Cattail Ridge (24 page)

Chapter Thirty-One

A
rcher arrived at Emma’s house that evening just after seven. Eliza’s new husband, Eli, met him at the door, as did the sounds of Sydney’s angry cries.

“Thank goodness you’re here, son. Come on in.”

“What’s going on?”

“Sydney won’t take her medicine. And the sweet little girl we’ve known for five years has turned into a howling demon.” They hurried into the living room.

If the harried look on Emma’s face was any indication, Eli wasn’t overstating things. “Archer. Thank God. We can’t do a thing with her.” She was sitting on the coffee table, her hair mussed, a pink liquid dripping down her shirt. Sydney was curled up on the couch in a tight little ball and as Emma reached toward her, she screeched out an indignant howl. She kicked out and narrowly missed Emma’s hand.

Archer’s reaction was instinctive. “Sydney Marie,” he scolded. “What in the world is wrong with you?”

As soon as Sydney saw him her tears started to taper off. From the splotchy redness in her cheeks, as well as the way strands of hair stuck to her face, he gathered she’d been crying for a while. With a sad whimper, she lifted her arms toward him. He picked her up, cradling her close.

“What has you so upset, sweetie?”

Her breath was coming in hiccups and she was close to hyperventilating. She was also warm.

“Em, her temperature’s up.”

“I don’t doubt it,” came the tired reply. “She’s been in a full tantrum for thirty minutes.”

He got his first good look at Emma then and cursed silently. He hated the fact that his first reaction was to comfort her but she looked beyond exhausted. He tamped his concern for her down and focused on Sydney, who was slowly calming down.

“She got upset when you weren’t here for supper,” Eliza explained as she came from the direction of the kitchen. She handed Emma a damp washcloth and Emma blotted the pink liquid off her shirt. “And then she refused to take her medicine. The more we tried to coax her into taking it, the more upset she got.”

“I’m sorry,” he told them. “If I’d known, I would have come sooner.”

Emma rose. “We weren’t expecting her to act like this. She’s had tantrums before but nothing this severe. I guess the anesthesia’s working its way out of her system. Zanny said hers messed with her, so it makes sense that Sydney would have some sort of side effect.”

Archer paced the living room, rocking Sydney back and forth in his arms. Once she was quiet he adjusted her position so that she was sitting up more. “Will you take your medicine now?”

All her fight seemed to have gone. She nodded. “Are you going to stay with me tonight, Archer?”

He’d been expecting that question. He’d even packed a bag, just in case. But he didn’t think Emma would approve Sydney’s request. He looked to her with a questioning shrug.

She nodded. “I’m okay with that if you are.”

For a moment he doubted his hearing. “Then I’ll stay.”

“And we can sleep in the big bed with Mommy, right?”

Emma brought Sydney’s medicine over and she looked as uncomfortable as he felt as she administered it. She didn’t meet his eyes. “Honey, don’t you think you’d better sleep in your bed tonight? Archer can sleep in the guest room.”

Sydney frowned. “But I want to sleep with you and Archer in the big bed.” When her lower lip started trembling, Archer knew another crying jag was on the way. He hoped he could head it off.

“I think Michelle would tell you that you need to rest so you can heal. And you won’t rest well if you aren’t in your own bed. You’d hate to disappoint Michelle, wouldn’t you?”

The idea gave Sydney pause. “You think she would be sad?”

“A little. She worked really hard to help you get better, and she loves you. So you should do your best to make her proud.” He looked to Emma for approval and she gave him a subtle thumbs-up. “I’ll be right down the hall.”

Sydney rubbed her eyes with a fist. “Okay. But will you tuck me in?”

“Of course. Are you sleepy now?”

“Maybe some.”

Now that she was calm and had taken the medicine, Emma stepped up with the washcloth and wiped her face. “Why don’t you let Archer take you upstairs? I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

He carried her upstairs, where she told him she needed the bathroom. After that detour she led him into her bedroom and carefully climbed into bed. The chatterbox was back, but her eyes were drooping.

“I don’t hurt bad like I did. Mommy said they took the bad part out. But my belly’s sore. I have a big ol’ Band-Aid. Will I have a scar like yours? They even put one in my belly button.” She pulled her pajama top up and showed him the inch-wide bandages covering the four wounds on her belly.

Archer smoothed her hair back. “Not exactly like mine, but you will have little scars.”

“Mommy said Uncle John has a big scar. He showed me. It’s not too big. I like yours better, even though you had to have a boo-boo to get it.”

He choked back a laugh and kissed her forehead. “Sydney, you are something else. I love you.”

Emma knocked then, a cup with a lid in her hand. “I brought some water up, and some pain medicine. It will help her sleep,” she said as she handed first the small pills to Archer, then the water.

He helped Sydney sit up again, relieved when she took the medicine without protest. By the time she laid back down her eyes were closing. Before Archer could get a book from her shelf she was out.

Emma heaved a sigh of relief. “Have you had food?”

“Yeah, I grabbed something before I came over. Rough day?”

“You could say that. We took a nap when we got home for about two hours, and she’s been up ever since. Come on. I’ll show you the guest room.”

He followed her down the hall, and she hesitated in the doorway. “Archer, about last night…”

“No. Not now. Neither of us is in any condition to talk about this right now.”

She flipped the switch next to the door and the lamp beside the bed came on. “I guess not. The bed’s made, everything’s fairly self-explanatory. You know where the bathroom is. Nonny and Eli are staying tonight, and they’ll be in her old room downstairs. I didn’t change much once she left.” She covered up a yawn as she went back into the hall.

“You should get some rest.”

“In a little bit. Do you want to come back downstairs or stay up here?”

“I’ll come down, say hello. I also need to get my bag. I figured Sydney would ask me to stay, and on the off chance you okayed that, I wanted to be ready.”

Emma didn’t stay downstairs long, especially after everyone urged her to get some sleep. Archer stayed a little longer, visiting with Eliza and Eli.

“I take it things have been a bit rough the last couple of days, Sydney’s illness notwithstanding,” Eliza said bluntly. “I’m sorry.”

Archer felt his face heat and he sat forward, resting his arms on his legs. He studied his hands. “It’s complicated. For right now Sydney’s wellbeing is the most important consideration. After she’s better we’ll see what happens.”

He went upstairs not long after that. When he stopped in the doorway of Sydney’s room to check on her, his heart melted. Instead of being in her own bed, Emma was asleep in the twin-size bed beside Sydney. She still had on the clothes she’d been wearing when she’d come up and Archer guessed that she probably had decided to lie down for a minute with Sydney, then had fallen asleep. He padded across the hall to Emma’s room and got a blanket from the foot of the bed, and went back and covered her up with it.

Owen’s words from the day Sydney was born echoed through his mind. “Be careful. A large part of my world is in your hands.” That sentiment made more sense to Archer now than it ever had. Regardless of Emma’s anger, he loved her. He didn’t know if they’d be able to work out whatever had caused her reaction but that didn’t change his feelings for her, or for Sydney.

With a soft touch to Sydney’s cheek, he turned the princess lamp beside the bed off, left the nightlight on, and pulled the door almost shut behind him. He went next door and stripped down, then put his pajama bottoms on. Feeling as though he’d battled his way through a hard-fought free-for-all, he crawled between the sheets and turned his on lamp off. Sleep came quickly.

He wasn’t sure what woke him some time later. Thinking it might have been Sydney crying, he got up and went to her room. The soft glow from the nightlight showed that she was sound asleep, though Emma was no longer there. Across the hall, her door was open but she wasn’t inside.

Archer hesitated. Normally, he would have sought her out to make sure she was all right. But nothing about this situation was normal.

Moonlight shone in through the slats in the blinds covering the window at the end of the hall and as he tried to decide what to do, he went to look out into the backyard. When he turned the stick that adjusted the slats, he saw Emma.

She was seated in the yard on a bench, looking so alone he could barely stand it. He decided to join her and to hell with the consequences, but before he could push away from the window, he saw Eli sit beside her.

He stood there, concealed by the blinds, for several minutes and watched. Whatever they were discussing, it seemed serious. With a sigh, he closed the shades and went to check on Sydney again. He supposed it was a good thing Eli had appeared. If he had gone down there he and Emma might have ended up in another argument. That was the last thing anyone needed right now.

Emma had woken with a start to find herself curled up next to Sydney. Someone had placed a blanket over her and turned out the light.

“Archer.”

Easing out of bed, she went to his closed door and stood there for long minutes, her hands pressed against the cool wood. She wanted him in every way possible but she was so damned afraid. As she thought back over the last thirty-six hours the stinging burn of humiliation washed through her.

Amelia had been right. She’d treated him horribly. Yet here he was, watching over her and Sydney.

Turning, she went downstairs and out the backdoor, into the yard. Though she had tried to be quiet she’d obviously not been quiet enough because Eli joined her a few minutes later, dressed in a long housecoat and his overcoat. The night was cool, and she was grateful for the blanket he brought for her.

“You look like you’re carrying the weight of the world, young lady. Can I help?”

She leaned into his shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t want to burden you.”

“You know you wouldn’t be burdening me. That’s why I’m here, to help.” Eli was in his eighties, but he was still as active as a man twenty years younger. Emma knew part of that was his being a shifter. He was as close to Owen as a father and had filled that role for most of Owen’s life. She couldn’t think any more of Eli if he were her grandfather by blood.

“I don’t know what to do,” she confessed. “But I’m afraid I’m going to ruin my life, Sydney’s life, and Archer’s life, if I don’t figure it out. Soon.”

“Your dad explained a little of what happened at the hospital. Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking, and we’ll see if we can’t get some answers.”

So she did. She told him everything, even about the physical attack that had almost cost her Sydney. She explained the money, her return home, all of it. And then there was Archer.

“He’s so damned good, Eli. I know he is. But I’m so afraid that if I let my walls down, if I believe he’s good for me, he’ll change. And if he did, if he turned into Ted? It would crush me, and Sydney would be the one to pay for my bad choice.”

Eli didn’t respond immediately. “Do you think he would change because he is intrinsically deceptive, or because there is something about you that causes men to behave like that?”

“I… guess it’s the latter. There’s something about me. How else could Ted have fooled everyone in Georgia?”

“Are you sure he did?”

Emma frowned. “Of course he did. Just ask Nonny. She’ll tell you.”

“She has told me. She couldn’t stand him. Neither could Ben, and I don’t think Kathy was very fond of him, either. But they didn’t want to upset you. You were happy, and even though they didn’t like him, no one realized he was dangerous. He hid his true self very well. Your grandmother carries a lot of guilt over that fact, that she didn’t speak up.”