Chapter 14
“Are you busy, Dad?”
Garnet looked up from the porch swing where he had been absentmindedly pushing with one foot while the other leg was stretched out over the swing and his arm hung over the back.
His parents had sat on the porch with him, then he’d helped his mom put his dad to bed. She had gone shortly after, and he had thought that Dabney was reading in her room.
He had a lot of things to think about and had come back downstairs, sitting back down in the dark evening.
“Nope. Come on out and sit with me,” he invited, moving his leg down off the swing and shifting in case she wanted to sit beside him. She came out of the door, carefully keeping the screen door from slamming behind her, but chose to sit on the top step, her back against the pole, stretching one long leg out and facing him.
He missed the days when she was young, running out and hopping on his lap, not thinking to assess whether or not he was busy before she did. While he appreciated this older, more considerate daughter, he missed the cuddles and sweet innocence that she was slowly growing out of. But he supposed that was the way life went.
They didn’t say anything for a bit, just listening to the chirping crickets and the distant echo of the waves breaking against the bottom of the bluffs. It depended on a lot of different factors whether they could hear the waves, but tonight they were quite clear.
He waited for a while, able to tell from the way she fidgeted that she had something on her mind. Maybe he should have waited for her to figure out how to say it, but he kind of thought that as a dad, it might be his job to ease the way some.
“Did you have something you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked, making his words sound easy and comfortable. Not like he was interrogating her or impatient. She was very sensitive to picking up cues, whether verbal or nonverbal.
“The woman we met today.”
It wasn’t a question, but she stopped, so he prompted her. “Yeah?”
He couldn’t take a deep breath; she would hear him. So he closed his eyes and said a short prayer that God would help him have the right words. He wasn’t going to have to think of how he needed to bring Mertie up to her. Dabney was going to ask him something about her and open up a conversation that could potentially be the opening he needed to start a dialogue about her mother.
He wanted so much for his daughter and Mertie to have a great relationship. Just talking to Mertie today, he could see that she wanted to do the right thing, she wanted to make the right choices, and he had never doubted for a second that when she gave Dabney up for adoption, she thought she was doing the right thing. Maybe he had shoved aside the idea that the three of them could be a family. Perhaps there was just a little bit of life left in that idea, and it was a longing in his heart. Distant, and far away, but still with a powerful pull.
“She was the same woman who ran out of Bible study?”
“Yeah.”
“Is there something wrong?”
Dabney was very astute, but this was pretty impressive, even for her. Maybe it was the Lord who had put the idea in her head.
“I think she has some choices to make, and while she’s here in Raspberry Ridge to help her sisters, she is also here because God has some things He wants to show her.”
“Because she wasn’t listening where she was?”
“Maybe.” He lifted his shoulder, smiling internally. Dabney had listened to him more than what he thought she had.
They were quiet for a bit, and then Garnet couldn’t help but ask the question that had been on his mind the entire time.
“What did you think about her?”
It was a little game they played. Dabney had started it. Looking at women and saying why she wouldn’t want them as a mother.
It was interesting that most often she picked out the negative qualities, almost as though to make herself feel better. Garnet had noticed that but hadn’t known what to do about it.
Dabney tilted her head and put a finger on her chin, as though she were thinking. “She looks so buttoned up. Not like I always pictured my mom. Just... Like someone you would see on TV. A news anchor maybe.”
Garnet had to snort, because that was Mertie. Always perfect. Nothing out of place. That was part of the reason why a child wouldn’t fit into her life. She didn’t have a slot. Not with the direction she was going.
“But there’s something else,” Dabney began, and Garnet froze. Typically Dabney just said one thing, and they laughed and moved on. “She... She seems like someone who would listen.” Dabney took a breath. “And be able to fix things.”
Garnet blinked. That was absolutely true of Mertie, and sometimes his daughter’s perception floored him.
“Do you have problems that need to be fixed?” he asked, not sure why he said that. Maybe because he just wanted her to talk about it a little bit more. Mertie was one of his favorite subjects, and he didn’t often get to discuss her with anyone. Ever.
“I suppose maybe someday I will. But... She would be good for you.”
Garnet blinked. He couldn’t get his wits about him to say anything more before his daughter stood up.
“I’m gonna run in and see if I can read a couple more chapters before it’s time to turn my light out.” She didn’t wait for him to reply but opened the door, remembering not to allow the screen to slam behind her.
That was the kind of daughter she was. She heard his mother saying not to let the screen door slam, and Dabney always tried to obey the adults around her.
Maybe that’s what she was doing now. Maybe Dabney was perceptive enough to know that he was interested in Mertie, and she had something nice to say, some push in that direction. Of course, it didn’t negate the fact that she was right that Mertie didn’t really seem cut out to be a mom. More like a news anchor or the Christian author and speaker that she was.
Under the cover of darkness, maybe it was easier to allow his thoughts to flow. And even though he knew he should go in and work on his sermon for Sunday, he wondered where Mertie was, what she was doing. Was she looking at the same sky he was, breathing in the lake air, and thinking about him.
He almost snorted again. Mertie didn’t waste time on such frivolous activities. And he didn’t think that was going to change anytime soon.