A Forever Thing (16 page)

“I have no idea. I was so stunned myself at Granny’s news, I
hardly knew what to say to her. And this is so much bigger. It involves a little girl who’s going to be terrified to be left with strangers,”
she said.

Theron moaned. “Do you think she’ll ever recover without a
lifetime of therapy?”

“You can worry about that later. Tonight you just face the first
step of meeting her.”

He sighed. “Thank you,” he said softly.

Fancy checked the dashboard clock. It was already ten, and she
had no idea how much farther it was, but Theron had slowed the
truck down to fifty miles an hour.

As if he could read her mind, he said, “Thirty-three more miles.
The ranch is a few miles south of Decatur, and the cabin is a good
two or three miles farther down a gravel road.”

“Will we make it before Maria leaves?” she asked.

“I think so”

“Will she even make it to the airport in this kind of weather?”
Fancy wondered aloud.

“She’s not staying at the cabin. She can run off the road and
freeze to death, for all I care,” Theron said.

“Okay, you’ve got a right to your anger. I’d have it too. But remember something. Maria is that child’s mother, and you’ll do
well to be quiet around your daughter when it comes to your personal opinions about her other parent. She’ll figure it all out soon
enough without your help.”

“Please don’t preach to me right now,” he said.

Fancy shook a finger at him. “I know you’re mad, and rightly
so, but don’t be foolish. I’ll stay with your daughter in the cabin,
and you take Maria to the car. Once outside, you can yell or cuss
and rant until your face turns blue and her ears burn off, but don’t
you let that baby girl hear a word of it”

According to the sign on the road, they were entering Springtown, population 2062. The lights from the houses bounced off
bushes already laden with ice. Tree branches looked as if they
were draped in diamonds.

If Fancy hadn’t been in a moving vehicle, she might have enjoyed the sight. Looking at it from a living room window with a
cup of hot chocolate in her hands and warm slippers on her feet
would be a lot better than glimpsing it between swishes of the
overworked windshield wipers. It was ten thirty when they passed a sign saying that Boyd was off to their right and Paradise to the
left.

“Paradise, on a night like this?” she asked.

“Does sound strange, doesn’t it?”

“Mind if I turn on the radio and see if this is going to melt tomorrow?” she asked.

He reached out and pushed a button.

“… if you’re out in this wintry mix, go home. If you are home,
stay there. All of Parker, Palo Pinto, Stephens, and Shackelford
schools have been closed tomorrow. Wise County schools haven’t
checked in with us yet, but I’ll be surprised if the buses can run on
this ice. Temperatures tomorrow are not expected to get above
twenty degrees. It will probably be days before we see a
melt..

She turned it off. “Guess I got my answer.”

“The sand trucks will be out early tomorrow. By afternoon we
can be out of the woods,” he said.

“I just need to be home by Wednesday morning. My ladies will
want to be pretty for the holiday. That and I’ve got a ticket to fly
home Wednesday afternoon,” she said.

“No problem. We’ll get you there.”

It was ten forty-five when he left the main highway and made a
left turn.

“Ten minutes, tops. We’ll be there on time,” he sighed.

A couple of more turns and he eased the truck into a narrow lane.
Seconds afterward, car headlights started toward them. Theron swore
as he eased the truck far to the right to let the other vehicle pass.

It pulled up beside him, and the driver’s side window lowered.
A woman called, “There’s a letter on the table with her things.”

“We need to talk,” Theron called back.

“Nothing to talk about. She’s your child, so you can have her,”
Maria yelled as the window closed and she drove off.

“She’s left her alone, Fancy!” Theron sputtered. “What does
that tell you about her mothering instincts?”

“Right now I’d like to slap her silly,” Fancy said through gritted
teeth.

Theron laughed. Granted, it was an edgy laugh born of sheer
nerves, but it lightened the tension in the truck.

When he gently hit the brakes in the yard, the truck kept right
on sliding. It came to a sideways stop with the porch blocking the
passenger door.

“How on earth did she drive out of here?” Fancy asked breathlessly.

“Chains,” he said.

“You got any?”

“In the barn back at the ranch. Didn’t even think about bringing
them along.”

Theron opened his door, and Fancy slid across the seat. They
slipped and slid several times on the frozen earth and up the three
steps to the porch. When it came time to open the door, Theron
stopped in his tracks.

“Go on. Standing out here won’t solve anything,” Fancy said.

He tiptoed inside with Fancy right behind him. They found the
little girl on the sofa. She wore pajamas with feet and was covered
with a heavy quilt. Long lashes feathered out on her rosy cheeks.
Dark, curly hair spread out on the pillow beneath her head. Her
features were delicate, and she looked small for a three-year-old.

“She’s the image of my sister, Melissa, except for the skin tone,”
he whispered.

“Let’s get some warmth into this place before she wakes up”
The cabin was almost as cold as outside, and Fancy’s breath came
out in a puff of mist.

“Woodstove and fireplace. I’ll get both started if you’ll sit right
there and make sure there’s a face she can see if she wakes up,” he
said.

Fancy shook her head. “This place is so small, she can see us
both. I can help.”

Together they got a blaze going in the fireplace and a warm fire
set in the small woodstove in the back corner near the kitchen area.
The cabin was one large room with a doorway into a bathroom on
one side. An outdated brown carpet designated the living area with
its sofa, an easy chair, and a wooden rocker. The bedroom area consisted of two sets of bunk beds built against a wall. All four twinsized beds were made up with patchwork quilts in various colors.
The kitchen was located on the other side of the living area. A few open-front cabinets showed off dozens of cans of food; a small
freezer sat in one corner; a dormitory-sized refrigerator with a
microwave on top of it and a chrome table with four chairs around it
made up the rest of the kitchen.

It was cozy enough, but why on earth would a man bring his
new bride to a cabin with bunk beds? Fancy wondered.

“When we came here for the honeymoon, it looked very different. I had a big four-poster bed with a white lace coverlet on it, and
every rose I could find in the area had been commandeered to turn
the place into a honeymoon suite,” he said.

“I didn’t say a word,” she protested.

“You didn’t have to. It was written on your face.” He looked at the
big manila envelope on the table. “I guess it’s time to look at that.
Will you join me?”

She pulled out a chair near the stove. “In for a dime, in for a
dollar.”

He pulled out the first piece of paper, and shock covered his
face. “It’s the birth certificate. Good Lord!”

“What?”

“Her name is Echo. It’s so … cutesy. Like … like something
you’d name a horse.”

“Like Fancy?”

“You got it,” he snapped.

“Well, thank you so much,” she snapped back. She’d ridden on
ice with him in a bearish mood for more than two hours, just to
have him say he hated her name.

“I’m sorry. I-”

“What’s the rest of it?”

“Rest of it?”

“Her name,” Fancy said testily.

He looked down at the birth certificate again. “Echo Martina
Santoya. I’ll have to get her last name changed. How much trouble
will that be?”

“Ask a lawyer. You’ll need one anyway to document all that’s
gone on tonight. Just in case Maria ever comes back and says she
wants Echo again, you need documentation that she abandoned
her in this cabin all alone.”

“We were just minutes away,” he said.

“Did Maria know that before she got ready to leave? Could she
even tell through the freezing rain that it was you arriving in the
truck?” Fancy asked.

“I see your point” Theron nodded grimly.

He handed the next piece of paper to Fancy. “Letter from Maria. Will you read it?”

“You sure you want me to? It could be personal.”

“Please. You can read it out loud to me. My head hurts-maybe
from all the driving and stress.”

“Okay, here goes,” she said.

The letter revealed that Maria had often left her daughter for
weeks at a time with her sister-in-law, Kayla, from the time she
was born. Maria justified her behavior by saying that her fiance
was frequently on the road for business and that she had to work to
make ends meet. They’d lived in Amarillo, and it was easier to
leave Echo with Kayla from Sunday night until Saturday morning
each week.

She knew Theron would make a wonderful father, and she hoped
he would be very happy to have Echo in his life. But if he didn’t
like the arrangement, he could put her up for adoption or let his
sister, Melissa, raise her if she was willing.

“That’s it?” Theron asked. “It’s not much more than what she
told me on the phone.”

“Well, it’s in writing, and it’s documentation you can use as leverage if she ever comes back demanding child support or Echo
back.” Fancy folded the letter gently and put it back in the envelope.

“When is her birthday?” she asked.

He looked at the birth certificate again. “December 31. She
weighed five pounds at birth and was eighteen inches long. She’ll
be three next month.”

“If you’ll bring in the suitcases, we can at least have a shower
and get some rest for a few hours before she wakes up,” Fancy said.

Theron looked as if he were about to faint.

“Don’t I need to be awake when she opens her eyes so she won’t
be afraid?”

“My guess is that Maria brought her here several hours ago, so she already knows the place, and she’s used to her mother not being around,” Fancy said.

“You do look a lot like her Aunt Kayla. She’s taller than you are,
but she’s got brown hair and blue eyes. Maybe there’s enough resemblance that she won’t be so afraid”

“Good, now get the suitcases inside, and let’s get a few hours of
sleep.”

“I’ll stretch out on a bunk, but I’m too wound up to sleep. You
really want a shower in this cold cabin?”

“Maybe I will wait until morning if you’ll guarantee me that the
pipes won’t be frozen,” she said.

“They’ve never frozen before, and we’ve been here when it’s
been pretty cold. The hot-water tank is propane powered. The
cookstove in the kitchen is the same.”

“Where’s the stove?”

Theron stood up and lifted a section of countertop to reveal a
small cooking range. “The oven is here.” He opened a cabinet
door. “Sometimes we need the countertop more than the stove,
especially if we’re only boiling beans or chili on the woodstove, so
Grandpa made it double duty.”

Theron brought in the bags, went into the bathroom, and came
out in flannel pajama bottoms and a long-sleeved thermal-knit
shirt. He stretched out on a bottom bunk and laced his hands behind his head.

Fancy had changed into boxer shorts and a tank top, wishing that
she’d brought warmer pajamas. She was under the covers in the
bunk closest to the sofa when he returned.

“Thank you, Fancy,” Theron whispered into the semidark room.

“You’re welcome. Good night again, Theron,” she said. No kiss
this time, but it was for the best. With glowing embers in the fireplace and ice surrounding them, one kiss could lead to two, and
they had an abandoned child to think about.

“‘Night,” he whispered.

She wished she didn’t like the deep timbre of his voice or his
beautiful eyes or the way he looked at her just before he was about
to kiss her. All those things kept her awake long after he began
softly snoring.

The next morning Fancy awoke to dark curls in her face and a
little girl snuggled up in her arms. She didn’t move a muscle but
looked around the room slowly, getting her bearings and remembering why she was there. When had Echo awakened and gotten
into bed with her?

Little brown eyes opened wide, and the girl smiled. “Mornin’.
I’m Tina. You’re not Kay-Kay,” she said innocently.

“No, I’m Fancy. I’m going to help take care of you today. Okay?”

“Momma’s gone,” Tina said.

“Yes, she is. Is that all right?”

Tina nodded her little head. “Kay-Kay’s gone too?”

“Yes. But I’m here now for you.”

“Tina will be a good girl,” she said brightly.

Fancy’s heartstrings stretched so tightly that she fought back
tears. How could anyone leave something as fragile and precious
as this child?

“Good morning,” Theron said softly as he crawled out of bed
and kneeled beside them.

Tina studied him a full minute, staring so intently into his eyes
that it was eerie. “I’m Tina,” she said.

“Tina,” he said softly. “I thought your name was Echo.”

“No. No one calls me that. I’m Tina.”

Theron glanced up at Fancy, who smiled. Then he looked back
to Tina.

“I’m your daddy,” he said.

“Johnny?” She cocked her head to one side just like Theron did
when he was thinking; there was no doubt about her parentage.

“No, I’m your real daddy. Do you understand?”

“Gone,” she said.

“No, I’ll come home every night,” he promised.

“Okay,” she said.

“What did you say your name is?” he asked.

“Tina. Momma is gone. Kay-Kay is gone.”

“I like your name, Tina. Are you hungry?”

She nodded. “I need to pee-pee.”

Fancy threw back the covers and set her on the floor. “Then let’s
go”

Tina raced to the bathroom.

When she finished, Fancy brought her back to the living room.
“Get warm with your new daddy, and I’ll make us some breakfast.
What do you like?”