Sam lifted her chin. “I don’t.”
“Yeah.”
“I made my peace with it.”
“Right.”
She drew her eyebrows together. “Don’t trip over your empathy.”
“Don’t intend to. You have to want to get better.”
Her eyes suddenly blazed, something he remembered well. “You think I want to be in this chair?”
Bret reached for the bacon. “You’re not doing much to get out of it.”
She gulped back a deep breath. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You never used to be a quitter. The Samantha I knew would be doing everything she could to walk again.”
The blaze faded. “Yeah, well, maybe you don’t know me anymore.”
“So that’s it? You can’t afford rehab so you’re just giving up?”
“What do you suggest I do? Rob a bank? Might be a little problem with the getaway.”
The old Samantha was still there. She just didn’t know it.
Samantha twisted her hands together as she waited nervously for her Uncle Don. He’d been shocked to hear she was back in Rosewood, but he’d also sounded excited.
Bret had stayed to work on the ramp. He had told her flatly he wasn’t leaving until the ramp and a temporary threshold adjustment were finished. She’d almost forgotten how bossy he could be. Sam wished he would stay until her family came and give her a little moral support. Which was totally stupid, since he was clearly trying to leave as fast as he could. He’d been pounding in nails as if he had a tornado at his heels.
Not wanting to sit in front of the large bay window looking like a waif, she’d chosen to wait in the living room. Still, she could hear the rumble and lift of voices outside. Her uncle hadn’t come alone. Nor did he make it through the door first. Her cousin and best friend, Rachel, ran inside, not stopping until she was inches away. Her hug was as unexpected as Samantha’s tears. Get a grip.
Then she saw matching tears on Rachel’s face. An overwhelming need to give in to her own assailed Sam.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us.” Hoarse with emotion, Rachel ignored her own tears as she brushed Samantha’s away.
There was no explanation she could offer.
Rachel’s mother, Trudy, came inside, her movements stiff. With her arthritic arms outstretched, she saw Sam and her face began to crumple.
Don, the last one inside, shook his head. “What’s this? A weeping convention?” A few long strides and he was next to her with a hug as well.
When the tears subsided, Samantha faced them all. “I didn’t mean to exclude you. I…just hadn’t thought out what it would mean coming back here.”
“This is your home.” Don, only two years older than her father, Ed, looked nearly enough like him to be his twin. “You never have to think out coming home. But we’d like to make things easier for you.”
Although he was wise enough to hide his pity, Samantha knew it was there. “But that’s just it. I don’t want anyone to take care of me…to worry.”
“It comes with the territory. Rachel contends she’s an adult who can live her own life. I suppose she’s right, but it doesn’t stop us worrying. That’s what family does.”
The years away from Rosewood had dimmed her sense of family, what the connections really meant. But ever since her brother, Andy, had died….
Sniffling, Rachel playfully punched her dad’s arm. “You’d think I was twelve years old.”
“Don’t believe otherwise,” Trudy advised, wiping her own face. “As far as your father’s concerned, you’ll always be twelve.”
Don glanced in the kitchen. “Looks like we’ve got some work to do.”
“But—”
He held up one hand. “Bret filled me in before he left. I’m no carpenter, but I’ll do what I can. You’ll get plenty of help from your friends and neighbors.”
Samantha felt she’d been gone too long to expect anything from them. But that was how Rosewood worked. People pitched in together. They might be a dying breed, but the small town’s citizens believed in neighbor helping neighbor.
“I thought your dad was being extravagant when he told me he planned to keep the utilities on,” Don continued. “Said a house slowly disintegrates when it’s left closed up.”
“He knows how much the house means to Mom.”
Don nodded in agreement. “Oh, and Miss Leeson comes in to clean twice a month. You’d have given her a heart attack.”
The complications were multiplying. “Uncle Don, you can’t tell Mom or Dad.”
He pursed his lips.
“Promise…please?”
Reluctance swamped his face, but he finally nodded. “As long as you’re okay. That changes and the promise is off.”
Samantha knew she was lucky he wasn’t already dialing the phone. “Thanks.” The emotional reunion was exhausting. Had it only been months since she could trek for hours on end hunting a new species? Traveling to South America, Asia, pushing through the rain forests and jungles as easily as walking from one room to another. Now she was exhausted from sitting and talking a few minutes.
Rachel noticed. “Mom, Dad, we’re wearing Sam out.”
“But we just got here!” Trudy protested.
Don took her arm. “Rachel’s right. Sam, we’ll leave for today, but we’ll be back. Often.”
Touched, again she felt the threat of tears. Not a crier, she hated the weakness. “Thanks, Uncle Don.”
He clasped her shoulder. “You’ve got a lot to deal with, Sam. Remember you don’t have to do it alone.”
Not sure whether her voice would warble, she nodded.
Her Aunt Trudy looked as though she was ready to start the waterworks again, so Samantha dredged up a smile.
Rachel leaned close. “Don’t worry, Sam. We’ll get those legs working again. And you’ve got my cell number. I don’t care if it’s three a.m., you need something—call.”
Samantha returned her cousin’s hug, and kept the smile on her face until they were gone. Then she stared at her legs. She couldn’t tell them. She couldn’t tell anyone. There was no hope. No chance. Not unless there was a miracle. And she’d stopped believing in those the day Andy died.
Chapter Three
By late afternoon, Bret had left the nursery in Peter’s less-than-capable hands. Not that he wanted to, but he needed to make his daily run to his parents’ home to check on his father.
Robert’s health had been delicate since his heart transplant. So much so that he’d retired when Bret graduated from Texas A&M. Over the years, Bret had transformed the old family nursery. Robert had approved of the changes, understanding the need to grow native species that didn’t require watering. Not that Robert wanted to stop selling traditional bedding plants, too.
And although he couldn’t work at the nursery any longer, Robert kept busy growing orchids, a process as delicate as his health.
Bret quickly walked up the weathered brick driveway, nearing the garage, which was actually an old carriage house. It went with the age of the house, which had been built around the turn of the last century. It wasn’t a fancy house, but