The Hero's Sweetheart Read online

  This morning’s meeting with all of Dad’s caregivers had resulted in a combined game plan for restoring Sully to health. Everyone present was in agreement that Sully would probably have less stress if he felt as though he still had his hand on the reins of the diner, at least on a few important things.

  Jack had brainstormed what those things could be and the doctors had agreed that the decisions he could let Sully make would benefit Sully and buoy his dignity, which he felt had been lost in the stroke and in his inability to run the diner right now.

  The doctors also agreed that not letting Sully have any diner say or input was putting him at risk for another stroke and a setback in his long-term outlook and eventual rehabilitation.

  “We’re in transition with some things, but the changes are good.” Maybe Dad would have insight into who’d be a good crew leader for each of the two shifts. Plus, if Jack let Sully make those kinds of decisions, he’d still feel like he had control over the diner and his life. That would be therapeutic and beneficial. The last thing Jack wanted was for his dad to feel useless. “Actually, Dad, I’d love your opinion on a few things.”

  Sully grinned. “Shoot,” the tablet said.

  “What would you think about having crew leaders, for times you or I have to leave the diner?” If Dad ever was able to return.

  “Crew leaders.” Sully appeared to chew on that. Then his mouth flattened. “Dumbest thing I ever heard.”

  Well, Olivia was right again. Scratch the crew leader idea.

  “I’d like to hire new people and have current crew members train them. Who from each shift do you think would be ideal for that?”

  “Evening shift...Miss Molly. Day shift...our Olivia.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  Sully scowled and pushed replay on the tablet translator. “Evening shift... Miss Molly. Day shift...our Olivia,” the robotic voice repeated.

  That Dad had called her our Olivia sent an odd feeling through Jack. Up until now, he’d really thought his dad had just been kidding.

  Jack studied his eyes and caught a determined glint not there before. So perhaps not?

  To make Molly a crew trainer might prevent her from doing the catering thing, though, as Olivia had suggested. Jack just didn’t know how well that would go over.

  If the diner did end up pulling out of debt, at that time, he’d revisit Olivia’s idea of Molly catering out of Sully’s Diner. That would be mutually beneficial, plus bless the town and make a better life for a struggling single mom.

  “Molly will be glad for the promotion and raise, but Olivia won’t feel worthy of it,” Sully said through the speech tablet. “In fact, I can almost guarantee Olivia’s going to fight you tooth and nail on it. But hold your ground, son, because I think the leadership would be good for her.”

  “You don’t think the employees will feel pitted against each other if I give Olivia and Molly that distinction?” That had been Olivia’s concern with crew leadership.

  “Maybe a month ago I’d be afraid of that, but not now. I know some things gotta change, son. Both with the diner and with life in general. Like this.” He held up the tablet, speaking for him. “But we adapt and do what we gotta do.”

  Jack nodded, knowing it was true in a lot of ways.

  And that life change in general could spill over on Jack to topple his military dream.

  But, today, the military hoopla felt more like a demand and a duty he dreaded, rather than the adrenaline-iced delight he’d always viewed it as before. Time spent with Dad and here back in his hometown with his employees were giving him a new sense of purpose.

  Sully glared at the new healthy food the cafeteria delivery person had brought. “And look at that. I’ll have to give up my greasy spoon beefy gravy for this godforsaken broccoli and this waterlogged cod.”

  Jack tried not to laugh. To be fair, the food looked fake. Except he knew it wasn’t because Sully was shredding it to death with his fork as he lamented over his lost greasy gravy.

  The cafeteria delivery person just winked at Jack and scurried out, good-soul smile intact.

  “So you’re okay with us making some changes like this in the diner, Dad?”

  Sully nodded. “One thing. Olivia’s special to me. Got a daughterly place in my heart.” His dad rested his hand on his own chest and then extended his hand to Jack as though passing the mantle. Jack tried not to stiffen. He didn’t want Olivia in his heart. Or was it that he didn’t want to admit she was already in there? “You promise to take good care of her for me until I get better.”

  Jack nodded. “I will.”

  “See that she gets proper rest, too. And if we can afford it, give the kid a big raise.”

  Jack couldn’t bring himself to tell his dad they absolutely could not afford it. Jack had discovered that about when Dad spoke of “petty cash,” he wasn’t talking a thousand bucks like most small, family-owned businesses, but more like a hundred thousand. And about a third of that much was unaccounted for. Someone had taken it.

  But he’d find a way to give Olivia what she deserved.

  “She won’t want special treatment, you understand. But she needs certain considerations. Be nice so she’ll open up to you.”

  Jack smiled. His dad knew him pretty well, all things considered.

  He might even know Jack’s heart better than Jack did himself.

  * * *

  At the end of her shift later that week, Olivia knocked lightly on Sully’s door. “Sully? You decent? It’s Liver.” While she waited, she grinned at the use of the nickname that would forever stick now because it made Sully smile.

  “Why, yes, do come in, lass,” she heard Sully’s audio tablet say. He must have switched it to a Scottish accent. She’d heard he’d told the speech pathologist he wished the tablet had a Darth Vader voice so he could scare the night-shift nurses when they came tiptoeing around with their little penlights.

  Grateful that Sully’s sense of humor had survived the stroke, Olivia rounded the corner. She smiled at Jack, but that cold steely glint had returned to his eyes. What in the world?

  Well, he’d be glad to hear her good news, then. “Guess what? My car is fixed. The mechanic is bringing it by here, with the keys. So you’re cut loose from having to give me a ride, Jack.”

  She’d really grown to enjoy that time with him. But he apparently didn’t feel the same. He didn’t so much as blink before saying to Sully, “See? She shouldn’t have bought a Chevy.”

  “I didn’t buy it, actually. It was a gift. From your father.” As soon as she blurted that out, she wanted to take the words back.

  Sully lifted his tablet. “Make sure that car mechanic didn’t charge you an arm and a leg, young lady.”

  “Jack said he’d cut me a deal.”

  “If Jack recommended him, then you’ll be fine because that mechanic will know my son will skin him alive if he tried to take advantage of a lady. How much did it cost to fix the car, kiddo?”

  “Not much,” Olivia hedged, not wanting to make Sully feel bad that the car was a lemon. She loved the car. It’s just that it wasn’t always dependable, especially in colder weather. But she was grateful nonetheless.

  She avoided eye contact with Jack, unsure if he even knew already that his dad had given the car to her. She’d tried to protest but Sully had insisted for a solid week before she gave in, with the caveat that he’d let her clean his house for a while. She’d still be doing it if Jack didn’t live there now.

  “How much is not much?” Sully asked through the audio tablet.

  “A couple hundred is all,” she fudged a little. It was closer to four hundred.

  “You’re a worse fibber than my son. Now you use that money I gave you at Christmastime to get that car fixed if need be, you hear?”

  Jack’s head w
hipped up. “What money?”

  “None of your beeswax,” Sully’s tablet said to Jack.

  Jack narrowed his eyes at Olivia. When the nurse came in to take Sully down to the occupational therapy lab, Jack rapidly approached Olivia, causing her to scramble back.

  “How. Much.” Jack’s teeth were gritted.

  “A thousand dollars,” she whispered hoarsely.

  His jaw clenched. A gleam of warning in his eyes crushed the fragile bridge of trust they’d built.

  She felt the fallout immediately.

  But if this was all it took to obliterate their trust, maybe it hadn’t meant as much to him as it had to her. Profound sadness came over her. And regret, for opening herself up to it...and to him.

  “I tried to give it back. He wouldn’t take it.”

  She felt helpless, knowing deep down he wasn’t going to believe her, on that point or that she’d never asked for money. She could see it in his eyes. Looking at things from his perspective, she really couldn’t blame him. She’d been secretive and cryptic.

  “I often wonder, Olivia, how and why it is that you’ve become so close to my dad. Ever heard of elder abuse scammers? People who pretend to befriend the elderly people just to have a chance to con their way into their hearts and leave with their life savings?”

  “I’d never, ever do that to your dad or to anyone.” Her voice trembled. She leaned against the sink to regain her composure and to resist slapping Jack for saying that. She was thankful Sully was out of the room right now.

  “First the car, then a thousand bucks, Olivia? What else have you taken from him?”

  She opened her mouth to protest that she hadn’t taken anything from Sully. However, maybe Jack considered her receiving Sully’s gifts as taking. Especially if Sully couldn’t afford to give them. For all Jack knew, his dad wasn’t in a lucid frame of mind when he gave her those things. Even though Olivia felt he was. How could she convince him of her integrity?

  “I can understand you being worried in the beginning about me using your father or taking advantage. But I thought you knew me better than that now.” As hard as she tried, she couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice.

  “So then you still have the money?”

  “I—yes. Some of it.” She couldn’t tell him she’d paid the balance on the cost of the diner washer and dryer. Sully would find out and be heartbroken. She’d promised herself to spend it for an emergency or on school. She didn’t want to hurt Sully by not using it for herself, but the diner needed those funds. And, technically, saving the diner was an emergency, right?

  Olivia began to tremble at the look on Jack’s face, the mistrust flooding back again.

  “You had to know his faculties were failing when you accepted the gift,” Jack accused.

  “His faculties were fine up until a couple of days prior to his stroke. He was well before that. Believe what you want to.” Done with this futile discussion and devastated beyond belief at the doubt arcing in his eyes, she turned to go.

  He reached for her arm to turn her back. “I want to believe you, Olivia,” he said. “But I need more to go on here.”

  “Like what?”

  “Where’s the rest of the money?”

  She didn’t want to tell him, but what choice did she have? Plus, maybe somehow his knowing would help. “If I tell you, you can’t tell him.”

  Jack’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  “I made a promise to him, Jack. And I broke the promise.”

  “By blowing the money on stupid stuff.”

  He might as well have slapped her. “How dare you? When have you ever seen me spend frivolously? When?”

  He gave her a blank look, then nodded. “You’re right. I can’t think of a single time.”

  “I am the anonymous donor who paid the rest of the washer and dryer fee.”

  Jack let her arm go. “What are you talking about?” He studied her, then tilted his head. “Wait, I never received the rest of the bill.”

  “Because I paid it that day in cash. The cash Sully gave me. The transaction is in the computer. The receipt is in the safe. Top shelf, right next to the tax documents for this year that I helped him sort through. Of course you probably think I cheated him on that, too.”

  At voices outside the door, Jack’s hand went up. “Wait. He’s back. We discuss this later.”

  The tech wheeled Sully in and helped him to his chair. Sully leaned over and made a face at his tablet. Then he punched the playback button and Olivia’s heart felt as if it would stop.

  “...I often wonder, Olivia, how and why it is that you’ve become so close to my dad. Ever heard of elder abuse scammers?’”

  Sully’s head wobbled up. “Who said that?”

  Olivia put her face in her hands. “Oh, Sully...it’s nothing, really.”

  “Don’t seem like nothing to me,” his audio tablet said. Sully’s face grew red as he flared his nostrils at Jack. “What’s this about, son? And don’t try to lie to me. I may have had a stroke but I’m not brain-dead.”

  Sully wobbled to his feet. The therapist rushed to steady him. He fought the arms trying to get him to sit back down before he fell. He cast a concerned look Olivia’s way and then glared holes through Jack. “Just what exactly are you accusing her of?”

  Olivia’s brain scrambled to cover for Jack in order to calm Sully down. She searched Jack’s face from across the room, trying to draw from his lead what to say to mend this.

  Suddenly Jack surged forward, his face stricken. “Dad?”

  Olivia whirled to find Sully’s eyes rolling up into his head. His body began convulsing in his chair, and the room slid into chaos.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You’re sure about this?” Jack asked the specialist who’d moved Sully back to the intensive care wing of EPTC for closer observation.

  “Yes. I believe it was just a TIA, a ministroke this time, set off by emotional and physical stress. The therapist worked him pretty hard. I think it’s too soon to be expecting so much of him. We need to rethink our long-term plan.”

  Jack sat, face in his hands. “This is my fault.”

  “I understand you had an argument in the room?”

  “Well, that mimicking parrot of an electronic tablet gave us away, but, yeah. Right before he got back in there. Apparently its recording feature was on the voice-activated setting.”

  “Is the matter settled?”

  “It will be. In fact, since he’s stable and resting now, I need to go find Olivia and make it right.”

  “I believe one of the nurses directed her to the inner courtyard patio.”

  “Thanks. Call me if he changes.”

  “Will do.”

  Jack headed to the patio with images fresh in his mind of Olivia fleeing the room as soon as Sully was stabilized. He’d never seen her so distraught.

  And that was Jack’s fault, too.

  Remorse cut through him like flying shards of shrapnel as he navigated the corridors in search of the courtyard doors and the right words to say.

  Midway down a glass-encased hallway, he saw a brick and ceramic mosaic fountain surrounded by shrubs and winter flowers. Huge decorative clay planters and pots dotted the perimeter and encased all sorts of greenery, with the three-tier water fountain as the centerpiece. The courtyard’s carved octagon walls featured stained-glass images of hope and healing.

  He pressed open the door and found himself instantly soothed by the water arcing over the eagle statue in the middle of the fountain. He heard murmuring on the other side and slowed his steps. There, through the rivulets of water, he could see Olivia pacing, hands pressed together tightly and against her mouth, as though praying. Back and forth she paced.

  He approached, dreading the
hurt he was about to see in her eyes, knowing he’d been the one to put it there. The terror on her face when his dad had collapsed had nearly collapsed her, too. But she’d kicked right in and helped the crew resuscitate his dad by handing them vital items and opening packages.

  He followed the brick pattern of the courtyard around to where she paced. When she saw him, her steps stuttered before she paused, looking like she might go the other way to avoid him.

  Jack picked up his pace to cut her off from fleeing. “Olivia, wait. Please. I came to apologize.”

  Her steps slowed. He stared at the stubborn set to her stature, not blaming her for being defensive. He still had no idea what to say, how to apologize.

  Father, I’m lost here. Give me the words.

  As soon as he had the thought, a sense of true humility washed over him. He reached to rest a gentle hand on her shoulder. She stiffened at his touch. At first. He increased pressure of his hand in tender increments, until she turned.

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s resting well now.”

  She nodded, pressed a hand to her stomach and stared away. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “Yes. You didn’t need to leave.”

  “Yes. Yes, I did. You’re right. I don’t belong.”

  The hurt within her words cut Jack straight to the core.

  In one strong, smooth motion, Jack pulled Olivia to him and held her close. “Yes, you do. You have every right to be by his side. I’m sorry. I never should have said that.”

  She softened then and stopped resisting Jack’s embrace.

  Her shoulders molded and melded into him and he felt her fight the surge of tears. Then moisture soaked the front of his shirt but he didn’t care. She clung to Jack and Jack clung to her, both still trembling from Sully’s episode in the room. Then she broke down, quaking shoulders, sobs, shuddering and all. “I was so scared, Jack. He turned so blue.”

  “That was scary. I know.” Terrifying, if Jack were truthful. Sully had stopped breathing for nearly a minute but health-care workers had been able to revive him.