Free Knocking at Her Heart (Conover Circle #1) by Beverly Long Page A

we’ll play together.”
    “Will you trace me? With the
chalk?”
    “Yes, of course I will,” Maddie
said, grateful to be past the death conversation.
    When Sam returned a few minutes
later, she and Kelsie were looking at the photo album on her coffee table.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
    “Absolutely,” Maddie said
quickly. “Everything okay downstairs?”
    “It’s fine. Carol had everybody
lined up for snack so I made a break for it.” 
               
*
    Maddie slept until early
afternoon.  She got up, showered, and tried to watch a talk show, before
flipping to a game show, until she finally settled on the History Channel.
After fifteen minutes, she gave up caring about how the cotton gin had been
discovered and walked downstairs. She was prepared for Sam and Carol’s strong
objections to her presence, but the house was quiet.
    Carol was in the pink room,
folding clean towels, surrounded by eight small, sleeping bodies. Each child
had his or her own cot. All of the blinds had been lowered. Across the room,
Maddie could see the dust dance in the air when streaks of sunlight filtered in
through the wooden slats.  The room was absolutely quiet with the
exception of the deep and steady breathing of children.
    She waved to Carol. “Where’s
Sam?” she whispered.
    Carol nodded toward the window.
Maddie slipped her fingers between two slats of the blinds and peeked outside.
A dozen big cardboard boxes littered her backyard. She looked at Carol who had
joined her at the window. “What’s going on?” she whispered.
    “He’s gorgeous, polite and smart,
too. When the six older kids got here, I think they figured they could push him
around a little. Kind of like a substitute teacher. But before I knew it, he’d
marched them next door to the hospital and they’d returned with the boxes. He’s
kept them busy in the yard for almost two hours. They’ve been building forts
and making tunnels. Then they got the balls out and made up some games. I think
they’re pretending it’s a carnival.”
    There was definitely more to Sam
than she’d first thought. And her conversation with Kelsie had added another
layer. “I’m going to see if he needs help,” Maddie said. She had one hand on
the door handle when Carol stopped her.
    “I kept expecting the doorbell to
ring all day. When is your mom supposed to get here?”
    “Should be soon. It depends on
how much fun she’s having at Pierre’s. It’s this fancy little bed and
breakfast/spa combination. She’s stopping there first.”
    Carol stopped folding the towels.
“And it’s just your mom?”
    She didn’t want to tell her
friend that her parents were having marital problems. That would make it real.
But she trusted Carol. “My dad evidently has been having a fling. My mother
recently found out.”
    “Oh good Lord.”
    “She said she’s leaving him. I
think she’s coming here so that he’ll have to follow her and beg for
forgiveness.”
    “How long will that take?”
    “I hope not very long,” Maddie
said, shaking her head.
    Carol smiled. “What’s she going
to think about Sam?”
    Maddie looked out into the back
yard. Sam had his back to her. He was kneeling on the ground. Jenifer and
Mindy, both eight years old, stood next to him, watching intently as he used a
pocketknife to cut windows and doors into the side of their cardboard house. “I
don’t know.”
    Carol gave her a weak smile.
“Maddie, if she finds out he’s a doctor, she’s going to start planning the
wedding.”
    “I know. We’re going to have to
make sure that doesn’t happen.” Maddie opened the back door and stepped out
into her yard. Last week’s rains had turned the grass green, and daffodils and
early tulips danced in the wind. She walked across the soft grass carpet, glad
that she hadn’t put shoes on. When Sam saw her, he smiled.
    “How are you?” he asked.
    “Fine,” she said, studying him.
She didn’t see any grape juice or chalk, but the knees of