Authors: Betty Jo Schuler
Johnny, Aunt Ev's nephew, was a nice guy and Tripp went to Heartland with Evelyn and him, then showed Johnny the teenage hangouts. Megan and Devon were at J's and waved, but made no effort to join them. Tripp knew enough about girls to know Keely had spilled everything to Megan who'd then told her boyfriend, and now Tripp Andrews was bad news.
Brigit and Will were at Mosley's but didn't see anyone but each other. Falling for her must have been good for Will because he was eating his French fries instead of playing with them.
Johnny took a look at the Harley when they got back to the house and Evelyn was talking about giving it to him when Tripp went to bed, leaving her to visit with her real nephew. The next afternoon, Rosa wanted to know how things went. “Keely won't see or talk to me.”
“She promised to bring me the next book in the
First Love
series. When she comes, I'll put in a good word for you.”
“She won't show up at the hospital again,” Tripp said, jamming his hands in the big pockets of his clown suit. “She doesn't want to see me.”
Rosa motioned him closer, holding her hand up to her mouth as if she wanted to whisper a secret. Squawk. She honked his big blue nose. “Stop acting like a clown, and do something to win her back.”
*****
CHAPTER 12
Nothing in the world smelled as sweet as roses from the guy you loved. Keely brushed her hair, stroke after stroke, trying to untangle her emotions. Her first roses. Stopping to touch a velvety crimson petal, she read the card, again. “Let's start over. Love, Tripp.”
She missed Tripp's dimpled smile, good humor, and the fun they had together. She missed his kisses, his arms around her, the love they felt for one another. She forgave him for not telling her about his heart because she understood, but she didn't know if she could forget his connection to Mark.
“I wish you'd voice your thoughts aloud.” Megan sat on Keely's bed, her feet stuck out over the edge so she wouldn't get the spread dirty. Her blonde hair was drawn up in a bun on top her head, a few hairs hanging loose. Her nose was shiny and she'd chewed her lipstick off. She'd left her cap and apron at work, but a grease splatter on her uniform sleeve offered further evidence she'd just come from there.
Keely thought again how glad she was she hadn't gone to work at Hoosier Hot Wings. But if she had, she might not have fallen in love with Tripp. And that would be a good thing. Wouldn't it?
“I think I know what you're thinking but I can't be sure,” Megan added in a louder voice.
“What do you think I'm thinking?”
“That Tripp's a jerk and you hate him?”
“He's not and I don't, but I'm devastated.” Keely threw her brush on the floor and stomped over to the bed. Stomping was easy when you wore oversized yellow clown shoes with red laces. She'd bought a clown outfit that looked a little like Raggedy Anne and planned to wear it to the hospital for the first time tonight. But she'd bought it before Tripp's confession. “I care about him, a lot. But he shouldn't have flirted with me, or kissed me, or said … nice things. He should never have gotten involved.”
“I knew he was attracted to you the moment he walked up to us on the corner of Plum and Old Road One and asked for the Jefferson house. Then he met Evelyn, and she said you two would get along.”
“I don't understand her part in this either.” Keely sat on the bed and straightened her puffy red skirt around her. “Unless it was part of her plan to turn him into Mark.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Evelyn gave him Mark's shirt to wear. She left Mark's room the way it was. She tried to get him to ride Mark's cycle.”
Megan's eyes shone with excitement. “So that's why Tripp refused to ride. After he got Mark's heart, Mark's mother tried to turn him into a clone.” Megan shivered and hugged her arms to her waist.
Keely eyed her skeptically. “Probably not a clone, but a son substitute, maybe.”
“So naturally, he wouldn't want to be a boyfriend substitute.” Megan bounced on the bed. “He must have been terrified when she told him you dated Mark.”
*****
When Keely left the house in her clown outfit, she was glad Tripp's car was gone. She wasn't ready to face him yet. She'd meant to tell him she dated Mark, but after a while, it didn't seem important. Or maybe she was just too chicken.
Her mom drove her to the hospital without making small talk, and Keely was grateful for time to think. Did Tripp know she had dated Mark? Evelyn was the only likely person to have given her away, except Rosa. She'd told Rosa about the dance and her feelings for him.
No matter when or how Tripp learned the truth, why didn't he come to her about it then? Or what if he still didn't know? Sighing, Keely stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for fourth floor. She owed him an apology but didn't know where to start.
Let's start over. Could she give him a second chance? Would he give her one? She was as guilty as he was of keeping secrets.
Keely crept off the elevator, hoping to deliver the
First Love
book without being spotted. “Hey, you did it. You got clown clothes.”
She jumped, startled by Gerard's voice behind her, but laughed and bowed. After promising to visit with him and the other kids later, she hurried to Rosa's room.
The door stood open, and Keely, standing back to fluff her yarn hair, took this as a good sign. Tripp said Rosa had good and bad days. Peeking through her widespread gloved fingers, Keely popped her head around the door frame. “Hellooo.”
Silence. Rosa's bed was empty. The white sheets were stretched tight. The tray table was pushed back against the wall.
Keely stared into the deserted room and wept.
A small hand touched her back. “She'll be okay,” Gerard said.
In heaven. Rosa died and a little boy with a bad heart was trying to console Keely. Keeping her back to him, she wiped her eyes. “When did she … go?”
“A few hours ago. I can't tell time very well, but she should be back soon.”
“Back?”
“With her new heart.” A husky voice answered her question, and Keely, recognizing it, turned slowly. Trippo had tiptoed into the room on his big clown feet. She laid her hands on his shoulders.
“She's in surgery? She's alive?”
He nodded and Keely fell into his arms and cried.
“You're supposed to feel happy,” Gerard said, wrapping his arms around her striped stockinged legs. “Clowns are happy and make other people laugh.”
“I am happy, but when I'm super-duper happy, I cry.”
“Girl clowns aren't as good as boy clowns. Boy clowns don't cry when they're super-duper happy, do they, Trippo?”
Tripp’s painted-on smile beamed the same as it always did. “Even boy clowns cry sometimes,” he said, tears in his voice. “And when they're super-duper happy is a very good time to do it.”
Gerard wrapped his arms around Trippo's legs. “I am so happy Rosa got a new heart,” he sobbed. “And the day before her birthday was a super-duper time.”
“You'll get one too.” Tripp and Keely said the words together, a good omen she thought, as they wrapped their arms around the little boy and each other.
*****
“Happy birthday, Miss Teenager.” Rising from the bedside chair, Keely, dressed in her new clown outfit, tiptoed over to Rosa's bed when she opened her eyes. Rosa had been in recovery the day before, on her thirteenth birthday. “Nice gift you got.”
“Perfect. Tripp promised I'd get a heart and I did. He's a good guy.”
“I know.” Eager to change the subject, Keely reached into her “bag of tricks.” The bright blue plastic bag with pictures of Minnie Mouse on both sides held gadgets she'd bought at a novelty store. Digging beneath a squirting flower, a bandaged finger, and a fall-apart fan, she found the book she'd brought Rosa
“I told him you'd bring it.” Rosa stroked the shiny cover with its picture of a teenage couple. “I also told him it was only half his fault.”
Keely wrinkled her brow. “What?”
“That he fell in love with the wrong girl. He didn't know you dated Mark. You didn't know he had Mark’s heart. It's a draw. You're both, or neither, to blame.”
Rosa was beautiful inside and out, and thanks to a heart donor, she'd have the chance to fall in love. “It won't be long until you’ll go to your first dance with your first boyfriend.”
“Firsts aren't always best,” Rosa said softly. “They're just first. I got my second chance at life.”
And Keely could take a second chance at love with Tripp, if she felt brave enough.
*****
Tripp saw Keely go into Rosa's room and longed to follow her, but when she'd fallen into his arms two days ago, she'd come looking for solace. Not love.
He walked down the hall to a soda machine. He stopped, turned around without buying anything, and smiled. He'd feel like dancing in the halls of University Hospital if it weren't for Keely's disappointment in him. Rosa got her transplant. And his folks called a few days ago to say they were coming home two weeks earlier than planned and take him to Disney World. He couldn't believe it, but in today's mail, he'd received a package with everyday shirts and shorts, and a note saying he could take along a friend.
Would they let him take a girl? Would Keely go if he asked her? Disney might or might not make up for the past, but it was a new beginning, and he hoped for a better future.
Finding himself near Rosa's room again, he paused when he heard her talking about him.
“Tripp happened to get the heart Mark chose to donate, and when Mrs. Jefferson wanted to meet Tripp, he was kind enough to visit. He thought he was doing the right thing when he went there, and again, when he moved in. And when she asked him to keep his transplant a secret, he felt he owed her that much. Everything that anyone did in this whole mess was done with good intent.
“I never can figure out why people recycle cans, bottles, and paper to save the earth's resources but aren't willing to donate their organs to save lives. Mark did the right thing by donating his heart, and it would be wrong for you to punish Tripp for being the recipient.”
A burst of applause came from the doorway and Keely looked up to see Tripp. “You should be HAH's poster child,” he told Rosa, stepping forward.
“Poster teen, thank you very kindly.” Smiling and nodding her head, she sank back into her pillows. “Now if you two will visit someone else, or better yet, go someplace and make peace with one another, I need my beauty sleep.”
“Why go somewhere else?” Keely asked, moving closer to Tripp.
“What do you mean?” he asked, tucking a strand of yellow yarn hair behind her ear.
She squeaked his blue rubber nose. “Rosa likes romance and I think we should make up right here for her to see.”
“You forgive me?”
“If we'd told one another the whole truth about everything, we might never have gotten together.” And
that
would be a very bad thing.
Tripp took Keely into her arms and kissed her, and she kissed him back, oblivious to Rosa's happy laughter, Gerard’s shrill whistle, and a round of applause from the kids and nurses who'd gathered in the hall. “You deserve a second chance at life,” she said between kisses, “and both of us deserve a second chance at love.”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Love runs the gamut of emotions, and in Betty Jo Schuler’s romance novels, laughter is always one of them. “Love should be fun,” she says. Her newest release, IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, from Books We Love Publishing, is a romantic comedy. Lori Hayes never takes a risk but when someone enters her in a Dream Date contest and she meets Chance Dawson, sparks fly. Two opposites who want different prizes and a case of double identity will keep you chuckling.
The author of seventeen published books for various ages, some of her other adult titles are Gracie’s Holiday Hero, Love in a Small Town (a finalist for Best Novel in Best Books of Indiana 2007), Male Wanted, and Finding Freedom. Of the latter, Schuler says, “I had great fun creating Nick Dennis, a mystery author who's trying to write a romance novel, in Finding Mr. Romantic, and it received 4 stars out of a possible 4 1/2 from Romantic Times Book Club Magazine. The reviewer said, "With banter reminiscent of the best romantic comedies and two great lead characters, Schuler delivers a sensational read.´
A former schoolteacher, this author is an online instructor for Writer’s Digest University. An Indiana native, she loves living in Florida where she gazes out at palm trees, tropical flowers, and sunshine while fulfilling her lifelong love of working with words. She has a BS in Education from Miami University of Ohio and an MA from Ball State University of Indiana. She’s married with four grown children who have families of their own. In her spare time, this writer enjoys yoga, water aerobics, reading on her Kindle, and fun activities with friends, especially her best friend…Paul, her husband of thirty-five years. Schuler invites you to visit her website at http://bettyjowrites.com/
Other Books with Books We Love Publishing
How Not to Date a Hollywood Star
No Rain, No Rainbows
Impossible Dreams
Male Wanted
Finding Freedom
Love in A Small Town
http://bookswelove.net/bettyjoschuler.php
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Books We Love Ltd.
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