It was as much of a warning as Annie would have needed had she been the kind to try and come into their lives and take Sara’s place.
“Caroline—”
Annie put a hand on Jared’s arm and he fell silent. “Well, how about a friend?” She slid into a chair opposite the girl who glared at her with a militant expression. “Could you use a friend?”
Her expression didn’t change. “I have friends.”
Eve made a quiet sound of distress. Mick sighed heavily and Jared took the situation in hand. “Annie is going to be here for the weekend.”
“You’re going to marry her, you said so,” Caroline accused. Eve moved about the kitchen busying herself serving dinner and Mick shot Annie a smile of support.
“We won’t be getting married unless Annie likes it here.”
One little eyebrow raised and Annie knew the gaunt-let had been unwittingly thrown down. Something told her Caroline would do her best to make sure Annie didn’t like it here. What Caroline didn’t know was that Annie had been a scared, lonely little girl once.
“This looks wonderful,” Annie said as Eve put the roast in the middle of the table and Mick handed the carving knife to his son.
After a brief prayer, Jared carved it with expert movements and precision before taking a seat alongside her. The roast was complemented by fresh damper, hot out of the oven, and a casserole dish filled with what Annie knew were farm-fresh vegetables.
Eve put the juice on the table and filled Annie’s glass. “Dig in, everyone. We don’t want it to get cold.”
The meal was enjoyable except for Caroline’s stony silence. If she were asked a question she would nod for yes or shake her head for no. If the question required an actual answer, she would shrug.
Luke however had no such qualms. “Do you like to play?”
Annie smiled at the boy whose blue eyes held mischief more playful than problematic. “I sure do.”
“What games do you like?”
“Are we talking inside or outside games?”
“Outside.”
“Um…horseshoes, cricket and building sand castles.”
Luke’s eyes went wide. “We have a sandpit and I can teach you to build really great castles.”
“I’d like that.”
He smiled so wide Annie wondered if he would hurt his face. But he had such wonderfully expressive features. He was a beautiful child.
Mick cleared his throat. “So Annie, Jared tells us you’ve been working in the city since you left Guthrie.”
“Yes, s—” She caught herself just in time and smiled. “Yes, Mick. I’m a waitress at one of the more popular restaurants down there.”
Annie wasn’t worried about admitting she didn’t have a job requiring a degree or diploma. The Campbells weren’t the type to look down on others for any reason.
“Tough job, waitressing. Mother did it for a while after we were first married,” he said, looking at his wife.
“I didn’t like it,” Eve admitted with a soft smile. “But we were newlyweds and back then we worked together for what we wanted.”
As it should be, Jared thought, watching the tender byplay between his parents, longing unfurling in him for something he knew he would never have, something he desperately wanted to experience. If he was honest with himself, and Jared always tried to be, he could let himself have feelings for the woman he was thinking of taking as a wife.
She was everything a man could want in a wife. Sweet and gentle, intelligent and caring. And there was a kindness about her that was as genuine as she was. Yes, she had a past but so did he, and Jared had no doubt that her past had molded her into the woman she was as much as his had molded him.
Jared ate dinner, glancing at Caroline now and again and listening as Annie and his parents kept the conversation going. Even Luke listened intently to what was being said and every now and then he would ask Annie a question. Caroline preferred to eat her dinner in silence.
He remembered how wary she had been of everyone when Sara and James had first brought her home. The changes had been achingly slow, but each one had been celebrated.
Patience and love had brought Caroline through the nightmares and out of the darkness into the sunshine where little girls belonged.
Jared recalled the first time she had hugged him voluntarily. Up until that day she had always tensed when someone—anyone—hugged her.
Luke had been so different. He had thrived in the attention from a loving family. He was an affectionate child at heart and would warm to anyone.
And Toby, well, Jared loved them all, but the baby had taught him a lot about what it took to be a parent, even a fill-in guardian.
Annie would work at developing a relationship with Caroline…it was just her nature. He could tell Luke had already befriended her the way they talked about adventures they had yet to have.
But he wanted to see her with Toby. He was so young and confused by the sudden loss of his parents. There was something about Annie that told him she would be a good mother.
He wondered how much of that shy little girl still lived within Annie. Did she remember the times when his mother had taken out homemade pies and casseroles to her house, trying to make sure she had something in her belly before bedtime?
Jared remembered. He remembered going out to that dingy old house with his mother, seeing the sad little girl sitting on the broken porch steps in grubby clothes and shoes that were falling apart. He remembered walking into this house and seeing her sitting with Sara, the two of them pouring over a book or some project. He remembered with a smile the day his mother had bought her a brand-new dress to wear to a mentor meeting with Sara.
The tears welling in her eyes didn’t start to fall until she saw the brand-new shoes to go with it. It was a credit to her that she had survived and become the person sitting here with his family now.
Mick said something funny and they all laughed. Jared found he liked the sound of her laughter. In fact he hadn’t yet found anything he didn’t like about Annie.
These children were relying on him to do what was best for them all. He felt it very strongly that Annie would fit in here.
He had prayed over his decision to take a wife for reasons other than love. He had prayed and he had found a peace with his decision to go ahead with his plan. He knew of marriages that were based on nothing but passion or, worse still, monetary gain. How could a marriage based on friendship and family be wrong?
Jared knew in his heart that Sara would approve.
“You got quiet all of a sudden, son.”
He was dragged back to the present in time to see that Annie and his mother had cleared the table. All except his plate.
“Just thinking, Dad.”
Annie almost dropped the plate in her hands when a fussing noise came from the other room. Eve dried her hands and left the kitchen.
Annie took a deep breath and she heard the woman come back in. “You finally get to meet the youngest member of Sara’s brood.”
Time had never stood still for her. Not when her mother had screamed in anger and sent her to bed hungry. Not even when the welfare people had come and put her into temporary foster care until her mother dried out. But now time stopped.
She had counted every day since his birth. Standing there in the Campbell kitchen, her heart hammering like a runaway freight train, she stared into the beautiful face of the little boy who had changed