A Forever Home. Lynn Patrick

it was her pulse that thudded in her ears.

      CHAPTER ONE

      LATE. TODAY OF all days. Heather couldn’t believe her bad luck.

      Her first day on the job site and both the twins decided this was the morning to drive her crazy. That was normally Taylor’s job, but to make the situation worse, Addison joined her twin in doing everything possible to put Heather behind, starting with their refusal to get out of bed when she called them. They’d ended up running around the house like little banshees instead of getting ready, then threw buttered toast at each other at breakfast so they both had to change clothes. Which meant her neighbor, who’d agreed to watch them for an hour before escorting them to school with her own son, had left without them.

      Now she had to drive the girls to school herself, and Heather couldn’t believe it when she found Taylor sitting in the middle of the living room floor and playing her favorite DVD of her father before he’d gone back for the second tour of duty that had gotten him killed.

      “You’re Daddy’s little girl,” Scott told Taylor, kissing her on the cheek. “You’ll always be Daddy’s girl.”

      “Forever and ever?”

      “Forever and ever. Cross my heart.”

      And even though her twin hadn’t been there when this was recorded, the then-three-year-old Taylor had asked, “Addison, too?”

      “Of course, Addison, too.”

      Heather blinked away the threat of tears and turned off the television. Moments like this brought back the heartache. Even though Scott had died three years before in Iraq, he was still alive in all their hearts.

      She cleared her throat. “Taylor, come on. Addison is already outside. We have to go now.”

      Once through the kitchen, they headed for the SUV. Heather noted Addison was focused on a dog hanging back on the property but watching the little girl hopefully. He looked like some kind of a border collie mix.

      “Mommy, look at the dog!” Taylor said excitedly.

      “We don’t have time for that. C’mon, Addison. Both of you, get in.”

      Maybe if she didn’t look at the dog, she wouldn’t feel guilty just leaving him there. Loose. Probably scared and hungry.

      She was already late for her new job.

      She checked to make sure both girls were strapped into their booster seats, then got into the driver’s seat, and with a last look at the pooch, she took off for the school. He would find his way home, or his owner would find him. She had enough to worry about without adding a possible lost dog to the list.

      Five minutes later she was getting the girls out of the vehicle. No kids on the playground. School had already started, so the twins were late, too.

      “I don’t want you to go to Kenosha, Mommy,” Addison said, sniffling as they walked toward the entrance.

      “What if you don’t come back?” Taylor added. “Like Daddy.” Her eyes shone with unshed tears.

      Heather stopped, slipped an arm around each little girl and hugged them tight. “Of course I’m coming back. I’ll be going to all different places with my new job, but they’re not far away. I told you that you’ll see me later. In Kenosha. Uncle Brian is going to drive you to your new day camp this afternoon, and after work, I’ll pick you up. We can sing songs in the car all the way home.”

      Taylor blinked and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I learned a new song in kiddygarden—”

      “Me, too!” Addison interrupted.

      “And I can’t wait to hear you both sing it.” Heather kissed one little blond head, then the other. “But right now, let’s get you to your classroom.”

      She walked them inside the building and apologized to their teacher for being late, then practically ran back to her SUV.

      Thankfully she’d found a day camp close to her job site. For now, Brian or their sister, Kristen, would pick up the twins and deliver them to afternoon care for her. Once school was out, the twins could be at the camp all day.

      Finally heading for Kenosha, she called Tyrone Smith, one of the two people on her team.

      “Me, again,” she said. “I’m on my way. I should be there in fifteen minutes.”

      “No rush.” As usual, Tyrone’s tone was smooth and easy. “We trippin’.”

      “Tripping? I hope that’s another way of saying you and Amber are working hard.”

      “And havin’ a good time.”

      Hearing hip-hop music in the background, Heather had to force herself to keep her own voice even. “You’re clearing the land along the beachfront the way I asked you to, right?”

      “Exactly.”

      “Okay.” Not that she was actually sure it was okay. She didn’t know either member of her team well enough yet to judge. “Keep clearing.”

      The area was becoming overgrown with Lyme grass, an invasive non-native beach grass that posed a threat to several rare native plants. Heather wanted to replace whatever they removed with native varieties.

      “Just remember to only remove the grass that has bluish leaves,” she added. “They should stand out clearly from any native dune grass still present.”

      “I got it the first time,” Tyrone said.

      Heather flinched. She might be the boss of the team, but she didn’t want to come off as “bossy.” “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

      The short drive from Sparrow Lake seemed interminable.

      Take deep, slow breaths, and enjoy the ride, she reminded herself. Let go of what you can’t fix.

      She’d existed in a pressure cooker for the past couple of years. An army widow at twenty-one, she’d managed her aunt’s quilting store to make a living while raising the twins and earning a degree in landscape horticulture. In order to cope she’d had to learn how to counter stress with relaxation techniques.

      Sometimes they even worked.

      Now her sister, Kristen, had decided to change careers and was back in Sparrow Lake and running Sew Fine while Heather was embarking on her new career. The final project for her advanced landscape design class had been a design challenge sponsored by a nonprofit called Environmental Partners, Inc., otherwise known as EPI. She’d won the challenge and the opportunity for a paid internship that could turn into a full-time job.

      This internship was a dream come true for Heather. She’d started gardening when she was a kid and her mother had no time to do anything but work to support their family. By high school, Heather had been drawing plans for friends’ yards and figuring what kinds of plants should go where. She’d known then she wanted to get a job working in landscaping. But her plans to go to college had been cut short by her early pregnancy and Scott’s determination to enlist. For years she’d had to be content with the gardening magazines she’d collected, the knowledge she’d gathered from them and a dream that one day it would all come together.

      Now she actually would be able to put that knowledge to work and in a way that would help improve the earth by creating a sustainable landscape.

      When she arrived in Kenosha at last, Heather drove through the historic district along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The houses on Third Street were old and huge and lovely, as was much of the current professional landscaping. Flanagan Manor was the biggest and showiest of the bunch.

      She couldn’t contain her excitement as she turned onto a drive that led into the huge lakeside estate surrounded by black wrought-iron fencing. She would get to work here for a good part of the summer, redefining the grounds of the mansion built in Victorian times and