Healing Hearts

“Oh dear,” Tessa’s brow furrowed. She knew all about strokes, from her mother. “How bad is it?”

“To put it simply, he’s working on relearning to talk right now. He came into the hospital in critical condition and needed emergency surgery. I’m sure you heard the story of the accident.” Freckles waved a hand indicating that this wasn’t what she wanted to discuss. “Suffice it to say, during the surgery, the doctors were unable to repair everything. While they had him on the table working on him the cerebral hemorrhaging caused some damage. This has resulted in the trouble reading. Actually,” Freckles said, picking up the spoon and absently stirring her tea, “it’s a miracle he lived at all. He had so many problems. He’s doing marvelous considering what shape he was in when he was brought into the E.R.”

“Really? Thank God,” Tessa said simply.

Freckles nodded. “And God alone. Hope went out the window when he came through that emergency room door. We were working on him, but it was just so bad.” Freckles leaned forward, her earnest look burning into Tessa. “Someone wouldn’t give up on him though. Someone stayed in the prayer closet because the man made it and he’s healing at a phenomenal rate.”

Freckles paused to sip her tea. As silence fell, Tessa wondered if that was why she hadn’t died when she’d been hurt. Had God simply been watching out for her? Had someone been praying, seeking God on her behalf? She was curious, which surprised her. It had been so long since she’d really shown interest in anything except her kids and animals.

“When he first started showing signs of improvement,” Freckles continued now, “we thought it’d be months of therapy to see any progress, let alone to see him progress this far.”

Freckles shook her head. “We were wrong, Tessa. He’s proven that. It’s hard to believe, but the patient is even talking already, though he still slurs his words a bit—especially if he gets stressed or upset.”

Again Freckles leaned forward, her intense stare indicating how much this meant to her. “He’s trying to read on his own, Tessa. He is doing more than any patient I’ve ever seen. But he needs help. You see—” Freckles reached down to pet the puppy that came trotting in to his water dish “—it’s time for him to be dismissed but he lives too far outside of town for that. You know we don’t have a rest home or a rehabilitation type place here in Hill Creek. There’s no one near the hospital to take care of him. We want to keep him close by in case of developments….”

“I’m not really a nurse,” Tessa began, stroking her cat.

“You don’t have to be one,” Freckles explained. Clasping her hands, she leaned forward eagerly. “You see, his brother has hired an occupational therapist. He needs a teacher.”

“You said there was no one to take care of him though?” Tessa cut in, confused.

Freckles smiled. “There’s no one to care for him. He needs someone to care while they teach him. Someone to be patient. Right now his younger brother is running the ranch and running scared if you ask me. Anyway, Liam loves Drake but just doesn’t have enough time in the day to do everything. He needs someone who cares about what they do, Tessa, and that’s you. His brother is really hoping to find someone who is compassionate to help him in the daytime and evenings. He’ll have someone come out every morning to do Drake’s therapy.”

“The Slaters?” Shocked, Tessa stared. She had heard of the Slaters’s place outside of town. They were big ranchers in these parts. They worked hard though rarely came into town, if rumors could be counted. It was a long way out to their ranch though—almost to the other county! “I can’t go all the way over there. It’s nearly a two-hour drive.”

“I realize that. So does Liam. He’s offered to pay you rent if you allow Drake to move into your guestroom over on the side of the house here.”

“The guestroom!” Tessa gulped. “But—in my house? Wait a minute…” Tessa tried to make sense of what Freckles had just asked her. True, this was an older house that had a guestroom built on the outside of the house for travelers that might need somewhere to stay. She’d even used it for that once or twice.

But…wow, this was certainly a lot to take in. Just this morning she was certain she was going to be saying goodbye to Hill Creek if something didn’t turn up soon. Then this dropped in her lap. All of it. Like a ton of bricks.

She had to hand it to Freckles. Tessa had watched her bowl over other people before, but this was the first time she’d shocked Tessa.

“He’s in a wheelchair,” Freckles whispered, low.

“But…but…he can’t move in here! I’m single.” She could only imagine her neighbors and… Wheelchair? That gave her pause. The poor man was in a chair and needing assistance. He needed to be close to the hospital. A wheelchair.

“Even if you have a live-in chaperone?” Freckles said in her oh-so-tempting voice, her eyes dancing with mischief.

“Chaperone?” Tessa asked warily. She didn’t like it when Freckles turned that mischievous look on her like that.

Freckles smiled. “Let me finish explaining.”

Tessa felt the dark shock recede as Freckles’s reassuring voice soothed her, but how could she convince her to take this job? “I’m not sure what you can add to what you’ve said already—”

“How about a thousand dollars a week and a live-in cook?” Freckles asked.

Tessa gaped as she listened to the details of just what the pay would be for and the extra allotments for the cook. She couldn’t help but shake her head when Freckles finished the list of payments. That was more than she made as a teacher each month, that was for certain. “Why so much?” she asked, dumbfounded. That was all she asked because that was all she could get out. As a matter of fact, Tessa was suddenly sure she hadn’t heard the woman in front of her correctly. Maybe she was dreaming and this was all simply a wishful, wonderful fantasy.

Freckles shoved Tessa’s cup at her, bumping her hand. Tessa realized she was gripping the rim of the table—a very telling sign—and immediately released it.

“Drink this before you pass out.”

Tessa didn’t argue. She captured the cup and gulped it down. A thousand dollars plus expenses… Mentally she started tabulating the doctor’s, radiologist’s, and surgeon’s bills that were awaiting her payments. “This is some kind of mistake,” she whispered. “They don’t pay that much for tutoring.”

“No, but I’ve talked with Liam. I told you, Drake is a special case. He needs to get out of the hospital, but we, the team who has been working on his case, don’t want him that far away from emergency treatment. Not yet, at least. Still, he’s too well to stay in a bed at the hospital. Drake doesn’t like the accommodations and is more than ready to leave. His brother’s certain it’s affecting him adversely to stay there when he is determined to progress.

“You live right here in town, near enough that if an emergency happens he could be to the hospital in five minutes. I happen to know you nursed your mother when she had a stroke and that, at one time, you had considered going into nursing.”

“That’s what I get for telling you all of my secrets,” Tessa muttered. What Freckles said was true. But after all that had happened with her mother, then her own injuries…

Unable to sit still a moment longer, she stood and settled the cat in her chair. The cat protested.

The bird squawked at the cat and danced back and forth on his wooden perch. The puppy had finished drinking and now sniffed the floor, a sure indication he needed out. Tessa picked him up and took him out back to do his business. While she stood at the door she said, “What else?” Evidently Liam had thought of everything.

“Liam wanted to send a cook to make sure his brother got the right meals. The person would prepare all of the meals while here and either live in, if you wanted, or stay in someone else’s house. However, Liam said that if the cook didn’t live in then he would subtract that weekly allotment. But, I thought, since you might want a chaperone and all…”

Absently Tessa nodded. A thousand a week. A thousand dollars. She wouldn’t have to go back to California. She could stay here in her house. She’d be in control of the situation. Control was very important to Tessa, especially in circumstances like this.

But the Slaters? She’d seen Liam—once. They were big men. Huge men. Living out here in Hill Creek, Texas, she had to wonder if all the men grew that big. Running her hands through her brown hair she twisted it into a knot, defying the morning wind to tear it loose again. Playing with her hair was a nervous habit of hers. She knew that. She tried not to do it, but the habit still surfaced—occasionally.

She heard Freckles stand, heard her move up behind her, making her way around the many creatures that occupied Tessa’s house. Once by her side, Freckles stared out the screen door as well.

“It would be an answer to your financial problems, Tessa. God still does answer prayers, you know.”

“Yes. It would help.” That was easy to admit. “But does God answer a prayer by sending a man to live in my house? By sending me a cook? By paying me an outrageous sum just to play baby-sitter and tutor?”

Freckles smiled. “It looks like this time He does.”

Tessa simply shook her head. “I just can’t believe it.”

“He’s going to pay a month’s salary in advance, Tessa. If you decide you can’t handle it at the end of eight weeks, you’ll get the full payment and Liam will find someone else.”

“Why?”

“Liam is desperate to help his brother. When I told him you might be interested in the job he jumped at the chance, working to make the offer too good to refuse.”

“It is that, I’ll admit,” Tessa murmured. She’d finally have the last of her medical bills paid off. There would be no more threatening letters from creditors, no more worries of losing everything, watching her credit die a certain death, losing everything because of the mountain of debt she’d been working to slowly pay off for three years now.

Tessa felt for the first time in a long time as if she was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. “Is Liam willing to draw up a contract?”

Freckles grinned. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a folded document. “Already done.”

Tessa laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Awful arrogant of him, wouldn’t you say?”

Freckles giggled. “No. He’s just really hopeful. He wants his brother home. The sooner, the better.”

Tessa took the contract and then hesitated as she stared at it.