Military Daddy (7 page)

Marge patted Annie's arm. “No, dear. Just a few showers. Are you okay?”

Nodding, Annie turned back to the cupboard. The sound of the back door closing told her Marge had left the room.

“Not scared of a little thunder, are you?” Shane asked, his amusement plain.

Annie bit her tongue to keep from making a rude reply. He probably wasn't scared of anything. It must be nice.

She didn't want him here, but this was Marge's home and Marge had invited him to dinner. Pulling a plate from the shelf, Annie spun around, determined to make the best of it.

“Can I do anything to help?” he offered.

“Leaving would be good.”

“Besides disappearing forever through a crack in the floor, is there anything else I can do?”

“That's all I had in mind.”

“Sorry. Army regulations strictly forbid military personnel from melting.” The hint of humor in his tone had her struggling to hide a smile.

“The front door would work just as well.”

“Ah, but then Marge would think that you ran me off.”

He was right, but she hated to admit it. She moved past him, being careful not to touch him, and plunked the extra dish on the table.

“Annie, I will leave if my being here upsets you.”

“I'm not upset,” she countered quickly.
Lord, please forgive that little white lie.

“Good, because I haven't had a home-cooked meal in ages. Mess hall food is…mess hall food, and something in this kitchen smells great.”

“Marge is a good cook.” Turning the subject of the conversation to her friend seemed like a safe move.

He leaned a hip against the counter. “She comes across as a very caring person. How long have you known her?”

“Almost two years.” She pulled out the flatware they would need from the drawer at the end of the counter and carried the pieces to the table.

“How did you meet?”

“Marge was assigned as my caseworker when I was brought into the emergency room one night.”

Annie didn't tell him that it had been the night she had tried to kill herself. Thankfully most of those terrible hours were nothing but a black hole in her memory.

The door to the kitchen opened and Crystal came in, followed by Olivia.

 

Shane could have growled aloud with frustration. He wanted time alone with Annie. Time to get to know her and for her to get to know him. While he sensed her reluctance to talk to him, as least she hadn't made an excuse to leave the room. It was a small victory but one he would have to be satisfied with for now.

The outside door opened and Marge came in. “I'll just wash up and then we can get started. Sit anywhere you like, Shane. We're not much for ceremony here.”

Olivia sat and patted the seat next to her. “Sit here, Shane.”

Smiling at her, he took the chair she indicated, but it was Annie he followed with his eyes as she moved around the kitchen, getting the food on the table and filling everyone's glasses with water. When it came to his glass, she leaned in to pick it up and her arm brushed against his shoulder. The sound of her quick indrawn breath sent a jolt of awareness straight through him. Her hands trembled ever so slightly and she sloshed some of the liquid onto the tabletop.

“I'm sorry.” She had to lean in farther as she mopped up the spill with his paper napkin.

“I'll get it.” He took the soggy mess from her and finished the task, half afraid she'd pour the rest of the ice water in his lap if he didn't let her escape.

Crystal made a beeline for the chair across from him. “Hi, there. I'm so glad you could join us, Corporal Ross. I've just been dying to tell you how beautiful I thought your flowers were. I sure wish someone would send me something like that. I'd be forever grateful.”

He took note of her come-hither glance. The realization that it didn't interest him as much as catching Annie's downcast gaze came as no surprise. Annie was special in a way he couldn't quite put his finger on. He wanted to spend time with Annie. He wanted to get to know her.

His pending reassignment overseas loomed like the approaching storm clouds outside that were fast blocking the afternoon sunlight. Faced with Annie's reluctance to admit him into her life and the limited amount of time he had to change her mind, he didn't see a way to accomplish that goal.

Marge, at the head of the table, held her hands out to Olivia and Annie seated on either side of her. “Let us give thanks and ask the Lord's blessing on this family and the company gathered here.”

Shane met Annie's eyes as she glanced in his direction. The longing in her expression stunned him. Before he could be certain of what he'd seen, she looked away again.

Olivia took her mother's hand and then reached for Shane's. Feeling a bit awkward, he grasped it. Crystal's smile widened as she stretched her arm across the table toward him. He hesitated only a second before clasping her hand. She squeezed his fingers and cast a sidelong glance at Annie before bowing her head.

Marge closed her eyes and said, “We give You thanks, Lord Jesus, for the bounty You have bestowed upon us. Let us be ever mindful that our true strength comes through You. Bless the people gathered here and grant that through Your intercession we may come to grow in love, faith and wisdom. Amen.”

“Amen,” Shane added to chorus of voices around him. If he couldn't convince Annie of the wisdom of accepting his help, he certainly wasn't above asking God to give him a hand.

“How long have you been in the Army, Shane?” Marge asked as she passed the platter of meat to Olivia.

“Six years now.”

“Are you making it your career?”

“Yes, ma'am. The pay isn't great, but it offers me the chance to serve my country, to travel and to learn new things. I can honestly say if it hadn't been for the Army, I never would have learned to shoe a horse.”

“Your performance was so cool, wasn't it, Annie?” Olivia slid a thick slice of ham onto her plate and passed the dish to him.

“You mean, the part of it you actually saw?” Marge asked, giving her daughter a disapproving stare.

“Yeah. I wish I had stayed to see all of it,” Olivia replied, clearly chastised.

“Maybe you'll get another chance to see us in action.” He took a piece of meat and handed the platter to Marge.

Olivia gave him a half smile. “I kinda doubt it.”

Marge's stern features relaxed. “I would be interested in seeing your unit in action someday.”

Olivia's eyes brightened as she looked at her mother. “Like, after I'm not grounded anymore?”

“Yes, like then.”

Crystal leaned toward Shane. “Do you give special tours of the stable?”

“Tours can be arranged through the Department of Public Affairs. The captain assigns the personnel for each tour.”

“So it might not be you?”

“Not usually. I have other duties.” He forked a piece of meat into his mouth.

“Oh.” Clearly disappointed, Crystal turned her attention back to her meal.

“This ham is great,” he said. Hoping to draw Annie out, he asked, “Do you like to cook?”

Olivia and Crystal both burst out laughing. Annie stared at her plate.

“Annie can't boil water,” Crystal said. “Never let her cook you a meal.”

“Annie is learning,” Marge said. “Cooking is a skill that takes practice, like everything else.”

“She makes an okay tuna casserole,” Olivia added as if trying to make up for her unkindness.

The sound of thunder suddenly rumbled through the house. Annie flinched and grew pale. “It's storming.”

Marge laid a hand on her arm. “It's just a shower. It will be over soon.”

“Please excuse me.” Laying her napkin on the table, Annie hurried from the room.

Shane looked to Marge for an explanation. Smiling sadly, she said, “Annie is deathly afraid of storms.”

He could have kicked himself for teasing her earlier, but how could he have known? Still, it must have made him look like a first-class jerk in her eyes.

“What made her scared of them?” he asked.

“I'm not even sure she knows.”

Olivia tossed her napkin on the table. “May I be excused also?”

“Are you scared of thunder, too?” he asked, glancing at the others in the room.

“No, but when it rains, the roof leaks in my room. I need to put a pail under the spot before my floor gets wet again.”

“Of course, dear. Would you check on Annie before you come back?”

“Not a problem.”

“Thanks, honey. The pail is under the sink in the bathroom.”

Crystal rose, too. “I noticed a spot on the ceiling in the laundry room after the last storm. Maybe I should get a pail, too, just in case.”

Shane frowned at Marge. “If your roof is leaking that badly, you should see about getting it fixed before you have serious damage.”

“I know. Getting the roof repaired is on my to-do list. While the shingles themselves may actually fit into my budget, the cost of a roofing contractor won't. They're expensive.”

“I worked as a roofer when I was a teenager. My foster father was a contractor and he taught me a lot about the business. I'd be happy to take a look and see exactly what you need.”

“I couldn't ask you to do that.”

“You didn't ask. I offered. It could be that you only have a few shingles missing and you don't need a whole new roof.”

“Wouldn't that be wonderful? If you're sure, please take a look. I'll get you a ladder.”

“After the rain stops.”

Grinning, she nodded. “Of course. After the rain. In the meantime, would you like some dessert? I picked up a sinfully delicious lemon pound cake from the bakery today.”

As Marge served him a generous slice of cake, Olivia and Crystal rejoined them, but Annie remained absent. Outside, the summer storm produced a brief, generous downpour as it passed overhead, but it soon moved off into the distance and the sound of thunder faded away.

He glanced frequently toward the door to the other room, but Annie didn't return. Perhaps she had found a way to avoid him after all.

A
nnie chanced a peek out the door of her room when she heard the front door open and close downstairs. A few seconds later she heard the sound of someone climbing the stairs. When Olivia came into sight, Annie opened the door wider. “Is he gone?”

“You are such a chicken.”

“I can't help it that storms petrify me.”

“I wasn't talking about the weather.”

“I know, but is he gone?”

“I think so. He and Mom walked out together.”

Annie wanted to be relieved, but instead she realized what she felt was disappointment. How silly was that?

A loud thunk sounded against the outside of the house. She and Olivia stared at each other for a moment. Wide-eyed, Olivia whispered, “What was that?”

“I don't know.”

They both hurried to the window in Annie's room. The top rungs of a ladder protruded above the roof of the back porch. As they stared, Shane's head appeared above the edge.

Annie did a double take. “What is he doing?”

“Beats me. Hey, are you two eloping? That is so romantic. It's just like Romeo and Juliet.”

“Don't be an idiot. I have no intention of eloping with the man.”

“Then why is he on a ladder outside your bedroom window?”

“How should I know?” Annie jerked up the sash. “Shane, what do you think you're doing?”

He had taken off his jacket and tie and discarded them before his climb. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up and displayed brown, muscular forearms. Stepping gingerly off the ladder, he looked up and located her in the window.

“Are you okay? When you didn't come back to finish dinner, I was worried about you.”

“So you climbed onto the roof to look for me?”

“Marge asked me to take a look at the shingles and see how much work needs to be done. Just from here I can see that she is going to need a whole new roof on this porch. Excuse me.”

He walked up to the low edge of the eaves beside her window and hoisted himself up and out of sight. Leaning out the window, she twisted around to stare at the spot where he had vanished. The sound of scrambling feet overhead made her call out, “Be careful up there.”

His face reappeared above her. “Worried about me?” He sounded almost hopeful.

“No.”

His smile widened into a cocky grin. “Yes, you are. Admit it.”

“I am not.” Pulling her head back in, she slammed down the window hard enough to rattle the glass, but it didn't completely block the sound of his hearty laughter.

“I have no idea what I thought I saw in him.”

Olivia leaned against the dresser. Crossing her arms over her chest, she regarded Annie with one eyebrow raised. “Are you kidding? He's a hunk.”

“A lot of men are cute. That doesn't mean anything.”

“He's a hunk and he's really nice. I was scared silly when he asked to speak to me earlier. I thought I was in for another scolding. But he talked to me like I was a grown-up. I didn't want to rat on Heather and the boys who got us the beer, but Shane made me see that I wasn't helping them by keeping quiet.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. Why are you so dead set against liking him?”

Why was she? He'd shown nothing but kindness and concern for her since the day she told him about the baby. If she hadn't known that men were users, she might have been tempted to accept his offer of assistance. Shaking her head, she said, “It's complicated.”

Rolling her eyes, Olivia uncrossed her arms and headed for the door. “Adults always say that when they don't know the answer to the question.”

Out of the mouths of babes,
Annie thought as Olivia closed the door behind her. She didn't know why she couldn't accept Shane's offer of friendship. Distrust was an old habit that was hard to break.

Like drinking.

Footsteps overhead made her look up. Giving her life over to God had been her salvation from alcohol. What if God had brought Shane into her life for a reason? But for
what
reason? To show her how weak she still was? If meeting Shane had been some kind of test, Annie knew she had failed miserably.

The sounds of scraping and scrambling gave way to the sound of a heavy object sliding down the roof, then the muffled thud of something hitting the ground. Annie dashed to the window and jerked it open with her heart lodged in her throat.

“Shane, are you okay?”

Had he fallen? The front side of the house didn't have a porch like the one below her window. It was a straight two-story drop to the concrete drive. Could he survive it? She closed her eyes and prayed.

Please, God, don't let anything bad happen to him.

“Sorry if I scared you.” She opened her eyes to see a pair of black boots dangling from the eaves overhead. A second later he jumped down and landed in front of her. His wide grin turned her fear to annoyance.

“What was that?” she demanded.

“Just a limb that had blown down in the storm. It was wedged against the chimney. After I fix this roof, I'll cut those trees back a little. A limb that size could break a shingle or two, and Marge would be right back where she started with the rain pouring in.”

“We don't need you to fix the roof.”

“Someone needs to do it and I don't mind this kind of work. A few hours each evening and I can have it done in a couple of weeks.” He walked over to the ladder.

“You have a job,” she called.

Stepping onto the ladder, he gave her a short salute. “The Army is more than a job. It's an adventure.”

He vanished from sight before she could think of a comeback. She sat on the windowsill in disbelief. Shane would be here! He would be working where she lived. Possibly for several weeks! The only way she would be able to avoid him would be to lock herself in her room or stop coming home. Why on earth would Marge agree to such a thing? She had to know what an uncomfortable position it put her in.

The answer was obvious: Marge liked Shane. While Annie's instincts might be biased against men, Marge had no such problem. Marge liked everyone. She believed in the goodness of people until they proved her wrong. It was one part of her new faith that Annie hadn't fully come to accept.

A short time later there was a knock at her door. What if it was him? If he had the nerve to invade her room, she would give him an earful. “Who is it?”

“It's Marge. Are you okay, Annie?”

“Come in.”

Marge eased open the door. “I know you must be upset with me.”

“I can't believe you invited him back. You know I don't want to see him.”

“That's what you say, but that isn't the whole truth, is it?”

“I don't know what you mean.”

“Honey, I've seen the way you look at him and I've also seen the way he looks at you.”

“How is that?”

“Like he's found something rare and precious.”

“You can't be serious.” Did he look at her that way?

“It's the same way my husband looked at me when we first met.”

“It's not me he's seeing. It's the baby.”

Tilting her head to one side, Marge studied Annie's face. “No, I don't think he sees the baby when he looks at you. He sees the same woman I do. Someone who is in credibly strong but who doesn't yet believe in herself.”

“I believe in God. That's enough.”

“It's a wonderful start, but that isn't all it takes to live a Christian life.”

“I'm trying, Marge.”

“I know you are, sweetheart.”

Looking down, Marge said, “This is going to sound very materialistic on my part, but I really do need this roof fixed before it falls in on us. He's willing to do it in exchange for a meal each evening he's here. And he's even going to get the shingles on base for me—at a discount that I couldn't turn down.”

“So you're telling me that he is a caring and practical man and that I'm a fool to try and keep him out of my baby's life.”

“I would never say that you were a fool. Annie, you're entitled to your feelings. I'm just asking you to take a closer look at them. Your past has made you distrustful of men, and with good reason, but you've turned your life around. You aren't the same woman who let men take advantage of you.”

Annie managed a wry smile. “I'm not that woman anymore, but sometimes…I'm afraid she'll come back.”

“She won't if you don't allow it. You have found God. He is your strength now. He will guide you in the right direction.”

“Would that be toward or away from a certain corporal?”

Marge chuckled. “I don't know the answer to that, but I'm hoping the good Lord lets me get my roof fixed while you and he work it out.”

 

The following evening Shane borrowed the unit's pickup with the captain's permission and purchased the needed supplies at the Post Exchange. With the help of Lee and Avery, he soon had several large loads of new asphalt shingle bundles delivered and stacked at the back of Marge's house.

Crystal and Olivia watched the activity from the picnic table nearby. When the men finished unloading the last of the materials, Olivia jumped up. “Would you like something to drink?”

Shane wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve. “That would be great.”

“We have soda, iced tea or water. What would you like?”

“Iced tea for me,” he answered.

Olivia took everyone's orders and hurried into the house. In a few minutes she returned with a large glass of tea and two sodas. Lee and Avery had already made themselves comfortable on either side of Crystal at the picnic table. After giving the men their drinks, Olivia brought Shane his glass.

Leaning against the lowered tailgate of the truck, he took a long swallow of the icy drink and sighed with pleasure, then glanced up at Annie's window. He had half hoped to catch her spying on him.

Olivia hopped onto the tailgate beside him. “Annie's in the living room, studying.”

“Studying what?”

“Stuff about becoming a counselor like my mom.”

“Annie's going to school?”

“She goes to classes on the weekend. She says she can't afford to go to school full-time. Her job doesn't pay well and her tips aren't always good.”

“I think it's great that she wants to get an education.” He wasn't sure if it was right to encourage Olivia to talk about Annie, but he was hungry for any information he could get about her.

“That's what Mom says. Why is Annie pretending that she doesn't like you?”

He looked at his little confidante in surprise. “What makes you say that?”

“Because she must have peeked out the kitchen window fifty times while you were working back here earlier. For someone who's says she doesn't want you around, she sure checks on you a lot.”

“That's interesting.” So Annie wasn't indifferent. That was good news. He took another sip of his tea. Maybe it was time he stopped pursuing her. Maybe it was time to see if she would make the next move. He finished his drink and handed the glass back.

Olivia took it and rolled the amber tumbler between her palms. Slanting him a quizzical look, she asked, “Do you like Annie?”

“I do.”

“Why don't you two go out on a date or something?”

“It's not as easy as it sounds.”

“Why not?”

“It's…complicated.”

She held up one hand. “Pleease! If one more person tells me that, I'm going to scream.”

 

Over the next several days Annie spent her hours at work torn between her dread of going home because Shane would be there and an equally irrational eagerness to see him again. The first two evenings he had worked on the roof, she had stayed shut up in her room, claiming she needed to study—as if anyone could concentrate with the nail gun going off almost constantly.

Each night when darkness fell, he put up his tools and the ladder and left without making any attempt to see her. He even declined the meals Marge offered. Knowing he was doing the work he had promised without any compensation—because of her—began to gnaw at Annie's conscience.

On the third evening she sat at the table with Marge, Olivia and Crystal and listened to his footsteps overhead. The smell of broiled hamburgers, dill pickles and potato salad reminded Annie of the picnics her parents had taken her on when she was a kid. Suddenly she couldn't stand it any longer.

Loading a second plate with a generous helping of food, she excused herself and carried it outside. Walking to the ladder, she looked up and called, “Shane, I brought you something to eat.”