were Ophelia, she would still have to account for her
behavior.
Josie might be well on her way to a new understanding of her sister, but Ophelia
still had to be accountable for her past and for the things she had done to
bring Nathan into the world. Among other things, she’d have to explain to her
son about not being married and about keeping Nathan’s existence a secret from
his own natural father.
But from the legal end of things, if Josie were Nathan’s birth mother, there
wouldn’t be lawyer fees and court costs to worry about. Unless Adam or his
family had wanted to fight her for custody.
“If I were your birth mother, things wouldn’t really be easier, would they?” She
kissed her son’s cheek. “They might be cheaper, but I can’t even say that for
sure. The only thing that would be different would be that I would know that
Adam was not confusing his emotions for me with his emotions for the mother of
his child, because I’d be both! But as things stand now, I have no idea how to
know if he really cares about me, or—”
Ding-dong.
“Pack mule at your service!” Adam nudged the front door and presented himself
for her inspection.
He wore jeans with holes in the knees. Sported a faded orange-and-blue T-shirt
with the old Carolina Crumble Pattie logo on it from back in the days when they
had enough workers to sponsor a softball team. And squashing down his dark,
gorgeous hair was a bright-green John Deere baseball cap.
“I want you to know I don’t do this for just anybody,” he said.
“Do? Do what?” She tried not to laugh outright. “Dress up like a scarecrow?”
“Haul pies. I mean it, Josie, not only am I going to a place I had wanted to
avoid, and to spend time with people I had wanted to ignore, I got up early on a
Saturday morning to take pastry to a bakery. If that’s not a sign of blind
devotion, then I don’t know what is.”
“Blind devotion? Well, that certainly explains the way you’re dressed. No one
with 20/20 vision could have put that outfit together.”
“I think I look adorable. What do you think, son?”
“Dada.” A squeal. More spit bubbles. A laugh.
“I have half a mind—”
Josie opened her mouth to second that, jokingly.
He held one finger up to silence her. “Half a mind, but a full heart.”
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip to let him know she wasn’t going to try
to best that.
“Half a mind, full heart and an empty bakery truck. All of them at your
disposal.”
Were his mind and heart really hers? Josie didn’t dare dwell on that question.
So she asked about the safest offering. “A bakery truck?”
“Unless you have a better idea for how to transport to the Crumble enough pie to
feed all of Mt. Knott.”
Josie went to the door and peered out at the truck usually seen making
deliveries throughout the county, including the occasional, stealthy stop at
Josie’s Home Cookin’ Kitchen.
“I had Jed and Warren and some moms in minivans each going to take as many pies
as they thought they could safely transport.”
“Jed and Warren? When you counted how many pies they could ‘safely’ transport I
hope you allowed for the ones that would not be ‘safe’ in their hands.” He
smiled.
Josie smiled, too. She actually had planned on having a pie or two go missing
during the short trip to the Crumble. Josie smiled because Adam had thought of
it, too. For a guy who had only just returned to a town he purported to have
held in contempt, he sure had gotten a feel for—and a good-natured regard
for—the locals awfully fast.
That spoke well of the man, she thought. As someone who had moved often and
under questionable circumstances, Josie had learned that often what you got out
of new relationships was directly proportionate to what you put into them. That
is, if you bothered to put anything into them at all. Adam had bothered.
Not only that, he had made connections. Clearly, he liked Warren and Jed, and
they liked him. She just knew that if Adam gave everyone in Mt. Knott the same
chance, they would have the same results. And then…
The rabbit-fast thumping of her heart made her nip any kind of further
speculation in the bud. She narrowed her eyes at the bakery truck Adam had so
sweetly put at her disposal.
“It’s not an elegant horse charging to your rescue, but then I’m more black
sheep than white knight.” He gave a shallow bow followed by a brazen wink.
Sheep. Not stray dog. Josie tried not to read too much into that, but given
their talk about the Lord as a shepherd and what it meant to bring the lost
lambs home, she couldn’t help but stare at the old truck and murmur, “This is
better. This is much better.”
On sheer impulse she went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.
“Much better,” he murmured, his dark eyes glittering as she stood with her face
just inches from his. “Much, much better.”
“Much, much,” she whispered, lost in his eyes, not exactly sure what she had
just agreed with.
He gave her an answer by returning her kiss—right on the front porch where
everyone in Mt. Knott could see.
And Josie didn’t care.
The kiss was sweet and brief, but it took Josie’s breath away and left her knees
wobbling. Just the way a real first kiss was supposed to.
When it ended she realized she had her hands on Adam’s shoulders. She jerked
them away as if he had suddenly become hot to her touch.
He snagged her by the wrist. “Josie, I, this…this has all happened so fast for
me.”
“Me, too.”
“Yeah, I know but you’ve had a little more time to get used to some of it.
Suddenly I’m a father, or at least I have a child.”
“Da-da-da.” Nathan, who had been cruising around the furniture in the living
room while his parents stood in the open doorway, dropped down and banged a
spoon on the floor.
“You’re a father,” she assured him.
“And I’m back in Mt. Knott.”
“Believe me, I’ve noticed that.”
“And suddenly my family is having this big shindig in my honor.” He scoffed at
the last word to show he felt he either did not have any honor or did not
deserve for his family to treat him with it.
“It will be fun, just wait and see.”
“I’ve never been any good at waiting,” he said, stepping close.
“Think of yourself as setting a good example for your son.”
“You’ve used that on me before.”
“Parenting is a job that knows no hours and never ends. Nathan learns from us
all the time. We don’t just teach him through our words but also through our
actions.”
“Is that your way of saying I shouldn’t grab you up and kiss you on the spot.”
“On this spot,” she touched her cheek. “That’s okay, I suppose. For anything
else, I think we’d better wait until after the barbecue when we can be alone to
talk things through.”
“What if you don’t feel like talking to—or kissing—me after the barbecue?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know.”
Josie’s stomach tightened just a little. All these things she had been thinking
of Adam, had she just come up with them because she wanted them so badly to be
true? She had lived in dreams—dreams of being in a family, of having a family,
of having a real home—had she lost track of the harsh realities surrounding this
man?
She looked deep into his eyes.
Naw. What she saw there was no fantasy.
She shook her head. “Sometimes I think you take this man-of-mystery persona a
little too seriously, Adam.”
“Me? A mystery? Why, I’m the easiest guy in the world to figure out.”
Josie sputtered out a laugh.
“I’m just a man who isn’t afraid to ask for what he wants.”
“Like you asked for your inheritance for example?”
“I was thinking more like asking for another kiss.”
She wagged her finger at him and shook her head. “Asking for what you want might
work when you’re asking for a kiss that doesn’t mean anything. But when you ask
for a kiss from me, and especially in our situation, I think you had better ask
if you want everything that comes with it.”
“I’m…I’m not completely certain what that is.”
Josie raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Look, Josie, I don’t know exactly what will happen between us after today.
That’s just flat-out reality. I do know that I would very much like for there to
be an ‘after today’ for the two of us, however.”
“That’s part of the problem, Adam. There is no ‘two of us.’”
“Not yet.” He inched closer still.
“Not ever.” She gave him a light but firm shove. “There will never just be the
two of us. We have Nathan to think of.”
“I don’t see how our having a good relationship can be a bad thing for Nathan.”
“It’s not, if we have a good relationship, a solid one. Those can’t be built on
shaky ground.”
“Then we may be in trouble, because every time I’m near you the earth moves and
I can hardly keep my footing.” He grinned.
“We have not known each other long enough for you to make a judgment like that,”
she warned, even though she felt exactly the same way.
“Haven’t we? I feel as if I’ve known you a long time.”
“But you haven’t.” She held her breath a moment and considered holding back her
opinion about what Adam was experiencing. But she couldn’t. He had kissed her
once already and awakened all sorts of doubts in her. If they ever hoped to work
through her apprehensions, they had to deal with them out in the open. “Are you
sure you don’t have me confused with someone you have known longer and with much
more intimacy?”
“You mean Ophelia?”
“Of course I mean Ophelia. I am her identical twin.”
“Her twin, sure, but identical? Not by a long shot.”
“We have the same build, basically. The same hair color, complexion and face. I
suspect if you saw us together you wouldn’t be able to tell us apart.”
“Oh, yes I would. You two may look alike. That doesn’t mean you are alike.”
“Of course not. But given the short time you’ve known either of us…” She let him
draw his own conclusions.
“I realized who you were once I saw you holding my son, Josie. Protecting him.
You are his mother.” Adam brushed her hair back. He bent in close, but instead
of trying to kiss her lips, he planted a kiss on her forehead. “And I can’t
thank you enough for that.”
“Really?”
“And for the record I know the difference between you and your sister. I know
you, Josie. I don’t know Ophelia. I’m ashamed to have to admit it but I never
really knew her, any more than I think she knew me. That’s one of those things
people who ridicule Christian values never get around to mentioning when they
make it seem that satisfying every animal urge is normal and healthy.”
“What?”
“They don’t tell you how lonely that kind of encounter can leave you, how empty.
How like a wounded animal, a—”
“A stray?”
He nodded.
“I know you are applying that to Ophelia, Adam, but you might want to take a
look at how it applies to your family.”
“My family?”
“Sure. You give in to the easy urge to feel sorry for yourself. To snap at the
people you had to rely upon, to foster distrust of them. Those are not the acts
of a man who is trying to live like Christ.”
It took him a moment and a few long, slow breaths, but finally he closed his
eyes and nodded. “I see your point.”
“Now as to you and Ophelia—”
“There is no me and Ophelia. Despite Nathan as evidence to the contrary, there
never was, really.”
“I wish that made me feel better, Adam.” She retreated inside, went to her son
and picked him up. “Relationships and parenting are hard enough without having
to cope with this kind of thing.”
“This kind of thing? You mean the whole identical-twins,
secret-baby-of-prominent-local-lineage, fathered-by-returning-ne’er-do-well-son
thing?” Adam followed her inside, chuckling. “You actually know other people who
have to cope with that in their relationships?”
“Well-l-l-l.” Josie rocked from side to side with Nathan on her hip before
rolling her eyes and conceding with a shy laugh. “Well, no relationship is
perfect!”
“I guess not.” Adam laughed, too. “So, how do you suppose that, year after year,
generation after generation of imperfect people have managed to fall in love,
make a commitment, establish homes, raise families and grow old together?”
Josie fell very quiet. “A lot of them haven’t managed those things.”
“But those who have, what do you suppose a lot of them relied upon to help them
get through it all?”
“God,” she said softly.
“Then let’s me and you do that, too, Josie.” Adam held his hand out to her.
“You want…to pray…with me?”
“It surprises me a little, too, but these past few days I’ve thought a lot about
my new role and what I need to do, about businesses based on Biblical principles
and…about us. I think it’s the right thing to do, don’t you?”
She did. So she slipped her hand into his.
Adam took her hand and bowed his head. For a long moment he said nothing. Or
perhaps he prayed in silence. Josie didn’t know exactly what to do, so she used
the moment to gather her thoughts, to humble herself before the Lord and to
praise him and thank him.
She had so much to be grateful for, she realized, even in the midst of all her
doubts. For Nathan. For Mt. Knott. For her work. For her baking talent. For
Adam.
And for this day. This chance to know how it felt to be a part of a real family.
She drew a deep breath and held it. That’s when she realized that Adam had begun
to speak.
“I am a lost sheep, Lord, returned to the fold, and yet not even sure he belongs
in that fold. I did not come in humility and hope, but bearing pride and a
grudge. I am flawed and fearful that I am unfit for the task You have set before
me, to be a father to Nathan and a friend to Josie.”
“Friend,” she whispered before she could stop herself.
“Because of all the demands on any relationship, but most of all of those
between a man and a woman raising a child together, the bonds of friendship are
necessary to endure one another’s faults and missteps with laughter and good
will. Thank You for bringing Josie into my life and into the life of our son,
Nathan. Help us to face this and every day with faith in You and trust in each
other.”
He squeezed her hand, which Josie recognized as his way of asking her if she had
something to add.
“Bless all those who gather today.” She choked back her emotions. So many things
she wanted to say. So many things she simply could not express except to say,
“We submit to Your will and praise Your holy name.”
“Amen,” Adam murmured.
“Amen,” Josie agreed.
He released one of her hands but clung to the other long enough to coax her to
look up and meet his gaze.
“You ready for this?”
For what? she wanted to ask. For you and I to begin our “friendship”? Or for the
responsibility of transporting and serving enough pie to fill up the
considerable bellies of every hungry person in Mt. Knott?
“I’m, uh, I’m not sure.”
“Neither am I.” He laughed softly, almost not a laugh at all. “But ready or not,
here we go.”
Chapter Thirteen
Adam would have loved more time alone with Josie, but knew it was for the best
that Jed and Warren showed up honking their horns and hollering to their
“Sweetie Pie” that they had come to fill up their trucks. Of course, as soon as
they peered inside the bakery truck they agreed it was a much better mode of pie
transportation.
They happily helped Adam load up the supplies while Josie ran around with the
phone glued to her ear, frantically reorganizing her moms-with-mini-vans,
answering last-minute questions and checking on the lopsided status of salads
versus sides. And each time the three men saw her, she had on a different
outfit.
Finally one of the moms arrived in her triple-car-seat and double-bumper-sticker
brand-new minivan. With much persuasion she loaded up Nathan and pledged to look
after him until Josie and Adam got there.
Josie waved goodbye to the happy toddler, then rushed inside her house, shouting
as she did, “I’ll be ready in a sec, Adam. Just let me get a change of clothes.”
“You have a whole pile of clothes that you’ve changed into and out of already on
your bedroom floor,” Adam reminded her.
“I know, but I just remembered something I have in the back of my closet,” she
called back.
“You look—”
Warren cut him off with a somber shake of his head. “Don’t even try to finish
that sentence, son. Not if you hope to get rolling toward the Crumble in the
next twenty minutes.”
Jed stood on the front-porch steps. “Warren’s right.”
Warren cupped his hand to his ear and grinned. “Say that again.”
“On this one occasion.” Jed drove home the point by placing his hand alongside
his mouth and shouting it for all to hear, before he dropped both the hand and
his voice and grumbled, “Warren is right.”
Warren chuckled, then turned to Adam, motioning for him to follow along as the
older men went to their trucks. “It’s one of them, what you call, no-win
situations.”
“A trap.” Jed nodded.
Adam paused on the lawn. “A trap?”
“Uh-huh. Not a bear-trap type of thing, though. More one of those
woven-finger-puzzle deals.” Jed touched the ends of both his index fingers
together and Adam could picture exactly what he was talking about.
“If you start trying to reason with a woman about how she looks in some kind of
outfit you will never be able to extricate yourself.”
Adam thought of the red-white-and-blue shirt that looked sort of sailorish, and
the white jeans she had been wearing. “I was just going to say she looks fine.”
Jed sucked air between his teeth.
Warren winced. “Fine? You actually intended to use that word? Fine?”
“But she does. She looks—”
“Shhhh.” Jed put his finger to his lips.
“Don’t say it again.” Warren opened the driver’s-side door on his sun-faded blue
truck. He hopped in and gunned the engine. “We’ll meet you down at the Home
Cookin’ Kitchen to help load up the pies.”
Jed got into his green truck and gave a wave. “You can thank us later.”
Adam didn’t know if the men meant he should thank them for stopping him from
getting into a now-in situation with Josie or for loading the pies. Either way
it made him a bit uneasy to feel he was in any man’s debt.
That thought kept him quiet on the whole trip to Josie’s Home Cookin’ Kitchen to
collect the baked goods, and as he and the other men passed one another taking
pie after pie to the big, waiting bakery truck.
He had come back to Mt. Knott to square away old debts, as it were, to tie up
loose ends and be done with the place once and for all. He stood on the sidewalk
and watched the comings and goings of Josie’s friends and neighbors, so happy to
pitch in and make this barbecue a success for everyone involved.
Mt. Knott, he decided, was not a place you could just be done with all that
easily. Each new day, each new association, brought with it a responsibility to
others, a connection, an opportunity to be a part of something good and
productive and hopeful. How had he lived here so long and not seen that? How had
he worked among these people and still managed to lose his way?
He only had to think of the benefactor of today’s picnic to find the answer to
that question. Adam set his jaw. As soon as they finished loading the pies he
would be going out to the Crumble for the biggest showdown of his life so far.
He would face his father, not as a black sheep or somebody else’s baby, but as
an equal. Or perhaps, depending on Dora’s recommendation, as his boss.
Why didn’t Adam feel better about that?
“That’s the last of them.” Jed slapped Adam on the back. “You be careful with
that precious cargo now, you hear?”
“Don’t worry.” Adam shook off the sting between his shoulder blades. “Not a
single piece of crust will be broken.”
“I ain’t worried about the pie, you just get our girl there in one piece.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” Josie stood before him, all smiles and softness.
Something was different about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Of
course, if he tried to put his finger on anything to do with Josie, Adam knew
she’d slap it away and tell him what for. He smiled at the thought and hurried
to open the door of the bakery truck for her.
“Thank you.” She bowed her head, started to climb in, then stepped back and
asked, “By the way, how do I look?”
It’s a trap. He could hear Jed growling out a warning.
A no-win situation. And Warren, too.
Adam shut his eyes and kissed her so lightly on the temple that he wasn’t sure
he hadn’t simply kissed a wayward curl. Then he whispered, “You always look
perfect to me, Josie.”
“That’s so sweet.” She glanced a feather-light kiss of her own off his jaw then
got into the truck. “Let’s go out to the Crumble, then.”
The Crumble. How many times had Adam snickered cynically over the aptness of
that tag for the place he intended to bring down once and for all? Now it
sounded like one of the sweetest places on earth.
He drove down the town’s tree-lined street waving as he did to the people
bustling out to their cars. They carried blankets and baskets, folding chairs
and portable playpens, outdoor games for the kids and at least one wheelchair
for an elderly member of the family. This was a big day in Mt. Knott. The
Burdetts were finally giving something back, and no one wanted to be left out.
He rolled through the streets of Mt. Knott, past the post office with the
American flag—the largest of many that hung from the handful of businesses still
operating in the old downtown area—fluttering overhead.
Bingo pulled up on the sidewalk alongside Adam’s truck, waved from his scooter
and hollered out, “I’ll be out to the Crumble soon as I finish up my route.
Don’t let Jed and Warren eat all the choice cuts and leave me with nothing but
bones and gristle!”
“Jed and Warren are nothing but bones and gristle,” Adam joked. Still, he hated
to think about the kind of trouble he’d bring down on himself if he actually
tried to get between Josie’s best patrons and the buffet table. “So you’d better
kick that scooter into high gear and don’t waste any time getting out there
yourself.”
“Will do!” Bingo gave a salute with the packet of mail in his hand then, true to
his word, zoomed off down the sidewalk at top speed leaving Adam in his
proverbial dust.
“Admit it.”
“What?” Adam scowled.
“This place is starting to get to you.”
“What? I’ve lived in Mt. Knott all my life.”
“No, you never lived in Mt. Knott, not really. And now that you’ve got a taste
of it, it’s gotten to you. You’re starting to care about these people.”
“Some more than others,” he said almost under his breath.
She leaned back against the gray-and-brown upholstery and looked out the side
window. “I’ll tell Bingo you said so.”
Adam barked out a laugh.
Josie shifted her shoulders so that her upper body faced him, and she smiled,
clearly pleased with herself.
But over what? The joke or because she thought she had him figured out? Had the
people of Mt. Knott “gotten” to him all that much? How could that be when he had
known them, or known of them, or known they existed at least, all his life? “I
want to go on record as not accepting that I haven’t lived in Mt. Knott all my
life. Except for college I’ve been right here.”
“You have that right. You said so yourself, you spent most of your life right
here.” She made an open-handed gesture toward the slightly rusted sign
proclaiming, Carolina Crumble Pattie Way. “On this road, at the Crumble or at
the big ol’ Burdett mansion.”
“It’s hardly a mansion.”
“Compared to most of the houses around town?” She waved at some kids who had
twisted around and were making faces from the back window of the car in front of
them. “It’s a mansion.”
He tucked his chin down and squinted at her a bit sideways, so as not to take
his eyes completely off the road. “You’ve been there?”
“Well, no. I just always imagined.”
“It’s not a mansion,” he insisted. “It’s a home. My home.”
He had never thought of it that way, not even as a kid, but suddenly it was the
only way he could see the large craftsman-style residence with secondary
ranch-and cottage-style houses for the brothers on adjoining lots. Home.
Josie had never been there, and he wanted to take her.
“It’s more of a compound, actually. You know, a big piece of land with one big
house and some smaller ones. Burke has a ranch-style. Jason has a smaller
version of the big house. Cody and Carol have a bungalow, or, uh, is it a
cottage? Do you know the difference?”
She shook her head.
“Neither do I,” he admitted.
“And where did you live when you were out there? The barn?”
Actually he had a log house. Strong and sturdy and set apart from the rest, but
lacking anything to make it personal inside, anything to give him a reason to
have gone there to stay or even visit on this trip back. “Yeah. Me and the other
lost sheep, we bunked out in the barn. Baaa-aaah.”
“Except you’re not lost anymore,” she reminded him. “You found your way home.”
Adam started to refute that, or maybe ask Josie what role she had played in
bringing it about, but just then he realized they were at their destination.
“Stop.” She held her hand up flat. “I’m going to get out and go on ahead. See
that big white tent over there?”
“Sure.” How could he miss it?
“You make your way to that and I’ll figure out the best place for you to park to
unload.”
“Can’t you just ride over with me?”
She frowned at the slowly moving line of cars ahead of them. “Adam, I’m supposed
to be in charge here. I can’t do that from the back of the crowd.”
“Okay.”
“See you in a minute.” And out she got.
Cautiously he made his way through the old rutted parking lot toward the open
area where the barbecue would be held. Partly because he didn’t want to arrive
with a single one of Josie’s pies damaged and partly because he wanted to savor
every moment leading up to…
Well, that was it, wasn’t it? He had no real idea what he was going to find at
the Crumble. No idea what recommendation Dora might have for him. No idea how
his brothers would react to his suddenly showing up. No explanation for how his
father could be so welcoming to him after a lifetime of treating Adam like an
outsider and then more than a year of Adam behaving like an outsider.
Josie’s warning to know what he wanted rang in his ears.
When he had arrived in Mt. Knott he thought he’d had such clear goals. He had
planned everything, step by step. First step, get out from under his family once
and for all. Second step, make anyone who had wronged him pay for not accepting
him, not believing in him, by taking over the Crumble and making everyone
accountable to him. Third step…
He really hadn’t gotten beyond the second step. Two steps then nothing? Now
there was a surefire way to get nowhere.
He supposed he could still make a run for it.
Then he saw Josie with the baby in her arms, standing by the large white tent.
The instant she saw him, her face lit up. With her hair that wild knot of curls,
her cheeks red and a crowd surrounding her demanding her attention, she looked
frazzled but happy. She pointed to a parking spot just the right size for the
bakery truck and gave a weary but grateful smile.
Adam wasn’t going anywhere but right where she needed him to be.
He parked, hopped out of the truck and went straight to her.
It was perfect outside, as if the weather itself were connected to the mood in
Adam’s heart. Bright and sunny, but not blazing. Breezy enough to keep the bugs
away but not strong enough to fan barbecue smoke into everyone’s eyes and effect
the taste of all the food.
And Josie looked perfect, as well. Fair as the day and just as gentle, but with
just enough energy and bluster to keep him on his toes. Adam reached out and
took Nathan from her, bending as he did to place a kiss on her cheek. It seemed
the most natural thing in the world. His way of both thanking her for doing all
this and of reassuring her that he would be there for her should it start to
overwhelm her.
It wasn’t until he heard the subtle gasps and chuckles from the crowd around
them that he realized the larger implications of what he’d done.
“What?” He looked around them, challenge in his tone, his posture and his words.
“Just my way of thanking Josie for doing such a good job with the pies and all.”
“Oh? Is that how it’s done?” Jed moseyed up to the forefront with Warren at his
side. “Here me and Warren been rubbing our bellies, saying ‘Mmm-Mmm’ and leaving
generous tips when we pay our bills.”
“Didn’t know we could accomplish as much with a Yankee dime.”
Adam scowled at the old expression. The way he understood it a Yankee dime was a
stolen kiss that meant nothing to the one doing the kissing. He didn’t like the
implication. A week ago he’d have glared at the old guys and told them just what
he thought.
A week ago he’d been a “Stray Dawg” who had both bark and bite. Now?
Now he knew how to play the game.
“Hey, I was just following orders.” He raised his shoulders and dropped them.
“Someone give you orders to go slopping sugar on our Sweetie Pie?” Warren
studied the crowd as if the guilty party might just step forward and save him
the trouble of having to sniff him out.
“Yeah.” Adam folded his arms over his chest. “You did.”
“Me?”
“You told me to take special care of my precious cargo. I did just that. And
here she is, signed, sealed and delivered.”
“You said that, Warren?”
And if he needed more proof that he was, indeed, a stray in this town no longer,
Adam brought the joke home. “He did. But then he also said that I shouldn’t tell
you that you look fi-i-ne in that outfit.”
It wasn’t a lie. But Adam did feel a twinge of guilt that drawing out the word
fine like that did give it a bit of a different spin, implying he thought she
looked great instead of merely suitable.
“You don’t like this outfit?” She turned on Warren.
“No. I never said—”
“No?” She pulled out the fluff of pink holding her hair up on top of her head.
“I knew I shouldn’t have changed out of the patriotic one.”
“No, I meant yes.”
“Trap,” Jed muttered.
“Yes?” Josie worked her fingers through her hair trying to get it to…well, no
telling what she wanted it to do. What it was doing was falling around her
shoulders and sticking to her cheeks. “Yes what? That I should have changed?”
“No.” Warren shot Adam a look that would have melted butter.
It didn’t affect Adam, of course, especially when he caught a glimpse of a short
black haircut darting through the clusters of picnickers at Dora Hoag speed. “If
y’all will excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
With that he took off after the woman, trying his best not to appear to have
just taken off after anyone, least of all a woman. Didn’t want to give the town
anything to gab about tonight over pie.
He glanced back over his shoulder at Josie, who kept bobbing up and down on her
toes, trying to peer over people to find him.
Correction. He didn’t want to give the town anything else to gab about over pie
and coffee tonight.
“Ms. Hoag?” Somehow he managed to shout out her name without getting his voice
beyond a stage whisper.
It must have worked because the woman whirled around just as he came up to her
and practically jumped out of her skin. “Burdett. You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here. I’m the guest of, um, honor.”
“Not to hear your brother tell it.” She smiled slow and sly.
Adam had no idea his boss was capable of that kind of smile, or of making a
joke. Or dressing as if she truly belonged at a Carolina barbecue. “You look,
uh…”
“Hold the small talk, Burdett.” She flashed her palm outward to keep him from
making a fool of himself trying to keep his compliment businesslike. “I know
what you want.”
“You do?” Adam snorted out a hard laugh. “Wish you had told me that months ago.
Would have saved me a whole world of heartache.”
“What? I don’t…”
Adam dropped the jest and became all business again. “You’re talking about your
recommendation, of course.”
“Yes, I’ve…I’ve gone over the preliminaries and—”
“Maybe we should go somewhere more private for this.” He looked around them.
They stood in the shade of a tree that Adam had remembered being big enough for
climbing even when he was a kid. It was huge now, but somehow it seemed smaller
than it did back then. And while it offered cool, pleasant shade, the soothing
rustle of thick leaves and the smell of earth and bark mingled with the tangy
smoke from the barbecue, it also seemed too casual a place to hear this kind of
news. Besides, between the tree and the passing knots of family and friends, it
seemed too out in the open. A place where they could be too easily spotted, too
easily overheard.
“We don’t need to go anywhere.”
“But—”
“Because I am meeting your brother here any minute and because there is nowhere
on these grounds that are going to make this any easier to say.”
Adam’s heart leaped. What was the expression, one man’s trash is another man’s
treasure? Dora Hoag thought she was delivering bad news but that “bad news” was
exactly what Adam had been hoping for. “You are going to recommend Global pass
on the Carolina Crumble Pattie, lock, stock and lousy building.”
“Just the opposite.”
Adam froze halfway to high-fiving his very proper boss. “What?”
“I am going to recommend that Global buy the Carolina Crumble Pattie lock, stock
and lousy building. Then tear it down.”
“Tear it…what?”
“Down. To the ground.” She jabbed one finger in the direction of the roots of
the old tree. “Take the recipe and put it in a vault and leave it there while we
try to come up with a cost-effective alternative. And in a few years, when
people get nostalgic for the old snack cake, we will bring it back with a
fanfare and sell it internationally.”
“Cost effective? Meaning inferior?”
“We can’t go on using the best ingredients, Burdett. If we did, we’d have to
charge as much for a single patty as we normally charge for a whole box of snack
cakes.”
“Have you ever tasted a Carolina Crumble Pattie? They are worth a dozen boxes of
those flavorless globs of chemicals Wholesome Hearth calls snacks.”
“I know.” She shifted her feet, twisted her hands together, then craned her
neck, all signs she wished Burke would show up and rescue her from having to
talk to Adam about this. “That’s why I’m saying we have to vault the recipe and
give it some time before we come out with our version.”
“Under the Carolina Crumble Pattie name?” Adam kept his gaze trained in hers
even though out of the corner of his eyes he could see his oldest brother
approaching.
“Of course. We need to own the name. It has thirty years of great marketing
behind it.”
“It has a lot more than marketing behind it, and that’s the part you can’t buy
or keep in a vault.”
“A family’s life work? A product made with care, the pride of a whole community?
A standard of excellence?”
“And more,” Adam said.
“We don’t want those things.” Dora batted her eyes and waved her hand. “We just
want the perception of having those things. And that’s what we get by buying
your family out and using their reputation and product branding.”
Adam sighed. He’d been through this before with other products and had always
convinced himself that, as Dora had often reminded him, it wasn’t personal.
But this? This was personal. “What about modernizing the facilities? Adding new
snack lines? Giving stock to employees? Given enough time, work and money, I
could make the Carolina Crumble Pattie an international moneymaker.”
“Of that I have no doubt.”
“But?”
“But you don’t work for Carolina Crumble Pattie, Burdett. You work for the
Wholesome Hearth Country Fresh Bakery.”
“I’d gladly step down and take on a different position in order to oversee this
project.”
“You would?” She tipped her head to one side, clearly not sure what to make of
that.
“You would?” Burke rounded the old tree. His tone was far more disbelieving than
that of Adam’s boss.
“Yes, I would.” Even Adam hadn’t known he was going to say that until it was out
of his mouth. But now that it was out there…“Gladly.”
Dora acknowledged Burke’s arrival with nothing more than a shift of her head.
Her focus remained on Adam. “That’s all well and good and perhaps even leans
slightly to the noble, Burdett.”
“Thank you.” Adam puffed his chest up a bit.
She put her hands on her slender hips. “But we don’t need nobility at Global.”
“What?” He exhaled and leaned against the tree.
“We need you. We need your sharklike instincts. We need you to ferret out small
places like this so we can move in and do whatever we have to do to help keep
Wholesome Hearth at the top of Global’s international food chain.”
Adam replayed that message in his head once, then twice, each time gleaning new
bits of information that led him to conclude, “First I’m a shark. Then I’m a
weasel. Finally I’m just something at the bottom of the food chain?”
“Up to you.” Dora shrugged. “You can be whoever you want to be.”
Be whoever he wanted to be? In his whole life no one had ever believed that of
him.
From somewhere in the crowd he heard Josie’s laughter.
His whole life no one had ever believed he could be whoever he wanted to be:
that he could be more than a stray dog; that he could be a better Christian; a
better businessman; a better citizen; and Nathan’s daddy.
Except…
“There’s just one thing I have to ask you, Dora.”
She arched a pencil-thin eyebrow, though Adam didn’t know if the subtle but
slightly spooky affectation was in reaction to his demand to ask her something
or to his using her first name so casually.
“I’m listening,” she said, finally.
“When we first came out here, you said business is nothing personal.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But then you also let it be known that you didn’t think it wasn’t such a bad
thing for a business to be based on Biblical principles.”
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“I want to know which method you used to arrive at your recommendation? The
nothing personal or the Biblical?”
She smiled slowly. “I did what Global pays me to do.”
“And Global was founded on Biblical principles?”
“Was founded. Global has changed.”
He thought as much. If she had said she had come to this decision through prayer
and an understanding of guiding principles, he would have needed to hear more.
But given this information, he knew what he had to say and what he had to do.
“Global has changed. But then, so have I.”
“Which means?”
“I quit.”
Chapter Fourteen
“You what?” Josie tried to make the words Adam had just spoken make sense.
“Quit.”
“Quit what?” She darted her gaze to the people and things surrounding them.
“Quit your family? Quit the barbecue? Quit…on me?”
“No. No.” He took her by the upper arms and bent slightly to put them in a
direct line of vision. “I would never quit on you, Josie.”
“Then…?”
“I quit my job.”
“Your factory job?”
“My…” He didn’t have to say another word for Josie to know how wrong the
speculation that he had blown his inheritance and had to take a job in a rival
food factory.
“You don’t have a factory job, do you?”
“Not unless Global moved the office of vice president of acquisitions and
mergers for Wholesome Hearth Country Fresh Bakery into the factory, no, I
don’t.”
“Vice President?”
“It’s not as big a deal as you might think. Global has VPs by the dozens.”
“But now they have one less?”
“Yeah. Now they have one less.” He practically beamed with the news.
“Why?”
“Because I just quit.”
“Why did you quit?”
“Oh.” His whole expression fell.
Josie had been too busy to eat today and yet she suddenly felt as if her stomach
was filled with stones. “Adam?”
He groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He
scrunched his eyes shut tight. His usually smooth skin creased into faint crow’s
feet. His shoulders went rigid.
It made her think of the image Conner Burdett had spoken of, of the little boy
with his hands perpetually in fists. She ventured a touch on his forearm, trying
to encourage him to unclench and trust her, though she wasn’t sure he would. He
had never come to trust his father, why would she be any different. “Adam?”
“Josie, I’ve…I’ve kept so much from you.”
“I’ve kept something from you, as well.”
“What?”
“My secret ingredient.” She knew it was not on the same scale. Whatever Adam had
kept from her, and probably others in town and in his family, had led him to a
point where he found relief and pride in having quit a very high-powered and
fancy-titled job. She had said it, though, to try to lighten the mood. And, to
try to shore up the connection between them, she quickly added, “Remember when
you said you’d tell me your secret if I’d tell you mine?”
He dropped his hand to his side, and the creases in his face relaxed, just a
little. He even managed a hint of a smile, but only a hint. And he looked as if
it could thin out to a scowl without much provocation. “I remember.”
“Well then, I’ll make it easier for you to tell me what’s going on with you.”
She curled her fingers into the soft fabric of his orange-and-blue striped
baseball shirt and stepped close enough to shut the people around them out.
“I’ll tell you my secret ingredient, then you can tell me about your secret, um,
life.”
“Doesn’t sound like a fair exchange.” He gazed deeply into her eyes, his
gratitude at the way she had taken all this evident.
“Are you kidding? You’ve tasted my pies. I’ve seen the mess you have made in
your life. Who do you really think is getting the bigger secret here?” She
laughed. It rang a bit hollow, but not phony. “Are you ready?”
“Anytime,” he whispered.
“My secret ingredient is…”
She actually felt people inching close to them as she spoke those words. She
gave them a backward glance, her eyes narrowed in warning.
Not a person retreated.
She cleared her throat and went up on tiptoe, cupping her hand to shield her
mouth as she leaned close and whispered in Adam’s ear. “I pulverize a Carolina
Crumble Pattie into the mix for the top crust, then brush it with butter and my
own mix of spices the last few minutes of browning.”
Adam pulled back, his face a blank.
Suddenly Josie felt those stones she had imagined in her stomach grow ice cold
and begin to tumble around.
“So if the Crumble closed…” Adam said.
“The Crumble is closing?” A man standing near them asked in a voice that carried
across the gathering.
Adam shook his head. He held up his hand. “No!”
“Stray Dawg says the Crumble is closing,” the man repeated louder this time.
“I knew his coming here was suspicious,” Elvie chimed in straight away. “You
know he works for a competitor, don’t you? I heard he and his brother are in on
this—courting an exec from Wholesome Hearth—”
“Please. Stop. Wait. Listen. Burke is not a part of this.” Adam tried to take it
back, to stop the remark from turning into a wild rumor that would spread like
fire through the closely knit community.
And who knew who would get singed by the flames?
Josie could already feel the heat. “If the Crumble closes, Adam? You want to
know what would happen to me? I’d not just be out of an ingredient, I would be
out of my livelihood.”
“Josie—”
The murmuring around them grew louder and louder.
“Belly-up and bankrupt because I’d have no way to pay back my small-business
loan.” Josie swallowed to keep the cold lump of fear from rising and strangling
her. “So, you see, you have to do everything you can to make sure that does not
happen.”
“It’s not. It won’t.” He gave her a shake and a look that said he meant that
with all his heart. “Not if I can do anything to stop it, it won’t.”
“Those words would mean a bit more if you weren’t the one that started the ball
rolling on this whole thing.” Adam’s older brother loomed behind him, seeming to
have shown up from out of nowhere.
“You? You are the one responsible for closing the Crumble?” Josie still could
not make it all fit together. She searched Adam’s face, but found no comfort in
his pinched and pained expression.
“Ya-ya-ya.” From a few feet away she heard her baby babbling. She whipped around
to find him in Jed’s arms, blissfully alternating between chewing on a cookie
and slobbering on Jed’s shirt. The older man didn’t even seem to notice as he
smiled at her and nodded.
Warren stood beside him, and Warren’s wife. She took her husband’s hand and all
of them smiled at her as if to tell her that they were there to support her no
matter what.
That’s when it hit Josie. No matter what happened with the factory or the town,
she had the thing she had always wished for. She had a family. Not in the
conventional sense but a very real one nonetheless. She had people who cared for
her and her son. She had a place to go in a time of need. She had the love of
the Lord and she had hope. She always had hope.
“The Crumble is not closing,” Adam said, drawing her attention back to him.
“You don’t have any say in that anymore,” Burke reminded his brother.
“Stray Dawg is the one closing the place down,” Elvie announced to the people
who had shown up late.
“I knowed there was something sneaky about his coming back to town,” one of the
newcomers yelled.
“Don’t go talking about my big brother Adam like that.” Jason, Lucky Dawg, came
forward and took his place beside Burke. “He’s not sneaky. He’s right here in
the open.”
“Would everybody calm down here? This is all rumor and speculation. Nothing
productive can come from that.” Cody joined his other brothers, hand in hand
with his wife, Carol. “Now, I know all of you folks and I minister to a good
deal of you. I’m not saying you don’t have a right to your feelings. I’m just
here to say that Adam is not just my brother but he’s yours as well. A brother
in the Lord. We need to think about that before we go throwing stones.”
“If the Crumble does close, I want you all to know, it won’t be my doing.” Adam
snagged Josie by the wrist. “I did not foresee this. I did not want it.”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Burke planted his feet shoulder-width apart
and crossed his arms. His very stance spoke of holding his ground and
challenging his brother. “You think Dad is throwing you this shindig because he
suddenly cares about all these people? Because you coming back made him a new
man and helped him see the error of his ways?”
“I, uh…” Adam glanced at Josie, then at the faces of the crowd. Finally he
cleared his throat and said, “Maybe not because of me, no, but I do think people
can change.”
“Amen, brother,” Cody said, moving around so that he and Carol seemed to be on
Adam’s side now.
“People change, but Conner Burdett?” Burke scoffed.
“Hey. Show some respect,” Jason barked. “You may be Top Dawg in the wolf pack
but he is still our daddy.”
“Yeah, well, our daddy is throwing this big deal, inviting out the town for the
first and last time, to celebrate what you’ve done for him.”
“Given him a grandson?” Adam asked.
“Brought Global here with an offer to buy out the Crumble. He doesn’t know the
offer will close us down and maybe be an end to the Carolina Crumble Pattie
forever, but I don’t think that would matter to him one bit. The old man plans
to sell out first chance he gets and retire.”
“That offer hasn’t been formally extended.” Adam went toe-to-toe with his older
brother, but because of their heights it did not bring them eye to eye,
literally or figuratively. “It’s just one person’s recommendation. The old man
doesn’t know for sure how it will all play out.”
“He doesn’t have to know how it will all play out. He knows Global is prepared
to come in with a lot of money, and if it’s not enough, he is prepared to ask
for what he wants. He knows they want to make some kind of deal and what it
could mean for us.”
“Us?” Adam motioned to the people surrounding them. “Or us?” He gestured to
Jason, Cody, Carol, himself then Burke, but not Josie or Nathan. She tried not
to take that as a sign of his feelings.
“What it could mean to the family,” he said.
Mt. Knott is my family, Josie tried to remind herself. Still, it hurt a bit to
have been so obviously excluded. Whatever comfort she found in her friends and
neighbors, she still longed for something more.
“What it could mean to him,” Burke clarified.
“What about Mt. Knott?” a man in the crowd demanded.
While another raised his voice to ask, “What about the people who still have
work at the factory?”
Burke just shook his head.
“Now, wait one minute here. When I started all this I never intended…” Adam cut
himself off. Again he looked at the faces of those around him, this time ending
with Josie. He reached out and took her by the hand. “Actually, I never thought
it through that far. I expected to blow in and out of town and not really even
know the results of my efforts until I was safely back in my office.”
“But you expected the best, right?” With her eyes, Josie begged him to confirm
it. She wanted something more, both as a family and from Adam, and that had to
be built on knowing that deep down, he was a good, caring man.
“I guess best is a relative term,” he said softly.
“Not when you’re talking about my relatives,” Burke chimed in and not softly at
all.
A few people laughed.
Josie was not one of them. “Adam, you said that after this picnic I might not
want you to kiss me, but you wouldn’t say why.”
“Maybe he planned on putting a lot of onions on his burger.” Jed’s attempt to
throw a little levity into the tense situation only made things worse.
People murmured.
Feet shifted in the dry grass.
Burke cocked his head and hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. To Josie it had
all the earmarks of a man deciding if he wanted to take a swing at another man.
“Adam, I have to ask this.” Josie took a step forward, placing herself alone
with Adam in the circle created by the bystanders. “Did you want to hurt your
father and family so badly that you cooked up a plan that would take down the
Crumble and Mt. Knott in the process?”
“No.”
“Huh.” Burke’s shoulders eased slightly.
“I believe you,” she said.
“You do?” More than one person around them asked it out loud, but it was Adam’s
hoarse whisper that she answered.
“I believe that you had acted on high emotion and out of old anger and fear, and
did not think through the consequences of your actions. It’s not the first time
you’ve done that.”
“Ya-ya-ya.”
Adam lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes in Nathan’s direction.
Josie put her hand on his cheek and turned him to face her again. “That’s what
stray dogs do. They growl and snap at anything that seems a threat to them. And
everything seems a threat to them.”
He lowered his gaze and nodded.
“But you are not a stray dog.”
Burke opened his mouth.
Josie glared at him.
He shut it.
“You are a man who has come to take his place in the community and be a father
to his son.” Josie stroked her hand along the side of his face, feeling the
beginnings of late-afternoon bristle on her palm. “And no matter what happens
with this business or any other in town, I know you have found your place. You
have come home.”
“Home.” He could hardly get the word out.
“Sure. He’s going to have a home no matter what. But that don’t necessarily
apply to the rest of us here today,” came a gruff voice from the back of the
crowd.
Adam looked at Burke. “I never meant for it to go this way.”
“I know. And to be honest, well, it was only a matter of time until some big
corporation moved in and made an offer, or came up with a competitive product
that would run us out of the market, or even just waited until we put ourselves
out of business.” Burked took a step forward, his hand extended to his younger
brother. “At least this way we may come away with enough bankroll money and
what’s left of our reputation to get the ball rolling on some new project.”
Adam took his brother’s hand, shook it once, then used it to yank the larger man
off balance and into a bear hug.
“Hey, wait a minute. I’m the hug-your-fellow-man preacher-type. Quit horning in
on my territory.” And with that Cody joined his brothers in the embrace.
Jason stood back a moment.
“Well, what you waiting for?” A grouchy old man’s voice asked what everyone was
thinking.
At first Josie thought it was Jed but when she looked, Nathan had shoved the
cookie in Jed’s mouth. He couldn’t make a sound.
That meant…
“Get your tail in there and act like a brother, not some snarling dog.” Conner
slapped his next-to-youngest son on the back.
“Dad?” Jason stumbled forward, then laughed and threw his arms around the rest
of the pack.
Conner came forward and did likewise.
Josie laughed with delight at the picture they made, but even as she did some
small part of her ached. All her life she had yearned to be a part of a family
like this, and all she had gotten was…
“Ophelia?” She squinted into the crowd right into a face that was identical to
hers.
Chapter Fifteen
In two or three hurried steps, Josie reached Jed and Warren. She took Nathan in
her arms. If Adam noticed, she didn’t know. Her attention remained on her twin
sister and the rising anxiety in her own chest.
Ophelia circled through the crowd, seemingly to give the Burdetts—and Adam—a
wide berth. She had clearly spotted them all, but had she seen Josie? Had she
been seeking out and found the baby that she had left in Josie’s care?
“Is that…?” someone asked.
“What’s she doing here?” Warren wanted to know.
Josie wrapped Nathan deeper into the protection of her motherly embrace. “I
don’t know,” she managed to whisper, though her throat had gone bone dry.
“Does it matter why she’s come?” Jed stood shoulder to shoulder with his regular
counter-companion.
Warren shook his head. “Pardon me for saying it, Josie, but in all the years
we’ve known you, that little boy is the only good ever come from one of your
sister’s visits.”
The baby hid his face in her shoulder and she cradled the back of his head with
one hand.
“Run, Josie,” someone close by hollered.
“We can detain her,” Jed suggested, though from the look on his face, tangling
with Ophelia was the last thing he wanted to have to do. “Run if you feel you
have to.”
Run? Grab her son and get out of the crowd, out of Mt. Knott? She could even lie
low for a while, knowing that Ophelia would never have the patience or resources
to wait her out.
Run. If the roles were reversed and she had shown up unannounced before the
adoption were finalized that’s exactly what Ophelia would have done. Assume the
worst and protect herself.
That’s the way they had both been raised. Take what you want and run with it, no
matter who you have to leave in your wake, no matter who it hurts. Only it had
never hurt just the ones left behind. Josie knew Ophelia still bore the scars of
the times she had put instant gratification above all else.
Run? Where to? And from what? Josie knew that Ophelia had probably chosen this
very public event for her surprise visit, because anywhere else she expected her
sister would have evaded her. That she’d have done everything possible to keep
Ophelia and Nathan apart. Here, with so many people around and on the outskirts
of town with no friendly home or business to duck into, Ophelia thought she
would have the advantage over Josie.
But Josie knew she had the advantage. Surrounded by people Josie loved and who
loved both her and her son, and with Nathan’s father close at hand, her son
would be all right. That’s all that mattered. And besides, by allowing her to be
a part of how Adam had changed and grown these past few days, the Lord had
prepared Josie for this exact thing.
Does it matter why she’s come? Jed’s question rang again in her ears.
Josie thought of the prodigal’s return that had so been on her mind of late. She
remembered the stories of lost lambs and Josie had her answer.
She raised her head to see the Burdetts still talking among themselves, hugging,
laughing, unaware of the small drama building on the fringes of the onlookers.
Josie knew how to respond when the lost lamb returned to the fold.
She did run. With Nathan in her arms she ran straight toward Ophelia.
“Phellie!” She used the special nickname she alone used for her sister. “Over
here!”
“Pheenie?” Ophelia sputtered. Her expression was a clash of emotions, surprise,
apprehension, defensiveness, disbelief.
Josie stopped with barely a foot between them. Her fears reared up and made her
question if she had done the right thing.
Nathan squirmed in her arms.
Josie gave him a kiss. He was safe. He was hers. And her hurting and once-lost
sister had come back. If she were truly the woman of faith she wanted to be, now
was the time to set her childhood fears aside and trust the Lord.
She reached out her trembling hand to Ophelia at last. “Welcome home.”
Ophelia glanced down, hesitated, then took it.
The second their fingers touched Josie felt a rush of warmth and love she had
not known since they were little girls together.
Ophelia must have felt it, too, as tears filled her usually cold and calculating
eyes.
And just that fast they were hugging one another, Nathan between them, wriggling
and giggling.
A murmur went up around them, something between a gasp of surprise and an
approving cheer.
“Okay, okay. Let’s get this over with—what are you doing here? How did you find
us out here? And would you like to hold the baby?” Josie laughed and pulled
away, facing her sister and the future at last. She sniffled and wiped away a
tear from her sister’s cheek, then stood back, giving her a once over. “And why
are you wearing my clothes?”
Ophelia tugged at the sailor-style shirt then at the waistband of the white
jeans that Josie had slipped out of, preferring the pink-and-green outfit she
had on now. “I tore mine breaking into that Home Cookin’ place of yours. Found
these on the counter and just…”
“You broke into my business?” She tried to remember if she had put the money
away properly when she had closed up last. She recalled leaving the drawer out
when Adam had been there, but nothing else. “Why?”
“Because it was locked,” Ophelia said as if Josie had just asked the stupidest
question possible.
Josie did feel stupid. And naive. And…
“As for your other questions,” Ophelia went on. “I am in town because I have a
lot of unfinished business here. There are flyers about this party all over the
place, and yes.” She stepped forward and put her hands under Nathan’s arms to
lift him away from Josie. “I would very much like to hold the baby.”
“Want I should call law about that break-in, Sweetie Pie?” Warren asked.
“Sweetie Pie?” Ophelia gave Warren a suspicious look. She tugged Nathan free and
curled him close to her, then asked Josie, “This is your…sweetie?”
“No, that is my sweetie.” Warren’s wife stepped forward, her experience handling
rude teens at the bowling alley coming in mighty handy as she met Ophelia eye to
eye. “Everyone calls Josie ‘Sweetie Pie’ because she means so much to us and we
wouldn’t want to see her hurt.”
Josie wanted to tell them all that her sister would never do anything to hurt
her. But she couldn’t do it. She swallowed to wash back the acid sickness at the
back of her throat as she studied the woman holding her—Josie’s…and
Ophelia’s…son.
For the first time in maybe five years Ophelia did not look like an older sister
to Josie. Her face was scrubbed clean and her complexion rivaled Josie’s for
color in her cheeks and freckles on her nose. She did not have on her usual
layers of makeup, nor did she reek of cigarette smoke. She wore her hair natural
again, just as Josie did. The curls falling around her shoulders, clean and free
of streaks of blue, pink or wine-red. She wore no jewelry, no studs in her
eyebrows or biker symbols around her neck. No black nail polish. She was not
sneering.
Josie closed her eyes, waited one second, then opened again, half expecting to
see something of the old Ophelia there that she had not noticed before. But no.
Not since they were kids and they had played “trick the teacher” by swapping
places in the classroom had these identical twins looked so…identical.
It seemed to fascinate Nathan, who wound his chubby fingers in Ophelia’s hair
and singsonged his contented “Ya-ya-ya.”
“Ya-ya-ya,” Josie murmured, her eyes fixed on her child and hoping this would
not be the time he finally formed the word Mama. She didn’t know if she could
take that. She drew a deep breath, aware of the collective breathing of the
people around her. She heard some commotion, but blocked it out in order to ask
what she had to ask. “What unfinished business do you have here?”
“Maybe we should go someplace a little more private?” Ophelia rubbed her hand
over Nathan’s plump leg.
Private. Josie tried to think what to do. Tried to ask the Lord for guidance,
but her heart was beating so hard and her head ached. All she could think about
was taking Nathan back and…
“Josie, do you want me to go get—” Warren began.
His wife interrupted with a statement aimed Ophelia’s way. “Maybe everyone
should stay right here while I go get the sheriff.”
“No one needs to call the sheriff.” Adam pushed through the ring of people, his
face grim but filled with a peace that had not been there before he reconciled
and accepted the forgiveness of his father and family.
For a split second relief washed over Josie. Then it dawned on her. With
Ophelia’s new look and with her wearing Josie’s clothes, Adam might not be able
to tell them apart. Even when they were separated by time and space and all
sorts of experiences, Josie had worried that Adam’s feelings for her were
tangled up and colored by his feelings for Ophelia. Or at least by his sense of
responsibility and natural concern for the woman who had carried and given life
to his baby boy.
If Ophelia demanded Nathan back, it only stood to reason Adam’s attention,
perhaps even his affection would follow, right?
The anguish was almost too much to bear. Ophelia’s return might cost her both
Nathan and Adam. She would lose everything she held dear and Ophelia would be
the one to have a family at last and Josie would have nothing.
But God had brought her to this point. He had prepared her. She knew that. She
could not stand there silent and put Adam to some kind of childish test; she had
to speak and face what was to come with faith and hope.
Josie opened her mouth to say something.
Ophelia did the same.
“I don’t want to hear it.” Adam put his hand up as he spoke to Ophelia. “I have
a few things to say myself. But first let me get one thing straight.”
He spoke to Ophelia. He approached Ophelia.
Josie’s heart ached. It actually ached. He did not know the difference between
Josie and…
“Ophelia, give me my son.” He took Nathan gently from her. “He belongs with his
real mother.”
He turned and met Josie’s eyes. In one step and without taking his gaze from
hers, he brought the baby to Josie.
“You knew,” she whispered as she cuddled her son close.
“Ya-ya-ya.”
“Of course I knew.” He ran his hand over Nathan’s head, then rested it lightly
on Josie’s arm. “I told you that. I know you, Josie. The good and the bad, the
sweet and the secret. I know you by the way you look at our son and by the way I
feel when I look at you.”
How do you feel when you look at me? She pressed her lips together to keep from
blurting out the question.
Adam smiled at her, gave her arm a squeeze, then turned slightly to make eye
contact with Josie’s twin. “Sadly and to my own detriment, I only know Ophelia
by her pain.”
“Pain.” Ophelia repeated the word quite softly. Not defiant and ugly as Josie
expected. She nodded, her shoulders slouched slightly, as if she had slipped the
word on like a yoke and was trying to decide what to do next. Finally she took
off the yoke, humbled herself and said, “I didn’t come to try to take Nathan
away from you, Josie.”
“You didn’t?” Josie’s own burden lifted. “I mean, I didn’t think you had. I
hoped you hadn’t, but…”
“But I hadn’t given you a lot of reasons to trust me up until now.” Ophelia
reached out and tugged on the lace of Nathan’s shoe.
“I always wanted to…trust you, Phellie. I always wanted to.”
“And now I want to be worthy of your trust, Pheenie. I came here now to make
sure everything was all right.”
“By breaking into my place of business?”
“I didn’t know how to find your house. I’m not from here, remember?”
Josie thought of telling her that she could have just asked anyone, but then
remembered that everyone, including Bingo and his little red scooter was out
here.
“So I figured Josie’s Home Cookin’ Kitchen was the best place to wait for you.”
“So you broke in?”
She shrugged. “Old habits die hard. And I did it for a good reason. I needed to
see you.”
“Yeah?” Josie tried keep her hope on a leash. Her sister had a way of making big
deals out of nothing and acting as if the most important things were of no
consequence whatsoever.
“See, that private eye you hired spoke to Mom, who tracked me down, set things
in motion. Made me think. I’d done this one good thing, but hadn’t really done
it right.” She pushed her hair back. She cocked one hip, then swept the back of
her hand along Nathan’s cheek. “I finally found where Adam had got to and tried
to contact him to tell him about the baby. When I learned he’d gone back to Mt.
Knott, I felt I had to come. I was afraid he’d try to take Nathan away from
you.”
“It did cross my mind,” he admitted. “At first. Then I saw Nathan with Josie
and…”
“Da-da!” Nathan yelled.
“And I knew that’s where he belonged,” Adam finished, never looking away from
Josie.
Did she dare believe what she saw in his eyes? Or was the emotion of the moment
coloring her perception? Josie struggled to keep her voice strong as she tore
her gaze away from Adam’s and spoke to her sister. “I thought when my letter to
you came back returned…”
“I don’t know about a letter, but I moved out of my old place. Too many
temptations. I’m in a program now at a church.”
“You’ve accepted Christ?” Josie took a joyous step toward her sister.
“I, uh, I’m opening up to it,” was all Ophelia would say. “It’s just a lot to do
alone, you know? Stay sober. Overcome a lifetime of selfishness? How do you do
that?”
“You started when you decided to have Nathan,” Josie said.
“Something I feel I can never thank you enough for,” Adam added, his head bowed
slightly in a show of gratitude and humility. “Thank you, Ophelia, for not
compounding our selfishness. For having Nathan and giving him to a person who
would love him no matter where he came from, who would make a home for him, no
matter what personal sacrifices she had to make.”
Adam touched Josie’s arm, pride and happiness shining from deep within his eyes.
“Josie, I…You…Thank you. Not just for what you did for my son but what you’ve
done for me. The things you’ve made me realize, the way you’ve helped me look at
my world…I…”
Josie held her breath.
“My brain tells me it’s too soon to say this, but it’s really how I feel.” Adam
moved close to her and took one of her hands in both of his. “I love you,
Josie.”
“Wooo-hooo!” Jed led the cheer that went up through the crowd, when they all
began to laugh afterward, even Ophelia joined in.
“Now, you say it back to him, Sweetie Pie,” Warren prodded in a teasingly loud
whisper.
Josie wanted to say it, but her voice failed her, so she mouthed it instead. I
love you, too.
Another whoop.
Adam broke into laughter and pulled her into his arms, kissing her temple, her
cheek, then lightly, her lips.
The crowd showed their approval with applause this time.
Adam kissed her again, this time on the forehead; then he kissed Nathan on the
head, as well, before he took a deep breath and looked at Ophelia. His
expression changed to guarded kindness. “I have something more to ask you,
Ophelia.”
Ophelia dropped her gaze downward. She spoke softly, guessing, “Why didn’t I
tell you about Nathan sooner?”
“No.” He shook his head and stepped away from Josie to face Ophelia fully,
sincerely, humbly. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“What?”
He reached out and took her by the hand. “I’m asking for your forgiveness.”
Josie’s heart swelled.
“But…but why?” Ophelia looked past the man and found Josie and Nathan.
“Because it’s what families do,” Josie explained, choking back a sob. “It’s what
happens when the lost lamb returns to the fold. We try to make things so they
don’t stray again. God loves us and forgives us and so we—we do the same for
others.”
Ophelia’s face went blank, no doubt as she tried to process it all.
Josie marveled that she, herself, did not burst into tears. A family. An
unconventional one, to be sure, but if Ophelia forgave Adam and was open to
talking to the two of them, a family they would be.
Adam cleared his throat, which by his standards was probably close to a total
emotional breakdown, she suspected.
“Oh, forgive him already! I couldn’t stand it if you didn’t.” Jed scrunched up
his whole face, trying to look annoyed, but was unable to hide his emotional
investment in it all.
Warren pulled out the red hankie and blew his nose, good and noisy.
Josie laughed. She couldn’t help herself. Adam loved her! He’d made amends with
his family. Nathan was going to be hers legally. Ophelia had returned and was
open to trying a new way of life.
Sure, the Crumble might still close. Her business might fall as a result. She
and Adam might not work out or have a long-term relationship beyond their
connection to Nathan, but Josie had the thing she had longed for all her life….
“What do you have to be so happy about?” Ophelia asked.
Josie threw her arms around her sister and gave her a hug, with Nathan still in
her arms. “Because I have family. And for the first time I can recall I feel
like nothing is going to take that away from me.”
Chapter Sixteen
By the first week of November all the leaves had changed to brilliant orange,
yellow and red. Some had begun to fall, making a trip down a winding mountain
road feel like a trip through a confetti-strewn parade route.
Why not? Josie felt she had so much to celebrate.
She strolled to the front door of the Home Cookin’ Kitchen, then turned to look
at the prayer list on the wall.
Among the requests for health and job security now read the words Josie never
thought she’d see:
“Pray for the Burdett family as they make their big decision.” Warren had been
the first to sign that one. Jed next. Then Josie. The list grew and grew and
even included Elvie Maloney and Micah Applebee, only two of the most
high-profile of the Burdetts’ detractors.
Adam had come last night with his camera phone and taken a photo of the wall
scrawled floor to ceiling with names.
“I want to carry this into the meeting,” he had told Josie with a kiss to her
cheek.
Josie had returned it with a kiss to his lips. She thought that was a completely
acceptable way to send her sweetie off to the meeting that would determine the
fate of the family business. Global had done something called a “due diligence.”
Conner complained they’d come in and pulled records and files and snooped around
everything except their medicine cabinets. Today they would present their offer
to the board. Adam was just sitting in as a guest and advisor, but with so much
at stake they were all anxious.
The sky had gotten overcast throughout the morning. It threatened to drizzle any
minute now. The wind kicked up, and Josie watched a few leaves tumble down from
the nearest tree.
Bingo beeped, and she went out to meet him, shivering as she did.
“Sorry, Sweetie Pie, bills mostly but there is one here from your sister.”
“Thanks, Bingo.”
“Hope it’s good news.”
“Me, too.” Josie would save that letter for later. Ophelia had had a setback,
but after spending a lot of time with Carol and Cody Burdett, had gone into a
residential Christian rehab program.
She thumbed through the rest of the envelopes.
Bingo peered over her shoulder, probably hoping she would read her sister’s
letter and share all the news.
“Nothing new on the adoption,” he told her. “Not that I read your mail, you
know, but I got to—”
“I know, read the outsides to know what to deliver.” Josie laughed, thanked him
and hurried back inside to get out of the autumn chill.
The lack of information did not worry her. The adoption process was well
underway and Adam…
Josie looked at the phone and held her breath. This had been one of the longest
mornings of her life. The coffee commuters had already come and gone, and she’d
even had time to clear away their mess and count up the proceeds. For once the
amount not only covered her costs, it gave her enough left over to buy herself a
cup of coffee—and not one of her own, the fancy kind in a city coffee shop.
She had counted that twice, then taken some fresh pies out of the oven and
served them to the regulars, who gobbled them up, each making comments about her
secret ingredient. They’d noticed it this time because Josie had been leaving it
out. Or experimenting with different things trying to come up with a substitute.
But today, with the Crumble on the line, it only seemed right she’d make her
pies with the Carolina Crumble Pattie mixed into the top crust.
Adam should have called with some news by now.
“You ever tell anyone that secret?” Jed poked the last bite of his pie into his
mouth.
“What secret?” Warren scraped up the last of the cherry filling on his plate
with the side of his fork. “Only secret she’s keeping is when she’s going to
wise up, toss over that Burdett and run off and marry me.”
“You old fool. Who in their right mind would toss over a strapping young fellow
with a great big inheritance burning a hole in his pocket, just waiting to get
reinvested right here in Mt. Knott, for a broken-down ol’ pie hog like you?” Jed
laughed.
“He really going to invest in Mt. Knott no matter which way the vote goes at the
Crumble, Miss Josie?” Warren wiped his mouth then took a sip of coffee.
“That’s what he says,” she confirmed.
“Good for him.”
“Good for us,” Jed threw in. “’Cuz if the Crumble goes…”
If the Crumble went—meaning the Burdetts sold out and Global shut them down and
restricted them using the recipe ever again—then it didn’t matter how much money
Adam invested in the town, Josie’s pies would never be the same. And she
couldn’t help wondering what would become of other parts of her life?
R-rr-rr-ring!
Josie jumped.
“That might be the call.” Warren slapped his hand on the counter.
“You think so, Captain Obvious?” Jed nudged him with his elbow.
“Hello?” Josie held her breath, expecting to hear Adam on the other end. “Oh,”
was all she could muster when she heard the voice of the paper-goods rep on the
other end, wanting to know if she needed to place an order. “Nope. Sorry, I
still have a bit left over from the barbecue.”
“Not him?” Jed asked.
“Now who’s Captain Obvious?” Warren wanted to know, before he added to cheer
Josie up, “Won’t be long now.”
“Can’t draw it out forever,” Jed agreed.
“How long can it take to plan out the future of one family and a whole townful
of fine folks?”
“Adam!” It was as if a light had been flicked on and her whole day had turned
bright just to see him standing there. She ran to him and threw her arms around
his neck. “What do you know? What did they decide? What happened? Tell me the
good news first, okay, sweetie?”
“Yeah, sweetie, tell us the good news first,” Jed and Warren chimed in unison.
“The good news?” Adam’s dark eyes sparkled. He touched Josie’s hair, stroked his
thumb along her jaw, then placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Well, I was
going to save this for a more-private time, but if you want the good news
first…”
“Hurry up!” she demanded, knowing he was toying with her.
“Okay.” He nodded then dropped to one knee before her.
“What?” She looked down at him, confused and more than a little excited. “What
are you—”
“Shhh. You asked me to tell you the good news first, right?”
“Right.”
“The good news is that I plan to take care of you and Nathan for the rest of
your lives, no matter what happens at the Crumble or with our extended families.
And toward that end—” he reached inside his black leather jacket and pulled free
a small red velvet box “—Josie Redmond, will you marry me?”
Josie held her breath. She had imagined him coming in here and telling her
everything from they had saved the business to telling her he had to ride off on
his Harley, never to return. But this?
“M-marry you?”
“You know what this means, don’t you?” Jed asked his counter mate.
“Yup. That she is never ever going to wise up and marry me.” Warren sulked, then
brightened. “Although, my wife will probably appreciate that news to no end.”
“No, you fool, it means that them Burdetts sold out the Crumble. If they didn’t,
he wouldn’t want to propose first, he’d have told her the good news up front.”
Josie put her hand to her throat. “Is that an accurate assessment of things?”
“Has anything those guys come up with ever been accurate?” Adam’s smile grew,
slowly at first, then spread wide until he couldn’t contain a roll of joyous
laughter. “We did it, Josie.”
“We…did?”
“The family turned down the buyout.”
“Yee-hooo!” Jed hollered.
“Well, I’ll be!” Warren shook his head.
“But why? How? What’s to keep the place from bottoming out and going bankrupt?”
“New blood.”
She winced. “What?”
He took both her hands in his. “We have a third party, new investor. Came in at
the eleventh hour with some great ideas for restructuring, starting some new
product lines and running the business based on Biblical principles.”
“Biblical?” Josie had heard Adam and the brothers discussing that before. “And
this new investor…”
“Wants to partner with the family. One member of the family more than others, I
suspect”
She shook her head. Nothing he had said since the proposal had really sunk in.
“I don’t…”
“Dora Hoag. My old boss.”
“Oh!” Josie laughed at last.
“That made sense to you?”
“Love always makes sense to me.” She put her arms around his neck.
“Then you are a wiser person than I am, Josie, because love has had me baffled
until I met you.”
She went up on tiptoe and kissed him.
“Does that mean she’s accepting his proposal?” Jed asked.
“Yep. Get out your Sunday best, you old fool, looks like you and me are going to
be flower girls.”
And they were.
Not flower girls, but they did have the responsibility of bringing Nathan down
the aisle and holding him there to bear witness to the marriage of his parents.
Everyone they loved was there, Ophelia, Conner, Burke, Jason, Cody and Carol.
And Bingo. And even Dora came.
And when the minister pronounced them man and wife, Nathan wasn’t afraid to put
in his two cents. “Dada! Mama! Ya-ya-ya!”