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As Don walked into his mother’s room, tray in hand, she turned to face him. He held his breath. She’d been silent all day, but that meant nothing. Her mind was so damaged she could change without warning. Like a switch flipped. One minute his mother would be as docile as a baby, the next she was fighting like her life depended on it. Those were the worst times. For both of them.

  “Hey mom. I have some dinner for you.” He slowly set the tray on the table beside her recliner, trying not to make any sudden, startling movements that could send her into a tailspin.

  She watched him intently as he pulled up the small chair he sat in when he fed her. “Do you want your pills first?”

  She remained silent so he held out the cup containing her vitamins and the drug her doctors were hoping might help slow the steady deterioration of her brain. His mother opened her mouth for him to slide them in, one at a time. He held the straw to her lips and she took a sip between each pill.

  She managed to get all three down without any problems. Hopefully her dinner went down as easily.

  “I made your favorite.” He held out a small scoop of minced noodles and sauce. She took the bite slowly. It was a tedious process, making sure to give her small enough portions and enough intermittent sips of water so she didn’t risk choking, but one he didn’t mind, especially when it went as smoothly as it did tonight.

  It was nights like this when his decision to take care of her seemed easy. Made sense. It was the only way he could help his sisters, living here where expenses were low. The only way he could make sure they would have a good start to their lives.

  But these nights were few and only getting farther between leaving him to struggle through the rest, taking care of a woman most people wouldn’t say deserved it and wondering why in the hell he was here.

  Tonight was a mixture of them both. He was tired. Tired of the sacrifice. Tired of his life. Tired of trying to prove he was better than people thought.

  His mother was able to finish almost everything he put on her plate, the most she’d eaten in a long time. “Did you get enough?” He dabbed at her mouth with a baby wipe, making sure to get all the bits of sauce off.

  She barely nodded and rolled her head away.

  “I’m going to go turn over your blankets and I’ll be back in a little bit to put the bed back together and get you all tucked in for the night.” He left her door cracked open as he left.

  Don opened the shuttered doors that covered the small laundry area in the hall just outside the two bedrooms. He pulled his mother’s bed sheets from the dryer set them on top of the still warm appliance, then moved the blankets from the washer over to the now empty dryer and started the cycle. He grabbed the sheets from the top of the dryer and slid the doors back shut to stifle the noise of the blankets tumbling around.

  After tossing the sheets onto the couch, he went to the kitchen and put his plate of food into the microwave to heat it back up. While it cooked, Don shook out the freshly washed sheets and pillowcases so they would be ready to put on when the blankets were dry.

  The microwave beeped and he grabbed his food and sat down to eat the limp noodles. He flipped open his laptop to surf the internet as he ate. Checking his email and bank accounts took up most of his meal. Shoving his plate to one side, he logged into his LinkedIn account. He had two messages from cities in the general area looking for inspectors.

  He stared at the screen.

  Maybe it was time.

  It could be a fresh start. A place where no one knew him. He could be different. Move forward without having to climb the wall of his past to prove who he was, really.

  But his mom. She needed him. So did Thomas and Nancy. Without him helping on the farm last season, they would never have made it.

  And Beth.

  He shut the laptop and stood up with his plate. Maybe Beth was more of a reason to leave. She shouldn’t be a reason to stay that was for sure. Shoveling her driveway, making sure she and her girls were okay, that was one thing, but hanging around hoping it would ever be more than that? Well that would just be—

  Stupidity.

  If anyone knew to stay away from him it would be her. And rightfully so. He’d hit on her now sister-in-law and been accused of trying to kill her brother-in-law. Also rightfully so.

  Don filled the sink with hot, soapy water and cleaned up the dinner dishes, making sure the small kitchen was tidied up before going back to put his mother’s bed back together.

  His mother didn’t move in her chair as he made her bed, starting with the waterproof mattress cover followed by the flowered flannel sheets she liked, then topped with a fleece blanket. He pulled back one corner so it would be ready to slip her in.

  By the time he’d brushed her teeth and changed his mom into her pajamas and a fresh diaper, it was almost an hour later. Don leaned down and kissed her forehead as he tucked her into the fresh bed. “Goodnight mom.”

  He was pulling her door shut when her small voice reached him. “Thank you Donnie.”

  He stopped, staring into the room for a second. “You’re welcome.”

  Maybe he’d stay a little longer.

  ****

  “Jesus it’s cold.” Beth shivered, hunkering lower in the electric blanket she’d wrapped around her body like a burrito. This sounded like a much better idea an hour ago.

  Now she was beginning to wonder if her unknown caretaker finally got tired of taking care. Not that she could blame them. Especially now that she knew from experience how freaking cold it got at night.

  Her nose was nearly numb. Even sticking it inside the heat of her cocoon occasionally wasn’t enough to keep it from starting to ache in the frigid temperature.

  Her cell buzzed on her lap. Beth tucked her whole head into the warmth of the blanket and read the text from Autumn.

  Anything?

  The sound of a car made Beth pop her head back into the cold outside air like a prairie dog scouting the grasslands. “Damn.” She pulled her head back down as a gust of wind whipped around her house and across the covered, wrap around porch where she waited. The same wind that was strong enough to cause the roaring she mistook for a car.

  No. I think I’m giving up.

  She sent Autumn the text and struggled to get up but after an hour of pulling the heavy blanket tighter and tighter around her body, that was turning out to be no easy feat. Before she could get upright, the phone buzzed again.

  Don’t you dare. If not for you, then for me. It’s driving me crazy not knowing who it is.

  Beth barely finished reading the first message when another came on top of it.

  Maybe it’s a man…

  Beth snorted as she texted back.

  Yeah. He’s probably sixty and his wife is making him do it.

  That was the likely scenario she’d settled on. It was probably one of her fellow teachers or maybe someone who knew Nancy’s family and wanted to help a poor widow out.

  Maybe that was why she needed to know who was doing this. It bothered her that someone thought she was needy. That she couldn’t handle what life threw at her. She could only imagine what people around town said about her.

  That poor Beth Dalton. All alone with those two girls. No money. No husband. Such a sad victim of circumstance.

  It made her want to scream.

  It made her want to prove them wrong even more and that was why she was freezing her ass off hiding on the porch in the dead of night after a snowstorm. So she could tell whoever this was that it was a very thoughtful gesture, but they could stop.

  She was fine.

  She had it handled.

  She settled back in, resigned to wait all night if that’s what it took. It was just a little chill. She had her blanket and a full cell battery. Just as Beth finally got readjusted and was sinking her whole body into the electric warmth she heard a noise. It wasn’t the sound of the wind. Not even the sound of a car engine.

  What she heard was the gentle, soft scraping of a snow shovel.

  Beth�
�s heart leapt to her throat and her stomach clenched as she slowly stood up, careful not to tip over. She freed one arm and unplugged the blanket end of the electric, leaving the plug and attached cord in the outlet beside her chair. She crept up the side of the farmhouse, taking slow, silent steps. Whoever this was went to great lengths not to get caught and only now did it register they might not be too happy to be discovered.

  She paused and mulled over the prospect, but only for a second. This was her house and her life and if wanting to deal with her own driveway honked someone off, then that was a problem for them to deal with. Not her.

  Rounding the corner Beth caught her first glimpse of the person who’d been sneaking to her house in the middle of the night. Her heart pounded faster as she moved across the front of the porch.

  A slow recognition eased its way into her brain. The coat, the stance, the build, it was all familiar and plenty enough to make her guess who’d been watching over her. But the hat?

  That was a dead giveaway and it had her feeling something far from the nervousness of only a few seconds past. And the irritation. Suddenly, she didn’t even notice the cold.

  “Don?”

  He spun around, his crystal blue eyes wide under the matching hat Maddie made him. “Beth. I…” He wiped the sleeve of his heavy coat across his forehead as those same beautiful eyes darted around, as if they could find an explanation if he only looked hard enough. “Uh. I just…”

  She stared at him, struggling to grasp the full extent of what this could mean. Was he here because Thomas mentioned something and he felt obligated? Was he here because, like everyone else, he felt bad for her?

  Or could it be something else?

  Her stomach fluttered at the thought even though rationally, she knew the last thing a single, genetically gifted man like Don wanted was someone like her. She wasn’t just a package deal. More like a shipment deal.

  Beth tipped her head to one side and watched as he shifted in his boots. “Why are you doing this?”

  His bare hands gripped the shovel he held in front of him, knuckles white from the cold. He took a deep breath. “I thought you could use the help.” His words were short, forced.

  And they didn’t add up. If he thought she needed help, why wouldn’t he just ask? Even if he didn’t want to ask her. He had plenty of other options. Thomas, Nancy, Paul. Any of them would have been an easier way to offer to help than sneaking out in the middle of the night and freezing half to death.

  “Then why didn’t you just offer? Why did you work so hard to be sure I didn’t know it was you?”

  His gaze stopped darting around and slowly landed on her. “I didn’t want you to have to tell me you didn’t want my help.”

  She stepped closer. His answers weren’t clearing things up for her at all. If anything they were only giving her more questions. “Why wouldn’t I want your help?”

  His eyes fell to the small distance of snowy ground left between them. “I know what people say about me.” He was trying to sound indifferent but was having little success. If there was anything good to come of going through the things she had it was that it made you pay more attention to what people didn’t say, than what they did.

  Because people lied. Sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad ones, but almost always to protect themselves.

  “Is it true?” She took another step, wanting to look in his eyes. Try to see all she knew he wasn’t saying.

  Don looked at her, his eyes on hers, giving Beth all the opportunity she needed to see everything he thought was hidden. “Some.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes fixed on his. Hurt, rejection, disappointment, and regret, it was all there hidden in the clear blue depths. This is what little boys like Levi grew up to be if no one saved them.

  They became men who gave up on being saved.

  She nodded at his exposed hands. “Where are your gloves?” She stepped closer to him. “Come here.” Before he could object, she opened the blanket and stepped against him, wrapping her arms around him, hoping there was enough heat remaining to warm his bare and certainly painfully cold hands.

  He stiffened against her. “What are you doing?”

  She looked up at him not really sure herself. Maybe her motherly instincts kicked in. Or, more likely, the memory of him holding her so tightly in Nancy and Paul’s driveway yesterday as he saved her from an icy injury made her want to feel his body close to hers again. Especially now that she knew he was the one watching over her. “You’ve taken care of me for weeks, I just wanted to return the favor a little bit.”

  He shook his head, his jaw tight. “You don’t owe me anything.” He tried to step back. “That’s not what this is about.”

  She tightened her arms around him, refusing to let him get away, especially not after his last statement. “What is this about then?”

  Beth watched as his jaw clenched impossibly tighter. He was clearly uncomfortable with the situation he found himself in, and if she wasn’t so interested to have his answer, she might show him mercy and let Don bolt like he so obviously wanted.

  But unfortunately for him that wasn’t going to happen. “Why are you doing this for me?”

  She felt the air leave his lungs and his shoulders sagged where they peeked from the blanket she wrapped around them. “I thought maybe it would help you out. Make your life a little easier. I know how hard it can be for a single mom.”

  Autumn’s words from the night before came rushing back.

  When his dad died it got worse…his mom was strung out all the time… he didn’t have any food.

  Tears stung Beth’s eyes. Don was trying to save her and her daughters from his own past in the only way he could think of.

  Beth moved her arms from around his biceps up to his neck and pulled him close, pressing her lips against his.

  And then she realized what she was doing.

  This poor man was just trying to help her and she’d basically straight jacketed him against her and now she was borderline molesting him. Beth jerked back, their lips separating with a soft smack. Unwrapping her arms and the blanket from around him she stepped back.

  “Thank you.” Did she just thank him for kissing her? It looked like she was going to get her wish and be shoveling her own driveway from here on out because it was unbelievable Don wasn’t already half way to his car trying to get away from her and her grabby hands.

  “I mean, thank you for shoveling my driveway.” She shook her head at herself.

  Don rubbed his lips together, probably still a little in shock that the town widow just jumped at him. “Beth you never have to thank me for helping you.” He nodded toward her house. “Why don’t you go inside and warm up?”

  “Okay.” She really did want to thank him, tell him how much it meant to her, but at this point every word that came out of her mouth sounded dumber than the last so it was time to count her losses and run.

  Beth managed a smile at him before she tucked tail and made a beeline for the front porch, her cheeks burning with heat as the frigid wind smacked at her face. She shut the door and sank down to the ground, letting her head fall back against the wooden slab separating her from the pile of embarrassment that just happened.

  Well, she’d solved all her problems, just not in the way she planned. Don would no doubt happily stay far away from her driveway from now on. As an added bonus, the hots she’d developed for him over the summer would freeze over like the pond on the back forty after the humiliating display of desperation she just put on.

  Beth sat straight, her ears perking up as they listened to a familiar sound coming from outside. She dropped the blanket still clenched in her fists and stood up to peek out the window, watching silently as Don quietly continued to shovel her driveway.

  SEVEN

  “Here.” Beth held out the container marked heavy cream.

  Nancy looked at the cream and then up at Beth as she continued deftly unfolding the wax paper covering the stick of b
utter in her hand. “What’s that for?”

  Beth looked down and reread the label to be sure she chose correctly. The cardboard carton with a plastic twist lid embedded in one side of the angled top was the only item in the fridge with the word ‘cream’ anywhere on it. This had to be what Nancy asked for. “You said cream and butter.”

  “No.” Nancy dropped the stick of butter into the bowl of her mixer. “I said cream the butter.”

  Beth looked again at the container in her hand, then the butter in the bowl. “I have no idea what that means.”

  Nancy smiled. “Cream means to whip it up until it’s fluffy.”

  Beth slid the container back in the door of the fridge where she found it. “Then why don’t they call it fluff?”

  “Because this is cooking, not a porno.” Nancy dropped the mixer down into the bowl and switched it on. “Next we need brown sugar and white sugar.”

  Beth opened the cabinet Nancy pointed toward and fished around, easily finding the container of white, sandy sugar. She started pulling out more containers, carefully inspecting the contents for anything that looked like it would be called ‘brown sugar’. “I didn’t even know two different kinds of sugar existed.”

  “Oh honey, there’s more than that.” Nancy gave her a wink. “But we can discuss that another time.”

  “I think this is a mistake.” Beth finally found a heavy, well-sealed container filled with what looked like wet sand. “Maybe I’m more of the store-bought cookie dough kind of cook.”

  Being the kind of mom she wanted her girls to have was turning out to be more involved than Beth anticipated. Or maybe she just sucked at it more than she expected. It was shocking how much planning and preparation went into making food. Especially when you had no clue what you were doing.

  But she was trying. However, after eating spaghetti and jarred sauce or pre-seasoned baked chicken breasts with instant mashed potatoes ad nauseam, Beth decided she needed more hands on guidance than her new cookbook could provide.

  Nancy shook her head. “You will be just fine and it will be worth it.” She smiled at the girls where they sat playing on the shaggy rug in front of Paul’s supersize flat-screen television. It probably never occurred to him how many hours of Barbie movies that thing would see when he bought it. “Homemade dinners are something they will remember forever.”