Windy City Romance: Boxed Set: Prequel - Book III Page 19
Henry squatted until he was eye level with Bella. “So you’re Cameron’s little girl? Aren’t you a sweetheart?”
Bella obviously didn’t know this family, and she buried her face between Harper’s knees.
“I guess Cameron doesn’t get home often?” Harper asked, looking to Lily.
Henry rose and shook his head. “So many fireworks when Cameron came around the old man. I think he just gave up trying.”
Lily shook her head. “But the checks kept coming. Money to fix the house or pay the heating bill. He was always good about that, but Mama had to keep it secret.”
Henry elbowed Fred. “Told Daddy her canning business was doing real good.”
“Daddy always knew, Henry.” Reaching out, Lily ran one hand over Bella’s wiry dark hair. “Will wonders never cease? Aren’t you a beautiful thing?” Kindness softened her tone. Peering up, Bella gave her aunt a shy smile.
Standing in the middle of a kitchen with a potbellied stove in the corner, Harper fought a crazy giggle. She’d come home with Cameron expecting to find a mansion like the one in Savannah and a gentrified family that had raised a man above reproach.
If these were the Blodgetts, then who the heck was Cameron Bennett?
~.~
Harper hadn’t been to many funerals. The service for Homer Blodgett provided a rugged initiation, one she’d carry with her for a long time. While the plain pine box sat at the front of the church, hymns rang out in a small, white frame church. From “Onward Christian Soldiers” to “Amazing Grace,” voices lifted, welcoming their brother home. Maybe Harper was just tired but the ceremony brought tears to her eyes.
As she lay in the twin bed the night before, Harper had felt lonely, glad to have Bella for company in the next bed. Blustery winds rattled the window panes. Having Cameron in the next room was some comfort. Was he wide awake, grieving the loss of his father? Somehow she doubted that. His mother slept at the end of the hall and they all shared a bathroom. Some kind of creature pattered above in the attic. At first Harper had been relieved when Cameron insisted that the dogs stay on the first floor. Now she wanted to call Moose, Jervis, and Molly upstairs.
“Are you all right with this?” Cameron had asked when his mother had mentioned the sleeping arrangements. “We’re pretty far away from any hotel. Things are simple here but clean.”
“Not a problem. This is fine.” She intended to sleep in her socks and long pajamas. Cameron’s face was drawn, and his eyes were bloodshot. The stilted conversation over a supper of collard greens, salt pork and grits had taken its toll. She would have agreed to almost anything that would ease his strained expression. In her reserved way, Esther Blodgett was fascinated with Bella but the grandmother’s comments when the bowl of cereal was produced were not kind. Bella spent most of the evening on her father’s lap.
As she stood in church next to Cameron with Bella between them, Harper knew all the words to the hymns. “A Catholic thing,” she whispered when Cameron turned to her in surprise. “The hymns are the same, you know.”
“You are a veritable fount of information.”
He’d grinned, as if they shared a secret. That bonding moment felt totally inappropriate and she stowed her smile for later. She wondered if Cameron had asked Kimmy to come with him and she’d refused. Maybe she couldn’t get away from her TV show. Harper had a hard time picturing the fashion plate in the small church where no one wore a suit and the dated sport coats probably served well for both weddings and funerals.
“Following the internment, y’all are invited to join the family at their home,” the Reverend Deacon offered at the end of the service. No address needed to be given. Going to the front of the church, Cameron joined his brothers and male cousins as they hoisted the casket and led the congregation through the back door.
“What are they doing?” asked Bella.
Harper had to think about that. “Wishing your grandfather well.”
“Is my grandfather in that box?”
“Yes.” Harper broke into a sweat.
“Is he ever coming out?”
“He’s in heaven, Bella. People are happy in heaven.” The questions stopped when Harper took Bella’s hand and followed the others out of the pew and through the door.
Homer Blodgett was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery. Crows cawed from huge willow trees that had just come into bloom, weeping branches of white splendor. The Reverend Deacon opened his Bible, and Esther Blodgett took her place to one side of the elevated casket. Although she clutched a handkerchief, she hadn’t shed a tear, at least not that Harper could see.
Breeze lifting his blond hair, Cameron stood with Harper and Bella, facing his mother, brothers and sister over the plain casket that smelled of fresh cut pine.
“My father never went to church a day in his life without complaining,” Cameron muttered.
At one point, Cameron swept Bella up into his arms and whispered something in her ear that made the little girl smile. After the minister said a few words, they filed past with the traditional words of farewell. Some left a flower. Others scattered earth. Only Lily wept, leaning on her husband’s arm.
By the time they returned to the Blodgett home, the field surrounding the white structure was even more crammed with battered cars and trucks. The sun caught Cameron’s black SUV, a shiny contrast. The house itself was fairly bursting with the crew of women who’d come from the church “lickety-split,” as they later told her, to set out the feast. The tantalizing smell of food lifted the gloom that had followed the mourners. Hunger rumbled in Harper’s stomach. After they trooped through the front door, careful to wipe their shoes on the metal boot rail out front, conversations were helping chase away the memory of that plain pine coffin.
The long buffet table in the front room held a sumptuous spread. Pan fried chicken was heaped on steaming platters alongside ample bowls of pork and beans. A rich mix of succotash stew and crisp hush puppies filled the air. Casseroles needed no identification for this group who heaped plates high with sweet potatoes, butter beans, black eyed peas, turnips greens, and fried green tomatoes no doubt plucked from someone’s cellar. Baskets of biscuits were set out with honey and preserves. For now, the guests merely glanced at the berry cobblers and shoofly pie. Dessert could wait. Apparently there was an unspoken order to this meal.
“Harper?”
She looked down into Bella’s terrified eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your cereal with me.” Her heart caught when she saw the girl swallow hard with relief. This would not be a good day for any eating experiments.
Cameron stooped, taking his daughter’s chin in one hand. “We got you covered, sweetheart.” Overnight, her employer had gone back to what Harper now saw were his roots. She stood in awe that he could be such a contrast to this scene and yet fit in so well.
Carrying heavy plates, they all spilled out the front and back doors to tables set up under the trees. Once she had Bella settled with her cereal next to Cameron, she went back inside. Both family and guests seemed to part while she added a chicken breast, some peas, and a few hush puppies to her plate.
“That’s all?” Cameron raised a brow when she took the seat across from him.
“I’m saving room for the shoofly pie.”
He smiled.
Although Lily stopped to chat with Cameron, the men seem to give him a wide berth. Bella was getting restless. Spying a rope swing hanging from one of the huge maples, Harper pushed her half eaten meal aside and took Bella’s hand. “How about a swing?”
Bella nodded. Dressed in her dainty blue dress and patent leather shoes, she looked so sweet. Harper’s heart fairly broke that Bella hadn’t even sampled the hush puppies that were so delicious, especially with the honey butter. But she wasn’t quite to that point yet and the group of strangers had thrown her. Together, they romped toward the swings.
“Higher, higher!” Hands clutching the rope, Bella made her demands with a giddy smile, and Harper complie
d. How well she remembered the swing in her own backyard in Oak Park.
Breaking away from what looked like a serious conversation with his sister, Cameron ambled over. “Looks like you found my favorite spot in the whole place.” He’d taken his jacket off and hung it on a bush. Had he ever looked more handsome, shirtsleeves rolled up and top button open? Leaning against the tree, he glanced up. “This old tree is way older than I am.”
“Did you come here a lot, Daddy?” Bella called out, swooping toward them. “Is this your swing?”
His smile held memories. “Sure is, darlin’. It was about the only toy we had here growing up. Well, this and our slingshots and marbles. Simple things.”
To Bella’s delight, her father took over the pushing. He had a special trick of spinning the tire that got her giggling.
“Thanks for coming with me,” he said when Bella was out of earshot.
“Doesn’t sound as if you come home much.” The words sounded more like an accusation, and she wanted to pull them back.
He hadn’t missed the tone. “I was not welcome here, Harper. My father was a heavy drinker and a bully. After we got older, he toned it down but I never forgot his fits of rage. When I refused to follow in my father’s footsteps and work the farm, he called me ungrateful. I left for school on a scholarship, concepts my father could not understand. My marriage to Tammy infuriated him. In his mind I was supposed to marry Lucinda Wilkins down the road. He had big plans to bring our properties together.”
“And your mother?”
“She did what she could. My father looked the other way when my brothers put her on the bus to come to Savannah. She and my wife never got along.” He measured Harper with one look, like he wondered how much more she could stand. “She seemed to enjoy Bella. Maybe you noticed that my mother’s not the kind to sing lullabies.”
Sadness carved a hole in Harper’s heart. “Isn’t some grandmothering better than none? Wouldn’t the Goodwins fill that role for Bella? They seemed like nice people.”
He didn’t look convinced. “It’s complicated.”
“So you said.” She pushed back the hair that had fallen out of the purple scarf binding her forehead. “Things are never the way you think they are.”
A grin tweaked his cheek. “You wouldn’t be talking about anyone in particular, would you?”
She smiled. “Nope. No one in particular.”
Shoulders working in the most distracting way, Cameron kept pushing the swing, his eyes on Bella. “You’re a hard one to read, Harper Kirkpatrick.”
She erupted into laughter. “Me? I overheard your brothers talking about your sharp eye with a gun. How you wrestled wild boars to the ground.”
“You up for a little target practice later?”
She crossed her eyes. “Sorry, but in Oak Park, we do very little target practice. “
“I’m sure if you did, you’d be an expert shot.”
“Not really but I appreciate your confidence.” She wasn’t going to tell him about all her unfinished projects. “Easily distracted,” her high school teachers had told her mother.
“So what’s the biggest surprise for you?” His question jerked her attention back. “Coming here. What surprised you the most?”
How she wished she didn’t blush so easily.
“Harper, you’d suck at poker.”
“I imagine I would.” How could she find words that wouldn’t hurt his feelings? “Ready for dessert?”
A breeze teased curls into her hair and she brushed them from her eyes. When she turned, Cameron’s eyes had become caldrons. She felt the heat burn to the bottoms of her shoes.
“Oh, I’d like dessert all right,” he whispered.
Harper couldn’t get a darn word out. Instead she stopped the swing. “Well, then, er, we should go inside.”
Lips curved into a mischievous smile, Cameron lifted his daughter into his arms. Together they walked toward the house, tall grass swishing around them. Bella buried her face in her daddy’s shoulder. The teasing glint in his eyes had vanished. Harper was relieved to slip inside the crowded house where chatter dissipated the riotous feelings having a hey day inside her. Grabbing a plate, she stared blindly at the delicacies arranged on the table. None of them would fill this hunger.
A woman in a black hat with lots of netting cozied up to Cameron. “Why, Cameron, we never see enough for you. And you brought your girlfriend?”
Chapter 21
Girlfriend? Harper stared at the woman.
Two plates in one hand, Cameron was scooping up banana pudding as if Bella were really going to eat it. “Mavis Parker, I’d like you to meet Harper Kirkpatrick from Chicago. Harper is Bella’s nanny.”
Harper’s world readjusted. Nanny. Of course.
“So very pleased to meet you, Harper.” Curiosity sharpened the woman’s glance.
Lily stopped Cameron with a hand on his arm. He gestured toward the door. “Harper, why don’t you take Bella outside and eat? I’ll be right there.”
“Sure thing. Come on, Bella. Let’s go sit with your grandmother.” Was that a flash of concern in Cameron’s eyes when Harper took the plate of banana pudding from him? She made a bee line for the door and the family table under the trees. Bella trailed behind.
“Come sit with us, child.” Esther motioned to the seat next to her.
Bella sat down and Harper sat on her other side. When Harper put the plate of banana pudding in front of Bella, the little girl swept it aside. “I’m hungry. I want cereal.”
“Cereal? But it’s dinner time.” Picking up her knife and fork, Esther plopped a piece of chicken onto a clean plate and cut it into bits. Then she nudged the plate in Bella’s direction. “Eat, girl. No need to go hungry at this table.”
The Blodgett boys kept eating but they hadn’t missed the drama. Tears brimmed in Bella’s eyes. Harper’s heart pounded in her ears. So this was the sensitivity that had shaped Cameron?
“I’ll get more food, honey.” She wasn’t about to use the word “cereal.” Harper sprinted for the kitchen where she’d left the box. The hurt in Bella’s eyes made her trip on her way up the worn wooden steps. Shins burning, she hurried inside.
“What’s up?” Cameron asked when she passed him talking to Lily.
“Nothing.” Their conversation looked serious. She wasn’t going to bother him.
When she returned with the bowl of cereal, Bella picked up her spoon and, still sniffling, began to eat. Harper couldn’t stomach the peach pie, and she hoped whoever brought it didn’t see her cover it with her napkin. Her throat closed every time she glanced over at the stern-faced woman watching her granddaughter like a bird of prey.
People were stopping at the table to pay their final respects, but Esther’s attention focused on Bella. “Well, I never.”
Harper sucked in a breath of relief when Cameron took the seat next to her. Lily also joined the table. Cameron caught his mother staring at Bella. “What is it, Mama?”
“A grown girl eating like that.”
Cameron’s brothers exchanged a look with Lily. They’d obviously heard this tone before.
Cameron’s features sharpened. “You know, Mama, I’m not in the habit of badgering my child about what she eats or does not eat. I have never rubbed mashed potatoes in her hair or made her sit in front of a plate of black-eyed peas until midnight because she didn’t care for the taste.”
Never blinking, Esther persisted, “I would think you could afford to give her more than cereal for her meals.”
“This is not about what I can or cannot afford.” Cameron bit his words off as if they were beef jerky. “It’s more about what my child prefers.”
Even the far tables had fallen silent.
Harper wanted the ground to open and swallow her. And she wanted to take Bella with her.
“Cameron, why don’t you tell us about the latest houses you’re working with.” Lily’s voice came high and thin. “I do love to hear you talk about your business.”
Why couldn’t she fix this? She was pretending to be something she wasn’t, plain and simple. The cheerful, fun loving nanny. Maybe Bella would be one more project she just couldn’t finish.
Glancing at his watch, Cameron got up from the table. “Speaking of my business, I have to get back to the city.”
Lily’s face fell. She didn’t want her brother to leave, but the afternoon sun was slanting to the west. Cameron had had enough. Harper began packing up Bella’s things.
“I’ll just take her to the restroom, Cameron.” Relieved to be away from that table, Harper chattered mindlessly as she trooped toward the house with Bella. When they reached the porch, Lily motioned to Bella from the corner.
“Want to see something?” she asked her niece.
Bella cocked her head with her usual caution. “Like what?”
“Like puppies.”
Harper watched Bella’s resistance melt and followed her around the corner. A bunch of squirming brown and white mongrels romped and played in a pen while the dog called Molly stood watch.
“Will you just look at this?” Stooping, Harper held out a hand and puppies tumbled toward her. “How old are they, Lily?”
“Six weeks. Time to find good homes for them. You look like a dog lover.”
Harper shook her head. “The way I move around, I couldn’t have a dog.”
“I want a puppy,” Bella piped up, fluttering one hand at the darling creatures. “Can I, Harper? Come here, puppies.”
The balls of fur tripped over each other, trying to reach Bella. But the tiniest one sat back, probably used to being last.
“I like the little one.” Bella reached out and Lily swooped up the puppy. The runt of the litter gave an excited yelp before licking the dickens out of Bella. Harper had never heard the little girl giggle like that.
“This is the only girl in the litter,” Lily told them. “I’m afraid the boys have made her shy with their roughhousing.”