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She sighed. The sense of unease she first felt in his presence faded slightly. His forbidding appearance was rendered merely unfamiliar and therefore somewhat less alarming. Slowly acknowledging her total fear may have been misplaced. He actually appeared to be quite genuine. “Okay, Mr. O’Malley—”
“Sean.”
“Sean,” she amended. “I’ll be honest. Mason isn’t home right now. Didn’t he return your call yesterday morning? I gave him your message.”
“He never called.”
She pursed her lips. Yesterday had been a complete disaster and that was probably why Mason neglected to tell her that this man was actually his friend from college. She wanted to believe him, and if what he said were true, Mason would expect her to be hospitable to his old friend. She didn’t want to disappoint her husband. Her teeth pressed into her lower lip as she considered her options.
“You say you’ve been driving a while?”
“Over fourteen hours. You see, my dad just passed away and I took off right after the funeral. I really don’t have anywhere to be at the moment and somehow wound up here. It only made sense to see if I could locate Mase.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It’s really okay, but thank you.”
“Um, can you…can you excuse me for just one minute? I just need to check something. Just one minute please.” She held up her finger as she stepped back. When he nodded she shut the door and quietly latched the chain.
She turned and ran into the kitchen, her bare feet smacking quietly across the cool tile floor. Mason’s familiar words played through her mind. When we are unsure what to do, we ask for help, and our problems immediately feel smaller and easier to solve.
Picking the cordless phone up off the counter, she pressed speed dial one as she walked into the formal living room and spied on their visitor from behind the heavy satin drapes. Her finger ran through a slight drift of gray dust marring the windowpanes and she made a mental note that cleaning the windows once a week was not enough in the fall.
The phone rang and clicked over to voicemail. “Hello, you have reached the voicemail of Dr. Mason Stevens. I’m unable to take your call right now, but please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as possible. If this is an emergency and you need to reach me, please contact Faith Baptist Hospital, extension two-two-nine.”
When the phone beeped Libby said, “Babe, it’s me. Um, there’s someone here for you and he says he’s an old friend from Duke. He seems to know a lot about you and I don’t think he’s lying. His name’s Sean O’Malley. He’s the man who called Friday night. Well, he’s kind of without a place to go. He drove here all the way from Arizona or somewhere out west and needs a place to stay. I don’t know what to do. He says his father just passed and I can’t help but feel sorry for him. If he’s a friend of yours I think, under the circumstances, you’d want me to welcome him in our home.” She pressed her lips together and then mumbled, “God, I hope that’s what you would want.” She sighed. “I’m going to let him in and offer him something to eat. Please call me.”
When she returned to the door Sean was standing back and gazing toward their soffits. He appeared to be admiring the exterior of their home. It was really getting chilly out. She could have called the hospital, but if Mason wasn’t answering the phone it was because he was likely with a patient and that was more important than her needing approval. Maybe.
“Um, Sean?”
“Yes.”
He looked at her with those piercing hazel eyes and her thoughts scattered like autumn leaves in the wake of a sudden gale. She shook her head and tried to focus. “Um, Mase is going to call back any minute. Would you like to come in? Could I fix you something to eat?”
He stilled for a moment as if considering if the offer was a good idea or not. “Uh, sure. Thank you, Mrs. Davis.”
“You can call me Libby.”
“Libby?”
“Yeah, it’s short for Liberty, like the bell.”
He laughed. “Cute. Thank you, Libby.”
She stepped back and let him enter their home with one last hope that she wasn’t making a mistake. As he stepped past her she looked up at his hulking size and admitted that if she was, she was a dead woman.
* * * *
Sean entered the home. An ominous chill crested his shoulders as though he were crossing into a secret place he might never escape from unscathed. So many insecurities came rushing to the surface. His father’s taunting voice intruded on his calm. Stifling the unwanted memories, he focused on the little woman in front of him.
