“To do? What do you mean? And how’s he going to get here if he’s snowbound?”
“I didn’t say he was stuck. Just snowbound. He’ll explain it all to your father when he gets there.”
“But Dad’s not here,” Jocie said again. The line went dead. For a minute Jocie thought Zella had hung up on her, but when she pushed the plunger down and let it back up, she didn’t get a dial tone. The snow must have gotten to the line.
“Oh well, so much for nutty old Zella,” Jocie told the baby as she carried him over to the couch to get him out of his snowsuit. She shrugged off her coat. “Nutty, nutty Zella. She should have just sent him over to Wes. He has an extra couch. That’s more than we have around here. Right, baby boo?”
Stephen Lee laughed. Jocie didn’t know whether it was because of what she was saying or if he was just glad to get free of the bulky snowsuit. “I’ll go get a snowball for you to play with later. That way you can touch the snow. Your mama won’t care. She says you need to learn new things. I mean, you’re already three and a half months old.”
Aunt Love came in the living room. “Was that your father on the phone?”
“Nope. Zella. She’s sending some guy out here to spend the night. At least I think she is.”
“Who in the world?”
“Beats me. Something about the guy being snowbound but not stuck. I hope Dad doesn’t get stuck.” Jocie picked up Stephen Lee and kissed his red cheeks.
Aunt Love was frowning. “Call her back and tell her to send whoever it is over to stay with Wesley. That would be closer anyway.”
“Can’t.” Jocie looked around at Aunt Love. “The phone went dead. We can’t call anybody.”
“Oh well. He surely can’t be anybody dangerous if Zel-la’s sending him over,” Aunt Love said. “We’ll just have to remember what it says in Hebrews. ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’”
The guy did sort of look like an angel when he finally knocked on the door over an hour later. Either that or a snowman. Snow was clinging to his coat and pants and melting on his hair. “Did you walk all the way from Zel-la’s?” Jocie asked when she opened the door.
“Not all the way. I slid off the road about a half mile from here.”
“Let him come in, Jocelyn, so he can warm up by the stove,” Aunt Love said from the kitchen door. Tabitha had stopped halfway down the steps, carrying Stephen Lee. She was looking at the guy standing in the door as if she’d never seen a man before.
“I’ll drip all over your floor,” he said.
“It’s been dripped on before,” Aunt Love said.
The man stomped his feet to get off as much snow as possible and stepped inside. “It is cold out there.”
“Too cold to be traipsing around without gloves and boots. Of course you’re cold. Hungry too, I’d say. We just finished supper, but we’ve got plenty of leftovers,” Aunt Love said.
“That’s okay. Miss Curtsinger fixed me a sandwich and made me some hot chocolate,” the man said.
“Zella made you hot chocolate?” Jocie was shocked. “Are you her long-lost son or something?”
“Jocelyn, behave yourself,” Aunt Love said. “Run get one of your father’s sweaters and some socks.”
“I’ll get them,” Tabitha offered from the stairs.
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” the man said with a smile at Tabitha.
“No trouble at all.” Tabitha looked so ready to swoon that Jocie thought she might ought to run up the stairs and be ready to catch Stephen Lee.
Jocie took a better look at the guy now that some of the snow had melted off his hair. She supposed he was sort of cute and he looked about Tabitha’s age. And that smile. It reminded her of somebody.
He was trying to explain why he was there dripping all over their floor. “Miss Curtsinger said she thought it best that I should talk to Mr. Brooke about why I’m in Holly-hill. Or rather, Reverend Brooke. She said he’s a preacher. Is he here?”
“Not right now, but he should be soon,” Aunt Love said as she stepped over closer to the stranger to get a better look at his face. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”
“No, ma’am. I sort of doubt it. I’m from Ohio, and I’ve never been down this way before.”
“Maybe you just look like somebody I know,” Aunt Love said.
“That might be it,” the man said. “I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Robert.”
Tabitha practically fell down the steps in her hurry to get the sweater and socks to the guy. She handed Stephen Lee off to Jocie as she said breathlessly, “I’m Tabitha and that’s Jocie holding Stephen Lee. And that’s Aunt Love. All Brookes.” Tabitha’s eyes were sparkling and her face was almost as pink as the rose in the little tattoo on her upper cheek.
“Except Aunt Love. Her name’s Warfield.” Jocie frowned a little. She wanted to tell Tabitha to take a deep breath and count to ten before she fell off the deep end. This Robert hadn’t even given them his last name. “And your last name?” she asked.
“Miss Curtsinger said it would be better if I just waited and explained everything to Reverend Brooke.”
“I didn’t ask for the whole story of why you’re here in the middle of a snowstorm or how you ended up snowbound at Zella’s house, of all places,” Jocie said. “Just your name. That ought to be an easy enough question to answer.”
Tabitha turned to make a face at Jocie. “Stop being so rude, Jocie. You don’t have to always know all the answers. I think it’s sort of fun to have a mystery man show up in the middle of a snowstorm.” She looked back around at Robert with a big smile as she handed him the sweater. “Here, let me take your wet coat.”
Aunt Love was pulling a chair up close to the stove. “Take your shoes off and come over here and warm up,” she said, ready to give her best effort to entertain angels.
The man shrugged off his wet coat and pulled on the sweater Tabitha handed him. “That feels great,” he said. Before he went over to sit down in the chair Aunt Love offered, he stepped closer to Jocie and looked straight into her eyes. “I’d answer your questions, Jocie, but I promised Miss Curtsinger I’d wait and talk to Reverend Brooke. But you don’t have to worry. I’m harmless. You and little Stevie here don’t have a thing to worry about.”
Stevie. The name echoed in Jocie’s head. The only person to ever call Stephen Lee Stevie was Wes. And suddenly staring into the eyes of this man who said his name was Robert, everything was echoing. It was the same as if she might run into Stephen Lee’s father someday and look into his eyes and see Stephen Lee. Or some stranger’s eyes and see a reflection of herself. But now she was looking into this man’s eyes and seeing Wes.
The ship from Jupiter had finally landed. And she wanted to put Stephen Lee down and run out the door and all the way to Hollyhill to make Wes promise that he wouldn’t get on it and fly away. She would have too if it hadn’t been snowing. But Aunt Love would never let her go at night with it snowing the way it was.
I
t was after eleven before David and Leigh drove back into Hollyhill. The roads had gotten more hazardous by the mile, and twice they’d slid sideways going down a hill. Luckily no car had been coming from the other direction, or perhaps luck had nothing to do with it. It was prayer, pure and simple.
He and Leigh both breathed sighs of relief when he pulled up to her apartment. “Were you praying as much as I was?” Leigh asked.
“More. At least we didn’t have to pray our way out of a ditch.”
“Or spend the night at my parents’ house.”
After he helped Leigh carry her gifts and packages of food up the steps and into the apartment, he kissed her good night. He was amazed afresh every time he put his arms around her how right it felt. How well she fit there in the circle of his arms. She asked him if he wanted to eat another piece of her mother’s stack pie before he left, but the snow was still falling. If it got much deeper, his car would belly up in the snow and he’d be stuck for sure.
He tried to call home from Leigh’s to let them know he was on the way, but the line kept beeping the busy signal. Nothing to worry about, he told Leigh. The line went out a lot.
Once he drove out of the city limits, the roads got even worse. He crept along staying in the tracks of some other car that had passed along the road some time back. He wasn’t too concerned. Even if he got stuck, he was close enough to his house that he could walk the rest of the way if he had to.
Just over the top of one of the hills in a curve, the car that had made the tracks he’d been following was sideways in the ditch. Snow covered it like a blanket, so it had obviously been there awhile. David carefully tapped his brakes to stop his car. He got out and brushed the snow off the driver’s side window of the car in the ditch to peer inside. His flashlight’s beam was weak, but strong enough to let him see the car was empty. Whoever it was must have deserted the car and walked wherever he was headed.
He had expected the house to be dark and everybody to be asleep when he got home, but instead when he turned into the driveway, the house was ablaze with light. His heart started beating faster as possible reasons for so much light this late at night ran through his head. Stephen Lee might be sick. Aunt Love could have had a stroke. Jocie might have gone out and gotten lost in the snow. The girl loved snow. But there was no reason for her to get lost and there was no reason for him to panic until he knew what was wrong.
Jocie must have been watching for his car because she flicked on the porch light and stepped outside to meet him. His heart felt a little lighter. At least she was okay. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he climbed up the porch steps. “Is Stephen Lee sick?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. We have company.”
“Company? Oh, did whoever got stuck up on the hill walk down here?”
“Yeah, but here is where he was headed to begin with,” Jocie said. “He says his name is Robert. That’s all he would tell us. Seems Zella sent him out here to tell you his story and only you.”
David frowned as he brushed the snow off his coat and stomped his feet. Maybe he was just tired—it had been a long day—but nothing was making a whole lot of sense. He pulled in a deep breath to try to get his mind working better. “Then I guess I’d better go in and hear what he has to say.”
“Wait a minute, Dad.” Jocie looked over her shoulder at the crack of light spilling out of the door she hadn’t quite pulled shut when she stepped out on the porch. Then she looked back at David. “I know where he’s from. He’s from Jupiter.”
“Jupiter? Jocie, it’s too late for this nonsense.”
“Well, maybe not really Jupiter, but wherever Wes is from.” Suddenly Jocie looked ready to cry. She mashed her mouth together and sniffed before she went on. “He looks like Wes. He must be family. Maybe a son or something.”
David reached out and put his arms around Jocie. “That might be. But you don’t have to look so worried. Wes could have a hundred sons show up from Jupiter and it wouldn’t change how he feels about you.”
Jocie kept her face against his coat. There were tears in her voice as she said, “But they might want him to go back to Jupiter with them.”
“They might, and he might go. I don’t know.” David pushed Jocie back where he could see her face. “We can’t keep the people we love captive.”
“I don’t want to keep Wes captive. I just don’t want him to leave.”
“He hasn’t gone anywhere. He probably won’t. But even if he does, I do know one thing for sure. He’ll never stop loving you.”
Jocie pulled in a shaky breath and rubbed the tears off her cheeks. “I know. But it just seems like I’m always having to borrow family. Sometimes you have to give back stuff you borrow.” She kept her eyes down.
For a minute David forgot about the person inside who might or might not be related to Wes. He thought they’d worked through all this after the tornado, but sometimes it was hard to hold on to the truth. “Look at me, Jocie.” Slowly her eyes came up to his. “There’s nothing borrowed about your family. I am your father. I have always been your father, and I will always be your father. There’s nothing you can do to ever change that. And Wes loves you the same way. Whatever you want to call him. Grandfather. Uncle. Friend. He’s not going to change how he feels about you. The two of you are tied together by something stronger than mere blood kinship. If you don’t believe me, ask him.”
Jocie smiled through her tears. “I know, Dad. But sometimes I can’t help but worry that everything might change. That something will happen.”
“Something has happened. Something is always happening, but love stays. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He rubbed the tears off her cheeks with his gloved hand.
“Now let’s go in before we both freeze.”
Jocie was right. The young man who stood up when David came into the room did look like Wes, but he was too young to be the son Wes said he’d left behind when he went out on the road after his wife and daughter had died in the auto accident. A grandson perhaps. But there was no reason for David to play guessing games. The boy would tell him his story. That was why he was there.
“Hello, Reverend Brooke, my name is Robert. I apologize for barging in on your family like this, sir,” the young man was saying as he reached to shake David’s hand. “But Miss Curtsinger said you’d know how best to handle my situation. I don’t want to upset anyone or cause any problems. And she said maybe you could put me up for the night since there isn’t a motel in Hollyhill. I realize that might be a terrible imposition. If so, I can always go sleep in my car.”
“The one stuck up on the hill, I presume,” David said.
“Yes sir.”
Aunt Love jumped in. “You aren’t going to sleep in your car. You can have the couch. Jocelyn can bunk in with Tabitha.”
“I could sleep on the porch the way I did on Christmas Eve,” Jocie offered.
“No,” Aunt Love said. “It’s too cold and I’m not having that dog tracking snow all over the porch. It won’t hurt you two sisters to share a bed one night.”
David almost laughed at the way Jocie’s eyes popped open wide as she looked at Aunt Love. She’d thought her dog coming in to sleep by her bed out on the closed-in porch until winter had pushed her in to the living room couch had been a secret from Aunt Love. “All right,” he said. “That’s settled. Somebody bring Robert a pillow and blankets, and then everybody to bed.”