A Full House. Nadia Nichols
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enough now, she could see that the man was smiling. Coming toward her at a gallop in tall, dark, rubber boots and yellow, waterproof overalls, he was grinning ear-to-ear. He was bare-headed, his hair thinning, gray and wind-tousled. When he got closer his reaction was startling. He skidded to a stop, arms thrown out for balance at first and then lifted shoulder high in a gesture of apology.
“You’re not Lily,” he said from fifty feet away.
“No,” Annie said.
His arms dropped to his sides. “I saw the smoke from the kitchen chimney and thought…” He turned and looked at his boat as if he could wish himself back onto it. “Well, I thought Lily’d come back home.”
“I’m Annie Crawford. I’m renting the place for the summer. I arrived yesterday.”
He glanced back at her. “Joe Storey,” he said. “Welcome to the peninsula. Sorry to bust in on you like this, but good to meet you, all the same.” He paused for an awkward moment before adding, “If you need anything, just do like Lily did and run the white flag up the pole down by the boathouse.”
He turned to go and Annie said, “Thank you. I’ll remember that.”
Joe glanced at the rocking chair Annie had been using. “Lily was always watching right there, rain or shine, every morning when we headed out. She’d wave one of her dish towels to us. It was a tradition. Somehow the days aren’t quite the same anymore, with her gone and this old house of hers sitting empty.” His eyes turned back to her. “Well. Got my traps to check.” He turned away again and Annie watched him hurry back toward the wharf steps.
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Storey,” Annie called after him. She sat in the rocker and watched until the Glory B dwindled into the distance, wondering about Lily Houghton, and then wondering if Jake Macpherson and his daughter Amanda were in Maine yet. She might have sat there all morning if the phone hadn’t rung. Annie rose from the rocker and went inside to answer it.
“Mom?” Sally’s voice was choked with tears. “Can you come get me?”
“Of course I can, Sally. What’s wrong?”
“Trudy had the baby last night,” Sally blurted, and then sobbed convulsively, causing Annie to clench up tight.
“Sally,” Annie said in a calming voice. “Sally, are you at the house?”
“I’m at the hospital. It all happened so fast, Mom. Trudy’s really sick, and Dad says the baby might not live.” She began to cry again. Annie waited for a moment. “Sally, listen to me. You stay right where you are and I’ll come get you. It’ll take me an hour to get there, maybe a little longer. Okay?”
After a period of sniffs and gulps, she replied, “Okay.”
“I love you, Sally. I’m on my way.”
Ten minutes later she was headed for the hospital in Bangor. The first full day of her summer in Maine had begun.
JAKE BURNED THE EGGS the same way he’d burned the cheese sandwich, but Amanda never complained. They ate out on the porch for two reasons. The first was that the cabin was once again filled with smoke. The second was that it was a real pretty place to sit to look out over the pond. He drank his coffee, not burned but not strong the way he preferred it. He hadn’t boiled the water long enough. But if Amanda wasn’t going to complain, neither was he.
“The first thing we need to do this morning is head back into town and get stocked up on supplies. We’d better make a list.”
“A mousetrap,” Amanda said.
“Propane tanks filled.”
“Lights for at night.”
“You didn’t like the candles?”
“Daddy.” She gave him a reproving glance.
“Okay, then. Kerosene for the lamps.”
“Can we get a TV?”
“A television? There’s no electricity here, Pinch. We could get some books. I’ll read to you, you read to me.”
“I don’t read good.”
“Practice makes perfect. What else do we need?”
“Peanut butter and jelly.”
“Don’t know how I ever forgot that stuff.”
“Soda.”
“No soda. Bad for your teeth.”
“Juice.”
“Juice.” He wrote it on the list. “Milk. Lemonade?”
“Lemonade,” she nodded.
“Window cleaner. You any good at washing windows?”
She frowned. “Are they dirty?”
“Good answer. What about lunch. Hot dogs?”
“Hot dogs.”
Jake made note of the items between bites of burnt egg and charcoal toast, sips of weak coffee and hopes of running into Annie Crawford.
Not a bad beginning to the day, all things considered.
“HE WAS FOUR WEEKS premature and he has a transpositional heart defect that for some reason they didn’t find in the prenatal testing,” Ryan said, as he sat slumped on the waiting room couch, Sally slumbering beside him. His face was haggard and he looked much older than his forty-two years. “But he’s hanging on and they’re trying to stabilize him enough to fly him to Boston Children’s Hospital for surgery in two weeks. They’re trying, but—” His voice broke and he dropped his head into his hands.
“Of course they are,” Annie said.
“I should have known something was wrong,” he said. “I should have brought her to the hospital when she first started having those pains and that terrible swelling. I should have known.”
“Ryan, every woman who bears a child has all kinds of pains and swells up,” Annie said gently. “You should know that. You went through it with me.”
“I do know that. But she was so filled with fluid. I should have insisted they look at her. Her doctor said…”
“Ryan.” Annie reached out and touched his shoulder. “Don’t do this to yourself. Trudy and the baby need you to be strong right now.”
He nodded and wiped at his eyes, blotting tears. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re a good father and good fathers care. But listen to me. I want you to eat the sandwich I brought you and drink this tea. You have to take care of yourself.” Annie squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “I’ll take Sally home with me.”
Ryan nodded and lifted his eyes. “I’ll need to stay at the hospital until…”
“I know.”
“Can you take the puppy, too?”
“Of course.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks, Annie.”
“No prob.” Annie rumpled his hair the way she used to and then turned and walked out of the waiting room. She couldn’t wait to leave the hospital. The last thing she wanted to do on her summer vacation was to spend time inside a hospital.
“Mom!” Annie stopped her headlong rush down the corridor and waited for Sally to catch up with her. “You weren’t going to leave without me, were you?” she said.
“Of course not. I’m just in a hurry to get going. We have to pick the puppy up at your dad’s. I promised him we’d look after it.”
“Okay,” Sally said. “Nelly’s about the only neat thing about being here.”
Annie reached for her daughter’s hand