An elderly woman wearing a bright floral housecoat and fuzzy pink slippers came scurrying down the stairs. “Miss McCall!”
“Call me Alyssa, please.”
Myrna stood before Alyssa, a welcoming smile parting her wrinkled cheeks. Her blue-gray hair hung in a single braid over one shoulder. “We’re so happy to have you staying here with us.”
“Indeed,” Doris agreed with a nod. “Braxton isn’t exactly the tourist capital of Texas.”
A fluffy white ball shot down the stairs and past their legs, disappearing into an adjoining room.
Myrna laughed. “That blur of white is the newest addition to our family, Bluebell.”
“You like cats, don’t you?” Doris asked.
Alyssa nodded. “Yes, I do.” Although she’d never had one of her own.
“Good, because our dear little ones tend to crave affection.”
She could relate to their need.
“You have the prettiest eyes,” Doris observed, then leaned closer in her inspection of them.
Too bad they didn’t work. That wasn’t exactly true. Her eyes were perfect. The visual cortex part of her brain, which had been damaged in the accident, was the reason for her visual impairment.
Myrna leaned closer, as well, inspecting Alyssa’s eyes through her glasses. “She does. They’re just like topaz under the sun.”
“Goes well with her hair color.”
Doris nodded. “I always thought green eyes complimented auburn hair the best, but I do believe I was wrong.”
Alyssa blushed at their compliments and their close scrutiny. “You’re both too sweet.”
Just then two kittens with calico markings scampered into the entryway. Doris bent to pick them up. “This is Rhett and his favorite girl, Scarlett.”
“Well, hello there,” Alyssa said, scratching each of them behind their ears.
“Come on, dear,” Doris said. “Let me give you a quick tour of the downstairs. Then I’ll show you to your room.”
“I’d like that.”
“I’ll go put some water on for tea,” Myrna called out as Doris led her into the parlor.
The house was purely Victorian, from the striped damask curtains to the countless gilded picture frames that lined the walls. Taking a walk through the rooms helped Alyssa familiarize herself with the house’s layout. Like Alyssa’s town house, the women’s home was filled with warm, white lights and holiday decor.
When the tour ended, Doris led her upstairs to the room she’d be staying in. Alyssa stepped inside and looked around, her gaze drawn to the off-white, antique cast-iron bed. She walked over to it, running her fingers over the faded beige ribbon-threaded quilt.
“Our mother made it,” the older woman announced behind her.
“It’s beautiful.”
“She loved quilting. Unfortunately, neither Myrna nor I inherited our mother’s sewing abilities,” she said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Alyssa turned to face her. “We all have our own special abilities. You and Myrna run a boardinghouse, and yet you still find time to take in strays and love them unconditionally. It’s more than some children can say about their own parents.” The second the words left her mouth, Alyssa wished she could take them back.
“Your parents didn’t show you love?”
“I was simply making a reference,” Alyssa replied with a nervous laugh.
“Of course you were,” Doris said from the open doorway. “If you ever need to talk, dear, Myrna and I are very good listeners. Now you go get settled in and then come down to the kitchen and join us for a cup of tea.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.” Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes as the older woman stepped from the room, closing the door behind her. No, she would not think about her mother and the love she’d never been able to show Alyssa. That was something that would never change. Her mother was gone now, so there was no use wishing for what could never be.
Instead, she would strive to focus on only the good things God had blessed her with in Braxton. Like the kindhearted sisters who had so generously opened their home to her. Like the adorably inquisitive Katie Cooper and her stick-pony-riding father.
* * *
Nathan glanced toward his daughter, who appeared to be thoroughly captivated by the rain outside. As long as it wasn’t storming with gusting winds, she was fine. Let the wind pick up and Katie became panicked. Understandable, all things considered.
He thought back to what she’d said earlier. Since losing her mother, Katie had never once voiced her discontent with the way things were. He’d assumed that Mildred’s presence in her life, and then that of Audra’s, satisfied any need his daughter might have for a mother figure. And maybe it had in the past, but something had changed. His little girl was looking for a mom.
That tugged at his heart. He would give his daughter the world if he could, but giving her another mother was asking for more than he was ready to do. And what if he did remarry again, for Katie’s sake, and things didn’t work out? Where would that leave his daughter? Motherless again. Heartbroken. Emotionally withdrawn. No, it wasn’t worth the risk.
So how was he supposed to handle this situation? Ignore it? Tell Katie to stop wishing for what she could never have? It was moments like this that he missed Isabel the most. She always knew the right thing to say.
He pulled up to Mildred’s place and shifted the truck into Park.
“Daddy, look how big the puddles are outside,” Katie exclaimed, her lightly freckled nose pressed against the passenger window.
“It’s coming down in bucketfuls,” he acknowledged with a nod. Crazy weather patterns. High sixties and sunshine that afternoon. Cold rain that evening.
“I wanna jump in them.”
At least his daughter’s thoughts had moved on to something other than Alyssa McCall’s marital status. He tossed his partially soaked cowboy hat onto the backseat to dry, then stepped out into the rain. As he rounded the back of the truck, he shrugged out of his coat. Then, opening the passenger door, he gathered his daughter up in his arms, wrapping her up in his coat to shield her from the rain’s onslaught. “The winds are picking up. We don’t want you blowing away.”
Katie stiffened in his arms with a muffled gasp. “I don’t wanna be blown away,” she cried out, her arms clutching his neck.
He mentally chastised himself for his careless choice of words. He tightened his hold on her with a sigh. “Don’t you worry, honey, Daddy would never let that happen to you.”
“But it happened to Mommy.”
And there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t blame himself for Isabel’s death. He’d been off with his brothers working on a job site. He hadn’t been there when his family had needed him the most.
Before he had a chance to reply, the front door swung open and Mildred walked out. “There you two are. I was beginning to worry.”
He set Katie on her feet. “We had to swing by The Cat’s Cradle first.”
“Yeah,” Katie joined in, her mood shifting back to its normal carefree state. “We had to give Alyssa a ride there.”
“Miss McCall,” Nathan corrected as he shoved a hand back through his wet hair.
“Miss McCall?”
He