LITMIR.BIZ

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      Looking at Freckles she felt hope rise. Should she? Or should she not?

      She might…

      A wheelchair.

      She could…

      A chaperone.

      Going over to a drawer in her kitchen, she opened it and pulled out a pen. With a quick read over the contract, she nodded and signed it. “You’re right. I haven’t a thing to lose.”

       Chapter Two

       E xcept her mind. This was insane. “What is that?” Tessa demanded of the newest men coming in her door, hefting a huge box. Once she quickly dropped her letter in the mailbox, she stepped back out of the way.

      “Freezer, ma’am.” The man promptly bumped into the side of the door, grunting and shuffling his feet to keep from dropping the front end of his load.

      “But why?” she cried, grabbing at the barking puppy who came into the kitchen and ran around their feet, nearly tripping an older round man.

      “For the food,” a younger man behind the two moving men informed her.

      Sam squawked and flapped his wings. Heaven knew where her cat or any of her other animals were. Hiding most likely.

      “Where’d you like it?”

      “What?” she asked glancing back at the man with gray hair.

      “The freezer, ma’am.”

      “Um, I—I…” Taking stock of her kitchen, she stroked the wiggling puppy. When Hubert the puppy wouldn’t calm down, she went to the side room just off the kitchen and put him into the room before pulling the door closed. She heard the whining but did her best to block it from her mind.

      Turning her attention back to the kitchen, she finally pointed to the parrot’s perch. “We can put it there in front of the window and move Sam over here.”

      She started toward the parrot. “We’ll get that ma’am,” the older man broke in.

      Sam protested their approach, hopping to the floor and waddling his way over to Tessa. She picked him up, and put him on her shoulder. She then quickly moved the stepping stool and smaller birdcage—for her toad—into the living room.

      Why in the world was the man sending in a freezer? It had to be the Slaters. “I really don’t need this,” she told the men as they positioned the freezer.

      “Orders, ma’am.”

      Tessa wondered if that was all the older man could say. She wanted to tell him her name was Tessa. She didn’t. Instead, she opened her mouth to explain that her guest would only be here a short time when the phone rang.

      “We’ll put the food in the freezer, if that’s okay with you, Miss Stanridge,” the young delivery boy said, motioning to boxes of…something he’d brought with him.

      Tessa didn’t argue. She nodded and grabbed the ringing phone. “Hello?” After all, nothing could be worse than the disaster they were making of her kitchen.

      “Tessa, guess who?”

      Tessa paused at the deep voice on the other end of the phone line. Memories of her past, of what seemed to her like eons ago, flooded her mind. They were memories of a different time when she felt she had the world by the tail and anything she might want was hers for the asking, a time of false illusions of safety and control. “Stan?” she asked, forcing herself to come back to the present.

      “That’s right. It’s been a while since we talked, hasn’t it?”

      Tessa thought two weeks but she didn’t voice her thoughts aloud. “So what’s up?” she asked instead. How did you find my phone number? she thought actually. Her phone number was unlisted. He’d certainly never called her before.

      “Surprised, Tessa? I was looking over your therapy chart from last year when that leg started acting up again and thought I’d give you a call.”

      Of course, the chart. Her phone number was on that. “So what’s—be careful,” she called out to the freezer men who were now moving her table to make more room. Good heavens!

      “Careful?” Stan’s voice came across the line confused before his rich chuckle sounded. “That’s Tessa.”

      With a chuckle, he continued speaking. “I wanted to tell you, I just moved to Hill Creek.” She heard someone in the background say something to Stan. He paused and replied. Then he was back talking to her. “We’ll talk when I get over there.”

      Tessa, who had been shifting from foot to foot with worry over the way the beefy men had handled her table, became suddenly alert at Stan’s words. “I’m sorry?” Here? she thought.

      Moving around the corner of the doorway, blocking out the disaster going on in her kitchen, she tuned all of her energy to the man on the phone. “Run that by me again, Stan?”

      “I moved to Hill Creek. And since I come so highly qualified, the attending physician has assigned me as nurse to the man moving into your house. I’ll be seeing you every morning.”

      Stunned, Tessa sank to a footstool in front of a recliner chair in her living room. “You’re here, in Hill Creek?”

      “That’s right. Isn’t it great?”

      Tessa simply shook her head. Five years ago she’d been in love with a man named Michael—or she thought she’d been in love with him. He’d been so upbeat just like Stan, so outgoing, so forward in his pursuit. Then the earthquake had come, her injuries had come, and they’d broken up. She’d broken up. He’d broken up with her. It was all too much to think about right now. He’d sworn he still cared for her and just needed time to adjust to their new circumstances. But it hadn’t been the truth. It’d been her, the emptiness that had run him off.

      He didn’t want her. She couldn’t live with all of the pain that had been running through her after the horrible earthquake and loss. The only good thing that had happened during that time was that she’d rededicated herself to God. That had changed her life. She had wanted to put all of the past behind her. She’d tried to put the past behind her. She had realized after rededicating her heart to God that she couldn’t stay there and watch her former fiancé marry and set up practice in her town of Brea.

      So she’d packed up and left. She’d tried once or twice to date. She’d met Stan, who had seemed like such a nice man. Kind, gentle, funny…but she just hadn’t been able to risk it.

      “Tessa, you still there?”

      But if she read this one right, he was interested in more than therapy. Tessa nodded, then realizing he couldn’t see her answered, “Yes. That’s um, great, Stan, that you’re here.”

      Stan chuckled. “I’ve been in town two weeks now. I live out west, on the other side of the hospital, but I saw you at the school, just before it let out. And you wouldn’t believe the way small towns are. I think I’ve heard everything about you and every other single person that lives in this Podunk town in those two weeks. I’d been waiting to contact you… Anyway, we’ll catch up later. I just thought I’d call and let you know I’m back.”

      “Thanks, Stan. It’s good to hear your voice.” She meant that, in a way. In another way she didn’t. She wasn’t sure what to say to him. She remembered in the hospital when he’d worked on the therapy, the lasting result from the earthquake that flared up occasionally. She’d really enjoyed his company, maybe because he was so nice, did most of the talking, and showed such enthusiasm.

      But when he’d wanted to walk her home and then sent her those cards…it was too reminiscent of her past with Michael.

      He hung up.

      Tessa replaced the receiver as well. Stan now lived in town.

      What was she going to do? She toyed with the idea of dating him.

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