Free Love Comes Home by Ann H. Gabhart Page B

Tori’s voice was flat. Everybody else in the room was forgotten. Everybody but Samantha. She could never forget her even for a second.
    “Too many did. But they did save the world. For us.” He looked back at Samantha, who watched them with big eyes. “For her.”
    “How do we know it won’t just happen again when she grows up?” That made her mad too. Why couldn’t the first war, the war her father fought in, have been enough?
    A shudder went through Jay. “God forbid.”
    She’d never seen him look so grim. The Jay she remembered was always smiling and trying to make people laugh. But that was before the war. “I’m sorry. Don’t let me spoil your homecoming.”
    “Don’t worry, Tori.” His smile bounced back. “Nothingcould do that. It’s good to be home. To see you. To see all of you.”
    Kate stepped up beside Jay to kiss Tori’s cheek. That was enough to summon up Tori’s tears again. So she was glad when Mike’s car pulled up outside to divert attention from her.
    Lorena peered out the window. “Mike and Evie are here.”
    “I thought they’d be at church,” Jay said.
    “They’ve found a church in Shelby County,” Kate said. “Halfway between here and Louisville. Evie says the church is three times bigger than ours and that you should see the collection plates when the deacons carry them back to the front. Spilling over with bills. And not all ones, either.”
    Jay laughed. “What’s she doing? Campaigning for Mike to take over the pulpit there?”
    “She might like that, but remember, I told you Mike’s not preaching right now.” Kate lowered her voice as though afraid Mike could hear her outside. “He’s not sure he’ll ever take a church again.”
    Jay looked surprised, but he didn’t say anything. Tori had been surprised too when Mike came home. He wasn’t the same Mike who’d always had a ready answer or prayer for problems before he went to war. She missed that Mike. They all missed that Mike. Evie most of all. But at least he came home. That was what Tori wanted to tell Evie. But she didn’t.
    Evie’s smile looked forced when she came in the door. Her hat was new and perfectly matched her charcoal suit. Jay and Mike shook hands and clapped each other on the back. Two who came home. Then Fern helped Aunt Hattie up the steps and all the hugs started over. Mama came in from the kitchen to make sure they all stayed to eat.
    Lorena still had Samantha, so Tori told Mama she’d finish putting dinner on the table as she slipped past her out to the kitchen. They’d closed in the old back porch when they piped water to the house from the well and put in plugs for the stove and refrigerator. The new kitchen was smaller than the old one that now held the big dining table for when everybody was home, but it was cozy with room for a small table and chairs.
    Tori liked to cook. Not as much as she liked to fish, but in the winter, the fish didn’t bite. In the kitchen, she could take a recipe and put all the ingredients together and make something turn out right, the way it was supposed to. Even better, nobody seemed to mind when she went off by herself to cook.
    People were always trying to keep her from being by herself. Especially that Clay Weber. He would not give up asking her to do things. Every week, sometimes twice a week, it was something different. A movie. A trip to the library in Edgeville to get his little sisters and Samantha picture books. Did her mother need help unloading the stock at the store since Daddy wasn’t feeling well? Roller-skating. There was a new rink in Frankfort and didn’t he remember that she used to like to roller-skate? She didn’t know how many times she was going to have to say no before the man got the message.
    Just that morning at church, he’d found her in a back pew trying to keep Samantha quiet while the older ladies went over their Sunday school lesson in the front of the sanctuary. He sat down beside her without even asking, and what