“Hannah, I really do need the help.” Paige pretended to have an innocent look on her face, but Hannah could see right through it. Her mother was meddling again and she didn’t like it. The clock on the mantle chimed, distracting Hannah from her thoughts.

“Alright, but I really don’t want to interfere with his classes, Mom. I want him to do well in school and I don’t want to be the cause of him failing something. He has a dissertation to finish up. They already had to extend it past what he thought would be necessary, because of his research. He was telling me about it at the hospital. The study that he conducted yielded positive results that actually got him a national grant to continue his research. You have to send him back in a day or two. Any more than that and he won’t be able to catch up.”

“While that’s all well and good, I think you are forgetting something. Sweetie, he’s a grown man. He can make his own decisions. Don’t you worry about it.”

Paige got up and walked away, taking Hannah's empty tea cup with her.

“Go upstairs and rest, dear,” Paige said over her shoulder.

Exhaustion hit Hannah when she thought about going back to sleep and she realized she really did need to rest. She was bound and determined to do exactly what the doctor said so she wouldn’t have to end up back in the hospital.

“Yeah, I need some rest. I’ll be down before dinner,” she said, standing up.

The dizziness that hit every time she stood would pass soon, so she waited a minute, staring out the window. A sweet ruby-throated hummingbird was sipping nectar out of the bird feeder hanging from the eaves. Another came up behind the first and then another. Soon there were a dozen birds flitting around the feeder. Beautiful.

When she reached her room she saw Simon putting away the stuff in her suitcase. Seeing him from behind, she noticed his ruffled hair. She wondered what it would feel like to run her fingers through it. When he looked up at her, his eyes crinkled into a smile.

“You didn’t have to do that.” She moved over to the bed and started to pull things out of the suitcase to help him.

“I know,” he replied simply.

What a thoughtful gesture. After putting the suitcase under the bed, she stood up too fast. Dizziness hit her hard and she almost fell over. Simon reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her. He was much closer than she was used to. She could feel his breath on her cheek and his heartbeat against her shoulder. His heart-shaped lips upturned into a smile and she suddenly had a vivid image in her mind of him pressing up against her and smothering her mouth in kisses.

She felt her heart speed up and her breathing quicken slightly at the thought of his lips on hers. Every inch of her skin felt alive and on fire. Before she had time to process what she was feeling, Simon let go of her hand and moved away from her. She wondered if he had felt the same thing she had. She didn’t notice anything different about him.

Turning away to hide the probable red in her cheeks, she started to organize the things on her desk. When she looked over her shoulder, Simon was nowhere to be seen. The moment that she had experienced so vividly must have been solely in her imagination.

* * *

Simon sat on the couch lost in thought, a cup of tea balanced on his leg and growing colder every minute. With the physical attraction he felt for Hannah, he worried that if they were too close to each other and alone too often the relationship they had begun would become purely a physical response to each other. He really wanted her to be able to get to know him without worrying about the physical attraction between the two of them. He knew that he was attracted to her, and that she in turn was attracted to him.

He hadn’t realized how difficult that would be. Every time Simon saw Hannah he wanted to grab her waist and pull her body close to his. He wanted to kiss her lips, her cheeks, her neck. Thoughts like this didn’t help him keep his hands off of her.

“Simon.” Paige tore him out of his thoughts, and he felt his cheeks warm before he realized that she didn’t know what he was thinking about.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you were thinking about either,” Paige said, winking at him.

He was sure his face would melt from the heat he felt.

Unfazed by his embarrassment she continued. “I have a few things that I need help with today. And I know Hannah has been trying to help out, but I worry about her doing too much. The doctor wanted her to be up and about, but also taking time to rest and de-stress. I’m afraid that will be her most difficult challenge while she is here. She doesn’t like to rest much.”

“Well, I would have to agree with that. I have never seen her just sitting around. I’ll try to make sure she doesn’t do too much.”

“Perfect, dear.” Paige began to dig under the sink for something. “Aha! Here it is. I need you to fix the gutters on the sides of the house, if you can. They also need to be cleaned out. They keep overflowing. I have a ladder in the garage and here is the drill. You know how to use a power drill, right?”

Simon took the drill from her. “Yes, I had to learn how to use power tools when I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua. I helped them build schoolhouses and churches for a couple months during the summer. It was a lot of fun. Very rewarding.”

“You know, I did a mission trip to that country when I was in my twenties. The people in a small village that we went to had to walk three miles in order to have access to fresh water, so we dug a well for them inside their town. The gratitude they had for something that I took for granted every day was something that stuck with me for the rest of my life. Every time I turn on the faucet, I think about that mission trip and I thank God for my blessings. Even the little ones, like running water.”

Paige’s eyes were misty and her features wistful. Simon could tell she had transported back to that memory and was reliving her mission trip. Not wanting to interrupt her thoughts, he waited.

“Sorry dear, I often get caught up in my thoughts as well,” she said.

“No harm.”

The garage was a mess of jumbled hardware and boxes. It took him over thirty minutes to find the ladder she was talking about. While he was setting it up, Hannah appeared with a determined look on her face. She had a ladder in her hands as well and a drill that she had taken out of the garage. Simon rolled his eyes heavenward and prayed for patience. This woman was relentless.

Ginny trailed on her heels, sniffing every smell she came across and bolting back and forth. She almost tripped Hannah a few times on her way over to the side of the house, but Hannah was able to catch her balance before she fell. “Ginny, knock it off!”

“What are you doing out here, Hannah?” Simon asked in annoyance.

“I’m helping.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“And just how are you going to stop me?” she asked with her eyebrows raised quizzically.

He paused for a moment, thinking of a reasonable way to get her to behave. “I’ll tell your mother.”

“Really? You are going to tell my mom?”

“Really. And you know I would do it too.”

She sighed audibly and her hands fell to her side. The playfulness disappeared and a serious look fell over her face. “When are you going back, Simon? You’ve already missed a full week of the semester and you were supposed to start your research in less than a month. You’re never going to catch up.” Ginny had sprinted off into the distance, chasing a squirrel, but once it got up the tree, she lost interest in it and instead began to bite at a butterfly.

“I have been meaning to talk to you about that.” He sat down on the grass and patted the space next to him. Hannah obliged and sat with her knees pulled up to her chest.

“Okay.”

“After I talked to the doctor about your condition, I knew that you wouldn’t be able to go back to school until you got your blood pressure under control, so I decided that I wanted to be with you while you recover. I took a semester off of my program. My research grant will still be valid, but I am able to take this time off to help you and your mom. I know you don’t need me to take care of you and obviously your mother doesn’t either, but I can help make life easier for you right now. And that is something that makes me happy.”

Hannah made a noise as if to interrupt him, but Simon put his hands up in the air to silence her. “Just let me finish, please,” he said quietly.

“I don’t want to intrude on your life, but I can’t help but want to be around you. You are smart and beautiful and the most frustrating woman I have ever met in my life. And I want to spend my time with you. So if you will let me, I would like to stay and help take care of you and your mother. Let me stay. Please.”

She looked up and took in a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say,” she replied in an honest tone. Simon felt his heart sink a little bit as he realized his plan could backfire and she may reject him outright.

She must have realized she worried him, because she quickly recovered. “Oh, it’s not you. I don’t mean I don’t want to be around you. You told me that you were falling in love with me and I take that very seriously. I want to be able to say the same thing back to you and mean it. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m worried that I may accidentally hurt you and that would kill me.”

Holding her hand in his, he looked at her with a serious face. “I want the same thing for you, Hannah. But I am an adult, and I know what I am doing. Please let me stay with you. Let me take care of you. If nothing else comes of this, I have helped out a beautiful woman and her lovely mother. This will just give us time to get to know each other. There is no pressure from me for you to feel a certain way. I already know how I feel about you and for me that is enough. Let me show you how I feel, by allowing me to serve your family.”

He could tell by the look in her eyes that she agreed. But when she said the word, “Okay,” Simon thought his heart would stop.

He had a chance with her. And together they would decide if they could love each other, or if they were better off alone.

Ginny had no qualms about loving them both. She interrupted the tender moment by jumping onto both of their laps with energy, licking their cheeks and nuzzling each with her nose.

* * *

Hannah jolted awake when a hammer hit the wall. She jumped out of bed without thinking and, once she realized what it was, fell back onto the bed and put her hands over her face. She got up too fast and a wave of dizziness had washed over her. It was way too early to be hammering anything. She was determined to find the source of the noise. She got up, bumped into the corner of the bed with her hip and lazily stumbled towards the source of the noise.

Simon sat at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee with a book in hand. He was already showered, dressed and worst of all, bright and cheery.

“Good morning,” Simon said in a chipper voice.

Hannah scowled in response and tried, futilely, to smooth her hair down in place. She probably looked awful. “Uh-huh. What’s that noise?” she croaked.

Simon chuckled. This didn’t help improve her sullen mood.

“It’s your mum. She’s been up since five.”

She let out an over-dramatic sigh. “Ugh.”

“She’s in the front room.”

Once she entered the front room all of her irritation disappeared. She couldn’t help but smile. The pounding stopped and her mother looked up from the project she had obviously been working on for a very long time.

“Mom, it’s amazing.”

In front of her was the cutest dog house she had ever seen. The sides were painted a light blue and there was even a real roof. She had painted vines and flowers on the sides. It even had lattice on one side. Out of the house her sweet puppy bounded, jumping into her arms and knocking her to the floor. The Great Dane often forgot that she wasn’t a tiny lap dog.

Hannah was immediately covered in kisses and slobber despite her best efforts to get the dog off of her. Simon sat in the doorway with an amused look on his face.

“He helped me bring it in from the garage. What do you think?” Paige asked her with a smile.

Hannah kept one hand on Ginny’s back and hugged her mom tightly. Tears streamed down her face and a lump formed in her throat as she responded, “It’s amazing.”

“Ginny needs a place to sleep while she is here. She takes up half your bed,” she laughed.

“That’s so sweet, Mom. Thank you.”

Ginny had already disappeared back into the giant dog house.

“Where are you going to put this thing though?” Simon asked Paige.

“Oh, we will leave it here in the front room. It’ll look cute over in that corner,” she said.

Simon grabbed the edge of the house and pulled it to the corner, ignoring Paige’s protests and offers to assist. “That’s what I’m here for,” he said sternly.

Both women giggled as the dog tried to climb into the house while Simon moved it to the corner. He pulled her out, only to have her jump back in as soon as she was out. Finally, he asked for help. Hannah just laughed aloud.

“That’s what you’re here for,” she replied sarcastically, although she moved in to grab Ginny to keep her from adding the extra weight.

It took an additional ten minutes to wrestle Ginny out of the dog house and move it into position.

“Well, I’m gonna go take a rest in the room for a bit. You all enjoy yourselves. I would really like it if someone fed the chickens this morning,” Paige said as she walked away towards her room.

“Sure, Mom,” Hannah replied.

Simon opened the back door for her and followed her out, trying to body block Ginny from running out the door after her human. Failing to stop her from leaving, he watched Ginny run quickly after Hannah, nipping at her heels until Simon caught up.

“She needs a walk anyway,” Simon defended.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I know what you were thinking. I saw that look on your face.”

“And what look is that?”

“That I shouldn’t have let her out the door,” Simon replied.

“I didn’t say anything,” Hannah said with a sly smile. That was exactly what she had just been thinking. She never would have said anything though.

“You didn’t have to.”

The chicken coop had a dozen eggs and the hens were hungry. Hannah threw some food at her feet and three greedy hens tried to get all the food at once.

Simon moved next to her and put his hand on the small of her back. “Would you care to accompany me on a walk?”

“Of course.” She hung the bucket of feed back on the wall and followed Simon out. Ginny joined them as soon as they were to the driveway.

* * *

The sun beat down on the back of his neck. The birds were singing songs of happiness. Simon fumbled along, trying to decide if he wanted to hold Hannah’s hand while they walked or keep his hand in his pocket. He reached over to grab her hand, stopped mid-grab and then put it back in his pocket. He must have done that a dozen times.

The breeze brought the scent of jasmine from the neighbors’ flowering bushes. They had stopped by the house to grab Ginny’s lead before they left and now she pulled hard on the leash. Her weight was such that the pull made Simon stumble every once in a while. The silence stretched out as they walked down the road and finally Simon decided to reach over and grab Hannah's hand in his own.

She glanced up at him through a fan of black eyelashes, her green eyes stunning in the morning light. He took a sharp inhale, trying to catch his breath. She was absolutely beautiful.

The urge to kiss her was so strong that Simon had to turn away from her in order to keep himself in check. He continued walking, slowing moving his thumb up and down the side of her hand.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Hannah remarked.

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Did you want to walk to the pond?” Hannah asked him.

“Sure,” Simon replied. “Where is that?”

“It’s a mile from here. It’s a nice walk. There’s a great area for Ginny to run around in too.”

“So, where do you and your mom go to church when you are in town?” Simon asked, breaking the silence.

“Oh, you will love it. I mean if you want to come, of course,” she amended. “It’s a little church not far from here. They focus on loving everyone in every stage of life. Accepting people wherever they are in their walk with Christ. I always liked it because there were times that I didn’t feel like I was walking with Christ at all. Sometimes I felt like I was running away from Him. And even in those times I still felt welcome in that church.”

“I’ve felt like that too,” Simon replied. Ginny ran towards a bird at the end of her leash, pulling him with her. He stumbled, but was able to get her to walk at a normal pace without tearing his arm from the socket.

“You know, I think our walk with God is personal. Something that grows and changes over time. That was really hard for me to understand when my father died,” Hannah confided. “I thought God must have forsaken me. He wasn’t listening or watching. It was hard for me to realize that just because something bad happens to me doesn’t mean that He doesn’t care. We have to learn from the hard times in order to grow and reshape ourselves.

“After some of the trials I have gone through in life, it feels like I have been burned. You know, after you have a burn and the skin starts to heal underneath. The pain, the heartache, it’s the fire that burns our skin. Then once we have gone through the trial, the old skin peels away and there is new skin underneath. Sometimes the burns leave us scarred, but if we use grace in our lives and allow God to heal us, He makes us whole, not broken. And that area, the burned and scarred area becomes tougher and stronger.” Hannah stopped in the road and grabbed his arm. “Sorry, sometimes I ramble.”

“You aren’t rambling, you make perfect sense.” She was still pulling gently on his arm so he took a step closer to her.

Standing on tip toe, she kissed his cheek. They continued their walk to the pond in a comfortable silence, listening to the sound of the birds chirping in the trees.

They walked up to the pond and began to circle it but Ginny had other plans. She began to sprint without any warning. The force with which she propelled him forward caused him to trip and, as he fell, he attempted to let go of Hannah's hand, but she was already falling with him. They both fell into the pond with a resounding splat.

The water was mucky and cold. Simon sputtered and gagged on the old plant smell and taste that permeated his clothing and his mouth. He stood as quickly as possible and grabbed Hannah's arm, wrenching her to her feet. She was coughing and spewing water as well. Ginny wasn’t bothered at all by the misfortune of her humans and instead ran around the park gaily chasing a squirrel.

“Are you okay?” Simon asked. She looked as if she were going to cry and immediately Simon felt terrible. If he hadn’t held on to her hand she wouldn’t have fallen in.

Instead of crying however, Hannah began to laugh out loud. “How is it that you always manage to soak me?”

Thinking back to when Simon had accidentally spilled an entire water bottle on Hannah during class, Simon too began to laugh. “I’m so sorry!”

“It really wasn’t you, it was that idiot over there,” she said with a sigh.

They really couldn’t stay too mad at her however. She was running around, enjoying the sunshine with abundant puppy energy.

Simon and Hannah began to slog out of the pond and onto the dry grass. Both collapsed into sopping heaps on the ground and laughed as the dog began to chase her tail a few feet away from where they sat.

Their actions drew her attention to them and, before they knew it, Ginny was bouncing all over both of them and trying to lick the pond water off their faces. They needed to get up before she managed to injure them. He grabbed Hannah's hand and pulled her to her feet. Her red hair was plastered to her neck and face and her clothes were dripping all over the grass.

“You are beautiful,” he said as he pulled a big piece of pond moss out of her hair. Before he knew what he was doing, he pulled her into him and kissed her softly. His arms draped around her tiny frame as she relaxed into them. Her lips were soft and sweet. He felt a hunger from deep within him as he kissed her, and fearing his grasp on control, he stopped the kiss, but held her close.

“You are so much fun,” he said to her.

“You are too,” she smiled from half-closed eyes.

They stayed like that for a while before deciding it was best to head back to the house and clean up. The pond water smelled fierce and the intense odor only seemed to encourage the puppy to jump and lick them clean. On their way back to the house, Simon thought about that kiss. All he could think of was how much he wanted to do it again— and never let her go.

* * *

Hannah determined to be up before everyone else this morning. She ascended the stairs around 7:30, completely ready to go. There were no hammer sounds waking her up and the sunlight was so bright and cheery that she couldn’t be anything but happy. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the first person up this morning, but at least her hair and makeup were done.

Before she got to the kitchen she could smell the fresh coffee brewing and another smell that she always loved… bacon. She jumped around the corner to steal a plateful of breakfast and a cup of coffee and was startled to see someone she didn’t know sitting at the table with Simon. Both were drinking a cup of coffee while they chatted quietly.

Simon looked up as she rounded the corner and a broad smile splayed across his face. “Hannah, I would like you to meet my mum, Penny.”

Penny stood and extended her hand in greeting. She was a very handsome woman. Her blonde hair fell past her shoulders in a wave of golden silk. She had smile lines around her eyes and laugh lines around her mouth that spoke to the mood she was often in. Hannah could see where Simon got his good looks from.

“Pleasure to meet you, dear,” Penny said.

Hannah took her hand politely and muttered, “Nice to meet you. I didn’t know your mum was visiting.” Had she known she probably would have dressed nicer.

“I guess I forgot to tell you,” Simon replied with a sly look in his eye.

She doubted very much that he had forgotten to tell her. It was more likely that Simon had been trying to surprise her. She was definitely surprised.

Paige bustled into the kitchen with some fresh linens in her hands and handed them directly to Simon.

“She’s going to stay up in Simon’s room and he’s taking the couch,” Paige informed Hannah.

“Oh, I don’t want to be a burden,” Penny said politely.

“Nonsense,” Paige replied. “We are happy to have you here.”

“How long will you be staying?” Hannah asked Penny.

“I had planned to be in the States until American Thanksgiving, actually. I was able to take an extended leave from work. It just happened to work out that Simon wasn’t in school this semester. Now we will get to spend some time together. Paige offered for me to stay with you. It sure takes a burden off my pocketbook, that is for sure.”

“We’re glad to have you,” Paige said, placing another steaming plate of bacon on the table along with two extra mugs. She offered refills to Penny and Simon. “Do you take cream and sugar in your coffee?”

“Oh no, dear, I like it black,” Penny replied.

Hannah liked Penny already.

Simon returned a few moments later and they all sat at the table and enjoyed a few slices of bacon and cups of coffee. The sunlight that poured into the room made the conversation seem even more cheerful. Hannah was in high spirits.

“We have a lot of work to get done today,” Simon said, as they cleaned up the table. “Mum, why don’t you get settled in and take a nap. I’m sure the jet lag has got you all sorts of beat. We will wake you for supper.”

“That would be lovely, lamb,” Penny replied.

“What do we have to get done today?” Hannah asked Simon curiously.

“Well, I never finished up those gutters and I wanted to touch up the paint on the fence in the front yard. You feel up to helping me out?”

“Of course!” Hannah replied excitedly. She finally felt useful.

“Let’s head out then and get the gutters hung and cleaned out. I could use an extra pair of arms. But you have to promise me that you won’t over exert yourself,” Simon told her.

“Of course I won’t.”

For the next few hours, Hannah and Simon worked in the hot sun. Their conversation flowed well all afternoon. They talked about everything from elementary school to first crushes. They even had a good long chat about religion and God.

After a few hours in the sun, Hannah could feel herself drained from energy and approaching the need to rest. Simon must have noticed, because he climbed off of his ladder and helped her off of hers.

“You look fatigued,” he commented as he helped her dismount. “You need to go sit down and drink a cup of tea or something.”

“I think water would be better. You Brits and your tea.”

“Don’t knock the tea,” he defended with a smile. He took her hand in his and pulled her lightly toward the back door. “A cup of tea can cure many ails.”

“Then make me a cup,” Hannah said back to him. He led her to the couch and practically forced her to sit down by throwing the best, most cozy blanket in the house around her shoulders and pushing the ottoman under her feet.

It felt good to let her muscles relax. Before she knew what had happened, she was sound asleep on the couch.