Chapter 20
NOELLE
Two days later, a woman with a bright smile and crinkly eyes approached Cade’s truck from the corner of a quaint house with a white picket fence. Her breath plumed in smoky gasps, filtering to the bitterly cold but cloudless blue sky.
Cade, already out of the truck, closed the space between them with a broad grin. The unknown woman waved as she headed through the snow, carrying a shovel and a bag of ice-melt salt.
Curious, I slid out of the front seat to join them. My boots crunched over the snow as I met the woman halfway.
Cade gestured to me. “Dagny, this is Noelle. She’s old man Morgan’s granddaughter. She and her daughter, Lily, are staying with me for a bit while we renovate the old ranch house. Noelle, this is Dagny. She’s a longtime friend of mine.”
“H-heard all about you from M-mac at the hardware store.” Dagny stuck out a hand. “So good to m-meet you in person!”
Cade laughed. “Mac has a big mouth.” To me, he added, “Mac runs the local gossip ring because his wife is the hairdresser.”
“Your g-grandparents were an established part of P-pineville, Noelle, and we miss them. I remember trick-or-treating at their ranch house once when I was a little g-girl. Your grandmother was so kind. She made c-candied apples for all the kids.”
The memory stirred warmth in my heart, easing me into the conversation more fully.
I didn’t normally avoid social situations, but the overwhelm of an infant, a new life, and a new house made it easier to lock up in the house and not venture out.
It felt good to be away from the ranch, the bathroom, and smell something other than grout.
“Thank you for sharing that with me.” I smiled. “I miss both my grandparents. It’s good to know their community loved them.”
With a thumb, Dagny motioned over her shoulder. “J-jackhammer is in the back, the shed on the l-left. You know the one.”
“Thank you, Dag.” He motioned to me. “I’ll be right back. Just grabbing the jackhammer. We’ll need it downstairs, I think.”
Jackhammer downstairs?
News to me.
Then again, I’d been in a daily haze of sorting through all the things Grandpa kept tucked into closets and bedrooms. A load filled the back of the truck near to bursting, ready to donate at the local town thrift store after we ran to the grocery store.
“H-how old is your daughter?” Dagny asked.
The question stirred up all kinds of awkward energy.
Lily was my daughter. Would always be my daughter now that Naomi was gone, but I still struggled with the verbal transition.
Cade introduced me with an effortless confidence about the situation, yet I struggled to share his calm attitude about it.
Because a single mother now lived with Cade, and this was already proving itself to be a typical small town.
People would talk.
But I forced those fears aside to answer the question, irritated that such a benign request stirred up so much mental drama.
“Lily is just over a month old.”
Dagny illuminated. “She’s so new!”
“Very. It’s . . . she’s actually my niece, but . . . I . . .” Fumbling, I finally spit out, “My sister died, and I’ve taken custody of Lily. Well, I’m trying to get custody but . . . anyway . . .”
Dagny’s expression dropped into surprise and then brimming compassion. I silently cursed myself for botching the first opportunity I had to make a friend. She hadn’t asked, so why did I have to bring it up? Surely, there would be a more natural way to tell the story in the future.
But no.
I had to shout it out now.
Dagny asked, “C-can I see her? I won’t get close because my t-toddler was home sick yesterday, but I love when they’re s-so tiny!”
“You have a toddler?”
“Yes! I’m always up for m-mom play dates if you want.”
“That sounds nice.”
Relieved at the compassion in not pointing out how awkwardly I’d handled my introduction, I pulled open the back door. Lily nestled inside, staring overhead. She startled at the brush of cool air, arms going rigid, then relaxing.
Dagny’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she breathed, hands to her face, “She’s p-perfect.”
I smiled softly. Lily was perfect. Her tiny fingers, her plump lips, the curve of her cheek. When she curled away from the cold air, I closed the door. Dagny smiled with an understanding I never expected to see.
“You doing okay, Mama?”
The gentleness in her words, the knowing smile, almost broke me. I swallowed the rising tears.
“Yeah. We’re okay now.”
She looked as if she wanted to reach out, but held off.
“I bet C-cade is ecstatic to have you at the house.”
“What do you mean?”
We flowed toward the front of the truck again. Cade appeared at the corner of the house, carrying something in his right hand. It looked heavy, but he managed with ease.
“Cade has always w-wanted a family,” Dagny said easily, sending him a thumbs-up. It must be the jackhammer.
“Oh?”
She laughed. “That’s not n-news to anyone.”
“Why isn’t he married?”
It felt like a relief to release the question. How could he still be unattached? So handsome, compassionate, hard-working, yet not snatched up by the first woman ready to be barefoot and pregnant with his babies?
The idea wasn’t a terrible one.
Dagny lifted her hand to shade her eyes and murmured, “That has always b-been the question, and I don’t think it has as m-much to do with a busy ranch as he might make it out to be.”
Her last line sat with me. What could that possibly mean? His arrival prevented me from asking. He smiled as he approached.
“You’re saving me a couple hundred bucks, Dag.”
She shrugged. “I tr-rust you with it, Cade. And I expect to see the p-project once you’re all done.”
He strode around to the back of the truck as he called, “It’ll be awhile before that happens!” and I somehow felt great relief in the comment. If it would take a while to finalize the renovations, then I had reasons to stick around.
It bought me time.
The tires hummed as Cade eased down the highway, one hand on the wheel, the other bent on the window, his head tipped. A line formed between his eyebrows when he thought this hard, and it appeared now.
“Thank you.”
My tentative offering shattered the quiet. Blinking, he looked over.
“Sorry?”
“For introducing me to Dagny.”
A surprised smile wreathed his face. “My pleasure.”
I left it there, and wasn’t that the best part of Cade? I didn’t have to elaborate, try to figure out what he was thinking. We were the same in the quiet as we were in conversation, and it felt like a gift.
The truck rumbled its way down the hill, and I felt a sense of peace begin to creep inside.
Cade meant it when he said he didn’t care what others believed about us.
A vibration cut my thoughts short. I pulled my phone from my vest pocket in surprise.
Marsha and I had spoken that morning. She didn’t usually—
My breath caught.
I said, “Oh!” before I realized it.
Cade asked, “You okay?” while my eyes skimmed the test message that caught me by surprise. The text wasn’t from Marsha.
Sarah: Thank you for the invitation to visit your new place in Wyoming, Noelle. We would love to see Lily and your new home. We have booked our flights to the closest airport to the address you sent us, and acquired a rental car. We’ll be there in three days.
Three.
Days.
A warm hand touched my shoulder, pulling me from my surprise.
“Noelle?”
Clearing my throat, I said, “Yes, sorry. I mean, fine. Everything is fine. I, uh . . . I heard back from Sarah.”
“And?”
“They’ve already purchased a flight and booked a rental car. They’ll be here in three days. She didn’t say anything snarky about me being out of state,” I added as an aside, which surprised me. In the past, she accepted any opportunity to be snide.
He whistled. “Three days? That was fast.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
I tipped my head back and expelled a long breath. It felt better, so I did it again. Irrational fears darted through my mind, no doubt goaded on by lack of sleep, and the whirlwind of change.
“Yes. I’m just . . .”
“Afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
His curiosity was calm, natural. He slowed the truck as we pulled into the miles-long road that wound through hills until we arrived at the driveway, which was another mile until we reached the ranch.
“Of losing Lily. What if they barge in and—”
“Take her?”
Hearing him say the words that finalized my nightmare made it sound ridiculous. He held no judgment in the tone, but I was irritated with myself over it. Did I have to be so over the top with my anxiety? Grandparents didn’t just stroll into an unknown house and whisk a newborn away.
“Ah . . . I guess?”
“Well, I can guarantee that won’t happen.”
“It seems silly when I say it out loud,” I admitted. “Normally, I’m not like this. I’m not so anxious and paranoid. I’m a normal human with a job and social skills and get good sleep and—”
“—and you gave that up to raise a little girl who needed you,” he finished, “which is pretty amazing, if you ask me. So whatever you’re judging yourself for, you can stop now. No one else is.”
His words sank deep, and hard. I was judging myself over everything, and it wasn’t helpful.
“I love her,” I admitted quietly, wrapping my fist around the core of my anxiety storm.
“I’ve only known Lily for a few weeks, but I love her with a ferocity that I didn’t know existed.
And it’s scary, holding so much love. Because with that love comes the potential for loss.
And with Naomi dying so unexpectedly . . .”
Tears choked my throat, so I let the words hang there. His warm touch hadn’t deviated from my shoulder, and it burned a trail down my arm as he ran it all the way to my hand, then clasped my fingers in his firm, calloused ones.
“You’re not alone, Noelle. We’re going to see this through with you, all right? You and Lily are going to be just fine.”