“I’m not worried,” she said quickly. “I was… only trying to make conversation.”
One corner of Eric’s mouth curved into a halfhearted smile. “That’s difficult to do with someone you’re accustomed to just talking to.”
She nodded in agreement and looked away from him toward their daughter. Eric had always been easy to talk to. That was one of the things she loved about him. That and his gentle nature. And his dark eyes, and the way time had etched featherlike laugh lines at the corners of them…There were so many things about Eric that she would always love, whether he belonged to her or not. Seeing him again today only reaffirmed what her heart already knew. She was in so deep, she’d probably never get out.
“Beth,” she said to her daughter, wanting to change her flow of thought, “If you do your homework and change your clothes, I’ll take you over to the hospital to see your sister again before bed-time.”
“Come on, Dad—” the child started up the staircase in a hurry “—you can help me go over my spelling words. I have ten to learn.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he called after Beth as she scampered away from him. Then he and Hope both glanced toward the sound of Ed and Grace Granston’s voices coming from the kitchen. Eric returned his gaze to his wife. “Hope…Mom and Dad want to talk to you about something.”
She didn’t reply right away; she was too busy noticing the hesitancy she saw in his eyes as he spoke. “It’s not about the divorce, is it, Eric? I don’t want to sign those papers—”
“It’s not,” he promised. “You don’t have to sign anything you don’t want to sign. Just hear them out while I help Beth with her homework.” Then he turned to go up the stairs toward his daughter’s room.
Hope stood silently at the foot of the staircase, remembering her feelings from the night they had parted—her sense of being right She hadn’t realized being “right” could feel so wrong, and she’d missed him almost before he’d walked out the door.
“Hope, dear, is that you?” Grace stuck her head around the kitchen door to see her daughter-in-law standing there, looking at the empty staircase. She adjusted her silver-frame glasses. “Could Ed and I speak with you for a moment?”
Hope followed Grace into the next room. “How are you feeling?” Hope asked her father-in-law when she noticed he looked even paler than he had in recent days.
“Well, that’s part of what we want to talk to you about,” Grace began. “He’s not been feeling as well as he could, and we’ve decided to take a little vacation for a couple of weeks.”
Hope’s heart sank. Staying here the past two weeks during Cassie’s illness had worked out so well for Hope and Beth that she hadn’t given much consideration to the strain it might put on the girls’ grandparents. “I’m sorry, Grace. You don’t need to leave your own home. Beth and I will find an apartment somewhere close by so you and Ed can—”
“No.” Grace and Ed were both shaking their heads in disagreement. “That’s just what we don’t want—you feeling that you need to move out. Ed and I haven’t been away from home since that autumn trip to New England over three years ago. It’s time for a change of scenery, wouldn’t you say? We want you and Beth to stay right here. But while we are away for those two weeks, you’ll still need someone around to help when you’re at the hospital…so we’ve asked Eric to move in.”
“No,” Hope said, shaking her head. “I’ll find someone else to help me—”
“If Ed and I are going to relax and enjoy this vacation, we need to know you’re here with someone we can count on. That someone is Eric. If you won’t let him be the one that stays here in our absence, then we’re not going.”
Hope sighed. She needed help from someone, at least during the nights she stayed with Cassie. She knew that. But, Eric? “Grace, let me ask some of the teachers I work with. Maybe one of them could let Beth sleep at their house while you’re gone.”
“No,” Grace responded flatly. “It’s going to be Eric. Cassie and Beth are his children, and this is his responsibility.”
“It would be awkward for us,” Hope said as casually as she could manage. Awkward? Having Eric around again? Day after day? It would be impossible.
“Call a truce for fourteen days. The arguing can resume once Ed and I come home.” Grace glanced toward her silent husband. “Ed, help me out with this.”
“She’s right, Hope. As we’ve said, we want you and the girls to stay with us as long as you need to. But you and Eric will have to get along together for a couple of weeks without us. You have children together—you’ll have to make this work.”
“But you don’t understand what you’re asking. Eric and I…” she began and then paused. How could she explain this? “Nothing’s been the same since Cassie hurt her back in that dive at the pool.”
“But Cassie recovered beautifully from that injury, thank the Lord,” Grace reminded. “She’s walking again, and all she needs now is to get over this pneumonia. Soon, she’ll be well, she’ll be home and life can get back to normal.”
But what was normal? Hope wondered. Life with Eric, or life without him? After all the years of loving him, she wasn’t sure anymore.
It was with quiet resignation that she assented to her in-laws’ decision. Then she walked slowly up the staircase toward Beth’s room. So, that explained the clothes in Eric’s truck. He was bringing them here, moving them into a room upstairs. Probably the one across the hall from hers. Hope sighed. She needed help during Ed and Grace’s absence. That was true. But she didn’t want to need Eric.
“Mom, I’m going back with you to see Cassie again tonight. Right?” Beth came running out of her room when she heard her mother’s footsteps in the hallway. “I’ve already printed each of my spelling words twice.”
“Good girl,” Hope said, and gave the child a hug. “Change your clothes, and we’ll go.” Beth ran back into her bedroom to change, out of hearing range, just as Eric stepped out of the room where he had been helping with homework. A sense of inadequacy swept over Hope as she met his serious gaze. Did she really need to accept his help? Couldn’t she work this out on her own without relying on this man?
“I have some things to bring in from the truck,” Eric said. He hesitated, studying her guarded expression before continuing. “Did Mom and Dad talk to you?”
“Yes,” she answered. “They told me you’re moving in.”
“It’s the logical thing to do, Hope. No matter how awkward it may be. The girls are my responsibility, too.”
Hope nodded her head in agreement, then looked away from Eric. Responsibility. Doing what he should do. Those were the things that would motivate Eric, and Hope wished it could be more.
Then she looked up at him and asked the question that had nagged at her for days. “Are you angry with me for being here?”
“I’d rather have you and the girls living here with my parents than five hundred miles away in Missouri with yours,” he replied quietly. “You know that, don’t you?”
“No, I—I guess I just needed to be sure,” she answered. Sure? She wasn’t sure about much of anything involving Eric Granston.
“If you take Beth with you, I’ll come by the hospital and pick her up in about an hour,” Eric stated. “That way she can have dinner, a bath and get to bed on time.”
Hope said simply, “Thank you,” and turned toward the guest room she was using during her stay. What an unpleasant two weeks this could turn out to be. Five hundred miles distance between them suddenly sounded good compared to six feet of hallway.
“Come on, hon,”