Chapter Ten

Sam pulled up in front of Grace House the next morning with a spring in his step—and that was the opposite of how he’d felt the morning before. Then he’d been full of dread, fearful that he would do something wrong that would jeopardize his chances with Joshua.

In his opinion, the day before had gone well. He certainly had scored a few points with Regina. Unfortunately, the person who really counted still viewed him as an ogre.

No matter, he would just have to try harder to break through that solid shell she called skin, and prove to her that under no circumstances would he ever abandon his son.

Instead of marching up to the front, Sam skirted around the back of the house. After a few hardy raps on the back door, Regina opened it, her strong hand clutching the top of her bright blue bathrobe.

“Heaven be blessed, if it isn’t Dr. Morgan. Aren’t you up early? Why it isn’t even eight o’clock.”

“Please, call me Sam. I thought being a preschool, parents would be dropping their kids off early.”

Regina gave a hearty laugh. “Well, if it was during the week that would be true, but today is Saturday and we all like to get a little more beauty rest.” She patted her wiry hair. “Some of us need it more than others.”

With some mental backtracking, he realized she was right. He’d lost track of the days. After agreeing to the month’s extension, he’d spent a few days wallowing in self-pity and anger. That wasn’t going to happen again.

“I’m sorry. I’ll come back a little later when everyone’s up.” Sam took a step back.

Regina reached out and pulled him through the door. “Don’t be ridiculous. No sense you driving back across town, just to have to turn around a few hours later. Especially when gas prices are through the roof. Save your nickels for ice cream. You sit right down. I just put on some coffee and you can have a dish of my peach cobbler while I cook us up a good breakfast.”

Sam took a seat at the kitchen table. “If I keep eating here, I’ll have to go out and buy some new pants. I’m not used to this type of pampering.”

“Oh, stop. I’m sure your mother took good care of you when you were little.”

Sam paused and thought as he watched Regina bustle around the kitchen. “Not really.”

The older woman dropped a piece of cobbler in front of him along with a fork. “You come from a broken home?”

Sam picked up the fork next to the plate. “No. Both my parents were dentists and both took their careers very seriously. I was pretty much on my own, which wasn’t always a good thing,” he said around a mouthful of cobbler.

Regina dragged a pan out of a cupboard and placed it on the stove. “That smells like trouble.”

“You got that right. I was a wild child with a capital W.” He pushed the cobbler around his plate. “It’s not a time in my life I’m proud of.”

Regina went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a slab of bacon and a carton of eggs. “I can understand that. Thank goodness the Lord forgives us and loves us with our warts and all.”

Sam wasn’t too sure about that. “They died in a plane crash right after they retired. They never got to see all the places they had put on their bucket list. My mom had pictures of her dreams plastered on our refrigerator door and never got to see one of them in real life.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But God must have wanted them with him really bad. He always takes the good ones young.”

He could get used to having a woman like Regina in his life. She was a good listener and seemed to come up with the right answers.

“Can I help you? I’m pretty handy in the kitchen,” he asked.

She started to cut some nice thick bacon strips. “Are you?”

“Yep, Vicky wasn’t really the domestic type. We had a housekeeper and I did most of the cooking.”

“My word, what did that woman do all day if someone else was doing the cooking and cleaning?”

Remorse flooded him. Vicky spent most of her mornings in bed sleeping off her latest binge. He stood up and gently took the knife from Regina. “Let me do that. In fact, why don’t you sit down? I’ll make breakfast.”

She gave out a hoot. “Sam, you are spoiling old Regina. How about we do it together?”

He gave the older woman his brightest smile. “All right.”

When they were done, he set the table and Regina handed him a cup of hazelnut coffee.

“Now you sit down and finish that cobbler. Nobody says dessert has to be last. Especially on Saturdays.”

Yes, he could get used to having Regina in his kitchen and his son sleeping upstairs and… Sam’s thoughts slowed as he caught himself imagining a world that just wasn’t to be. This wasn’t the life for him. This type of life had a hand in Vicky’s drinking problem. By the time he had figured out what was going on it had been too late…for Joshua and his wife.

“What’s a matter?” Regina asked. “Don’t you like my cobbler?”

He hadn’t realized he had stopped eating. “Yes ma’am. I do. This is the best cobbler I ever ate.”

“Well, you got so still I thought it was filled with rotten peaches. That or you had gas.”

They both started roaring. His son was certainly lucky to have such a good-humored woman in his life. A sting of guilt pricked at his heart. Did he have the heart to take him away from this? Yesterday he’d noticed how happy Joshua was here; his laughter of contentment still rang in Sam’s ears. Would his son be able to get used to being in Guatemala again? The nurses and doctors at the clinic were stellar. The villagers were kind and generous. The last time Joshua was there, they bent over backwards to make him feel welcome. Diane Embers, who ran the mission school was top notch, but Vicky hadn’t given her or anybody else a chance. She had claimed nobody there could understand Joshua’s condition. Was she right? Could the mission school give him as good an education as he was getting with Miss James?

Sam pushed the question to the back of his mind. Joshua was his son. He couldn’t bring himself to leave his child behind anymore and he couldn’t bring himself to stay there either.

“I smell bacon!” Joshua rushed into the kitchen in a pair of frog-print pajamas and stopped short when he saw Sam. The large smile he had been wearing fled. Absent was the gleeful expression he’d worn the day before. Joshua’s bottom lip quivered.

“What’s he doing here?”

Regina turned away from the stove and offered the boy a piece of crispy bacon. “That’s no way to talk to your father. He’s come here to see you.”

Joshua took the bacon and eyed Sam like he was a criminal. He didn’t make another comment, but stood there munching on the crunchy strip.

Sam took a sip of coffee that bounced down his throat like a liquid boulder. “Good morning, Joshua. Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

“Yeah,” Joshua said suspiciously.

“I’m glad. I wouldn’t want you to have any bad dreams.”

His son took a few steps closer to the table. “I said prayers with Miss ’Cole and put Jesus under my pillow.”

The worry doll. Sam had forgotten that Joshua had taken the doll that he said resembled Jesus. One had to wonder what Miss James thought about him giving the kids toys many Christians thought were associated with a pagan practice, even if the dolls were supposed to look like biblical people. Perhaps that’s why she looked at him like he was covered in pea soup the day before. But he didn’t care. If giving Joshua that doll brought him a step closer to this table, then he’d go on the Internet and buy his son a truckload of them.

“Good.” It was the only word Sam could get out over the tightness in his throat.

“Go take a seat at the table, Joshua. Breakfast is ready,” Regina said as she turned and grabbed the pan full of eggs from the stove.

He took the remaining steps toward the table without taking his eyes off Sam. His son pulled out a chair across from him and cautiously settled in. Sam didn’t want to move a muscle, fearing his son would bolt.

Regina heaped steamy eggs and bacon on their plates. “Go on boys. Say your prayers and then eat ’em up.”

Joshua bowed his head and Sam followed suit even though the ritual no longer meant anything to him. Regina stopped and did the same from where she stood in the kitchen.

His son began, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.”

“And Dear Lord, thank you for bringing Sam to us this morning and please bless him abundantly this day,” Regina added.

There was a pause as if both of them were waiting for him to add to the prayer, but Sam couldn’t, no matter how touching the scene was. He didn’t have the heart to send a message into thin air, nor did he want to dissuade anybody who felt differently.

Finally both Regina and Joshua said, “Amen.”

Apparently, his son found the meal more interesting than his father because the child dug into the eggs like a gopher digging into a pile of dirt. Sam couldn’t do anything but stare at his beautiful boy. If he believed, he’d say God made Joshua perfect.

Picking up his fork, Sam scooped up some eggs. He could get used to eating breakfast every day with his son. Something he’d missed and planned to do once Joshua was living with him again. The thickness in his throat thinned and the eggs slid down easily. There was nothing that could spoil this moment.

“Hmm, I could smell the coffee and the food all the way upstairs.” Nicole James walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of Truman the Tiger lounge pants and a baggy University of Missouri T-shirt. Her curly red hair was piled on the top of her head, secured by a scrunchie. Clean-cheeked and sleepy-eyed… She was attractive in all the right ways.

When the thought crossed his mind that he could get used to her, too, that scared him half to death.