Sounds Of Silence. Elizabeth White

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      It had knocked on her door with alarming regularity since the day her son made his noisy entrance into the world. Five trips to the Del Rio Hospital ER and a standing appointment with the kindergarten teacher at Bethany Christian school had left her with no illusions about her parenting skills.

      And when Eli Carmichael walked around the side of her house in full Border Patrol uniform at ten o’clock on a Monday morning, she knew she was in for it.

      Mean Green. Big Trouble.

      “Hey, Isabel, where’s Danilo?” Eli braced both hands on the endpost of the clothesline as if he had all day.

      “He’s in school.” She continued to peg tiny spider-web-design briefs on the line. “What’s he done now?”

      Eli gave her one of his slow grins, and Isabel suddenly wished she’d done more than twist her hair into a knot and stick a pencil in it this morning. Which was ridiculous. This was just Eli.

      “He hasn’t done anything,” Eli said. “That I know of. I just need you to come with me to the station.” When Isabel’s eyes widened, he added hastily, “I need a favor. Nothing to do with Danilo.”

      She frowned. As one of her late husband’s colleagues, Eli had for over a year taken it upon himself to help her and Danilo whenever they needed a man’s hand. He lived in an apartment down the street, and he was single, unattached and apparently lonely. So she’d humored him, letting him mow her grass and take Danilo fishing. Occasionally she baked him a plate of brownies in return.

      That was it. Had he suddenly decided to change the game plan?

      “Come with you to the station,” she repeated, stalling. “I’m pretty busy.” She kicked a bare foot at the wicker basket full of clothes.

      “I’ll help.” Before Isabel could protest, he’d grabbed a couple of clothespins out of the cloth bag hanging on the line and reached into the basket.

      Isabel worked beside Eli in silence for a full minute before she couldn’t stand it any longer. “So what do you need me at the station for?” She hadn’t been there since a week after Rico died, when she’d gone to pick up the stuff from his desk and locker.

      Eli stopped whistling and looked at her over the top of a pale blue sheet. It was just about the color of his eyes. “I’m gonna let you take a look for yourself.” He leaned in to sniff the sheet. “This smell reminds me of my grandma’s house. She always let me hang clothes with her.”

      “Bleach,” Isabel said. “I wondered why a single man would be so good at this.”

      “See, you never know about people,” he said obscurely. “You had any bites on the house lately?”

      He was talking about the For Sale sign in her front yard. Isabel beamed at him. “The agent called this morning. She’s bringing a couple by this afternoon. Sounds promising.”

      Eli pursed his lips. “Oh.”

      “I really need to sell,” Isabel reminded him. “I want to get settled in San Antonio before Danilo starts first grade. Wouldn’t be good to move him in the middle of the school year.”

      “Yeah, I know.” He still didn’t sound particularly happy. “Maybe you should consider staying here.”

      “Eli, we’ve been over this. My parents are dying to have us back in San’tone. Danilo’s their only grandson. Besides—” she pinned a washcloth with vicious energy “—the memories in this house are getting to me. Everywhere I look I see…” She hid behind the sheet, embarrassed to inflict such personal angst on a guy who was, after all, just a neighbor. It had been a year and a half since Rico died. Time to move on.

      To her astonishment, Eli pushed the sheet aside and ducked under the line. He stood less than a foot away, tall and masculine in that crisp green uniform that reminded her so achingly of Rico. Then Eli took off his hat, revealing curly, sun-streaked hair and those sky-colored eyes. Isabel looked away.

      This man wasn’t at all like Rico. Rico had been the life of any party, talking and joking and introducing anything that breathed to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Eli, she knew, was only thirty or so, but seemed older. Quiet, almost taciturn. She got the feeling he was afraid of her, which in turn made her very uncomfortable.

      “Isabel,” he said. She looked up at him and flinched at the sorrow in those piercing eyes. “I’d bring him back if I could.”

      “I know you would.” She lifted her shoulders. “But he’s gone, and Danilo needs his grandpa. I’ve just got to get away from here.”

      He sighed. “I guess I can understand that.” He set his hat back on his head. “Are you ready to go now?”

      “Soon as I find my shoes and lock up the house.”

      Isabel set the empty basket against her hip and picked her way through the backyard, skirting Danilo’s sand pile, which was littered with dump trucks, plastic buckets and bent spoons confiscated from her kitchen.

      As she entered the small laundry room off the kitchen, she fretted anew at the sad state of the screen door and back step. She’d bought paint with last week’s alterations money, but it was going to be a while before she had time to deal with it. Five bridesmaid dresses, all to be fitted and hemmed by next Friday, hung in her spare bedroom closet. Plus there was the puppet stage curtain she’d agreed to make for Bible School.

      Painting and rescreening a door, as important as it was, would have to wait. Maybe the people who came this afternoon wouldn’t look too closely.

      Isabel left Eli fiddling with the back door light fixture—which Danilo had somehow broken with the baseball bat his grandpa gave him for his birthday—and went in search of her flowered flip-flops. If she had to be a matronly widow, at least she didn’t have to look like one. On the way past her bedroom mirror, she remembered the pencil in her hair.

      Good grief. Quickly she loosened the shoulder-length black mass and ran a brush through it. Lipstick? Sure, why not. Pink to match her shoes. She grimaced at her plain white blouse and denim capris, but decided not to change. Pathetic when a trip to the local Border Patrol station became a social outing.

      Wondering why in the world Eli needed her there, she nearly ran head-on into him as she reentered the kitchen.

      “Oops.” He steadied her with big warm hands on her shoulders. “I came in to test the light switch, and thought I’d check your fire alarm battery while I was in here.”

      Isabel caught her breath. He’d never been inside her house before. She was careful about appearances. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I’m ready, so we’d better go. I have to pick up Danilo at noon.”

      “Okay.” He quickly let her shoulders go, then turned to open the kitchen door for her. “You need a new battery, by the way.”

      Isabel pulled herself together as she entered the Border Patrol station. For some reason, it helped to stay close to Eli. He put a hand on her elbow as if sensing her discomfort, held the door for her and seated her in his office.

      The Border Patrol community had been her family since the day Rico had moved her to Del Rio as an eighteen-year-old bride. She’d met her husband when she was a junior in СКАЧАТЬ