Read Online Words Get In the Way by Nan Rossiter - Free Book Online

“Are you sure?”
    Linden put the truck in park and said simply, “Go.” Callie ran back inside and found her keys where she’d left them. When she came back out, Linden was standing beside the car with Henry’s door open.
    She gave him a relieved smile. “You don’t know what a huge help that was.”
    Linden nodded and Callie studied him, still unable to believe that he was actually standing in front of her, handsome and honest, still wearing faded Levis that hung from his slender hips in the same easy way they always had ... and still smiling that same sweet, sheepish smile. The years hadn’t touched him. She watched him push his dark chestnut hair back with his long, tan piano player fingers, and she searched his eyes for a trace of the tender passion they’d once known.
    Henry suddenly threw the tractor out on the pavement, and Linden reached down to pick it up. “Seems like you have your hands full,” he said, handing the tractor to her. And then, without considering, added, “If you ever need anything, I’m living in Mr. Coleman’s cabin down by the river.”
    Callie nodded, remembering their teacher’s cabin. More than anything, she wished she could stay and talk, but Henry had started to kick the seat again.
     
    Linden climbed into his truck and gripped the steering wheel tightly as he pulled away. In his rearview mirror he watched Callie give the tractor back to Henry. He didn’t understand why her little boy had misbehaved in the store, but he did know, from the solemn look in his clear blue eyes, that Callie’s son was not, as Katie had drunkenly and callously announced, “retarded.”
    Linden turned into the driveway and parked under the ancient oak trees that shaded the barn and most of the front yard. As soon as he opened his door, Springer, with little regard for sensitive body parts, launched clumsily into the cab and greeted him with wet, sloppy kisses. “Hop down, you big moose,” Linden said, gently pushing him out of the truck. No matter what the dogs did, Linden never scolded them; he knew that if he raised his voice or even looked at them the wrong way, they’d be crushed. Besides, he also knew that if it weren’t for their providential appearance on his hike through the woods, he would’ve had a much harder time pulling his life together.
    He remembered an observation one fellow hiker had made in a trail logbook after Linden had told him about his new companions: “To Wounded Finch: Labs will love you with all their hearts and follow you to the ends of the earth, especially if you feed them!” It was true. Linden had been sitting on a sunny rock in Damascus, Virginia, minding his own business and devouring a ham-and-cheese grinder when the first of two undernourished Labs had emerged from the woods with her nose in the air. Spying Linden, she’d immediately plopped down in front of him and, with sad brown eyes, followed every move of his hand as it carried food to his mouth. Reluctantly, he’d held out his last morsel and she’d taken it with gentle politeness. A moment later another Lab trundled out of the woods and plopped down beside her. By then, all Linden had left was an apple, but the dogs didn’t mind; they were happy to share whatever he had.
    Linden had spent the rest of that day and half of the next asking in town if anyone recognized the two wayward dogs, but no one did. The dogs didn’t seem worried about their lack of a home. They just followed Linden around on his inquiry and then fell into step beside him when he finally resumed hiking.
    In the days that followed, their playful antics had made the trail much more of an adventure than an endurance test, and at night, their presence brought comfort and warmth when they curled up on either side of him. As the weeks passed and they hiked into New England, Linden discovered that, even though his backpack was heavier with their extra food, his heart was much lighter.
    He slid the new boards out of the back of the