her father behind her. It had taken a crisis with her father to get her back home. But the minute she had stepped on Shamrock land, all her insecurities, doubts and guilt had flooded her, as though she’d never left ten years ago.
“Wait up, Darcy.”
Darcy turned to see her best friend from high school hurrying toward her from the back of the church. For a few seconds she lost Jesse Bradshaw in the crowd, which was not unusual since her friend was only five feet tall. Darcy stepped to the side to allow the other parishioners to pass while she waited.
“I should berate you, Darcy O’Brien, for not coming by to see me, but I know you’ve had your hands full with your father’s illness and the fire. I’m sorry.” Jesse Bradshaw hugged Darcy. “I’m missed you.” She pulled back to get a good look at Darcy. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
Darcy laughed. “I’ve missed you, Jesse, and you have changed.” Her friend had lost twenty or so pounds, and her long brown hair was now short and feathered about her pixie-like features. The only thing the same was her green eyes—clear and sparkling with humor. Darcy turned to the side. “This is my son, Sean.”
Shaking Sean’s hand, Jesse said, “My son, Nate, is around here somewhere. You two will have to get together. Darcy, I’ll call you this week. Let’s get together for lunch. I want to know everything that’s happened to you in the last ten years. E-mails just don’t tell me what’s really going on with you.” Jesse fell into line with them to speak with the reverend.
“There’s Joshua. He’s waiting for us by his truck. Come on, Mom.” Sean tugged on her arm.
“Joshua Markham?” Jesse asked, one brow quirked.
“Yes, he’s helping Sean get a puppy.” Darcy leaned toward her friend. “And that is all, so don’t get any ideas.”
Jesse held up her hand. “Who, me? Never.”
Moving forward in the line, Darcy smiled at Reverend Collins and shook his hand. “I enjoyed your sermon.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see her son dancing about.
“It’s good to see you back home, Darcy. Don’t be a stranger.”
Darcy pulled Sean to her side. “And this eager young man is my son, Sean.”
The reverend held out his hand. “I hope we’ll get to see more of you this summer.”
Sean contained his enthusiasm long enough to straighten and shake the man’s hand. “Joshua introduced me to a couple of the boys in his Sunday school class. One lives down the road from Grandpa.”
“That must be Brad Anderson.”
“Yep.” Sean glanced up at Darcy. “Can we go now? I don’t want to be late.”
After saying her goodbyes to Reverend Collins and Jesse, Darcy allowed her son to drag her toward Joshua. As they approached, Darcy’s heart increased its beat, aware that her friend was probably watching every move she made. She didn’t dare look back at Jesse and encourage her in any way.
Darcy turned her full focus on the man before her. The sight of Joshua in black slacks with a sky-blue short-sleeved shirt and a striped tie was just as compelling as the image of him in his fire gear or navy-blue firefighter’s uniform. The bright sun beamed down on her, but that wasn’t the reason she perspired more than usual. The warm greeting in Joshua’s eyes did strange things to her. Her stomach flip-flopped; her pulse quickened.
“Are you ready, Sean?” Joshua asked, swinging open the passenger door of his red truck.
“Yes.”
“I thought we would grab something to eat, then go to Ned’s.”
The wide grin on her son’s face fell.
“Or, we could go to Ned’s first, then eat,” Joshua amended when he saw Sean’s crestfallen expression.
“Yes!” Sean hopped up into the cab.
“I can’t believe he’s turning down a meal. That just goes to show you how important this puppy is to Sean.” Darcy followed her son into the truck, relieved she wasn’t pressed up against Joshua.
He shut the door and leaned forward, his head framed in the open window. “You understand, Sean, you won’t be able to take the puppy home for a few more weeks.”
“Can I visit my puppy?”
“I don’t think Ned will mind—if it’s okay with your mother.”
Sean sent her a beseeching look.
“We’ll work something out,” she said.
Her son breathed a deep sigh of relief while Joshua rounded the front of the truck and slid behind the steering wheel.
“Actually, Ned lives about halfway to your farm on Old State Road, not too far from Sweetwater Lake.”
“Maybe I could walk to his place.”
“No way, young man,” said Darcy. “When you get your chores done, I’ll drive you. No walking along that highway.”
“But, Mom—”
Joshua backed out of the parking space. “I’ve had a few near misses out on Old State Road. Some people think its straightaway is an invitation to race. Not a safe place to be.”
Again Sean sighed, but he remained quiet.
In a short time Darcy had begun to notice the influence Joshua had over her son. For a boy hungry for male attention, Joshua was a wonderful role model. But what was going to happen when they returned to Panama City in August? She hated disappointing her son. For years he had tried to get his father interested in what he was doing, but Clay had hardly ever been around. When they’d been in the same room, it had been as though they were strangers.
As they drove toward Ned’s, her son thankfully kept up a running commentary about the Sunday school class he’d joined that day, the one Joshua taught. Sean described each of the boys he’d met and gave a rundown on their likes and dislikes. She was glad he had been readily accepted by his peers, especially Brad Anderson and Nate Bradshaw, Jesse’s son. Darcy relaxed and listened to Sean and Joshua.
Fifteen minutes later Joshua drove through an opened gate and down a gravel road that ended in front of a one-story, white, wooden house with an old brown barn nearby. “He’s probably in the barn.”
“Does he raise horses like Grandpa?” Sean exited the truck on Joshua’s side.
That gave Darcy a chance to take her time and allow the two guys to go ahead of her. She heard Joshua say, “No, he takes in strays like I do. He’s a firefighter at the station where I work. He doesn’t have a lot of land, just a few acres. But I must say, he has more room than I do. I’m running out of places to put my animals.”
Dressed in a plaid short-sleeved shirt, a man who appeared to be in his forties came out of the barn. He brushed some dust from his jeans and adjusted his navy-blue ball cap. “Right on time. I just got through feeding the animals.”
Sean
