Easter Blessings (5 page)

She glanced down, embarrassed but amused. “Something like that.”

Heath reached for her hair again, his fingers playing through the glistening strands. “That might not be such a bad thing.”

She did bolt this time. She stood, moved away. “Or it might turn out to be a disaster.”

Then she took off toward the house.

H
eath stood there thinking he hadn’t had any luck tonight with fishing or flirting. Then he threw down his pole and went after Mariel.

He caught up with her on the edge of the yard, near a massive six-foot-tall azalea bush heavy with bright salmon-colored blooms. “Hey, wait just a minute, Mariel.”

She kept walking.

He raced to catch her, his arm swinging out to touch her elbow. “Mariel, wait.”

She turned finally, her eyes wide, her breath rushing. Then she pushed her hair back and breathed deeply. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m the one who should be sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you off,” Heath said, taking a calming breath himself. “I was halfway teasing.”

“Oh.” She looked down. Even in the waning light of the golden-pink sunset, he could see a becoming flush rising on her face.

Heath kept his smile to himself and his hand on her arm. “I need to know a few things.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I’ve worked with you a week now and I still don’t know much about you. You work as a graphic artist, but apparently, you’ve reached some sort of burnout—”

“I’m tired,” she said, her voice low. She sounded fragile…and broken. “Here’s the whole story. Years ago, after things with my mother went from bad to worse, I came to live with Granny my last two years of high school—so I do know a few things about this old place. Because I helped out around here after school and on weekends, Granny put me through college at Louisiana State University down in Baton Rouge. I got the job in Dallas straight out of college, and I’ve been working hard since. I was doing okay until things with Simon got kind of tense.”

“Simon?”

“Simon Cassidy, my boyfriend—back in Dallas.”

Heath let that soak in. “Your grandmother never mentioned you had a boyfriend.”

“She doesn’t like Simon. She thinks he’s too shallow and self-centered.”

“Is he?”

“Well, I didn’t think so at first. Granny met him when she came over to Dallas to visit me, and I brought him here a couple of times, but she’s never held him in very high esteem. After he made some derogatory remarks about White Hill being ‘Hicksville,’ I defended him to her. He’s always lived in the city, so he can’t know about life on a farm. But then I started seeing some of the things she’d already figured out. He
is
shallow and self-centered. So now I’m questioning my judgment.”

“What happened? I mean, why did you take a leave of absence and come here?”

She didn’t answer him for a minute, but then she
shrugged. “I got overwhelmed at work. I got a raise and big promotion. I guess I thought I’d finally made it. But you know that old saying, ‘Be careful what you ask for.”’

Heath nodded. “I know it well. I guess we all experience that at one time or another.”

She nodded. “Well, I’m experiencing that now. I’ve been burning the midnight oil for over a year now, but I’ve felt restless, the way you said you felt after your father died.”

Heath placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, then rocked back on his brogans. “Sometimes, when we finally have everything we think we want right there in front of us, it’s still not enough. In my case, I had a good steady job doing what I enjoyed, then I lost my father. It threw me, made me feel empty and…unsettled.”

“That’s right.” She bobbed her head. “I had something good happen, yet I still felt empty inside. Why is that?”

He took her by the arm again, then guided her up the path to the porch steps. All around them, spring was in bloom. The hot pink azaleas danced in the dusk along the porch railing, holding court over the bright orange and yellow day lilies just beginning to bloom in the rounded beds on each side of the house. Off in the woods, white-petaled dogwood trees sprung out like clusters of popcorn among the oaks and pines.

Heath settled down on a step, then patted the spot beside him. He watched as Mariel reluctantly sank down against the sturdy railing. “I wish I knew the answer to your question. I believe we all start out searching for something, but we wind up finding something else entirely.”

She reached out a hand to touch a vibrant red tulip blooming near the bottom step. “It’s as if I was constantly spinning, always rushing toward the next goal. I buzzed through college, then worked long, hard hours at my job. I think…after Simon and I had this latest fight, I started
wondering what I was trying to prove. Was I doing all of this because it made me happy, or was I just after the recognition, the salary, the image I wanted others to see? Simon said I was being silly, that I’d be crazy to walk away from my job, my lifestyle, in Dallas just to come home on a whim because my grandmother had requested it. And he said I’d be crazy to walk away from him, too. He implied I was lucky to have him.”

This Simon fellow sounded like a real piece of work. Heath was beginning to see why she couldn’t trust
him.
“And what did you tell Simon?”

“I told him to give me some time and some space. And I told him I was taking all of my vacation to come home to White Hill, instead of going to Cozumel with him.”

Heath glanced over at her, then leaned close. “You stopped spinning.”

She looked up, her hands tucked around her waist as she leaned forward. “Yes, I stopped spinning. And since I’ve been here, I’ve stopped feeling guilty, too. Granny needs me now. I’m glad I came.”

“You said you came
home.
Do you consider White Hill your home?”

Lowering her head, she said, “This place has been more of a home to me than any of the rental houses my mother moved us into. We used to move about every six months, from Louisiana to Alabama and Georgia, then finally Florida. She’d get mad and quit her job, then she’d blame it all on my absent father and the world in general, but mostly she blamed her family and me. Then we’d take off to ‘start over.’ I got tired of starting over.”

“So you came here to live with your grandmother?”

“Yes. I felt safe here. I found stability here.”

“Maybe that’s why you’re back now.”

“Maybe.”

She was still looking down. Heath touched a hand to
her shoulder. “Mariel, I don’t know what Sadie has in mind, but I’d enjoy getting to know you more. No strings attached.”

She laughed, the sound moving over the still earth like a soft melody. “I think that’s a given, since we’ll be working together until Easter.”

He got up then. “Well, it doesn’t have to be all work. We could…go to a movie in the city, maybe? Have dinner somewhere. I’d like to see Shreveport. I hear the Red River is pretty, and it does have a rich history.”

“It’s just a lot of water.”

“Ah, but it’s all in the eye of the beholder.”

She grinned, then reached out a hand. Heath pulled her to her feet, her gesture making him think he’d gained a small measure of her trust after all.

Mariel stared at him, her expression thoughtful, then said, “I guess since you listen to flowers, you probably talk to water, too, right?”

He tilted his head, tossed his long bangs over, then grinned back at her. “No, I mostly drink water. But I talk to trees. Completely different thing. A very one-sided conversation.”

“You’re strange.”

“You’re pretty.”

She moved away, the wall back up. “Let’s make a pact, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s agree to get to know each other, with the understanding that we’re here to help Granny and get these lilies out to our florists and nurseries during the holiday rush. As for all the rest…I don’t know. I have a few weeks to decide what to do about Granny’s last will and testament—something I refuse to think about now—and I have some time to make up my mind about you.”

Heath figured that was the closest thing to a commit
ment he was going to get from Mariel right now. But he could live with that. “Fine,” he said, taking her hand to shake on the pact. “I’m a patient man. I can wait.” He met her confused gaze with a calm challenging look. “After all, I said I was only
halfway
teasing about falling for you.”

“Well, don’t hold your breath.”

She said it with a stiff smile and a firm handshake.

Then she turned and went inside the house.

Mariel went straight to her bedroom on the second floor. From the rounded bay window that formed a turret on the top of the house, she had a perfect view of the lily field off to the west. Falling across the cushioned box seat, she watched as Heath walked back down the gravel drive. Watched and held her breath.

He’d been halfway teasing her about falling in love.

Did he feel the things she’d been feeling?

Did his heart move twice as fast each time they were together?

Mariel grabbed a ruffled pillow, clutching it as she studied Heath Whitaker. He was tall and lanky, well muscled from working out in the fields. His California tan and sun-streaked longish hair made him look like movie star material, but his gentle eyes and down-to-earth poetic attitude made him prime falling-in-love material.

Which was exactly what Mariel couldn’t do.

She wouldn’t fall for Heath, not even if dear Granny wished it. Not even if she herself secretly thought about it. She was too confused, too unsure right now, to even consider that.

Just fantasies, she told herself. Just silly daydreams.

This place had that effect on her. White Hill had always been a whimsical, magical place for Mariel. A safe retreat from her mother’s wrath and the world’s hard knocks.
Granny Hillsboro was a gentle, loving, undemanding presence in her life, a solid foundation. Mariel had always been able to turn to Granny for unconditional love and nurturing, two things Evelyn had dished out in short supply. Two things her father hadn’t cared enough to give her.

Love and nurturing. Two things Heath gave to the land and the lilies each day. The lilies were thriving under his tender care.

Mariel closed her eyes, wondering how it would feel to be in Heath’s arms, to let him love and nurture her in the same gentle way he cared about the land and the flowers.

“No,” she said, jumping up to toss the pillow back down on the window seat.

“My, my, what did that poor old pillow do to you?” Sadie said from the open door.

“Granny!” Mariel whirled to find her grandmother standing there with a tray. “What’s that?”

“Our dinner,” Sadie replied, bringing the tray to a round walnut-grained table by the bay window. “Dutch went into town to visit friends. Heath generally spends weekends on his own, working on that old cottage. So I guess it’s just you and me, kid. I made us peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and some hot tea. And I have brownies and fruit for dessert.”

Mariel sat down on one of the high-backed green velvet chairs next to the small table. “Is this good for your diet?”

Sadie rolled her eyes, then poured tea from a petite silver pot. “The bread is whole wheat, the peanut butter is low-sodium, low-sugar. And the jelly is mostly pure fruit. The brownies are also low-fat. Made them with apple sauce instead of oil or lard. And there’s strawberries and bananas on the side.”

“You are behaving,” Mariel said, relief washing over her as she surveyed the silver tray of food. “Thanks for
dinner, Granny. This reminds me of all the tea parties we used to have up here.”

Sadie handed her a floral china cup filled with steaming tea. “It’s
green
tea now, darling.” Then she sat up properly in her own chair like a true lady. “I thought you could use a tea party. You seem to be a tad confused and bewildered by all of this talk about my estate.”

Mariel reached for her grandmother’s hand. “I don’t like hearing you talk about dying, Granny.”

“Honey, we all have to die someday,” Sadie replied. “I don’t fear death. I know I’ll be going home to Christ.”

Mariel nodded. “You have such an assurance about that.”

“Of course. This life here on earth is just the beginning. I’ll be with Jonas again soon.”

Mariel took a bite of her sandwich, still amazed that her grandmother made the absolutely best peanut-butter sandwiches in the world, in spite of the low-fat content of this one. “Why do you suppose Mother never accepted faith the way you do, Granny?”

Sadie placed her cup of tea back on the matching saucer. “I’ve often wondered and prayed about that. I taught all of my children the same, took them to church each Sunday, tried to model a Christian life for them. But Evelyn was always headstrong and stubborn. As the years went by, she quit going to church, quit pretending to believe. Then of course, she met your father and that was that.”

“And I was the result of
that,
” Mariel pointed out. “A mistake.”

Sadie grabbed Mariel’s hand back. “Honey, you were never a mistake. You have been a blessing to me.”

“But not to my own parents. I—I think Mother has always resented me. And it’s obvious my father never wanted me.”

Sadie sat silent for a minute, then said, “Your mother
loved you—she still does. She just has a hard time expressing that love, after what your father put her through. And truth be told, I never liked the man, but I think
she
drove him away. She could never accept that he truly wanted to marry her. Vincent Evans was a weak man, but he did love your mother. He just couldn’t fight her any longer.”

Mariel hung her head. “And what about me? Did he ever really love me?”

“He loves you,” Sadie replied, a knowing smile on her face. “I keep him updated on you.”

Shocked, Mariel stared at her grandmother. “You’ve kept in touch with my father?”

“Off and on,” Sadie said, her hands folded primly in her lap. “He came back around a few years ago. Didn’t want me to tell you, but I think you need to know. Your mother would be furious, of course, if she knew. But since she never bothers to question me on anything or even talk to me for that matter, I decided I’d keep this information to myself.”

“But why haven’t you ever told me?”

“I wanted to protect you, darling. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, only to let you down. Vincent loves you and knows all about your life, but I don’t think he’s ready for a reunion. Like I said, he’s weak. Maybe one day he’ll find the courage to seek you out. I’ve kept him informed, and beyond that, I haven’t interfered. But I’ve certainly prayed that he would seek you out and make amends for his past actions.”