Healing Waters (27 page)

Sully let himself stare. Lucia pulled away from the wall, cheeks aflame.

“Don't go anywhere yet,” she said to Wesley. “Sonia, you are making a big mistake. This lady can help you.”

Sonia's eyes glittered. “You're going to betray me too?”

“Take it however you want, but I'll tell you this. If you refuse to let her help you, then I'm out of here. Permanently. I'm going home.”

Sonia let out a hard laugh. “You wouldn't leave me.”

“Try me. And if I go, Sonia, I am taking Bethany with me.”

Sully tried to keep his face expressionless.
Holy crow.

“They wouldn't let you,” Sonia said.

“You mean the people I'm going to tell that you have grossly neglected your child?” Lucia marched across the room and put her face close to Sonia's. “God's not taking care of her either, Sonia. Somebody has to, and that person is me, wherever I am.”

Silence ate up the air in the room. Sully watched Sonia try to achieve her power posture, but her face was drawn forward and held against her neck by a stiffened thickness of skin. It left her spine a question mark before her sister. He glanced at Wesley, who merely waited with unmistakable admiration in her eyes.

“On my terms, Miss Kane,” Sonia said.

“Depends on what they are,” Wesley said. “I have terms too.”

“I would want to do this ‘therapy' in the late afternoon, when my other work is done. I'm starting an entirely new ministry that is going to take a great deal of time.”

“That doesn't work for me. I have to pick up my son at preschool at two.”

“Bring him with you. We would love to have him.”

Sonia tried the twisted smile, and the attempt to save her pride stabbed at Sully's heart.

Wesley's face was incredulous. “I can't have him with me when I'm working, Ms. Cabot.”

“Lucia can take care of him.”

Wesley turned the scandalized eyes on Lucia.

“I'm fine with that,” Lucia said. “Whatever it takes.”

She appeared to have spent all the fortitude she'd stored up.

“And,” Sonia said, “do not think that this means I have given up my faith that God will do what you cannot.”

“I have no problem with that.” Wesley pressed her lips together, then said, “I will let you know.”

She nodded at Sonia and Sully—and gave Lucia a look loaded with things she intended to say when they were out of the room.

They barely made it that far before Wesley was, quite literally, in Lucia's face. “Before I bring my baby here—”

“I will take care of him like he was my own,” Lucia said.

“You going to let him bully you like you just let your sister do?”

Sully crossed one arm over his chest and covered his mouth with his other hand. It was hard to hide a satisfied grin.

“James-Lawson is the light of my life.” Wesley pulled her eyes into slits. “I can't let you take care of my son unless you are doing it of your own volition. He deserves that.”

“I am doing this for my niece,” Lucia said.

“How old is she?”

“She's a precious six years old,” Lucia said.

Wesley gave her a slow series of nods. “I guess that's a reason to back down with her.” She nodded toward the door. “But just so you know, I won't be doing that.”

“I hope not,” Lucia said.

The blue eyes Sully had seen turn to the floor so that she could remain invisible appraised Wesley Kane right back. With that kind of devotion to a child, he knew she'd throw herself in front of a train if she thought it would make a difference.

He just hoped he could get her to have even half that much love for herself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

B
y the time Wesley's car pulled into the driveway the next afternoon, the last thing I wanted was to babysit. I'd spent the last thirty-six hours feeling like the only waitress in Sonia's personal restaurant. She barely spoke to me except to place her order.

Miss, could you treat my face at 6:00
am
so I can be ready to work
by 7:00?

Would you do a load of laundry and tidy up my office? Didi doesn't
seem to have shown up today. Or Bryson either, for that matter. I don't
want the yard to go to seed.

Oh, and when you have a chance—I know you're busy—could you
call my accountant and have him transfer funds? I'm going to need
some accessible cash for this new venture.

I suspected she was punishing me for blackmailing her into working with Wesley, but I could deal with that—for Bethany.

And at least Sonia had reconsidered her decision to fire Marnie and replace her with me. After a two-hour, behind-closed-doors “conversation,” the girl emerged, eyes tear-swollen, and said she would give it one more chance.

“She's been so good to me,” she told me as she polished off the bag of chips I'd broken into. “I just don't want to abandon her.”

She gestured toward me with a chip between her fingers. “But I wouldn't be staying if it wasn't for you. I wish Chip was still here too. The two of you could whip this place into shape.”

She'd had me until then. When Chip called me an hour later, I let my voice mail pick it up. He simply said, “Twenty-five more days.”

Even without having to run around with a BlackBerry, I was exhausted when Bethany and I crossed the foyer to answer the door. She pressed against the mirror, face pensive. When I'd told her someone was coming to play, her only response had been, “It isn't Judson and them, is it?”

If it was, she and I were both going for the potato chips. And the graham crackers. And whatever else we could find.

But when I opened the door, I was greeted by a chocolate drop of a four-year-old with enormous eyes and a mouth just like his mother's. He put out a small hand and said, “I'm James-Lawson Kane. It's nice to meet you.”

I melted all over the front porch.

“It's nice to meet you, too, James-Lawson.” I squatted and gave him my hand. “I'm Lucia.”

“That will be Miss Lucia to you.”

I looked up at Wesley. Her “mother look” was firm, with a side of twinkle.

“Yes, ma'am,” James-Lawson said. He peered behind me. “Hi, I'm James-Lawson Kane. It's nice to meet you.”

I turned around to find Bethany extending her own chubby hand to reach his. They shook solemnly.

James-Lawson looked up at his mother, who nodded. “Good job, son,” she said.

He went back to Bethany. “Are you her kid?” he said, pointing at me.

My precious niece blinked her blue eyes at him and then at me, and my heart split. She didn't even know whose kid she was.

“They belong together, son,” Wesley said.

“Do you have a daddy?” James-Lawson said to Bethany.

She shook her head.

“Me neither. You wanna play?”

Bethany nodded, and he shrugged.

“Then let's go,” he said.

And they were suddenly off—the boy-child tearing across the lawn, the girl-child running after him with an energy I didn't know she possessed in her quiet pink chubbiness.

Wesley looked at me with her rich-oil eyes. “Now that they know everything that's important to know about each other, I think they're going to be just fine.”

When I got to the duo, they were standing midway between the house and the river. James-Lawson had his hands on his almost nonexistent hips.

“Miss Lucia,” he said, “I want to go down there.”

He pointed to the water. Beside him, Bethany folded her arms so tightly across her chest, her hands were in her armpits.

“What do you want to do down there, James-Lawson?” I said.

“Well,” he said, hands still firmly planted, “I can't go swimming, because you know what?”

“No, what?”

“I don't have my swimming suit with me.”

“Oh well, there's that.”

“And I just ate. You can't go swimming if you just ate.”

“Right.”

He gave an elaborate sigh. “The only thing left is to go down there and find stuff, I guess.”

“What kind of stuff?” Bethany said.

“I don't know,” he said. “I ain't seen it yet. Oh, wait.” He frowned at himself. “I haven't seen it yet.”

His eyes went to me. “I'm not 'posed to say
ain't
.”

Back to Bethany. “You wanna go find stuff with me?”

By the water? James-Lawson, my friend, you are about to be sorely
disappointed.

But Bethany's face did something I had never seen it do. The somber cheeks dimpled, and the red bow of a mouth untied into a smile that went all the way to her eyes.

“Yes,” she said.

“Then why are we just standing here?” he said.

He took off at a dead run, but before I could get my mouth open to stop him, he did an about-face and put up his hand so I could see his cream-colored palm.

“Don't worry, Miss Lucia,” he said. “I won't go near the water till you get there.”

“I appreciate that, James-Lawson,” I said.

He bolted again.

Bethany whispered to me, “Isn't he cute?” and took off after him at a delighted trot.

James-Lawson was indeed cute, as was she as they spent the next two hours “finding stuff.” The discoveries included enough small limestone rocks to rebuild the pyramids; a family of Canada geese that talked back as James-Lawson, and eventually a giggling Bethany, honked at them; and an entire flotilla of magnolia blossoms. Though James-Lawson informed her how much fun it was to stand in the water and make boats out of them, she wouldn't go quite that far.

I suggested we have a snack.

“Do we have to go inside to get it?” James-Lawson said.

“We don't have to go inside,” Bethany said. “I have these.” She pulled a bag of Gummi Bears from her shorts pocket.

“Where did you get those?” I said.

“Didi got me 'em yesterday. At the movies.”

So imaginative, that Didi.

Bethany put the bag into my hand and dropped her chin to her chest. “I'm not supposed to have them.”

“Why not?” I said.

“My mom said I couldn't have candy.”

“She told you that?” I said, hopefully.

“No. Yvonne said she wouldn't want me to have it.”

James-Lawson raised his hand.

“Yes?” I said.

“You know what? My mama says I can have candy on special occasions. Is this a special occasion?”

“I don't know what that is,” Bethany said.

My heart broke cleanly in half.

“It most definitely is,” I said. “And before I eat Gummi Bears, I like to divide them by colors.”

They watched, gaping, as I selected one of each from the bag and lined them up on a rock. I made the yellow one dance.

“Why did you do that?” Bethany said.

“Because it's more fun to play with them before you eat them.”

James-Lawson snatched up a red, and then cast his enormous eyes on me. “May I please have this one?”

“You may,” I said.

He put it between two fingers and wove it in the air, his mouth making a noise that sounded for all the world like a helicopter. Bethany watched, a puzzled look on her face, and then daintily picked out a green one. I could feel her stiffening.

“Mine dances,” I said. “James-Lawson's flies. What do you want yours to do?”

“I don't know how to dance.”

“What would you do if you were a bear?”

She gazed at the green candy until I thought the thing would dissolve in her hand. Then she said, “I think it wants to stand on its head.”

“You've got the power,” I said.

She turned the tiny bear upside down and looked at me. “Now what do we do?”

“Now we eat,” I said, and popped the yellow bear into my mouth.

She and James-Lawson followed suit.

“Let's make a whole circus!” James-Lawson said.

I held my breath, but it seemed that Bethany had at least been to a circus, though she still needed some tutoring in how to bring gummified bears to life. We were in the middle of constructing a tightrope with a piece of string James-Lawson miraculously produced from his pocket when Wesley found us.

“Looks like we've got it going on down here,” she said.

“We're having a special occasion,” James-Lawson told her. “Do I
have
to leave now?”

His mother squatted beside him and observed the three rings they had painstakingly formed with pebbles. “You do, but if you want, we can come back tomorrow for another special occasion.” She looked at me. “How would that be?”

With a pang that lasted no longer than two seconds, I realized I hadn't thought about my sister for two hours.

“It went well, then,” I said.

“It did on my end. How about yours?”

“Our end was great,” James-Lawson said.

“Did I ask you, boy?”

“What do you think, Bethie?” I said. “How did we do?”

She looked up from the green bear, who was currently crossing the tightrope with the greatest of ease. “This was the best day of my life,” she said.

Wesley put her hand on my arm, a warm hand that didn't make me want to wrench away. “That about says it, doesn't it?” she said. She put her lips close to my ear. “We'll talk about Her Highness tomorrow. I don't want to break this magic spell.”

She stood and reached for James-Lawson, but Bethany scrambled up and got to her first. She put her hand shyly in Wesley's and said, “I'm Bethany Cabot. It's nice to meet you.”

Wesley pulled Bethany's hand to her lips and kissed it. “It is nice to meet you, too, Miss Bethany. You are one special lady.”

When Wesley turned to go, I saw tears in the rich-oil eyes.

As Bethany and I sat with our circus and watched them leave, the very air seemed to empty.