“Are you wearing a costume?” Slade asked, opening the door for Mindy to slide out of the back seat.
The little girl nodded. “Mrs. Pl-ank’s—do-ing—it.”
“Because I don’t know how to sew other than sewing on a button in an emergency.” Tory fell into step next to Mindy with Slade on his daughter’s other side.
“That’s okay. If you ask me to do anything other than change a light bulb around the house, I’d have to hire someone to do it.”
While Mindy went ahead of them and stood in line behind a young boy and his mother, Tory hung back with Slade. “Are you okay about church on Sunday? The play isn’t that big a deal. Some of the Sunday school classes have been working on it the past few weeks. They’re going to perform in the rec hall on the stage after the nine o’clock service.”
“I’m fine. It’s a big deal to Mindy. I’ll be there. Are you sure she’ll be okay in front of an audience?”
“Yes. Will you come to the church service, too?”
He blew out a breath of air. “You’re a very determined woman.”
“Yes.”
“We’ll make it a family outing, then.”
“Good.” The pleasant warmth that coursed through her veins at Slade’s mention of the word family caused a sharpening of her awareness of the man beside her. He might not be handy around the house, but she was beginning to depend on him, and that frightened her. Her emotions had been locked up so tight for a long time. She was afraid to release them and feel again, afraid her judgment somehow would be wrong again. Or that Slade wouldn’t be able to accept her for whom she really was.
Tory started for Mindy. Slade placed a hand on her arm to halt her movements.
“Thanks for making this easy, Tory. I do feel we’re becoming a family and Mindy thinks so. She told me last night while I was putting her to bed.”
A tightness jammed her throat. She felt it, too. She might never have the children she wanted, but Mindy was like a daughter to her and this man was responsible. She owed him a lot, but she didn’t know if she could ever totally be free of her past to unconditionally give of herself in a marriage. Slade deserved that.
* * *
“Thank you again for agreeing to go to church Sunday with us.” Tory tore the fresh spinach and placed it in the large wooden salad bowl. “Mindy talked all day about you coming to see her be a horse in the play.”
“Does she have a speaking part?” Slade opened the cabinet door and extracted the dinner plates.
“Yes.” Pausing in chopping up a tomato, Tory glanced at her husband setting the table as though they had been working side by side in the kitchen for years instead of weeks. “Just a small part.”
“But still, she’s speaking in front of an audience.” He shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s wise. What if someone laughs at how slow she speaks? What if she forgets her lines?”
Tory put her balled hands on her waist. “They won’t, Slade Donaldson. And even if they did, we’re here to help her get through it. You can’t constantly protect Mindy from life.”
Looking up, he frowned. “Frankly, I don’t know that I’ve done such a great job of protecting my daughter from life so far.”
“She wanted to do this play. I’m not sorry I told her yes.”
“You should have checked with me.”
“Then come to church with us each week and you’ll know what’s going on. If I’m going to be responsible for taking care of Mindy when you aren’t here, then you’ll have to trust my judgment about what is good for her.” Her fingernails dug into her palms, remembering her own qualms earlier about her judgment.
“I do trust you.”
“Then quit acting like you don’t. Mindy has enjoyed rehearsing with the others. No one has made fun of her. Not everyone is like those children in the mall.”
The tense set to his shoulders relaxed. The hard lines of his face smoothed. “Did we just have our first fight?”
Tory dropped her hands to her sides. “I guess we did.”
“Just like an old married couple.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m not old,” she said with a laugh, needing to lighten the mood before she began to dream of them as a real old married couple.
“Seriously, I don’t know if I’ll ever stop worrying about Mindy and how people will receive her.”
“I know. That’s part of being a parent. I worry, too.”
Slade finished setting the eating utensils on each bamboo place mat. Tory continued cutting the rest of the tomatoes, listening to him moving around the table. There were still times that it seemed strange to wake up in the morning and find Slade in the kitchen fixing the coffee or coming out of the only bathroom in the house after having taken a shower, his hair wet, dressed in a robe. When she had been in college, she’d shared an apartment her last two years. It was like that but of course different since Slade was a male.
“I’ll get the barbecued chicken. It should be done by now.”
Slade stood right behind her and the sudden sound of his voice so near her ear caused her to jump and gasp. Laying a hand against her chest, she drew in deep breaths and twisted about to look at him. “You scared me. I didn’t hear you approach.” The rapid beat of her heart still pounded against her rib cage. His lime-scented aftershave swamped her senses.
“Sorry.” He offered her a smile. “I didn’t know making a salad could be so absorbing.”
“Just thinking,” she said, turning back to complete the task. The hand that held the knife trembled.
“Anything you’d like to share with me?”
No way. “You know Dave Patterson is meeting with me on Monday about the plans for the indoor riding ring.”
“He’s a good man. I think you’ll be impressed
