Abound in Love (4 page)

“Are
you telling me she leaves the kids every day
and
evening?”

“She’s
home the occasional evening, but she leaves them more often than not.  And
since Dan is picking up any shift he can—probably as a means for dealing with
his marital problems—the kids are left with…”

“You.” 
Laura sighed.  “Thomas, how are you managing?  You have a job, a fiancée, a
wedding to plan—a life.”

He
spread his hands wide.  “What do you do?  The kids need me.  I can’t turn my
back on them.  They’re family.”

Laura
stiffened.  Was he suggesting she had turned her back on her family?  He
apparently read the flash of self-awareness in her eyes.

He made
a conciliatory gesture.  “Hey, don’t even go there.  I was
not
meaning
you’ve turned your back on anyone.”  He briskly shook his head.  “The idea that
you haven’t done right by your family is preposterous.  I know you keep in
touch with the kids.  They talk about you constantly.  You make it a point to
make them feel important.”  He sighed again.  “Frankly, it’s probably more than
Candace could ask, considering…”

“She
made my life a living hell.”

“Well,
there is that,” he said morosely.  “Do you think you can forgive her?”

Laura
waved a dismissive hand.  “Ah, we were kids…”

Thomas
wasn’t fooled.  “Laura, she was awful to you.  I know it, you know it.  What’s
more, she knows it.”  He was quiet for a moment.  “It really was good of you to
come.”

She
shrugged. 

Thomas
burst out in laughter, and she gave him a questioning glance.  “Do you remember
how Pastor Scott always said that God has a sense of humor?”

Laura
nodded.

“Well,
I don’t think it’s any accident our little Krissy is not only the spitting
image of her Aunt Laura, but she’s the same little serious thinker, with more
common sense than kids twice her age, and with a deep-seeded compassion for her
fellow man.  She’s an old soul—just like you were.”

“Poor
little kid.  May as well pull her out of school now and home school her.  I’d
hate for her to have to live through a high school experience similar to mine.”

“She’ll
be all right,” he said.

“How
can you be sure?” Laura asked.

“She
has Kenny, whereas you had…”

“Candace.”

“Candace
does love you,” he said.  “I do know that.  Frankly, I think she envied you so
much, that she…”

“Candace,
envied me?” she interrupted, incredulous.  “Uh, no.”

“Oh,
yes, she did.  You were always your own person.  You’d stand with any underdog,
without fear about how it would reflect on you to go against the group.”

“Hence,
I
became
the underdog.”

“Oh,
no, that’s not true.  You were never the underdog.  You were an independent
thinker, who was strong enough in her convictions to avoid peer pressure—even
from your own sister.”

“Well,
that’s one way of looking at it,” Laura sighed.

“I am
sorry for what Candace put you through.  I wish I’d been there to intercede.”

“I know
you do.  But by the time I was a freshman in high school, you were a senior and
focused on getting into college.”  She gave a shrug.  “It’s all right.  We’re
all adults now.”

Thomas
watched her sympathetically.  “Laura, it’s not all right.  Thanks to our
sister, you hightailed it out of here so fast, you left our heads spinning.  I
often wonder if things would have been different, had Candace treated you
differently.”

“Ah,
who knows?” she said with a wave of her hand.  She really didn’t want to talk
about this any longer.  To do so forced her to revisit old hurts, and made her
feel like the sad, inadequate girl she’d been.  “I’m afraid I’m starting to
experience a bit of jet lag.”  She yawned.  “I think I’ll go to bed.”

“You’re
sharing your old room with Krissy.”  He smiled.  “I did mean to replace your
old mattress, but…”

“Don’t
worry about it.  It isn’t as if you don’t have more important things to worry
about.”

“We’ll
see if you’re still singing the same tune in the morning,” he said with an
exaggerated wince.  “But try to sleep well.”

“You
too.”

*** 

Laura
tiptoed into her bedroom, attempting to avoid the boards in the hardwood floor
she remembered as being particularly squeaky.  She managed to sidestep them
all, when her left foot came down on one she hadn’t been aware of.

“Hi,
Aunt Laura,” Krissy whispered.

“Oh,
honey, I’m sorry for the noise.  Did I wake you?”

“No.  I
can’t sleep.”

“You
can’t?”

“No, I
mean, I like it here during the day, but at night, I miss my own room.”

“Well,
I can certainly understand that.”

“I’m
glad you’re here though.  I’ll probably be able to sleep better with you in
here.”

“I hope
so, honey.  Hey, I’m going to dash to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash
my face, but I’ll be right back.”

“Okay. 
Hurry.”

Laura
was in and out of the bathroom in record time, and soon struggling to get
comfortable in her old bed.  The deep indentation in the center had been bad
when she’d inherited the mattress from her brother years ago, and
unfortunately, it didn’t fit her any better now than it had when she was a
child.

“That
bed isn’t very comfortable,” Krissy whispered.

“You
are definitely right about that,” Laura agreed, as she struggled to turn on her
left side.

“This
was your room, huh, Aunt Laura?”

“Yes,
it was.  And this was my bed, and the one you’re in used to belong to your
mother.”

“Actually,
Uncle Thomas replaced this mattress.”  Laura heard the little girl turn toward
her.  She could see her silhouette as she sat up and pulled her knees to her
chest.  “Aunt Laura…?”

“Yes?”

“Do you
know why my mom is gone all the time now?”

“Honey,
I really don’t.”

Her
niece was silent for a moment.  “Sometimes I don’t think she likes us anymore.”

Laura
abruptly attempted to sit up, but found the mattress uncooperative.  It seemed
to sink down even further in the center, and her arms and legs splayed out as
she thrashed around, in an attempt to free herself.

“Aunt
Laura!”

“Honey,
I’m trying to get out of this bed so I can … get to you, so we can … talk.”

“Oh,
okay.”

She
finally managed to extract herself and hurried to sit beside her niece.  She
gathered her in her arms.  “Honey, I can assure you, your mother loves you very
much.”

“So you
think there’s a good reason for her to leave us all the time.”  She sniffled. 
“She never used to leave us.”

Laura
was uncertain how to answer her.  She didn’t even know her own sister, so she
couldn’t begin to fathom what would prompt her to suddenly abandon her two
children.  But for the child’s sake, she needed to reassure her.

“I know
she has to have a very good reason,” she assured her.  “Don’t you doubt that
for a minute.”

The
little girl took a tremulous breath.  “Kenny says Mommy and Daddy are going to
get a divorce.  He says they don’t love each other anymore.”

“Oh,
sweetie…” 

Again,
Laura didn’t know what to say.  She hated to tell her niece something that
might prove untrue.  She couldn’t very well promise the little girl that
everything would work out, when she had no idea what was going on.  She decided
honesty was the best policy. 

“Krissy,
I wish I had answers for you, but I’m afraid I don’t.  I can tell you that your
mom and dad love you very much, and so does Uncle Thomas, and so do I.  Please
try not to worry.  Sometimes adults go through things that have nothing to do
with their children.  You need to know that whatever is going on between them
has nothing to do with either Kenny or you.”

“That’s
not true.”

Laura
glanced in surprise toward the source of the voice.  Kenny stood in her
doorway, his face downcast.  She could just make out his features, which were
lit by the dim light in the hallway.

“Kenny,
are you all right?  Can’t you sleep?”

“No.  I
miss my…”  He gave a beleaguered sigh.  “I like Uncle Thomas’ house, but it
isn’t home.”

“I
understand.  Honey…”

“Yeah?”

“What
did you mean when you said…?”

“That
my parents’ problems have something to do with me?”

“Yes. 
You know that isn’t true, don’t you?”

“But it
is,” he said miserably.

“Honey,
come here.”

Kenny
slowly crossed the room and dropped down on the foot of his sister’s bed. 
Laura turned toward him and draped an arm over his shoulder.  “Okay, now, tell
me what you’re talking about.  Because Kenny, I can promise you one
thing—nothing that is happening between your folks has anything to do with
anything you’ve done or haven’t done.  As I was telling Krissy, both your
parents love you very much.”  She gave him a squeeze.  “And so do I.”

He was
silent for a moment, but she noted his shoulders drooped further.  “I overheard
them one night.  They were in their bedroom, fighting.  I couldn’t make out
what they were saying, but I think I heard my name—and maybe Krissy’s…”

Laura
drew him closer and kissed the top of his head.  “There you go, sweetie.  You
couldn’t discern exactly what they were saying.  You may not have heard them
correctly.  And even if they did say your names, it was probably because they
were both discussing how they want what’s best for you, because they love you
and your sister so much.”

He
remained adamant.  “I know I heard my name.  And Dad…”

“What?”

“He
sounded so sad.”  He dropped his head and began crying.

“Oh,
Kenny.”  Laura smoothed his hair off his brow and prayed for the right words. 
“Honey, I wish I could make things better for you and Krissy.  I wish I could
fix whatever is happening between your parents right now.  But, I’m afraid I
can’t.  But I know someone who can.” 

She
took Kenny’s hand, and swiveled her body, to reach for Krissy’s, as well. 
“Let’s pray,” she said.

L
aura
tiptoed out of Kenny’s room.  She had sat with him briefly, in order to assure
he was all right.  She felt relief he’d finally fallen asleep.  The little
fellow had school the next day and he needed his rest.

She
paused at the door, and with a final glance at the sleeping child, turned and
promptly collided with what felt like a rock wall, and turned out to be Dalton
Jance.  Her right eye took the brunt of the impact.

She
gasped.  “What…?”  She shook her head briskly, disoriented from the blow to her
eye.  She reached a hand to her face and found a lump had already breached the
brow.  “Ouch!” she muttered.

“Laura!”
Dalton cried.  “Are you all right?”

“I
think so.”  She furrowed her brow.  “What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t
Thomas tell you?”

“Tell
me what?”

 “I
live here.”

Laura,
formerly sleep-deprived and disoriented, suddenly came wide awake and fully
alert.  “What? 
Why
?”

Dalton
chuckled, the deep timbre of his voice filling the narrow hallway.  “If I
didn’t know better, I’d think you weren’t especially happy to find me living
here.”

“Just
surprised,” she told him, still reeling from the shock of coming face-to-face
with him at this late hour.  “What?  I mean…?”

His
lips tugged into a smile.  “The lease expired on my condo.  I was considering
buying a home, but haven’t been able to find anything I really like.  Thomas
offered to let me stay here, since he said he could use the rent money to help
pay for his wedding.”

“Oh,
okay.  I see.  Well, that’s…  Uh, well.  Okay.”  She turned to go.

She
felt a gentle, but firm hand on her arm.  “Are you all right?  You seem a
little … off.”

“You
aren’t the first to notice,” she muttered.

He bit
back his laughter.  “You never struck me as … off.”  When he reached a gentle
hand to her head and smoothed back her hair, exposing the bump on her brow and
rapidly blackening eye, he winced.  “Concussed maybe, but never
off
.”

Laura
chuckled.  “I’m okay, really.  But I think I will get to bed.” 

It was
just too surreal, standing in a darkened hallway with Dalton Jance, the object
of her teenage infatuation.  And unfortunately, she still felt the familiar
pull of attraction for him.