In a Moon Smile (51 page)

When she heard their car coming down the lane, Chesney’s emotions began to smother her good intentions. She hurried to the door with Piper giggling on her hip. “Look who’s here!” Chesney said excitedly. “Mommy and Daddy are here, Pip.”

Piper’s face lit up as both of her parents hurried from the car to the front door. Within seconds she was giggling from being so loved. Cooper and Charlotte were both crying. When they pulled Chesney into the embrace, her tears escaped.

“We love you so much for helping us,” Cooper said as Chesney broke away from the group hug. “Chesney, you are the reason we could work on our marriage. Knowing that Piper was safe and loved meant that we could address our problems.”

Chesney could only nod. She felt like she might choke to death if the two love birds didn’t just shut up, grab their baby and get out of here before she lost her mind.

“Our trip to Fiji was a perfect way to bring in the New Year,” Charlotte said. “It was a second honeymoon.”

Chesney only nodded and smiled. She tried not to think about the way she spent New Year’s Eve. On that evening, after she put Piper to bed, she treated herself to a huge bowl of buttered popcorn and watched re-runs of
Sex and the City
.

“We can never thank you enough for what you’ve done, Chesney,” Cooper said as he carried the last box of Piper’s toys to the car.

“Be happy,” Chesney said in a trembling voice to her sister and brother-in-law. “That’s all I want for both of you. Be a happy, healthy family for little Piper.”

“I love you, Chez,” Charlotte said. “I hope you will...”

“I will,” Chesney nodded. “I will visit soon, Char. I promise. But now that you’re taking Piper home, I’ve got to schedule a trip to New York. And I’ve got to get back on track with my next project.”

“It’s time to say good-bye to Mama Cheeky,” Charlotte said and Piper looked at Chesney with big, blinking eyes.

“
Bye-bye
? No,” Piper shook her head.

“I feel the same way, Pippa,” Chesney said as her eyes filled again with tears. She nuzzled Piper’s sweet, chubby neck and kissed her nose. “I love you, Pip.”

“Chez, I feel so rude just stopping in here long enough to get Piper,’ Charlotte said.

“It isn’t a problem at all,” Chesney said. “The last time I listened to the news, the forecasts sounded even more serious so you should get going.”

The little family started out the door, with Piper snuggled in her coat and hat. A raw pain shot through Chesney’s heart. Piper realized that something different was happening. And the something different did not include her aunt. She immediately turned into a scream machine, wailing so loudly that it seemed to echo in the snow-covered stillness.

With heartbreak in their eyes, Piper’s parents stared at Chesney. Did their daughter hate their guts? “Don’t forget that she’s only two years old,” Chesney said lightly. “I’m sure she will calm down when she realizes that her babies and other toys are in the car.”

Trying one last time to get her way, Piper yanked the cute knit hat off her head and threw it on the snow-covered ground. “Oh, shit. No
bye-bye
.”

“Okay, so… there’s something to work on,” Chesney shrugged. Cooper and Charlotte hid their laughter from their cursing toddler. After Cooper strapped the screamer into her car seat, Chesney leaned in and kissed Piper on both eyelids and her nose until she started to laugh. “See you in a moon smile, baby,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”

Before noon, the sky began to spit huge snowflakes. As the winds increased, the snow flew sideways. Soon after Charlotte and Cooper left with Piper, Chesney spoke to both of her parents on the phone. They were warm and loving. They were excited that everything worked out well. They were happy that Charlotte and Cooper wanted to save their marriage. They hadn’t seen Piper since Thanksgiving.

“We’re feeling withdrawal symptoms,” Lyle Blake said with a laugh. “Until Piper went to stay with you, we saw her a couple of times a week, sometimes more.”

“She’s grown a lot,” Chesney said with a smile. “She’s talking a lot more.”

“Yes, Charlotte called from the Indianapolis airport,” Madelyn Blake chuckled. “She told us that little Miss Piper has added a couple of colorful words to her vocabulary.”

Chesney laughed even though tears were forming again on her heart. “Yes, she has a little bit of a potty mouth. She spent a bit too much time around her aunt.”

“It was right for you to keep Piper,” Madelyn’s voice was soft on the extension. “Your dad and I understand now why Charlotte made that choice, Chesney. I also understand what Charlotte was trying to say to me. I understand that she was falling deeper and deeper into depression. I didn’t listen well, did I?”

You didn’t listen at all.

“I’m sure you enjoyed your time with the baby,” Lyle added.

“I love her dearly,” Chesney bit her lip to hold back the tears. “I already miss her.”

Soon after the call ended, Chesney decided to make a huge kettle of soup. From the weather reports, she saw a great possibility that she might lose power. So she gathered candles and a couple of flashlights. She bundled up for the trek through the snow, to bring in more wood for the fireplace. But just as she unlocked the backdoor, the phone rang again.

“Do you need anything?” Becca asked.

“No, but thank you, Bec,” Chesney said. “I think I’ve got everything I need. Char and Cooper came early this morning to take Piper home. Looks like they got a flight north just in the nick of time. I’m just hanging around, making soup and listening to the calming sounds of some good old Kenny G.”

“Deke wants to know if you want him to come and get you,” Becca said. “That way, if we do lose power, at least we will be here together. We don’t want you to all alone over there on that ridge, Chez. Deke said if we get all the snow and ice that has been predicted, it could be several days before anyone could get up that lane to help you.”

“I’m fine, Bec. Really,” Chesney smiled, happy to hear that wonderful coziness in Becca’s voice. “While you adjust to life in Bean Blossom, I will be over here enjoying the solitude. During the next few days of quiet, I plan to cook and bake and write.”

“Do you really think I can adjust to being here?” Becca asked in a near-whisper. “Every time Deke asks me, I always say yes. But he won’t stop asking. So maybe he thinks I can’t survive.”

“Deke’s just looking for some reassurance,” Chesney said. “After all, you know it’s a huge transition to make. But you’re strong. You’ll be very happy here. Just remind Deke of the wonderful qualities that help you be successful wherever you happen to land.”

“Call if you need anything,” Becca said. “And Deke will attach a sled to the dogs and try his best to get to you.”

Chesney laughed, repeated that she was fine and hung up the phone. The skies were dark gray and the wind was now howling across the ridge with such a force that Chesney struggled to open the door. “Oh no,” she said to Blossom. “You can’t go with me this time. You stay right here in the warm house.” Shoving on the door to get it open enough so she could get outside, Chesney then struggled to free the wheel barrel which was partially buried by a snow drift. “Wow,” She said under her breath. “This is some crazy stuff. If this weather sticks around for too long, no one will see me until July.”

She soon realized the wheel barrel was useless since the snow was already too deep. It was impossible to easily push the wheel barrow to the barn then fill it with fire wood. She had no other choice but to pile as much as she could carry in her arms, one load after another. A tiny trickle of fear eased its way along her backbone as Chesney looked toward the pond. Visibility was so bad from the heavy wind and snow that she could hardly see the bank around the water. She hurried to carry a load of wood back to the house. By the second trip to the barn and back, her cheeks were numb. Her lips were wind burned. She moved as quickly as she could through the drifts, but fell a couple of times. A coating of ice was forming on top of the snow. Chesney threw the wood inside the backdoor and hurried back to the barn, knowing that if she didn’t move fast, all kinds of ugly things could happen.

I could freeze to death out here. What a very unattractive way to go. Maybe Dalton would find me dead with frozen snot on my face and ice chunks in my hair. Stop thinking. Keep moving. Just move as fast as you can. Get as much wood as you can. If you don’t keep working, maybe the drifts will be so high that you can’t get out of the house. And maybe you’ll lose power and freeze to death inside the house because you didn’t have enough fire wood. Stop thinking about all the tragedies. Just keep moving. Don’t stop hauling wood. Yes, your arms are aching. They feel like they might fall off. But there’s nothing else you can do. You’ve got to get wood in the house. You’ve got to get a lot of wood.

By the fourth trip, Chesney decided she couldn’t haul another piece of wood. Her face tingled. Tiny bits of ice coated her eyelashes. Under her gloves, her hands were burning. She stripped out of her clothes by the backdoor, left them in a wet pile and hurried upstairs to revive herself with a hot bath. “Oh, my gosh, Blossom, I am really bad at this pioneer woman shit,” Chesney said as she sank into the hot water all the way to her chin. Blossom stood on her hind legs to peek at Chesney, whose entire body stung and ached.

“Yep, I definitely suck at the Walton Mountain stuff,” Chesney muttered. “And I am not stepping one foot out that door until the sun shines again.”

“Chez?” A male voice. Downstairs. What the hell? Chesney sat up in the tub and listened hard. “Chez, where are you?”

Dalton. Oh my God, it’s Dalton. I couldn’t write a more romantic moment. I’ll be damn. The love of my life has risked his own life to check on me, in the middle of a blizzard. Wow. This would be some extremely steamy stuff if the handyman ever stopped to notice how much I love him.

Chesney’s next thought, however, pissed her off.

He thinks I’m a damsel in distress. Well I am far from that, Mr. Neanderthal man.

Dalton continued to shout her name. She sat up, feeling angry and irritated. She had to deal with this. He was sounding more and more frantic. He obviously thought she was a moron. That she certainly did not have the skills to get through a stupid blizzard without the assistance of a person with a penis. Then she heard Dalton stomping quickly up the staircase.

“I’m fine,” Chesney shouted. “Stop freaking out! I’m in the bathtub.”

“I wanted to check on you,” Dalton’s voice was getting closer and closer. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Chesney shouted. “I brought a bunch of firewood from the barn so I got in the bathtub to warm up.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to call you.”

“Chez, you know I would have hauled wood in for you.”

“I know that, Dalton. And I appreciate it. But I am perfectly capable of bringing wood in from the barn.”

“Well I…” his voice was so close now that Chesney panicked.

“Don’t open the bathroom door!” she commanded.

“I wasn’t planning to,” Dalton’s voice was now right outside the door. “Unless, of course, you invited me in.”

“Well that’s not going to happen,” Chesney snapped. “Why don’t you go downstairs and start the coffee? I’ll be out in a sec.” She stepped out of the tub, feeling exhausted.

Wrapped in a towel, she sprinted across the hall to her bedroom. “Forget the romantic shit. I’m not getting dressed. I’m wearing pajamas. How do you like my sexy flannel, Mr. Moore?” Chesney grinned at herself as she buttoned the two huge pieces of worn flannel pajamas. The pants were so huge that she safety pinned them around her waist.  Just for an added hint at her totally unsexy attire, she dug out her favorite slippers, fuzzy pink bunnies with floppy ears on the top of each foot.

By the time she got down the stairs, the scent of fresh brewed coffee filled the parlor.

“Oh my gosh, that smells so wonderful,” Chesney strolled into the kitchen and Dalton smiled beautifully.

“Love the outfit,” he grinned.

“I’m lookin’ pretty darn sexy today,” she smiled. “So try to control yourself.” She sat down at the table and leaned over to look out the window. “Amazing,” Chesney said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much snow, not even in Chicago.”

“Are you worried?” Dalton asked as he placed her coffee on the table.

“Worried?” Chesney asked nervously. “Worried about what?”

“The storm,” he said.

“Oh, no,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I feel very safe.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dalton said. “I want you to always feel safe.”

Something felt funny. What was going on? Was Dalton trying to say something to her without actually saying it? Why couldn’t she get her breath and calm her heart when Dalton Moore was in her presence? Her stomach began to jiggle. She felt nervous and jittery.

“Where’s Ben?” she asked.

“He’s gone to Florida with my mom,” Dalton said. “I think he’ll probably stay with my mom and dad until maybe early April.”

“Smart guy,” Chesney nodded.

“So…” Dalton sat down in the chair next to hers.