Amelia (19 page)

“I don’t see what you’re missing.”

“Who does that? Who just steps in and makes sure everyone is taken care of and doesn’t ask for something of her own?”

“Me,” Amelia said calmly because it was truth.

“I…I just…” Vivian blew out a breath. “Thank you.”

Penelope had a different approach. She moved to Amelia and gave her a hug.

It wasn’t just a quick hug though. She held her until Amelia patted her back and she stepped back. “This is very generous of you.” Penelope placed her hands on the slight—very slight—rise of her stomach.

“It’s not generous of me at all. He died for this—for us. I don’t like being the only one in that will that was named. I don’t like that out of three marriages I’m the only legal heir to anything. Those girls,” she pointed to the other room where Ava and Emma sat watching a movie on an iPad. “And your baby,” she pointed to Penelope. “Deserve everything. I know what it is to have lost a parent in combat. I know what part of you is hollowed out and never filled. They don’t deserve that.” She sucked in a breath before she continued.

“They deserve to have a roof over their heads and a fine education. Adam’s death will provided that. Not the best way for him to take care of them, but it’s something.”

“And you don’t want anything in return?” Vivian, still with an edge to her voice, asked.

Amelia dropped her shoulders and gave it some thought. “Fine. What I want when this house is done and your house is paid off and all the accounts have been set up,” she took a breath out of frustration. “What I want is space in the basement for a training facility. A heavy bag. Some mats. Some weights. It’ll save me on a gym membership. How’s that?”

“Totally selfish,” Vivian said and Amelia stepped forward to shake her if she had to before Vivian broke into laughter. “I’m kidding. God, lighten up.”

Penelope laughed and then Sam did too.

“Amelia, you have to learn not to take everything so seriously,” Vivian humored herself as she put the papers back in the envelope Sam had brought in. And then she turned to her. “But again, thank you. Your compassion speaks levels about your character.”

After a few solid hours of work on the house, Sam cleaned up his mess and started for his truck. Amelia sat on the front porch with a glass of iced tea.

“Where are the others?”

“They left a little while ago. The girls needed dinner and they have a routine.”

Sam gave her a nod. “I sometimes forget what it takes when you have children to think about.”

Amelia looked down into her glass. “Vivian is a good mother. She really is.”

“I see that.”

“And even though sometimes I wonder what kind of brains rattle in Penelope’s head, I think she’ll be a good mother too.”

“I see that too just by the way she is with Vivian’s girls.”

“I’m not sure I’d be a good mother. I don’t have the first idea of how it all works. I mean my mother shouted out commands. My mother wasn’t like Vivian who embraces her daughters.”

Sam sat down next to her and rested his hand on her back. He felt her tense, but he didn’t pull back.

“Don’t get me wrong. I know my mother loved me. I know that she loved all of us. But her career was just more important.”

“But you had your father. He taught you compassion and love.”

She smiled. “Yes he did.”

“I think when the time comes you’ll be okay.” He took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

“I’d never considered having kids. It wasn’t something Adam and I ever discussed at all.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “But I think about it with you.”

He couldn’t help it. Pride swelled in his chest. “That’s a big step for you.”

“It is. Especially since I’ve only really known you a few weeks.”

“We have a long time to get to know each other. It doesn’t stop the fact that I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

She held up a finger to him.

“I’m not proposing. I know better.”

Amelia gave him a nod. “I think I’m ready to go home now, though. With you.”

Sam lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. “I’m ready for that too. And I know you plan to make that temporary. But I’m here to tell you I’m going to try and talk you out of that.”

He pulled her in until their lips met. As far as he was concerned he never wanted her living in another place again.

~*~

The air was too hot outside to open a window. Sam made sure the air conditioner was set comfortably and he turned on the ceiling fan as well.

Amelia lay in his bed. Right where she belonged, he thought. The tank top she wore hugged her firm, toned body. Her arm was up over her head and dark hair fanned out over the pillow. She was a sight of beauty.

Even though the girls had told her she snored he’d never bring it up himself. It was—endearing.

She’d said she was going to wait for him, but obviously the past week of working on the house and teaching had caught up to her. Now she slept.

Sam turned off the light and walked to the other side of the bed. He pulled off his T-shirt and stretched his arms and back. Working on those stairs was quite a chore.

He folded back the sheet and climbed in next to Amelia. She stirred slightly as he got situated. He leaned over to kiss her goodnight, but was met with a stiff hand to the chest which had him rolling onto his back and gasping for air.

“Oh, God!” She bolted up. “I’m sorry. You startled me.”

Quickly, Amelia turned on the bedside lamp and looked at him with his hand on his chest.

“Oh, look at the bruise on you. I hit you there didn’t I?”

“Yep,” he was sucking in air weakly.

The bruise from the attic stair incident the day before was prominently displayed on his chest nearly reaching from one armpit to the other. He’d worked through the discomfort when he’d been working at the house, but this—this took the cake.

Amelia moved his hands and examined the bruise. “We need to remember to fix the attic entry before this happens to someone else.”

“We’ll add that to the list of everything,” he winced as he readjusted in the bed.

“Did it hurt all day?”

“Just when I thought about it.”

Amelia rolled to her side, propped herself up next to him. Gently—ever so gently—she pressed her lips to the injured skin.

“Does that hurt?”

“No.”

She pressed another kiss to it. “That?”

“No.” His responses were becoming weaker and breathier.

She’d kiss and ask again. Soon his answer was not coming from his mouth, but from a significant member of his body.

Amelia stripped off her tank top and pulled off the shorts she’d worn to bed.

“Maybe I can make up for the attic stairs and hitting you too.”

“Okay. I’ll let you try.”

She straddled him, leaning over him careful not to press her weight to him.

Her hair fell around them like a private curtain and she moved her mouth against his.

“You’ll feel better soon, I promise.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

As summer gave into the last few days before fall the heat still sweltered. Progress on the old house was made a little at a time, usually early in the morning and late at night.

The flowers which Sam had brought were bright and full. The bush seemed happy in its little home by the steps.

During the day, Vivian worked on acquiring all the right licenses and learning about the business they were going into. She understood the growth and learning curve of young children, but the business end of child care was a whole different ballgame.

Penelope kept herself cool in the office of Lawyer Sam Jackson. Sam made sure there was something under the desk for her to put her feet up. He had stocked the small refrigerator with waters and healthy snacks. And it was no longer her job to get them lunch. He’d seen to that too.

Amelia, who had purchased a personal cooler to be worn around her neck, worked inside the house alone with her music every day until the others got there. A few days a week, they worked until late at night with the girls falling asleep on a pile of small pillows Penelope had brought for them. Other nights they all went home to relax and Amelia would teach. Once in a while she convinced the others to join her. Weekends—those were for hard, sweaty labor.

Amelia’s project at the moment was the larger bedroom upstairs. She wanted to make it something very special for Penelope. When the baby came, Amelia wanted Penelope to have a place. Something they could call their own. So, with that, she’d been fixing up the bathroom and patching the walls. A few more weeks and it would be done. But she didn’t want Penelope to live there until the entire house was done. The fumes and dust wouldn’t be good on her.

It was optimistic, she knew, but she wanted the house done by the beginning of November. They’d miss the beginning of the school year and those new enrollments. But that was okay. They’d be ready for the following year and by then they’d have more experience. And by “they” she meant Vivian and Penelope. She surely didn’t have any talent in that area and she wasn’t going to pretend she did. The thought had crossed her mind that when the house was done perhaps she’d take the attic and convert it into an office.

If, and only if they’d taken her seriously, she’d put a training facility in the basement and she could teach some private classes there. The thought actually thrilled her.

It was nearly five-thirty when Amelia heard a car pull up in front of the house. Penelope slowly moved out of her car.

Her body had changed as she moved through her second trimester. Vivian had told her at the beginning of August that she’d popped. The term seemed to have thrilled Penelope, but baffled Amelia. She saw it now, though. Penelope waddled from the ever growing size of her belly. She was nearly half way there—Adam’s last baby would be born soon. That would be another rush of feelings for another day, Amelia thought.

She finished the task at hand and closed the door to the bedroom before walking down the new steps Sam had created.

Penelope opened the door and slowly walked in.

“You look beat,” Amelia said.

“I am. My hands are swollen. My ankles are swollen. I’m about three hundred degrees in these clothes and all I want is a cool bath.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because everyone will be here soon and this is what we do for now. We have to get this place ready.”

Amelia noted that Penelope had taken off her normal shoes and slipped into a pair of ugly Crocs. At least she wouldn’t get something stuck in her foot and her ankles could have some room.

“I have bottles of water in the fridge. I’ll get you one. You come in the kitchen and sit down and put your feet up.”

Penelope nodded and followed her to the back of the house.

“Sam will be by soon, he said. He was going to pick up something for dinner. He said he had a hankering for a slab of meat on the grill.”

Amelia laughed easily as she pulled the bottle of water out of the refrigerator for Penelope.

“I think it’s too hot to work tonight. Maybe we should all go home and get some rest.”

Penelope nodded and Amelia could see the fatigue in her eyes. “There’s a storm brewing too. You can see it forming. Maybe we’ll get some rain and it’ll cool this heat down.”

“I’d be okay with that.” Amelia pulled out another bottle of water and opened it. “I guess I should text Sam and Vivian and tell them just to head home.”

Penelope looked around the ugly kitchen. “The house is looking really good. I guess this gets done last, huh?”

“Makes sense. It’s the most updated part of the house at this point. So, it might be ugly, but it’s functional.”

Penelope nodded, sipped her water, and looked back up at Amelia. “I have a doctor appointment next week. I’ll be almost through my five months.” She licked her lips in consideration. “I’m going to have an ultrasound. I think I’ll find out the sex of the baby.”

“Is that an accurate thing? They can tell you that?”

“Yes. I’ve been reading up on it. Vivian bought me a book.”

There was that pang of girlie jealousy she hated so much creeping into her gut. She wished it away—willed it gone.

“That’s very nice.”

“I don’t know if you’re too busy with the house or teaching, but I’d like you and Vivian to be there.”

Now the jealousy that had nearly made her nauseous had spun into guilt and pride and love—yes love. Love for a friend. Penelope had trusted her since the moment they’d met. Now she was asking her to be part of something so special that Amelia thought she just might cry.

“Are you sure you want me there? This is your thing. I don’t…”

“It’s all of us. Adam isn’t going to be there—ever.”

“In spirit I suppose.”

Penelope shook her head. “You know when someone dies and you can feel them? I have that with my grandmother. I often feel like she’s with me. Watching out for me. I’ve never felt that with Adam.”

Amelia did know what she was talking about and she had to agree. She’d never felt it with him either.

“If you’re too busy, or it’s too awkward I’d understand. I just thought I’d…”

“I’d love to come. It means a lot that you’d want me there.”

Penelope smiled now and Amelia’s chest tightened. She didn’t think it would be possible to love again. Sam had proven her wrong. She’d fallen in love with him so hard her head still spun. But to fall in love with a friend—that was different. Never would she have thought that when Sam Jackson, attorney, told her that there was one more Mrs. Monroe than she’d already known about, she’d love that woman like a sister when she very clearly could have been the enemy.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Amelia drove home with tiny beads of rain on the windshield. The sky had quickly been consumed by gray. The temperature hadn't dipped much with the rain. Lightning illuminated the sky line.

Oklahoma was a magnet for a good storm. And though severe storms weren’t unheard of at the end of the summer, she’d have worried more if it were May.