Heart of a Hero by Sara Craven Page A

water so cold it made your teeth chatter. She wanted to take her daughter to the pretty beach in Laguna Niguel where they had spent a day each year on a sort of family mini-vacation, to tell her stories about her grandmother and her Aunt Melanie….
    But it was harder here, Phoebe thought, swallowing. Here where all the memories of her sister and her mother lurked, it was harder to ignore her grief and go on. That had been one of the main attractions about the job in New York. But now the past she’d run from had caught up with her, and because of her own stupidity, she owed it to Wade to stop running and let him get to know his daughter.
    Phoebe turned her gaze to her old home, four doors down the street, wondering about the family who lived there now. Did they have a pet? Hermother’s poodle, Boo-Boo, had dug holes all over their backyard until he’d gotten too old to do more than lie on the porch and yap at the neighborhood kids on their bikes.
    Were there children? She couldn’t tell from the outside. The garage door was down and there were no bikes or kid equipment littering the yard. And a tall hedge made it impossible to see into the backyard. Was the lemon tree her mother had planted still there?
    “Hey.” Wade’s voice was quiet. “You okay?” He touched her back lightly.
    “I’m okay.” She squared her shoulders. “It’s odd to come back here and not be able to go home, if you know what I mean.”
    He nodded. “I can imagine, even though I’ve never experienced it.”
    But in a way, he had. “How different is it without your mom?”
    He shrugged. “Not so. Dad always did give her a hand with the housework and cooking, so it’s not like he was helpless.”
    “But the dynamics change.” Oh, did they ever. Some of the most miserable times of her life had been the weekends and college breaks she’d spent at home in the first year after her mother had passed away. It wasn’t like it had once been beforebetween Melanie and her. They’d each been grieving, but instead of drawing closer, their grief had isolated them and she’d found herself reluctant to visit as much. It was easier to stay on campus and immerse herself in her life there than it was to go home and enter the silent world of grief that she and Melanie had shared. Mel had stayed in their house, gone to a community college. She’d never really gotten away from the memories and Phoebe had sometimes wondered if Mel resented her for that. It had been Melanie’s choice to keep living there, but had it kept her grief from lightening?
    Phoebe grieved, too, but life had gone on and, somewhere along the way, she’d made the decision to do the same thing.
    “I guess you know all about the way a family changes,” he said quietly.
    She nodded.
    “When your mom died, things changed. But after Melanie died, your whole world was different, wasn’t it?” The quiet sympathy in his voice was nearly her undoing.
    She swallowed. “Yes. Losing Mom was hard. But losing Mel…Logically, I know that her death wasn’t the catalyst for my life taking such an unexpected turn, but sometimes it seems as if one thing just led to the next.”
    A muscle jumped in his jaw and she realized he had clamped his teeth tightly together. “I guess it must.” He sounded as if his words were being dragged from him and she glanced at him, wondering what on earth was wrong.
    “Are you feeling well?” she asked as she unbuckled Bridget’s car seat.
    That appeared to startle him. “Yeah.” He indicated the child still sleeping on her mother’s shoulder. “Let’s go in and introduce Sleeping Beauty here to her grandpa.”
    Phoebe’s stomach was in knots as Wade guided her to the side porch door that the family always used. He opened the door and gestured for her to precede him. As he entered behind her, he called, “Hey, Dad. Where are you?”
    “Hello.” A deep rumbling voice much like Wade’s came from the direction of the kitchen.
    Wade stepped around her