Caroline

Chapter 31

In her confusion, Caroline stood at the doorway, staring at Randy for longer than was comfortable for either of them. He fidgeted in front of her, but otherwise just looked at her expectantly. Finally, she asked, "Talk about what?"

"About what happened a little while ago. They told me you was upset, and with things the way they was, it'd be better for me to try 'n' explain 'em."

Completely baffled why Randy would have any connection to what she had seen and felt, she stepped back to allow him entry. Once inside, he took a long look around.

"Oh, yeah. You got it fixed up real nice in here."

"Thank you. Um.... would you like to sit down?"

"I sure would," he said, walking to the chair she had indicated. "Even with them anti-fatigue mats, standin' for too long can take it outta ya."

Before she sat in the chair closest to the one he had taken, she asked, "Can I get you something to drink? I haven't made any tea, but.... "

"No ma'am, thank you. This shouldn't take too long and I need to get back to the house."

"The sitter..." she said aloud, remembering the first time she had met him.

"That's right!" His tone reminded her of former teachers, praising when a particularly hard problem had been solved.

"It is?"

"Yeah. That's all you saw."

Grasping for something that made sense, she asked, "The woman is your sitter?"

"Oh no ma'am. Josie is my wife. Michael's the sitter."

Sitting seemed like an excellent idea to her then, so she did.

"Michael Morris... is your baby sitter?"

"You got it now," he said with a large grin.

She stared at him and his obvious happiness, trying to figure out what she had missed.

"He was hugging your wife," she finally managed to say.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she was the one huggin' him. 'Specially after the news 'n' all. Josie's a big hugger."

"The news?"

"You didn't hear?" he asked, excitedly. He leaned forward, eager to be the one to share "the news 'n' all" with her. "Michael and his comp'ny are donatin' a brand new buildin' and play yard for the rec center!"

Finally a piece of the puzzle fell into place.

"And Josie runs the rec center," she said, remembering the monologue from Johnnie Martin at the Dogwood Cafe. Josie, the woman that Johnnie just knew was going to be her friend, was her neighbor and married to Randy, the butcher. And Michael, who had donated property for a rec center and made video games for a living, was their baby sitter.

She shook her head.

"So Josie was.... thanking him?"

"Prob'ly, but I reckon she was just tickled. She likes makin' pies and such when she wants to say 'Thank you'."

It all made a bizarre sort of sense, especially with the woman's husband in front of her, happily making the explanation. But still...

"How did you get Michael as your sitter?"

Randy relaxed back in his chair, the excitement of the moment apparently over.

"That's his doin'. Me and Josie weren't sure what we were gonna do when the baby came. She has to be at the center before the young 'uns get there after school. My hours are more flexible, so I was able to change to goin' in earlier. But there was still some chunk of time where nobody would be there for Benjamin. Michael come to us and said he'd be happy to sit wid 'im till I could get home. So that's what we do. At least until he gets a little bigger and Josie ain't so scared to put 'im in a daycare."

"That's why he walks to your house every day," she said quietly. There was no need to announce her embarrassment. Her blush had increased with each word Randy had spoken.

"An' speakin' a my house, I need to get back to it." He rose from his chair and looked around again. "Yeah, your daddy did real good settin' this place to rights for you."

He knew. Of course he did. To her surprise, this didn't make her uncomfortable. The people here knew her situation and accepted it. There was no doubt, then, that she was accepted as well.

"Michael's still there, then," she said, more to herself than him.

"Unh uh. He's waitin' outside."

She wasn't entirely certain her feet ever hit the floor as she rushed to the door. Standing on her porch, she scanned left and right before she finally saw him pacing her yard, bouncing a baby in his arms. As he came toward her, she could sense a worried hesitation from him. She descended the steps and walked to meet him, but they both stopped within a few feet of each other. She stood still, staring. He continued to sway and bounce little Benjamin.

"He told you?"

She nodded, but didn't speak until Randy walked past her to take Benjamin from Michael's arms.

"Come on, little man. Let's get you back home now."

"Thank you, Randy," she said as he settled the baby against his shoulder.

"Ain't nuthin'," he replied, before walking to an older model SUV parked beside her car. "It's all good. Ain't it, buddy-ro?" The last was spoken to Benjamin as he stepped away.

Before Randy reached the back door of his vehicle, Caroline was swept up in Michael's arms, his kisses landing scattered over her cheeks and ears as he held her close.

"I'm so sorry. So, so sorry! After everything you've been through, I know what it looked like. I saw it in your face, and I knew what you were thinking. And I wanted to tell you, you were wrong, but you ran away! And there wasn't time to load the baby in the carseat so she could drop us off here before she went to work, so I had to wait for Randy to come home. And I couldn't even call you! I knew I'd hurt you, and I couldn't even call you to tell you I never would! I couldn't! And here I'd probably screwed it all up before we'd even started..."

She stopped his rambling apology the most effective way she knew. They were still standing there, kissing as if the chance to do so would never come again, when Randy drove away.