Once in Every Life

close, he couldn't tell where he ended and she began. Their quiet, soft breathing mingled, gave the musty old barn a stirring of life.

Jack felt the fear that had cramped his spirit for so long begin to slip away. The first sparkling threads of hope wound through him. She was right. It had helped to talk about it. For the first time since waking in that horrible, dingy hospital room, Jack wondered if maybe he could help himself. Maybe even heal himself.

He stroked her hair softly. Before he knew it, he was talking again, sharing with her what he'd never shared with another soul. "After that, I ... woke up in some sort of hospital for crazies and cowards. They told me I'd been there for years, just staring at the ceiling and screaming. Then one day I woke up. The doctors told me not to think about what I'd seen at Antietam, and kept plugging laudanum down me until I wasn't even human anymore.

"When the war ended, they opened the doors and let us go. I wandered for months until I finally found home. My folks ... and you ... thought I was just another coward."

Lissa turned and took his face in her hands, touching him as if he were made of the finest china. "We were wrong, Jack. And if you believe it, you're wrong, too."

>

At her words, spoken so softly and thickened with the threat of tears, Jack felt something inside him, something gnarled and ugly and afraid, begin to melt away. And in that moment, in the hay-scented half-light of a musty old barn, Jack knew he'd been given another chance.

"I love you, Lissa."

The next morning, Tess and Jack slept in late. They

were wakened by a knock on the door.

"Mama?" Savannah said. "Are you awake?"

Tess smiled lazily and snuggled closer to Jack. "Are

we?"

He curled an arm around her shoulders and drew her closer, planting a slow, loving kiss on her lips. "I'm afraid we are."

"Come on in, girls," she called out.

The door opened. Savannah and Katie lurched into the room then stopped dead. Two little mouths dropped open. "Daddy!"

Jack scooted to a sit and grinned at them, shoving a dirty lock of hair out of his face. "Hi, girls."

Katie ran pell-mell for the bed and threw herself in her daddy's arms.

Savannah stood hesitantly, her hands twisting together at her midsection. "We missed you yesterday. Are you ... all right?"

He gave her a smile. "There's only one thing that could make me better."

"What's that?"

"A good-morning kiss from my favorite girl."

Savannah grinned and ran to the bed. Jack swept her lithe body into his arms and plopped her on his lap. The four of them sat there, huddled and happy in the middle of the big bed, laughing, talking, chattering away. Thinking that nothing could ever go wrong again.

Tess went out to the porch to call everyone in for lunch.

But what she saw outside made the words catch in her throat. Smiling softly, she leaned against the railing. Beside her, the white post was covered with twining roses, their small, pink buds just beginning to open. Their scent mingled with the aroma of baking bread and sea air and reminded Tess that she was home.

"Mama's gonna love these roses, ain't she, Daddy?"

"She sure is, Katydid."

Tess's gaze slid lovingly along her new family. Love swelled in her heart. Jack was squatted beneath the oak

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tree, digging a flower bed. Beside him, Caleb lay sprawled on a huge blanket, busily batting his fists in the air.