Darlene Gardner - The Hero's Sin

He didn’t even have the courage to refute that.

T HE NEXT MORNING Michael trudged up the narrow flight of stairs that led from Aunt Felicia’s basement to the main part of the house, carrying a cardboard box of things he didn’t want.

Old clothes that would no longer fit. High-school report cards and test papers that didn’t do him proud. A tattered baseball glove he’d found lying discarded in a field when he was a teenager.

He’d already decided to donate the stuff to a thrift store. He didn’t need any reminders of Indigo Springs when he was gone.

The steps ended at a cheerfully decorated country kitchen that smelled of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A plate of them sat on the counter near where Aunt Felicia stood between two rows of white cabinets. She hadn’t yet changed from the blue dress she’d worn to church.

“Did you find everything?” She wrung her hands, betraying her uneasiness. They’d barely exchanged two sentences when he’d arrived before he asked about his unwanted belongings and she directed him to the basement.

“I’ve got it all unless there’s more than one box.”

“No.” More hand-twisting. “Just the one.”

“Then I’ll get out of your way.”

“I made cookies after church,” she blurted, halting his progress. “Would you like one?”

It was well known his great-aunt liked to bake, but he was surprised she’d come straight home and made the cookies. Maybe she baked something every Sunday. The ultimate homemaker, she seemed to enjoy doing the things that made a house a home.

“Sure,” he said, because it seemed rude to refuse. He carried the box to the table and set it down before taking a cookie. He bit into it, the gooey, chocolate taste bringing back one of the rare pleasures of his childhood. “It’s good.”

She half smiled, the compliment seeming to please her. “How was the wedding?”

“Fine.” He finished off the rest of the cookie. “Johnny’s a lucky guy.”

“I heard…” She stopped, started again. “I heard you didn’t stay long.”

So the locals were already gossiping about him. He’d been up most of the night, second-guessing himself for not accepting Sara’s invitation. But he’d done the right thing. He couldn’t risk having somebody spot him leaving her house at an odd hour.

“I was at the wedding long enough.” He noticed the handle of a cabinet door was loose and thought about offering to fix it, then changed his mind, knowing that would only prolong a visit that was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. “I should get going.”

Aunt Felicia finally moved, only to cut off his exit from the kitchen. “Could you, um, look at something for me first?”

The loose handle?

“All right,” he said.

She picked up a manila envelope from her kitchen table and wordlessly handed it to him. The envelope was stamped Registered Mail and contained the return address of a local Indigo Springs bank. The first paper he pulled out was a Notice of Intent to Foreclose. A letter stated that Aunt Felicia was several months behind on her loan payments.

He flipped through the papers, trying to make sense of them. The house should be paid off. Aunt Felicia had inherited it when her parents died, and that had probably been twenty-five years ago.

His head jerked up. “It says here you took out a home equity loan.”

“I didn’t,” she said miserably. “Murray must have. I trusted he knew best about money matters. When he’d tell me to sign something, I would.”

Michael didn’t need to ask why Murray needed money. Even as a teenager, he’d been aware of her late husband’s gambling problem. And the bastard had put up Aunt Felicia’s house as collateral to finance it.

“I didn’t know about the loan until I got the letter,” Aunt Felicia explained. “It says the mortgage statements were going to a post office box.”

“You’ve been doing business at this bank for years. Why didn’t somebody tell you about this sooner?”

“They’re all strangers now. Even Quincy retired about a year ago.” She hugged herself. “I don’t know what to do. I didn’t even know Murray had a post office box.”

Michael swallowed his anger. Railing about her no-good late husband wouldn’t do Aunt Felicia any good. If he was going to help her, he needed to keep a level head. “When did you get this notice?”

“Friday,” she said.

“It says the entire mortgage is due in thirty days and if you don’t pay the amount, you’re in default. Can you cover it?”

She shook her head, her expression strained. “I used my savings for funeral expenses.”

“Didn’t Murray have life insurance?”

“He cashed in the policy before he died.” She blinked as though to keep from crying. “I’m going to lose my home, aren’t I?”

Michael wished he could pay off the money his aunt owed, but the Peace Corps didn’t pay a salary, just a stipend covering basic necessities. His meager bank balance reflected that reality. But lose her house? Not if he could help it.

“You should go to the bank Monday morning and try to straighten this out,” he advised.

“I already called the bank.” She sniffled. “They said I waited too long for them to help me.”

“Then you can hire a lawyer who knows foreclosure law.” He dredged up the name of the attorney who’d once threatened to file a civil suit against him on behalf of Quincy Coleman. “Doesn’t Larry Donatelli go to your church?”

“He had a heart attack last year and moved to Florida,” his aunt said.

That explained why Sara Brenneman felt as though there was room in town for another lawyer.

Sara. Who’d told him at the wedding that she counted foreclosures as one of her specialties.

“I might know someone,” he said.

“Really?” His aunt’s blue eyes, so like his own, filled with hope that extinguished almost as soon as it appeared. “But lawyers are expensive.”

“I’ll help with the fees.” Michael could swing that much.

“Oh, no,” his aunt said instantly, her back straightening. “I can’t let you do that.”

“You don’t even know what she’ll charge. She hasn’t opened her practice yet so you’d probably get a good rate.” Michael could possibly get Sara to quote his aunt a low hourly fee and let him make up the difference. “It can’t hurt to ask.”

She worked her bottom lip, deep worry lines appearing on her face and making her look older. “Will you call her for me?”

Too late he remembered Sara was having problems getting her phone service hooked up.

“Her phones aren’t working, and she mentioned she’d be out of town today,” he said, remembering her shopping trip. “I’ll show you where her office is and you can stop by Monday.”

He saw her throat constrict as she swallowed. “Will you come with me?”

Self-preservation told him to refuse, but in truth he’d decided to help her as soon as he’d seen the foreclosure notice. She hadn’t stopped her husband from kicking him out when he turned eighteen, but she had housed and fed him for almost three years. He couldn’t let her lose the house.

Even if it meant seeing Sara again and being reminded of what he couldn’t have.

“I’ll be by tomorrow morning at about nine.” He lifted the box from the table.

“Wait.” The relief on her face mixed with confusion. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the hotel.”

“You can stay here,” she said. “In your old room.”

Trying to figure out whether the invitation was sincere, he shifted the box in his arms. It wasn’t heavy, but it was an awkward shape. “I’ll still help you if I stay in a hotel tonight.”

“But it makes no sense for you to go to a hotel.”