A Match Made in Texas- By Arlene James Page 0,46
skin. “Hey, you ought to see this place. It’s really something, an honest-to-goodness antebellum mansion. They’ve got a dumbwaiter out on the landing, murals on the ceilings and enough crystal hanging around to bury a fellow if it should fall. Why, your boy’s resting on rare antiques, or so I’m told.”
He suddenly stood upright, eyes wide. “Uh, uh, let’s wait on that a few more days.” Turning to Kaylie, he churned his hand, silently asking her for help, but what help? “U-until the, um, doctors o-okay him for visitors.” Grimacing, he showed his teeth to Kaylie. “No, really. It’s j-just a precaution. Yeah, yeah, of course I’ll tell him you called.” Aaron laughed in that practiced way of his and went on. “Now, don’t worry about him. He’s in good hands, and I’m sure he’ll be well enough to speak to you in, uh, soon.”
After a few more seconds, Aaron ended the call and slumped against the bedpost once more. “Whew! Thought for a minute there that she was about to jump a plane.”
“She’d better not!” Stephen growled, flopping onto his back.
Kaylie parked her hands at her hips and demanded, “What is going on? Who was that?”
Stephen clamped his mouth in a hard line, but Aaron seemed surprised that Kaylie didn’t know. “Hannah Scherren, Stevie’s mom.”
“His mother!” Kaylie bent toward the bed. “You don’t want your mother here? Why ever not?”
Stephen rubbed a hand over his face. “I just don’t, that’s all.”
“But she’s your mother.”
“Listen,” Aaron said suddenly, “I gotta run.” He started off, then paused and turned back to shake a finger at Stephen. “The thing is, if you would just talk to her, it might do you both a world of good.”
“Stay out of it, Aaron.”
Aaron sighed. “Been four years since you last spoke to any member of your family, Stevie.”
“I said to stay out of it!”
“Not since the funeral.”
Kaylie gasped. “What funeral? Whose? What are you talking about?”
Aaron shook his head and made for the door again. “You want to know that, you gotta ask Steve.”
Kaylie turned back to the bed, but Stephen’s glare warned her not to press the issue. “Don’t,” he said when she opened her mouth.
Curiosity and concern burned within her, but she knew that it would be a mistake to become further involved with Stephen Gallow’s personal life. She closed her mouth and sat down in the wheelchair next to the bed. Stephen closed his eyes, and after a moment, his hand groped for hers. Kaylie did her best not to reach out, but somehow their palms met, and their fingers intertwined. She sat with her head bowed, asking herself what she was doing with this man, until the pressure of his fingers slowly eased. Finally, she slipped free and left him sleeping peacefully.
Moving out into the sitting room, she lifted a hand to the back of her neck and then turned her eyes heavenward. The mystery of Stephen Gallow had just deepened, and the differences between them had never been more painfully obvious, and yet…and yet…
“Show me Your purpose in this, I beg You.”
A man who would not even speak to his own mother could not be for her.
But could she be for him?
Chapter Nine
Alone again.
That was Stephen’s first thought when he woke. Alone and in pain, considerable pain, more than he’d expected, but nothing he couldn’t manage until Kaylie came again.
I’ll come back for as long as you need me.
He had carried her whispered promise off into exhausted, thankfully peaceful slumber, but he couldn’t forget now how appalled she had been that he wouldn’t speak to his mother. How could he tell her why? She would likely despise him then, as his family must.
I’ll come back for as long as you need me.
Yet, she’d thought that he hadn’t needed her in the hospital, and she had stayed away. Now she had to know that there was much wrong in him. Would she break her promise? Or would she simply go away for good?
The sound of her voice came to him, growing louder as she crossed the sitting room toward his bedchamber.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I know I’ve been gone more than usual today, but this is a special case.”
Pleased and surprised, Stephen opened his eyes and strained to hear every word.
“You know that he just got out of the hospital.”
Pushing up onto his elbow, Stephen looked into the sitting room, listening shamelessly, but Kaylie must have come to a stop just out of sight.
“I’m sorry you had to make your own lunch,