her head and through bleary eyes looked at the clock. Suddenly wide awake, she threw back the blanket, put on her robe and hurried to the head of the stairs.
“Samantha,” she called. “Get up. The alarm clock didn’t go off. We leave for school in thirty minutes.”
“I’m not going! I’m sick.”
Startled, Aimee lifted the bottom of her robe and hurried downstairs. Samantha’s door was open, and Aimee went in without knocking. Samantha was lying on a stack of pillows, a pitiful look on her face. Her eyes were swollen, and she was sniffing as if she had a cold.
Aimee got a thermometer from the adjacent bathroom cabinet and took her temperature. It was normal. So was her pulse rate.
“Stick out your tongue,” Aimee said. Samantha closed her eyes and complied.
Observing her daughter carefully, Aimee wondered if this was a stunt to get sympathy. If Samantha had been crying, that would account for the red eyes and stuffy nose.
“It’s too late for me call in to stay home with you. Erica isn’t working today, so I’ll ask her to check on you a few times. And I’ll call during my lunch break. You know, if you’re too sick for school today, you’re too sick to stay after school and cheer in the game.”
Samantha’s glare was almost more than Aimee could stand, but she turned away quickly. While Aimee dressed she heard the water running in Samantha’s bathroom, and when Aimee was ready, Samantha was standing beside the door, fully dressed, with her backpack over her back.
“Feeling better?”
“A little,” Samantha said weakly. “I remembered a science test today. Better not miss it. And the squad is expecting me to be there to do our new routine.”
Aimee’s heart was a little lighter when Samantha meekly followed her out to the garage, slid into the car and fastened her seat belt. She had wondered more than once what she would do if Jennifer showed up to take Aimee to school. Perhaps the crisis was over. But when Samantha was silent on the way to school and got out of the car without saying goodbye, Aimee knew that although she won the first battle, the war wasn’t over yet.
Throughout the day, as she answered the phone, worked at the computer and handed out school supplies to the kids, Aimee’s thoughts kept shifting from Samantha’s rebellion to Jacob. She hadn’t been attracted to any other man for years, so what was it about Jacob that piqued her interest? Maybe he wasn’t any different from any other man she’d encountered in the past dozen years; maybe she had changed. It was a startling thought.
After Aimee watched Samantha cheer on her team at the game, they made their way home. Samantha stayed in her room all evening, speaking only in monosyllables when Aimee asked questions. Tuesday morning, she was silent also. After school, however, Samantha replied amicably to Aimee’s questions about her day. Aimee soon found out the reason for the attitude change.
“Mom, Mrs. Nibert asked me to go with her and Jen to a spring fashion show at the mall tonight. Can I go?”
“What time?”
“About six. She wants to treat us to Chinese before the show.”
Aimee deliberated momentarily. That meant she would be home when Samantha left to be certain that Jennifer’s mother was with them. She felt guilty about not trusting Samantha, but she wouldn’t be comfortable at the Siblings meeting unless she knew that the girls weren’t alone.
“I guess that will be all right if you get your homework done in the next two hours. You really need to get that math grade up.”
Samantha didn’t answer, just went to her room immediately. Aimee didn’t hear any phone conversations, so she gave Samantha the benefit of the doubt that she was actually studying.
When the Niberts arrived, Aimee walked outside to greet them. “Thanks for taking Samantha. Do you know what time you will be back? I’m going out for the evening, and I don’t want Samantha coming home to an empty house.”
“I’m not sure,” Mrs. Nibert said, “but if you aren’t here, we’ll stay until you come home.”
Aimee thanked her, waved them on their way and turned toward the house. She didn’t really know the Niberts well, but she had to give Samantha some space. If fourteen years of parental guidance hadn’t taught her daughter the difference between right and wrong, she had failed as a mother. It was time to have some interests of her own, and she turned her thoughts to the evening with Jacob.
By the time Aimee was dressed, she was so nervous, she couldn’t sit still. While she paced the floor, she thought about how she felt the first time she had a date with Steve. Because she was only sixteen at the time and he was eighteen, her parents threw a fit when Steve asked her to go out with him. But she had known Steve forever, so in the end they trusted him. It wasn’t quite the same as going out with Jacob, who was almost a stranger.
She didn’t know why she was worried. Jacob seemed to have a knack of putting people at ease that must come from his profession as a counselor. Besides, she was only going to learn more about Substitute Siblings, right? This was definitely not a date. She just wished someone would tell that to her racing heart.
It had been a long time since Jacob had looked forward to anything as much as he did the evening with Aimee. As he drove the few miles to her house, he thought of the past few years when his only emotional outlet had been his clients and their problems. It had been a blessing when he had organized Substitute Siblings, for it kept his mind occupied with the needs of others rather than his own personal life—or lack of it.
But no matter how many unfortunate children he helped, a part of his heart still seemed empty and unfulfilled. Was it time for him to trust someone again? Would Aimee be the woman he could finally allow into his life—and his heart?
Benton, Virginia, was a town of fifteen thousand, established two hundred years ago in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He knew the town so well that he easily maneuvered through the narrow streets as he went to pick her up. Although he hadn’t been in the subdivision where Aimee lived, Jacob drove directly to her house without any problem.
He parked along the curb and went to the front door. Aimee soon answered his knock.
She was as pretty as he remembered. As they walked down the sidewalk, he quietly surveyed her. Jacob had a knack for reading people’s thoughts, but Aimee was an enigma to him. He had no idea if she was excited about their evening together. Although thoughts of her kept intruding into his mind, he wondered if she had thought about him at all.
Jacob held open the door of his SUV for her, rounded the front of the vehicle and was in the seat beside her before she had her seat belt fastened. “I haven’t been in this subdivision before. Have you lived here long?”
“About fourteen years. My husband had a job in Washington, D.C., but after he died, I didn’t want to stay there. My parents live a few miles out in the country from Benton, and I came home to raise Samantha with the support of my family.”
He sensed that she was hesitant to talk about her husband, but he asked one more question, “Does your husband’s family live here?”
“Only a few cousins. His parents live year-round in Florida, as does my brother-in-law’s family. Samantha always spends two weeks with them during the summer. Occasionally, both of us go to Florida for Christmas.”
Although there were many more things Jacob wanted to know about Aimee, he would take his time. She’d already indicated that she devoted all of her time to her job and Samantha. Did that mean she hadn’t dated at all since she became a widow? Was she still mourning her husband?
Although he wanted to know more about Aimee, he didn’t want to pry. During the short drive to his offices, where the meeting would be held, they shifted the conversation to upcoming events in Benton, especially the city’s bicentennial celebration to