Love Thine Enemy (9 page)

The balcony door opened, but she didn’t turn around. Dusk was fading and the evening stars began to shine in the darkening heavens. These hills may have been her home once, but not anymore. She wasn’t strong enough to face the prejudice and shame all over again. The thought of Sam finding out what she had done sent a chill racing down her spine.

He sat beside her and slipped an arm around her shoulder. She wanted to lean against him, to draw comfort from his strength and warmth, but she didn’t. Silently, she watched the stars come out, one by one.

She was so close to falling in love with this man. The
earthy, masculine scent of him filled her with hopes and dreams she didn’t fully understand. The tender way he stroked her hair left her feeling strangely content. It would be so easy to let herself love him.

She was already half in love with his daughters. Lindy and Kayla had crept into her heart when she wasn’t looking. Somewhere between trading places under the table and the near tragedy today, they had opened her eyes to the joys of having children be a part of her life.

Until today, she had believed that to dance was all she needed. The grueling work, the pain and the joy of the dance was what she lived for. It was an all-consuming life because she wanted it that way. On the stage, people admired her for what she could do, for her talent, not for who she was inside. She didn’t believe that she deserved someone to love and to be loved by in return.

Now, Sam and the children were showing her a different kind of life. A life where God and family came first. Where people worked together because they loved each other, not because they had to. But that life shimmered just beyond her reach—because she couldn’t stay.

She was risking discovery, but more than that, she was risking a terrible heartache. Staying was out of the question. She would remain until she was certain Kayla was all right, then she’d leave. Sam’s arm tightened around her shoulders

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Just tired,” she said quickly. Somehow, she had to find the strength to harden her heart against this longing to stay in his arms.

She moved out of his embrace, stood and pushed her
hair back as she tried for a nonchalant tone. “I must say, cowboy, this place has supplied me with more excitement in one week than I’ve had in the last ten years. I don’t know how you stand it.”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah. It’s been one tough day. Are you sure you’re okay?”

She nodded as she moved away from him to stand at the balcony rail.

Sam felt empty and cold without her warmth against his side. He wanted her back in his arms. She had saved his child’s life, and he was indebted to her, but it wasn’t gratitude he felt when he held her. It was much more, yet he found it hard to trust his feelings. It was harder still to put them into words. He’d been wrong about a woman once before. What if he was wrong again?

How did Cheryl feel about what was happening between them? He wanted to ask, but maybe this wasn’t the right time. “I guess we’ve both had a little too much excitement,” he said.

She gave him a weak smile before she turned back to stare out into the night. “That’s for sure. I’ll be glad to get back to New York where life is safe and calm. It’s been fun, cowboy, but I can’t take much more of this.”

There was his answer—she couldn’t wait to leave. “I’m sorry you had to lie.”

She spun toward him, her face pale in the starlight. “What do you mean?”

“When you told Kayla you would stay.”

“Oh, that.”

“What did you think I meant?”

“Nothing. It wasn’t a lie. I will stay until she’s better.”

“What if someone else asks you to stay? Would you
consider it?” His slender stalk of hope wouldn’t die. He waited, afraid to breathe. He almost missed her soft whisper.

“I would have to say—no.”

Disappointment burned itself deep in his heart. Turning away, Sam walked through the house and out the door.

Moments later, he found himself standing in front of Dusty’s stall in the dimly lit barn. The horse stretched his neck over the stall door in greeting. Sam began to stroke the gelding’s sturdy neck, drawing comfort from the sleek hide under his hand.

Cheryl had made it plain that she couldn’t wait to get back to New York. She wouldn’t stay. She didn’t want him, just as Natalie hadn’t wanted him.

Hurt and confusion churned inside him until he thought he might explode. Why did he keep falling for the same kind of woman? What was wrong with him? Why was God testing him?

“I won’t play the fool again. I won’t love her.” Bold words, but Sam knew it was already too late for him.

Show me what to do, Lord. I don’t know why You are testing me, but please help me weather this trial.

S
am glanced with concern at his daughters seated beside him in the truck as he drove home from the hospital the next day. “You two sure are quiet.”

Lindy looked at her sister and then back at him. “I don’t think we have anything to say.”

This didn’t feel right. The doctor had given Kayla a clean bill of health, but Sam began to worry she’d been affected more than they realized. Only when they arrived home, and Kayla saw Cheryl did some of the animation return to her face.

Kayla climbed out of the truck and rushed to Cheryl. “You’re here. When you didn’t come to the hospital with Daddy, I thought you might have gone away.”

“I told you I’d stay until you were better.”

“I’m glad you didn’t leave.”

Cheryl bent down and caught the child in a hug. “I’m glad you’re glad.” She planted a quick kiss on Kayla’s cheek.

Sam’s hands clenched into fists at his side. The twins adored Cheryl already. The longer she stayed, the harder
it would be for them when she left. She had no right to make them love her, then leave the way their mother had.

He felt a touch on his hand, and he glanced down at Lindy’s worried face. He forced a smile to his lips.

“Aren’t you glad Cheryl is going to stay, Daddy?” she asked.

He met Cheryl’s gaze. “Let’s not forget it’s only for a few more days,” he answered flatly.

For a fleeting instant, he thought he saw a look of pain in Cheryl’s beautiful eyes, but the expression was gone so quickly he decided he’d imagined it.

Sam expected Kayla’s bubbly personality to reassert itself once she was home, but it didn’t, and he watched with growing concern as she became Cheryl’s little shadow. Kayla sat quietly beside Cheryl on the sofa or out on the glider when the weather was nice, but she never moved far from her new heroine’s side. Lindy hovered close by, quiet and uncertain, waiting for her sister to notice her.

Two days later, he caught Cheryl’s worried glance when Kayla refused to go riding with Walter. Kayla and Lindy were both good riders, and they loved to tag along on their ponies while their great-grandpa regaled them with stories of the old days. Sam spent the day with a dejected Lindy by his side, and his concerns grew. It would break Kayla’s heart when Cheryl left.

That night Kayla insisted only Cheryl could listen to her prayers and tuck her in. Sam tucked Lindy in and kissed her good-night as Cheryl did the same for Kayla. They left the children’s room together and climbed the stairs.

Cheryl broke the uneasy silence first. “Sam, I’m worried about Kayla.”

“She’s my daughter. It’s my job to worry about her, not yours.”

Cheryl frowned at him. “I know whose daughter she is, but I can still see something is wrong.”

“Can you? Can you see how badly Lindy feels when Kayla all but ignores her and follows you around like a puppy? Can you see how differently they act? They don’t even talk the same anymore.”

Cheryl laid a hand on his arm. “I see those things, but I don’t see why you’re angry at me.”

He pulled his arm away. “Kayla turns to you now for everything, instead of her family. I think she’d get back to normal sooner if she didn’t have someone interfering.”

“Someone, meaning me?” Cheryl drew away from him, her voice cold and formal.

“Maybe you don’t realize it, but they really care about you. Will it even matter to you that you’re leaving two brokenhearted kids behind?”

“Of course I care. How can you think I don’t?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “I promised Kayla I would stay as long as she needed me, but if you want me to go, I will.”

Sam stared at her, unable to read the expression in her eyes. He didn’t want her to go. He wanted her to stay forever, but she wouldn’t do that. His shoulders slumped in defeat, and he turned away feeling tired, empty and sad. “You’re free to go any time.”

As the adults parted, two curly heads ducked back down the stairwell. They watched their father go out the front door while Cheryl crossed to her bedroom.

“See what you did?” Lindy hissed at her sister.

“What? I didn’t do nothin’.”

“Cheryl’s gonna leave now.”

“But I don’t want her to. I want her to stay and be our mommy,” Kayla insisted.

Lindy propped both elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands as she stared at her sister. “Are you mad at me ’cause you got hurt?”

“No.”

“You never want to play anymore.”

Kayla sighed. “Cheryl needs me because she’s so sad. We can play tomorrow.”

“Okay.” With that problem solved, Lindy turned to another. “Dad’s mad at Cheryl because we don’t talk the same anymore,” she decided at last. “Cheryl won’t stay and be our mommy if Daddy’s mad at her.”

“So?”

“So, we got to talk the same again.”

“Okay,” Kayla agreed with a shrug.

“And Daddy’s mad cause he thinks we’ll be sad if Cheryl goes away like our real mom did.”

“Then we just gotta make her stay.”

“I know, but how?”

“I could hide her wallet again.”

Lindy shook her head. “No, Dad would know it was us.”

Kayla patted her sister’s shoulder. “You’ll think of something.”

“Maybe. But we got to pretend we don’t care if Cheryl’s gonna leave, then Dad won’t be mad, and they won’t fight. Can you do that?”

“Sure. I can pretend better than you.”

“Cannot.”

“Can too.”

“Cannot.”

“Last one to the bed is a monkey’s uncle,” Kayla cried and raced down the stairs with her sister in hot pursuit.

Free to go. I’m free to go.
The phrase echoed over and over in Cheryl’s mind as she lay in the darkness. If she was free to go, didn’t that mean she was also free to stay?

Don’t be stupid. It meant Sam wanted her to leave. And it was what she wanted, wasn’t it? Yet, lying in bed, she found it impossible to imagine what her life was going to be like after she left here. It would never be the same again, of that much she was sure. Before, her heart had belonged only to dancing. Now, she was very much afraid it belonged to Sam and his children.

She stared at the ceiling. It wasn’t possible, but even if she chose to stay with Sam, it would mean the end of her career. Half her life had been spent in the pursuit of one goal—to dance professional ballet. She couldn’t picture her life without it. A life without grueling practices and constant pain? A life without reaching that special moment when the music swept her along like the current of a river and carried her twirling and spinning as effortlessly as a piece of driftwood. It was her gift. How could she give it up?

She turned over in the bed. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t free to stay even if Sam asked her to. She was only here on borrowed time. It had been a mistake to stay in the first place. If Sam found out who she was now he wouldn’t want her anywhere near his children. Maybe he was right. The sooner she left, the better off everyone would be.

The next morning, Sam and Walter sat drinking coffee in the kitchen when Cheryl came out of her room.
She cast Sam a wary glance, but he avoided making eye contact. She filled a cup for herself and sat down at the table. Suddenly, the pounding of feet broke the uneasy quiet as the twins erupted from the stairwell and streaked into the kitchen. They skidded to a stop in front of their father.

“What’s for—”

“—breakfast?”

“I’m—”

“—starved.”

Mischievous eyes glanced at each other, and Cheryl was suddenly positive they could read each other’s thoughts.

“I’m so hungry—”

“—I could eat—”

“—a cat!” they shouted together. With a fit of giggles, they darted out of the kitchen calling, “Here kitty, kitty,” as they pounded down the stairs.

Sam raised an eyebrow at Cheryl, and she sputtered out a sip of coffee as she began to laugh.

“They’re back,” he said, giving her a sheepish smile.

Cheryl’s heart lightened at the sight of that familiar lopsided grin. “Do you think we’ll live to regret it?”

“Only if they catch the cat,” Walter said dryly.

Cheryl giggled. “Yum, kitty catatori, my favorite.”

It was good to see Sam smile again, Cheryl thought, as her traitorous heart soared.

Bonkers wisely remained out of sight until after breakfast. The twins settled for pancakes. Sam and Cheryl both watched with relief as they put away enough to feed a small army.

“Can we play outside?”

“Can Cheryl come with us to see Grandma’s garden?”

“Before she goes—”

“—back to New York?”

“Maybe after lunch,” Sam told them. They agreed without argument, then began to gather up the dishes and load the dishwasher without being reminded.

“We’re going—”

“—to clean—”

“—our room,” they announced and left the kitchen.

Sam shot Cheryl a suspicious glance. “They look like—”

“—your children, and they sound like—”

“—my children, but I wonder—”

“—whose children they really are—”

“—and what have they done with mine?”

He grinned, and Cheryl burst into laugher. “That’s not as hard to do as it sounds,” she said between giggles.

“All you have to do is think alike,” Walter said, rising and putting his plate in the sink.

Her smile faded as she and Sam stared at each other across the kitchen table. He waited until Walter had left the room.

“Cheryl, I’m sorry about last night.” He hesitated a moment, then continued, “I didn’t mean the things I said. I was tired and worried. I guess I’ve been burning my candle at both ends trying to run the ranch and trying to prove I’ve still got what it takes to be an architect.”

“It’s all right. If I thought I would hurt the girls by staying, I’d be gone in a minute.”

He nodded. “I know. I overreacted,” he conceded. “They seem to understand about your leaving. I just didn’t want them to get hurt again.”

He stared down at the cup in his hand. “They weren’t even three when their mother left, but they cried for days.”

He was silent for a long time as he stared into his cup, and Cheryl saw the twins hadn’t been the only ones hurt by their mother’s desertion. Sam had been hurt as well. He was still hurting, and Cheryl wanted nothing more than to ease his pain.

Reaching across the table, she touched his arm. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked gently.

He gave a weary sigh. “I don’t know where to start. We met in college, and it was love at first sight, or so we thought. We were married before we even knew who the other person really was. My parents had always talked about their whirlwind romance, and I thought it would be the same for me.”

With a sad shake of his head, he continued. “It didn’t take long for the new to wear off. We should’ve called it quits then, but I kept thinking we could make it work.”

Gazing into Cheryl’s sympathetic eyes, Sam felt a lump rise in his throat. It was hard to put into words how much his wife’s desertion had cost him, but he wanted her to understand.

“She hated living on the ranch. Like a fool, I believed that if she loved me enough, she’d come to love the ranch, too. When she told me she was pregnant, I was ecstatic. My mother tried to tell me Natalie wasn’t happy, but I blew her off.”

He shrugged. “Anyway, the twins were born eight weeks prematurely. They were in incubators the first four weeks of their life. You’d never know to look at them now, but they were so tiny it scared me to touch them. Natalie became sick and ran a high fever after the delivery. She didn’t want to see the girls. She said she was afraid she might make them sick, too. At the time, I thought she was right, so I spent every minute I could
with the babies in the nursery. I knew that they needed me, needed to know that someone loved them, and I felt so bad that their mother couldn’t be with them.”

He moved to pour himself another cup of coffee. He hadn’t been blind. For the first time, he’d admitted to himself that he’d seen all the signs of her discontent, but he had ignored them. He had been as much to blame as Natalie for the failure of their marriage.

Thank You, Lord, for helping me to see myself more clearly.

A phrase from Proverbs came to mind.
For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Cheryl said, “I’ve seen what a good father you are. It doesn’t surprise me that you spent time with them in the hospital.”

“I should have spent more of that time with my wife. Anyway, once we finally got the twins home, things were better for a while, but as the girls got older, I could see Natalie was growing more and more unhappy. She said she needed to work again, so I proposed we build our own house. The money was needed to get this ranch back on its feet, but I thought if she had a home she’d designed herself, maybe she’d be more content.”

“Did it help?”

“We worked on the plans together and it was like old times for a few months. Then, after one trip she made to Kansas City, everything changed. Nothing we could get locally was good enough. She had to have special tile for the kitchen, special drapes, a dozen things that required her to travel back to KC. I never suspected she was seeing someone else.

“She filed for divorce two weeks before the girls’
third birthday and gave me full custody. She said she wasn’t cut out to be a mother.”

“Sam, I’m so sorry.”

“Now you know why I’m overprotective of them sometimes.”

“I think I do.”

“It took a lot of soul searching and prayer to get through that time. That’s when I really turned to God. Before, I believed, but I was too busy with my life to really pay attention to what God wanted from me.”

Cheryl looked down and rubbed her palms on her jeans. “I believed once myself, but after I lost my mother I didn’t see how God could let such a bad thing happen. I was angry at Him. I think I thought I could punish Him by ignoring Him the way I felt He had ignored me. Silly, wasn’t it?”

“No. It was human.”

“I haven’t prayed in years, but I prayed for Kayla when she fell.”

“Did you?”

“I did. With all my heart.”

Sam reached across the table. Cheryl laid her hand in his, welcoming the strength that seemed to flow from him. “And how did that make you feel?”