A Match Made in Texas- By Arlene James Page 0,56
he’d be stopping by as early as possible to check on Stephen. Kaylie was about to head home to prepare her father’s lunch when he finally strolled into the sitting room with Odelia on his arm and Chester trailing along behind. Chafing a bit with the inactivity today, Stephen had elected to spend the morning on the sofa with his cast propped on the footstool. He looked up and smiled.
“Hey, Doc! You’re just in time for lunch.”
“Well, of course, I am,” Brooks said. “Exactly as I planned.”
“That’s not what you told me,” Kaylie retorted, folding her arms.
“You’re right,” he admitted glibly. “I’d hoped to make it in time for breakfast. Lunch is plan B.”
Odelia giggled, setting her earlobes to jiggling. Since she was wearing earrings that resembled globs of purple gummy worms, the effect was a little scary. She’d have looked like a walking bait shop if not for the optically disconcerting white spirals printed on her purple cotton sheath, which she wore with white sandals. The wide straps of the sandals and neat, clean lines of the short-sleeved dress lent an odd air of demureness to the otherwise crazy costume. In other words, it was pure, quintessential Odelia.
“In honor of Brooks’s visit,” she announced gaily, “we’re having a garden party.” She slipped free of their visitor and went to bend over Stephen, adding, “And Brooks says you may join in, if you feel up to it, Stephen dear. Would you like that?”
“Tante Odelia,” Stephen said with a grin, “I would love it.”
“Are you sure?” Kaylie asked, biting her lip with worry. She couldn’t help thinking of the ordeal that the stairs presented.
As if reading her mind, Brooks stepped forward. “I think we can make it a little easier for him.” Gently nudging Odelia aside, he began to pull the straps free on Stephen’s jacket sling. “For starters, let’s get rid of this.”
Kaylie helped Brooks carefully maneuver the confining, vest-like object over Stephen’s head. Brooks then lifted Stephen’s shirt, revealing tautly sculpted muscles, and performed a three-fingered tap along the twin ladders of his ribs. Stephen winced lightly from time to time but never lost his smile.
“Sore but much improved,” Brooks pronounced. “Ready to try it without the jacket?”
“Absolutely.”
Brooks looked to Kaylie. “Let’s get him a simple sling. That’ll keep the weight of the cast from stressing his clavicle and shoulder muscles and still let him lift his arm and start moving a little more fluidly.”
Stephen eased back on the sofa with an “Aaahhh,” and Kaylie smiled, promising, “I’ll take care of it this afternoon.”
After a few questions and a check of Stephen’s pulse and eyes, Brooks stuffed his tools back into the pockets of his suit jacket and offered his arm to Odelia. “I hear Hilda’s apple-chicken salad calling me.”
She laughed, and they swung toward the door. Chester and Kaylie helped Stephen back into his chair, then the trio started off after Odelia and the good Doctor Leland with Kaylie pushing and Chester again trailing along behind. At the head of the stairs, Stephen rose, balancing his weight on one foot. Kaylie and Odelia went down with the chair while Chester and Brooks took positions on either side of Stephen beneath his arms. Had he been a few inches shorter, they could have carried him. As it was, he hopped lightly from step to step until he reached the bottom and sank once more into the wheelchair.
Odelia hurried ahead, chattering merrily about May Day being the perfect day for a garden party. Stephen tilted his head back, gazing up at Kaylie with wide eyes.
“Good grief. Is this the first day of May? I’ve lost track.”
“It is,” Brooks answered for her. Bending low, he murmured to Stephen, “No dancing around the Maypole for you, though.”
Kaylie smacked Brooks lightly on the arm with the back of her hand. “Or anyone else, you pagan.”
“Hey, I’m an anti-pagan. I firmly believe that Christianity should co-opt every festival and holiday, despite its origins, and make it exclusively our own.”
Kaylie couldn’t argue with that.
Reaching the end of the east hall, she turned Stephen’s chair and backed him down the slight slope into the sunroom. Chester split off and went into the kitchen, while Brooks sprinted ahead to the end of the room near the cozy brick fireplace and opened one side of the French door for Odelia. He threw the other side wide as Kaylie approached with Stephen in the wheelchair. Once more the aunties had rearranged their furniture to accommodate Stephen, a fact he