Page 7 of Small Town Hero
The words struck Susannah hard, wounded her to the soul. If she hadn’t been driving, she would have gathered Ellie into her arms and hugged her tightly.
“Sweetheart,” she said, sadly earnest. “You have to trust me, all right? Your mother loves you with her whole heart, but she has problems, that’s all.
And we’re going to do everything we can to help her get well.
” She paused, considering Ellie’s remark about “bad people.” The idea gave her chills.
Was there an underlying threat that Becky had been hiding?
Like the return of her nasty ex, for instance?
“As for getting you a phone,” Susannah went on, once she’d regained her composure, “we’ll see. ”
Ellie looked at Susannah with a tear-streaked but hopeful face. “If something scary happened, I could text you the secret word, and you’d know I needed help. If I had my own phone, I mean.”
That much was true. But there were drawbacks to the idea, too: online predators, for one thing, and various social media sites where bullies were ever-ready to destroy a person’s self-esteem, or even cause them to end their lives.
“If I get you a phone, Ellie, you’ll have strict rules to follow, and if you break those rules, awful things might happen, because the internet can be a very dangerous place.”
Ellie brightened. Sniffled. “I know. But I’ll be good, Aunt Susannah. I promise.”
“All right,” Susannah conceded, with some reluctance, “but remember, I’m pretty tech savvy, since I mostly earn my living working on computers.
I’ll be checking from time to time, kiddo, and if you’re taking chances, I’m going to know it, and it will be a long, long time before you get another phone, at least from me. Got it?”
By then, Ellie was beaming, though her eyes were still red-rimmed and her cheeks were wet. Susannah could not remember seeing that much joy in the child’s face before, and her heart broke all over again.
“Let’s go, then,” she said, wrapping one arm around Ellie’s shoulders and drawing her close against her side for a long moment. “We can unload the paint and other stuff later.”
“Yes!” Ellie cried, and punched the air with one fist.
Although she strongly suspected she was being bamboozled, Susannah felt happy, too, if only because Ellie was happy.
Once they got home, she would waste no time setting up security features on the new device.
Meanwhile, Susannah reinforced her intention to help both Becky and Ellie, no matter what it took.
On the way to the mall on the edge of town, they met an ambulance, traveling at a normal speed, with no lights and no blaring siren.
Susannah leaned forward over the wheel and squinted, trying to identify either the driver or the person riding shotgun as Ian McKenzie, the paramedic she’d encountered on her very first day in the area.
Although she couldn’t have explained it, he’d been slipping in and out of her mind ever since that oh-so-brief encounter.
She’d even googled him a few times, out of simple curiosity—or so she told herself. He was divorced, with two stepchildren, and when he wasn’t saving people from certain death, he was tending and training rescued horses on his nearby ranch.
Did he have a girlfriend?
It would be weird if he didn’t. He was handsome, in a rugged sort of way, and for all practical intents and purposes, he was a hero.
And yet . . .
And yet what ? She was letting her imagination run away with her.
“Aunt Susannah?”
Ellie’s voice snapped her out of her ruminations, and she felt like an idiot, trying to find meaning in the way he’d smiled at her, or the single glance she and Ian had exchanged on the roadside.
“Yes?” she asked cheerfully.
“Can we please get something to eat at Manuel’s after we buy the phone? I’m starving, and Manuel’s has the best chicken enchiladas ever .”
Susannah laughed, relieved to have her thoughts diverted from Ian McKenzie.
“Why not?” she answered.
Before they reached the phone store, however, the paramedic was back in her mind and taking up way too much space.
Why was she fixating on this guy? Did she really think anything could come of a chance meeting like theirs?
Get real , Susannah told herself. Things like that only happen in rom-coms and romance novels.
And it wasn’t as though she was any kind of authority on love, after all. Her own romantic history was bland and boring. She’d dated in high school and college and, of course, since then, but she’d never met a man she felt passionate about.
She wasn’t too picky, like some of her friends claimed; she knew what she wanted in a forever guy, and she wasn’t going to settle, just to have a ring on her finger and a warm body to share her bed.
Fortunately, by the time these reflections on her personal preferences were getting to be too much, she was parking her SUV in front of the phone store.
With Susannah overseeing the process very carefully, Ellie chose a pink phone, apparently designed especially for kids whose parents or guardians wanted to limit cyber adventures to texting family and friends, watching approved videos, and using educational apps.
Susannah flashed her ATM card, and the purchase was official.
She and Ellie immediately exchanged contact information.
“This is so cool!” Ellie crowed, delighted.
“Definitely,” Susannah admitted. “Now, let’s head for Manuel’s for an early supper.”
The small restaurant was nearby, decorated festively, and lively with Mexican music. The smell of the food was so delectable that Susannah nearly swayed on her feet.
She and Ellie were seated quickly at a patio table encircled by wrought iron chairs. Colored lights blinked overhead, and the scents were even more pleasing there, since the kitchen adjoined the enclosed area.
Susannah craved a glass of red wine, preferably Shiraz, but she never drank when she knew she would have to drive. She’d have some after she and Ellie were back at the flip-house, where Nico awaited them, along with all the DIY projects involved in preparing a home for resale.
On top of that, she would need to visit Becky regularly, keep up with her web-design business, look after Ellie. And, although she was an accomplished multitasker, Susannah was nearly overwhelmed by all the stuff on her mental to-do list.
Ellie, meanwhile, was absorbed in her phone, and Susannah didn’t protest.
The kid was happy, maybe for the first time in months, if not years.
For now, that was enough.
The preliminary corn chips, salsa and an especially tasty bean dip were delivered to their table quickly, and their orders were taken. Chicken enchiladas for Ellie, a taco salad for Susannah.
She was munching away on a chip loaded with said bean dip when, out of nowhere, he showed up, Ian McKenzie, clad in jeans, a T-shirt and scuffed boots, and flanked by two of the cutest little girls she’d ever seen.
“We meet again,” he said, with a smile and a nod of his head.
“Hi, Mr. McKenzie,” Ellie piped up, looking up from her phone at last and beaming with recognition. “Hi, Vivian and Mabel.”
Vivian and Mabel? Seriously? Did people still give their children such old-fashioned names in this day and age?
“Hi, Ellie,” the twins said, in what might have been one voice. They were exact duplicates of each other, and Susannah wondered if even Ian could tell them apart.
Surely he could, being their father, but she wondered how.
Caught off guard, Susannah muttered, “Ummm—hi there.”
The three girls were chattering, catching up. Clearly, they were good friends, though Susannah had no idea when they’d met.
It was a lot to sort out. And when Ian broadened that sexy, knowing grin of his, she felt as though her chair was about to tip over backwards.
“Sit with us!” Ellie cried jubilantly.
Ian, still watching Susannah, arched one eyebrow in question.
“Er—yes, of course—let’s sit together,” she murmured.
Gleefully, the twins hauled back their chairs and sat down.
Ian sat opposite Susannah, amusement dancing in his eyes. He’d obviously picked up on her nervousness.
Behind her anxiety was a certain quiet joy that they were sitting at the same table; she hadn’t expected to run into him again, not like this.
“I hope we’re not intruding,” he told her, as the waiter handed him a menu.
The remark made Susannah’s cheeks pulse with heat. “No—no, you’re perfectly welcome.”
“Good,” he responded.
And so began an evening that was, for Susannah, at once delightfully ordinary and strangely magical.