Some Bright Someday (Maple Valley #2) - Melissa Tagg Page 0,49
so worked up.
Calm down, Jenessa Marie. Why are you so emotional?
Calm down, Jen. Can’t you see you’re making a scene?
She wrenched away from him. Forced her hands to still but refused to sit. “What happened, Luke?”
“I looked away for a few minutes. Just a few minutes. I’m so sorry. All that wood we’d piled up by the new shed. I guess she tried to climb up it.”
Jenessa clamped her lips closed lest she screech at him.
“We heard her scream just as the logs started rolling. But her arm—the doctor says it’s not even a full break. Hairline fracture, he said. She’ll only be in a cast a few weeks—”
“She broke her arm, Lucas. On your watch.”
“Jen—”
“I don’t know what I was thinking leaving her with you. I should’ve brought her to town with me. I should’ve—” She gasped. “Where’s Cade?”
There was an ashen tint to Lucas’s face and a storm in his hazel eyes. “He’s with Noah at the house.” His voice was flat. “He texted a few minutes ago. Everything’s going fine. They’re inside. They’re . . . fine.”
She shouldn’t have hurled such accusatory words at him. She should apologize. But she couldn’t. Not now. Not with worry still throbbing through her.
“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