A Heart Made New (38 page)

“Not David. You know him.” Sadie wiped down the countertops with a bleach-soaked rag. The astringent smell overcame the sweet scent of baking bread. “If the results weren’t good, he’ll need time to lick his wounds in private. To prepare.”

“Prepare?”

“To tell me and his brothers and sisters.” Sadie dropped the rag in the sink and turned on the water. “He worries about how it will affect us more than how it will affect him.”

“You think that’s it?” Annie’s heart clutched at the thought. “You think the results were bad and he doesn’t want to tell us?”

“I think it’s in God’s hands, and it does no good to worry about it. Finish sweeping so I can mop.”

“Of course.” She pushed the broom across the floor. Somehow it slipped from her hands and fell with a clang against the wood. “I’m sorry. I’m all thumbs today.”

“Maybe you should go home.” Sadie’s words held no accusation, only concern. “You look a little peaked.”

“I’m fine. Just tired.” She grabbed the broom and applied it with more elbow grease. She had no answers so she baked and she cleaned, two things she knew how to do. She intended to clean until a customer came through the doors. “We’ll have customers any minute now.”

Please, God, we need customers.
The morning had been too quiet. The rows of fresh loaves of bread cooling on the shelf. Cookies ready for the asking. Only two customers had entered the store the entire time. Luke had allowed her to return to work because Emma’s hospital stay and surgery would mean bills. The Shiracks would do their part to help pay them through the community’s health fund. Not because it was expected, but because they wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise.

The door opened with a bang. Startled, Annie almost dropped the broom again. “David?”

Charisma swept into the bakery.

“Oh, Annie! Annie!” She stopped a few feet away, threw her hands over her face, and wept. Between the hands and the sobs, the words she spoke were unintelligible.

Annie scurried over to her. “What happened? Is it over? What did they say?”

“Let the poor girl collect herself.” Sadie guided Charisma to a bench where she gently peeled the woman’s fingers from her face. “I’ll get you a glass of water.”

Charisma clutched her denim bag to her chest like it would keep her from drowning in a sea of tears. “He’s going to Lansing State Prison. Not right away, because Sergeant Parker says the prison is full right now. They ain’t taking anymore prisoners so Logan has to stay in the jail here for a while—maybe a few weeks. He don’t know, but eventually he’s going to Lansing.”

Her legs suddenly weak, Annie dropped onto the bench next to Charisma. She’d known in her heart this was coming, but yet it still shocked her. “They found him guilty?”

“They gave him five years.”

Five years. Gracie wouldn’t remember him and Luke David wouldn’t know him at all. “That’s a long time.”

“The lawyer said he might get time off for good behavior. They could let him out on parole in two years.” Charisma wiped at her nose with the sleeve of the new dress Annie had made her over the weekend. “He doesn’t know Logan like I do. Good behavior ain’t in his genes. Especially if someone is making him do something he doesn’t want to do.”

“He’ll have to now, won’t he?” Doing things a person didn’t want to do was part of life. Every Plain child learned that by age two. “He’ll want to get out as soon as possible, won’t he?”

“Logan can’t help himself. He’s a rebel.” Charisma drooped against the wall, her hands twisting in her lap. “That’s what I liked about him…at first.”

Not so much now that he would be in prison.

Charisma took the glass of water Sadie offered her and gulped it down in three swallows. “What I really need is a rum and coke. A big one. I’m not pregnant anymore. There’s no reason I can’t have a drink.”

Annie exchanged glances with Sadie. “What you need is to get Gracie and Luke David and take them home.”

“Where is my home? I ain’t got one.”

“You know you can stay with us as long as you need.”

“Leah might not agree with you on that.”

The tears started again. Charisma rummaged around in her purse and came up with a rumpled package of cigarettes. Before she could pull one out, Sadie snatched the package with surprisingly nimble fingers. “Not in here.”

“Fine. Give them to me. I’ll go someplace else. There’s got to be a bar in this town.”

“You’re nursing.” How could Charisma think about alcohol and cigarettes at a time like this? She had children. A baby. A baby like the one Emma so desperately wanted. “Gracie and Luke David need you.”

Charisma rubbed her forehead. Her lips trembled. “What am I going to do?” She threw herself against Annie. Her head landed on Annie’s shoulder. “Tell me, what am I going to do?”

Annie hugged her tight and rocked a little. Then she pushed her back so she could see her red, wet face. “First things first. It’s time for you to get a job.”

“HomeTown Restaurant has that Help Wanted sign in the window again. I’m guessing Naomi’s niece didn’t want to work that hard.” Sadie handed Charisma a handkerchief. “Wipe your face, girl. Now’s as good a time as any. You got your best clothes on. You just need to comb your hair.”

“I suppose.” Charisma mopped her face. She pulled a brush from her purse and went to work on her tangled hair. “You’ll go with me, won’t you, Annie? I don’t want to go by myself. I was in there once before and she didn’t even call me for an interview.”

Sadie’s slight nod told Annie she had her permission to leave the bakery.

“Naomi is a nice lady, but she probably saw you were carrying a baby at the time. Wouldn’t do her any good to hire someone who was about to have a baby. Now it’s different.” Annie didn’t know anything about hiring. She’d never applied for a job herself. “Piece of cake. But I’ll go with you, if you want.”

Ten minutes later they stood at the cash register in HomeTown Restaurant. The aroma of onion rings and hamburgers frying welcomed them. The place was packed with its usual lunch crowd. Annie’s stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast in the predawn dark.

Willow rushed past them, a huge tray filled with steaming dishes held over her head with one hand. “Howdy, girls. Get you a table?”

“Charisma wanted to follow up on her application,” Annie called after her.

Willow jerked her head toward Naomi Bolton, the owner and manager. “Naomi will have it on file.”

Naomi, her face flushed and fingers flying on the cash register, didn’t look up. “Be with ya in a sec.”

A second turned into several minutes, but Annie didn’t mind. She loved the chance to take a peek at the dishes being served. The gravy looked thick and savory. The stuffed pork chops seemed to be getting a lot of attention by diners. Everyone knew HomeTown did a great meatloaf and an even better chicken-fried steak. Annie’s stomach growled some more. She’d love to know what seasonings they used in the breading for the steak.

Naomi wiped her hands on a towel that hung from her yellow- and green-checked apron and then shook Charisma’s hand. “You interested in a job, right? I could sure use some help. I had a girl quit yesterday and we’ve been swamped—”

The door flew open and Violet Hawkins scurried in, moving as fast as a woman of nearly seventy could move. She called Willow’s name in a high-pitched, breathless voice. The waitress slid a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in front of a young couple, then turned toward Violet. “What is it? What’s happening?”

The lunchtime chatter died in an instant. Necks craned and people stared. Annie shrank against the wall, trying to stay out Violet’s path as she rushed toward Willow’s table. Willow seemed frozen to the spot. At first her face held only a puzzled expression. Then the confusion faded into a realization painful for Annie to watch. The tray in her hand slammed to the floor. “Aunt Violet?”

“I came to get you, honey. It’s time.” She gently took her niece’s arm. “Come on, sweetie, the doctor says it’s time. I didn’t want them calling you and you having to drive over there, knowing what’s…knowing…”

Willow began to move, slowly at first, then more quickly. She paused only long enough to grab her purse from behind the counter. “Naomi…”

“Don’t worry about it, sugar,” Naomi called after her. “We’ll be praying for y’all and that sweet little girl.”

The doors swung shut. After a second or two, the chatter resumed. Waitresses sped across the floor with laden trays. The cook shouted, “Order up!”

The busboy clanged glasses together and dumped dirty silverware in a huge plastic tub. Annie bit her lip to keep from crying. How could life move along like that? Just like it had when Mudder and Daed died. Maybe there was a kernel of comfort tucked away in that thought. Life did go on. She clung to the idea.

Naomi stuck a pen behind her ear and pawed through a stack of applications laying on the counter, then looked up to study Charisma. “You’re Charisma Chiasson, aren’t you? The one who waitressed in Shreveport a few years ago?”

Charisma nodded. “It’s been a while, I know, but—”

“Looks like I’m gonna need some help like right now.” Naomi pointed toward the kitchen. “Go wash up. The cook will show you where the aprons are. I’ll get you a uniform later.”

“You want me now?”

Naomi’s thick white eyebrows did push-ups above the skinny reading glasses stuck on the end of her equally skinny nose. “I thought you wanted a job.”

“I do.”

“Get moving, then.” She held out an order pad. “People who let grass grow under their feet don’t last too long around here.”

Charisma snatched the pad and threw Annie a glance as she trotted toward the swinging double doors that led to the kitchen. “The kids?”

Annie couldn’t help but feel tickled pink. Charisma had a job. Leah
might relax just a little. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell Deborah. She has bottles of your milk to get by for now and she already said she’d be happy to watch them on a regular basis.”

“Tell her I’ll pay her with my tips…” Charisma grinned. “I can’t wait to get a paycheck. No more cloth diapers. No more sewing stuff. I’ll even buy formula. No more nursing. I can have a beer if I want. Yippee!”

She disappeared through the doors still singing about money she didn’t have in her pocket yet.

Examining the strange feelings of relief mixed with a sort of envy that she didn’t like, Annie turned and nearly ran into David. Her heart pounded like a jack-in-the-box popping up over and over again. She backed away and stumbled into a chair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

He looked as shocked to see her as she was to see him. “I just stopped by to get lunches to go for Josiah and Caleb. They’re swamped and I had time.” He stopped. “Anyway.”

“Did you…did you talk to Doctor Corbin?”

“No.”

He raised a hand and waved at Naomi. She stuck her pen in her beehive hairdo.

“What’ll it be?”

David rattled off an order big enough for five people. Who was paying for all that? Annie brushed aside the thought. “Why didn’t you talk to the doctor?” Her voice rose a little. She tried to get it under control. “Don’t you want to know?”

“I went by.” David put both hands on the counter next to the cash register. He seemed to be contemplating the packages of gum, the bowl of free mints, and the toothpick dispenser. “He wasn’t in his office.”

“Oh. Well.” Annie gnawed at her lower lip. She would’ve waited in the doctor’s office or asked his assistant to track him down. But that was her. Not David. He’d do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. When would she learn that? “Nice of you to pick up lunch for the boys.”

“I’ll tell them you’re still calling them boys.” He graced her with a small smile. “I don’t mind. They’re busy, and Josiah claims to be starving.”

Annie saw no reason to mention Josiah had left his packed dinner on the kitchen table—again. He really didn’t like sandwiches much. “Are you eating with them?”

He shook his head. “Probably not.”

Searching for something to say, she let her gaze drop to her dusty shoes. Was it always going to be this awkward? “Charisma got hired on the spot on account of Naomi’s niece quitting yesterday and Willow having to leave in the middle of her shift—”

“Willow left in the middle of her shift?” David’s tone shifted from ill at ease to fear. “When?”

“Just a minute ago. Violet came and got her. She kept saying it was time—”

David whirled and slammed through the door. Annie watched it swing shut. After a minute she managed to shut her open mouth. Of course, David would know exactly how Willow felt.

Which was why he would never let her get close. As if she didn’t feel his loss already. She felt it every day.

D
avid hurled himself from the hospital elevator and sprinted down the hallway. He dodged an orderly pushing an empty gurney and stumbled around a patient propelling himself in a wheelchair. He didn’t know why he ran. It didn’t matter. Whatever happened, happened. Kinsey remained, as she always had, in God’s capable hands. David’s presence had no bearing on her fate. Still, a desperate need to be with her filled him with energy that couldn’t be denied. To see her face and let her know he knew what she knew. That nothing people said or did could change what came next. Let her be. Let her go. Go in God’s grace.