Everlasting Love

“Could have fooled me. Same dark hair, same pale skin. Don’t see that much around here, not with all the sun we get in the summer.”

“Our mom is light and Daddy is kind of dark,” she explained, nervously combing her hair back with her fingers and tucking the sides smoothly behind her ears. “Roxy can get a pretty tan. I always burn. But enough about us. I want to thank you for letting me bring my project here.”

“Don’t thank me,” James said. “Like I told you when you phoned, I think these kids have enough troubles already. They don’t need more grief.”

“I agree. But my animals have been chosen and trained to be particularly gentle and loving. What makes you think being around them will have a negative effect?”

“Experience,” he said flatly. “These kids are only here for a short time. They already get too attached to me and my staff for their own good. Imagine how hard it will be for some of the more sensitive ones to leave a favorite pet behind, too.”

This was the kind of unreasonable attitude Megan had battled more than once. “Have you bothered to read my formal proposal, Mr. Harris?”

“I scanned it enough to get the basics. I don’t need to read all the details to see it has problems you haven’t even considered. I know what’ll happen. I have plenty of firsthand experience working with troubled kids.”

“And I suppose they all respond to your methods?” she asked. “None of your students resist reform?”

The brief flash of emotion in his deep brown eyes took her aback. So did a surge of compassion. She hadn’t meant to belittle his work or hurt his feelings; she’d merely wanted to make him listen to reason and give her project a fair shake. She needed an ally, not an adversary.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” Megan told him. “I know this camp has done a lot of good. But there must be children no one’s been able to reach by normal methods. Kids who’ve been so battered by their pasts that they’ve withdrawn from everybody and everything. Isn’t that so?”

James gave a reluctant nod, shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Yes. Of course.”

“Then you should be glad to have me around. It’s not like it’s forever, you know. When I wrote my proposal for the grant, I designed it to cover a short period of time.”

“I know that. I also know these kids.”

“I can help them.”

“Can you? They come and go around here like they’re stuck in a revolving door. They need peace, not some do-gooder trying to run them through a maze like lab rats.”

Megan was appalled. “If you’d read my entire proposal you wouldn’t say that. All I’m planning to do is introduce a few docile animals into their lives, to give them a nonjudgmental friend to care for and confide in. You talk like I’m planning to throw defenseless kids to a pack of lions.”

“It could end up being the reverse of that,” James warned. “Have you stopped to consider the welfare of your animals? Or of your sister?”

“What do you mean?”

“This isn’t a church camp anymore. It’s a way station for kids who have no place else to go. They’ve been bucking the system for so long, they don’t know how to behave in a normal family environment.”

“I understand that.”

“Do you also understand how cruel they can be for no apparent reason? I can’t guarantee absolute safety.”

Megan huffed as she gave him a brief once-over. The man was obviously strong as an ox. Moreover, now that she’d had time to observe him, she’d noticed a hard, militarylike edge that gave him the kind of commanding presence few people questioned.

She, however, refused to be cowed. “You look like you can handle just about any situation, Mr. Harris. With your support, I’m sure we won’t have any trouble.”

“Exactly my point, Ms. White,” he said, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms across his chest. “I can’t be everywhere at once. And even if I could, I don’t have time to baby-sit you or your little sister. Bringing more unknown elements into these kids’ already-muddled lives is about the dumbest idea I think I’ve ever heard.”

Blinking in disbelief, she suddenly giggled. “Hey, don’t hold back, mister. Feel free to speak up. Give me your honest opinion.”

“I thought I just did.”

“That was a joke, Harris.” She shook her head and continued to chuckle. “Okay. Have it your way. I prefer to focus on the good stuff.”

“You would. You’ve had a comfortable life. Some of us weren’t so lucky.”

Instead of revealing background information that was none of his business, Megan merely said, “It’s not luck. It’s a choice. I look at life’s roadblocks as opportunities to triumph over adversity.”

Her smile grew to a full-blown grin as her glance traveled from his booted feet to the top of his head. “And you, mister, are about as big a roadblock as I’ve ever had to overcome. The time we’re about to spend working together should be very challenging.”

“Now that we agree on.”

It amused her to watch the corners of his mouth twitch while he struggled to stifle a smile. She laughed lightly, her mood beginning to confirm her innate spirit of joy. “I’ll want to speak to the rest of your staff, of course, but that can wait until I’ve brought my animals and set up their compound. First, I’d like to look the place over, pick out a cabin and start moving in.”

She gestured toward the back of her truck. A bright blue tarp was stretched over the bed to weatherproof it. “We didn’t bring much personal gear this trip because I didn’t know what was available up here. We mostly need a place with enough outside clearance to set up my portable corrals and a few smaller pens. Nothing fancy.”

“You’re really going to go through with this?”

“Of course, I am.” She shot him an incredulous look. “Was there ever any doubt?”

Starting back toward the truck to fetch Roxy, Megan sensed him following, then heard him mumble, “Apparently not.”

Though the words were meant to sound grumpy, she could tell from his tone that he’d finally given in to the smile he’d been trying so hard to suppress. That was definitely a plus. As a mature woman, she was immune to his charms, of course. She just hoped he didn’t smile too amiably at her impressionable sister. At fifteen, a girl could fall in love in seconds—or at least believe she had.

Megan was far wiser than that. She’d had plenty of chances to find a mate in college, yet had managed to keep her distance. No way was she going to let fleeting romance jeopardize her opportunity for a formal education. That was what her mother had done, and look what had happened. The woman was alone, uneducated and working for minimum wage, while her ex was earning big bucks and starting a new family.

As Megan saw it, marriage was the least likely way to find bliss, whereas independence meant living life exactly the way she wanted. She was no starry-eyed kid who thought she had to have a man in her life in order to be happy. Her happiness came from using her God-given talents to help others. That was plenty.

Chapter Two

With Megan in the lead and Roxy hanging back to chatter at James, they passed cabin after cabin, standing vacant amid the oak, walnut and sycamore trees of the old-growth forest. The mountain air was fresh and clear. Birds sang and flitted above, and in the distance Megan could hear the soft rush of the Spring River. What she didn’t hear was children at play.

Shading her eyes with one hand, she paused to peer between the trees, then looked to James. “Where is everybody, anyway?”

“Inside, catching up with schoolwork they missed. Our census is down. We’re licensed to take up to thirty wards of the court at one time. Fortunately, there are only six boys in residence now.”

He pointed down the hill. “When we have girls to look after, they bunk in that cabin over there, usually with Inez Gogerty. She and her sister take turns cooking for us and staying the night if we need extra female chaperones. As long as there’s no open conflict between the boys, they all get to live in the same cabin.”

“Does that happen a lot? Fighting, I mean.”

“No. Not often. If it does, I take charge of the quarrelsome ones and assign the others to Aaron Barnes. He’s a college student who helps me out whenever I need him. I try not to call him too often, though. The more money I can save the taxpayers, the more kids I can afford to help.”

Megan arched her eyebrows. She didn’t doubt the man’s veracity. It was just that her grant was going to provide extra help, at no cost to Camp Refuge or the state of Arkansas, and yet he wasn’t willing to accept her with open arms. Figuratively speaking, of course.

“I want to help children, too, you know,” she said.

“I know you do. Why don’t you take your project and sell it to somebody who really needs it?”

“Like who?”