“We’re going to be all right,” Jo said. “We’ll stick together and keep them all safe. That girl—she means a lot to me. So do the kids.”
“I know,” Noah said. “Listen, do you have a can of soup?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Ellie hasn’t eaten anything. She should keep her strength up. I think she has a battle ahead.”
“I can sure do that,” Jo said, going to the pantry.
It was ten in the evening before Ellie had finally eaten something, knowing her kids were safe and sound asleep. Noah walked her to her apartment and when he followed her up the stairs, she didn’t protest. Instead, she unlocked the door and left it open for him to enter behind her.
“Are you sure you feel all right here tonight?” Noah asked her. “If you’d like me to, I can stay.”
She shook her head and smiled. “Didn’t you say George is leaving in the morning? You should be home tonight, Noah. I’ll be fine.”
He pulled her gently forward and held her against him. “You’ve had a grueling day. You must be exhausted.”
“The most important things are taken care of,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Noah, this could have been so much worse. At his worst, Arnie wasn’t that scary.” She took a breath. “You just have no idea how relieved I am that they’re right next door to me, safe and asleep.”
“Did you know Jo was a licensed foster parent?”
“I did,” she answered. “But it never occurred to me it could benefit us in any way.”
“You need to lock your door tonight, Ellie….”
“Oh, believe me!”
“Maybe pull the trunk in front of it, or something.”
“Noah!” She laughed. “Try not to wig out on me now. The lock is good and if I hear a sound, I’ll call you. I’ll call Nick and Jo, too. Do you think after Arnie struck out with the sheriff and highway patrol tonight, he’d come around here and try something?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think he’s crazy.”
“No thinking about it, Noah, Arnie’s nuts. I’ll lock the door.”
“Good.” He ran a hand up and down her back. “I’m impressed, Ellie. It was an emotional, scary day, but you kept your head.”
She laughed softly. “I came real close to losing it a couple of times. If you hadn’t been there, who knows…”
“Anything you need to talk about before I go?”
“You mean, like the fact that Arnie told everyone at the bar that I was a stripper, that I was a hooker and drug addict?” Ellie pulled back and looked up into his eyes. “Noah, sometimes people are just waiting to believe the worst. I can’t do anything about that. But the people who know me, the people who I consider my new friends, they know I’m not like that. All I’ve really cared about since the second I got here was getting my kids back. Arnie’s just full of jealous shit, that’s all.”
He smiled at her. “Shit’s not even on the cusp—it’s full-out swearing.”
“But I’m not in front of your church people or the kids and you’re all grown up. Let’s not worry about things we can’t—” She stopped suddenly and her eyes grew round. “Oh, Noah, I’m sorry! You must be worried about how this will look for you, starting a new church! It could be bad for you because you hired me and helped me so much.”
He shook his head. “Aw, people have found plenty of reasons to judge me. I’ve made a lot of waves in the church—I’ve got a rebellious nature. I can’t worry about things like gossip. It would take precious time away from important work. No, I was only worried about how you were holding up under that slander.”
“What in the world could anyone say about you? You’re the most Goody Two-shoes guy I’ve ever been around. And for sure the most straitlaced guy I’ve ever been involved with.” Then she grinned. “Except for sex, but I won’t tell. What could anyone be judgmental about?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised. I hate my very well-known, saintly father. I was wild in my youth and wasn’t even married in the church. There are about a hundred things I did before hiring a stripper as my assistant. And that turned out to be the smartest thing I ever did. Now, would you do something for me before I kiss you good-night?”
“What do you need, Noah?”
“I need you to look behind the shower curtain and under the bed. Then lock me out and put the trunk against the door.”
“Noah, did you have monsters under the bed when you were little?”
He touched her nose. “No. Because I checked.”
It was the smell of coffee and the sound of shuffling coming from the RV’s bedroom that first woke Noah early the next morning. Then it was a cold, wet nose right on his temple. Whoever made up that old wives’ tale that if a dog’s nose was wet and cold, it was healthy, would be pleased to know Lucy was fine. He sat up on the couch and threw the blanket back. Then he watched the coffeepot perk. He glanced at his watch: 5:30 a.m. “Want a trip out back?” he asked Lucy. She went straight for the door. Noah stood outside his RV in his boxers while Lucy had her morning constitutional.
When the coffee was done, he grabbed himself a cup and sat back down on the sofa, trying to get his morning bearings. George appeared in the bedroom doorway, dressed, perky and grinning.
“Well, good morning,” George said cheerfully.
Noah made a face. “If we had married, it wouldn’t have worked,” Noah grumbled. “What in God’s name gets you up so damn early?”
George laughed. “I don’t know what it is—when I was younger, I liked sleeping through the sunrise, liked staying up late. Somewhere along the line, that changed. I might be a lot happier in the morning if someone didn’t take up most of the bed,” he said, peering at Lucy. “Why does she have to sleep across the bed?” He shook his head. “So tell me—is everyone safe and sound?”
“Perfectly,” Noah said. Since George had been asleep when Noah got back from Ellie’s the night before, he explained all about Jo showing up at the sheriff’s department, Arnie following them, and all the rest of the drama from the night before. “So—the best of a bad situation, the kids are in Jo’s house and Ellie is able to see them all the time. And, better still, the Child Welfare worker isn’t likely to let them go back to Arnie’s house. The judge shouldn’t have any excuse to undo this small victory, but I’ll go ahead and cross my fingers on that. This is all good for Ellie, as long as Arnie doesn’t try anything bizarre, or scary. She’s going to lock her door and be careful.”
“But she’s all right?” George asked while he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“George, it’s a miracle that nutcase didn’t hurt her or the kids. He’s off balance. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, exactly. But he’s one mixed-up dude.”
“As long as Ellie and the kids are all right now,” George said.
“She seems to be okay—maybe more worried about the effect all those lies Arnie was spreading at Jack’s will have on my reputation. And I could care less about that as long as I can take care of her and the kids.” He smiled to himself. “Hercules Baldwin.”
“Huh?” George asked.
“Never mind. So, you’re up at the crack of dawn, ready to head out?”
“For now,” George said. “When’s the church going to be ready?”
Noah shrugged. “Soon. It had better be—we have a wedding coming up. Probably my debut and inauguration of the church. I’m sure I could wrangle you an invitation.”
“That would be great, Noah. Now, how about breakfast at Jack’s? I don’t feel like cooking for you today.”
“You’re on. I’ll buy.”
Ellie was up early, dressed and at Jo’s back kitchen door before the kids were even awake. Ellie tapped very softly on the door, not wishing to disturb the house. Jo was up, however, having coffee in the kitchen while reading the newspaper.
“I thought I’d see you bright and early,” Jo said. “How’d you sleep?”
“A little too lightly,” Ellie said. “But, there were no suspicious noises and I just couldn’t wait to see the kids this morning. Is it okay? That I’m here?”
“It’s more than okay. Get yourself coffee and I’ll go jostle them. They should get up for breakfast. I’m going to drive Danielle over to Valley Elementary School and enroll her; I’ll take Trevor along. I’m going to make sure they know never to release her to her stepfather. There’s a school bus, but until things are all calmed down, I’ll drive her and pick her up.”
“I’ll give you money for gas,” Ellie said.
Jo put a hand on Ellie’s arm and looked into her eyes. “That’s the least of our worries right now. Emergency foster care usually lasts forty-eight hours or less, but I suggest we leave things as they are until your hearing. With your consent, and if your lawyer doesn’t protest, I think your caseworker would go along with that. For right now, let’s just make sure they feel comfortable here, and that they can make this adjustment. I think the last couple of months have been real hard on them. I’m going to see if I can line up some counseling for them through CWS. And how about you? Is there anything you need to help you cope?”
Ellie actually got tears in her eyes. Since her grandmother, no one had ever worried about whether she was handling things all right. And she couldn’t remember anyone ever asking whether she could use some professional help. There hadn’t been any available, for that matter. Her load, always heavy, belonged to her alone. She hadn’t thought there was another option.
Ellie put her hand against Jo’s soft cheek and smiled just as a big fat tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m so sorry I lied to you. About the club. About…”
“Shh,” Jo said. “First of all, you had to protect yourself and your kids. Second, you didn’t do anything wrong, working at that club. Let it go. Immediately.”
“I’m so sorry…”
“Ellie, that doesn’t matter at all in how I feel about you. I care about you and the kids and it has nothing to do with your previous job. It has only to do with the kind of human being you are. Now—should I line up some counseling for you?”
Ellie sniffed back a tear. “I have everything I need, Jo.”
“Ellie, this is not a sacrifice for me,” Jo said softly, pressing her own hand against Ellie’s. “This makes me happy. I feel good with you and the kids around. I feel useful. Connected. Let’s lean on each other.”
“I don’t want to take advantage…”
“We’ve been over that,” Jo said. “It’s not like that. Now, do you want to wake your kids or shall I?”
Ellie pulled her hand back. “No, you do it. It’s your house, you’re their foster mother. I’m right here if they ever need me, but I’d like them to understand that you’re calling the shots here. I want them to trust you. Like I do.”
“You’re such a good girl,” Jo whispered. “If I’d actually had a daughter of my own, I doubt I could have brought one up so fine.”
Ellie helped Jo with the breakfast, talked with Danielle about another new school and washed up the dishes while Jo helped them dress. All the kids had to wear were the clothes in their backpacks, so Jo decided that she would arrange to go to Arnie’s house with an escort to pack up their belongings.
“Is there anything I can do about that?” Ellie asked.
“Yes, you can give me his work phone number. And then, stay out of it. You really can’t be involved with him at all, not in the least way. I’ll make sure Nick comes home from work early to supervise the kids while I go over there. I’ll take Nick’s SUV.”
“He doesn’t have to come home early,” Ellie said. “I could—”
“Ellie, you can be here with them whenever you want to be, as far as I’m concerned, but you have to let me act as guardian for the moment. I can’t rely on you to parent right now. Let’s do this by the book.”
“Yes. Right,” she relented. “Get a very big escort.”
“I’ve done this before, sweetheart. It’s been a while, but my foster kids tended to come from some very scary places. Usually with only the clothes on their backs.”
That was a thought that stayed with Ellie as she went off to work at the church. She thought about her own kids, sure, but it weighed even more heavily on her mind that too many kids grew up hard. She’d lived from hand to mouth with her grandmother, but they’d always managed. She’d had friends who hadn’t managed as well, some of whom were in the system, but they hadn’t had a Jo or a Nick. The ones she knew were placed in crowded homes where living was tough. It wasn’t unusual for them to be tossed in with a group of kids with an established pecking order and have to defend themselves or suffer abuse from either other foster kids or even the parents. Foster care was a big, scary monster among her crowd while she was growing up.
It was not a pretty, clean house like the Fitches’, with an experienced, kind couple prepared to give their hearts as well as their space.
By the time she got to the church, Noah was waiting in his office and the construction crew was already starting to work. Noah stood and went to her immediately, giving her a brief embrace and kiss on the cheek. “Good, you’re all right. You must not have had any problems last night.”
She laughed at him. “I bet you’re glad you didn’t hire Mrs. Nagel. Wouldn’t she be a sourpuss to kiss? Everything is fine or I would have called you. What’s on your schedule?”
“I have calls to make. You?” he asked.
“You’re the boss. But if it’s no big deal, I’d like to stay in town, in case Jo needs something to do with the kids. I think Vanni’s doing fine with her babies, but I’ll call her, explain what’s going on and be sure she can do without me for a couple of days. I’ll start painting your office if you like.”