The Caregiver - By Shelley Shepard Gray Page 0,28

“I best go get my suitcase and be on my way,” she said. “And let you three get on your way as well—”

“Calvin! Katie!”

Lucy turned just in time to see two blond men engulf Calvin and Katie with warm hugs and hearty laughter, and shake John’s hand with broad smiles.

With a lump in her throat, she tried not to stare. Tried not to notice just how much his brothers looked like Calvin. Tried not to see how his expression had changed, how it had become less guarded, almost more innocent-looking as they teased him and picked up Katie.

“I’ve got our girl,” one of them said. “Graham, grab their bags and come on. The driver’s charging us by the minute and mile.”

“The drivers always do,” Calvin said. Then, for a split second, he turned her way again.

And one more time, their eyes met. Lucy ached to say something, to say anything . . . anything to try to explain herself.

But then the baggage handler tossed another bag out into the area. Hers.

She hurriedly grabbed the handles.

“Not so fast, ma’am,” the worker said. “You have to show your receipt.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.” Hurriedly, she pulled out the small slip of paper and handed it over. When she looked around again, the Weavers were gone.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and tried not to care.

“Calvin, you’ve been awfully quiet,” Loyal said as they rode in the back of a van to Jacob’s Crossing. “I would have thought you would have had more to say about your trip to Indiana.”

Calvin glanced at his uncle, chatting with the driver in the front seat. “John, you want to add anything?”

He turned around and grinned at them, looking far younger than his thirty-eight years in the dim light. “Sorry, Calvin. I don’t even want to think about our train trip right now. Feel free to tell Loyal and Graham all about it, though.”

Loyal chuckled. “It was that good, hmm?”

Calvin grinned. “It was that bad. Actually, I probably would have had more to say if the adventure getting back here hadn’t been quite so long,” he said, trying to joke, but feeling like every word was getting stuck in his throat.

Graham leaned back in his seat. “Your journey does sound eventful, but still . . . you seem different somehow.” He glanced toward Katie, who was curled up against the door, eyes closed and mouth open. “Did our silly sister wear you out?”

“Nee. She was fine.”

After a few more miles passed, Graham pushed again. “Then, is it coming home that’s got you out of sorts? Are you worried about seeing Gwen and Will again?”

The last thing he wanted to think about was either Gwen or Will. After everything that had happened on the train, and with Lucy, another couple’s romance didn’t seem that important to him.

But if he admitted that, he would sound even more despondent than he’d felt when he first left town. And that wasn’t how he felt now. But he also wasn’t eager to share his new feelings for Lucy. “I’m not worried about seeing either of them. How are they doing?”

Graham narrowed his eyes, as if he was trying to figure out if Calvin was being sarcastic or not. “I see that your time away did do you a world of good. Gwen and Will seem happy together, though Gwen did walk over and talk to Loyal and me the other day.”

“About what?”

“You,” Graham said flatly. “She was wondering how you were doing. I’m getting the sense that she doesn’t care for feeling so guilty.”

“I don’t know what to say to that.”

“You’re a better man than I am, then. She seems like a terribly selfish girl, to be asking after you, after she near broke your heart.”

“It wasn’t that broken.”

“You could have fooled me,” Loyal said. “For weeks after Gwen wrote you that note, you moped around the farm like your world had ended.”

He had moped. So much so, he was now embarrassed about his actions. “When I was out of town, I discovered my world didn’t end after all,” he joked.

Graham added, “For the record, I’ve never seen Will happier. He positively preens like a rooster whenever she is on his arm. Some people are saying a wedding will be happening between the two of them sooner than later.”

“Gwen made no secret about wanting to marry—”

“You,” Loyal interrupted harshly. “She had always said she wanted to marry you.”

“Things—and people—change.”

“At least she landed on her feet.”

Calvin knew their words were not being fair