Escaping the Past

Lou bit back a grin. “You probably have women sprawled across your lap all the time.” Why did she say that?

He grinned at her. “Actually, my lap is usually too busy to have anyone sprawled across it.” His eyes cut in her direction as they narrowed. “I stay pretty busy at the hospital.”

“When do you have to go back home to go to work? Soon?” she asked, realizing it would be better to change the subject.

“I’m going to take a short leave of absence. I have a month of vacation time to burn and I am not leaving until something happens with my mother. You do know it’s just a matter of time, right?” He put on his best doctor’s face despite the fear that must be gnawing at his gut.

“I understand.” Tears filled her eyes, yet refused to spill. “Is there any chance she can come home?”

“Maybe. It’s something we have to discuss with the doctors. We have to let her come out of the ICU before they’ll even consider it.”

“I can help take care of her when she does come home. We all will.” Her innocent comment had him raising his eyebrows.

Brody’s eyes met Lou’s. “That’s what you do, isn’t it? You take care of people?” His voice softened. “Does anyone ever take care of you, Lou?”

“I don’t need-”

Brody cut her off. “We all need to be taken care of, Lou… Even you.” He reached across the seat and took her hand gently in his. Her next comment was as lost as the breeze coming through the open window. His strong hand enveloped hers and held it gently between them on the console.“Thanks for sitting with me today, Lou. You made the hours seem bearable.”

“You’re welcome. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” The sentiment was cut short as her stomach betrayed her again with a loud growl. She removed her hand from his and pressed it to her belly. “Good grief,” she mumbled.

He chuckled lightly. “Feel like some ice cream?” he asked as they passed the Dairy Barn.

“I always feel like ice cream,” she responded, a grin stealing across her lips. “Sarah convinces Sadie and Jeb to hook up the hay wagon all the time, and we all pile in the back and come here for ice cream. She would be jealous if she knew where we are.”

Brody circled the building and pulled into a parking space. “We’ll bring her next time. Come on,” he said, shutting off the car and opening his door.

They walked up to the counter together. Lou ordered a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of sherbet on the same cone. Brody ordered plain vanilla in a cup. “I thought you had an adventurous spirit,” she commented playfully.

“I have an adventurous spirit. I just don’t have a cast-iron stomach. How can you eat those flavors together?” He shivered dramatically.

“You don’t eat them together. You eat them separately. If you are lucky, they mix a little as they melt.” They took a seat outside the Dairy Barn at a picnic table. Rather than sit on the bench, she climbed on top of the table and sat down. He eyed her skeptically for a moment and then joined her. They sat in companionable silence for a short time. The lights flickered off at the Dairy Barn. It was obviously after the ten o’clock closing time. The area was devoid of other cars and people. “We had better go,” she said, her half-eaten ice cream in one hand.

He waved impatiently at her. “We have plenty of time. I want to finish my boring old cup of vanilla,” his voice dripping with heavy sarcasm.

She sank back down on the tabletop, her feet on the bench below. Her elbows rested on top of her knees. “Mine is much better than yours.” Her attempt at a singsong voice and a teasing tone were muffled by her tongue swirling the cone.

“I don’t know how it could be. Are you sure you didn’t hit your head when you fainted?” He reached over and placed the back of his hand on her forehead as though checking for a fever.

“Positive. Here.” She held her cone out to him. “Try it.”

“Nuh-uh. It’s much more fun watching you. I’ll stick with vanilla.”

“Sure?” she asked pleasantly, extending her cone toward him again.

“Oh, all right,” he finally acquiesced with a big smile. He grabbed her hand to steady the cone and took a bite of the sherbet. “Not bad,” he said, nodding his head.

She extended the cone again. “Now you have to try it with the chocolate.”

“That’s disgusting.” He chuckled.

She extended the cone again and he once more took her hand. He bit a section of the chocolate scoop at the bottom of the cone. “You’re not going to get me to try them combined no matter how cute you look doing that.”

“You think I look cute?” she asked as her tongue swirled around the section where the two flavors met.

“You know you look cute,” he mumbled under his breath as he watched her swirl the two flavors with her tongue again. “Would you stop that?” he asked more loudly.

“Stop what?” Her tongue stopped in mid-swirl.