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“That sounds wonderful. Thanks, honey.” Mrs. Brennan smiled at her husband. She then turned her attention to Stacey. “I understand that you worked nothing less than a miracle with the girls’ costumes.”
“I wouldn’t call it a miracle.” Stacey didn’t want to carry that responsibility. Why did she feel the sudden need to escape? She’d just been tapping into her creative side.
“That’s not how Cody described it.”
Stacey smiled. “He only saw it that way because he didn’t know how to handle it himself.”
Cody’s mother’s face turned serious. “He’s had to be father and mother for most of the girls’ lives. Those more creative touches he sometimes has difficulty with.”
“That has to be frustrating for him. He’s such a perfectionist with his patients.”
“It is. Very frustrating.” Her look met Stacey’s as if Mrs. Brennan wanted to make sure she clearly understood. “Cody and the girls have survived a very difficult few years.”
“He told me.”
Mrs. Brennan’s eyes went wide, her surprise obvious. “Really? He never talks about Rachael.”
“I asked him and he told me.”
“Interesting. Because of what happened with Rachael he’s always trying to make up for those bad times. He is very overprotective where the girls are concerned. Of himself as well. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the genuine smiles of happiness on Jean and Lizzy’s faces like I saw today. It’s wonderful. Even Cody has a look in his eyes that I feared was gone forever.” Her eyes glistened. “Thank you for that.”
Stacey’s stomach fluttered with joy, only to turn sour from acute apprehension. She would be leaving soon. Of that there was no doubt. Life seemed unfair to her, to Cody, and even to his girls. It was the wrong place, wrong people and wrong time. She wasn’t right for Cody. If they moved past being friends and co-workers there was nothing but pain out there for all of them.
Cody wouldn’t keep her. Even if she wanted him to. One day he would push her away. Her father had done it, her stepfather had and then finally so had her fiancé. All the men in her life left her eventually. She wasn’t staying around for that to happen again. So there was no reason to start something that had no future. Knowing what it felt like being left behind and the pain it brought, she wouldn’t do that to Cody. Or let him do it to her either.
“I don’t know if I’m who you should give that credit to. I’ve not done anything special.”
“Maybe just being you is what makes it special.” Cody’s father approached. Mrs. Brennan added in a low voice, “I’m sure that I’ve said more than Cody would appreciate.” She placed a hand over Stacey’s. “Just know that you are special to them.”
Stacey fiddled with a loose sliver of wood on the tabletop. When had she last felt special to anyone? Or had someone tell her that she was? It was nice to hear, even if it was coming from Cody’s mother.
While they had been talking, people had been settling at the tables around them. It wouldn’t be long before the program started. Mr. Brennan joined them and they talked about the island and the festival for a few minutes in between sipping their iced drinks.
Mrs. Brennan’s attention moved to somewhere behind Stacey. “I think Cody needs you.”
Heat burned her cheeks. What was his mother saying?
She smiled. “I don’t mean that, hon, though it might be true. I mean he’s waving that he needs you to come to him.”
Stacey turned to find Cody standing at the corner of the stage, gesturing for her to join him. She started that way. Once again she was being pulled in despite her vow to remain detached.
There was a desperate note in Cody’s voice when she reached him. “I need some assistance with the girls’ bonnets. They say I’m not doing it right.”
Stacey couldn’t help but be pleased. It was nice to feel needed.
“I’ll owe you even more than I already do if you could get them on for me.”
“I can do that. Where are they?”
Cody took her hand. It was large, solid and secure. Steady. Something about having her hand in his felt right. He pulled her through a gaggle of little girls, around a couple of mothers talking and passed another group of girls to where Jean and Lizzy stood.
“Daddy couldn’t do this right,” Lizzy said, handing Stacey her bonnet.
She took it from the girl. “To be fair to your father, this does have a degree of difficulty. He doesn’t know what I had in mind. Turn around and let me get this on you.”
