Saving Laurel Springs (24 page)

“Mother told me that when she died, Dad would take me back to Laurel Springs where he'd come from. She said she thought I'd like it and she told me she thought I'd like you. She asked me not to be mad if Dad wanted to marry you.”

Rhea looked at the child curiously. “And are you mad?”

“No.” His face lit up. “I like you. I really do.”

“Thank you.” Rhea couldn't think what else to say.

“I have something for you.” Taylor searched in his shorts pocket and pulled out a crumpled, folded envelope. He made an effort to straighten it and then offered it to Rhea.

“What is this?” Rhea asked.

“It's a letter from my mom. She wrote it to you the day we were talking.”

Rhea sucked in a breath. “I don't know if you should give me this, Taylor.”

He offered her an innocent look. “Why not? She wrote it to you and she told me to give it to you someday. I just forgot it for a long time. When we flew back home a few weeks ago, I remembered it. I found it with all the other things she gave me in my treasure box.”

Rhea looked at the envelope in her hand, not sure if she should open it. “Did you read this, Taylor?”

He grinned. “I tried a little, but I can't read much. I'm only six and starting first grade. Maybe you could read it to me.” He frowned. “Unless you don't want to.”

Rhea unfolded the letter, hands trembling as she saw the neat script flowing across the sheet of paper, and started to read.

Hands still shaking, Rhea folded the letter back up.

“That was a nice letter,” said Taylor.

She touched a hand to Taylor's hair, brushing it back from his forehead. “I think your dad should see this.”

He frowned. “Dad might get mad at me about it.”

“No. I don't think he will.” She leaned over to kiss Taylor on the forehead. “Do you think it would be all right if I give this to your dad?”

Taylor considered this. “Okay, but he went to see Billy Wade and then he said he was going to his special mountain place. That's why I could come see you. He won't be back until later.”

Rhea leaned her head back against the stall behind their bench for a moment and closed her eyes. So much emotion.

“Are you okay, Rhea?” Taylor's voice sounded anxious.

She found the child's hand. “I'm fine, and I don't want you to ever worry again about whether I like you or not. Do you hear? I like you very, very much.”

He sighed. “I guess I'd better go back. I asked Mamaw if I could walk over to tell all of you good-bye, but she said not to stay long.”

Rhea managed another smile. “How about if I ride you back home on Jewel? She won't mind another chance to get out today.”

His face brightened. “That would be fun. I won't get to ride again for a long time. Until we fly back and visit at Thanksgiving. Dad promised we could come then.”

Getting up, Rhea walked across the barn to talk to Jewel in her stall. She saddled and bridled the mare quickly and soon had Taylor tucked in front of her in the saddle. After dropping Taylor off at the Laymans' front porch, Rhea headed back out the Laymans' driveway and then kicked Jewel into a trot, heading up the trail to Low Ridge and toward Rocky Knob. She had some business to attend to with Carter Layman—and hoped he would still be at the mountain knob when she arrived.

CHAPTER 22

S
unday had dragged slowly for Carter. He'd skipped church earlier in the day to stay home with Taylor. The child started weeping over breakfast, the tears prompted by those of his grandmother. Carter's mother wasn't taking his decision to return to California well.

At Billy Wade's later, he faced more anger from Beau, who didn't want to lose his new friend. It pained Carter to share good-byes with these longtime friends. They had quickly grown close again.

Now he sat on the rocky outcrop at Rocky Knob, high above Laurel Springs. He drank in the scenes before him with his eyes, hoping he could hold the memories close in his heart to think of later.

A footfall behind him caused him to turn his head.

“Up here feeling sorry for yourself, Carter?” Rhea walked carefully out on the shale ledge to sit down beside him.

For once, Carter didn't welcome her company.

“What are you doing here?”

“For one thing, I'm ticked off at you.” She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Carter's eyes slid over her sun-browned legs with longing.

“You didn't even have the decency to come and tell me you're moving back to California yourself. Typical.” She snorted. “I learned about it while getting emotionally chewed out by Jeannie yesterday and then I enjoyed the pleasure of being snubbed by half the congregation at church this morning because of it.”

“It was my decision.”

“Yes, but I get to live with the fallout of it since you fingered me as the reason you're heading back out West.”

Carter closed his eyes wearily. “Rhea, I don't need this conversation today.”

“Well, too bad.” She gave him a stubborn look. “We have some things we need to discuss.”

He looked longingly back to where his horse, Traveler, was tied up in a grassy patch near the trail.

Rhea's eyes caught his. “Don't even think about it.”

Resigned, Carter stretched out his legs on the sun-warmed rock. “I guess you want to talk about the continuing renovations at Laurel Springs. I fully intend to finish everything planned. Billy Wade and I met today to talk about it. I also met with your mother, my folks, and Grampa. You don't need to worry that my return to California will change any ongoing or future renovations planned.”

A red flush stole up her neck. “I don't give a rat's ass about the plans for Laurel Springs right now.” She turned angry eyes to look at him. “I came up here to talk about you and me.”

He blew out a breath. “I think you've made it clear there is no ‘you and me,' Rhea.”

She stretched her legs out beside his. “And to think you've always said I act like a drama queen.”

Carter watched her dig into her shorts pocket to pull out an envelope.

“Is this a good-bye note?” He couldn't avoid a sarcastic tone.

“You'd better watch your tone. It's a long drop off this rock,” she warned. She handed him the note. “Actually, this is a letter your son brought me a short time ago.”

He scowled at her. “Taylor can't write a whole letter. He's only six.”

“Taylor didn't write this.”

Carter ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, I'm sorry if my mother or dad wrote something to you that upset you and had Taylor deliver it. I'll talk to them. And I'll talk to Taylor.”

“You sure jump to quick conclusions.” Rhea stretched backward to lie down on the rock, an old familiar pose that stirred Carter's blood.

“Read the note, Carter,” she said, closing her eyes to the bright sun.

He opened the envelope and felt his pulse quicken to see Judith's curving script across her familiar signature blue stationery. He read the note slowly and then folded it back into the envelope.

As he finished, he saw Rhea sit back up, watching him now.

“Where did Taylor get this? Did he say?”

She nodded. “He explained that his mother wrote it at one of their special talks.”

“That's what she called their visits together toward the last year,” he clarified. “Judith spent time with Taylor on days when she thought she could handle it productively, when her symptoms were less severe.”

Rhea sent him an angry look. “You realize she sat and explained to a five-year-old child why you married her. She laughed about it. She told him she picked you out especially to be his father. And she had the nerve to confide in him that she stole you from me. To tell that child you'd undoubtedly come back here to try to win me back when she died. Taylor wasn't even six years old at that time, Carter.”

She picked up a rock and threw it over the cliff with irritation. “What kind of mother would do that to a young child? Dump that kind of emotional garbage on a little boy?” She crossed her arms and scowled. “That child has been carrying that weight around all this time. Knowing more than any little kid ought to know about grown-up matters. No wonder he's so serious and intense. He's been treated like a small adult, expected to understand things beyond his ability to fully comprehend.”

Rhea kicked another loose rock over the edge of the cliff. “It makes me mad enough to spit.”

Carter sighed and shook his head. “Judith was always direct. She said what she thought. She seldom acted with diplomacy and rarely considered how her words and actions would affect others.”

“Tell me about it.” She pulled her knees up to wrap her arms around them again. “It was not an easy situation to find myself in. Taylor believed himself the reason I didn't want to commit to marry you. He thought I didn't like him.”

Carter shrugged. “You do keep him at a distance. Children are keen to pick up on things like that.”

She pushed at him. “I didn't want him to get more attached to me than he was until I felt sure about my feelings for you. People had already told him we once were sweethearts. He entertained enough ideas already without me fueling them further.”

“Yeah, well, a lot of people entertain ideas that don't pan out.” Drat it, she annoyed him. “He'll get over it.”

Rhea gave him a smug smile he didn't understand.

She leaned down to retie her shoelace. “What's the weather like in California right now?” she asked casually.

“Hot and dry this time of year, eighties most days on average, sixties at night. It's the least comfortable time of year in Sunnyvale.”

“Seems like I remember hearing that.”

Irritation crawled up his spine. “What's your point in this polite chatter?”

She gave him a sweet smile. “I wanted to know what to pack.”

“What?” He turned his eyes to study her, trying to decide what kind of game she was playing now.

“Well, you don't think I'm going to let you go out there again to have some other unscrupulous woman finagle you into marriage.”

His heartbeat picked up despite his best intentions. “What are you talking about, Rhea Dean?” The woman always drove him crazy with her subtleties.

“You are
not
leaving me again.” She turned her intense blue eyes toward him. He could see the gold flecks in them in the sunlight. See the sprinkling of freckles across her nose.

He counted to ten to keep his patience in check. “Rhea, what are you saying to me?”

She shrugged. “You said I made it clear there is no ‘you and me,' but that's not totally true. I never said that. There will always be a you and me, Carter Layman.” She leaned over to touch her lips briefly to his, sending a shock of feeling through him.

He eyed her cautiously. “Don't play games with me.”

She stretched her arms casually, like a cat. “I've heard California's weather is a lot nicer in the fall. If we flew out later, planned a wedding first, we might enjoy it more. And to be quite frank, I think Taylor would be happier going to school here at Smoky Mountain Elementary in Cosby with Beau. For a small, rural school it has a surprisingly good reputation. You can check it out on the Internet.”

He grabbed her arms and turned her to face him. “Are you saying you will marry me now?”

She patted him on the cheek. “I never thought you were slow, Carter. Wasn't I just discussing a wedding? We can get married in California if you'd like, but I think it would hurt Grampa Layman's feelings if he didn't get to do the ceremony.”

Carter tried to process Rhea's words.

She bit her lip and put her face closer to his. He could smell the lemony, citrus smell of her now, and her breath whispered across his senses as she spoke. “You can kiss the bride before the ceremony, Carter Layman.”

Trying to wrap his mind around this new reality, Carter held back. “What made you change your mind?”

She dropped her eyes for a moment. “Judith Benton. I knew what you shared with me about what happened, but when I read Judith's words something changed in me. Some old hurt place broke away, and I knew what she said rang true. Time does slip by all too quickly. We need to embrace life, embrace love, and savor joys while we can.”

Rhea put her hands on his chest. “Besides, I knew after I rode the ridge trail today that I couldn't let you go again.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Don't leave me, Carter. Stay with me or take me with you. I just want to be with you. Don't leave me again.”

Her tears were his undoing. He wrapped her against his chest, feeling his own tears too near the surface. “I won't and I'll never let you go again, Rhea Dean. Never.”

She sniffed. “We're going to see that Taylor is a happier little boy in the future. He's much too serious for six, carries too much adult burden. I want us to plan a lot of fun times for him—where we'll laugh and cut up, be silly and play together. He needs that.”

Carter's heart swelled.

Rhea turned wet eyes to look deeply into his. Her voice dropped to a sultry whisper. “If we marry soon, we might have a child not long after Billy Wade and Jeannie. They could play together at Laurel Springs, like Beau and Taylor do, like you and I did.”

“You're killing me, Rhea.” Carter couldn't find words to express his joy. He'd dreamed of this moment for so long.

She gave him a saucy look. “I explored the house again at the Costner ruins one day when you weren't there. I slipped in through a window left unlatched. It's shaping up nicely. I heard Billy Wade say it ought to be finished by Thanksgiving. It will need furniture then to be a home, you know. I have a lot of ideas for that.”

“I'll bet you do.” He grinned at her.

She put a hand out to push a strand of hair out of his face. “We could live most of the year at Laurel Springs like you said, Carter, and other times at the California house. What street did you say it was on?”

“Vista. Vista Avenue.”

She smiled. “That's a nice name.” Rhea chewed her lip thoughtfully. “I've never traveled. I've never been far from Tennessee. Will I like it in California?”

“You'll like it.” Watching her chew on her lip, Carter lost his last remnant of control, pulled her into his arms, and found her lips with his.

“Oh, I thought you'd never kiss me again like this,” she murmured against his mouth.

He deepened the kiss while pulling them back from the precipice of Rocky Knob to sit against a rocky face in the shadows. As his hands found their way over his favorite places on Rhea's body, the sizzle hit with hot familiarity.

She crooned his name, wrapping her arms around him, reveling in the passion and intensity stirring between them. Lost quickly in loving Rhea Dean, it took Rhea's soft voice, a short time later, to bring Carter back to reality as his hands began to try to separate her from her clothes.

“I don't want people counting back the months when our child is born like they did with Taylor.” She pulled away, her eyes dilated and aroused, to give him a melting smile. “We'll have a whole lifetime to explore loving together. I hope you learned a little expertise as a previously married man.”

He let his hands trace their way down her arms lightly. “The best lessons in loving I ever learned—or have to learn—will be from you, Rhea Dean. I love you with all my heart. I always have and I always will.”

She sighed deeply. “I love you, too, Carter Layman. It took me a while for the cold places in my heart to thaw, but they're melting quickly now.” She giggled.

With reluctance, he kept himself from wrapping her into his arms again, afraid he couldn't stop his emotions a second time. “Do you think we could go tell everyone our good news, Rhea?”

She nodded, still running her fingers along his leg, tantalizing him with her touch. “We should tell Taylor first. I want to be sure he's happy about this decision.”

Carter laughed. “Are you kidding? This is the kid that encouraged me to go after you in California because he thought you were hot.”

Rhea frowned. “That's hardly a nice way for a boy to talk about his future mother.”

“I think Taylor will whoop and holler with joy. Don't worry.”

She bit her lip. “About that letter. I don't want you scolding Taylor for bringing that to me. For not telling you about it.”

“I won't.” He stood and reached down to offer her a hand. “But I want Taylor to talk to me—and to you—more freely about things Judith might have told him. Things he may not understand and have questions about. A kid his age shouldn't feel he needs to keep secrets locked up or to fear sharing with those he loves.”

Rising to her feet, Rhea leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I feel like I've come home in my heart, Carter.”