Nathan tamped down the memories of his late wife that threatened to surface. Forcing his focus solely on the tiny heart-shaped face looking up at him so adoringly, he playfully pinched his daughter’s lightly freckled cheek. “And I suppose these aren’t sprinkles?”
“No, silly. They’re freckles!” She pulled away with another giggle and ran back to the porch. “Watch what I can do, Daddy.”
He smiled as she dipped a large bubble wand into the bright yellow tray that sat on the sun-warmed porch steps and then spun in a slow circle, her motion creating a long, iridescent bubble. To be so carefree, he thought with an inner sigh.
The door to the small, ranch-style house creaked open, drawing his gaze that way.
“Nathan,” Mildred Timmons greeted with a warm smile. A smiling, robust woman in her midsixties, Mildred had been a Godsend to him after losing both his wife and his parents in the storm two years before.
He’d been a couple of towns away, working on a construction project with his brothers, when the F4 tornado touched down, leaving a path of destruction across several Texas counties. The near mile-wide twister had swept across the northernmost part of Braxton, ripping down power lines, damaging buildings and taking the lives of those he loved in a few short minutes.
“You’re done early,” she said, wiping her hands on the apron she had tied about her rounded waist.
“Not really. I have a break before I have to get back to the site. Thought I’d take Katie into town for a hot dog. That is, unless she’s already eaten dinner.”
“You’re in luck. She hasn’t. We were gonna make some fish sticks and fries, but I’m sure she’d rather be having dinner with her daddy. You two haven’t gotten to share many meals together lately.”
He nodded with a frown. As co-owner of Cooper Construction, a business he’d started with his brother Carter five years earlier, he’d had his hands full dealing with the reconstruction needs left behind in the area by the tornado that struck two Decembers ago.
“We’re working overtime to get the recreation center finished before Christmas Eve, but a few unexpected setbacks are pushing us down to the wire.” With so many people counting on him and his brothers to get the job done in time, the pressure was on. He couldn’t let the town down. Couldn’t let Isabel down. Not only did the town council plan to hold their annual community holiday festivities in the newly erected building, they had decided to dedicate the new rec center to the townsfolk that were lost in the storm. So while he hadn’t been there for Isabel when she’d needed him most, he was determined to do whatever it took to see to it the dedication took place as planned. That her memory lived on.
“I have faith in you boys,” Millie said. “You’ll make it in time.”
Faith—it was something he used to hold dear to his heart. That was before he’d lost those he loved in a violent, senseless storm.
“Just don’t stretch yourself too thin,” she warned, drawing Nathan from his troubled thoughts. “Katie needs you.”
And he needed her, too. But it was during this particular time of year he needed to bury himself in his work. Needed to forget about the future that had been so unfairly taken from him. From Katie.
“I might be a little late tonight,” he said, avoiding the issue of his demanding work schedule. “Will that be a problem?”
“Oh, goodness, no,” the older woman replied as her gaze followed the energetic six-year-old around the yard. “I love having Katie here with me. She’s such a breath of fresh air for an old woman like me.”
“You’re far from old,” he told her.
“Old enough,” Millie countered.
“You know, Millie, I don’t know what we would’ve done without you these past two years.”
“I could say the same thing about all of you,” she said, her voice catching. Her husband had been the only other tornado-related fatality in Braxton. He’d been out doing a check of the property’s fence line when the storm struck and he hadn’t been able to make it to shelter. “You boys, little Katie here, and Carter’s lovely wife and children have become my family. I just wish...” She looked his way, her expression doleful.
“Wish what?”
“That you would open yourself up to love again.”
He sighed. “Millie...”
“I know we’ve discussed this before,” she admitted. “But I can’t help it. I wanna see you meet a nice young lady like Carter did. Be happy again. You’re too young to spend the rest of your life alone.”
His brother was happy. No doubt about it. Audra and her two young children meant the world to Carter. But what if something happened to that perfect world he’d walked so willingly into? Like it had to his and Isabel’s?
“I’m not alone,” he said, fighting a frown. “I have Katie.” Though he’d nearly lost her, too, when his own perfect world came crashing down around him. Isabel had taken their young daughter out to his parents’ ranch to help put up their Christmas tree when the twister struck. Katie and his father had been pulled from the rubble and taken to the hospital. Katie survived. His father hadn’t, dying a day after his beloved wife and daughter-in-law.
“Have faith,” his father had said during his final moments in the hospital. “There is always hope beyond the storm.”
But was there really?
“Yes, you do,” Millie agreed with an empathetic smile. “All the more reason for you to start living again. Besides, Katie needs a woman in her life.”
“She already does. Two, in fact. She has you and Audra.” Turning, he whistled to get his daughter’s attention. “Park your bubble wand, Cupcake. Daddy’s taking you to Big Dog’s for dinner.”
“Big Dog’s!” she squealed in delight. “Yay!”
He turned back to Mildred. “Would you like to join us?”
“Thank you for the offer, but I have a hankering for fish sticks for dinner,” she told him with a kind smile. “You go spend some special time with your little girl.”
He nodded. “We’ll be back in an hour or so.” That said, he stepped from the porch. Scooping up his daughter, he carried the giggling little girl out to his truck.
He and Katie were fine just the way they were.
* * *
“Well, if it isn’t my two favorite customers.”
“Hey, Lizzie!” Katie said with a toothy grin.
“Hey, Katie,” the young waitress replied. “I see you roped your daddy into taking you out for dinner again.”
“She’s pretty good at wrangling me into doing her bidding,” Nathan admitted with a chuckle. Lizzie was a sweetheart who was loved by all. She had been waitressing at Big Dog’s ever since graduating from high school. “How’s school going?”
“It’s going,” she said. “A little challenging juggling work and my online classes, but I’m determined to get that degree before I’m too old to do anything with it.”
“You’re only twenty-four,” he reminded her.
“Sometimes it feels like I’m twice that.”
“You’ll manage,” he assured her with a nod.
“I wish I could be as certain as you are,” she replied. “It won’t be long before I’m working, taking online classes and squeezing in the required classes that have to be taken at school. My head is bound to be spinning soon.”
“Keep your eye on the goal,” he told her. “That meteorology degree you’re working