Hidden Away, page 3
part #2 of Hearts of Montana Series
“I can see by your face that you know what I’m saying is true. You have nothing to offer this boy. No home and no family. No father figure to teach him. Just a broken-down life in a broken-down town. We will be filing the paperwork to get your guardianship revoked, and Samuel will be going home with Reed and Olivia.”
“No, he won’t. He will be going home with Cherry,” Taylor said, his voice hard as steel. “She’s a good person and has a big heart. She can provide him a home filled with love.”
What was he doing? Why was he sticking up for her?
Aunt Bea looked up at him in surprise, and her eyes narrowed. “And just where is this loving home, Sheriff? Do you propose that a big heart pays the light bill or buys the boy new shoes? How does a big heart take care of him when Cherry is constantly working at the diner?”
Taylor looked down at Cherry, and she glimpsed a keen look in his eye.
What is he up to?
He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“Cherry can get a man, and she does have a home to provide ‘the boy.’ It’s with me. You can file all the paperwork you want, but she will be bringing Sam home to Broken Falls as soon as he can leave the hospital. He’ll be coming home with her. With us.”
“You can’t be serious,” Aunt Bea sputtered, obviously not used to having her decisions questioned. “You’ve only just come back to town. How do we know this isn’t some kind of ruse?”
“She’s the reason I came back to town. We’ve been seeing each other for months. We just haven’t announced it yet, because you know how small towns can be. So gossipy.”
He narrowed his eyes at Bea. “But this is no ruse. Sam will have a home. With us. Cherry and I are getting married.”
Chapter Four
What the hell did I just do?
Did he just tell the matriarch of the Hill family that he and Cherry were getting married?
He’d stood there, watching that old biddy tear Cherry apart. Watched her shoulders slump in defeat. Saw her body cave in as she seemed to shrink with each crushing blow to her self-esteem.
He had known Cherry since they were kids. He knew her heart and knew she would do whatever it took to provide for Sam.
He’d been in town for over a month and had heard only glowing reports from the townsfolk of what Cherry had done with the diner since her grandparent’s passing.
Who was this old woman to come in and tear her apart and make her feel like she was less than a human being? Like she had no value as a person? Because her apartment needed a little work, and she had no place to live? Because she didn’t have a man?
Well, he was a man, and he had a place to live.
All he could think during Bea’s diatribe of cruelty was that if Cherry was married, she wouldn’t be saying these things. If Cherry had a husband to defend her.
But that didn’t mean it had to be him. He didn’t have to be the one to save her. He hadn’t spoken to her in nine years.
He barely knew the woman she was now.
And yet he did.
He knew her heart.
He hadn’t meant to say they were getting married. He opened his mouth to defend her, and the words just popped out.
What’s done is done.
He looked down at Cherry and squeezed her hand. He just needed her to go along with it until they could figure something else out.
Right now, they needed to buy some time for her. And for Sam.
Cherry looked up at him, and he watched her body transform.
She pushed her shoulders back and stood a little taller.
A glint appeared in her eye. The same one he remembered from high school when she’d come up with a plan to steal the rival town’s high school mascot right before the Homecoming game.
This was the Cherry he knew. Tough. Determined.
That’s my girl.
Wait. Not his girl.
Well, sort of his girl. At least his pretend girl.
This was going to get confusing.
What was he doing anyhow? She hadn’t asked him to rescue her. Maybe he should back out now. Let Cherry figure this out.
He didn’t owe her anything. He didn’t even know this kid.
Maybe Sam was a juvenile delinquent or a total brat, and he’d just invited a pack of trouble into his life. Or maybe this kid needed a break.
Reed laughed. A loud bark of a sound that carried disdain and scorn in its one harsh note. “You’re going to get married. To her?”
It took all of his restraint to not punch this guy in the throat.
He remembered Stacy as a kind, sweet girl with a big laugh who treated Cherry like a sister.
How could she have come from this family of jackals?
He pulled Cherry closer to his side. “Yes, I am, and I’d appreciate it if you showed my future wife some respect. Regardless of what you think about her, she loved Stacy and she doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”
“Whether or not she loved Stacy is irrelevant,” Bea said. “That still doesn’t make her capable of raising my nephew. Reed is a very accomplished lawyer. We’ll go through with filing the paperwork, and they’ll see that Cherry walks away without Samuel.”
A fierce protectiveness rose in his gut, a determinedness to defend this woman and a boy he had never even met.
His voice took on an edge of steel as he looked Bea directly in the eye. “Let them try.”
He took Cherry’s hand and turned, slamming the door against the wall as they walked out of the waiting room.
“What the hell was that?” Cherry dropped his hand as they rounded the corner of the hallway, out of earshot of the waiting room.
Taylor ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Your family just made me so mad. I had to get out of there.”
“Yeah, welcome to my world. I get that.”
She took a step back, one hand going to her hip. “But what’s with all this crazy business about us getting married?”
“Oh shit. Sorry. I don’t know how that happened.” He shrugged. “They were being so mean to you. I couldn’t stand it. I kept thinking that they wouldn’t treat you like this if you were married. If you had a husband to defend you.”
“And that’s why you said we were getting married? That’s kind of a big leap from ‘she needs a husband’ to ‘it should be me’.”
A sheepish grin crossed his face. “I know. I don’t know what came over me. It just felt like you needed a curve ball, something to throw them off center.”
“A curve ball? From out of left field? Heck, that pitch wasn’t even in the ball park.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “So what do we do now?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Go along with it for now. At least until we come up with a better plan. Right now let’s worry about Sam and making sure he’s okay.”
Cherry nodded, tears forming in her eyes. “Some of what they said is true. I don’t have a steady income or a car that consistently runs. And thanks to that mother-zinging grease fire, I don’t even have a place to live.”
“Hey now. Stop that.” He pulled her to him, wrapping her in his arms. “Don’t you dare buy into their crap. You’re not the person they described. You have a lot to offer.”
Just not enough to make you stay. Cherry pushed against him, standing up straight and taking a deep breath. “You’re right. Screw them. My only focus now is on Sam.”
“Thatta girl.” He wrinkled his nose. “You do kind of smell like a forest fire.” He sniffed at his shirt. “I’m sure I do, too. Why don’t I take you somewhere, and we can get cleaned up?”
She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I don’t want to miss the doctor.”
“You’re going back in there?”
“They’ve been like this my whole life. Ever since I was a kid and my mom left. My dad was Aunt Bea’s favorite nephew, and I think she blamed me for my mom leaving and my dad turning into a drunk. Plus, she thought my grandmother spoiled me. My Aunt Bea has always been a crotchety old maid. And Reed’s just always been a bully. So, I’m very good at ignoring them. I’m only worried about Sam right now.”
“Okay. Why don’t I go get us some fresh clothes, at least? The Walmart’s only a few blocks down. I’m sure I can find something to hold us over.”
Something to hold us over?
That’s where she was planning to replenish her entire wardrobe that had been burned in the fire. Great Falls, Montana didn’t offer a lot in the way of designer clothes, and her needs were simple.
She looked around for her purse then realized it was still under the counter in the diner. “I don’t have my wallet. I’ll have to pay you back.”
He waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out later. Give me half an hour, and I’ll be back.”
Cherry walked back into the waiting room and sat in one of the chairs against the wall, as far away from her family as she could get.
She ignored them, and they ignored her.
The only sound in the room was the low snuffle of her Aunt Susan as she cried softly into a tissue.
The burn on her arm throbbed. She considered finding some ibuprofen but couldn’t muster the energy to search for a nurse.
Taylor walked back into the room.
He could have been gone for five minutes or for the last two hours. Time took on a different dimension in this room.
The hard chairs, the fake plants, the cheap painting of a landscape done in muted tones that hung on the wall. The details faded into the distance as she waited.
Waited to hear news about a little boy and how her life was about to change.
A weariness settled over her, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and sleep the grief away.
When she argued with her family, she had something to focus on, something to think about. Other than the fact that her cousin had just died and left her the guardian of an eight-year-old boy.
An eight-year-old boy that had her blood running through his veins.
Taylor crossed the room and sank into the chair next to her.
Will he figure it out?
When Taylor finally met Sam, would he recognize himself in Sam’s blue eyes, in his funny grin that tipped up the same way Taylor’s had as a boy?
Would everything she and Stacy and Gram had done to help this boy, her son, to have a better life, come crumbling down around them?
She studied Taylor. So handsome.
His eyes were light blue with a deep ring of navy around the iris. She’d always loved his eyes.
She didn’t remember him being quite so tall. He must have grown another inch or two after he’d left town. He’d filled out, too, his arms thick with muscle, and his hands seemed strong and capable.
The years had only improved his youthful good looks. His jaw line carried a hint of shadow, and she wanted to reach out and touch his cheek.
Is he real? And really sitting next to me, playing my knight-in-shining armor?
Would he have been so quick to help her if he knew the truth? That she had given away his son, their son, without ever telling him he existed. Without giving him a choice.
She had tried. When she found out she was pregnant, she’d texted him a message that they needed to talk. That it was important. She’d texted him twice, and both times he’d responded that he needed time—that they could talk later. Well, later never came. He never texted back again.
So she did what she had to do. Made the choice without him.
Looking back, she knew she could have tried harder, should have tried harder, but she was seventeen—just a kid herself. They were both dumb teenagers, and she’d forgiven their younger selves for the mistakes they’d made. She knew she’d done the best she could. The best she could for Sam.
She’d have to tell Taylor now, though. Just not right now.
Right now she could barely form a coherent thought. She couldn’t believe Stacy was gone, and she needed to put all of her focus on Sam. She could only handle so much at one time, and she didn’t think she could handle telling Taylor, too.
She would tell him, though. Later. When the timing was better. When she could think about the words she wanted to say. When she knew Sam was okay.
For now, she needed to focus on Sam. On her little boy.
Taylor offered her an encouraging smile, but before he had time to speak, the waiting room door opened, and a nurse stepped in.
She smiled kindly as the family stood to hear her news. “Hi, I’m Karen. I’m the head nurse on the floor tonight. You must be Sam’s family. I don’t have a lot of news to tell you. His doctor got called in to do another surgery, but he’ll come talk to you as soon as he’s finished. I can tell you that Sam was wearing his seat belt, and we think he was probably asleep when it happened, so that helped. We know he’s got a hairline fracture in his wrist, so we’ll be setting him in a cast this afternoon. Right now we’re monitoring his vitals and still running a few tests. And I promise we’re taking good care of him. But I wanted to let you know that it’s going to be at least an hour before the doctor comes in, so now would be a good time for you all to get something to eat or take a break. Sometimes just getting outside helps a little.”
Taylor took Cherry’s hand and drew her from the chair. “Come on. There’s a little motel across the street. It’s not far. I got us a room and some fresh clothes. We can go over and get cleaned up and be back before the doctor comes in.”
Too tired to resist, she let herself be pulled from the room, guided down the hall, and out to Taylor’s squad car. He drove them across the street to a small mom-and-pop motel.
He unlocked the door and eased her inside.
On the bed were a dozen or so plastic grocery bags. “The couple that run this place were really nice. They said they get a lot of people from the hospital who just need a place to go but don’t want to leave the hospital.”
“That’s nice,” she murmured, looking at the bed. She contemplated climbing in, pulling the covers over her head, and staying there for a week.
But that wasn’t an option.
Sam needed her. And she wouldn’t let him down. Again.
She gestured at the set of bags on the bed. “Geez-Louise, did you buy out the whole shiz-bang store?”
She was afraid to look at what Taylor purchased for her to wear.
Opening the bag closest to her, she was surprised to see a pair of khaki capris and two V-neck T-shirts, one pink and the other white. A pair of pink and white candy-striped flip-flops were also in the bag.
Pulling the pants from the bag, she tried to nonchalantly check out the size, cringing at the thought of Taylor having to return them because she couldn’t get them over her ample hips.
Whew. The size was good.
Humiliating fashion-crisis averted.
She tilted her head up at him. “How did you know my size?”
He offered her a sheepish grin. “I found a woman that was about your height and shape and asked for her help. I told her it was for an official case I was working on, and she was glad to offer her assistance.”
Yeah, I just bet she was.
She had a feeling the offer to help probably had more to do with the gold strands of his blond hair than the gold in his badge, but she was thankful for his good sense in getting a woman’s advice.
“I hope they’re all right. She said it was always better to go a little big than to end up with something too small. And I knew you used to like pink. It looks good with your hair.”
He remembered that she liked pink. That was sweet.
She didn’t have time to think about that right now. “What else did you get?”
He grabbed the bags and dumped them on the bed. “Everything I could think of. I didn’t know how long we would need to be here, but I knew both of us would need to shower. I got deodorant, shampoo, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. I figured the motel would have soap.”
She looked down at the array of things he’d purchased, and her heart melted a little at his thoughtfulness.
He’d bought a brush, a tube of mascara, a bottle of hairspray, and a package of underwear. He’d even picked out a basic white lace bra. “You bought me a bra?”
His face colored a little. “I put Debbie, that’s the woman who helped me, in charge of that stuff. I told her I had five minutes to get everything a woman might need to get by for a few days if her apartment had just caught on fire. She threw stuff in the cart while I went to pick up some extra first aid supplies.”
He dumped another bag, this one containing extra bandages, first-aid tape, antibiotic ointment, aloe, and a bottle of ibuprofen.
Relief washed over her as she grabbed the bottle of pain reliever. “Oh, thank the Lord you got ibuprofen. I could just kiss you for this.” She froze. “I mean, I could just kiss Debbie, too. This was really nice of her.”
She avoided his eyes as she tore into the bottle and dumped two pills into her hand.
He handed her a bottle of water from another one of the bags. “I got some things for me, too. We both stink from the fire. Let’s get cleaned up and get back over to the hospital.”
She swallowed the pills, the water cool on her parched throat. She could still taste the acrid flavor of the smoke.
She carried the toiletries into the bathroom, set the shampoo and soap on the edge of the tub, then toed off her shoes and peeled off her short socks.
Stepping back into the room, she grabbed an empty plastic bag and tried to wrap it around her bandaged arm.
“Here, let me help you.” Taylor double-wrapped the bandage and scanned the room. “I need something to hold it in place with. Maybe I can pull out your shoelace and tie it on.”
Cherry reached up and pulled the elastic from her hair. Thick masses of red hair fell around her shoulders. “Here, use this.”
“Good idea.” He sealed the bag around her arm with the elastic. “Do you need me to help you with your dress?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “No, I can manage.” Reaching for the zipper of her uniform, she winced in pain as she moved her bandaged arm.
“This is ridiculous.” He herded her into the bathroom. “You can barely move your arm; it will take you forever to get showered. And we don’t have forever. We have about half an hour left to get showered, dressed, and back to the hospital. Quit being stubborn, and just let me help you.”
