Love Starts with Elle(35)
“I-I-I had a sc-scary dream.”
He held out his arm, beckoning her. Tracey-Love ran out, her little-girl feet barely making a sound against the porch boards.
“What’d you dream?” He cradled her in his lap.
Elle curled into her chair, watching. Listening.
“A-a-a big sh-sh-shark got me. Right he-he-here.” She jammed her foot into the air, pointing to her heel.
“There?” Heath grabbed her foot and kissed her heel. Tracey-Loved laughed. “No shark can bite my girl. Did you know when a daddy kisses his girl’s foot, no shark can get her?”
Tracey-Love lifted her other foot. Heath gingerly kissed away his daughter’s fears. “All better?”
“Kiss Miss E-Elle s-so no sh-shark can get her.”
Heath gazed at Elle. “I bet Miss Elle’s daddy already kissed her feet.”
“Yes, after a lifetime of training, my daddy has kissed all his girl’s feet.” She wagged her finger at him. “It’s true, bubba. The wrapping around her finger began the day she was born.”
“Help,” he gasped like a drowning man.
“However,” Elle said, reaching over the side of her chair to tug on Tracey-Love’s toes. “I’m all safe from sharks, but I would like an inoculation against dating shallow men. What do you got?”
TL shrugged, palms up. “I don’t know.”
Elle laughed. “Yeah, me neither.”
“All right, it’s back to bed.” Heath kissed her forehead, then set her on her feet. “Run get in Daddy’s bed. Don’t turn on the TV.”
“’Kay.” She threw herself against Elle’s legs, her arms hugging her at the knees. “S-see you, M-miss Elle.”
The screen door creaked and slammed. Tracey-Love’s running feet thudded through the house.
“She’s gorgeous, Heath.”
“My heart.”
“Can I ask what happened to her mama?” After rescuing the man from pluff mud, Elle felt bold enough to inquire.
He scooted his chair closer to hers. “It’s a long story and I believe you were saying this was your wedding day?”
She set her Pepsi on the porch floor. The cold beverage gave her the shivers. “I’d be dancing at my reception about now. We’d hired this great cover band and picked out a bunch of favorites and oldies for them to play.”
How’d he make it so easy for her to expose her heart?
“Tell me, do you grieve the day or the man?” Heath sat with his head against the back of the chair, his face toward hers, softened by the light of porch lamps. An oldie drifted from the radio speakers.
“Maybe both. I did love him.” She leaned on the chair’s arm. “What is it about smart women choosing the completely wrong men?”
Heath’s laughter purchased a piece of her melancholy. “You’ve got me. But men aren’t immune. In fact, they’re probably worse.”
“Did you choose well?”
“By the grace of God, yes.” For a moment, they were silent except for the tune on the radio.
Finally, “My friends Caroline, Jess, and I hauled that old boom box to the beach every weekend, every summer for three years. I’m surprised it isn’t spewing sand.” Elle dug at the peeling paint on the chair’s wide, flat arm with the tip of her thumbnail, missing those carefree days.
“My friends and I set things on fire, blew up gas cans, ran from the police. Then I went to a youth rally at fifteen, met Jesus, and it didn’t seem as fun to toilet paper trees and let air out of car tires.”
“Really?” So, he was a friend of Jesus. Not just a seeker. “I walked the aisle at eight. Mrs. Gilmore sang ‘Just As I Am’ and I couldn’t stop crying.” Elle exhaled a bit of doubt. “It’s good he dumped me, isn’t it?”
“It was good for him to be honest, yes.”
“Why does honesty hurt so much?”
“I don’t know, but I suppose it’s why we have a lot of liars in the world.”
Elle laughed. Heath was good medicine.
“So, shopping, you said, with your sisters? What’d you buy?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” He whistled. “Is that allowed? Shopping on your ex-wedding day and coming home empty-handed?”
Elle pulled her feet up, anchoring her heels on the edge of her chair. “It’s all about breaking the rules, McCord.” The breeze from the creek carried a damp chill.
“At least you haven’t resorted to greasy hair and army fatigues.”
“Give me another week.” She peeked over at him. Was he always this easy to be around, or was it just for her in this moment?
When their eyes met, he seemed to relax, stretching his long legs in front of him. “Way yonder in Texas, there’s a man wondering if he made the right decision.”
“I doubt it. Jeremiah is focused and driven. I don’t see him wondering if he did the right thing.”
The conversation drifted to silence as another oldie played, the frog choir chiming in with a little background vocal. “This porch and the creek is why I bought this place,” Elle said softly. “It’s lyrical and peaceful.”
“Is it hard with me living here? I mean, when a person faces trial they usually like the comfort of their own home.”