Look Always Forward (Bellingwood Book 11) (17 page)

With a look of defeat, Leslie released the door frame and followed Polly into the hallway. Evelyn quickly stepped inside the room, gave Polly a grateful glance and shut the door.

"You people are horrible," Leslie wailed. "You are trying to keep me from my son."

"No one is trying to keep you from him, but you are making it difficult for the woman you've hired to care for him to do her job."

"But he needs his mother," she cried out.

"Don't we all," Polly replied. "How old is Denis?"

"He's twenty-two," Leslie said. "But that doesn't make any difference. He's still my boy. And he's fragile and can't live on his own."

Polly slipped her arm around Leslie's back and walked her toward the front door of the addition. "He isn't on his own, but he does need you to give him space. How is he supposed to get better when you are in there crying all the time?"

"How does that make it any worse?" Leslie asked. "At least he knows that I'm there and that I love him."

"Don't you think maybe he needs positive emotions right now?" Polly responded. "Fewer tears and more joy? Have you told him yet that you are glad he's here or have you spent every moment that you have with him wailing over his injuries?"

"But he's my son," Leslie protested.

There wasn't going to be any good way to get through to this woman, but Evelyn had asked for help, Polly had agreed, and something had to be done. If Denis's psychiatrists were blaming the boy's father for his issues and not looking at this poor woman, Polly wanted to send them all back to school.

"Yes he is and it is time for you to let him grow up and start living for himself. You can't hold onto him forever."

"But I can't let him go when he's in the middle of a crisis."

"Tell me, Leslie," Polly said quietly. "When were the times in your life that you felt you grew up the most? Were they when your parents did everything for you? Were they when life was easy? Or did your biggest periods of growth occur when you had to struggle?"

That stopped the woman. She stood, staring at Polly with her mouth open, about to deliver another protest. But she had no response.

"Are you trying to tell me that all of this is going to help Denis grow up?" she asked.

"I can't tell you that for certain, but I'm positive that if you hover over him, wailing and crying and throwing tantrums when you have to leave, that isn't helping him. He's the one who has to heal, in body, mind and spirit. You can't do it for him. The only thing you can do is encourage him, pray for him and love him."

"I pray for him every minute of every day," Leslie said.

Polly smiled. "I'm sure you do. Now I also know that you have two other children who probably need to see their mother be strong. You shouldn't force them to be the strong adults in the family. You know that, right?"

"This whole thing has thrown a wrench into my life, Polly. I don't know how I'm going to get through it."

"One of the things I've learned is that every crisis has an end. It might be five years down the road, five days in front of you or it might happen in five minutes. But we can get through it. You can handle this. You've raised three children on your own for several years. You've done that. You can do this."

Leslie's shoulders sagged and she let out a small whimpering sigh. "He'll be safe here tonight?"

"He'll be safe here every night. Evelyn is a wonderful caregiver. You hired her to do this job and she wants to do it well. You just have to let her."

"I haven't cooked or done any laundry for a week," Leslie said. "The kids have tried to keep up, but they have their own lives."

"Go kiss your son goodbye and head home. Try to sleep tonight. I'll ask Evelyn to text you when she has Denis settled for the night and when they wake up in the morning. If there are any problems, you'll be the first to know. And tomorrow, why don't you spend the day with your family at home..."

"We should probably go to church."

"Then, do that and bring lunch over with the other two kids. Make Denis's life here as normal as possible. Then go home and spend Sunday evening preparing for your week back at work. Can you do this for everyone involved?"

All of the exhaustion of the week settled on the woman. Her eyes glazed over, her body sagged with relief and she nodded. "I can be strong. I'll do it for my boy. I'll do it for my family."

Polly walked back to Denis's door with Leslie and lightly tapped on it before opening it.

"Evelyn?" she said. "Leslie is going to say goodbye to her son. She won't be back until tomorrow after church to have lunch with him. I've promised that you will text her when he's settled for the night and when you are both up in the morning. And I've also promised that she'll be the first to know if something goes wrong."

"Of course," Evelyn said and stood up from the chair she'd been sitting in.

Leslie approached her son, bent over to kiss his forehead and then whispered in his ear. She stroked his hair and then walked away from him, tears filling her eyes. She pushed Polly away, when Polly tried to approach her. "I'm leaving now. I don't want to talk to anyone."

Polly stepped out into the hallway and watched the woman walk out the main door to the outside sidewalk and then turned back to look at Evelyn.

"Thank you," Evelyn said quietly. "I don't even know if Denis was fully aware of what was happening here. He's had a long day and has been in and out of sleep."

"I doubt if this is over, but at least you two can rest tonight," Polly said. "Feel free to let me know if you need more help."

"Thank you again," Evelyn said.

"Speaking of help." Polly stopped moving and turned back. "Have you met the other man from the accident?"

Evelyn nodded. "Just once. He came down to see Denis in the hospital. He seems like a nice man."

"He'd like to stop in and spend time with Denis every once in a while. Apparently, he has some kind of therapy background. Can he contact you?"

"We'll see," Evelyn said, her brow furrowed in concern. "I'd like to know more about him and I'd also like to know why he wants to be involved."

Polly chuckled. "He's kind of a knight errant. We all are looking at him as a Don Quixote."

"He does talk funny," Evelyn agreed.

"I doubt that he has any ulterior motive. He's a genuinely nice man. He probably just wants to help."

Evelyn nodded. "Let's see how it plays out."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Vaguely remembering that she had something else to do, Polly flopped down on the sofa. When she realized her dogs were gone, she remembered the game of croquet. Maybe Andrew would get distracted by something else so she could shut her eyes for a few minutes.

The situation in the kitchen had gotten worse while Polly dealt with the Sutworth's. Sylvie had stopped speaking in coherent sentences and the repairman was red-faced as he scrambled to find the problem. When Polly looked in, Rachel gave her a slight head shake and before Sylvie could see her, ducked back down as she created plates of salad. Polly had run for the front steps.

She heaved herself back up off the sofa and headed for the back door. Before she was in Henry's office, the front door opened and closed and Rebecca called out.

"Polly, are you up here?"

"Back here, honey. Did you have fun?"

"You have to see what I got," Rachel yelled across the apartment.

Polly glanced at the back steps. Andrew was going to be frustrated with her. This was bad. She had no idea which way to go. She started for the living room, turned to go to the stairway, moved her body to face the living room and then stopped and laughed at herself. She couldn't move. Either way, one of her favorite people was going to be disappointed.

"Polly?" Rebecca called again, closer as she came toward Henry's office. Rebecca stopped in the doorway. "Were you going somewhere?"

"Andrew is waiting for me to come play croquet. It's been absolutely nuts here today."

Rebecca nodded. "Okay. I guess this can wait. It's no big deal." She headed back toward the living room.

"Wait, honey. I want to see what you bought. I'm so glad you had a great day," Polly ran after her and put her hand on Rebecca's shoulder. "Andrew can wait a few more minutes and tonight when it's just you and me, I want you to model everything. Now, pour it all out here on the sofa and show me."

The girl lit up and ran back into the living room and returned with two large shopping bags and three plastic bags.

"Holy cow," Polly exclaimed. "What did you do?"

"We went to the Goodwill in Boone and then the one in Ames and then we went to Target. Stephanie took us to McDonald's for breakfast and then we went out for lunch and on the way home, even though I was stuffed to the brim, she stopped at Dairy Queen and I had a twist cone. I'm not going to eat for a week!"

Polly stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "And I was going to get pizza for dinner. It's just you and me. Henry is hanging out with Nate all day."

"I'll try to eat a piece," Rebecca said. "Is that okay?"

"I'm teasing you," Polly said with a laugh. "Show me what you bought. Just dump it all out right here."

Rebecca upended the two shopping bags and then shook the items out of the three plastic bags. There were blue jeans and blouses, skirts and t-shirts. They'd bought shoes at Target and Polly smiled to see new underthings. She was glad Rebecca had an opportunity to go shopping with girls.

"I got this for you," Rebecca said and reached into the pile. She came up with a pretty silver pin of a horse.

Polly pulled her in for a hug. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

"I saw things at Goodwill that I wanted to buy for presents, but Stephanie said we were buying school clothes. She said we could go shopping before Christmas if I still wanted to buy them."

"Good for her," Polly said. "There is plenty of time. But this is wonderful. I love it. Thank you."

Rebecca picked up two of the t-shirts, one that someone had tie-dyed and another with wild stripes. "Stephanie called me a hippie. Look at these jeans." She dug in the pile and came up with a pair of jeans that had flowers appliquéd on them.

"You might be," Polly said with a smile. "This looks like an amazing shopping day."

"It was the best." Rebecca hugged Polly again. "Thank you for letting me go with them."

"I tell you what. Let's wash these things while we go outside with Andrew and then tonight, you can do a fashion show for me."

Rebecca looked down at her new clothes and dug into the pile again. "I bought a hat," she said.

"Cool. What does it look like?"

"It's a blue jean hat. Look."

She put on a blue denim beret and Polly chuckled. "You are a hippie girl. We can wash that too. Let's take it all downstairs."

Rebecca stuffed most of the clothes back into a bag and reached for the other one. They took the bags downstairs and sorted clothes into a first load.

"Andrew is going to kill me," Polly whispered to her as they headed for the back door.

"Why?"

"It's been an hour since I told him to set up the wickets."

They found him with Doug and Billy sitting in Adirondacks with glasses of lemonade. Andrew jumped when Obiwan leapt off his lap to greet Polly. Han followed suit and stopped when Andrew held on to the leash.

He turned around in his chair and said, "About time."

Polly saw a book tucked under his leg. "I'm guessing you found plenty to keep you busy. Hi guys," she said to Doug and Billy.

"He was down here looking pathetic and hot, so we brought lemonade." Billy nodded toward a bucket sitting along the back wall of Sycamore House. "We took care of the dogs, too."

"Thanks for taking care of all my boys," she said. "Who's up for croquet?"

"I didn't set it up," Andrew said.

"Why not? I'm ready to play."

"When you didn't show up, I knew you were busy, so I got a book. Then the guys came out and we were talking and now it's this time."

"So, nothing?" she asked. "We have plenty of mallets and balls. We can all play."

"Did you have fun being a girl today?" Andrew asked Rebecca, sarcasm lacing his voice.

Polly waited to see how Rebecca would react. When the girl's face dropped, Polly took a loud, deep breath.

"Come on, Doug," Billy said. "Let's take the dogs upstairs and clean the kitchen before Rachel gets there. She's had a bad day and we have a dirty kitchen."

Doug looked back and forth between his friend and Polly and nodded. He took the empty lemonade glass out of Andrew's hand, bent over and said quietly, yet loud enough for Polly to hear. "You walked into it. Figure out how to walk out before they kick your butt." He and Billy and their dogs went into the garage, leaving a sullen Andrew on his chair.

"They're chickens," Andrew said.

Polly grinned. "I don't blame them. Here's the deal. You have a couple of options. First of all, the two of you can sit here and talk this out. You are both making assumptions about the other person that aren't true." She paused.

Rebecca looked at her. "What's the second option?"

"Yeah. I don't like that one," Andrew said.

Polly laughed out loud. "The second is even worse."

He rolled his eyes. "What does that mean?"

"I sit here and embarrass both of you by asking pointed questions and
making
you talk. Now choose, because this ends today."

Rebecca dropped into an Adirondack across from Andrew. She shrugged. "Whatever."

"Yeah. Whatever," Andrew echoed.

"You two seriously want me to get involved?" Polly asked.

"Well, she won't talk to me. She just shuts me out," Andrew said.

"That's because you just talk and talk and talk and never listen," Rebecca replied. "You say stuff and then it's like it's over."

"I do not."

"Yes you do. It drives me crazy. Who made you the boss of our friendship?"

"Me!" he cried out. "You're the one who's always in charge. You're the one who gets to say yes or no to whatever we do. And most of the time you want to do stuff with Kayla. You never want to do things with me anymore."

Polly patted her thigh to beckon the dogs and backed quietly away from the circle. Even if they were yelling at each other, at least they were talking. The most difficult thing they would have to face was forgiving each other and then letting it go.

~~~

Henry came out of the bathroom, fresh and clean from a shower. When he'd gotten home from Nate's, he was a mess. He'd tried to hug Polly, but she relegated him to the shower with no extra love. Rebecca was already in bed, exhausted from her day.

"How far did you two get today?" Polly asked, putting her book on the bedside table.

He smirked. "I won't even bother to explain it. Your eyes will just glaze over and I'll end up talking to myself."

"Okay," she said. "What percentage of the cars did you finish?"

He sat down on the edge of the bed and pushed Han closer to Polly so he had space to lie down. "I don't know how to measure it," he said. "We spent time working on the frame, blasting rust off and repainting it. It won't be too long until Nate and I are shaping wood panels at my shop."

"See, I understood that," she said. "What was so hard about saying those words?" Polly shifted to her side, doing her best to avoid pushing Leia off the edge of the bed.

"You're right. I'm sorry." He turned inward to face her and pulled Han close so the dog tucked in to him. Han leaned back and gave Henry a sloppy lick on his chin, trying for the mouth, but missing it as Henry dodged. Henry laughed, put his hand on the dog's head and pushed it down.

"Are you going back tomorrow?" Polly asked.

"If that's okay with you. Nate never has time without the twins around. I'd like to take advantage of this."

She nodded. "That makes sense. And you certainly don't have to ask permission."

"I've never done anything like this," he said with a laugh. "It's always been work or you since we got married."

"Then this is a good idea. You should do it more often."

"When the twins are older and don't require so much parental intervention. Maybe," he said. "Nate doesn't want Joss to feel like she's the only caregiver."

"She doesn't," Polly responded. "That's the last thing she'd ever feel. Especially with him. He's a good dad. Can you imagine how insane it will be when they have a bunch of kids?"

Henry stretched and rolled his shoulders. "It's so strange to think about that. What about us? Do you think Rebecca will be the last kid we adopt?"

"I don't think so," Polly said. "But what if she is? I don't want to do what Nate and Joss are doing. I'm not ready to actively seek out babies."

He started laughing and Polly glared at him. "What?" she asked.

"Two things occurred to me in a split second," he replied.

"What?"

"First. You need to quit talking about not wanting to have babies around, because something weird will happen and you'll end up rescuing a family with babies. So be quiet. Don't say those words ever again."

Polly hung her head in mock shame. "You're right. I'll shut up. What was the second thing?

"I will always be happy with whatever our family looks like. If Rebecca is the only child we have, that's okay. If we end up with fifteen more, that's okay too." He reached over and rubbed her arm. "The only thing I ever wanted was you. After that, it's all icing on the cake."

Polly leaned across the dog and kissed him, long and slow. When she lay back on her pillow, she smiled. "That was the right thing to say."

"I have my moments." He propped himself up on his elbow. "Did Rebecca have a good day today?"

"She really did," Polly said. "Shopping and eating out with someone other than me. And she came home with a pile of clothes. She's got great taste. We had a fashion show tonight in her bedroom and she showed me all of the possibilities for combinations based on the wardrobe she'd built. After we went through her clothes, she has a few bags to take back to Goodwill. That girl has grown since she got here."

"I didn't even think about it," Henry said.

"Didn't think about what?"

His eyes grew misty and he said. "We should have a place here to mark her height. What if she's already as tall as she is going to be? We never did that for her. Don't you remember your wall?"