The Lullaby Sky (6 page)

“You could call them Hannah’s creations. Want some help painting and getting a bedroom transformed into a living area this week?”

“I never turn down help,” she said.

“Good, then, I’ll be here early Monday morning, and by nightfall we’ll have the walls done. On Tuesday we can do the woodwork, and Wednesday you’ll be ready to drag out that sewing machine.” He grinned.

“How about on Monday, I do some sewing, and we start painting on Tuesday? That way the window treatments”—her eyes twinkled—“will be done when all the paint dries and we can hang them up. Besides, I’m itching to do some sewing now that I thought of it.”

“You are the queen of this castle, despite Sophie’s take on things.” Travis led the way down to the kitchen. He poured two more cups of coffee and handed one to her.

Darcy made her way into the living room and fell back onto the sofa, pulling a red-and-white throw over her eyes. “It’s too early to be up. The sun is barely awake. I need coffee.”

“Rise and shine, Valentine!” Aunt Birdie sang at the top of her lungs as she entered through the kitchen door.

Darcy peeled back a corner of the throw, glanced at Travis and then at Hannah and Aunt Birdie before falling back on the throw pillows and covering her head again. “It’s June, not February, Aunt Birdie.” She groaned.

Sophie made her way to the sofa and curled up beside Darcy, yanking part of the pillow over her eyes. “Is it morning? Do we get pancakes with chocolate chips?”

“Yes, you do, and they are right here on a platter waiting for you,” Aunt Birdie answered. “Already slathered with melted butter and ready for syrup.”

Hannah hugged Aunt Birdie. “This is so sweet of you.”

“Ain’t nothing. I made a stack with chocolate chips and a stack of buckwheat and one of plain old pancakes so y’all can mix or match. That way you can get on about the business of buying new furniture.” Aunt Birdie opened the cabinet doors and took down four plates. “Gina, from down at the shelter, called me first thing this morning to tell me how much they appreciate the donations and to talk about your offer, Hannah. It’s a good thing you are doing.”

“What’s a good thing?” Sophie asked.

“Giving away those things to the shelter,” Aunt Birdie answered. “Most folks don’t think to send men’s stuff. Some of those boys will use those nice shoes for things like the prom.”

Hannah pulled syrup from the pantry and milk from the refrigerator and set both on the table. “If you don’t come out from under that pillow, Sophie Arlene O’Malley, I intend to eat all these chocolate chip pancakes myself.”

“And I’m going to eat the buckwheat ones,” Travis called out.

The pillow flew across the room, and both Darcy and Sophie sat straight up. Darcy tossed the throw to one side, jerked a thigh-length nightshirt down, and made her way to the kitchen. With one leap and a few steps, Sophie was sitting at the kitchen table in her usual spot, eyeing the platter of pancakes.

“Mama, grace this so I can eat before it gets cold . . . please,” she added as an afterthought.

Hannah squeezed syrup from the bottle into a coffee mug and set it in the microwave, poked the buttons, and laid a hand on Sophie’s shoulder as she bowed her head. “Why don’t you say the grace, since this is your favorite Saturday morning breakfast?”

“Father up in the sky, thank you for these pancakes and for Aunt Birdie. She is the bestest, and you need to give her a blessing today. Amen,” Sophie said loud and clear.

“And you thought the clouds were a passing thing?” Travis whispered. “I believe they might be with us longer than that old quilt. They might even last through eternity.”

Hannah flashed a smile reminiscent of when she was in elementary school. There was his Hannah, the one he’d had the crush on.

Aunt Birdie headed toward the bedroom. “While y’all eat, I’m going to take a peek at this new room.

“Well, isn’t this beautiful. You should do the whole house like this, Hannah,” she called out from the room. “I like the way the sun comes right into the room. You should paint all the woodwork and your kitchen cabinets white.”

“I agree.” Darcy forked three buckwheat pancakes onto her plate and covered them with the warm maple syrup the second it came out of the microwave. “Hey, I could drive over after work each evening next week and we could do a room a night?”

“I’ve offered to help, too.” Travis stacked up three pancakes, one of each kind, on his plate.

“Darcy, you can come stay any time you want. Any evening that you want to drive over here from Gainesville, feel free,” Hannah said.

“My room, too!” Sophie’s eyes bugged out. “I get blue in my room?”

“Do you want your room to be blue?” Darcy asked.

Sophie’s dark curls wiggled as her head bobbed up and down. “And can I have a rainbow on the wall with white clouds all around it? Then I can put my quilt on the bed and ’tend I’m outside even when it’s raining.”

“Travis?” Darcy glanced his way.

A wide grin split his face. “Don’t ask me. The queen of this castle is sitting on the throne.”

“Queen? You mean Mama?” Sophie giggled.

“Yes, ma’am.” Travis nodded.

“Then Queen Mama, can I have a rainbow on my wall?”

“Travis?” Hannah flashed a brilliant smile, her brown eyes all aglitter.

“Why Travis?” Sophie asked.

“Because he’s real good at painting. He painted the mascot for our high school basketball team on the wall in the gym, and he was always the one who built and painted the props for plays and the floats for the parades,” Darcy explained.

“You never told me that,” Sophie said.

“You never told me that you like rainbows,” Travis said.

“Well, I do like them. Can I have a rainbow on my wall, please, Travis?”

“I will be honored to paint a rainbow and some clouds on your wall, ma’am,” Travis answered.

Sophie threw her hand over her mouth, but the little girl giggles escaped around it. “I’m not a ma’am. That’s for old women, and I’m just a little girl.”

“And it’s not for all old women.” Aunt Birdie’s smile erased a few wrinkles but not many.

“I will try to remember that,” Travis said seriously. “Do you ladies want me to follow you into town this morning with my truck and trailer so we can bring whatever furniture you buy home today?”

“Can I ride in the truck with you?” Sophie asked.

“That’s up to your mama,” Travis answered. “But if she doesn’t mind, I would sure enough love the company. It gets awful lonely in the truck when I’m all alone.”

“Can I please, please?” Sophie locked gazes with Hannah. “And can we get the paint for my rainbow today and can we paint my room next and can I have a poster of
Frozen
on my wall and—”

“You better catch a breath,” Hannah butted in. “Yes, you can ride with Travis, and thank you for offering to go with us, Travis. And yes, we can get the paint for your rainbow, and yes, you can have your room done next. But we’ll see about the poster later.”

“Done with the wisdom of a queen,” Travis whispered.

Hannah’s phone buzzed before she could answer. She fished it out of her pocket, hit a button, read a text message, and all the color drained from her face. Her fork hit the floor with a clatter and landed under the table. Travis leaned to pick it up at the same time she did, and their heads bumped together.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She rubbed her forehead and handed him the phone as she picked up the fork and then took it to the kitchen sink. Travis followed her, the phone in his hand and cold chills shooting up his spine.

The text message read:
Chocolate chip pancakes. Rainbows. Blue walls. White trash.

Hannah pulled the magnetized grocery list pad from the refrigerator door and wrote on the top sheet:

Bugs. More, but where? What do we do?

Travis scribbled on the bottom of the pad:

I’ll get a bug detector and go over every inch of this house, inside and out and your car as well.

Hannah laid a hand on his and squeezed. That was enough fuel to keep Travis going for the rest of the week. Damn that man for taking the sparkle out of Hannah’s eyes and putting fear right back in.

“What’s wrong?” Aunt Birdie asked.

“Not a thing,” Hannah said with a forced giggle. “Clumsy old me dropped a pancake on the floor. I was going to clean it up, but there might be some little starving ants that would enjoy it for breakfast. Anyone want more coffee while I am up?”

With a frown on her face, Darcy held up her cup and glanced down at the floor.

Hannah carried the pot to the table and laid her phone beside Darcy’s plate. Darcy’s whole body stiffened as she handed the phone to Aunt Birdie.

“Stalker!” Aunt Birdie said loudly.

“Is that our new word for today?” Sophie asked.

“No, our word for today is
rainbows
.”

“Then why did you say
stalker
? Is that like Jack’s beanstalk that you read to me about?” Sophie asked.

“Something like that. A stalker is like that giant who climbed up the beanstalk so he could do mean things. Remember what happened to him?” Aunt Birdie talked more loudly than normal.

Sophie’s black curls bounced when she nodded. “Jack chopped down the beanstalk and the giant got dead.”

“That’s what happens to stalkers. Someone comes along and chops down the beanstalk and they get dead.” Immediately the phone buzzed in Aunt Birdie’s hand, and she handed it to Hannah. “It’s time to get out the ax,” she whispered.

The text message was from Liz.
Wyatt got called out early. Are you awake? I’ll bring muffins if you’ve got coffee ready.

Hannah’s thumbs quickly typed something back, and then she laid the phone on the counter. “That was Liz. She’s coming over with muffins.”

“Yay!” Sophie pumped her fist in the air. “I got a new name and Aunt Birdie made me pancakes and Aunt Liz is bringing muffins and Darcy is here. I love this day. Oh, and I get rainbows on my wall. You are the best mama in the whole wide world. This is the best Saturday of my whole life.”

Travis almost choked on a sip of coffee before he got it swallowed. “Out of the mouths of babes,” the old saying went. And what Sophie had just said so innocently aloud was far better than all the threats and cussing any of the adults around the table could have ever done.

C
HAPTER
F
IVE

S
ometimes Sophie referred to Hannah’s four friends as aunt or uncle, but that morning, as she ran from one piece of furniture to another, she’d dropped all the aunt and uncle titles in her excitement.

“Liz, look at this fancy princess bed,” she squealed.

“Lie down on it and tell me if you really want it,” Liz said.

Sophie glanced at her mother, and Hannah nodded. People tested the furniture every single day, so it shouldn’t cause the sun to fall from the sky if a five-year-old stretched out on a canopy bed.

All four of the adults watched her kick off her flip-flops and lie down. Her eyes darted to the ruffled eyelet canopy and then to each white bedpost, and finally she popped up her knees and shook her head dramatically.

“I don’t want this thing,” she said as she put her flip-flops back on.

“Why? It’s a princess bed,” Travis said.

“Because I couldn’t see my rainbows and clouds if I was in that bed and besides, it feels like I’m in a cage,” Sophie declared. “I’ll just keep my bed and it can be in the middle of the rainbow.” She made a sweeping arch with her slender arm. “And the clouds can be on either side and when I wake up I can just see them right there on my blue wall. They can keep this bed. I don’t want it.”

“Lord, she’s making me want a rainbow on my wall,” Hannah whispered.

Travis slung a friendly arm around her shoulders. “All you have to do is say the word.”

She didn’t flinch or tense at his touch. This was Travis, her friend, who would move mountains for her and Sophie and never, ever hurt either of them. His arm felt comfortable, like a warm blanket on a cold winter night at a football game. She inhaled and caught a whiff of his shaving lotion. Was that Stetson? She loved that scent. But when did he start wearing it?

Maybe he always did and you’re just now noticing,
the voice in her head said.

“So which one? The white slatted headboard and matching dresser or the oak four-poster bed? Those seem to be the two you keep going back and forth between,” Liz noted.

Liz’s questions took Hannah’s thoughts away from Travis, and she studied the two choices, finally pointing toward the white bedroom set. “I like this one. It’s airy, and the white would match the woodwork.”

“I agree.” Liz pointed at the oak. “The oak one would overpower the size of your bedroom. I like the simple lines of the white and no footboard. I hate those things. The only thing they are good for is keeping your knees bruised up. Are you going to replace all the furniture upstairs?”

Hannah noticed the bruise on Liz’s arm. The five-finger shape couldn’t be very old, because it was still purple. In a couple of days, it would be yellow and green, but it had probably happened sometime yesterday. It was just further proof that all that nervousness Liz displayed had little to do with the stress of her school job and everything to do with an abusive husband.

“No, just the one bedroom so it will be a living area. And I like that sofa bed right there.” Hannah nodded at a microfiber love seat in a dark brown. “It won’t show dirt, and it turns into a bed. Aunt Birdie said she’s got an old coffee table and a card table with four folding chairs I can use, so I only need that thing.”

“So your mind is made up?” Travis moved to the area where the bedroom had been set up. “This goes in your room and rainbows go on your walls?”

“No, just this goes in my room and rainbows go on Sophie’s walls and that sofa goes in my new little room upstairs. What do you think, Sophie?”

“I love it, Mama. Can we go home now and paint my walls?”

“We will paint your walls on Tuesday. Now we’re going to the fabric store to buy material for new valances.”

“What’s a bay-lance? Is that kind of like a ballerina?” Sophie asked.

“It’s a little short curtain like Aunt Birdie has in her kitchen window, only yours won’t be yellow with hummingbirds on them,” Travis explained. “How about a trip to McDonald’s for burgers and fries on the way to the fabric store? It’s almost dinnertime.”

“I do love their fish sandwiches,” Darcy said and pointed at the white furniture Hannah had picked out. “I’d buy that same furniture for my bedroom if I was replacing things, Hannah. You made a good choice. Totally different from what you had, and it can be the start of a new life.”

“And now McDonald’s.” Sophie sighed. “It really is the most wonderful day of my life.”

“That kid has stolen my heart,” Travis whispered in Hannah’s ear.

“No kiddin’.” She feigned surprise. “You and Aunt Birdie both.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said as the corners of his mouth turned up in a brilliant smile. “And we love it. McDonald’s, and then while y’all are deciding on fabric, I’m going to find a can of bug spray.” He winked. “And then come back here, get this furniture loaded onto the trailer. It will save a little money if we take it rather than have it delivered.”

“Thank you, Travis. Y’all have truly all been lifesavers through all this. But I’m really glad that y’all didn’t feel comfortable with all those bugs in the house,” she said.

“Bugs! Spiders, too? Where? Is it Charlotte?” Sophie picked up the bed skirt on the canopy bed and looked under it.

“Little corn has big ears,” Liz said. “Honey, they weren’t talking about real spiders.”

Sophie crossed her arms and dropped her chin to her chest. She looked up at them through a furrowed brow and shook her head in disapproval. “You are doing that big-people talk, aren’t you?”

“Yes, they are, darlin’ girl,” Darcy said.

Travis gave Hannah a gentle side hug and then stepped away. “We should maybe make a stop between McDonald’s and the fabric store and then make a stop for a new phone?”

Hannah’s head bobbed once as she headed toward the checkout counter. “Yes, definitely, and then let’s go by the landline folks to change my number there, also.”

Darcy followed right behind her. “And you’re going to need to run into a department store for sheets and a bedspread or comforter for your new bed, too. You have nothing for a queen-size bed.”

Hannah had a complete panic attack. This little foray into town was going to cut a chunk out of her savings account. Marty had always given her what he called “her allowance.” It was to be used for Sophie’s clothing, utility bills, and groceries, and he expected a full accounting for all of it in the form of receipts. If there was anything left at the end of the month, he gave her less the next month, so she’d learned to account for it all down to the penny.

He tried to control the money she made at her teaching aide job, but she’d stood her ground on that, even if it did cost a few bruises and a lot of hateful remarks. That money she’d put away in case she did find a way to escape. It was still sitting in the bank. The day might yet come when he lost his mind completely and she would need to move far away and start over, so she needed to be very careful. Plus, there was no more money from Marty for living expenses.

“I can’t do this,” she said. “I should go to a secondhand store and get something that I can refinish.”

Darcy laid a hand on Hannah’s shoulder. “Yes, you can. Suck it up and write the check. This costs a hell of a lot less than therapy. Besides”—she lowered her voice to barely a whisper—“did you see those bruises on Liz? She needs to see that you are surviving.”

“How long have you known?” Hannah sucked in a lungful of air and let it out very slowly as she pulled her checkbook from her purse.

“Awhile, but she’s in denial, just like you were at first.”

“You knew even before I was willing to talk to you about it?”

“Of course! I’m like God. I know everything.” Darcy’s dark-brown eyes twinkled. “Thank the Lord above that you opened up to me the first time out in Aunt Birdie’s backyard. Now that we know he was watching and listening to everything that went on in that house, it’s a good thing. Maybe that’s why we all felt so uncomfortable in there. God was telling us to get out so you wouldn’t get into trouble.”

“I wish I’d never met that man or married him even if I was pregnant,” Hannah said through clenched teeth.

“But you did, and without him, you wouldn’t have that precious child.” Darcy toyed with a big gold hoop earring. “Someday I’m going to get me one of those daughter things, and I hope she’s as sassy as Sophie.”

Hannah took a deep breath, wrote out the check to cover her purchases, and slipped the checkbook back into her purse. “When is all this going to happen?”

“When I get over Calvin,” she whispered.

“You still have a crush on Calvin?” Hannah gasped.

“Can’t seem to get past it. All muscled up and tanned and famous. Then look at me. Average height, overweight, and no one he’d want to hang on his arm at one of those fancy showings for his new line.”

Liz put an arm around both of them. “Darcy, you are beautiful. Don’t talk about yourself like that. And Hannah, Darcy will always be in love with Calvin. You know what they say about first loves.”

“Liz, what is that bruise on your arm?” Hannah said, abruptly changing the subject and wishing the instant that the words were out of her mouth that she could take them back.

“You know how clumsy I am. I tripped and almost fell, but Wyatt caught me.” The excuse came out slicker than a country road covered in ice. “If he hadn’t, I would have broken my arm or split my head open on a doorjamb. Now, let’s go have some lunch and do some more shopping. Lord, I wish I could remodel my bedroom. I’m so tired of that heavy furniture.”

Darcy shot a sly wink Hannah’s way. “Let’s get Hannah all settled into her new life and maybe then we can redo your place.”

“Wyatt would go into spasms if I changed a single thing. He doesn’t even like it when I rearrange the pantry.” Liz laughed, but it was too brittle to be real.

Hannah stood in the doorway of her bedroom that evening and could hardly believe the transformation that had taken place in only twenty-four hours. If only she could erase all the anxiety from the past six years as easily as she’d gotten rid of everything in the bedroom in one fell swoop, then she would fall asleep on that strange bed and wake up with no memories of what she’d lived through.

“Looks nice,” Darcy said at her elbow.

“I love it.”

“Me, too,” Liz said from the other side. “But now I’m going home. I’ll see you both in church tomorrow morning, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Darcy said. “Aunt Birdie would cut a switch from the pecan tree if we missed church. We’ll be right there on the pew with her. What are you bringing to the potluck? Since Wyatt is out of pocket, you are coming to her house, aren’t you?”

Liz tucked her hands into the hip pockets of her jeans. “Of course. I’m going to make a banana pudding in the morning. What are y’all taking?”

“Aunt Birdie told us to bring a salad and a loaf of french bread,” Darcy said. “Sophie asked for lasagna to celebrate her new name and her new room.”

Liz yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Aunt Birdie can’t tell that child no, but who am I to talk. I would’ve bought her that canopy bed if she’d said she wanted it.”

“We all love that sweet girl, Hannah.” Darcy yawned. “Hey, Liz, why don’t you stay the night here? Travis assures us there are no more bugs or cameras in this place. He gave it a good going-over with his magic wand thing. I’ve got an extra nightshirt in my suitcase. We haven’t all three had a slumber party in years.”

“Thanks, but I’d better go on home. Wyatt calls at ten thirty every night while he’s away,” Liz answered.

“Give me your cell phone. I can reroute all your calls from your house to it and you can talk to him right here,” Darcy offered.

Hannah could feel her friend’s pain. The quickening of her pulse. The extra thump in her heart. The way her hand went instantly to the bruises on her arm—
cover them up; then no one will know.
Thoughts must be running through Liz’s head in a continuous circle—what if someone saw her car at Hannah’s all night? Would Wyatt think that Travis or Calvin had been there and Liz had been flirting with him? Would he be angry because she wasn’t home? Good Lord, what if he had cameras and listening bugs in her house like Marty had put in Hannah’s?