Love Starts with Elle(91)

Truman and Lady listened. None of it seemed to surprised them.

“This is only the beginning, Elle,” Truman said.

“Exactly what I told her.”

“We’ll see. Ruby Barnett is one woman.”

Heath chugged his root beer and talked a minute of golf with Truman while Elle discussed Julianne and Danny’s November wedding with Lady.

When Tracey-Love popped into the kitchen, Heath herded her toward the van. “It’s past your bedtime, kiddo.”

“See you back at the ranch,” Elle said as she steered Rio toward her car.

One minute down the road, TL fell asleep. Heath glimpsed at her in the rearview mirror, slumped over in her car seat. Returning to New York was going to be way harder than he ever imagined.

At the cottage, Heath scooped up Tracey-Love. Hard to believe the dog-tired girl had been a fairy princess an hour ago.

With Elle, he tucked the sleeping beauties into bed and flipped off the light.

“Want to sit on the screen porch? It’s a nice night.” He wasn’t ready to end his evening with her.

“Yes, I want to sit and think, let tonight sink all the way in.”

A dewy scent perfumed the breeze as it brushed against the screen. “Rain,” Heath said absently, moving his chair closer to Elle’s.

“There’s this . . .”—she pressed her hand over her stomach— “. . . feeling, as if I’ve just done something I was born to do. Isn’t that weird?”

“No, I think we all have those special moments.”

“What if y’all hadn’t taken the paintings? What if Darcy had caved and returned them to me? What a blessing I would’ve missed.”

“But you didn’t. So don’t think about it.”

“This year . . .”—emotion slanted her words—“. . . was so very hard. But God in His mercy and wisdom is redeeming it, redeeming me.”

Heath put the iron rocker into motion with the heel of his foot. “One sleepless night after Ava died, I clicked on the TV, stopping for some unknown reason to watch a very dramatic preacher. Man, he was annoying, but he said one thing that hit me so hard it carried me through the next months. Jesus, he said, knew the splendor and glory of life after the Cross. It’s why He hung there, died, and rose again, making all of heaven’s beauty available to us. Everyone. I remember he said ‘everyone’ over and over. I understood he meant me—broken, hurting, angry Heath McCord. Made my trial seem bearable.”

“It’s true, just hard to comprehend.”

“I read Ava’s letter.”

Elle turned to see his face. “When?”

“About a week ago.”

“Can you tell me . . . I mean, was it a good letter?”

“It was odd reading her words, mentioning things as if they were yesterday, but knowing it’d been over a year. She apologized for our fight, but I couldn’t even remember some of the things we said.”

“Are you glad?”

“Glad I read it, glad she wrote it. I want to save it for Tracey-Love so she can read a little about her mother’s passion for the job she was doing, see her handwriting. In this computer age, I’m not sure I have anything of hers handwritten. A few cards, maybe.”

Elle sat back in her chair. “Doesn’t seem fair that you can’t respond.”

“A response now would only be for me and my comfort. She’s in a better place, doesn’t need my apology. But there was a final part to her letter.”

“Good or bad?”

“She was pregnant.” The wind shoved the screen making the porch lights appear to sway.

Elle jerked around, her shock showing in her wide eyes. “Oh my gosh, you’re kidding. You didn’t know? At all? Did you want more children?”

“We’d changed up”—he cleared his throat—“some things, so it was a possibility, but we weren’t trying. In the letter, she was very excited.”

Slipping out of her chair, Elle knelt next to him, her hand easy on his knee, like the night in the ER. “Are you okay?”

He wrapped their fingers together. “I spent a few days thinking and processing, praying. I was a little mad, but I’m tired of being ruled by death, ruled by the past. I’m happy to know I’ll see another child some day, but it’s done.” Heath peered into her eyes. “Does that make me sound harsh?”

“No, just human and that you’re finally healing.”

He traced the curve of her jaw. “I’m going to miss you.”

“And what am I going to do without you, carving angels in my yard, teaching me to break china, kicking me in the pants when I want to quit?” She pressed her cheek against his palm.

“You are so much stronger than you know, Elle. Don’t you know how much you’ve brought healing to me and Tracey-Love, caused me to open my heart again?” Brushing his hand over her sleek hair, he thought if his heart let go, he’d cradle her on his lap and kiss . . . “I just remembered something.”

Elle slipped back into her chair as he went inside and returned with a CD, flashing it in front of Elle before popping it into the boom box.

“What is it? I didn’t see the jacket.”

“You’ll see.” He flicked the On switch, pushed a button, and the jazzy melody of “Neither One of Us” spilled from the speakers. “Dance with me.”