Refuge on Leebrick (The Hills of Burlington Book 4) Page 5

  “It is,” she agreed easily as she led him down the stairs towards the kitchen where she’d dropped off what she’d remembered to bring over with her that morning. Especially considering she’d headed out the door even before her first cup of coffee. “But in all honesty it was a mess when I bought it.”

  “Is that what led to the video series on renovating an old house?” At her questioning look he just shrugged. “I spent some time looking up Burlington history including the history of this house on the internet last night. An article on the video series by your family came up along with everything else.”

  “That was actually Casey’s idea but it turned out well and I can promise you the house looks a hundred times better because of it.”

  “It was a good idea,” he said. “As I recall Casey has always been full of them.”

  “That’s the truth,” Mary said without thinking. “Sorry, but you’re right. And more often than not as Mallie says, it usually means more work for everyone in her vicinity.”

  “Mallie as in Jake’s daughter’s partner in the skating rink deal?” Tom asked because he wasn’t going to touch the rest of her statement especially since he had a good idea it was absolutely true.

  “Same one,” Mary said with a smile thinking how well that little endeavor was turning out for the two young women. And with that came another thought. “I don’t know if you’re interested but we have a small company in town that does milk deliveries.”

  “A milkman?” Tom said in a voice that could only be described as stunned. He had fond memories of the milk-man during his childhood. Especially on those days he’d been able to talk his mother into chocolate milk.

  “A milkman,” Mary confirmed not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice at his surprise. She could easily imagine what he was thinking. “He can come once or twice a week, the days will depend on where this location is on his schedule.” Before he could ask she answered the question she knew was coming. “He carries regular milk in all it’s options, chocolate milk, buttermilk if you like it, cottage cheese, sometimes block cheese but you usually need to pre-order it so he has it on the truck with him, eggnog during the holiday, and again if you let him know he can drop off bags of the locally made and awesome tasting potato chips.”

  “Got a name and number?” Tom asked knowing he would indeed want to have regular deliveries. The way he saw it this was a rite of passage he’d never before been able to engage in on his own.

  Mary found a piece of scrap paper in one of the kitchen drawers and wrote out the name he asked for. “The phone number is in the local phone book. There should be one near each phone in the house.”

  “Great and thanks.” He pocketed the paper knowing it would be one of the first things he took care of once he was done here. “I’ve got things packed up at the hotel and if it’s okay with you I was going to bring things over later on tonight.”

  “That’s fine,” Mary pulled the extra ring of keys from her pocket that she’d also grabbed on her way out the door. “Here, the smaller one works for both the front and back door, the larger one for the side door,” she explained as she handed him the keys. A thought came to her that she hadn’t considered until that moment. “I’ll get someone in here to put a keyed lock on your bedroom door and probably a couple of the others too.”

  “There’s not a rush,” Tom said easily. “Especially since I’m here on my own for the moment.”

  Mary nodded but made a mental note to herself to call the local guy she’d been using for replacing rusted out doorknobs and locks. She gestured to the stack of linens she brought with her. “I already put the dishes away but I thought you could decide on where you want to keep the towels and such.”

  “Thanks,” Tom moved over towards the refrigerator wanting to make sure it was on before he brought in groceries later that night. Not only was it on and cold but filled with milk, cheese, lunchmeat, and a number of basics and goodies alike. “Wow, how did you know that hitting the grocery store is my number one avoidance issue?”

  Mary laughed at his expression of surprise and the honesty in his voice. “Experience,” she said dryly.

  Tom closed the door and turned. “Thanks,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it,” he gestured in a movement that made clear he wasn’t just talking about the food in the refrigerator.

  Mary gave him a slight nod as she gathered her purse from the table where she’d left it. Turned to leave him to what he needed to do. She also wanted to make those phone calls and texts to Carrie and Casey so they could discuss what she’d seen when Tom had come into their newly discovered room. At the doorway she turned, “I’ll see you later. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

  “You’ve done more than enough, Mary. Thanks. I really do appreciate all this.”

  Mary gave him another smile as she walked through the door. She had a strong hunch everything had happened just as it was meant to.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Carrie nervously paced the front room of her new home. She and Court had married quietly just weeks ago with only family and the closest of friends in attendance. In the following days she had moved her belongings down the alley from the Marshall Street house to the home that she would share with her new husband. Before long they would have two teenagers in the house with them as well once Rob arrived and either the basement or attic was renovated to make room for Addie. She had kept that in mind over the last couple of weeks as she’d done exactly what Court had told her. Change things however she wanted.

  She knew there was no need to be nervous but that didn’t slow her pacing as she turned and walked back towards the window. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from taking a quick look through it. With a deep sigh she wondered too if she would be able to do all that Rob was in need of.

  Both she and Court had travelled to meet Rob while he was still in the hospital. Court had returned to make a second visit on his own feeling it was important for the teenager to understand his arrival in their home was as important to him as it was to her. And it surprised her just how much she was anticipating it. How much she wanted this to work out for all of them. Nick had little to do with it. But one look at the child who was her ex-husband’s son, laying in that small hospital room knowing all what he had been through, had come close to breaking her heart. She knew few understood her need to do what she could for him. Giving him a place to live and finding some peace from the attention he’d received since Nick had made it public knowledge that Rob was his son, would only be the first step. She knew he needed far more to be able to figure out where and how he wanted to go forward from this point in his life.

  So much had changed for him in the course of minutes. His mother was dead, killed in the same car accident that had caused him almost fatal injuries. He had never spoken of those minutes according to Nick, her ex-husband who she now believed she knew and understood better than during all the years of their marriage. But she suspected as both Court and Nick did, that Rob had witnessed her death. Whether or not the two of them, mother and son, had shared words in those brief final moments, no one knew. No one asked. If they were ever to know it would come only because Rob chose to share it with them. He was, as far as she was concerned, very much the master of his own ship. She saw herself only as a guiding light should there be a need to help him shift directions in the event he began to stray off course.

  “You’re going to wear a path in that rug if you don’t slow down,” Court said from behind her.

  Before Carrie could respond the doorbell rang and she shifted direction to respond to it instead.

  She took in both men standing in her doorway. Nick looked as he always did, casual class no matter what he wore. And unlike his normal choice of a tie and suit he was dressed much as his son in jeans and a dark colored polo. Unable to help herself she stepped forward to give Rob a quick hug and in doing so slipped the small bag he carried from his hand and slipped her other hand in his then tugged
him gently through the door. “I’m so glad you’re here.” And she meant it.

  “It’s a good thing you got here when you did otherwise I would have had to replace this rug,” Court teased as he pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against taking in the scene at the doorway. He knew Carrie still wondered at her easy acceptance of the young man who was a result of her ex-husband’s affair with another woman during the early years of their marriage. But it didn’t surprise him at all. She had a soft heart, one that she kept closely guarded. But just as she had taken in Addie, her niece by marriage, during her own emotional crisis, so had she seen beyond the betrayal of the man to the needs of the boy when Nick had asked her to give his son a place to live after the accident that had taken his mother’s life and very nearly his own.

  “Oh, hush!” Carrie said gently to her husband, winking at Rob as she did. “Come on, let’s take your bags back to your room.” She led him to the back bedroom that would be his at least for now. “I know it’s small but as soon as you decide on the plans you like best from what Court has done up we’re going to fix that.”

  Rob couldn’t respond if his life depended on it. The room might be small in her mind but was close to a palace in his. Once he got past the size he saw the neatly made bed with a covering of some sort in shades of blue and green. Next to it was a dark dresser with a small TV sitting on top of it. But what had him swallowing hard was the desk on the opposite wall with a computer system spread out on it flanked by short bookshelves on each side.

  Uncertain of his silence Carrie continued even knowing she was on the verge of babbling. “I picked out what I thought you might like but we can change out anything that you don’t. Addie helped me set up the computer with software she thought you would want. She wanted you to know there’s more in the drawers that you can go through and see what else you might want to load onto it. She was a huge help to me in getting everything set up.” She glanced over at him, worried at his continued silence. She waved airily towards the walls. “She even picked out all the prints for the walls and put them up too.”

  “Addie?” He’d heard the name. Probably more than once but for the life of him couldn’t place it as he continued staring at the room and its contents in awe. He figured he’d be lucky to have a closet let alone a room with a closet. He would have been happy with a closet all to himself. It would be more than he’d ever had before other than the hospital room he’d lived in for months.

  “Your cousin,” Carrie said gently, lifting her hand to his shoulder. Willing him to look at her. And when he did she went on. “Addie is the daughter of your father’s sister. She’s been living here in Burlington with us since,” she paused wondering how much Nick had told his son about what Addie had been through herself.

  “I remember,” Rob said softly. And he did. “Nick told me about how some so called friends of hers plastered pictures of her skinny dipping all over the internet.” He made a noise Carrie could only identify as a sneer. Under any other circumstances she would have been concerned but in this case it pleased her to no end. Before she could say anything he continued. “I told him she should have sued their…”

  “Rob.” The gently stern voice came from directly behind them. Nick continued as if nothing had been said. “This looks great Carrie. Doesn’t it Rob?”

  “Addie really did help out tremendously. Sometimes I think there’s an artist buried inside her that has yet to come out and be known.” Carrie spoke into the silence, uncertain what it was about the room that seemed to have made the teenager standing beside her almost completely speechless. “But this is nothing. Wait until you see the plans Court has drawn up.” She shifted the young man around and guided him into the dining room. “Show him,” she said addressing her husband almost desperately. At his knowing smile she knew she was going to hear about all of this later. Calm, cool, and collect Carrie in a quandary. She just knew she was never going to hear the end of it.

  Nick walked towards Court and the table even as he gave his still mute son a slight nudge. He gotten to know the boy well enough to know his silence was from surprise possibly edging into shock. He had expected to be tolerated and just barely at that. The last thing he’d expected was the welcome mat Carrie had set out for him. He’d seen the last room the kid had lived in. And while his mother had done her best by him in the world she lived in, the place had been a dump. A clean dump. But a dump nevertheless. “What’s this?” He asked looking down at the architectural drawings on the table before them.

  “These,” Court began elaborately as if addressing a classroom as he had once done in another lifetime. “These are the plans for whichever location Rob would like for his bedroom.” He pointed to one of the drawings before continuing. “This is the basement as it would look when completed.” He then pointed to the other set of plans next to them. “And this is for the attic in its completed stage. Both are somewhat similar. Open areas with distinct functional divisions. Sleeping, computer area, bathroom, a wall set up for a mini kitchen if so desired, etc… etc…” He winked at Rob totally catching the boy off guard once again. “A guy’s got to have his own space.” This time he turned and gave his wife a shared look before turning back to the youngest amongst them. “All you have to do is look over both and decide which tickles your fancy more.”

  Rob was stunned and knew it showed. He hadn’t ever seen drawings like this before but he could tell what they meant. He’d never lived in a space that large. Not just a bedroom but the whole space. And they were doing this for him. Because they wanted to. For him. He could hear it in their voices. Her voice. Suddenly it was too much.

  Carrie watched him turn and walk almost blindly towards the front door. When it closed quietly behind him she placed a hand on Nick’s arm as he began to follow. It was the first time she had voluntarily touched her now ex-husband in longer than she could remember. “Let me.”

  Before he could respond one way or another Carrie was going through the front door and walking outside half expecting to have to chase down the street after the young man she was only now beginning to understand. In the brief moments before he’d turned to leave she’d seen the myriad of emotions play across his face that he hadn’t been able to disguise. Among them had been surprise but she’d seen more. She’d seen hope and need. She understood both.

  She was surprised to find him sitting quietly on the steps leading off the small front porch down to the walkway that ran through the middle of their front yard. Without a word she sat down next to him. For a few minutes she let the quiet flow over them. Let the peace of the city and all its beauty surround them as she gathered her thoughts so she could somehow put them into words. As she did so the church bells down the street rang. The church her grandmother had attended in the later years of her life. She drew on the strength the music of the bells instilled in her.

  “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through, Rob. Along with everything else you’ve lost your mother. If must feel as if your entire world is shifting on you. I still have my mother. I’m grateful everyday to still have her in my life even though there are days she drives me crazy. Mostly because she enjoys driving me crazy and knows she can with little to no effort. Some days I think it is her life’s work to make me nuts.” She shrugged her shoulders slightly. She wasn’t telling him anything she hadn’t shared with just about everyone else. But she was about to share with him something she’d shared with no one including her new husband.

  She looked over at him and felt pretty certain he was listening even as he made as if he wasn’t. “Your Dad and I…,” she started then paused, struggled for the right words in the face of his continuing silence. “Not long after we were married we found out I couldn’t have children. I didn’t handle it very well.” She sighed. Backed up as she decided to go with full honesty for nothing else would be fair to either of them. “I didn’t handle it well at all. I guess if you wanted full disclosure in today’s lingo you could say I pretty much had a major meltdo
wn.” She felt more than saw his eyes shift in her direction. Knew well enough not to acknowledge what she now had if only just barely…his attention. Finally. “Back then things weren’t like they are now. These days if a couple doesn’t have children it’s pretty much because they don’t want to. There are so many medical options in today’s world that it behooves the statement of not being able to have children. It just isn’t the case anymore. Not like it was back then.” She looked in the opposite direction from the young man…a boy really…letting her gaze stare off in the direction of where the river flowed. Even from here she could hear the gentle sounds of the water. She struggled with the honesty about something she rarely spoke about to anyone.

  “I should have seen a doctor, gotten professional help. Nick should have made me.” She sighed softly hearing in her own words what she had kept hidden away inside her for so long…even from herself. What she had held against him for so long without ever really acknowledging to herself or anyone else including Nick.

  “A shrink?”

  She smiled gently in his direction. “A shrink,” she agreed. “No matter what we think of them they’re capable of pulling the most fragile of our organs back from the precipice when we’re incapable of doing so ourselves.” She sighed, smiled gently at him again before continuing. “And because your Dad didn’t do for me what I thought he should have I blamed him for all the emptiness inside of me. And just about everything else whether or not he was responsible or not. And in the course of all that we grew apart. For a long time it’s been easy for me to blame him for everything but he wasn’t alone. I certainly share the blame for things going wrong between us.” She looked in his direction, her gaze steady and firm. “That’s not to say he didn’t do damage to us as well but never ever believe that you were part of that.” She watched his eyes narrow and knew that this was a piece of it. And knew she had to finish. “Your Dad was born for the life we led in D.C. I on the other hand hated every single solitary moment of it from the minute we got there. I hated the parties. I hated the intrigue that seeped into every part of our lives. And pretty soon I hated Nick almost as much as I began to hate myself.” She glanced again in his direction and saw from the squinted eyes she didn’t just have his attention but his understanding. In many ways she suspected he’d been in a very similar place lately. “When your mother first called me I was angry. Not so much because Nick had been unfaithful but because someone else could do for him what I couldn’t.” She felt her head drop down very much as her heart always had when she remembered that all encompassing feeling of incompetence. “You were just a little baby. I heard you crying in the background. I couldn’t see you but I could hear you.” She looked at him. This time with a fierceness that was undeniable. “I might have hated Nick for what he did, maybe even your mother for her part in it. I’m sorry for that but that’s how I felt at the time. But I never hated you.” She gripped her hands together. Determined to finish. “I sent your mother money because it was for you. It doesn’t matter that she asked for it, why she asked for it, or what she would or wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t sent it. I sent it for you. And because…” she paused as her voice faltered. She simply wasn’t certain how far to go. He was still so young.