Now why was he making that comparison? He had no right to put a hand in Lori Harper’s hair. He would never have that right. No sense in even thinking about it.
“Hey, you guys, don’t wake her up,” came a sleepy voice from the bed.
“Don’t worry. I know that much.” Mike crossed the room and sat in the bedside chair. Tyler launched himself onto Mike’s lap. “So how’s the patient?”
“Good, I think. I needed the sleep. What time is it?”
“A little after one. You hungry?”
Lori nodded. “Starved. I don’t know if I could really eat if there was food in front of me, but I’m starved. Does that make any sense?”
“It does, actually. I can remember times after a fire when I was so hungry, I couldn’t think straight. I also didn’t have the energy to lift a burger to my mouth once I stopped for one. And I imagine giving birth is a lot harder than putting out a fire.”
Lori laughed. “I don’t know about that. It is plenty of work. Is that what you do? Work for fire-and-rescue?”
“Only volunteer. Dogg and I are part of the search team when they need us. Mostly he chases goats and I help manage the family property rental business.”
“Oh.”
“I know. It doesn’t have nearly the excitement level as putting out fires. But that’s okay most of the time.”
Lori colored. “I didn’t mean to put down the family business…”
“Good, because I think it’s about to come in handy. I don’t think you’re going to have to go back to that trailer in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m not? Why?” She sat up straighter. Great. She was going to argue with him.
“Because I’ve got a better idea, and I’m sure it will be okay with my mother. She’s the other half of the property business. When I tell her I found the right client for the property she’s most finicky about, she’ll thank me.”
“Not when you tell her the client can’t pay any rent.” Lori’s chin stuck out defiantly. “I can’t let you do this.”
“And I can’t let you go back to that place alone with no phone, a five-year-old and a day-old baby.” Mike tried to keep from shouting. Surely she would listen to reason.
“You can, and will, let me do anything I want. It’s not like you’re responsible for me or anything.”
“I feel like I am.” Why did she have to be so defensive? Why couldn’t she just thank him and be grateful? “Besides, this is property that adjoins our home. A lot of times we’ve rented it out to somebody who either farms a chunk of ground behind both places where my mom doesn’t run her goofy herd of Nubian goats, or who can come in and do some of the heavy cleaning and stuff.”
Lori brightened. “Well, I don’t know a thing about farming, but I sure can clean.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that. Not for a month or two anyway.”
Lori laughed at him. “A month or two! Do you really think giving birth is that strenuous?”
Mike felt himself blushing. “I don’t know. On TV and in the movies, the women always look so fragile, and lie in bed…”
“Not me, my friend. I’m too young to do that.”
“And too alone.”
Lori shook her head. “No, not alone. The Lord is always with me.”
Mike just barely controlled a snort of derision. “Some help He is. If it was up to the Lord you would have given birth in that trailer with Tyler for company.”
“Nah…” Tyler’s answer surprised him. Mike had forgotten the boy on his lap was probably paying attention to the conversation. “Remember what I told you? Mom said you were her miracle. That means God sent you, silly. He doesn’t leave us alone, right, Mom?”
Lori smiled. Mike kept the rest of his opinions to himself on the subject. All he knew is that if God had sent Lori Harper a miracle, He would have done a lot better than him. “Whatever. Can I really not convince you to move in to the house next door to ours?”
Lori’s smooth forehead wrinkled. “It’s tempting. I don’t really want to go back out to the middle of nowhere, especially now. And I could do that heavy cleaning you talked about, probably by next week.”
“Oh, no. We’re not going to go there for a while. Just having somebody in the house will make Mom feel better. She is sure somebody’s going to break in over there when it’s empty. Kids partying or something.”
“And a widow with two babies is so much better than kids partying.”
Tyler looked up. “I’m not a baby. An’ what’s a widow?”
Lori got paler and swallowed hard. “Oh, boy. Here comes the hard part. Ty, come up here on my bed, okay?”
“Okay.” He slid off Mike’s lap, taking his warmth with him. Mike didn’t know what to do next. Did he stay, to give Lori support? Or would it be better if he slipped out of the room to let her do this alone? He tried to convey his confusion without saying anything. Lori wasn’t watching. She was reaching out a hand to stroke her son’s blond hair.
“He looks so grown up after the baby. But not grown up enough for this.” There was a pain in the depth of her eyes that Mike could only imagine.
Is this what his mother’s face had looked like when she broke similar news to him? He hadn’t been much older than Tyler when his dad died.
“Mind if I stick around?” It took him a moment to force out the words. “I kind of have some experience here. From Tyler’s perspective.”
“How old were you?”
“Six.” It all came rushing back. At least Tyler wouldn’t have the guilt Mike had borne for years. At six he was sure he’d killed his own father. It had taken years more maturity than a first grader possessed to know that his father’s fatal heart attack hadn’t been Mike’s fault.
Tyler cocked his head. He was an astute little kid, and he knew something was going on. “Where’s Daddy? When we looked at that place where some of the new babies were, when Carrie was bringing me up here, there were some other kids looking. They were all looking with their dads.”
“That’s what we need to talk about.” Lori stroked his hair again. “Remember when Carrie came this summer? With the truck and the other guy?”
“Mr. Bart? Yeah. He was cool. He let me play with the siren.”
Lori swallowed hard. “That’s right. And remember they told us something about Daddy? Something I tried to tell you?” Mike could hear her voice shake.
“Right. That he wasn’t coming back. But last time he went away it was different. You said he wasn’t coming back for a long time, but then he did. Isn’t he coming back to see Mikayla?”
