Page 132 of Heartbeat

Amalie came back into the house with tears running down her face, and when they saw her, everything came to a halt.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Sean asked.

She handed him the phone. “Good news, but Daddy’s sad. I feel it in my bones.”

They read it, then reached for her at the same time.

“Group hug. This is how we fix all the hurts in this family.”

“That and cookies,” Sean said, and kissed the top of her head.

It made them laugh, but when Shirley sent them outside with pop and cookies, they didn’t argue.

“Your mother is a healer, isn’t she?” Amalie said. “A fixer of all kinds of aches, even the ones you can’t see.”

He shrugged. “We all have gifts and burdens. Some people use them to the fullest. Some people waste them. And some people never even know that they are there.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “How did you get so smart?”

“I guess Clyde Wallace beat the stupid out of all of us. What’s left is gold.”

Sean never talked about his father. He never ever said his name. She knew their scars ran deep. And the only way she knew how to make the dark go away was to be his light. She glanced longingly at the cookie she was holding, then sighed.

“Sean…remember when you used to give me your dessert at school?”

He nodded.

“Back then, I thought you just didn’t want it, but you were giving up something you wanted to make someone else’s world better, weren’t you?”

He grinned. “Maybe.”

“So here,” she said, and handed him her cookie.

He sighed. “God, woman…you humble me on a daily basis.”

“Just eat the cookie.”

And so he did.

That night, they made love within the silence of the old house, within the walls of a room where lives had been lost, and babies had been birthed, and the passage of time had been stopped within the moment of a heartbeat, making love in the dark.

And in the morning of the next day, while grease was still warm in the skillet where she’d cooked the eggs, Shirley Pope’s last son walked in the door.

He dropped his bags, threw his coat on the sofa, and caught his mother on the run and swept her up into his arms.

“Happy Easter, Mom!”

Shirley was in shock. “What happened to you?”

“I grew. I hope I’m done. Big-man clothes are expensive.”

Sean was grinning. “Damn, son, I think you’re right. As of this moment, you are officially the tallest Pope on the mountain…and you’re early.”

“Caught a different flight last night. Stayed over in Bowling Green. Started home before daybreak. And this beautiful woman must be your girl!”

“My fiancée, Amalie Lincoln. Amalie, this is Brendan James Pope, our baby brother, but we call him B.J.. You never knew him. He wasn’t old enough to go to school then.”

Amalie smiled. “Finally, we meet,” she said. “Your reputation in this family is epic.”

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