Chapter 10

10

M id-morning two days later, Iris sat on the floor with Levi, who was standing beside the coffee table, playing with Play-doh. Bright spring sunlight slanted through the picture windows overlooking the back forty.

Callum sat on the couch across the living room, his leg propped beside him. Brandt was tucked in beside him. Both dark heads were bent over a rhyming book.

Since the night of their near-kiss, Iris had avoided Callum as much as possible.

He stayed in Uncle Joe's study much of the time, making a lot of phone calls. The electricity for his place had been connected. The water well should be complete today.

He'd been making noise about him and the boys staying at the trailer, but she didn't see how that was going to work. He had some movement on the crutches, but Levi and Brandt were two balls of unstoppable energy. He wasn't going to be able to rest and heal if he was chasing them all day long.

She didn't know if she could survive another few weeks with this awful tension between them. Even Jilly had noticed, but thankfully hadn't commented. This morning, Jilly had been feeling well enough to go on a ride.

"Do you got a mommy?" Levi asked Iris.

The boy smooshed clay between his palms, and his head was bent over whatever creation he was making, but his voice betrayed the seriousness of his question.

"No, sweetie." She feathered her fingers through his hair, lingering for only a moment before he shook her affection away as only a three-year-old boy could.

"How come?"

Callum didn't look up from the book. Had he heard Levi's question?

Iris grabbed the nearest hunk of blue clay and squeezed it in her fist. "God needed my mommy in heaven." It was a simplified answer. Something she often struggled with. But hopefully something a child could understand.

Levi's head came up. And Callum's did too. Awareness skittered up her arms in a wave of goosebumps even as she kept her eyes on the boy.

"Is that why God took my mommy up there, too?"

She set down her clay and squeezed the boy's shoulders in an impromptu hug. This time, he didn't pull away. He laid his head on her shoulder, snuggling in as emotion rolled over Iris in a wave.

She still struggled with grief over her mother's death. Jilly's diagnosis and treatments had brought it to the forefront all over again. How much harder must it be for a boy as young as Levi to understand? She knew he must feel the emptiness of life without a mother, but he'd never known his.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe."

For a moment, everything was still and quiet.

And then Brandt called out "I want to hug!" and jumped off his dad's lap. He bowled into her, knocking her into the sofa. The simple embrace turned into a wrestling and tickling match. Finally, she got the boys interested in the clay again and sat up in time to catch Callum's frown. Before he could say anything, the doorbell rang.

"C'mere guys." Callum gathered up the boys on the couch with him, and Iris went to answer it. It was a delivery driver she didn't recognize with a thick envelope addressed to Callum. She signed for it.

Inside, the boys clamored on the couch as she handed the package to Callum.

"What is it, Daddy?"

Callum's brow had turned into a thunderhead as he looked down at the envelope in his lap.

"Back up, you boogers." Callum pushed up off the couch with some difficulty, reaching for his crutches, which he'd tucked behind the corner of the couch. "I need to go to my room for some privacy."

Iris found herself nodding even as intense curiosity had her holding back questions. Like, What is that? What's wrong?

"I thought we could make some cookies to have after lunch. Chocolate chip?"

His face creased as he finally got both crutches under his armpits. He'd folded the large envelope in half and stuffed it in his back pocket. "With the boys? You want the boys in the kitchen?"

Why did he sound so disbelieving? "I thought it would keep us busy for at least... twenty minutes."

His mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile, but he just shrugged his broad shoulders and maneuvered out of the room.

Callum sat on the edge of his twin bed, his casted leg planted on the floor at an angle. His forehead rested in one palm as he stared at minute cracks in the wood floor.

The letter dangled from his other hand. He couldn't erase the words from the forefront of his mind.

Suit for damages .

Plaintiff: Wade Tatum and the City of Sutter's Hollow.

He hadn't made enough of Tatum's threat. How naive had he been, thinking he could come back here without having to face consequences for the choices he'd made years ago?

The attorney he'd paid a hefty retainer hadn't called him back after their hour-long conversation. Callum reached for his phone to call the man.

The door burst open, startling him. He started to stand, forgetting about his leg. He stumbled.

The letter slipped from his hands and skidded across the floor, stopping just inside the door.

Levi ran in the room hurtling at Callum's knees. Already off-balance, he worked to catch himself on the edge of the desk.

"Levi!" Iris's voice flowed in the door as she came at a run. "Sorry." She reached for the sobbing boy, but he just clung harder to Cal's legs.

There were chocolate handprints on her jeans and the white blouse she wore. Callum grimaced. Scents of sugar wafted in on the air she'd disturbed, and he wanted a taste.

Before he could stop her, she reached down and grabbed the letter. Her eyes flicked across the page, and his stomach sank.

"Give me that." He snatched it out of her hands, ashamed of his sharp tone and the hurt in her expression.

Levi sobbed louder.

"Why is my father suing you?" she asked.

"Stay out of it," he growled.

He didn't want her in the middle of this thing with him and her dad. There were too many secrets from the past. He tossed the letter onto his bed, hoping that would be the end of it, and reached down to ruffle the boy's head.

"What's going on, buddy?"

"My tummy hurts."

He looked at Iris accusingly. "You didn't let them eat raw dough, did you?"

She popped her hands on her hips, a rebellious tilt to her chin. "Of course I didn't."

She glanced over her shoulder. "I don't want to leave Brandt alone for too long."

He nodded and watched her leave before he settled back on the bed and drew the boy into his lap.

Sometimes the twins complained of a tummy ache when what they really needed was a good cuddle. He didn't remember that happening when he'd been a child, but by the time he'd been the boys' age, he'd already adjusted to life in a broken home. Maybe it made him coddle them a little too much. Too much was better than not enough, though. He could attest to that.

He held Levi close. What would happen if he couldn't get this thing with Iris's dad settled? Would he have to sell the ranch and move on? Find a fresh start for his sons elsewhere?

"Daddy, my tummy," Levi moaned.

And then Levi lost his breakfast all over him.

Iris returned to the kitchen in time to find Brandt standing on a chair that he'd pushed to the faucet. She grabbed him, then reached out with her opposite hand and turned off the water just as it threatened to overflow the bowl she'd set inside the sink.

Her heart was pounding, but not from the near-disaster she'd just averted. Why was her father suing Callum? She'd barely glanced at the letter, knew it was his private business, but she hadn't been able to help herself.

And he'd clammed up, telling her to stay out of it .

After all she'd done for him over the past few days, his words had stung.

Callum called out, his words muffled.

"Be there in a sec!" she yelled back.

She bent to ask Brandt to hop off the chair when she noticed just how pale his face was.

"I don' feel good."

And he threw up all over her new sandals.

She stood stunned and immobile for long seconds.

The little boy started crying.

"Okay," she said, voice shaking. "It's okay." Kids threw up sometimes. It didn't mean they were sick.

Except she remembered Levi saying his stomach hurt, and then Callum's shout. If both of them had thrown up, did that mean they'd picked up a stomach virus? She needed to get Jilly quarantined now .

She slipped out of her shoes, reaching for the counter to steady herself. "Does your tummy still hurt?"

Brandt nodded.

"Okay, can you sit down crisscross applesauce?"

If the boy got sick again, better to clean it from the tiled kitchen floor than the hardwood in the living room or worse, the furniture. She grabbed a package of wet wipes from the counter and did a quick wash up on her feet, then wiped up the mess on the floor with paper towels. She would have to get the mop out, but an inner urge told her to check on Callum.

She rushed down the hall in her bare feet to find Callum pulling a clean T-shirt over his torso.

She swallowed at the glimpse of skin. But she was quickly distracted by the pile of soiled clothes in the center of the floor.

"I throwed up." Levi sat on the bed in his underwear. His tan lines were stark, showing his white tummy and thighs.

"Your brother did, too."

Callum's head came up. His concern was immediate. His gaze flew to her bare feet.

"I'm fine," she said quietly. "Tell me what you need."

"I can't carry him into the other room."

She could see from the muscle jumping in his jaw how much it cost him to say the words.

"Should I start a bath?" she asked.

She didn't know where to go from here. Maybe if she'd been a mother—or had a mother—she would know what to do.

"No use bathing them if it's not over. You got some big bowls? And an old blanket for the couch?"

"I'll find something."

"Thanks." He held her gaze, the moment becoming a beat of understanding—and maybe something more.