“Can we please go see her?”
They both turned at the sound of Colie’s soft voice.
“Please?”
For the first time, Jenessa noticed the nurse standing off to the side. At her nod, Colie hurried past them. Jenessa glanced back to Lucas.
“Go on.”
“Luke—”
“Go.”
The nurse was already disappearing around a corner with Colie in tow. She turned to catch up to them. She’d apologize to Lucas later. She’d smooth it over. Somehow.
The nurse opened a door and Colie hovered just outside. “Well, look who’s here, little Miss Violet.” A doctor’s voice rang out from inside. “I do believe you have a visitor.”
Jenessa slipped inside, waving for Colie to follow her in.
“Two visitors!” Violet exclaimed. She held a sucker in one hand, her other arm propped on her lap, a neon pink cast already in place. “Look, my first cast.”
“Aw, Vi, I’m so sorry this happ—” Jenessa began, but Colie interrupted.
“Violet!” Colie hopped onto the exam table beside her, flung her arms around her sister, and leaned against her. At least she’d picked the side without the cast. Her abrupt show of affection was surprise enough.
But when she burst into tears a moment later, even Violet looked stunned.
The doctor stood. “We’ll give you three a moment.” The nurse followed him out.
What should Jenessa do? Leave the room, too? Give the sisters time together? But how could she possibly leave with the sound of Colie’s cries piercing her heart?
“They said you were in the h-hospital.” Colie’s voice shook through her sobs. “I-I didn’t know what happened. I couldn’t stop th-thinking about Mom. I was so scared.”
“You’re hurting my arm, Colie,” Violet whined, sticking her sucker between her teeth.
Jenessa took a tentative step toward the table. “Colie, honey, maybe don’t squeeze her quite so much.”
“I’m s-staying with you. You and me and Cade. No one’s going to make us be apart.”
She was sobbing so heavily now, Violet’s bottom lip was beginning to quiver. From the pain in her arm or sheer shock at her sister’s crying, Jenessa didn’t know. But she had to do something.
Ever so carefully, she reached for Violet and eased her from Colie’s hold. She helped her down to the floor, then took her place on the table beside Colie, finally letting herself do what she’d longed to for days. She wrapped her arms around the girl, tucked her head against her chest.
And let her cry.
10
Maybe she shouldn’t leave the kids.
Oh, Mara and Marshall would keep a watchful eye on them. It was only a short hayride around the orchard. Violet was loving the attention her hot pink cast received and Cade was all smiles. Even Colie seemed cautiously content this morning.
It was as if the girl’s breakdown in the hospital room last night had begun a slow thaw of the icy divide between them. At some point, Jenessa still needed to talk to her about the fight at the school, but she hadn’t wanted to lose the tentative progress they’d gained. So she’d decided it could wait.
What couldn’t wait was an apology to Lucas. But when she’d gone looking for him at the cottage this morning, he was already gone. Right, he was still devoting Saturdays to helping Kit at the orchard.
It’d been pure luck, discovering Mara and Marshall in the parking lot when she’d arrived. Since they’d missed out on Apple Fest last weekend, apparently they’d planned a date for today. So you really shouldn’t be saddling them with the kids.
But that wasn’t the real reason she was hesitating. It was the residual fear left over from yesterday. It was needing to know the children were okay in every moment. Was this what parents went through on a daily basis?
“Look, Jen! Mara signed my cast.” Violet held up her injured arm from her perch next to Colie. Curls peeked out from the pointy little hood tied under her chin and her cheeks were rosy. Probably more from excitement than the nip in the air.
“Better get Marsh’s autograph next,” she called back, then looked to Lucas’s sister, who stood at the back of the wagon, ushering the last of the riders on board. That pet goat of hers—Lucas had said her name was Flynnie, hadn’t he?—was at her side. “It’s only a ten- or fifteen-minute ride, right?” Oh, why was she being such a worrywart?
Kit nodded, reaching down to scratch Flynnie between her ears. “And the wagon’s sturdy and the hitch connecting it to the tractor is stable and Beckett’s a safe driver.”
Was her anxiety that obvious?
Mara laughed from the wagon bed. “Jen, you’re forgetting I was a nanny for a long time. They’ll be fine with us. Go find Luke. And make sure to tell him about dinner at the Everwood tonight.”
She turned to Kit. “You said he’s in the south field?”
“Far south. Fixing a fence. He was way too moody to be around orchard guests today so I took him off climbing wall duty.”
“There’s a slight possibility I’m at fault for that.” More like a strong likelihood.
And maybe Kit knew it. Maybe Lucas had told her what Jenessa had said last night. Perhaps that’s why Kit couldn’t quite hide the tint of annoyance behind her eyes as she latched the door of the wagon bed and motioned toward Beckett. The grumbling tractor gave a lurch, and Jenessa lifted her hand to wave at the kids.
Violet and Cade’s return waves had her cheeks stretching, but it was Colie’s that sent curls of warmth sailing through her. One week. One week with these kids and everything she’d thought she’d known about her life had thoroughly upended.
The house that’d once seemed hollow and heavy was now filled with life.
The memories she’d thought impossible to outrun had fallen behind.
And that dogged sense of dullness—that restlessness inside of her that had fueled her need to find Aunt Lauren, to sell the house, to figure out why the newspaper no longer fulfilled her—she hadn’t felt it in days.
“You might want to hurry up and head to the south field. It’s a bit of a walk and the kids will get back before you do if you wait too long.”
She glanced at Lucas’s sister. No, she definitely hadn’t been imagining the flicker of irritation in Kit’s expression. “Hey, um, sorry for monopolizing so much of your brother’s time lately.”
Kit only shrugged. “He definitely doesn’t mind being monopolized. Not by you.” She gave a whistle to Flynnie and moved off.
Leaving Jenessa to wonder why such a blunt statement felt so packed with hidden meaning. Was Kit trying to insinuate . . .?
No. She turned the direction of the south field, feather-thin clouds barely muting the sun. Lucas would never look at her like that. She was . . . they were . . . had always been . . . friendly, that’s all.
Did Lucas go above and beyond to help her out? Of course, but that’s what friends did. Look at all Sam had done for her over the years. Why, yesterday when she’d had to rush away from that silly auction, he’d bid on four players for her. Refused to let her pay him back. They’d already made arrangements to be at her house by late morning.