An Accidental Hero by Loree Lough

readying her sisters to catch the school bus, to monitoring their homework. It had been her fault, after all, that Rose had been out that night in the first place; if Cammi hadn’t needed a new dress to wear for her solo in the Harvest Days show at her school, Rose would have been home, safe and sound, that terrible, rainy night.
    So Cammi didn’t complain when her friends went to the mall or to the movies on weekends while she cleaned, did laundry, cooked suppers that could be frozen and heated in the oven on weeknights. Nothing pleased her more than when she was able to coax her bleary-eyed father to eat a few bites of something healthy every evening. Because if it hadn’t been for her silly girlish vanity, if she’d been satisfied wearing one of the dozens of dresses already in her closet, he’d still have had his beloved Rose.
    When the food supply ran low, Cammi scoured the house for loose change and dollar bills and, stash in hand, phoned Rose’s best friend. Nadine did more than deliver staples that day; she sat Lamont down and reminded him what Rose would have expected of him. From that day forward, he’d done his duty—andthen some. But his aversion to hospitals hadn’t changed one whit. Cammi could use a bit of Nadine’s commonsense wisdom right about now.
    “If something is wrong with you, I want to hear about it,” Lamont said, sliding a forefinger round and round under his suede hatband.
    “There’s nothing wrong with me….” She hoped and prayed that was true, because someday, she wanted a houseful of children.
    “Person doesn’t wind up in a place like this if nothing’s wrong.”
    “I know, I know. And I promise to tell you everything once we’re home. For now, let’s just say it’s nothing serious. Okay?”
    Lamont sat the hat on the foot of her bed again. “Let’s have a look at you….” He lifted her chin on a bent forefinger. Grinning, he said, “Good golly, Miss Molly. You look like something the dog drug in.”
    “Then, it’s a good thing I’m not thinking of entering the Miss Texas pageant, eh?”
    “Hogwash. You’d win, hands down, even after…” He paused. “…after whatever put you in this rotten place.”
    He handed her the plastic bag. “Thought you might need a change of clothes. Hope I did okay, putting an outfit together.”
    Cammi peeked inside, where a neatly folded sweatsuit lay nestled on her underthings. She had a hard time blinking back tears of gratitude. “It’s perfect,” she told him, climbing out of bed.
    Lamont nodded. “I’ll just wait in the hall whileyou get out of that foul thing they call a hospital gown.”
    “So you can be closer to the main entrance?”
    He grinned slightly. “Main exit is more like it.”
    Despite every effort to stay awake during the half-hour drive back to River Valley, Cammi dozed off half a dozen times. Finally, though, the magnificent ranch house appeared on the horizon.
    “Home never looked better,” she said, mostly to herself.
    He parked the truck out front, and asked as he unlocked the front door, “So what’ll you have, coffee or tea?”
    One of the nurses had said dehydration went hand in hand with hemorrhaging. “Nice tall glass of water would be great. The air is so dry in that place.”
    Closing the door behind them, Lamont threw his keys into the burled wooden bowl on the foyer table. Hands on her shoulders, he inspected her face. “You’re lookin’ mighty pale. Head on into the den and put your feet up. I’ll be in soon as I fetch our drinks.” He turned her around, gave her a gentle shove toward the doorway.
    Cammi started forward, then changed her mind. What she was about to tell him would break his heart, would become one more item on his long “Ways Cammi Has Disappointed Me” list. She might not get a chance to tell him, once the truth was out, how dear he was to her, how very hard she’d been trying these past few months to live in a way that would make him proud, to make up for