Page 22 of The Payback Adventure
“I turned twenty-one two weeks before the accident.”
Words failed Henry at the responsibility facing her. Then and now. His life paled in comparison. So did he. He avoided responsibility as much as possible, while she grabbed it with both hands. “You were so young. You’re still so young.”
“I feel much older than twenty-four. The kids are growing up so fast.” Elisabeth kneeled and picked up multicolored LEGO bricks from the braided rug covering the hardwood floor. “One of these days, I’m going to look up, and they’ll be heading off to college.”
“Did you go to college?”
“Yes, but I didn’t finish.” She sounded so nonchalant, but the longing in her eyes told Henry she was far from indifferent. He couldn’t imagine giving up everything for someone else, even if they were relatives.
“Why don’t you go back?” he asked.
“The kids, the farm, my job. Maybe once Caitlin starts school, I’ll think about it.” Elisabeth should be complaining, but she wasn’t.
“Do.”
“You’re sweet to think of me.”
She was the only one he wanted to think of. That realization should worry him more than it did. But whatever he was feeling wouldn’t last. It never did.
“What about you?” she asked. “You’ve lost your parents and…everything else. Do you have plans for the future?”
Concern filled her voice, and Henry felt like a jerk. His plans involved birthday parties and adventures. A trip to New York for Thanksgiving, a vacation in Maui and Lanai for two weeks in January, and skiing in Telluride in February. “A few.”
She didn’t appear convinced. “Once Manny gets back, I won’t need your help.”
“I know.”
“I have a computer. It’s old, but you could put together a résumé.”
“Thanks.”
Henry was ten years older than she was, but he’d never had to face what she faced daily. He tried to imagine what her life had been like. One minute, a college student, the next, a parent for three orphans and an orphan herself. Quittingschool to take care of her siblings. Running a farm. Working at a restaurant. “Why do you waitress if you have the farm?”
“Farming isn’t the easiest way to make a living. You never know how the crops will do or how much they will be worth. That’s why we plant row crops in addition to the cane berries. Don’t want to have all my eggs in one basket.” She reached under the table for a red LEGO piece. “And Kathy provides benefits.”
“Benefits?”
“Medical and dental insurance,” Elisabeth explained. “It’s hard to find jobs with benefits in a town this size.”
So practical, so sensible, so mature. At only twenty-four. Hard to believe. He had insurance but didn’t know what it covered. Brett had set him up with everything, so he knew whatever policy he had was more than sufficient.
She put a lid on the plastic container holding the LEGO bricks. “Your job doesn’t come with any benefits.”
“I assumed since it paid minimum wage, benefits weren’t part of the package.”
“They aren’t.” She rose and placed the container in the toy basket. “If workers come back year after year, I try to pay them more, but it’s never enough for their hard work. They deserve so much more than I can afford.”
Elisabeth deserved more than working her life away in order to take care of her family and farm. This amazing young woman was so much more than he could have ever imagined when he first saw her this morning. Forget about putting her in a French maid outfit. Nothing less than a halo and wings would do.
“What about you?” he asked.
She picked up something brown and stuffed—a raggedy teddy bear with a missing ear and ink-drawn eyes. “Me?”
“What do you deserve?”
She clutched the bear to her chest. “I’ve gotten exactly what I deserve.”
Henry didn’t like the flatness of her tone or the way her eyes darkened. “That doesn’t sound good.”
