Chapter Eleven – Ruth

“What was their special treat?” Jason asked for the hundredth time as Michael helped them into Ruth’s car.

“It’s a secret.” Michael laughed like a child at Jason’s expression. “I’ll tell you next time you come here.”

“Not fair!” Jenny said with a pretend pout. Ruth suspected the children were both happy they were going to be invited back.

“Do I get to know?” Ruth asked. She stood outside the driver’s door, waiting for a kiss. This had been one of the best evenings of her life and she didn’t want it to end. But since it did have to end, she wanted a last kiss from her mate.

“No special treatment,” Michael laughed as he lowered his voice. “Start as you mean to go on. Which means if we do become a family, we are all treated equally. At least where secrets are concerned.”

Ruth frowned. “Is that right?”

“No, I’ll tell you all my secrets, but some of them are not meant for young ears.” He threaded his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I’m doing you a favor by not telling you about the deer treats.”

“Are you?” Ruth asked archly as she pulled away from him.

“Yes, if they found out you know the secret, they would never give you a moment’s peace.” He stepped back and held out his hands. “Am I right?”

Ruth shook her head and got in the car. “I have a game for us to play on the way home.”

“What is it?” Jenny asked enthusiastically.

“Guess what is in the secret deer treats.” Ruth waved to Michael as she drove away, carefully navigating around the potholes as the car bumped along toward the road.

“Pineapple.” Jenny’s first of many guesses might be correct, Ruth had no idea.

“Brussels sprouts.” Jason wrinkled his nose, after a few sensible guesses, they had become more outlandish.

“Pumpernickel,” Jenny guessed.

“What even is pumpernickel?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know. But I like the way it sounds,” Jenny told him as they both began repeating pumpernickel.

“Okay, here we are at your house.” Ruth pulled up on the drive.

“It’s not our house,” Jason reminded her, his mood flattening.

“It is while you live here.” Ruth got out and went to the rear doors, helping the children out. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the door.”

Jason and Jenny ran ahead, but before they had chance to knock, the front door opened and light flooded out, illuminating their two happy faces. “Someone looks as if they had fun.” Dean stepped back and Jason ran in, followed by Jenny, who grabbed hold of her brother and pulled him back.

“Thank you, Ruth,” Jenny said.

“Thank you.” Jason gave her a quick smile, before disappearing into the house followed by Jenny.

“Did they behave?” Dean asked quietly.

“They did. Perfectly. They’re good kids.”

“Who just happen to have a bad start.” Dean’s expression clouded.

“Is their father likely to want them back?” Ruth asked.

Dean shook his head. “He signed the papers, the children were made wards of the court. Unless he turned himself around, got a job and made a home for them… Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering,” Ruth lied.

“Did Michael talk to you about…” Dean inclined his head forward, before turning to listen for Jason and Jenny. “You know.”

“We talked about it briefly.” Ruth wrapped her coat around her as a gust of wind blew from the north, bringing a chill that she tried not to take as foreboding. “We’ve just met, we have to get to know each other. I’m worried about taking on too much at once.”

“I understand.” Dean gave her a sorrowful look. “I’d like to see them settled somewhere, to have a room they know is theirs and parents that won’t ever leave them.”

“Sometimes those things are out of our control,” Ruth reminded Dean. “Their mom didn’t mean to leave them.”

“No, she didn’t.” Dean took a step back inside the house. “Think about it, Ruth. I believe you would make a great mom.”

“Thank you.” Ruth took the compliment, even though she didn’t know what to do with it. “You do a wonderful job fostering.”

“We enjoy it. Elizabeth wasn’t too sure to start with. This is the first time we’ve fostered since we had the baby. But Jason and Jenny deserve a break.” Dean put his hand up and waved goodnight, and Ruth walked back to her car, mulling over what he’d said.

The idea of adopting Jason and Jenny firmly planted itself in her head. Tomorrow, she would go over to Michael’s place and have a frank discussion with him. Ruth slid into the car and started the engine, then she turned the car around and drove home. All the time, thinking of how her life would change, how she would become part of a whole. Part of a family, a family that depended on her.

For the last ten years, she’d fought to be an individual. She’d stepped away from being the glue that stuck her family together, trained to be a teacher, and stood on her own. Was she ready to go back to being responsible for children on a day-to-day basis? Meeting every one of their needs? She loved children, it was the reason she became a teacher, but she dreaded being swallowed whole. Her chest became heavy as she remembered trying to deal with four children under six, when she was still a child herself.

Ruth parked in front of her house, got out and shut the door, breathing in the cold night air.

“Your neighbors think I’m an intruder.” A shadowy figure stood up, hitching a backpack onto her shoulder.

“Frankie?” Ruth asked, even though she would recognize her sister’s voice anywhere.

“In the flesh.” Frankie, pretty, blonde and petite, stepped out from the shadows. “I thought I’d come and check up on my big sis.”

“You should have called.” Ruth walked forward and hugged her youngest sister. “I’m in shock.”

“In a good way, I hope.” Frankie stood back, holding Ruth’s hands. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Come in.” Ruth led Frankie to the front door and fumbled with her keys as she attempted to open it. Was she all right? Frankie’s arrival was a shock, but did it go deeper than that? What if her sister was here because she needed something? Was Ruth ready to go back to being a mother to her sister, when she wanted to be wife to Michael and mother to the children?

“You look pale,” Frankie stated when Ruth switched the light on in the hallway.

“It’s been a long day.” Ruth’s cheeks flushed.

“Extracurricular activities?” Frankie asked, her voice deep and sultry, in complete contrast to her appearance.

Ruth grinned. “I may have met someone.”

“May have met someone?” Frankie asked, intrigued by her sister’s teasing.

Ruth went to the kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee while Frankie used the bathroom and deposited her backpack in the guest room. With a plate of cookies in front of them, they sat in the kitchen and caught up on each other’s news.

“Are you going to tell me now?” Frankie asked, devouring a cookie.

“Do you need a proper meal?” Ruth asked, going into mother hen mode.

“No, I grabbed food in town. And what a great town it is.” Frankie took another cookie. “Don’t change the subject. You may have met someone…”

“I have met someone. The one.” Ruth hid her face behind her coffee cup.

“Oh my God. You mean I won’t be able to brag about having a spinster schoolmarm as a sister?” Frankie asked in mock horror.

“Is that how you describe me?” Ruth asked caustically.

Frankie laughed and hugged Ruth. “I could describe you as the best sister in the world. But that makes both of us sound about seven.”

Ruth hugged Frankie back, rubbing her back as she had so often through the years. “How are you?”

“I am good.” Frankie sat upright and smiled. “Don’t I look good?”

Ruth narrowed her eyes and examined her sister. “Aside from the shadows under your eyes, you look amazing.”

“I feel amazing.” Frankie patted her chest lightly. “This heart beats so strong.” Her expression faltered, and she frowned.

“Hey, no dark thoughts,” Ruth warned, offering Frankie another cookie.

“Always a smile. Each day counts, right?” Frankie put a smile on her face. “I remind myself how lucky I am each night before bed and every morning when I wake up.”

“Have you been attending regular checkups?” Ruth asked.

“Yes, Mom.” Frankie took Ruth’s hands. “Listen, I didn’t come here for me. I came here to see how you were settling in. Of course, if you had bothered to send me a text, or pick up the phone and tell me you’d met someone, I wouldn’t have turned up on your doorstep to cramp your style.” Her eyes widened. “He’s not coming over, is he? If so I can make myself scarce.”

“No need. I’ve spent the evening with him.”

Frankie looked at her watch. “It’s not eight yet. Was it an after-school playdate?”

Ruth laughed and got up from the table. “I think we need wine.”

“On a school night?” Frankie asked with feigned shock.

“Don’t tell the principal.” Ruth grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and took out two glasses.

“Thank you.” Frankie sipped her wine slowly. “So are you going to tell me about him, or do you want to keep him to yourself?”

“Straight to the point, as always, Frankie.” Ruth sipped her wine, trying to figure out what to say.

“When you are told you don’t have long to live, it teaches you to cut through all the bullshit and get to the point.” Frankie shrugged. “I still live every day as if I’m on borrowed time. This heart might beat a hell of a lot stronger than mine…” Her face crumpled for a moment and then she recovered.

Ruth stroked her sister’s cheek. “You have to let go and stop feeling guilty.”

“What, that I’m alive and she isn’t?” Frankie put her wine down on the table. “Here I am drinking wine and eating cookies. Would she approve? Am I doing everything I can to keep this heart healthy?”

“Shhh.” Ruth soothed her sister as a tear trickled down her cheek. “His name is Michael.” There was little Ruth could say to ease the guilt Frankie often experienced, but if anything was going to, it was talk of her mate.

“And?”

“He is a bear shifter.”

“Oh my, you snagged a bear shifter?” Frankie asked in awe.

“I didn’t exactly snag him.” Ruth’s eyes sparkled as she remembered their first meeting.

“He makes you laugh. That’s good.” Frankie sat back, assessing her sister. “You like him. A lot.”

“I do,” Ruth acknowledged. “The mating bond only works one way. At least that’s what I thought. But I really like him.”

“That’s great. So I arrived just in time to help organize the wedding.”

“No, I mean we haven’t gotten that far yet. We only met a couple of days ago.”

Frankie’s expression grew serious. “Don’t put it off, Ruth. Don’t coat it in what will people think. Mom and Dad thought they had forever, but that forever was barely six years. And look at me, if someone hadn’t died in an accident, I would not be here now. Grab hold of that man with both hands and don’t let go.” Frankie’s cheeks flushed with passion.

“There’s one more thing,” Ruth said. “Or two.”

“You’re pregnant?” Frankie asked.

“You heard the part about we only met two days ago? I know your biology teacher despaired of your grades, but you do have some idea of how long a pregnancy is?” Ruth put on her best spinster schoolmarm face.

“You might have had another lover.” Frankie rolled her eyes. “You’re a spinster, not a virgin.”

“Okay, let’s get your head out of the gutter.” Ruth rolled her glass between her hands. “What if I told you that as well as getting married, I might adopt two children.”

Frankie’s reaction was to spray a mouthful of wine across the table. “Are you crazy? You spent your life raising four children already.”

“I think I am crazy,” Ruth agreed.

Frankie wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and then got up to find a cloth to clean the table. When she sat back down, she’d composed herself. “Sorry, I think that was jealous child syndrome. You would make an amazing mom. Because you were an amazing mom to me and the others.”

“Part of me wants to be free. Part of me wants to nurture the two kids.” Ruth drank her wine and then got up. “I need sleep.” She kissed the top of Frankie’s head. “Help yourself to whatever you need.”

“I will.” Frankie watched her sister as she padded out of the kitchen. “I’m overjoyed for you, Ruth. If anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s you.”

“Oh, I should have told you. He also won the lottery.” With a gasp from Frankie, Ruth ran upstairs. Perhaps tomorrow she would have a clear idea of what to do.

Or maybe she would be just as confused.