Lenora Worth - Mountain Sanctuary

She’d take whatever help she could find, including help from a perfect stranger.

The man who came barreling into the kitchen seemed to fill the vast space with his very presence, causing Stella to inhale the leftover sob she’d been about to emit into the air. Wiping her eyes with one of the annoying frilly ruffles of her dead mother’s apron, Stella tried to focus on this interesting person who’d apparently come to her rescue.

He was tall, but not too tall. His hair was clipped and edged into brittle brown tufts across his forehead and around his ears. His eyes, wide and hesitant right now, were a rich grayish blue. But it was his face that held Stella’s attention. His face looked as worn and aged as the masculine tan wallpaper in her daddy’s study across the hallway. It was a face etched in hard living, all planes and angles, all rough male, muscular and scarred. This man, whoever he was, sure didn’t look like someone who could make blueberry muffins. More like he could take down a band of ragamuffins with one strong-armed swipe.

“Did you say the navy?” she asked, dumbfounded.

“Yeah, two tours of duty. Then ten years on the police force in New Orleans. I’m retired now.”

The way he said that made Stella think it might not have been a voluntary retirement. “Is it still bad from the storms down there?” she asked, not one for making small talk.

“As bad as things can get and then some, but I still love the place.” He opened the refrigerator and found the fresh blueberries, then grabbed a mixing bowl from the ones stacked along an open bottom shelf underneath the butcher block. “Flour?”

Stella pointed to the tin canister sitting on the counter. “I have the recipe—”

“Don’t need it. I have my own recipe.” He tapped his forehead. “Right here.”

She leaned across the counter. “That’s real nice, but do you have a way of fixing an oven that refuses to cook at the correct temperature? I’m pretty sure the thermostat has gone haywire.”

He opened the door of the oven. “I think I see the problem, but it’ll have to cool down before I can get in there and fix it. Do you have a microwave or a toaster oven?”

She nodded. “But—”

“I know how to make microwave muffins.”

“Amazing,” Stella said through a sniff. “Uh, what’s your name?”

“Adam,” he said, eyeballing flour into the bowl. “Adam Callahan. And you?”

“Stella Forsythe.”

“Nice to meet you, Stella.” Then he motioned with his head toward the refrigerator. “I need about two eggs.”

She managed to find him “about two” eggs and “about a half cup” of oil and several other ingredients he called for in precise order. Then she stood back and watched as he went to work, his gray gaze centered on the creamy mixture inside the big white bowl.

“Do you need the mixer?” she asked.

“Nope.” He floured the blueberries, then whipped them right into the mix, lifting an eyebrow toward her. “But I do need a clean muffin pan. One that works in the microwave.”

Stella scrambled to find a pan that wasn’t coated with burned muffin remains. “I have this plastic one I use in there. Should I grease it?”

“Yeah. Grease and a little flour all over.”

She did as he told her, glad the splotchy red patches she always got along her neck and throat whenever she was under emotional stress had seemed to settle down into just freckles now. She hated getting all splotchy, but today had been a triple splotchy day, and it wasn’t even 7:00 a.m. yet.

“I’d planned an egg casserole, too,” she told him as he put the muffins into the microwave. “But—”

“Give me the ingredients,” he told her, his hands on his hips, a wet, white dish towel with tiny daisies on its hem thrown across his broad shoulder.

Stella moved like a sleepwalker, gathering ham and eggs, cheese and bread, her thoughts running together mumbo jumbo. Lord, how did I get so lucky? she asked the heavens in a silent prayer of thanks. Dear God, did You finally hear my pleas? The smell of blueberry muffins answered her, sweet and plump and intoxicating.

In minutes, the man had created a big glass Pyrex dish full of the breakfast-casserole concoction, adding a sprinkle of nutmeg to the top to make it look pretty. After the muffins were done, he shoved that into the microwave, then he meticulously went about tidying up the kitchen, stopping here and there to grunt out questions to Stella.

“How old’s your boy?”

“Six.”

“How long you been in Hot Springs?”

“About two months.”

“What happened with the muffins this morning?”

“I don’t know how to cook very well and the oven doesn’t, either.”

“Why is this place such a mess?”

“Because of the oven. I got backed up with the first batch of muffins, so I tried another one. Things went downhill from there.”

About forty minutes and twenty questions later, the casserole bubbled its way to perfection. Announcing it almost done, he turned back to Stella. “How many?”

“How many what?”

“How many people are you expecting for breakfast?”

A little voice from the corner of the room shouted out. “We only got about four people waiting in the parlor, Mama. The rest left.”

Stella glanced over at her son. “Oh, Kylie, why are you still in your pajamas?” She’d told him to get dressed, but the boy had a mind of his own.

Kyle grinned, showing the gap where he’d lost two teeth. “I was just talking to everyone.”

The boy could talk, no doubt about that. “Run on up and get dressed and then you can eat. I’ll take care of our guests.” Since his father had died, Kyle somehow thought he had to be the man of the house. That realization brought more tears to her eyes, but Stella held this batch of sobs back for her son’s sake. “Thank you, honey, for entertaining our guests. You can tell them to meet us in the dining room. Breakfast will soon be served.”

“Did this man cook all that food?” Kyle asked, clearly impressed.

Stella sent a shy glance toward the big man washing dishes. “He sure did.”

“Sweet,” Kyle said, his eyes bright with unbridled delight. “I’m starving to death.” Then he looked back toward Stella, his big brown eyes breaking her heart with love. “Can I go get Papa?”

“Yes, go tell Papa to come and get it while it’s hot.”

Kyle grinned. “Ain’t he gonna be surprised?”

Stella smiled. Answering her son with an example of correct English, she said, “Yes, Papa certainly is going to be surprised. Not ain’t gonna.”

“Whatever,” Kyle said with kid practicality. “He ain’t gonna believe his eyes, that’s for sure.”

Stella shook her head, then tossed her hair back.

Adam eyed her over his shoulder. “He’s a handful, I reckon.”

“You can say that again.”

“What’s your husband do?”

“He’s dead.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He’s probably better off that way. And I know we’re better off for it.”

Realizing the man was staring at her with such intensity it bordered on shock, Stella waved a hand in the air. “I shouldn’t have said that. Lawrence was a no-good, cheating, drinking vagrant who pretty much robbed me blind, but I guess he had a soul. Or at least I hope so, anyway, for Kyle’s sake. He had a bad wreck on I-30 one rainy Saturday night about a year ago. Wrapped his souped-up Mustang around a steel pole on an embankment. And that was that.”

“Is that why you moved here?”

“No.” She wondered just when he’d get enough and leave. Everybody usually did. “I moved here after my mother died last year. This was her house.” She shrugged. “I mean, she lived here, but somebody ran the place for her. She spent most of her time out back in the studio. She was…an artist.”