Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania (14 page)

He didn’t say good-bye.

Sunday morning dawned clear and warm—another glorious promise of the summer to come. When it came time to wake Kylie, Sadie slipped into her daughter’s bedroom and crawled under the covers. The little girl stirred and rolled toward her mother, tucking into a ball right at Sadie’s stomach. Sadie smiled in remembrance of the months Kylie had nestled right there, a tiny round ball riding in blissful oblivion inside the safety of Sadie’s body. It was fantastically difficult to believe that miniature life had grown into the five-year-old before her—still a smaller version of Sadie herself but clearly an individual all her own.

Five years. She felt like time was slipping through her fingers.

“Kylie,” she whispered. “Kylie girl…time to wake up.”

Kylie mumbled something, and Sadie gently pulled the covers away from her face. Her features slumbered in angelic repose. Sadie had never seen anything more beautiful.

“Kylie…time to get ready for church.”

Kylie’s eyelids fluttered.

“Church day?” she asked.

Sadie brushed the hair off her forehead. “That’s right. Today is church day.”

The eyes widened, and the pupils focused.

“Can Kylie have her bath in the Scrubbing Bubbles Lagoon?”

“What?
Oh
.” The bathtub. “Of course.”

Kylie rolled out of bed with an energy only the very young possess directly after waking. Sadie listened as her bare feet slapped the tile in the bathroom. There was a tiny grunt as she forced the water on, and then the splash of liquid as it filled the tub.

Sadie sighed. It hadn’t been that long ago that she had given Kylie all her baths, had it? When had her little girl become so independent?

“Mommy?” Kylie stood in the doorway. “Kylie can’t get the plug-ger thing to work. The lagoon won’t fill up.”

Sadie smiled and climbed off the bed. “Mommy’s coming.”

Kylie loved “church days,” so she presented minimal fuss to Sadie’s brushing and braiding her hair, putting a suitable dress over her head, and buckling her black OshKosh shoes.

Usually on the Sundays Jasper went to York County to visit with Aunt Matilda, Sadie and Kylie hitched a ride to church with the neighboring family. Today, however, Sadie had a mission in mind. With the warm weather to encourage her, she took Kylie’s hand and marched her out of the house and up the street.

Kylie protested. “Kylie waits for Jasper!”

“Jasper’s going to see Aunt Matilda today,” Sadie explained.

“Then Kylie go to church with Mrs. Smelly!”

The neighboring family’s last name was Snelling, which Kylie persisted in translating to
Smelly
, much to Sadie’s constant mortification.

“Not today, sweetie. Mommy has a stop to make, and then we’ll walk to the church. It’s not too far on a day like today.”

Kylie sulked and pulled on Sadie’s hand. “Mommy! Kylie doesn’t wanna walk!”

“Mommy will let Kylie order
any
dessert she wants at the restaurant this afternoon, how about that?”

Kylie frowned. “Kylie doesn’t like Mommy’s desserts.”

Sadie stopped mid-step and stared down at her daughter in surprise. “What? You don’t like my desserts? Are you serious?”

Kylie must have realized what she’d done, because her eyes were round with shame. “Kylie didn’t mean it! Kylie loved her birthday cake!”

Sadie squatted down so she could see Kylie at eye level. “It’s all right to tell me the truth, Kylie. Don’t you like the desserts Mommy makes?”

Kylie bit her lip and began to sway from side to side. “Sometimes. Sometimes not. Kylie likes ice cream, mostly.”

It shouldn’t have mattered so much, but it did. First Jasper going all moony on her and now Kylie. Was everyone out to get her?

Kylie laid a hand on her shoulder. “Mommy worries too much.”

She looked at her daughter, in whose eyes lay such innocent trust in the world that Sadie couldn’t help recalling what she had told Dmitri about Kylie being a constant source of optimism to her.

“Well, if Mommy’s desserts aren’t good enough, they’ll just have to get better, won’t they?”

Kylie nodded emphatically.

“And if Kylie likes mostly ice cream, then Kylie should have ice cream today after lunch, don’t you think?”

Again, the nod was emphatic with an extra bounce in it for good measure. Sadie straightened.

“But that means Kylie will have to walk a little bit with Mommy.”

Kylie shrugged. “All right.”

Sadie shook her head, wondering why some days it was so easy and other days anything but. They continued down the street, hand in hand, glorying in the fresh morning air.

Twenty minutes later, Sadie led them down a tree-lined drive. She stopped at the house near the end of the way and studied it with hesitation.

“Is this it, Mommy?”

“This is it.”

Sadie continued to stare at the house.

“Is Mommy afraid?” Kylie asked.

Sadie’s gaze dropped, but she didn’t answer her daughter. They started up the walk together, and Sadie drew a deep breath before knocking on the door.

Seconds seemed like days as Kylie released her hand and began toying with her shoes. It was then Sadie noticed that Kylie had replaced her OshKosh footgear with the Belle slippers Jasper had gotten her.

“What are—” She didn’t even finish the question. Kylie must have made the switch when Sadie went to apply her makeup.

Before she could reprimand her daughter for the sneaky move, the front door swung open and Dmitri Velichko stood before her.

He looked wary, but he hadn’t slammed the door in her face.

Yet.

“Hello, ’mitri!” Kylie greeted him with a huge smile. “Kylie is a princess! See!” She held out one dainty foot.

The little yellow bows positively shined.

Dmitri grinned. “And what a lovely princess you are, Kylie. Would you like to come in?”

“Thank you, please,” Kylie said and brushed past the two of them as if she truly were royalty.

Dmitri stepped aside to allow Sadie entrance. Kylie had already found several objects worth her fascination, not the least of which was the large cage in the corner containing a snow-white ferret.

She stood before it with wide eyes.

“Is it a rat?” she asked in a hushed tone.

It was a rat that tried to kill the baby in
Lady and the Tramp
. Sadie knew her daughter possessed somewhat of a personal vendetta against vermin ever since viewing that particular film.

“No,” Dmitri assured her, “it’s a ferret. His name is Mikhail. Would you like to hold him?”

Kylie considered this. “Does he bite?”

“Only when he’s playing,” Dmitri answered honestly.

Kylie nodded in understanding. “All right. Kylie will hold him.”

Dmitri removed Mikhail from the cage. Kylie made fast friends with the creature. And then with one eye on the ferret and one eye on Kylie, Dmitri went to stand with Sadie.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asked him.

He was still terribly pale, and she couldn’t help comparing him to Count Dracula with his dark hair and romantic accent. But she felt desperately responsible for what had happened.

“I’m all right,” he assured her. “It wasn’t your fault, Sadie.”

She must have looked as sick with guilt as she felt.

“If I had known, I never would have—I never—I didn’t mean—”

He held up a hand. “Enough. We’ll put it behind us. Friends?” He held out a hand, and she felt guiltier than ever.

She had never intended to be Dmitri’s friend. Just the opposite, in fact. But she placed her fingers in his and attempted a weak smile.

“I brought you something.” She held up a brown paper bag, carried the whole way from the house.

“Not peanuts, I trust?” he teased her.

She blushed. “No,” she softly said. She held it out to him.

Inside was a bagful of top-quality French roast coffee beans.

“They’re gourmet,” she told him. “It’s the same kind I serve at the restaurant.” She always kept a bag on hand at the house for Jasper —she didn’t drink coffee herself. “I hope you’ll accept it as a peace offering of sorts.”

He nodded with pleasure, a bit of color lightening his countenance. “It’s perfect. I love the coffee at Suncatchers,” he told her.

She beamed.

“Well, I don’t want to impose. Kylie and I were just on our way to church. Weren’t we, Kylie?”

Kylie didn’t answer—she was too absorbed with the ferret, Mikhail.

“Oh?” Dmitri replied to her statement with interest. “I haven’t attended church since I arrived in town.”

“Really?” She had been wondering about Dmitri’s spiritual side. The conversation on their date indicated he had Christian leanings, but she hadn’t been entirely sure. She took a chance now. “Would you like to come with us this morning? Jasper’s out of town this weekend, visiting his aunt, so we wouldn’t mind the company.”

Kylie’s ears perked up at this.

“Kylie thinks Dmitri should come! And Mikhail too!”

Dmitri grinned at her. “I don’t think Mikhail is quite ready for church attendance yet, but I would love to come.”

Kylie smiled. “All right. But can Kylie use your volcano first?”

Dmitri and Jasper had an arrangement. They had worked it out in the hospital the day before while they waited for the results of Dmitri’s bloodwork.

Dmitri had been lying there in a cold sweat, his arm flung over his eyes to block out the light, when he became aware of Jasper’s intense gaze. He moved his arm and opened one eye.

“How ya feelin’?” Jasper asked.

Dmitri sensed true concern in him, and though he hadn’t known Jasper long, he felt like they could be friends.

“Like a geyser erupted in my stomach,” he answered. “Yourself?”

Jasper smiled. “Just fine, thanks. No nut allergies that I know of.”

Dmitri’s skin was pasty, and he grimaced at the mention of nuts. Jasper frowned.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I will be,” Dmitri assured. “Once my heart rate normalizes.”

Jasper pulled up a seat next to the hospital bed. “I figure you and I should have a talk, Dmitri.”

Something about the way he said it made Dmitri’s stomach flip. It wasn’t a good feeling. Dmitri didn’t say anything, so Jasper went on.

“I need to know exactly what your intentions are concerning Sadie.”

“Sadie? I plan to stay as far away from her as possible.”

Jasper got a good laugh out of that.

“No, no,” he said as he rubbed tears from his eyes, “seriously.”

Dmitri raised up on one elbow. “What makes you think I’m not serious?”

Jasper took note of his expression and sobered. “Oh. That bad, huh?”

Dmitri laid back. “You tell me.”

Jasper ran a hand through his hair in thoughtful concentration. He seemed to be wrestling with a dilemma, and Dmitri didn’t have the strength to help him out.

Finally, he decided to be honest. “Here’s the thing, Dmitri. I’m trying to decide right now if I should defend Sadie to you and explain how she’s really not all that bad and she just has these crazy strings of bad luck now and then…or whether I should let you go on thinking she’s jinxed so you can get the heck out of Dodge.”

Dmitri looked at him.

“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

Jasper jumped up out of his chair. “Does
everybody
know this?” He paced fretfully, and Dmitri couldn’t help smiling.

“What can you do? Love
shows
.”

Jasper sighed and sank back into his seat.

“Then Sadie’s blind, because she hasn’t noticed
anything
.”

Dmitri considered this. “Perhaps she hasn’t
wanted
to notice anything.”

Jasper lightened. “Ya think?”

“It’s possible. She doesn’t seem like the type of woman to really… embrace such things, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you kidding? I think love probably scares her to death.” He paused. “She keeps losing the people she loves,” he softly noted.

The two men sat in silence for a time. Dmitri rubbed his stomach, mentally crooning to soothe himself and occasionally sneaking glances toward Jasper, who was chewing his lip in silent contemplation. A nurse came in to check on them and lingered for quite some time over Dmitri, fluffing his pillows, refilling his water, checking his temperature, asking if he needed anything…. He treated her politely without being flirtatious.